FluxBlog

Greetings from Newcastle. Keeping it very brief this week, but once again I come with an offering... It’s been a year full of giveaways and offers - and I’ve saved something special for Halloween. Right now, and up til the end of Halloween itself you can pick up my story collection Scattered Ashes for free on Kindle! As one of my longer works, I don’t usually give Scattered Ashes away, so this is a real rarity and an opportunity to grab a bargain.

Messaging app Discord is one of the world's most valuable consumer startups. After flying under the radar as "just" a chat app for gamers, Discord exploded into the public consciousness in 2020, racking up 100M MAUs and $130M in annual revenue. The company was recently valued at $15B, and is considered a 2022 IPO prospect. Seven years ago, Discord was in a very different place. For one, the company was called Hammer & Chisel - and it was a game development studio.

NYPD said Dominic Cruz Aguilera, 19, was killed by a neighbor in what appears to be a dispute that started over a double-parked vehicle Dispute happened outside of a deli on Featherbed Lane and Inwood Avenue in the Morris Heights section of the Bronx on Thursday morning, April 18th Community members say parking is a chronic problem that sometimes leads to disputes and fights, but has never resulted in a serious crime

Taking a break from prepping for his New Year partying, my eldest son plonked himself on the sofa and scrolled through his phone. ‘Omigod!….’ ‘What?’ ‘This song! Unbelievable!’ ‘What song? Unbelievable why?’ ‘Do you know ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas’?’ ‘Er, yeah, of course.’ ‘And did you know the lyrics were so unbelievably racist?’ ‘Racist? Are you for real?’ ‘Er, yes. Listen: And there won’t be snow in Africa this Christmas time/ The greatest gift they'll get this year is life/ Where nothing ever grows/ No rain nor rivers flow/ Do they know it’s Christmas time at all?

Dracula is an idiot. Everybody knows the first rule of real estate is location, location, location. There’s no excuse for a centuries-old evil being not to know this as he looks for a second home. Castle Dracula, his primary residence, is perfect. It’s safe (for him), it’s close to everything he needs (human victims), and he has good roommates (sexy vampire ladies) and neighbors (friendly wolves). Why, then, would he look to London for a pied-à-terre?

This post contains mild spoilers for Euphoria, but only for Kat’s storyline. Promise. The premise for Euphoria feels like any other teen show: an ensemble of characters from varying cliques (popular girls, jocks and weirdos included) all attempt to navigate adolescence, participating in parties and prom nights whilst still trying to make their grades. But there’s a depth to this show that sets it apart from the rest. Created by Sam Levinson (Assassination Nation) and starring Zendaya (most recently seen in Spider-Man: Far From Home), Euphoria is a depiction of what it’s like to be a teenager right now - at least, that’s what it feels like to me, at the grand old (irrelevant) age of 26.

A note to Fight Freaks Unite readers: I created Fight Freaks Unite in January 2021 and eight months later it also became available for paid subscriptions for additional content — and as a way to help keep this newsletter going and for readers to support independent journalism. If you haven’t upgraded to a paid subscription please consider it. If you have already, I truly appreciate it! Also, consider a gift subscription for the Fight Freak in your life.

Up until July of 2022, I’d never seen Chantal Akerman’s masterwork Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles. It wasn’t a lack of awareness or desire that withheld me from watching Akerman’s methodical, yet arresting film. Rather I was guided by a need to find the right moment. Running at 202 minutes, I knew if I ever did sit down to view this Belgium-set film, like Dr Zhivago, I’d need the rest of the day to marinate on its vision.

NEW STANDARD DISCLAIMER: This newsletter aggressively spoils things. Recently, Hulu started streaming Moonlighting, the show mainly famous for a) making Bruce Willis into a star and b) being almost totally unavailable in the modern age. I used to think streaming meant I'd be able to watch anything I wanted, any time I wanted like those lucky ducks in David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest, but now TV shows and movies are literally vanishing from streaming platforms and being memory-holed by their own production companies, and my brother, who is a die-hard physical media weirdo, laughs at me smugly as he fondles all the movies he literally owns that no one can take away from him.