Attention Citizens!
Script for the new video is DONE, voiceover is RECORDED, and now I’m editing the audio file.
My crude math says that the video will be about 33 minutes long, which is exactly in line with my 30-something minute prediction from months ago.
But right now, the audio file is…long. You don’t want to know. I like to experiment with different ways of explaining things while I’m recording, so at this moment my little 33 minute voiceover is still about 3 hours long.
I’m cutting, I’m cutting!
I’m already eager to begin writing the next-next video, which is a good sign. I imagine I’ll start tinkering on that between sessions of editing the audio. Listening to your own voice all day every day is exactly as much fun as it sounds.
January will be Animation Month, so, you know, the countdown is on!
Happy Christmas to us all! :)
Books I’ve Recently Enjoyed:
Breakfast of Champions (1973), by Kurt Vonnegut
Continuing my Vonnegut deep dive. Lots of discussion of how everybody in Vonnegut’s created universe is a flesh-robot with no free will. A topic which seems to come up a lot in Vonnegut’s work. So obviously, Vonnegut writes himself into the book as the only person in the universe with free will. Obviously.
Slapstick, or Lonesome No More! (1976), by Kurt Vonnegut
I think I liked this even more than Breakfast of Champions (1973), which… I might be the only human on the planet with that opinion. An extremely strange post-apocalyptic story which is mostly about the death of Vonnegut’s sister.
World Within the World (2025), by Julia Gfrorer
This is a graphic novel, a collection of short stories, all very historical and supernatural. Julia Gfrorer is my GOAT, everything she’s ever written is a goddamn masterpiece in my opinion, and World Within the World (2025) is no different. Be warned though, it’s extremely sexual. Like, extremely. Like take your expectations and multiply them by 10. But that’s what makes it so good!
Films I’ve Recently Enjoyed:
Cleo from 5 to 7 (1962)
I had been procrastinating seeing this movie for years, and within the first 2 minutes I was like “wait, I’ve never seen anything like this before, this is amazing.” The movie is black and white, but the very first shot is of a tarot card reading, and the tarot cards are in colour. The colour makes it immediately clear that magic is real, and that the tarot card reading will come true. And it does. Opening a movie with a oracle telling the main character the entire plot REALLY makes you sit up and pay attention, it’s such a genius move. I guess Macbeth kinda does this too, now that I think of it. Fun!
For the rest of the movie, our main character, Cleo, waits around from 5pm to 7pm until she can get the results of a serious medical test. The film progresses mostly in real time, as she goes from a cafe to a shop to a music rehearsal to a park. During the music rehearsal she basically transcends the movie, looks straight into the camera, and sings a song about her own death. Goosebumps.
This movie is incredible. It’s the best new-to-me movie I’ve seen in a long, long, long time. I’ll probably go on an Agnes Varda deep dive soon, clearly she’s a genius and I’ve been missing out.
Black Narcissus (1947)
I specifically remember watching this like 15 years ago after working a night shift, and struggling to pay attention because the movie was extremely talky. Watching it this time I couldn’t help but laugh at myself, because clearly I missed the entire point of the movie on the first watch. It’s not “talky,” it’s about a bunch of nuns alone on a mountain experiencing sexual psychosis, lol.
Music I’ve Recently Enjoyed:
Bob Dylan
I really like that newer Dylan album Tempest (2012), so this month I’ve been hunting for gems by listening to all of Dylan’s newer albums, like post-2001. People always ignore or make fun of these albums, but they ARE good, they just feel like they were written by a different guy who is somehow even worse at singing.
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