#discographies

My last post here was in December 2020. I did not mean to fall of the earth since. I have a post that just me going off on Joss Whedon here in the drafts somewhere. I never ended up posting that here this year when I meant to do so. Lol.

I'm an old school Buffy the Vampire Slayer (or BtVS and Charmed, etc) fan of the 90s, an older millennial born in the late 80s (1987, to be exact) and that post on sh*thead Whedon was something long due to be posted here because I've had it with everything he's done in the BtVS set, Angel to the Justice League set. I've also had it with his shitty storylines for female and black characters on his tv shows and films. I haven't seen him really handle asian characters but I bet he's as shitty at handling them as he does the female and black characters so...yeah...at least I don't have to go off on him on that one. He does seem to not be too into asian characters though and there's really a lack of asian representation on his works so it's pretty telling of how he treats people---asian, black, female, all.

But anyway, I didn't mean this post to be on a**hat Whedon. This post is a year in review of 2021 and by extension, some of 2020. I fangirl and flail on stuff on my twitter, @kg_0917, so I'll base this review of the year on that one.

So what are the highlights of 2021 for me...hmn...???

There's really not much highlights in real life because 2021, like 2020, was a year I spent mostly at home in as a homebody and due to the still ongoing Covid 19 pandemic. We've been on whatever kind of community quarantine since 2019-ish for how long exactly? Yeah, 2, almost 3 years now. It's all thanks to new variants of the novel corona virus, Delta and now, one thing we're looking closely at as Omicron. I feel like we will discover ALL the greek alphabet at this point should this go on.

So yes, since 2019, I hardly go out. I'm always at home. Right...since the company I previously worked in sent us all home and had us all work from home when the pandemic here in the Philippines worsened, heightened. I only ever went out for groceries, some errands, and the occasion hangout with my girls I miss so much now, still. (My bff and I just met up and hung out at the newly opened Tomas Saco branch of Chingkeetea too. It's a local tea place I've been obsessed about since it started here, back when I was in college me thinks, and boomed and continue to be strong 'til now.) I don't really order in a lot either because I'm mostly uncomfortable using food delivery services not attached to the cafes and restaurants I buy from so yeah. No Grab food delivery, Foodpanda and the likes for me.

2021...I don't know. For some, it's boring because we all stayed in but for others, like yours truly, we've found some things to preoccupy and amuse ourselves with while staying home. I know for some it's games---board games, video games and more---and bonding time with the family. For me and a good, really old friend since I was in LiveJournal (and yes, I'm still there now but I'm using the space for something else yet), it's music. We've both been into exploring the discographies of bands, groups and more of the past and present. She's a huge fan of punk rock or punk pop and 2020 and 2021, for me, made me discover that I'm really into mostly pop (indie, some mainstream, too, of course), tropical and chill deep house, and some rock'n'roll here and there. I'm also mostly into the American side of these things.

2020 and 2021 got me into:

1. The Beach Boys

(photo from google)

It's their Sounds of Summer that first got me. I'm notorious now for putting Kokomo on eternal repeat just because of how well made that song is. The beach vibe of that song is just...so strong I'm head-over-heels, very obsessed with it. After that, it's In My Room that basically sums up this series of lockdowns (community quarantine, in Philippines' case's terms) with my stuck in my room most of the time for me, and then Good Vibrations and I Can Hear Music because...well...I'm obviously a music nut.

Brian Wilson is THE songwriter for me. I am aware much of the songs he'd written and his band has put out were completed under the influence of, say, psychedelic drugs, hallucinogens and the likes but I still say and will keep repeating (I'll even bring this to my grave, yes) that Brian Wilson IS a music genius. The Beatles, John Lennon etc, WHO? I grew up on the Beatles but since I found the Beach Boys, I'm just...everything I am looking for is with them so why should I even bother with the Beatles, exactly? I don't even care if the Beach Boys aren't that big all over the world like the Beatles in their time. What I care about is how the Beach Boys' discography really fit me well. My music tastes and all. It's such a glove-fit like...well...fit and yes, I will never part with the Beach Boys' music.

I know of some the Beach Boys songs like Barbara Ann from Toy Story (that famous minions scene, yes) and Big Time Rush's cover and poolside performance of Dance, Dance, Dance in the summer, beach-set Big Time Rush TV movie so I'm definitely no stranger into the Beach Boys before immersing myself in their discography. I'm currently on the hunt for copies of their Sounds of Summer and Pet Sounds even if they're second hand so yes, how much I'm hooked onto them and their music...it's pretty serious. It's as serious as how I follow Big Time Rush's releases and OneRepublics' as closely as I can. Also...Tove Lo's stuff.

I'm also looking into owning some fan made merch or customized merch from the Beach Boys...tshirts mostly since I don't really have a lot of band and artists' shirts yet so yeah, I'll work on that. I did a post on this one on my fashion and lifestyle blog, fashionnutcase on blogspot/blogger and it's this one with the title: wholeheartedly not half-heartedly, on band/group tshirts.

2. The Monkeys

(photo from google, cheatsheet)

....but mostly Daydream Believer (my favorite from them) and I'm a Believer.

I'm still a bit weirded out that people only know of Daydream Believer because of Wanda or WandaVision on Disney+ when I've known of the Monkees who's originally sung and performed that way, waaayy back due to I'm a Believer (covered by Smashmouth, if I'm not mistaken) in Shrek and how Big Time Rush, both the band and the tv show, were modeled after them. The latter is circa 2010 knowledge for me so I'm old in terms of knowing of the Monkees, yes. But I definitely wasn't, then, old enough to even be a huge fan and try to see them live in the USA the couple of trips I had there, when some of them, members of the Monkees, still lived and played gigs all over the said country. But anyway, that's, I guess, a millennial vs gen z thing for you...us.

There's really not much I can say about the Monkees unlike how chatty I am with the Beach Boys. I have yet to really immerse myself into the former's discography because I still can't really get past Daydream Believer especially so yeah... I can only really just talk more of the Beach Boys and their music on this post than I can of the Monkees' music.

I am interested in the Monkees' TV show and that one controversial film they released that had some anti-vietnam war sentiments though. It was deemed controversial because at the time of its release, censorship on anything to do with being anti the vietnam-american war going on in the American media. Yet...from what I'd heard on youtube on a video about the Monkees, their tv show, their music, their film/s, it went right through media censorship and aired in cinemas at the time of its release with 0 problems compared to its contemporaries then. I forgot to take not of the film's title so I'm not going dwell on that much here. I just meant to share or say that I am interested in that film and I'd watch it and the Monkees' TV show should I find them just to compare them to with BTR's show, too.

3. Britney Spears

T(photo from google)

I'm currently contemplating on getting a tshirt of hers, too. Well, fanmade, mostly, because I think vintage ones are difficult to find now. They'd also be very expensive, of course.

I mentioned earlier and I'll say it again, I'm an older millennial born in the late 80s (1987) so I know the 90s decade pretty well because I lived it both as a pre-teen and middle to late teen. I know Britney and I have some of her tapes somewhere and yes, I love, LOVE her since Baby, One More Time. I think I just haven't followed her much since In the Zone (2003), I guess. I do know songs from her like My Prerogative, Womanizer, and yes, I even followed her film, Crossroads but I only ever owned cassette tapes of hers of until the 2001 release, Britney. Slave For You is just...ugh...queen and such a good song for me also, peak Britney! Yay!

Taylor Swift who? Kidding. I also like Taylor, I'm not much of a Swiftie however, since Fearless and especially Red (I know people went crazy for Taylor's Version of Red and that long MV of All Too Well that came out just recently) so yeah...I like Taylor. Not as much as I do Britney, however.

Yes, we ALL know Britney. Or, I guess the younger generation, gen z, do not know her all that much but we should ALL know Britney. She was amazing in her peak in the 90s and a better stage performer than Taylor, definitely, at the time and even until now. Britney is an all-rounder, Taylor isn't much of that. I dedicated some time just recently this year...I think around last month? November? to just watch some old Britney stuff and ugh. I fell in love with her all over again. I'm not even going to talk much about Christina Aguilera here and their rivalry because yeah...I'm not a huge Christina fan and I don't know...I just realized now that Britney and her impressive body of work is something you just can't get over so easily especially if you've grown up with her like I did and still do.

Anyway, yay, SHE'S FREEEEEE!!!! Yes! Go forth, Brit, my love, and do whatever you want now. Your money, the world, everything is yours now.

I actually also love her personality and herself as a whole from what I'd seen of her in some interviews and all that, yes, so I'm just as happy as her and other fans of hers like me that we can witness her be happy, content, free and just her precious, lovely, bubbly self now.

2021. You're grim mostly and bland and boring with most of us paranoid over our health and about contracting the virus and its variants but you gave us this. You had us bare witness to this, Britney being freed from her family's, her dad's conservatorship, and 2021, for that, YOU ARE EPIC! Definitely worlds better than 2020, the year before this, just because of this now.

Yeah, I'm definitely getting myself a replica concert shirt of hers or a fanmade one, one of these days, yes. I kind of can't wait to have that one. I've been scouting these bands and artists shirts on shopee, a local or Philippine national online shop site, and I've found some I like, definitely. I'll get those when I have enough from the part time work I do online these days. (Yes, a very, very random life update here is...yes, I've secured a part time job even if it doesn't pay much week in and week out. It does well to tide me over 'til next year. Until I've secured a much stable paying job that I've been after for a while now, hopefully by then. I resigned from my old company with a good friend and parted ways with them around last year-ish, 2020.)