The weeks that were Oct 4th - 17th
Behind the scenes - in the costume shop
Working on…
There’s a new mystery afoot! Newsletter subscribers have had an extra email from me this week, detailing the first part of a brand new mystery experience (there’ll be a few more coming the next few weeks as well - the plot will be thickening!). Most of my energy is focussed on that right now - buying props, building sets, undertaking arcane summoning rituals, that kinda thing. All will become clear very soon.
Thinking about…
So, I went (mini)viral on YouTube recently. Me! I know! Who’da thunk it? First the UN comes calling, and then the YouTube algorithm finally decides I’m worthy. Not bad for an ageing freak 😜. (If you’re here from that video, welcome, welcome!). Anyway, it got me thinking about how totally arbitrary it all is - if you’ve been paying attention recently you’ll know that the myth of meritocracy has been on my mind a lot, and how the deck is stacked against so many of us, no matter how good our work, or how much effort we put in.
The universe is random chaos, but sometimes, just sometimes, it comes good. I guess our job is to just hold the line as much as we can, and keep doing what we believe in as much as we’re able to.
Reading…
The Daevabad Trilogy by S.A. Chakraborty
The series that triggered the reading slump I mentioned in my last letter. Sometimes a world is so immersive and the characters so captivating that you emerge, dazed and blinking, back into reality, and you need a minute before you’re ready for anything new. This series does that. I loved it. By the author who brought us another fave from this year: the middle-aged lady-pirate realness of Amina al-Sirafi.
Watching…
Josie & The Pussycats (2001)
I was not prepared for how much fun this was! It was recommended to me by someone who knows my obsession with camp classics. I went in pretty much blind and was delighted to discover Alan Cumming and Parker Posey hamming it all the way up as some of the campest villains ever, some biting satire, incredible costumes, and overall an absolute romp of a movie. An underrated gem.
Catch up on previous weeks:
