Music is great, Starbucks is great...

Here we are at the end of 2023. What a year, right? Things sure did happen, et cetera.

I am writing this as a means of convincing myself it's okay to leave my Christmas decorations up one more day.

I watched the Robbie Williams docuseries on Netflix yesterday. It was about what you'd expect if you ever listened to Robbie's songwriting--a collision of talent, self-effacement, ego, and self-destructive tendencies. I was bummed to see he said some stupid shit about P1zzagat3 in 2020, but seeing as how it seemed to end there in the Internet search history options, perhaps he got himself out of that particular manic episode where he was engaging in Q garbage. Anyway I'm now enjoying a day full of Britpop--not just Robbie, but Travis and Oasis and whatever else Amazon Music sees fit to recommend.

I also watched Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, mostly because Edgar Wright was on an episode of Comedy Bang Bang and also made a surprise appearance on U Springin' Springsteen on my Bean, and I had such a good experience watching Digman!, another Plugs/Aukerman Cinematic Universe promotion. Results: Scott Pilgrim is definitely a thing I watched. I am very obviously not steeped in the graphic novels, nor in early video game lore or anime tropes or or or... to have been really tickled by it. I thought it was fun that Kevin McDonald voiced a director. Boy, you'll never miss his voice. Oh, and Simon Pegg and Nick Frost voice security guards who are a riff on their Hot Fuzz characters. That was fun. I should just get around to watching Last Night in Soho like Kate and Mike told me to a few years ago.

On Christmas Day, for the first time in ages, I didn't have family obligations of one stripe or another, so at 5PM, I went to a showing of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. What a blast to see it in a theater for the first time with a crowd--there were probably about 30 folks or so laughing it up. This was a part of a larger noir festival that is split between a few theaters here in the Twin Cities area. Tonight I might go back to the Trylon and see Strange Days. It's at 7:30, which would put me back home at 10:15 or so, which seems ENTIRELY too late for a person who has managed to be in bed by 9:30 or so the last two weeks. But it is New Year's Eve. Maybe I owe it to myself to exit my house and sort of pretend to engage with the celebratory/social aspect of this semi-holiday.

Also, seeing Kiss Kiss Bang Bang gave me a big nostalgic clip reel of memories about Yuletides past. I really loved reading KKBB fic one of those years. I think it was before Yuletide moved away from Yahoo! Groups (because Yahoo! Groups folded up shop, right? Who can keep track of all the various structural collapses in our soc med landscape).

In a few weeks, I will manage to surpass the age my mom was when she died. It's a thing I've thought about these past few months, but I don't know that I've had thoughts of much depth beyond "Wow, that's something." It makes me think of how young she was when she became a parent and how young she was when she died. 46 is a short complete life. I don't feel like I've really cracked the code on being a functional adult, or at least on my report card, I have some definite barely passing grades mixed in with the As, y'know? I'd like to get better at it as I go along.