It actually cooled off. Fall is nigh. I must prepare to mourn the end of shorts and flip-flops season.
I also turned 32. I celebrated with copious drinking and dragged my friends to see the new Komodo dragon exhibit at the zoo (largest in the Americas!). The day was well observed.
This month’s playlist:
Sorcerer
The name William Friedkin meant nothing to me last month. Now his work possesses my thoughts. A friend commented that this director likes mean endings. Perfect analysis. Friedkin tells cynical stories led by loathsome characters surrounded by worse miscreants. And the conclusion never brings relief for the protagonist. Their best hope is a merciful bullet through the head.
Sorcerer was my first exposure and remains my favorite. The French Connection and To Live and Die in LA are amazing. Sorcerer is special. I want to write stories how this looks. Spare, concise visuals that speak louder than a line of dialogue. Tight editing. Naturalistic camera work. It’s just incredible.
Pokémon FireRed Version
My game was Crystal. Never played generation I or III. Just Crystal. Never beat the Elite Four either. I’d just play until I got bored and start over.
Now that I have the Analogue Pocket and was gifted carts for Crystal and the GBA remake of Red, I felt it was time to face the Elite Four once and for all. I started with FireRed because I was curious about the original game, but not curious enough to revisit it without the quality of life updates that came with the GBA version. It’s been fun. It’s pokémon.
The Elite Four is beaten (as is that bozo, Gary) and I managed to catch Mewtwo with only two Ultra Balls? But I’m itching to start Crystal. That cart looks so cool plugged into my Pocket.
Berserk
I still haven’t finished reading the incomplete manga. I may once I complete the original anime series. The animation, specifically the fights, are not as impressive as I anticipated. This series focuses on arguably the more important aspect of the manga: betrayal. I have not witnessed a greater one than depicted in this manga. I’m curious how it will hit in the anime. My heart breaks for Casca and Guts.
The King in Yellow
I have not listened to a better audiobook. The narrator’s voice was perfect this collection of short stories. I felt I was listening to a lost radio program of supernatural fiction and tragic romance. True Detective introduced me to the iconography of Carcosa and the Yellow King. It piqued my interest when I learned Lovecraft drew some inspiration from the author’s work. But years passed and it took an instagram story praising the audiobook to put it back on my radar.
I loved the eerie shorts all somehow invaded by a mysterious printed play. Its words pervading the popular culture yet selectively cursing an unfortunate few with madness or death. Little is explained. The imagination is left to play.
I also enjoyed the romances. Full of yearning and disappointment. But I wish the author revisited the Yellow King in his later work. What other horrors would he have wrought?