the first seven days of september
sounds like a romance novel but it is just my silly little life
Tis the season! Virgo season that is. Please don’t waste your time believing Virgo seasons starts in August. Those are not real Virgos. September virgo-hood is where it is at and the season is upon us. Despite the fact that Virgo season is the best time of the year, it is also the saddest time of year (for me) because it is my birthday and I cry on my birthday every single year. However, my birthday isn’t until the 11th so here’s the shit that’s gone down before I inevitably spend this weekend in tears and having a pre-quarter-life crisis over the fact that I’m one year away from an actual quarter-life crisis.
STARTING HOT: I watched Bodies Bodies Bodies, the new A24 whodunnit, thriller, comedy, the list goes on. The film has been out for a while in the US but has not hit the big screens in the UK just yet. However, I knew I needed to see it as a matter of urgency. Especially after the shit that went down with Amandla Stenberg’s response to being slammed by a NYT reporter.
It is such a shame that most of the press I saw for Bodies Bodies Bodies was surrounding NYT reporter Lena Wilson objectifying the film by labelling it “a 95-minute advertisement for cleavage”… people have boobs? isn’t that day one of basic human biology? That being said, now I have watched the film - it was nothing out of the ordinary. The film is called Bodies Bodies Bodies, and no it is not referring to the literal perception of the human body but maybe we should take a minute to think about the fact that it is literally just a body (body body).
The endings of any whodunnit film are what determines whether or not it was a good film, in my opinion. As with Knives Out (2019), I did not expect the ending to be what it was and in turn, the sheer shock factor, made it 5 stars.
Starring Pete Davidson being the most Pete Davidson character ever and Amandla Stenberg giving yet another incredible performance, the film follows the night of a house party game gone wrong. Though Pete Davidson and Amandla Stenberg are the big names in this film, the cast were all phenomenal. Maybe with the exception of Conner O’Malley who played Max because he really didn’t have enough screen time for me to make an in-depth analysis of his performance. Chase Sui Wonders (Emma) and Myha’la Herrold (Jordan) gave my favourite performances. Theres something about ‘the broken woman who acts like they have their shit together’ trope that makes me fall head over heels for them.
Cha Cha Real Smooth dir. Cooper Raiff was a film I knew I NEEDED to watch. Cooper Raiff directed one of my favourite films, ShitHouse. Then came Cha Cha Real Smooth with the same director and starring the love of my life, Dakota Johnson? yeah immediate must watch.
There is a vulnerability to Cooper Raiff’s work that the world needs so much more of. The talk of mental health in such a candid way is so special. Both ShitHouse and Cha Cha Real Smooth glued my silly little broken brain back together for a brief moment in time. Those who are vulnerable with their art make the best art. To put so much emotion on a screen the way Cooper Raiff does is a gift I am forever grateful for.
If you’re in need of a binge-worthy TVshow, appletv has stood the test of time. New release Bad Sisters is one of the best shows I’ve binge watched in a while. To be fair, there are only 4 episodes out right now and they come out weekly so the agonising torture of waiting for answers every week is prevalent here, like the old days when streaming sites like Netflix didn’t fill our immediate gratification void, but it is worth every second of the wait.
The show follows a group of sisters who, rightfully, want their brother in law dead. The question is, who killed him and how? We’re four episodes in and I haven’t the faintest idea what could have happened. Every time I think I have a lead, its immediately shut down. I feel like a criminal detective at this point. The show is dark but so incredibly funny. Seriously, how does a show about murder also contain the quote “that’s your fucking vulva, you can do what you want with it”. Major slay in my opinion
Things I read:
I do believe in Taylor Jenkins Reid world domination. I really do. Her latest novel, Carrie Soto is Back came out and I was beyond eager to read it. The book follows Carrie Soto, tennis superstar and record breaker, through her journey to holding records and then losing them and being okay with it. It has love and pain and loss and hunger and everything that makes a book so gripping that you refuse to put it down.
Nothing about tennis has ever really excited me. I live in London but have never been to Wimbledon to watch a game of tennis and to be honest, I don’t think I ever will. The most tennis I’ve ever participated in was my short lived, but very intense, obsession with Wii Fit. And that was over 10 years ago. Since then, I haven’t given it much thought. Until Carrie Soto is Back. I was completely immersed into her world. Her drive for a sport that has defined her whole life was overwhelmingly inspirational. The book is perfect.
