july media roundup
Aug. 1st, 2021 04:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
soobun
sorry for how inevitably boring this post is going to be btw i swear all i have the energy to do nowadays is (1) go to work (2) watch stuff with friends (3) stare into space while listening to objectively pretty mid music until i fall asleep. anyways
reading
the metamorphosis - franz kafka ✰✰✰✰
- now why did i only read one book this month. and it's literally not even a book it's just a NOVELLA... but i'm glad i finally read it cuz it was really good! really harrowing and relatable because even though none of us are likely going to be turning into monstrous bugs any time soon i think the feelings of otherness / shame & feeling like others would be better off without your burden is like... well yeah
and in other reading news i spent way too long trying to find decent bf fic and i don't want to get mad about it again but like ?!??!?!?! how are you going to be a piece of flawed yet perfect (to me) media with almost 4k fics on ao3 and yet when i sort by kudos and go through SIXTY pages i could only read and enjoy TWO short fics. like what's all that about. like i know my standards are slightly higher than most but um they're not THAT high... [depressed]
but then myotinae updated ywntmha (perfect penultimate breakup chapter) and as i was stalking their twitter i saw them mention this p4 fic called sympathy crime and well i'm not going to get into it but i've been losing my shit reading it on livejournal for the past week or so<3 so that's fun. and i can totally see the resemblance in their writing styles, that perfect sort of blunt wit that i admire but could never pull off. and that whole thing with the author getting chased off the internet cuz they properly tagged their fic that deals with the ramifications of csa in an adult & mature way is like.... i can't stand you people sometimes. but it’s soo good, if perhaps for a complex value of good
watching
not doing a separate movies sections cuz i somehow only watched two... (1) moffie which was a somewhat questionable gay south african film (the discordant brass section that made up most of the soundtrack was so perfect and fitting though) & (2) the dark crystal which was conner's birthday movie 😭 and well it was definitely a film i'll say that!
and i actually watched TELEVISION this month which was an experience. in vague order of when i finished:
succession s2
- i think we only had half of s2 to finish this month and i honestly think that this show just gets better and better as it goes... i already briefly mentioned it last month but it's just so funny and dumb and smart and bleak all at the same time. can't wait for s3 at the end of the year<33
young royals
- well we ALL watched young royals this month and i don't really have anything intelligent to say but it was just GOOD T__T realistic and depressing and heartwarming and once again simon is the only boy ever. any omar rudberg fans here? it_takes_a_fool_to_remain_sane.mp3????? oh and i'm also so grateful that we got ao3 user pulses fic out of it too 😌
druck s3
- and well speaking of kaia we also (re on her part) watched druck and i learned firsthand how personal davenzi is <333 as someone who barely remembers the original and doesn't remember liking it that much regardless i rly enjoyed how understated this remake was in comparison. and hello that confession scene TTTT matteo is such a little dweeb i like him. when you're oppressed for being gay and italian
the handmaids tale s4
- this show actually evokes such conflicting emotions in me KHSDJHFS ive been watching for a while and overall i do really like it so i had to watch s4 but SKJCFSJDKF?? ok i need to stop keysmashing there are just some scenes that really kill me like why did they play COLDPLAY during the big dramatic moment and why is june/nick the worst pairing ever? like they're supposed to be a huge secret and yet they kiss in broad daylight like what is going onnnn... i like moira and emily so much though i wish we got more of their respective storylines TT and i think the whole esther plot is insaneellyyyyy good i rly adored the first few eps that were focused on her & hope s5 focuses on her & janine more!!!!
banana fish
- u already know what it is.... god why did this show literally change my brain chemistry. the entire time in the chat i was just like [insane keysmashing] [unhinged commentary] [comparing half of the characters to akechi] it was really embarrassing but i'm grateful to henry for putting up with me 💔 anyway most of my thoughts ended up here in the playlist i made but i honestly feel like it was a show perfectly catered to me and idk how it took me this long to watch it but um YES! i could go on forever but i won’t. you're welcome
listening
i feel like july must have been the driest month kpop-wise i've experienced in my entire stanning career like what was THAT about... a few releases i liked though:
taeyeon - weekend
- i mean it's a single album but this song is just so good and fun!
sf9 - turn over EP
- taeyang u r so iconic.... when he (and the stylists) make the rest of the group look like backup dancers during the chorus yaaaaas
- off my mind ≥ believer > tear drop > hey hi bye > i don't listen to the rest
dreamcatcher - summer holiday
- i like dc but their titles rarely click with me (guy who dislikes rock music) and this one is the same but i usually like a few bsides!!
