Dec. 25, 2022, 1:07 p.m.
nothing here but 2022 in the rearview - issue 204 - 25th December, 2022
Nothing Here
nothing here but 2022 in the rearview
issue 204 - 25th December, 2022
CJW: I liked closing out last year with a retrospective issue, so I thought we’d do that again! Welcome, and thank you for joining us for another year of tracking the oddities that are life in the now.
I enjoyed the last retrospective for a couple of reasons - obviously it’s a bit less work than a usual newsletter issue, so it lessens the workload in the lead-up to the holidays, and also it’s a chance to remember the year. Because, fucking hell, this year has simply evaporated.
So, below we’re going to recap some of the things that have caught our attention over the past 12 months.
ALSO, I’ve unlocked last year’s Xmas Bonus issue in case you feel like doing a seasonal Batman Returns Rewatch. Or there’s 2020’s Prometheus: a Christmas Carol. Enjoy!
If you like what we do and want to support us, you’ve got a couple of options:
Both give you access to the full bonus archive, as well as new bonuses as they are posted.
And away we go.
Daniel Harvey (DCH)
Designer, writer, provocateur. Pro-guillotine tech critic. @dancharvey
Articles and That
We cover a lot of dark and difficult stories in the newsletter. I’m especially inclined to cover the nasty side of tech, labour, and economics. With this retrospective I wanted to shine a light on some brighter moments where people beat the bastards back or where scales lifted from people’s eyes.
- E.U. Takes Aim at Big Tech’s Power With Landmark Digital Act by Adam Satariano, nytimes
The Digital Markets Act (DMA) is gonna fuck up the big tech companies in all sorts of great ways. Can’t wait!
- A data ‘black hole’: Europol ordered to delete vast store of personal data by Daniel Howden and Apostolis Fotiadis, theguardian
Europol’s ambitions to be the next NSA was shot to hell this year. European politicians do not fuck around.
- How Two Best Friends Beat Amazon by Karen Weise and Jodi Kantor, nytimes
On Christian Smalls + Derrick Palmer’s historic labor victory over Amazon.
- The Five-Day Workweek Is Dying by Derek Thompson, theatlantic
For some but not others. Still it’s a start.
- 6 Reasons Meta Is in Trouble by Mike Isaac, nytimes
Good. Fuck Facebook. And Zuckerberg.
- Google Search Is Dying dkb.io
Good. Fuck Google.
- Elon Musk Is a Problem Masquerading as a Solution by Anand Giridharadas, nytimes
Does anyone beyond his cult have a good opinion on Musk anymore? I don’t think so. The Twitter debacle has ruined his image and reputation.
- SBF is Crypto Personified by Stephen Diehl
The end of the year saw crypto collapse even further because of Sam Bankman-Fried’s scandals.
TV
- TraumaZone
Adam Curtis’s latest documentary series focuses on Russia in the turbulent years from 1985-1999. It chronicles the collapse of communism and democracy and the rise of Putin. Curtis’s narration and usual editorial tricks/style ticks are all but absent this time out. It’s all just raw footage from the BBC archives. Come for the history, stay for the heartbreak and Lynchian nightmare of the street urchin girl.
- Severance
Severance is up there with early Black Mirror and The Prisoner for me in terms of quality. Just fantastic work from everyone involved. Who on earth would have expected such excellence from Ben Stiller as a sci-fi showrunner? I’m still gobsmacked.
More from Corey below but another thing that makes this so brilliant is how deftly they set up the world and rules and then smartly subvert them. Eg The Overtime Contingency in episode 7.
- Interview with The Vampire
The TV series embraces the homoerotocism of the books in a way Hollywood has avoided in its past adaptations. This show delivers everything I want out of Vampire stuff — equal doses of camp and smutty doomed gothic romance. Eric Bagosian is a real get as journalist Daniel Malloy, Jacob Anderson is heartbroken tragedy walking as Louis, and Sam Reid is an AILF and an apex predator/narcissistic gaslighter extraordinaire as Lestat.
- Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities
GDT’s Twilight Zone is a mixed bag. Standout episodes include The Autopsy with a great performance from F. Murray Abraham, a brilliant spin on body horror with The Outside, gorgeous Panos Cosmatos directed episode The Viewing with over-the-top camp performances from Peter Weller and Eric Andre, and finally The Murmuring a heartfelt meditation on loss and love based on a story by GDT, directed by Jennnifer Kent, with superb performances by Essie Davis and Andrew Lincoln.
- Andor
Andor brings something much needed to the Star Wars franchise — class warfare. Showrunner Troy Gilroy seems to have read up on Gramsci. The finale is Matewan with ray guns. Great performances all around but Stellan Skarsgård is especially brilliant.
- Heartstopper
A uniquely rare treat — an optimistic high school gay romance. The show doesn’t flinch from showing hardships and challenges but it’s warmth, tenderness, and humanist light shines through throughout. Charlie’s sister is perfection.
- Bad Sisters
A superbly acted Irish dark comedy murder mystery. Go into it as fresh as you can. In addition to the great writing and performances the structure of the story is a masterclass and the best clue of them all.
- Yellowjackets
Yellowjackets is simultaneously a love letter to Gen X and a great mashup of Lost and Lord of The Flies. But really it’s its own thing. A heady stew of psychological survival horror and survivors guilt across two timeframes. Christina Ricci and Juliette Lewis riff so well together in their scenes together. Melanie Lynskey is a revelation in this show.
- Welcome to Wrexham
I do not like football. I do not care for rich people buying sports teams. I’m not big on sorts documentaries. I don’t like long TV series. But I do love Wales and underdog stories.
This show was edge of your seat gripping from start to finish.
Games
- World of Warcraft: Dragonflight
I’ve written about WoW before for the newsletter. The latest expansion is fun with lots of new mechanics and systems that can grow with the franchise over time. More than that the developers genuinely do seem to be taking onboard player feedback in a way they’ve never done before.
Music
- Low
Mimi Parker of Low died this year. I was gutted when I saw the news. I’m a huge Low fan and Mimi’s haunting vocals were a big reason why.
- Dream Wife
Dream Wife are a London-based feminist punk band that fucking slay. Rakel, Alice, Bella, and Alex are back this year with an absolute banger. The leech isn’t the only thing out for blood…
Marlee Jane Ward (MJW)
is also Mia Walsch. Writer, apocalypse witch, goth aunt.
Articles and That
“Tina was literally the only Black woman on the scene then,” says Ledgerwood. “The suits and ties couldn’t see our relevance, but the crowds usually ate us up, especially her. Tommy was leader of the band until we got on stage. Then it was ‘the Bell.’ Without question, she set the pace. If the crowd was slightly less than enthusiastic, she would get fiercer. We followed suit. She was so dynamic, so unpredictable, and so energetic. I’ve never seen a more explosive performer.”
At the time of her diagnosis, only a few hundred CHS patients had been identified in the medical literature, and very little was known about the condition. Doctors told patients they had it after a process of elimination. There was no definitive biomarker indicating someone had CHS; only a set of symptoms. Those who did suffer from it were heavy cannabis users who became prone to multiweek vomiting spells that often landed them in the hospital. Patients also frequently reported a compulsive need to take hot showers and baths, which somehow relieved the urge to throw up. When Moon first heard about CHS, the condition sounded absurd. To her, it reeked of moral panic, like the Tide Pod challenge: a fabricated concern intended to scare.
“I hate to say it, but it seems like our patients with CHS, a lot of them are really crazy,” [Russo] told me. “The paranoia in this group is unbelievable.”
On cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome, influencer culture and scientific distrust.
- Ocean Freight Shipping Costs Are Driving Goods Prices Higher - Michael Grabell at ProPublica
“Demurrage charges are one way in which ocean carriers abuse their monopoly power over ocean transport,” the fruit importer William H. Kopke Jr. Inc. wrote to the commission. “Particularly when the cargo is perishable, it is as if the cargo is held hostage. If the receiver does not pay any charges demanded immediately, not only does the cargo rot while the charges are under dispute, but demurrage charges will continue to accrue.”
