Report on my activities
Hello, friends and strangers! I figured I should write something else for this blog-esque trend I've got going on, so here's a few personal updates.
Firstly, it's my partner's birthday today! Happy birthday, partner!
Grades got released today, and I'm pleased to say I've got nothing to worry about.
I recently bought a printer/scanner/copier, which has already gotten a fair amount of use from me printing Kingdom of Shadows, my silent film zine. The printer also has a disc drive, so I can print on CDs and make really fun mixtapes. Haven't tried that yet, but it should be fun... or a waste of ink.
I've also used it to scan a few things, including a Michael Shanks interview about leaving Stargate: SG1, which was an interesting read. Yesterday I picked up lots of great stuff at a second-hand book festival, so I'll hopefully be scanning more soon. Check out my Tumblr if you want to see some of the cool new items I've snagged.
FILM & TELEVISION
Our household has finally started (re)watching Twin Peaks, which I adore... well, the first season, anyway. We've also been watching plenty of Dropout and Leverage, which is my boyfriend's favourite show.
I've also been watching a lot of silent film for my aforementioned silent film zine. I finally watched The Wind (1928), which was as brilliant as I knew it would be, and surprisingly sympathetic towards the treatment of women. In my research for the fourth issue, I found this fantastic forum called NitrateVille, where there have been lots of heated debates about proper scoring of silent film. Enjoyable reading, if you're into that sort of thing.
I recently saw Phase IV (1974), which was a good use for a lot of anthill B-roll, and had a great soundtrack. A bit odd otherwise, but I did enjoy some of the characters and plot... to an extent. Saw both Creep and Creep 2, of which I actually enjoyed the first one a lot more, despite seeing people talk about liking the sequel (if memory serves). Plenty of other movies of late, which you can see on my Letterboxd, if you're interested!
MUSICAL MOMENT
I discovered to my annoyance and dejection that Ben Frost's Theory of Machines was no longer available on Spotify in my region, so I've bought that on Bandcamp and have been enjoying putting my toes back into ambient music. Just a little bit, though; I've also been listening to my usual rotation of 'work tunes' (River Master, FM Skyline, other assorted vaporwave and synthwave releases, and Judicator's masterpiece Let There Be Nothing).
Not much else to say on the music front, I'm afraid, but I did score some interview cassettes about the development of Star Trek: The Original Series, which I'm very keen to listen to!
LITERATURE CORNER
And I truly mean a corner. Like most people (I expect), I go through periods of reading quite a lot, and then dropping down to absolutely nothing when I'm busy or I find something else to occupy my time. At the moment, I think I'm reading a bit more than usual; I've just finished Autonomous by Annalee Newitz, which took me a little bit to get into, but I ultimately enjoyed quite a lot. It had all of the things I love in a novel: science fiction, robots, anticapitalism, and something interesting to say about sexuality and gender. My only complaint is a bit of a spoiler... I just think that robot should start killing people, that's all I'll say.
After I finished that, I started reading Truman Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's. I finished it this morning (although I've still got a few short stories in the back to finish off). I really enjoy Capote's writing style; despite being obviously quite funny, this book made me really sad for Holly Golightly, lost in the wilderness of New York. Surprisingly queer as well, though perhaps I should have expected that from the Rupaul's Drag Race challenge.
I'm also planning on rereading The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells, some of my favourite sci-fi books... mostly because my boyfriend is now further ahead than I am, despite me having read most of the books before he did, which is just not fair.
What other books have I bought recently? Not that such a question really has anything to do with what I should read next; the amount of unread books I own should probably be a crime. Thankfully, I guess I don't really believe in crime, so it's not a problem. I did finally get William Peter Blatty's The Exorcist, which I've been meaning to read for years, and pick up a copy of Chuck Palahniuk's Haunted. We'll see if I ever get around to reading them.
That's all I have to say, I think.