Riding The Waves of The Silly Ocean: SU&SD Newsletter #42

Matt: Woof bang pow, what a couple of months we’ve had! It’s  always been true that having fun is the fuel that makes the engine of  Shut Up & Sit Down quietly roar, but over the past few months I  think we’ve actually begun running the risk of having TOO MUCH FUN.

I never allow myself to ruminate on critical comments online, but  I’ve definitely taken note from the handful of people who’ve felt that -  in the reviews led by me specifically - the critical eye has sometimes  been lost in a flurry of silly and whimsical antics.

This  is almost definitely true! But I can’t say I’m willing to feel terribly  bad about that? Adding a new burst of different energy to the team has  absolutely revived some of the early-SU&SD levels of silliness, and  while you can all be assured that I’ll be looking to better balance out  the flippant with the sharp in our future work - and I think you’ll see  that in our upcoming review of Nemesis - but honestly? I’ve been having  far too much fun to be able to apologise sincerely for this short run of  gentle madness.

On a serious note, I think it’s this push and pull between  different styles of working that keeps the energy of what we do alive -  after years of increasingly deeper diving into digital effects and  greenscreen, I’m now embracing doing stuff physically - playing with  lighting, leaning more heavily on physical props and costumes. In the  same regard, I wouldn’t be surprised if a few months from now the energy  that we add to reviews will have shifted to being slightly too  straight-laced, and serious. You never know what the future holds, but  currently it holds a big bin called barry.

After  years of trying to tweak our work to shift it closer to the “perfect”  position, I’m increasingly recognising that this is an endless,  impossible task: our styles and tastes will always be in flux, and try  as we might to effectively tame that - it’s probably better to accept  whatever energy is currently available, and with that also accept that  the viewers of our work will equally find their love for it in a  constant state of flux.

But on the topic of constants? Here's a little secret: This year on  Shut Up & SIt Down I've made it my mission to have a new video  going up, every single Wednesday. I feel a little bit nervous even  telling you this! We might not manage it! We might horribly fail! But I  think it's not an impossible task, and I'd love to see this year be the  one where we achieve both quality and some consistency. Will it work? I HAVE NO IDEA.

I’ve no idea what the shape of things will be by the end of 2020,  but I’m fascinated and excited to see how things evolve as our newest  addition to the team - Tom Brewster - finds his feet within the role,  works out his dynamic within the team, and begins to develop his voice  as a critic. He’s a great lad, and I’m very excited to be working with  him! Without further ado, I’ll be passing on the remainder of the  newsletter to Mr Tom himself. Take something away, Tom!

Tom: Hello! It's me! Tom! The new one! Matt's use  of my fictional voice in the last newsletter is a tough act to follow,  but nevertheless I'll attempt to recreate that magic with my own,  nonfictional, real voice. Here goes...

Hello!

It's been a mad couple of months! My application video for the  internship programme was quite the technical disaster, so I've mostly  been trying to fold my brain around the deluge of new information, tips,  tricks, et and cetera that go into producing internet content. You may  have noticed that video quality has been slightly better recently!  That's because I've been taking a first pass at some of the edits that  have been hitting YouTube over the past few months…

...and Matt has seen the mess I've made, shaken his head, and shaped then into something less horrifying to atone for my sins.

I’ve never been a huge performer, so being in videos has been a  weird trip through the inner annals of my own brain. To that end, thank  you to everyone who has left a nice supportive comment about anything  I've been involved with so far - it's made those nerves feel almost  worryingly conquerable. I count myself incredibly lucky to work for a  company with such a wholesome and charming community around it -  especially one that’s more ready than I am to forgive my many dozens of  shortcomings.

What are we watching? 📺

Tom: HAAAAAARK! I finally got to see The Lighthouse after seemingly a million years of anticipaton. Does it live up to the  hype? Yes? No? I don’t really remember - me and my pals pre-empted the  screening with some “thematically appropriate beverages”. I seem to  remember very much appreciating the craft of it. Or something like that.

I also watched Uncut Gems and was blown away by  quite how much that film made me care about a basketball game. The  soundtrack is also gorgeous and has accompanied many writing sessions -  including these words, right now!

Matt: I really enjoyed Uncut Gems, although wish I  hadn't been so anxious and stressed before I sat down to watch it - it  was a little bit like being trapped in a nightmare? Adam Sandler  features in most of my nightmares, so thankfully his inclusion here  wasn't jarring.

My shout out this month would be for the TV show Mr Robot - a  stylish and unusual bit of work that gets quite incredibly weak during  Season 2, but finds itself again and returns to form in a way that is  increasingly spectacular. The fourth and final season truly nails the  ending in a way that most shows can only dream of - cementing itself as  one of my all-time favourites.

What are we music!  🎵

Matt: This month I've been revisiting a lot of Car Seat Headrest - always a marvellously intense, noisy time. Mostly though I've been  doing a ton of writing for a big and exciting potential upcoming  SU&SD project - so instrumental goodies have been the name of the  game. Justice's self-titled album is still a certified banger, and the soundtrack to the impeccable Watchmen TV show is fabulous.

Tom: Most  of my recent listening is debris from a ferocious 2019 backlog, but  with trickles of 2020 slipping through the cracks. I've been enjoying  the rough, bluesy charm of Bill Orcutt's Odds Against Tomorrow as late night train music, and the genre-agnostic stylings of SAULT's 5 as an early morning energiser. In-between? Lashings of Deafkids, a band  described by Iggor Cavalera of Sepultura as 'Motörhead on acid'. Okay  Motörhead were already on acid, well more on speed... but Deafkids, it's  more trippy. They're not so aggressive, it's more groovy. Like  Motörhead on Ayahuasca'. There's a cultish, fevered atmosphere to their  music, where each track of the album slinks into the next, vocal phrases  roaring out of walls of static in between lurching guitarwork and  thundering rhythms. It’s music to rattle yr bones.

What are we video games!  🎮

Tom: A  Switch has been an invaluable asset on the hefty commute from  Southampton - and Dragon Quest Builders 2 is a wonderfully chunky  time-filler. It’s a creative game where you can plonk perfectionist  tendencies to one side, and have a chuckle at how your townsfolk are  seemingly content with a roofless village. The world of Dragon Quest is  one that I've been eager to spend more time in since the hundreds of  hours I sank into DQIX whilst I was but a child doing the school. I’m  eager to take the plunge and get the full version, because I’m currently  nine hours into the demo. Also on the games front, I’ve been fully  absorbed by Cook, Serve, Delicious! 2!! And Cook, Serve, Delicious! 3!?,  punctuation and all. They’re ferociously addictive games that demand  perfection in a way that I can never fully deliver. It’s like life in  microcosm.

Matt: I think I'm now getting quite bored of The Witcher 3, perhaps it's time  I threw in the towel and broadly accepted that while I have a lot of  fun with the stories, I simply don't like big open-world games? I think  the ideal for me is grand but deeply contained, focussed worlds.  Divinity Original Sin 2 on Switch has a lot to explore, but I'm  comfortable - in fact, encouraged - to hoover up absolutely all of it.  The other game I think about a lot is the most recent God of War - what a  gorgeous rollercoaster in an epic-seeming, relatively tiny world.

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