welcome from gorgeous snowy Massachusetts! It feels somewhat prescient that I spent a big chunk of last week taking pictures of snow-covered Boston only to find myself writing this on the precipice of the biggest storm we’ve seen in years. Long time Katherine viewers will know that this means I will be jumping into a snowbank in the next 24-48 hours and I cannot stress that this is a second Christmas for me.
I never mentioned what camera I have been taking these pictures on (I don’t think at least!!) and I’m using a Canon PowerShot S100 with a cute little wrist strap and a National Geographic case that I got from MicroCenter on clearance by complete dumb luck.
I am almost exclusively listening to the contents of the 3×3 on my Pixel 8 Pro on wireless Porta Pros because I have had enough of losing earbuds after losing two sets in 3 months.
Movie watching for the week is generally split dead center between going out to the cinema, as Boston has so many beautiful theaters to enjoy and it feels like a real privilege to take advantage of it, and at home on Maddy’s very perfectly sized TV.
Table of Contents
Photojournal
is anyone trying to hoop today i really need to get my steps in
even if it’s not December I will continuously pretend that it is Christmas Day while it’s this snowy out. call me yr problematic fav
picturesque little tree :)
1/19/2026 (untimed)
nebulously in and around Somerville
there are like 7-8 outtakes on the digicam and some really insane ones from my phone that I will text you if you ask. or just reply to me on bluesky and i will start birdposting at length
1/20/2026 ~11:00am
cop slide, gov’t center
some guy was looking up at a tree by Harvard campus and I couldn’t figure out what he was looking at just walking by until I looked up and just kind of sat there stunned that he didn’t even TRY to take a pic. shameful behavior
this one also has a lot of outtakes I was really excited about this as you’re about to find out from my notes. I believe they’re a young Cooper’s Hawk but if you want to tell me otherwise my dms are open to any birdgirls or birdgays
1/20/2026 (untimed)
Harvard University
maddy when you read this tomorrow at like 9am when the email goes out because you’re a very loving and attentive partner i hope you giggle and kick your feet like I do about this picture of us
1/20/2026 ~6:45pm
at da cinema
this one comes out of order because I forgot to log it until 1/22. please forgive me for fudging the numbers
1/21/2026 ????*
????*
mirrored perspective car!!
who up gos their hawk
1/22/2026 1:57pm
Salem, MELT-ish
every time you see a pic of the sky from me you’re gonna get the same caption: look up at the sky 4x. watch this
1/22/2026, sunset
Salem, sunset
look up at the sky look up at the sky look up at the sky look up at the sky
1/22/2026, dusk
Salem, dusk
do you get it. because it’s a square. please clap
cropscropscrops & vaygrnt - We’ve Been After Each Other
this one comes courtesy of an outsidenoise4444 post, a very interesting and fun abstract hip-hop album that almost leans into ambient music at times. all the features are highlights from ELUCID to artists I’m much less familiar with like jaythehomie and Edaya but will probably be seeking out this week!
start with the features, English Ivy, Silent Auction, and Anatomy Angels and then give the whole thing one very large gulp!
editor’s note: I don’t think this one would’ve been at the top based on listens but I accidentally left this playing while I was at a job fair, oopsie
Modest Mouse - Building Nothing Out of Something
I will get decimated in the quote retweets for this but this is unquestionably Modest Mouse at their best. I know it’s a compilation but it’s an elite one. It works front to back, and the individual songs all stand heavily on their own. It encapsulates the early eras of Modest Mouse and the ways in which they would bleed into the era defining indie rock sound that came after it.
When I was a teenager I used to listen to Sleepwalking on repeat whenever I would walk somewhere, and considering (if you’re in the US reading this) you are most likely about to be covered in snow, so you should get some nice boots and recreate this experience tomorrow.
The Party of Helicopters - Abracadaver
Prototypical mall-alternative post hardcore from 2001. Zoomers are bringing back this specific genre of music5 and I love going back to this specific album to really get into that headspace. Very good screaming / guitar tone / cool drumming. Feels like being in a 2008 Call of Duty lobby blasting music burned from a CD on your Xbox 360.
Listen to Preparing the Mass Burial, see if you like it, and if you don’t just ask the waiter to bring you something else instead. It’s on the house!
A$AP Rocky - Don’t Be Dumb
Late last year me and Maddy played through the entirety of the story for Need for Speed: Unbound, which, for reasons I cannot understand, prominently features A$AP Rocky throughout including an entire monologue6. This has (obviously) put me in a parasocial relationship with mister Rocky, and his newest album is a very fun little jaunt.
I think friend of the blog Athena is right and he should maybe stop talking about lesbians on his albums
Songs: Ohia - Impala
If you can believe it (from previous entries in the photojournal section of this blog which I don’t have a cute title for yet) I visited my old home of Salem last week! Me and Shay7 went to a record store in town there and we went past this, and I realized I hadn’t actually heard this album of Molina’s.
