Friday/Weekend Catch Up
Fake Spring is going pretty hard right now! It's been a roller coaster of snow, snow rain, rain, and just the awkward not warm enough to go without a jacket while being not cold enough to exclude shorts yet. Our weird Winter felt warmer than whatever is happening with this shoulder season. The cats are all blowing their coats since the equinox, and it feels kind of wrongish since Potema still needs a coat to go out. The future is kinda odd, not going to lie.
I also think I might change this to the Weekend Catch Up because I keep missing my ideal Friday posting date.
What I've Been Watching
This week was Spring Break and Stardew Valley's newest patch dropped, so I haven't really been watching a whole lot. I have made so terrible garlic, horse radish, and onion juices- thanks Concerned Ape (this is actually terrible, and I feel like I should be stopped).
I feel like I used to get a bunch of insta reels about Frick I Love Nature and I always thought it was just a bunch of sketches. That nobody would ever fund a mockumentary in the style of old national geographic or planet earth format and it be so criminally underrated. It's not for everyone but we've been slowly making out way through the series and having a ball.
Please support local filmmakers and writers so we can get more ridiculous series like this.
I'm excited for this show. I absolutely want to know why the American government should build Erika Ishii a gundam and Jess's presentation on Wrestling is drag.
I wonder which cryptid is the chillest to blaze with?-it's a question that's come up at least once I feel.
What I've Been Reading
Niko Stratis' writing reminds me of the cooler, older friend who recommends unexpected songs, and tells you stories about the places you went to before you were there. She's from the Yukon, her background is very blue collar, and I'm deeply appreciative of her point of view because I feel like there's not a lot of writing from those particular intersections. Especially queer writing. What I mean is that, I don't have to imagine a Toronto I've never been to (or Vancouver), I don't have to stretch to imagine a very specific version of middle class to buy into her writing right away, there's a commonality that resonates for me that I don't get very often. This week's newsletter from her (Anxiety Shark) bothers the notions of authenticity, music, nostalgia, and wanting things to feel a different way.
One of my niche genre interests is art inspired or derived from Christianity, particularly what didn't work or what was lacking. From Supernatural, Hozier's Francesca, Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy, William Blake's The Tyger/Jerusalem, John Milton's Paradise Lost, Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials, and Ghost's entire schtick, it's fascinating to see how people run with this aesthetic in wildly different directions.
It's been a while since Dayspring as a short story came out (2019). After Easter weekend, it comes out as a novel. To say I'm excited would be an understatement but I am just so fucking excited about Anthony Oliveira's novel. I adore how Anthony plays with tone, with glow, and time in his writing, how queerness is such an integral aspect of it. I just, am so excited for this weekend to be over.
I saw this anthology Thyme Travellers on social media and it's piqued my interest. I've sporadically read middle east north african writers (I've really enjoyed what little I've read), and Palestinian speculative fiction seems pretty neat.
I go through phases with poetry (like the moon, or star cycles). Sometimes all I'll want to read is poetry, and sometimes it's a seasonal thing. Someone shared Sammy Lê's poem, and I really liked it. I don't know. I just do.
Small Mammal Update
Duchess Zorya Sweet-Roll is my little chonky shadow cat. Every photo I have of her looks like she's perpetually terrified about being alive or is in the throes of an existential crisis. I love her very much and try to give her as many hiding spaces as possible. Fun fact when we first got her, she didn't know how to jump and because Yaga can be a bad teacher (not all of the time) whenever she jumps now, it sounds like a phonebook from the nineties belly flopping.
What I've Been Working On
This week has been a sort of wash. A recovery week from last week, and a week where people were just sick a lot.
