POSTING TO SELF-SOOTHE
THE LIST: Widows (2018), A.I. dread, and Billy Corgan finds The One.
The List is a fortnightly round-up of the music, movies, books, and oddities I’m into right now. There’s no structure or hierarchy.
🎤 Ecca Vandal: The Individualising Nature of Success
Instagram served me an ad for Ecca Vandal’s clip Cruising To Self Soothe, and it’s one of the few times I can remember when five seconds of something was enough.
She closed the deal that fast.
The appeal is easy to identify for yours truly: it sounds like Luke Boerdam of Violent Soho wrote it + the serrated vocal performance is exactly what I’m after — recalling some of rock’s best singers (Stevie Nicks, Courtney Love, Brody Dalle). Doesn’t hurt that the whole thing is over in 2.5 minutes. I must have listened to it 30 times in the last week.
🎥 Widows and Internal Affairs
I’m so tired of TV lately, but it’s almost all I’ve watched for years now. So I’ve been watching Blake Howard’s new movie club with growing interest. I wouldn’t take film recommendations from just anyone, but a guy who made a podcast about every single minute of Heat? Sure.
Of the picks last month, I did two.
I watched Widows with some trepidation — Steve McQueen is one of my most disliked filmmakers. I didn’t even get to 12 Years A Slave. I tapped out after Shame. I can’t understand how this guy is older than me, and comes from art film, but turns out so much wet, millennial-coded material.
But let me say this: Widows is pretty fucking good. And a lot of it works because of McQueen’s beautiful framing and direction. (Gillian Flynn usually never misses, but I didn’t think this was her best script).
The thing only comes undone in the last act, where the heist just isn’t big enough. This is where a lot of ‘elevated pulp’ stuff always falls short.
Like it or not, the tropes deliver. Being smart or grounded doesn’t.
Mike Figgis’s Internal Affairs does not suffer the same fate. Released in 1990 but slathered in a thick, polished 80s sheen, this film has lurid pulp energy coursing through every second of it.
Everyone looks incredible — Richard Gere as a Jim Thompson-esque villain, anyone? — and every character is incredibly horny and power-hungry. The whole thing feels incredibly sleazy and dated, but I loved it.
🎸 Chloe Corgan Shilling The Smashing Pumpkins (With a Baby in Tow)
I’m not proud of it, but last year, I watched a lot of Billy Corgan's Adventures in Carnyland — the reality TV show about the Smashing Pumpkins frontman’s wrestling company. One of my favourite characters on the show is Billy’s wife, Chloe. She’s about 25 years younger than Corgan, but clearly has the same forthright personality and entrepreneurial drive as her husband. They’re both strivers of the highest order. Well matched.
Anyway, I was delighted to see this video in my feed of Chloe shilling a new Smashing Pumpkins box set (she’s a co-owner of the tea shop that releases these archival releases; no, that’s not a typo). This is how to pitch a box-set with a baby strapped to you.
🤖 AI and Writing Novels: A Work in Progress
I collected a bunch of scattered ideas about the future of the novel and AI in a thread on Bluesky. There’s a lot of fear and upset out there at the moment, and I think a lot of it is deeply self-indulgent and counterproductive.
🧟 GHOST SMOKE (New Short Story)
Read it here.
Lachlan had lived his whole life assuming he’d die of lung cancer. The apocalypse had robbed him of this. Truth be told, this new death coming would probably be faster and less painful, but at present, all Lachlan could latch onto was the disappointment.
He could have enjoyed smoking more, if he’d known all this.
— IAIN
THE END IS HERE 👇
Re: Widows / Internal Affairs and crooked cop / heist movies … Have you seen Triple 9? Directed by Aussie John Hillcoat. Would be curious as to your opinion.