May 18th - May 23rd 2026

Music

• Ineffably (BBC Maida Vale Session) | Momoko Gill - Raw and unending. My favorite song this month.
• Hinagiku-theme from “Agents of the Four Seasons Dance of Spring” | Kensuke Ushio - Brought tears to my eyes. Too bad the anime is ass. From the GOAT who brought us the Reze Arc soundtrack.
• Jackpot | Nikki Lane - If you like your southern accents like you like you women, thicc.
• Chapter | Nelke - It feels sooooooooooooooo good.

News/Essays

• Handmade: Two Chinese Productions Go Viral for Skipping AI | Sixth Tone - Hmmmmm what a moment we live in.
• ‘Unbelievably Accurate’: The Niche Dating Apps Sweeping China’s Colleges | Sixth Tone - HYperlocal dating, imagine if Yikyak did anything but spread secrets and misinfo lmao. It’s curious that the apps - now expanding to other campuses - are basically locked to elite universities. My last university also had a local dating app, but it was a singular event each year with a survey element as well. It is fascinating to see folks blame an app in a breakup, I only used the apps in my late 20s, so maybe this is still common, but it seems in the US to be less common.

Books/Manga

• The Pohaku | Jasmine ‘Iolani Hakes | 2026 - I will have the full review up later this week, but the short of it is that this book gets progressively worse as you get closer to the end. The reason being the book spends more time in the historical events rather than the grandmother’s storytelling to her granddaughter. The writing really falls apart, it becomes sparse and lacking in quality control. The story pacing, the character and fidelity of scenes becomes very shallow. It feels exactly like when you are writing a research paper and you have to go from what you already know to your theories of something new - all of the writing of the grandmother and recent history Hawai’i are brilliant and bring tears to my eyes they remind me of home. The historical storytelling is so lacking in depth and authenticity it takes you out of the immersion. Overall, I could have done without reading this, which is painful to say.