A Friday Catch Up!!

Sometimes when the weather is not behaving, when it is very much you are living in interesting and more interesting-er times, and it becomes a whole lot to not be jaded, cynical, or nihilistic even, I remember how improbable it is that I exist in this specific moment in time. There are so many things that just have to go a little bit right (that had to have gone a little bit wrong too) so that I can continue to exist in this weirdly surreal point in time. And I get to exist in a time where you also get to exist. We exist in a time where rainbow lasers are a thing, where you can send your friends, your comrades, your loves in different countries or continents little pixel pebbles saying this reminded me of you and I thought you should know it. We exist in a time where clean drinking comes out of taps, and we can still see the stars through the space garbage. I cannot believe we have coffee and chocolate, we have our little robot familiars, and some of us can extend an affection to multiple robots we’ve sent to space who are still exploring far beyond what anyone thought.
I think about all of these wondrous things in the context of everything that is happening.

The Dark Ages are called the Dark Ages because so little of what happened during that time period is left. People existed, artists and crafters and families all went about their probably rich, complex lives only historians can’t really say x thing happened. It wasn’t some massive leap backwards in technology or how people existed. There was art, there was culture, there were people surviving natural disasters and man made disasters.

I bring this up because I’ve been thinking about the digital ‘dark ages’ that’s already happening. We spend- I spend- a lot more time in digital space since the erasure of third spaces. There’s a lack of places to meet up with your friends or acquaintances or people you just see in passing now that it feels like malls or coffee places follow a max profit model. It’s wild how so many useful spaces have disappeared. Or how many places have been cut off because it would hamper monetization or ad profits. I wonder if all of the art, all of the artists I’ve followed around from social media platform to social media platform are going to be remembered at all. The same goes for writers who primarily are digitally published. How can their work be preserved when websites go under or the rules arbitrarily change. The last decade has been such a golden age for arts, there’s been so many different stories, art styles, genres being available for most people at their finger tips that I think we’ve kind of glossed over the labour or skill it takes to make art. And in the future (if it’s a year from now, twenty years from now, a life time away) perhaps no one will remember them.

I know art is an ephemeral thing. I know humans are ephemeral beings.

It feels crushing to hold in your (my) mind the heaviness of the present with the knowledge that this too will pass, and in the much larger geologic time scale this is a blip. That our lives are sandcastles in the infinity of the universe. However my dear nitotemwak, I want to share these little pixel pebbles I found in the weeks I’ve been quiet. I hope you have been well and if you haven’t been well, I hope your fight hasn’t been too rough. I’m rooting for you.

What I've Been Watching

I’ve been leaning into comfort shows or genres. Things have been a little more on edge than before. Misfits and Magic season 2 keeps on delivering. I love how this season is a comedy like The Bear is a comedy.

The Eyes of Tammy Faye

I never realized Luanne Platter from King of the Hill was probably based off Tammy Faye. This was a pretty reasonable bio pic I think. It did have some unexpected nostalgia to me. Tammy Faye/the aesthetic of the movie reminded me of my grandma a whole lot. Which was kinda weird, I’m not going to lie. Neither of my grandparents were especially religious, they didn’t go to church, they drank, they swore, they gambled but like some of the mannerisms and beauty standards were familiar from my childhood.

I originally picked this because I find cult-y things fascinating, however what sucked me was the unexpected we had that couch, that’s what my grandpa’s make up looked like, oh that disapproving mom was like most of family’s relationship to me. Obviously skip if you have religious trauma but if you’re into huge personalities and cults watch.

Totally Killer

I loved this. It was smart, it was aesthetic, I enjoyed how the characters interacted with each other and it played with time travel conventions. There’s even a seemingly abandoned/haunted amusement park included, what more could you hope for in a slasher movie. It was fun movie, and hit all of the things I wanted from it.

Gastronauts

I like cooking shows. I like Dropout shows. Jordan Myrick is a really neat foodie/food journalist and their insta is full of neat food to eat. This is the first episode where Brennan, Izzy and Oscar are the guest judges. I love how absolutely unhinged all three of their challenges/prompts were, especially Izzy’s. If you like cooking shows, come check it out. It’s hilarious, it’s unhinged, it’s kind of low stakes compared to other competition cooking shows.

The Great Canadian Baking Show Season 8

It’s another season of Canadian baking! This is the first time someone from New Brunswick (I think) has been on the show. I don’t know how I feel about this season so far, it seems like people are being booted just before the challenges/weeks they’d really succeed in.

What I've Been Reading

Mostly science fiction, some fantasy, almost always some creative non fiction.

Whale Ocean

And I, as the only human on this planet, am the shepherd of this pasture.

In this age, loneliness is no longer a dreadful proposition. Humanity needed to adapt to the space age, and the solution that Nature itself presented, was a genetic mutation on 298X-C, which created in people an intense social phobia that had been passed down for generations. Their ancestors could never have imagined that this was evolution at work, preparing for the Space Age, and so it was considered as just another psychological condition.

Over at Strange Horizons Nanpai Sanshu’s Whale Ocean (translated by Xueting C. Ni) is cozy sci fi short story. Well kind of. A cozy designation is kind of weird to me because I feel like there has to be some element of mourning or grief or melancholy in it. Anyways this is beautifully written. It has whales and space and it’s beautiful.

Evan: A Remainder

Sometimes it feels like so much of what he says are things I wished I had said, or things I swallowed instead of saying. Skeleton Boyfriend is everything I wanted to be when I was femme, and everything I wished I could be in public, but don’t know if it’s allowed, or okay, or just what is even a man. But he doesn’t care. He’s a skeleton, who’s going to stop him?

Jordan Kurella’s Evan: A Remainder at Reactor is a neat queer, trans horror short story that incorporates the pandemic into it. I like Kurella’s sense of humour, the story is weird and the characters are delightful.

Shadows Wandering Off Somewhere

Maybe it's fine to write not from a lifetime of critique but instead decades of love steeped in our blood. The lyrics and melody and memory left behind floating to the surface. Sometimes, I think, it’s important to just remember the words to songs we have long forgotten and not pick at their relevance.

I look forward to Niko Stratis’s Anxiety Shark newsletter in my inbox. Niko’s voice reminds me of people I miss, a liminal space where I was only ever a visitor and not a member. I like it when writers write about writing, how they came into being a writer, and the life they had before. There’s a solidarity in reading someone else who also struggles or wrestles with all of the previous versions of themselves and being viewed. I love how Niko writes about music and I’m really excited for her book The Dad Rock That Made Me a Woman.

Small Mammal Update

Someone got a new sweater because they ate their old sweater.

Someone got a new sweater in of spite their herculean effort in growing a thicker coat as daylight hours dwindle.

Someone acts happier when they wear a sweater because suddenly they are not super cold anymore.

Someone got a new sweater and tried to immediately roll in poop.

Someone instead to rub against as many trees and roll in leaves with their new sweater.

Someone might be encouraged to make better life choices.

What I’ve Been Working On

Remember how I said that it felt like fallow period and then wrote a bunch in a secret project? It’s beginning to be more like a fallow period. I am struggling with writing anything lately, with finishing things, or even approaching my writing in good faith. I know it should pass, that if I have low stakes writing sprints and some consistency this feeling of stagnation will eventually end. I know this.

I am impatient. I am not as kind as I should be to myself.

It is illogical and frankly insulting to think that you or I can always be productive. I know this. I tell people this frequently. I have so many projects I feel like I need to finish before this year ends. This year has also been a lot.

When I have something to share, I will.

Until then, thank you for reading.

I’ll see you next Catch Up.