Contrary to my expectations, May started surprisingly well. I can sincerely say that, this month, I had the best day of the last one or two years. BUT then, of course, May had to be May, and hit me with a flu that derailed my birthday plans and forced me into a week of nothing but watching movies.

On average, it makes for a very meh month. But, I have to admit that it could have been worse, and “highs and lows” are preferable to a depressing, apathetic constancy. So, overall, I’ll take this May as a win.

Something I am realizing while writing this is that, this month, I didn’t read, watch, or listen to anything that I really loved. I wonder if I was just unlucky or if “my soul” wasn’t receptive enough.

Anyway, even if I loved little, there are still some pretty good things to talk about. So let’s not waste any more time.

Housekeeping

My other Italian blog about non-technical topics is back in full force.

I put on hold two new articles from this blog because they were too “ranty.” I didn’t feel like ranting about things. At best, it is a futile endeavor. I’d rather write about cool and fun things than about things I dislike. Unfortunately, when I am in a gloomy mood, I get motivated by the latter more than the former.

I am recently playing with Janet, a quite nice little LISP language inspired by Clojure. It is an enjoyable language that scratches my LISP itch. I may write about it next month.

I am doing a quick re-editing of the first novel I wrote in 2018 and, oh boy, it is a mess. The silver lining is that it made me realize I am a much better writer today.

Reading

The big influx of movies on my watchlist and a week of malaise that made reading difficult greatly reduced the number of pages I read in May. This month’s list contains only two volumes:

1. Marvel 1602 – As if the movies were not enough, I received this comic book at the beginning of May. This story, written by Neil Gaiman and drawn by Andy Kubert, imagines the classic Marvel superheroes in 1602. Fortunately, the story is more interesting than “let’s just put character X in a Counter-Reformation setting.” A comic worth reading, especially for 12€.
2. Star Trek: Vanguard: What Judgments Come by Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore. This is the seventh and second-to-last chapter of the Star Trek: Vanguard series. It is a much weaker, transitory book. Diego Reyes’ “mission” on the Omari-Ekon was cool. The rest was uninspired. And I still don’t understand why we had to spend all that time on the Paradise City storyline.

Watchlist

The movie situation this month is complicated because I decided to fill my knowledge gap on all the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) movies. Moreover, as I mentioned, I spent a week in a flu-like state with no energy to do anything other than watch movies. As a result, I watched 36 movies this month, many of them in a kind of fever-induced psychedelic state.

But, I did it. I watched everything the MCU has ever created, plus some other stuff.

(Fun fact: my New Year’s resolution was to watch 54 movies in 2024. Now, it is June, and I am close to 100. Look at all the things you can do when you quit social media.)

Anyway, back to this month’s topic. I won’t talk about the MCU movies; there isn’t much to say about that. I’ll focus on the 7 other things I watched in May.

For everything else, you can follow my Letterboxd profile.

• Challengers (2024): I found out that a local cinema runs movies in their original language on Tuesday nights. I jumped on the opportunity with this one. The soundtrack and cinematography were excellent, but everything else left me not-particularly-impressed. Unfortunately, not even fancy slow-motion and camera angles can make tennis a less boring game.
• Baby Reindeer (2024): The premise of a “comedy” about a comedian and a stalker quickly became an unsettling exploration of personal trauma. It is quite a hard and shocking series to watch (in a good way).
• Il Legionario (The Legionnaire) (2021): A neat Italian movie where an African-Italian officer in Rome is tasked with evicting 150 families from an apartment building they have taken over. The catch: one of the families is his own.
• On the Waterfront (1954): For my X4 challenge, I watched one of Marlon Brando’s early masterful performances. This classic movie, winner of the Best Picture Academy Award, is about a young man’s redemption against his corrupt boss at the dockers union. There is a little action but a lot of inspiring moments.
• Mad Max: Fury Road (2015): Since I am going to watch Furiosa, I rewatched Fury Road as a refresher. There is little to say about it other than 1) you should watch it and 2) you better take a deep breath because you’ll stop breathing for two hours.
• Ocean’s Eleven (2001), Twelve (2004), and Thirteen (2007): The second one is borderline unwatchable. The other two are nice entertainment, and two classics of the heist genre. However, they require a good dose of suspension of disbelief.

Music

May was an eclectic musical month, as seldom happens. Just look at the top 25 albums: we have classical opera (Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte), hip-hop (Ghostface Killah’s Fishscale), jazz (Miles Davis’ Birth of the Cool), blues, sludge metal (Dvne’s Voidkind), folk, electronic, Italian disco, post-punk, and so on.

This is probably because, at the moment, I am not into any particular trend. So, I keep jumping around, trying to find something that will lead me down a musical rabbit hole.

Moreover, I have no new album suggestions. Nothing new caught my attention. The closest was Jessica Pratt’s Here in the Pitch, but I need to listen to it at least once more to form a proper opinion.

Gaming

I approached Tunic once again, this time with more concentration. Therefore, I finally played it enough that I finally have a good grasp of the game.

Tunic is a nice little Zelda-like gem that took over my gaming circle in 2023. You play as a little fox in a green tunic (very Link-inspired), and the goal is to collect fragments of something magical while exploring the map, swinging your sword, and solving puzzles. I repeat: very Zelda-like. But it is not a Zelda rip-off. It has its own personal flavor: a beautiful, unique flavor.

Unfortunately, it is also a “where the fuck do I go?” kind of game, so the first time, it frustrated me due to my lack of time.

Not that I have a ton of time for gaming recently. Or, to put it better, I have time, but I prefer to spend it doing something else (mostly writing and playing music). Therefore, if a game attracts me out of my routine, it is probably already a good game.

Other Interesting Things

• 📝 Plato’s final hours recounted in scroll found in Vesuvius ash – The “unlocking” of Herculaneum’s scrolls is one of the most exciting developments recently, especially if you have a soft spot for ancient philosophy (🙋‍♂️). Among the new discoveries are texts describing the final hours of Plato. Texts that were lost in time and would have remained lost if not for technology and AI snatching them out from eternal oblivion. How cool is that!

Conclusions

In the end, May wasn’t so bad, after all. The annoying moments will fade away, and I’ll keep only the funny memories. I made a couple of those, and that is the best achievement of all.

June will bring summer with it. So far, temperatures are very good, let’s hope in a mild June. I don’t look forward to that part of the year in which I do not sleep because I am melting on the bed.

We will see. In any case, I just wish for a June with a bit more bright moments and a less scattered mind.

Until next time. ❤️