We are BACK, my children.
PROGRESS REPORTAs of yesterday, the final script revisions on John Wick: With the Animals are complete. Revisions were more intensive than usual, as I wrote this in chunks similar to a guide to flaming out with no real plan for what order things were gonna go in. But this one benefits from more cohesion than did the other video, so reviz has been a lot more restructuring, connective tissue, expansion, and one additional chunk. But the script is locked! I will be recording this weekend, using my (ahem) new mic stand.
Would be very surprised if this video does not come out in the next couple weeks.
VIDEO CABINET: 3/9Giving myself credit for the three videos already released this year: a guide to flaming out, Extremely Overdetermined Adventure Game Tier List, and Protagony: Gordon. Fingers crossed we will have the score up to 4 by the next update.
Still aiming to have the public quantifica video/pledge drive/announcement I'm off Nebula video up this month, but will not be scoring it, as it is not on the grid!
MUSIC CABINET: 0/9Two changes since the announcement: I decided to get a little more specific with my genre selection, so Metal has been swapped with Prog and Punk has been replaced with Psychobilly. No actual progress has been made on the music front, though I am currently stirring up trouble on BlueSky to determine whether this horror-themed surf band I am listening to might count as psychobilly. Outlook not so good!
And here is your minimix for June:
Emi Grace - Heart in a Cage- girl loves to play guitar more than anything in the world
Toy - Don't Be- bottled whimsy
Alfie Castley - Cold (Deeper Version)- chilly dance pop without the drop
Mitski - Cats- ouch
JADE - FUFN (Fuck You For Now)- I always wanted to write a love song about your partner doing something moderately shitty and knowing you can work through it but you need a couple days to just be mad first; this isn't that song (this couple probably needs to break up) but it's damn close
Moonriders - Hai! Hai! Hai! Hai!- I have these friends who talk about Moonriders the way some people talk about The Clash or some very different people talk about The Grateful Dead
FILM CABINET: 1/9Okay technically the one movie I've ticked off this list was watched in July - last night, in fact - but I don't see the point in holding back credit for another month. I watched Cuckoo! It was pretty good! Here's my review. And here's the song from the end-credits, which would be on next month's minimix for sure except it's not on Spotify. Absolutely phenomenal.
(It speaks ill of Cuckoo that the second-best thing about the movie is the end credits song, which was written for a different movie, and the first-best thing is its trailer; it is a pretty good movie!)
BOOK CABINET: 0/9Reading habit in the toilet. I read Piranesi recently, and am plugging my way through A Canticle for Leibowitz now. Piranesi was really good. I am not allowed to start new projects but if I were there would be a thing in the works about Piranesi and Backrooms and Finna and probably House of Leaves to finally become a True YouTuber, just generally about impossible spaces and why we find them compelling. But I'm not starting new projects right now. But it's percolating.
Canticle is also really good, and I ate up the first part, but it's one of those books that starts over with new characters and setting 1/3 of the way through (and will again at 2/3) and the new setting is also really good but it means building momentum back up and I have utterly failed to do so. And none of these count for any square on the grid!
Still piecing my head back together, and books are proving one of the last to come back online. We'll get there.
GAME CABINET: 2/9Another minor cheat, in that I finished Inscryption on July 1st, but I ain't being no stickler. Here is my review of Rain World and here is my review of Inscryption. Both are good!
A BUNCH OF OTHER STUFF: ???/9
Since it's been a minute, here's a collection of things:
All my game reviews on Grouvee. You can peruse at your leisure, but I am most happy with this year's reviews of Silksong, Octopath Traveler 0, Wanderstop, and Captain Wayne.
All my movie reviews on Letterboxd. Similarly perusable, though the pickings are slimmer. Def check out my reviews of Wake Up, Dead Man, The Furious, and Oh, Hi!
Okidokie, that's it for this update. Keep cool during this heatwave! Talk to y'all soon.
-I