Tuesday News 11/02/2020

It’s been a while since I wrote one of those, so, of course, things happened.

Or didn’t. There was nothing really exciting, and after all the excitement of the last year, it’s not a bad thing.

So, what did happen since the last September?

Dobrosav “Bob” Živković (Bob is usually enough, pretty much everyone around here knows who he is, his illustrations and caricatures are famous and there are many of us who grew up with them) had a retrospective exhibition, and it was awesome to see so many of his works in one place. It was also awesome to see teachers bringing their students, and the kids really enjoying themselves.

Here’s one of Bob’s illustrations

You can see one of the illustrations on the top of this post, and another one above, and here’s another one:

And another one:

And another one, and I better stop with these now:

Then, of course, there was the Belgrade Book Fair in October, and I bought way too many books. Again. Here’s one of the photos, but that’s just a part of it; I bought 70+ books (and I’ve read 30+ since then):

Books and comics! Yay!

Before that, there was the International Comics Festival, so of course I bought something there, too…yes, I know, I should stop buying too much. I also read a lot, does that count?

And other than that? There’s freelancing, of course, though that has slowed down to a crawl. There’s also reading (The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin was really interesting, I’ve greatly enjoyed Wundersmith: The Calling of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend, Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik was enchanting, Monstress by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda is still gorgeous, to mention just a few), and there’s binge-watching of various series, and not just series.

I Lost My Body, for example, has an unusual concept, and manages to be melancholic in spite of it. Do watch it!

As for the series, I’ve watched:

• Carnival Row (sort of like migrant crisis, but in fantasy setting and with fantasy beings; Guillermo del Toro was supposed to work on it, and it shows),
• The Witcher (not happy with the choice for the role of Geralt, but overall, the series turned out fine),
• Downton Abbey (always lovely),
• The Boys (if you think you’ve got enough of superhero deconstruction and that you don’t need another one, watch this one and you’ll see that you do),
• Euphoria (wonderful and sad and fun and perhaps it won’t be easy for you to watch teenagers destroying themselves and the adults not being helpful),
• Big Little Lies (if you want to enjoy in a bunch of good actors in one place, this is a good choice),
• Dracula (also called Dracula 2020, the new BBC mini-series, done by the same people who did Sherlock with Benedict Cumberbatch; I loved it; wonderful British humor, and Dracula is finally not an unhappy romantic in love, but a cheerful psychopath; oh, and there’s sister Agatha Van Helsing, and she’s awesome),
• Mandalorian (people love baby Yoda, and it’s super-cute, but to me, the humor and pretty much everything else seems to be targeting little kids, and not in a good way),
• Castle Rock (I liked the first season better, but the second one wasn’t bad, either),
• The Good Place (in the afterlife, you go either to The Good Place or to The Bad Place; the man character gets into The Good Place, but she immediately realizes that she was mistaken for someone else (it’s in the very beginning, so not a spoiler), and desperately tries to avoid being sent to The Bad Place; and it’s only the beginning, this comedy series develops into a lot more, and is actually a really good series about ethics),
• His Dark Materials (a YA fantasy series made after the books of Philip Pullman, but he treats his young readers as very, very smart, and it shows in the series (where he happens to be the executive producer) too. Now, it can be somewhat confusing if you haven’t read the books, but it’s all nicely explained by the end of the season),
• What We Do in the Shadows (a hilarious mockumentary with vampires),
• Peaky Blinders (pretty good and very enjoyable for those who love British crime series),
• Messiah (an interesting one, interesting premise, good actors, would have been a lot better with better storytelling; they’ve really wasted a lot of awesome opportunities), and
• Altered Carbon (the second season is coming soon, yay!).

Well, that’s it for today. Hopefully it won’t take me forever to write the next one.