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latespringHello friends! I spent the month of May getting really into MCR while also getting increasingly stressed over my thesis. Also featuring poetry books, a podcast, and a return of my love affair with yowapeda.
Yaksha: Ruthless Operations (2022) ★★★★☆
Senior Year (2022) ★★★☆☆
Everything, Everywhere, All at Once (2022)★★★★★
CRIED. 5/5 STARS.
Dracula Daily (Dracula, by Bram Stoker 1897)
The Dracula Daily substack email subscription, which updates you in real time about Dracula. I don't have much commentary on it, just noting that I've been keeping up with it.
Not the Life it Seems: The True Lives of My Chemical Romance by Tom Bryant ★★★☆☆ (3.5)
This feels like a book from someone who's doing a retrospective right in the middle of something. Apt probably, since Bryant wrote this immediately in the aftermath of my chem's breakup in 2013**. There's a certain kind of tone that comes with it--not quite academic, not quite overly admiring, something I can't quite put my finger on--that makes it feel like while my chem hadn't figured out how they felt about the breakup, neither had Bryant. The book's tone is raw, but in the way of someone slapping a plaster on a thin cut that runs deep, or a partially cooked carrot. It might look fine, but there's some stuff no one in this book is talking about*.
*Both context of how the scene looked for fans/the experience of fans at the time, and also pretty much any comment from Ray Toro. Probably some other stuff I didn't even think to question the absence of too.
**And, well! MCR got back together.
Additionally, this isn't an authorized biography, so while Bryant has done many interviews with the band, he's still not part of their lives. It's a book written by a journalist--with all the pros and cons that come along with that.
As a book, Bryant knows how to keep pacing pretty well, though some parts felt like he wasn't quite used to writing longform--several places that rely on "and then…" type gestures, instead of trusting his readers to follow along. His writing style is very journalistic, and leans a touch to the melodramatic, but it's engaging.
There's a lot that was interesting to me about reading this book, most especially the bits Bryant writes on how the term "emo" came to describe my chem's music. More of that!! (There was not more of that.)
A lot of my reading experience was influenced by the fact that I'm friends with quite a few mcr fans, and many of them were listening to their music while they were still a band.
When I was in middle school, I didn't really listen to music*. I had friends who were into mcr and anime and tv shows, but by and large, I spent middle school reading books. Most of the exposure I got to music was through the radio or what my friends were listening to.
*I was in the school band, for extra irony.
It's only really in college that I've been trying to expand my music tastes. So listening to pop punk now has felt a little bit like I'm late to the game, like is going to come along and say that I'm too late to be getting into this music now, or that I'm only getting into it when they're more popular.
It's silly!!! No one is saying this but me @ myself.
There's something Bryant quotes in the book, that Gerard said right before the band signed to a major record label.
And yeah. Exactly.
(Recently, emofest posted their summer bands, which are six artists signed to the Fueled by Ramen label. I've been listening through their discographies via friends recommending me albums, and it's been so much fun (my ENDLESS delight with some of the FoB songs that have been recced to me). Talking about music with your friends >>> )
I've really really enjoyed talking with friends about their music--there is truly nothing more genuinely delightful in the world than someone recommending you a video or a song or a performance and going "this is going to get you so bad" or "I love this, I think you'd love it too".
So this is a very long way to say that reading this book felt like looking into a window of a person I could have been, and somehow, am a little of today. I could have been a fan of their music in middle school. Now I'm a fan of them almost graduating college. It's funny how that works.
The Disastrous Life of Saiki K. (ep 10-20)★★★★☆
Teenage psychic deals with the trials of being in high school! It doesn't really have a plot it's just funny. Highly recommend.
Yowamushi Pedal (ep 32) ★★★★☆
Sports anime about competitive cycling. I've watched it before, so I know what's happening, and can put it on in the background of things. (Watched a lot of this while sewing this month.)
Spy x Family (ep 4?) ★★★★★
This is sooooo fun. It's airing right now, so I've been keeping up with it sporadically, but I love fake marriage and spies! The tone is pretty upbeat.
Queendom 2
Lol I'm like 40 minutes into episode one, I do not have the attention span for this right now.
Kill la Kill
Tried watching this again… Got like an ep in and had to put it down again. I did the same thing a couple of years ago. Someday!
Life & Death: My Chemical Romance And 10 Years of The Black Parade by Hanif Abdurraqib
My Chemical Romance: You Know What They Do To Guys Like Us In Prison (Live 2022)
This is a stand in for all of the 2022 tour videos I have watched this month. They look like they're having so much fun!
