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Hey Reader,

In Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Grandpa Joe and the other three grandparents live in a giant bed. Like, they never get out of that bed, until Charlie wins the golden ticket and Grandpa Joe can suddenly miraculously walk even though his muscles would definitely have wasted after years in a bed.

And just imagine the stink.

And the bedsores.

Nobody ever mentions the bedsores.

We think rotting in bed will be a nice thing to do but there will be bedsores and stinks and it’s one of those things that seems like a nice idea until you actually do it, then it’s just problem after problem.

Ruts are only comfortable for a short time, then you roll over and find a pointy rock and a twig pokes you in the eye and oh no there’s some fox poo.

So how do you get out of the rut?

Dunno mate. But I have a bunch of ideas I like to try and usually one of them works.

For example, I feel like I’ve been rotting in a writing rut for a while now, then after listening to a podcast about portobello mushrooms and the scourge of Big Mushroom, then another story about how dogs are being trained to sniff out invasive lantern bugs in the American North-East, I had An Idea.

Each month or so, I’m going to choose a very niche subject to deep dive into. I’ll learn as much as I can about it, draw some pictures, and write an essay. Maybe it’ll also become a bit for my stand-up comedy because I am DEFINITELY deep into a rut there.

I love learning lots and lots about really obscure stuff.

Joe chose for me this month and the subject is:

Spider ears.

Turns out, spiders don’t have ears, they have vibrating leg hairs (same bro), so it’s broadened slightly into spidey senses.

If you’re in a creative rut, what gets you out of it?

Oh and also what weird topics should I stick on my list?

And now it’s time for the Friday Goodie Bag! Here’s what you might want to take a look at with a cuppa.

This freaky-deeky movie about liminal spaces

My friend Edd always chooses movies that give me nightmares. Hereditary scarred me for months. Literally the screaming night terrors. So I was a bit wary when he and his boyfriend came round for dinner and he suggested we watch The Backrooms.

Well. It was indeed exceptionally creepy but it was SO GOOD. It’s an indie movie, pretty low budget but with a couple of faces you might recognise. The reason I’m suggesting it to you is because the way they created the vibe is very interesting. They built the whole set in full, which is incredible in itself as you’ll see when you see the movie. It’s very much got computer game vibes, too. But it’s the SET and the lighting that really makes this movie. I’m going to watch it again, and probably again, to find the details I missed first time.

And what’s it about? What’s going on there? Not sure, honestly. It’s open-ended and open to interpretation, which I really enjoy.

​This is the original short film on YouTube.

Its origins are so modern. Inspiration is everywhere. The Backrooms are a fictional location invented in a 2019 thread on 4chan. They are usually portrayed as an impossibly large extradimensional complex of empty rooms, accessed by exiting reality. This one thread spawned a whole genre, and I love that.

From crime to clown: a story

My friend Jocelyn and I were talking about pivots this week, as I am currently spinning like a washing machine (and so are a lot of other people I know) and she told me about John Simpson, an investigative crime reporter who had enough of all the badness he was immersed in, and left it all behind to become a clown.

He said, “Clowning gave me a remarkably simple problem: walk into a room and let people see me.” There are few things more scary or rewarding than that.

Willem Dafoe posing for photographs

Most celebrities, while posing for photographs, go for the most flattering angle. Their best side. The most inoffensive position position possible. Not Willem Dafoe. He simply aims for weird and marvellous shapes, and he’s my new pose muse.

Thank you Wendy Gannon, my photographer extraordinaire, for introducing me to Dafoe’s poses and saying, “Let’s do some stuff like this!” We did and it was excellent. Watch this space for pics.

This Walking With a Writer interview

I love a quirky twist on an old idea. My buddy Will Slater, who is an excellent copywriter and even more excellent human, got interviewed by Sarah Farley. She writes The Writer’s Walk Substack and goes for a hike with a writer while interviewing them. What a cool idea. And she’s a great interviewer.

This podcast about Little Red Corvette

Did you know that Prince wrote Little Red Corvette to entice white audiences? I did not. This Song Exploder interview with Questlove is absolutely fascinating — a deep dive into rhythms, audiences, and how Prince manged to become commercially successful to all audiences without ever compromising who he was.

What I’m reading

Currently embedded in A Beginner’s Guide to Breaking and Entering by Andrew Hunter Murray, thanks to a recommendation from Sarah! I’m thoroughly enjoying it. It’s an entertaining whodunit, a murder mystery romp. But underneath it Hunter Murray has Something Important to say about wealth, property ownership, and equality. Recommended.

What I’m writing

I’m writing about spider ears. Or the lack thereof. And putting the final touches to my Summer Zine.

Word of the week

watershed

A turning point. A big, pivotal moment where everything changes.

E.g. The first day of my carpentry course was a watershed moment for me. This is where I belong.

Quote of the week

Which is why we need to write and write and write and write. Otherwise we sound like ChatGPT had a baby with the most boring sales bro you can imagine. And nobody wants that.

TTFN,

Vicky 🫡

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