Category: Uncategorized

It’s funny, looking back and realizing that the term “Doomscrolling” was only invented back in 2020. That’s not to say that 2020 wasn’t a particularly bleak year — the one-two punch of COVID and the election that year were pretty horrific, especially when you factor in all the political upheaval and upset surrounding both — but, when I think about the idea that things started to noticeably go wrong in the world, 2020 feels considerably too late to me.

Instead, I look back to 2016 for that, perhaps obviously. The US election of that year can be pinpointed as a particular level of Bad News; I have very specific, very clear memories of becoming all-too-obsessed with the news especially in the last month or two of that election, as it became increasingly clear that Trump had a very real chance of winning instead of being the joke candidate that people (including me) had initially written him off as being, and that certainly feels like some early form of Doomscrolling.

But it started even earlier than that; that summer saw the Brexit vote in the UK, and there was something there, in seeing the UK (really, England, but the results impacted the entire United Kingdom, so thanks for that) make the stupidest possible choice based on the worst, most xenophobic reasoning, and having a very real sense of, this feels like the start of something very bad.

That feeling of there’s something happening here echoes in my brain right now, with another US election in the offing and complete upheaval in the United Kingdom. Sure, I know that the Tories have been voted out of office (finally!) just a month or so ago, but now we’re faced with a rise of neo-Nazi protests and attacks, and again I find myself worried about what’s going to happen to the US over the next few months. “Doomscrolling” as a term feels too quaint for this feeling, I have to admit; “doom-foreshadowing” or something similar might be more appropriate.

So, funny story: it was COVID after all.

I had convinced myself that it wasn’t, because (a) the home tests said negative, (b) I didn’t feel that sick (or so I kept thinking to myself, as much trying to reassure my own brain as anything else), and (c) COVID would just be really bad, and I didn’t want really bad, in the grand scheme of things. And yet, after going to the doctor at the weekend, the test result came back and… there it was.

To be fair, “there it was” ignores the fact that I actually read the email notification three times, because I had managed to convince myself so well that I was convinced that I’d misread something and there was actually no way I was testing positive. “Oh, maybe it’s just saying that positive was an option,” I thought, as if that was actually something that would be listed under the all-caps heading “RESULT” just for fun. (“Did you know you could test positive for COVID? It’s true!” would be the helpful, jaunty, explanation.)

When it comes down to it, I think I knew the whole time. I hadn’t been sleeping well for a few nights by that point, and when I’d wake up in the middle of the night, my brain was freewheeling like during my last COVID-experience; during the day, my concentration was gone, and I felt perpetually dizzy, outside of all the other (many) physical symptoms, and almost everything felt like a chore that made me generally grumpy to have to deal with. I’d felt like all of this before, even if I’d rather have told myself that it was just con crud and everything would sort itself out the next day, if only I got some sleep.

Of course, by the time I eventually got the diagnosis, it was apparently too late for medication to help. (There’s apparently a deadline starting from the date of first feeling symptoms.) Instead, all I could do — all I’m still doing, as you read this — is relaxing as much as possible and hoping for the speediest recovery possible. Sometimes, it’s 2020 again after all.

One of the strangest moments of this year’s San Diego Comic-Con was the moment of realization that I was never able to leave San Diego Comic-Con this year. I don’t mean that in the horror-movie-esque manner in which it immediately comes across — or maybe I do, come to think of it — but more in the sense of, after years of feeling jealous of those who’d find themselves in the hotels immediately surrounding the convention center during the show, I found myself in that situation and discovered that I hated it very much.

The appeal of staying in a hotel literally right next to the convention center is, I think, pretty immediately obvious: imagine not having a trek between the show and where you’re sleeping! You don’t even have to cross the road to get to your hotel! It’s right there! After many years of walking anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour at the end of the end of a long day to get to where I was staying, there was no small level of jealousy when it came to talking to people staying at the Hilton Bayfront or the Marriott Marquis, who’d talk about quickly headed back to their hotel between panels to take a brief break.

This year, I had the opportunity to be one of those lucky few, thanks to some last-minute shenanigans that I was not party to, only profiting from, and… I feel as if it might have been very bad for me, if that doesn’t sound entirely ungrateful.

