Never Be Bored
17 October 2019
A Year in Review
Saga by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples; Polar 2019 Jonas Åkerlund film; The Imitation Game 2014 Morten Tyldum film; Kingsman: The Secret Service 2014 Matthew Vaughn film; The Hanging Gardens of Beatenberg by Beatenberg; O Human Star by Blue Delliquanti; Lucifer television series; 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami; Carnival Row television series; Chicago Art Book Fair; Romeo + Juliet 1996 Baz Luhrmann film; Ferris Bueller's Day Off 1986 John Hughes film.
October marks one year of Never Be Bored! In celebration, here's twelve more things for the twelve posts of this year to add to your queue.
Really Big Worms is where it all began, with three sci fi novels and a webcomic. As I wrote in that post, I'll read just about anything with a Hugo nomination, and a year later, I've still never been let down. So don't just take my word for it, the volumes of Saga by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples have been nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story six times. If that's not a strong enough reason to check out this epic space opera masterpiece, I don't know what is.
I kind of love those larger than life bad guys from Baby Driver, featured in Floor It. For more characters with a strong dedication to the Aesthetic and also to guns, try Polar, streaming on Netflix. Mads Mikkelsen is fabulous as an assassin who just wants to retire in peace, goddammit.
In On Computability I recommended a book on a math paper by Alan Turing, but he's probably more well-known for his work helping to break codes during WWII and developing the field of artificial intelligence. Although it's not strictly historically accurate, The Imitation Game is still a really lovely film about Turing's life, the kind of movie that reminds you why we make movies. And don't worry, there's far less math than there is in The Annotated Turing.
If you liked the impeccably dressed murderesses of Non je ne regrette rien, then you might like the fashionably attired gentlemen spies of Kingsman: The Secret Service. It's a funny action movie, with a lot of characters in really well tailored suits, what more can I say.
I feel like Elio from Call Me By Your Name, featured in Is it better to speak or die?, might like The Hanging Gardens of Beatenberg by Beatenberg. Something about the song "The Prince Of The Hanging Gardens" in particular reminds me of Elio and Oliver's relationship, but I adore that whole album, some of the lyrics are absolute poetry.
In The R Smith Edition I recommend a queer sci fi webcomic with gorgeous single color art. If you're into that, definitely try O Human Star by Blue Delliquanti. It's got amazing world building and so much diversity, and it has robots which is always a plus.
If your favorite parts of Worm, featured in All Superheroes Need Therapy, were the chapters where some of these characters actually got therapy, you might like the TV show Lucifer, about the literal devil taking a vacation in LA to solve crimes, and also getting therapy. Currently on Netflix.
As the story of Mr. Nobody unfolds, we jump between alternate timelines; the three movies and book of Nonlinearity can get unsettling at times in the way they play with time and memory. If you liked those recommendations, try 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami, a dystopian mystery love story whose main character Aomame one day realizes she's slipped into a parallel world.
Altered Carbon, featured in To Whom Am I Speaking?, is a slightly cheesy sci fi show with probably more swearing and nudity than is necessary, but whatever, I love the concept of it. Carnival Row, streaming on Amazon Prime, is basically the same, but fantasy—just one extended metaphor for racism but with magical creatures. It might not win any Emmys any time soon, but it's entertaining and fun to binge.
If you liked reading Helicon, featured in The Northwestern Edition, then you might enjoy going to Chicago Art Book Fair, this incredible three day event that brings independent artists and printers from all over to the Windy City. This November will be its third year, and I can't wait to go again!
In Art Curious, featured in The Eye of the Beholder, we learn about art that was considered scandalous in the time and place of their creation, in ways we may not easily realize now. Shakespeare can have a reputation today of being super sophisticated, but back in the sixteenth century his plays were pop culture. Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet reimagines the classic play in Verona Beach and does a wonderful job staying true to the original while being totally over the top and camp.
In Next!, I described the plays of the Neo-futurists of Chicago as sometimes serious, sometimes funny, maybe musical, fourth-wall-breaking. I could apply the same description to Ferris Bueller's Day Off, one of my favorite movies of all time. I think Ferris would make a great neo-futurist.