8.31.25 i wanna get chocolate wasted!

Sorry I'm a little late this week! Let me start this logpost with a rant nobody asked for. I've been thinking lately about how the term 'coworker music' has been thrown around by much of Gen Z recently to derisively refer to mainstream music that they consider safe, overly sanitized or uninspired. Even though it's a term that positions itself as anti-capitalist in the implied disdain for consumerist motives being prioritized over creativity in the music industry, I'm not comfortable with the way that it alienates and separates working-class individuals from each other, treating so-called 'coworkers' as shallow husks just because they listen exclusively to Top 40 pop radio. I'm fine with critiquing the likes of Imagine Dragons or Maroon 5, but I wouldn't go out of my way to demonize someone for having uninteresting music taste lest I become another cog in the machine that seeks to tear us apart from the inside by having us pretend that artistic taste alone determines our worth. Anyway, time for loggin'!

A consistently solid season to the very end! Season 4 definitely up the surrealism a ton, though the characters at the center remain very grounded as they change and grow in meaningful ways throughout the season. While this final season largely focuses on the show's main cast, aspects of season 3's anthology format pop up in its occasional prolonged focus on side characters, bridging the show's two modes of storytelling effortlessly to make its exaggerated world feel more lived-in than ever. By the end of the series, the bonds formed between the main cast feel incredibly palpable and it was satisfying to end off on seeing these characters continue to bond even in spite of the chaos that goes on around them. Looking back, it kind of took a while to find its footing, but in the end, I ended up appreciating the note that it ended off on. Pretty neat show overall!

Fav Episodes: "Nobody Beats the Biebs," "Juneteenth," "Alligator Man," "Barbershop," "Teddy Perkins," "Three Slaps," "White Fashion," "Trini 2 De Bone," "Tarrare," "Crank Dat Killer," "It Was All a Dream"

I initially started watching this show subbed a little before I transferred colleges, but I stopped halfway through simply because I never got around to finishing it. This month, I started the series over with the English dub, which I heard is more well-liked than most other dubs of anime and I can very much attest to that assessment. While it would take a while before the main characters start to warm up to each other, the overall world of the show remains impressive and fascinating to watch as we glimpse into the lives of different people living in a future where humans have colonized space. Spike's rich backstory especially stands out, but many of the one-off characters that the Bebop crew come across have very memorable stories of their own even if they may not appear in more than one episode. The music and sound design are also really inventive in their ability to keep space combat exciting through juxtaposing the action with chill, emotive jazz tunes. Extra special mention goes to Edward for adding a degree of whimsical energy to the main dynamic. The show really picks up once she's introduced.

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Ever since hearing Orlando Higginbottom for the first time on Porter Robinson's "Unfold," I've been interested in checking out his solo work as Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, now known as TEED for brevity's sake, for the longest time. This album is equal parts funky and enchanting and it makes me think how I really should've given this a chance sooner. Higginbottom lends his tender voice especially well to the ballads here, though I've have a lot of the more danceable tracks on repeat for the last couple weeks due to their sheer infectiousness. Very magical-feeling dance record!

Fav tracks: Never Seen You Dance, Forever, Story, When the Lights Go, Friend, Treason

I listened to Currents again for its 10-year anniversary and I gotta say it still holds up pretty well! I may not revere this album in the way that so many others do, but I can't deny how tight the groove are on here even if it wears out on me a little in the second half.

Fav Tracks: Let It Happen, Yes I'm Changing, Eventually, The Less I Know The Better, Past Life, Cause I'm a Man

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I remember not being that big a fan of this album when I first listened to it despite me gravitating toward its minimal MIDI synth aesthetic. I think the vocals feel a little flat to me at times, sometimes the song structures don't really go anywhere that interesting when they switch up and the lyricism about online life can feel a little corny at times. Despite that, I like coming back to some of the more instrumental-led tracks and can respect its ambitions as a stripped-down electronic pop album.

Fav Tracks: Can You Hear My Heart Leave, I'm A Girl You Can Hold IRL, O, Can't Get Over You With You, Sap

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I feel like it's been a while since I've listened to a straightforward pop album without weird electronic stuff attached to it and I think that's heavily influenced the degree to which I pay attention to the production of an album. The bass and drums on this album interact with each other effortlessly here and the hooks are very tight, even if Remi's voice can sometimes feel a little draining for me to listen to. Pretty decent pop here, but not something I would come back to that frequently.

Fav Tracks: Cinderella, Motorcycle, Toro, Cherries and Cream, Pitiful

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Another one of my favorite albums that I checked out this month, Ninajirachi offers an electrifying tribute to early 2010s EDM while bringing an infectious amount of personality and personal experience with that era of music to her energetic sonic palette. Between this and Vylet Pony's work, I'm loving this infrequent but recent trend of electronic artists unironically celebrating their nostalgic influences and recounting what led them to become who they are today through their music. It's honestly very heartwarming and it helps that this album is so varied with its hooks and atmosphere that I'm never fatigued by it whenever I listen to it. That's the mark of a great electronic record in my book!

