This week’s round-up includes catching up on the Avatar movies, getting emotional with books by Sophie Kinsella and Toshikazu Kawaguchi, learning something (else) shocking about the current Russia-Ukraine war, and much more.

A Random Thing I Learned This Week

This is going to the top of the Summary this week because it is something extremely important and something I am ashamed to say I had no idea about. Of course we all know about Russia and Ukraine’s current war (a despicable thing that shouldn’t even be happening), but did you know about the children being abducted and given to families in Russia and being essentially brainwashed into becoming Russian? I heard about this from a Ukrainian TikToker (Andy’s – yep4andy – videos about it are constantly being taken down) whom I’ve followed for a long time and trust, though on searching it up, Google is FULL of articles on it, even a Wikipedia page. How has this been allowed to happen by other countries?? Where is the UN??? I’m still stupidly naive to much of this, but I will be looking more into it.

Music

After a pretty solid couple of years of listening to the likes of Taylor Swift and Sabrina Carpenter, I’ve been trying to make it my mission to expand my music listening, especially when it comes to female musicians. This week, my TikTok FYP was quite consistently showing me Olivia Dean on SNL and Raye on Jimmy Fallon. I took that as my sign to check out their music (luckily I had a lot of cleaning to do this weekend – prime time for my music listening).

For Dean, I listened to her album The Art of Loving, and it was very chill and easy to listen to, so much so I reckon she could be suited to do the next James Bond movie theme. As I listened, the sound and vibe turned my thoughts to Amy Winehouse, and this might sound a little controversial, but Dean’s music made me think that this is what Winehouse could have sounded like had she ever had the chance to heal.

In contrast, I listened to Raye’s more upbeat and thematic My 21st Century Blues. She covers a range of topics, from fraught relationships and the objectification of women to body dysmorphia and societal issues (the lead in to Environmental Anxiety from Body Dysmorphia is sobering, and the whole of Environmental Anxiety is terrifying tbh). Raye also has an intro and very sweet outro to her album that makes the whole thing feel like a book she’s written and gifted to us. It’s quite a personal album and it is filled with brutal honesty.

ALSO big shout out to Hilary Duff who has a brilliant new song out, Mature, and she rerecorded millennial faves So Yesterday and Wake Up, though they’re only available on the Mature vinyl, which is a CRIME!!!

Literature

It’s been quite an emotional week for reading. Amongst other books I’m currently reading, I read Sophie Kinsella‘s semi-autobiographical novella What Does It Feel Like? The main character Eve (who is, for all intents and purposes, Kinsella herself) is diagnosed with a malignant and incurable brain tumour, and post-surgery she loses much of her short-term memory and has to relearn how to do many things we take for granted, such as walking. Kinsella doesn’t shy away from the reality of Eve’s prognosis and how she must navigate whatever time remains for her alongside her husband and children. It’s an emotional enough read, but knowing much of it is true to Kinsella’s life is truly devastating. She is an author whom I began reading when I was in my late teens/early twenties, with her Shopaholic series of books and other standalone novels that I gobbled up. I can’t imagine what she and her family have been/are going through, and I truly wish her well. (If you’re going through anything similar yourself or with a loved one, perhaps this book could be of help to you, but try to be in the right headspace before reading it – it won’t take you more than a couple of hours to read.)

In a similar vein of focusing on life and death, I just today finished reading Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi, an episodic book about a cafe that has a famous reputation for allowing its customers to time travel (just once), though with a few caveats, including that whatever you do or say, the past and future will not change, which many potential customers find pointless and therefore do not bother taking the trip. There are however a few who do and find that it doesn’t have to change anything on the outside, but there’s something that can shift within them. The first story didn’t quite hook me, and it seemed that there were multiple characters being introduced, so I wasn’t sure I was going to enjoy the rest, but as the characters solidified, and the way their lives intertwined, and at times shattered, grew clearer, I enjoyed it much more..

Film

This week I mostly focused on catching up on the Avatar movies. I had seen the first before, many years ago, and I remember not thinking much of it. This still holds true for me – it’s an okay film that appears to mostly be James Cameron’s vehicle for themes he wanted to explore and technology he wanted to utilise. To this day I cannot comprehend why it rose to be the highest grossing film (second highest before inflation) of all time. Avatar: The Way of Water is, in my opinion, a stronger, more enjoyable film. It’s more CGI heavy, which is a negative for me, but the family dynamic is interesting and relatable and it follows a tighter plot on the whole. I’m now looking forward to Avatar: Fire and Ash next month.

I also got to see Wicked: For Good, the sequel/second act of Wicked. It was definitely entertaining enough, but it wasn’t as strong as the first film. I am however anticipating its release on DVD/streaming so both can be watched together as one epic film (this would be GREAT for Christmas!).

Life

As you might have noticed, life and death have been strong themes for me this week, death in particular. If you have read my last post, Musings on the loss of a parent, a past and a future, I had been reflecting on my own mother’s passing, preceded and followed by the two above-mentioned books. It’s something that often gives me an existential crisis, and so I generally look for things that remind me that I myself am not dead quite yet.

To that end, I have put up my Christmas tree and other decorations this weekend – the bright colours and lights really make me feel nostalgic and comforted, and so I welcome the atmosphere that Christmas brings quite eagerly. It’s also a good time to start planning for next year, as I find it especially important to have something to look forward to, particularly in January, so as to stave off the ‘January Blues’ and seasonal affective disorder (SAD – an apt acronym indeed). It is something I highly recommend doing if you find your mental health taking a serious dip post-festive period.