CONSUMED - June '23
I Ain't Quite Where I Think I Am
Hi, and welcome to any new subscribers!
This newsletter is very close to hitting a very exciting milestone so if you love it, please share with anyone else you think may love it too.
Anyway, enough of me being greedy, let me talk about myself instead.
This month I read my 60th book for the year. I’d lie if I didn’t say that once I was close to this number, I wanted to hit it. In last month’s Consumed, I stated that The Tokyo Express by Seicho Matsumoto was my favourite book of the year (so far) but I am completely intoxicated by Andrea Camilleri’s Inspector Montalbano series, which inspired this piece here. According to a list I keep in my diary, in this past 6 months, I have read 17 of them, seven of which were this month. I get a lot of questions about how I read so much, or comments on the fact I must read so quickly. Both are true. Like a lot of people, my relationship with reading goes through many phases and changes. I am currently in a pro-reading phase. I am no longer studying, I am not trying to decorate a house, I am familiar with the curriculum I teach, even if I play around with it*, and, most importantly I prioritise reading. I pick up books instead of my phone, I announce I’m reading in the same way people announce they’re going to the shops, and I’ll watch one episode less if it means I get to go to bed earlier to read.
Besides my Montalbano favourites, this past June I read my first ever Cormac McCarthy book. This was hard. All The Pretty Horses is slow and grim and peppered with Spanish. This was lent to me by my sister, and I felt that this kept me accountable. I liked it, I’ve never read any Americana literature before. Maybe I’ll get really into it? I’m going to finish the trilogy.
Now to the bad news, I was unsuccessful in getting tickets for any of Taylor Swift’s Melbourne shows. Something that has upset me, because hardly anyone I know got tickets, so who got them? I am annoyed with Taylor and the machine that exists around her. I’ll get over it, but not yet, right now I am anti-Taylor and anti-TikTok for making everyone feel like they need to go to this Eras tour. Let the real fans live!**
I have been listening to Vampire by Olivia Rodrigo on repeat and re-appreciating Beyonce and everything she has to give us.
I’m struggling to remember anything I’ve watched this past month. I got back into Unforgotten, a fictional show about police solving cold cases, and started The King’s Land, a K-Drama, a genre I haven’t watched in ages. Black Mirror is something I avoid because I feel like it could come true. I did watch Joan is Awful though, it freaked me out so then I turned my phone off till the next morning. Powerful stuff. My friend gave me a list if episodes to watch so I’ll watch them in between the British crime dramas. I started The Clearing and left it, ditto, I Know This Much Is True and Jury Duty.
Content that shows the behind-the-scenes organisation or process of work is content I get behind. With this in mind, I was toying up writing about the process of planning for a semester of media classes***, because when I’m in the process I think it’s interesting but then I realise it’s probably not. Anyway, you tell me. But briefly, I have been planning the next semester of teaching, a process which happens continuously as I have a Bookmark folder called ‘Media resources’, a notes app on my phone and post-it notes pretty much everywhere. When I get down to planning it means I finally read articles to see if they’re worth using, follow up on experts, and read the books I got on a whim thinking they would be helpful. This means I’ve read excerpts of Everything, All The Time, Everywhere: How We Became Post-Modern, watched episodes of the totally surreal Deep Fake Neighbour Wars on SBS and numerous texts on Fan Culture including Everything I Need I Get From You, Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma, and the article, The Fangirlification of Formula 1.
I always write Consumed at the end of the month, and I feel like my attitude towards content and media has changed in the last week or so, something that will probably be more accurately reflected in next month’s instalment. I’m trying to put my finger on how to articulate this, but I feel excited about it.
This past month I feel I have been in autopilot with my consumption, to the point where writing about it felt like somewhat of a shopping list. Regardless, I hope you enjoyed it!
As always, I’d love to hear what you’ve been consuming, but I appreciate we’re not there as a community, however if you’d like to comment, I’d love it, and I’m sure others would too.
*I’m self-conscious you’ll think I teach the same thing year in and out.
** This is a whole controversial kettle of fish.
*** I am currently planning Year 11 and 12 VCE Media.