Meanwhile #218
Bananapocalypse Now.
There was no Meanwhile last week because I forgot it was half term. Just in case you were worried about me.1
New Matt Willey-designed film magazine The Metrograph – “featuring longform interviews with cinematic icons, visual portfolios, essays from leading figures in the art and literary worlds, and intimate portraits of film technicians at work, this is the ultimate magazine for movie enthusiasts”. Not sure if it’s available in the UK (withoutr some horrendous shipping cost), but yes please very much.
“Links are the whole goddamned point of the web!” – I finally signed up for kottke.org membership (and not just because I get sort of mentioned in this post). Good old-fashioned blogging-and-hyperlinking; sites like Jason’s are absolutely essential to maintaining some humanity on this big old web.
In a similar vibe, I’ve knocked paid subscription to Meanwhile down to about the lowest it can be.2 Aside from the occasional bookshop affiliate link, I’m happy that this little corner of the internet remains ad-free, so any support is hugely appreciated. Look, here’s a button thingy:
Another of my all-time favourite online conduits, Coudal.com may no longer be a going concern – the success of Field Notes was clearly too big a distraction – but you can still access the complete archive of the site’s Fresh Signals links via Wayback Machine. So many hyperlinks. Tens of thousands of the bloomin’ things. The MoOM list is particularly good.3
“I love the whole atmosphere and can spend hours browsing” – how did bookshops suddenly become cool?
We are precariously close to a second bananapocalypse. Yes, a second.
Rather predictably, it looks like Robert Zemeckis’ adaptation of Richard McGuire’s Here is yet another of his trademark soulless CGI follies. One suspects Benjamin Lee’s review is significantly more enjoyable than the film:
As a digitally altered 18-year-old, Hanks looks less like himself circa his 80s slasher debut He Knows You’re Alone and more like Ben Platt circa the equally cursed Dear Evan Hansen movie while in his 50s, he somehow looks even older than the real Hanks does in his late 60s.
As I’ve banged on about several times before, the book is beautiful. “I see why you like it, it’s a collage of time” said Dr B after I basically forced it into her hands at the end of a lengthy rant about why it shouldn’t have been made into a film, especially from the person who subjected humanity to the horrors of The Polar Express. If you do want to see a version of this on screen, point your eyes in the direction of David Lowery’s A Ghost Story, which covers a similar vibe, albeit with more pie.4
“I was high, drawing my self-portrait in a toaster” – the thrilling return of graphic novelist Charles Burns. One of my favourite scenes from the recent Planet of the Apes films is this quiet moment of connection between apes and men, bonding over Burns’ Black Hole.
It may be sold as part of Ikea’s new gaming collection5, but the BRÄNNBOLL trolley looks all sorts of handy for studio storage. The ends are basically SKÅDIS peg boards, so you can customise it all over the place; and it’s low enough that you should be able to tuck it under a desk.
Pet Shop Boys are celebrating 40 years since the release of West End Girls with a commemorative fine bone china tea set. Pop will sip itself.
That is all.
Okay, you weren’t, but you could at least pretend to be. Jeez. Reminds me of when social media was good, really good, and going silent for a week would result in concerned messages from strangers making sure you weren’t trapped under a pile of magazines or something.
[INSERT OBLIGATORY WITTY COMPARISON TO COST OF CAFFEINATED BEVERAGE]
The Museum of Online Museums, but you probably know that. Or that entire paragraph was a rollercoaster of gibberish that I just assumed everyone else understands. Conduits? Field notes? Mooms? What the hell is this guy talking about? What even is a Coudal?
Always found it amusing that the scene with Rooney Mara eating a pie in one sitting was considered remarkable. That’s not a brave performance, that’s a Wednesday afternoon.
Along with a gaming rug. You know, a rug. For gaming.