media round-up and thoughts (may 2021)
May. 30th, 2021 10:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
permutative
lol so this month happened. for some reason i feel like i aged a year over the course of like 4.5 weeks?! also yes i'm posting this early but we all know that txt's comeback is going to fuck up my scrobbles anyways so... might as well
WATCHING
well, i guess i can call this month "the month of BLs" or something. like literally what happened to me... i wish i could say something like "i will reflect and return with a better image" but i think we all know that this isn't going to happen. UM. also basically every BL in this list was recommended to me by
landofnights and/or girlrock and/or my random irl who watches BLs sotv: i told sunset about you (2020)
lol i literally could not shut up about this drama while i was watching it! a lot of people (including me) have called it a thai bl but umm now that i've actually watched an actual thai bl (... see below) i can safely say that it's definitely a lot different from that. i just think it's such a good coming of age story and even though it's sort of predictable at parts the execution is genuinely so lovely (cinematography, symbolism, even the abrupt music shifts were lowkey appealing to me). it did a good job of capturing how like... when you're a teenager sometimes things are messy/dramatic and feel like the End of The World. also i have a lot of Personal feelings about teh in particular... i'm just going to close out with the teh_apologism i subjected poor
stoplight to when discussing the show with her at like 1am:shakti: no idkk i just like. obviously teh is flawed and even the way he goes about trying to “redeem” himself [...] is flawedrelevant links: [my itsay dreamwidth post] / [itsay trailer] / [where to watch itsay]
crys: right
shakti: [...] and how teh is not really. like he’s still learning but to me i really liked that... that people can make mistakes and fuck up and be disasters and say hurtful shit and like... that doesn’t mean they’re condemned forever
++ last twilight in phuket, a side-story that links itsay with the second part of the series (which is called i promised you the moon) was like the cutest thing in existence and i lost my mind over it T___T [watch here]
++ i promised you the moon is airing currently (only one episode out) and i've been following it on a weekly basis... it seems as good as itsay so far and a lot of my worries wrt cinematography and pacing are gone now? [where to watch ipytm] / [my ep1 commentary]
tv: cherry magic (2020)
mannn. i was not expecting to enjoy this as much as i did. like the premise sounds insane (who in their right mind would watch a BL with the full title of Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?!... oh wait) because it's about how being a virgin at the age of thirty will let you READ MINDS? but despite the premise sounding sort of suspicious, it's honestly just a really wholesome and cute romantic drama... adachi (the thirty-year-old virgin) is literally the most adorable person ever btw. like he's just this introverted, sort-of closed off person who gets frazzled easily and he thinks he's a total opposite of the popular guy at their office (kurosawa) but little does he know that kurosawa has an UNHINGED CRUSH ON HIM? T___T and obviously it's a little bit ridiculous but also some parts genuinely made me tear up... there's something so powerful about being understood by another person, about being seen underneath the surface level perceptions people have of you/the face that you have to present the world with. anyways this was short and adorable and made me feel insane <3 [watch here]
tv: 2gether: the series (2020) & still 2gether (2020)
this is like... like it's not a romance. it feels like two guys being dudes and then saying vaguely romantic shit to each other? like this is objectively terrible and cringey but i have to admit i fell for some of the tropes (umm i love it when people seem super standoffish and silently pine while maintaining a resting bitch face... fake dating is kind of fun... etc). my friend was like "ok since you suffered through 2gether you might as well watch still 2gether, it's a lot better/is actually directed by someone who's queer" but like. i realized that my issue with 2gether wasn't that there wasn't skinship or whatever (like.. eh) but that despite how "visually appealing" brightwin look together they literally have 0 chemistry... and it's not like the writing of the show is good either so what am i doing this for. after watching some of a tale of thousand stars (directed by the same guy, is actually good) i realized that even a good director couldn't save brightwin. they're kind of iconic for being this popular despite offering literally nothing tbh... anyways i dnf'd still 2gether lmao no regrets <3 i still think intense gay little sarawat is perfect unfortunately + the music was pretty catchy n__n
relevant links: [my twitter review] / [watch here]
tv: a tale of thousand stars (2021)
i watched this while i was an emotional trainwreck at the end of the month so i feel like i can't really Objectively evaluate it... but i liked it a lot, probably as much as cherry magic or even a little more? it felt different from a typical BL in that it wasn't really focused on the couple as much as it did on tian's character growth. and there are some plot points that are a little, uh, ?? during the last couple of episodes but overall i really liked the show and its message. a BL without random irrelevant side-couples that has gay men actually Saying that they're gay?!?! conflicts without stupid love triangles or "heterosexuality" or girls being villainized?? supportive friends!?! btw one thing i found hilarious while watching it is that like... since it's a gmmtv BL (just like 2gether) there's obviously a lot of product placement. but while watching 2gether i didn't really care about the product placement because it just added to the ridiculousness/badness of the entire show. in contrast, atots is like... actually pretty high-quality so it knocked me out whenever the leads would have Tender Romantic Bonding Moments over face soap or spicy snacks or whatever else they needed to promote. btw i'm MIX fan <3 but no one is surprised. [watch here]
now for some shows that i tried to watch but then didn't end up finishing...
