Weeknotes 253

Glad I bought that whisky.

Life in the 21st century is one fucking disaster after another isn’t it? Maybe that’s a bit hyperbolic coming from someone who isn’t currently being displaced, deported or dehumanised, but wow, things are still getting a bit too end-timesy for comfort.

On Tuesday night I repeated my insomniac routine from four years ago, tossing and turning, alternately agonising over and luxuriating in my brain’s perfect isolation from information that already existed in the external world. But time passed and I had no choice but to eventually perceive reality.

Wednesday was difficult, with various people in my life experiencing various stages of shock and disbelief over the resumption of the free fall to hell.

For the rest of the planet, the challenge is: how do we coexist with an entire nation of edgelords, gun nuts, misogynists, racists, homophobes, terfs, pro-lifers, climate denialists, Joe Rogan fans and constitution guys? My short-term strategy is to ignore them for the sake of my own mental health. I admit that might not work long term.

Hashtag not all Americans. ❤️

In more consensually frightening distractions, I saw I Saw the TV Glow and loved it. I expect many viewers will bring more accurate nostalgic referents — I’ve never seen Buffy, for example — but for me they were The X-Files, Twin Peaks and various video games: Life is Strange, Gone Home, a hypothetical good version of Alan Wake II.

It’s very beautiful, completely engrossing and gorgeously lit, with a dreamlike soundtrack that buoys the whole thing along perfectly. It’s also completely baffling but I didn’t mind at all that I didn’t understand the surface of what was going on; it’s transparently allegorical and I’m happy to have enjoyed it on that level without worrying about the literal (and likely non-existent) ground truth of its world and plot.

I also watched the 4K restoration of The Dark Crystal and found the level of detail surprisingly interesting. I’ve seen the film several times but can never remember much beyond the broad-strokes vibes of it; this time I felt much more engaged in the specific visual ideas filling every frame.

It’s still perhaps not a particularly good story but I got a much better sense of how much love and hard work must have gone into it on a purely practical level. You can definitely see more mistakes now and I find that charming.

I’d like to play a new-to-me video game. I haven’t done it yet because I’m not sure which. At the moment it’s a toss-up between Still Wakes the Deep and Neva, whose Metacritic scores suggest the latter. I do like both horror and The Chinese Room though.

I couldn’t find anything to disagree with in this analysis of Grim Fandango:

All told, Grim Fandango has the distinct odor of a game that no one other than those who were too close to it to see it clearly ever really tried to play before it was put in a box and shoved out the door.

Spot on. A cautionary tale for all of us who make things for other people to use.