June media log

[halfcactus]

Books

妲婴, "她属于我"

Bonnie Garmus, "Lessons in Chemistry"

John le Carré, "Call for the Dead"

TV/Movies

Furiosa (2024)

Rookie (2023)

侠探简不知 Ancient Detective (2020)

June was a comedy of technological errors—first my phone battery overheating (got a third-party battery replacement—hopefully the issue is resolved), then my work computer smelling like it was burning (I just shut it down for the rest of the day; I think it's fine now??), and then yesterday my AC died...

We've also been having a lot of ant problems which umichii wonders might be an effect of climate change, since it's been unreasonably hot even when we've technically entered the rainy season; her place has too been besieged by excessively aggressive ants...

In our case we have multiple ant colonies—small black ants, small red ants, and the fearless red ants that will bite you multiple times just for getting in their way (I've developed a fear of them). They've gotten into our pack of uncooked oatmeal, our unopened packs of Indomie (where they've also gotten into a spice packet and died), and around my brother's toothpaste (once again to their own little deaths)... The ants will appear on the dining table as we're eating, sensing the food but not caring that we're right there. Thankfully my room and the sugar scrub I keep on the bathroom counter have been *knocks on wood* relatively safe. And for the past twelve hours the ants have left us alone so I really, really hope they're done with their stockpiling frenzy. ;__;

+ Today I finally finished Time Concert: Old Friends, which ends—very movingly—with a surprise reappearance from Tank, who not only performs a song onstage on his own, but performs a new one that he wrote for the show, after guesting on it in the beginning of the season:

Watch on YouTube

They even got the audience to learn the song so he would be less nervous-you can hear them continuing the song when he falters. (Tank had previously confessed to debilitating anxiety due to health issues and a traumatic performance experience, and could only perform in Time Concert if other people were singing with him onstage). :') So happy for him to be taking baby steps back into music life, but kind of worried that he seems to be continuing to lose weight. Also really happy to see G.E.M. (who's earned herself the title of the in-house crybaby) get more comfortable in the show and seeing Zhang Jie root so hard for her to be more confident in herself. :')

Aaaaaand now idk what to put in the background while working... I'm not as interested in the previous seasons of Time Concert because I was specifically interested in this season's guests (G.E.M., Ella, and Tank—and apparently also Penny Tai of Taiwanese Meteor Garden fame, and, at some point, Jia from Miss A)... I guess I should get back into podcasts.

Comments

[geraineon]

Ugh I feel you about ant colonies! They are so hard to get rid of. All the best with it!

And may July be a much better month in terms of tech for you orz

How did you like Ancient Detective?

[halfcactus]

The aggressive ants seem to have momentarily left (or are hiding), which is a huge relief.

Re: Ancient Detective - it had one good case in the middle that ended on a surprisingly thoughtful and very satisfying note, but the rest aren't memorable, though the second one was pretty fun (until it got too long haha). There's a cute dynamic where the physically weak main character gets a strong himbo boyfriend AND a strong assassin girlfriend (in that order). I guess I'd categorize this more as a cozy wuxia series? It asks questions about identity, morality, and redemption which I found genuinely interesting, ie. Do your memories define you? What makes you "you"?

It's pretty low-budget though and the overall pacing and execution of plot aren't that great. BUT also only 24 episodes and very low-stakes, in spite of the murders lol.

EDIT: About whether I liked it - it's hard to tell because this was a groupwatched show, but I think I liked it well enough! I definitely found some of its themes interesting enough, even though the dramatic tension is overdrawn.

[geraineon]

Cozy wuxia is a good way to describe it! Haha

I've watched Ancient Detective and liked it well enough! It's short (relative to a lot of other cdramas), does what it says on the tin, doesn't overreach the plot, imo. And my fav case is All The Jianghu Doctors... XD fav trope. But yeah the pacing is a little choppy.

[halfcactus]

Yeah, the Jianghu Doctors turned out to be my favorite case! Not because of the trope, but because of the outcome haha.

[geraineon]

different pathways, same favourite arc~ XD