mikachops

Trying to get back into reading regularly so I thought a good way to onboard myself was to get into some poetry.

Currently going through

Playtime by Andrew McMillan. Mostly coming of age poems about being gay but strikes the right balance of being really candid but relatable and not at all melodramatic or seeped in sadness as a lot of gay poetry / literature tends to be. Just really nice, unfussy and gives me warm nostalgia tingles for my teens / early twenties.

Tender Buttons by Gertrude Stein. Shes a classic I'd never read before and her writing still feels very modern, even some +100 years later. I'm approaching it as a time capsule and a fun exploration of aesthetic. Every so often though she hits on some profound thoughts and they usually come out of the most unexpected places. Very fun.

Recently finished

Night Sky with Exit Wounds by Ocean Vuong. This was... bad, and like the antithesis to Playtime. Prosaic and tortured and fairly repetitive, but did provide a fresh thematic perspective in some poems which means I overall didn't regret my time with it. I picked up his followup after hearing a lot of talk, but didn't get far. I'll probably finish it eventually but I think he's just not very good.

The Migraine Hotel by Luke Kennard. Very surreal and seeped in fun irony and not at all serious self deprecation. There's a series of hilarious poems where he's talking to a wolf who is probably just a manifestation of his inner monologue which I couldn't stop thinking about for most of the end of last year after I finished it. Overall I didn't enjoy this too much but its 100% worth it for the wolf. I want a whole book just on him talking to that dang wolf.

Currently rereading

Autobiography of Red by Anne Carlson. One of my favs. Beautiful prose, hilarious and bitter sweet. There's nothing quite like this. The fact I haven't sought out the sequel is testament to how perfect I think this book is.

This a great list.

Hozier - Take Me To Church

Jesus fucking christ I hate it so much. It's bad enough the lyrics are fucking awful, the arrangement is boring and obviously trying to cash in on the Adele style songwriting and delivery everyone was doing around that time, but it's also a white guy trying to do gospel shit.

It's awful from all angles.

Edit: I'll also add Dancing On My Own by Calum Scott. It's bad (in the cheap, slow balled variety that was popular this decade) but it also eclipsed the classic original by Robyn in popularity, and fuck that.

Also, can I add an album for most overrated? Lemonade by Beyonce was baaaaaaad and is lauded purely because shes rich and the machinations surrounding her made it so. Formation is a fun song though.

My GOTY. So happy to be playing a "cinematic AAA" game in 2019 with more weight given to gameplay and exploration. I said it in another thread, but it just plays like a goddamn video game, with all the metroidvanian style exploring, the great pacing between gameplay and story sequences, the expertly spaced out upgrades... man I could go on.

Not to mention, when it matters, the art and graphics just look incredible. I was just stopping for minutes sometimes soaking in some of the vistas. This is an area I haven't seen many people talk about. It's probably the nicest art in a game I've played this year, often looks like concept art in motion at times.

This also needs to come up during whatever the sound / music awards for this years deliberations end up being. It's really good at knowing when to punctuate a scene or transition from one mood to the next, when to be quiet and when to go full Stars Wars bombast. The sound design is artfully executed pretty much throughout.

The performance is kind of unfortunate (I'm on PC with one of the more high end cards), but not immersion breaking to me (note though that I am weird and find this stuff fun). It helps that the performance mostly sucks during exploration sections where you're experimenting with the systems anyway, so is ultimately inconsequential.

It might be my favourite thing in the Star Wars franchise since the original trilogy. I'm not the biggest Star Wars fan, but it's giving me the same magic feeling I had as a kid watching the originals.

Jedi Fallen Order. Absolutely fantastic video game ass video game. My current GOTY, and I'm not even the biggest Star Wars fan. It captures all the magic I felt watching the original trilogy as a kid, and is by far my favourite thing in the franchise since the original films.

It just plays like a damn video game and the pacing is fantastic. Story is excellent as other reviews have mentioned. Veryyyy glitchy but I'm a weirdo and love it when that shit happens.