You are the green wonder of June
After some confusion, summer has finally arrived in Virginia. The solstice is still a week or so off, but trust me, y’all: it’s summer here. I know there are people who are right miserable in the heat, but I am one of those weirdos who truly, sincerely loves all four seasons. I will happily sit outside in the sun for hours and soak it all up, and just as happily exalt in the first, third, and tenth snows of a long winter.
Recently, after a lifetime of general disinterest in plants, I became very, very interested in plants. I picked one up to bring some green into my life, and that seems to have opened some kind of insane door inside of me, because I have bought a new plant every week for the past 4 weeks.
One of my plants, that big sucker in the above photo, is a prissy little palm that likes the humidity. I read online that they “benefit from a daily misting,” and scoffed, because who has the time to daily mist their plants? Yet, lo and behold, I have been carting that thing up and down the stairs so it can sit outside in the shade on really humid days. All of this just goes to show that you’re never really done cooking, as a human. One day you might discover a deep and unexpected love for large, leafy plants.
Notable Breakfast
Egg & Swiss sandwich with sliced apples. This breakfast is actually from a couple weeks ago. The most notable thing I ate for breakfast this week was half of a large tub of cookies.
Dog Thing
Meerkat? T. Rex? Who knows.
Mixed Media
Would it surprise you to learn that I have now seen Mad Max Fury Road in the cinema 4 times? If you follow me on any social media or have had a conversation with me or have come into the store where I work (where the soundtrack is always playing), it should not.
Last night, I went to see it because I was feeling glum and wanted a pick-me-up. Is it weird that the post-apocalyptic wasteland car chase movie has become my happy place? Probably, but I won’t apologize for it. After all, it’s where Furiosa is.
One of the greatest things about this movie’s effect has been the sheer amount of incredible fanart produced. They’ve actually put out a book of art inspired by the movie, and it’s wonderful, but there’s a sense of helpless excitement in the stuff that’s been posted in the past month, people so thrilled with this thing that they have to make something to show it. Here are some of my faves:
Lenka (I’ve actually bought a print of this)
If they decided to put out a second book of inspired art, I’d absolutely get that, too.
Also: When I wasn’t listening to Mad Max this week, it was Metric’s Synthetica. There’s something about “Clone” that I especially love.
I Read Comics for a Living
Silver Surfer #12 I finally caught up on this last week, and I’m so glad I did, because it meant I was prepared for the new issue. This series is basically a superbly executed space romance. Sure, there are other things happening, and the Surfer is one of the most hated people in the galaxy for his years spent as Galactus’ herald (the person who chose planets for Galactus to eat–not a cool job), but in the end it’s all about Norrin and Dawn, and I love it. Plus, Mike Allred’s art (with Laura Allred’s incredible colors) is pretty much always going to be the best part of any book Mike Allred is on, and this one is no different.
Also good:
Saga #29 I frequently forget to list Saga among the comics I love, not because it isn’t great or I don’t love it, but because it’s so consistently great. It’s funny, and a little bit obscene (this week’s issue included the greatest page turn I think I’ve ever experienced), and has this great big heart at the middle of it all. It’s about a family on the run from about everyone in the galaxy and also about the people who are chasing them. You will come to care about every single character, heroic or villainous–and their relative state as either will change. People aren’t messing around they call Saga the best comic ever.
Gotham Academy #7 I have missed this comic. Gotham Academy is about a group of students at a boarding school in Gotham, and it’s a little bit like Batman’s Hogwarts. There are ghosts, and mysteries, and hidden passages. The new issue was a bit of a one-off, and features Damian Wayne transferring into the school and almost immediately getting dragged into hijinks by Maps, the adventure-loving half of the book’s main duo. Mingjue Helen Chen isn’t the usual artist, but her work on this was perfect.
Spider-Gwen #5 & Silk #5 I’m going to talk about both because I can’t pick just one. Both of these books are so good, but they’re so different. Looking at the two of them, you see how there isn’t just one way to write a comic about a teenage girl superhero–or even about a teenage girl spider-hero! Silk continues to be cute as hell with heart to spare, and Spider-Gwen continues to be punk rock as all heck.
Harrow County #2 Harrow County is just good old Southern horror. It’s written by Cullen Bunn, whose horror stuff I generally like (his Sixth Gun I love above all things), but this is a different kind of horror writing for him, there’s a sense of penetrating eeriness, like you get with Emily Carroll‘s stories. Tyler Crook’s painted art style is completely perfect for this.
Anxiety Pyjamas
I love this romper so much, I’ve bought two, in two different colors. They’re cool & comfy to sleep in, and I also pretty much wear them constantly when I’m at home.
Fics I Shouted About
See Derek Date by mikkimouse Teen Wolf, Sterek, Human AU. A tried and true trope: person A needs a date to a wedding to avoid family embarrassment, person B is that date. In this case, person B is the matchmaker who accidentally falls in love. This was very sweet, with some good commentary on the trope itself that I liked.
Untitled by raisesomehale Teen Wolf, Sterek, Human AU. Lovely little thing in which Derek buys an island to be alone, and then isn’t.
Sometimes It Just Works by loserchildhotpants Teen Wolf, Sterek, future fic. Stiles gets drunk, attempts to conjure his soulmate out of thin air, and messes it all up. Or, perhaps, does not mess up at all.
It should go without saying that I am knee-deep in Mad Max fics, but the ones I love are all currently unfinished, so I won’t rec them here.
Lastly
The subject line this week is from “Summer Solstice” by Stacie Cassarino.
Shout out to my friend who told me this week that she thought “anxiety pyjamas” were called that because they worked on me like a Thundershirt works on dogs–not totally wrong!
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