Hi everyone!
After the wonderful holidays and Interrail trip, May has been a month of rest, of mostly low energy, and of staying at home and trying not to go anywhere. I didn’t read much (compared to usual, that is), and my days were very filled between my job, my freelancing for Hylé (a great startup that just closed its seed round), and life in general
My knee is doing much better than a few months ago, and I’ve only had pain a few times this month (I also didn’t walk nearly as much, which probably helped). My physical therapist is wonderful and I’m very hopeful that I’ll be able to carry the Olympic flame on June 20!
Finally, I did a lot of triage this month. When I came back from my trip and imported a month’s worth of reading highlights, I saw that I had 1034 reading notes to process in total − and about 600 that I have processed since I started keeping reading notes in 2020. So after bragging about my Obsidian notes process, I decided to tackle this giant list and I’m happy to say that I’ve processed 140 notes this month. With new notes added during the month, this brings me down to 917, which is much better already − I’m hoping to never go above 1000 again, thank you very much. Having 500 at the end of the year would be really cool!
Also, can you believe I’ve been doing these recaps for an entire year? Because I cannot!
What I’ve read / Texte
📚 Books / Livres
I was a bit tired recently and did not write any book reviews. Tant pis !
Here are the books I liked.
In English
- Fiction
- Enter Ghost, Isabella Hammad
- Don’t forget the girl, Rebecca McKanna
En français
- Fiction
- Nickel Boys, de Colson Whitehead
- En compagnie des hommes, Véronique Tadjo
- Trois, Valérie Perrin
- Non-fiction
- Python, Nathalie Azoulai, which might be fiction but doesn’t feel like it and I’m too lazy to check
🔍 Papers / Articles académiques
En français
- BOUVARD Hugo, DAZEY Margot, « Un républicanisme minoritaire Responsables associatifs musulmans et élus homosexuels face à la doxa républicaine », Sociologie, 2024/1 (Vol. 15), p. 7-25.
📰 News and blog posts / Articles
In English
- How deregulation destroyed indie rock across America, on LitHub
- 67 Questions Your Neurodivergent and Socially Anxious Friend Has About Your Party, on Autostraddle
- Capitalists hate capitalism, on Locus
- Real People, Real Pain: On the Ethics of Telling True Stories of Trauma, on LitHub
En français
- 🔏 « La Silicon Valley a un rôle éminemment politique », Médiapart
- Comment les « low tech » se font une place en France, The Conversation
- 🔏 Constance Vilanova, journaliste : « Téléspectateur ou non, tout le monde a subi l’influence de la télé-réalité », Le Monde
- Waly Dia, humoriste, et Olivia Gazalé, philosophe : « Pour faire rire, il faut transgresser. Mais c’est aussi ce qui peut offenser », Libération
What I’ve watched / Vidéo
🎞 Movies / Films
Coming back and not feeling like reading, I spent more time on the couch than usual, watching no less than three movies, which brings my 2024 total to 9.
- Dodgeball has not aged well. The parts that aged well are incredibly funny, though.
- Priscilla was wonderful.
- Wakanda Forever was too long and very Marvel-y but as enjoyable as a Marvel movie gets these days, I think.
📺 TV Shows / Séries
- I binge-watched Mare of Easttown by HBO, 1 season, 7 × 1 hour.
- I made serious progress on Star Trek: The Next Generation, notably finishing season 3.
- My partner and I caught up on Abbott’s Elementary and are eagerly awaiting season 4.
- Since we’re all caught up on Abbott’s Elementary, we started watching Girls5Eva, which is deeply cringe and kinda cute and, most importantly, has Busy Phillips in it. I think it will be our go-to now.
📷 Online video / Vidéos en ligne
In English
- How conservatives created (and cancelled) gender [1:34:57]. It’s on Youtube.
- The truth about « industry plants » [52:19]. It has a YouTube version.
- The tragic missed potential of sucker punch [38:28]. It has a YouTube version.
- The commentary crisis is about white people doing commentary on black culture [1:19:25]. It has a YouTube version (censored).
En français
- Faut-il réguler les influenceurs ? parle de l’affaire des NFT et du film PLUSH. [39:17]
- Faut qu’on parle des influenceurs et de l’argent va un peu plus loin dans la réflexion du moment [21:12]
- T’as déjà vu Buffy, tueuse de vampires ? parle du film Buffy et est très rigolo. [25:04]
- Pourquoi on retraduit des livres ? [20:27]
What I’ve listened to / Audio
🎤 Podcasts
In English
- Gender Reveal:
- 17 advice questions with Mckenzee Griffler
- Checking in with Jules Gill-Peterson
- Solarpunk Presents: Solarpunk, Lunarpunk, Crypto, & Web3
- 99% invisible:
- Upstream: Battling the Duopoly with Jill Stein
- You’re wrong about: Rose Parks with Princess Weekes
- If books could kill (patreon exclusive): The Columbia protests
En français
- Paroles d’histoire :
- Les Balkans sans les clichés, avec Jean-Arnault Dérens
- Grossesses et avortements sous l’Ancien régime, avec Laura Tatouei
- Des Colonisations (Spectre): Contester les statues #1, Joséphine Cou-Coupé
- Le biais d’Esther Duflo (France Culture): Limiter l’exposition des préados aux écrans, c’est « juste impossible » ?
- Le code a changé (France Inter) : Avec Alain Damasio, on refait la science-fiction (et le monde aussi)
- Un podcast à soi (Arte) : Inventer une thérapie féministe
🎹 Music
I went on a Bandcamp spree, including:
- Un homme et son piano by P’tit Belliveau (album)
- World Still Blue by Rosa Nutty
- The Way You Want by Powderpaint
- Sometimes, Forever by soccer mommy
- Warm Chris by Aldous Harding
- Her by Endless Blue
What I’ve played / Jeux
I thought I’d be playing Stardew Valley 10 hours a day with the 1.6 update, and… I launched it once and got bored after 10 minutes?? Something’s wrong with me.
Where I’ve been / Lieux
My main nice thing this past month has been going to Le 102, an anarchist space in Grenoble, where I saw a really cute and cozy concert and took part in a lovely writing workshop. It was all very warm and queer.