recommendations:⌗

  • music - been diving into some indian jazz like Kolkata stories by Bishu Chattopadhyay. the strokes(the whole including the voidz, julian singles), daft punk too and ofc not forgetting to consume my daily rap intake.
  • books - not reading much lately but De Profundis, Projections and Hyperion are totally on my to read list which i’m going to finish this month.

While I’m not quite over the whole ‘meow zedong’ meme craze and instagram warning everyone that my account is compromised and I am a scammer in disguise(something to ponder upon), here I am again—banging on my keyboard just because the clackety-clack is oddly satisfying while I wait for Conda to finish installing in the background. So, yeah, the birthday was lit. winters? Even better. Got to visit six different states and, of course, drink unlimited beer. InterIIT? didn’t quite go as expected, but I’m still proud of the whole contingent, especially my kids. it was fun. frustrating at times, sure, but totally worth it. Maybe I should write another blog entirely about that trip and vacation. Could be fun.

joke⌗

Lately, I’ve been on a bit of a music nostalgia trip—revisiting that early Chainsmokers pop era when life was simpler. Also, I finally shifted from Spotify to Apple Music. Why? Because why not. Gotta milk that hyped-up lossless spatial audio, which isn’t even compatible with most of the apple’s airpods or whatever their big chunky headphones are called, on my Sony WH-CH720N (pronounced waahchh720n, obviously) which doesn’t exactly scream ‘Apple ecosystem.’ Tried it with and without a DAC cause why not spend those Gandhi’s if i cannot bet them on a bunch of racing ostriches because betting on dies is shady, there’s a probability factor and im just a simple biology student. but anyways i couldn’t experience the ultimate lossless audio which apple promised me but nvm got apple tv with it so it’s nice. that’s what a fool will think, apple music(called derek moving forward) have a really nice android app but it doesn’t have a proper sync feature so i can’t shift from phone to laptop to my explosive coffee maker, doesn’t have a proper mac app which is really ironic as apple software bad on apple hardware and good on android, caches locally on all the devices. But ok some would shift back to spotify or deezer ffs, but no my autistic ass would go straight to derek’s developer documentation cause there exists one (surprised), would scan all the functionalities, design an architecture to solve most of my problems like make playlists from songs history(derek’s recommendations are really really nice), shift from one device to other and other stuff that tickles my OCD and urge to go back to my ex(spotify ofc). as fate would want i am Lencho in this story, Turns out, you need a $100 annual developer account. Classic Apple. That’s probably why no perfect third-party app exists for Mac. Well, maybe it’s better left untouched—history taught us how communism turned out.

Bonus - Show time⌗

On the side note i got to try some of the apple tv shows out of which one really strikes out to me and which is ofc ‘The snoopy show’, no one can beat my snoopy in any way bro got the aura we all die for.

