neighborhood news: June 2024 edition
neighborhood news: June 2024 edition
music, reads, and miracles
Dear seaweed,
Happy pride!
June has sped past me. Idk where it went. Below, I have shared some news from the neighborhood, including new music, writings on the internet that I have read and enjoyed, some observations of nature, miraculous occurrences, and more. I have also included a piece of writing at the very end (⁎⁍̴̛ᴗ⁍̴̛⁎)
In NYC, the high today is 88 F, low is 72 F, and it feels muggy in my room.
🎶 My brother Dylan, a.k.a. Chetti, has finally(lol) released his new track Left On My Mind. Streamable on spotify or apple music. Also, shout out to green kimchi studio (my cousin-in-law’s creative studio!) for the very cool imagery.
😱 Two photos taken by me at different points of June in two different boroughs of NYC. These flowers and bricks are in jail.
🤕 News that sounds fake but is real: Climber Gets Injured at the Climbing Gym While Not Climbing or Even Lifting
On June 10, 2024 at approximately 6:00 p.m. at the Movement LIC climbing gym, a climber who we will call Seaweed sustained finger wounds in a freak accident. Seaweed was lolling around, preparing to deadlift, when through the corner of her eye, she spotted her self-proclaimed strong genius boyfriend failing his squat. Seaweed reports not thinking very much. She was also partially deaf because she was wearing noise-cancelling earphones (these tools will be the death of our generation), and so, she mistook her boyf’s wincing as an entreaty for help. Even though Seaweed’s boyf had the safety racks on, which obviate most need for assistance, Seaweed dashed over to help. Unfortunately, Seaweed was also careless. As her boyf dropped the barbell, Seaweed’s misplaced left ring and pinky fingers got squished under the 300 lb weight (yes, we have fact-checked the number of zeroes). There was immediate swelling, followed by profuse cold sweat and nausea that then led to crying, and then remarkable equanimity. Seaweed and her boyf immediately went to urgent care. An x-ray revealed that miraculously, no bones were broken. The vague diagnosis was that there was simply some tissue/ligament damage. However, we are enthused to report that Seaweed’s injury may be even more minor than first diagnosed. She returned to the walls with more or less full capacity on June 21, 2024.
I’m cyborg Fun fact: this happened the same week Kathleen went to urgent care for two sprained ankles and Murphy went to the vet for a sprained knee. We are all mostly fine now. Just kind of old and dazed.
Murphy at the vet getting his knee checked out. Note that the homemade bandage is in the wrong place because his moms and dads were confused as to where a dog’s knee was. The vet declared: “This is useless.“ Credits: Helen
📖 I enjoyed this Paris Review piece titled Rented Horrors by Kathleen Alcott (link). I think the writer writes in a way that isn’t very clear and that’s kind of annoying, but there were certain lines I liked and the overall piece was interesting.
One point I found interesting was Alcott’s comparison of film taxonomy to colonization, remarking “how often [taxonomy] has been the tool of systematic oppression.”
The other was Alcott’s discussion of the horror film genre and her personal experiences in relation to it. It reminded me a lot of one of Anne Elizabeth Moore’s essays in Body Horror: Capitalism, Fear, Misogyny, Jokes. Moore posits that men watch horror movies, especially of the body horror genre, to feel danger that does not exist in their lives by virtue of being men, whereas women watch horror movies to find relatable experiences that might be worse than what they experience in their lives. I recommend this book too.
🍃 A contribution from Alex. He’s in Vancouver right now. If you turn the volume up, you can hear him snarkily saying, “Yeah, it’s nature.”
📝 Michelle’s contribution - she sent this with the context: “i’m pretty sure it’s not astoria tho LOOOOL but it fit.” The funny thing is that I know the answer IS Astoria. Michelle lives in the bay area but has visited me in Astoria three times(!). She has, however, never visited Steinway St.
🎶 While everyone has been talking about charli xcx and BRAT, I actually have not listened extensively to her album, BUT I have watched her boiler room set three times over the past two weeks while working on translation assignments. If anyone has any related recs, please lmk. I need more partygirl music.
📖 I read Monstrilio by Gerardo Sámano Córdova this month, and it was very good. The novel begins with a child’s death. In the mother’s process of mourning, she revives her son using a piece of his dead body. Four different characters narrate the story of the new child/monster and the troubles of continuing to love him. I wasn’t fond of the first narrator, but I was increasingly engrossed as I went on. I think nearly cried at the end, but I don’t remember.
🗑 Found in the trash at the Movement LIC climbing gym: strawberries and climbing shoes
📖 Was lightly entertained by this n+1 piece by Morley Musick (link). Honestly, I was probably more personally invested because this was, and is still, sort of the direction I had always wanted to take my cafe report. The problem is I’m not as enthusiastic about this project as I was before to spend volumes of time thinking about every café this way. Maybe that’s why I haven’t done a my cafe report post in a while.
📖 After School zine had the most wholesome launch at Land to Sea on June 1st! Added a scan of the writing I contributed below, which I belatedly found
hilariousnot bad. The theme of the zine was from the bottom of my heart and this piece is titled I don’t like lying.
If you have anything to contribute for July, please! LMK. Neighborhood News is a segment where I share occurrences/observations/requests in my periphery in the spirit of a bulletin board. The timeline is not that important; subjects may be from the listed month or can be something to anticipate.
Accepting submissions on a rolling basis :)
10/10 cover letter ur hired