Blog Post #6- Happy New Year!
I thought that I would continue a tradition of writing down some of the things that happened in 2022. I had a pretty good year; I hope you did too!
Movies: Lately, my partner and I have been starting a movie collection that we’re pretty proud of so far. Watching and finding some of these old movies have been a cool adventure for us. We went out on a few movie dates, met some eccentric people briefly in our adventures, and had fun watching these movies together. I’m happy I was able to go to a movie theater again.
Barbarian (2022), The Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022), One Piece RED (2022), Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022), Sadako vs. Kayako (2016), The Vampire Lovers (1970), When Harry Met Sally (1989), Notting Hill (1999), Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989), Rabid (2019), My Best Friend’s Exorcism (2022), The Munsters (2022), V/H/S/94 (2021), Henry Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986), Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022), MEN (2022), Werewolf By Night (2022), Girl, Interrupted (1999), Turning RED (2022), Moana (2016), Onward (2020), Insidious (2010), Signature Move (2017), Mope (2019), The Batman (2022), The Black Phone (2021), Nosferatu (1922), Malignant (2021), Candyman (2021), Umma (2022), Last Night in Soho (2021).
Music: I was lucky enough to go to 2 concerts last year, one being AJR’s and the other being My Chemical Romance. It was pretty exciting to see music live, and it was awesome to go with my best friend and my partner. My partner has shown me a lot of cool music, like Smash into Pieces, Zack Hemsey, A Verse Unsung/New Medicine, and Montgomery Gentry. My partner and I went to some regular haunts and found some pretty great finds, support your local record stores! Some bands I enjoyed this year were The Shins, The Front Bottoms, Mom Jeans, Modern Baseball, and Band of Horses. I got a Spotify Wrapped from last year, but I think it would be better to highlight the songs and artists that I found cool.
"Under My Skin" by Jukebox the Ghost, "Better Go" by Mal Blum, "Using" by Sorority Noise, "The Gardener" by The Tallest Man on Earth, "Swim Club" by The Cave Singers, "No No No" by Beirut, "Don’t Haunt This Place" by The Rural Alberta Advantage, "Sex with a Ghost" by Teddy Hyde, "Best Tears" by The Happy Fits, "Simple Song" by The Shins, "Furr" by Blitzen Trapper, "The Mall & Misery" by Broken Bells, "No One’s Gonna Love You" by Band of Horses, "You’re a Wolf" by Sea Wolf, "Way Less Sad" by AJR, "In Every Direction" by Junip, "We Will Become Silhouettes" by The Shins, "Ivy & Gold" by Bombay Bicycle Club, "Sleeping Lessons" by The Shins, "Our Swords" by Band of Horses, "Bad Advice" by Penelope Scott, "Groundhog Day" Em Beihold, "At the Hop" by Devendra Banhart, "West Coast" by Coconut Records, "Death Cup" by Mom Jeans, "Victoria" by Jukebox the Ghost, "Art School Wannabe" by Sorority Noise, "Two Beers In" by Free Throw, "Fine, Great" by Modern Baseball, "Saint Bernard" by Lincoln, "She Wants Me" by The Happy Fits, "Such Small Hands" by La Dispute, "Yet Again" by Grizzly Bear, "Lights out, Words Gone" by Bombay Bicycle Club, "Young Bride" by Midlake, "All Wash Out" by Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, "Lately" by The Helio Sequence, "My Ordinary Life" by The Living Tombstone, "Needle in the Hay" by Elliott Smith, "Severance" by Portrait Red, "PANIC!" by Smith & Myers, "Skeleton Key" by Origami Angel, "Tear You Apart" by She Wants Revenge, "Goodbye Graceful" by Falling in Reverse, "Let’s Cheers To This" by Sleeping With Sirens, "Tongue Tied" by Free Throw, "After Dark" by Mr. Kitty, "Hands Down" by Dashboard Confessional, "Valentine" by The Get Up Kids, "Fat Around the Heart" by King 810, "Daylily" by Movements, "Scott Pilgrim vs. My GPA" by Mom Jeans, "Stress Relief" by late night drive home, "#BrooklynBloodPop!" by Syko, "If We Ever Broke Up" by Mae Stephens, "We’ll Never Have Sex" by Leith Ross, "Chickhead" by Greg Lou, "Sobriety" by Ditto Music
TV: Laid Back Camp, Parallel World Pharmacy, Chainsaw Man, and Spy x Family were all that were watched. It’s been hard to settle on a show, I continued the shows I started years ago, but for the most part nothing too new. My partner has been explaining what’s been going on in the Wrestling world, which has been interesting. I hadn’t engaged with wrestling or understood what was going on before, so it’s nice to have someone explain who these stars are and why what’s going on is going on. It gave me a new appreciation for what these wrestlers do.
