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Greetings!
I was going to give you guys like a month of silence before posting again because I know I overdid it on my If We Were Villains extravaganza, but life is short and I love to yap and I read Caitlyn’s post on milk fed and thought, why not! So here we are. Apologies, once again.
October is doing that thing that MUNA talks about in “Home By Now” where it’s just hot instead of actually committing to the cold weather of autumn that we deserve in the US. The mornings are generally pretty cool, but this weekend I went to a pumpkin patch and it was 80ºF. Gross.
Been chugging along with life recently, though. I saw my therapist yesterday and I kinda didn’t have much to contribute (in a good way). I’m doing better at eating (yes, that was a problem) and I’ve been having adventures and reading a lot and even watching some stuff! Huzzah!
Last week I had the privilege of meeting The M.L. Rio at our local bookstore and she is just as spectacular in person as you’d expect. Totally intimidating, absolutely could kick me in the face and I’d thank her. She talked a lot about craft and academia (don’t get your PhD apparently) and even though I haven’t read Graveyard Shift yet, I’m saving it for a particularly spooky night in the next few weeks and I’m excited to get to it.
I did not tell her about the essay(s). But I applauded her attention to detail and told her I annotated Villains and she was impressed nonetheless! Meet your heroes, kids, even if you’re shaking like a wet chihuahua.
I got to go home a few weeks ago to see my family (we do not live in my hometown anymore and none of us are in the same state), and I’m not gonna lie, I cried when I was driving around. When I drove into town, I passed our local Steak N Shake where me and my best friend would get shakes when we came back from college on breaks and I just burst into tears. And then I turned on Noah Kahan and had A Moment. It’s fine.
Dad got this very special alumni award at his university and we got to see a bunch of old family friends (cue the “so how’s your love life?!” question) and honestly, the whole weekend was very relaxed and quiet…but it was just nice to be around people who knew me back when I was small. We ended up in the building where I put on all my Shakespeare plays in middle school and it took everything in me not to go snooping to relive the olden days.
The whole thing just made me really grateful for where I came from and the life I had growing up, and I just adore my family so much.
And this coming weekend I’m going to watch my best friend from high school marry her partner of seven years and even though I have to get up at like 4am on Saturday to do hair & make-up, I am going to pee my pants I’m so excited to celebrate. Over a decade ago we were in high school, Pinterest-boarding our weddings and we both agreed that whenever one of us got married we’d hire this fantastic photographer…and now that photographer is one of my dear internet acquaintances and she is photographing this wedding and I just can’t believe we get to live this thing called life with so many amazing beautiful wonderful people.
We are loved! And we get to love!!!! How magical is that!!!!
things i’ve been loving recently
Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow (+ Hamilton the musical oops)
I need all of you to know this was absolutely not on the cards for this month or next month or 2024 or EVER. I gave up on reading the Hamiltome a decade ago when I bought the damn book for a college paper. It’s huge and dense and historic and absolutely so far outside my comfort zone that I never really believed I would read it, even though I kept it on my shelf all this time. My mom read it years ago and loved it (she loves historical biographies), and obviously I was a huge fan of Hamilton back in the day like everybody else. I’m not sure what spirit compelled me to pick up this audiobook (while I was reading a massive high fantasy book on my Kindle), but by some miracle of god, I am accomplishing something previously unthinkable from my 30 Before 30 list. My dream is to read the trifecta of Les Mis, the Hamiltome, and War & Peace before I turn thirty (for three of my favorite musicals, obviously), and once I finish this one this week, I will be 2/3 of the way done!!!!!
The most surprising part of this whole endeavor is I’m having a blast. I absolutely love this book and all that it explores, and I think the audio narrator and the author both have done a magnificent job on this. It’s so much easier to digest than I ever expected, and more than that, it’s apparent that Lin-Manuel Miranda really paid attention to little details. The musical isn’t an exact match, there are some things that have been moved or altered a little for the stage, but my god…it’s so close.
