Up to Something #7
A TikTok-ish "r.e.p.o.r.t." of the things I'm enjoying these days.
Hi there! Up to Something is an occasional segment of my newsletter through which I let you all know what I’m reading, watching, listening to, and thinking about. Welcome to the 7th edition.
Greetings, and happy (late) autumn!
As you may or may not know, I am a TikTok fanatic...for better and for worse. TikTok’s platform and the associated politics are messy and controversial, and it is far from any kind of “ideal” source of entertainment, but I would be lying to you if I said I didn’t find ample creative inspiration, aesthetic delight, and even comfort in many of the hidden corners of what the algorithm decides to show me.
While I am certainly not someone who considers themselves a person who needs to keep up with all the latest trend-y phenomena, every now and then I see something intriguing that I consider trying out for myself. This brings me to what some people are calling a “weekly r.e.p.o.r.t.” through which TikTok folks are posting a series of pictures or videos—each correlating to a letter in the word “report.”
“R.e.p.o.r.t.” stands for “reading, eating, playing, obsessing over, recommending, and treating.” There’s definitely something to be said about participating in internet trends that on the surface seem silly…and underneath, perhaps this activity grossly glorifies some kind of ultra-idealized life…which (of course) must obviously revolve around buying new shiny things, eating all the scrumptious, perfectly-presented food on fancy plates...etc.
My response to this critique is as follows, in two parts that are equally true:
“Good points! Almost all of what ~catches on~ on many social media platforms tend to be posts centering white, thin, conventionally attractive people looking ~cool~ or doing ~cool~ things, whatever “cool” happens to involve at any given moment…though it often involves showing off opulence or privilege. Displaying what’s going in my life just allows people to know me in a way I might not feel comfortable with…Feeding this machine does nothing good. Boo, TikTok, boo!
And also: I’m so glad that this is not my main experience of social media! I follow mostly queer and Disabled people, artists making fascinating work, folks educating about and advocating for vital political change, and people who post funny cat videos. A “r.e.p.o.r.t” seems like a fun thing to do if there are relevant things happening in my life that I want to share with and there are people who want to see them!
So, without further delay or discussion, here is my “r.e.p.o.r.t.” for the past couple of weeks!
R. (reading)
The Poetry of Michelangelo: An Annotated Translation by James M. Saslow.
Yes, Michelangelo wrote poetry! Over three hundred individual pieces, in fact. It’s pretty queer.
On Palestine by Noam Chomsky and Illan Pappé. This book was published as a recorded dialogue between the two scholars in 2015. Given the humanitarian atrocities that have been happening in Gaza throughout the past month, I felt (and still feel) compelled to follow the current events with a critical lens informed by systemic and historical forces that are shaping the present.
The Tyranny of Sand And Other Tiny Stories: The Best of @ MicroFlashFic by Jesse Stanchak. This is a collection of the highlights of microfiction by the author, who posts extremely short, “micro” stories—mostly of the fantasy and science fiction variety—on Twitter/X. Each story is brief enough to fit within the 280 character limit. Here’s the one that inspired the title of the book:
E. (eating)
For dinner last night, I enjoyed a scrumptious pit beef sandwich on a soft roll from a local barbecue place. Rating: Ten out of ten.
P. (playing)
Gubbins! I never really got into app-based mobile games, like…ever. That being said, I recently saw a video (on TikTok, of course) by an Australian production company about a free new word game they were announcing for Apple iOS and Android phones. Gubbins, in all its cozy and cartoonish glory, functions sort of like scrabble. Players are allotted an assortment of letter tiles to arrange on a board to create words in various directions. After all the tiles are used up and the round is over, you can create “postcards” featuring your choice of the words you just created in different fonts. This, I’ll admit, is my favorite part of Gubbins. Here is one of my first postcards:
O. (obsessing over)
As an Autistic person who also has AD(H)D, I am no stranger to obsessions! Most of my Special Interests function through a kind of revolving door rotation which lasts anywhere from weeks to months, and they usually involve some form of creative expression…Zines, anyone? Anyway, My latest obsession is definitely making little creations out of air-dry pottery clay, such as these little “Spooky” ghost-like creatures that measure roughly 1 inch tall. I mold them by hand with the help of a shaper tool (to make those little ghostly ripples, which is a process I am still perfecting) and then paint them with layers of primer, color, and gloss varnish…usually whilst listening to a podcast or an audiobook. If you’re reading this and we’re good pals, you might be getting one of them as part of a holiday gift. Behold:
R. (recommending)
Things I would recommend to you, dear reader…hmm…Well, I feel pretty comfortable condoning any of the above activities! Read some translated poetry…or catch up on news relating to people you will likely never meet, but whom you should still care about as fellow human beings. Play a silly little game with yourself or with a friend…(forget about “productivity” for a minute or two, okay? you might find it refreshing!)…or maybe make something new with your hands that brings you a sense of delight. We all need more of that!
T. (treating)
I’ve been trying for a few weeks now to capture a good polaroid selfie of myself and Maxwell. (It’s tricky since I’m using an old manual focus camera from the 1970’s…without looking through the lens. Plus, Maxwell rarely wants to look directly at the camera while holding still...) A little treat from me to you as I sign off on this here seventh edition of Up To Something:
Lastly, If you’re the finger-crossing type, wish me luck on my graduate school applications. They’re due just two weeks from tomorrow. (Stress!)
And thanks, as always, for reading!