Don’t get me wrong: yes, my commute time was minimal, and I got to be right in the center of the action for the entire show. On the other hand, I was right in the center of the action for the entire show. What I had never actually appreciated before this trip was how important those walks to and from the show each day actually were, in the sense of allowing my brain to get into work mode, or into de-stressing mode. What I had previously thoughts of as simply… well, just walks… were airlocks in and out of the real world, reminding me of a sense of perspective that I sorely lacked this year.

Instead of getting a chance to see what passes for normality in San Diego — the entire city does like to indulge Comic-Con, it has to be said — I found myself living inside the bubble for the entire time; everything had an activation, decals, and branding. I could hear the show at all times, it felt like. For everyone who’s still like I was, wishing that they could live the Comic-Con dream for the entire length of the show… be careful what you wish for… or at least learn to aim higher.

I’ve discovered that, on the occasions where my brain is stressed about something to the degree that it buzzes pretty continuously in the background without ever truly taking over and pushing everything else out to make room, the anxiety machine has developed an unexpected new treat for me. At the end of the night, I’ll get into bed and lie down, light off, ready to sleep, and slip away… only to wake up a couple of hours later in a fog shaped by only the most trivial of things.

Case in point: a few weeks ago, I was feeling a very low-key work stress as I went to sleep, otherwise having enjoyed a day off where I was binge-watching the enjoyably trashy Love Undercover — they’re soccer stars, but in America, where no-one could care less! It’s a perfect formula for a dating show where the unaware women are so very not bothered when they find out the “secret” — and reading Batman comics. I had successfully ignored the worry about a couple of problems I’d have to juggle the next day, and felt both surprised and happy that I wasn’t lying there utterly awake and exhausted… and then it was suddenly 1am and my brain was trying to tell me some very confused story about Jamie The Footballer getting engaged but also I was Batman somehow and there was some kind of cathedral linking the two together in a way I couldn’t even fully comprehend at the time.

Looking back, I’m not entirely sure I properly woke up as much as my brain quasi-surfaced but left enough of itself in a dream that I was unable to tell the two apart. All I know for sure is that I got up to piss, then got back into bed and lay there, worried about what the cathedral meant in the grand scheme of things, and whether or not I should be hanging out on the roof, given that I was Batman, after all.

That wasn’t the first time something like that had happened, and I’m sadly sure it won’t be the last. It’s as if a connection has been screwed up somewhere, and what should be the garbage disposal unit of the my short-term media memory is accidentally dumping everything into the front of my brain at the wrong time. Thankfully, it’s only happened to make me think I was the Dark Knight one time, so far. That’s not something I have any interest in repeating. Just think how bad things would in Gotham City if that were actually the case…

As you’re reading this, I’m probably losing my mind. I’m writing it a couple of weeks ahead of time in a vain attempt to try and build up something resembling a buffer of posts before the big event, but on the day this publishes, the annual terror that is San Diego Comic-Con Week is ramping up.

The show itself doesn’t begin for two more days, but basically everything from two weeks out is utterly eaten up by the event itself. Like New York Comic Con in October, San Diego Comic-Con (which has the hyphen, NYCC doesn’t, because “Comic-Con” with a hyphen is apparently a trademarked term; something to bear in mind) is less of a traditional event than an existential happening with an event horizon that consumes everything around it; time gets weird, and it’s probably very likely that I’ve been so nose-deep in planning for the show when you’re reading this that I have already lost track of what day it actually is.

Making things more complicated this year is the fact that I am an editor and not just a writer at Popverse this year, so I actually get to contribute to the planning of everything this time out, and also that we at Popverse have also been dealing with a wholescale switch of behind-the-scenes hosting, organizational tools, and CMS for the last couple weeks. There’s been a lot going on, roughly four or five times what I’m used to at this time of year, so it’s been… a thing.

(Again, I’m writing this weeks ahead, but to give you an idea of how much everything is this year, it’s three weeks until SDCC as I’m writing, and I’m already doing things I usually leave until week-of. There’s no way around it. Light is bending! We’re already on the edge of the black hole!)

The thing that’s keeping me afloat at this point is, unexpectedly, that I keep remembering that I like San Diego Comic-Con. I like seeing friends I rarely see outside of that show; I like the strange feeling that mixes the intense work pressure and the sense that maybe I’m on some kind of holiday just because everything feels so different and unexpected. I’ve been going to the show in one way or another for the past 16 years without fail — aside from the Covid period when it was canceled — and for a handful of years before that more irregularly; I have very strong, complicated but important memories and life events tied to the show. For better or worse, SDCC has become a pilgrimage in its own right for me, and something that almost always feels worth the stress by the time the show is over each and every year. As long as I remember that, then everything becomes easier to work through.

