january media

[latespring]

This new year has been surprisingly okay! I think I've been conditioned to hate January because winter quarter always starts now, but now that I'm not in school it's been surprisingly fine.

Movies

I decided to watch most of Michelle Yeoh's discography to celebrate her golden globe win! Me and some friends are getting through a fair bit of them. It's a lot of fun to watch these with friends, but I'm not sure I'd like, recommend all of them on their own.

Yes Madam! (1985) ★★★☆☆ 1/2
Michelle Yeoh plays a detective in a punchy-funny action comedy. It's ridiculous and fun!

Magnificent Warriors (1987) ★★★★☆
This was so funny, there's one scene in here that was really good.

Supercop (1992) ★★★☆☆
Why is Jackie Chan here! They put him in the human equivalent of a salad spinner. The side plots did not make sense.

The Heroic Trio (1993) ★★★☆☆
This was SO campy. I'm in it for Michelle Yeoh with a sword.

Tai Chi Master (1993) ★★☆☆☆ 1/2
I actually fell asleep in the middle of this accidentally.

The Heroic Trio 2: Executioners (1993) ★★☆☆☆
This movie is not great? The plot deeply does not make sense. It's a lot more serious than the first one.

Wing Chun (1994) ★★★☆☆
The plot of this was like ehhhhhh. I wasn't fond of some comedy elements, but there was some fun stuff about childhood friends.

Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) ★★★☆☆
Michelle Yeoh in a James Bond movie. It was like, fine? It's a Movie.


ETA: whoops, forgot to mention I also saw The Godfather (1972). my take is that surprisingly it's a really good movie? like really solid. also watched it with friends otherwise I'm not sure I'd have gotten through it, but that's more of a comment on my ability to site through cinema than the movie itself.

Books

Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint by Sing-Shong

• why I read it: A lot of my friends are into it, and someone in the fic clique discord gave a really compelling pitch.


• thoughts: WOW…. THIS WAS SO GOOD. To begin with it has a lot of tropes I really like anyway (commentary on narrative and story, the light-novel feel of being transported into a story you've already read, rip off video game mechanics come to life) so it wasn't a surprise that I found reading it fun.
  
  It's an incredibly long novel, clocking in at over a million words, but the journey was really worth it. I really loved the characters and the story and the ending themes! It almost made me cry a lot!
  
  This ended up being most of my december and early january reading haha, I don't regret it at all. I've tried to start this story before, but this is the first time I'm getting through a majority of it, I think it is kinda a novel you need to trust and jump into. (Also there's a webtoon (incomplete)!)
  
  Here's the summary off google books, but it's wayyy better than that suggests: Dokja was a typical office worker who spent his free time reading his favorite web fiction, 'Three Ways to Survive the Apocalypse.' However, when the novel becomes a reality, he is the only one who knows how the world will end. Dokja utilizes his newfound understanding to alter the path of the story and the world as he knows it.

A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers

• why I read it: It's the sequel to A Psalm for the Wild Built


• thoughts: Very similar vibes to the first novella! I like Chambers's writing when she's talking about nature.
  
  It's a book that kind of says, listen. Your body isn't going anywhere, except perhaps to the damp earth beneath your feet, or the bright end of your choosing. You do not have to hurry there. It is enough to sit now, and watch the trees whisper above.

TV

Chainsaw Man
Watched exactly one episode of chainsaw man (anime), mostly because my friends really like it. Not sure this is really hitting me but I'll probably give it a couple more eps at some point. (Yes the man does indeed turn into a chainsaw hybrid.)

MISC

The Big Glass Box and the Boys Inside by Isabel J Kim
This is actually not my favorite Isabel Kim short story, I think she's done better ones (the AI art one is so…!), but it's still fun!

The Narrative Implications of Your Untimely Death by Isabel J Kim
Now THIS was really fun. Kim said it was inspired by Supernatural kind of, which is also so funny. I really liked this one!

You're not getting old, concerts are weird now By Chase DiBenedetto and Elena Cavender
This article…! It feels really nice to get some outside perspective on something I was halfway noticing. I feel like I'm part of the generation that didn't really go to concerts before the pandemic (this applies at least to pop concerts, I had attended a lot of jazz/classical/blues music live beforehand, but I feel like in the jazz and classical world especially, concert etiquette is a lot more resistant to change from a younger generation).

Going to look up that Sontag book later. Idk! I guess this article just made me wish I went to more concerts before 2020. I don't really know the full shape of what has or hasn't changed re: pop/rock concerts.

(Also lmao this is exactly the phenomena that annoyed me at Ricky Montgomery's concert.)

In Progress

I've been listening to Stiff by Mary Roach, which has been both touching and gross!

Also been translating some pages of Peter and the Wolf, a children's book in Japanese.

Idk what I'm going to try and finish in February but we'll see I suppose. I'm kind of batting around a couple books but not really diving into any of them.

Poetry

cinquains written during a tropical storm by Urayoán Noel
to live / now is to speak / the
language of the tree / toppled

I Went Out to Hear by Leila Chatti

off the shore of oneself as in . . . by Renia White

A Gull Goes Up by Léonie Adams

Materials for a Gravestone Rubbing by Matthew Wimberley

Castnet Seafood by Karisma Price

Whipping by K. D. Harryman

Confession by Countee Cullen

Ars Poetica by Nabila Lovelace

Praise Song by Hafizah Augustus Geter

Remembering Our First Parties by Erin Rose Coffin

our own names by Destiny Hemphill

Devonport by Chloe Honum

Dearly Departed, Again I Dreamt About a Ship by Camonghne Felix

Music

SCROBBLES: 2047 ▼

SCROBBLES PER DAY: 66 ▼

Still listening to HALAZIA, which was such a good release from atz, it had a similar vibe as their cyberpunk release, which was so much fun. モラトリアム is a really fun song!

Fall Out Boy released a song I liked a lot. I listened to old svt and gerard way. A kind of chill month.

Artists:

1. Seventeen - 109
2. ATEEZ - 84
3. Stray Kids - 80
4. Florence + the Machine - 63
5. Gerard Way - 62
6. Omoinotake - 58
7. Fall Out Boy - 50
8. My Chemical Romance - 48
9. TAEMIN - 34
10. NCT DREAM - 29

Albums:

1. Hesitant Alien by Gerard Way - 58
2. Spin Off : From The Witness by ATEEZ - 42
3. Love From the Other Side by Fall Out Boy - 35
4. モラトリアム by Omoinotake - 35
5. Dance Fever by Florence + the Machine - 34
6. SKZ-REPLAY by Stray Kids - 27
7. Phantoms by Marianas Trench - 26
8. PRE EPISODE 1 : DOOR by GHOST9 - 24
9. THE WORLD EP.PARADIGM by ATEEZ - 23
10. Titanic Rising by Weyes Blood - 23

Songs:

1. HALAZIA by ATEEZ - 37
2. モラトリアム by Omoinotake - 34
3. Love From the Other Side by Fall Out Boy - 33
4. The Killing Kind by Marianas Trench - 26
5. How It's Going to Be by Gerard Way - 25
6. Vision (Intro) by GHOST9 - 21
7. Be Mine by ONEUS - 20
8. I by NakamuraEmi - 18
9. To you by Seventeen - 18
10. 325 by Stray Kids - 18

Comments

[latespring]

RIGHT...!!!! If you have any thoughts on it later I will be 👀