Thanksgiving is obviously this coming week. Being Mexican, it's something that, for me on a personal level, comes with a lot of baggage and complications. That said, we always spend time together as a family so I'll be going to my parents' for the day to eat, drink, and be merry as fuck. My momma, bless her, has invited Aly (my friend who is staying over) to come, so that's really sweet. Haha, to be fair I don't think she really had a choice as my mom would have come over and essentially abducted her (in the nicest possible way). It will be fun, though, and me and my sister get to be assholes with each other, which remains one of my favourite pastimes.
In another morally and socially complicated and baggage-laden occurrence - Miss Mexico won the Miss Universe pageant, at least!! AND SHE'S A FERNANDEZ!! HAHAHA AND HAS ADHD AND DYSLEXIA!! ¡Muchas felicitaciones Fátima Bosch Fernández y Viva Mexico! 🇲🇽🎉 My stance is that while yes, events like this have originated from a very misogynistic place in the past, I'm all for women reclaiming and transforming them into actual celebrations of womanhood and female empowerment. Plus, who doesn't like getting their make-up done incredible and wearing a big, fucking amazing dress? (Well, apart from Suze). That said, this is the socialist utopia idealist part of my brain thinking. I realise that, despite the progress, there'll still be a lot of unsavoury shit that goes on with something like this, and no doubt a ton of men still with their grubby hands all over it. Still, one small step for women, I guess...
Needed to take Aly to the UCC again last Sunday, Wednesday, and yesterday morning. Bless her, it's been such a shit and borderline terrifying week but hopefully after yesterday we're now a bit more in the clear, though... With all the waiting on Sunday it ended up a late night so I just thought fuck it and booked the week off work. Past the horrible yet necessary medical back and forths, we've otherwise tried to make the most of the week and maintain some semblance of normality, and one day we went to see the new The Running Man.
I'm... not gonna lie, I found it a bit boring? I think it weirdly ended up showing that the original film being a much less faithful adaptation of the novel actually works in its favour; changing the goal to survive 3 hours resulted in a 90+ minute movie that keeps a non-stop, dramatic pace, whereas this one opting to faithfully do 30 days over 230 minutes felt like it led to a LOT of pacing issues (well, from my ADHD perspective). Plus, there felt like wayyyy too many plot points that were just insanely convenient for convenience's sake (plus Richards' bag of stuff to do his recordings kept randomly disappearing and reappearing too?). And, while it tried to be, I... just didn't find it funny? The lines felt way too forced, and it also felt thematically that it didn't really hit the mark on any attempts at satire and social commentary like the first film had in spades. Josh Brolin was also weirdly likeable (to me) as Killian, instead of being the gigantic asshole in the OG adaptation. And most disappointingly of all, the massive underutilization of Katy O'Brian irked my gayness greatly.
So what DID I like in it? Haha, the porno mag called TITZ, for one. Katy O'Brian (for what screen time she got). Michael Cera very enthusiastically pumping a water gun in THE most disconcerting way was definitely a vibe (though had no idea if the story of his dad dying was supposed to be serious or funny - very Phoebe Cates' dad dying up the chimney in Gremlins). Lee Pace is of course always a delight. And when Bobby T explained to Killian that his contract included a tiny clause that said "FUCK YOU" (I legit snorted at that). Past that... it beat being at work, I guess?
I did read an article too re the Richard Bachman persona Stephen King wrote The Running Man and other novels under, what necessitated that, the resulting mythos that's evolved from that character being fictitious, and now where reality has become intentionally blurred as time has gone on and the character has become part of the expanded King universe. Apparently King even wrote about this duality (in a factional capacity) in The Dark Half after he initially killed Bachman off? It does really fascinate me that characters people write can take on lives of their own and, for all intents, become living, breathing people, with their own identities and ever evolving lives and histories. I wonder if it can also be a slightly painful experience if the author becomes attached to and genuinely cares for the character? There is that saying that there's always a bit of the artist in art, so I suppose there's elements where it could be like a parent - child kind of thing? Hmm.
In PEN-15 world, our Christmas songs drop in just over a week (are you excited?!?) and we're getting on with the b-sides album, hopefully at least start some recording before Christmas. I've been carrying on keeping up with the writing for album #4 and Project Ivy too. It's been fun fucking around with Suze's synths for the latter. Have got some ideas down which are probably terrible as I have no idea what I'm doing, but I'm sure Suze will be able to translate them into something more tangible. The change going from writing on guitar is exciting, though (for me).
What other shit have I been doing that is of no concern to anyone but that I shall prattle on about anyways?
The watching of Gundam Wing has been progressing nicely. Honestly, to say it was released only a year after G Fighter the step up in animation quality is insane. It looks SO good. The late 80s to maybe mid-late 90s is definitely my favourite period for anime. Maybe it was digital creeping in that changed everything, but for that period there's just such a quality I can't describe but I absolutely love. On the downside, as a result of the iconic opening I am now randomly breaking into singing "JUST. WILD. BEAT. COMMUNICAAAATION.", which is now probably on the verge of giving Aly some kind of nervous twitch.
We went to see the Detroit tree lighting on Friday. Despite the existential dread of an evening existing within such a gigantic convergence of the general public, the tree and lights were of course super pretty, and it was a good distraction amidst the heavier stuff of the week. However, that Detroit's favourite daughters, yours truly, were not invited to headline the ceremony's musical entertainment is, yet again, an absolute travesty. One day, Detroit! One day!
Past listening to lots of Hayley Williams, I don't really have any musical musings for this week, so I guess that's that.
Wishing much love to all my gays and theyses this Thanksgiving. If you don't have anyone to spend it with please be kind to yourselves and know that you are loved by four gays in Detroit.
Ives x
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