Jen V’s April Recs
Another late blog, sorry people! April was a bit of a mixed bag, with a particularly busy last two weeks, so I dropped a lot of balls. Here’s what happened this month:
Took up cross-stitching and completed two designs as gifts, one of which has been lost in the postal system (good times)
Started work on my first novel
Hung out with friend visiting from London
Puppysat Charlie for a weekend
Went on terrible leadership course for work
Friend from Auckland stayed for the weekend
Ran first D&D session of 2022 (and six months after the last one!)
Because I’ve spent most of this month working on my debut (lol) novel, I feel like I don’t have that much to recommend this month! But I’ll give it a crack.
I only saw one film–a retro screening of The Seven Year Itch at The Roxy. Man. I dunno. Sometimes it’s easy to forget how far we’ve come in our feminist journey and then you watch things like this and it’s an eye opener. The protagonist was so gross. It’s unclear whether you’re supposed to view him like that, or whether audience at the time would have thought it was all fine and dandy. Good discussion with my mate after, that’s for sure!
In terms of TV, I re-watched a lot of Schitt’s Creek while I busily worked through my cross-stitch projects. I also made it to season 5 of Merlin. Is it just me or is Merlin’s character very different in the final season? I feel like I’m watching a whole different show! I’m up to episode 10 and dragging my feet cause we all know it doesn’t end well. Sigh.
The highlight of the month was definitely the release of Heartstopper on Netflix. You’ll know from previous blogs that I am a big fan of the comic, so I was looking forward to seeing how it’d be adapted and the answer is, beautifully! I’ve rewatched it like 6 times! That sounds worse than it is–it’s only four hours of content, really.
It’s honestly so wholesome and wonderful and makes you feel all the things reading the comics make you feel. I made all my workmates watch it, as well as my mate visiting from Auckland, and honestly the way they all reacted with heart eyes makes my heart swell. Also, the amount of messages I’ve exchanged with queer friends along the lines of “I wish this existed when I was young!” makes you just feel all the things. And the Pirates of the Caribbean scene is one of the most relatable things I’ve ever seen on television. Gah. So many feelings people! If you haven’t watched it, please please do.
It’s been a light reading month because I’ve mostly been writing/cross-stitching. The standout was definitely Under the whispering door by TJ Klune. A moving meditation on grief and loss, it’s worth the time. I also read If this gets out by Sophie Gonzales and Cale Dietrich, a YA novel about two boy band members who fall for each other. I really wanted to like this, but it was just a bit flat for me. It’s always tricky, I think, when you have two authors writing different characters.
I don’t have any podcast recs, or new music recs, sorry.
I’ve mainly been listening to a lot of 2005-2009 era emo for book writing purposes. I did, however, have a breakthrough with My Chemical Romance’s 2010 album, Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys. I was not into this album at all when it was first released. I think mainly because it was so hard to be into anything after The Black Parade; that was…towering, immense, bombastic. And Danger Days… was not. It was hard to connect to it, and so I never really gave it the time of day. But as I was indulging my emo youth (and getting disproportionately excited at the idea of seeing MCR live again), I decided to give Danger Days a spin while driving to my leadership course. This was how I used to get into albums back in the day, I’d pop in a CD and just listen to it ad nauseum on my commutes to/from work. And let me tell you, it worked a treat. Spending 80min a day with DD really made me appreciate what it was trying to do, as a standalone album, not as a successor to TBP. Also, Planetary (GO!) is just a straight up bop and I cannot believe I’ve been sleeping on it for so long. Also Vampire Money?? Punk perfection. Cannot get enough.
I just love this band so much. What vision. Fight me.
I’ve also been listening to American Idiot and remembering what a subversive masterpiece that was when it first came out. People seem to have forgotten what a huge eff you this was in 2004. Like yeah, it had some huge commercial hits, but they didn’t know that when they released it. It’s so good. The transition between Holiday and Boulevard of Broken Dreams is just *chef’s kiss*. You forget, because they were both such huge singles, but listening to them as a unit as intended is just so, so good. Listening to the whole album in order is just so, so good. I owe a lot to American Idiot so again, I say, fight me.
Basically, I’ve remember how obsessed I was with music and I’m really loving indulging that side of myself. I’m listening to Green Day right now, and I’ve got no regrets.
Anyway! Hope you all have a great May. Remember to fight the patriarchy and take down the status quo. I’ll do my best not to be late with my next recommendations blog!