#9: The ocean, looming inexorably - March in review
How many times can you use “it’ll be a birthday treat” as an excuse to spend a liiittle too much money on something before it’s officially out of hand? Does that line get drawn before or after the weighted cloak hoodie? Asking for a friend.
Mark your calendars! I’m going to be a featured guest & artist at the Time Traveler’s Weekend, a mini convention/immersive RPG event being hosted by one of my fellow Gallifreyan artists.
The event will transform all 70 acres of Billie Creek Village, IN, into a patchwork wonderland of steampunk, science fiction, and fantasy, with guests and quests integrated into the overarching storyline driving the weekend.
I’ll be there the whole weekend, alternately hawking my circular wares and helping to run the thing. If the Gallifreyan on the image above proves too hard to decipher, hit me up for a link to the event Discord.
What I’ve been creating:
On the theme of Gallifreyan shit, I wanted to share some pieces I’ve made recently that I’m proud of! I’ve been experimenting with Illustrator in an effort to push myself artistically, and I’m really pleased with the results.
left: not all that is seen is all that is there
top middle: we get better
bottom middle: just girly things
right: god’s body couldn’t be like this—whalefall
What I’ve been reading:
The Dangerous Damsels trilogy
by India Holton
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Some books earn their 4-star ratings through intricate character development and masterful turns of phrase. Others earn their 4-star ratings by being utterly delightful romps that made me grin wide enough to make my face hurt.
The Dangerous Damsels trilogy falls squarely in the latter camp. Each of these books is silly in its own unique way, melding a different modern romance trope with a sincere love for classic literature that establishes a throughline for the series. Admittedly, Holton’s satire stumbles into “overwrought” territory once or twice, keeping this trilogy from achieving a 5-star rating, but her lighthearted, self-aware razzing will have any romance enthusiast chuckling along.
What I’ve been watching:
Here’s everything I watched this month, ranked by how much ocean was involved, a metric which has absolutely no bearing on my enjoyment of each thing.
Moby Dick (opera): 10/10. The ocean was ever-present, looming inexorably in both the fore- and background. It’s hard to get more oceanic than this.
The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep (animated movie): 7/10. For all its faults (and good god did it have faults), this movie was mostly ocean.
The Prince of Egypt (animated movie): 4/10. Technically the best we get is the Red Sea, which is not ocean at all. However, the frame where you see the whale’s silhouette as a larger-than-life backdrop to the exodus made me so lightheaded with awe that I forget why the technicality matters.
Twenty-Sided Tavern (off-Broadway stage production): 1/10. The ocean is visible for about 30 seconds on a map, but our audience actively chose not to explore the docks.
Vanya (one-man play): 0/10. This would have received a 10/10 if I was ranking things based on how much Andrew Scott was in them, but unfortunately the metric is “how much ocean was in the thing,” and this thing had no ocean to speak of.
What else I’ve been up to:
Earlier this month, I somehow managed to scam my way into a private viewing for a special edition Bleach art exhibition. I walked in genuinely ready to spend a little too much money on Bleach merch as a birthday treat; I walked out 5 minutes later empty handed, absolutely gobsmacked at the price tags I’d just seen.
Someone needs to explain to me how Bleach merchandise is selling for $4,000 apiece in this, the year of our lord 2025. And then that same someone needs to explain how, despite the apparent financial prosperity of this decade-old cringe IP, I still could not find a single piece of Bleach merch in Japan? It’s a paradox that defies comprehension.