It’s just that, already, I’m having to remind myself to remember that, and not lose my cool. There’s weeks to do that — although it’s probably happened by the time you’re seeing this.

As is my wont, I’ve been noodling around with Garageband recently, making loops out of old 1960s songs without any real purpose beyond just wanting to see if I can do it and make it sound pretty good. (So far, the answer is yes, but it helps that I’m playing with music that I know and love as closely and clearly as I do.) It’s a mental exercise as much as anything else: finding something and reshaping it to create something new, but in a method (and a format, let’s be real) that is somewhat alien and I’m uncertain about and uncomfortable in. It’s play, but play in such a way to keep me on my toes and allow for all kinds of mistakes that could end up being as thrilling as they might be frustrating.

I mention this, as much as anything, because I’ve been revisiting a bunch of music I loved from years and years and years ago — Primal Scream and Delakota and a bunch of the late 1990s “dance” music of the era — and realizing how much of it is, if not born from the same lack of skillset and incompetent bumbling around in software I barely understand, then the same approach of playing and building things block by block and seeing what happens.

I shouldn’t be too surprised, of course; there’s part of the wonderful Beastie Boys Story documentary where they talk about making Paul’s Boutique and that’s not a million miles away from their attitude with that album — of course, they had more patience and more skill behind their efforts than I did, as well as infinitely more taste and finer record collections — and it even feeds into a similar version of how the Beatles went around recording their albums, with a sense of, “I think I want to do this, but I don’t know how to get there, so let’s just see what happens and hope for the best.”

As I said above, the core of all of this is play: of doing something with no set goal in mind, and being ready to embrace and appreciate the journey as much as the destination, in large part because there is no destination when you set off. As I find myself approaching more and more defined goals professionally, such play outside of work becomes so much more important to me — a way to connect back to what animated me throughout so much of my life, and what makes me happy and curious and, well, what keeps me going even now.

Thinking about the General Election results in the UK — for those who weren’t paying as close attention as I was, it was a massive swing towards the Labour Party, which won in a landslide — leaves me with the memory of the last big swing from the Conservative Party to Labour, which also happened to be the first General Election I ever voted in, back in 1997. (I was… 22 at the time, thinking back? I might be misremembering.)

I remember, weirdly, the feeling of excitement felt on the night of the election itself, more than the actual details of where I voted. (I actually can’t remember anything about that at all.) What I remember, more than anything, was the curious feeling of “There’s something happening, everything has reached some kind of critical mass, something is going to change” that felt entirely inevitable, tempered only slightly with the fear that maybe we were all wrong and nothing would change — something that, had it happened, would have broken our spirits in ways I don’t think any of us could have fully comprehended at the time.

I also remember one of my friends telling me they’d voted Conservative, and the rest of us all just ripping the shit out of him, telling him how wrong he was, how he knew better, how upset we all were. To his credit, I think he’d be mortified himself, in retrospect.

I can remember the sense of excitement when the results came in, and the feeling that everything was different as a result. To some degree, that was true; the Labour win of ’97 meant that the Tories weren’t in power for the first time in my conscious memory — they’d been in power for 18 years by that point — and, given how cruel and callous the Thatcher era especially had been, that alone felt celebrating. Sure, none of us had really fallen for Tony Blair’s smarmy smile and promises, but some change was better than no change, we all thought at the time. It still meant that things were different, and that meant that anything could happen, maybe.

(Cut to us, years later, looking at what the Blair era gave to the world, shaking our heads.)

I wonder what it feels like in the UK today, waking up to a non-Tory government for the first time in 14 years. I wonder if there’s that same sense of a new world, and of possibility, or if everyone is just relieved to see the end of that particular era and too exhausted by it to imagine something better on its way.

There was a point, for the first… week or so, maybe two weeks…? of the month where I was notably reading very few comics after a couple months of reading so many, and it felt like a very welcome change. My brain was perhaps too full, and I needed a break. And then… I ruined it by falling back into the rhythm of binge reading full runs of things once again. Oops. (A confession: this time around is the first time I’ve ever read the entirely of “Knightfall” and its sequels in the Batman comics; it’s gone from being a nuisance at the time it was being published to being enjoyable nostalgia of a bygone age now.)

