Hi y’all!
This is the last newsletter of the year so I’m sharing a few things I enjoyed in 2023. For fun, all the drawings below have been done with my non-dominant hand apart from the colouring and most of the text.
Books
These two books are fun and also very satisfyingly encapsulate the kind of stuff I want to make. There are so many illustrations in these books that make me go up to whoever is around and say “haha look at this.”
Shout out to Type Books in Toronto where I picked up both of these without having heard about either before.
The Unfortunate Life of Worms by Noemi Vola
A weird, fun, delightful book that’s also beautifully designed (it has pink painted edges!). I initially couldn’t tell what age range this book was aimed at. Not that it matters, as an adult who likes children’s books. Skimming through the table of contents made me think it might be a non-fiction book with facts told in a fun way. And I guess that’s somewhat true, but it also turns into a story partway through. I still can’t really describe this book accurately but I sure did enjoy it.
The Jewish Deli by Ben Nadler
This book combines 2 things I love: food culture and illustration/comics. As the title makes obvious, it focuses on the Jewish deli and explores its food, history, and culture. I’m not fully done reading this but it has yet to disappoint and I’ve learned lots of fun facts like why brisket became such a staple cut of meat. It is mind-boggling to think about how much work must have gone into this book and how it only retails for $25 USD.
Movies
Past Lives
There’s a lot of praise for this movie already so I’m not going to be adding a lot of original viewpoints here. But I will say that I had to stay in the theatre for a bit after the credits rolled because I kept crying. And not in an everything-is-so-sad kind of way, but rather in an emotions-and-people-are-so-complex-and-it’s-beautiful-and-bittersweet kind of way. In its understated and gentle nature, it reminds me of my #1 favourite movie, Weekend directed by Andrew Haigh.
Ninjababy
There are a lot of movies about unexpected pregnancies but this Norwegian one in particular really resonated. It might be partly because I’ve mostly solidified my feelings in the past few years about having or not having kids and thought more about the privilege of having agency and choice in your life. It’s also special to me because the main character is an artist, and her drawings are incorporated into the movie as a way of showing her thoughts, including the Ninjababy character.
This movie is based on a graphic novel by Inga H Sætre (whose drawings are in the movie, I believe). So there are multiple levels of “wouldn’t it be cool to be involved in making something like this?” for me.
Games
PlateUp!
I am a big fan of both time management games and food-related games. I love the Overcooked franchise and have replayed it enough to have 4-starred most levels and completed all levels on multiple devices. PlateUp! provides a different kind of replay-ability since it’s not fixed levels and it’s different each time you play. Steam says I’ve played over 100 hours and the large majority of that was me playing solo.
One more thing
The resurgence of Nanalan’
Nanalan’ is a kids’ show from Canada that originally aired as shorts in the early ‘00s. As a kid from that era, there’s definitely some nostalgic joy for me when seeing clips of this show, but seeing so many memes around it lately makes me happy in a different way. The idea that these puppeteers and creators made something with such adorable characters that resonate with people decades later is just such a delight.
I am particularly obsessed with the following clip of Mona being upset.
That’s all for now!
I hope you have a good end of year, however you spend it.
As always, thanks for reading!
I loved Past Lives too!! It really stays with you. Also added Ninja Baby to my list :)