served by sow #2: a list of recent reads, conversation outtakes, journal excerpts, and more!
It’s been 10! seconds since I posted my last served by sow list of lists. And in this time, I have been blessed to travel with different friends, survive multiple panic attacks, consume art in different forms (hellooooo Hollywood Fringe!!!), eat a lot of yummy things, celebrate friends doing amazing things (from friends hiking volcanoes in Central America to successfully moving intercontinentally to pursue dreams!!!), and just getting to live (like truly live).
There are so many lists of lists I wanted to include in this compilation post, but snipped it down to the categories that seemed to speak to me the most.
Enjoy!
things I underlined from things I read:
When it comes to how I’ve consumed my books, I’ve been a purist for as long as I’ve known. But the arrival of my Kindle last month has been a game-changer. While I still do commit to buying books from my local bookstore at least twice a month, I now read 4x more now that I can read on the stairmaster or under my covers after I switched the lights off.
But by virtue of having instant access to an infinite library of sorts, I’ve ended up starting books on impulse and reading a bunch of books I didn’t love (or hated). I am currently reading what feels like sweet honey of some writing, The Song of Achilles, which has been a beautiful experience. But apart from which, everything else has averaged 1 or 2 stars out of 5.
Yet everything I read had a line or two that was worth underlining.
things I watched:
film:
Robot Dreams (dir. Pablo Berger) - I walked into the theater half-heartedly and not knowing what this silly looking animated movie was going to be about. Little did I realize two hours later, I would walk out, with a stained face from all the dried tears, a stomach that felt like I swallowed a nest of butterflies, and a heart that was overwhelmed by all sorts of feelings. An easy 10/10, I recommend everyone reading this to book your ticket NOW to see this limited theater release, and walk in without reading anything about it. An incredibly human film told through a dog and robot, this artistic masterpiece will leave a permanent mark in your heart and mind.
Laapataa Ladies (dir. Kiran Rao) - A gentle, powerful film that celebrates women and explores womanhood in a realistic backdrop of rural India. A movie that is sprinkled with equal parts humor, adventure, and inspiration, this is the sort of perception-changing art I hope more and more South Asian populations see in cinemas.
Late Night With The Devil (dir. Colin and Cameron Caines) - A horror film fanatic, I find it a rarity to find a film in the genre that piques my interest. This film is original, brilliant, and compelling. While I wasn’t hiding my face in my sweatshirt from fear, I was deeply enamored every step of the way.
Inside Out 2 (dir. Kelsey Mann) - I have never felt more seen and represented until this film unlocked Anxiety as a new emotion/character. Every time Anxiety did something or said something, I was pinching myself and internally whispering, “that’s me! that’s me!!!” It is incredible how the Inside Out franchise is able to take something as complex as the study and interaction of emotions and package it into a medium that is accessible to children and adults alike.
stage shows:
Final Girl by Callie Ott, a musical one-woman show inspired by true experiences about a girl confronting her inner monologue and real danger as she calls the cops on her abusive boyfriend. My friend Callie is an absolute powerhouse of a woman with a voice, talent, and a reflective spirit that translates and touches every person who has the privilege to witness her story told. I laughed, I cried, I gasped. All her upcoming shows are sold out, for good reason! The joy that comes from watching unique stories is incredible and inspiring.
Sunken by ugly tuna ensemble, a play that followed two parallel stories of parents who lost their children to murder and murdered children stuck in purgatory, was an example of pure indie theater magic that LA has to offer. The play explores several heavy topics surrounding the grieving process through what felt like intense method acting, leaving you to feel every kernel of the playwright’s investigation of grief and reality.
I might write a whole article about this, but I find myself so incredibly inspired by artists like Callie and the kids in Sunken who performed with their whole heart.
Big budget Hollywood movies and multi-million-dollar Broadway productions are so fun to watch, and it would be such a dream for any artist to be a part of such a production, or even create one of their own some day.
But impact at every size of an audience matters. It really, really matters.
When an artist can make someone feel, that is their art doing their work. That is success. And while I want them to be able to reach bigger stages and wider screens to let more people feel, I want them to know that their work already matters. They’re already spreading their magic in deeper ways than they may realize.
things I talked about with people:
Something I’ve been doing all of 2024 is write very detailed journal entries before I sleep every night, with the idea of testing and seeing if I could flip back to any day and visually remember something about it.
A consequence of this is that I often write down details of conversations I’ve had with people - especially the interesting ones.
