November Round-Up
Issue 2: Holidays are coming-Holidays are coming...
GREETINGS & SALUTATIONS
In this edition:
NaNoWriMo Blow-Out
Latest TV & Film recommendations
Best of 5: Graphic Novels
The remainder of Mr. Kipling’s Halloween cakes are on the reduced items shelf, and the fireworks have fizzled out (except for the random midnight barrage over at the playfield behind our house, courtesy of bored youths). Which can only mean one thing: CHRISTMAS. IS. COMING!
Have you started buying presents yet? Or are you a last-minute, seat-on-pants-type? October and November are a busy time for the Wright household: My wife’s birthday is towards the end of October, followed by my son’s birthday, and then my daughter’s. (And my brother’s. And my Mum’s. And my cousin’s. You get the picture, there’s lots of birthdays.)
We are also having new carpets fitted in three different rooms, meaning I’ve had to empty everything out - and it’s only when you have to carry everything from one room to another that you realise exactly how much stuff you have - and how you feel the burden of it all. So I’m now in the process of de-cluttering! The worst offenders are the thirty years-plus of Empire magazines (which I’ve been buying since 1989). Being a huge film fan, these are fascinating time capsules. That said, there was a notable downturn in cost-versus-content, and television began to take precedent over film, so I’m probably going to cull my collection back to 2005-ish.
I was pondering yesterday why I don’t feel the same excitement with films these days, compared to my teens and twenties. Tastes change. We change - and that’s not a bad thing. I think film - like music and most art forms - has been devalued hugely in the past twenty years. Not to be all old-man-shouts-at-cloud, we used to wait for things. Films used to have a lifespan of cinema-video-television, which kept things fresh for three or so years. Film these days feels much more instantly disposable.
Things seem to be on the turn once more - the golden age of streaming is on the wobble, superhero movies have been milked dry, and cinemas are barely clinging on post-pandemic, so I’m wondering what’s next for film. What I’m hoping for is an upsurge of indie films, like we had in the early 90’s - when films and filmmaking felt exciting once again.
For now, it’s back to the clearing-up - we can’t wait to get it all back to normal in time for Christmas! (My wife has also been making us a new dining table, but more on that later!)
December’s Round-Up will be out early (before Christmas), so keep your eyes peeled!
NaNoWriMo Blow-Out
Life is what happens when you’re making plans, so goes the often misattributed John Lennon quote (it was first used in 1957 in an issue of Reader's Digest by a man named Allen Saunders. I say this like I was there: Of course I googled it!)
November was NaNoWriMo month. National Novel Writing Month. The idea is, that you take a month - in this case, November - cram it full of written words, and by the end, you’ll have the first draft of your new novel.
NaNoWriMo 2023 didn’t happen, mostly due to this.
I had previously tried back in 2015 which, in hindsight, was unintentionally hilarious because I was not in the right place to write my first book. Nor was it the way to start by writing my first ever book.
This year, I was going to do NaNo because I had spent most of the year writing my third novel in a very stop-start fashion. Then I had three months away from it, for a myriad of reasons (mostly health-related).
Increasing stress and panic intensified. I lost sight of my goals as they sailed off into the horizon with each passing day.
Then I read this post by Will Carver atNothing Important Happened Today
and it pretty much summed up how I feel about NaNoWriMo:
I do think it is a good way to motivate yourself, and I would never suggest scrapping everything you may have written during NaNo because there’s bound to be something worthy of keeping. Some people swear by it, but I’ve yet to make it work for me.
Churning out anything isn’t how I do it: I write a chapter, maybe a few, and then I edit to ensure I’ve got the foundations right before I hit more snags down the road. Yes, some would say this is not the way to write, but that’s how I do it.
So NaNo doesn’t work for me. Maybe I could write a short story every day for the entirety of November, but a novel? Nah.
And to be perfectly honest, every day feels like it’s NanoWriMo. I constantly have that feeling of “MUST WRITE MORE”. Every. Day. I put myself under that pressure all the time, not just for November. So why burden myself more?
NaNoWriMo itself hit a snag for ALL THE WRONG REASONS too - this cryptic message was released causing much confusion. Complaints about deeply troubling behaviour of NaNo forum moderators caused a stir online in the writing community. Hopefully, it will be investigated and dealt with appropriately.
SUBSTACK RECOMMENDATIONS
There have been a slew of great posts in November: Lots to make you think, identify with and ponder.
wrote about saying goodbye to friendships, and mourning the loss of them.
On a similar note regarding friendships, I discovered an older post by
which was a whole lotta WHOAH. talked about the knots writers tie themselves up in when it comes to getting actual words written. RELATE!
