The Checkout Counter #32
June 2025
Universal Language
The Tale of The Princess Kaguya
Chicken for Linda!
since the last checkout counter, i've moved 1,700 miles away—wow! i've also walked 7 miles inside an IKEA, sweat more than i ever have in a single month, received the best narrative award for night confessional at the very first narrascope showcase, and still found the valuable time to read and watch a bunch of cool things.
thanks, as always, for reading 😊
Film
- Universal Language (Une langue universelle), 2024what a gorgeous movie. brutalist buildings have never been filmed with so much love and care, and the persian type design is stunning. a strange gem.
Drama, comedy. In another world where Canada's primary languages are Persian and French, three storylines converge in Winnipeg. - Chicken for Linda! (Linda veut du poulet !), 2023love the loose art direction and how the chickens are just blobs of bright colors. the first third of the movie is my favorite—it gets a bit too wacky as it goes on. but that's fine, it's for kids! it's also kind of anti-cop, which is fun.
Animation, comedy. Linda asks her mother to make chicken with peppers. - The Tale of The Princess Kaguya (かぐや姫の物語), 2013rewatch (i last saw this over a decade ago!)it's hard to write about what i consider to be one of the best works of art cinema has to offer. it's magic how this millennium-old folktale is given so much life! i'm so lucky i got to experience this on a big screen and cry bucketfuls in a huge, dark room full of strangers.
Animation, drama, fantasy. Born from a stalk of bamboo, a young girl must leave her countryside home to pursue the path to nobility.
Books
- Whale Fall, Elizabeth O'Connoranother story with a surprise british woman fascist in the 1930s! wow!really liked this. the island and its people are so vividly described, and the way the two english characters treat the community like an exotic jewel to gawk at is miserable and unsurprising. i loved how folktales and songs were interspersed throughout.
Historical fiction, literary. Manod is drawn into the orbit of two English ethnographers who arrive on her remote Welsh island to conduct research.
Games
- Curse Match, Dave Hoffman
Puzzle. Drop blocks, match colors, and get cursed. - eavesdrop poetry, doruk
A game to play as you walk.
Articles & essays
- In an era of slop / make aalittle thing out of clay, Everest Pipkin
- Immersive Quarries, Marie Foulston
- Seven Days At The Bin Store, Jen Kinney
- The Enduring Cult of the Vietnam ‘Missing in Action’, Rick Perlsteini had no idea about any of this! what!!!
Blogs
- Doodling with Chunky Supplies, Shel Kahnlove all the bold colors and textures!
- christine, Jenn Frank
- Notes on atmospheric perspective and distant mountains , Rune Skovbo Johansen
July 2025 →
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