Work was a relentlessly wound spring that finally released mid-month, just in time to host visiting parents. Glad to spend a week of vacation with them. But it’s difficult to fully rest when completely off your normal schedule and rhythms. And I didn’t even take a breath once we said our goodbyes because I learned there was a Thai/Lao new year festival within driving distance and had to attend (i.e. gorge myself on sticky rice, moo ping, khao piak, and other sorely missed dishes).
So I returned to work just as worn out when I left it.
This month’s playlist:
The Sting
I only watched three movies in May. 2001: A Space Odyssey. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. The Sting. One is seminal. One I’ve already forgotten. And one is warm nostalgia.
The Sting was one of a few dozen VHS tapes that came with us to Thailand and all we had to watch in English for several years. I loved the cream dust cover depicting Robert Redford with his arm draped around Paul Newman’s shoulders while he lights a cigar with a dollar bill. I don’t remember if mold got to the tape or if we wore it out with repeat viewings. Many of our VHS met that fate before we upgraded to VCD — later DVD.
I was overjoyed to see it again a decade and change later on the big screen at a movie theater. It was even sweeter that I got to share that experience with my parents. Funny. Tense. Satisfying conclusion. You want to hang out with these scoundrels even if they’ll pick your pocket the first chance they get.
Succession
I’m glad I no longer have to listen to wall street gobbledygook like “upside” or “headwinds” or other made-up words Kendall Roy spits up. But I will miss this family of goblins and the disgusting brothers and some of the best writing committed to screen. This is prestige tv. A valuable time investment. Most other series are just a box of slime puppies.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
I have played two Zelda games and finished only one. My experience with this franchise is not broad, but I have fond Game Boy memories. I tried Breath of the Wild (BOTW) a few years ago and bounced right off it. I wasn’t in the mood.
Its direct sequel released and I figured I’d give it another go. BOTW is the most pleasant open-world game I’ve ever played. Following the good advice of a friend, I turned on “Pro” mode which hides most of the HUD — specifically, the mini-map. Riding my horse across Hyrule following directions gleaned from NPCs is sublime. It’s too easy to glue your eyes to a mini-map and follow it like a GPS, beelining from objective to objective with growing impatience. The game becomes a chore. Exploration — a waste of time.
I don’t feel rushed in BOTW. The situation is dire, but not urgent. The game’s NPCs actively tell Link to slow down and prepare properly and offer locations to visit by describing obvious landmarks you can see on horseback, not just on a map. This doesn’t feel like the Zelda I’m familiar with. But it is an interesting evolution for the franchise, and an improvement for the open-world genre overall.
This month I also shared more photos taken in Austin and read a couple interesting articles: an essay on evangelicalism and an investigation of the working conditions of Lost’s writers' room.