"Paris... Paris..."

On Touki Bouki, Apur Sansar, and Animal Crossing during COVID-19

COVID-19 continues to ravage. Everywhere we look, loved ones or, at farthest away, loved ones’ loved ones are getting sick and dying. I texted my friend Kiley tonight that I missed them, that I missed everyone (except for my roommates, “lol”).

I awoke early this morning to finish out Touki Bouki (The Hyena’s Journey), a 1973 Senegalese movie by Djibril Diop Mambéty, included in volume 2 of Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project (available on the Criterion Channel if you have it, and for free in its entirety from an unrestored print on YouTube if you don’t). I’d seen several movies that Scorsese, one of my favorite filmmakers, helped to restore and bring to new audiences, and I always appreciated his eye and his words on film.

Touki Bouki concerns itself with a sort of romance-against-the-world, with Mory (Magaye Niang) and Anta (Marame Niang) constantly hoping to find themselves one step ahead of one sort of trouble or another, grasping at a chance for their dream: to travel to Paris, scored by Josephine Baker’s lilting song, “Paris… Paris…”

The character Mory Diop, of course, shares partial namesake with writer-director Mambéty.

I am reminded once again of my favorite film, Apur Sansar (The World of Apu), the conclusion of Satyajit Ray’s Apu Trilogy.

A young adult Apu Roy walks on the train tracks with his college friend Pulu late at night, explaining about the “wonderful novel” he’s writing. Roy, of course, and Ray share a ring to them. Anyway, Apu says his novel concerns a young boy who grows up poor, in hardship, but he never loses the flame of life. “He wants to live!” Pulu replies, “But this is autobiography!” And the two friends argue playfully into the night, sparking comedy and pure joy.

Friendship feels hard to come by these days; I feel lucky to live with roommates, preventing me from submerging into deeper and deeper levels of cabin fever that I might be plummeting into if not for their company.

The desire for company brought me back to Katsuya Eguchi’s Animal Crossing series, with the new entry for the Nintendo Switch, New Horizons.

I downloaded the game last week and I enjoyed it as much or more as I liked the AC titles City Folk for the Wii and New Leaf for the 3DS. However, the game had yet to truly enrapture me, until today, when I tried an experiment.

In Animal Crossing: New Horizons, you make your home on a deserted island, deserted until several animals join you and become your neighbors and friends. In this new Switch game, you fly to the island via Dodo Airlines, and once you’re set up, you may invite others to join your game via the internet, and they can fly to your island.

I named my little corner of the world Pocketknife Isle, to reflect the first punk house I ever knew, an all-girl punk house in Minneapolis where I loved to go to basement shows with Kitten Forever and other bands.

I tried something this afternoon, after making an epic grocery run; I opened up the gates of my town to anyone who had the Dodo Code, and then I tweeted out a screenshot of the Dodo Code and invited anyone to come hang out.

First, and most surprisingly, a Twitter person who must have been following me online came to my town! Their AC character’s name is Drowsy. I showed Drowsy the village, the museum, and they asked via the clunky in-game chat function (using the in-game NookPhone to send texts) how I’d caught a football fish; I said, it was raining. I asked how they were, and they said bored. I told them I was tired after running groceries for my roommate and I. “Strange times,” they said.

Drowsy soon had to go, but I saw that my friend and Knight Dreams bandmate Lii signed onto AC, so I texted them “come to my island!!” and I talked to him on speakerphone while we traded fruits and flowers and talked about the thoughtful architectural detail poured into the owl Blathers’ museum.

“You’re in my house!” I yelled over the phone to Lii, “You can’t come to my house in real life, but you’re in my house in Animal Crossing!”

I want to hold close to my friends, however I can, through any medium. Ian Curtis of Joy Division sang about “Touching from a distance” in “Transmission.” I know what you’re thinking, downer note to end on. I don’t believe in silver linings right now. I believe in what I can touch, when movies permeate my soul, what I can hold in my heart.

Livestreaming in the time of social distancing

Like 'Love in the Time of Cholera,' but less lyrical.

Last year I started livestreaming videogames on Twitch for fun and profit. I’m an extroverted gal, and I wanted to put on a show.

Months into streaming I realized the “profit” part was coming in slow and I felt frustrated, but after the coronavirus dictated that we couldn’t see pals (except for, bless him, my roommate), I came back to streaming and found the fun.

When I began I had already been making videogame “let’s play” videos on my YouTube channel for several years, and I switched to Twitch as its monetization setup works better for creators (though Twitch uses a $100 payout minimum, meaning I haven’t actually received any of the money I’ve made on Twitch so far thanks to my wonderful subscribers).

What is Twitch, for the uninitiated? Twitch is a livestreaming platform (others also use Mixer, YouTube, and Facebook for similar purposes) primarily, but not exclusively, made for streaming videogame content. If you see me on twitch.tv/heyanniemok, you’ll see gameplay from a PS4 game I’m making my way through—just finished Batman: Arkham City—as well as my facecam in the corner, and a text chat window to the right for viewers. Here’s one of my let’s play videos from YouTube, which replicates the experience except for, of course, the live + chat aspects of Twitch.

If you come into the channel to hang out, we can talk to each other via the chat, and this to me becomes the greatest pleasure of streaming: hearing about how everyone in chat is doing, and carrying on conversations about the game or whatever else.

When a channel is at its best, it becomes a party with the streamer as the host and everyone who shows up is having fun.

In the time of the coronavirus, an illness I am reasonably sure I suffered from (I’m feeling better now but may still be carrying, so I’m self-isolating for the time being), as Philly goes on lockdown, it’s now impossible for me to see friends outside of vid chat. My cabin fever (cue the Muppets Treasure Island song!), always there as a freelancer who works from home, skyrocketed when my extrovert self couldn’t have friends over. Streaming provided a way to relax and have fun with some games while connecting with others in some small way.

If you’re interested in coming by and hanging out in chat, the best thing to do is create a Twitch account and follow me at twitch.tv/heyanniemok. You’ll then receive notifications whenever I go live.

If you enjoy watching and you’d like to support the channel (no presh!), you can subscribe to the channel at $5 per month at Tier 1, or if you have Amazon Prime for groceries or whatever, you can use it to subscribe to one streamer per month at no extra cost via Twitch Prime (here’s how).

Until we can see each other in the flesh, I hope to see you in chat through my PlayStation camera.

If you’re a subscriber to my Substack blog/newsletter, thanks for your patience in my getting this entry to you! I aim to get two of these out per month, and I got hit with what was likely coronavirus around mid-March, which slowed me down. Until next time. <3