Well, I’m now single-jabbed, and by the end of this month I’ll be double Pfizzed, which brings a huge sense of euphoria. In the nineteen months of this pandemic, I’ve spent around eight months in isolation (lockdown / quarantine), eight months out and about but “on edge” and only three where I felt completely comfortable. I’m very keen to move to the next phase and start making up for lost time.
As for the month in music, I’ve been revisiting a lot of old classics. I’ve also been enjoying most of the new Jungle album (save for the few tracks with super seventies-style vocals which I can’t stand). Men I Trust dropped The Untourable Album which takes on a bit of a nineties flavour and is already one of my top albums of the year. The best music out of Canada right now.
I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson (Season 2) The only bad thing about this is that there were only six episodes. I tried to ration it out, knowing how much I loved the first season, but couldn’t help myself. This is terrific, and had me laughing out loud, having to pause at times to recover.
The White Lotus From the opening theme I was hooked. It immediately and accurately set the tone. From there it got better. The brilliant cinematography and some of the subject matter put it up there with Euphoria. The cast was fantastic, and so convincing that I’d fear the actors being typecast. Who doesn’t enjoy seeing rich douchebags getting a nice dose of karma?
Succession (Seasons 1-2) I wasn’t sure about this to begin with. My initial impression was that it was just too stacked with horrible characters, but solid performances soon had me hooked to the point I’m now eagerly awaiting the third season.
AP Bio (Seasons 1-3) With no new Always Sunny in sight for some time, I set forth to watch what other work the guys had done. Glenn Howerton (Dennis from Sunny) takes the lead in this, and plays a similar character – albeit less sociopathic. The stories are less futile and more optimistic than Sunny, and the laughs are milder – but it’s a pretty solid placebo – unlike the following series…
Mythic Quest (Seasons 1-2) Rob McElhenney (Mac in Always Sunny) fronts this comedy, and similar to Howerton in AP Bio, plays a similar character to the one he plays in Sunny. It’s set in a game design studio and starts out very strongly. It captures very well the personalities of digital media studios and video gaming in general, with a strong supporting cast including David Hornsby (Cricket from Sunny) and Charlotte Nicdao (using her native Aussie accent). Unfortunately it falls apart in season 2, with a couple of Community-style “themed” episodes, and then some which take a left turn into serious drama – focusing on side characters in a non-comedic way. It’s possibly the most bizarre tonal change I’ve ever seen within a series. I didn’t make it to the last episode. Stop after season one.
Brooklyn Nine Nine (Season 8) It dawned on me watching this final season how most of the bigger US sitcoms seem to last 8-10 years (Seinfeld, The Office, Parks & Rec), and there’s a reason for that. Humour changes and moves and eventually a show birthed nine years ago feels dated. This has been a great show, with solid characters, but it’s time has come.
The Handmaid’s Tale (Seasons 1-4) This was hard to watch. The subject matter is disturbing on every level, and the religious aspect only added to how enraging it was. Lockdown kept me watching. It’s never “bad”, nor is it ever that amazing. But it is always disturbing.
Loki This is possibly the most visually impressive thing Marvel has produced. The content was fun, but the Marvel silliness was a bit exhausting by the end.
Rick & Morty (Season 5) This started so strongly and did what this show does best – good laughs and very clever plotlines. By half way through it went from must-see to see-when-I-get-around-to-it. Still good, but I wonder if it’s getting a little tired.
Movies
Gattaca Somehow this one passed me by back in the day, but the good thing about that is I was able to enjoy it for the first time now. Loved it.
Fast 9 Up until last year I hadn’t seen any of these. Thanks to Covid I smashed through the lot. They were laughably ridiculous, but loaded with good fun and good action. This ninth instalment however, is plain bad. And just the sight of John Cena shits me. His giant head exudes massive douche energy, and you get the feeling he thinks he’s the next Dwayne or Arnie, when in fact he’s the next has-been-in-waiting.
Nobody Can’t say a bad thing about Bob Odenkirk. This was entertaining, but forgettable.
The Game I’m a mad Fincher head, but somehow had never seen this one. It’s not one of his best – but a decent ride with great pacing and thrills. Unfortunately the ending kinda sucked.
