Television
Psych
This was my first favorite show. It reminds me of my family—my older brothers especially. It reminds me of growing up, of Minnesota, of old friends who I haven’t spoken to in years. A show that I have grown into; able now to understand all the ridiculous, stupid, and raunchy jokes I missed at 7.
Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated
When this show first came out, and Netflix had the rights to it, and my family still had a Netflix subscription, I started watching it. And then my mother told me I couldn’t watch it. When I got to college, I watched it again and from there I was obsessed.
A show that isn’t on this list, though probably could (and should) be is Twin Peaks. I didn’t watch Twin Peaks until I was 18, because I spent a lot of time on Twitter and I wanted to be cool or something like that. It was in watching Twin Peaks that I first fell in love with the art of filmmaking. When I learned that there is something incredibly special about being able to tell story with a camera and a roll of film.Something else about Twin Peaks, though, is that it is referenced a lot. In the second season of Mystery Inc., the Scooby gang goes to the red room from twin peaks—it’s the turning point of that season.
The creators were playful with the characterizations, parodied popular media (including its own source material), and still managed to tell a compelling and thought provoking story. It is a phenomenal TV show.
Riverdale
Another show that has referenced Twin Peaks1 (as well as other popular arthouse cinema) is Riverdale.
Riverdale is heavily clowned on, often the butt of a joke, and is completely and utterly ridiculous. It’s also a terrific bit of television.
My history with Riverdale is as follows: Early in 2023, I was having a fairly severe and also unmedicated manic episode. I was unemployed, I had just moved to a new town (where I knew next to no one), and I had no heat in my apartment. I had just finished Jane the Virgin (also a great TV show), and being in the heightened emotional state that I was, I didn’t want to take on another show that I would get attached to, and end up feeling terrible when it inevitably ended. So I decided on Riverdale.
People who have watched Riverdale will tell you that the first season is the best and everything that follows is awful. But that’s just patently incorrect. Season 6 is the best season—and yes season 6 is the season where the characters get super powers. Let me explain.
After season 2, Riverdale started to swerve off the beaten path. Story arcs that initially might have been anchored in reality—trying to solve the murder of one of the richest people in town or a serial killer killing “sinners”—became increasingly more and more absurd—fizzy rocks (that’s a type of drug) causing students to hallucinate the “Gargoyle King” and a new religious group that is actually a front for a body farm.
It did not help that the writing in this show is…middling at best. The dialogue makes the characters seem less real than the absurd plot they are taking part in. But despite that, the show has great (or at least interesting) cinematography, terrific performances (from some, Lili Reinhart ILY), and a phenomenal score, fight with the wall.
Movies
Mulan
Mulan has been my favorite movie since the eighth grade. The song I’ll Make a Man Out of You stirs something deep within me, something I cannot find the words to describe.
I never watched Mulan as a kid. I watched very few of the Disney princess movies. My one concrete memory of Mulan from childhood is this picture search book that I had. It had pages for each of the pre-2000 Disney princesses, and you had to find objects that correlated with each princess. For the Mulan page, I remember having to find a parasol. And I think it was then, that I started having an obsession with umbrellas.
Candyman
Candyman was on a youtuber’s list of movies to watch for October—to get into the Halloween spirit. I watched that video right when I was getting into my “film era” and decided to watch a follow the list.
I didn’t know basically anything about Candyman (except that the “Candyman” myth followed the “Bloody Mary” format). When I first started it, I figured it would be a cheesy slasher—silly, stupid, fun.
But when the movie started. When I heard the opening chord of the score2 and saw the opening shot of the austere Chicago landscape, all of my expectations were shattered.
Dogtooth
I think about the movie all the time. Probably more than any other movie I’ve ever seen.
I go into almost every movie I watch blind—I don’t want to know what a movie is about, I want the learning to be a part of the experience.3 Before this, I hadn’t seen a movie like this. A movie that was uncomfortable and disturbing and bewildering. A movie that made me feel bad after watching it—but that I loved all the same.
Music
Albums
Don’t Let the Kids Win
Julia Jacklin is my all time favorite artist. I have listened to her entire discography through countless times and the song “L.A. Dream” can still bring me to my knees (literally). “Same Airport, Different Man” has such a haunting quality, it gives me chills. “Leadlight” — and the line “I cost more than you earn” hit me right at my core. Most of her songs are simple, production wise, but her writing is so on point. I believe that she is truly one of the greatest songwriters of all time.
Blue Rev
This is a very recent album. I sometimes have issues listening to new releases of artists that I love passionately. I don’t know why, couldn’t really begin to put into words why it’s so difficult for me to immediately join in the love of a new release.
So I didn’t listen to Blue Rev when it first released in 2023. When I did first listen to it, in the late spring of last year, I became obsessed. I didn’t listen to anything else for at least two weeks. I would play the album when Nancy was at lunch, letting it play again when it came to the end.
This album is a complete project. Every song is the correct sound; you understand what the album is when you hear the opening line of “Pharmacist.” Every song on this album works perfectly with the last.
Forget and Not Slow Down
If you did not grow up in a Christian home, you are probably not familiar with Christian pop rock band Reliant K. I am lucky enough to have grown up in a Christian home, where Reliant K was my brothers and my favorite band. I’m lucky enough to have seen them live (even though I was a kid, we got right up to the barricade.)
This album soothes me. Even the album cover seems exactly correct. It sounds like a hot summer day spent on a hammock or the sunlight streaming in through my windshield on Hwy-30 E. This album is almost as old as I am, and all else I can say about it is it brings me joy.
Songs
“Millennial Daisies”
This is my favorite song of all time. It is a deep cut from Sidney Gish’s discography, someone who is already a bit of a deep cut. The album it comes from is less of an album and more of a playlist of assorted songs that Gish wrote and stored up. It’s the last song on this album, and I didn’t really catch onto it my first few listens (“Dinner Party” or “Big Bang” were probably my favorite prior).