- gaya sa pelikula (2020) -- okay this came highly recommended by the two people i know who regularly watch BLs and like. it Was decently written, and it's def more of like an "lgbt drama" as opposed to a "BL" but i feel like the production quality was pretty low and the acting was good but a little awkward..? i think i just need to get used to people talking half in english T__T i might continue watching this next month if i'm super bored
- lovely writer (2021) -- i watched an episode and then gave up. the premise is really funny though (basically super meta/poking fun at the BL industry) and also one of the male leads is like... INSANE... and a little creepy... but i think it's intentional? idk i don't think i'll be watching this
- still 2gether (2020) -- see above, i just don't care enough about "sarawatine" and there's only so much guitar-playing and mediocre singing i can tolerate. hope sarawat gets some at some point though
i watched this because of
ningningbin and i thought it was fine?? it's sort of like 2gether in that it's a rom-com that doesn't make a lot of logical sense but it's so ridiculous that you can't help but watch it n__n i didn't think it was anything that special thoughkpop: enhypen
...well enhypen continued their drunk-dazed promotions and now they're onto fever promotions so yeah! there's been a lot of content that's come out. i've honestly been a little bit behind on their vlives/less interested in their vlive content atm just because they're a bit more low-energy when they're in the middle of a comeback n__n but there's a lot of good stuff on youtube that i enjoyed! some highlights, as usual:
- [enhypen studio choom behind] i always like studio choom behind-the-scenes videos and this one doesn't disappoint :D here's what i initially said: "when a video is like 1/3 jaywon propaganda for no reason and there's sungsun fanservice too... i guess this is what you'd call PERFECT CONTENT. jk but the editing is sooo cute <3 <3"
- [enhypen mini olympics part one] [part two] enha are so baddd at variety games but they have good tension and everyone looks so cute here ^^
i watched my government-assigned four vitypark episodes and like... well i'm not a luvity but also i do think that cravity produces perfect variety content <3 they have such good dynamics and their visuals >__< um. anyways are there any GUJUNGMO fans here? im sort of obsessed with his loserdol energies and also his marriage to wonjin. yasss
READING
last month i didn't read that many books, so i decided to request a bunch of lgbt books at the library because i thought it would be easier for me to read!? and anyways, yeah, that did work to an extent. but this month i also started a couple of books and then just DNF'd when i lost interest T__T life is too short to read mediocre ya books! another notable thing that happened is that i finished the remaining books off of
girlrock's best books of 2020 list... here's my ranking by the way:1. in the dream house by carmen maria machadoi would recommend basically any of these books, but i think that on a sunbeam, little fires everywhere, and the seven husbands of evelyn hugo are especially accessible and easy to get into *__*
2. long live the tribe of fatherless girls by t kira madden
3. clap when you land by elizabeth acevedo
4. little fires everywhere by celeste ng
5. on a sunbeam by tillie walden
6. the list of things that will not change by rebecca stead
7. the seven husbands of evelyn hugo by taylor jenkins reid
8. this is how you lose the time war by max gladstone, amal el-mohtar
9. my lesbian experience with loneliness by kabi nagata
10. all the rage by courtney summers
and here's all the books i read:
1. crier's war by nina varela ★★★.5
2. interpreter of maladies by jhumpa lahiri ★★★★★
3. my lesbian experience with loneliness by kabi nagata ★★★★
4. long live the tribe of fatherless girls by t kira madden ★★★★★
5. all the rage by courtney summers ★★★★
6. radio silence by alice oseman ★★★★.5
7. annie on my mind by nancy garden ★★★★★
8. last night at the telegraph club by malinda lo ★★★★
anyways i won't talk about everything but i'll just highlight the things that especially stood out to me this month.
novella: story of your life by ted chiang
god this was soo strange. we had to read this in class for ap lit and i kind of wish we discussed it earlier on in the year (aka when our class wasn't plagued with senioritis) because our class discussion abt this book was so lame... but regardless i found the story so fascinating? it was really cool the way the structure of the story informed the narrative and the subtle ways ted chiang used POV and tenses to show the narrator's perspective on time. and also as someone who is starting to feel increasingly horrified by how predictable my future was by my preteen self, the whole meditation on how predictable humans are was. something. IDK sometimes having no free will can be really comforting <3 also the entire linguistics/scifi subplot in general was super cool. scifi is such a hit or miss for me because books like the three-body problem are not compelling to me "story"-wise but they present interesting scientific ideas, but i think this does a good job of like... retaining emotional elements/actually being a deeply human story while also exploring interesting scientific concepts. [read here]
book: radio silence by alice oseman
miss
sonria mentions this book so often that i was like OK i guess i have to read it now! and like. i totally understand that objectively this book is not as good as i rated it but subjectively it is just So Fucking Personal. like the main character is a top student and at school she's just seen as this nerd/has this very specific image and she can't really connect well with her friend group and there are these lines about how she tries to hang out with them occasionally because she doesn't want to lose them but she doesn't actually like them that much... and then on top of that she's bi and a secret fangirl and posts fanart on tumblr!? like ok queen <3 also i liked how a lot of the book was just focused on the friendship between frances and aled and their platonic soulmatery because friendship Is that important. like for a book that is, on its surface, about a queer youtuber (!??) there's a lot going on... i really liked the reflections that people had abt their futures and how like... no one has anything figured out and that's ok <3 also any DANIEL fans here!?book: annie on my mind by nancy garden
recommended by
strayion. this story is pretty simple but i really liked the execution of it. like even though it was written forty years ago it feels pretty timeless, and i think her depiction of first love was just perfect <3 idkk i was just unexpectedly emotionally overcome while reading this... the perfect lesbian coming of age story etc etc. i also thought the switch between epistolary format/third person/first person was... interesting? i've never really seen that before. i put some of my favorite lines below, emphasis my own:Have you ever felt really close to someone? So close that you can't understand why you and the other person have two separate bodies, two separate skins?why did this remind me of that richard siken quote. anyways nancy garden was doing it before him
My snow monster was pure and white and guiltless, and [...] it struck me that it can never turn black and ugly like the monster of my childhood, because what is guiltless about it is what it is, not necessarily what it does. Even if sometimes what it does is bad, or cowardly, or foolish, it itself is still okay, not evil. It can be good, and brave, and wise, as long as it goes on trying.
There are a lot of unfair things in this world, and gay people certainly come in for their share of them--but so do lots of other people, and besides, it doesn't really matter. What matters is the truth of loving, of two people finding each other.
fic: i know, i know, i know by nightshade (sunburst)
reading a random MEANIE fic in 2021 like :D??? idk why but this fic made me feel insane. how do people say so much with so little... heart broken using less than 2.5k words... i'm just obsessed with how economical everything is, how precise all the words are, how mingyu's desperation sort of leaks through every sentence n__n i was super sad after reading this but like in a good way. svt actually has the best fic writers holy shit [read here]
LISTENING
lol i genuinely forgot that nct dream came back this month... when i say that this month lasted 1000 years for me this is what i mean. also i'm pretty sure that my lastfm account doesn't track all of my scrobbles properly because i have two different lastfm profiles connected to the same spotify accounts but they have different listening stats...? so that's fun!
btw as you wish by wjsn is literally the best song in existence!!!!!!!!!!!! [listen here]
total scrobbles: 1697
average scrobbles per day: 56
top artists:
- nct dream (274)
- chase atlantic (200)
- olivia rodrigo (116)
- wjsn (107)
- enhypen (103)
- fromis_9 (94)
- p1harmony (84)
- hot sauce - the 1st album (268)
- paradise ep (127)
- sour (106)
- as you wish (106)
- border : carnival (102)
- 9 way ticket (79)
- disharmony : stand out (70)
- as you wish - wjsn (106)
- hot sauce - nct dream (83)
- airplane mode - fromis_9 (71)
- siren - p1harmony (63)
- moonlight - chase atlantic (60)
- kingdom come - the boyz (55)
- rainbow - nct dream (54)
- tala - sarah geronimo (51)
WRITING
okay so last month was rough, writing-wise, and this month... was also pretty rough LOL. i finished the first draft of my jaywon summer romance fic, and i finally figured out a major issue in the plot so hopefully i can just. rewrite it this month... honestly i don't think i'll be writing any more enhypen fics after this one is finished but i really just want to see this idea through. here's the status on my WIPs though:
- jaywon summer romance -- 24k first draft but i need to rewrite most of the beginning and add a lot of stuff in
- heejay canon compliant -- it exists at 5k but i don't really know whether i want to finish it or not... maybe once i'm done with the jaywon i'll see how i feel
- jaywon uni au -- i have 6k written and i don't even know how. maybe once i'm done with the jaywon i can revisit it [2]
“We’re going to break up, aren’t we,” Jungwon says. It sounds so impossibly final in the way that only things that ring true can be.