Clueless Another one I never saw back in the day, and was pleasantly surprised. Watching this was like taking a trip back to the 90s for ninety minutes. Silverstone is seriously underrated and it’s amazing her career dwindled. Perhaps Batman is to thank for that.
Contact They should have sent a poet. I’ve watched this Zemeckis / Sagan classic countless times, but not for many years. It still holds up and remains one of my favourites. The medicine cabinet mirror shot still blows my mind.
Games
Quantum Break I jumped on this after learning it was from the same team as Control. It had some clever puzzles which messed with time jumps, however is a prime example of a game with more budget than ideas. So many lengthy cinematics could have been gameplay, and so much walking-and-talking gameplay could have been cinematic. I didn’t care enough to persist in completing the final battle.
Beneath a Steel Sky I finally played this point & click adventure title 27 years after its release, thanks to lockdown. Somehow it passed me by back in the day. It’s a post-apocalyptic sci-fi comedy set in Sydney (very unusual for a game, particularly in the 90s). I loved it. The gags still work, and I did get a kick out of walking past locations such as Museum and St James stations.
This perfectly captures how much the game has changed. I attempted to make a game 20 years ago and found the learning curve incredible steep for an individual. These days you can spend a couple of hours in Unreal and get results.
Docos
Ms Represented Great ABC series covering both the historical and present-day challenges and discrimination placed on women in public life. Like many things (environmentalism, government innovation), Australia went from a world leader to a laggard and I really hope after decades of stagnation this country is on the verge of long overdue changes.
Fantastic Fungi The incredible photography kept my eyes glued and the content kept my ears peeled. Highly recommend.
Alone in a cave, to stay dry from all the rain Sat by a tree, all my friends are in my dreams
Week eight of my third round of isolation. The first isolation experience in Vancouver sucked massively – partly due to the unknown nature of it all, but mostly due to the endless grey weather which gave my small apartment in the sky a real prison vibe. As bad as things have gotten here, at least there’s some recognition that it is bad. Vancouver when I left was punching numbers similar to what we have in Sydney now and nobody gave a fuck.
So it’s much easier to do in Sydney where the sun is shining and warm, and I have more room to move. I can go for a walk for an hour at lunch and not have to dodge people since there’s hardly anyone out (in Clovelly and Bronte at least, I saw four people total on Friday).
The last two weeks have also been vastly improved by the Olympics. I lapped up the swimming, I took great delight in the Matildas smashing Britain, and I loved watching the Aussie girls almost claim a volleyball gold. I was left in fury at the Kookaburras’ frustrating loss, and absolute delight at the Boomers bronze win right at the end (Patty Mills is a legend). BMX and skateboarding were terrific additions. It seems odd they weren’t a part of the games sooner – they make far more sense than Golf. Seriously, golf can bugger off.
As for the tunes – I really enjoyed a lot of music this month. There’s Wavves and Inner Wave. There’s Seaquest and Swimming. There’s even Pfizer! Can’t get it in your arms, may as well get it in your ears.
I’ve also added yet another Lazy Eyes track. I was keen to check out this Sydney band next month after being impressed with every release thus far. This latest song has a little bit of an Innerspeaker vibe to sections of it, but still distinctly them (that outro thumps).
I wanna be free Free my fam’ and my mind Cause we’re locked up inside
Here we are, back in lockdown again. Stuck in a situation which could have been avoided had we not been burdened with the laziest leader in this country’s history. Had they been competent enough to procure enough vaccine supply for the start of the year, and understood the imperative of achieving the rollout as quickly as possible, we wouldn’t have to say goodbye to July and August.
Had they built suitable quarantine facilities a year ago, we could be increasing the intake of Aussies instead of cutting it and forcing people to pay exorbitant fares for the privilege of returning to their home country.
Some words that have travelled past my eyes lately…
This Time | Benjamin T Jones
A republic has been on the national to-do list for over 160 years. Questions about it 'being the right time' are predictable but deceptively partisan: when places in a historical context, they are exposed as a delaying tactic. The republican moment will not fall into the lap of a nation that has nothing better to do that day. It must be seized.
