Sun, 19 May: Weekly Review 11

List Challenges sent me out another list of lists, some of which were intriguing. One, called Have you read more than 6 of bbc’s 100 books?, was the worst kind of clickbait, but I clicked anyway. Geez, never mind 6, I’ve read over 40 of these suckers! Challenge accepted and completely pulverised. Another one, called This or That, TV Edition, was a nice idea. You choose one of two similar TV shows. There were some good combos, like The Munsters vs The Addams Family, The Monkees vs The Partridge Family (this could have worked with The Brady Bunch, too), Buffy vs Charmed (no contest there, though I am partial to Alyssa Milano), Bewitched vs I Dream of Jeannie, The Jetsons vs The Flintstones, and so on. Then there was a list of New York Times Book Review Best Books Since 2000. It had some good reader development picks for the discerning reader, and I liked that it combined fiction and non fiction titles. But, not surprisingly, it was a bit US-centric, and there were glaring omissions. Dave Graeber and David Wengrow’s The Dawn of Everything should have been there, for one. As it was, I’d only read three of the books. Naomi Alderman’s The Power, Bob Dylan’s Chronicles Vol One, and Graham Robb’s Rimbaud. What, no James Patterson?

I started reading the Ghost in The Shell Man-Machine Interface manga I bought last week on my big Melbourne shopping spree. It’s set years after the events of the original story and we now have a new, equally cyberized heroine, Motoko Aramaki. It’s early days yet in my reading, but as she’s described as ‘a fusion of multiple entities’ it looks like she may have elements of the Puppet Master from the first story and Kusanagi herself within her. She’s working for a multinational called Poseidon (Appleseed, anyone?) and has acquired some goofy-looking servants who look like motorised pigs. I’m guessing they’ll stand in as comic relief for the Tachikomas from the original, which is a pity – I loved those guys. The art is amazing, in a combination of colour and black and white, but maybe Masamune-San has gone overboard with the fan service. Flicking through the manga, Motoko is virtually naked much of the time. There are some pretty deep concepts here, which I’m looking forward to exploring, along with the usual visceral action set pieces. I don’t know why it hasn’t had an anime adaptation yet, but I hope they do one.

I watched a dvd I put together a few years ago that I called Angel, The Early Years. It was another piece of research for that rebuilds/edits blog I’m working on. Every now and then either the Buffy or Angel TV shows would do a sequence highlighting some past incident involving one or more of the vampire characters. The first time they did this was in the second season episode of Buffy called Becoming Part One, where we finally got to see some tantalising glimpses into Angel’s past, including the moment when Angel (or Liam, as he was called back then) was turned into a vampire by Darla. But it left us curious, wanting more of this back story. What was Spike like before he was turned? How did Drusilla and Spike and Angel and Darla all come together, and what adventures did they get into? Eventually most of these question and more were answered in both programs. At some point I realised it was about time someone put all these flashbacks together and made a special compilation of them. And that’s what I did, that’s Angel, The Early Years.

I must say it was quite a challenge collecting and assembling all the scenes in their right order. And joining the different scenes together seemlessly involved some fancy editing, especially with the audio, which would often carry through to another, very different scene set in the present. But I eventually got it all done and came up with one hour and forty minute’s worth of the Darla, Angelus, Holts, Drusilla, Spike, Angel back story. Watching it again now, I have to admit, because the compilation was a patchwork of many disparate elements culled from many different contexts, not everything worked. Certain sequences did not flow well when put together, and things like costuming and accents and hair pieces, etc, could be variable, to say the least. But ultimately I think it works, and watching the whole thing again was quite a satisfying experience.

There are other story arcs that can be stitched together with Buffy and Angel. Another I made was the Faith Arc, following her direction from bad girl slayer then jailbird in Buffy through to her prison escape and redemption in Angel. What a journey that character has been through!

