Sport Macrame Review of 2021
If you go up the staris, you get up there, and if you take a lift down, you end up on the ground. If you wanna dig a tunnel, you don't typically build a ladder. You take a showel and get digging. It's a trusted way for those with nothing to prove.
I have loads to prove. I'm in the business of building ladders to dig my tunnels. And yours! It's for you, it's for me, It's for everybody. Might be of help in the future – might not. As we venture capitalists say, 'Past Performance Is No Guarantee of Future Results'.
I took two (2) trips to Russia (phone code +7). Almost completed year four (4) out of five (5) of my obligatory product design years in the UK. Got one (1) promotion. I've upset five (5) people. I've pleased eleven (11). On the flipside, only four (4) people have upset me, and a whooping sixteen (16) have been outstandingly nice.
Personally, I am a whole three (3) decades (10) old (3*10=30) as of last week. That's some serious aging done. Wow.
The year had started with hopes that rolled over, unused, from 2020 – and added to the new year's hopes. I self-initiated a project, my Super Serous Secret Project (SSSP). Spent most of my hope supply on that. It flopped. Went down like a poster does at 3am, while you're out for a midnight ride. On a bus. Through a creepy industrial desert. When you get back in the morning, you'd be like oh shit, the poster's gone. But it's still 3am, and you're not even aware of yourself. That's exactly what it felt like; it also hurt a bit.
Then I tried to initiate a couple more things, but ran out of hope, as well as energy and courage, so they are hanging in limbo at the moment.
Apart from that, I barely made any memories, but am forced by the calendar to call it a year. My 2022 goal is to make some memories. I might have to be very deliberate about it. Memorize a few wikipedia pages. Get back on LinguaLeo. Study for the Life In The UK test. And remember, remember everything – as best I can.
My second 2022 goal is to learn to sound as compelling as Richard Ayoade in his voiceovers.
Now let's move on to things out there.
What's up?
– Decent snacks available everywhere
– Can go to galleries and movies
– No one I know goes to the office every day
– Our lovely homeland has more good coffee than ever
– Some borders are still closed
– Every time there's a scandal, it comes across as a smaller, weaker reflection of all scandals that came before, even if the actual matter is worse, it all feels more and more impenetrable. And how do you even tell if the matter is worse or better than the next one? If it even is a matter? I'm exhausted from even typing this.
– Our lovely homeland is being rapidly turned into a dictatorship – no, a neo-dictatorship, which is a lot like the old one, but with very, very good coffee everywhere
Books I've read
Misfits: A Personal Manifesto by Michaela Coel was conversational and current, a tapestry about creativity and race.
Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative? by Mark Fisher was the best unpacking of our current poloitical system I've ever read, and for that reason depressing
Radical Attention by Julia Bell was like reading someone's facebook, not on facebook because against facebook
No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood was deceptive! Lured me in with funny jokes and groovy style, turned out to be about a terminally ill baby dying
Agency (Jackpot #2)
by William Gibson
was as oddly comforting as everything else by William Gibson
More thoughts here.
(Not) Getting Paid to Do What You Love
by Brooke Erin Duffy
was mostly for research. made me quit social media for a bit
More on it here.
Vile Bodies
by Evelyn Waugh
was a really fun quaint journey into 19th century London bohemia
More on it here.
Unbound: A Woman’s Guide To Power
by Kasia Urbaniak
was pretty good at pointing out the faults of our girl-specific upbringing.
(some of it might be a dirty infobusiness. I don't know. I liked)
More on this one here.
In Cold Blood
by Truman Capote
was hands down the best thing I've read all year. Gripping and very visual
More here.
Untamed
by Glennon Doyle
was one of the books they sent us from work for Xmas last year. Very compelling
More here.
Bowie's Bookshelf: The Hundred Books that Changed David Bowie's Life by John O'Connell was my other favourite read of the year. Helped me broaden my literary horisons quite a bit
Films I watched and liked
Was an absolute trip. Sometimes favours style over substance, which also aligns with the "artist vs the art" theme. Really sharp and hot and deadpan. 10/10 will watch again.
Was also a trip. Trippy films have been a real lifeline, substitude for actual trips, of which many were to the park and only a few elsewhere.
This film is very lovingly shot. You gotta love Soho to make it look so romantic. The plot blew my mind and I cried in the end.
Also, look at the way they choreographed this dance scene for the camera! Precision and craft and speed (around 5:25).
A 1982 film I watched by chance. One of the famous De Niro/Scorcese movies which are, I'm hearing, legendary. I don't know. This one, really well written. And style matches substance.
Relatable megalomaniac content. Would myself kidnap a chat show host on a Tuesday.