REFLECTIONS
my interest in enhypen is waning a little and i think i need to figure out how to like... enjoy things without having to Engage in Fandom Behaviors. like sometimes reblogging my little enha gifs and not saying any of my opinions is better <3. stuff is starting to open up where i live and now that i'm fully vaccinated i'm going to try and make the most of the summer that i have left n__n idk if this means i'll be less active in fandom or not, considering how much free time i'm going to have anyways, but like... yeah. hoping that next month is happier for me <3 i feel like i might have more to say about the end of the school year/graduation/etc but i'll probably save those thoughts for a locked dreamwidth post... ah who knows
no subject
Date: 2021-05-31 03:49 am (UTC)some notable mentions:
radio silence !!! like objectively this book may not be as great as i always make it sound when i talk to people about it but GOD it hit me in all the right places (and YES. DANIEL WAS LITERALLY MY FAVOURITE thank u for the validation). also celeste ng is just. a fave. i love her work.
and i told sunset about you !!! so glad your post made me pick it up i'm almost done and i'm just. feeling very positive about it which is cool bc i've watched some genuinely trash content for the past few months and needed a redemption.
(also as you wish!!! literally the best wjsn song in existence and was actually in my spotify top 10 in 2019)
always love reading your media thoughts and this was no exception. have a good summer, shakti!
no subject
Date: 2021-06-04 02:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-05-31 03:01 pm (UTC)adding all the books you liked to my tbr ^^ queer fiction 4 the soul!! also i know u mentioned wanting to read indian books, so if you find any good ones please let me know!! i haven't found any good ones yet and it sucks 😭
soooo excited to read your summer romance fic, it's killing me x_x wishing you good luck, your dw posts are always a joy to read ^-^
no subject
Date: 2021-06-04 02:28 pm (UTC)and yeah i'll prob mention the indian books i liked in my next month's round up!! T__T i hope u enjoy the stuff i recommended~~ cheering u on for ur writing/other endeavors!! im so excited for you too miss sonria <3
no subject
Date: 2021-05-31 04:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-06-04 02:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-05-31 05:41 pm (UTC)cheering u on in all ur writing and college/life related endeavors! can't wait for the summer 2021 ecbc 2/3 meetup of the century <3333
no subject
Date: 2021-06-04 02:25 pm (UTC)AND I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE U TOO CRYS!!! EEEE <3 <3
no subject
Date: 2021-05-31 10:10 pm (UTC)moving on to 2GETHER yeah brightwin are honestly so iconic bc they managed to garner a massive fanbase of people who watch the show simply bc they think the actors (mainly bright) are hot. Like they honestly got super lucky cuz they don’t have to push the irl ship hard at all to keep people interested in them, cuz everyone’s just bright y/n anyways… king shit. also the way 2gether was 50% product placement 50% SCRUBB PROMO.. like it worked on me i'm a scrubb fan now T_T
of course you’re right with all of your atots opinions <333 it’s amazing how appealing a show can be once you remove all the tired overused tropes. (and yeah wasn’t it so refreshing how immediately supportive tian’s friend was? one of my fave parts of the show tbh)
- yeah gsp does take a bit of… effort to watch HAHA but imo its worth it (how many eps did u get thru??)
- don’t watch lovely writer lmao
sad that you aren’t LUVITY but I’ll take the moguham win <333 also bc of you I have also been listening to as you wish nonstop <33 what did they put in it….
congrats on finishing high school!!!!! manifesting an enjoyable and happy summer, hoping that june is better for everyone! (like srsly why did may suck so bad T_T)
no subject
Date: 2021-06-04 02:32 pm (UTC)I KNOW WE’VE ALREADY TLKED ABOUT BRIGHTWIN VS EARTHMIX VS OFFGUN at length but like. im obsessed with brightwin’s taekookisms and the fact that they are just guys who are dudes who are popular… also i didnt realize SCRUBB WAS AN ACTUAL BANDDDD this is so funny to me. oops. bright IS hot though
and yeahhh atots was so good just because of the removal of all those tropes!? so now going back to theory of love is like. well i am experiencing Something… i got thru three episodes of GSP though LOL
++ YESS MOGUHAM!!! so glad u’re enjoying as you wish as well <3 it’s a perfect song ,__,
anyways happy birthday again and hope ur doing well!
no subject
Date: 2021-06-01 03:01 pm (UTC)sorry my brain feels like it's permanently stuck in a state of all-caps nowadays i'll tone it down. first of all, you didn't even watch that many bls i was more impressed as always by how many books you read. second of all, the meanie fic was brutal and i thought about it a lot after i read it.
cheering you on for jaywon summer au. i have the wack urge to start writing fic again... maybe we can write together? anyway shakti i admire you and always want to hang out with you no matter if we're writing or not. i hope you have a good summer and that you and crys send me pics of your meet-up <3
no subject
Date: 2021-06-04 02:24 pm (UTC)as for writing fic, i hope u have some time this summer to work on fic/whatever other writing you're interested in!? T___T i admire you too cindy and love talking to you :''))) one day we have to meet up too!!!!! have a great summer~