On supply chains, fragility, monopolies and waste.
The videos invited the viewer to marvel at a surreal collision of low cost and abundance. The comments, in keeping with the mood, were performatively supportive (“BOD GOALS”). At some point, someone would question whether such cheap clothing could possibly be ethical, but a chorus of voices would leap in to defend Shein and the influencer with equal zeal (“There so cute tho.” “It her money, leave her alone.”) and the original commenter would go silent.
Fast fashion hurts us all. Shein’s practices are unsustainable on a global level, yet #sheinhaul isn’t stopping any time soon.
Film + TV
- Everything Everywhere All At Once
The first film I saw at the cinema in YEARS. Michelle Yeoh is phenomenal. More movies need middle-aged female protagonists. More movies need googly eyes and talking rocks and hotdog fingers. More movies need to be this fucking odd. It looks great while still looking real (Yeoh’s red quilted vest and floral patterned shirt feel so everyday, even as she spans the multiverse.) The sci-fi elements blend seamlessly with a realistic family drama. Nothing I can say would do this film justice.
- Weird: The Al Yankovic Story
“Your father and I had a long talk and we agreed it would be best for all of us if you just stop being who you are and doing the things you love.”
Daniel Radcliffe is a delight as Al Yankovic in this almost entirely fictional biopic. It owes a lot to Dewey Cox in terms of humour, and at times gets a little too silly, but it’s definitely worth your time. Evan Rachel Wood’s power-hungry Madonna has a hilarious and surprising trajectory.
- Don’t Look Up
It’s on the nose, and it’s pretty basic, but Don’t Look Up is bringing the utterly fucking obvious to the masses, and we have to start somewhere, don’t we?
As a film it’s enjoyable - a comet is coming towards the earth and the reaction fits with a more modern sensibility. PLUS, Meryl Streep’s horny president with a tramp stamp is A+. It’s funny, it’s cute satire, it has Timothée Chalamet in it.
The scene where Dicaprio melts down, yelling right to the camera on a talk show, is audacious in a really basic bitch way. He’s doing what a whole lot of us are doing: yelling at the world to fucking listen, literally screaming that we’re all going to die if we don’t act now. We’re all doing it, in life, on social media, in this here newsletter. Unfortunately none of that hits number one on Netflix on the regular.
You could argue that popular media doesn’t change anything on a mass scale, and I’d beg to differ. Pop gets right into a lot of heads, fucks around in there. This movie won’t save us, but it’s not trying to. It’s just trying to make sense of the world as it is.
Books
- A History of Dreams by Jane Rawson
Friend of the newsletter Jane Rawson’s most recent book is witches vs nazis in 1930s Adelaide (South Australia). In this world, witches’ magic is the ability to seed dreams, to insert them into minds and hearts to change thinking. When an authoritarian government strips away the rights of women, the little coven of richly developed characters use and are used for their dreaming spells. Despite the dark themes, this book was such a delight. Jane’s imagination is vast and enviable, and her worlds are always so beautifully rendered.
- Big Beautiful Female Theory
Eloise Grills released big beautiful female theory. It is a fucking beautiful book, a graphic memoir that romps through concepts of the body, shame, sexuality, social media, and more, with wild abandon and watercolour nudes.
Art
There are some amazing and delightfully bonkers mock paperback covers at Paperback Paradise.
Self-Promotion
To start the year off, I released a short story for free on my Patreon. It’s about housing, community and cam-babes. It was the first piece of fiction I finished in two years and it was fun to write. Read Acacia Crescent here.
I released the zine ‘Id Girl’, written as Mia Walsch. It’s an illustrated selection of excerpts from my work-in-progress memoir. It is tales of working in the dungeon, plus stuff about bodies and attention and good memories and bad ones interspersed with my silly little drawings. You can find it on my Etsy.
