The Swipe Volume 2 Chapter 13
TLC and I have had a tumultuous few weeks, as moments we’ve been planning over decades quietly happen, slip past and vanish into the rear view mirror, to be replaced by more pressing concerns. Neither of us are great with stress management and, although what we’ve put ourselves through is the very definition of first-world problems, the sleepless nights and tightness in the gut have been all too real. I think we crossed a rubicon yesterday, and hopefully the second quarter of the year should leave us less strung out. One thing we’ve learnt—don’t assume passing a milestone will have a reward attached. The milestone is the reward, and if it feels a little less special than it should—be grateful for what you’ve managed to achieve.
Boy, that’s all cryptic. More to come on the events of 2024 so far, if only because I need to unpack it.
Wherever you are, whenever you are, however you are, welcome to The Swipe.
Rob is reading…
The Broken Sword by Poul Anderson. Fantasy in the high tradition, focused through the lens of Norse mythology. Harshly beautiful, beautifully pure. It reads like a story which has been told for millennia, murmured over campfires in the vicious cold of the Scandinavian winter. The story of two noblemen linked by magic, treachery and primal emnity, sung into being through the stinging blast of Anderson’s ice-cold prose. A forgotten classic.
Rob is watching…
For All Mankind on Apple+ has been on my radar for a while. I took the punt this month and boy, I’m glad I did. A simple premise—what if the Russians were first on the moon in 1969?—spins out huge and rapidly expanding ramifications. Ronald D. Moore, who successfully rebooted Battlestar Galactica for a modern audience, has done it again, blending real-life characters with an alternate history which feels astonishly alien. It’s compelling, funny and when you least expect it, completely emotionally wrenching. Even if you’re not an SF fan, you’ll love this. Get on it.
Rob is listening…
One of those ‘this has been in my head all week and I don’t know why’ tracks. Full marks to the Pathe team for including the sounds of construction all the way through this.
Rob is eating…
Simply. Don’t have the cognitive bandwidth for anything too fiddly. Although I did roast a whole cauliflower in berber spices on the barbecue last weekend, so I’ve not lost all my culinary chops. Sometimes, though, all you can handle is cheese on toast or pasta with pesto. And you know what? That’s fine. Take care of yourself as best you can, but do take care of yourself.
Rob’s Low-Key Obsession Of The Week…
This is adorable and awe-inspiring. Our solar system is a wonderful, unpredictable dance of objects whirling about each other, as predictable as clockwork, as changeable as the tides.
If you think about it, making things changes your relationship to them. By honing your craft, you come to more deeply understand the object you create. To put it another way, writers experience the written word in a different way to the average reader. If you can see how something has been built, it’s all the more satisfying to experience the cool parts snicking neatly into place.
You all know my affinity for the indulgence I call Brown Plate. If I know TLC is out for the night, I take great pleasure in working out just how much crunchy battered badness I can Jenga onto a platter at once, drench in hot sauce and wolf down in front of something loud and violent on the telly. It’s the little things that keep a marriage alive…
One of the first pubs TLC and I walked into when we moved to Reading was The Monk’s Retreat on Friar Street. We were finding our feet, and needed somewhere to sit down with a drink and a snack. There were three old geezers in there, all nursing pints on separate tables. As one, they raised and swivelled their gaze to look at us. We backed out slowly. I still think about that moment sometimes.
Christeene is not your average drag act, closer in spirit to the wildness of Divine than RuPaul. A performer treading their own ragged path in shy-high heels. A recent tribute evening to Sinead O’Connor brought out the witchier aspects of their schtick in a night ripe with ritual, celebration and dark magic.
Christeene has also been described as ‘Beyoncé on bath salts’ which to my mind underplays the ability Queen Bey has to destabilise and refresh the cultural landscape. By going country, Cowboy Carter has shone a light on a forgotten aspect of American culture, one which blinkered commentators would rather we didn’t see.
Donald Trump cheats at golf. Yeah, I know, water’s wet, the sky is blue and you won’t believe what happens to a ball when you drop it. It’s informative to put the Flatulant Orange’s shenanigans on the green into context, though. It’s a reflection of how he rolls as a businessman and a politician.
Like Robin Sloan, I try to work on my imagination every day. It’s good to be strong up there. His wonderful rumination on the universe of Iain M. Banks and The Culture will hopefully give your creative muscles a bit of a workout too.
You would never consider Jack Lord, best known for his iconic role in Hawaii Five-O, as an actor’s actor. But he had a process and understood his character implicitly. There’s some interesting material to unpack here in terms of how you approach and answer a dramatic question. See also William Shatner, who keyed his performance to the circumstances of the time, and in doing so crafted an icon.
I need to watch Romancing The Stone again. A perfect polished jewel of a script, a fantastic cast, a joy of a film. Diane Thomas should be up there with the greats.
Last up—the Barbenheimer phenomenon is fascinating in that both movies were so successful because of how they handled the subject matter. The scripts are worth studying for that reason. In particular, Christopher Nolan tore up the rule book in telling the story of Robert Oppenheimer. As many interested observers have sourly noted, not everyone can get away with doing what Nolan did…
I’ll Outro with another low-key obsession, the theme tune for the way TLC and I have been bumbling around, trying to deal with all the—stuff. It’s a song which starts with the word ‘stop’. That sums it all up for me.
See you in seven, fellow travellers.
