Life
This week’s big thing was Lollapalooza. I didn’t have as much fun as I thought on day 1 - I’d seen most artists perform earlier, and also I didn’t go as early as I would have liked. The sound quality at Glass Animals was, unfortunately, trash. Shawn Mendes was sweet but I’m not sure why Sabrina and Camilla beefed about him so hard - in my head, he’s indistinguishable from the baby boy on Season 3 of White Lotus.
Day 2 was excellent. Yes, Green Day was a highlight and everything we thought they would be and more - but to me, the most memorable performances at festivals are also the ones that are unexpected. To that end, Aurora stole the show for me, with Niladri Kumar a close second.
As I’m growing older, it feels like time is becoming more elastic. I used to be able to fit so many things into a given day, and still be wanting more. Now, these days still exist, but I know I’ll pay for them later. And I know from my older friends that even that option will go away soon. I think I understand why people have children now. It’s such an easy way to tap back into childlike wonder.
Health
One headache on Saturday. As expected. This week continues to be flare-y - travel and festivals do not help a body recover from a previous break in routine.
New discovery: I’m allergic to cats. Not in the get-an-epipen kind of way, but in the aaah-it-burns kind of way. I used to only be allergic to Cutlet, but after coming back home this week I cuddled my own cats and, 4 hours later, having absent-mindedly rubbed my eyes, discovered that the allergen had spread. The nesting partner’s allergy worsened the same way. Slowly, then all at once. Thankfully some friends are already in touch with a good immunotherapist so I’m hoping to plug into that.
I haven’t been allergic to anything before this. Do we know why exposure does this? Is it because the cooties from the partner are spreading? But he wasn’t allergic to anything before this either. Please help me puzzle the origin story of this one out.
Learning
It’s incredibly infuriating that duolingo got rid of their words feature. It seems that for now the most reliable way to keep track of all the words you have learnt is to note it down yourself. But that’s not what technology is for??!?!?
I’ve hit that spot in Duolingo where I know lots of words but I confuse them + I want to be able to call one up in the wild when I feel the need. It’s also a nice metric to have access to. It makes me feel shiny. Flash cards are perfect for this, but it looks like I have to rely on badly updated vocab lists from other people or transcribe my own. Hey, maybe it’s not a bad idea to help with my learning.
Media diet
Reading
- Chai, Chai: A loosely knit collection of vignettes featuring the author, an alcoholic middle-aged journalist set it towns that used to be of immense strategic importance as junctions for the Indian Railways. This book was written in 1995, and already contains talks of how advances in engines have reduced the need for stops in this towns (and therefore adversely impacted the economic activity in them). I imagine that thirty years later, these towns - or at least, their reliance on the railway line, is non-existent. Nonetheless, what I found charming about the books were things I yearn for but would never have access to - descriptions of instant friendship and camaraderie formed in the smallest of towns over a bottle of tetrapack whisky. I’d highly recommend this book if you’re nostalgic for the long train journeys of your childhood, or if you’re new to India and looking for insights into small town charm. Otherwise, due to it’s lack of real plot or even thread of any cohesiveness (the author leaves one of the 6 towns he is supposed to chronicle in a few hours because the hotel he is in isn’t comfortable enough!) I would leave this book on the shelf.
- Continuing to re-read The Butcher’s Masquerade: Why can’t I leave this series alone? I’m considering rereading the whole series from scratch for the third time and creating the excel sheet that Matt is supposed to have and see what I can play around with in that universe. The only thing stopping me right now is fear - fear that one day Matt will turn out to support some horribly bigoted world views or be exposed as a sexual offender or something. No offence, but Neil Gaiman (and the OG, JK Rowling) have really broken my ability to engage with other people’s art in a meaningful way. It’s so much easier to engage with, I don’t know, a League of Legends fandom because it’s a corporation and therefore escapes that kind of personal scrutiny.
- I started reading Soccer Against the Enemy but the forward told me that, while it is a seminal work, it is now outdated so I sadly had to stop. I would really like to read about the New Fan and the phenomenon of English Soccer and how it’s influencing world politics today - someone give me a recommendation?
Watching
White Lotus season 3 so far has been very intriguing, even if I could really do without the damn CGI monkeys. I know NAME is a great actor because every time his character appears on the screen I want to shoot him in the face. Mike White is the Agatha Christie of our generation.
Around the Web
- I’m not sure why, but I teared up reading this piece about the co-existence of queerness and trauma in the inimitable voice of Shruti Sunderraman. In general, Queerbeat’s work is incredibly well done and I would recommend subscribing to them and supporting their work.
- How to write microfiction by NYC Midnight, which runs several competitions around various fiction mediums, is a good springboard to jump off of
- The first issue of Protocolised, a newsletter being launched to discuss case studies and fiction into the science of “protocols”. Devdas Bhagat shared the link on an OG Bangalore sci fi group I’m on. Thanks Devdas!