(Last updated: 04/05/26)
On my bedside table pile right now:
I will note, there is nothing that I love more than recommending people books and I have a comprehensive categorisation system to help me with this, so please if you are ever unsure of what to read, let me know and I will try my best to find something good for you!
My all-time favourite TV show is Riverdale, and yes I am serious about that. So serious, in fact, that I presented a talk on it, entitled "Can Riverdale Ever Jump the Shark?". The talk notes and slides are available. I'm also eagerly awaiting the news season of Interview with the Vampire! It's finally coming out soon!! I love a weird gothic show :)
My recent biggest obsession is the Pitt. I have never before enjoyed medical dramas but there's some kind of secret sauce in this one because I'm totally obsessed with it. Ok, I know what part of the secret sauce is -- the incredible Mel King played by the inimitable Taylor Dearden. I laughed, I sobbed (a lot), and I tore through the first season faster than pretty much any other TV show (other than Gilmore Girls. but we don't need to talk about that).
Regarding movies I've been trying to watch more as of late, and you may view my opinions on letterboxd dot com. And! I have lots more I'm excited to watch too. I'm struggling to convince people to watch some of them with me... but I'll manage eventually.
I am kept sane by year-round sports. NHL through the winter, F1 through the summer, and MLB to plug the gaps. I am a super-mega fan of the Pittsburgh Penguins & Oscar Piastri and my allegiances have now been firmly pledged to the Yankees (no disowning in my future) as I have successfully saddled the lovely Anna with my beloved Bluejays (sorry for giving you a team that immediately went on a losing streak and lost every good player to injury).
Inspired (blatantly stolen) from my wonderful friend Anna, I am going to try my best to update my song of the week :) This list aims to collect songs that feel like they're going to kick their way out of my chest when I listen to them. If I also end up looking really stupid dancing to them at the bus stop because I literally cannot stop myself that is often a corollary.
For past songs of the week & my thoughts on them, check out the archive here: Song Archive
Today I did some of the worst cooking I've ever done. I don't think they should ever let me cook again. As I told my friends, my creation would've been a fantastic replacement for human skin but was not, in fact, edible. I think potential possibly also exists in the novel material industry, or in a mad scientist's laboratory. I'm not trying to be too dramatic here, but I believe I now understand how Frankenstein felt. Unfortunately I fear my mind has been addled by the monster of mine own creation and I fear its escape from its prison (the food bin). If you don't hear from me tomorrow, you'll know it got me. Or that I'm really tired from the inexplicable boner I've had for exercise recently, who knows. Anyway, point is, I was deeply stressed out by this experience and it was at that exact moment that the perfect song came up on shuffle and reattained a positive overall rating for the day while leaching the stress from my clenched and concerningly tight shoulders. What was the song? Oh, you know me. I like to be a tease. Let's take a detour first.
So my beloved Penguins did bad. I've been genuinely upset about this for a while but I think I've finally achieved a state of zen normally only found in zen masters or perhaps particularly stupid aquatic creatures. I will permit the my-sports-team-losing to pass over me and through me. And when it was gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the my-sports-team-losing has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain. I can finally listen to my Pittsburgh-associated rappers again, is what I'm saying, which is good news, because their music is great. First of all, obviously, I have to shout out Wiz Khalifa (deep cut who I'm introducing all of you to for the first time). Everyone loves hit song Black and Yellow but I'm not sure if you guys know it's about the Penguins. And just in case you think I'm fucking with you, that's not a joke. Ok, technically, it's also about the Steelers and the Pirates and sort of the whole city but I don't really care about those teams unless the Pirates are involved in some other insane inning of baseball (7 walks in a row !?!?!). We all share the same colours and I love that shared identity, along with the Terrible Towel. I am very lucky to get to be a part of this community and it means a lot to me. Thanks, The People of Pittsburgh for letting me root for your sports team. That's part of why I was so sad their season is over, but as Sinatra would say, that's life. Thirty-one teams lose a year. Anyway, the song's a classic, and that's really all I meant to say about it. But the song from Wiz Khalifa I wanted to talk about more is No Worries, which I was introduced by via an incredible edit of Ben Kindel's rookie season. That's what swung me back round to enjoying the season we'd had again, and appreciating everything we've been lucky enough to witness. Also, the song goes really fucking hard. I'm just focused on what I'm gettin/ I ain't worried about what I don't got. That's what it's all about baby. No worries !!!