1. Fall of the House of X #s 1-5
2. Rise of the Powers of X #s 1-5
3. X-Men Forever (2024) #s 1-4
4. House of X #1
5. Powers of X #1
6. House of X #s 2-6
7. Powers of X #s 2-6
8. Inferno (2021) #s 1-4
9. X-Men (2021) #32
10. Invincible Iron Man (2022) #15
11. X-Men (2021) #35
12. Detective Comics (1937) #1000
13. Avengers: Twilight #4
14. Resurrection of Magneto #2
15. X-Men From the Ashes Infinity Comic #1
16. Batman (2016) #149
17. Superman (2023) #15
18. Absolute Power: Ground Zero #1
19. Green Arrow (2023) #13
20. The Flash (2023) #10
21. Batman: The Brave and the Bold #14
22. Destro #1
23. The Immortal Thor #7
24. Heroes in Crisis #s 1-2
25. DC Pride: A Celebration of Rachel Pollack #1
26. Legion of Super-Heroes (1989) #s 1-7
27. Heroes in Crisis #3
28. Profane #1
29. Space Ghost (2024) #2
30. Legion of Super-Heroes (1989) #s 8-9
31. Heroes in Crisis #s 4-5
32. Secret Origins Annual (1987) #1
33. Secret Origins (1986) #s 10, 43
34. Punisher (2023) #4
35. Deep Cuts #s 1-3
36. Crush & Lobo #s 1-8
37. Heroes in Crisis #s 6-9
38. The Flash Annual (2018) #1
39. The Flash (2016) #s 47-51
40. Batman (2016) #s 64-65
41. The Flash (2016) #s 64-65
42. Aquaman (2011) #s 26-29
43. Secret Origins (2014) #s 1-6
44. Legion of Super-Heroes (1989) #122
45. The Immortal Thor #s 1-5
46. Judge Dredd: Titan
47. Aquaman: Rebirth #1
48. Invincible Iron Man (2022) #16
49. X-Men (2021) #33
50. X-Force (2019) #50
51. What If…? Aliens #1
52. Doctor Strange (2023) #13
53. Captain America (2023) #7
54. Resurrection of Magneto #3
55. Thanos (2023) #4
56. Avengers (2023) #11
57. American Flagg! (1983) #s 1-3
58. Lobo (1993) #21 (Grant/Kevin O’Neill)
59. Detective Comics (1937) #s 583-589 (First Wagner/Grant issues)
60. The Spectacular Spider-Men #1
61. The Punisher: Die Hard in the Big Easy
62. Silver Surfer (1987) #39
63. Batman: Vengeance of Bane #1
64. Batman (1940) #s 484-491
65. Detective Comics (1937) #s 654-658
66. Batman (1940) #s 492-494
67. Detective Comics (1937) #s 659-661
68. Tales from the Dark Multiverse – Batman: Knightfall #1
69. The Penguin #11
70. The Joker (1975) #3
71. Legion of Super-Heroes (1989) #123
72. Legionnaires #s 79-80
73. Legion of Super-Heroes Secret Files #2
74. Legion of Super-Heroes (1989) #s 124-125
75. Legionnaires #81
76. Batman (1940) #s 495-500
77. Detective Comics (1937) #s 662-666
78. Showcase ‘93 #s 7-8
79. Batman: Shadow of the Bat #s 16-18
80. Detective Comics #s 607-608 
81. Robin Annual (1992) #1
82. The Batman Chronicles #1
83. Batman: Shadow of the Bat #s 40-41
84. Anarky (1997) #s 1-4
85. Absolute Power #1
86. Batman (2016) #150
87. Detective Comics (1937) #s 667-670
88. Robin (1993) #s 1-2
89. Batman: Shadow of the Bat #s 19-20
90. Batman (1940) #s 501-504
91. Superman (2018) #s 1-3
92. Uncanny X-Men (1963) #159
93. Invaders (1975) #9
94. Ultimate Avengers 3 #s 2-6
95. Superman (2018) #4
96. Man of Steel (2018) #s 1-6
97. Supergirl (2016) #s 21-25
98. Rom Spaceknight #13
99. Superman (2018) #s 5-6
100. Supergirl (2016) #s 26-33
101. Batman/Superman (2019) #s 1-6
102. The Infected: King Shazam #1
103. The Infected: Scarab #1
104. The Infected: The Commissioner #1
105. The Infected: Deathbringer #1
106. Supergirl (2016) #35
107. Hawkman (2018) #18
108. DC’s Year of the Villain Special #1
109. Batman/Superman (2019) #s 7-8
110. Event Leviathan #1
111. Event Leviathan #s 2-6
112. Leviathan Dawn #1
113. Checkmate (2021) #s 1-6
114. Superman (2018) #s 7-10
115. Justice League Task Force #s 5-6
116. Batman: Shadow of the Bat #s 21-23
117. Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight (1989) #s 59-61
118. Robin (1993) #7
119. Action Comics (1938) #1001
120. Superman (2018) #s 11-16
121. Outsiders (2023) #s 1-2
122. Action Comics (1938) #s 1002-1004
123. Detective Comics (1937) #s 671-675
124. Batman: Shadow of the Bat #s 24-28
125. Batman (1940) #s 505-508
126. Showcase ‘94 #7
127. Action Comics (1938) #967-972
128. Rom Spaceknight #s 14-19
129. Action Comics (1938) #s 1005-1011
