even if i (again) only wrote one review this past month—and i won't come with pretense that it was all too valuable in nearly the same ways as others—at the very least, i've almost finished making and crafting all my charts pages, and all the ratings for everything i've seen and listened to are accurate~

so there's a tiny bit to be happy about :)

i also have a new impetus for a comment, which i hope will be conceptualized and written asap; even though i wish it didn't happen. i'd rather still have it here. but at least they're still somewhere, and that it was (hopefully/seemingly) a personally fulfilling decision. i can at least be glad that i have something in the tank other than this postcard to add this month. but speaking of:

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books

besides obviously reviewing the tao after re-continuing it, i continued death note off and on (and have nothing else nice to say that i haven't already), and after sadly having to return paradise lost after a very transformative first section during an all-nighter, i started middlemarch again for the third time :D i'm only a handful of chapters in so far but i think there's a good reason why i've come back to it so much. it's just so wonderfully dramatic and seems to capture being human in a very strange way, especially in how it's slightly alien (because it's so transient, not the opposite) from being 150 years on... i'll always love it for that, even though i still have no idea where it will take me.

games

i've been slowing down a lot with balatro, mainly because—though i'm a sucker for trying to be a completionist—it's just too much for me right now. it's fun to keep unlocking stuff, but i'm not actively trying to get it all anymore. touched down a tiny bit with minecraft and mario kart ds too though, and a bit more of dirt rally 2.0 as well all just for comfort, but the main development is starting pokémon platinum again :) i'm about 7hrs in and finding myself in a weird progression well, but the design and atmosphere and everything about it makes me happy; it's so clearly cared for and well put together, even if the game progression is... well, about the same as it ever was. but the art and music are everything.

hoping to play more ds games in general too; might be the most oddly perfect console ever (specifically my black dsi). maybe will start prof layton soon/after? always wanted to since being a kid after my sister got one of the 3ds entries for xmas c:

movies

i was kind of on a roll mid-march, watching six movies in the span of a week.. but that's all i got to for the entirety of the month. and even though cuckoo is my lowest rated of that group, it might be the one i had the most fun with (and definitely not just because hunter schafer is in it, promise)

ghost in the shell and uncut gems were both very well-made (only surprising to me for the latter), but rewatching us and seeing persona for the first time were the real highlights. i don't understand the odd criticisms made against us—especially as peele's main films' ideas have just progressively gotten more intense and less surface-apparent—and persona felt like the most transformative simplistic movie i've yet seen. it's so beautifully intimate, strange, and intense despite how tepid it sometimes feels; the runtime stretches on and on even though it's quite short, and it makes it feel all the more paralyzing.

hot fuzz was just well-made dumb fun tho (:

music

definitely my busiest month in a long time for music; if there's anything i'm trying to be a completionist with it's my aquarium watchlist i have on aoty.. but i think next month will definitely be slower both for the sake of re-familiarizing myself with some past interests and what next i'd want to really talk on.

but of course here's the link to it all from march, and the most important thoughts i had from it all:

