Musing VI
We back! This week—Michael Cera, GameStop, and, of course, Faeries.
Holy Hiatus!!
Hi friends. I missed this! My brain has been very much elsewhere lately, but I’ve been yearning to get back.
Until today I thought we might actually have entered summertime. However, as I write this on a Friday night with my glass of Bota Box Pinot Noir, the roofs and windowsills are getting gently coated in white. I can’t say I mind. I have always loved these cozy nights in. They afford me the mental space for things like this.
For musing.
Music
One of the reasons playlist-making became such an easy and exciting hobby for me is because it feels like world-building and character-defining. At least I think I approach it that way. I like to conceptualize an individual and the world in which they exist, and create soundscapes to make them come to life exactly as I see them. I’ve always used this tool when I am writing fiction—long or short—to make my world and characters feel more tangible.
As tempted as I am to haunt you with my horror characters and playlists, I think I will save those for next time. We’ll keep it cheeky this week with a couple of my first ever character-concept playlists.
This started because I created a playlist called “cera-core” full of songs that reminded me of that character. Whimsical, offbeat, probably in love and very shy. Once that playlist was made, I felt immediately compelled to make a playlist that reminded me of that girl who is always alongside the Michael Cera character. The, yep you guessed it, “manic pixie dreamgirl.” The pretty, moody, charismatic girl he couldn’t help falling in love with. She’s just so…cool and exciting.
Highlights:
Sleepwalking (Couples Only Dance Prom Night) by Modest Mouse
Off their very first album, this song took me madly by surprise. It is so pretty and sweet. The first listen had me swaying with my eyes closed in the kitchen.
Stay Forever by Ween
We all know and love Ween (hopefully). You ask me, this song beats the rest of their catalogue by miles. It is just simple. The quiet stream of consciousness of a man in love.
Hannah Hunt by Vampire Weekend
Best song they’ve ever written and I will die on that hill.
Highlights:
Crying in Public by Chairlift
If you recognize the vocals on this one, you’re right. Chairlift was a group Caroline Polachek formed with a fellow student at the University of Colorado. They have a few albums including several very notable bangers.
Persephone by Sidney Gish
Guys, it is just good lyricism. I am a sucker for Greek mythology symbolism, along with a tremendously well developed melody…sheesh! Sidney’s voice is equally soothing and haunting, giving the simple arrangement significantly more depth.
Twinkle Lights by the Sonder Bombs
This song just reaches into the angsty core of Meg-brain and gives it a nice scratch. The Sonder Bombs are a queer punk group led by a female vocalist with a ukelele. They are so freaking cool, and Twinkle Lights is a raw portrait of the vocalist/writer’s own trauma and healing.
Movies
A Dark Place (2018)
I watched this movie because I adore Andrew Scott. I truly am mesmerized by his acting. But I realized that there are so few projects I have really seen him in. A Dark Place is about a boy in a small town that goes missing, and a strange man who becomes fixated on figuring out what happened to him. While the story is devastating and thrilling, the most compelling part of the movie is watching Andrew Scott’s character’s naiveté slowly crack—eventually shattering in a heartbreaking revelation.
Dune II (2024)
I doubt I have more to say than what anyone has said on the internet. Cinematography-masterful. Score-masterful. Casting-masterful. Pacing-masterful (which I doubt many of you expected after the last movie). Denis, we love you.
The only addition I will contribute to this discourse is this: do not go see this movie in 4D.
Sometimes I Think About Dying (2023)
Okay I am unreasonably thrilled about this movie. It is unlike anything I have ever seen, and is somehow unsettling and cozy at the same time. While there are so many notable pieces of this movie (the score, the editing, the costumes), one of the things I noticed in the latter half is that the main character has the least amount of lines in the entire film. She hardly talks. She watches people talk. And the privilege we receive as viewers is the intimacy of being in her head through the silence. I truly can’t recommend it enough. It is a short, easy, watch and is so so different. Daisy Ridley really shocked me with her acting in this one.
Late Night with the Devil (2024)
Took myself on a theater date to this one. I definitely expected true horror, when this movie is way more of a thriller laced with a couple of horror tropes. It unfolds at a perfect pace, leaving you to feel like an audience member. There are BTS shots in black and white of the show host and the show manager that move quickly but are vital to the plot. The twist at the end is very fun, and I love a twist, but I hate a lack of closure. This twist left me questioning everything I had just seen.
Dumb Money (2024)
I am declaring this a must-watch. First of all, the cast is quite literally STACKED. Paul Dano, America Ferreira, Shailene Woodley, Nick Offerman, Seth Rogan, and more. Remember a few years ago when there was lots of hullabaloo over GameStop shares in the stock market? This movie is all about that. First of all, it is just a brilliant and borderline ridiculous power-to-the-people thing that happened in the first place. Secondly, if you are like me and don’t totally understand the details of stock market shenanigans, you need a movie or a video to break it down for you. This movie is The Big Short of the GameStop stock market story, and it was written by two awesome women. It is smart, heartfelt, funny, and unbelievable in its accuracy.
Prisoners (2013)
A lovely way to round out this list. Not only is this one ALSO about missing children, but it features Paul Dano of Dumb Money, David Dastmalchian, of Late Night with the Devil AND was directed by Dune director Denis Villeneuve. Knowing me and my affinity for crime thrillers, it is weird that it took me so long to watch this. It was exactly what I expected. No substantial twists or turns that I couldn’t see coming. Very tense. Very dramatic. Honestly, Paul Dano was the highlight of the movie (as he is of every movie). I give this one a good old fashioned shrug.
Books
I know, I know, I am the slowest reader of all time. It only took me 80 million years but I finished A Court of Mist and Fury. I feel smug because I do feel like I called a couple of things.
**Spoiler Alert**
I am very excited about the cyclical journey of this book ending with her back in the Spring Court but this time as Rhys’ High Lady (secretly). Also SHEESH that mating scene. Okay, Ms. Maas. I did love this book so much because the telepathy and connection of their minds made certain aspects of the story so much more fun and sexy and complex.
I am happy we got the sisters more involved in this book, but I still want more of them. Even though they are fairly two dimensional. I just feel like we have these characters developed and they are of no use to the plot. They are totally vestigial. Lets utilize them more! Make one of them fall in love with a faerie. Make Nesta go fully against Feyre. I honestly don’t care, but I am hoping that in the next book these characters get put to use a little more.
Also, Sarah J. Maas and I do not vibe well as writer and reader because I tend to RACE through the last 100 pages of a book. And both times now I have ended up missing some critical detail because she packs everything into that section of the book. I’m fighting for my life out here, guys, so godbless the girlies who have read this whole series and are helping me fill in the gaps of what I missed.
Finishing up Fourth Wing, and then I think your girl needs a quick fantasy break. Just a quick one, before Wings and Ruin.
WE DID IT!
Thanks for your patience with me folks. Good to be back.
Give your pet a smooch for me, and stay weird.