(Last updated: 25/03/25)
On my bedside table pile right now:
In a marrying of my current project on theoretical cryptography with how much time I have spent with proof assistants recently I have been reading about the links between the two. I am especially interested in bridging the gap between theoretical and real-world security, and understanding of to what extent the two are actually correlated.
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
So, I originally had other plans for what I wanted to write about for this week, but I was reminded by Anna that this Monday is Trans Day of Visibility (thanks Anna) so I have pivoted my plans. And when I say pivoted - boy howdy, get ready, because I have a lot to write about transgender musicians, which is my focus for song of the week this week.
As this is probably going to end up really long, I'll break tradition and tell you about my song of the week first, and then if you have any interest you are welcome to read further! This week I have chosen Transgender Dysphoria Blues as my song of the week. I love, truly, everything about it & it's a song that makes me cry if I listen to it too much (which I am wont to do). Laura Jane Grace, both as a solo artist and as part of Against Me! is an incredible songwriter, able to deftly write both extremely powerful and simple lyrics as well as complex and beautiful almost-poetry. She is a fantastic activist, both through the medium of music & outside of it, and I am always thankful for her bravery and honesty. Transgender Dysphoria Blues is an awesome album - I LOVE the cover art, to start with (an awesomely beautiful & provactive illustration that is genius in so many ways) - and the title track does it justice. Released a couple years after her publically coming out & discussing her transition (but a lot of it written during the turmoil she experienced), it is raw and beautiful and also really fucking good punk music. While I'm on the topic, I'll also mention some other Against Me! songs I love - The Ocean is another one that makes me cry (I LOVE the metaphors in it, and it's kind of mindblowing that she released it before coming out. God, her singing about, "My mother once told me, she would have named me Laura" gets me every time) and I also am a big fan of I Was a Teenage Anarchist, which is catchy and fun. Laura Jane Grace will remain forever a trailblazer, icon, and wonderful human being. I am so glad we have her voice in the punk scene and also, in general. She has first-hand experience with the violence of the American police state and does so much with that, making her own voice powerful and uplifting others.
Alright, now I'm going to go off on a tangent and talk more about some of my favourite trans musicians. I'll try to not go off about them too much because it might end up sort of boring (and also I may want to write more in depth about them another day!). Laura Les (better known as part of two-piece band 100 gecs) has tragically released one solo song EVER, and it really sucks that it is one of my all-time favourite songs. Clocking in at under two minutes, I could (and have) listened to this song 10-20 times in a row. Haunted is a song that just, perfectly sums up how I feel sometimes, and was very close to taking the top spot for song of the week due to the everything that's been happening recently. I really really like hyperpop - as I always say my favourite genre of music is 'dramatic' - and I love the way it plays with extremes. Trans women have always been at the heart of the genre - a lot of modern pop music owes massive dividends to SOPHIE - and I like reading about Laura Les discussing how being trans is entertwined with the music she writes. For instance, her voice dysphoria is a major contributor to the infamous pitched-up 'nightcore' vocals used across a lot of 100 gecs' tracks, creating something iconic out of something shitty.
Another of my all-time favourite (in general) musicians is Left at London. She's probably still best known from her Vine days, but I do not know anything about Vine or her presence on there so whatever, let's talk about her music. Revolution Lover is an absolute classic, a bombastic and joyful forward-looking love song with the repeated line, "we'll be alright". It's simple but it's also fucking awesome. Love is revolution - and I don't mean in a "wow you saved the day with the power of love" type way. I mean - in a world that so often demonises & makes monsters out of trans people, loving and celebrating trans people is revolution. And trans people loving each other - even better! Reaffirming every day that you are worthy of love, inherently, is incredibly powerful. It's revolution in other ways, too - people all around the world have had to & continue to fight to be able to love the people they do. Left at London's more recent work has a lot of fantastic experimental stuff, both in terms of sound & subject matter. The Ballad of Marion Zioncheck is a narrative song (LOVE) that tells the story of former US State Representative Marion Zionchek. I think there's something really awesome about telling the story about this little-known guy, who had a difficult life, and fought for what he believed in. Before he died, he wrote, "My only hope in life was to improve the condition of an unfair economic system that held no promise to those that all the wealth of even a decent chance to survive let alone live." Ok - one final recommendation from Left at London - from the same album as the above, Pills & Good Advice is everything a 10 minute song should be - brilliantly modulated, clever, heart-breakingly emotive. It's such a wonderful journey to be taken on. Plus, I will note, yet again Left at London does some really interesting things with voice synthesizers, pitching her voice way up, covering it with noise, letting it through clear and crisp. It's a gorgeous song and I think those little details make it even better.
There's a lot more I could write about. I don't know, I have a lot of thoughts on this. But I will do some more quick thoughts:
Ok, if you read this far, I love you very much. Thank you for reading my long-ass ramblings about things that matter to me. For even more music from these artists & others who have been with me for a large part of my life, feel free to check out this playlist - although I will warn you, it is of no particular genre and is really just a personal collection of artists I enjoy. Alright, go take a lap, stretch your legs, have a drink, and I'll see you next week!
Under construction. My top favourite tv shows are Interview with the Vampire, Riverdale and Bob's Burgers, and I mostly have a lot to say about the first two. Yes I am serious about Riverdale, I think it is a masterpiece, not even worth arguing about it. Will update this to add some essays, maybe.
Regarding movies I am actually so bad at watching them but the past month I've watched LOADS that are good and a couple that were really awful (which is also fun). You may view my opinions on letterboxd dot com.
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