15 April 2024, early afternoon
A weird double header of sorts for Sunday: Civil War in the afternoon with my friends and family, and then Aftersun alone at night. Two films that are difficult to watch in completely different ways. Civil Wars is Alex Garland’s latest film. The film follows war journalists covering a modern day civil war taking place in America. It’s an Alex Garland film, so we get to experience the full monstrosity of humanity. An intense movie that builds and builds to what felt like an inevitable conclusion. I felt the ending was a little bit rushed, the arc of the two leads felt too fast. Still, I enjoyed the film all the same. Aftersun was something else. A coming of age film. A film about memory and trying to understand the moments in our life that shape us. This film begins with a sense you’re going to watch one thing, and ends with you understanding you watched something completely different. This was a really beautiful movie. The ending sequence one of those incredible pieces of cinema that people will probably talk about forever and ever. It was a solid day of cinema.
Movies
10 April 2024, mid-morning
I was off to the Lightbox last Friday watch Wim Wenders latest film, Perfect Days, a film following the quiet life of a Tokyo sanitation worker, played wonderfully by Koji Yakusho. The audience experiences the perfects days of the films protagonist Hirayama, the structure and repetition of his life. Each day Hirayama wakes up to the sound of a women sweeping the street. He brushes his teeth, trims his moustache and shaves, and gets dressed. He picks up the keys and camera and change he put away the previous night at his door before heading out to start his day. He buys himself a coffee from a vending machine and heads off to work. And so on and so forth. His days are simple, but quietly joyous. The film shows us the patterns of his life, and the audience intuits whats going on through the little snapshots of his life that follow as we experience subsequent days of his life. The movie is meditative. There is very little dialogue. Koji Yakusho’s performance is incredible. This was a wonderful film.
The trailer for Perfect Days.
Movies
5 March 2024, mid-morning
It was an emotional performance from Leslie Feist at Massey Hall last night. My cousin Mahi had an extra ticket to her show, and so I found myself listening to her perform songs from the start of her career through to this very moment. The show was beautiful. No opening act, just Feist. But really, Feist was her own opening act. Alone on a stage with an acoustic guitar. Chatting with the crowd, about her time during the pandemic, about the show. It all seemed very low-key, until it wasn’t. I don’t think I’ve been to a show where I want to say so little, because the act of talking about it may spoil the experience for someone else. There were moments of genuine surprise at this show. Plot twists! What a performer!
They were filming it all, so hopefully you’ll be able to watch it at home one day. Until then you can enjoy her encore, Love Who We Are Meant To. I was happy to have experienced it all in person.
Music
27 February 2024, late morning
It’s been a full week since we returned from a trip to Paris. I managed to go through all my photos and share them on Flickr, and then edited that group of photos down to a smaller set I’ve shared on my Format portfolio. Paris is an incredible city. Beautiful and dense. Even in the grey of February it’s pretty and lively. This trip was all about doing the most touristy things our niece and daughter wanted to do. Next time we can get back to wandering the city looking for the best croissants.
Life | Photography
25 January 2024, mid-morning
Mezan, Mahi, Flora and I watched The Abyss last night at the Revue. I don’t think I’ve seen the film since the 90s. A new 4K restoration of the movie had it back in cinemas for one day last year, which I missed. I was happy to see I had a second chance to see it on the big screen. The film follows an underwater oil mining crew working alongside some Navy Seals on an exploration and rescue mission for a downed US nuclear submarine. They encounter something unusual at these deep ocean depths. The film is an incredible as I remembered it, perhaps even more so. There are so many scenes in this movie where I was left wondering how the actors didn’t drown. People are seemingly soaking wet all the time. The shots underwater are apparently underwater. It’s unreal. If you haven’t seen this movie, you must. If you have, it’s well worth revisiting.
The Abyss in 4K Trailer.
Movies
20 November 2023, late morning
When I remarked on my blogs 10th anniversary I said “Ten years is a long time on the Internet. It’s a long time in real life, I suppose.” Twenty years is a really long time. This blog still runs on Textpattern, its layout more or less unchanged for well over a decade. Iconic in its simplicity? Let’s go with that.
I post far less than I used to, but that’s been true for many years now. My D&D blog is far more active. The the old-school D&D scene feels like a microcosm of what could have been when it comes to the medium: people still having long form conversations via blog posts. Waxy, Anil Dash, Kottke, Daring Fireball and few others continue to be relevant and interesting, but they feel like rare survivors of this form. I am always curious if the second coming of blogging is around the corner: perhaps when people tire of video.
This blog remains something I care a lot about. It’s a window into who I was these proceeding 20 years. In some ways it’s terrifying having something like this online: I have said lots and lots of really dumb things on the internet. Some smart things too. I love being able to mine this site for my mood or my interests over the years. I’ve been married to Shima for 20 years now. We had met earlier in the year when I first began this blog. My daughter is almost 13. My mom passed away. This blog has catalogued various milestones of my life. It’s also missed plenty: did you know i’ve taken this year off work? Wild!