My Chemical Romance - "Making of I'm not okay video"
My Chemical Fancast
Fan podcast that talks through MCR albums song by song! It's fun, I like the hosts. So far I'm at ~episode 8 (each episode is around an hour long), which is halfway through Three Cheers.
A Magic Steeped in Poison by Judy I. Lin
~60% through this. It's a really quick read but I had to return it to the library before I finished. It's fine? Nothing that really stands out, but nothing that's awful either. Very ~turn your brain off and vibe. The magic is exceptionally cool.
Dream/Arteries by Phinder Dulai
Reading this for class, I'm ~30% through.
Soft Science by Franny Choi
Really enjoying this! ~40% through but finals are picking up, so I'll get back here later.
A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
Only a little ways through this, but it's enjoyable. Also reading this for class.
I'm in the middle of Fast Color (2018), Long Day's Journey into Night (2018) and The Midnight Sky (2020). Finishing movies when I'm watching them alone? Less likely than you think.
Remembering by Dana Naone Hall
For Mauna a Wākea by Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio
Do/Do Not by Nisha Atalie
The mangos arrive unbruised
at the grocery store.
The wolves should start running.
Whānau by Ngaio Simmons
I don’t know how to do this
no reference,
no root of grandparents
cup of older sister or brother
eye of parent, I don’t
have strong blood to call on, instead,
have snapshots, strained twining
the dark that still doesn’t know how to grow
Lei Kukui, Lei Kuahu by Mahealani Perez-Wendt
pronunciation by Leora Kava
Our Red Road by Donovan Kūhiō Colleps
Waikīkī Returns by Christy Passion
The Vioe(n)t Cat by Dan Taulapapa McMullin
[The sun is lord of life and colour] by Iris Tree
Fire Dragon by Sage Uʻilani Takehiro
Seawall soliloquy number two: she built a seawall by Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner
SCROBBLES: 3,052 ▼
SCROBBLES PER DAY: 98 ▼ (finally fixed a weird double-scrobble thing that was going on for a while)
These scrobbles are like… well, you're going through something aren't you.
Besides the obvious, I'd like to say that Boy Division is a perfect song and deserves to be up here. Love also that they released foundations JUST as I was getting into them, I have never been so pleased. Also semi-related THIS LOOK. Oh my goddddd.
Shout out to what seems like every band ever for releasing music in May. New mcr, svt, txt, woodz, florence, got7, rina sawayama… ! Wow what a great month. Loved the svt album, particularly Don Quixote. Got7 gave me a perfect summer bop with Drive Me to the Moon, which feels like if Lullaby had a moon-themed child. Rina album later this year… !!!
Emofest released their bands for the summer, which explains the gym class heroes, fall out boy, and paramore. Kelsey Lu's album has been getting me through some rough patches.
Thank you everyone who's linked me to music this month, most especially Almay showing me IZ's album which is perfect spring vibes. Also everyone who gave me recs for albums to listen for for the emofest bands, so appreciated <3
Artists:
Albums:
Songs:
Movies
Yaksha: Ruthless Operations (2022) ★★★★☆
On assignment in a perilous city to inspect a black ops team and its notorious leader, an upstanding prosecutor steps into a deadly war between spies.THINGS THAT GET ME: HALF THIS MOVIE. Jinyoung from got7 is in here! Saw this with Jacks, had a wonderful time.
Senior Year (2022) ★★★☆☆
A high-school cheerleader falls into a coma before her prom; twenty years later, she awakens and wants to return to high school to reclaim her status and become prom queen.It's cute! Campy, a comedy. Watched it with Kita, had fun!! (Yes I still want to yell about the ending a little but I will learn to let it go.)
Everything, Everywhere, All at Once (2022)★★★★★
CRIED. 5/5 STARS.
Books
Dracula Daily (Dracula, by Bram Stoker 1897)
The Dracula Daily substack email subscription, which updates you in real time about Dracula. I don't have much commentary on it, just noting that I've been keeping up with it.
Not the Life it Seems: The True Lives of My Chemical Romance by Tom Bryant ★★★☆☆ (3.5)
This feels like a book from someone who's doing a retrospective right in the middle of something. Apt probably, since Bryant wrote this immediately in the aftermath of my chem's breakup in 2013**. There's a certain kind of tone that comes with it--not quite academic, not quite overly admiring, something I can't quite put my finger on--that makes it feel like while my chem hadn't figured out how they felt about the breakup, neither had Bryant. The book's tone is raw, but in the way of someone slapping a plaster on a thin cut that runs deep, or a partially cooked carrot. It might look fine, but there's some stuff no one in this book is talking about*.
