Insulate

CWs: work

Writing a quick missive because why not. It’s Tuesday but it feels like it should be later in the week. I have a relatively calm week, then phones at the start of next week, which is fine. Until then, though, it’s a calm little island amid stormy seas. I also finished a Latin project on Sunday, and it’s a weird feeling not to have more stuff to work on immediately. I’m sure it’s forthcoming, but not quite yet, and I’ll enjoy the little lull while I can.

I started back on The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. (1993) in the last couple of days. It’s a show I watched as a kid very sporadically, and in no way systematically, so I’ve revisited it for the first time in the last year or so. It is definitely a little slow-going, and took awhile to find its voice, but I overall have really enjoyed it. It’s one of those early ’90s very long seasons (I think it’s a total of 29 episodes?), which we haven’t seen for quite awhile at this point. The overarching plot that’s been driving the season thus far was basically tied up, and there are about 8 episodes left. I think they seem to be setting up a storyline for a potential season 2, which never actually happened, which is a bummer, but oh well. I also legitimately like Bruce Campbell and think he does great work, and his sidekick Lord Bowler (Julius Carry) has also been gruffly delightful. And Socrates Poole (Christian Clemenson), the lawyer Brisco works for, in addition to having a rad name, is a fun character in his own right. Basically it’s a wacky adventure every week. So I’ll be a little sad to see it go, but there are other shows I will be getting to, like more Gumby and probably Farscape soon (I never watched the latter when it was on, and have always been very intrigued!).

So I’ll probably watch some more Brisco tonight, but may play some games before that. UFO50 has been excellent for just picking up and playing for brief stretches, so I will probably fire one of the 50 devilishly hard games up soon.

I’ve also been watching the Final Destination movies over the past few days. I had only seen 1 & 2, and found that 3-5 are on HBO Max, so figured why not. The sixth movie is out in theatres currently, but I’ll wait for streaming/library for it, I think. In a sentence, the movies are Saw for teenagers (20-somethings?). They are ridiculous and mostly bad and not entirely worth watching, but there are fun parts. I think the Saw movies are a lot more viscerally creepy, but at the same time, they’re also often trying too hard and it shows. I have seen a ton of horror movies in my life, and I think I’ve seen most of the good ones, but some good new one trickle out every now and then. Oddity was very delightfully creepy, and Heretic was pretty good as well. A friend recommended Starve Acre and The Moor to me recently, and I’d like to see both of them for sure. The Substance is also on my list, though it’s taking forever to get it from the library; my sister said it is on a streaming service she has, though, and offered me her password, so I may take her up on that this weekend.

I’m also slowly nearing the end of the Dalí book. I think I have 200pp left? It’s been enjoyable but is also incredibly weird, not always in a good way. After reading the biography woven through the various paintings, I’m not sure if I like Dalí as much as I thought I did. The crutch motif is an interesting one, though, and is one I had never noticed. Anyways, it will likely be a one-and-done read-through, but I’ll probably keep the book around for reference if I want to look up a painting or something. It was a cool souvenir from the Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, FL, when my spouse and I visited years ago. And I have two other very long books I’m working on, slowly but surely; it will be tricky to find other books after that, and I need to try to avoid grabbing another two or three massive books. Although one of these days I will need to one-shot Proust and basically just read all three massive volumes in a row and probably nothing (or little) else. Maybe the perfect time would be after these books finish up… hmm.

Well, that all turned out a lot more meandering and stream-of-consciousness than I planned, but that’s OK. To steal from Simon & Garfunkel, I am not a rock, I am not an island (I am a free man! – couldn’t resist!). I’m sure I’ll write more soon. Thanks for reading, friends <3