albums

that i keep finding my way back to

Jul 01, 2023

this week’s Thought (singular)

raincoats are so under appreciated. i will never take a good raincoat for granted again.

a very warm welcome to all new readers. i love new readers so much that whenever i get an email about a new reader, i manifest that their food delivery happens on time. thank you for joining us. may your lunch be hot, and may their be no leakage in the packaging.

friends who’ve known me for a while will remember the phase i had a few years ago where i would refuse to listen to tracks released as singles. it was going to be in the entire album (in chronological order, than you very much), or nothing. i would stick to this principle like a stubborn dal stain on a white shirt. in recent years, i’m happy to say that i’ve become a little easier with my music-listening habits, and let go of that admittedly high-strung proclivity. however, i do still adore albums. i love the chronology of them, the gradual constant shift in tone and vibe, the arrangements, the way the first song can make such an impact on how the entire thing feels. i thought in this week’s thodi, i would share a list of albums that are very dear to me - because they were gateways to a specific genre, they were on repeat during an Event in my life so have sunk into a permanent sort of space in my memory, or because i just really really really like them.

O My Heart by Mother Mother - my latest and most current obsession, feels almost revolutionary in genre to me and has kept me hooked for weeks
Outside Child by Allison Russell
Namah by Thaikkudam Bridge - my Lockdown Album™ and home of Nee, the winner of my Spotify Wrapped Top Tracks 2021 (played 93 times)
Petals For Armor by Hayley Williams
Harry Styles by Harry Styles - released in the summer of tenth grade between my theory and practical carnatic music exams, contributing greatly to dismantling my internalised misogyny

Sawdust by The Killers
Tell Me How You Really Feel by Courtney Barnett
From Under The Cork Tree by Fall Out Boy - truly the album of Best Bridges, my 11th and 12th grade anchor

i’m missing so many albums, i know i’m missing so many that had as much impact on me and my listening habits and my taste and that more than deserve a place on this list, but if i didn’t stop here, i never will. please do share your favourite albums, i would love to know and discuss.

ps: happy july :D

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English Recitation Competition

End of Poetry, Ada Limón

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enough of can you see me, can you hear me, enough
I am human, enough I am alone and I am desperate,
enough of the animal saving me, enough of the high
water, enough sorrow, enough of the air and its ease,
I am asking you to touch me.

Grass, 1967, Victoria Chang

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When I open  the  door,  I smile  and wave to people who  only 
have  eyes  and  who  are  infinitely joyful.  I  see  my  children,
but  only the backs  of their  heads.  When they turn around,  I
don’t recognize  them.  They  once  had mouths  but  now  only
have  eyes.  I  want  to  leave  the  room  but   when  I do,  I  am
outside,  and everyone  else  is inside.  So next time, I open the
door  and  stay  inside.  But  then  everyone  is  outside.  Agnes
said that  solitude  and  freedom  are the same.  My solitude is 
like the  grass.  I  become  so  aware of its  presence  that it  too
begins to feel like an  audience.  Sometimes  my solitude  grabs
my  phone  and  takes a  selfie,  posts  it  somewhere  for others
to   see   and    like.    Sometimes    people    comment   on   how
beautiful  my  solitude is  and  sometimes  my  solitude  replies
with  a  heart.  It  begins  to   follow  the  accounts  of  solitudes
that  are half its  age.  What if my solitude is  depressed?  What
if even my solitude doesn’t want to be alone?

Ars Poetica, Archibald MacLeish

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A poem should be equal to:
Not true.

For all the history of grief
An empty doorway and a maple leaf.

For love
The leaning grasses and two lights above the sea—

A poem should not mean   
But be.

The Good Side of the Internet

(subscribe to my standalone publication The Good Side of the Internet for consolidated and extra links at the end of each month!)

Why We Confess
From Augustine to Oprah

The ‘Enshittification’ of TikTok
Or how, exactly, platforms die.

Victory City
A century ago, an English district collector’s book about a great empire distorted the history of an old town in Karnataka. But in recent years, research has cast fresh light on the complicated and glorious story of Bijapur.

SCREAM INTO THE VOID (website)

Instead Of Dying
Instead of dying from alcohol, Raymond Carver chose to live. I met him five months after he’d made this choice, so I never knew the Ray who drank, except by report and through his stories and poems. One result of his decision to stay sober was that he became an internationally respected master of the short story, a writer who, at his death, was called by the London Times “America’s Chekhov.” For me, the best result of his choice was that we found each other, and could write and live together, challenging, inspiring, and supporting one another in this new life we created day by day.