It was my sister’s birthday this past Monday. Most years, we take a trip to celebrate, but of course that wasn’t possible this year. It sucks, but with her expecting a baby, it just isn’t worth it even to consider a staycation or those vacation options available to the ultra-rich. (Not that we can afford it. But it’s not even worth fantasizing about them. LOL.) I sent her our family’s favorite hainanese chicken from Homeboy Hainanese, which is a new lockdown business by my best friend’s husband. And my sister dropped by to meet the baby so we did get our first family picture together, so that’s a little joy we can hold on to. Happy birthday Ate; we will travel together again soon!
Baby ARMY⁷
Also on Monday, in the span of 8 hours, Kuatro came home from the hospital, my mom’s dog passed away, and then BTS held their NPR Tiny Desk concert which was very chaotic and joyful. What a rollercoaster of emotions. To share her condolences, Cam sent me a link to Tonight, a song Jin wrote about his pets. The lyrics were perfect and just what I needed as I said my emotional farewell to Stella.
This was the first week I felt ‘settled’ in my fandom, like I wasn’t frantically trying to catch up. Of course, there’s still so much past content to consume, but I finally felt I had a firm enough grasp and could keep up with what’s currently happening. Their UN General Assembly speech was *chef’s kiss* and made me cry (again, what’s new) but it also spawned a controversy that’s been not at all surprising. Highly recommend this article by Brian Rolli for the context, followed by this old article by Aamina Khan. ARMY has been highlighting comments on the NPR Tiny Desk concert where the viewer realizes they had preconceived notions about K-pop that are now being challenged because of this performance. It’s been the same for me - I was not at all a fan of K-pop and brushed it off as a niche interest; and then vaguely knew about BTS but didn’t pay attention or grasp their impact, until Ishy led me very gently and securely down the BTS rabbit hole around a month ago. Now look at me. Look at this! LOL. It seems to be a common trajectory, as I have learned from this article “What It's Like to Become a BTS Fan Overnight” by Lenika Cruz, which is so spot-on I’m quoting it below:
“For Korean people and for fans, they’re more like a hip-hop group with vocal abilities who can also dance supremely well. For a lot of people, ‘boy band’ would automatically discount their musical ability and authenticity. Because that label is so limiting, I tend to explain BTS’s appeal like this: Imagine if the players on your favorite sports team (the members train like athletes, after all) were also your favorite musicians and the stars of your favorite reality-TV show and you also thought of them as family members.”
Another level of fandom got unlocked for me this week when Ail and Raissa sent surprise BTS merch ayuda that arrived by some miracle on the same day. When I tell you I screamed… LOL. I parceled out some of the face masks as surprise ayuda to Reese, Christine, Lilia, and Aia, making sure to send their biases as applicable - and they all reacted with the same extreme happiness. BTS joy shared is joy multiplied!
Resources and content I enjoyed this week:
Spotify came out last week with a 24-minute podcast episode that is a pretty good high-level explainer about BTS, meant for non-fans as a way to “Meet BTS.” If you have friends who don’t have the patience to read this newsletter and/or watch the videos I’ve linked, this is a good resource to share with them as a “BTS 101” quick guide.
I missed sharing this last week but it’s so funny it’s worth carrying over - I died laughing at this Four Sisters and a Wedding crossover with BTS.
There was a rollicking discussion on the Titas of BTS Facebook group about #Taeconda that I will leave to your imagination. The incriminating photos have been deleted from the thread, but not before I saved them to my camera roll.
Rica and I had many discussions about the relationships between members, who is closer to whom, etc. These are my favorite compilation clips under that bucket: Taehyung and Yoongi; Taehyung and Jimin. (Teka, ba’t puro si Taehyung? Sobrang biased lol) This fan-made video of Friends (with subs), the song Taehyung and Jimin wrote about their friendship, makes me weepy! I expect to come back to this theme often; with 7 members there are so many potential combinations to explore.
I haven’t been watching a lot of concert clips because I want to watch the full concert/s only when I’m more familiar with their songs. But Rica and I watched this medley from the Love Yourself Speak Yourself tour and were shookt at their collective sexual energy. They’re all so … hot...??? I’m used to them being chaotic, attractive in a soft/tender/cute way, but their stage presence (individually and as a group) is beyond. So electric, I lost my damn mind. Kings of the stage!
