I’ve been wanting a new website for a while now, but can’t settle on a design I like. Got so sick of looking at it I’ve put up something temporary. Which probably means it’s not temporary.
The old one feels really lifeless, and this isn’t much better, but at least feels like it has room to evolve.
Trying the Internet Archive for video hosting. They generate a very small, low quality MP4 version of the MOV files my camera makes, so I’ll need to experiment with my own MP4s next time, but at least they also store the original files. I think I’ll finally get round to getting off Youtube.
I never managed to settle on a set order for my holiday playlist, but the first three songs here are locked-in as the opening.
Also never managed to fit this in:
I’ve started a new blog to keep track of notes on perfumes I’ve tried.
???? https://plog.ryliejamesthomas.net/ ????
I still have to add some features, primarily tags, but it’s working fine for now.
Also I finally got tags setup on my music blog. The only downside of Textpattern is that tag support isn’t built-in, and you have to fiddle with a not very well documented plugin to use them.
Here’s my messy 2023 summary post ✨
I had good experiences watching a bunch of things I’d been meaning to watch for a while, or by directors I’d been meaning to check out for a while:
Lots of docos:
Highlight of MIFF was seeing Querelle again.
My 2022 post said ‘I didn’t listen to much I really liked’, but I guess I made up for it in 2023. Feel like I found some of my all-time favourite songs. Some highlights:
Started enjoying singles last year, bought lots of 7″.
Didn’t release much. Was commissioned to do a game mid-year and started another one in December, messed with music but nothing’s really come of it.
Read shit all.
2024 is the year of perfume so far, look out.
My game Touch Love is in the opening show of a new studio/exhibition space in New York. I was probably a bit demanding for small DIY space, but they’re kindly going to the effort of setting it up with two Wii nunchuck controllers instead of a keyboard :)
Also in the show is:
Meant to be a small thing. You have to RSVP on Eventbrite to get the address.
I do rough drafts of these kinda posts every year, but this year I’m publishing one! Here’re some things I liked in 2022.
I was given a book for my birthday, which started me reading again after a long break. The one that’s really stuck with me is Border Districts, by Gerald Murnane. I saw a doco on him in 2019, and have been meaning to read one of his books ever since. I’m reading Tamarisk Row now.
None of the films I saw really-really-really stand out, but:—
The The Cleaning Company doco I saw on SBS about a trauma cleaning company and the life of it’s owner Sandra Pankhurst. Really heartbreaking in a life-affirming, encouraging way.
My favourite thing from MIFF was Demon Pond. The main actor, Tamasaburo Bando, has a background in Kabuki theatre and is mesmerising. There are also some really cool monster costumes in one part.
(I thought I’d seen August In The Water in 2022, but turns out it was right at the end of 2021.)
Seems like I didn’t listen to much i really liked, but I found a video for a great Nana Love song I hadn’t heard before called Dancing in the Rain, I think this was the year I listened to a bunch of Yasuha songs for the first time, and I keep getting this Doug Parkinson version of I’ll Be Around stuck in my head. Also finally went through the Talking Heads discography, but my faves are all obvious ones I’d heard before (Lady Don’t Mind, Girlfriend Is Better).
I mostly just played boring fancy game shit like Monster Hunter. One interesting one that stands out is Deity Driving. I like to be a car. I liked Domestic Dreams and Robots, too.