How is August already over? It feels a bit like this month hasn't happened, I was off work quite a bit this month and used it as a time to really disconnect from as much as I could which has done me a world of good. It was still a busy month though. I had another quick trip over to London to visit my friend, we also went to see Patti Harrison and Here Comes J Edgar! A Musical Comedy and I enjoyed both. After that I took a quick pitstop home for dinner and a shower then headed to Mate so that was a busy few days.

We had the Auto-Correbt 10 Year Anniversary show the following week which was fantastic. It was a sold out show and we performed in both halves with a mix of formats we've performed over the years, it was a lot of fun to get to revisit these and it brought back lots of good memories.

       

In cat drama for this month Dennis had a bald spot with a rash on his neck, the vet has no idea what caused it his best guess was a reaction to his worm medicine but who knows. He needed to have cream put onto it every day and it's starting to heal up well now. He never seemed bothered by it though and is otherwise healthy.

I was in Edinburgh for 5 days to see Fringe shows. Only got to 22 this year, down on 27 a couple of years ago which let's be honest is too many for 5 days. I saw lots of great stuff that I'll mention below but it was a bit of a different vibe this year. I knew enough people over there this year that I managed tog et to spend some time with a friend each day but it wasn't like other times where there's a good group of people to go to shows with and chat about shows with. Still fun, but also a bit boring and lonely between shows at times, I'd definitely make sure I have another person going over at the same time in future or maybe just do 4 days.

No idea how much I can talk about so I won't say much other than I spent a day filming something with a friend, it's my first time having a main role in something that has a proper crew behind it. It was a long but fun day and I hope we get to do more with it in the future.

From my blog

I started out strong with writing this month then went into disconnect mode. I wrote about a python script I use to make weird movie clip montages. I wrote about replaying NOLF 2. Finally I got back a couple of rolls of film.

Some good things I read & watched & listened to

Things are bad with the environmnet!
The Gargantuan Lie That is Collapsing The World’s Climate
Europe needs to start treating the climate emergency as a threat to our national security

Why is everything so homogenous?
Temperature Zero for Culture: Why Everything Is Starting to Look the Same

And some anti-tech stuff.
I’m a Luddite (and So Can You!)
I'm done using AI

TV

King of the Hill

I haven’t watched this how in a long time, but I’m really enjoying it. I’ve started from the start and it has had me laughing plenty.

Films

Spider-man Brand New Day

I love Spider-man and this is a return to the lower stakes stories that I think work best for Spider-man.

The Odyssey

A great spectacle but as far as the story goes I wasn’t super into this.

Tony

No idea how accurate most of this is but beyond that it works well as a fun story about that summer a guy worked in a restaurant.

Games

Blood Dungeon

I loved the demo of this and the full game had me hooked as well until it felt like the balance started to fall apart. Enemies become bullet sponges and the upgrades don't keep up with that in a way that's fun to play. Add to that how reliant you are on good luck with items and after about 5 hours it feels like too much of a chore to complete the later quests.

Theatre

Patti Harrison

This was fun, but didn’t feel like a super cohesive show. Still funny though.

Here Comes J Edgar! A Musical Comedy

Really good, great performances and lots of good jokes.

Best of the Fringe

If you get a chance to see any of these you should.

• Olga Koch: Fat Tom Cruise
• Marty Gleeson: Dog Ear
• Secrets Secrets Shh!
• Porno
• Freddie Meredith: Need a Light?
• Jeromaia Detto: Giuseppe's Love Quest
• Police Cops
• Kate Dolan: Trout
• CADET KELLY IS THE BEST MOVIE I'VE EVER SEEN IN MY FRIGGIN LIFE
• Lara Rictoe: Inkling
• Crybabies: The Scaring
• Sam Eley is Basil Crumbwick: Soul Sewage

Music

Ariana Grande - Petal

A good album, I'm not as into it as I was Eternal Sunshine but there are some great songs here. Freak & Big Feelings are good. Bad Thing is my favourite, it's a real bop. Bop of the Year probably.

Phoebe Bridgers - Lost Weekend

This is probably going to be my favourite album of the decade, I love it it's absolutely stunning. Upon the first couple of listens I wasn't too sure about it, the songs were good but it wasn't working for me as an album until suddenly it just clicked. I've listened to this about 30 times since it was released, I had it on a near loop in Edinburgh. For someone like me who has been listening to modern American folk since the early days of Bright Eyes this album feels like a culmination of everything that has been done in that genre over the past 25 years. Some of the songs could easily be off mid 00s Bright Eyes albums(The Governor's Waltz, Haunted, Never Going Back!), there’s sounds along the lines of Sufjan Stephens in there too(As Above). There's that wonderful melody we get throughout the album that's most noticeable on Lost Parade. It even has a wonderful mid point palate cleanser in Panorama. Everything on this album is really strong but my top songs are Lost Boys, Kill Me, Bobby, Panorama & I Can't Wait(which also has an excellent music video).

Books

A Walk in the Woods - Bill Bryson

A really enjoyable account of walking the Appalachian Trail. I'm lucky to have gotten to see some of the views mentioned in this on a trip along the Blue Ridge Parkway and a nice poster for Shenandoah National Park is on the wall in my office. The way the history of the trail and its evolution is given out piece meal throughout the book works really well and you get a nice taste of bygone eras such as when some of the mountain tops on the route had thriving tourist industries that are all but gone now. Highly recommend this and it has me looking up day hikes nearby.

Neuromancer - William Gibson

I decided to read this after seeing the trailer for the Apple TV show which looked exactly like my kind of thing but I was too impatient to wait until January. I was right, this was right up my alley and I had this finished in a few days. It was also quite inspiring and gave me some epiphanies on making some idea I have for a game make sense.