The glory days of this blog have likely come and gone, but it will always remain a place for my random thoughts and interests. A blog doesn’t need to be profound: it just needs to be a place to post some text you want to share.
Weblogs
17 October 2023, early afternoon
I binged Top Boy like an addict from the show. I’m not sure what got me to start watching in the first place, but a couple episodes in and I was hooked. The series follows two friends, drug dealers, as they try and get to the top of the drug game in Hackney (London). The series was first produced in England, ran for two seasons, and despite its popularity was cancelled. That series is on Netflix now under the title Top Boy: Summerhouse. To say it ends abruptly would be an understatement. Netflix revived the show 6 years later, and did three more seasons. The show is a pretty unglamourous look at the drug game. The two leads are incredible. Kano in particular gets better and better as an actor, till it feels like he’s in the stratosphere by the last season, he so embodies the part. I really love the show, and i’m not sure what i’ll do to fill the my time now. Well, besides listening to some UK rap.
Television
14 September 2023, mid-afternoon
My second film at TIFF was Ru, which I watched alone in the afternoon—one of the perks of being off at the moment. Kim Thúy, the author of the autobiographical book this film was based on, was in attendance as she served as an executive producer on the film. She’s so funny, bubbly, and joyous in real life. Not really what I was expecting after reading her book. The actress who plays her character in the movie also has that same energy, which was funny since in the film she is a force of quiet sadness throughout. The movie was incredible. The sort of film that makes you love movies. Well shot, acted, and scored. It’s such a tightly put together movie. A movie that takes its time with its shots, but never feels slow. I’m off to read the book again.
Watch the trailer for Ru.
Movies
1 April 2023, evening time
I ordered a Miyoo Mini Plus from Keep Retro earlier this month, which arrived this week. It’s a small portable console designed to play games for older retro consoles. I was keen to play some old NES, SNES and GBA games and this thing fit the bill. The original version of this device is notorious for being sold out all the time, and this new model seems to similarly have stock issues. (The RG35XX is the other fan favourite, that you can likely buy right now.)
The stock OS it comes with is kind of dreadful. I was worried I had made a mistake after playing with it for a a little while. Everyone’s advice is to install an alternative operating system, OnionOS, which improves the performance and quality of the emulators the system runs. Unfortunately that OS isn’t available for the Plus just yet. I opted to install another operating system that is more inline with what I’m looking for anyway, DotUI. It’s a minimalist OS that is removes all the options you probably don’t care about and refines the play experience. I love it.
So, if you end up picking one of these devices upgrading the OS is the first thing you do:
1. Format a new MicroSD card. (I just used the one that came with the device. If you go this route, you should back it up first.)
2. Download the latest release of DotUI from its releases page on Github. For example, I grabbed the zip file for DotUI-20230321b.
3. Unzip your download and copy it all to the root folder of your MicroSD card.
4. Copy any ROMs you want to the appropriate ROMs folder.
5. Put the MicroSD card in your device and boot it up. It’ll just magically do the rest.
Could it be any easier?
I’ve been playing Chrono Trigger, which is amazing. I somehow made it out of the 90s without ever playing it. Of course, pictured above is a screenshot of Final Fantasy VI, the greatest game ever made.
Video Games
22 March 2023, early evening
I watched Singin’ in the Rain for the first time a few years ago. I don’t recall what prompted me to finally watch it, beyond it being this classic of cinema. I recently picked the film up on Blu-Ray so I could watch it in fancy 4K, and watched it again today. Gene Kelly and Jean Hagen play silent movie stars who must make the transition to the world of films with sound. The catch is that Hagen has a terrible voice! Debbie Reynolds and Donald O’Connor round out the cast. This film lives up to all its praise and hype. It’s an incredible movie. I’m not a big fan of musicals, but this one features such amazing dance numbers. (The most impressive one being this total non-sequitor clearly inserted to show case Kelly’s talent.) Make the time to watch this.
Movies
I’ve been posting to Flickr fairly regularly over the last few weeks. I’ve been taking more photos, trying to shoot with my cameras daily. I’ve also got this back log of photos of film to share. Flickr is quite the ghost town now. It’s kind of a shame Yahoo let the site die off as other social media became more ascendant. Smug Mug keep it running, which is great, but also don’t seem to have much in the way of any new plans for it.
6 March 2023, mid-morning
I’ve been following Craig Mod and his work for over a decade now. My copy of Art Space Tokyo is one of my favourite books, one I hope to finally put to use this May. In recent years he’s been publishing a newsletter, Rodan, which I have enjoyed reading for its mix of photography, travel blogging, and occasional nerdy discussions. He has been funding special projects and walks through membership drives, in the vein of PBS or NPR. He wrote about that activity recently, and for whatever reason this year his writing finally sucked me in: I signed up! (You can too, if you are the sort of person that loves supporting people’s artistic endeavours.)
