Catching Up - Issue #7
Too embarrassed to apologize at this point.
Like Adele, I’m back! I’m not going to plunge into apologies and promises I won’t fulfill but I hope you all are doing good and not glaring angrily at this letter.
A few personal updates before we move on to the main gist:
I am still very much single ( a travesty at this point but I guess acquired taste isn’t for everyone).
Remember that exam I wrote about two issues ago? I passed the resit. I wasn’t as excited as I expected but I felt like a knot in my chest had been loosened, so relief I guess.
I have had tons of hospital visits recently and it’s so exhausting but I think everything has been figured out. Sucks that I’ll be on drugs for the foreseeable future.
I have no other update because my life has been painfully boring and revolving around school.
While I was away, I’ve watched, read, listened to and observed a whole lot. From the simple comfort of The Bold Type to the complex desert planet of the recently released Dune to the vastness of human emotions and feelings. So, let’s dive into it.
For a while, I saw some buzz about The Bold Type on Twitter and instead of reading the countless medical books I have, I decided to start the show. The show revolves around three friends who work for a women’s lifestyle magazine, Scarlet, and how they are able to overcome numerous challenges mostly specific to womanhood and rise in their various careers. Each episode is about 40 minutes long and the show manages to convince you that complex issues regarding feminism, gender, politics, relationships and even racism can be solved within those forty minutes. It’s unrealistic in its scope but doesn’t exactly pretend it isn’t, it mostly even leans into that absurdity creating convenient plot lines that always make sure everyone wins. But I don’t hate the show.
The friendship between the three main characters is integral to the show and is one of its strong points, they love each other deeply and we all know what the Bible said about love, it covereth all sins (sins here being the absurd storylines). I also love how their boss, Jacqueline Carlyle, serves as a mentor and friend to her employees while still maintaining that aura that a person in authority has. If I had a boss, I’d want them to be like her. It isn’t the best thing I’ve watched but Sutton, Kat and Jane will always have my heart.
Now, over to the desert planet of Arrakis where Denis Villeneuve has managed to craft a film so visually stimulating with acting performances so nuanced and a Hans Zimmer score that is otherworldly but still rooted in cultures we know.
Dune was a film I came into with high expectations. I tried reading the book when I was about ten years old but I was overwhelmed by its length and language, and my imagination could not honestly stretch enough for Frank Herbert’s vision. Watching the film made me appreciate Denis even more as a filmmaker, his ability to stay faithful to the source material with his unique artfulness strongly hovering over the film makes it more a love letter than a mindless rip off of the book.
Another stunning thing about Dune was the way we were grounded in the worlds of Herbert through Denis’ direction. Science fiction films are difficult to make in all ramifications but especially world building, many times we see CGI ridden films that, despite a huge budget, still look artificial and flat. Dune is quite the opposite: you can almost taste the sand in Arrakis, The Voice used by the Bene Gesserit is felt in the well of your chest, the ornithopters swooping in and out using realistic digital camera angles, and the lighting integral to every shot. There is such a calculated restraint to the cinematography that stays with the characters while still building realistic worlds.
I think this works because the people working on Dune consider CGI a tool used to enhance reality, rather than creating it from scratch—a sentiment I totally agree with. Big shout out to the cinematographer, Greig Fraser and the VFX supervisor, Paul Lambert.
On the music front, I have spent most of the last day listening to Adele’s latest release: 30. This, to me, is the most diverse Adele has sounded and also the most vulnerable she has been on any of her projects. There is the old Disney-esque sound of Strangers By Nature which begins the album, the reggae bop of Cry Your Heart Out, the dreamy sensual hip-hop sound of All Night Parking sang over Erroll Garner’s jazz chords, and the perfect balladry and soaring vocals of To Be Loved.
30 serves as a kind of lesson in feeling and introspection. With five songs out of twelve standing at over 6 minutes long, Adele asks you to sit with the many feelings adulthood will bring your way and not just gloss over them. In previous Adele albums, there is almost always a clear narrative; a person or moment that she sings about from the outside looking in. This is not the case for 30 where we are inside these moments with her, evident in the way she sings “I created this storm, it's only fair I have to sit in its rain” on Cry Your Heart Out. There is also an acknowledgment of the messiness of emotions, where no clear villain exists and where—sometimes—the fact that we are not happy is enough to let something go even if it will break you. This album also holds some of Adele’s strongest writing, she accesses herself with a mature lyrical dexterity quite unlike the doe eyed adolescence of her previous works.
I could go on and on about how this album is more than just about her divorce, but instead I’ll leave you with some of my favourite lyrics right from the album. So, in no particular order:
“I’ll be taking flowers to the cemetery of my heart” on Strangers By Nature. This is the line that begins the album and I consider it powerful to just casually throw that line at the beginning of your album! Adele is sick for this.
“I’ll never learn if I never leap, I’ll always yearn if I never speak” from To Be Loved. This line spoke specifically to me in the way it says that risk is required for growth and love, something I am stubbornly averse to. Maybe hearing it from Adele will finally convince me.
“But the higher we climb, feels like we’re both none the wiser” from I Drink Wine. This one is so true because we feel that as we grow, we might become better at figuring stuff out but that’s not the case. Adulting is the ghetto.
“I’d do it again like I did then” from Love Is A Game. This line is one of my favourites because it’s funny. After Adele has finished singing about how love is a game that fools play she says she’s still gonna do it again. Same, sis.
That’s all for now. I want to say “see you next week” but we know I’ll be lying. So, see you whenever I see you. Don’t hesitate to write back if you have any thoughts or you just want to say hi, I love getting emails from you.
What this newsletter is listening to...
Adele, babes. Adele.
What this newsletter is watching...
Over these past months I watched Darren Aronofsky’s mother! and all I can say is let’s crowdfund for that man’s therapy. I also have been rewatching Glee and I am intrigued by what was going in Ryan Murphy’s mind when he created that show; the casual racism, the song covers that might change your life for better or worse, the outrageous dramatics of many of the storylines in the show. I want to say let’s also crowdfund for his therapy but he has Netflix money. Anyway, I love that horrible show,
What this newsletter is thinking about?
It's the end of the year and everyone is sharing their wins and even their losses, and honestly I’ve been in my feels. This year has been underwhelming for me, I’ve not made any grand progress on any front and my writing has somehow found a way to regress. I know everyone, even me, considers surviving a win but I don’t just want that, I want to thrive. I can pontificate about life being more than wins and losses but a lot of this has been my fault and one cannot always transfer blame to abstract concepts. Been dwelling on this realization for a while [not in a sad brooding way], but will I fix up? We can only hope.