media diary #2: september roundup
I haven't done one of these in a while, mostly because I forget! But this month I did my best to keep track of it and was excited by the time the 30th rolled around.
π books
I didn't read a lot this month. To be fair, I am close to my reading goal for the year (24/25 books), so I feel I can take it a bit easier β plus, I have lots of other things to be insane about.
π« The Most Precious Substance on Earth by Shashi Bhat: I picked this up at Kinokuniya by chance. A lot of the story really speaks to meΒ βΒ weird internet interactions at an early age, creepy teachers at school, not being able to help your friends, the struggles of being a teacher when you don't really know what you're doing yourself, having a warm home and loving family to return to despite all your angst. Maybe I just felt like this book was written for the mes that I've been at different points in my life, but I really loved it.
πΆ 4Town 4 Real by Dirchansky: I bought it because of Turning Red. It was the kind of lighthearted and superficial story I should have expected from an official comic released about a Disney movie. The art was nice, but not personally exciting! Then again, I'm more into Turning Red for the main friend group and not the boy band. Still, I thought it was cute, and I admired the effort to give the boys some lore.
music
π The Rise and Fall of a Midwestern Princess: Chappell Roan has such a crazy voice. I've been a fan of her since I first heard Red Wine Supernova (my TikTok feed is good for some things, like music). I think she could truly become a pop icon, but for now I'm happy to push her music to everyone I know.
π£ GUTS: Another pop girl! I didn't listen to every song in SOUR but I listened to the entirety of GUTS when it came out and had so much fun. Olivia Rodrigo really makes songs for the girlies. Her two albums so far have captured the rage and angst of teen/young adulthood that I remember, am living through, or just resonate with despite it not being my experience. My favorite song is get him back!.
π§Έ Not the End: I've liked this song for a while, but listened to it on loop quite a bit this month. Something so nostalgic about it. I've been a fan of McFly since I was 9 but fell off for a very long time, so it's nice to find myself returning to them via this song.
ποΈ There It Goes:
I sleep through the night, and I go where I'm wanted
And I don't need your light to be lit
But oh, the way I loved you
I will not be embarrassed of that
Just should've known when to quit
π Loving You From a Distance: Is this bedroom pop? I never know what genres are which. Anyway, I love the homemade sound of this. It also sounds a bit like a Vocaloid song, which I find charming.
ποΈ Vacation Eyes: Saw a video of Joe Jonas singing this live and was struck by it.
From my Twitter.
Unfortunately recent news has made him far less endearing. At least I still have this great song.
movies/tv
π’ Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem: As a very new TMNT fan (I've watched + enjoyed clips of the RotTMNT cartoon) I loved this so much. Between this and Spiderverse, I love it that animation is experimenting with 3D these days! It was visually really wonderful. I thought the turts had such a cute dynamic, and they were the main selling point for me. The movie gets a lot of crit for having so many references to Real Life Teen Things, but I really didn't mind it at all. Donnie k-pop fan is so precious to me.
Standout scene: The No Diggity sequence.
πΉ Hamtaro: I went on the old Hamtaro website to remind myself of the cast of characters after playing Ham-Hams Unite. I wanted to see what the dynamics were like between the Hams in the show (since the games are pretty Hamtaro-centric) so I started watching it.
The English dub is the same quality as most English dubs of anime, but my favorite characters (Stan and Sandy, the twins) have pretty good VAs. You can watch the whole cartoon on the Internet Archive.
games
π» Hamtaro: Ham-Hams Unite: I suddenly got the urge to play this game, and binged it all in the same night, staying up until 7am. The premise of the game is to round up your hamster friends and bring them back to the clubhouse, and you need specific keywords ("Ham-Chat") to be able to get to them, which you can get by interacting with different elements of the game.
As a kid I found this supremely difficult, as I couldn't seem to find the right elements to interact with to get the keywords. I thought I'd find it easy playing this time around, BUT IT WAS STILL HARD. I had to use a walkthrough. Still, it was so much fun, and I was glad to finally get through the whole game!
π° Miitopia: Picked this back up again for reasons unknown. It's a very cute and silly game, but it's more a game you watch rather than play if that makes sense. On the bright side, I've learned it's an easy way to get me to fall asleep.
π Hamtaro: Ham-Ham Games: I taught myself emulation for this game. (Granted, it was not very hard, but I was putting it off for so long that it feels like a feat.) I adored this game when I was a kid! Making hamsters participate in the Olympics is literally the only way I know anything about sports today.
πΉ Pokemon Violet DLC (Teal Mask): Kieran is my baby angel. He is so sopping wet and sad. I want to close his whole head in one fist, lovingly.
misc media
ποΈ Basement Yard: Frankie and Joey are so fucking funny. I'm impressed by how often I've laughed out loud to this podcast of just two Guys Being Dudes. I think maybe it's because they laugh at each other too? And it just feels like a convo between friends? The only other podcast I've listened to is MBMBaM, which also can be funny but definitely in a more theatre kid way (which is not the same).
stuff to do
π¨ Write my birthday letter to myself. It's been nearly three months. Come on. Do not make it to November.
π An October art challenge of some sort? I draw pretty irregularly, and can't do anything that requires me to do it everyday, but I'd like to try something. I've been thinking about doing one of the following:
- Sonatober, where you draw yourself in different universes. (I'd change up the prompts for this.)
- Comictober, where you draw a comic everyday. (I could probably do this with a different prompt list too...?)
- Peachtober. This one's just popular.
- Or a list of my own making.
If you're thinking of doing an October art challenge, I advise against doing the original Inktober guy's version, because of reasons.
That wraps up my September media log. I'll do my best to remember to keep track of things in October too!