Is a documentary by Agnès Varda shot in her local Rue Daguerre area in 1975. Mostly consists of conversations with local shopkeepers. It's a time capsule. You don't see films and people like that very often. Maybe people in this film aren't shaped by the media quite so much, and are a continuation of their own families, places and traditions, in the way we are not.
Because both Lou Reed and Andy Warhol referenced Capote a lot, I always knew I'd get into this eventually. Capote is a fascinating character with a very inconsistent career. Basically he came from a poor family background and made his way in NYC. Then he infiltrated the high society ladies' circle, and then went on to investigate a murder of a family in Kansas. His career faded into lots of controvercies: he had a bit of a thing with one of the murderers, then he tried to publish a lot of shit about his high society friends. Then he lost the remainders of sanity at Studio 54.
An absolutely legendary ultra C L A S S I C or WHAT?
The stuff I've read about religiously in my Beatles phase, finally available to the casual viewer. Superfan mode on!
Style over substance, sandals over socks. Vegeterian + plant based. But it's delicious and you wouldn't tell it from a real one in a million years. It's exactly the type of diet I'm into. Lean and mean.
TV I watched and liked
On Becoming a God in Central Florida
This must have been a huge big hit. It's about a Florida housewife in the 90s whose husband dies of exhaustion trying to succeed at a pyramide scheme, selling cleaning supplies door-to-door. She takes matters in her own hands and becomes insanely good at it. Essential viewing.
It seemed I watched it five minutes ago and there was just one season out, and now there's three and the fourth is coming up. It's a good small show. I do hope that the next season will be last, though. I like how it's got this early 00s feel to it. More like this, please.
Nevermind the Buzzcocks reboot
I had been so sure this was gonna be a shitshow. But it turned out, hm, erm, well? It certainly has its moments. Also, this time around I can legit understand what everyone's saying. Either they're better at speaking or I'm better at hearing.
The word 'cake' is about 50 times more popular than the word 'socialism'.
Podcasts I heard and liked
Heavyweight: Barbara Shutt
if you like a good investigative show, some great journalism there. And there's definitely a murder. Spotify only :c
Revolutions podcast: The Russian Revolution
If you like to forget your current issues and focus on other people's past issues.
Wireless Nights: The Full Moon
If you're nervous. It's the most soothing show, helped me on my ride home from the airport, when I was at my most exhausted and miserable.
Alice Isn't Dead
If you liked Night Vale. A very moody show with great narration. There's possibly a murder and ceriainly a roadtrip.
The Shrink Next Door If you liked the Apple Tv show of the same name. This is the podcast they made it from. An excellent radio documentary, sadly paywalled, but couple episodes are on YT.
Special mention:
Mighty Boosh original radio show
It exists! It's like Blue Jam but less creepy and more fluffy. Caters for a slightly different kind of customer. Now that's what I call radio theatre.
Miscellaneous
1. I extensively researched Faye Wong and Hong Kong music scene.
My best find is this
and Chungking Express, the film.
2. I also researched Karl Marx. My best find is that he was a bit of a dick and caused some grief to everybody who cared about him. Also he had a son with his housemaid, and! blamed it on Engels! It's a fucking sitcom.
The art or the artist, the theory or the theorist?
3. The best thing that happened on youtube this year was Abigail Thorn coming out as trans. It's very beautiful and I want to say sublime. And I will. So there.
(I'm not sure why she used the Blackstar logo. A symbol of her rebirth perhaps.)
Music I heard and liked
We don't have all day. Let's optimise.
Japanese Breakfast's Jubilee is my favourite album, and this is my favourite video.
A special mention goes to Сомнительный Прикол, the band with <2000 listens, for the song Так, because it's the flavour of the year.
I also liked lots more, and if you like to like music too, check out my playlists.
What now?
I have enrolled myself in the UCL's Practical Documentary Filmmaking course. The hopes are HIGH. The main hope is that I do not burn out and enjoy it, and eventually transition into writing for movies or even making movies. I would like to make movies about people and things existing in the present. I like words and people and putting them together. I like making people up and making them say real words. So, I bet 2/3 of my hope supplies on that.
If it turns out painful and I burn out, I might just make more drawings of my favourite celebrities. Worked every time so far.
I will keep mentioning mortgages to everybody on every occasion, at the most random times. I'm a dark mortgageless creature of the noon. I will doubt. I will not get a mortgage. My goal is to come conceptually close. Make it a part of my personal style.
Here's a helpful diagram I just made to explain my situation.
How is this gonna play out? Will it ever? Who knows!
I made a price list for 2022, so that people know what they can buy. It's the least I could do.
One thing's for sure: 2022 will bring us more books, movies and podcasts that will bring us comfort and something to process. And we will process very well, and always say something smart back.
It'll be fine! Maybe even quantifiably better than last year!
Drink more water, save the bees, no pasaran.
