#the song and audios are all intersecting but i didn't know how to write that well

[blysse-and-blunder]

in lieu of a commonplace book: a new term

saturday, sept 2 — sunday, oct 1, 2023

been running around and then lolling around and then running some more, and the last time i really understood what day it was i think it was aug 28?? though i have gotten a new wall calendar for my room so hopefully that...makes a difference?

anyway. lots of things viewed, read, played etc., but this is the ilcb where i talk about michael sheen's sex show. y'all have been warned.

reading finished this month:

light from uncommon stars, ryka aoki — there was a lot about this one to like, and lots of things that i think...could have worked better? the dialogue stood out to me as weirdly stilted. the author got so much good, fluid, lyrical writing into the descriptions of the violin maker, all the meaningful resonances of the violin, and everything else kind of paled to that. a lot of vision in this one, and hopefully readers who are less picky than i am will be able to chill out and enjoy the representation, the demons and space and music and donuts.

the empress of salt and fortune, nghi vo (audio) — stunning. short, but suggests/captures an entire world. adored the emphasis on little artifacts and material details, the flashes of actual history and the absolutely elegant touches of fantasy.

clouds of witness, dorothy l. sayers (audio) — a lord peter wimsey mystery is always a wonderful excuse to listen to a voice actor just go nuts with posh RP accents, but i do miss my girl harriet even as i know that i'm reading all the prequels on purpose :(

one last stop, casey mcquiston —i didn't think i liked casey mcquiston before, but this book was genuinely a delight. is this how everyone felt about rwrb? the romance tropes worked for me this time, the dialogue here felt natural and fun (especially the secondary characters), and the little turns of phrase and comparisons and twists hit just like you'd hope. the history! the queer community! the roommates! and you know what, fuck it. a little tooth-rotting fluff can be good for the soul.

listening bounced off of the new olivia rodrigo (sorry 😥) and the new chappell roan (sorry sorry 😥) and won't be trying to articulate why for now, haven't spent enough time with the new mitski (liked it on the first listen though) so this section of the post is going to go to noah kahan's stick season, which i have listened to on repeat for the last few weeks. i think i've got a favorite song chosen, only to notice something new about another one—it's not just 'northern attitude' and 'homesick,' though obviously the lines 'i'm mean because i grew up in new england' and 'i was raised out in the cold' / 'i was raised on little light' do fucking resonate. but so does. most of it.

at some point i have added both 'halloween' and 'the view between villages' to my liked songs, and for some reason i get a real kick out of the line in 'new perspective' about calling an intersection downtown just because it's gotten a target. but anyway here's 'stick season', simply for the line 'and i'll dream each night / of some version of you / that i might not have / but i did not lose.'

watching masters of sex (2013). if i'm honest, this is a little bit of a dodge—i watched the entire first season of this show back at the beginning of the month, it fully took over my staycation cat-sitting gig time, and then i haven't been able to get back to it now that i'm home. i think i'm scared to dip back in, honestly? because i can't let myself get sucked back in that strongly.

this show is maddening. it's fascinating. don't ask me if it's good. it's based on this book by thomas maier, which i may have to actually read, because i keep getting distracted wondering about how much the script is changing, adapting, etc. i've taken my intro psych class (and then some), i had to read about masters and johnson, and i feel like the show must be taking liberties— but also, is it?

this show isn't mad men, but it does have that period midcentury / postwar aesthetic, and they do a very good job mentioning bits of history/current events that tie it to the actual history. and there is actual history here, and i love that. but also, i have never been this aware of a show making choices for baldly strategic reasons— you can so tell that this show was written for weekly release, plot threads come and happen for an episode or two at most, only then to be either dropped (for future use if necessary?) or solved.

then again, there's some very competent and tightly-constructed stories, e.g. the episode about the nuclear attack drill and how everyone behaved, how it did and did not matter to them, how their worlds were and weren't also symbolically ending in the intertwined subplots. also a big fan of the one where they're hearing about the new research on the female orgasm! and freud! it's so interesting to have this all framed as ~the frontiers of science!~ and then see how in some ways it's more progressive than you'd expect (than we are today still, on primetime).

the other lead, lizzy caplan, is new to me, but she kills it, kills it, as ginny johnson. allison janney is in this?! caitlin fitzgerald aka tabitha from succession is in this? see what i mean, like half the cast is people who either were in big prestige tv enterprises or who would go on to be, which to me says something about the way this show was viewed as a good move for your acting career in 2013. (link to a piece of historical journalism discussing this show and nbc hannibal as not-to-be-missed viewing for 2013. wild.)

i've never thought this much about how television has changed from the early 2010s to now. this feels like a bridge, connecting pre-peak TV to where we've ended up, where it's not as 'prestige-y' as it would be now, but is still going for the sophistication and intensity. michael sheen wears a funny little bow tie and got a golden globe nom for this, but he could not be further from aziraphale here—it's like watching a totally different person (acting_patrickstewart.gif), he smiles so little and is routinely so awful to various women in his life, including those he purports to love. i distract myself watching him make acting choices in response to some of the (frankly wild) things that they've given masters to say and do, and that's. all i'll say about that.

okay that was mortifying. let's move on.

playing have now completed (for the second time) the first act investigations in pentiment, with new scenes unlocked (the spinning bee! storytime with brother sebhat! midnight in the library!) and still not a solid answer to the mystery. methinks there is a message there, but we won't know for sure until i can next find a time for me to continue with either of my play-through companions. when i play with A, we make choices based on 'i would never pick that if i was playing on my own, but since you're here, you'll be the voice of chaos egging me on,' which if nothing else has led to a lot of cackling.

things this game also excels at, besides narrating women's stories and moral ambiguity: animating children and animals. we shook hands with this dog and it was perfect.

making hungry for a handicraft. sewed a bra back together (unpictured), glued a handle back onto this little ceramic pitcher, glued a hairclip back to its backing and a slipper sole back to its upper slipper (all hail having appropriate adhesives for a job!) watched as squirrels made a meal of the valiant, late-blooming tomatoes.

working on the court romances chapter has a new direction, but it does feel a little like an albatross around my neck at this point. i sent my committee the body and soul debates chapter, but at my most recent meeting it was clear most of them hadn't finished reading it so the discussion was largely 'where's chapter 2? why isn't that here also?' they still gave me the equivalent of a little pat on the head and said 'keep going', so. i'm taking drastic steps (enlisting other on campus resources, my therapist, etc.) to try and fucking make some fucking progress.

#ilcb #in lieu of a commonplace book #monthly roundup #this got longggg