July 2026 movie/music/etc recap
Another busy July on my end, even if I got some vacations during that month. Though most of the reason why was Artfight! Which got an extension until tomorrow because of downtime at the start of the event. I'll be soon free of this drawing hell (positive).
I'm joking but I genuinely love this event for the main reason that it makes me draw a lot, which is something I don't do anymore outside of it. And this makes me fall in love with art again every time! I need to find a way to capitalize on that and keep drawing once the event is done; I've tried a few times with different approaches for the last few years, but I haven't found one that sticks yet. Routines don't work for me, but I need to find a way to get drawing even just 10-20min every day, and make it as frictionless as possible.
And yeah I just said routines don't work even though I watch a movie every week end (or listen to an album every day), but that's a rule, not a routine. Like I have to make a dedicated effort (even if it's not much) to decide what to watch and sit my ass down and stay more or less invested in it.
SGDQ 2026
Another nice event to watch all week long! Not much to say, it's always so nice to see people having fun playing/breaking video games for a good cause, and the GDQ community is great. As usual, some cool runs:
Fun runs:
- Hey You, Pikachu! Discovery Days Race by Burnt_Bowser and Bird650, "Ah."
- Snoopy 9 Loops by Msushi
- American Idol Low% by MetroidCrime, BrokenVoice%
Tech runs:
- SSX Tricky All Races (No Major Glitches) by junior_sm, always cool to see some of the best snowboard games being run
- Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix Randomizer — Hitlist Co-op by SpikeVegeta and ZakTheRobot; I love watching KH runs because the tech is insanely precise, and really good to see on screen
- Super Mario 64 120 Star TAS presented by Palix, I love tool assisted speedruns and this one is great to watch
Movie
The Raid (2011)
It's basically a movie-length action scene and it's pretty good, exhausting but good. It's gritty, the camera does a really good job following the action with all the agitation-ness of it while still being pretty clean, and fighting scenes are really, really well done. The plot was serviceable but to be honest, I didn't really care about it, I was there for the action. Good film!
The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun (2021)
This was a lovely compilation of stories! With quite the cast as well.
I know Wes Andersen sur-Andersen this movie but I will EAT every scene and every composition of it anyway. I love his sets so much! Makes me feel I'm watching a theater play every time and I'm loving it.
Anyway yeah I had a great time and I loved how everything is presented in such a delicate, art loving way and it just makes you want to create art as well. Or at least it did for me!
The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
Yeah I went with another of Wes Andersen's movie right after the last one, sue me. (Well, not right after, but the week end after, same difference)
I was locking in Artfight and drawing while having this movie in the background so I definitely missed some good stuff but I really liked it anyway. I was a bit so-so at first but the characters and story grew on me, until that one scene around the middle that made it real. That and the ending ties everything together really well and it ended up being a really good movie. I love the way Andersen writes his characters.
Music
The habitual list of albums I liked from 1001 Albums this month, with quite a few things from my child/teenager years this time:
- Iron Maiden's eponymous album
- The Doors's eponymous album (bis)
- Hybrid Theory by Linkin Park (Meteora was my album from them when I was a teenager, but HT is still pretty awesome)
- Fever Ray's eponymous album (ter)
- Seventh Tree by Goldfrapp (I still consider Allison Goldfrapp to be one of the few "pop" singers who can really sing high notes well. Also shoutout to the song July which is so lovely that 15 years or so ago I named a character of mine after it, and both still rule after all this time)
- The Atomic Mr Basie by Count Basie & His Orchestra
Also I've been watching the TV show Black Sails and its opening is incredible on both music and visual levels. Hurdy gurdy my beloved
(I also love the name hurdy gurdy, it's such a cool gritty word for that instrument. Vielle à roue is cool too in french but it's a bit too melodic of a term for the sounds it can produce ahah)