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Date: June 1st, 2020.

Time of Writing: 12:55 AM, 6/2/2020.

Weather: It seemed like it was mostly nice out.

Mental and Physical Health State: I haven't been outside in a couple days. The bloating feeling from my stomach medication is pretty bad, and so is the pain that's still a little left over. As such, I haven't really gone for a walk in a minute.

Day Overview: I sat today and watched the world at a distance. It's a great privilege to be able to do so, and not one that I take up lightly. I need to get well so I can get out there. Watching something close to martial law enacted like this has been really, there's a really really real feeling to this, hyperreal, like this is the culmination of years and years of different dangling threads from throughout the years. This is less the Twenties and more the finale of the Tens.

On My Mind: Part of me feels like realistically the protests can only last as long as the coronavirus incubation period. Once people start showing symptoms from showing up to these protests, they're going to become a lot less populated. That's an incredibly short time frame for things that need to happen, to happen. If not for the virus I would have already been out there regardless of stomach issues and I suspect it's the same for a lot of people. The sheer amount of stuff all taking place at once is kind of nuts. I'm used to dealing with one, maybe two world events at once, okay. Imagine being so vain as to declare yourself at the end of history literally ever.

Works Consumed:

• You'd Prefer an Astronaut by Hum: Stars makes this entire album worth it. The rest is solid post-hardcore with some standouts but nothing comes close to Stars quite at all. That track was ultimately my introduction to the album, as my brother played it when we were passing the aux cord to his speaker system in our room. If this band has more like that track for me to uncover then I'll be happy to explore; otherwise I'm glad I get at least this much. 7/10.
• The Noise Made by People by Broadcast: Like Stereolab but without a lot of the beating around the bush. Also a bit less lush, this feels a little more grounded but still within the more whimsical side of synthy art pop from the nineties. Like the previous release this one has a standout track in Come On Let's Go but unlike that one there are a few other tracks here that also carry the album a bit. Like ultimately you could cut a few of the instrumental bits and have an amazing EP or even just a shorter album, but I feel like the more filler-y bits are justified to keep the mood going. Overall I'm excited to continue exploring this artist's discography and I definitely have a few tracks I'm going to mine from this pretty excessively. 8/10.
• Transgender Dysphoria Blues by Against Me!: This one is really, really raw. I love just how earnest and unashamed this album is. It's incredibly powerful and what it represents is ultimately more important than some of the music content here. Laura Jane Grace has an incredibly powerful story to tell her, and she's determined to deliver it as she believes it needs to be told. I don't like some of the more pop punk parts but they're executed generally pretty well so I can't really complain. Overall a really solid, catchy album, and it wraps really well in a way that a lot of shorter albums just don't. 8/10.
• Therapy by Radical Face: Apart from cool pizzicato plucks on the guitars in a few of these tracks and a generally really good sense of space in the mix, there's not much here that I found particularly unique or special in many ways. It's solid but ultimately I don't know if there's much for me in this one. 6/10.
• Transcendental Youth by The Mountain Goats: There's something about every clever turn of phrase John Darnielle pens that is just so familiar. I rarely feel surprised by his lyrics, and when I am that surprise still conforms to the general range of lyrical ideas and rhyme schemes I'm used to hearing from him. As such, the lyrical content of this album can feel somewhat weak at times. On the contrary, the music here is the most varied and interesting on any release by The Mountain Goats that I've heard so far. I think the lyrics sort of hold the music back, actually, which is probably not something often said about Mountain Goats stuff. Still a really great release overall. 8/10.

Works In Progress:

• Bloodborne developed by From Software: Still in the first area, did the looping shortcut back to the Central Yharnam bonfire.
• Yesterday wo Utatte animated by studio Doga Kobo: Episode Nine.

Works Produced: A list of past Theme Machine mixes on my rateyourmusic, and several hundred words of basic half skeletal outlines for story stuff that might not even get written down in the end.

Other Thoughts: Thank you for reading my blog. Welcome to June. This month's visual theme doesn't have much to do with the world as it is right now. It just sorta looks neat.