Best of: April
Sunday, May 19, 2024
Artsy Fartsy
One of RuPaul's Drag Race iconic puns, 'Is the bus still running?' is the theme of this best of listicles. Especially for April when it is already the 19th and I haven't updated here. I hear you my fanatical hordes: this is still happening.
It's just that public schools in the Philippines are in the tail end of their end-of-school year rites and teachers have the word BUSY written all over them like temporary tattoo. But as someone who doesn't have the advisory class for the first time ever, today officially ended the sleepless nights and restless days of grading the papers, managing the class records, reminding the late submissions, you know the whole shebang.
So what better way to spend these halcyon days until July than to really be mindful of making sure this space gets filled up with posts upon posts of the stuff I really like. After all, I can be myself here and that for me is the best there is.
Ready your own list of April faves and DM (@theryanfaura on IG) me so we can share notes!
1. Ara Mina's Ay, Ay, Ay, Pagibig because why the hell not?
2. Bilyonaryo.com caught and used my tweet about Ateneo Medical School interns who *lied* to attend The Eras Tour.
3. Win Metawin and Janella Salvador of Under Parallel Skies.
4. The 7th year anniversary of the publication of Young Blood Six.
5. Jordan Bolton's book Blue Sky Through The Window of a Moving Car.
6. Apple Music Replay'24 for April: Top Artist is Kacey Musgraves, Deeper Well is Top Song and Beyonce's Cowboy Carter is Top Album.
7. The new search engine Arc Search.
8. 90's Kabaklaan Instagram account.
9. April 20-29 2024 are rare palindromic dates.
10. Every Single Album deep dive for Kacey Musgraves' Deeper Well.
11. Apple Music's Essential Album featuring Melodrama by Lorde.
12. Tavi Gevinson's zine Mirrorball about Taylor Swift.
13. Jolina Magdangal's Tameme AKA my favorite OPM song of all time. ALL TIME.
14. Nymphia Wind winning Ru Paul's Drag Race Season 16.
15. @reductress Instagram account.
16. Taylor Swift's The Tortured Poets Department and its pop culture's whiplashes: Merriam Webster, Pixar, Mcdonalds, New Yorker, Mean Girls.
17. My student Patrick messaging me saying that I co-wrote Taylor's But Daddy I Love Him.
18. @estherfungreads Instagram account.
19. Taylor Swift's So High School.
20. Every Single Album deep dive for Taylor Swift's The Tortured Poets Department.
21. Celine Dion's cover for Vogue France.
22. Taylor Swift's My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys.
23. Taylor Swift's But Daddy I Love Him.
24. My latest published article about washi tapes for Philippine Daily Inquirer.
25. Madi Diaz's and Kacey Musgraves' Don't Do Me Good.
26. Taylor Swift's Guilty As Sin.
27. Hallmarks Keepsake Burn Book Christmas Tree Ornament from Mean Girls.
28. Finally watching Sex and the City on Netflix!
April faves is one for the books and I can't wait to share with you what May has to offer. Until then.
Xoxo,
Best of: March
Tuesday, April 9, 2024
Cheap ThrillsAs far as I can tell this is the most consistent that I have ever been here in my own little corner of the Internet. I have been updating here since January and clearly that needs applauding because for now I don't have the urge to abandon this concept yet. So welcome to Best of: March edition. If I can describe this, I would say it's the amalgamation of all the things that I was obsessing over of the featured month. It could be songs, or a movie, or an Instagram post, or articles online. Basically ANYTHING. As long as I like it. That's my only prerogative.
Deep dive along, you guys!
1. Natasha Bedingfield X The Background Singers aka Christopher Hall and Elizabeth Hall. Follow their Tiktok. It's a hoot!
