Media Roundup, mid-July
Jul. 16th, 2023 17:57![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
superborbWho knows if I'll have enough for a roundup at the end of July, but there's enough here!
Burning Roses, by S. L. Huang: The sequel novella to two earlier short stories (that I reviewed earlier), focusing on the middle age lesbian versions of Little Red Riding Hood and Hou Yi, after they've betrayed their children and are killing monsters because they can't seek forgiveness (or maybe...?) I think I liked this less than the short stories, because the central themes on betrayal/forgiveness are less interesting to me, but I still found it a quick, enjoyable read.
Ocean's Echo, by Everina Maxwell: Fake bonding between an upright, rules-lawyering officer and the hot mess nephew of an important politician, in spaaaace! It tries to situate pleasure in the central relationship in a very ficcy way, which I found enjoyable when it hit. (Hit: the subversion of the soul bond when it actually happens; didn't hit: the we know the other so well we can single handedly put their personality back together.) It was very much a light novel, and the worldbuilding felt unexplored and under-thought (to me). Also, it really annoyed me that information about the world kept getting repeated. Multiple times for the same fact!! Does Maxwell's editor think that we have the memories of goldfish? Why is the wording the same the third time around? I guess I felt like there was the core of a novel (let's be real, the central relationship) here that could have been my jam, but this was not quite it. And this was a book where it needed to be your jam to really enjoy.
A Pocket Guide to Pigeon Watching, by Rosemary Mosco: As the title says! I don't think this was organized in a way as to structure the information on pigeon variants in a memorable way, which was unfortunately what I'd hoped for. Also, the genetics were 9th grade bio bad: just because something is dominant doesn't mean it ought be more prevalent, so the blue color being more common and it being recessive to red should be unrelated. Unless you know very little about pigeons and cannot extrapolate, I don't think this was worth reading.
Counterfeit, by Kirstin Chen, read by Catherine Ho: Chinese American lawyer struggling with taking time off to care for her baby gets sucked into a scheme by her college roommate to return replica luxury handbags and resell them. Recced bymeitachi. I really got sucked into the story; it never is really surprising in where it goes, but it sure does have momentum! I enjoyed the protagonist playing into the stereotypes about what kind of insecurities and negative traits someone of her background would have. Does what it says on the tin in a fun, light read.
TWICE Ready To Be concert: I enjoyed it, yay! The camera work was much better than the Mamamoo concert -- more stably on the girls and more thought out (though some of the decisions, with the big cutout in the center blocking half the girls in the middle in the full shots, were a little baffling). However, they had pretty significant mic issues and the sound balance was off, which was disappointing. Also, some of them were noticeably tired (from the heat?) which sucked. The live band was great! I also really liked the section where they had the camera on the audience members doing the dances, though it ran on for a bit too long; the fans were so good at the dances! I think I'm not planning on going to any more concerts of this scale, but it was fun to have done.
Old Fashion Cupcake (2022): Japanese office romance BL. What it says on the tin; I watched it in a large group and it was good for that. Cute, but kind of forgettable? Actors were p hot though, basically a requirement of the genre.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse: Lives up to the awesome animation expectations, with lots of fun visual easter eggs and references. The humor also largely hit for me, and there was good pacing and sufficient plot. Obviously is a a big budget for the family film, so it doesn't go very far in complexities, emotional or plot-wise. It tried to subvert the whole cop thing, did not totally succeed, but I still enjoyed Hobie. One complaint: scientists being evil, fine. But a scientist who produces weird portals all over his body would definitely be of scientific interest to his scientist buddies! They wouldn't ostracize him! Think of all the papers you could write!
Burning Roses, by S. L. Huang: The sequel novella to two earlier short stories (that I reviewed earlier), focusing on the middle age lesbian versions of Little Red Riding Hood and Hou Yi, after they've betrayed their children and are killing monsters because they can't seek forgiveness (or maybe...?) I think I liked this less than the short stories, because the central themes on betrayal/forgiveness are less interesting to me, but I still found it a quick, enjoyable read.
Ocean's Echo, by Everina Maxwell: Fake bonding between an upright, rules-lawyering officer and the hot mess nephew of an important politician, in spaaaace! It tries to situate pleasure in the central relationship in a very ficcy way, which I found enjoyable when it hit. (Hit: the subversion of the soul bond when it actually happens; didn't hit: the we know the other so well we can single handedly put their personality back together.) It was very much a light novel, and the worldbuilding felt unexplored and under-thought (to me). Also, it really annoyed me that information about the world kept getting repeated. Multiple times for the same fact!! Does Maxwell's editor think that we have the memories of goldfish? Why is the wording the same the third time around? I guess I felt like there was the core of a novel (let's be real, the central relationship) here that could have been my jam, but this was not quite it. And this was a book where it needed to be your jam to really enjoy.
A Pocket Guide to Pigeon Watching, by Rosemary Mosco: As the title says! I don't think this was organized in a way as to structure the information on pigeon variants in a memorable way, which was unfortunately what I'd hoped for. Also, the genetics were 9th grade bio bad: just because something is dominant doesn't mean it ought be more prevalent, so the blue color being more common and it being recessive to red should be unrelated. Unless you know very little about pigeons and cannot extrapolate, I don't think this was worth reading.
Counterfeit, by Kirstin Chen, read by Catherine Ho: Chinese American lawyer struggling with taking time off to care for her baby gets sucked into a scheme by her college roommate to return replica luxury handbags and resell them. Recced by
meitachi. I really got sucked into the story; it never is really surprising in where it goes, but it sure does have momentum! I enjoyed the protagonist playing into the stereotypes about what kind of insecurities and negative traits someone of her background would have. Does what it says on the tin in a fun, light read.TWICE Ready To Be concert: I enjoyed it, yay! The camera work was much better than the Mamamoo concert -- more stably on the girls and more thought out (though some of the decisions, with the big cutout in the center blocking half the girls in the middle in the full shots, were a little baffling). However, they had pretty significant mic issues and the sound balance was off, which was disappointing. Also, some of them were noticeably tired (from the heat?) which sucked. The live band was great! I also really liked the section where they had the camera on the audience members doing the dances, though it ran on for a bit too long; the fans were so good at the dances! I think I'm not planning on going to any more concerts of this scale, but it was fun to have done.
Old Fashion Cupcake (2022): Japanese office romance BL. What it says on the tin; I watched it in a large group and it was good for that. Cute, but kind of forgettable? Actors were p hot though, basically a requirement of the genre.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse: Lives up to the awesome animation expectations, with lots of fun visual easter eggs and references. The humor also largely hit for me, and there was good pacing and sufficient plot. Obviously is a a big budget for the family film, so it doesn't go very far in complexities, emotional or plot-wise. It tried to subvert the whole cop thing, did not totally succeed, but I still enjoyed Hobie. One complaint: scientists being evil, fine. But a scientist who produces weird portals all over his body would definitely be of scientific interest to his scientist buddies! They wouldn't ostracize him! Think of all the papers you could write!