Fav Tracks: CSIRAC, Delete, Infohazard, Battery Death, Sing Good, It's You, All At Once

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While I generally like PinkPantheress' music, I never really relisten to it all that often since I always tend to prefer music that's a little more energetic, though I was a fan of a lot of tracks from her last album. Between the elegant samples and beats, I like the more glamourous tone that Fancy That takes as it lends itself well to the light clubby atmosphere and Y2K throwback attitude that she's known to express throughout her career. Pretty good time, not much else to say!

Fav Tracks: Girl Like Me, Tonight, Stars, Stateside

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It's always interesting when Studio Ghibli films experiment with other art styles and the beautiful watercolor style that Isao Takahata embues this film with is no exception. It does wonders in making this bittersweet story of a woman living her whole life in a matter of months feel like a timeless fable rooted in mythology and Japanese history. While the pacing kind of slows down in the middle, I think it paints the main character's perspective of royal life as being tedious and the film does a great job at illustrating what she really values in her life to make her struggle with life as a princess interesting to watch. High recommendation from me, though your mother will probably cry if you watch it with her (if she's anything like mine of course).

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It took a while to get used to this film's abstract structure in how it positions its personal tale of familial neglect with humanity's relationship with nature and religion, though I find that the cinematography's focus on natural landscapes works effectively in emphasizing how the family interacts with nature over time, coalescing into how their behavior impacted their youngest son R.L. in the future. While the film does tend to indulge in its breathtaking natural imagery and spiritual overtones, it is still an incredibly emotive watch when it really gets into the details of R.L.'s life with his older brother Jack. I'd imagine anyone who watches this and is willing to give a film like this a chance gets a very different perception of it since its presentation is very abstract, so it would be interesting to watch this again sometime with other people to see what they think.

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I watched this with my family one night when it was airing on PBS and it was a pretty fun subversion of gender roles that came out during a time when alternate forms of gender expression were more underground. Even aside from that context, the main love triangle that propels the story is anchored by three very charismatic leads, Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon, that work off of each other effortlessly and the comedic antics really ramp up as the romance at the heart of the story starts to become more complex. It's a classic film that I can definitely see myself returning to in the future!

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Robert Zemeckis always likes to push the envelope with special effects in his films, so it surprised me how this film's iconic body horror came so late into its runtime. While one could easily see this film as being demeaning toward women as its two female leads spend much of the film fighting over a man, I see it as more of a satire of Hollywood excess demanding that women be pitted against each other for the sake of status. Even though the film doesn't go far into the systemic angle of that, it's interesting to think Madeline and Helen's relationship might evolve in a potential legacy sequel. Granted, I don't trust Zemeckis to pull that off well these days considering his recent iffy track record in directing, but it would still be kind of cool to see in my opinion.

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I don't typically mind films that have a loose structure, but I get the feeling that Grown Ups wanted to have a plot so bad considering how it establishes a clear arc for Adam Sandler's character throughout. I can see the charm of Sandler and his friends having fun and riffing, but I feel like there's less charm to it when it's presented and paced like a structured narrative film. It doesn't really commit to the more self-contained nature of its humor which makes it kind of underwhelming as a comedy. I did like the Canadian lifeguard though!

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It's very difficult to talk about this film without bringing up the tragic on-set deaths of Vic Morrow and two illegally hired child actors at the hands of a helicopter crash that basically tarnished the reputation of both this film and John Landis. It doesn't help that his segment wasn't even good to begin with! Aside from that tragedy, the rest of the film is kind of a mixed bag with Steven Spielberg's segment feeling overly sweet to the point that it feels like something you would see out of a parody and George Miller's segment being a very effective psychological horror piece. Joe Dante's segment really stands out for placing his manic cartoon sensibilities front and center with a more nuanced antagonist as its focus, though despite me loving that part of the film, I don't blame anyone for straight up disliking the whole thing on principle.

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I've always wanted to check out more prominent bands from the 1980s New Wave scene and this documentary is a very informative look into the cultural context that informed one of the more eccentric and experimental groups from that period. It's fascinating how they ended up embracing their rise in popularity despite their antiestablishment roots, though it's hard to say that their specific philosophy ever got lost as they continued to gain mainstream traction. It also interests me how while their humor ended up staying the same throughout, their mission statement seemed to be more subtle as they were playing to a larger crowd, which reminds me of how my beloved PC Music shed a lot of their tongue-in-cheekiness over time. The fact that I am bringing up these questions afterward is a sign of how engaging it is to learn about where more avant-garde acts like DEVO come from in history.

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That's it for this week! A trailer for the Deltarune article will be out soon, so stay tuned!