Hellooo Litterbug nation!!! I am writing this from a cafe where I am seated next to a young woman and old man having an impassioned conversation about photography and BDSM. I thought at first it was a meeting in-laws situation and now I have no idea. Yesterday I saw someone night fishing in the river. February has been full of interesting observations such as these.
Music stuff on the horizon: For A Reason by Tom Huangpu and Anna Vtipil is out now! Makeout Palace single also just released! More on the way... so many sweet things with dear friends I feel so lucky
I made my very first IRL zine which you can look at here! I can't believe how easy and joyous it was. I feel like a world has opened to me.... also updated my art gallery, with more to come soon I hope! And last but not leastttt I published my first long-ish prose article, about my final year in Boston and many of the friends/shows along the way :) I have been missing Boston summer so much so it felt appropriate to finally put this out. New years resolutions going strong (I am building, and writing, and also playing) !!!!
Abandoned....
I think this might've been my busiest month in Ireland so far... a welcome change after the slowness I have written at length about. The very first day of February was Imbolc! The welcoming of spring and celebration of Brigid. Discovered I have a secret talent for making Brigid's crosses. Later that week I relearned how to knit (thank you Kate), went dancing at the Quaker meeting house (thankyou Natalia), learned how to draw an anatomically proportionate body (thank you Riv), sat in a circle and talked about books (thank you Guesthouse), and went to a punk show holy shit so much !!!!! In February I went on many dates !!! I sang some songs at an open mic! I recorded in the field! I watched a movie where a group of people destroyed a piano in a surprisingly tender and reverent fashion ..... I saw so much music and played so much cambio and got a haircut (thank you Ezra) and Somehow still got my homework done and I've been wondering why I've been sleeping so much but honestly putting it into perspective like this it makes a lot of sense.
My cross!
Rivka's drawing workshop :>
Field recording at the Glucksman
One of the most exciting parts of my February was visiting Paris :D I went to see Wednesday and also got to visit Josie and Sam! I jumped and danced and got my spine realigned in the Wednesday pit, subsequently was a bit too afraid to mosh at a hardcore show (French crowds are bonkers man), walked one million steps and accidentally stumbled upon several landmarks, ate incredible food and found my most perfect beautiful plaid skirt. I met a sweet cat! I went to a bunch of bookstores which was a little silly because I can't read French but I found one I particularly loved-- librairie sans titre-- and spent probably two hours there looking at zines and photo collections and any odd thing they had in English. Josie and Sam and I stumbled upon a Lunar New Year celebration in Belleville and discussed deep listening at length. Maybe it was the weather but it felt like the front of every cafe was packed with people having coffee or drinks any time of day. It was beautiful and so much fun though every day I missed my sweet Kate who had planned to be there with me... RIP angel (not dead just in Vancouver)
Blood oranges I tried and thought about for days
Glazart!
We commandeered this table lowkey
Beautiful and all illegible to me
This cat bro....
Oh hi Kate!
Upon my return I had a show with my classmates which actually went so well. We all got to improvise together using the strange instruments we've been building since last semester (see my legs). Dude this program/class/performance has/have done wonders for my creativity and confidence and methods of thinking about what is possible through music... I feel really proud of us :') I also recorded the performance which if you like you can listen to here!
Bella is back in town!!!! The last night of February, in lieu of going dancing since so many friends are partaking in Orthodox Lent (sober and vegan, godspeed) we had a potluck at Brigid's and I laughed so hard I got stitches in my sides.
Feast!
Preach
Fish,,,,...,..
Don't talk to me I'm studying the box
Back on my cabling bullshit
Yea I'm lit
Not reading as much as I'd like to be these days which is ironic because I am in an English class. What do you mean someone telling me to do something I enjoy doesn't make me want to do it :( My mind is a prison
PLEASEEEE please send me book recs or counters to my commentary I need to talk about books at all times. It's getting obnoxious to all who surround me you will be doing them a favor thank youuuu
The Laugh of the Medusa - Hélène Cixous
This has taken me a while to get through, I think because I kept reading stuff that just put me off unfortunately!
Frankenstein - Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
Has been so fun reading this so far, especially through the lens of Shelley and motherhood/childbirth. Veryyyy interesting and painful parallels between Shelley's relationship with her father and the loss of her children vs. Victor and the Creature's relationship with each other. Have I mentioned I love my lecturer....... she has such interesting insights on everything we read for class that really (!!) enhance the experience and I'm so sad I won't be able to take another one of her classes. She casually dropped a "Victor might be a necrophiliac" and my mouth was agape. So much to be said on Victor's fear of women.... also have been thinking a lot about how visual portrayals of the Creature, while a little weird and stitched up for sure, haven't seemed to have yet got down the abject body horror described in the text. Not to be a Victor sympathizer but I would be really curious what a faithful recreation of that description would actually look like.. like I'm imagining if I made a humanoid that woke up and looked like Momo or some Mandela Catalogue type uncanny valley I would absolutely run without thinking. Though I guess he did kind of know what it was going to look like before it woke up because... he built it. Anyways. mmm classics
The Book of Longings - Sue Monk Kidd
Alright y'all hear me out about this one. If you have talked to me in the past month I have probably gone on about this book. Heard about/got interested through Anna Howard's The Books & Essays That Changed My Life in 2025 where she read a bit of the opening paragraph, which concludes with:
"All my life, longings lived inside me, rising up like nocturnes to wail and sing through the night. That my husband bent his heart to mine on our thin straw mat and listened was the kindness I most loved in him. What he heard was my life begging to be born."