This was a really easy read covering a brief (and under-appreciated) history of republicanism in Australia, from the goldfields of Eureka to the push leading up to the centenary of Federation in 2001, and beyond. Many great Australians fought peacefully to achieve their goal of making this country fully independent, all the while being overlooked for English elites. Why is the Queen still on our coins? Why do we still name streets after these people? Why do we reserve the highest position on our flag for the flag of a country which invaded our own and slaughtered our first inhabitants?
Jones gives his thoughts on the symbols and structures which could replace and build on what we have now. I was particularly fond of his proposed title for a head of state – Beanna Elder – which draws from Australia’s oldest culture.
I was sadly not old enough to vote at the 1999 referendum. There really is no argument for keeping a foreign hereditary head of state (even though some creepy royal sycophants still try their best). Australia is a country which values egalitarianism, meritocracy and community (more apparent to me after spending time overseas). The crown has been out place in our unique culture for some time now and I look forward to having a chance to rectify it, hopefully within the next ten decade.
The Big Picture | Ben Fritz
Are they still movies, though, if more than 99 percent of the people who watch them don't do so in a movie theatre? Who cares. Take out the commercial breaks and "previously on"s, and Breaking Bad is a forty-five-hour movie that's better than anything most movie studios have made this century. And no matter how many billions they earn at the box office, no one can convince me that the third Avengers offering and the fourth Captain America film aren't super-expensive episodes in the most successful television series of our era.
The Big Picture: The Fight for the Future of Movies was a great read. Fritz tracks the trends and events within the film and television world over the last twenty years. He uses information found in leaked emails from the Sony hack of 2014 as the bones of his book, which is fitting for the time period covered. Twenty years ago, Sony ruled the box office and Disney was languishing. In a very short time they switched places. One of these players saw the future and made it happen. Like many other products, movies became brands. An actor no longer gets bums on seats. A franchise does. A character does.
Why doesn’t Hollywood offer anything original any more? Simple – people just don’t pay to see original movies at the theatre like the once did. In the meantime the quality of television has increased exponentially. In many ways the two have switched places.
The lines have blurred between what defines a movie and what defines a television episode. This will blur further in the years to come. An episode of a series was once determined by the half-hour slots offered by a broadcast station, a movie limited by a film reel (and bladder capacity). There really isn’t a need for this any more, as is already being witnessed in a show like The Mandalorian, where an episode is “as long as it needs to be”. It’s no longer television or movies, but “content”.
Film content is also being driven by the money of an increasingly international market. Comedy doesn’t cross-cultures, so it doesn’t happen. There’s no Chinese money in American humour. On the flip side, services like Prime and Apple are emerging where profit is not a concern, so creativity can flourish with little concern to whether it finds an audience. The primary goal is to give users content to keep them within the larger tech ecosystem.
This book was only published in 2018, yet already feels out of date, such is the speed at which the movie world is changing. The pandemic has only exacerbated this. Some movies are being released to stream the same day at their theatrical release, and even the ones that aren’t are having their theatrical window shortened. It’s changing so quickly that the landscape will be unrecognisable in another few years.
Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.
Took this from my front door. I’ll never tire of astrological entertainment.
Yeah, I’ve really been feeling a Holden Caulfield mood this month. People, man. But the tunes keep coming with my monthly playlist below. Biggest discovery for me this month is Squid out of Brighton. Their album Bright Green Field has plugged a post-punk shaped hole in my soul, with some James Murphy / Modest Mouse -esque vocal stylings and fresh and unpredictable musical progression. Get into it.
Some other thoughts…
Today was the coldest June day in Sydney in 122 years, which I loved cause I was able to wear my Canadian clothes without looking like a Sydney winter douche (side note: it was only 5 degrees colder than the same day, opposite season back in Vancouver) *gloat*
Gerry Harvey is a colossal prick, and the cloth that he’s cut from still wraps the world like Christo. When entitled boomers make room for youth we might have a chance of moving forward. Easily the most selfish group of people to have ever existed.
Sydney’s Super Tunnel Truth be told – this was my favourite show of the last quarter. Goddamn I love this shit – trains, infrastructure, design, engineering – and in my home city. What’s been done for public transport and infrastructure in the last five-ish years in Sydney has been impressive (and long overdue). I can’t wait to see more.
