Friday, August 22, 2025

Hello there!

First things first: how are you? I hope things are going as well as they can go.

So I want to talk to you about the movie I went to see last night. It was at the IMAX, and it was pretty great. That movie was Black Swan. Now I'm pretty sure I hadn't seen it since it was in the theater 15 years ago.

At the time, I appreciated the movie's message and themes, but I overlooked one of its most crucial elements: the music, which was incredibly immersive in the IMAX theater. It made Clint Mansell's score front and center, which gave it a gravitas and artistic weight I hadn't considered before. It was like a Tchaikovsky themed music video. Very fun times.

The thing that keeps Black Swan from being an all-time banger, for me, is Vincent Cassel, who I just do not vibe with. I would say that the fact that I find him so off-putting is the way his character was written, and that's true, but it doesn't help that I feel that way about everything I've ever seen him in. I suppose it's possibly residual uncomfortable feelings from his performance in Irreversible, but yeah, something about that guy gives me the heebie-jeebies.

Nothing against the guy personally. I'm sure he's a perfectly nice Frenchman. But no thank you.

It's kinda like how even though I haven't seen Todd Solanz's movie Happiness since it came out in the theater, like, 25 years ago, but I still can't look at Dylan Baker without feeling super uncomfortable.

Anyway, Black Swan is another Darren Aronofsky movie about addiction. In this case, very much like The Wrestler, it's about being addicted to your passion. Whether it's ballet or wrestling or heroin, Darren Aronofsky likes telling stories about people sacrificing everything in the service of something they love, even more than themselves or anyone else.

So I've been listening to a lot of music lately. I've gotten into listening to high-quality FLAC files rather than streaming. I've been trying to listen to full albums instead of playlists, which is making me think about music more like I did as a kid: albums as a complete work of art rather than a collection of songs to cherry-pick my favorites from.

Been running through the Beatles albums. Or the last five or so. I never really cared much about their earlier poppier music. I finally got to the most egregious hot take album for me, which is Revolver.

Why is it a hot take? I just don't think it's that great of an album. It's got some really good songs, but it's also got some pretty unmemorable stretches, too. Yellow Submarine, my ass.

Tomorrow Never Knows rips, though.

All that's to say that if we're going to get FOUR Beatles movies coming up, all starring the same actors, then it's only fair that they do another three movies, this time about America's Beatles, The Beastie Boys. It can (and should) star the same actors as the Beasties.

Mostly, I just want to see Joseph Quinn, Barry Keoghan, and Harris Dickinson doing Paul Revere. Paul Mescall can play Rick Rubin.

So one good thing about seeing Black Swan in IMAX was that they played IMAX previews beforehand. New PTA movie, Jaws, and Tron: Ares.

That Tron trailer... dude... It's a parade of awesome, rudely interrupted by Jared Leto putting his punk ass face on the screen. What a drag.

I mean, I'm part of the problem because I'll see it even though Leto is a shithead, because COME ON! a Tron movie with a Nine Inch Nails score??

Ugh. Why is the world constantly trying to test me?

Still working on Gut Feeling. It's going well! Putting together some cover options and branding and such.

Alright, last thing is that I redid the covers for Charlie and Danny to remove the "bloodletting" titles. They can work as standalone books or parts of a series, so I think it's better to promote them individually instead of asking people to get on board with four books and potentially more.

Alright, that's it for today! Thanks for reading!