This week’s round-up includes supporting England in the men’s FIFA World Cup; denouncing purists when it comes to The Odyssey; getting nostalgic in gaming with Lost Records: Bloom & Rage and surprisingly enthralled by Resident Evil; and much more.

Television

It’s been so much fun keeping up with the football World Cup this year. England have played admirably, their teammwork the strongest it has been in probably decades. Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham have been definite standouts, beating records and leading the team to third place in the match against France, with Bukayo Saka pulling off a hat trick and Bellingham scoring England’s final goal of the tournament (rightly so). It was painful to lose against Argentina, particularly as they played so dirty in the first half, though we still had Anthony Gordon scoring England’s only goal of the game in that half. Argentina played stronger in the second half and were like a different team, less dirty tactics and more focus on scoring, even if their goals came in the last fifteen minutes of the game. I’ll be rooting for Spain to win the Cup, something that’ll be even more interesting when the tournament comes around again in 2030 and hosted by Spain, Portugal and Morocco. Well done lads, you did us all proud! (I won’t miss waking up for 4am kick-offs, though!)

Film

I recently uploaded my Rocky Film Club to Dawn of the Tapes, and, as always, when I posted my ratings in a TikTok, the “bros” came out in force to have their debates. I don’t generally reply to the comments because I don’t feel the need to engage in non-constructive criticism and ragebait, but there are always one or two that understand film ratings are down to differing opinions, and those are comments I can get on board with. Anyway, if you’re interested, go and check out my ratings and reviews! On the whole I found the Rocky series to be very strong, with the first film becoming one of my favourites of all time, though the Creed films don’t quite match up to the strength of their predecessors.

I have also now begun a foray into my next film club: James Bond. Watch this space!

I am absolutely dying to see Christopher Nolan‘s latest film, The Odyssey, but unfortunately it won’t be available in Korea for another couple of weeks. I believe Nolan himself is coming out to Korea to promote the film on 3rd August alongside Matt Damon and Charlize Theron. I would love to see them but of course it’s all happening during working hours. Anyway, I’m excited to see it in spite of what the purists say…

Literature

…and following on from the film of The Odyssey, I’ve been enjoying Emily Wilson‘s translation, again in spite of what some are saying about it being too modernised in its language, in the knowledge that this is a text that has influenced Christopher Nolan’s film. I have some thoughts about the “controversies”. First of all, what’s wrong in making classics more accessible in the modern age? Isn’t that what translators/interpreters have been doing with language for hundreds of years? How are modern audiences, who are being less and less taught the “classic” languages such as Latin and Greek unless they voluntarily do so, supposed to grasp the meaning, let alone the words, if they cannot understand them? Language moves on, and so must how we translate texts. It does not have to result in loss of meaning, far from it: it preserves the meaning. I like reading various transalations, and I like Wilson’s very much.

Gaming

I have such a backlog of games to play, and I’ve been trying to get through some. I just finished playing Lost Records: Bloom & Rage, mostly because I have a Life is Strange itch to scratch, and it alleviated the itch fairly well. It was a very emotional story, though I think it was a bit bait-and-switch when it came to the supernatural elements. The characters were great, though the dialogue of the main character, Swann, was too on the soft side sometimes, and the vocal performance was, dare I say, more grating than that of Max Caulfield. But I really enjoyed the vibes, both punk and girly, the effort put into the gorgeous scenery, the amazing soundtrack feature Milk & Bone and Ruth Radelet, and the 90s nostalgia, as well as keeping notes on the trophy achievements, as I’m a bit of a completionist in games like this, the more narrative-driven type with collectibles. I’m hoping the devs, Don’t Nod, will do more games and stick with their idea to do a Lost Records series.

For quite some time now I’ve been meaning to play the Resident Evil series from its origins, as it’s a series I’ve never played but have always been very interested in. Recently just about all the games have been on sale for fairly cheap, so I picked up the ones I didn’t yet have and now have an almost full collection. I have started, of course, with the original 1996 game, but the Director’s Cut version that just updates a couple of things. It was rough going at first, getting used to the controls and adjusting to the pixelated and sometimes clunky characters and scenery, but I’d be an awful liar if I said I haven’t been thoroughly enjoying it and have already sunk a few hours into it! I have been following a walkthrough, as I kind of want to get through the first few games with relative ease before getting into the tougher modern remakes and sequels, but I’m very pleasantly surprised with how into the first game I am. I can already see why it got off to such a good start.

I’ve also been super into short horror games since playing Iron Lung a few weeks back. At least, I’ve been trying to find ones worth playing. The Exit 8 was thoroughly awesome, and it’s prequel Platform 8 wasn’t quite on par but was still fun to play. I want to play Backrooms as soon as I can, but I’m looking for more recommendations for similar games!

Life

So, as mentioned last week, I had to take a bit of a break due to health, mainly a migraine. It sucks because migraines are SUCH as goddamn waste of time! Sickness in general is such a waste of time if it forces you to shut everything out. I’m not talking about feeling under the weather but able to lie on the sofa and binge-watch Friends. I’m talking about lying in quiet darkness with nothing but throbbing pain. Anyway, I’ve tried to get back into the swing of things since, but throw in a few existential crises and other issues that have caused some stress and anxiety, and my productivity has plummeted. Maybe that’s why I’ve thrown myself back into gaming. Pure escapism. Luckily I have one week summer vacation coming up, and can hopefully spend some time recalibrating.

A Random Thing I Learned This Week

Have you ever heard of Skeeter Syndrome? I hadn’t until recently. Apparently that’s the name of an allergy to mosquito saliva. I thought everyone swelled up when getting bitten by those little demon bugs, but apparently not. I’ve always had this problem when getting bitten, which happened a lot as a kid/teen. I hadn’t been bitten in years until recently. I heard a buzzing in my room and felt some tickles on my skin. It wasn’t until around 3am that I finally managed to kill the bastarda. I have no idea how she got into my flat, as I live quite high up and have bug guards on the windows, but maybe she hitched a ride on my way home. There’s little I hate more than hearing that buzzing past my ear in the middle of the night. Horrendous. I got one bite on my hand and two on my upper thigh. This was about three weeks ago and I still have round red marks. The swelling is gone, but the evidence is fading very slowly. Also, ‘Skeeter’ sounds like a nickname for mosquitoes from the American South, right? It would make sense.