Hey there and welcome! My name’s Chamois, and you’ve just landed on my site. As you’ve probably noticed, I really, really like reading and writing (despite my fluctuating abilities in the latter). I’m five foot nine or thereabouts and I’m currently living in Hong Kong. For now, that is. Don’t mind moving elsewhere, I’m not especially attached to the place.
If you’re here, it’s probably because of my list of Taskmaster series rankings, or because of my trilogy (soon-to-be quadrilogy?) of album rankings on bands of the 70s. Although I’m proud of those quick-fire lists, there’s a lot more to this blog than just ABBA and Alex Horne. On this blog you’ll find most of my musings since I started this website in 2017; over the years and days that have followed, I’ve started quite a few writing projects on assorted things that caught my nerdy mind, and you’ll find a summary of all that below:
Currently moving
These are projects which will receive an instalment in the near future (think 2025); it might take some time for me to push out the next piece, but I assure you I’m thinking about them all the time. Stay tuned for…
- A Song of Peace, my ongoing effort to review all the songs that have won the Eurovision Song Contest since its inception in 1956. I’ve been fascinated by the ESC since I was a teenager and I want to get to the bottom of that — what’s the mythos behind the Contest’s ongoing popularity? How does it reflect European society? And are any of those songs actually good? (Spoiler alert: yes.) Published eight to ten times a year; click here for an introduction.
- A Dance to the Music of Time, my on-again off-again series on the songs I love. From songs that taught me love, to songs that talk about the falsehood of the American dream, and many a Beatle song in between, these are songs that have not only shaped my way of life, but also my way of thinking. Published every 2 April, but may return for bonus one-offs.
- A Hundred Random Pictures, a series based off the 100 movies I watched for the first time (well, most of them) between 2023 and 2025. After finishing that feat, I kept on thinking about how these movies kept on setting off fireworks in my mind, so I did what I do best and started writing about them. Published whenever I feel like it; click here for an introduction.
Taking a break
These are projects which I’ve started but aren’t currently publishing for one reason or another; although they’re all up in the air right now, I do have vague plans to complete them someday. Fingers crossed…
- In Between the Lines is my exploration of Metro networks around the world – so far I’m about halfway through my first series, on the Hong Kong MTR. This project has been dormant since August 2021 because I’ve been struggling to write the next piece (spoiler: I just love the Disneyland Resort line too much) but I do plan to return to it someday, and maybe also explore the Metros of other cities if I have the chance – looking at you, Paris and Vienna!
- Down on Creation is a collection of travel blogs I’ve written up based on my journeys around the world. It’s really my attempt at being an Asian Michael Palin: observing the world and its people as I try and navigate through it, trying to relate the funny bits. So far I’ve finished four series (two on Europe, one on Australia, and a fourth on South Korea) and am currently writing a fifth; you’ll hear more from this soon enough!
Left behind
Those of you bored enough to scroll far enough back will perhaps notice other series which I’ve completed but laid to bed; most of those I consider to be juvenilia, but there are two which I’ll mention here:
- Playing Stories was my 2020 attempt to write a short story every week; spurred on by John Green’s anecdote on doing the same thing, I tried to emulate one of my favourite writers, in the hope that there’d be at least one good story hidden amongst 50-odd bad ones. (And I did! I’m proud of, like, three of them. Forget about the rest.)
- Keep Running was my set of reviews on the 2024 episodes of long-running South Korean variety show Running Man (not to be confused with the Arnold Schwarzenegger/Glen Powell movie). Despite delivering almost 800 episodes of peak(ish) comedy, I continue to be astonished by how unknown this show remains among Western K-fans; this was my yearlong attempt to try and rectify that issue.
Hope you have a fun time reading my blog (that’s what it’s for), and feel free to leave comments or start a conversation with me! (But please keep it civilised! I’m a stickler for civility, so I will screen your comment before uploading it online. Sorry if there’s a delay, but I like to keep my corner of the Internet tidy!)