"Friend's Art" House Show
My wonderful wife Lucy had the genius idea of inviting our friends to show their artwork at our home! None of our friends are professional artists, at least not in the medium they were showing, which made the event really fun!
We had a great showing too! Folks shared a variety of ARTifacts:
- Photography from a class taken years ago
- Sketches from a class taken recently
- Stamps they just got into making (all fall-themed)
- A poem made for the event
- A piano cover many months in the works
- I used the deadline to light a fire under my ass to make a small game.
It was really nice that everybody was able to share a piece of themselves that doesn't come up often and which is usually (at best) just hanging up at their home. It was an open invitation to share a part of yourself you have put time and effort into, but don't usually feel you can brag or show off without it being an "all-eyes-on-me-big-deal" thing.
If this sounds fun you should try it!
- Invite your friends to submit art
- Collect the art a few days before the event
- Install the art in your home; hang on walls, etc.
- Acquire charcuterie and wine (make it feel like a fancy art opening)
- Enjoy!
Ubik
Ubik is a novel by Philip K. Dick which somehow I had never heard of but I absolutely loved.
The premise is that in the far future of... (checks notes) 1992 we have flying cars, regular trips to Moon colonies, and micro-transactions in real life. We also have a way to extend life in a half-living state called Half Life (no relation to physics or the video game), and people with mental powers like mind reading and predicting the future exist -- also people who can cancel those powers out.
The premise is fun and includes a bunch of themes I really like including time-travel-adjacent plots and a dubiously trustworthy narrator.
Ubik was a recommendation from a friend who lent me the book which I really appreciated! It was nice to talk about the book and the next day start reading (as opposed to waiting for the library copy that was a few weeks out).
In the Miso Soup
In the Miso Soup is a psychological horror novel by Ryu Murakami which I really enjoyed! The way the novel builds tension, then releases it, and then uhh... has an entire third part was very exciting! I don't read a lot of horror but this made me want to get into the genre.
This book was reading for a podcast I follow called Something Rotten. Usually the hosts talk about Video Games, but they clearly want to talk about books so I'm glad they are doing a book-club season!
Absolute Batman (ongoing)
Absolute Batman is an ongoing (as of December 2024) Batman series part of the Absolute Universe. The other Absolute's do not quite click for me, but Absolute Batman is my jam. Batman is poor and scrappy and Alfred is a bad-ass international spy dude and it all rocks.
The art is by Nick Dragotta who you would remember from East of West -- and yes he can only draw one old man but that's OK because now that old man is Alfred and he looks like a BAMF.
Sonic The Hedgehog 3
Sonic is the only movie series I actually go to the theater to watch. Not Marvel, not Nolan's films like Oppenheimer, just Sonics 1, 2, and now 3. So trust me when I say Sonic 3 is the best Sonic so far.
As always the film is nothing without Jim Carrey. Don't get me wrong, I love Ben Schwartz but let's be real... this is the only Carrey-being-carrey movie we've gotten since uhh... Dumb and Dumber To? Enjoy the gem (pun intended) that is Jim Carrey as Doctor Robotnik.