Feels Good Man I discovered Matt Furie in the relatively early days of the internet. I still own three t-shirts with his designs which I bought back in the days where I prided myself on my unique tee collection. His art and illustration was unique and I loved it. Fast forward a few years and I started seeing his Pepe character being used for memes. His art had been hijacked by a bunch of Trump fanboys. I had NO idea how deep the rabbit hole went, and felt sorry for him. Great doco, which raises questions around who owns art.
Old People’s Home for 4 Year Olds This was really charming and showed both the strengths and limitations of the two age groups.
Seaspiracy Hang around me long enough and I’ll have a rant about “pescatarians” who won’t eat meat for animal cruelty reasons (which has merit) – but yet happily consume a product (fish) whose industry wipes out one species after another with little scrutiny. So what I’m saying is, I watched this for validation of my meat consumption and minimal seafood consumption.
Series
On Cinema Oscer Special 2021 I am amazed by how brilliantly this show continues to deliver year after year. This special in particular was innovative in that it ran two separate live streams at once (one for Timheads, one for the Greggheads) as we witnessed the repercussions of Gregg’s murderous car attack last year. Heidecker in particular continues to impress by subverting expectations and playing with the medium itself.
For All Mankind (Season 2) This season started way too slowly and took far too long to get to the meat of the story – but it ended so well and reminded me why I loved the first season so much. That Mrs Robinson plotline was a little forced – but I’m willing to forgive it for Shantel VanSanten. Oof. One gripe – it doesn’t have enough fun with the alternate history of the world. Most of the history of the world outside the space program is identical to our own. Same songs, same leaders, same culture.
Manhunt: Deadly Games I remember the Atlanta bombing back in the day, although at only twelve years of age I was unaware of the details. Richard Jewell went through hell and this captures it in a really engaging way. Clearly the militia plotline was tacked on. I’m not sure how wise it was but I get why they did it. It rounds out the end of the story a lot better.
Wellington Paranormal (Season 3) Good for a laugh as always. Some gags hit, some miss. All a bit of fun.
Made For Love There’s been no shortage of shows which have clearly been pitched as Black Mirror or Twilight Zone -inspired. Any mention of the aforementioned shows will pique my interest. The trouble is though, for every brilliant Zone story there were six lacklustre ones. This is a lacklustre one. And one of my pet peeves – implausible bullshit sci-fi tech – was in abundance.
Mare of Easttown How about you assemble a whole bunch of characters I couldn’t give a fuck about and follow a bunch of dead-end plotlines, then introduce some more characters who have no relevance to the plot – and culminate them in a weak ending – but next time don’t tell me to watch it.
Last Week Tonight John Oliver is a funny guy, but this show is not particularly funny any more. It used to be a nice balance between comedy and insightful commentary and information. I’m not sure if it was Trump that broke him (like Trump-super-fan Stephen Colbarf) or the lack of an audience, but he just comes across as preachy and condescending now – which is guaranteed to shit me even when I agree with the points being made.
Movies
The Dry Beautifully made Aussie murder mystery. Cinematography and acting were fantastic.
I Am Mother Another clever Aussie sci-fi movie I missed from 2019. Really slick, great cast, the last act was a bit too long but not enough to spoil it.
Coherence Really clever sci-fi grounded around a group of friends at a dinner party. Must see for anyone who loves a thinker or a twist.
Richard Jewell I followed up the Manhunt series covering the same content by watching the Clint Eastwood cinematic version and found it felt a lot cheaper. While the series tacked on a phoney militia plotline, at least it handled the main story points a lot better than this.
Bad Trip Hilarious. Andre is brilliant.
Waterworld I’d never seen this and had known only three things – at the time it was the most expensive movie ever made, it was a flop, and it was a Mad Max ripoff. There isn’t even any subtlety to the ripoff. I enjoyed it enough, but it felt like a hard slog.
Run Simple thriller, well executed.
Godzilla vs Kong About what I expected.
The Mitchell’s vs The Machines Stunning visuals, with an oddly dated feeling plot (that dad is, say, 40 maybe? And he doesn’t understand smartphones? Screen-time as a theme feels more 2010 than 2021). Hopefully more animated features push visual experimentation.