But when I lived with my grandparents, I would listen to this album as I drove back to Nebraska, through Iowa. As I drove through wide, stretching, green corn fields and I heard the line “The sky is baby blue, cerulean” I felt like she was singing directly to me.
Gish’s voice isn’t necessarily melodic. She never sounds bad when she sings, but she doesn’t have a resonant, powerful voice like Adele or Whitney. But that line, it sounds like the angels have opened the heavens when I hear it.
“Lil Darlin”
I was lucky enough to be able to play this song my senior year for our jazz band. I was playing the piano, my favorite instrument to play. Most of the songs we played for jazz band were jaunty swing, dance tunes. But “Lil Darlin” is a slow, deliberate song.
I had a solo for that song. If memory serves, it was the first solo I played on the piano for the jazz band. And it’s a Basie song. Basie was a pianist, and he was also the head of the band. He would play with his right hand, and wave to the people in the club as he played. Piano is usually a rhythm instrument in jazz, but in Basie tunes you get to play the treble clef.
“Hot Knife”
I wholeheartedly believe that this is the greatest song ever written.
There is something about the timpani — that you can feel in your chest — that runs under the vocals. The layering of said vocals, over and over again, until the song is full and loud. The break of instrumentals mid song. The stopping and starting of the round. The piano coming in for one verse.
Books
My Favorite Thing is Monsters Vol. 1
I go into nearly every book I read, completely blind. I don’t like to be spoiled in any aspect of the read. What I knew about this book was that it was a graphic novel and a mystery. What I did not know was that it would slice through me like a hot blade against soft butter.
I recommend that all of you read this book, and read it as I did: with blind eyes and an open mind. It will eat you alive.
Ice
This book was on my 2022 TBR and I remember trying very hard to read it in the hammock at my parents house. I was unemployed, and all I did that summer was read, basically. But this book, put me to sleep. Literally, I would get into the hammock, start reading and then fall asleep.
It sat on my “currently reading” shelf on Goodreads for months, with no progress made. Finally, I moved it back to my “want to read” and added it to my 2023 TBR.
In December of 2023, I read Ice by Anna Kavan. In my bathtub, water getting tepid, I read Ice by Anna Kavan. Clinging to each word like an unweaned child, I read Ice by Anna Kavan.
In 2023, I was becoming a litfic reader. Not wholly intentionally, I gravitated to new releases with interesting colors and patterns on the covers. This book is none of those things. Ice made me think, made me stay engaged, kept me alert and on my toes. Ice gave me the opportunity to try again, and try for real this time. Boy am I glad I did.
Four Treasures of the Earth Wind and Sky
I know a book is good when I keep thinking about it. Keep going back to the story again and again, dying to relive it, even though I have so much else I want to read.
This book plagues my mind. The ending haunts me. There are no happy endings in this book, it is not a light summer read, it will not fill you up with joy. But it never made me miserable. It ruined me, but ruined me for the better.
Bonus! Nonfiction
Why Fish Don’t Exist
There are a lot of books that I can say changed me in sundry ways: changed my perspective, changed my taste, changed my mind, changed my life, take your pick. I can say that this book did all of these and more. Those who know (those who watch my youtube videos lol) know that I do not read a lot of nonfiction. And I didn’t know that this was nonfiction when I went into it.
For those of you who are solipsistic, those who love history and biology, those who aren’t looking for a light summer read, this book will sate you.
Visual Art
Cape Cod Morning & House by the Railroad by Edward Hopper
My high school art teacher taught me that Hopper’s use of dramatic lighting and isolated buildings was a way to convey emotion. She taught me that Hopper loved his wife, and put her into many of his paintings. She taught me that a house isn’t always just a house.
Hopper is my favorite artist. I paint flat houses standing alone in wide landscapes because of Edward Hopper. I find his work incredibly romantic and Romantic. I am enamored by his brush strokes, his lighting.
When is a house not a house?
The Calling of Saint Matthew by Michelangelo Caravaggio
My high school art teacher also introduced me to this painting. I am not necessarily drawn to the classics, I don’t think photorealistic = good. I love this painting because it, like most of Caravaggio’s work, is incredibly dramatic. This painting is so dark. The shadows are so intense, and the lighting just as.
The movement from the pointed hands, and Matthew looking down, the light falling on the tax collector, the other men looking upon the teacher. Yes, this is a good painting.
Some random interesting facts about ME!
Height: 5’9” (or 175 cm for my international readers!)
Eye color: Green/hazel
Dream vacation: Right now I want to go to Cambodia, but I have always really want to go to the Peruvian Andes
Dream job: Writing for a investigative series
Favorite word: “Idiosyncrasies” it just rolls off the tongue and tickles my brain!!!!
Favorite plant: Staghorn fern or daffodil
Superlatives I got in high school: “Most likely to be famous” and “Most likely to be president”
Guilty pleasure: Replaying the “Rusty Lake” games & wearing socks for too long
Favorite food: My mom’s homemade pepperoni pizza!
Good morning, good afternoon, and good night everyone!
Right now, the very minute that this newsletter is being published, I am turning 22 years old. My birth even happened on a Wednesday, crazy right (not really, but let me have this)? I love my birthday, I always have. I love having a day that is all about ME!!!!! And here’s another fun fact! Everytime I publish a newsletter I schedule it to go out at 5:14 pm, aka 5/14, aka my birthday! Look how easy it is to make everything about yourself. Wish me happy birthday!!
Come to think of it—Psych also has a Twin Peaks episode….
Philip Glass EGOT when???????
I rarely even watch movie trailers