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Date: February 13th, 2020.

Time of Writing: 9:15 PM.

Weather: Cloudy, cold.

Mood: Excited.

Day Overview: Officially wrapped up the first unit of my college writing class today, only to launch right into the next one. I'm not going to like this one's assignment, it's going to be a more analytic essay and I really don't want to do any more of those. I mean, I'm not bad at them, I'm actually quite good at them, they just are such a bore to write. I have one due next Tuesday that I need to get a start on, and I'm just absolutely dreading it. It was raining pretty bad in the morning. Class ended ten minutes early, but the time between my college writing class and my media lecture was pretty excruciatingly short. Additionally, I had a really hard time waking up in the morning, just getting out of bed was difficult. I almost crawled back into bed before my media lecture and slept.

Unfortunately, the conditioning has been a success, and I was compelled to go to class. It was pretty boring, and the big point about metatextual references in pop culture or whatever was somewhat obvious to me. Film studies was up next, and that class was also a little painful to get through, which is abnormal. I liked this week's movie a lot, so I don't know why it was so difficult for me to sit through the accompanying lecture. After class I walked back to my dorm, where I sat for a few hours and did a variety of tasks, none of which were very productive. There are two and a half hours in between now and tonight's installment of the radio show, and I'm excited because after some tinkering during the day today I think the playlist is really good.

On My Mind: Jade (pronounced Judd), my new roommate, hasn't come back in a few days. He said on Monday that he'd be gone until Wednesday, and I learned from Isaac that he was going home for a doctor's appointment. It's Thursday and he still isn't back. Maybe he decided that he'd just stay the whole week over there, considering he was planning on going home again for the long weekend. His stuff is still here, so it's not like he moved again. I'm not all that concerned, it's just somewhat curious. Isaac is also leaving for the weekend, so I have the room to myself. I wonder what I'll do? Probably nothing. Maybe I'll have a couple people over and we'll hang out, idk.

• VA-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartending Action developed by Sukeban Games: I've been chipping away at this one for a looong time. Probably since about 2018. It's a short game, so I don't really know why it took me that long. It was pretty damn good, all told. Having consumed a lot more cyberpunk stuff in between when I started the game and when I picked it back up the other day, a lot of references that hadn't made any sense to me before suddenly started to become parsable. All of the characters in this game are very endearing, the pixel art is expressive and makes the game's cyberpunk setting really pop. The soundtrack is also mostly great. Some of the songs are too intense for the lowkey feeling of the titular bar, but most are great. The actual gameplay of mixing drinks is somewhat lackluster, and from what I played of the demo of the sequel last year they're working on making it better for the next game in the series, but for the most part it's hard to mess that up. I wish there was more content, and the game feels really ready for a lot more to do, but given the size of the team this is a pretty great accomplishment, especially considering it's their first game as a studio. I enjoyed it, and I'm looking forward to the next game. I got the good ending, and none of the character specific ends, sadly. 8/10.
• Fuzao by Faye Wong: Holy cow, this album basically came out of nowhere for me and it was really good! It's a chinese dream pop album that was made in collaboration with the Cocteau Twins, and while only two tracks on here were actually composed by them, you can hear their influence all over this album - both in the instrumentals and in Faye's singing, which is eerily reminiscent of Elizabeth Fraser. I can't understand a word of what's being sung here, but I don't need to; just looking up translations of the song titles is enough to convey this album's roots in introversion and quiet moods. It's weird thinking that an artist who for a long time was named the pop diva by the Chinese media was making music this subdued. It's a little derivative at times, but it's always a pleasure to listen to. I almost gave it a 9, but I need a bit more time with it before making that decision. 8/10.
• Submarine by Alex Turner: Unpopular opinion incoming. Ready? Are you sure? Okay. Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino is the best Arctic Monkeys album. There. I said it. And you can't tell me that I'm wrong. Alex Turner is at his best when he's not trying to make catchy rock songs. He's a sophisticated songwriter with a great ear. This EP, the soundtrack to the movie Submarine which I currently have not seen and don't really have any intention of seeing, feels somewhat formative, but there are shades of genius here. Most of the material is underdeveloped, but the last two songs of the EP are fantastic. It's a shame that the other three are attached. They're cute, but ultimately not worth it. This averages out to around a 7/10.

• Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata: I read a few more pages of this in Film Studies class.

Works Produced: Apart from a few tweaks to tonight's playlist, nothing. There was some classwork in there too, but nothing for my own gain. Tomorrow I'll do some writing. Definitely.

Other Thoughts: Thank you for reading my blog. Tonight's episode of The Theme Machine is about Love, in acknowledgement of Valentine's Day. This does not mean Love Songs, which are usually songs about being in love happily and whatever, but rather any song where Love plays a big role in the lyrics or instrumental composition. You can listen from 12:00 AM to 2:00 AM EST Friday mornings on WMUA Amherst, on the dial at 91.1 FM or on the web at WMUA.org.