October's Mini-Mixtape: A Mixed Kid's Mixtape
Happy Filipino American History Month.
I started this month with a crossword with the same greeting in the constructor’s notes.
Identity is one of those topics that you kinda have to keep writing about because you get a firmer sense of it the more you exist within your identity. My latest iteration is “An NB Problem: If They/Then What…”, which among other things is an exploration of how I couldn’t figure out my gender identity until I had fully parsed my racial identity, and that’s a whole thing.
But mixed kid metaphors are ample, and I’m never one to shy away from low hanging fruit, so let me present…
1) “Bloodsucker, fame fucker / Bleedin’ me dry like a goddamn vampire.”
This is not my favorite Olivia Rodrigo song. That’d probably be Obsessed, but while this mixtape does feature exclusively Filipino-American artists, they are not necessarily going to be my favorite ones.
I’m choosing this one largely because the vampire is the one bit of non-Catholic Filipino mythology my mother ever offered me. She told me how the Manananggal was the thing that scared her most of the child. A creature that separates itself from its torso to take flight and seek blood.
I often wonder what I’d be like if Filipino myth was my maternal birthright over Catholic guilt.
2) “My rage? Spoon feed her, moon eater, truth keeper.”
I ended up exploring my Filipino heritage a lot via tabletop role playing games in the mid and late 2010s. I made it a point (and actually, continue to make it a point) to draw inspiration from other Filipino myths that I admittedly had to seek out indepentently. One of those myths was Bakunawa, the moon eating dragon.
Ruby Ibarra’s lyrical adaptation of the myth and her own extrapolations is straight up enviable.
3) “Just put your knives up / Show me what you are made of.”
This is admittedly the only song form Chicosci that I really listen to, but I feel like it’s important to include solely on the merit that this does like every other 2010 rock band, and I think that’s beautiful.
4) “I’m not the type to run away, I’ll stay right here.”
I have so many mixed feelings about social media and the omnipresent algorithm, but I will say that sometimes, it does get something right and introduce to a Filipino boy band (a.k.a. Pinoy Pop a.k.a. P-Pop), and sometimes that’s enough to justify the eternal surveilance state going on.
5) “Oh, I wish that I could be selfish / but I know what that means.”
Sinners (2025) is probably the best movie I’ve seen all year (I think Opus is probably my personal favorite, but that’s a different conversation).
Things I knew about Hailee Steinfeld before watching Sinners: that she was part Filipino.
Things I learned about Hailee Steinfeld after watching Sinners: that she was indeed part African-American. Which logically makes sense. I trust Ryan Coogler with everything and then some.
But it felt fitting to have her contribution to the soundtrack to be the capstone for this month’s mini-mixtape.