*Both context of how the scene looked for fans/the experience of fans at the time, and also pretty much any comment from Ray Toro. Probably some other stuff I didn't even think to question the absence of too.
**And, well! MCR got back together.
Additionally, this isn't an authorized biography, so while Bryant has done many interviews with the band, he's still not part of their lives. It's a book written by a journalist--with all the pros and cons that come along with that.
As a book, Bryant knows how to keep pacing pretty well, though some parts felt like he wasn't quite used to writing longform--several places that rely on "and then…" type gestures, instead of trusting his readers to follow along. His writing style is very journalistic, and leans a touch to the melodramatic, but it's engaging.
There's a lot that was interesting to me about reading this book, most especially the bits Bryant writes on how the term "emo" came to describe my chem's music. More of that!! (There was not more of that.)
A lot of my reading experience was influenced by the fact that I'm friends with quite a few mcr fans, and many of them were listening to their music while they were still a band.
When I was in middle school, I didn't really listen to music*. I had friends who were into mcr and anime and tv shows, but by and large, I spent middle school reading books. Most of the exposure I got to music was through the radio or what my friends were listening to.
*I was in the school band, for extra irony.
It's only really in college that I've been trying to expand my music tastes. So listening to pop punk now has felt a little bit like I'm late to the game, like is going to come along and say that I'm too late to be getting into this music now, or that I'm only getting into it when they're more popular.
It's silly!!! No one is saying this but me @ myself.
There's something Bryant quotes in the book, that Gerard said right before the band signed to a major record label.
About elitism: if for one minute you think you're better than a sixteen-year-old girl in a Green Day T-shirt, you are sorely mistaken. Remember the first time you went to a show and saw your favourite band. You wore their shirt, and sang every word. You didn't know anything about scene politics, haircuts, or what was cool. All you knew was that this music made you feel different from anyone you shared a locker with. Someone finally understood you. This is what music is about.
And yeah. Exactly.
(Recently, emofest posted their summer bands, which are six artists signed to the Fueled by Ramen label. I've been listening through their discographies via friends recommending me albums, and it's been so much fun (my ENDLESS delight with some of the FoB songs that have been recced to me). Talking about music with your friends >>> )
I've really really enjoyed talking with friends about their music--there is truly nothing more genuinely delightful in the world than someone recommending you a video or a song or a performance and going "this is going to get you so bad" or "I love this, I think you'd love it too".
So this is a very long way to say that reading this book felt like looking into a window of a person I could have been, and somehow, am a little of today. I could have been a fan of their music in middle school. Now I'm a fan of them almost graduating college. It's funny how that works.
TV
The Disastrous Life of Saiki K. (ep 10-20)★★★★☆
Teenage psychic deals with the trials of being in high school! It doesn't really have a plot it's just funny. Highly recommend.
Yowamushi Pedal (ep 32) ★★★★☆
Sports anime about competitive cycling. I've watched it before, so I know what's happening, and can put it on in the background of things. (Watched a lot of this while sewing this month.)
Spy x Family (ep 4?) ★★★★★
This is sooooo fun. It's airing right now, so I've been keeping up with it sporadically, but I love fake marriage and spies! The tone is pretty upbeat.
Queendom 2
Lol I'm like 40 minutes into episode one, I do not have the attention span for this right now.
Kill la Kill
Tried watching this again… Got like an ep in and had to put it down again. I did the same thing a couple of years ago. Someday!
MISC
Life & Death: My Chemical Romance And 10 Years of The Black Parade by Hanif Abdurraqib
That which does not kill you may certainly kill someone else. That which does not kill you may form a fresh layer of sadness on the shoulders of someone you do not know, but who still may need to press their ear to the same thing that told you everything was going to be all right when you didn’t feel like everything was going to be all right. The Black Parade doesn’t treat the recesses of grief as a members-only party, where we show up to the door with pictures of all our dead friends and watch the gates open. It assumes, instead, that we’ve all seen the interior, and offers a small fantasy where the other side is promising.
My Chemical Romance: You Know What They Do To Guys Like Us In Prison (Live 2022)
This is a stand in for all of the 2022 tour videos I have watched this month. They look like they're having so much fun!
