I just had this idea about getting really long fingernails like Rosalía but then I’d have to do that weird "typing with straight fingers technique and I’m not sure I could deal with that.
Even mild yoga is an effort
Finally I have tested negative to the virus! I generally feel ok now, just a tickly throat and, ok, I cannot exercise.
Like, I can physically exercise, but if I do, it utterly wipes me out, not just physically but mentally as well. This is a known side effect of covid recovery. The main advice seems to be to be chill for a while until you start to feel better. Ok.
My other bff is Flixonase nasal spray which seems to be working well to keep my nose in a generally calm and not snotty way.
A decade ago, when celebrities spent too much time on Twitter
I watched the Bad Vegan series on Netflix. It’s a true crime series about an acclaimed vegan chef who fell in love with a shady character. (No spoilers!)
The guy first came onto the chef’s radar via twitter, and his witty tweets to her actual friend Alec Baldwin. The doco included this screenshot of the sort of hilarious bantz the pair were engaging in:
And it reminded me of how awful twitter was back then. This particular exchange happened in 2011, but it was really the early years of twitter when it had just started to go mainstream and celebs were getting involved.
(My lowest point in this era was when I made a typo and a NZ media person thought it was SO FUNNY and it sparked off a thread of puns based on the typo. Cool, cool, I’d just been diagnosed with MS and knew my brain wasn’t working the same anymore and felt devastated that this was how the cruel world was reacting. *cries in autoimmune disease drama*)
And it was all just witty banter and clever comments, people making endless jokes. When celebrities got involved, it was one of those “hey, they’re just like us!!!” moments.
Twitter isn’t anything like this anymore. Really, the last five years or so have shaken things up and cast many shadows over things. (This includes an oblique reference to the 45th American president.)
But thankfully it’s gotten rid of the hilarious celebrity banter, leaving twitter for media people and pop culture stans. Or have the celebz all moved to TikTok?
The two kinds of unknown you can go into
Disney had got upon the lofi music-to-study-to wave and released an album of Disney songs presented in an instrumental lofi manner. The overall artists is Minnie Mouse because, I dunno, she has homework to do?
My favourite version is “Into the Unknown” from Frozen II. (This is also the only track I have listened to.
It’s a pleasant, harp-based version of the song. And YouTube listeners seem to like it too. This comment is just one example:
I have been waiting for Disney to take an audio only version for into the unknown. Also very cute picture of Minnie and it gives a very calming aesthetic in my opinion :)
But! Compare that to the original! When Frozen II was released, there were two versions of “Into the Unknown” — the soundtrack version with vocals by Idina Menzel (the voice of Elsa) and the Norwegian singer Aurora.
But there was also a pop version by Panic! At The Disco. And it is about the total opposite of a relaxing, soothing aesthetic. It is so extravagant, so over-the-top. Brendon Urie turns every bit up to 11, but it feels necessary, not overwrought.
It’s like there is now a musical continuum, Minnie Mouse is at one end (😊) and Panic! is at the other (🤪).
This is no middle.
It’s ok to go places you’ve already been.