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As a kid, instead of being normal and hanging out in the toy aisle at the grocery store while my parents shopped, I would camp out in the school/office supplies ogling all the pens and markers (and usually managing to go home with something new). As an adult, nothing has changed! Though I guess I do it mostly virtually now. I love stationery and I am always convinced that this new pen will be the perfect one, the one I’ll buy over and over again for the rest of my life. It never is, but I have a ball with the process anyway. On the eternal search for highlighters that won’t bleed through my Moleskine planner pages, I recently grabbed these Sharpie S-Note markers and I like them a lot! They work in my planner great and they’re saturated enough to write with and they’re also excellent in the one coloring book I own and use maybe once a quarter. Highly recommend.
My Spotify wrapped was atrocious so I won’t bother you with any of that (This is what happens when you fire all your people! You need human people to make things that are worth human time!) but it was nice to see that I listened to the Decemberists as much as I thought I did and I’ve been listening to my top songs for the year a lot despite the lackluster wrap-up. Anyway! Other stuff I’ve been listening to a lot: Boys Go To Jupiter’s “Virginia,” All Saints, “Never Ever,” Beach Weather, “Seth Cohen,” and a lot of Daft Punk.
I haven’t read anything I loved in fooooooooreeeeeeeeeeverrrrrrrrr which sucks, but I’m having an okay time with Ray Nayler’s The Mountain in the Sea, so fingers crossed!
Okay, that’s it! Happy holidays! I hope you have exactly as much fun as you can handle and an excellent new year. We can make it through this (and that and the next thing) together. <3
To be honest, the last month has been a little bit of a mess in ways I had not exactly expected and though I did listen to, read, and watch some stuff, my ability to retain whether or how much I enjoyed that stuff is… less than stellar.
I listened to a lot of Aurora on purpose which was a great choice. I’m particularly fond of The Gods We Can Touch but have not not enjoyed anything I’ve heard.
I read The Talented Mr. Ripley and had a pretty great time, thought it was significantly less gay than what I’ve seen/heard of the movie led me to believe. I also read and liked Kate Leth’s Mall Goth which hit me with some real good nostalgia in the midst of a good, though hard, story.
I watched Pretty Woman for the first time and had a great time! I get why so many women of a certain age are Like That about it and also seeing Jason Alexander be a gross little weasel was so unsettling to me.
In non-media things I’ve enjoyed recently: making canned cinnamon rolls by baking them in cream (The whole internet’s doing it! But this time they’re right!), our new laundry basket that was a little annoying to put together but rolls fantastically and holds a lots, putting a heating blanket just across the foot of the bed so I can tuck my feet into it when they get chilly but not get too hot to sleep, sleeping with my window open even though it’s in the 30s most nights, this little rechargeable Drew Barrymore lamp that I got for our newly renovated bathroom where after six years of living in this house we can finally shower which would also be a thing that I have enjoyed recently (and is of course to some extent) except it cost three times what we were told it would and was a shitshow from beginning to end, Abbot Mojave which does somehow remind me of home, and these little shower curtain clips that install easy and seem to hold the curtain well even if when I ~scanned the QR code to get installation instructions (They’re stickers, I thought I probably had it handled, but it never hurts to check!) it told me the company’s account had expired from non-payment.
I read and loved Landis Blair’s The Night Tent which is so beautifully and charmingly illustrated and written that it makes me wish I had a kid in my life in need of a bedtime story!
I listened to the very first episode of 60 Songs that Explain the 90s and had a good time! I laughed a lot if begrudgingly since it’s hosted by a man who clearly thinks he’s soooooooooo funny, but I will for sure be listening to more episodes anyway.
I’m enjoying Maria Bamford’s Sure, I’ll Join Your Cult which we’ve been listening to as an audiobook which is both nearly impossible for me and my auditory processing issues and also extremely delightful because she’s a comedian with great range and fantastic delivery. Someday I might even manage to finish it!
A couple of albums I’ve liked lately even though my ability to listen to music is extremely broken for some reason: Screaming Females, Desire Pathway and Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill which I’ve been listening to for most of my life but deserves a mention and Metric’s Art of Doubt and The Decemberists in generally because I am still In It!
Okay, that’s it! It’s been rough going around these parts lately — Did you know change is really hard? And having your life in upheaval is exhausting even when it’s for a good reason? And that money sucks? And adhulthood is stupid? Also being mentally ill is terrible? — but we persever nonetheless because honestly the other choice sucks way more.
I hope your fall is glorious! See you next month!
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.
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.
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