Spring has finally arrived which means one thing: bike season. Brisk rides in the crisp morning air with an espresso and pastry at the finish line. Healing. Throw in a little journaling and reading — you already have a perfect weekend. I also have an experimental Spring-cello brewing and finally submitted a feature script to AFF like I’ve been threatening to for years.
This month’s playlist:
The Last of Us
This is a good show. Pedro is a good Joel. Bella is a great Ellie. Faithful where necessary and expounds when appropriate. A well done adaptation.
Where it falls short is simply the restrictions of the medium.
What made the game special was You. You became Joel. You try to save Sarah. You fail. You shoot the gun. You stab the knife. You murder.
And you lie to Ellie.
And you see in her eyes that she knows.
She knows.
The show reached similar highs to the game. It brought me to tears on occasion. But I can't tell if that was with its own power, or if it was simply riding the coattails of my memories playing that masterpiece of a video game.
Barry Lyndon
Kubrick’s follow up to A Clockwork Orange has been on my watchlist for years and it did not disappoint. 100% of that interest was motivated by the lens they stole from NASA to film the candlelit scenes on 35mm. The movie is gorgeous — painterly. And a deeply comedic satire. While this is the goofiest cast of characters I’ve ever met, they also got me misty-eyed during a truly tragic moment.
Glad I was able to experience it projected on 35mm film.
Meet Your Maker
I’m a solo player. I want a linear narrative. I don’t want to play with other people. I definitely don’t want to build anything. Meet Your Maker is the exception. Raiding other player-made bases is fun. Building bases for other players to raid is fun. Heck, it’s even more fun co-op. I never expected an online-only game to hook me this hard.
Having a blast and falling asleep thinking about new base builds.
Chainsaw Man
As I’ve written before, Chainsaw Man is great. Another season of anime is a long way off. But the new manga arc is ongoing. Tatsuki Fujimoto tactfully shrunk the stakes following the climax of the previous arc and introduced a new protagonist set on a collision course with Denji. It’s exciting, silly, goreful, and I can’t wait to see where it goes.
This month I also published photos of my first concept shoot and wrote a bit about how much I enjoy making animated gifs.