I am getting married.

Well, not soon — next year. Still, as I subtly anticipated during previous issues of The ChangeLog, this year I had one goal: to move forward, to end the streak of 10 years of perceived stagnation, of flirting with depressive states, of jumping in and out of apathy, of self-doubt and self-deprecation. I wanted to do that by moving a step closer to where I wanted to be, to where I always wanted to be.

None of the above has been solved, but I’m not going to wait until everything’s solved, until every problem’s fixed and every question’s answered, before moving forward. I couldn’t live like that anymore.

Therefore, on May 8th, I proposed to Gioia. A long-overdue thing to do, many would say. I’m sorry for that. She is a saint for coping with my messed-up mind. But I cannot change the past. I can only look forward. The next 12 months will be pretty intense as they are.

Anyway, as you can imagine, this month – with the proposal, Gioia’s birthday, my birthday, and location scouting – has been all over the place. But I managed to do enough stuff to fill this issue. Isn’t that great?

Let’s move on.

Housekeeping

I am thinking about a really stupid thing to do for this blog. If I can do it (and it is a big if), it will take time.

Nothing else to write here. I keep scrapping articles because things move too fast and/or I feel like I am ranting on paper. Maybe I have been too much of a perfectionist lately about my writing. This is both good (because I am improving) and bad (because it stops me from publishing imperfect things).

Reading

• Italiani Veri (True Italians) by Giacomo Moro Mauretto. The title reads like a jab at right-wing idiots, and it is. This is a book on the genetic history of the inhabitants of the Italian peninsula, starting with the first Neanderthals and continuing to around 7–8 thousand years ago. Because, as he says, after that point nothing of value (genetically speaking) happened. And that’s peculiar, as that is when “history” and the conflicts we’re still fighting over begins.
• L’Alfiere Nero (The Black Bishop) by Arrigo Boito. A short story from 1867 about an improvised chess match between an American white supremacist and a Black ex-slave from Jamaica who becomes an English lord. The story is good enough, but the most interesting aspect was seeing the racial discourse in 1867 and how even then, surprisingly, white supremacists were described as despicable human beings.
• On the Calculation of Volume IV by Solvej Balle. After binging all the available translations at the end of last year, I was really waiting for this one. If you don’t remember, this is the fourth chapter of the story of a woman stuck on November 18 in a Groundhog Day-style. It is impossible to review this without spoiling the entire series, but let’s just say that we arrive at the point where we discuss what happens when you are stuck in a day but you continue to grow old and eventually get sick and die.

Watchlist

Adaptation. (2002)

How can I describe this immensely confusing movie? You have Nicolas Cage in the role of the protagonist, Charlie Kaufman. Charlie Kaufman: the writer of this movie (right after the success of Being John Malkovich and who two years later would write Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind). But Cage also plays the role of Charlie’s twin brother, Donald Kaufman. He doesn’t exist in reality, but he is still credited as co-writer of Adaptation (and becoming the first fictional character to get nominated for an Oscar). In the movie, Charlie is tasked with writing the movie adaptation of a book about orchids, a movie that ends up being the same movie you are watching.

Are you still with me?

Never mind. I should not spend time trying to explain a movie that is not explainable, a movie that can only be emotionally and intellectually absorbed. A brilliant movie about orchid thieves, screenwriters, and, most aptly, adaptation.

Clifford (1994)

What’s the catch? After all, it’s a standard comedy where a 10-year-old boy named Clifford brings chaos to the life of his uncle.

Well, the catch is that the 10-year-old boy is played by Martin Short, who, at the time of filming, was a 40-year-old man. And it works. It is almost incredible that it works, but after a while you forget that a grown-ass man is playing a child. He was even older than the actress playing his aunt!

To make it work, you need the talent of Martin Short and a lot of clever camera angles that almost never show Clifford in “full size” next to an adult.

So, yeah. It is far from a perfect movie, but it is so weird that I could not stop myself from featuring it here.

P.S. The ending is better than all the Jurassic World films combined.

All the Rest

No other movie was interesting enough to be featured this month, but we can still briefly go over them as usual.

• The Wrecking Crew (2026). A mild, forgettable, barely watchable action movie made for streaming. It saves itself because Momoa and Bautista are funny, charismatic guys, but they do not perform miracles.
• Materialists (2025). The people in my circle who know a lot about movies adored it. Everyone else hated it. I, a nobody, just think it is a bit meh.
• The Punisher One Last Kill (2026). A short movie to patch together something for Jon Bernthal’s Punisher in anticipation of the new Spider-Man movie (I think). It is not a masterpiece but Bernthal is a fantastic Punisher, as always.
• Lady Bird (2017). A coming-of-age movie where things happen. I think it is good, but I am not a great fan of that genre.
• Field of Dreams (1989). This is another bonkers movie where Kevin Costner bankrupts his family to build a baseball field for the ghosts of dead baseball players and then… I don’t know. Nothing makes sense, but I liked it.

Finally, I am catching up with the Jack Ryan series on Amazon Prime because I want to see the new movie they made. I completed season 3, and given what happened in the world since they filmed it… let me just say that it was disorienting.

Music

Genesis Owusu is the stage name of Kofi Owusu-Ansah, a 28-year-old native of Ghana who has spent his life in Australia; his family moved to Canberra when he was two years old.

May has not been a phenomenal month for new music, or I was simply distracted. Many are clamoring for Aldous Harding’s new album Train on the Island, but I just don’t get it. I was getting ready to skip this month’s recommendation, as I spent most of the month listening to Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins (RIP).

Then, though, I stumbled on Genesis’ new album Redstar Wu & the Worldwide Scourge, and I really liked it. It is exactly the kind of musical blend I love: half punk, half hip-hop, half soul, half funk. Incredible stuff.

And Genesis does not pull his punches with the lyrics either. The album is overtly political, with Owusu lashing out at the current political landscape, throwing sharp attacks at imperialism, billionaires, manosphere clowns, and right-wing politicians.

You know, in case you need to vent in good company.

Gaming

No relevant gaming activity this month, I am sorry.

Other Interesting Things

• 📝 Demigirlboss - Can We Please Just Be Normal About AI? – A blog article from March that I’ve just found, and I agree with. We should all be much less performative about AI. Love it, hate it, disagree, opt out, or be uninterested, but don’t turn every conversation into soapboxing.
• 🌐 AtmoXP - Windows XP-Style Bluesky Client - As the title says, it is a Bluesky client with the graphics of Windows XP.

Conclusions

So here we are in June. June, in theory, will be a busy month. Not only do I need to start detailing the wedding plan, but I will also go to Greece for my company annual meet-up.

It is a strange sensation. It is the first time in a long time I have something to look forward to instead of living week by week.

I hope you will stay with me along the way.

See you in July.