The husband in question? Jesus of Nazareth. Closest thing I will probably ever read to a self-insert New Testament fanfiction? Jokes aside... this is a book about the fictional wife of Jesus during the lost years/proposed identity for the unnamed writer of The Thunder: Perfect Mind. Some incredibly beautiful passages... also very interesting looks into Jesus/Judas as anarchist figures. However in retrospect I think the execution fell flat. Milquetoast, perhaps. Pacing was not superrr to my liking, also Ana unfortunately was not the most compelling protagonist, she had no flaws and could do no wrong (boring)! Also Kidd did this thing I started noticing and did not care for where Ana would have a thought out of the blue, like "surely this will never go wrong" that was very obviously foreshadowing the thing that would go wrong in the next chapter lol. It just happened so many times I got sick of it. Has been a great conversation starter nonetheless
Revolutionary Letters - Diane Di Prima
Started looking through this because of a Hanif Abdurraqib story rec (many such cases). What he mostly talked about loving in these poems, and what I subsequently noticed so much of, is how much care is built into every idea-- amidst violence and anger and the largely practical, everything is deeply tender.
The Chronology of Water
Everyone I have talked to about this movie has said it felt "sensory" which is truly the only word I feel is appropriate to describe it. Feels more like a piece of artwork than a "movie" which feels odd to say? I liked it a lot, warranted chewing on for a while. Beautiful and very challenging. I am really excited to see more K Stew directed stuff
High Fidelity
They just don't make them like this anymore /neg but also /pos
Star Trek: The Original Series
I love this dang show.... I love how goofy it is..... moving through at a glacial pace, granted I don't think any of these episodes (so far) have needed to be almost a full hour long but finding time to watch something just for me (especially since I finished Sex and the City RIP) has been nice :>
Little Miss Sunshine
I can't believe I waited so long to watch this movie. How perfect can something be ???? Little emo Paul Dano.... my shayla..... also a great addition to the Abigail Breslin cinematic universe of my mind (where the centerpiece is You Suck, her diss track about Michael Clifford). This group interacts like found family except they are truly in fact family. Wonderful dynamic
Highway To Hell - Star Moles
I can't shut up about Star Moles. She is for sure one of my most influential artists right now... this album is so good. Overdog is a perfect song and contains the greatest line in all of songwriting
I need you like I need a hole in my head
I need a hole in my head
How else could I sing?
Like are you joking me. Have also been listening hella to Halo it feels like springtime. Debating a very irresponsible trip to Philly in the summer to see her play
Big Bad Want, Red Antz, Something in the Way - Palberta
Post deep dive into the Nate Amos extended universe it is time to devour every work Lily Konigsberg has ever made. DELECTABLE god I love this album/these songs they're so clean ... such beautiful thinky harmonies, songs condensed down to their most essential forms, so hooky and strange and gnarled up
Lily We Need To Talk Now - Lily Konigsberg
What she said up there.... whatever genre this is it feels like I have zeroed in on what I am meant to listen to for the rest of my earthly days. Angular and soft
Corpse Pose - Unwound
Awesome
Rust - Carleigh Nesbit
Was talking to Josie about how many things important and dear to her are incredibly obscure such as this song her dad played on made by this woman who is apparently now an OBGYN? Anyways it's as good as she said it would be and I hear her music everywhere in it
The Well-Tuned Piano - La Monte Young
One of my favorite things we've been assigned to listen to for class so far. This scratches my brain soooo nice
Someone New & Truth Nugget - Helena Deland
So familiar and so texturally unlike anything else. Arro sent to me forever ago and I keep coming back to these two songs in particular
I am Ribbon - Paper Lady
One of the best songs ever. I hear the 2nd verse harmonies in my dreams
Spring Is Coming With A Strawberry In The Mouth - Operating Theatre
One of the best songs I have maybe ever heard. Zita put this on at Brigid's and I stopped in my tracks. What the hell
Brown Thrasher - Animal Collective
Another song played at Brigid's that completely hooked me. Listening back to it right now I don't exactly know what about it captured me so intensely in the moment? I still think it's beautiful but at the party I was convinced it was the best piece of music I'd ever heard lol
HELLPHONE 3D - warmachine
Everyone's been saying it but this is seriously awesome... such a privilege to see these songs live so much in so many different stages and now finally be able to listen to hello spring in my headphones. I think Jam 1 might actually be my favorite war song now which is really silly but I just love it
every time you smile - Jobie & Dvorin
Lovely and thoughtful... I love a good 2 part lead
i26connector - i26connector
i26 FINALLYYYYY what a supergroup this band is. Singlehandedly fuelling my North Carolina yearnings. This album is genuinely so good... not a single miss
Upper Hand - Babe City
NEW BABE CITYYYYYY and life is beautiful..... expansive even ........ I love these guys and everything they make is magical
Also new albums from Jules, Matthew Drake, and Sweet Petunia!!!! Haven't had a chance to listen to everything yet so no further commentary but I am SO stoked on how much friend music is coming out this year and how much of it (actually all of it so far) is genuinely so good
This article that I saw on Maddy's story about Boston DIY in 2004 (!!!!!) wow it made me so emotional time really is just a circle
Flower: crocus
Irish phrase: work away
English phrase: many such cases
Cambio house rule: any 6 is -6
Text I regularly recieved from my sister:
Thing we should bring back: giving someone a calling card if you think they're cute
La Monte Young related joke:
I have been making this probably twice a week this whole semester. It's just delicious and fresh and sooo easy.. you will need:
I've been keeping it boring and only using the above but I have also made it before with cherry tomatoes and feta cheese. You can add anything you want! The grain bowl is your oyster!
Fontaine des Innocents
Me moments before disaster (missing my flight) (I do not want to talk about it)
Elena's birthday!
What :(
St-Martin's Gate
Fairy portal
Niamh loves David
Circumcised cross
Pub dog (he has cataracts)
Flooded Seine
The most beautiful girl in the world
