where's your malloy tonight ?

max and the midknights : the tower of time

2022 - lincoln peirce

book read - may 3, 2026

i own the first two books in this series. my brother borrowed this third one from his school library so i could know how it ended. i read the first two in middle school and i liked them back then but dang going through them now the sentiment is not the same unfortunately. silly and creative enough but i can't fully get behind the writing style. the sarcastic, self-aware, self-referential first-person pov style is a classic for sure but it is SO over the top in max's voice sometimes, it's obnoxious. also just rubbed me the wrong way how max and her twin sister mary are so focused on solving the mystery of their origins that the story seems to downplay the importance of the people who've raised them their whole lives 😔😔😔 justice for perrin and uncle budrick 😔😔😔 it's an entertaining enough read for a children's book, but i always preferred captain underpants to big nate, anyways.

much ado about nothing

2026 - LOCAL YOUTH PRODUCTION - original show by william shakespeare

play watch - april 28, 2026

I LOVE LOCAL THEATRE !!! this was a youth production as in the cast and crew was made up of all teenagers and they are so talented !! shoutout my pal who was one of the directors, shoutout the person who played benedick he was so funny. i couldn't contain my joy at the choreography of the masquerade ball it was delightful. it reached the part where beatrice told benedick to kill claudio and it all clicked for me dude. i Got much ado. i Got it. i hate claudio's ass i hope he dies

bridge to terabithia

1977 - katherine paterson

book reread - april 23, 2026

i always get through most of the book thinking, « surely, this time, i won't cry » it's the same things every time that get me. leslie's dad. jess's teacher. ouwh...

it'd been a few years since i'd reread bridge to terabithia. i'm an adult now and it's interesting to look back at this book from the 70s and notice how it's aged. there's a sort of mean-spiritedness towards all the female characters that aren't jess's beloved music teacher miss edmunds and his best friend leslie, both who are portrayed as different from the rest of them, both outsiders in their own right, hippie-adjacent in post-vietnam usa. it was genuinely surprising just how much of it there was. most of the sources of disturbance and annoyance for jess are female characters : his shallow older sisters, his bothersome younger sisters, his nagging mom, his strict teacher, his fat overweight bully... there's a recurring sentiment of putting down fat women that really stuck out to me this time around. arguably, these reflect jess's own flawed perspective, influenced by how he lives in a majority female household. that perspective is then often challenged throughout turning points through the story : the incident with janice crying in the bathroom, jess's teacher ms. meyers comforting him, and the ending with may belle. however, i don't think that it accounts for all the novel's questionable towards women, especially its fatphobia, and the unforgiving way it characterizes jess's older sisters ellie and brenda.

another rather funny aspect to miss edmunds is how jess's « perfect day » with her reads as extremely concerning now - why, on a rainy day, is a grown woman's first instinct to call her twelve-year-old student and take him out of town to spend the day alone with him ? what the fuck lmaoooo.

i hope by pointing out these aspects i don't give off the impression of putting down bridge to terabithia. i mean, it's a children's story that is beloved all over the world, and more importantly it's an important novel to me, personally, one of the classics that really stands out to me from my childhood. i don't know what i could say to praise it that hasn't been said before. jess's profound loneliness and feeling out of place is incredibly effective - his character is so well crafted in his wants and goals and struggles and insecurities. terabithia itself was always wonderful to me as a kid, because i also loved to make worlds of my own in my head, and i loved to see how leslie would go about giving meaning to everything. and of course, the portrayal of grief, one so impactful the tears manages to catch me by surprise every time.

