things i’ve liked this week, vol. 10
2025-08-10
summary: here are some things i’ve liked this week.
music
when the lights go (2022) by TEED
formerly known as totally enormous extinct dinosaurs, he released this album in 2022, ten years after his debut album. that album, trouble, was what i would call depressive groovy house. by comparison, this album is packed with what i’d call melancholy synthpop ballads. it’s last call at the cocktail bar compared to trouble’s lightly mushroom-spiked disco. i hear a little bit of porter robinson, with even wider puppy-dog eyes. in fact, every song seems to be about some sort of ruined past love, which would seem bad if it weren’t all done with a wink. track six, “the sleeper,” coyly points out the fact he took so long to release a sophomore album, a sort of funerary paean that slyly begs for the listener’s forgiveness. i’m also pretty sure track one, “crosswalk”, samples the nintendo switch click sound. it’s ok, mr. TEED—i’m still quite infatuated.
most recently he has also dropped this dj mix which i intend to listen to. next time i go for a run?
books
stag dance by torrey peters
i’ve finally finished reading this book: a combination of torrey peters’ past two novellas: the sizzling, dark romp of the masker, as well as the now-canonical infect your friends and loved ones, joining those two are new stories: the titular stag dance—an unconventional western, as well as the heartbreaking tragi-romance of the chaser. both stories, in the contemporary style of transfeminine fiction, don’t feature trans people directly, rather choosing to explore the contours of the fractiously-erected border wall that we call the gender binary.
or, maybe they are trans. i think they are. the chaser might be the one of the finest stories i’ve ever read, a rare story i couldn’t put down. these four stories are nothing like detransition baby, in case you think torrey peters would ever be typecast!
sorry for the long break! life’s been busy. i certainly have more than one thing i liked but i’ve been absorbed in my day job and my hobbies. more soon!!