THE SHUX SPECIAL!: SU&SD Newsletter #65

Ava: So. Apparently I’m going to Vancouver.

SHUX is coming up, we’re all rushing around sorting and stressing and delighting about all the wonderful things that will be happening in a big room I’ve never been in, in a big country I’ve never been in. It’s a weird feeling, but I’m very excited. A huge concrete barrel of awkward, kind, lovely people, getting together to laugh and play games and meet and be silly. From everything I’ve heard, it’s going to be a pretty special experience.

So far, a large chunk of my journey with Shut Up & Sit Down has been defined by distance. I started off as an obsessive commenter. Occasionally managed to travel far enough to meet some of the team. Moved away from Brighton just as Quinns moved down there. And took the job as a remote writer. Because of the pandemic, the chances I’ve had to spend time learning and playing with the rest of the team in person have been limited. The shift to online working made it easier for me to take part in podcasts, made streams a bigger thing, and helped me take more part. But for various reasons, I’ve never had any in-person video training. This has made things difficult!

It’s particularly odd when board games are a thing that brings people close. That’s what I want to celebrate most about all of this stuff. And honestly, it still worked. I’ve been introduced gently and slowly to a wonderful audience of people who I already felt siblinghood with as a commenter. People have been kind and supportive. My colleagues have become dear friends. We’re a close bunch. Going through a lot of emotional ups and downs, and keeping on working hard to help each other be the best we can be, through a mountain of challenges.

And right now, feeling the whole team be electrified by preparations for SHUX? It feels incredible. The passion the team has for bringing people together as best as we can, in a physical location, as safely as possible. Creating a space for people to play, meet, learn and be close in.

It’ll be the THIRD time the entire current team has been together in one place! It’ll be my first chance to meet Pip since an awkward game of Codenames: Pictures at UKGE a few years before I started with SUSD at all. (I was so excited that Matt told me off for not maintaining a poker face properly).

Bringing people together. It’s what boardgames are about for me. Caring about cardboard. So much that you realise how much you care about people.

I’m very excited to go to my first SHUX. I’m a bit nervous! I don’t think I’ll have ever been with so many people who have at least a vague idea who I am! But I can’t wait to say hello to the people I’ve been trying to share my passion with. I can’t wait to see a room full of people this lovely team works so hard to bring together.

The AwSHUXes have been fabulous for this. A coming together of people for play and laughter. But after the last couple of years of working digitally to bring people closer. Doing it in person feels like a dream.

I’m excited.

What are we video games!  🎮

Tom: It’s fast month! I’ve been shootin’ dudes for points in Rollerdrome, and shootin’ dudes for times in Neon White. Both are excellent, get them, play them, have a killer afternoon. I’ve also been playing a whole bunch of Dungeon Warfare on my phone - a tower defence game with just the right amount of physics-based shoving that means you can set up some really devious little traps.

I’ve also been playing Immortality with a couple other folks sitting on a sofa together - and this one is absolutely fantastic. In a sentence, it’s an FMV game about trying to find out about what happened to an up-and-coming actress by rifling through the footage from three ill-fated-films; but as an experience, it is sensational. Scratching down notes, discussing theories in between play sessions, getting collectively spooked when that thing happens. A great game to play with other humans, but a fabulous game to revel in regardless of company.

Quinns: Immortality is probably the videogame that’s impressed me the most this year, I think, and it’s rewarding to see Sam Barlow’s team finally resolve his years of FMV-inspired designs (Telling Lies, Her Story) into something that truly sings.

You know what else I love about Immortality? The music! I frequently find myself captivated by the game’s soundtrack, and it’s so magical how it’s applied to clips you’re watching seemingly almost at random, providing a kind of... textural continuity between utterly unrelated footage. Just superb.

Matt: I’ve been playing League of Legends on my phone, it has been three weeks since my last confession.

What are we music!  🎵

Tom: I’ve been really enjoying a whole bunch of records this month! No Rules Sandy from Sylvan Esso is exactly what I wanted from that particular group - it’s a very DIY, ‘sketched’ project rather than the more polished pop they went for on records like What Now - far better for the eclectic grab-bang of synthesisers and genre-mashing. Those big, blocky, cartoonish sounds and twee lyrics on Sunburn are just infectiously joyful. They sample a bicycle bell! It’s too sweet!

