The Swipe Volume 2 Chapter 34
I was out being social like a real live boy this week, something I like to do to persuade you humans I am one of you. The pub we gathered in had, of course, oranged itself up in readiness for next week’s Night Of Spooky. So, my pals and I were quietly enjoying ourselves with refreshing beverages, cheap and cheerful food and a board game (returning also a wave to pal Kelly who can provide further evidence that I do go out on occasion) when a great line of students poured in through the front door. All dressed in some manner of Halloween accoutrement, the line seemed endless and the queue carried on for a good twenty minutes before petering out. Everyone seemed cheerful and there was no sign of ill behaviour. But it seemed strange to me they’d choose the Thursday before All Hallow’s Eve to do a pub crawl. Unless this was just stage one of a much larger, more elaborate ritual which will culminate in mass revels on Broad Street on the night itself. It goes to show how big a deal Spooky Season is now, as a first flare in the run-up to the end of the year. By the next Swipe, the evenings will have properly started to close in, and the darkness will begin to rise. I hope you’re all preparing yourselves.
Wherever you are, whenever you are, however you are, welcome to The Swipe.
Rob is reading…
I’m doing a speed run through some neglected Kindle sales comics. Last week’s lurgy did a number on my concentration span, but as ever Ninth Art goodness has helped to put me back together. I was especially taken by G. Willow Wilson, Mario Takara and Arif Prianto’s take on Bat-villain Poison Ivy. In recent years she’s become more of a stand-alone figure, in a romance with Harley Quinn, becoming a literal Green Goddess, and, in this volume, an eco-terrorist intent on wiping the world clean of human infestation so it can bloom again. It’s moving, smart, horrific and wildly psychedelic. I can strongly recommend it.
Rob is watching…
Alma’s Not Normal, Sophie Willan’s Bolton-set sitcom which has just returned for a second series. Something this bleak has no right being so funny, but Sophie’s script threads the needle effortlessly and the cast nails the delivery. I’m hooked.
Rob is listening…
to this from Lou Reed. Dark social commentary with a chugging backbeat and nicely dry finish. I’m always happy when this sneaks out into a playlist.
Rob is eating…
Fish curry. The frozen chunks of cod, salmon and prawns most supermarkets sell as fish pie mix is ideal for a run through a fragrant, spicy, cocunutty green sauce. Throw them in as they are and they will thaw and cook quickly while still staying juicy. With rice and a naan, that’s good eating in a hurry.
Rob’s Low-Key Obsession Of The Week…
Crokinole is a Canadian tabletop game, a mix of shove ha-penny and curling. This virtual version gives you a flavour. Check the rules, but it will start to make sense quite quickly. Be warned, I lost a couple of afternoons last week to this deceptively addictive game.
Bouncing back momentarily to green issues in comics, take a look at the reviews for World Without End, an anti-fossil fuel comic which was a huge hit in France, now making inroads onto UK shelves. Comics once again are shown to excel as an educational tool. The Ninth Art does it best!
Author of the Southern Reach books Jeff Vandemeer wrote a hurricane into his latest novel, Annihilation. Then Helene showed up on his doorstep, just to show how little he really knew about the effects of a major weather event.
A lot of my sources have raved this week about Ella Fox-Martens’ account of falling in love during lockdown and flying across the world to follow her heart. I can only add my kudos. It’s probably the loveliest thing you’ll read this week.
Love Is Fundamentally An Act Of Change
A glimpse at how the youngster are picking up film cameras again and not using them in the way they should, godsdammit. I’m reminded of the old Gibson quote about the street finding its own use for things, but some of this seems counter-productive. Why wouldn’t you hang onto your negs?
This is a Japanese site, so you may need to invoke a translation daemon to read it if your browser doesn’t do so automagically.
While on the subject of film, here’s a moving elegy for the end of film as a projected medium. Speaking as someone at the sharp edge of the industry, I would state that things aren’t quite as bad as Aaron Hawke makes out (and I’ve just spotted the article is ten years old, right as film was in the low curve of popularity) but it’s still tremendously evocative of the projectionist’s art and life.
Requiem For The Projected Life
The next link night seem a bit dark, but we’re in the right time of year for it. Dia Del Muerte arrives next week, and our screens are full of death phantasies. We may as well get prepared. The end of it all is, after all, the one true certainty.
What We Think About When We Think About Death
A detective story which uncovers a huge fraud and a worrying trend in the literary world. This is a long read but totally worth it. In a saturated market, it’s getting harder to tell the fiction from the grift.
The Curious Case Of The AI Authors
Lastly, a visit to a long-gone, gilded age as chef Jeremiah Tower shares some memories of the food he had on Atlantic cruises as a boy. It feels like a dispatch from a place we can no longer visit, where privilege was frictionless. You can almost smell the food, and the old menus are priceless.
All at sea with Jeremiah Tower
This week’s Outro came out in 2021, apparently, which can’t be right. Surely, surely I would have known about a collaboration between Metallica and Miley before now. The mutual respect of the two seemingly opposite sets of musicians is very clear, and I feel everyone involved had a blast doing it.
See you in seven, fellow travellers.
