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july 2025

reading

Books (reviews forthcoming)

Other stuff

watching

Movies & TV

Dead Poets Society, dir. Peter Weir
It was fine. It didn't make me feel the same way it seems to do for everyone else, and without the emotional aspect, it's honestly a little bit boring. I think it was a little bit too melodramatic for me, perhaps. Also, the more I think about it, for as much as this movie is about the importance and impact of art, it draws from an extremely limited well of literature and the characters' interactions with that literature almost feel like an afterthought. I was never convinced that any of them were truly affected by the poetry they read (save for the main character when he's performing Shakespeare). And it's not an inherent flaw, but I found it a bit odd that a movie set in the 1950s about poetry and rebellion did not so much as allude to the Beat Poets, and is strangely avoidant of the politics of poetry even though that would have been top-of-mind at the time (this takes place four years after the Howl obscenity trial!) Because this is some fancy private boys' school filled with mostly rich, elitist white boys, whose version of "rebellion" is publishing prank pieces in the school newspaper, hanging out outside of school, and standing on their desks a couple of times, it just rang a bit hollow to me. I wasn't convinced that, after graduating, these boys wouldn't just continue to conform and feed into the status quo, just like their parents, the only difference being their appreciation for Byron.
A Minecraft Movie, dir. Jared Hess
This is one of the worst (high-budget) things I've ever seen. Paced and edited for iPad babies to the point that it's incomprehensible; so irony-pilled that I'm convinced nobody involved actually likes Minecraft or gaming all that much... this is all the more strange to me because Minecraft is actually a game which involves a lot of patience and focus and really is not a fast-paced action game so I'm doubtful if the scriptwriters and director have ever even played the game. I didn't think this was going to be good but wondered if it could possibly be an inoffensive, decently enjoyable blockbuster like Detective Pikachu or Sonic the Hedgehog, but this is just... awful. If this is the future of children's media, I don't think our species deserves to keep procreating.
The X-Files season 1
I never got beyond season 1 in the past even though I really love it! Now I'm rewatching it with my partner and we're on season 2. I just love everything about this show. It hops genres and does so many different kinds of storylines so well. It sometimes genuinely spooks me. And, of course, I'm obsessed with Mulder and Scully's relationship. Some of my favorite season one episodes are "Ice," "Space," and "Darkness Falls," though there are so many more that I really enjoyed. Can't wait to keep watching!

YouTube videos

Added to TBR

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commonplace

"Sometimes entertainment is an overrated function of art. Sometimes being made uncomfortable is the point. Sometimes being repulsed by something is the point."- Simon Pegg, Simon Pegg's Closet Picks

"By demonizing any scholarly concept that might have normative implications—and thus function as a call to action—as illegitimate “ideology,” Kirsch effectively advocates for a sterile form of knowledge production, in which thinking and writing are hermetically sealed off from affecting the real world." - Laleh Khalil, "History Lesson"

"The vision of the ideologically neutral library should be consigned to the proverbial dustbin of history. The argument that—particularly in 2015—a social subject can operate in the world—particularly in a professional/occupational setting—and not be shaped ideologically by larger social forces is difficult to sustain. Every decision made by a librarian to include or exclude an item from a collection, every interaction with a patron, every managerial policy written, is shaped by innumerable social forces. The belief that a professional could operate in some kind of strictly value neutral way contradicts common sense and history." - Jonathan Cope, "Four Theses for Critical Library and Information Studies: A Manifesto"