stuff i liked recently

a picture of ash as a baby in a walker with their tongue hanging out and a potted pothos nearby

I have not been having the happiest or most dignified time lately and finding enjoyment has been hard! Liking things has been hard! Nevertheless we keep on keepin’ on and trying our best! Right? Right!

Anyway, I have kind of learned how to listen to podcasts! Which is an absolutely huge evolutionary shift for me. So far they have to be about music (a thing I am used to hearing only) and I still have to concentrate pretty hard so I mostly do it while doing data entry or organizational type work, but I’m having fun! I’ve listened to every episode of The True Story of the Fake Zombies so far and quite a few episodes of Song Exploder which I really like since the episodes are just about the songs and are nice and short and sweet.

Youtube-wise we’ve been watching a lot of Garden Answer because it’s oddly and wonderfully soothing to watch someone work really hard on projects across their bonkers property that you would never in your life even vaguely consider doing yourself in any way.

I really liked The Husbands by Holly Gramazio which, despite me having very recently read the synopsis, was really different than I expected! I thought it was clever and fun and also more emotionally resonant than I would’ve guessed it would be and I also thought the thanks/acknowledgement of, “Every stranger with whom I’ve exchanged a glance and thought, just for a moment, about a different life where they’re my friend,” was SO relatable and moving?

I also, due largely to Bad Brain Problems, recently reread Heated Rivalry and The Long Game which were both very charming/sexy/fun/funny the second time around. I’m really, really not a big re-reader, so you know I had a good time if I go back to something. Maybe no higher compliment, tbh!

Alright, I think that’s it! No new snacks except I got really into the Reese’s Take Five bars that came in the bag of candy I bought to put on my desk at work when I thought perhaps this year would be different than every year before and was trying to be a nice host. I was wrong, but the snacks are good anyway!

Fall is coming, babey. Hang in there.

stuff i liked recently

a picture of ash as a baby in a walker with their tongue hanging out and a potted pothos nearby

I don’t know what happens to me when it’s time to do these posts but it’s like I the entire slate of things I have ever read, watched, or seen in my life gets wiped completely clean by the unseen sea roaring around in the empty space in my skull and I have to reconstruct it Memento style.

Anyway!

I’ve been watching a lot of Mac Glocky videos which are both fun conceptually, but also like, shockingly well executed? Enough that I’ve been listening to his Fantasy Covers albums on Spotify also. Some favorites: “Bad Guy” and “West Coast” and “The Man Who Sold the World. I think these things work not only because he’s a pretty talented mimic, but also because he really understands both the songs he covers and the bands he’s using as inspiration, but also what arrangement really means to the final production of a song.

I haven’t been reading much which is annoying and haven’t really enjoyed what I have read which is even more annoying, but I have been slowly picking at Jeffery P. Dennis’ Queering Teen Culture which I had been trying to find for years and Crystal grabbed me on a whim while she was making a used book order and is really fun and smart. Yes, I DO read academic texts for fun.

Crystal also finally bullied me into watching Good Will Hunting which I liked alright. I don’t feel like the ~catharsis was as good as it should have been, but I was very compelled by the friendship in it and the relationship that Will and Sean develop. My only real experience with it prior to watching it is the sequel scene they’re filming in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, which tbh might actually be the perfect way to come into it as an experience.

That’s it! I guess! I didn’t even have any good snacks this month or anything… Like… I made salsa with apricots instead of mango last week because there wasn’t enough good mango left which was pretty good? We finally moved offices at work which has been exhausting, but incredible. I miss the coworker I was sharing with, but it was also nice to be able to close my door and take my shirt off to make a wardrobe adjustment the other day, so you win some you lose some.

Okay, that’s it for real. Tits in, Ash OUT.

stuff i consumed: july 2020

Here’s some stuff I managed to consume in the last month. Keep taking care of yourselves. Wash your hands. Wear a mask. Try to laugh as much as possible. ♥

Ho99o9, Children of the Void

Miles Klee, Can We Admit Some Things Are Better Now?

Jeff Passan, ‘You can’t just not do it.’ Inside baseball’s mixed response to social justice movement, and what’s next

Charles Holmes, Juvenile’s 400 Degrees of Fine Furniture

emmymadeinjapan, Circus Peanut Salad

Cut, Ernie Designs a Tattoo for His Mom

Miles Klee, Coronavirus Is Killing Our Memory

stuff i consumed: july 2020

Here’s some stuff I consumed in the last month. Keep taking care of yourselves. Wash your hands. Wear a mask. Try to laugh as much as possible. ♥

Arun Srinivasan, NHL misses the mark entirely with performative gestures regarding Black lives

Miles Klee, The Gun-Toting St. Louis Couple Are the New ‘American Gothic’

Eduardo C. Corral, “Cordoba”

s.e. smith, What If Accessibility Was Also Inclusive?

Buon-A-Petitti, Italian Grandma Makes Pork Milanese

NHL, 5-on-3 Shorthanded Goals in NHL History

Natasha Cloud, Your Silence Is a Knee on My Neck

Luke Winkie, Inside the Community of Men Who Fuck Themselves

Katy Schneider and Jane Starr Drinkard, The Look Book Goes to the Jamaica Post Office

Ben Meisner, I’m Not Connor McDavid [cw: suicide]

stuff i consumed: june 2020

Here’s some stuff I consumed in the last month. Keep taking care of yourselves. ♥

Alice Speri, Alleen Brown, Mara Hvistendahl, The George Floyd Killing in Minneapolis Exposes the Failures of Police Reform

Cameron Awkward-Rich, Cento Between the Ending and the End

Erik Gudbranson, We Need to Be Loud, We Need to Be Unflinching

Ruth Gebreyesus, Eating at Black-Owned Restaurants Isn’t Going to Save Us

Melena Ryzik, Overlooked No More: Debra Hill, Producer Who Parlayed ‘Halloween’ Into a Cult Classic

Mark Fraser, Silence Is Violence

Ed Yong, COVID-19 Can Last for Several Months

Rebecca Carroll, You Should Be Feeling Miserable

Cynthia Franks, A White Woman, Racism and a Poodle

Angel Jennings, South L.A. is largely untouched by unrest. That is by design

Miles Klee, White People Sound Like Brands When They Post About Racism

Anne Helen Petersen, Why The Small Protests In Small Towns Across America Matter

Holly Anderson, The Dog Who Was Not There, And Also Was Not A Dog