It's co-editor Alfie's turn to share their favourites for this month's "RTR Recommends" feature! Here are some of their favourite books, music, films, TV, LGBTQ+ moments, and fashion items...
BOOKS: My relationship with books is such that I rarely finish them, which, unfortunately, has led me to rarely start them. It took me until adulthood to realise that this is due to dyslexia and a fair dollop of ADHD. These neuro-spices go quite a way in explaining why reading giant tomes of media theory for my degree felt like wading through an ocean of spaghetti letters, the tomato sauce replaced with treacle. When I say I wrote my dissertation over the space of 48 sleepless hours, it is not a flex.
That was a long way of saying that I’ve managed to read one book in full so far this year. Hell yeah!
The book in question is Ewan Morrison’s How To Survive Everything, which is a wonderfully tense and claustrophobic thriller set in a post-pandemic world with another more deadly pandemic potentially on the way. Morrison wrote it in the style of a survival guide and from the point of view of Haley Cooper Crowe, a teenager who is abducted with her brother by their apocalypse obsessed father into a “safe house” in the Scottish wilderness. It’s a captivating and panic-inducing read, and I highly recommend it. Keep a lookout for his new AI themed thriller Emma, which is due for publication next year.
It’s not a current book, but if you want to read a good fantasy by an author who was genuinely an awesome person, then the works of Terry Pratchett might be exactly what you’re looking for. His Discworld books are entertaining and full of humour. But amongst the comedy and magic, there’s some pretty on point observations about our political systems and how we treat each other. I particularly love the Ankh-Morpork City Watch series. Sam Vimes is my guy. If you’ve seen The Watch TV show which is based on the characters from that particular series… well, read the books… please. Also, if you’ve never seen the Cosgrove Hall animated adaptations of some of the stories like Wyrd Sisters and Soul Music, definitely go in search of them!
MUSIC: The early days of 2024 have been very generous on the album front! There are some exceptional sounds already gracing our earholes. I’ll let the music do most of the talking and suggest that you should totally spend some of your hard-earned cash on Nadine Shah’s deeply self-reflective and stunning Filthy Underneath, Yard Act’s satirical post-punk masterpiece Where’s My Utopia? and Silent Forum’s intelligent art-rock soon-to-be classic Domestic Majestic.
Shoutout to Agnes Obel’s Myopia which has been my album hyperfixation since October last year. It’s a record that allows me to wallow in the permanent state of sadness I frequent at the moment, but in a really beautiful way. Get yourself over to a nice weather-battered beach with maybe a bit of a drizzle in the air, pop this on your earpods, and have a good cry.
Finally, this month we heartbreakingly said farewell to World Party’s Karl Wallinger. Up there as one of my all time favourite albums is Bang!. Superb production and musicianship. Severely underrated.
I’ve made a Spotify playlist including tracks from all the artists above. Also included are lots of gems I’ve been listening to over the past few months. Listen here!
FILM: The recent series of music videos by the excellent Leeds-based outfit Yard Act are so damn cool and definitely worthy of being included in the film section. Did I mention I really like Yard Act? All directed by filmmaker James Slater, the first video to accompany the track ‘The Trench Coat Museum’ introduces us to the overarching story and a number of characters. One of these is ‘The Visitor’ who is key throughout the entire series. Daisy JT Smith performs the role and is also responsible for the amazing choreography which I absolutely adore. As I’ve discovered, Daisy is a ridiculously talented human who does loads of really awesome creative stuff. I am impressed and obsessed. In a behind the scenes interview with Slater and band frontman James Smith, the vibe for ‘The Trench Coat Museum’ video is described as “Blade Runner set in Yorkshire” which is perfect and arguably sets the tone for the following four visual works. Proper ace videos, lads. Mint.
I absolutely love short films and often scroll through YouTube in search of something that catches my curiosity. I recently viewed the 2022 British comedy-drama ‘Toast’. Set during lockdown, the film stars Roger Sloman and Harry Walters. It’s a really sweet and moving film about an unlikely friendship forged between two neighbours. A great find.
It’s a really tough time for independent filmmakers at the moment with many funding opportunities few and far between. A brilliant little indie short film that I would love to see completed is ‘Faithful’ which “follows Vaila, a brave 13 year old girl who ventures into the scary Scottish woods to find the mythical Cù-Sìth, a fairy dog that can open a portal to the Fairy World. Vaila hopes to find the dog so that she can right a wrong from her past and bring her family back together”. Directed by Lucy Linger and written/produced by Fraser Coull, two folks who I can vouch are very good at what they do, are currently mid-production and need help to get the final sections of the film completed. Check out their page on Greenlit.
TV: I’m putting Australian sci-fi comedy Starship Q Star in the TV section because it truly deserves to be a full animated TV series. It’s so queer and so funny. I won’t blabber on too much as -eyebrow wriggle- we should be chatting to Meegan May and Lauren Anderson, the creators of the show, very soon. Check out the award-winning podcast and the three animated episodes. Be prepared to cackle loudly while viewing/listening… as I have done… several times… in public.
Sticking with the Australian theme, I’d like to express my utter bewilderment and anger that the show One Night, written by Emily Ballou and featuring Jodie Whittaker, Nicole da Silva and Yael Stone (yes, the incredible series we did a very in-depth special issue about, is no longer available to watch anywhere. The word on the street is that the commissioning network and streaming platform Paramount Plus is looking to merge with another big media company - latest rumours suggest Warner Bros or even NBCUniversal’s Peacock - that probably ditches brilliant pieces of art for tax purposes.
There’s a survey organised by fans of the show to help the team behind One Night pursue other networks to get the beautiful and vital show back on our screens. Take a look here and fill it in.
LGBTQ+ MOMENT: An important moment for me as an artist and musician was adding my name to the ‘Queer Artists for Palestine’ open letter calling for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. Other artists who have signed the letter include Phoebe Bridgers, Indya Moore, Bowen Yang, Bella Ramsey, Hari Nef and more.
“Our queer Palestinian siblings have asked us to stand firmly with them in their call for dignity and self-determination. This includes challenging Israel's whitewashing, or “pinkwashing,” of its brutal military occupation, by exploiting queer performers and voices to cover up decades of right-wing, violent, and racist policies against Palestinians. Now more than ever, we must be clear: queer people are no friends to Israeli apartheid. We use our voices and our platforms to oppose systemic violence and inequality – against Palestinians, and against all people everywhere.”
FASHION ITEM: I love football and I love Celtic F.C. I currently have some Dune London ‘Elysium’ leather trainers which I purchased purely because they are white with a green stripe on them. Yes, Celtic seeps into many of my clothing choices. Earlier this year, old rivals Rangers decided to cancel all ticket allocation for Celtic away fans at a women’s match 24 hours before the game. Celtic defender and Ireland international Caitlin Hayes decided to make a statement on the pitch and sported a ‘football without fans is nothing t-shirt under her kit. Iconic. Nab a t-shirt here.
Words: Alfie Whitby (they/them)
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