There's a bird headbanging outside my window
may is AAPI month, babes
a continuous mix of shows, books, articles + more worth raving about
Did you know it’s spring in the northeast finally? The bird headbanging outside my window is an unrelenting reminder of that. But, more on him at the end of this post. First a roundup of good things lately.
How to Get to Heaven from Belfast
Northern Irish series from Lisa McGee, the creator of Derry Girls, about three women who have been friends since childhood. At their estranged friend’s funeral they start to unravel a big mystery relating to something they all did in the woods as teenagers. Original, funny thrills, plenty of sarcastic quips. Soundtracked to 2000s UK pop–love some S Club 7 and B*Witched!
BTW has anyone else watched BEEF Season 2? What did you think?
Lena Dunham and Drew Barrymore… yeah.
I don’t know if I’ll read Dunham’s memoir Famesick but I got stuck in a loop of her recent PR for it. Drew brought her dog Douglas and her highlighted copy of Lena’s book along with her serious readers 👓 Is there anyone better to discuss the horrors of young fame with? Drew co-wrote her own memoir, Lost Little Girl, published in 1991 when she was 16!!!!!!!!!!! Drew always does these cozy, one-on-one Extended Interviews with guests, and I love how she knows everyone and is just so her, even if that’s a lot sometimes.
Dunham also sat down with NYT’s The Interview for a (notably dog-less) in-depth discussion. I discovered The Interview recently. They feature authors, filmmakers, actors, etc. Chloe Zhao’s is the first one I watched (excellent even though I haven’t seen Hamnet yet). Recently Charlize Theron talked about how her mom killed her dad in self defense.
K-pop has an AI problem (Dazed)
AI is all of music’s problem and all of our own problem until the end of time now too, isn’t it? Ah! Inescapable. The group mentioned in the article is the first entirely AI group I’ve ever seen. Scary! On a glance, if I saw them while scrolling I’d never know. K-pop is unique in that fully virtual groups exist, plus groups like PLAVE who are real people presented as digital avatars, while human k-pop group, aespa, incorporate virtual concepts (I believe they attempted to add virtual members but failed). Be sure to click through to see for yourself 😮
AAPI spotlight: Asian American Unity Fest
My bro played Asian American Unity Fest the first weekend in May in NYC. It’s a 2-day festival featuring Asian punk/hardcore bands. I believe it’s organized in full or part by Asian adoptees, many of them fellow Korean adoptees! I was excited to hear it was a packed house on both nights. A supportive network of people from across the country who are glad, elated even, to be in a crowd where they can be themselves.
He got me a couple things from a vendor there:
a mini fold-up, informational zine (mini zines are in, I tell ya).
I FUCKING LOVE BEING ASIAN tiger. Love all the hot pink! Looks good with gold.
Headbanging bird outside my window
6am yesterday I heard tapping. It’s loud and I work in the room with 3 windows. He would do this on each one multiple times:
Today it’s been better, but I feel bad that he keeps hitting his head on the glass all day long! Idiot. It’s called reflection aggression—raise your hand if you haven’t felt that before! 😤