- whistle > alldaylong >>> airplane (sorry i just have to mention how bad this song is… like why am i suddenly listening to weki meki)
lucy
- no specific album but i finally listened to LUCY this month and fell in love with a couple god tier songs: one by one / i got u / snooze / flare
therefore i inevitably listened to a Lot of non kpop music!!! my pivotal albums in order of discovery:
laura mvula - pink noise
- Girl you are literally the sound of the summer....
mid-air thief - crumbling
- i actually need to go through this perfect post more in depth but i was like in_awe when i listened to these chains... and then of course the whole album was a moment. i feel like calling music "smart" is so pretentious but i just love when ur listening to a song and u can tell every second / beat / chord / etc is intentionally placed in a way that's like. DIFFERENT? like i struggle with new music sometimes because i just feel like i've heard it all before so IDK i really liked this!
daughter - not to disappear
- i had only ever listened to a few choice daughter songs and i think they were exclusively off their debut album and i always thought they were decent but nothing crazy??? and then i put on this album randomly on my walk home one day and well ❤️ it's so good. my favorite trax are doing the right thing / mothers / no care / fossa btw!
lucy dacus - home video
- [through tears] yeah it's good. cartwheels / partner in crime / please stay especially are soooo good. her lyricism is so personal i don't really have much to say about it but i really really like this album, a step up from her older stuff imo
san fermin - the cormorant I & II + belong
- i don't understand how it took me this long to realize this band existed but HELLO!!!! and i only did cuz i was listening to myotinae's fic playlist and "the hunger" was on there which got me intrigued... and then i listened to that whole album and realized that they have kind of perfect music?!??! from my journal app:
- "half of these songs sound like i'm listening to the national if they were a little more generous with the horns... also if they talked more about youth rather than the misery of being middle-aged. and then half sound like sufjan illinois bsides. anyway it's good clearly
- also when "little star" came on and i was convinced that sylvan esso was featuring cuz the vocalist sounds SO weirdly similar to her, but then i looked it up (it's not) and found this dude's random music blog where he mentioned the same thing and really loved his review??? so i clicked through a couple others and found:
timbre - sun and moon
- this album is ALSO split into 2 halves, but in this case the first half is a (relatively) more typical sort of indie folk album while the second half has a lot of purely instrumental 10+ minute long classical-adjacent type pieces... i like the first half more overall but i'm sure that's mainly just cuz i'm not musically intelligent enough to sit through 16 minute long classical pieces if i'm not in a very specific mood buuttt i rly adore the overall sound & theme of this album, there are moments when i ended up just sitting there in awe at the instrumentation / chord changes / etc
braids - deep in the iris
- another album i discovered thru myotinae's playlist and it's pretty good overall (i also LOVE 2020 off the recent single album) but i also could just listen to taste.mp3 and get the same level of enjoyment so yeah. i really think that is a perfect song
glasser - ring + interiors
- this whole section is partly just me explaining the somewhat convoluted way i discover new music but after i finished listening to the braids album (since i always have my infinite shuffle on) itunes started playing More Music Like This and so "treasure of we" by glasser started playing and i was like omoooo. it's REALLY GOOD! i also laughed when i looked it up and someone described it as tropical björk 😭 anyway home / T / mirrorage are my favorites off ring and i actually rly like everything off interiors, its kind of an overall album experience to me & the lyrics are unexpectedly hard-hitting too… these albums are from 2010+2013 and i wish i could find more recent electropop stuff with this particular vibe TT
There's an ocean making life beyond my reach / And the vastness is too much for me to stand / In the dim light of the truth, all you can do is bow
fandom-ing
well since this month was soooo dry for comebacks i didn't pay a huge amount of attn to kpop but ummm what have i been watching...
- the cix mnet reality show which is genuinely perfect content... the twinky c9 employees, the glimpse we got into PUPPY_GAME, baejin's milf hair, 돌이 사귀어요???... exactly exactly
- we've also been watching some older ateez shows and like :smiling_face_with_tear: I FORGOT THAT I KIND OF LIKE THEM??? san is actually so pitiable in their mnet show (my type?) and seonghwa is just so weird and awkwarddd... the others are kind of just there but now i have like vague dislike for hongjoong which is half a joke and half not a joke. erm any kqfellaz fans here?