Here’s just a few of the many that left me thinking:
Why are women always bakers, art gallery assistants, or of similar like in rom-coms? Men are almost always in a position of power in rom-coms, from being popstars to finance bros to the bosses of the love interests. There’s an interesting narrative being forced to us here by people in power who may find the idea of powerful women to be unsettling? They just subtly hide this idea behind aspirational-looking women, pastries, and pretty Prada bags. - may 7, at work, during lunch with colleagues
Can anything ever neatly belong in a single category? We had an ever-splitting debate about whether sandwiches and hotdogs or soup and cereal are in the same category or not. Or whether breakfast is based on timing or your first meal of the day (even if its 5 PM). The conversation lasted an hour and there was no agreed upon conclusion. To me, it was a commentary on how categories just kinda suck as a singular concept. Nothing is ever that clear, is it? - may 9, at work, also during lunch with my silly colleagues
Some people lean towards strength training, and some people lean towards cardio. Strength training feels like a sort of meditation, when you’re hyper focused on maximizing the reps, or the weight, or the pump. Cardio feels like journaling, when you’re running miles and are left in just the company of your thoughts. Perhaps everyone just gravitates towards the activity that you need or crave? - may 13, over iMessage with a friend, when I asked her to consider taking up boxing for the 23429th time and she stressed that running and biking just find their way to her heart more
Why do we continue to hold eurocentric standards of beauty as the sole desire even when the odds are ancestrally stacked against us? It is crazy how our bodies are genetically wired to exist in a certain way, whether it is the shape of our noses, the way fat is distributed in our bodies, or the width of our torsos, because of survival patterns that have existed for millennia. Instead of appreciating our differences, we berate ourselves. Allen’s Rule & Bergmann’s Rule are factual rules, yet we listen to propaganda instead. - may 15, on Discord Chat with friends
Why do we use .5s when we have a scale of 1-5, but also .5s when we have a scale of 1-10? - may 29, with a friend on a walk
Hyper-fixations are often correlated to having past trauma. Knowing this helps you empathize more with people who we may find it more difficult to fully get, whether this is a hyper-fixation about cleaning things or consuming (or lack of consuming) things. - june 2, during a 2 AM deep talk at a bachelorette
Do not allow your dreams to be dormant. You’re doing yourself a disservice by not committing to them with all your might. Allow yourself to fall where you may. Allow yourself the grace to find fulfillment to whatever magnitude your dreams shape themselves out to be. But always, always, always - dream big, work hard, and let the river flow in whichever direction it wills itself to. - june 13, during a tough love / motivational conversation over dinner
things I listened to:
album drops that served as my soundtracks for the day:
Atavista by Childish Gambino, with top favorites being Human Sacrifice, To Be Hunted, and Sweet Thang ft. Summer Walker
ROOM UNDER THE STAIRS by Zayn, with top favorites being Fuchsia Sea, Stardust, What I Am, and Lied To
TIMELESS by Kaytranada, with top favorites being Witchy ft. Childish Gambino and Do 2 Me ft. Anderson .Paak & SiR
songs that were or have been on my on repeat
September by Earth, Wind & Fire - I swear this song has occupied free real estate in my brain and remains there 24/7 ever since I watched Robot Dreams
things I consumed:
Salt & Straw’s Pistachio with Saffron & Rose Water that tasted just like the kulfi you get back home in India. Petition to make pistachio as default of an ice-cream-flavor option as vanilla is!!!
Blueberry Earl Gray Fōnut from fōnuts - I got one, ate it on my way to the car, and went back to get another one, to eat it on my way to the car, again.
Lavender Matcha Latte at Coffee and Plants, an aesthetic coffee shop with some of the best nutty matcha flavors for any LA readers who are curious!
The BEST handrolls at Yunomi (that I cannot shut up about since I’m a regular customer who goes 3x a week and writes about it on Substack at least every other article), with their secret yuzu ponzu sauce
Lobster Salad at Duryeas in Montauk that somehow felt worth its embarrassingly high price-tag. I felt both the taste of the ocean and the fields with every bite - in the best way possible.
Homemade Tofu-Spinach Protein Pasta - Also discovered nutritional yeast when making this recipe for the first time - where has it been my whole life?
Homemade Ice Cream Experiments in my new Ninja Creami (!!!). It’s definitely an investment, but one that I can guarantee pays itself off for all my fellow sweet tooth holders.
things I journaled:
the binding topic that all of these excerpts are wrapped within is: littlest joys that I love to have witnessed. the sweet nothings!
things I am ending this long week with
A hit of creative energy after spending a large chunk of my Friday writing in a newly found coffee bar and feeling in my element
An excitement to begin my paint & sip night, as I slip into my cozy pajamas, pour some Olipop into wine glasses, and we paint each other’s faces
A mind whose toughest decision this weekend is to pick between either watching Bridgerton Part 2 or The Boys Season 4. A return of Barbenheimer for this summer!
A package that just arrived at my doorstep, and I think it’s the Robot Dreams visual novel and I am so, so, so excited.
I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing this, and have something to take away with you - whether it’s a conversation kernel or a movie recommendation to get cozy to.
Have an amazing weekend, everybody!
Nice one. Liked the note on "kind of quietness".
You need to have a local newspaper column ASAP. Reading this made me want to fly back to LA and experience all these places, shows, flavors, and more ❤️