How do you know that you have reached regular adulthood? Perhaps it's when you must begin mindfully caring for your body and exercising the discipline needed to ensure a healthy life. This is merely another beginning, a thing in ubiquity.
Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert
The Iron Giant (1999) dir. Brad Bird *
Bullet Train (2022) dir. David Leitch
Elden Ring (2022) FromSoftware *
I vacationed to New York! Watching your home region shrink beneath you and entirely different biomes come into view is an experience that I can't envision myself ever tiring of. I finished reading Dune on my flight home.
This was my first visit to NYC. I was jokingly determined to see one of the fabled New York rats, but I never did. Not a single sign of any rodent whatsoever. I was both disappointed and pleased. Manhattan and Brooklyn were impressively clean despite certain culturally-pervasive stereotypes, most of which are generated by gritty movies. The NYC metro system additionally left an impression on me that shall not be forgotten anytime soon. Now I am always fantasizing about what my local cities might be like if they prioritized verticality, public transit, and better zoning laws. Here's hoping that the future will be more efficient, closer-knit, and less reliant on cars.
Dune by Frank Herbert *
Eastern Promises (2007) dir. David Cronenberg
Diablo IV, Season 4 (2023) Blizzard Entertainment
No books finished this month because I've been writing so much. Although I'm about halfway through my re-read of Frank Herbert's Dune (first novel). Alongside my continued Dune reading, I watched the 2013 documentary about Jodorowsky's surreal Dune film adaptation that never came to fruition. In general, the project failed because the scope was too grand for any studio to undertake the project. Not grand in a sense that might inspire sympathy toward Jodorowsky and the unquenchable flame of art, but unrealistically grand to the point of absurdity. I'm talking about surefire bankruptcy levels of grand. Their inability to make concessions doomed the film.
All my life I have been staunchly in support of art creation for art's sake. I believe that all art (save for very extreme cases) has a right to exist even if it is "bad", due to the inherent worth of generated discussion. But this documentary marked the first time in my life where I felt dull hostility toward avant-garde surrealism. The way Jodorowsky openly disrespects the source material in obscene terms made me realize that some surreal art is just plain old affectatious bullshit. Does art still have the self-evident right to exist? I suppose it does. But we also retain our interpretative right to see through ruse and see it for what it is.
The Thing (1982) dir. John Carpenter *
Jodorowsky's Dune (2013) dir. Frank Pavish
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984) dir. Hayao Miyazaki
Starship Troopers (1997) dir. Paul Verhoeven
Two stories captured my full attention this month: Dune (not suprisingly, as its recent resurgence in popular culture is creating new fans and awakening older ones en masse), and Blood Meridian. Both of these stories aspire to depict the follies and tragedies of mankind in such strikingly brutal ways.
Frank Herbert's universe is full of culture, heart, and complex ideas that continue to inspire sci-fi and related genres. There is no stronger cautionary tale in my recollection, of the perils of strict government and religion and especially blendings thereof. Plus, the inspired choice to fashion the empire's hegemonic language and nomenclature after some of the oldest human cultures recorded creates a sense of vastness and permanence as we realize that humanity, even once scattered across the stars, maintains the fundamentals of our earliest temperament and is consequentially liable to cycle back into dark ages of societal stagnation and repression.
Meanwhile, the gruesome war allegory of Blood Meridian, its prose nothing short of biblical in voice and magnitude, has launched me into an obsession with Cormac McCarthy. The more I read from him the more I become convinced that he may be one of the greatest writers I've ever had the pleasure of reading. It is exceedingly rare to come across someone with effortless mastery of the English language. Violent poetry cuts deep into the psyche like a nightmare you'll never forget.
At Home by Bill Bryson
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
12 Angry Men (1957) dir. Sidney Lumet
Dune: Part Two (2024) dir. Denis Villeneuve
Dune (1984) dir. David Lynch *
Battlestar Galactica: The Miniseries (2003) dir. Michael Rymer
I dove deep into the minimalist lifestyle movement this month. I knew I was seeking something when I started reading Kondo, Sasaki, and Magnusson. Happiness, ultimately, but more specifically someone to teach me how to achieve the escape velocity needed to travel beyond the gravity of past shame and regret weighing my conscience, and the equally heavy anxiety of things that might await me.
Minimalism is typically prescribed as a way to lighten and free oneself. Objects should be aids, never adversaries. To keep an item that no longer evokes positive feelings is to keep that item prisoner in your closet because you don't have the courage to put it out of its misery. And that is a cruelty— unto the item, and oneself.
It's also improving my relationship with what I already have. I feel gratitude and love. I'm more focused and driven. Cleaning and organizing is easier. By distilling my life I feel less impotent and beholden to my current momentums. Like negative space alchemizing into raw potential. A content person is the wealthiest person in the world.
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo
Goodbye, Things by Fumio Sasaki
The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning by Margareta Magnusson
The Little Book of Hygge by Meik Wiking
Old Yeller by Fred Gipson *
Tron (1982) dir. Steven Lisberger *
Tron Legacy (2010) dir. Joseph Kosinski *
Moonstruck (1987) dir. Norman Jewison *
Dune (2021) dir. Denis Villeneuve *
I bought a new car this month. I spent years saving and waiting for market adjustments to drop, and now that it's mine, I feel an immense sense of personal achievement. Isn't it sad how joy normalizes so quickly? A new car becomes just a car in a matter of weeks. I don't want to take this for granted. In fact, I don't want to take anything for granted. I'll take good care of the car along with everything else in my life. Sometimes we only get one chance.
On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
King of New York (1990) dir. Abel Ferrara
Metropolis (1927) dir. Fritz Lang
Citizen Kane (1941) dir. Orson Welles *