The complete flipside of that is Atrocity Exhibition - which I’ve come back to after bouncing off it very hard when it first came out. Just a really icky album - packed with songs consumed with a short-term love / long-term hate relationship to drugs, whilst still managing to find time to be reflective, funny, and depressing. The production is just outrageous. Some real choices on this one.

My real obsession, though, has been with Rival Consoles. I had the flat to myself for a few days and worked on some nebulous “Art Stuff” - and during this time, I listened to the whole Rival Consoles discography, back to front, and ‘ain't it just exciting being able to hear something evolve. There’s an incredible arc to this stuff - the early work is enthusiastic, but a bit childish; a Squarepusher homage run through a GBA. It’s only in the middle of the work that the styles and ideas defining the very specific Rival Consoles sound start to materialise; settling into a pattern from Howl through to Persona. It’s a kind of dense, warm, textured IDM that’s so three-dimensional and rich… it’s like a weighted blanket of audio and I can’t get enough of it. Over the course of that day, the volume just kept increasing until it got dark and the speakers were rattling my desk as I constructed my own personal audio cocoon and things started getting a bit emotional. The result of this listening, though, was a realisation; I want to make music like this. I’ve been toying with all manner of audiostuff for things like the NISEI video - but I think this kind of gooey, rich, electronica is where my brain is pulling me. If you too want to dip into these fine waters, Night Melody is the most immediate record in the discography and is well worth a listen.

Oh yeah! Me and Matt went to go and see black midi live! I’m sure Matt probably has things to say about Hellfire!

Matt: Hot damn now that’s a record. I’ve been a big fan of everything that Black Midi have put out to date, but their third album feels like they’ve truly found their feet - raucous and touching and silly and brutal, it’s a horrid smashed-up mess of stories tied together with a framework of music that’s as grating as often as it is luscious. I’ve listened to very little else over the last month, probably one of the best bands in the world right now.

What are we watching? 📺

Matt: The new Lord of the Rings TV show absolutely rips, it slaps, it’s amazing, Lenny Henry is fantastic. As much as I like a bit of grimdark backstabbery, it’s been really refreshing to see a fantasy show that’s hopeful and bright despite the impending perils.

Tom: The Rehearsal is really good.

Quinns: The Rehearsal is the best thing I’ve seen on TV in a long time. I couldn’t be happier that it’s been renewed for a second season.

I chatted about this with Tom during one of our regular fixtures where Tom struggles to keep up with me on the squash court-

Tom: Oi! 4-2! To me!

Quinns: -but what’s magical about The Rehearsal is not only is it utterly unlike anything you’ve seen on TV before, it reinvents itself again in each of the six episodes of the first season. By the end of the first episode you think you know what you’re watching- “Ah, okay, so it’s a reality show where he helps people to rehearse things!” And then the show proves you wrong in the next episode. And then it does that again four more times.

It’s not just that this is a show with a series of prepared twists - although it is that - The Rehearsal also changes from week to week because it appears to be in dialogue with itself, second-guessing itself, and simply trusting that if they change what they’re doing mid-season that they’ll be able to save it in the editing room afterwards. I think HBO somehow agreed to give this show incredible funding without fully knowing... what they were funding. In a time when a lot of TV and movies are focused on safely recouping their funding, The Rehearsal feels like an absurd shot in the dark, and is all the more special for it.

What are we reading? 📚

Quinns: (Sinister chanting begins) Books! Books! Books! BOOKS!

I’ve done a lot of reading this month. I’ve been awed at The Overstory and seared raw by Burntcoat (it’s quite the sensation, sunbathing and sweating and crying all at the same time), but what I want to talk about is the revelation I had after reading Conversations with Friends and Seven Days in June back to back. The revelation was this: I love romance books!

I place the blame for this square at the feet of our patriarchal society, but as a straight man I never once assumed that romance novels were for me. My whole life I’ve been absorbing a kind of background radiation, making me believe that if a book was primarily about two people falling in love, it simply wasn’t something I should investigate further. This summer I discovered that this is absolute nonsense; just total toilet. I struggle to remember the last time I felt so addicted to a book as I did reading the above two novels? It would have to be the last time I read a truly world-class bit of page turny sci-fi, like Arkady Martine’s A Memory Called Empire.

Now that I can confidently call myself a Romance Enjoyer, I feel like I’ve discovered a new room in my house. It’s not even the romance itself in the books that I’m a fan of, it’s the ugliness of them! The romance in these books can’t exist without it being frequently outgunned by queasily devastating arguments and unresolvable conflicts, and it turns out?? I can’t get enough of that stuff.

