A list of things I enjoyed in 2022, two months into 2023, that existed before 2022.

Akira by Katsuhiro Ōtomo
Call Me by Your Name, directed by Luca Guadagnino / Visions of Gideon by Sufjan Stevens
How To Write One Song by Jeff Tweedy
Kimi wa Tennenshoku by Eiichi Ohtaki
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild by Nintendo  
Moonlighter by Digital Sun
Pocahontas by Neil Young
Riddles by Ed Schrader's Music Beat
Teenage Wildlife by David Bowie
Thrills by LCD Soundsystem

A list of things I enjoyed in 2022, two months into 2023.

Action Button Reviews "Boku No natsuyasumi" by Action Button/Tim Rogers
A Life Well Wasted - Episode 8, "Memory" by Robert Ashley
Colin Stetson at Union Chapel, May 2nd 2022
DESASTRES by Marco Fusinato 
Diaspora Problems by Soul Glo
Documenta 15
Elden Ring by From Software
Everything, Everywhere, All at Once, directed by Daniels
Heaven Come Crashing by Rachinka Nayar
Kae Tempest at All Points East, August 22nd 2022 / The Line Is a Curve by Kae Tempest
Moonage Daydream, directed by Brett Morgen
New Body Rhumba by LCD Soundsystem
The Real Work by Party Dozen
Snowglobes by Black Country, New Road
William Kentridge at Royal Academy
White Science by John FM
Worldbuilding at Julia Stoschek Foundation

Camera Obscura, Easter Monday, and you (and me I guess).

In 2008 myself and Michael Prior of Tape Projects curated Electroprojections, an annual showcase of local and international video art that screens as part of Electrofringe, an annual electronic festival of electronic arts that is part of This Is Not Art...

And so it goes.

This Monday, a selection of works from the 2008 Electroprojections program will be shown at Serial Space in Chippendale heralding the return of Camera Obscura after a two year absence. Camera Obscura was the premiere monthly source of strange moments in screen culture, which met its end with the demise of Lanfranchi's Memorial Discotheque. And now it's back at a new home; huzzah!

After the Electroprojections program and a small break, Victor Sjöström’s classic (at least I keep hearing it's a classic, I've never actually seen it) silent horror film from 1921 “The Phantom Carriage”, will be screened. Filling in the silence will be a new soundtrack recorded by dark wave noise wunderkinds KTL, which features Stephen O’Malley of SUNN O))) and Peter ‘Pita’ Rehberg [for those playing at home].

If this sounds like a good idea to you, you should head to Serial Space, which is located at 33 Wellington Street, Chippendale (which is here) by 7pm. If you would like more information on Camera Obscura, you can go to their facebook thing or email cameraobscura.syd@gmail.com.

It's all gone really bad

I was joking with someone I work with last Friday night about how things (ie, the world at large) had all gone a bit pear shaped of late. Nothing horrendous, just a little odd. The end result of this discussion was that the moon was full (or at least recently had been), and that must be the cause. Sure, I can handle that. Generally speaking, I know the world's weird. I even think that most people would agree without asking too many questions. Somehow though, over the last few days a series of head-scratchingly bizzare moments have occured in relatively quick succession that have caused me to question this. It's been kind of hard to keep up, so I offer you the following in evidence; in no particular order :

1. The Australia Council for the Arts (Art having a capital A, don't you know) is offering a $20 000 "collaborative artist residency" to be conducted within Second Life.
2. Universal Studios is building a Harry Pottter theme park, to be completed in 2009. And they're building it in Florida.
3. Mark Philippoussis is starring in a reality television dating show called Age of Love, where a group of contestants (half of whom are straight out of college, the other over 40) fight it out for his affections, Bachelor style.
4. A Dutch reality tv show, where a terminally ill woman was offering the public the chance to decide who would get her kidneys, was declared a hoax (re: "fantastic stunt").
5. The Wachowski Brothers are writing and directing a film based on the cartoon series Speed Racer, starring Charlie from Party of Five as villian Racer X. I don't even know if I watched Speed Racer a kid, but the word "sceptical" comes to mind. Still, they wrote and produced a film where the main character spends the entire narrative in a mask, I'm sure they can make this work.

It's not just me is it? This doesn't happen everyday, right?

"Death is the road to awe".

Maybe one day I'll be able to comprehend this.
In the meantime, at least we have Darren Aronofsky to bend our heads.