Tonight we party, for tomorrow we die
Dec. 8th, 2019 03:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dolorosa_12An overly melodramatic title for this post? We'll see on Thursday night. But it really has felt that I've spent the past two weeks storing up happiness in case I need to remember the feeling later, trying to do as much as possible in some kind of frenzy to keep the fear at bay.
I failed to recount last weekend, which I spent in London with Matthias for belated celebrations of his birthday. We travelled down after lunch on Saturday, checked into our hotel, and headed off for a quick Vietnamese meal before the main event: a gig in a club in Islington in a former scrap metal yard. It was a tiny event, with probably less than sixty people in attendance, all of us in one tiny dancefloor (the venue itself was much bigger, all cavernous ceilings and weirdly mismatched decor). Everyone save Matthias and me were ageing goths, and the gig featured three acts — a fairly conventional young woman singing electropop, two guys who appeared not to have changed since the 1980s, performing Kraftwerk-esque songs while wearing boiler suits, and the main event, Rein, a Swedish industrial artist who wore sunglasses, a shiny latex jacket and no trousers, and screamed at us for an hour. It was at once surreal and wonderful.
After the gig, we went back to our hotel, and woke fairly early to head over to Tate Modern, where we saw the fantastic Olafur Eliasson exhibition. Here's a photoset and some videos of the installations. We then met our former housemate D and her wife for a fantastic lunch at one of our favourite Polish restaurants, and then returned to Cambridge, tired but happy.
Judy and Punch: a quirky, dark fairytale of a film, aiming at an Angela Carter-esque tone and feel, but with a slightly more hopeful ending.
Knives Out: a complete delight of a film, sitting somewhere between a parody and an affectionate pastiche of an Agatha Christie mystery, with every actor clearly having a ball hamming it up. It made me want to rewatch Rian Johnson's other mystery pastiche film, Brick, which mimics the tropes and tone of noir mysteries while being set in a high school.
The 100: We've finally finished the latest season, which gave more of the same — blandly beautiful CW actors, a ridiculous scenario, asking the same question in a different way, and giving the same answer. (The question is at what point is the situation dire enough for humanity to put aside its differences and work together to save itself, and its fragile home which is in existential peril? The answer is there will never be a situation dire enough to prevent some people as seeing some people as unworthy of saving.)
Giri/Haji: One of the best things on TV this year, in my opinion. A stylish, twisty gangster series that takes place half in Japan and half in the UK, about the titular themes of duty and shame, and the weight of the past, and forgiveness. Sad, but also hopeful.
The Vine Witch, by Luanne G. Smith: A fairly standard YA-ish novel set in a fantasy version of early twentieth century-France. There are witches, magical vineyards, and a supernatural killer on the loose. I enjoyed this a lot, but it was very undemanding.
An Enchantment of Ravens by Margaret Rogerson: I liked the way Rogerson wrote fairies, terrifying and otherwordly and inhuman and inhumane, made monstrous by their immortality. I felt that Rogerson's other novel, Sorcery of Thorns, was heavily influenced by Garth Nix, and this one felt somewhat inspired by Holly Black. This places her firmly in my literary 'generation', with inspirations and influences from the same books I read while growing up, which I find kind of endearing.
This weekend began with the annual Christmas party for Cambridge librarians, which one of the booksellers in the town always puts on for us. It was nice to spend a few hours with Matthias,notasapleasure and her husband, clutching glasses of mulled wine and moving around the bookshelves, while outside the rain poured down. The books in the shop are discounted to librarians during the Christmas party, and a lot of my colleagues use this as opportunity to buy all their Christmas presents, but I was restrained and bought nothing.
Yesterday was the annual Mill Road Winter Fair, when all the restaurants, cafes and other shops throw open their doors and sell hot food from stalls outside, joined by live music, various food trucks and other market sellers. Last year Matthias had been too sick with a cold to go, but this year we were determined, and spent a nice few hours out in the sunshine, eating, drinking, and generally enjoying one of my favourite events of the Cambridge year.
Today has been all about resting and recuperating, drinking soup and tea, preparing meals in advance for next week, and writing another Yuletide treat. I've now written four fics for the collection — my main assignment, and three treats — and have two ideas for more fic percolating in my mind. The best I've ever managed has been four fics per Yuletide, so if I can get these two written in the next week it will be my most productive year by far. I'm hoping all will be well received.
What's everyone else been up to, this weekend or otherwise?
I failed to recount last weekend, which I spent in London with Matthias for belated celebrations of his birthday. We travelled down after lunch on Saturday, checked into our hotel, and headed off for a quick Vietnamese meal before the main event: a gig in a club in Islington in a former scrap metal yard. It was a tiny event, with probably less than sixty people in attendance, all of us in one tiny dancefloor (the venue itself was much bigger, all cavernous ceilings and weirdly mismatched decor). Everyone save Matthias and me were ageing goths, and the gig featured three acts — a fairly conventional young woman singing electropop, two guys who appeared not to have changed since the 1980s, performing Kraftwerk-esque songs while wearing boiler suits, and the main event, Rein, a Swedish industrial artist who wore sunglasses, a shiny latex jacket and no trousers, and screamed at us for an hour. It was at once surreal and wonderful.
After the gig, we went back to our hotel, and woke fairly early to head over to Tate Modern, where we saw the fantastic Olafur Eliasson exhibition. Here's a photoset and some videos of the installations. We then met our former housemate D and her wife for a fantastic lunch at one of our favourite Polish restaurants, and then returned to Cambridge, tired but happy.
This weekend began with the annual Christmas party for Cambridge librarians, which one of the booksellers in the town always puts on for us. It was nice to spend a few hours with Matthias,
notasapleasure and her husband, clutching glasses of mulled wine and moving around the bookshelves, while outside the rain poured down. The books in the shop are discounted to librarians during the Christmas party, and a lot of my colleagues use this as opportunity to buy all their Christmas presents, but I was restrained and bought nothing. Yesterday was the annual Mill Road Winter Fair, when all the restaurants, cafes and other shops throw open their doors and sell hot food from stalls outside, joined by live music, various food trucks and other market sellers. Last year Matthias had been too sick with a cold to go, but this year we were determined, and spent a nice few hours out in the sunshine, eating, drinking, and generally enjoying one of my favourite events of the Cambridge year.
Today has been all about resting and recuperating, drinking soup and tea, preparing meals in advance for next week, and writing another Yuletide treat. I've now written four fics for the collection — my main assignment, and three treats — and have two ideas for more fic percolating in my mind. The best I've ever managed has been four fics per Yuletide, so if I can get these two written in the next week it will be my most productive year by far. I'm hoping all will be well received.
What's everyone else been up to, this weekend or otherwise?
no subject
Date: 2019-12-08 05:02 pm (UTC)Man, that's dark. I forget how cynical CW shows tend to be about humanity. It's sort of like nihilism via pretty people.
no subject
Date: 2019-12-08 06:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-08 08:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-09 07:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-08 11:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-09 07:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-10 11:22 am (UTC)I haven't heard about Giri/Haji - I'll have to check it out. I've seen the Vine Witch around /a lot/ so I'm curious how much support the author got from Kindle.
no subject
Date: 2019-12-10 08:12 pm (UTC)Giri/Haji was odd — it barely seemed to make an impact or be discussed anywhere, and yet I thought it was one of the best TV shows of the year.
The Vine Witch was fun, if very conventional.