Entry 19
Ok this one is going to be super quick - I’m exhausted and there’s a kitchen full of dirty dishes I have to take care of.
One of the reasons that I’m exhausted is that I went to a Joyce Manor show last night, at the Palladium. That’s a show I’d normally really want to join the mosh pit for, but with the Delta variant rising, I stuck to the back (and sung my heart out).
I also hit MOCA last week, my favorite museum in LA. They had a really amazing exhibition from Jennifer Packer; such expressive stuff, and such strong line-work. Also picked up a book on what has been my favorite exhibition at MOCA so far: Manny Farber and Termite Art.
His work is very messy in its focus (although often very precise in the technique), always centering on the edges and routine parts of life. “Termite art” gnaws at everything in its path and avoids and “claim” or goal to pedantry or objectivity. I’m still learning about it, but I was instantly a fan of his work and those who worked like him (the exhibition was half group show, half solo on Farber).
This week I watched all of Hacks on HBO. This binging is rare for me - I don’t often like to rush through something. But with Hacks I simply couldn’t get enough. The writing was fantastic, and the performances were so perfect. It was created by some of the creative team behind Broad City (a show close to my heart), and I could not be more in love with it. It was also apparently nominated for a ton of Emmys too! Well deserved!
Finished my playthrough of Control. Can’t remember the last time I was this impressed by a game’s graphics, but honestly– and I’m surprised by this– the story left me really cold. I think there’s a lot of really fantastic stuff there, but everything it focused on was uninteresting, and everything it abandoned seemed like it would’ve been much better!
I have started Outer Wilds this week (note: not Outer Worlds), a space-exploration game with a Majora’s Mask style time-loop mechanic. That’s been really exciting; any game that puts “lore” (that word feels like a short-change for a lot of what I mean, but oh well) front and center in what the game “is”, rather than punt it to a buried database that you can optionally browse (or more likely ignore) is always a welcome one. I’ve already had quite a few “holy shit” moments as I stumbled on something expansive and meaningful. Everything feels earned, which I imagine could turn to frustration as I have to “earn” harder in late game. But I’m in love with it for now.
Alright: to close, I finally realized I had forgotten to finish The Communist Manifesto, and so I closed that out. Not much to say there, I think the latter half is too topical (to its time of publish) to really take all that much from it, but at least now it’s not nagging me from my bedside table.