Hello, welcome to my blog. It’s rarely updated but as I’ve become increasingly disillusioned with social media, this will be one of the very few places I post anything.
For years I’ve only been using Twitter as my social media of choice only touching Meta/Facebook/Instagram as needed to communicate with family. Since the takeover and rebranding of Twitter it’s become increasingly bad. First they took the first party apps, then they reinstated the racists and bigots, then they made verified accounts and checkmarks pointless and now it seem to automatically flick over to the “For you” tab that seems to be dedicated to highlighting the racists and bigots. Just now I was watching a video posted by someone I follow, when it ended it instantly started to play a video of a man violently attacking a woman. I’m done with it.
So now if I do have the need to post something it’ll be here on my trusty old self hosted WordPress blog. I’ll also be posting and following on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/theville.co.uk
As a millenial I’ve grown up with the internet. From first seeing it at David Bulmer’s house in the early 90’s, to learning to code in the .com boom to being an “expert” with my liveihood being solely support by my internet based work. Early social media was an amazingly fun way to connect with fellow weirdos all over the world. I’ve met so many friends online and have to thank it for my family too. But it has been corrupted, for money, for influence and for power. The world is undoubtly a worse place for it. I urge people to seriously consider their social media use. I highly recommend “Ten arguments for deleting your social media accounts right now” by Jaron Lanier. I read it a few years ago now and I seriously cut down on my social media. It was written before the current AI boom which has and is hypercharging many of the bad things about social media. Misinformation & Disinformation are huge problems, even more so when combined with news and politics. If we can’t agree on an objective reality, then we are lost.
So yeah, that’s that.
Meanwhile, I’m getting into field recording. Soon I’ll be posting some recordings of places I’ve ending up whilst trapsing around the country side. Going outside and getting lost is quite fun.
As many of us start to have some time off and do the usual christmas things. I thought I’d share my favourite TV and films of the year, things that I’m sure many haven’t watched but you really should!
Not a family friendly list at all so 15+. Generally, I recommend seeing them blind without watching the trailer (especially the films) as that’s how I saw many of these myself and the discovery and surprise only added to the delight. But I’ve included them below if you’re interested. Some might be from not 2022 but I saw them this year and it’s my list, so there.
Obviously, I whole hearted recommend watching previous season to catch up on any of these that are a season or two deep already.
I’ve put where you can find each thing, films that aren’t on streaming service I recommend renting. For £3.50-£5 from wherever is easiest for you and all of these are well worth it. Use https://www.justwatch.com/uk/ to find the best prices or if it’s streaming. I suppose there’s other ways of obtaining things too.
Based on the excellent book (which I also recommend), an emotional rollercoaster about life in the NHS. Important, Funny, Life Affirming, Soul Destroying. Should be shown before every election.
No Force, no Jedi, no Sith, no lightsabers. Just great story telling about the issues of today set in the Star Wars universe. Some of the best writing, acting and cinematography not just in a Star Wars show but on TV this year.
Adapted from the 1992 film it’s a period sports comedy drama about the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League formation in 1943. It diverges from the original with it’s greater focus on race and sexuality with great affect.
Probably my favourite film of the year. I’ve purposely not included the trailer as I saw it blind and it added so much to the experience. Looking at the trailers in hindsight, they certainly would have spoilt so much. Carnivalesque (thanks Ruth x) is the pertfect word.
Martin McDonagh’s (In Bruges, Three Billboard, Seven Psychopaths) latest doesn’t disappoint. Beautifully set in 1920’s Ireland and wonderful beak dark comedy about friendship and masculinity.
Just a damn good example of why films are excellent. Takes a tricky, taboo subject of sex and sex work and humanises it through great writing and acting.
The scariest film this year? Alex Garland (The Beach, 28 Days Later, Annihilation) makes a terrifying and probably divisive comment on toxic masculinity and women’s safety.
George Miller (Mad Max, Babe, Happy Feet) tells the Genie in a bottle story you think you’re so familiar with in a new way. With Tilda Swinton and Idris Elba front and center what else do you need?
A masterpiece from the Daniels. Multiverse’s have been the talk of the town recently but the idea hasn’t be explored as clearly and imaginatively as this. Sci-fi, Kung-fu, fantasy, black comedy.
8 Months later here’s another one! Yeah, I’m not great at sticking to new projects.
I must say it’s been a hectic time, been very busy with work and the world just seems to get crazier. We’re currently still in the mad throws of the Brexit nonsense, I went on the ‘Put it to the people’ march a week or two ago, it was massive, they say a million (or much more, or much less – because that’s the way the world is now) people were on the streets. I marched for 6 hours and still didn’t even get to Trafalgar Square, let alone parliament. It felt good to be surrounded by people who feel the same way as you, it felt like I got my old country back for a few hours and really lifted my spirits.
Needless to say, the whole thing is a mess. I genuinely fear what the country is becoming and I hope it gets put back to the people so we can stop it doing anymore damage to ourselves, but it’s hard to make predictions. The world is moving extremely fast at the moment. Either way I think there’ll be relief for the whole country once something has finally happened, one way or the other.
In other news, I’m starting a new project (hopefully it’ll go better than keeping an up to date blog). I’m going to start building some synths and various electronic instruments. My soldering isn’t amazing, nor is my electronics knowhow, I know a few things about synths but that’s part of the aim of the project, to learn as I do. As Modular Synthesizers can cost big bucks and inspired by Look Mum No Computer I’m going to just build some stuff with cheap parts and try to reuse unwanted things! I’ll try and blog about it soon once I’ve actually built something that works. I promise.
Hello new blog reader, so what are we doing here? I’m Ashley, I hated English as a subject at school and now I’m writing to help get brain things out. I think this is going to be a good idea.
To be honest, I’ve no idea about what I’m going to write about yet (well one or two things). Probably about the thoughts I’m having about the future, politics and technology. As that’s what I’ve been reading a lot about recently (which is probably another thing I’ll write about).
I’m not writing with an audience in mind, probably the best way to think of this is as a journal that’s online. I won’t be sharing it on social media, I won’t be promoting it in any way but if you want to share it, you can. You’ve probably found it because I sent you an email and you’ve checked out my domain ‘theville.co.uk’. It was registered years ago and I’ve used it as my personal domain and email, there have been multiple sites hosted on this domain, other blogs, my tumblr, some basic sites I made. But they are all of the past and this is the latest edition. Hopefully, I’ll use it more than I did those.