Video Games: I’m not big into playing video games as much as others are, however, I picked up a few games and played them irregularly throughout the year. I started playing At the World’s End and loved it. Its art designer is the same as the one for Kingdom Hearts, but the game itself reminds me a lot of how the Persona games are. It’s pretty fun, and I recommend it to people who want something similar to Persona. I recently found out what Animal Crossing Pocket Camp was and I love it so much. I may like it even more than that New Horizons as the repetitious tasks can be circumvented, i.e. giving villagers what they want to raise their heart level. There’s not an overwhelming amount of choices in regards to what can be put into your cabin, camper and camp so it feels less daunting than having an island that requires space for updates all the time. I know these games are not as intense as others, but I like having chill gaming experiences. I do love watching horror game play-throughs, recently I like watching play-throughs of the indie franchise Chilla's Art games. They’re slow to build realistic horror games, like dealing with customers at a coffee shop or a convenience store. I love horror games, but I have an issue trying to play them. Jump scares always get me. I remember when Slenderman was a big indie game, and my friends and I would play it in the school library a lot even though we would always scream at the scares.
Podcasts: I do continue to listen to the podcasts I mentioned in the previous year, but in 2022 I started to go to the gym more and wanted to find more podcasts with a lot of episodes. The great thing about these podcasts below is that they have many spinoff podcasts that include these comedians.
The Dollop with Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds/The Dollop- England & UK- Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds review the goofiest yet terrible things that happened in history. Some of my favorite media is reviewing history through a comedic lens, from Drunk History (tv show) to Epic Rap Battles of History (Youtube), this podcasting comedy duo tells stories I had never heard of before. Sports, Medical Science, Mythology, Crimes, Schemes, Wars, Scandals, Scoundrels, and Misaligned People. Topics like the epidemic of American Vampires, a glimpse into the mind of Ronald Regan with comedian Patton Oswalt, and even a tour through the life of 80’s action movie star Steven Segal.
The Past Times Podcast- Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds discuss a newspaper from a random point in time with guests. The news in these papers varies from strange ads for snake oil products to concerning missing information that would add some clarity.
My Brother, My Brother and Me- Griffin, Travis, and Justin McElroys are a trio of brothers who discuss the internet’s most pressing issues from the bygone website, yahoo answers, with unhelpful to surprisingly solid advice, try to answer the worst riddles ever made, and most importantly, report in whatever random marketing campaign fast-food places put out. It makes me wish I had brothers or sisters. Listening to the start of the podcast back in 2011 is like a blast from the past with the topics they discuss.
Wonderful! (Previously called Rose Buddies)- Rachel and Griffin McElroy are a husband-wife duo who for the first part of this podcast discussed the show The Bachelor and all the inner play-by-plays of the show. Sincerely, I have never watched any reality tv shows like this before, but their passion for the show was comedic and brought up great points on dating. Both Rachel and Griffin begin to notice the show's decline and lack of interest in protecting the contestants from hostile environments to the point that they felt it necessary to move away from the Bachelor franchise entirely, and now do a show that talks about positivity and things that they are grateful for in life, like music, poetry, video games, toys, and foods. The goal in their current podcast setting is to express happiness and rejoice in the small everyday things.
