Reduced to tongue eardrum thumb pencil and price (WN28)

Doing

My desk upgrade journey hasn’t gone as planned. The monitor mount I bought has a really small clamp, which I should have checked before buying it, but I was so excited about a good deal. It fits on the desk and looks great, but I’m not able to spread the weight with the steel plates I bought, and I don’t trust a particleboard desktop to stand the test of time with a clamp. I spent a long time trying to brainstorm solutions (modify the clamp? build a wooden desk top?), and I had a sleepless night stressed about it. Eventually I decided to just order a different mount and I’ll try to sell this one locally to get my money back. It’s a bummer because the arm is really nice, but I wanted the piece of mind of using something that isn’t jerry-rigged. Normally I’m down for a stupid solution, but not when it’s holding up several hundreds of dollars of tech.

Otherwise, I went to a PD on The Writing Revolution, which was more of an excuse for me to hang with some colleagues that I like, and I finally finished the syllabus for the college course I’m teaching in a week or so. Joe and I then spent the weekend visiting some friends. It really feels like summer is winding down; I can see the start of the school year rush kicking up.

Reading

I’m still in the middle of All Boys Aren’t Blue, but I focused on finishing my syllabus instead of finishing the book this week.

Watching

Joe and I (re)watched Sky High. It was on Disney Channel constantly when we were kids. I am proud to say that the movie still rocks. When visiting friends, we also watched Cars, which I had somehow never seen. I liked it more than I expected to, though I thought some of the messaging was confused — don’t give me a diatribe about the road going “with” the land and driving for enjoyment when cars are one of the greatest environmental blights in our society.

Listening

I finally got around to listening to SOPHIE by SOPHIE. Man, I have such mixed feelings about posthumous releases. The greedy bitch in me wants more, always, especially from artists who died way too young. I know SOPHIE’s brother, who finished the album, insists that SOPHIE was nearly done with it at the time of her death, but the stretch between “nearly finished” and “actually ready to release” can be miles long for an artist. I’m not an artist, by any means, of SOPHIE’s caliber, but a piece of writing for me can completely transform in the edit. Posthumous albums too often feel like an early sketch¹, a pastiche of the auteur that are perhaps categorically incapable of capturing the genuine vision and artistry of the deceased. Unfortunately, this was the case for me with SOPHIE: “Reason Why” and “Live in My Truth” were standouts, but in general, it lacked the thrill and voice of SOPHIE (RIP).

I downloaded nothing or something to die for by mui zyu. I had high hopes because I really like “donna like parasites” (I got a version of it in a free sample pack from the label), but I found the album as a whole to be rather dull. “donna” was my only standout. zyu did put out a collection with a few of the songs translated into Cantonese, which features Emmy the Great (who I like) — a really cool idea that would be more novel if I was into the original tracks.

I shifted to Joanna Newsom’s earliest release, Walnut Whales; it’s a rough sketch of songs that would be realized later, but there’s something really interesting about them — I think I love “Peach, Plumb, Pear” better than the one that eventually appeared on Milk-Eyed Mender (which is, of course, iconic and still wonderful, but I love a synth). I really love “Erin” too, which never saw a re-recording outside of Walnut Whales. I listened to a bunch of Ys this week as well; it remains one of my favorite albums.

I’m still super into I Love My Computer by Ninajirachi. Brendon Bigley wrote a great review of it on Wavelengths.

I chatted with my sister about music a bit and we reminisced about Paramore — we were huge fans as teens as soon as All We Know Is Falling… dropped. For some nostalgia, I went to listen through to the album again and do a little song-by-song write up, but only got through a few tracks. Maybe I’ll pick it up on my next week notes.

1. All We Know - Fine; a heavy track (by Paramore standards) that sets the tone for the album but is otherwise not super notable
2. Pressure - iconic and excellent still. If I was trying to expose someone to the early pop-punk/emo scene, this is one of the first tracks I’d play them. Special shoutout to the version of the song that was on The Sims.
3. Emergency - I also still really like this song. Josh Farro is an ass but the guitar on this song smashes.
4. Brighter - I recall being a diehard for this song as a teen; today, I find it a little fatiguing to listen to. That might be in the mix, and I really like the outro still, but it’s a notable downturn after the Pressure-Emergency one-two.
5. Here We Go Again - This one feels like a bit of a recall of the band’s funk roots. I still really love this song. I remember being a fan of an acoustic live performance someone had put on YouTube. Farro really did have an ear for a catchy guitar hook.

As part of trying to get back into listening to podcasts, too, I listened to Cyberpunk 2077 from BGM Gems - a little challenging to listen to because I’ve never played Cyberpunk nor listened to the soundtrack, but I really appreciate the conversations, and I think highlighting music in games and using it as a lens to discuss them is a rad concept for a show. Excited to hear more!