interests

i hear things a decent amount.

recent:

• boris - pink, flood, no (like em all mostly, so heavy!)
• candy claws - ceres and calypso in the deep time (did a relisten and it's actually so great i shouldve shut up)
• car seat headrest - teens of denial, twin fantasy face to face (twin fantasy is really good wtf. the ideas of twins, pairs, and fantasies have grown in my head for the last few weeks. they won't go away. i love the spoken word, at least the parts by mr. toledo himself (i don't care much for some of it on famous prophets)) and especially nervous young inhumans
• hole - live through this (pretty good)
• john coltrane - a love supreme (great. stellar.)
• kero kero bonito - bonito generation (50% is really great 50% is okay), time 'n' place (peak), totep (mostly peak), civilisation (peak)
• kinokoteikoku - time lapse (i wish they did more hard tracks), eureka (hard to understand on the first time but it's really great)
• lovely summer chan - lsc (part-time robot is actually really good even though its a beverly hills cover, but the jpop just isn't as cool)
• midori (the punk rock band, not the violinst) - aratamemashite, hajimemashite, midori desu (aside from the... album cover... which you can certainly google in the comfort of your own home, it's a very nice album though i liked the harder cuts and the more "jazzy?" cuts on this album better than the standard jrock stuff.)
• mitski - the land is inhospitable and so are we (enjoyed a lot), puberty 2 (enjoyed), be the cowboy (eh)
• microphones - the glow part 2 (i will admit it's good music but i usually don't have a 90 minute attention span. rip. it's my fault)
• my little airport - 因当时太紧张, SABINA 之泪, 在动物园散步才是正经事 (pretty fantastic dream/twee pop music.)
• neutral milk hotel - in the aeroplane over the sea (liked a bit of it, just didn't feel it was amazing)
• number girl - SCHOOL GIRL DISTORTIONAL ADDICT (outside of this incredible name i find it alright, some of the tracks are cool but some of them are just meh)
• soutaiseiriron - town age, synchroniciteen, chiffon capitalism, hi-fi anatomia, tensei jingle (i would highly recommend to all human beings all of their albums)
• strauss - don juan, also sprach zarathustra, till eulenspiegels lustige streiche (liked them all decently)
• swans - to be kind (really good)
• wasted laika - 走神的卫星
• weezer - pinkerton (it was overall really off-putting but refreshingly honest and the music was good)
• weatherday - come in (damn. half the tracks are so amazing (mio, min mio, come in, my sputnik, agatka) but then the others are okay. in my opinion.)
• yourboyfriendsucks! - 第一集, 第二集 (EXCELLENT jesus and mary chain cover, liked 1 over 2)
• yeule - softscars (pretty good)
• zappa - hot rats (wow who knew the critically acclaimed record was good. it's just good though, not perfect or as mind blowing, especially as it's described as a "movie for your ears" whereas actual "movie for your ears" records are usually better. )

i read a lot. tends to be 90% (shoujo) manga (or manga from yuri hime) though. recent novels:

• harper lee - to kill a mockingbird (upon a second reading i feel like i have a harsher sight on this book ; i think that rather than caring about the experience of the black characters more focus is placed on atticus what with his role as the literally white knight. i appreciate what it does. i really do, i think that definitely in the civil rights era and today it can really show to people that black people are just as human and equal and valued as white people. but instead of telling people that they should stand up when injustice it teaches more that people ought to leave all that work to a savior figure like mr. atticus. i mean, atticus and scout say that having women on courts is a bad idea and they should leave all that work to the men; likewise, ms. maudie or something tells scout that they have men in the society just for dealing for these kinds of matters. and among the men atticus is the sole person who is able to stand up. if it were the greatest american book of the 20th century i feel like it ought to have argued that all people have a moral obligation to defend against prejudice. otherwise it's just a great book. don't get onto me about how scout talks to walt sr. cause compared to the long long trial scenes which are basically just atticus worship, the scene with walt sr. is minuscule.)
• john knowles - a separate peace (done. it's okay. it reads like a catcher in the rye clone except i feel like everyone in this story is very generic while everyone in catcher in the rye feels, not genuine but real. holden is more real than gene and phineas is a perfect person. of course, there's nuance to all the characters, but i just couldn't feel like i could be that drawn into it. there's nothing really beautiful, except for the language which i think is really good at times. i mean, "golden machine-gun fire" has to be a great way to describe the sun's rays. but otherwise i think it's just okay.)
• cormac mccarthy - blood meridian (ongoing)
• sayaka murata - convenience store woman (it's a good book. the narrator is one of the best i've read in a while because so much shit is just so boilerplate nowadays. ms. keiko is just such a real individual), earthlings (earthlings is a very transgressive book and that's all i had to say. you're not supposed to enjoy it. it's like a horror film. it has a lot to say about society but holy shit do i not feel like i can say anything because even now my head is reeling with "what the fuck happened in this book????" and i can't really talk about it. it needs rereading to parse its message because so much is so transgressive. it's not cheap or anything i'm genuinely emotionally destroyed.)
• sue lynn tan - daughter of the moon goddess (okay it feels a little like one of those historical dramas that aren't really historical like the type they have on chinese television all the time. it has a cheesy romance aspect but it's very assured of its seriousness i feel. i have mixed feelings on it because the language is purplish but works sometimes. at the end of each chapter there's always some stupid nature harmony simile or metaphor but other times it's pretty good. the main thing is that the similes are so basic. i felt like a raging storm or something like that, which is a criticism i have of cormac mccarthy. some unknown prophet. i can guarantee that's a mccarthy simile. anyways, it has an ending but i don't think i could really bring myself to care about it. the very goalish strong woman xingyin's primary goal is to get her mom out of permanent house arrest by the celestial emperor and also
  
  
  spoiler:

  starts dating the prince at the end.
  
  i just didn't find ms. xingyin's quest very appealing to care about. there are some obvious plot devices that are tossed aside rather than treated like things that have meaning other than "here's a subgoal xingyin will work on that will reveal something else;" they don't have any kind of other intrinsic value. who gives a shit about some medallion, for instance. hope the sequel's a. more interesting or higher-stakes (or portrayed in a way that makes high-stakes things actually matter) and b. more focused. just my 2 cents maybe i didn't critically read it all so well.)
• sylvia plath - the collected poems (they're good. (who knew that the pulitzer prize winning collection would be good?))
• toni morrison - beloved (okay i will admit some of it isn't that "fun" to read but most "classics" aren't. i've of course known the plot and the story for years but never got to reading it until now, but i think the message is really good and clear. it's pretty crazy how good this prose is. it reads like poetry and i particularly enjoy the (literal?) poetry in part 3 that does so well to make you think and feel. incredible job.)

recent light novels/manga/anime:

• land of the lustrous (would recommend to all humans)
• the ends of a dream (would recommend to all humans)
• composing spring in this room where cherry blossoms bloom (absolutely beautiful)
• liar satsuki can see death (peak fiction)
• hikizan tautology (i won't say it's the greatest but it isn't bad and pretty cute. i'm reading it in chinese)
• the summer you were there (in tears)

i'm big on games but not that much. recent:

• neon white (turned off the voiceover)
• half life 2, ep1 and 2 (replay probably the second time)
• cookie clicker (for the last 6 months)