another thing i'd like to add about what i appreciate is leslie's gender presentation. i know i just criticized the way the only female characters in the novel are the ones who are « not like the others », and leslie being a tomboy definitely plays a part (especially in contrast to brenda and ellie's femininity, portrayed as ditsy and vapid) but of course there is also value in the tomboy character and how leslie is treated by people in their town. (it's almost as if no matter what a girl's presentation is, she cannot win.) not to be an annoying ass queer about it, but in using leslie's androgyny as a jumping off point, i kinda adore the interpretation of this story through a queer lens. leslie can be butch, leslie can be a trans boy, or whatnot... leslie doesn't feel right with the rest of the girls and her family's lifestyle already singles them out as different, progressive. this progressiveness could also mean that leslie is already aware of and recognizes at least the possibility of herself being queer. through jess's perspective as well, i just find it so striking that the person who changed his life was an andogynous girl. a tomboy. jess is an aspiring artist, but keeps it on the down-low because of the threat of judgement and teasing by the other kids at school and his parents' disapproval, a toxic masculine attitude in their small conservative town. there's a passage from the second chapter that stood out to me, with jess's father reacting to jess professing his desire to pursue art :

"What are they teaching in that damn school? he had asked. "Bunch of old ladies turning my only son into some kind of-" He had stopped on the word, but Jess had gotten the message. It was one you didn't forget, even after four years. (page 14)

within such an interpretation, one could then go on to look at jess's crush on miss edmunds and see it as his deep admiration and fondness for the one person who supports him and his interests. one could also look at his obsession with becoming the fastest kid in his grade as an attempt to fit in and gain the approval of the other boys, when he has no friends at all and his only friend ends up being a girl. the relationship between the two could be romantic, but there's a magic in their platonic friendship in the novel, and if you know me you'd know that one of my favourite tropes is of two queer kids finding each other amidst adverse circumstances and being there for each other, as friends. then there's the matter of terabithia. anyone can want and need fantasy escapism, but it has a particular significance to queer people, building stories and worlds where they can be free to be who they are and love who they love...

it was surprising to me how most of the discussion i found of it online was centered around the 2007 film which i have not watched and honestly was hardly aware of up until recently. i cannot therefore comment too much on how their version of leslie is more feminine, adopting instead a modernized (for 2007) quirky, eccentric, somewhat alternative style to set her apart from the rest. i appreciate the effort to adapt leslie's otherness to adhere with the expectations of the time, but i do think if i do watch it i'd miss my androgynous girl. i did find a 2017 blog review of the novel that presents a gay interpretation which made me happy, so check it out here. paul here seems to hate the movie despite how well beloved it is. i wonder why. maybe i should actually watch it at some point to see for myself.

every time i reread bridge to terabithia, i find so much more to admire about it. i didn't expect to have this much to say. regardless of its imperfections and products of its time, it's a triumph of a book. i really despise when people talk about it saying « why is this CHILDREN'S BOOK/MOVIE SO SAD ??? i cant believe we were all TRAUMATIZED » and « i should NOT have been reading/watching this when i was so young ». i don't get it. grief is not only for adults. that's what's so beautiful about this novel, how it explores friendship and first loss and treats it with care, and can act as perhaps a young reader's first exposure to grief. i could never dismiss its significance like that. i know the way it sticks with me is profound, and i don't expect it to leave me any time soon.

the little prince

1943 - antoine de saint-exupéry

book reread - april 23, 2026

my younger brother has been reading more and in an effort to encourage him further i've pulled some of my own books from my book shelf to recommend to him. he's not that fast of a reader, and when i pointed that out to him he asked how long it would take me to read these books, and i was like. bet. they're short children's books in the first place, so i banged out both this and bridge to terabithia in an afternoon. the little prince is a perfect little story to me. sometimes i forget how somber the tone is all throughout, contemplative, laced with longing, and yet - still so whimsical and magical and full of wonder at the world. this novella holds children in the highest regard, and therefore it is imaginative like a child, and wise like one.

une symphonie banale

2026 - ORIGINAL UNIVERSITY THEATRE COMPANY SHOW

play watch - march 20, 2026

this was an interesting watch ! this was a hybrid showcase of monologues written by students as well as scenes from famous french playwrights, all loosely tied by the theme of our school. le manière dont ils ont relié les scènes à l'univsersité c'était très drôle mdr.

