A Delivery From the Printer (14 March 2023 Status)

The long-delayed delivery from my printer arrived yesterday and I finally got the chance to see both issues of Eclectic Projects side-by-side for the first time. In a lot of ways, these magazine issues are my platonic ideal of a book: 80 to 100 pages, self-contained, with a standardised design creating unity as things progress. Individually, the issue doesn’t seem like something of value, but stack two issues together and they become interesting objects. Stack twelve together, and they’ll like like an impressive body of work.

In other news, we’re on the countdown to my Birthday on the 18th and the anniversary of my father’s death on the 19th, and I’ve hit the traditional stretch where my mental health is wobbly. Taking it very easy on myself this week, and reminding myself that it’s not the week to be making big decisions.

ON THE DOCKET

Off to catch up with my weekly Write Club crew this morning, followed by an afternoon of graphic design and movving computers around as I try to tame my desk.

PETER M. BALL INBOX: 20

BRAIN JAR INBOX: 17

BRAIN JAR SUBMISSION QUEUE: 5

RECENT READING

March tends to be the month where I catch up on romance reading, and I’ve been powering my way through a ten-novel boxed set I picked up a few months back. The highlight so far is Sarina Bowen’s The Year We Fell Down (not a surprise, as I’d loved her True North series back in 2020, but hadn’t clicked it was the same author).

RECENT VIEWING

I caught David Leitch’s Bullet Train on the streams yesterday, and was immediately charmed by its clear-sighted dedication to the movie it wanted to be. Back in the 90s, I was an enormous fan of Robert Rodriguez’s Desperado, a low-budget action film in which Antonio Banderas goes on a rampage to get revenge for… well, if I’m honest, the plot to Desperado is rather flimsy. What makes it work is its commitment to highly stylised action blending neo-western themes with Hong Kong action influences. The story is weak, but the film is dazzling and aesthetically different to everything else on the market.

Bullet Train reminds me of Desperado in all the right ways, a melange of styles and storylines that weave together. There’s a precision to it on the plotting level – what plot there is is flimsy and improbable, but it’s also not the point. The action and whip-smart dialogue is the point, and the improbable elements of the plot are plastered over with an impeccable commitment to internal consistency. In a world where many films seem mystified by the basics of Chekhov’s gun, Bullet Train introduces an arsenal of plot devices and weaves them together with utter confidence.