What a month. First of all, both men and women Italian volleyball teams won their respective world championships. This is enough to put September 2025 in the Olympus of months. I probably spent more time rewatching the two finals than watching movies (as you will see).

That said, how is it going for me? I’d say quite well. This month’s news is that, after years of longing for a desk, I have a working corner at home (thanks to a moment of inspiration from Gioia). This had some immediate benefits: I wrote much more. Having a fixed space and a second screen is incredibly effective in cranking out words and lines of code. I am finally on a steady pace with my novel review, and I’ve completed several coding projects I had on my “someday” list.

For this reason, September has been a very stable month. I kept all my good habits in line and maintained a strong foundation. Yet not everything went perfectly. For this, I blame the seasonal change. With the autumn, my peak hours shifted from morning to afternoon. I balanced this by rearranging my day, focusing on physical activity in the early morning and creative work in the afternoon. So far, it’s working great.

But I won’t waste any more words. Let’s go to the meat: we have three books, two old movies, and a musical album to discuss.

Housekeeping

Before we go, I wrote more but, as you can see, not on the blog. Shame on me. I am a bit overwhelmed between personal projects and my day job. I swear I will have more things in October.

Speaking of personal projects, I am finally writing my dream journaling app: Captain’s Log. It is still very rough and not ready for the public, but I wanted to make a “definitive” log-capturing tool inspired by Star Trek, and I started with the core.

Reading

• The Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook and The Gate of the Feral Gods by Matt Dinniman. I am continuing my reading of the Dungeon Crawler Carl series with entries 3 and 4. I am still really loving this. They are fun and emotional in their way. Book 3 is crazy train-themed story that I absolutely loved. Book 4 starts a bit confusingly. I am not a fan of the “gaming level design” of the book; I found it distracting and dispersed. But it gets much better in the second half when the objective becomes more focused.
• Death’s End by Cixin Liu. This is the third and last book of the so-called Three-Body Problem trilogy. And it was a mistake. This takes everything I didn’t like about the previous two and pushes it to 1000%. I think the series should have ended with the second book. The third book is even more a salad of philosophical concepts and sci-fi mumbo jumbo mixed together without any sense, with the addition of some of the worst characters in the history of sci-fi. It quickly spins out of control in a very unenjoyable way. But there are some good bits here and there and some interesting points to think about, so it doesn’t feel like a complete waste of time. At least there is that.

Watchlist

I didn’t watch many movies this month. As I said, I got a creative rush thanks to my desk and wrote much more. Still, I used a quality-over-quantity approach: there isn’t a single bad movie on this list.

High and Low (1963)

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It had been a long time since I saw such a masterfully crafted movie. Akira Kurosawa is one of my favorite directors for a reason.

The movie is based on Evan Hunter’s novel King’s Ransom: An 87th Precinct Mystery. A man is on the verge of buying the shoe company he works for, but a man kidnaps his son. He soon discovers that, in reality, the criminal kidnapped his chauffeur’s son by mistake. From that point on, we explore the moral dilemma of a man who must decide whether to use all his wealth to save his chauffeur’s son or to preserve his business ambitions.

We can think of it as three movies in one, dividing the story into three parts.

The first part is almost a “bottle episode,” shot entirely in Gondo’s house. It is heavily invested in dialogue and in subtle character and camera movement in a very theatrical way. It reminded me of my favorite limited-setting movies, such as 12 Angry Men.

The second part is the investigation, and… I am shocked. It doesn’t show the flashy parts of police work, but all of it. There is that long section that is only policemen telling the outcome of their research jobs in a very enumerative fashion. It is long; it is “tell, not show”; it is supposed to be wrong and boring, but it works. Incredibly, it is as captivating as a good novel.

Finally, there is the resolution, which plays like a horror or a classical crime movie. It has some amazing camera work.

The Phantom of the Opera (1925)

Yes, I am back with some great silent-movie-era masterpieces.

The choice is not random: I watched this on its 100th anniversary. Or, I should say, one of the anniversaries. In fact, the movie was released multiple times in 1925. It was first released on January 7 and January 26 to test audiences. This version was not successful because the ending followed the original book: the Phantom redeems himself and, for love of Christine, releases her and Raoul. But the audience wanted vengeance and retribution, so they reshot the ending, adding the famous scene of the mob chasing the Phantom with pitchforks and torches.

This new edition was released on April 26. This version wasn’t successful either for whatever reason. So they reshot it a third time, keeping some of the original footage (including the mob-chasing scene). The final version was released in New York on September 6 and, finally, nationwide on November 15.

This is a classic of the horror and monster genres. It was remade and cited countless times. And I have to give a shout-out to Lon Chaney, who designed the Phantom’s appearance with a lot of makeup and painful metallic staples stuck in his nose. That’s commitment.

