I intend to write something substantial for the site every month this year, but it’s nearly midnight on the 31st of January and nothing is finished, so here’s this instead.
I’ve actually written quite a lot this January – 22, 546 words (not including these) in fact; ten reviews, five articles of various types for my substack and, more unusually, a little bit of fiction
Recommendations
I read some good books in January, including Ramsey Campbell’s Scared Stiff, which was a mixed bag but very enjoyable, Monsieur Proust by Céleste Albaret, which was fascinating – and Andrew Graham-Dixon’s revelatory biography Vermeer – a Life Lost and Found, which I loved
I watched some good films, including Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest (twice), which I found hypnotic – not something that happens very often, but coincidentally I also watched Gus Van Sant’s Elephant twice, having watched it several times last year, and Oliver Hirschbiegel’s Der Untergang (2004), only once, but for the third or fourth time. New to me though, was a film I’ve wanted to see since 1988 when I first read about it in (I’m fairly sure) FEAR magazine; Steve De Jarnatt’s Miracle Mile. It was like a cross between some John Hughes teen romance and When the Wind Blows and therefore I of course loved it (and watched it three times. Which seems odd now that I say it. Ah well.)
Music-wise I heard a lot of things but especially liked a vast (101 track)compilation of bands associated with the legendary New York club CBGB and am quite excited about a reissue of Mactatus’s 1997 album Blot but haven’t gotten round to listening to it yet.
Anyway; I’ll try to get at least one of those more substantial things finished and posted in February.
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