‹MUSIC› Baby by Dijon (2025) – Dijon is a headliner on Primavera and Sziget the two summer festivals I’ll go to this summer. He’s kinda a big name, right? I’ve completely missed him before, but I registered the top 2025 charts and that his album was a hot release. R&B is not up my alley, but would Rob (High Fidelity’s Rob) include a song from this album on his/her 2025 playlist? Obviously. I can hear it’s good but not quite feel it yet. I tried to educate myself, him collaging music scraps or being experimental is sth I notice, too if I pay attention. If not (first listening was kinda bg music while I knitted) then the songs kinda melted into each other and the raspy effect put on his vocals was (still is) throwing me off. We’ll continue to check out the album cause I really can’t decide if I truly like him besides neutrally appreciating him.
‹MOVIE› Hamnet – I’m still under its influence. It’s been the fifth year (not counting the Covid years) that we close out year with a movie and a quick restaurant visit on New Year’s Eve. I cried my heart out and now really want to (1) read (or at least have) the source material (the book by Maggie O’Farrell) (2) watch more Jessie Buckley movies (3) listen Max Richter (4) understand more about Chloe Zhao’s creative process and their ‘dreamwork’ – from what I understand she believes in an open collaboration with all crew members and other creatives and from Zhao’s short behind the scenes stories from the linked interview, I applaud Buckley’s performance AND insights even more as she was essential to achieve key moments in the movie (the mesmerising catharsis at the end when the audience held out its hand to the dying Hamlet and eased the passing of Hamnet or the improvised “almost” slap when Shakespeare left shortly after their son’s death.) Oh and the boy, Jacobi Jupe such a tender, talented young actor, wow! When a movie is really good, we always have great conversations at home, discussing the smallest detail even debating. We saw eye to eye about the most important things (how good the cast was, the impact, etc), but we disagreed on whether the film should have shown more from Shakespeare’s perspective. I’m on the opinion it was balanced this way, buy leaving out much of his ascent in London and leaving both the wife and the audience with preconceptions. Nevertheless my partner mentioned something extraordinarily beautiful, that even though the family’s grief was all-consuming but how death can stay small in comparison with the stylised death on the stage that moves crowds, nations and generations, and whether this contrast to emphasise the value of art was an intentional choice from the creators. I adore this notion.
“And the rest is silence”
‹MOVIE› We tried watching Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City. It was now the second time we started it, but haven’t gotten through over the 20 mins mark or our timing was again off. It’s exhausting to pay attention to such a dense script, and it’s sooo Wes Anderson on steroids, probably a bit too stylised even with the washed out colour hue. I can’t yet put my finger on it, but probably there’s going to be a third attempt some day down the line.
‹SERIES› Stranger Things S05E08 – was kinda a must-watch to dodge the spoilers on social media (I succeeded!) Well, it was okay, I mean epic as expected with lots of ugly cries but tbh I ended up not caring about anything after (spoiler alert!) it was clear that Steve and Dustin had stayed alive. (Duffer Brothers, I see you, fuckers, playing your jokes on the fans by almost letting Steve fall… hope you enjoyed editing that scene.) Also a question: if Mike’s theory is right at the end, how did El get Mike in her mind to the blank space to say goodbye while her abilities were blocked by the military?
Missed: reading in favour of knitting, taking a morning stroll in the fresh snow on Margaret Island.
selenodyssey 