Ava: So. Apparently I’m going to Vancouver.

SHUX is coming up, we’re all rushing around sorting and stressing and delighting about all the wonderful things that will be happening in a big room I’ve never been in, in a big country I’ve never been in. It’s a weird feeling, but I’m very excited. A huge concrete barrel of awkward, kind, lovely people, getting together to laugh and play games and meet and be silly. From everything I’ve heard, it’s going to be a pretty special experience.

So far, a large chunk of my journey with Shut Up & Sit Down has been defined by distance. I started off as an obsessive commenter. Occasionally managed to travel far enough to meet some of the team. Moved away from Brighton just as Quinns moved down there. And took the job as a remote writer. Because of the pandemic, the chances I’ve had to spend time learning and playing with the rest of the team in person have been limited. The shift to online working made it easier for me to take part in podcasts, made streams a bigger thing, and helped me take more part. But for various reasons, I’ve never had any in-person video training. This has made things difficult!

It’s particularly odd when board games are a thing that brings people close. That’s what I want to celebrate most about all of this stuff. And honestly, it still worked. I’ve been introduced gently and slowly to a wonderful audience of people who I already felt siblinghood with as a commenter. People have been kind and supportive. My colleagues have become dear friends. We’re a close bunch. Going through a lot of  emotional ups and downs, and keeping on working hard to help each other be the best we can be, through a mountain of challenges.

And right now, feeling the whole team be electrified by preparations for SHUX? It feels incredible. The passion the team has for bringing people together as best as we can, in a physical location, as safely as possible. Creating a space for people to play, meet, learn and be close in.

It’ll be the THIRD time the entire current team has been together in one place! It’ll be my first chance to meet Pip since an awkward game of  Codenames: Pictures at UKGE a few years before I started with SUSD at all. (I was so excited that Matt told me off for not maintaining a poker  face properly).

Bringing people together. It’s what boardgames are about for me. Caring about cardboard. So much that you realise how much you care about people.

I’m very excited to go to my first SHUX. I’m a bit nervous! I don’t  think I’ll have ever been with so many people who have at least a vague  idea who I am! But I can’t wait to say hello to the people I’ve been  trying to share my passion with. I can’t wait to see a room full of  people this lovely team works so hard to bring together.

The AwSHUXes have been fabulous for this. A coming together of people for play and laughter. But after the last couple of years of working digitally to bring people closer. Doing it in person feels like a dream.

I’m excited.

What are we video games!  🎮

Tom: It’s fast month! I’ve been shootin’ dudes for points in Rollerdrome, and shootin’ dudes for times in Neon White. Both are excellent, get them, play them, have a killer afternoon. I’ve also been playing a whole bunch of Dungeon Warfare on my phone - a tower defence game with just the right amount of physics-based shoving that means you can set up some really devious little traps.

I’ve also been playing Immortality with a couple other folks sitting on a sofa together - and this one is absolutely fantastic. In a sentence, it’s an FMV game about trying to find out about what happened to an up-and-coming actress by rifling  through the footage from three ill-fated-films; but as an experience, it is sensational. Scratching down notes, discussing theories in between play sessions, getting collectively spooked when that thing happens. A great game to play with other humans, but a fabulous game to revel in regardless of company.

Quinns: Immortality is probably the videogame  that’s impressed me the most this year, I think, and it’s rewarding to see Sam Barlow’s team finally resolve his years of FMV-inspired designs (Telling Lies, Her Story) into something that truly sings.

You know what else I love about Immortality? The music! I frequently find myself captivated by the game’s soundtrack, and it’s so magical how it’s applied to clips you’re watching seemingly almost at random, providing a kind of... textural continuity between utterly unrelated footage. Just superb.

Matt: I’ve been playing League of Legends on my phone, it has been three weeks since my last confession.

What are we music!  🎵

Tom: I’ve been really enjoying a whole bunch of records this month! No Rules Sandy from Sylvan Esso is exactly what I wanted from that particular group -  it’s a very DIY, ‘sketched’ project rather than the more polished pop  they went for on records like What Now - far better for the eclectic  grab-bang of synthesisers and genre-mashing. Those big, blocky, cartoonish sounds and twee lyrics on Sunburn are just infectiously joyful. They sample a bicycle bell! It’s too sweet!

The complete flipside of that is Atrocity Exhibition - which I’ve come back to after bouncing off it very hard when it first  came out. Just a really icky album - packed with songs consumed with a short-term love / long-term hate relationship to drugs, whilst still managing to find time to be reflective, funny, and depressing. The production is just outrageous. Some real choices on this one.

