Happy Medium Club: Volume 20
"I mean this as a compliment, she will not shut up about outer space."
Hello, scholars! Please be seated for Happy Medium Club: Volume 20. Today, we’re discussing:
NBA predictions
New music from Boygenius 🌝
Halloween Bike thieves
Check out our collaborative Spotify Playlist and add some songs to it!
Happy skimming! Happy scrolling!
MY BIKE GOT STOLEN ON HALLOWEEN
“That’s when my hatred for Halloween began.”
Joel Moisa
I've noticed that I've started a few articles with the phrase "I grew up Christian, so..." and explained things that might sound a little weird to people who didn't have similar upbringings.
Being raised Christian, I didn't celebrate Halloween. I didn't go trick-or-treating, I didn't dress up, and I stayed home from school on Halloween so I could abstain from the festivities. It usually didn’t really bother me because I got a random day off from school.
Senior year, I decided I’d actually go to school on Halloween because it made me feel like an adult. I rode my vintage Peugeot road bike to school, locked it up, and went to class.
It seemed like just another day. But after my last class, I walked to the bike rack, getting ready to head home.
Except when I walked up, I noticed my bike wasn't there. I looked around and thought, "Man, maybe I put it somewhere else." I searched around frantically but to no avail.
I was a bit of a loner in high school, but for a moment, I thought, "I bet someone is messing with me!" But that was impossible because I only had like three friends.
Then I noticed my lock on the ground and kicked myself for forgetting to lock up my bike. Looking closer, I noticed that someone had cut through my lock and stolen it. My bike was gone.
This wouldn't have happened if I had stayed at home like I usually do.
I went to the office to check if anyone had found or turned in my bike, but no one had. In a public school with 4,000 students, I didn't have a chance of finding it. It was gone, never to be seen again. I walked home that day, very sad.
That's when my hatred for Halloween began. I loved that bike. It was so cool and got me to school every day until it was taken from me. Halloween is evil.
HOW I FEEL ABOUT EACH NBA TEAM GOING INTO THE 2023-24 SEASON (USING 10 WORDS OR LESS)
“As a Warriors fan, I am scared.”
Kyle Magnaye
Atlanta Hawks: Remember when people were saying Trae is the next Steph?
Boston Celtics: Brad Stevens was cooking.
Brooklyn Nets: I am still holding Ben Simmons stock.
Charlotte Hornets: Mr. Beast patch partnership is a new low.
Chicago Bulls: Another epic sub .500 season is underway.
Cleveland Cavaliers: Just another great regular season team.
Dallas Mavericks: We’re still in Kyrie’s honeymoon stage.
Denver Nuggets: Repeat.
Detroit Pistons: Cade Cunningham is so good.
Golden State Warriors: First 5 guard lineup I see, I am fighting Kerr.
Houston Rockets: I saw a tweet that said “Dillon Brooks Revenge Tour.”
Indiana Pacers: Might be a frisky team.
Los Angeles Clippers: Please be the last year of the Kawhi / PG duo.
Los Angeles Lakers: As a Warriors fan, I am scared.
Memphis Grizzlies: Is it still a parade inside their city?
Miami Heat: Bad offseason, but Heat Culture.
Milwaukee Bucks: Is it okay that Dame does not move me?
Minnesota Timberwolves: Pick a big man!!!
New Orleans Pelicans: I just want Zion to be healthy. (And in shape).
New York Knicks: I can’t believe Julius Randle is still on this team.
Oklahoma City Thunder: Best young core in the association. Making the leap.
Orlando Magic: In-Season Tournament champs.
Philadelphia 76ers: Keep James Harden hostage.
Phoenix Suns: Giving up 190 points per game.
Portland Trail Blazers: Scoot’s franchise now.
Sacramento Kings: The Beam will be lit quite often.
San Antonio Spurs: Wemby.
Toronto Raptors: I am begging Masai to blow this team up.
Utah Jazz: You know, I actually really like their jerseys.
Washington Wizards: Kuz & Poole are the disgusting brothers.
ALBUM REVIEW: “THE REST” BY BOYGENIUS
“Mildly obsessed with astronomy.”