I saved this 37-minute MMA performance as a weekend treat for myself and it did not disappoint. I don’t know how anyone can watch this and not respect the artistry, talent, and hard work that goes into such a production. It’s a freaking award show and they were allotted THAT much time to perform at that level of spectacle. Grammys could never.
Jungkook’s self-directed and self-edited travel videos, released as “Golden Closet Films” because he’s the golden maknae and used to edit his videos in a closet. The link contains the playlist on the right side so they should play in order. Is there anything he can’t do? On this week’s In the Soop he paints some Bob Ross-level landscape of the mountain view after saying he “wasn’t good at painting” as a child. It is just staggering how talented this guy is.
In the course of writing the above bullet, I discovered that there is a BTS Wiki! *bookmarked*
Thanks to my friends who have let me know this section has been really helpful for them on their own baby ARMY journeys. I found a way to archive all the BTS stuff together so that it’s a single shareable link. Feel free to share the BTS joy using that link; may our joy (and baby ARMY) multiply.
Shop Small, Love Local
I was so thrilled for my friend Audrey when she and her family launched Dear Books, an online store for children’s books, during lockdown. Audrey is a voracious reader, even more so than me; Audrey’s mom is the exclusive distributor of the Scholastic book fairs that used to be held in schools. I LIVED for those book fairs when I was in grade school. Dear Books has partnered with local publishing houses too, so there are thousands of children’s books available and they can ship nationwide. Audrey offered a discount code for me and my readers (!) - use DEARPINKY to get 15% off all products with a minimum purchase of PhP 1,500, valid until October 31. Catch me hoarding Christmas gifts for my inaanaks...
Currently…
Watching the Father of the Bride part 3-ish special. It’s perfect. I cried a lot in those 30 minutes. Nancy Meyers nailed it, of course.
Eating my favorite truffle cream pasta from Fog City Creamery (the ice cream brand - the pasta is an off-the-menu item, lmk if you want the contact info). I discovered it last year and since then had been trying truffle cream pasta at every restaurant I could to see if it could top this one. So far, this is still #1. I realized we hadn’t had it since March -- I had thought then “OMG we’re going to lockdown, I need happy food” -- and it’s now almost October...? What a year.
Weeping at the acceptance speeches of the Schitt’s Creek cast: Catherine O’Hara, Eugene Levy,Dan Levy, Annie Murphy, and then Dan and Eugene Levy together. I love this show so much and they deserve all the accolades. Highly, highly recommend this show if your free time is not totally consumed by BTS like mine is.
Celebrating the wedding of my good friend Trina. Though it’s super sad not to be celebrating with them in person, their happiness is what’s important. I cried tears of joy watching their wedding video. Congratulations and best wishes, Trins and Ryan!
Spending the weekend wrapped up in baby cuddles. Tita Pinky is BACK IN BUSINESS!
Longreads
This cashier loaned a customer $12. A grateful community repaid the cashier more than $11,000. -- Cathy Free, The Washington Post.
I love stories like this about local communities. Instant serotonin boost.
The eight secrets to a (fairly) fulfilled life -- Oliver Burkeman, The Guardian.
“Major personal decisions should be made not by asking, ‘Will this make me happy?’, but ‘Will this choice enlarge me or diminish me?’”
Grieving the Loss of a Life You Wanted -- Traci Bank Cohen, goop.
“A big part of the work that I do with my clients is helping them to detach from the notion that something must be or look a certain way and helping them ultimately be okay in the not-knowing. In other words, becoming more tolerant of uncertainty. “
What to Do When the Future Feels Hopeless -- Arthur C. Brooks, The Atlantic.
Pre-BTS, this described my everyday existence.
The Pandemic Has Remade Friendship -- Eva Hagberg, The Atlantic.
“It made me want to preserve parts of this moment in amber, to remember that we still wanted to be close to one another, even though we couldn’t be. That we longed so profoundly for connection that we tolerated bad internet and a terrible season of Westworld, bending the city to make it meet up again. That even though we couldn’t touch each other, we still felt close. That there are thousands of ways to connect with each other, when we want to, whether we’re close and masked; far and virtual; proximate and counting on the wind.”
Until next week! Feel free to share this newsletter, it’s open to the public. I always get excited any time people engage with me about things that I post, so please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts. Unless it’s mean or mansplainy: in that case, no thank you. <3 If this is your first time reading this, you can subscribe via the button below and then the next issues will land in your inbox.
Yours from afar,
Pinky