---
title: 'Vibe Check #11'
date: 2023-03-04T08:02:48.483Z
slug: 2023-03-04-vibe-check-11
author: Thomas Wilson
tags: 
    - vibe-check

---
The Vibe check is a series of monthly blog posts where I think back to the past month.  Today I'm talking about February 2023.

**Music and Film Recs**

- [Cha Cha Real Smooth](https://letterboxd.com/film/cha-cha-real-smooth/) (film; drama).  This is the best film I've seen so far this year.  Without being self serving or aggrandising, and without lying, it makes humans look kind and good.  That takes *something*.  It's a lot easier to be cynical.
- [Good Luck to You, Leo Grande](https://letterboxd.com/film/good-luck-to-you-leo-grande/) (film; screenplay?).  It's about sex and pleasure and regret and getting old, and also about the most beautiful Irish-accented man.  Emma Thompson is there.  I left feeling hopeful, but I don't think I'll ever re-watch.
- [My 21st Century Blues, RAYE](https://ukshop.rayeofficial.com/products/my-21st-century-blues) (album; Gen Z; 2023).  Generation Z are okay sampling vibes/aesthetics/style from a thousand places (this is one of approx. three things I know about them).  This record shows that, and it is flawlessly produced.  I recommend it. 
- [To What End, Oddisee](https://oddisee.bandcamp.com/album/to-what-end) (album; hip hop; 2023)  Oddisee has sat at the edges of the alternative/boom-bap hip hop that I love so much.  This is another record with quality production, and some upbeat beats.

**Hope and optimism** But life is a thing that happens with us, not *to* us.  It took a few frustrating weeks (unempowered?) but life feels now like I remember life felt at the end of my postgraduate studies, and when I first moved to London.  It feels as though things are changeable, as though I can *do*.  I'm not sure why I ever felt the opposite.  Or if I just forgot.    Either way, it's an undercurrent I feel very grateful to have.

**Cycling**.  It is warm enough to cycle again.  Not all the time.  Sometimes it's too wet.  It is actually quite cold, and a little windy.  Being outside doesn't feel universally fantastic, but the blanket ban on prolonged outdoor activity is lifting.  In February I managed (checks Strava) three cycle rides over 50k, and a good number of runs.  Now that it's not dark at 2pm it's possible to do more in a day.

**Magic: The Gathering**.  I spent far too much of my time at university sitting around student-accommodation-quality (and size) kitchens playing MtG with my house mates (one of whom was my Magic sherpa, guiding me into playing it).  

I've played on/off with housemates and friends since then.  I hope I'm still playing Magic when I'm sixty, it is a deeply satisfying game that evolves a lot.  

This month I discovered Magic's *[Jumpstart](https://magic.wizards.com/en/products/jumpstart)* sets.  The idea is that you buy two twenty-card boosters and shuffle them together.  Now you have a forty-card deck ready to go.  This lets you skip the bit where you have to construct your own deck from individual cards (or a couple hundred random ones from boosters).

Having played a few games of Magic recently, I'm really enjoying it.

**Sewing**. I finished a pair of lovely woollen trousers ! Grey with brown checks on them.  They're too wide around the waist, and the seat's a little low, but I made them.  I've worn them in public, and I am proud of them.  

My current project is a khaki cotton canvas top which is probably thick enough to camp in.  I've some leftover fabric that I think will become shorts.  It's going to be quite an informal shirt, and I've paired it with some delightful light-brown textured buttons. 

Sort-of-related, I went for a suit fitting (for a wedding (not mine)) and ended up having a grand time.  It's the first time I've gone this bespoke, and the boutique one-one experience of the fitting was great.  I love clothes.