2. Gavin de Graw's Not Over You
3. Nymphia Wind on RuPaul's Drag Race Season 16.
4. Scanned version of my prized journals
5. Annie Lennox's No More I Love You's
7. Kenny Loggin's Return to Pooh Corner
8. The poster for Inside Out 2 featuring a bevy of other 'feelings' and idiosyncrasies
9. Ariana Grande's Album eternal sunshine
10. My sister's crocheting was featured in ABS-CBN News!
11. Marina Summers herstoric run in Drag Race: UK Vs. The World
12. Michelle Branch's One of These Days
13. @simply_katy dainty illustrations
14. The Boy and the Heron winning Best Animated Feature at the Oscars.
15. Billie Eilish's What Was I Made For
16. Anna Nalick's Breathe (2 AM)
17. Kacey Musgrave's album Deeper Well
18. The quote ' The odd thing about people who had many books was how they always wanted more' by Patricia A. Mckillip from The Bell at Sealey Head (@goodreads)
20. Agnes' Release Me
21. Sara Bareilles' She Used to be Mine from Waitress The Musical
22. Taylor Swift's Bigger Than The Whole Sky
23. A teaser trailer for Heartstopper 3
24. Lenka's Trouble is a Friend
25. #BrightWin forever
26. Celine Dion's Et Je T'aime Encore
27. Ariana Grande's We Can't Be Friends
28. Beyonce's Album Cowboy Carter
29. @jordanboltondesign Instragram posts
30. The app mymind
31. Remember Video City? I recently dug out from a memory box my membership card. It was all the rage during the days before Netflix.
32. The 6th Year Anniversary of Kacey Musgraves album Golden Hour
33. Tristan Prettyman's Say Anything
Well that was a lot. I can't wait for all the April goodness! I know it's gotta be good!
Credits: archive screenshot (instagram)
Xoxo,
LitMus
Thursday, April 4, 2024
BOOKS
Hey.
I know. This is not the end-of- March whatnots you are used to where I occasionally peek here to roundup my monthly obsessions but here I am introducing a new update which I know eventually will just be a one-time thing, lol. I'm supposed to write this through a new Substack newsletter but then I remember that I already have one which I am slowly and surely abandoning. Don't get me wrong please. I will never run out of ideas with the newsletter because I always have journal entries every month. But suddenly I kind of lose the energy and the enthusiasm to continue with the project. So here I am attempting a new one. Lol.
So what is LitMus you ask?
The premise is quite simple. You are reading a potential favourite book and then suddenly you turn to the next page and there you see a playlist of songs that the author/s recommended for you to play along during your main character era. Think of it as a mixtape or when you 'burn' songs in a rewritable disc. Remember those? Oh the nostalgia! That is the idea behind LitMus. Not the most original I know. But ANYTHING to keep this going especially now that some of my co-teachers are using my website for their lessons about hyperlinks. (Shoutout to you Ubegail, ILYSM).
So I will be putting here all the music videos and a Spotify playlist at the end so you can blast these songs whenever you need a quick pick-me-up or when stress is overwhelming and you need to chill a bit. Music is cathartic, in case you didn't know.
And so we begin with The Perks of being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky which I haven't revisited since the last time I read this 10 years ago.
2. Vapour Trail | Ride
3. Scarborough Fair | Simon & Garfunkel
4. A Whiter Shade of Pale | Procol Harum
5. Time of Reply | Nick Drake
6. Dear Prudence | The Beatles
7. Gypsy | Suzanne Vega
8. Nights in White Satin | the Moody Blues
9. Daydream | Smashing Pumpkins
10. Dusk | Genesis
11. MLK | U2
12. Blackbird | The Beatles
13. Landslide | Fleetwood Mac
Best of: February
Sunday, March 17, 2024
Artsy Fartsy
If you are a reader of this space, you know that this update is bound to happen. This, I believe, is the only way to keep this website from complete stagnation.
Using the ever efficient Instagram's Archive, here is a list of everything that made my February one for the books- at least for all the media (and one Seventeen member) that I swore of enjoying.