Perhaps the most hype Pittsburgh-associated rapper who makes me sad whenever I think about him (narrow category) is Mac Miller. I'm not getting into all of that right now because we're trying to keep this day an overall positive, so let's get right in to my favourite of his songs, Knock Knock, from his fourth & breakout mixtape K.I.D.S. It's got one of the best uses of a sample ever, totally transforming Linda Scott's song from 1932. Holy shit I didn't realise the song was that old. Mixing that, the simple but powerful beat, knocking sound effects, and Miller's of-that-era frat rapping, it's so much more than the sum of its parts. He was barely eighteen when it released, and you can feel that it's a maturation of his song-writing while also being unapologetically teen-aged; revelling in it. It's a fantastic song that doesn't get less fun the more I listen to it. Also, some fun facts -- I have just discovered it's the song chosen by the Pirates to play during their seventh inning stretch. For some reason as a Yankees fan I'm stuck with God Bless America and I'm honestly really offended to discover that we seem to be the only team that does it? I do argue it would be a better choice of national anthem than Star-Spangled Banner but that doesn't mean I think it's as money as Mac Miller, or in fact a number of other more fun songs like Good 4 U (Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim), Can't Hold Us (Mariners) or Take on Me (Nationals). It's just so nationalistic. C'mon. I know the team's called the Yankees. But. Anyway we're getting off the point. Another fun Pittsburgh-specific note is that Mac Miller references Keep a smile like an Eat'n Park Cookie, which is a brand you will be very familiar with from advertisements if you watch the Pittsburgh home broadcasts. As far as I know, they only operate in Pennsylvania and West Virginia!
Worst songs to play when you've finally been allowed on aux again while driving an hour in the car with your father (other than everything else you play): Sextape by Deftones. I was accused of not playing enough "upbeat" songs and that he was risking "falling asleep at the wheel" which would be "dangerous". I'm not doubting the veracity of this statement but given he kept veto-ing Linkin Park and then it kept coming up on shuffle again I was inevitably a little flustered and didn't do the best job at finding replacement music. Anyway, it ended up reminding me that the song was a banger and that I needed to listen to it more later when I had a chance, which I have done. Deftones is very my brother music. Read: depressing, navelgazing, slow. It's good though. It kind of reminds me of King Woman, with less aggressive yelling. I love a swirling song that catches you up in its current and spits you back out at the end. There's some drum that doesn't come in properly until like two and a half minutes in after the bridge, and I love the second wind it gives the song, transformed in to something not wholly new but subtly different, too. Also, it's a lot of fun to imagine some kind of postmodernist sextape accompanied by this song. Makes me laugh just thinking about it.
Ok, fine, I've fucked around enough, I'll get to the point. Roll your shoulders back and take a deep breath and enjoy the beautiful sounds of When the War is Over from Nourished by Time. I love the cool calm energy of the syncopated beat that provides the perfect foundation to the swirling lo-fi/synth-pop inspired textures that overlay it. It's kind of Taxes-core in that I love it so much and it means a lot to me and I've got no fucking clue what it's on about. I feel like there's an extra layer that I'm missing and I don't know what it is, but there's also something kind of beautiful about the feeling that it's there. I think there's also something I really love about the beguiling simplicity of the song. The piano part is sparse, the beat repetitive, the singing unbothered and relaxed. But there's so much more than that, and you can keep unpicking more and more details the more you listen. God, it's a beautiful song, and I worry I'm not doing it justice, so please give it a listen and absorb everything that can't be conveyed by words but exists in the plane of pure meaning; feeling. Hopefully you can find yourself there. Good luck!
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