I don’t think this blog will have a topic. I spent a while trying to pick one. Instead of stalling on the fact I don’t have anything to write about, I’m starting with something simple.
In the last two weeks I enjoyed a few things. Good music and good media show up all the time, but it’s still worth noting.

The History of Sound by Ben Shattuck

New England, 1919. Lionel and David spend a summer collecting songs. They fall in love. What they touch keeps an echo. Twelve linked stories: not quite a novel, not just a collection. The handoffs between pieces are the point, and it works.
A couple of middle chapters blur together, but the first and last work seamlessly. I finished, then flipped back to page one to check the connection I'd missed.
What stuck with me is how lightly meaning moves through the decades – song to song, person to person, object to object.

“The history of sound, lost daily. I’ve started to think of Earth as a wax cylinder; the sun the needle…”

I started this book thinking it would be close in concept to North Woods by Daniel Mason (which I also enjoyed), but this one was more exciting than I expected.
There’s a film adaptation with Paul Mescal. Curious how they’ve translated the relay-race structure to screen without losing the quiet parts.

Crash Landing on You, 2019

The show isn’t new—it aired in 2019—but I love a good K-drama.
In short: after a paragliding accident, South Korean heiress Yoon Se-ri lands in North Korea. Captain Ri Jeong-hyeok finds her, hides her, and looks for a way to send her home. While they dodge the authorities, village life and small kindnesses between Se-ri and Jeong-hyeok pull them close.

If you grew up with long Turkish dizis like I did, K-dramas feel like the antithesis: tighter, kinder, less sprawl. This one leans warm—with friendships, found family, second chances. Even when the angst spikes, episodes tend to land on comfort: shared meals, small wins, quiet progress. That afterglow that is left after each episode is the hook. Easy recommend. 10/10

Friend by James K → Listen on Bandcamp →

Thirteen tracks. A Dido-like hush over glassy electronics: gentle, luminous, a little bittersweet. Think Memphis LK / Ninajirachi / Lucy Tun after hours—club shimmer with the edges blurred.
By the end It made me feel a little lighter. My favourite type of album.

James K is signed to AD 93. Worth following; the label also has Jordan Playfair and Joanne Robertson, both wonderful. Apple Music puts it like this: “A platform for off-kilter leftfield techno that’s become an eclectic outlet for unique creative visions.”