Dom Johnson
Six months after releasing their debut album, Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, and Lucy Dacus have graced us with a companion EP, radiating the cosmic energy of their magical year.
Seriously, they’ve had a great year:
Their first album “the record” is incredible.
Their tour seems really fun.
They played a few shows with Taylor Swift on the Eras tour. Peep the Polaroid of Taylor and Lucy Daucus below.
“the rest”
Last week, they dropped “the rest” of their debut album — AKA four new songs that I’ve listened to at least 5,250,600 times already.
What I love most about the EP is all the outer space imagery and themes. I’ve been mildly obsessed with astronomy and astrology lately. So this EP landed like lighting in a bottle for me. Here’s what I mean:
Black Hole
"Black Hole,” led by Julien Baker, is so friggin ethereal. The trio’s voices blend together so well. masterpiece that weaves the hauntingly beautiful voices of Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus into a sonic tapestry that captures the essence of loneliness and cosmic wonder.
Julien was inspired by something called a runaway supermassive black hole
When we were recording, Lucy showed me a tweet that was a headline that was like, ‘Black Hole Creating Stars,’ instead of just sucking them up and destroying them. And everybody on the internet was like, ‘Can’t wait to see how many people put this in a poem!’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m gonna be one!’"
Or as Julien puts it, when it’s super dark outside, you can “see the stars — the ones the headlines said this morning were being spat out by what we thought was just destroyin' everything for good.”
Nicely done, Baker. That’s so cool.
Afraid of Heights
Lucy Dacus takes the lead on this track. And she works.
I like this song so much, mainly because it has one of the most relatable lyrics of all time: Here’s a relatable lyric: “I wanna live a vibrant life but I want to die a boring death.”
Also, I like this song because it is stunning, sonically speaking.
Voyager
Of all the Boy Geniuses, it seems like Phoebe Bridgers is the most obsessed with the cosmos.
I mean this as a compliment: she will not shut up about outer space. Her discography includes “Moon Song“ and "Chinese Sattelite.” She’s written about UFOs and Scorpio skies. She’s even collaborated with The Man on the Moon (Kid Cudi).
On “Voyager,” Phoebe is outer-spacier than ever. The song takes its name from the Voyager spacecraft and alludes to Carl Sagan’s famous speech about the iconic 1990 photo it captured, famously known as the Pale Blue Dot.
It’s a little hard to explain but "Voyager" sounds like celebrating the holidays in deep space. Let me know if you agree! It’s so dreamy. This is fitting because the song is basically the third installment in a surreal, celestial trilogy about traveling through outer space with her dog.
The songs listed below appear on three different Boygenius projects, respectively.
Me & My Dog (Debut EP): “I wish I was on a spaceship, with me and my dog and an impossible view.”
Letter to an Old Poet (The Record): “I'll go up to the top of our building. And remember my dog when I see the full moon.”
Voyager (The Rest): “Walking alone in the city makes me feel like a man on the moon. Every small step I took was so easy but I never imagined a dot quite as pale or as blue you took it from me, but I would've given it to you.”
In each song, Phoebe rages about a disorienting and most likely toxic relationship — she finds several ways to say, I’m so upset I’d rather be in outer space with my dog.
That’s a gross oversplification. But I’m not here to conduct an in-depth lyrical analysis (I’ve already done that in my head). Rather, I just think it’s cool how this dog-moon-spaceship motif made such an impact on Phoebe that it’s slowly morphing into its own cinematic universe.
Powers
In this track, with Julian Baker at the helm, we embark on a journey through a metaphorical world of comic book tropes and science experiments.
I'll be candid; This song is way smarter than me, so I don’t want to embarrass myself by saying too much about it lol. It’s really good and I like it.
Happy Bits
Here’s a bunny scarf pattern for the crochet-lovers out there! (that includes you and you know it).
Can someone please explain why Pumpkin Spice Lattes cost seven bucks? Sure thing!
Can someone explain why this makes perfect sense? Because it DOES make perfect sense.
Love you!
That’s it for now! Byeee!
Not the bike!!