My first jigsaw puzzle (since I was a kid). I liked this one—the Studio Ghibili art is, as expected, amazing—but I was a little put off by the white border around the image. Putting together white jigsaw piece puzzles is pretty tedious, especially for a beginner. The result was very impressive.
Month: February 2024
AlRawabi School for Girls, season two
After a strong first season, I had high expectations for the second season—always a bit of a trap. I thought this season was very inconsistent: I suspect the central problem is it simply tried to cover too many topics and as a result felt patchy, uneven and that it didn’t do any one of the plotlines the justice they deserve. As a cultural study, I still think it is worth watching: both for the exploration of what it is to be a young woman in Jordan society, but also to be a young women in today’s social-media hellfire landscape.
Skip and Loafer, season one
I am a sucker for this sort of gentle, warm slice-of-life/light-romance type anime. I found this one, though, especially charming and loveable. It allows its characters to be imperfect, it shows growth, and it has trans-representation. The art work is just wonderful, too: warm soft pastels. It hits familiar beats (trip to the beach! culture festival! choosing a school club!) but has enough new to say to make it a real delight.
American Mermaid, Julia Langbein
What an intriguing debut novel! I found this quite slow to read, but Langbein’s writing is often quite witty: there are some great lines through this sometimes meandering, curious novel.
The Art of Reading, Damon Young
Young writes so well, yet the premise of this book feels quite uncertain: is it about the joy of reading? Is it about novels and stories themselves? Is it a vehicle for the author to explore the thoughts of various other philosophers? I spent a nice time with this book but could not recommend it.
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, season one
I was initially quite excited about this—I thought it was going to explore what life would be like in a world where monsters have not only arrived, but made themselves comfortable—yet I was quickly let down by ChatGPT levels of plotting and exposition and some younger actors who struggled to convey anything other than pure petulance. I sincerely hope they get a second season and can improve upon a rocky foundation.
The Power of Fun, Catherine Price
A book that rightfully reminds us that having fun is, in many respects, the point of life. As the pressures of late-stage capitalism conspire to make us think the only thing that matters is productivity, Price (and others) are leading the vanguard of arguing for a better, more fun life.
Pluto, season one
A real triumph of story telling, art, and philosophy. It also feels incredibly timely given the modern explosive growth of AI tools: no matter how advanced we may become technically, we remain, in many regards, angry, confused, scared primates. Pour one out for North No. 2, a real one.
Society of the Snow, JA Bayona
A lot of tears in this one. Hard to watch, but infused with hope, love, courage and humour. Inspiring, truly, as all stories of survival against the odds—that is, human resiliency—always are. Many fascinating details in this interview about how it was made: the challenges of getting funding for a film in Spanish; working with new actors (who are uniformly amazing); that some of the actors lost over 20kgs; and that the surviving survivors (and their family) endorsed the film.
The Brothers Sun, season one
A lot to like about this show—yes, aside from the transcendent Michelle Yeoh—but sadly really let down by crummy writing, peak performances from others in the cast. Still, more Asian-American representation please!
Babette’s Feast, Gabriel Axel
An incredible gentle movie about grace, care, community and the life-affirming powers of a jolly good meal. And perhaps a call against ascetism, no matter how tempting it might be.
Infinite Craft, Neal Agarwal
This took me by surprise; a simple game where one combines basic elements (fire, earth, wind, water) to get to increasingly absurd places, like Super Drow Jesus. I love the energy and fun of this game, from such simple set up so many surprising things happen. The little dopamine hit of making the first discovery. Play it!
Killers of the Flower Moon, Martin Scorsese
Beautiful and distressing; a languid story of man’s lack of humanity. The lack of justice is incredibly frustrating, but sadly falls part of a broader story about mankind. I just wish it wasn’t so very, very long.
Your Head is a Houseboat, Campbell Walker
A refreshing and novel way of exploring mental health. Some of the suggestions and parts of the approach feel a little dogmatic, or at least contrived to fit into the houseboat metaphor, but nonetheless I imagine for a lot of people this would be a useful way to begin exploring their mental health.
Best Wishes, Richard Glover
I read this in a state of disbelief; it was exactly every Boomer trope you’ve ever heard, one right after the other. The definition of failing upwards is this book.
Cold People, Tom Rob Smith
The book is very much something you might buy at an airport, and so long as that is what you expect going in, you might have an OK time: I found the book pretty uneven and the ending was unsatisfying. Nonetheless, there are some genuinely interesting ideas about survival and humanity.
The Book, Alan Watts
Watts is a special mind indeed; writing about philosophy in such a clear, accessible way is a genuine triumph. So much of this book resonated deeply with me, I feel repeated readings will be required to full absorb Watts’ ideas. I think, at its core, this book is an attempt at a cure of our modern pathology of seeing ourselves as lonely, disconnected and minor.
The End of Reality, Jonathan Taplin
A frightening and clear look at the power and malign influence of Musk, Zuckerberg, Thiel et al, as well as a consideration of the failure of neoliberal economics and the rise of the angry far-right, MAGA types. All in all, this only fuelled my fear as to the grossly irresponsible actions of big tech and the urgent need for strict regulation.
Mr and Mrs Smith, season one
This started off really fun—an intriguing blend of spy hijinks with slice of life goodness—but the back half was uneven, a little rushed, and unconvincing. Glover and Erskine are perfectly cast, and their house will feature in my dreams. I’m torn between wanting more and feeling reasonably content with how things ended.
The Madness of King George, Nicholas Hytner
Want to watch an excellent British film? One that speaks to everything that is powerful about UK cinema? This is an excellent candidate. It has a little something for everyone, and I think is quite interesting in the context of modern politics where we are often choosing between the lesser of two evils: the mad King or the useless prince?
Pokémon Concierge, season one
The single best thing to come from the world’s most valuable franchise since the first iconic games. Incredibly charming, thoughtful, warm and just delightful. When was the last time a piece of corporate IP branded media left you wanting more? Perfect.
Number Go Up, Zeke Faux
I wanted a really trenchant and forensic analysis of the odd world of crypto and instead I got more of a journalistic process story/gee, bitcoin bros sure are tacky/awful gossipy thing. There is enough that is genuinely concerning about crypto (which, to his credit, he touches upon, although not nearly enough) that we don’t have to make fun of the individual participants.