My real obsession, though, has been with Rival Consoles. I had the flat to myself for a few days and worked on some nebulous “Art Stuff”  - and during this time, I listened to the whole Rival Consoles discography, back to front, and ‘ain't it just exciting being able to hear something evolve. There’s an incredible arc to this stuff - the early work is enthusiastic, but a bit childish; a Squarepusher homage run through a GBA. It’s only in the middle of the work that the styles and ideas defining the very specific Rival Consoles sound start to materialise; settling into a pattern from Howl through to Persona.  It’s a kind of dense, warm, textured IDM that’s so three-dimensional and rich… it’s like a weighted blanket of audio and I can’t get enough of it. Over the course of that day, the volume just kept increasing until it got dark and the speakers were rattling my desk as I constructed my own personal audio cocoon and things started getting a bit emotional. The result of this listening, though, was a realisation; I want to make music like this. I’ve been toying with all  manner of audiostuff for things like the NISEI video - but I think this kind of gooey, rich, electronica is where my brain is pulling me. If you too want to dip into these fine waters, Night Melody is the most immediate record in the discography and is well worth a listen.

Oh yeah! Me and Matt went to go and see black midi live! I’m sure Matt probably has things to say about Hellfire!

Matt: Hot damn now that’s a record. I’ve been a big fan of everything that Black Midi have put out to date, but their third album feels like they’ve truly found their feet - raucous and  touching and silly and brutal, it’s a horrid smashed-up mess of stories  tied together with a framework of music that’s as grating as often as it is luscious. I’ve listened to very little else over the last month, probably one of the best bands in the world right now.

What are we watching? 📺

Matt: The new Lord of the Rings TV show absolutely rips, it slaps, it’s amazing, Lenny Henry is fantastic. As much as I like a bit of grimdark backstabbery, it’s been really refreshing to see a fantasy show that’s hopeful and bright despite the impending perils.

Tom: The Rehearsal is really good.

Quinns: The Rehearsal is the best thing I’ve seen on TV in a long time. I couldn’t be happier that it’s been renewed for a  second season.

I chatted about this with Tom during one of our regular fixtures where Tom struggles to keep up with me on the squash court-

Tom: Oi! 4-2! To me!

Quinns: -but what’s magical about The Rehearsal is not only is it utterly unlike anything you’ve seen on TV before, it reinvents itself again in each of the six episodes of the first season. By the end of the  first episode you think you know what you’re watching- “Ah, okay, so it’s a reality show where he helps people to rehearse things!” And then  the show proves you wrong in the next episode. And then it does that again four more times.

It’s not just that this is a show with a series of prepared twists - although it is that - The Rehearsal also changes from week to week because it appears  to be in dialogue with itself, second-guessing itself, and simply trusting that if they change what they’re doing mid-season that they’ll  be able to save it in the editing room afterwards. I think HBO somehow  agreed to give this show incredible funding without fully knowing... what they were funding. In a time when a lot of TV and movies are focused on safely recouping their funding, The Rehearsal feels like an absurd shot in the dark, and is all the more special for it.

What are we reading? 📚

Quinns: (Sinister chanting begins) Books! Books! Books! BOOKS!

I’ve done a lot of reading this month. I’ve been awed at The Overstory and seared raw by Burntcoat (it’s quite the sensation, sunbathing and sweating and crying all at  the same time), but what I want to talk about is the revelation I had after reading Conversations with Friends and Seven Days in June back to back. The revelation was this: I love romance books!

I place the blame for this square at the feet of our patriarchal society, but as a straight man I never once assumed that romance novels were for me. My whole life I’ve been absorbing a kind of background radiation, making me believe that if a book was primarily about two people falling in love, it simply wasn’t something I should investigate further. This summer I discovered that this is absolute nonsense; just total toilet. I struggle to remember the last time I felt so addicted to a book as I did reading the above two novels? It would  have to be the last time I read a truly world-class bit of page turny  sci-fi, like Arkady Martine’s A Memory Called Empire.

Now that I can confidently call myself a Romance Enjoyer, I feel like I’ve discovered a new room in my house. It’s not even the romance  itself in the books that I’m a fan of, it’s the ugliness of them! The  romance in these books can’t exist without it being frequently outgunned by queasily devastating arguments and unresolvable conflicts, and it turns out?? I can’t get enough of that stuff.