My Augest Wrapup: My Decent into Hibernation
Another Month, Another Blog Post.
There really hasn't been a lot happening for me this month. I've been working at the grill, trying to figure out what I'm going to be doing for the rest of the year and therein lies the rub.
On one hand I am safe and secure for the next couple months. I have a full time job and I will be looking for my next step in my career as long as there happy to keep me on.
It's been a year of realizing what I want out of my job. I know that I need to take the next step into fine dining to push my abilities but I also enjoy the insight that I got from catering. The ability to problem-solve and be able to make my own decisions in the kitchen. Ultimately I want responsibility. I've realized that while I am a good cook I'm not yet a good chef. I don't have a lot of the managerial skills that are needed and while I am confident I wouldn't do these poorly it is something that I will have to work on if I want to advance in this industry.
I'm just happy that I'm safe and secure. The last year and a half has been differcult to actually make money so having something stable rn is better than the alternative. It was what I needed to push myself and bring myself out of my rut and the foods only going to get better from here.
Pictured is the smokey air from the applegates pass there are wildfires in the area and they are just fucking us up buttercup.
Anyway Lets Get Into the Good Stuff.
THE GOOD STUFF.
Podcasts
In Another Room
The podcast proper follows a rather standard anthology audio drama format. Each episode, appropriately titled, is set in a different room of the house and follows a tense narrative, or insanity, gore, and violence. There is a good variety of stories but two stood out to me. The Study and The Living Room. The Study focuses on a gay soldier dealing with the death and brothers in arms which can I say I love queer stories that teach me more about my history and The Living Room, a christmas story that involves my favorite trope:
***SPOILERS***
Battered Women Killing There Husbands.
***END SPOILERS***
It's a tense well polished horror anthology and honestly just a good fucking time if you need spooky tales told to you with immersive foley work. 5/5
The Undertow: Sampson Falls
The Undertow: Sampson Falls follows Tony Baxter, a down-on-his-luck reporter, who gets sent back to his hometown of Sampson Falls. A town he left after the tragic accidental death of his sister all those years ago. A new medical conglomerate has broken ground into the silent soil of this hamlet. Its mirrored visage marring the brick and morter streets of this crumbling village. What secrets hide behind there Facade and what would you do if you could go back and change everything?
This was a really good podcast. The acting is fantastic theres this strong feeling of suspense and conspiracy and while the world-building can get a little muddled. (lot of time shaninigans), it ends on a bang. One of my more enjoyable podcast listening experiences this year. Remember that I only review podcasts that I've finished.
5/5
Video Palace
VP follows Mark Cambria, a video editor and hobbiest VHS collector who stumbles upon what he thought was an urban legend. The White Tapes. unmarked incredible rare VHS tapes that all seem to originate from a movie store in the backroads of old country. As his curiousity turns to obsession will he find what he is looking for or will what he's looking for find him.
First off it's hard not to notice the influence of The Black Tapes, on one hand there is the obvious pararellel of the mcguffin being the White Tapes and the fact that this is a paranormal docu-series. but it goes deeper. Theres these narrative parallels like the sleep-talking and the devils chord and even smaller almost homages like episodes 2's Podcast is a radio show on the internet bit. As someone whose a fan of the original PNWS podcast it's hard to imagine that they are not fans as well. It feels a little to intentional. Oh also two of the characters are named Nick and Kat. Like in tanis. Just saying.
If you haven't caught on Video Palace follow a similar format to a lot of the other mocku-series that I have covered and listened to on this blog, TBT, Tanis, Limetown, The Box, so on and so forth. Its honestly refreshing to find one so late into the game from its hay-day. Its like a modern found footage I love it. The format is pretty part-and-parcel with the genre but it leans more into this kind of delusion/obsession/magical thinking of the narrator. Alex Reagan was never the most uninvolved as a host but Mark takes this a few steps further. Its honestly a show I want you to watch for yourself. If you like The Black Tapes your'll love this. and if you somehow read this blog and never listened to either. Um what the fuck are you doing?
5/5
TV SHOWS
The Hollow (2018 -2020)
Wow I love how you can just read between the lines of the last post and this one. Yeah I binged both seasons in two days. Shut up and suck my dick.
The Hallow is an animated series on Netflix, that follows a group of teens who wake up in a strange fantasy land, wiped of there memories and exhibiting strange powers will they be able to figure out who they are and find there way home.
First we always stand random animated series on Netflix I am a man of no taste and will watch anything. That being said this a pretty great show. Definetly more teen-focused but we stan. Also this is spoilers for season two so go watch season one and come back.
Season Two begins with the kids waking up in there beds in there town butttttttttttt. Why is everything still animated? Are we still in the game???? What the FUCKKK? Conflict time!
So Season Two is interesting and it does suffer from that kind of season two curse. The rules of the world are already established so how do you make the same formala fresh? On some hand we still get this weird fantasy world of the week vibe from the episodes but as the season progresses it does began developing the main mystery of the story. Focusing less on the madcap zanyness of the game they've found themselves in and more on the interpersonal conflicts that start to arise. The last couple episodes really raise some fucked up questions about technology and existentialism that are honestly a lot deeper then I was expecting from a season that started with a giant chicken. Overall its a little weaker of a season but I still had fun with it. 4/5
The Haunting of Bly Manor (2020)
ok how have I never seen this. So first obviously this is the spiritual sequel to The Haunting of Hill House. Mike Flanagan was contracted by netflix to make a series of mini-series and Bly Manor is the Second Season of the so called "The Haunting" Anthology. Flanagan is now realising a series based on The Fall of the House of Usher through I have no idea if its part of the series. Still going to watch it.
Bly Manor is a rather different beast then his adaptation of Hill House. Hill House is downright terrifrying, has a Ryan Murphy amount of main characters with there own episodes, and is increidble wordy in Flanagans signiture monologue style. I love it and it fucks me up.
Bly Manor maintains some of these elements. Episode 5 "The Alter of the Dead" plays into flanagans taste for surrealism acting as Bly's version of Hill Houses "Two Storms" and all in all is just a fantastic piece of cinema and filmmaking. The diologue heaviness typical of Flanagan in Hill House and Midnight Mass is toned down and overall this has the trappings of a incredible slow burn meloncholic ghost story.
Ultimatly I think this show can be summerized by my one of my favorite quotes.
"I had one woman come up to me in a bookstore and say, 'You know, everyone told me it was a horror book, but when I finished it, I realized that it was a love story.' And she's absolutely right.” Mark Z. Danielewski.
Honestly I don't know if I love it as much as Hill House, (can you love anything as much as hill house?), but it still is such a lovely series in its own right. Watch for the spooky season. Treat yourself 4/5.
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