My Chemical Romance - "Making of I'm not okay video"
My Chemical Fancast
Fan podcast that talks through MCR albums song by song! It's fun, I like the hosts. So far I'm at ~episode 8 (each episode is around an hour long), which is halfway through Three Cheers.
In Progress
A Magic Steeped in Poison by Judy I. Lin
~60% through this. It's a really quick read but I had to return it to the library before I finished. It's fine? Nothing that really stands out, but nothing that's awful either. Very ~turn your brain off and vibe. The magic is exceptionally cool.
Dream/Arteries by Phinder Dulai
Reading this for class, I'm ~30% through.
Soft Science by Franny Choi
Really enjoying this! ~40% through but finals are picking up, so I'll get back here later.
A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
Only a little ways through this, but it's enjoyable. Also reading this for class.
I'm in the middle of Fast Color (2018), Long Day's Journey into Night (2018) and The Midnight Sky (2020). Finishing movies when I'm watching them alone? Less likely than you think.
Poetry
Remembering by Dana Naone Hall
For Mauna a Wākea by Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio
Do/Do Not by Nisha Atalie
The mangos arrive unbruised
at the grocery store.
The wolves should start running.
Whānau by Ngaio Simmons
I don’t know how to do this
no reference,
no root of grandparents
cup of older sister or brother
eye of parent, I don’t
have strong blood to call on, instead,
have snapshots, strained twining
the dark that still doesn’t know how to grow
Lei Kukui, Lei Kuahu by Mahealani Perez-Wendt
pronunciation by Leora Kava
Our Red Road by Donovan Kūhiō Colleps
Waikīkī Returns by Christy Passion
The Vioe(n)t Cat by Dan Taulapapa McMullin
[The sun is lord of life and colour] by Iris Tree
Fire Dragon by Sage Uʻilani Takehiro
Seawall soliloquy number two: she built a seawall by Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner
Music
SCROBBLES: 3,052 ▼
SCROBBLES PER DAY: 98 ▼ (finally fixed a weird double-scrobble thing that was going on for a while)
These scrobbles are like… well, you're going through something aren't you.
Besides the obvious, I'd like to say that Boy Division is a perfect song and deserves to be up here. Love also that they released foundations JUST as I was getting into them, I have never been so pleased. Also semi-related THIS LOOK. Oh my goddddd.
Shout out to what seems like every band ever for releasing music in May. New mcr, svt, txt, woodz, florence, got7, rina sawayama… ! Wow what a great month. Loved the svt album, particularly Don Quixote. Got7 gave me a perfect summer bop with Drive Me to the Moon, which feels like if Lullaby had a moon-themed child. Rina album later this year… !!!
Emofest released their bands for the summer, which explains the gym class heroes, fall out boy, and paramore. Kelsey Lu's album has been getting me through some rough patches.
Thank you everyone who's linked me to music this month, most especially Almay showing me IZ's album which is perfect spring vibes. Also everyone who gave me recs for albums to listen for for the emofest bands, so appreciated <3
Artists:
- My Chemical Romance - 855
- Fall Out Boy - 350
- Paramore - 129
- Stray Kids - 123
- GHOST9 - 104
- Florence + the Machine - 95
- Kelsey Lu - 86
- Seventeen - 82
- IZ - 76
- Gym Class Heroes - 74
Albums:
- The Black Parade by My Chemical Romance - 259
- Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge by My Chemical Romance - 235
- Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys by My Chemical Romance - 148
- ODDINARY by Stray Kids - 104
- Folie à deux by Fall Out Boy - 92
- Blood by Kelsey Lu - 85
- I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love by My Chemical Romance - 79
- IZ 1ST MINI ALBUM 'ALL YOU WANT' by IZ - 76
- minisode 2: Thursday's Child by TOMORROW X TOGETHER - 70
- Infinity on High by Fall Out Boy - 69
Songs:
- You Know What They Do to Guys Like Us in Prison by My Chemical Romance - 90
- This Is How I Disappear by My Chemical Romance - 66
- House of Wolves by My Chemical Romance - 58
- Pushin Against the Wind by Kelsey Lu - 56
- DESTROYA by My Chemical Romance - 55
- The Foundations of Decay by My Chemical Romance - 46
- Headfirst Slide Into Cooperstown on a Bad Bet by Fall Out Boy - 42
- Crush on you by IZ - 40
- Good Boy Gone Bad by TOMORROW X TOGETHER - 38
- G.I.N.A.S.F.S. by Fall Out Boy - 37
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Date: 2022-06-03 10:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-06-16 06:24 am (UTC)