smilebackwards

I think I was posting on tumblr when I had my music platforms crash out several months ago. To recap, I had to take an upgrade and iTunes was like 'hey, you can no longer access these songs you literally bought from us, so sorry' and then for streaming I was using Amazon Music which has been going through steady enshittification (inability to skip songs, constant shuffle mode so you can't even select the song you want, ads, etc). So I dropped Amazon and I have gone back to my roots with CDs (supplemented by Hoopla, shout out to the public library system). Huge personal win for me a couple weeks ago when I found the exact Third Eye Blind CD that I had the case for but lost the actual disc at a book sale for 50 cents! Also got a classic 3 Doors Down CD with iconic Kryptonite and it reminded me how partial I am to Duck and Run too.


Anyway, I've been listening to some good albums and would love some new recs! These are ones I'd consider high energy that I've been listening to for motivation at the gym.
~EVERYONE'S A STAR! - 5 Seconds of Summer
~Chapter 1: Singles Collection - Peach PRC
~Give Me The Future - Bastille
~Love, Drugs & Misery - Eva Under Fire

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In TV this week, I watched The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins (season 1). As is typical of me, I saw some trailers for this and was like nah, but then I saw a gifset on tumblr and I was like okay, now I'm interested. It's a fun, low stakes mockumentary-type sitcom with a good ensemble and I enjoyed it a lot!

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. Damn, okay. Disturbingly recognizable dystopia.

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In TV, I finished Shrinking (season 3). Continues to be a solid, funny show. This would have been a good series ending but it sounds like they're already renewed for season 4 so will see where that goes. Fuck Parkinson's.

Also watched Seven Dials which I guess is considered a series despite being just 3 episodes. I think it was fine although none of the twists were surprising. Maybe I've read so much Agatha Christie that the general patterns are recognizable.

Solaris by Stanislaw Lem. Space explorers are tortured with hallucinations by a semi-sentient alien ocean. This was pretty fucked up and I enjoyed it. Watched the George Clooney film after reading the book and I think the film tried to match the vibe but somehow it was too idk sleek(?) to be appropriately unsettling to me.

[DNF] Dubliners by James Joyce. Series of kind of vaguely dark, disconcerting slice of life short stories set in Dublin. Not enjoying it so I'm DNFing it halfway through.

[DNF] House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende. I'm letting myself DNF this one too unfortunately. This is my second read attempt and I got farther this time but despite magical realism being interesting to me, I just don't care for it. It reminds me of One Hundred Years of Solitude which I was forcing myself through a bit toward the end.

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In TV, I finished Bridgerton (season 4). The first half felt kind of wooden to me but I liked the second half a lot better. Except that they hid a scene at the end of the credits which is annoying to me! (I was trying to remember which other shows I've watched did this and one of them was X-Men '97.) Why do this? Anyway, Francesca has become one of my favorites and I'm excited for the expected continuation of her storyline.

The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy L. Sayers. Skipped to book 4 for my second try at Lord Peter Wimsey. Again I'm going to say solid but I'm not sold on loving Lord Peter. I am going to try Strong Poison per like a dozen people's recommendation. I did really like ( several things about this! )

The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow. LOVED THIS <3 The prose was so good and there was so much yearning and devotion and tragedy and it had time travel/time loop and academia and fighting fascism and personally I love second person so the first/second person POV was very enjoyable and it had swap POV of the (mostly) same events and secret code and dragons!? I could go on. I feel like this was written with me in mind.

Hockey season. I do watch actual hockey as one of the only sports I don't find unforgivably boring but this month has also been hockey media.

Half my tumblr dashboard became obsessed with the new gay hockey show Heated Rivalry so I was like 'okay, I will try it' and yeah, it gave me feelings. I am, however, like the 1% of fandom that cares way more about Scott and Kip than Shane and Ilya. I've watched episodes 3 and 5 multiple times. After episode 3 I also decided I was going to read the Scott/Kip book so:

Game Changers by Rachel Reid. This reads like what I imagine hockey RPF fic to be like. Book Kip is annoying to me but I love show Kip. Overall I think the show hugely elevated the source material.

I will now begin my annual Christmas to New Year's vegetating phase :)

Snagging from sweettartheart!

( Guidelines )

1. Red Robin trade paperbacks! These have been out of print for awhile and I constantly scour the graphic novels section of used book shops to no avail. I'm looking for Red Robin vol 2: Collision and Red Robin vol 4: 7 Days of Death. They look like this.

2. Ideas for family blind gift swap. Something with mass appeal for approximately $20.

3. Fun, delicious cocktail recipes that use rum or vodka.

4. I'm in a classic literature reading phase. Recommend me your favorite classic book.

5. Music recommendations. Preferably artist or album level. I'm dropping streaming and reverting to old school CDs and hoopla. I mostly like alternative/pop/rock but I'll try whatever!

6. Rec your favorite Stargate fics on stargateficrec!

7. Plant advice. I'd like to plant some cheerful but very low maintenance flowers and/or get a few indoor plants next year. Like the easiest possible things you can think of. I have an extremely black thumb.

8. Comments on my fics! I am having a struggle of a writing year and would love the encouragement of comments.

9. Play my fic rec ask game :)

10. Visit your local library ♥

It's time for rec_cember and I am starting off with some vid recs!

Sometimes a vid is not just a great vid but also introduces you to a new favorite song that gets added to your repeat playlist and becomes forever inextricable from the vid. Or that happens to me at least. Here are 11 vids that did that to me.

Autoclave - Due South by blessyouwatson (paramountie). Most recent instance of this. (Comment on AO3!)

Sorrow - Captain America by Trelkez. I think this was my first introduction to The National and I love The National.

( more under the cut! )

Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers. Book 1 of the Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries series. I've been considering reading these for awhile and this was solid but I feel maybe over-hyped. It took me until the last quarter to really get into it. That said, the detail of Lord Peter having shell-shock from WWI added a lot and the conclusion was good. I may read some more but not immediately.

In TV, I finished:

Slow Horses (season 5). Always enjoy my dumbass incompetent spies--except River is on thin ice to me in the final episode regarding his insane lack of self-awareness. Not perhaps my favorite season but I think that will remain season 4 because the focus on River and his grandfather appealed to me.

Great British Baking Show (season 13). Nice bakers making nice things <3

In other news, I am signed up for rec_cember so prepare for some vid and fic recs from me in December!

Cannery Row by John Steinbeck. The library didn't have East of Eden available so I grabbed this Steinbeck instead and it was good. Kind of a collection of slice of life stories set in the same neighborhood. The characters are funny and odd and overall just feel real in a way that's hard to describe.

This Inevitable Ruin by Matt Dinniman. Latest Dungeon Crawler Carl book! Continues to be fun and insane. Apparently we are getting book 8 release next year and there is a TV series in the works but now I must wait.

Amongst Our Weapons by Ben Aaronovitch
Stone and Sky by Ben Aaronovitch

I know I just said I was taking a break from book reading but I already had these from the library and after the length of the Dungeon Crawler Carl books they just seemed really doable. Also I did manage to get some of my life things I've been procrastinating on done so yay.

Creatively I feel like I've been procrastinating on any and all of my projects for months so I am attempting the communal_creators challenge through October 15th. I want to write! I want to vid! I want to bookbind! Please muse come back to me.