mittens

Tensions are at an unprecedented high between Ecuador and Mexico after Ecuatorian police literally broke into the mexican embassy violating the viena convention to arrest a political refugee, Jorge Glas, former Correa's VP, who is currrently undergoing a legal process in Ecuador after allegedly being involved in a chargeback scheme involving Odebrecht (though no evidence was ever produced for this claim, except a single testimony from Odebrecht's former CEO). The immediate backdrop for this, well, happening, is AMLO putting into question the legitimacy of Ecuador's upcoming general election in one of his daily briefings after a presidential candidate was fucking murdered and AMLO attempting to give asylum to Glas. This is nuts, international law doesn't exist anymore, it's a brand new world Israel has dragged everyone onto, and only might makes right. Maybe I'll put my ideas in order, I dunno. Happy Friday friends, take care.

It's high time we have one of these threads! Post what you liked, what you didn't like, recommendations for stuff released on 2023, whatever you want. I'm trying to speedrun like a million albums because so much stuff was dropped this year and I just wasn't in the mood for keeping track of it but here are my picks for best albums of 2023 from the stuff I did get around to listen:

World's End Girlfriend - RESISTANCE & THE BLESSING (post rock, glitch)

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard - PetroDragonic Apocalypse (thrash metal, stoner metal)

Chini.png - El Día Libre de Polux (art pop, shoegaze)

Full of Hell, Nothing - When No Birds Sang (sludge, post metal)

Klein - Star in the Hood (Sound Collage)

Due to WFH shenanigans, I've been working out from home for almost 6 months now using a treadmill and a pair of adjustable dumbells. And while I'm making some modest but non-negligible gains on my chest and have lost considerable fat on the waist, I've also been losing fat on my glutes at an alarming rate. This is no joke, my ass is looking flat and unsexy. I've been using this dumbbell program, and it works out well enough for upper body, but I just don't feel it in my glutes, the squats simply don't go heavy enough and I can't really fit a squat rack in my small apartment. Does anyone have an alternative exercise that trains glutes? Do resistance bands work? What do you recommend for butt

finally, I watched the movie of the season and I have one (1) thought on my otherwise empty head:

the little dialectic of barbieland becoming invaded by the idea of patriarchy and then barbies collectively organizing to abolish it happens all inside the little make-believe world of barbieland that the movie itself acknowledges is a reality constructed through children playing. in this regard, kens aren't really the patriarchy, they're a pretend version of patriarchy. barbies and kens can be easily interpreted as children imitating concepts they themselves do not understand that thoroughly. gosling's ken himself acknowledges that he wasn't really commited to any ideology in particular. he liked the aesthetics of patriarchy (he liked the horses!). so the movie can be read as brutally cynical, right? because it doesn't really do the same thing the matrix does (even when it's directly alluded): the matrix, a make-believe world becomes an important battlefield because it ties directly into the machines' source of energy (if people aren't convinced by the simulation, which can be read as capitalist ideology, then machines won't be able to keep humans captive in order to drain them). on barbie, the importance of barbieland is never really stressed beyond the implication that it changes mattel's toyline, which the execs do not want because of a vague commitment to, uh, preserving the essence of barbie? what. so by the same token that only allows barbie to be president of barbieland, barbie can only abolish patriarchy in barbieland. by the way, will ferrel sucks. but the ken number rules and is kino. that is all.

Fuck you FromSoft