catch up on august
After talking to some acquaintances about juggling, I tried it for myself at a friends party - it went alright but I'm not sure I have the patience (in the previous conversation, we were talking about why people who do PhDs take up juggling as a hobby - a desire to set and achieve your own goals, familiarity with working alone, perseverance. I don't have a PhD and I'm not very persistent). I considered taking it up as a hobby but I haven't picked up any juggling balls since then - I feel like a should take it up, I need a hobby that develops muscle memory and lets me think while doing it.
I've been to two Cèilidhs recently - one at a wedding and one at a birthday. I like that they've been catching on, it's a lot of fun. The band has a member whose job it is to instruct everyone in the dance steps, so you don't need any prior knowledge. You dance with a partner, but the dance often involves switching partners or interacting with others before going back to your partner. This means you get to dance with everyone on the floor usually, which is a fun way of getting familiar with people. All the running and swinging around also makes me feel like a child again.
I went to see Materialists and didn't really like it - if it's meant to be a critique on dating culture I don't think it does a very good job. Being about people who are a) rich New Yorkers and b) very 2d makes it unrelatable - not always a problem in characters, but it is if you're trying to hold a mirror up to modern dating - there's a lot of things wrong with it in my experience, none of which I saw in this film. My letterboxed review was "None of these people have any friends!!" - the rom-com best friend trope exists for a reason, apparently (and if this was meant to be a commentary on modern loneliness, touch on it in the film please). Overall, joyless.
Off the back of this I thought about what my favourite romance films are - I think Moonstruck (Cher and Nic Cage), Holiday (Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn) and 10 things I hate about you - the most recent from the 90s! I definitely need to watch some newer ones.