the importance of being earnest

2025 - ROYAL NATIONAL THEATRE PRODUCTION ; max webster (proshot) - original show by oscar wilde

play proshot watch - march 13, 2026

oh oscar wilde it has been 130 years since the original opening of this play was closely followed by your trials and conviction for your homosexuality. and you are so so loved

it shoulda been you

2015 - ORIGINAL BROADWAY PRODUCTION ; david hyde pierce (slime tutorial) - original show by barbera anselmi and brian hargrove

musical bootleg watch - march 10, 2026

you are not ready for the gay people in this show

la passion d'augustine

2015 - léa pool

film watch - march 3-5, then again march 14, 2026

j’appécie cette exploration du bouleversement de l’église catholique au québec face aux changements politiques et sociaux dans les années 60. cependant il aurait dû avoir plus de lezzing out

les misérables

2026 - NORTH AMERICAN TOUR ; laurence connor and james powell - original show by alain boubil, claude-michel schönberg, and herbert kretzmer

musical watch - march 1, 2026

this was a beautiful moment for me. les mis, the most important musical ever to me, live. and what a perfect production, oh my goodness. nick cartell as jean valjean is incredible. can you imagine doing 1500+ shows as jvj. unexpectedly angelic voice. renewed my love and affection for the old man 💗 enjolras makes me soooo excited. i heard the beginning of abc cafe/red and black and got SOOO excited. when he went into do you hear the people sing... heck yes. i was so happy during one day more. i was so so happy. and the barricades were devastatingggggg me when at gavroche's death he disappears behind the barricade, his voice echoing across the stage, everyone frozen while looking at him except for grantaire who's center front turned towards the audience with his head down... me when grantaire's the last to die on the barricades. me when they wheel enjolras's body out and the light shines on him and slowly fades. i got through most of it without crying but i was done for when jvj said « it's the story of those who always loved you » and when we got to « to love another person is to see the face of god » oh les mis you will always be famous.

sweeney todd

2026 - HIGH SCHOOL PRODUCTION - original show by stephen sondheim and hugh wheeler

musical watch - february 26, 2026

rahhhhh my old high school's so awesomeeeee. the production design was TOP TIER. impeccable lighting and sets and makeup. PIRELLI WAS REALLY FUNNY. and johanna's voice was heavenly, the best in the cast, i understand why anthony fell in love with her. the most captivating in general however was TOBY !!!!!! what a talented kid, and she's a ninth grader as well. sweeney todd's an interesting one for me because i knew the general plot including most of the twists, but i didn't remember a lot of how they actually played out so it was crazy to go through it again and rediscover OH SHIT, THATS HOW . OHHH NO. etc. shoutout my friend who i watched with, we were clutching our heads in distress together. shoutout also the 67 joke. IT WAS ANTHONY'S UNDERSTUDY WHO WAS ON AND AT THE ASYLUM HE ACCIDENTALLY DROPPED THE GUN PROP AND HAD TO PICK IT UP AND IT SO ADDED TO THE MOMENT. god i love anthony and johanna

revolution radio

2016 - green day

album listen - february 20, 2026

for ages my brother had been telling me to listen to revrad and so i was teaching him how to make columns in css and decided to put it on in the background. i should probs relisten to it and actually pay attention lol

hyperlove

2026 - mika

album listen - january 22, 2026

what a fucking experience. so weird and wonderful. surprisingly thematically coherent, bordering even on concept album - as one person on tumblr put it, kind of like a sci fi rock opera you find at like 13 and it changes your life. « hyperlove and living, just a part of modern times » ... grappling with this hyperconnected world and asking what love and connection and humanity truly mean in the face of these unprecedented times... love being at the centre of it all... there was a moment it felt like i was somewhere else, far from where i really was, but also i was very much a teenager dancing in my bedroom. stream nicotine