All my journal pages, slammed on the screen

 Ain't nothing better than this. Pencil & pencil & pencil & pencil.

Rat & Borzoi

 Are you ever in full rat mode? I was, when I drew this rat:

The rat is an elusive creature. Small, sweet, ready to rip a slice of pizza from your hands (probably). And I like to make him much more blue, a rat dipped in ocean. A rat full of life. I don't know. There's something perfect about the rat.

Here's an ABANDONED drawing:

In the end, I didn't finish it, but nevertheless I like this long-snouted, forlorn dog. She has seen many things, and she has judged.

Tokyo Journal

I made a bunch of journal spreads while I was in Tokyo. Just a good way to collect tickets and miscellaneous other bits of paper. It's a nice record of some things. I bought some stickers from a cute little second hand shop I found, and tried to scrapbook tons of stuff, but I was most inspired by the stamps you can find all over the place, in train stations and stuff.

The Ueno stamp on the first page here was really the catalyst to it all. So anyway, here are the pages:

Impeccable Creatures

The other day I went to the National Museum of Nature and Science in Ueno, Tokyo. It's strange to me for this type of museum (a natural history museum) to feel so small, but it does. The moment you enter it, there's this sense of isolation and smallness. Not that it has a small collection, or a small building, really, but it just feels sort of small anyway. Maybe it's the way you walk around the museum in a spiral starting from the third floor, passing large, grainy columns. Or maybe it's just that there weren't that many people there that day. 

In any case, here are some of my favourite things from the museum.

Firstly, the bugs. The museum has some really cool insect displays, but these rows of iridescent beetles are the greatest. Look at them shine! Bugs are jewels.

Secondly, the crab displays. This section of the museum is arranged so that the beetles sit next to a colourful box of labelled shells, and the shells in turn sit next to a box of labelled, varied, and distinguished crabs. I love the very spindly one, and the one on the bottom right of that first image with a lovely paintbrush blob of rich sky blue.

What could possibly be third but the ammonites? The ammonite room was stunning, filled head to toe with big beefy ammonites, but I particularly liked this cluster. A simple, perfect pile of ancient guys.

I also thought this sundial was beautiful and cool. It was made in Korea, and you know, it's a simple fact that any sundial should also be a funny little guy. We all know this.

Next, these interesting Japanese inro pocketwatches. These were made to attach to kimonos with little toggles or netsuke (tiny, ornate sculptures that are often likened to cufflinks). I just really like the sort of boxy things that people liked to attach to a kimono.

Finally, chickens. These sweet birds are roosting on top of a clock. As they should.

An Analysis of my Spotify Wrapped, 2023

Ok girl, it's that time again. Everyone's looking at their Spotify Wrapped and saying "wow, I never could've guessed that I'd listened to Taylor Swift 67 times this year!" Exhilarating stuff. So yes, it is time to take a long and hard look at My Own Stats.

A screenshot from Wednesday Campanella's 'Maneki Neko', a song I've been listening to a lot recently.

The unsurprising truth is that I have listened to a huge amount of SHINee and SHINee member solo stuff. My favourite of the solo members' work has, happily, been Onew's album Circle. Onew has always been my favourite SHINee guy, so it makes me really happy that his solo stuff has come out on top, but it also really pleases me that I love all the other blokes' stuff enough to make it a full SHINee sweep for top artists this year (Lana Del Rey is an honorary member).

I have been particularly delighted by Key's output though, too. I love the office aesthetics of the Good & Great release, and god damn it's just such a banger. Thank you Key.

In other important stats, Lana Del Rey's National Anthem is my sweet top song. I keep thinking about how perfect the lyrics of this one are. It's addictive, it's mysterious, it's yearning. It's a modern masterpiece and very slightly and oddly nostalgic (when I am nostalgic for 2012 I must bonk myself on the head, and I do, but it happens).

"Over your body, hold you like a python."

There is also a small hint of Fujii Kaze here, who I have been listening to a lot of lately. I've been trying to listen to more Japanese artists more of the time, since it's a nice compliment to learning the language - as much Japanese media as possible at any given time. So that's one goal I will try to pursue for next year. And, by the way, a trip to Tower Records I made recently was eye-opening. Obviously Japan's music market is huge, but seeing the whole store laid out with Japanese artists I've never heard of was really exciting. I'm gonna try to get into a lot more of them.

The last note is that Spotify said "you listen to a lot of albums", and, true, I do. I love the experience of listening to an album and thinking about how the overall collection works. Sure, I listen to plenty of single tracks, but the art of the album has never relinquished it's hold on me. It's always my favourite way to listen.

Right now my favourite album is Wednesday Campanella's NEON. It's so good. My favourite song from the album is probably Maneki Neko. It speaks for itself really, but I love the specific and slightly unusual concepts that these songs go for. And this one is... very cute, and very catchy.

It's really quite good.

Wish me luck in discovering many new and powerful artists in 2024! I am going to go crazy :-)