Happily This sucked massively.
Games
Prey This was really cool and gave me flashbacks to the original Half-Life. The story was engaging and intricate, the balance between tasks and combat was right (I get so bored by too much of the latter), and the visuals weren’t anything remarkable but they were solid. Loved it.
Control Loved the visuals, the geometric art, the story, the concepts, and throwing bodies around. However, this game has such a godawful map and confusing spawning system which makes you replay sections of story and dialogue even though it remembers your progress beyond that point. Enemy spawning seemed buggy as hell in some sections too, with endless respawns. I’m certain it’s a bug, not a feature. Still, all in all, a fun ride, but I was bored of it long before I got to the end.
I’ve now been settled back in Sydney for 6 months. The pains of 2020, and of getting home, and the weird headspace that accompanied it all, are now a speck in the rearview mirror. Work from home is now only a two-day-a-week prospect and life is starting to feel like normal.
Very cool real-world photographic relighting. Read more about it here. The normal map generation in particular is impressive. I can’t wait to play with this tech in years to come.
We Don’t Need Elon Musk
“We Don’t Need Elon Musk to Explore the Solar System” declares Leigh Phillips. He makes some good points, first and foremost being the common false dichotomy of suggesting that we don’t have the resources for a space program, environmental protection and social progress. It’s not a zero-sum game. People are not going hungry or working three jobs as a result of the space program. This kind of argument only distracts from the real culprits.
I have mixed feelings on Musk, but I am a massive fan of this new space race, and can’t wait to see what comes next.
Enhancing Photorealism Enhancement
One day this stuff will look quaint. You’ll be able to generate Pulp Fiction in the style of Spider-Man: Into The Spiderverse. Or swap out cast members for others. But I’m amazed enough by the strides happening in machine learning today.
Friday morning I awoke. Only a day earlier I had been informed that I had the day off, having finished my latest show early. My newly-minted long weekend was forecast to have perfect Autumn weather, and I had no plans. Suffering from weather-guilt, I had to ensure I made the most of it.
The 14 hour loop
Now, most places in the 2-3 hour radius of Sydney I’ve seen a bunch of times. It doesn’t make them any less amazing, but I was craving new sights and new hikes. Warrumbungle National Park (6 hours west of Sydney) had long been on my list of places to check out, but the distance had always landed it in the too-hard basket. But not this weekend!
At 8:30am I decided I would do a three-day loop out to Coonabarabran, down to Dubbo, then back to Sydney via Mudgee and Lithgow. By 9:30 I had departed.
Silo art projects are found in abundance in NSWRoadside planets were a pleasant addition to the trip“Do the coat-of-arms!”
I’m glad I made the effort. The journey (once out of Sydney) was a breeze. Podcasts, tunes, and a new audio book kept my ears entertained while the road provided the visuals. As I approached Coonabarabran I noticed a scale solar system started dotting the roadside. I’d come for the hike, but the stargazing opportunities were an unexpected delight. It’s easy to see why so many observatories are set up in town – the sky is incredible, thanks to the lack of light pollution. I visited one of them and was treated to an impressive show (and the most powerful laser pointer I’ve ever seen – somehow it reached the sky??).
The highlight (and main goal) of the trip was the Breadknife and Grand High Tops walk. This is the main loop in Warrumbungle National Park, offering views of all the “bungles”. The guide suggested it would take 5-6 hours – “five if you’re fit” said the lady at the visitor centre. I was done in three, and I spent a lot of time taking photos and little detours off the track. Climbing up mountains really is my happy place.
Dubbo was really just a rest stop. I did have a quick look at the zoo – but all it did was confirm what I already knew – that I really find zoos incredibly boring. I did see some Galapagos tortoises doing some slow-motion banging though which was quite the sight.
The drive home was incredibly picturesque, and it got me thinking. We really don’t value the journey enough as part of the experience in this country. There were so many spots I wanted to pull up and take in the scenery, but the roadside failed me. It’s one thing America does really well and we could seek to emulate that a little by sprinkling a few more scenic lookouts along the roadsides of our beautiful country.
Dead trees reaching from the depths of the lake just outside of Mudgee