This year was also the year of Orphancorp resurgence. It’s the little book (series) that could. My publishers, Brio Books, bound up all three of the ‘Orphancorp’ books into one volume. It was like having a new book out without doing any work! THEN they went ahead and made it into an audiobook, read by the amazing Tamala Shelton. When I wrote it in 2014, I would never have dreamed that it would have legs long enough to reach in 2022.
Finally, my short story ‘Who’s a good boy?’ was reprinted in Terraform: Watch/Worlds/Burn. I was so excited to share a TOC with so many amazing authors. I was so surprised and heartened when Terraform bought it in the first place, and I’m excited it’s getting a second life.
Some Memes
Corey J. White (CJW)
Author, podcaster, sin-eater.
Articles and That
- What Humans Can Learn From The Language Of Honeybees - Karen Bakker at Noema
I don’t know why, but I love bees. This piece on bee communication and intelligence was absolutely fascinating.
- Inside the World of Leg Lengthening - Chris Gayomali at GQ
Extreme body modification. Probably the most ‘real-life cyberpunk’ shit I shared all year.
- Deep Time Sickness - Lachlan Summers at Noema
A deep time look at Mexico City and how geological changes affect a city’s inhabitants.
- Noiseless Messengers - Rebecca Giggs at Emergence Magazine
A beautiful and wide-ranging piece on moths, migratory animals, and the Australian bogong moth in particular, now endangered due to a rapidly changing climate.
- Why scorpions? - Charlie Lloyd
This piece is such a weird, interesting and deep dive, mostly focused on shipping and energy use, but that makes it sound quite dry, but I found it really compelling.
Honourable Mentions:
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Our Animals, Ourselves: The socialist feminist case for animal liberation - Astra & Sunaura Taylor at Lux Magazine.
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New Sensation: The military use of haptics technology includes ideological indoctrination - Leo Kim at Real Life Mag (RIP)
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I Should Be Able to Mute America: The rest of the world should not have to know the name Bari Weiss - Patrick Marlborough at Gawker
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The shock and awe of state-sponsored women’s fashion - Matt Webb at Interconnected
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Their Bionic Eyes Are Now Obsolete and Unsupported: Second Sight left users of its retinal implants in the dark - Eliza Strickland and Mark Harris at IEEE Spectrum
Film + TV
- The Northman
A gorgeous film, great direction, acting, cinematography, and all the rest. Eggers’ work never fails to deliver. The only disappointment here is that it’s Hamlet - I didn’t know that going in, but I realised pretty early on. It was a brilliant take on Hamlet, but don’t expect to be surprised by the story.
- Everything, Everywhere, All at Once
A brilliant, hyper-speed kaleidoscope of multiversal action. You already know all about it, you’ve hopefully seen it. This is what sci-fi action should be like, and it puts every recent big budget action blockbuster (I’m looking at you, Disney trash) to shame. A movie shouldn’t be able to contain this much creativity, energy, and heart all at once, but somehow it did. (DCH: seconded. Plus I’m gutted that we’ve been robbed of more performances by Ke Huy Quan over the years. He’s superb in this as Yeoh’s love interest.)
- Nope
Jordan Peele’s latest - a movie about Hollywood and about making movies, but without falling into the wank that would usually mean, because a) this is a horror movie, and b) it’s specifically about Black people working in the film industry.
I thought it was brilliant, gorgeous, and was genuinely surprised at where it went (having avoided trailers and all the rest before watching it).
- Love and Monsters
A great post-apocalyptic comedy with a lot of heart. When I first wrote about it I said:
The thing that really sold it to me as a film that I knew I would love, was the way it treated cooperation between species. The first time Joel meets the dog named Boy, he talks to the animal as though it can understand him - and this being an adventure film, it kind of can. He admonishes himself just once for talking to a dog, but he doesn’t stop doing it. Sure, this is probably meant to show how he’s a bit of an odd guy, but above all sweet and considerate, but I saw it as the first sign of a thread of interspecies cooperation that would run through the whole film. The two continue the adventure together, but it’s not a man and his dog, it’s two travelling companions, two equals.
And one of the most touching scenes in the film is a conversation between Joel and a robot who he again treats as an equal. It’s not a human, but Joel approaches it as a person worthy of consideration. If you’ve read Repo Virtual you’ll know why this appealed to me.
