Consumption – Page 29

This is going to be a short review, which is fitting as the book is short. An amuse l’œil, if you like.

It pretty much does what you’d expect from the title: it’s a pisstake of the Ladybird books, a series of books aimed at improving kids’ reading abilities. Widely used in the ’60s and ’70s, these books covered all sorts of topics and were illustrated in a very painterly manner. Continue reading “Book review: The Ladybird Book of the Zombie Apocalypse” →

Gunna, get it?

February 18, 2017February 19, 2017 CaptainFez1 Comment

When I was a teenager my parents and uncle delighted in calling me Gunna. Gunna Martin. At first, I thought this was kind of cool, because as a kid I’d loved a book called Drummer Hoff, but apparently it was Not A Good Thing.

5160954885_271a92a68c_b — Check out those cheekbones.

It was Not A Good Thing because it referred to my inability to do things in a timely fashion. Mowing. Picking up the dog shit. Cleaning my room. Homework. Anything that didn’t involve pissing time away, most likely. And so whenever anyone reached the point of extremity, out it came: Gunna Martin, that’s you. Continue reading “Gunna, get it?” →

Book review: Discovering Scarfolk

February 16, 2017August 15, 2019 CaptainFezLeave a comment

Discovering Scarfolk by Richard Littler

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Scarfolk. That name! One to be uttered alongside Derry, Maine. Or R’lyeh. A place where that creepy clown from the television test pattern lives. A place where brutalist architecture never died, where clothing is all artificial material, everything has a fried egg in it, and the world is viewed through builders’ tea, smeared glasses and an obsidian doorway into another world. Continue reading “Book review: Discovering Scarfolk” →

A compressed month of memesongs

February 9, 2017February 9, 2017 CaptainFezLeave a comment

So I was farting around on Twitter – what else do you do on there? – and I came across this image.

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So I figured I’d do it. I worked the first post up and someone commented, saying you could crank out the whole month in a day, if you had a mind.

I don’t have much of a mind, but I do have bookshelves requiring filling that I desperately need distraction from, so I did all 30 days (why not 28 or 31?) in one go.

And here they are. Continue reading “A compressed month of memesongs” →

Me, basically.

February 9, 2017February 9, 2017 CaptainFezLeave a comment

Book review: Babbling Corpse: Vaporwave and the Commodification of Ghosts

February 8, 2017August 15, 2019 CaptainFez1 Comment

Babbling Corpse: Vaporwave and the Commodification of Ghosts by Grafton Tanner

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Vaporwave! It’s a thing, still, even though it’s supposed to have been dead for a couple of years now.

What is vaporwave? If you don’t know, have some smooth, iconic jams. Essentially, it’s elevator music for some weirdly capitalist hellscape, and Grafton Tanner’s book exists to provide a bit of context with fewer bong-hits than you’d fine in online discussions of same. Continue reading “Book review: Babbling Corpse: Vaporwave and the Commodification of Ghosts” →

Book review: Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business

February 5, 2017August 15, 2019 CaptainFezLeave a comment

Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business by Neil Postman

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

People will come to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.

Well, this is all a bit depressing.

I mean, we’re all fairly acutely aware of the way the internet makes us all a little stupider, right? There was a lot of hoo-ha about Nicholas Carr’s Atlantic article “Is Google Making Us Stoopid? but in this brief book, Postman makes the same claims about television, something which by now appears benign in comparison to the dizzying chasm of timesink that defines most of our modern lives.

And he did it in 1985.

And then Roger Waters wrote an album about it.

I know, right?

Right. Continue reading “Book review: Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business” →

Book review: The Golem and the Jinni

January 19, 2017August 15, 2019 CaptainFez1 Comment

The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

You really don’t need to read this review. It’s probably better if you don’t. If you think you’re even slightly interested in this book based on the title – which let’s face it, tells you pretty much all you need to know -then go and read it.

I’m serious. If you’ve a passing interest, even, in golems, in jinns, in magic and myth, just go.

And people who bypass the book because they think it’s going to be all magickque and twee? Well, fuck ’em, because they’ll miss out. Because, yes, there is magic in here – and I’m someone who normally can’t handle dreamcatcher, velvet-pantsed horseshittery, which is odd given my intense interest in esoterica – but it’s not really what The Golem and the Jinni is about. Continue reading “Book review: The Golem and the Jinni” →

2016 consumption: a look at some stuff I liked

December 31, 2016December 31, 2016 CaptainFez10 Comments

WELL HERE IT IS. Once more it’s time for a recap on what I did during the year, stuffwise. Previous versions are here, here and here, if you need an origin story.

Once more, I’m unsure who would actually read this all the way through, given the self-indulgence herein, but don’t worry – I’ve found an image that reflects both the world’s 2016 and my thoughts on writing the thing.

giphy — Take that, ya lousy fuckin’ year. And you too, ya lousy fuckin’ typing guy.

Continue reading “2016 consumption: a look at some stuff I liked” →

STC: Speed-the-Plow

December 15, 2016December 15, 2016 CaptainFezLeave a comment

2016speedtheplowprodimage716x403e — Rose Byrne, Damon Herriman and Lachy Hulme in *Speed-the-Plow*.

First things first. The Sydney Theatre Company’s production of David Mamet’s Speed-the-Plow is made well. It’s performed well, hits its marks and sees some obvious dedication from its three actors. Andrew Upton’s direction and Mamet’s dialogue means the time zips along. By my usual indicators, I should’ve loved the show.

And yet, something was in the way. Continue reading “STC: Speed-the-Plow” →