Since I watched Angel, The Early Years dvd yesterday, I figured I’d start watching my Faith Files Part One dvd today. Faith was the bad girl slayer next to Buffy’s good girl slayer in Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV show. Part one covers four of the Season Three eps, Faith, Hope and Trick, Revelations, Bad Girls and Consequences. It takes us through Faith’s introduction, through her progress from rival to cautious friend to Buffy, to bad influence on Buffy, and then her turn to the dark side when she accidentally kills a human. It was tricky editing out all the extraneous sub-plots the show had going in this season, including the Willow Xander smoochies fallout story and the Scott Hope story, but most of it’s pretty coherent and focused on the Faith/Buffy dynamic. I especially liked the debate they have on the streets of Sunnydale near the end of Consequences when Buffy tries to get Faith to give herself in for the accidental death of the Mayor’s secretary. Faith refuses, saying, ‘We’re better than them, Buffy…Think of all the people whose lives we’ve saved. That evens the balance in my book.’ The story becomes a battle for Faith’s soul, and it’s an epic and hard-fought one. Great stuff.

I received delivery of my new audio interface to go with my new desktop computer, because the old AI doesn’t work with Windows 11. It’s a U-Phoria UMC22, a pretty basic model, but I was all excitement when I got it. Can’t say I’m impressed with it so far. The two inputs are variable, one for mic, one for Line In, which ain’t great for digitally converting files uniformly. It’s my own fault for not checking the specs out closely enough before I bought, but who thought variable inputs were a good idea? Anyway, I’ll play around with it and see if I can find a good work around. Otherwise I’m up for more money with a better AI that gives true stereo inputs (and probably 192 Khz digital processing, as if I need it). Gotta have a proper audio connection to my computer.

I scored a free copy of I Am Legend by Richard Matheson at work today. It was a weeded item in a box ready to be put out for one of our infrequent sales. It was still in good condition, so I don’t know why it was being weeded (possibly just not popular, with few borrowings). I at least know how to appreciate a classic book like this (it’s been made into at least three films), so I’ll be reading it with enthusiasm straight after I finish Timescape. I love working in libraries…

I read another Allkpop article today, this time about a trend of middle-aged men dominating attendances at Le Sserafim concerts. Le Sserafim are a Kpop group of young girls. The post included some photos of some such men in the crowd at a concert and seemed to imply the men were there to ‘perve’. The replies were pretty scathing of the article, suggesting these were either dads attending with children, or just men who like Kpop music, and there’s nothing wrong with that. As such an older man who likes Kpop, it fed into many questions I’ve had about my interest in the genre, especially my love for Twice. Is there an age limit for Kpop (or music in general)? When does my fandom turn into a pedo thing? Is it all just about the music? Should I get a life? Anyway, I’m not a fan of Le Sserafim. When they started out they included a member called Kim Garam, who was accused of being a school bully, and the group’s management dismissed her because of it; even though there was virtually no real evidence. I thought the members should have at least stood by their girl and refuse to perform or cooperate until she was reinstated. I guess it was too hard. But it would have been good if they’d shown some real Girl Power.

It was Friday night, so that meant time for another episode of Time To Twice. Yay! This was the second episode of the Death Note series. The members are in a library and have to find their own Death Note, plus some blue or black pens, and then write down names in them in a special area called the Death Room. The blue pen means life, the black pen means death, and the winner is the one who has the most lives left at the end. It was revealing watching the members scramble to find these things hidden among the shelves, as it really brought out their character. The villains of the piece were Jihyo and Jeongyeon, who either hid the other members’ books when they found them or wrote the names of the other members using the black pen. No sooner had Mina wrote her own name in the book at the end of the first episode, then Jeongyeon entered the Death Room and wrote Mina’s name in black, cancelling out her save. Elsewhere, competitive Jihyo went after Chaeyoung to take her pen from her. The heroes were Chaeyoung and Momo, who made a heart-warming pact to protect each other and to never write each other’s names down with the black pen. The tally at the end of this round was Sana ahead with 2 lives (one of which was selflessly given by Nayeon), the rest trailing behind. It was silly but it looked like fun. Think I’d like to play.

Amidst the news that Pearl Jam’s new album Dark Matter seems to be tanking on the Billboard charts, I gave it another listen. Some of the up-tempo tracks don’t work for me or aren’t as good as earlier ones. That’s mainly React, Respond and Running, so no big deal. First track, Scared of Fear, is growing on me, and Upper Hand, the slow burning tune in the middle of the album, may well be my favourite now. Through it all there’s no doubt that Eddie is the star. All due respect to the other guys, but it’s his vocals that make that band. He’s why I listen.