I feel immensely proud of myself for picking this up! But unfortunately it has awakened the Hamilton fangirl within me, so if you see Hamilton songs on my wrapped this year mind your business…
A Chorus of Dragons by Jenn Lyons
I finally (!!!!!!) conquered this series and as such, things took a weird turn in the last few weeks. I did read all five books of this series this year…but I read book 3 in July, then books 4-5 in September and then circled back and reread books 1-2 this month immediately after I finished the finale. And while I did all that, I decided I needed to do something drastic so I made visual guides for the first and last books. I needed to sort things out for my own brain, so I put down as much info as I could for future me to look at when I reread in like five years.
This is a fantasy series that I have toyed with making a longer post about, but I shared the guide for the first book above so you can see how unhinged I’ve become.
For those who want to see the full series guide, I’ve shared it here.
I made a video trying to convince you to read it so please check that out if you read fantasy or want to read a puzzle series or like The Locked Tomb. And did I mention it’s SUPER queer? Not just gay but like ace and trans and aro with lesbians and nonbinary demons and a polyamorous love triangle?
Basically, I’m obsessed.
Over the Garden Wall (2014, dir. Patrick McHale)
I put off watching this for a good ten years because I didn’t understand what it could possibly be about and frankly, I’ve always been weary of Cartoon Network productions because they give me war flashbacks to Flapjack and I’m convinced my mom tried to turn us against the weirdness (queerness? neurodivergence?) of CN ever since the early 2000s. (Although she did help me dress up as Raven from Teen Titans for Halloween once year so she’s supportive!) Bad excuse, I’ve learned my lesson, this show is an utter delight. The voice cast is amazing, the animation is stunning, and the story (!!!!) makes me want to yell. I don’t even particularly care that it’s very Halloween-y, I just love that it’s about family and friendship and overcoming darkness.
I’ve been singing about potatoes and molasses all day.
Moonstruck (1987, dir. Norman Jewison)
I’ve wanted to watch this movie for a long time, and I finally turned it on this weekend because I didn’t have much I had to do. And let me say, even though this movie is messy and silly, I think it’s so beautiful. Cher and Nic Cage really do spectacular work here (but mainly they look hot). But mostly I love this movie because it’s visually lovely. It’s the kind of film I’d want to live in, to just be apart of a kooky Italian family in the 1980s in NYC, running around having affairs and hiding secrets and coming together for breakfast in the morning to deal with everybody’s issues. Beautifully shot, lovely to behold, overall a great comfort movie for the colder months.
911 Season 8 on ABC (and Hulu)
Look. I spent all summer watching this gay firefighter show just so I could be caught up to watch this season live when it aired. And I have to say, not only is it living up to expectations (it’s been an insane first three episodes, let me say), but it’s also just really fun to watch a show weekly again. I think having a day of the week to look forward to makes the work week go by quicker, and nothing beats Angela Bassett Power Hour. I definitely cried like multiple times during last weeks episode (8x3) and that scene with Bobby up on the truck was some insane cinematography for a procedural ABC Ryan Murphy show. Wildly entertaining!!
I haven’t legitimately cooked (and cooked something new at that) in weeks, maybe even months because my grief season and the summer heat has made it unbearable to use my stove/oven but I finally decided I needed to make some real food and I am a sucker for Tieghan’s recipes. I strayed a little from her exact dish, but that’s the joy of recipes - they’re usually just suggestions! This is super easy and the sauce is honestly what takes the most time and brainpower, so definitely put this in your back pocket if you need something new to spice up your week.
In case nobody told you, Katie Gavin (of MUNA) is in the process of putting out her first ever solo record and the first three singles have all been fucking fantastic. I love the video for “Casual Drug Use” because it’s so personal and it reminds me of when I was in middle school making my own music videos, and the video for “Aftertaste” is cheeky as hell, but this video is just breath-taking. It’s shot in such a stunning way, and Katie looks absolutely gorgeous. And yeah, this is a song of the year contender, absolutely insane song to write.
