April 2025

Watching

• Turning Red (rewatch)
• A Real Pain - I didn't really know what to expect going into it, but I though it was a good time!
• One Mississippi - hadn't watched anything from Tig Notaro before, really great!
• Fire Island - I totally forgot that it was a Pride and Prejudice adaptation, which I'm always a sucker for
• The L Word - finally gave in and gave it a shot... the lack of representation and gender-expansive characters is disappointing, but also it's gay so I WILL keep watching
• Stress Positions - so great! The epitome of gay chaos
• The Shrouds - I have plenty of thoughts, which you can read here

Reading

• A History of My Brief Body by Billy-Ray Belcourt
• Sick Magazine, Issue 6
• Press Pause Volume 1 - Found this at a local used bookstore, now I definitely want to explore the more recent issues!
• Shock City by Aaron Alexovich - I really love the world-building, as well as the unexpectedly anticapitalist direction the plot took - really awesome!
• This Was Our Pact by Ryan Andrews
• Falling Back in Love With Being Human by Kai Cheng Tom
• Motheater by Linda H. Codega

Listening

• Reachin' (A New Refutation of Time and Space) by Digable Planets

Around the Internet

• Absolute Legend Boff Whalley's stop at Asheville's Firestorm Books on his book tour! I wasn't able to make it, so I watched the live stream from home - it was so strange to hear him talk and sing after years of listening to Chumbawumba. Managed to pick up one of the signed copies of his book!
• The Internet is Exhausting Now by gabi belle - I try to avoid scrolling as much as possible these days, and the amount of videos I get about celebrities and of "medical professionals" analyzing celebrities' bodies and features drives me crazy
• Grow Up! Why does everyone hate children? by The Leftist Cooks
• It's Time to Jailbreak Your Kindle by Dammit Jeff

March 2025

Watching

• Ernest and Celestine - seen this a couple years ago, god it's so cute, love the soundtrack!
• Ingrid Goes West
• Oscar Nominated Live Action Shorts: A Lein, Anuja, I'm Not a Robot, The Last Ranger, and The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent
• White Lotus Season 3 - Parker Posey is killing it as the typical NC rich white woman, I'm getting flashbacks and it's scary, but idk this season is pretty boring so far (except of course of Sam Rockwell's flawless monologue)
• Valley Girl
• Youth in Revolt - of course I gave this a shot for Michael Cera, but uhhhh it was kinda weird not fully sure how I feel about it
• I Saw the TV Glow (finally watched it, was very excited to see Conner O'Malley)
• Sasaki and Miyano (rewatched because y'know what? it was the VIBE)
• Heretic - why are so many horror movies coming out lately like this... I love Sophie Thatcher tho
• Real Women Have Curves
• Anora - DAMN Mikey definitely earned that Oscar
• Mickey 17 - so fun! Exactly what I was hoping for, thank you for another hit BJH!
• Yes, God, Yes (rewatch) - I just love this movie
• Bernie (rewatch) - Jack Black just doesn't miss huh
• Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things

Reading

• The Hotel Balzaar by Kate DiCamillo - chose it for the gorgeous illustrations by Júlia Sardà, but of course Kate DiCamillo doesn't miss, at least from my experience so far
• We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kliewer - love this!

Listening

• In Our Nature by Jose Gonzalez | Favorite tracks: How Low and Killing for Love
• Birds Make Good Neighbors by The Rosebuds | Favorite tracks: Hold Hands and Fight and Leaves Do Fall
• Under Construction by Missy Elliott | Favorite tracks: Bring the Pain and Funky Fresh Dressed
• What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World by The Decemberists | Favorite tracks: Anti-Summersong and Easy Come, Easy Go
• Live at Red Rocks by Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats | Favorite tracks: I Need Never Get Old and Trying So Hard Not To Know
• Rites of Passage by Indigo Girls | Favorite tracks: Jonas & Ezekial and Joking
• Lil Nas X's new songs! Particularly DREAMBOY and RIGHT THERE!
• The new Ghost song, Satanized
• The Best of The Cranberries | Favorite tracks: Salvation and I Can't Be With You

