Update for June 2021:

Always Circling the Rim

Progress this month on the screenwriting job has been frustrating/frustrated, with roadblocks and pitfalls which have collectively attacked my internal equilibrium. What I thought was to be a three-point swish is once again just circling the rim. While I’m sure in years to come these times will seem insignificant, I’m reminded of the inviolable truths: always trust your instincts, always trust your friends and family. C’est la vie.

There’s not a lot to report for June:

I released Fountain Mode 3.5, which includes a bunch of changes. The (vastly incomplete) manual is now included in the Emacs package, so people can read it from the Info browser (C-h i) by selecting the Fountain Mode entry. Altogether this feels like all the features I’ve wanted in a screenwriting program are now implemented and work well. As far as I can tell, it is the most comprehensively featured screenwriting program in the world — and it’s free!

This month I also came to the realisation that I have been wasting far too much time on bad movies/TV¹ and so renewed my MUBI subscription. Opinions on this differ, but I hold that good cinema is like eating your vegetables, that is, no one looks forward to watching a nine-hour film about the Holocaust, but you know it will be good for you. Good for the soul. Once I got back into the mindset of seeing cinema to feed my soul it was easier to leave the house to see a three-and-a-half-hour film about housework and I’m glad I did.

Side Hustle is now available via MELPA.

Memorable Cinema

• Our Friend (2019)
• Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du commerce, 1080 bruxelles (1975)
• The Apartment (1960)
• White Wedding (1989)
• Le cercle rouge (1970)
• Bagdad Café (1987)
• Billie Eilish: The World’s A Little Blurry (2021)
• Bo Burnham: Inside (2021)
• Maniac Cop (1988)

On High Rotation

• Misleading Structures – Outer (2021)
• E.M.M.A. – Indigo Dream (2020)

Currently Reading

• Eimear McBride, A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing (2014)