I was listening to my Citypop 80s Spotify playlist going to work today. This is one of the lists I made up based on the Citypop book I bought when I was in Japan last year. I’m still getting into it. Some songs don’t really sound like city pop to me, and there’s some I just haven’t really liked. One song that came up that I liked was Blueberry Jam, by Mari Lijima. When I first heard it I thought her voice sounded familiar, so I looked her up. Turns out Mari Lijima was the singing voice of the character Lynn Minmay from Macross Super Dimension Fortress, one of my favourite animes. She’s still going, and has released an amazing number of albums since then. But one of her biggest was the album Blueberry Jam came from, called Rose, from 1983. I’ve been listening to that in the car, too, and it’s great. Mari will always be the voice of Minmay. I highly recommend the Macross movie, Do You Remember Love, especially the part near the end when Minmay sings the title song during the battle finale. It’s epic! And great soundtrack.

Another interesting-looking book passed through my hands at work today. It was AC Grayling’s the Meaning of Things (with the subtitle, Applying Philosophy To Life). I only briefly flicked through it, but the Contents Page items conjured up a host of stimulating and slightly subversive possibilities. I was particularly taken by the presence of Capitalism under Part 2, Foes and Fallacies. If it hadn’t been there I would have felt cheated and annoyed, because it belongs there. Now I want to read it, but I don’t have the time at the moment. Maybe later. Or maybe I’ll just dip into the Capitalism chapter if I run into it next time. See if it’s as Right On as I think it might be.

I watched a film called 2036 Origin Unknown that I borrowed from the library. It stars Katee Sackhoff, who everyone knows as Starbuck from Battlestar Galactica. And she was the real draw for me. It’s a very low budget film and mainly a one-woman show, with Katee keeping the convoluted story together with her bravura acting. The story is about a mysterious cube being discovered on Mars and its connection with the potentially sinister AI that controls the mission and which Katee’s character, Mack, works with. The Director and Writer, Hasraff Dulull, steers the story through some potentially cliched ideas we’ve seen before in 2001 Space Odyssey and Ghost in the Machine and other films, and doesn’t always succeed, but it’s fun watching him try. I liked the film for its low budget experimental vibe (it’s set mostly in one room with lots of video feeds), and mind-blowing scifi concepts – and for Katee, of course.

I recently renewed my subscription to the Democracy @ Work podcast. It’s a good podcast, presented by Marxist economist Richard Wolff. I listened to a recent one today, where he talked about the Uneven Development of Capitalism. The basic thesis was, it goes where the money is, which leads to things like condensed cities and gentrification, and where it doesn’t go is where you find things like poverty and underdevelopment. The inequality is built into the system. It should be planned and spread out. I wonder: are China and Russia planned and spread out? Wolff reiterated the point (which always needs reiterating) that most things in our society are the fault of Capitalism. It’s just never mentioned or blamed. It’s always the fault of something else, like immigration, unions, or even inflation – like it has nothing to do with Capitalism. There’s always a scapegoat. Think about it.

We had an interesting event in the library tonight. It was called Celebrate IDAHOBIT with Sam Elkin. Here’s the blurb for it:

Sam Elkin’s new book ‘Detachable Penis: a Queer Legal Saga’ relates his bumpy journey from lesbian to transgender lawyer in the aftermath of the 2017 marriage equality vote. Sam was the first lawyer in Victoria’s queer law service and found himself at the pointy end of debates about trans inclusion in sport, children’s access to puberty blockers, birth certificate law reform and the Christian right’s demand for enhanced religious freedoms.
Sam offers an honest, unflinching account of chest surgery, phalloplasty, the emotional impact of cross-sex hormones and the perils of airport body scanners. Part love letter and part cautionary tale, join Sam for a thought-provoking conversation.

I escorted Sam over to the room he was to do his talk in. With his stubbly beard and purposeful stride, he presented as very male. Reminded me of an actor I’d seen on TV, though I forget the name. My partner for the night, Rath, said she had wanted to attend, but tonight’s work commitments blocked that. A long line of what appeared to be mostly women (please forgive the bad language, I don’t know how else to say it) made their way in for the talk. I’m sure it was indeed thought-provoking.