Around the Internet

• "Boromir and our Relapse into Fascism" by svensplaining - never thought I'd ever watch a 3h video about Tolkien lore but here we are
• Everyone is "The Driving Crooner" these days... by chriswaves - I just came across this channel and I'm loving their videos, but of course a Tim Robinson deep-dive analysis will be my favorite
• Understanding Anyathena (Lexity) by bella - I don't watch many drama videos anymore but I really enjoyed this creator and all this is WILD to me - I had seen Lexity around the internet before but I had never really followed their content so I hadn't realized it was that strange and I was ENTHRALLED
• Gwen Stefani: From Feminist to Fascist by matt bernstein
• The Hyper-Commercialization of Van Gogh by christeah
• The Alt-Right are Dressing like the Radical Left by Harland Spinks
• Ten Second Songs always knows how to worm his way into my brain: his new style swap of Soundgarden and Backstreet Boys is so perfect, I always love a good Black Hole Sun cover
• we were never meant to see our faces by flowlotl
• The YouTubers Who Backed a Genocide by Noah Samsen - I know the vague details about the Gaza genocide, but I think Noah did a really good idea of summarizing and introducing the issue
• NYT's Recipe for Losing the Working Class by Alice Cappelle
• The Spy Kids Era by Burback - my brother and I also had a huge SpyGear and Spy Kids phase so this cut DEEP
• Tiktok's Most Hated Stay-At-Home Girlfriend - Kendel Kay (A Deep Dive) by Kidology
• The Trouble with "The Office Siren" on Tiktok by Not Even Emily
• The Transgender Law Center's TDoV Webinar: Building Power Across Generations

February 2025

Watching

• Transmitzvah
• Conclave (again!)
• Oscar Nominated Animated Shorts: Magic Candies, In the Shadow of the Cypress, Yuck!, Wander to Wonder, Beautiful Men
• How to Train Your Dragon, 1 and 2, and then went on to binge all 6 seasons of Race to the Edge oops
• Diabolique
• Emitai - since I watched it all I hear in my mind is just "Kebebe!"
• Xala - my favorite actor was the evian bottle
• Cebbo

Reading

• Spill by Alexis Pauline Gumbs
• The Night Gardener by Jonathan Auxier - SO SICK

Around the Internet

• "creating a digital garden to end my doomscrolling" by Anna Howard (I had already gotten Obsidian to replace Notion but I ended up using Odysseas' video on setting it up - don't know if I'll stick with it but I like it for now!
• "How libraries are saving physical media" by Nomad Over Normal - I've started going to the library every week to choose CDs to add to my music library (I'm only listening to what I have on my iTunes library these days) and DVDs to take home for that week and I love it, feels so much more involved.
• "WHY NOT????????????" by joost klein - I will listen to anything this man releases on LOOP, and this video is so damn fun

January 2025

Watching

• Conclave - I will never shut up about this movie
• Thirteen - no bra, no panties!
• She Came to Me
• The First Omen - the final act was AMAZING
• Alien: Romulus - I've never watched a movie with my mouth hanging open like that
• Beans
• Close to You - cool to see an Elliott Page romcom but meh
• Party Girl
• Clockwatchers - had to continue my Parker Posey mood
• Frybread Face and Me
• His House (rewatch)
• Johanne Sacreblu
• Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl

Reading

• Invasion of the Body Snatchers by Jack Finney - loved this! I need to revisit the movie adaptations, from what I remember of them I prefer the book, I love how everything unfolds/reveals!
• The Employees by Olga Ravn

Around the Internet

• "You should write self-indulgent trash" by The Cozy Creative - this really inspired me to try and fight my perfectionism, especially with writing
• "Third Place vs. Right to the City" by Radical Planning - of course I've heard third places referred to a lot, but I hadn't realized where it came from: this is why we always have to shape our own ideas instead of uncritically adopting existing things we hear!!
• "The Worst Remake Ever Made | A WICKER MAN Analysis" by Maggie Mae Fish - I finally watched the remake in October, and man now I really want to check out the original
• "Spotify Wrapped is changing the way we listen to music" by Gaila - the connection to surveillance really stuck with me, I had always had mixed feelings about Wrapped, but this video perfectly encapsulates it. It would be fun to see the results, but you also felt the need to guide it and censor yourself as to not embarrass yourself