CB: Going Monthly & Regrets

It’s been another hot minute since the last Commercial Break. I’ve been somewhat off-center with my time management lately and kept pushing writing into tomorrow’s duties. Now it’s been three weeks, most of January is gone and it feels like I’m rusty again. No worries though, it was all part of a plan. Because Commercial Break will from now be a monthly feature. Why? Well, let me explain…

For almost 9 years now, I’ve been blogging and I honestly still feel like I will never stop. I love coming back here to write, discuss and ramble. Am I always as consistent as I wish to be? No. But that’s okay. I feel like I’m keeping up with things that I want to but sometimes I don’t wan’t to sit down for a Commercial Break. Mostly because I don’t have enough to say every Monday.

Most of my weeks are very uneventful. And by the time I catch up, people have moved on to something else. I feel like I’m constantly behind on news and events. Which means I spend a lot of time catching up instead of writing. And that is fine! I know I’m doing things at my own pace and if that means reviewing movies three months later, it means just that.

So it felt like a thing I needed to do for my own sanity. To remove the pressure of posting every Monday, which I wasn’t doing anyway, and do it once a month instead. That isn’t to say I won’t post more, I might but it’s not a promise or something that’s set in stone. Commercial Break will be its own thing, with no set of rules… except that it will be posted on Monday and mostly once a month.

Now, let’s get down to business. 2019 for me started with Aquaman. I knew what I was walking into and it turned out okay. I even managed to write a review on it – I know! I’m more surprised than you are. After that I watched Mission Impossible: Fallout and eagerly waited for two men to walk into a bathroom together. I’d say MI is one of the strongest franchises in terms of momentum. It keeps up the action, the thrill – and it is a technical stunt holy grail.

Then I rewatched Cool Runnings because I felt like it. Which then lead me to Mr. Nobody which was amazing! It was so strange and weird, and I have a hard time piecing it together in my mind. I loved it though. More than Velvet Goldmine, which was also good. I also saw it for the first time this month and I appreciated its ability to meld genres.

Last but not least, by the time this post goes up, I’ve also seen Beautiful Boy and Boy Erased. Both I liked, but both fell short a little. Beautiful Boy was the better of the two, with Chalamet and Carell truly grabbing your attention.

If you look at my list of films you’ll notice a very big trend. Non-linear timelines. My god! I’m actually a little annoyed at myself because I’ve started to resent non-linear timelines now. Why not make a movie that goes from point A to point B? Keep it simple, keep it linear.

In terms of TV shows you will probably all expect me to gush about The Punisher’s season 2. But I won’t because I haven’t seen it yet. I know, the shame I feel is a lot to handle but the thing is – I’m not in the mood. It sounds awful when I say it but I do mean it in the nicest way possible. I also want to rewatch the first season before the second one, which means it would take a lot of time. So once my mood hits me, I’m on it!

I did binge watch Sex Education on Netflix and loved it! It was amazing. I didn’t plan on binging it, I just put it on and then I couldn’t stop. Look out for a review this week, most likely Saturday! Other than that, I’ve been slowly watching Will & Grace (on season 4 atm), and keeping up with The Rookie. Nothing else has been on my radar though, which is sad because I know I should watch a lot of shows before my Best of 2018 lists!

By the way, when is the last acceptable time to release Best of 2018 lists? I’m thinking May? Yes, maybe? I feel like I need to watch so many movies and shows before I’m fully prepared to do best of lists. What if in return I fall behind with 2019? Though based on what’s in the cinemas at the moment, I won’t be missing much. Sorry, but honestly, what is there to see?

I’ll be quick – my 2019 reading challenge is 80 books. This is stressful because I almost failed when the challenge was 70. Last year I made it to 50 with three weeks left, and pretty much stopped reading at that point. Is 80 too much? It might be, considering the size of the books I’m currently picking up (total of read pages in 2019 is already 2500…) But it’s my 5th year of Goodreads reading challenges and I felt like I needed to make it BIG! So 80 it is, and I regret it already.

So far I’ve read 4 books this month. Luna and the Lie by Mariana Zapata being the first. It wasn’t as strong as some of my favourite Zapata books but it was alright. Then I read Skyward by Brandon Sanderson which was good. Sanderson writes effortlessly but the plot wasn’t my favourite.

Two next ones were rereads, Cassandra Clare’s The Dark Artifices Lady Midnight and Lord of Shadows. I wanted to pick them up before finishing the trilogy, which means I’m currently reading Queen of Air and Darkness. I expect to be crushed after this.

It’s been a while since I’ve shared music here but it’s not the first time I’m sharing Dermot Kennedy. I’ve been listening him for months now and he just recently did a session gig, where he sang Power Over Me and Island Fires and Family.

2019 Blind Spot Series is happening, and Returning Videotapes is hosting

Rambling Film lists Books She Read in 2018

The Favourite reviewed by Oh So Geeky & Cinematic Corner

A Film a Day discusses Assassination Nation

Two Dollar Cinema hilariously (like always) breaks down Bird Box