This month’s Short People Highlights
ON THE BOX
Lessons in Chemistry
Brie Larson is perfectly cast as Elizabeth Zott, who finds her career as a chemist derailed when she is fired - but ends up presenting a cookery show in 1960’s America. It’s a polished show whose themes are still (sadly) relevant to today’s world. Solidly entertaining. Playing on APPLE TV
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters
Now I wasn’t too blown away by the Godzilla movies - I know some people love them, and while I find the visuals awe-inspiring, the story never really hooked me in. That said, I did LOVE Kong: Skull Island. I think it’s one of the best action/adventure films of recent times. Episode 1 opens with a great throwback to Skull Island, so it has my interest. The father/son casting of Kurt and Wyatt Russell playing older/younger versions of the same character is also a great idea. Playing on APPLE TV
Murder at the End of the World
Anything created by the pairing of Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij is always worth a look (see The OA) - always unusual, but with enough humanity to save it from being too weirdly off-kilter. The guests-invited-to-billionaires-retreat-oh-no-there’s-a-dead-body is a well-worn story path, but you just know it won’t be like your typical murder mystery. (And hats off for using Annie Lennox’s No More I Love You’s to good effect!) Playing on DISNEY+
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
A belated sequel in which Puss loses all but one of his nine lives, and has to play it safe to stay alive. With unexpected dark moments of death stalking Puss, an affecting depiction of a panic attack (see? Not exactly what you would expect from a kids animated film!), and a great version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears (voiced brilliantly by Florence Pugh, Ray Winstone, Olivia Colman, and Samson Kayo), this is a much better film than you’d think. Playing on NOW TV
Flora and Son
Irish film writer/director John Carney has made musical films such as Once, Begin Again and Sing Street - If you have seen any of those, you know what to expect with Flora and Son: a gritty depiction of Ireland juxtaposed with a lyrical feel-good, wish-fulfillment fantasy. Eve Hewson is great as a single mother trying to keep her wayward teenage son in line, who finds hope in learning to play the guitar via face-timing music teacher Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Playing on APPLE TV
CINEMA
Beetlejuice
The 35th (count ‘em) anniversary of Tim Burton’s breakthrough movie. Brilliant cast, amazingly imaginative and completely original visuals, Danny Elfman’s wild-eyed score… it all still impresses. The fact that Burton followed this up with Batman, then Edward Scissorhands, THEN Batman Returns… (John McTiernan’s Predator/Die Hard/Red October triple whammy coming a close second?) well, what a run. With Beetlejuice 2 on its way, let’s hope it lives up to the original.
Trolls 3: Band Together
If you’ve seen the first two, then you’ll probably love this. It’s not as fun as the previous installment, but I took two of the target audience with me and they loved it, so what do I know!
The Marvels
Yes, it’s Marvel’s lowest opener. Yes, a certain idiotic internet contingency hates Captain Marvel. Yes, it may confuse you if you haven’t seen the Ms. Marvel television series. But: It is great fun. I don’t understand the response to this film: It’s aimed predominantly at teenagers, but so what? Not every Marvel movie can be Endgame - and nor should it - but in terms of sheer fun it’s on par with Shang-Chi and way better than Thor: Love & Thunder.
Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted
I first saw this for my daughter’s fourth birthday. She is now fifteen. So we went to relive old times and laugh out loud with our happy film. This film still amazes me because it is such a departure from the first two movies. Usually, by the time a film series reaches its second sequel, things are looking tired. This movie bucked the trend and remains the best of the series.
The Nightmare Before Christmas
To get into a Christmassy mood I went to a 30th anniversary of Henry Selick’s Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas (see what I did there?). It still looks dazzling - the animation is just mind-boggling, even if the story is a little slight. Glad to have seen it on the big screen again after all this time.
And finally…
With Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon ending its cinema run and imminent transfer to Apple TV, here’s a hilarious short film from 2015 featuring Leonard Di Caprio, Robert De Niro and the man himself, Scorsese.
PLAYING
Lego 2K Drive
More Lego madness, this time with the pedal to the metal! If you’ve ever played a Lego game, you know what to expect - and this is no deviation from the winning formula. Yes, it’s more open world, but it’s still about smashing up everything in sight to buy/unlock items. My favourite Lego game remains unchallenged: Harry Potter Lego is still the one that captures the essence of its inspiration, but Lego 2K Drive is still worth a punt.
SUBSTAGRAM
My wife made a table this week! We had a couple of (huge) pieces of worktop wood hanging around for years, so she transformed it into something special!
BEST OF FIVE:
After last month’s Adrian Tomine top 5, I thought I’d widen the topic to all non-superhero graphic novels - so here are my top 5 non-Tomine recommendations!
Got any graphic novel recommendations? Let me know!
BOOK RECOMMENDATION
I was lucky enough to be given a copy of Vintage Geek by the author himself,
- and if you’re a film/tv nerd like me, it’s a brilliant quiz book to test your (and your friends’/family’s) skills with!The book includes fifty celebrity-penned questions from the likes of Mark Hamill, John Carpenter, George Takei, Sam Neill, Mark Millar, Tom Savini, Pat Mills, Yeardley Smith and Sam J. Jones.
"Vintage Geek is Marshall Julius's super-fun trivia treasure-chest for nerds of all ages. Essential reading" -- Mark Hamill
SEEN IN THE WILD
I promised myself I would never start collecting Funko Pops. I can’t. I already have a Lego habit which I need to kick. But… just look at this:
Stupid sexy Flanders indeed.
Joy Snack
A poem by Wendy Cope.
Finally, to accompany The Blunder Years: Letters of Note Part 2, here’s a playlist covering that particular era for you to enjoy!
NEXT MONTH
It’s Chriiiiiiiiist-maaaaaaas! It will no doubt be an especially festive issue, so get ready for lots of tenuous Christmas-related chat, lists and plugs for my Amazon wish list. ;o)
*December’s issue will be available before Christmas Eve.
If you enjoyed Short People, please spread the word!
Thank you for th recommendation!
Thanks for the mention of my post on Friendship, Andrew. What a delightful surprise to wake up to on a Sunday morning. That particular post was one of the harder ones to write. It had been sitting there stuck inside my head for some time. Trying to figure out a way to write about it with the love I still felt, even though it was goodbye. It was a relief to get it out on paper and I appreciate you recommending it.