diff --git a/src/content/blog/2023-03-04-vibe-check-11.md b/src/content/blog/2023-03-04-vibe-check-11.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fe21c43 --- /dev/null +++ b/src/content/blog/2023-03-04-vibe-check-11.md @@ -0,0 +1,33 @@ +--- +title: 'Vibe Check #11' +date: 2023-03-04T08:02:48.483Z +slug: 2023-03-04-vibe-check-11 +author: Thomas Wilson + +--- +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. \ No newline at end of file