I hate to even put him in a genred box because it puts him in a much smaller box than he deserves as such a prolific songwriter, and any album of his that you stumble across is always, every single time, worth your time.An Ace Unable to Change is quickly becoming one of my favorites of his the more I listen to it.
Dead Butterflies - heat death of the universe
I regret to inform you all that I found this from Instagram account emocore.peter8 doing a 2025 round up of emo albums. Reminiscent of defunct wmass skramz band Godfuck, the songs are all built on a compelling electronica structure bleeding into traditional screamo aesthetics.
I wish so badly that zoomers weren’t so all in on Family Guy writ large, but I do think it is ultimately a complete cultural victory for New England that it has gotten to the point of prominence through these bizarre parody pages.
In order is best order, ramona’s theme into butterfly eyes alone really sells the album for me.
Ninajirachi - I Love My Computer
#8 on Katherine’s very formal AOTY 2025 list! Amazing debut from an up and coming artist, if I had known sooner she was playing in Cambridge I would’ve sold my soul to see her. I wish I was dancing to this right now and not just staring at the snow re-listening to it (vibe misalignment) but it’s fun, catchy, loud, and bumpy.
All I Am has a sampled bit of yelling that sounds a dead ringer for Young Blood by the Naked and Famous and I love seeing how she was able to transform mid 2010s indiepop into such an unequivocal banger.
Right Away, Great Captain! - The Bitter End
This is Andy Hull from Manchester Orchestra’s indie-folk side project, a character study about a 1700s? sailor and the longing that comes along with it. This album is the first in a trilogy, and the albums all capture different points in the sailor’s life. It’s a stark departure from Manchester Orchestra’s work, even at the time when Andy was getting a little weird and emotional with it, and it is a very memorable work that deserves to stand on its own.
Much more vibe aligned with staring at the snow.
When I inevitably learn how to video edit for a bit on this blog, I will be making a fancam of Michael Westen from Burn Notice set to Gasoline Family, so you should start there.
Prince Daddy & The Hyena - Cosmic Thrill Seekers
I first heard Prince Daddy and the Hyena, and was generally colder on them than the people I knew at the time, when I was in college listening to Adult Summers on occasion. I heard them live for the first time when I saw Insignificant Other in a basement in [redacted] after a clopen in which I was opening the next day.
One of the first songs they played was I Lost My Life from this album, and I heard an entire basement of people screaming along to it, and subsequently I was like okay sure yeah I get the whole green hoodie thing now. Transcendent experience, and the full album is worth your time too.Accordingly, I Lost My Life is what you should listen to, if you want whole albums, listen to the Adult Summers EP or their debut album for peak emo-revival.
Cinnamon-topography
Kissing Jessica Stein (2001)
½ / *****, watched on 1/17
Has to be one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen. I think if you erased the last ten minutes it might be salvageable but the fact that the two men himedanshing out was the most memorable part of the movie as a whole is a massive detriment.
Is This Thing On? (2025)
***1/2 / *****, watched on 1/19
like any responsible lesbian I am seated for anything with Laura Dern. Will Arnett unshaven might be the perfect divorced man, but Peyton Manning making a cameo as a coach that Laura Dern went on half a date with made me almost walk out of the theater during a matinee. Get that man and his Nationwide forehead2 off my cinema screen thank you!!
Mulholland Drive (2000)
***** / *****, watched on 1/20
Accidentally ended up at a Lynch movie on his birthday. Happy birthday king you really know ball on lesbians! I feel like trying to have the last word on a Lynch movie is almost a futile effort3 so I won’t try to, but the way it floats almost through and around traditional narrative structure is a true delight and I’m very thankful to have seen it in theaters.
little trinkets
Here are my top 10 albums of 2025 in order as previously mentioned:
i wanna buy caroline merch but my best friend’s name is caroline and I think it would be weird if i showed up to hang out with her and i was wearing something with her name on it
and a playlist of my top 10 songs of 2025:
thank you for making it this far!! I love and appreciate you for reading, if you are just seeing this for the first time I would love to send you one of these once a week at 9am eastern standard forever!! I have very little long term plan for this aside from really loving it as a way to document my weeks for myself and to talk about things I really love and enjoy and I hope you love and enjoy it too xoxo
1 not sponsored btw
2 and worse if you’re not familiar https://www.sportingnews.com/us/nfl/news/peyton-manning-sexual-assault-tennessee-case-documents-colts-broncos/
3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQqp8DZ0pSg
4 https://www.instagram.com/p/DT1S2VhDgpo/?img_index=8&igsh=MWJ0aWlhdjN6bGdv
5 and you should read about it in issue 1 https://monuments.beehiiv.com/p/monuments-issue-1
6 not doing a bit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9q9TOmJA4SQ
7 shay looks at the albums and i usually document the interesting ones so we can bump them later, as is tradition
8 https://www.instagram.com/p/DTa7Ubik-dw/?img_index=1&igsh=bnJkd2VvNGJkb2ls