I’m now watching a video of him talking about his book Kissa by Kissa. It’s an interesting deep dive into his process, but also into his almost neurotic levels of perfectionism that I am 100% here for. I love books. I love well made beautiful books. It’s amazing to listen to someone talk at length about the pains they went to in order for this book they made to be the best book it could possibly be.
Of course I bought the book as well.
Photography | Weblogs
21 February 2023, mid-afternoon
I picked up an online course by Greg Williams, who does candid photography (of celebrities) that I quite like. Candid photography is what I enjoy shooting the most. I started my life as a yearbook photographer, and I suppose that is the direction I am always pulled. I was lamenting to Shima that I feel out of practice when taking photos. I look back at old pictures and think, “I shot this?” (The same tragedy when I read old math assignments from university: “this is my handwriting?”) I thought watching to this course would give me some ideas and get me thinking about photography once again. I find it interesting to listen to people break down their process and approach to their work.
Greg’s class doesn’t focus at all on cameras and lenses and that nonsense, but I noticed Greg Williams shoots predominantly in 28mm, a focal length I love. A few years ago I wrote about the 28mm focal length on my Format portfolio, and the sorts of things it lets you do with a photograph. All of my Ricoh’s are 28mm fixed lens cameras, and they have been my go-to camera for the 10-15 years. I don’t think expensive cameras or particular gear will net you better photographs, but I do think the gear you have ends up informing how you photograph the world.
Both my GR Digital II and IV do a poor job with low-light photography. The photos I get out of the camera often have off putting white balance and ugly noise when I shoot at night. I’m sure I could have worked to figure out how to correct that, in camera or via post-processing, but in the end the route I took was far simpler: shoot in black and white and use the fill-flash to light the shots. Those tiny flashes on your camera are simply there to blast the shadows out of people’s faces, so shooting at night with my Ricoh is all about jamming my camera in people’s faces. The depth of field on that camera is quite wide, between the focal length of the lens and the size of the sensor. Shooting this way makes the background disappear into black. You end up with a tighter (fake) depth of field, as the subject ends up being the only thing in focus in the photograph, more or less. The photographs are about the people in the scene, the environment often bleeds away.
This look ended up defining all of the parties and outing at Security Compass, but sadly those photographs are all private. You’ll have to imagine me and my old coworkers having fun.
Photography
People complain that they no longer have “time to read,” but the reality, as the novelist Tim Parks has pointed out, is rarely that they literally can’t locate an empty half hour in the course of the day. What they mean is that when they do find a morsel of time, and use it to try to read, they find they’re too impatient to give themselves over to the task.
‘It is not simply that one is interrupted,” writes Parks. “It is that one is actually inclined to interruption.” It’s not so much that we’re too busy, or too distractible, but that we’re unwilling to accept the truth that reading is the sort of activity that largely operates according to its own schedule. You can’t hurry it very much before the experience begins to lose its meaning; it refuses to consent, you might say, to our desire to exert control over how our time unfolds.
— Oliver Burkeman in Four Thousand Weeks, one of the best works of non-fiction I have read.
13 February 2023, late at night
I’ve been paying (a lot) of money to get my photographs developed. This has been the other thing that’s pulled me back into photography. This roll was from 13 years ago, shot during our trip to India. As rolls of film go, I was pretty happy with the photos I took. Even when I get a roll back and feel the photos are a bit disappointing, it’s still weirdly engrossing. Old rolls of film are like a time capsule. There is nostalgia and emotion tied up in seeing these old images—for me, anyway.
Photography
10 February 2023, lunch time
Is this old graffiti, or something new since Anser returned to the city. One of my favourite artists all the same. I need to figure out how to set up a photoblog that’s a lot lower friction than posting to Textpattern like this. Both Flickr (where this image is currently hosted) and Mastodon seem like viable options, but I want stuff to exist on my own domain. I might look at creating a script to create static pages based on stuff posted elsewhere.
Photography
8 February 2023, mid-afternoon
After meeting Ali at MaRS to catch up, I walked over to the Service Ontario in College Park to try and renew my health card. You can make appointments online nowadays. That would have been good to know before I arrived. I had nothing else to do, so I sat down and read a book while waiting. All in all it took about an hour, and probably 90% of the time was waiting: live and learn. Walking back to the subway, I spotted an Aden Camera. I walked in and left with a Ricoh GR III, quite the impulse purchase.
I’ve had the camera on my mind for the last few months. I love my GR Digital IV, but it’s really showing its age. At this point I almost exclusively use it to shoot candid portraits at parties in black and white with its fill flash to light the scene. It’s a whole aesthetic. In many other situations, my iPhone feels like it does a better job. That’s probably not quite true, but it’s true enough.
