aug 2022 roundup

[mistydream]

💿 listening

artists	albums	tracks
snsd: 183 scrobbles seventeen: 159 scrobbles iu: 100 scrobbles newjeans: 55 scrobbles j-hope: 53 scrobbles	forever 1 (snsd): 157 scrobbles sector 17 + face the sun (seventeen): 63 scrobbles new jeans (newjeans): 55 scrobbles jack in the box (j-hope): 53 scrobbles attaca (seventeen): 26 scrobbles	hybe boy (newjeans): 53 scrobbles closer (snsd): 31 scrobbles mood lamp (snsd): 19 scrobbles summer night (snsd): 19 scrobbles lucky like that (snsd): 19 scrobbles

• got a shock of my life listening to the forever 1 album. only put it on because i needed an album to power through some emails, but it might end up being one of my favourite albums of this year. it’s hard to pin down why i like it so much - the best explanation that i can come out with is that it’s just good pop. the second half of this album is 👌 art 👌 to me, exactly what i think girl group pop sound like. my favourite is 100% city pop jam closer, though summer night, freedom and lucky like that are all very close (ha!) runner ups.

• also not immune to hype OR hybe, because i really enjoyed the newjeans ep. between the two (?) lead singles (?) I prefer hype boy over attention (professor boo i will have to fight you again, i’m so sorry), but there’s something so good about how carefully crafted attention is for the y2k revival era that we are entering. then again, the same thing could probably be said about newjeans’ creative concept as a whole. it’s frustrating that the y2k concept had to be bundled together with sexualising these girls so much. i’m sure it’s possible to pay homage to the early 2000s without having to (for example) dress 14 year olds in cropped tank tops… or sing about cookies In A Specifically Non-sexual Way, ofc.

📼 watching

started earth arcade thanks to youtube persistently serving me tvn’s cuts. the cast just embodies girls school girl energy - so far i have:

• youngji as the girl who keeps lifting her skirt to show you what colour her fbts are (it’s almost always hot pink)
• mimi as the girl who tapers her skirt and wears ankle socks but always a separate set of both for spot check
• eunji as… honestly i think just the loudest girl in the class who the teacher makes sit at the back
• yujin as the “good girl” who the teacher probably puts next to youngji to try to keep her in line. it doesn’t really work
• bonus: na pd as the teacher who has never had such a rowdy class in his life, midway through term 2 you can seem his hair turning grey at a suspiciously fast rate

i’ve had to avoid watching it at night though, because all the food shots make me so hungry…

📚 reading

finished concerning my daughter after returning to kino three times this month; certainly a Choice Read in the month of 377a repeal. i love a good exploration of mother-daughter relationship, and it’s interesting that the tension between the narrator and her daughter comes from their similarities, rather than differences. even if the narrator can’t see it, she is exactly where green got her stubbornness and strong sense of justice from.

green and lane’s relationship was both heartwarming and heartrending to read, especially since it was told through the lens of the narrator. her inner thoughts were sometimes hard to stomach, but at least more cogent than the comments section of st***ts t***s. still, it felt realistic that the narrator wasn’t completely supportive by the end of the book, but the point that she arrived at - questioning if she could get to accept green (and lane) within her own lifetime - felt like a huge step forward from where she was at the start of the book. somehow, it made me feel more hopeful than i thought i would be.

also midway through laziness does not exist, which has helped validate my feelings but done little much else to stop my habitual overtime (yet).

💬 and other things

and the flop era continues, though I’m at the calmest I’ve ever been in the past few months as I’m writing this. I’m not sure what’s changed - maybe i’ve just pushed myself to the point where i no longer feel anything anymore, lol. at least i’ve blocked off some days for my own ~self care~, so hopefully i can get back to skating a bit more next month?