And don’t worry, nothing bad happens to the dog.
I’ve since watched Spontaneous, also written by Brian Duffield, and it’s got a similar vibe, but in the teen romantic comedy horror space. I recommend both.
- Reservation Dogs
I wrote about Reservation Dogs here, where I described it as “easily one of the best half hour shows on television, and a perfect balance of slice-of-life drama and (usually dark) comedy.”
It’s an amazing show, with a brilliant cast bringing it to life. Don’t sleep on this one.
- Severance
One of the best sci-fi TV shows of the last few years (or longer), and largely because it’s so understated, both visually and in the way it tells its story. It’s a slow, quiet burn, building up to an ending that leaves me hankering for a second season. Largely it’s about work and what it does to us and to our sense of self, topics I’m obviously interested in, but it’s the explorations of the lives of the characters that make it so compelling and worthwhile.
- Too Old to Die Young
I stand by everything I said earlier this year, but this is the main part:
It’s a slow burn of a series (sometimes too slow, to be honest), but it’s entirely worth it, even just to see what NWR will do with 12 or so hours and a good chunk of Bezos bucks. Co-written with Ed Brubaker, it’s also made me want to finally get around to checking out some of his comics.
Sadly it only got one season, and while most of the story as it’s set up is told by the end, they were setting up a truly interesting and potentially weird conflict for the second series that we’ll never see. Maybe Brubaker can convince NWR that they should produce it as a comic series…
Games
- Elden Ring
This is my 2022 game of the year, easily. I barely played any 2022 games this year, but Elden Ring is exactly what I wanted in a Souls-like: a beautiful sprawling world, more complete co-op mechanics than the Dark Souls games (though the Seamless Co-Op Mod improves on that even further), inscrutable lore, horrifying bosses, and community weirdness.
All hail Turtle Pope!
- Disco Elysium
Not a 2022 game, but I finally played Disco Elysium this year, and it’s easily the best CRPG ever made. I knew it would be exactly my sort of game, but I have a tendency to bounce off single-player games, even when they’re great. (I think this is a weird brain worm thing - I’ve internalised too much of that disgusting Protestant Work Ethic, and while I can tell myself co-op gaming is valid because it’s social, single-player is a waste of time. Or something. Brains are stupid.)
DE gave me the same feeling that playing the original Fallout gave me - that this is a complete and unique world and that I can do almost anything in it. Almost entirely devoid of puzzles and combat, it’s the depth and variety of the conversational options (whether you’re talking to other people or the different facets of yourself) that makes this game what it is, with a slew of memorable characters packed into a fairly small game world, genuine surprises, and some of the funniest games writing I’ve come across.
The way the case and your amnesiac character are slowly revealed is truly phenomenal. Upon finishing the game I immediately started a second playthrough with a totally different type of character, so I should get back to that soon.
Music
- The Mars Volta
Chill, refreshing, interesting, and vibrant, The Mars Volta’s new self-titled album is everything I didn’t know I wanted in a TMV record. Been on high rotation since it dropped.
- Mark Lanegan
This year we said goodbye to Mark Lanegan, the gravel-throated crooner of The Screaming Trees, Queens of the Stone Age, and his own bands. I shared this video at the time, but it’s a fantastic recording of some great songs of his, so I’ll share it again.
- These Arms Are Snakes Reunion Tour
I didn’t get to see any of these shows (being on the other side of the planet), but I’m still glad that one of my favourite bands got to do another tour and get some closure.
Self-Promotion
This anthology contains my story Digital Salt, which is in some ways parallel to Repo Virtual, but very different at the same time.
And this anthology includes Boomtown, which I wrote with Andrew Dana Hudson. The focus of the antho is exploring various energy futures, so if that sounds like your thing, make with the clicky.
We’ve been on hiatus for a time (and I’m not sure if/when we’ll reconvene), but the episodes we put together early this year were great, and great fun to work on.
The Best Memes (according to CJW, that we shared previously) of 2022