Youtube: Mostly engage in the same content as before, with some video essays here and there. I often use Youtube as a learning tool to help me in my day-to-day job, as I’m currently learning how to use Adobe After Effects to create smooth animations.
Dear Modern- Youtuber who blends principles of Fenshui and design while keeping a cheerful yet biting commentary. “Ok, let’s furnish this apartment from Hell”
The Judges Podcast- Christian, Erika, and Josh curate stories from the internet and judge them accordingly. Usually never too serious, just goofy fun over other people’s drama.
Jacob Sharpe- Jacob Andrew Sharpe is a brain cancer survivor who reviews general topics online. A lot of his videos have nuggets.
Garrett Watts- A chaotically happy man, ghost hunting and room decorating. I love the video editing and commentary on everything.
Chefreactions- A tired chef reviews disgusting and amazing tiktok food-related videos, as some recipes, are fake and some you have to train for 10 years to do right.
Tiktok: Tiktok is an algorithm based on your specific interests, so my hyper-specific interests vary from day to day, often I use it to find other’s artwork or drawing techniques, computer shortcuts for graphic design, or for suggestions on what to read or watch next. Like @kbladeart has a tiktok showing how to make a simple projector and use that to trace onto a canvas, @angietherose has a tiktok explaining how to tighten a storebought canvas, or @prokotv helped illustrate how to block out shadows, mid-tones, and highlights. I highly encourage tiktok for connecting to artists, however, it is important to remember that the algorithm is learning based on what you put into it and what others your friends with are putting into it. Be aware that the content time is short, the amount of information gathered is large, and can be addictive. Also, a lot of it is advertising, which is great for artists but can be overwhelming.
Comedic tiktokers: @ghosthoney, @stanzipotenza, @wreitewordsmagic, @onyxthefortuitous, @jordanthestallion8, @aeimurataishi, @jenevaroseauthor, @mrnigelng, @lyleforever, @hunterprosper, @taylortomlinsoncomedy, @straw_hat_goofy, @tonystatovic, @danhentschel
General thoughts: Looking over this list, I seem not to care when I’m interacting with media, no matter when it was made. I feel in general, it’s much more accessible to find media nowadays than ever before.
For the movies, it’s been a shockingly great couple of years for horror. I had heard that nothing can top the ’70s-’80s movies with horror, but personally, these recent horror films have been incredible. Not only self-aware but provide commentary on the state of the world. I would say 2010-present has had the best hits in horror since the 80s. 90’s horror seems to fall to the wayside, with the only property from that era talked about being Scream, which it deserves, but I’m excited by seeing so many horror movies considered to be “high art” or thinking outside of the box. The attitude towards what is scary nowadays has changed in many ways but most of all has gone further in-depth for what the emotional turmoil of the individual protagonist. Movies like Barbarian, MEN, and Last Night in Soho especially highlight the experience from a woman’s perspective of how we interact with the world through hypervigilance due to what happened in the past. I’m very excited about the future of horror!
A lot of the music I found over the year reconnected to the emo and indie scene that I missed. My Chemical Romance was the first band that I saw live in concert when I was a kid. My family couldn’t afford Warp Tour, but we did go to the My Chemical Romance/Blink-182 concert when I was young. We sang Happy Birthday to Mikey Way. Seeing them live again, so many emotions came back, I couldn’t help but beam. My partner bought a poster, however, was surprised to see it was a poster of a fly and not a bee as he had originally thought. Seeing AJR was an awesome experience, as my friend liked them. I was only aware of what I heard on the radio by them, but their performance was very fun and creative. It felt like a party. I’m thankful I went to both this past year; I hope to go to more in the future!
For the future, I have some plans for creating long-term projects and engaging in some art challenges. Thanks to my partner, I have a 24-inch Wacom tablet! It’s huge, and awesome for detail work, so I’m thinking of all the ways to utilize it for these upcoming projects. I think committing to these long-term projects will be super satisfying to finish. My partner has also found a whole small-scale printing press system, so I am thinking of starting to make shirts in the future. I like connecting with artists and learning all that I can about art, so I am optimistic about the future ahead.