part 2 of 'random things that excited me'
some more things i noticed that made me a lil excited
i made the first version of this back last year (it was less than a month ago, mind you) and so an updated version seems fitting, except it’s over a longer time span since i just didn’t wanna do it weekly.
new glasses!
i had my eye test and found that my eyes have generally started to level out and barely change now. my last eye test was almost 2 years prior, and even in that one it changed very little so i had kept my glasses from the 2 years prior to that! this meant i had my glasses for 4 years (since 2+2=4, quick maths)! one thing that was interesting about my eye test was that the optometrist was only a year older than me, which made me realise i’m getting older now; back when i was a youthful little lad, the optometrist would have been either some older man or even some adult in their 30s/40s, yet now a 24 year old was doing it. it was cool though, she was a 24 year old brown girl and that was surprisingly pleasant.
something i dread is having to pick new glasses since i always struggle to find ones that i feel suit me, partially why i refrained from getting new ones 2 years ago too. i always like that retro 1950/60s style of glasses (think like Malcolm X glasses). and to my surprise, i found some!
the glasses were expensive though, but i just paid for it and im glad because i like them. it took me a second to get used to them, both physically looking through the lenses, but also adjusting seeing my face with them on. it’s so stupid how i begin to act with these on now; i’ve looked in the mirror and said “brothers, brothers, brothers,” like i’m a civil rights era speaker a few times i can’t even lie. though, that line comes from the key & peele sketch where jordan peele plays that oldhead preacher uncle character, but fails to deliver a message because he assumes the wrong thing about the people he sees. it’s actually a great bit and makes me laugh every time fr.
civil rights era poetry n stuff adjacent to that!
randomly as well, i began checking out some civil rights era poetry too. granted, that’s not really out of character for me since i’ve always been interested in that era of history, since it forms the basis of all the music i’m a fan of amongst other things. i saw the name of some poets name dropped in miles’ autobiography, which i finally finished a few days ago, such as ‘the last poets’ and ‘amiri baraka’, so i checked the former out.
it turns out i’ve heard of the last poets already through their feature on common’s 2005 album ‘be’. regardless, i listened to their self-titled album from 1970, and was quite fascinated by it. the stuff they were saying was good to listen to, poems about black issues and revolution spoken over afro-latin percussion.
it led me to listen back to gil scott-heron too, who was a poet inspired by the last poets after seeing them perform at his university. gil scott-heron has a poem i enjoy called ‘whitey on the moon’, which is an amazing poem that speaks on the apollo 11 mission that put america on the moon. gil contrasts it with how people back on america, earth, are struggling economically and socially whilst ‘whitey’ is on the moon. all that money used for the space race, yet the government doesn’t spend that on supporting their people. nothing has changed since then.
an extra area i ended up looking into was the civil rights poets that came out in the west coast, namely with the ‘watts prophets’. i’m not sure where i had heard of them before, some rap song surely, but i learnt a bit about them and it opened up a gateway to learning about the fbi’s involvement with destroying many of these black revolutionary political movements. as a result of the watts riots in 1965, there was the formation of the watts writers workshop, which was home to many prominent writers including the watts prophets. however, the group was infiltrated by a black man who was revealed to be an undercover informant by the fbi, where he destroyed the movement by setting fire to their theatre in 1973. the informant revealed himself in 1975. these types of things made other black empowerment groups deal with internal conflicts too since people would then begin to lose trust with one another. white supremacy is vile.
on a lighter note, the poet amiri baraka has a son called ras baraka, who features as the teacher in the miseducation of lauryn hill skits! cool stuff fr
walking around hogwarts and honing my wizarding skills again!
i enjoyed playing black ops 6 but i cba to spend monthly on the xbox game pass subscription if that’s the only game i’m playing, so i cancelled it. i had hogwarts legacy but i stopped playing back in may because i ran out of health potions amidst a boss fight and i just didn’t want to abandon the mission…so instead i abandoned the game completely lmao. but something was calling me back to the game, and i forgot how much fun it is.
you get the open world free to roam, meaning i can walk around hogwarts castle and grounds, visit hogsmeade, the forbidden forest, other random areas too. hogwarts is incredibly well made though like i’m still discovering whole different areas. plus, flying around on my broom and my magical beast is fun like the whole map is delightful, plus the music that plays is also just very pretty. once i recouped my wiggenweld potions stock (the health ones), i ended up being able to defeat big boss man and continued learning in hogwarts like i didn’t go through that whole ordeal. why do they want kids to do that shit all the time? ofsted would not be pleased with the way they treat us wizard youth. i’m a ravenclaw which seems fitting apparently, like the sorting hat decided it based on a few questions it asked lol
even more new books!
though i was having a treacherous time with my car these last few days, i did spend a day looking for new books to buy. there’s a cool book shop near me that houses a huge variety of second hand books, so i managed to find 2 that i feel would be interesting. then i went waterstones and got 2 more.
notes of a native son by james baldwin
the portable jung by carl jung/joseph campbell
the portrait of dorian gray by oscar wilde
another country by james baldwin
i still can’t find assata shakur’s autobiography anywhere in stores, so when i come across it i have to buy it! i started the portrait of dorian gray earlier today and so far it seems chill; oscar wilde is good writer and i thought to try get a classic fiction book for once.
this ‘my favourite things’ performance!
i watched this last night after seeing it appear in my recommended a few days ago, then i watched it again a few more times after because it was amazing. i usually dislike how western jazz fuses with indian music, but i was a fan of this honestly. it is done really well and the bansuri played is excellent. the trumpet player here is wynton marsalis, who i remember from that miles davis really didn’t like him much according to his autobiography (it’s cool how that book includes references to so many things i know about like it’s crazy how many times i’ve said something about it). either way, it was a fantastic version of john coltrane’s ‘my favourite things’; coltrane himself was already into indian music a lot, so it was a fitting combination.
as a result of this, last night i also ventured briefly into some indian classical vocals and came across this album i listened through entirely whilst in bed. it was really enjoyable and an excellent display of indian vocal virtuosity.
honourable mentions!
i saw that mos def (yasiin bey) and the alchemist will release an album this year, which i am gonna be really excited to listen to!!! i hope it stands up to the expectations i have for it.
i made a post about sly & the family stone a week or so ago, but that also did get me notably excited. great music
it really seems like all i do is think about music lmaoo i guess maybe i do. anyway, i’m hungry and it’s lunchtime so i wanna eat. that concludes the things that i got excited about or something.