‘Tis the season of ghosts, ghouls, and other things that go bump in the night. And here is what I’ve been thinking, eating, reading, watching, writing, making, and listening to.
New editions of this coming out every other week for as long as I can remember to dash them off.
🎧 Listening Log
Of late, I’ve been spinning Florence + the Machine’s new album Everybody Scream (which just dropped today). Earlier in the week, I discovered the indie singer Clairo and her 2024 album Charm. If you haven’t heard it, that’s why you need to hear it; her hushed, breathy performance reminds me a lot of early Feist and Lana Del Rey. Listening to Clairo got me back into indie alternative music, so I’ve been spinning Sylvan Esso, Lord Huron, and Mumford and Sons among others alongside my usual diet of ’70s and ’80s rock and Chinese pop music.
🥢 What’s on my plate
There’s something about the dipping mercury that makes me want to reach for tinned fish. Pilchards are one of my favorites, but my supermarket quit carrying my usual brand (King Oscar). I’ve been eating brislings instead and they are utterly delightful. I love the smoked brislings from Polar (processed and packaged in Latvia) – but then again, smoked fish is my love language no matter what form it comes in.
I also had some bean curd country style (家常豆腐) at the Chinese joint earlier this week, and it’s one of my favorites. The tofu is a little tougher in it since it’s actually stir-fried rather than steamed as it is in mapo tofu (麻婆豆腐).
📼 Viewing Log
I’m gearing up tomorrow to watch my very first Middle-Earth film, and I’m a bit excited because this is a first in a few ways: it’s my first fantasy film since childhood, it’s my first time interacting (albeit indirectly) with the work of J.R.R. Tolkien, and it’s my chance to start exploring what constructed languages were like in the pre-internet age.
I’ve also been watching a lot of YouTube (so, no changes there): notable videos include a new NativLang release on Chinese, the Oddity Archive Halloween special, and catching up on Thought Couture, Jared Henderson, and blackpenredpen, among others.
Tonight? It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!
🔖 Readings
I started Understanding Analysis this week, the most accessible real analysis textbook and one whose author claims (accurately) that it’s good for self-study. I’ve also been chipping away slowly at The Woodlanders, the Thomas Hardy novel, and I’m finishing up The Republic by Plato.
🧶 What I’m Making
I took up crochet about a month ago, and I’m about 20% of the way through a blanket that I’m making to keep at work. Photos to follow once I’m done.
✍️ What I’m Writing
I’ve got a few posts in the pipeline here at BFT, one about the performative male phenomenon and another about a project that I expect will be taking shape over the years to come.
🤔 What I’m Thinking
Life is short, so cherish every moment.
“She said a good day / Ain’t got no rain / She said a bad day’s when I lie in bed / And think of things that might’ve been” – Paul Simon, “Slip Slidin’ Away”
“It is a fact of philistine life that amusement is where the money is.” – William H. Gass, “In Defense of the Book”
“When I marry, I shall expect to find more pleasure in making my wife happy and comfortable, than in being made so by her: I would rather give than receive.” – Anne Brontë, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall