3/24/2026 Moodboarding

The March 2026 feeling, in wonderfully low quality.

Here is my Pinterest collage that describes this month. I have never done anything like this before, so I was just throwing shit at the wall. I tried to fill every bit of space that I could here, but I couldn't. I never could do so in my first grade art projects. It was impossible to me at the time. How could something so simple, like filling in all the white space in a drawing, be so difficult? Children really do have it hard.

3/6/2026 I'm Not Particularly Surprised That a Man With That Mustache is an Asshole

I think the Timothée Chalamet clip of him calling opera and ballet irrelevant was stupid. I'm a really big opera person myself, so it made my chest tighten a little. But now I have seen people writing think pieces on how Chalamet has grown too arrogant and sucks now. All this over a classic unfunny tasteless YouTuber-style joke? Were you surprised that this young and skinny white man with a mustache and old-man eyes is randomly rude to random people and has bad comedic timing? Was this shocking to you? Sure, I would love to see an actor in 2026 who appreciates the theater, especially as its narrative structure bleeds into that of early film - but it should not be strange to you that Chalamet, a film actor in the 21st century and famously obnoxious high schooler, does not see "Il barbiere" as relevant to his career.

And now every ballet company and opera house is tagging him and writing big paragraphs about how important ballet and opera are, and I really do not think that it is all that big of a deal. It is always horrifying when something that should just stay between a few film Twitter accounts breaks through onto Instagram. Glad that you all get an opportunity to promote yourselves, but this is embarrassing. And not classy. I know the history of opera and ballet is famously not classy, but that shouldn't stop us from improving!!! Come on!!!

In short, I really didn't think this would be that big of a deal, and it's embarrassing to see people blow up about it. The one positive is that a man is getting the amount of fierce backlash that women in the public eye get all the time. Do I enjoy that all of us are at risk of getting clipped out of context and analyzed into oblivion? No. It's my worst nightmare. But who in the world is a more deserving victim than Timothée Chalamet?

3/5/2026 I Love Palm Pals

The ideal stuffed animal for me has beady black eyes, a suitably sized nose, and a tasteful mouth or lack of mouth. Palm Pals are very nearly perfect in that regard. Look at these bears. Oh my god. They're perfect.

The bears.

Their little stubby paws n feet :.......(((( Their little noses n their little eyes T_T Are you seeing these kitties???

The cats.

You don't fucking understand. The gray one is an accomplice to the orange one's shenanigans. They're holding the yarn. I'm gonna cry. The orange one looks so confused with their mouth all little and cute...

There are puppies, too. Look at tha spaniel with their fluffy ears....

The doggies.

I have the golden retriever doggy and her fur gives her angry eyebrows. She's a baby. 

My darling daughter.

I also have the little lop-eared bunny in the center.

The bnubys.

Mine looks different than his cousin in the photo. He looks more wide-eyed and inquisitive and stupid. I love my baby bnuuy son. 

The bnuuy.

I also have a black cat who I especially coddle, given that he is one of the few cat stuffies I own (the others are my sister's).

The stock Palm Pal black cat.

Once again my boy looks different than this guy. He has a stupider face.

My other baby son.

Palm Pals are very small so they are not very huggable. However, nothing compares to the feeling of putting a little Palm Pal in the collar of your sweatshirt and letting its little head poke out. They also come in a great variety. Look at tha elephants.....

The elephants.

They travel in herds :((( Pack-yderms :(((( They're best friends. Do not separate. Put them in your mouth

3/4/2026 Going Through a RIIZE Single, Backwards

So it has been a while... I'm sorry... I have been very busy and stressed. I should probably make shorter blog posts from now on.

So, "Fame" by RIIZE. This was the group's last Korean comeback, in November of 2025. I anticipated it with bated breath. In the end I fear for the most part I was a little disappointed. For the sake of positivity, though, I want to review the songs of the single in reverse order, because the first song is my favorite and the third my least favorite. 

Sticky Like

The day on which this song was released was a mediocre mudpit of a day and I had no patience for anything that wouldn't astonish me. "Sticky Like", unfortunately, is not astonishing at all.

There are many nice things about it, I'm realizing upon listening to it again. The piano melody that underscores the song adds a little richness that couldn't be lent to it by guitar. I like the leisurely beat. I like the lovely high innocence of Sohee and Anton's voices, especially the "echo, echo, echo" line that bleeds into the next phrase. But nothing else really hits. It's just a pretty version of a song I have heard over and over again.

Only an EXO-like focus on beauty and originality of melody could have saved this, in my opinion. There's one pretty part in the first verse, delivered of course by Sohee; otherwise there's not much here to redeem the raps. The rapping was a low point in this album, as we will see with "Fame". I'm so sad - I really like Sungchan. I think his rap is the best part of "Bag Bad Back"! This does not cut it, though.

I may very well revise my opinion on this one - I haven't listened to it as much. I also must acknowledge that my standards are high. If any other fifth-gen boy group released "Sticky Like", I would be very happy. RIIZE just happen to be my favorites of this generation. 

And that, paradoxically, has led to me finally putting this song on my playlist.

Fame

I should not have been as frightened as I was when I first heard that "Fame" was going to be a rage rap song. All modern global pop is taken from Black culture, whether African or U.S. or U.K., but I feared an egregious level of poser-ism in a hip-hop song. Something All Day Project-esque. Something Cortis-esque. Thankfully I was wrong. While this does not necessarily preclude cultural appropriation, RIIZE are relatively musically conservative. In K-pop, I've observed, a lot of "boundary-pushing" groups are more inclined to borrow heavily from Black culture, probably for shock value, as if doing so is inherently scandalous. This is just my perspective, and I do not want to discourage breaking barriers and taking influence from around the globe. I also don't mean to insult RIIZE - I think they do unique things in other ways.

I said in a review of the more evil "FE!N" knockoff "Knife" by Enhypen that "Fame" is held back by its popiness. The instrumental is good, but it does not hit hard enough. The lyrics are angsty, but they are not angsty enough. The raps - are bad.

[Shotaro] Super hard (Super hard), make it loud (Make it loud)
What kind of day (Breathe, breathe) do you want? Yeah
[Sungchan] Not just the outward appearance, but the real me
Burst, I’m only here now, bass go boom, boom, boom, boom (Boom) 

I am so sorry. Shotaro's part belongs in a semi-comedic song like "Just Right" by GOT7. Sungchan's delivery on "moseup" (모습) is an echo of the uniqueness of his rap in "Bad Bag Back", but the "bass go boom" part obscures it like a cloud of evil. Why was it added? What relevance does it have besides being a reference? Was the melody for this song written in thirty minutes?

Indeed it feels like it. Little care for originality is put into any part of the melody of this song, least of all the chorus. Sohee's famous "pass me the key" part at the end of the second verse is barely anticipated and terminated abruptly, making it sound like an unsuccessful stand-in for a bridge. 

"Fame", however, is relistenable, partially because it's the only rage rap K-pop boy group song I can listen to without feeling a little weird. The other part comes from the passion in the members' voices - I've gotten used to Eunseok's silly little deep-voiced rap, and I will say that Anton put his all into this (didn't like "shot shot, flashlight", though). Also every time a flashlight is mentioned in a RIIZE song (three times so far) I think they're saying "fleshlight" and I giggle.

Also also the dance is fucking flames, especially the outro, in which they all follow Shotaro in waves. Fuck, can these young men dance!

Something's in the Water

I want to get my one big criticism of this song out of the way - I expected it to flow more. The first and last thirds of the song were featured in a trailer for the single, with only a few changes made to those parts of it. I thought some of the choices made, such as the instrumental halt on the first "water", were for narrative purposes, like how songs featured in movie trailers are often rearranged. That this part is the same in the release isn't necessarily bad - I just think it would be cooler if it was even more different, you know?

Even that is a tiny problem. Rewatching the trailer, I find all my initial excitement returning. This is peak. Everyone's voice sounds beautiful. I don't think Sohee is capable of delivering a line without that exquisite elastic sensitivity with which he sings "nuneul gamgo breathe, running all the way". I adore how Wonbin, whose voice can sound so harsh (and indeed does, later in the song), sings the first chorus so gently, in a way that flows evenly into the dark hollowness of Eunseok's voice. Anton's opening is just so perfect. Nothing can recreate the feeling of hearing it for the first time.

"I couldn't save us in time.
I don't do good by myself.
I should have you by my side."

It's so romantic, the way this guy delivers these lines, especially "I don't do good by myself." I believe him. I am buying this subtle Y/N-style K-pop boy fantasy. I also believe that second chorus "something wakes me up" even more than I believe Wonbin's first one. Fuck, dude, this is peak. I told you these boys are talented. Listen to that ad-lib after the first chorus and those harmonies at the end.

I do not even care that this song is less than two minutes and twenty-two seconds. There, I said it. I think a song like this deserves to be tragically trampled by a horse in its youth. I would have liked it to go on for eighty verses, but that is not how life works. One can only contemplate one's reflection in the music building bathroom mirror for so long before you have to go to class. 

The tight composition combined with the real passion of its performers makes it feel so real in its semi-narrative nature - although feelings of self-doubt and insecurity are almost universal, as well as breakups, there's something obviously specific going on here. I'll give credit to "Fame" for this, too. I won't give shit to "Sticky Like".

"Something's in the Water" and "Fame" are, in reality, inseparable songs, and I will think of them fondly as a fun November emo interlude in RIIZE's early career. Although 2025 was a difficult year to be a fan, the fact that they released the song of the year ("Another Life") in May and proceeded to beat it in November makes me feel lucky to be alive. The world is beautiful.