Shortly after reading (read: the second I finished) Carrie Soto is Back, I picked up How to Kill Your Family by Bella Mackie. Pretty much everybody I know has read this book and I won’t lie, I was intrigued. Not because I want to kill my family but because I wanted to know how much of the title was just clickbait for an intrigued mind. Well, I was not disappointed. It is quite literally a book about how one kills their family. I did really enjoy this book, despite how many people i’ve seen online saying they put it in their ‘did not finish’ piles. I will say, however, a lot of my enjoyment from this book stems from the fact that I am extremely familiar with the locations and settings in the book. Having grown up in London, I understand the perceptions of different areas and what living in each area might portray to another native Londoner. So, some of the comments made in the book about Clapham, Dulwich, Battersea and Mile End, for example, make a lot more sense to me and the humour felt like a code only Londoners could embrace.
Not to say that you shouldn’t read How to Kill Your Family if you’re not from London, but just bare what I stated in mind. The book is funny, beyond the parameters of holding London stereotypes, the humour is very British and blunt. The protagonist is extremely relatable, despite her being a series killer, I think her thought processes and morals are something the masses can relate to.
Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner… oh boy! As a child of an immigrant mother, this book punched me right where it hurt. I remember a few years ago, when I first met one of my now closest friends, we realised that cutting up fruit to bring to your daughter is not something all mothers did. We then realised it was something a lot ethnic mothers did. For me, my mum has always cut up fruit and brought it to my room for as long as I can remember. The fact that I loved her native dishes was always something that made her smile. Within the first couple of pages of Crying in H Mart, I knew that love the way I knew my name. The love that is not shared through words but through gestures. I think that when you grow up in a country that isn’t the country your mother is from, you think her way of doing things is different or “weird”. It is only with age you begin to realise that there is a culture difference in love languages and you have only ever been fully exposed to one and not the other.
Crying in H Mart is an emotional read for everyone, but I think more than anything it is a warm hug to those of us who grew up with immigrant mothers in a country that wasn’t their mothers home.
Skincare:
It has been a BAAAADDD start to the month in regards to skincare. I finally caved and purchased my first ever Drunk Elephant skincare product and this bitch burnt my whole face. I am not a dermatologist and know nothing about skincare, really, but I often think that if I put something on my face and it burns then it is doing its job. WRONG. I used the Protini Polypeptide Cream from Drunk Elephant, went to sleep after a subtle burning feeling, woke up and worked out and the combination of post-protini burn and sweat made me feel like I dipped my face in hot acid. And no, I did not learn from my mistakes. I proceeded to put it on again and my face went bright red and has now been left with a bunch of texture that wasn’t previously there. So that’s me done with Drunk Elephant until further notice.
That, however, was the only shit show I had with skincare this week. I also found the ‘love of my life, holy grail, where was I without it skincare’ product I never knew I needed. The Sunday Riley Good Genes Glycolic Acid Treatment is a facial in a bottle. I put it on and immediately saw results. This is not hyperbolic paid advertisement. I literally bought the product with my own great British pounds and sighed at the fact that it worked because now I have to buy it again when it’s finished. It’s that good.
Music:
My Spotify stats rarely change from month to month. My top 5 songs always being a mixture of 3 Phoebe Bridgers’ songs and 2 songs that I decided to obsesses over that month. For the first week of September, my Spotify top 5 ranking is as follows:
Sidelines by Phoebe Bridgers
We’ll Never Have Sex by Leith Ross
Graceland Too by Phoebe Bridgers
Georgia by Phoebe Bridgers
Little Freak by Harry Styles
I have never in my entire life related to a song less than We’ll Never Have Sex by Leith Ross but it is so beautiful and I have listened to it on repeat non-stop this week. But seriously, you’ve been kissed just to be kissed and not to be taken home? the most humble brag my ears have ever heard. I cannot relate.
My mother, like me, enjoys sad music. Though there was a period in my life where she would get incredibly worried when I listened to Adele with my bedroom door shut and wouldn’t leave for days on end… but besides that, she is very much like me. Sad music is a vibe. So a couple of months ago when my mum decided to share with me that she wanted to see Lewis Capaldi live, I bought tickets as soon as I could. My little 5”2 mum had a strawberry mojito and was ready to let loose and I, chronically numb to emotion due to sertraline, was also ready to let loose to some sad songs. I thoroughly enjoyed his concert. I’ve always known Lewis Capaldi is incredibly talented, I don’t think anybody can deny that. But his level of humour is the biggest chefs kiss to me. I find him to be one of the funniest people of our generation and I would happily pay good money to see him just speak on stage for a couple of hours - the singing is just a bonus.
The biggest shock of this whole concert, though, was the fact that Natasha Bedingfield was the opening act? HELLO? YOU MEAN THE WOMAN THAT WROTE THE SOUNDTRACK TO MY CHILDHOOD? I lost my goddamn mind.
I also got Harry Styles’ tickets this month and that is my only reason to not play with traffic before 2023.
happy virgo season my loves x