8tracks is set to suspend its services permanently by the end of the day.. Neither the end-all nor the be-all of music streaming services, many people likely never used it, and I wonder how much it will actually be missed. But it was my favorite music streaming platform.
I’m travelling, so you get this incredibly weird piece about my favorite piece of carry-on luggage. I will add pictures when I’m not in the Denver airport. Enjoy.
Sewing is something I fell into because, frankly, dressing like a cute vintage lady is expensive, and I thought sewing my own clothes would be less expensive. I think a lot of 21st century people start sewing with this idea–of saving money, of making things cheaper and more reusable, the way our grandmothers used to do. Reclaiming a skill in thriftiness that the abundance of cheap, passable clothing options has made redundant.
Harry Potter is, well, Harry Potter. You know at least a little bit about it. And probably, you’re aware that one of the four houses of Hogwarts, the all-important magical school, is Slytherin: a breeding ground of pure-blood sentiment and upper class snobbery, and the house of Voldemort, Harry Potter’s greatest villain.
I have watched the original Planet of the Apes films, and there are three things of which I am certain. One, that I’m a little bit more wary of apes now than I was before.
Two? That Doctor Zira is probably one of my favorite characters in film.
I have a lowkey love of all things with a vintage aesthetic. I don’t really have the budget or chutzpah to go full vintage, full time–though many women are these days, to the point that there’s a full blown vintage-aesthetic subculture. My Instagram timeline has a lot of perfectly-coiffed women in immaculate outfits, and I draw inspiration from women who can actually wear hells for my own budget-friendly clothing style. But I also pay attention to what they wear on their face, and there’s a brand that’s mentioned again and again: Besame Cosmetics.
I grew up with Bruce Springsteen. When my father was home from work trips, he would sit in his basement office, the “woah-oh-oh-oh-oh”s floating up the staircase into the living room. I don’t know if I can call myself a fan, exactly, because I don’t know if I can disentangle him from my dad, from how I look back at my childhood. Ironically, much of Springsteen’s music tackles the process of looking back on childhood from a complex present, so there’s a good number of his songs that reduce me to tears. Springsteens’s got an emotional shortcut to the angst (“angst”) of my white, suburban upbringing in America.
Janelle Monae’s music also reduces me to tears, but for very different reasons.
There’s a unique art form that blossomed on a unique social platform, spurred by the unique way fandom democratizes art. Photosets, edits, or photomanips–they go by all those names, and yet many other things do, too–rose as a way for fandom to express itself beyond the bounds of fanart or fanfiction, and the aesthetic sensibilities that have risen from them have had wide-ranging implications on fandom on Tumblr.
The Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang run of Wonder Woman was extremely excellent; I started pulling issues with my local shop towards the climax, and it did not disappoint. It was sad when the writing and art went to Meredith and David Finch, simply because the old run was over, but I figured I could give it a shot. I ended up putting their first issue down and writing them off within a couple of pages, and I’ll tell you why: it was the shower scene.
Disclaimer: Most people in my life have learned to ignore my inane mutterings about Star Trek. If you find my silly armchair opinions ill-informed, that’s on me–I’m just writing my mutterings down as I think them. This post does not claim to be well-researched or fully-informed, just based on casual observation of Trek-based phenomena.
I was rewatching Star Trek Beyond for the third time recently–I absolutely love the film, but I don’t rewatch it often, because I sob whenever I see Anton Yelchin’s face. Also, at the last five minutes of the film and most of the credits.