• luv is rage 2 – lil uzi vert
• definitely flawed, but there's some (likely fake nostalgic) feeling i have towards this; it came at a time when i didn't care about music in the same way, but it was still everywhere. and now that everywhere is preserved, at least in part, with this album. and i'm glad the deeper cuts keep up the sugary energy as much as it starts with a much harder delivery
• homesick – a day to remember
• s/o to the worst thing i listened to this month :c i just connect with basically nothing here, and it's just that repeated in different modes.. i'm sure part of it is my inherent bias to music sounding like this, but i can't help it when the lyrics don't even seem to click towards.. anything? idk girl
• glitch princess & softscars – yeule
• i wish i thought these were more re-listenable but both albums were easily some of the most meaningful albums i listened to this past month; just wonderful little glitches and noises layered ad nauseam under and around touching lyrical frills~ can't wait for evangelical girl is a gun
• too dark park – skinny puppy
• doesn't quite hit immediately as catchily compared to bites, but it moves even more sporadically and grossly as it continues (likely better than that prior album), in just the ways it should
• cinderella & doves – model/actriz
• while cinderella is obviously the better of the two, cohesively and lyrically, both of these singles give me huge hope for these guys being one of the most interesting bands i've witnessed grow in a minute; they're so expressive, grimy, and amazingly personable in their music, and i can't wait either for the album these will be sandwiched within <3
• dead channel sky – clipping.
• it might be a little too long, and it might play into more tread tropes compared to clppng's complete racket, but the messaging points down meaningful avenues and those instrumental switches compliment daveed's voice in a way that keeps this feeling like a deadly, chameleonic space
• music – playboi carti
• there's pretty much nothing here, which is its greatest strength. but don't come looking for anything other than an 'homage' that feels like it's only truly indebted to itself to justify existing at all
• attempted martyr – prostitute
• definitely the album i most need to look into more from this month, and let stretch out more and more over time; it's captivating from the very start, and it's as heavy as an anvil, but it masks itself enough that any true connection might take more than a few tries to reach in and become intertwined with
• acid disk 2 – g jones & eprom
• this fucks so hard
• pawwwfect! – lil hero
• candy-addicted pinkpantheress in only the best way
• the giver – chappell roan
• this might slowly get better to me? but i just can't see how this comes anywhere near her last single, or the majority of midwest princess~ i know it's not trying to be as serious, or catchy in the same style, but it just falls in a weird place because of it, instead of some more cared-for middle ground
• the light that you gave me to see you – e+e
• disjointed, sometimes too much to my ears right now, but colossal; i don't think i can speak too closely of it, and i'm not sure how it conceptualizes itself in my head, but it's one of those flashing moments of sheer experimenting and growing that i can't help but admire with my entire heart
• salvation – rebecca black
• HIT HIT POP IT POP IT POP IT POP IT POP IT RIDE
• open this wall – berlioz
• at least jazz is for ordinary people was nice enough to be shorter and less stuck in its own head; this just repeats these weird nu jazz and house trills until it isn't even sure what either are anymore. it starts nowhere and ends without ever having made a case for how it melds those sounds and 'commentaries' on vague notions
• am iii pretty? – sellasouls
• it's not a clairvoyant of anything, but the ways it butchers and stitches together trap and rage with noise, industrial tinges, and whispered shrieks make this one of the most compelling listens i've had in a long time; it's not even that individually shocking, and i don't think there's too profound a purpose behind it.. but altogether, it's evilly intense
• tunes 2011-2019 – burial
• best example i have right now of a (mostly) instrumental album/compilation that nevertheless speaks volumes from its appearances, without ever feeling like it's trying hard at all in making you understand or 'get it'
• friday & friday remix – rebecca black
• so camp it's impossible to dislike
• ds2 – future
• i don't think that this is some complete masterclass, or that it's some intense, cohesive statement on trap's purpose to those who have made it.. but it's impossible not to let it rattle your head and jolt your thoughts enough, to make you see this as a simultaneously desperate plea and bragging punch-out
• bringing it all back home – bob dylan
• while the electric blues stuff i could take or leave depending on the day—and i think the times, of what i've listened to of his, has much more lyrical merit—the second half's incessancy, with his sheer audacity to stretch so widely this brand of folk, is jaw-dropping to hear come together.. it's fantastically overwrought, and i only hope there's much more gold to find from him.
• slayyyter – slayyyter
• hyperpop britney spears

but importantly, i re-listened to the two against all logic albums at the end of the month and realized just how—even if a few sparse moments on both feel repetitively redundant—they're both amazing little excursions of house and industrial fun; i don't have a lot to say past that just because i feel like the insane highlights of this old house is all i have, cityfade, you are going to love me and scream, fantasy, and if you can't do it good, do it hard are essentially self-evident; the latter album is definitely slightly underrated from the circles i've seen talking about them though

and also, i'll keep linking to albumoftheyear lists because i like having that syndicated record, but just know that the rating page is always going to be the most accurate (especially for older stuff), and the place i have the most care put into <3

tv shows

just more adventure time, and not much of it 💀

i mean, i finished season 5 at least? puhoy, bmo lost, be more, and the vault were all amazing episodes, without a doubt some of the best the show has had up to the point that i'm at right now (if not just the best episode(s)). it balances being funny and innocent and important and meaningful all so well, and it's just so clearly done with artistic love. so at least the little bit i seem to always pass through for is more than worthwhile enough.

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that's about it :) as much as i still like this place, i think in the future i might not have as rigid talk about music, and instead use it as testing ground for any general feelings and thoughts; but either way, i hope that i see less this april and write more meaningful pieces. please treat yourself too

ttyl <3

written 1 apr 2025