March 2021 Recommended

Published on: April 7, 2021

#posts #link round up

This is a bit late because of Easter. Spring is in the air, the tulips have taken over from the daffodils and freedom feels tantalisingly close.

Here's some things I liked in March:

Game

Howling Dogs is a text based game that you can play in your browser. Starting slow and routine, it soon expands into something much more bizarre. It's short, but packed full of interesting, strange situations and poetry that it will stick with you for a long time.

Books

Sandman Overture by Neil Gaiman & J.H. Williams III is essential reading for anyone who has read the original Sandman series. Overture expands on the saga in several ways, most notably by turning it into a space opera. It's fantastic story telling and the art is incredible, pushing the boundary of what comics can do.

On poetry, (re)construction of the necromancer by Hannah V. Warren is a grizzly retelling of Hansel and Gretel. It's vivid and disturbing, while never losing the rhythms of myth, the endless retellings of the same story and what that does to a person. It's free as well, go download it here.

Film

The Favourite is a period drama unlike any other. It's filmed with lots of fish eye lenses, making it seem like you are in the corner of the luxurious rooms, watching the goings on at Queen Anne's court. It's intense, strange and unnerving in the best ways, a deconstruction of the aristocracy and pomp and circumstance.

Music

Divide and dissolve is pure noise, a distillation of anger. They are using this genre to explore the theft and destruction of aboriginal land and society, a perfect marriage of genre and message. The band are something really special.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2debIKLYt5U

The new Arab Strap album is surprisingly upbeat for such miserable subject matter. It's summed up in the caption in the video below: "Ominous guitar music builds, with disco beats." I've never paid the band much attention but I think that will change now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4CN6sxDvr0

Hope you have a good April. In other news, I'm one of the finalists for the Lyra slam, happening Sunday 18th April. I can't really believe it. There's some amazing artists competing, so get your tickets here.

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