- and then welcome 2 dreaminland which is like ?!?!?! i cant even begin to get into it but if you've seen any of my tweets or the wife/gf/etc scale then you already know. all you need to know is that minseo is perfect. actually i'll just leave this here
[WHY DID MY SCREENSHOT BREAK. that’s fine i’ll use this opportunity to plug the best fic of all time instead 😌]
... yeah i'll just end on that note ❤️ life has actually been pretty rough lately but i'll try not to overshare on dreamwidth dot org but um if you're reading this hopefully YOUR day is going well :~) i'm very excited for all the cb content next month tho!!!
no subject
Date: 2021-08-03 01:02 am (UTC)oh my goddd this music section. i also rlly liked whistle + i don’t think ive heard those lucy songs so i’ll check it out… why am i just a basic FLOWERING fan </3 idk if i’ll check out all of ur recs the way i did last month but hmmm ive been meaning to give daughter a listen and the way u discover new music is super interesting *__* wait why do you dislike HONGJOONG?????? should i even be surprised that u dislike my atz 1pick… like that’s just life i think. and ik ive said this already but HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!! i really hope that august goes better for you and that you get past the rough times :’((( you’ve got this tori!!!!!! i can’t wait for all of the cb stuff this month too tbh <3
no subject
Date: 2021-08-03 05:33 am (UTC)”how are you going to be a piece of flawed yet perfect (to me) media with almost 4k fics on ao3 and yet when i sort by kudos and go through SIXTY pages i could only read and enjoy TWO short fics.” this makes me cry why is this kind of me trying to find PENTAGON FIC??? just kidding it’s not like that at all but i seriously feel your pain 😢 ALSO I STILL CAN’T GET OVER THE WHOLE S*DOMQUAKE THINGHSDFHLH WHY DID THAT SERIOUSLY BLAST ME TO THE PAST FOR A SOLID HOUR!!! i’m glad they still have some materials available though so you can enjoy your little p4 fic <333
and yup we sure did watch young royals this month... idk her (ao3 user pulses) but I’M GLAD WE ALL GOT TO EXPERIENCE SIMONWILHELM FOR A FEW DAYS LIKE IT WAS TRULY UNITING <33 and also extremely grateful that you were willing to experience druck s3 with me i’m sooo sorry for being crazyinsane unhinged deranged davenzi shipper but i had fun so 😔❤️ matteo isn’t only oppressed for being gay and italian he’s oppressed for being MIXED GERMAN :/ just kidding. can you imagine though OHFEWHEHFOEWHFLFHD also ur akechi-adjacent bf moment… i’ll definitely try it out sometime this month and let you know how it goes <33
anyway moving on... YUP UR ENTIRE MUSIC SECTION!!! i’m glad you like believer because i was kind of like “this sounds like generic trash why do i like this so much.” but i’m glad i’m not COMPLETELY ALONE… and whistle is also my fav off summer holiday + I’M SO HAPPY TO SEE U LUCY-ING!!! things we have in common with 3-time archery gold medal winner an san ❤️
sorry i have so many thoughts about ur music section even though we’ve already discussed all of this before but yeah I TOTALLY GET U RE: “SMART” PRODUCTION… like it sounds so fucking stupid but sometimes there’s something about how instrumentals are layered in a song that feels so deliberate but in a very natural way? idk i feel like an issue with a lot of k-pop/general pop production is that it either sounds super mindless or like… TOO engineered in this way that's very bare and sparse because everything is placed down so evenly but with crumbling it’s this whole #EXPERIENCE. i just like it <33
(literally crying shaking sobbing) THANKS FOR LISTENING TO NOT TO DISAPPEAR TTTTTTTT like daughter don’t make CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED MUSIC or whatever but i think that their 2nd album is much meatier than their debut and people often just write them off as youth/smother/candles or whatever the 2012 8tracks indie gurl songs were and i mean I LOVE THOSE SONGS… but like it’s way more serious than that <33 no care fossa mothers are my top 3 most-scrabbled tracks on that album btw so um ur taste remains impeccable.
and yass i need to go relisten to home video some more because i only played it a few times but i’m lucydacusfan <333 remember when i told you about the PITCHFORK AUTHOR LORE….