130. Superman: Leviathan Rising #1
131. Batman (1940) #509
132. Batman: Shadow of the Bat #29
133. Detective Comics (1937) #676
134. Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight (1989) #62
135. Robin (1993) #8
136. Catwoman (1993) #12
137. Action Comics (1938) #1012
138. Resurrection of Magneto #4
139. Invincible Iron Man (2022) #17
140. Avengers: Twilight #4
141. Batman (1940) #510
142. Batman: Shadow of the Bat #30
143. Detective Comics (1937) #677
144. Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight (1989) #63
145. Robin (1993) #9
146. Catwoman (1993) #13
147. Showcase ‘94 #10
148. Action Comics (1938) #s 1013-1015
149. Batman (1940) #s 512-515
150. Batman: Shadow of the Bat #32-35
151. Detective Comics (1937) #679-682
152. Robin (1993) #11-14
153. Nightwing: Alfred’s Return #1
154. Batman: Vengeance of Bane II #1
155. Action Comics (1938) #s 1016-1021
156. Superman (2018) #s 17-22
157. Superman: Heroes #1
158. Superman: Villains #1
159. Action Comics (1938) #s 1022-1028
160. Superman (2018) #s 23-28
161. Rom Spaceknight #s 20-29
162. Power Man & Iron Fist (1978) #73
163. Action Comics (1938) #1067
164. Green Lantern (2023) #13
165. X-Men From the Ashes Infinity Comic #2
166. The Immortal Thor #8
167. Batman and Robin (2023) #10
168. Rom Spaceknight #s 30-31
169. 2000 AD Sci-Fi Special 2024
170. Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files Vol. 43
171. Batman (1940) #516
172. Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files Vol. 44
173. Batman (1940) #517
174. Rom Spaceknight #32
175. Batman/Superman (2019) #s 9-15
176. Nameless #s 1-6
177. Miracleman: The Silver Age #s 1-7
178. Justice League (2018) #s 59-63
179. Plastic Man (2003) #9, 20
180. Batman (1940) #s 414-425
181. American Flagg! (1983) #s 4-6
182. Rom Annual #1
183. Rom Spaceknight #s 33-34
184. Invincible Iron Man (2022) #18
185. X-Men (2021) #34
186. X-Men From the Ashes Infinity Comic #3
187. Batman (1940) #s 426-434
188. Blade (2023) #s 1-9
189. Fantastic Four (2022) #18
190. Batman (1940) #s 435-442
191. The New Titans #s 60-61
192. Justice League (2018) #s 64-68
193. Suicide Squad: Dream Team #s 1-3
194. Blood Hunt #4
195. Vengeance of the Moon Knight #6
196. Rom Spaceknight #s 35-37
197. Black Widow and Hawkeye #4
198. Giant-Size Little Marvels #1
199. Midnight Sons: Blood Hunt #2
200. Spectacular Spider-Men #4
201. Superior Spider-Man (2023) #8
202. Hellverine #2
203. Jackpot & Black Cat #4
204. Spider-Gwen: Ghost-Spider #2
205. Star Wars: Darth Maul – Black, White & Red #3
206. Symbiote Spider-Man 2099 #4
207. Ultimate Black Panther #5
208. Union Jack: Blood Hunt #2
209. Wolverine: Madripoor Knights #5
210. X-Men ‘97 #4
211. X-Men: Blood Hunt – Magik #1
212. X-Men: Heir of Apocalypse #2
213. Blood Hunt #3
214. Black Panther: Blood Hunt #2
215. Justice League (2018) #s 69-74
216. Justice League 2022 Annual
217. Absolute Power: Task Force VII #1
218. Superman (2023) #16
219. Wonder Woman (2023) #11
220. Titans (2023) #13
221. Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #29
222. Batwoman (2011) #0, 1-5
223. Justice Society of America (2022) #10
224. The Nice House by the Sea #1
225. Web of Spider-Man (2024) #1
226. Jean Grey (2023) #s 1-4
227. Rom Spaceknight #s 38-39
228. The Brave and the Bold (2007) #s 19-22
229. Green Lantern (1990) #s 129-131
230. All-New X-Men (2012) #s 1-11
231. Rom Spaceknight #s 40-42
232. All-New X-Men (2012) #s 12-14
233. Uncanny X-Men (2013) #s 1-3
234. Nightwing (2016) #116
235. Uncanny X-Men (2013) #s 4-8
236. Animal Pound #1
237. Prez (1973) #1
238. Rom Spaceknight #s 43-45
239. Bootleg Spider-Man #1
240. All-New X-Men (2012) #15
241. Uncanny X-Men (2013) #s 9-11
242. X-Men: Battle of the Atom #s 1-2
243. All-New X-Men (2012) #s 16-17
244. X-Men (2013) #s 5-6
245. Uncanny X-Men (2013) #s 12-13
246. Wolverine & The X-Men (2011) #s 36-37
247. All-New X-Men (2012) #s 18-21
248. Uncanny X-Men (2013) #14
249. Prez (2016) #s 1-2
250. Prez (1973) #2

