September 2020 Favourites

There is a brief mention of sexual assault in this post. Though nothing graphic is said, I thought it would be a good idea to give a little warning beforehand. Keep yourselves safe x

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So September was basically nothing. It didn't feel like a month no matter how much I tried to journal or keep up with the news. Just one big mush where nothing happened.

Even in terms of posting here, I fell in and out of a depression, meaning it took a full month for me to research and write up a post regarding J.K. Rowling, which, fun fact, originally wasn't even going to be about her. I was planning on just writing about hero worship in general and criticise people who use separating the art from the artist as a way to alleviate their own guilt. J.K. Rowling just kept popping up in the news, on Twitter, in my YouTube recommendations. I couldn't not talk about her. 

I am very proud of that post. How it came out made me sound all smart and stuff. The amount of work I put it was reflected in the quality, which doesn't always happen.

Music

I ordered some records from Ebay around the time of my birthday and they turned up in early September. One of these was my one of my favourite albums: Rumours by Fleetwood Mac. 

Source: Wikipedia

Having it on vinyl feels amazing and hearing it is even better. For the record, my favourite song on the album is 'Dreams'. I think it's peak Stevie Nicks and manages to be melancholy and funky at the same time.

A playlist I found out that Spotify auto-generates for you is 'Your Daily Drive' and I have been using this as a way to keep up with the news. What it does is it gives you songs that you have on repeat and intersperse it with various news podcast segments. As a rule, I only listen to it on weekdays so I'm not stressing about COVID or climate change or whatever on the weekend. I think I should be allowed to relax from tragedy a couple of days out of the week. 

A playlist I created and have been listening to on repeat has been one I called 'feral bitch'. This playlist is meant to encompass the feeling of going a bit mad, a bit feral, something I have been experiencing lately. I already listened to most of the songs featured on repeat and put them in a playlist because when I looked up 'songs to go feral to', none of them had the correct vibe. I just want to howl at the moon with the girls - is that too much to ask?

As I always, I'll link to my monthly YouTube playlist in case you're interested in the specific songs I've had on repeat. 

Films

Paddington (2014)

Source: Joblo.com

This polite little bear, integral to British culture, stole my heart when I watched this. When things are re-imagined and rebooted, I can only really be filled with dread because there definitely are new stories to be told so why do we have to keep consuming the same brands over and over again? But watching this film, I didn't view this as a cynical cash grab. The people who made this cared about the story, about the importance of Paddington as an icon and wanted to create a film that children would be able to connect with, whilst talking about some pretty heavy topics at the same time. This was something I watched when I was on my period and it eased the cramps I was having. A pleasant time all round.

Grizzly Man (2005) 

Source: IMDb

I've known about this documentary since my first year of university and it has sat dormant on my watch list since then. When I saw it turn up on Amazon Prime, I thought I should give it a watch. 

This is a documentary about Timothy Treadwell, who documented his experiences living with bears. It feels so personal and was able to give a critical yet compassionate view of Timothy's life as he worked towards his goal of protecting the bears in Alaska. This films gave me frequent moments of anxiety because of how close he manages to get to the bears and how nonchalantly he talks directly to them as they are standing merely centimetres away. Watching his actions, it's hard not to feel frustrated with him at times but also charmed by his life's mission.

Dirty God (2019)

Source: Teaser Trailer.com

This is an excellent film that only came out last year. It follows a woman in the aftermath of an acid attack. It seems to swing between realism and surrealism in a frequent way, to reflect the dissociation the protagonist has to put herself into as she is alienated by those around her, viewing her as an abnormality for the way her skin looks now. This film feels like a balancing act between rediscovering intimacy and getting used to the loneliness that comes with being different.

As usual, I'm going to recommend one of my Letterboxd film lists, and this time, it is the list 'chaotic queerness', a list of films that hint at queerness or show it explicitly but in an extremely chaotic (and sometimes problematic) way.

