Once again, still images from video game adaptations for the screen just look like cosplay shoots for Instagram.

Arco is v. derivative but I enjoyed it. It’s basically Ponyo + Back to the Future + Rene Laloux & Moebius + The Terminator + Terminator 2 + I, Robot + ET + Interstellar + WALL-E + that Futurama episode where Leela carves out a message on the cave walls for Fry in the future. A rip off but done well.

I'm hearing reports that Muslims may have voted in Gorton & Denton. A sad state of affairs, if true, and a sign of the dangerous radical sectarian extremism that Labour politicians, through no fault of their own, must contend with.

I had no idea that Sirât was hated so much. Bunch of Phillistines.

I'm loving Final Fantasy VII Rebirth but I got to the part which introduces Yuffie (mixing it into a section from the original game which doesn't involve her) and it reminded me that I didn't check out the INTERmission Content from Remake. I'll start that tomorrow before resuming Rebirth.

Feeling some lonely disappointment because a co-op video game series I've played through entirely with a friend for years has announced a new game but my friend is now too busy having a life getting engaged and doing things in real life instead.

I really appreciate this TikToker with Tourette syndrome, Shay, for taking the time to educate so many of us (including me) about her disability and coprolalia in light of what happened at the BAFTAs with John Davidson when Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo were on stage. I learned a lot.

Marty Supreme may end up being one of the major awards contenders that has to pick up the scraps while Coogler and PTA sweep everything but I think it may be my favourite film of the last couple of years.

Mercy might be the worst film ever made.

All the big UK mainstream festival lineups are so depressing. So many unwanted 90s acts desperately trying to stay relevant.

Queen's Blood might be the thing which makes me not like the game as much. Sure, it's impressive that they put this much effort into creating a brand new card game but I'm here to fight bad guys, not play fucking Gwent 2.0.

Bluepoint being shut down by Sony is an absolute shocker. Instead of letting them do what they do best they were pushed into the live service trend, their project got cancelled after years and now they're being punished for it. Sony "winning" the console wars by cutting livelihoods.

I've heard that Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is too large and unwieldy but I started it and binged it for several hours. I love these characters and this silly melodramatic world so much that I can't help but love it.

When Mogwai performs Like Herod and Fear Satan live and I’m in the audience, they are the two best songs in the world. Great gig.

A superb interview with Tracey Emin on art, class, Reform, and surviving cancer now & abuse as a teenager www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...

My family is bombarding me with shitty ChatGPT images of themselves. I don't know how to deal with this because the problem with criticising anything, no matter how tactfully, is they'll make me a pariah who believes I'm not allowing them to have any fun.

I enjoyed the Norse reboot of God of War but Ragnarok was a bit of a slog. Too much self-serious wandering. I hope the original trilogy remake goes back to hacking, slashing, and spectacle. I also bought this pixel art 2D Metroidvania God of War which shadow-dropped out of nowhere. So far, seems ok.

Mewgenics' cast list is unbelieveable. It's not just the YouTubers, many of whom are vastly incompatible with each other (leftists + racist IDF apologists) but also some cult movie icons like Lloyd Kaufman and Barbara Crampton and the experimental musician Carla Kihlstedt. What on earth?

I really want to love Hamnet but it was too cold and distant for me, except the climactic moments which are very overwrought. I watched the trailer for the first time afterwards and I was more moved by it telling me the entire plot there than I was watching the film itself.

This song is so awesome. A blast of furious energy from Indonesia. The album’s title refers to the country’s sound system culture where they stack dozens of speakers onto trucks and blast music at over 100db so that gives an indication of the song’s qualities. yesnowave.bandcamp.com/track/22-peg...

Current music obsessions: Raja Kirik - Phantasmagoria of Jathilan Ethel Cain - Perverts Darja Kazimira & Zura Makharadze - Minotaur - Ananke Uboa - All the Dead Melt Down as Rain Los Thuthanaka - Los Thuthanaka Basically I like loud, sad, folky, rhythmic noise a lot.

It’s a beauty! @lostincult.co.uk @gaminginthewild.com

Hollow Knight: Silksong 100% completion. Absolutely incredible game.

First gig of the year sorted. Seeing Mogwai and Forest Swords next Saturday.

I’ve been listening to Beyoncé Whatever floats your boat No, that’s buoyancy 😝

Recently I asked Drew Daniel of Matmos /Soft Pink Truth to consider a question: what good is making music while the world slides inexorably into disaster. In response he wrote an essay for tQ that should be of great interest to anyone creating art in the face of global events. 🔗in🧵...

This song by leftist Phil Ochs from the 60s feels like it perfectly captures the mentality of ICE today. youtu.be/KfM4f91je-0?...

Of the two films nominated for Best Picture about a political opponent to right wing authoritarianism who's hiding and on the run, I reckon The Secret Agent is the better one.

I liked Bugonia despite the misanthropy, the Lanthimos quirkiness, and knowing everything about what happens because I saw the original film. I went to log it on Letterboxd and got this. Amusing.

Loving everything about Absolum, Hades 2, Hollow Knight: Silksong, and Planescape Torment. I am eating good with games after a long period of avoiding them.

I'm gonna be honest, I had no idea who created Dilbert until today.

Béla Tarr, 1955-2026 🤍

No Other Choice is terrific. Vintage PKW of operatic filmmaking telling a story that actually has something to say. Funniest of his in decades too, maybe overall?

@sonemic.com rateyourmusic.com/release/albu... #RYMbestof2025

Today Americans must wrestle with the question, "Who likely brought more joy to the world: the guy who directed The Princess Bride or the guy who doesn't pay his bills and has definitely raped several women?"

With everything going on at home I haven’t put in as many gaming hours this year but I still managed a fair bit. #5 shows my recent apathy though. When I didn’t enjoy something new, I’d just play Astro Bot and all was good again. Talos 2 from 2023 is the best new game I played in 2025.

I went to a nature trail with a friend this morning and we were wondering why there was such a huge police presence there, including a drone going over the water. We just found out now that they found the body of a person who had been missing for days there.

The hedonist character in Pluribus is excellent because his hedonistic ideas are so pathetic.

11 more months to go until I see Autechre again.

Guess Tarantino needs some publicity, huh? What an insufferable dick-hole.

Nobody is allowed to buy tickets to see Autechre next year in London until I’ve secured mine.

My two favourite albums of 2025, billy woods’ and aya’s, happen to be The Wire’s top 2 as well, just the other way around.

What a lovely early Christmas present.

Farewell Udo Kier and Jimmy Cliff, two absolute legends who made my life and many other people's lives so much richer.

I started re-reading The Lord of the Rings and I’m immaturely chortling at some of the unintentionally rude old language and dialogue. “The men of Carn Dǔm came on us at night”, everything weird is “queer”, describing elves as “so gay and sad.” There’s even a character called Nob. Tolkien, you tart.

It’s freezing, time for one of the cosiest and most beautiful winter albums around.

No way! I am shocked!

One Battle After Another is almost great. I have issues with the coda and a few other nitpicks but this is audacious stuff. It's lovely to see a film right now of this scale, with these A-listers, that's this experimental, while also dealing with themes of how ruthlessly, comically shit America is.

Instagram’s as horrible a place as Twitter if you just browse it generally for a moment but after following several music accounts (mostly UK underground, bass), it’s now kind of amazing, offering me all sorts of great recommendations and avenues I’ve not been able to get through other websites.