then there are blackbirds

It's reading week, which should really have no effect on my schedule, but post-defense me was more of a zombie than anticipated. Oops?

In lieu of actual content, have an earworm! This music video has been confusing me since I found it - guns? pills? also why the grudge against blueberries? - but strictly musically speaking, the song has been prodding my dance-play muse from the second I heard it in a coffee shop about two weeks ago. Definitely adding this to my practice playlist with S (we're practicing!!! on Friday!!! SO HAPPY OMG).

Woke up this morning to news that Agent Orange had, of course, tweeted about the "Chinese Virus." As if the amount of anti-Asian violence I've been hearing about through the few feeds I actually skim wasn't worrying enough. If I had a rocket launcher right now... *sigh*

Some of my DJ friends are doing their thing on livestream in my dance community (ETA1: I heart zouk radio; ETA2: Going Back to Africa 1.0), but I'm curious as to what other stuff everyone's listening to right now. What's on your avoiding-the-plague-lists? :P I already mentioned I Use Tabo (a Swalla parody) elsewhere, because I can't do anything about the toilet paper panic-buying except laugh... and side-eye.

So I'm sure some of you have already come across this patty-cake cover of Adele's Send My Love, right? Well, Sam Tsui and Kurt Hugo Schneider did another cover, this time with that cup game: I Don't Wanna Live Forever

These might feel a bit gimmicky for some people, but I actually quite like them- awesome a capella aside, it's pretty clever to use catchy rhythms from kids' games like these, not to mention fun to try duplicating. I don't even remember when/how I picked up these elementary school skills, honestly. Also, the Adele cover is zoukable! :D Maybe a good future demo song?

1. Seriously (written by Sara Bareilles), Leslie Odom Jr.
2. Hallelujah, Pentatonix
3. Cold War, Janelle Monae

+ I've been avoiding Rachel Dolezal bullshit beyond headlines and friends' snarky commentary. It makes my head explode, and right now I don't have the energy to deal with rage or the processing power for comments beyond "wow, dat entitlement doe." Thankfully, life has been full of shiny and emotionally restorative distractions lately!

+ Had an awesome weekend in sort-of-upstate NY with dance friends, cooking, exploring rivers and waterfalls, and generally relaxing. ♥ I need more of this kind of time this summer.

+ Loving the music video for The New International Sound Pt. II by GENER8ION and M.I.A.! ( cut for embed )

+ Upcoming dance weekend!! *\o/* So excited to see everyone from out of town again, hooray :D

+ Also planning to take a day or two (sometime next week or so?) for a mini writing blitz- I miss writing fic. Toss me some prompts, please? Any fandom is fine, though I'm feeling a bit biased towards A:TLA and HP at the moment and I can't guarantee that I'll fill everything.

Three performances and endless people to entertain/dance with/hang out with/learn from over the next three days, hooray! :D See you all on the other side!

In the meantime, have a theme song: Bailando (English) (also in Spanish if preferred!).

Found via angry asian man: oh wow, this song. ♥ ( Priscilla Ahn - Fine on the Outside )

It's a perfect Studio Ghibli movie theme song, too (new Ghibli!! *___*).

Un-hermit? Whatever. Trying to stay more in touch, anyway.

♣ Quick booklog! It's been a while since I've bothered to play catch-up, but here's what I've read in the past couple of weeks:
+ Shadows Return, Lynn Flewelling
+ The White Road, Lynn Flewelling
+ Casket of Souls, Lynn Flewelling: basically I picked up these three because I was rereading the Nightrunner series at the beginning of last month and realized there were more books! Definitely not the most intriguing in terms of plot or worldbuilding, but I wasn't in a state to process more complicated things at the time.
+ Claymore, v.1-4: I started the first volume and was like, monsters and monster-killing ladies, this is awesome in theory but idk why people love it so much? Then suddenly I hit the third one and went TERESAAAAAAAAAAA A:SDLKSJDF:LSDKFJ ♥ ♥ ♥ and okay, yes, now I get it. xD
+ Uraboku, v.6: This required that I backtrack through v.5 to remember character threads, lol. Cracktastic fluff remains fluffy and (so, so, so) cracktastic.
+ Kamisama Kiss, v.14: I love that Nanami never gives up. Also, aw, more backstory! ♥

(If you want to see what else I've been reading you can check out my 2014 shelf, but I leave almost no commentary on Goodreads.)

♣ A friend recently reminded me of the awesomeness that is Penn Masala via this video, and then I accidentally a not-so-mini vortex.

♣ Zouk earworm throwback! I hadn't realized that the singer was such eye-candy, heh. ( Gage- Pense à moi )

♣ Multifandom treat meme is still open! I haven't managed to fill anything yet since I have to prepare for a presentation this week, but in the meantime, prompt away! I'm just getting started, promise. :D

♣ This week's booklog:
+ Blade of the Immortal, v.1-2: I read these at Book-Off last week and it hasn't quite sucked me in (yet? haha), but I thought the mechanism of immortality was an interesting premise. Thoughts/opinions? Is this a series I should invest more time in?
+ Reader and Raelynx, Sharon Shinn: More interesting than the other Twelve Houses book that I picked up, definitely.
+ Troubled Waters, Sharon Shinn: I think this is my favorite out of all the Shinn books I've read so far. I loled at some "science what science" aspects of the worldbuilding, but since this is more on the fantasy side of SF/F, that was okay. Also, I found this setting much more intriguing than the Samaria or Twelve Houses ones.

♣ Found a new EP via angry asian man (soundcloud stream & free download at the link)! This has been a year of shiny new music for me; I'm quite enjoying Bright Vices. *___*

♣ Anyone interested in makeup blogs? Obviously tips and recs are never universal, but I spent an afternoon in a vortex of shiny pictures/etc. on sweet little place (mostly in French) and frmheadtotoe (thanks for the link, vi!).

♣ Random home remedy that my mom showed me recently: carve out the ends of an Asian pear, put it in a bowl, add some salt/rock sugar in the hole where the stem was, and steam it. The pear and its juices are supposed to be good for your throat/if you have a cough.

♣ And now for something completely hilarrible! Mandarin-speakers (I don't know if this also scans in Cantonese): 一只小白加一只小白是什麼?

For the first time in ages, I am actually planning to buy music! My friend in Toronto introduced me to the joys of Daft Punk's Random Access Memories, and now I can't get Give Life Back to Music or Get Lucky out of my head. I've also been meaning to acquire Janelle Monae's The Electric Lady since I heard about it because *______* NEW JANELLE OMG.

In the meantime, thanks to zouk, I've been chasing down a ton of random songs based only on the melodies/intros and what few lyrics I can piece together. Ellie Goulding, for example- High For This and Burn, and I Need Your Love; Chris Brown's Don't Judge Me (which despite my distaste for both title and singer is still a beautiful song, musically speaking, to dance to); MJ's Whatever Happens; Lana Del Rey's Young and Beautiful; Anselmo Ralph's Não Me Toca; Tarkan's Dudu... and also, courtesy of that Toronto friend again, David Tao's Melody (CHEESEBALL, I KNOW. And yet!). And this isn't even getting to DJ mixes like Nyx's!

How about you guys? What music has been making you happy recently?