Cinema, Music, Literature Economics, Political Thought, Science, and Technology — how marvelous to see you here…

After thinking for years that I should start a place to simply write certain ideas about cinema, music, behavioural science, science, literature, political thoughts, and technology but talking myself out of it every time, here I finally go. Starting a blog.

That’s a weird thing itself. I used to think of writing as, “why do your ideas matter more than anyone else’s ideas”. And the truth is, eh, maybe they don’t. But a writer simply writes because they feel in their bones that they have to write. But while I work on my own set of creative dalliances in the form of film scripts and novels, I’m simply dedicating this blog to my interests. And maybe a short story here and there, but I’m still hoping to reach the Paris Review with those. So here I’ll probably mostly have film reviews, film theory reminiscing, long burgeoning thoughts on the future of the film industry, and my desire to make films. But also coming along to the party will be some other passions of mine, that I’ve listed above.

I guess a little about me is as follows, I’ve always wanted to be a writer for as long as I can remember. First I wanted to write novels and then later films came along and I got the itch to direct. I have written many scripts and many short stories, that hopefully I will direct and release at some point.

There’s another slight nod to The Paris Review.

Some of my favourite filmmakers are Claire Denis, Pedro Almodovar, Louis Malle, Celine Sciamma, Ryan Coogler, and the great Spike Lee among many many more. Some of my favorite authors are Ryszard Kapuściński, Stanislaw Lem, Haruki Murakami, Mariana Mazzucato, Katrine Marçal, Chinua Achebe and of course the great Agatha Christie. I am also very interested in what language reveals of our brain and genuinely what our individual behaviour can reveal about larger societal questions. I have recently also become interested in AI and how much it can help us in the future and as an economist, it’s vital to think about how AI can shape the future and where our place is in the world.

I’m a night owl, for no reason at all. My mother does not like that about me; so do keep in mind that while I’m writing, it’s probably either very early in the morning or very late at night. Gotta get a proper schedule though. I’m currently reading two novels at the same time, Paul Theroux’s The Great Railway Bazaar and Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore. The last great novel I read was Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and the last film I saw was Ti West’s X. So maybe I’ll write about that next and my newfound love of slasher films. It’s always good to watch some old slasher films again.

I am a new entrant (last 6 years) into the world of independent and world cinema (I hate the fact that that’s a phrase that Hollywood uses, so we’ll call it art-house cinema) and as such I will probably be watching a lot of art-house classics for the first time but also simply classics. I definitely will be doing a deep dive on Hitchcock as the book Hitchcock Truffaut has been on my desk for quite a while.

Thank you for hopefully keeping up with some of my thoughts and musings on the world we live in today.

Hope you’re well,

Micha