Everything Else

• Thunderbolts (2025)*. This is the most fun I’ve had with a Marvel movie in a long time. I want fewer stupid aliens and multiverse stuff and more of these. Please.
• The Order (2024).
• The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (2022). Gif Review:

• Anora (2024). Let’s spend a bit more on Anora because it is a good movie, but it disappointed me a lot. (Warning: I can get mildly spoilery here. You can skip to the next section.) I cannot pinpoint the issue, but it fell a bit hollow. If I have to follow my gut, I’d say it is because there are no people behind the characters. They look empty, one-dimensional, and they all behave like they are maneuvered by an invisible puppet master. Anora, in particular, struck me because she shows very little agency at all and feels like a side character accompanying the other (male) cast. She doesn’t feel like a title character. The only role I think is more interesting is Igor. He is the sole character who “fights his programming” (even though, in a suppressed way). He is the only one who does something “unexpected.” The ending is the only part I found truly interesting and emotional. Anora finally shows a soul. But at that point it is too little, too late, and it made me wonder what the movie could have been.

TV Series Showdown

My lady and I watched Wednesday Season 2. It was cool but more disconnected than the first season. There was a lot (too much) on the grill, and I would have preferred a more focused approach. Actually, many TV series are in this situation. Remember that we are getting the first seasons after the 2023 strike. Many series were delayed, and the stories are more “cloudy” (this happened to Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3 too; there are a couple of really puzzling episodes in it).

We are also watching Only Murders in the Building Season 5. It looks better than Season 4, but this is still early. It is still very enjoyable, though.

Music

As long as I can remember, I always made music. I was a kid when I used a tape recorder to record myself singing silly, stupid kid songs about Super Mario. Then I learned to play the piano and started composing in a scrappy pentagram-ruled notebook. I loved Bach, so I wrote something like 25 fugues. All terrible. But the moment I really went crazy was when, at 15 years old, I discovered FL Studio and, with it, digital production.

It was like I had discovered another dimension transcending reality. Finally, I was no longer bound to my limited talent as a pianist and a Sunday guitarist. I could do everything. So I started by putting classical and medieval tunes into electronic music (something now called dungeon-core, but at the time there wasn’t even a word for it), then moved to house, trance, and more experimental electronic stuff. I don’t think any of it was really good, but I had some success among my friends, and I also sold a couple of CDs. :D

That’s to say that the discovery of music production was, along with the discovery of computer programming, something that made me scream I Love My Computer.

Why this walk along memory lane? Because this month’s album is called, in fact, I Love My Computer by Ninajirachi. Ninajirachi is the pseudonym of Nina Wilson, a 26-year-old Australian music producer. According to Wikipedia, she began producing electronic music as a teenager using FL Studio, with her stage name merging her first name and her favorite Pokémon, Jirachi.

So, as you can imagine, I feel a spiritual connection between her and my Pokémon-obsessed, electronic-music-composer old self.

The album is what you expect from a modern house music album. Its theme is obviously technological, and it is able to transport you back to late-2000s vibes. Even musically, the patterns and style are very early 2010s but with the mandatory hyper-production of 2025 and a touch of bubblegum bass line (a characteristic of many women producers).

Even if it loses steam toward the end, I thank Ninajirachi for this beautiful time-travel album.

• Spotify
• Apple Music
• Qobuz

Gaming

Let me say a few words about Silksong, the sequel to Hollow Knight we’ve all been yearning for since it was announced as a DLC for the original game.

The game is what I expected and what I desired: a challenging follow-up to the original game aimed at players who mastered the first game. As such, it can be brutal. You need to know how to move, and you need to understand that there is an order you have to follow to face the challenges. Unless you are good, in which case you can grind and take on the hardest challenges as they come.

I am not good, so I follow the slow path. In doing so, I haven’t found it particularly difficult so far. I haven’t played a lot (about eight hours), and I am at the end of Act I, and no bosses took more than a couple of tries. Only this final Act I boss is making me sweat.

And here I jump in with my only complaint. Sometimes, Silksong doesn’t feel like a game that respects my time. The only thing I hate is the walkbacks.

Losing to a boss is natural, and after you lose, you want to try again as soon as possible while the adrenaline rushes through your body. You want to master the patterns. You want a rematch. But Silksong sometimes pushes you back several monster-filled screens. You have to spend 30 seconds rushing through them, but rushing makes you careless, and sometimes you die along the way.

Now, this is not terrible. I have played far worse. But it is annoying, and more importantly, I don’t see why. I see nothing of value in spending this time going back to the boss. If I respawn in front of the boss room, would I lose something? I don’t think so. Even Dark Souls usually puts a bonfire right in front of a boss (or, at least, offers you the option to unlock a quick shortcut).

It is not a big deal, but I have to admit that sometimes, after I die in a boss fight, I don’t quit because of it; I quit because I don’t feel like reaching the boss again. And I think it is a shame for such a beautiful game.

Conclusions

My favorite month is finally here! 🎃 October! With its leaves, pumpkins, horror movies and general cozyness. And the new Volleyball and Basketball seasons are starting! I am moderately excited (and a bit worried about my local team ahah).

If I can keep this momentum for the entirety of October, it would be great.

See you next month. And Happy Halloween.