Hopefully this camera lives up to its predecessors. There seems to be a lot of hype around it, which feels funny to me. The original GR Digital had a bit of a cult following: lots of people felt the noisy JPEG photographs looked like film. Daido Moriyama shot with the older film camera, the GR1, perhaps giving it some notoriety. For the most part I always felt Ricoh was an obscure camera for photography nerds. This latest iteration seems have a bit of a following, perhaps scooping up people who were unable to buy the Fujifilm X100V. For my part, right off the bat I love that it charges with USB-C and can send pictures directly to my phone is already quite promising. I’ll have to see what else it has to offer soon.
Expect more photos.
[5] Photography
21 January 2023, late morning
I have finally watched Everything Everywhere All At Once! I didn’t think the film could live up to all the hype that’s built up in my head, but somehow it was even better and weirder than I thought it would be. The always incredible Michelle Yeoh plays an bitter old immigrant mom who runs a laundromat being audited by the IRS; her sweeter husband is played by Ke Huy Quan; rounding out the main cast is Stephanie Hsu as Yeoh’s daughter, and Jamie Lee Curtis as the IRS auditor. There is a multiverse, and Michelle Yeoh and her family are all up in it. There is much more to the film, but you should watch it to find out what’s up. The movie feels like it moves between genres and moods with ease and grace: one minute you’re watching a Jackie Chan film, the next a Wong Kar Wai film. It feels like the best of Hong Kong cinema, but somehow made in the US. The cast does a wonderful job with their roles: funny when they need to be, and then all of a sudden so serious. Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan won Golden Globes for their roles, both well deserved. A film well worth watching. I wish I had trekked out to the cinema to see it.
Movies
14 January 2023, mid-afternoon
My brothers are in town. Last night we sat down and watched My Neighbour Totoro together. The story is simple: two sisters move to a rundown house in the countryside to be closer to their hospitalized mother; they explore the wilderness, and meet a magical creature called Totoro. The stakes are never too high. It’s a film set in the countryside that feels like it perfectly captures the pacing of the countryside. The animation is beautiful, full of now iconic images. The film’s score somehow is just as excellent. How had I made it to 42 without having seen it?
Movies
14 January 2023, early morning
RRR, the latest film from SS Rajamouli, tells the incredibly fictional tale of the revolutionary bromance of two real people: Alluri Sitarama Raju and Komaram Bheem. This film is throughly ridiculous and amazing. Every performance is over the top in the best way possible. We have two bros: Raju, a British officer and totally jacked Indian man, alongside Bheem, a Liam Nielsen-esque protector of his tribe, who is also totally jacked. Comically evil British people have stolen a child from Bheem’s village. He is off to rescue the child, and Raju is off to stop him. The film is 3 hours long and is electric throughout.
Movies
A link log without a link is basically a microblog, right? Twitter is imploding and I have been casting a net trying to figure out where to go next. I made accounts on Mastodon, as one does, but Mastodon really feels like the Linux of Social Media. Really what I should be doing is blogging, here. No one is policing how long your posts are. People need to take back their presence online.
28 January 2022, early morning
My mom wrote down all her last wishes on sheet of paper from a cheap notebook back in the summer of 2018. I’m not sure why anymore. We had come back from a big trip to Australia months earlier. She had “beaten” her stomach cancer, for now. It seems like a random time. But the note exists and it opens with “Send me happily. No crying.” An unreasonable ask, perhaps, but she hated those Sri Lankan funerals with wailing relatives.
She wanted to be cremated within the day. And so the last two days have been a blur and a race. Now that’s done, what comes next? I don’t know.
It’s hard to think about a person in the past tense. To write about them as someone here before, but not now. I’ll have to write more later. When I have the words.
Life
21 June 2021, late morning
I bought a new TV a little while ago, to go with the PlayStation 5 I bought a little while ago. Now I can watch things in 4K and HDR and all that fancy stuff. I bought a few movies to see what all the fuss is about. One of the films was Sam Medes’s 1917, something I had wanted to see for some time. Man, why did I wait to watch this? Sam Mendes, the director, has really made something memorable here. The movie follows two fellows trying to get a message to another battalion at the tail end of the First World War. It’s a really good war movie, about one of the most futile and pointless wars people have fought. Lots of famous British actors you will recognize littered throughout the film. I wasn’t familiar with the two leads, but they were both great. It is such an incredible film. One of the best films I’ve ever seen? Certainly one of the most technically brilliant: the film is presented as one continuous shot. Roger Deakins was the cinematographer on the movie and certainly deserves the Oscar he won. There are some impressive sequences I want to watch again already. Shima and I watched all the documentaries on the disc about making the film, we were so enthralled with the film. If you haven’t seen this movie go see it out.
The trailer for 1917.
Movies
