what i've been up to
(april 6, 2025)
while i remain plagued by mental illness, self-imposed solitude, and a mysterious sickness i have been suffering from since LAST YEAR, i prevail! while not a journal, i wanted to talk about some media i have consumed and enjoyed over this current year.
gilmore girls
firstly, i’ve started watching gilmore girls with my girlfriend! i love the characters and the comfortable, cozy aesthetic of stars hollow. i know everybody ends up hating lorelai and rory at the end but for now, i adore the best parts of their relationship, love jess’s snark, and fawn over paris because she’s my scrimblo blorbin and what not. my favorite characters are probably paris and luke, with lane and michelle taking a close third and fourth. i do love rory, but she suffers from a teenage girlness that i recognize all too well in myself, and makes me cringe from relating to her.
my biggest gripes with the show are probably how painfully white it is (but i guess it’s connecticut in 2002, what can you do?) and that classics 2000s homophobia that still manages to surprise me every time i see it. although i’m no stranger to older shows and their less than savory opinions of the gays and transgenders, i haven’t intently watched tv in so long that i forgot that people don’t like gay people on the television.
overall, gilmore girls is a 9/10 for me right now, with a significant number of those points coming from the fact that i love that my girlfriend and i watch it as a part of our nightly routine.
limerence
secondly, i’ve fallen head over heels for the new-ish lucy dacus song, “limerence”. it’s on her recent album, “forever is a feeling”, which overall is 6.5/10 for me. i enjoy a lot of the songs, but for the most part it is definitely not my favorite work of hers (historian you will always be famous). limerence, however, hit me with a car and dragged me along the road. I’ve listened to it nearly everyday since it came out, more than 50 times on some of those days. saying i love it is a gross understatement.
“but not kiss” by the goddess faye webster holds a similar place in my heart, both featuring similar melancholy vibes, powerful orchestral instrumentation, and simplistic lyrics. however, while “but not kiss” often has lyrics that feel awkward or fumbling to me, “limerence” has a distinct flow that reminds me of the train of thought one might have while writing a journal entry. the initial anecdote of the speaker anxiously introspecting while high, followed by a deeper exploration of their personal feelings regarding their relationship feels real to me. that diary-like view is basically the lucy dacus special.
additionally, the gentle lilt of the piano and the nauseatingly sad sound of the strings at the quietest moments of the song create a soundscape that turns my stomach. if anybody has more songs that evoke this feeling PLEASE recommend, and great thanks in advance.
malcolm x
finally, my last two pieces of media that i’ve enjoyed/am enjoying as of now are two books. firstly i am currently reading the autobiography of malcolm x and i find myself continually impressed by alex haley and malcolm x’s poignant story telling skills and the significance of his life. taking an african american literature class this year has reminded me how thoroughly i uneducated i am on many things relevant to my own life as a black person, and i am working through literature and other history in an effort to rectify that. overall 10/10 so far, malcolm is a great storyteller and i sure hope nothing bad happens to him /s.
just another epic love poem
the second book that has sat with me recently is a book i finished today, titled “just another epic love poem” by parisa akhbari. i’ll admit that i’m a slut for wish-fulfillment type romance, especially between two girls (let’s go lesbian nation) so i would’ve been fine if this book was kind of bad but very romance-y. i was delightfully surprised to find that it was actually amazing! unfortunately i do judge books by their covers, and the genuinely beautiful cover art led my hands to it on a trip to their library with my best friend. the story revolves around two poetry-loving best friends and their teenager-y struggles regarding their relationship, family, and the future, a plot that could’ve turned out to be mediocre. however, the complexity in the main character’s relationship with her mother (who has been in and out of rehab and absent from her life) brought a depth to the story that drew me in.
i loved the romantic relationship between the two main characters as well, each of them feeling very genuine and real to me. the poetry was occasionally lacking to me personally, simply due to the fact that there wasn’t much room for varying structure in the context of the book, but was well-written to suit the characters. the real-world poetry they reference interests me as well and i’ve decided to seek out a book of rumi’s poetry as i’ve not had a chance to really foray into poetry outside of the united states and england in school contexts. overall the book was an 8.5/10 for me, and i’m really thinking about getting a copy for my own shelves just so i can annotate and analyze the poetry within the book on a deeper level.
farewell
if you have any recommendations of anything for me, you can shoot me an email at the email in our about, and i will definitely take a look! hopefully i’ll read some more this year, especially before the end of summer (college blehhhh), and verona and i will be hopefully having a bit of a miscellaneous media club where we get together with some friends to discuss nerd shit.
auf wiedersehen,
webby