I met my first real life Karen while working in the library today. Woman thought she was entitled to all day parking and the library should get the council to okay it. And she would not take no for an answer. I had to walk away. No doubt you’ve seen those videos on Youtube of these Karens doing their thing. What I want to know is, why don’t people put up videos of the opposite thing – a person who’s kind and patient and not entitled? I think we need to see that, and I think we need a name for those people. I want to nominate the name Fiona for them, if that’s okay. I choose that name because I know a very kind and patient person whose name is Fiona. I want to name them that in honour of her. Who’s with me?

During the quieter parts of the night I chatted with Rath about pop culture, and it turned out she was a fan of the Expanse TV series. She had also read a couple of the James S.A. Corey books the show is based on. She liked the show so much she said she’d named her dog Bobbie, after one of the characters. I said I liked how the show uses language – them ‘Belter loaders’, etc. It’s something I find myself saying sometimes – ‘ay you, belter loader!’ It’s literally what we do: our sorting machines are made up of belts that carry the books to their proper bins, and one of our jobs is to load the books onto the belts. Rath is also a Star Trek fan, which figures. I can also make a connection to that with our job. The front desk, with its desk panels and computer screens, is the library’s Bridge section. Other areas equate to other parts of the Enterprise. The Science and Tech area is the Engine Room, the console games section (yes, we have one of those) is the Holodeck, the front lounge which overlooks the shopping centre we’re in is Ten Forward. It goes on and on.

During my lunch break I roamed the shopping mall and bought a pack of Buffy themed Tarot cards in a book store. They were so beautiful and perfect, I could not resist. Although I’m not a believer, I really like Tarot cards for their design and the arcane lore that goes with them. The designer of these Buffy cards, Karl James Mountford, has included pretty much all the major and minor characters from the show, and clearly had some fun matching them up with their appropriate cards. Xander, for example, is the Fool. Willow is the Magician, Giles is the Hierophant,. Willow and Tara are the Lovers. It comes with a really cool booklet too, detailing the history and lore of the cards, from the Major Arcana to the Minor Arcana. An extra bonus of having Tarot cards is you can use the Minor Arcana as playing cards, as they equate to a standard 52 card deck. The suits used in the Buffy deck, which are beautifully illustrated, are Stakes, Chalices, Scythes and Pentacles.

I had another look through Book Riot again and found a nice article called All The Punks! An Introduction by Grace Lapointe. It was an essay about and survey of some (not by any means all) of the scifi sub genres that use the punk suffix to describe them. More well-known genres like Cyberpunk and Steampunk were covered, but others were Clockpunk, Oceanpunk, Atompunk, Stonepunk, Silkpunk, Dieselpunk and something called Hopepunk. This last one, about more optimistic imaginings of the future, is very close to a punk subgenre I made up, which I call Freepunk. It’s fiction about a world where something like Universal Basic Income, or full-on Socialism, has been implemented. I know the James Corey Expanse books include something called ‘Basic’, but in those books it’s a side issue, and not seen as a positive development. Another I may have invented (not sure if it already exists) is Wellspunk. That includes the many sequel stories based on the fiction of H.G. Wells, especially The Time Machine and War of the Worlds. There are so many it’s a sub-genre of its own by now. I like how the s makes it spunk rather than just punk. The most comprehensive list I’ve seen about the whole punk phenomenon would have to be the Timeline of _Punk fiction subgenres – Sheet1 spreadsheet by Matthew Murray from the Bookclub For Masochists podcast (a great Reader’s Advisory resource). It’s crazy huge, and so detailed, with everything from Rocketpunk to Fashionpunk, and dates and references galore, a real contribution to the field. Check it out.

My favourite of these sub-genres is Steampunk. When I first heard of it I knew I’d read some books that were in that genre before it was given the name back in 1987. One was A Transatlantic Tunnel, Hurrah by Harry Harrison, from 1976, a fabulous Boy’s Own account of the titular tunnel project. Michael Moorcock’s Oswald Bastible stories were also early prototypes. I’ve since read many more, especially in short story compilations. Some have included examples of authentic Victoriana steampunk. The terrific Steampunk Reloaded series, edited by Ann and Jeff Vandermeer, includes a marvellous entertainment originally published in 1870 called Flying Fish Prometheus by Vilhelm Bersoc. I love how all these punks conjure up worlds of creative possibilities. I want to find stories that fit into each of these subgenres, to continue the good work that Matthew Murray started. But I fear it’s too big a project for one person. More a committee or a syndicate would do.