3/30/26
reading
those Heights continue to Wuther! i'm genuinely wondering if this is simply a book that should be read much earlier in life than i am; Emily Brontë published it when she was 29, and the oldest age that's been mentioned so far was, iirc, Hareton dying at 27 (Joseph, of course, is elderly throughout, but he's never driving the action of the book!), and i think the rest of the main cast were at least a few years younger than him. there's a 12-year time skip after Catherine dies, so maybe Heathcliff and Mr. Linton and Nelly are all in their early-to-mid 30s, and i haven't really seen how any of them behave now that they're a bit older, other than Heathcliff being a dick to Lockwood in the frame narrative of the first two chapters. now that i'm solidly in my 40s, i simply struggle to comprehend the passions of even my own 20s and 30s, much less anyone else's. i'm glad they're having fun / sorry that happened, i guess.
listening
last October, the Irish harpist Joy Shannon released In the Forest Singing Sorrowless, a collection of J.R.R. Tolkien's poetry set to music. i liked it so much that i wanted to pick up a hard copy, but the CD release by Fiadh Productions sold out before i had the spare cash for it (i have just looked now and seen that it's still available direct from the artist, oops!). luckily for me, it was one of the bonus codes that i got with whatever i ordered next from Fiadh, and even more luckily for my object-fetishism, they did a second edition on cassette for this year's Tolkien Reading Day, and my copy came in today. it's still a great album and i'm glad to be able to hold it in my hands!
i also want to sing the praises of Fiadh, who are easily my favorite record label operating right now. they put out a stunning diversity of metal and synth music, with a constant focus on anti-fascism and animal rights (a lot of their profit goes to local animal shelters in NYC). if you just want a digital album, they send you to buy direct from the artist (i suppose you could pay the $333 all their digital releases are set at, but i hope no one actually has), but when you order a tape or a CD or a record from them it always comes with a wealth of goodies: a whopping ten download codes for random records from their vast catalog (looking at my purchase history up now up to 80 of them and i've only ever gotten three or four duplicates), obviously not every single one of these is going to be to any given person's taste (except for Bariann, the label owner's!) but there's always at least one or two that i really like, and a handful that i think are pretty good, and i've never felt like i've wasted my time listening to them all. they also send a printout of a vegan recipe, a couple of cute animal stickers, and a little silicon toy animal (this time i got a pink hedgehog!). i simply can't recommend their releases enough.
playing
i've had 1000xRESIST in my backlog for a while now and i'm kicking myself that it took me this long to start playing it. i'm early enough in the game that i feel like i don't have a lot to say about it yet that's not just "describing what happened", but it's lodged itself very firmly in my head. at the very least, i think anyone who enjoyed NieR: Automata or Analogue: A Hate Story (and their respective prequels and sequels) will really enjoy this one. though perhaps "enjoy" is not the right word, because no one is having a good time here!