“How’s your week been?” the message asked, entirely innocuously and genuinely; I was chatting to a friend on the work Slack and we’d been commiserating about something that had utterly failed to come together for reasons outside everyone’s control, and they asked the question. My first thought was to say, similarly genuinely, that I had no idea.

It’s become a running joke with friends to talk about how the way in which everything feels low key overwhelming at any given point these days; Jeff and I will check up on each other weekly and our calls are variations on, “Man, this week was a lot,” only for the other one to say something along the lines of, “Yeah, and wait until you hear about my week.” It’s not that we’re trying to outdo each other, as much as it feels as if things are just constantly, perpetually in flux and complicated. As the Scott Pilgrim blurb almost said, almost 20 years ago, “things just keep happening.”

How has the week been? It’s been full, no matter what week you’re aksing about. It’s had questions I’ve struggled to answer (increasingly so, since getting the new job), and it’s left me unable to take care of everything I needed to take care of — I now have a notebook where I made lists of all of these things that need to get done the next day and there’s at least one thing left off by the end of the week because who has the time — and it’s likely left me dizzy and dazed at the end of each workday while I struggle to get my head around everything… and, the strangest thing is, I think I might like it?

I know that’s counterintuitive and makes no sense. There’s something about the pace of it that feels curiously right, though, and almost enjoyable. Like something I’m learning, slowly but surely, to get on top of and master. There’s something about these weeks lately that I feel as if they’re teaching me some kind of skill that I can’t name, but want to understand and take advantage of. I can’t really explain what that means beyond that just yet, but that also feels part of the learning curve.

I get to the end of the week and feel exhausted. But it also feels like I’m getting closer to something in the process, whatever that may be. So it’ll do for now, no matter how tiring it is.

I think I might be missing something off this list; I’m half-convinced that I watched another movie between Self-Portrait — hi, indie art films on Mubi! — and Saturday Night Fever, but I’ll be damned if I can remember what it would have been. Of note in this list: The Velvet Underground really doesn’t shy away from Lou Reed being a dick, wonderfully; Oppenheimer may be a movie that wrestled me into submission purely through exhaustion, because I’m not actually sure that it’s good, but I found myself warming to it by the end, somehow; Saturday Night Fever, which I haven’t seen in decades — I think I saw it on TV when I was a teenager? — is very much not the movie I remembered it being, to its benefit. (I also wonder if the UK television version quietly worked the rapes out of the movie; I certainly didn’t remember them…)