ok let me relax with this section-by-section commentary but thanks for introducing me to timbre btw since i love song of the sun + ISN’T IT JUST SO SAD THAT ELECTROPOP PEAKED IN 2013… like the way i keep realizing that i scrobbled these albums back in 2013 and just forgot about them because so many good bands stopped making music or changed their sound or stopped being relevant... crying and pressing F.
anyway thanks for writing the perfect media roundup i loved this a lot and can’t wait for august cb materials! not the twinky c9 employees and your woosan renaissance 😔 ALSO NOT YOUR SUPER QUESTIONABLE MINSEO SCREENSHOT UPLOAD BREAKING #$@#*$)@#$*HFEWHFLH I THINK DESERVE……… idk who would say such a thing certainly not me. ❤️ anyway thank you for sharing! i already said this but i’m always rooting for u and manifesting good energy for us this month T___T
no subject
Date: 2021-08-09 01:49 am (UTC)also i’m shocked that bf has “bad” fic????? i never watched it but my 16 year old normie sister did LMFAO so i figured it was widespread enough to have a decent ficdom?? that’s tragic tbh
also love ur lucy listening <3 i actually rlly liked their little recent ep and one by one was my fave from that too 😌😌 also ur nonkpop listening is iconic to me (cringe pop stan) but i actually rlly liked the albums u recommended to me before so i’ll try and listen to these that i havent heard too!!!
ALSO U WATCHING ATEEZ VARIETY 😭😭😭😭 i mean i really like them and i think pitiful/insecure san is soooo perfect... i am actually proud of him for gaining some confidence recently tho <3 even if it requires softboy -> musclejock transformation T_T also i kind of ummm agree with disliking hongjoong LMFAO idk why he’s just kind of a mean bitch to me and not in the fun way😭 idk if u have any ateez #ships but thats one of the reasons i hate seongjoong (other than mom/dad-isms) is bc i love seonghwa and hj can be so passive to him so i’m like 😡😡 i like ships where my faves are worshipped <3
anyways i love reading what u have to say i’m so happy u started doing roundups!!! sorry this comment is so late LMAO we’re already 1 week into august but i hope the remainder of the month gets better for you ❤️
no subject
Date: 2021-08-12 12:31 am (UTC)sorry for having way too many thoughts about music but ya imo those r the best lucy songs :3 and the second daughter album is the def the best i think!! + UMMMMMM idk am i the only one who thinks hes kind of a b^tch but not in the fun way? like during their office concept show i was just like can we leave SAN alone 😔 but yeah that's just how we are.... ty for the kind words shakti lets survive august together!!!!
no subject
Date: 2021-08-12 12:45 am (UTC)and idk why sf9_believer hits so hard but it honestly does. lets go LUCY FANS!!!! ++ i knew u wld get me on the ~smart production~ thing like sorry but sometimes the pretentious take is actually real. ok maybe we need to get off rym but LIKE! its fine. i def wldnt have given daughter a more in depth listen without your influence so Thank You<333
I DO INDEED RMR THE PITCHFORK AUTHOR LORE and that entire google doc callout post thing i read for no reason. the internet is an amazing place! and YEAHHHHH like some early 2010s electropop is like.. good but seriously sounds so dated but i feel like glasser is just like peak and timeless tbh!!!
also i think i'm just an idiot and don't know how to embed images but WELL I REPLACED IT WITH SOMETHING MORE IMPORTANT ANYWAY<3 i still cant believe u did that btw i love u so much. praying 4 a peaceful rest of august for us T__T
no subject
Date: 2021-08-12 12:59 am (UTC)AND NOT UR 16Y/O NORMIE SISTERRRR the thing is it has a pretty decent sized fandom but fsr everything feels kind of juvenile despite the shows themes being like... ? very adult? idk i hate to be like You Kids Don't Get It but also.........
lucy one by one is so good!! and cringe pop is fun i totally respect it<3 SJHSKJHDS I SAID THE EXACT SAME THING ABT HJ TO SHAKTI IN MY REPLY... i think i accidentally plagiarized you but like thats exactly how i feel about him KHSDFSH and i'm learning to get behind musclejock san but i'm still depressed about it which is why i'm starting to like chuji from justb cuz he reminds me of twink!san. so embarrassing tbh. but yeah i like woosansanhwa which is just my top 3 triangulation which is totally unsurprising LOL
and hehe ty emily :3 i always love to see ur thoughts too!!!<3