shrinking

On a serious note ‘Shrinking’ is the one which i loved. now let me tell you first hand: no it’s not my trauma, mental health issues(i’ve got none hehe) or wanting to be acknowledged by my parents these are all the issues that got portrayed in this show. This time, I’m praising the writing, direction, score, and—of course—the cinematography. The story revolves around our fav. marshall eriksen(named jimmy in the show), his daughter, han solo(yipeeee) and their friends and neighbours with a special appearance of robin(they love HIMYM characters xD) in the last season. where marshall(occupation: therapist) looses his wife to an accident from a drunk brit and goes deep into a spiral of depression neglecting her 16(or 17) year old daughter, drowning into pills and alcohol and hookers. They all struggle to grieve the loss of her beautiful wife, marshal starts breaking therapist rules and starts experimenting with his clients to see some change in his life and feel better. The cast is fantastic, each and every single one of the character is well-developed and experiences meaningful growth and change over time. now story writing is top notch here with a great mix of humor and heartfelt-drama with some excellent one liners, cunning jokes, running gags and meaningful thematic parallelism one amazing example of this comes in the episode ’the drug wears off’ in which actual drugs are compared to the drug which marhsall is using to numb himself from his loss very beautifully within the characters dialogue. there was not even a single character in this show that i would say is not needed and was extra(which netflix does very oftenly. each and every characters weighs in to the story even every single one of the marhsall friends’ patients too. the writing style is very consistent, bright and vibrant among the episodes and the seasons consisting of a refreshing departure from darker tones to modern comedies. and somehow it’s very uplifting and fun to watch it certainly helped me unknowingly. the stories are compelling, with beautiful moments like the evolving father-daughter relationship and the vulnerability of Harrison Ford’s character as he deals with parkinson’s. The serious topics are handled with such care that they truly touch your heart. it definitely uses music to fire up neurons in your brain as for example i am obsessed with the strokes and i listen to them regularly, read their lyrics and all. and in one episode when they played ‘bad decisions’ by them i was alr jumping due to the scene this score being played made that scene even more climatic. the scores are placed in the story very appropriately and are chosen very carefully so that they adds on the nature and the tone of the story going on. the location chosen is very pretty and the cinematography, color mixing in up to mark. Well now every show is not perfect this one too, it somehow shows different ideologies which might not be coherent with everyone’s perspective, apple’s move to downgrade the family emoji to introducing pregnant men emojis kind of thing can be seen here. it’s not surprising that this ideology spills into their shows, often in ways that come across as heavy-handed. while the series has its entertaining aspects, you would encounter recurring themes such as: society admiring an 80-year-old woman’s beauty as though she is young, promoting cosmetic surgery among women as normal, portraying masculinity as inherently toxic, and the idea that being a man or being white is something to apologize for. but this is a fun blog these were my views on it and should not be taken to be grained in your head to form an opinion on such topic without even seeing it once.you might have different opinions on such topics and you’re free to stick on to them, experiment with them. not my business and neither should be anyone else’s opinions be yours that’s what some random chaiwala in the hills taught me.

Popcorn time(or maybe not)⌗

The ogs knows that any issue of this blog can’t go without a movie review and dw it won’t it’s just that this blog is going too big so i might only cover a single one for now and leave the other one for the next issue.

thesubstance

Who doesn’t love horror films, and who doesn’t love pretty girls. mix them both and we get ‘The substance’ so i watched this purely because i saw a single blood lust scene on reddit which was so good that it reminded me of bloodborne. so i plugged in and started watching it without any pre-context. and it was purely coincidental that i was alone that night(not usual ofc), the lights were off and clock showed 3 in the morning(ofc not usual for me). i cannot even count the number of times i gasped in between the film like real gasps, hands on head, covering mouth, eyes and what not. the ambience in this film is what really catches you in many different ways it’s ominous, disturbing and profoundly engaging. demi moore performs absolutely fantastic in every scene of the film that you can almost sense the heaviness of her character’s disintegrating mind. when you reach the part where you actually know what the ‘substance’ is you’ll feel how the writer is portraying physical beauty to represent an artificial mask we put on to hide our insecurities, our real selves that society often chooses to ignore. it’s haunting yet captivating. the visuals are stunning—dark hues with an almost dreamlike quality, which makes you question whether what you’re seeing is even real or a manifestation of the protagonist’s deteriorating mental state. There’s a consistent theme of identity and transformation, and it’s woven so tightly into the narrative that you feel like you’re being pulled along for the ride whether you want to or not. oh, and the body horror? perfectly executed. It’s not about cheap jump scares or gore for the sake of gore. it’s thoughtful, symbolic, and downright eerie. Also, a side note the sound design here deserves its own shoutout. You could argue that sound is its own character in the movie—there’s this eerie synthwave undercurrent that reminded me of Blade Runner mixed with Hereditary’s creeping unease. If you watch this with good headphones or speakers, you’ll notice how each whisper, each creak, and each sharp note seems deliberately placed to keep your anxiety just a notch below full-blown panic. But just like everything else, there are flaws. Some parts drag a bit—scenes that seem like they’re trying too hard to be “deep” rather than genuinely unsettling. And while the film’s commentary on beauty and societal pressure is clever, it sometimes feels like it’s spoon-feeding its message instead of letting you figure it out yourself.sStill, for any horror fan looking for something fresh, this one is worth the time, especially if you’re into psychologically charged horror that makes you reflect on the world and yourself a bit differently after watching.

Alright, enough rambling for one day. Conda’s probably done installing by now, and I need a cup of coffee to match this not so freezing weather. Till next time, keep experimenting with life (and maybe consider giving lossless audio another shot with a proper DAC setup—worth it, I swear xD).

seriously tho hmu for music, art, film or anything you wanna talk about

byee xp