TV

I May Destroy You (2020 - present) (pic)

Source: FoxExclusive

It's almost scary how good this show is. To give a short synopsis, it follows Arabella, a writer working on her second book, who is sexually assaulted after being spiked on a night out, and tries to piece together what happened as well as heal from it. It is able to give a complex and nuance voice to the areas of consent often not talked about and centres the black British experience whilst doing so, a perspective that has often been left out of the mainstream #MeToo movement. I heard people talking about this show, particularly the season finale, and I have to say, it is as great as people have been saying. Especially that finale. Oh my god.

Books

Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine 

Source: Wikipedia

This book was a birthday present from my sister and has been on my to read list for a while. I remember studying sections of it in my third year poetry seminars and thinking it was great. Reading the book for myself was a singular experience. This is so different from many of the experimental poetry books I've read, both because of the form and the subject matter, centering the black American experience. The abstract and fragmented nature of the poems reflects the same for those living in the diaspora, giving a voice, if not a clouded one, to the minutiae of being black in a country that is still rife with racism. I know that this book appeared on many of those reading lists that went around in June in regards to the Black Lives Matter movement so there is a chance that you have heard of this book already. I would say that if you weren't prioritising reading it, then maybe you should.

For The Love of God Marie by Jade Sarson 

Source: The Feminist Bookshop

This was a re-read, which I don't normally put on these favourites lists, but I just love this book so much I have to talk about it. It's a graphic novel that centres on Marie, a young woman who takes the word of God literally and chooses to 'love' people who are typically outcast from society. When I say 'love', I do mean have sex with, if that wasn't clear. It is a very sexual book that I think is done in a way that doesn't feel exploitative and is able to touch on a range of themes like religious shame, queerness and sexual identity. I tend to read this once a year just so I can go back into the story again and again.

YouTube

Into The Omegaverse: How a Fanfic Trope Landed in Federal Court by Lindsay Ellis 

This was not a video I was expecting to turn up in my subscription but I watched and thoroughly enjoyed it. If you have ever read fan fiction, you may have come across the Omegaverse or the A/B/O trope before. Whilst it was never my thing, I was aware of its existence. What this video discusses is how this trope was at the centre of lawsuit regarding erotic fiction and plagiarism. It is a very interesting video about an author exploiting their following to bulldoze smaller authors and it just happens to have a large focus on erotic romance novels where the characters structure their society like wolves. 

In Search Of A Flat Earth by Folding Ideas 

I was aware of the conspiracy theory and have watch many videos where it has been debunked and made fun of. That is not this video. Dan Olson from Folding Ideas talks about the community and 'science' behind flat earth, using the first part of the video to debunk what can obviously be proven to be false. He then makes a connection that I haven't seen being made and argues that the reason that flat earth has been drifting out of the popular sphere is because many of its followers have moved on to the more obviously false and fascistic movement, QAnon. He is able to connect conspiracy theories in a kind of pipeline, one leading on to another, until reality and science in general just seems false to those consuming it.

Superheroes by Stormzy

I wanted to highlight this video because the song itself did the rounds on Twitter ages ago because it samples the Tracy Beaker theme tune and people thought that was a cool thing for Stormzy to reference. The song itself, along with the video, is extremely relevant to the modern moment where black people are getting the platform to look after and support each other on a large scale. This is an animated video where Stormzy shows clear support of black youth and specifically the Black Lives Matter movement currently still going on. 

If you would like to watch some of the other videos I liked this month, check out this playlist.

Misc.

Many of the things under this section were things I bought of Etsy for my birthday, the first being the Our Ladies of Horror zine from the creator CorvidKingPress. 

Source: CorvidKingPress

It gives profiles on some of the final girls from horror films, both modern and classic, with key quotes and beautifully drawn pictures. I bought both volumes of the zine because I loved them so much. 

After re-watching Coraline, I decided to buy a print of the Pink Palace from YouresocoolPrints. 

Source: Katie Evans

It is wonderfully drawn and currently sits on my wall amongst my other prints. The shop is taking a break at the moment so it is unavailable for purchase at the moment, but I will link to them regardless.

I also decided to buy myself a new bullet journal as the one I was using was running out, and I ended being a return customer to TheMexicanStudio, because I loved the one that I bought from them before. 

Source: TheMexicanStudio

I like support indie creators and these notebooks are just so much prettier than anything I would have bought from Ryman or Amazon.