Well, I continue to battle both hopeless sobriety, which comes with crippling insomnia, or nihilistic alcoholism, which comes with crippling apathy, but I remain positive that my cyclothymia will eventually bring my productive creative side back around. I have started tinkering with the guitar again, mainly trying to reform my calluses with the functional “spider technique” as a simple exercise each day on acoustic, so maybe I’ll even plug in an amplifier some day soon.
Here are some crumbs of interest and areas of potential cultural expansion. While I hold onto little hope that my mental state will improve, I often don’t know what is around the corner.
TREASURE ISLAND
I’ve started listening to an audiobook of this classic novel, read by David Buck, the actor who voiced Gimli in Ralph Bakshi’s animated version of Lord of the Rings. It’s funny how children’s books never used to assume its young readers were barely literate, unlike modern works, as the quality of Treasure Island is higher than your average modern adult novel. I say the same for Anthony Buckeridge’s Jennings series, which I grew up adoring. I assume all this, of course, as I don’t read modern works aimed at a young audience, so maybe there is art in there. I just have a dreadful suspicion that modern children’s literature is all very simplistically written. I mean, I haven’t heard good things about the Harry Potter series, which I vow never to read. Anyway, so far I’m really enjoying Robert Louis Stevenson’s book, and Buck makes an excellent reader. As a staple of public domain distribution, I was able to get this recording for “free”, albeit with my cherished Audible membership. So not for free at all, but I’m sure it is available somewhere out there without charge.
DUNE I & II
I’ve not enjoyed any of the Denis Villeneuve films I’ve seen so far, including Sicario, Arrival, and Blade Runner 2049, although most audiences seem to worship at his feet. While a skilled filmmaker, I just find his screenplays and directing of actors severely lacking. Saying that, I loathed his Blade Runner sequel for visually being everything antithetical to what made the first film so wonderful. What with David Lynch’s 1984 version of Frank Herbert’s rather dry (pun intended) novel Dune being one of my all-time favourite films, Villeneuve’s two-parter has some big shoes to fill. I was also put off by my assumption that this was a “covid movie”, awkwardly filmed during the pandemic, but it seems it was all shot just before. Some of what seems like social distancing is just the blocking Villeneuve intended from the start. Hmmm…
SAY SUE ME
I’ve been listening to my playlist of this great South Korean band’s b-sides this week, so it’s nice to get back into them after a brief hiatus in my interest. It’s quite emotional for me to listen to their music though, as I discovered them just after my best friend died a couple of years ago, therefore the band have become, rather unfortunately, the soundtrack to my grief. They’ve been releasing some new songs recently, so fingers crossed a new album is on the way. Oh how I’d love to see them live, but they seem focussed on breaking America at the moment. Wassup with the UK?! Oh yeah… everything.
TENACIOUS D…
While I’ve always enjoyed Jack Black as an actor, his musical side project, if you can call it that, has never really interested me. This seems odd, as comedy is a huge part of my life, so why not The D?! Well, after hearing Dave Stecco amusingly reference them on an old episode of the Blurry Photos podcast, I decided I had to finally give Tenacious D a go. Lest it be said, I’m hooked. Not only are their albums generally enjoyable, but they’re actually helping me fight my spiralling depression. That reminds me, I should really listen to some today, as my sleep deprivation is really getting me down.
…IN THE PICK OF DESTINY
I’ve watched Tenacious D’s debut venture into cinema a couple of times now and am struggling to form an opinion on it. It’s not terrible, but it’s not particularly funny either. I understand and admire their need to present it as a “rock opera”, but I kinda feel like the eventual adventure plot was unnecessary. I call it “The Three Men and a Baby Problem”, which means that, once the writer got past the initial high-concept for their screenplay, they found they had nowhere else to go, story-wise. I get the creeping suspicion that having The Pick of Destiny be about… well… nothing would have been better. That’s not in the spirit of Tenacious D though, as their musical releases are usually concept albums that are about something. I guess, apart from the odd exception, a long-form motion picture simply isn’t a great canvass for conveying humour. Why on Earth didn’t their TV series last?! I’ve never seen it, so let me know. Perhaps I’ll write a full review of this film eventually.
Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.
Well, I best get back to Dune. The dreadful dialogue is already like fingernails down a blackboard, but it’s a good looking piece of cinema at least. We shall see…
Do stay in touch, darlings.
Toodles!
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