Last year I took part in the live recording of It Just So Happened at Buxton Fringe – the history podcast hosted by Richard Pulsford, a very clever chap who just so happens to be a former UK Pun Off champion. The aim of the episode is for panelists, usually comedians, to talk about events that happened on that particular day of history – and we had a really good date to work with as it just happened to be July 15th, or St Swithun’s Day. The episode is available to listen here.
Speaking of St Swithun’s Day, I am halfway through watching the Netflix drama One Day which is based on the novel of the same name by David Nicholls following the relationship of Emma Morley and Dexter Mayhew who meet on the night of their graduation on July 15th, 1988, and then the novel follows them over the next twenty years, always on that date. Sometimes they are together. Sometimes they are not. Sometimes they are friends, at other times lovers, and sometimes they really hate each other. The book is complex, nostalgic, often funny, and I adore it. It’s a frequent re-read for me.
A film version did come out in 2011, and my parents, who hadn’t read the book, thought it was great. To me it lacked a little something. So far though, the series seems to contain all the magic ingredients that I felt were missing from the film. The two main stars, Leo Woodall and Ambika Mod are so good. Ambika of course has already impressed me in playing the role of Shruti in This Is Going to Hurt.
I don’t have many comedy gigs these days as I’m focusing more on my bookish life, but this week I did take part in Disabled Cants at Leicester Comedy Festival, where I did some material on having Tourettes. I’ve not spoken about it on stage before, as it helps not to focus, but when Benny Shakes asked me to take part I thought about a competition I did last year where two non-disabled blokes made jokes about people with Tourettes and how annoyed I had been by that. I don’t mean people shouldn’t make jokes generally, I like Olaf Falafel’s award-winning joke for example (I know some don’t). But it was a gig I felt generally awful at anyway, because some of the audience were unafraid and unashamed to take a dislike to women in comedy, and the crap jokes made about a condition that they didn’t have but I did were the (t)icing on the cake.
Not so at Disabled Cants – I had a smashing time, and my stuff went down really well. Bonus, my vocal tics only appeared a couple of times throughout the show (they happened a lot when Benny played my gig in Northampton last year, which is why he asked me, I think!).
Also appearing at Disabled Cants was MC Benny Shakes, Jeanette Bird-Bradley, Mark Nicholas and Sam Judd.
Neil and I have also just finished watching Loudermilk – and yes, I am playing Lissie on repeat and crying. There are three seasons available of this excellent comedy drama, and there would be more, but the series has been left without a home after the AT&T Audience Network ceased operations. Even though it has been picked up by streaming services Netflix and Amazon, will either of them take the risk on picking this up for a 4th series, or will they be happy to just bring in eyes for the series they have? I think the latter, and it breaks my heart. It’s perfect. Just so well written!
Sam Loudermilk is a former music critic, recovering alcoholic, and substance abuse support counsellor in Seattle. Though he is no tolerator of fools and is somewhat curmudgeonly, he is a rock to his friends and colleagues, which is a challenge given they all have a susceptibility to succumb to damaging behaviours. Although the series was filmed in Canada, it’s set in Seattle, so music and coffee feature heavily. It’s a heartwarming show, and has a great cast, including our own Mat Fraser, punk drummer and actor (who Neil and I missed a night of Novacon to go and see in Thalidomide!! A Musical! in 2005.)
I am feeling like we have lived through a golden age of creativity, and when I hear about Open.AI Sora creating prompt-driven films now, I wonder, are we seeing the start of people rushing to defect to making their own things, and just being happy with their own shit? Because it will be shit. Of course, AI has its uses in helping with productivity, but I still have huge misgivings about how helpful it can be for creatives (the inbuilt blog AI is peering over my shoulder right now, offering me tips on grammar and how to make my blog sound smoother, and I’m sorry, but sometimes it’s just wrong). Also, I know I’m as guilty as anyone for watching hours of YouTube shows, and they’re not always good ones, so when I say I want human-made quality content, that may be why the algorithms predict otherwise for me.
My new favourite entertainment podcast The Rest is Entertainment, hosted by Richard Osman and Marina Hyde, has made some fascinating observations regarding the future of traditional linear programming. It is both edifying and concerning. I know we Gen Xers and our little Xennial siblings are powering the money in the creative industries: most of the music CDs, and physical movie media, and actually going out to concerts – it’s mostly us, and there were always fewer of us in this generation to begin with, plus my generation tended to become parents much later than our Boomer elders, so we’re still looking after families too, as well as our collections of books, retro toys, gadgets, and tie-in film merch. What are we choosing to spend our greying pounds on now, in this cost-of-living crisis? Slightly cheaper to us, low budget, quickly made shit, that’s what.
We should fight the good fight and remember our time is limited as well as our money. Why should we waste it watching people react to reactions to old content? Or videos made up of photo montages purporting to be the same actress getting older (except at least three of the photos are of someone else)? Will new things get made by face-swapping old things with new faces, and then reacting to them and filming the reactions ad infinitum? Is the future of creativity really so bleak? And who is starting a new publishing business in this potential hellscape?
Me, yes, me.
Anyway, you may see more cultural appreciation on this blog as I share things I have loved. I would be very interested in hearing back from you if you have watched, read, or heard something you thought was amazing, too. Let’s big up wonderful human creation together!
An interview with me is available in the current issue of ParSec Magazine. And please do vote for me (for Best Editor) and my book in Best Anthology (Best of British Science Fiction 2022) in the Locus Awards!