1. Howl's Moving Castle purse from Chuvaness.
2. An announcement of a new Taylor Swift's album, The Tortured Poets Department (shaking, screaming, throwing up).
3. Midnights winning Album of the Year at the Grammys.
4. Tracy Chapman's Fast Car (admittedly ushered by the Grammy performance). I bawled.
5. A photo erasing app SwipeWipe that feels like Tinder.
6. The podcast Every Single Album: Taylor Swift (ep. The Tortured Poets Department Album Announcement).
7. Taylor Swift's Ivy.
8. Caroline Polachek's Welcome to my Island.
9. An announcement of a new Kacey Musgraves's album, Deeper Well (shaking, screaming, throwing up).
10. Maggie Roger's Don't Forget Me.
11. Past Lives written by Celine Song nominated for Writing (Original Screenplay) at the 96th Oscars.
12. A poetry written by Agha Shahid Ali entitled Stationery.
13. Kacey Musgraves's Deeper Well.
14. Attempting to read One Day by David Nicholls (Just Chapter 1, I hate myself).
15. The new Wicked poster starring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo dropped.
16. Alexander Payne's The Holdovers.
17. Sarah Russel's poem, If I Had Three Lives.
18. A heartbreaking scene from Fleabag.
19. Ariana Grande and Mariah Carey's yes, and?.
20. Taylor Swift's You're Losing Me.
21. Mitski's album Puberty 2.
22. Cher Lloyd's Want U Back.
23. Beyonce's Texas Hold 'Em.
24. Cascada's Everytime We Touch.
25. Forebear's listed my surname as 126,741st most common surname in the world.
26. Kelsea Ballerini is my Top Artist for January according to my Apple Music Replay 2024.
27. The book Your Inner Critic is a Big Jerk by Danielle Krysa
28. I'm Not A Girl Not Yet A Woman from & Juliet Musical.
29. Wilson Phillips' Hold On.
AND
30. Mingyu!!!!
It it my fervent hope that your February is just as good. See you next month for March roundup!
Xoxo,
Best of: January
Friday, February 16, 2024
Cheap Thrills
I feel that this thing has been gathering dust and no one seems around, including myself WHO created this website in the first place, to clean up the mess by just mere updating. I have to admit that I have taken this space for granted and I am not proud of it. At all. In fact, every sentiment here since then bore the same apologies and my intention is to turn things around by at least writing something here every month. At least one teensy lil update and that's all about it.
This post is brought to you by my favorite Instagram feature- the archive.
The idea here is every month, I am going to recap the media I consumed. Or even anything that I featured in my archive. This is partly inspired by Todd Doughty's book, Little Pieces of Hope. As this is a revenge post lol, I will try linking everything so you, too, will also enjoy the very stuff that made each featured month a little bit bearable. So enjoy and hopefully this will not be the last of this kind (as I am fiercely notorious of doing, and that included my hapless Substack newsletter).
1. My new Traveler's Notebook journal for 2024.
2. Ann Patchett's State of Wonder (might DNF this huhu, my fault.)
3. KT Tunstall's Suddenly I See from The Devil Wears Prada.
4. Dan Levy's first directorial debut Good Grief.
5. Hoku's Perfect Day from Legally Blonde.
6. Letterboxd awarded my favorite 2023 film Past Lives as Highest Rated Romance, Highest Rated Directorial Debut, and Highest Rated Narrative- Women Directors. The deservancy!
7. Tapestry album by Carole King
8. Miki Matsubara's Mayonaka no Door/ Stay With Me.
9. 25 Best Films of the Year by David Ehrlich
10. My new Frankie Magazine from my cousin who lives in Perth, Aus.
11. Lana del Rey's A&W
12. The 'Background Singers' Tiktok account by Christopher Hall.
13. Crocheted Airpods case by my sister.
14. Hayao Miyazaki's swan song film, The Boy and the Heron.
15. White Lotus's Simona Tabasco collaged Emmy outfit made up of cut out flowers.
16. Julian Sewell's Every Best Actress Intro. Paloma Diamond is my forever robbed queen.
17. Natalie Imbruglia's Torn.
18. One pagers from @nowsparkscreativity
19. Sophie Ellis Bextor's Murder On the Dancefloor.
20. The great Filipino author Butch Dalisay on why offering a Taylor Swift course is not such a bad idea at all.
21. Kelsea Ballerini's Muscle Memory.
22. Andrew Haigh's All of Us Strangers.
23. Ang Walang Kwentang Podcast episode with the film critic Richard Bolisay.
24. Vatican declared Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage an international shrine.
25. Paloma Diamond making it to Vulture.
What have you been enjoying media-wise this January?
Xoxo,
Social Media