The new art direction for Grace VanderWaal (yes, she’s 20 now, I have to go stare at a all) is INSANE. I’m so obsessed with this video and the single art for this song and I hope she continues whatever this is for a whole album cycle. Absolutely stunning.
I stumbled on this video because I’m a fan of half-alive and I am so impressed with it. The choreo is great, I love the video work on it, and now I have been playing the song on repeat for like two weeks. More choreographed dancing in music videos!!
Speaking of, I went down a rabbit hole after “Sophie’s House” and found this mind-blowing piece for one of Billie Eilish’s songs. While the choreo and dancing are obviously the most impressive part of this, I can’t help but be amazed by the camera work and editing and production side of things. It deserves all the praise!
I cannot stop watching this video because it is a masterpiece that absolutely would’ve stressed me the fuck out if I had to be on the video team for this. Insane.
I’ve fallen in love with Georgia Parker’s debut album! I am a huge fan of her song “Did You Get the Feeling?” and I’ve been singing it on and off for months, but this album of hers is so beautiful and quiet and underrated. She’s such a talent and I hope more people get to hear her music!
When I went back to my hometown a few weeks ago I couldn’t not listen to Stick Season and cry a little. I’ve been a fan of this for a while, so this isn’t a new listen, but I have been really diggin’ “Paul Revere” and “Homesick” and “You’re Gonna Go Far” this season. Such a talented guy.
Severely underrated Death Cab album. I’ve been picking away at it for a few months, songs like “Little Wanderer” and “Black Sun” but I finally listened to the full album a few weeks ago on my long drive and it’s so excellent. “No Room in Frame” and “Everything’s a Ceiling” and “Good Help” have been on repeat recently.
For all twenty-four of you who check my digest playlist, I did update it once again!! And don’t worry, I put “Potatoes and Molasses” on there for ya. I know you wanna listen to it.
things on my wishlist
I love Caitlyn’s newsletters because she’ll talk about the stuff she’s loving and the things she’s wishing for, and I love reading what other people are buying. (Or not buying?) More and more recently I’ve found myself inadvertently making a list of things I’m wishing for! Maybe my brain knows the holidays are coming and Mom always told us that this is the time of year you cannot buy things for yourself because what if someone wants to get you that for Christmas?! (Am I the only one scarred by gift-giving?) But like also, I’ve bought so many books and things for myself this year I do think I need to be on a book-buying ban until January…how did we get here.
Anyway, here’s a little list of things I’ve found myself wanting to buy.
Perfume - I am not a perfume person. I cannot justify buying expensive perfume. But I love the idea of being a perfume person. Especially because there are some people on here who write about it so passionately and I wish I was the kind of person who had a signature scent!! Don’t ask me what I want to smell like, that is none of my business.
Books <3 - I have spent the last few weeks carefully curating a Bookshop list because I really just did not realize how many books I want to add to my collection. Right now I really need to prioritize the new Bone Season books (the revised edition hardcovers wHEW) and the first two Locked Tomb books (again, hardcover…expensive…) and of course, Captive Prince. Actually I should just add that I need more bookshelves too because YIKES…
Hydroflask lid replacement - One of my water bottle lids started leaking real bad recently and we need to fix that!! (I think it’s a wide mouth straw lid? Not sure.)
Magnets - I just don’t think I have enough magnets for my fridge. But not necessarily cute ones, like heavy duty strong ones that can hold like a bunch of stuff up. (I like decorating my fridge, sue me.)
Knife sharpener - I have had my current knives for upwards of five years and they’ve never been sharpened and I just personally think they deserve to be sharper! Maybe that’ll get me to cook! (Me when I lie)
Matcha-making supplies - Okay I know objectively you do not need a lot to make your own matcha at home but there’s that special wisk and the actual powder that’s kinda expensive and I just don’t know if I’m ready for that commitment…but I really like matcha and it’s tea season!
a selection of silly tumblr posts
No year after 2019 has in fact been real
Potatoes and molasses ☺️☺️☺️🌙