#year-end memes

[sapphoshands]

14 and 18 for the year end thing pls!

14. Favourite book you read this year?

i was hoping no one would ask this because i could NOT think of anything i'd read that really made an impact at first! so i went to see what i had bought this year and actually omg i DO have an answer. totally totally the steerswoman by rosemary kirstein (and sequels). they've been on my list for years but i think the last few times i looked, the library didn't have them, or didn't have the first one, or something. but i finally got the first one sometime this summer and devoured it and the other three, and then bought my own copies, and followed the author. and i am now part of her patreon to help fund the writing of the final books. these are incredibly inventive, unique, genre-defying novels with incredible characters and a fascinating world. if you like SFF and have not read them, i hugely recommend. and now i want to re-read them...

18. A memorable meal this year?

i answered this once, but i must've eaten more than one good meal, hm! you know what? every year i spend a week at a work event in a different city that involves four or five ten- to twelve-hour days inside a very black box. in 2023, we discovered a DELICIOUS food court salad place and ate probably half our meals from there, and i was genuinely excited to go back and order from it again, and it was just as good every time. it's THE most basic but during that ridiculous week it is so good and healthy and filling. (we also had a pretty decent mid-week meal at the v fancy restaurant attached to the building, but nah, i remember the salads.)

(year-end asks)

[sapphoshands]

5, 7 (never shut up about Agatha)

ahahaha yessssss

5. TV show of the year?

okay so idk if you've heard of this little under-the-radar series? it's witchy and queer and funny and heartbreaking and gorgeously made by hand, and it's angry and silly and almost all female and it's so, so close to perfect? anyway it's not getting much attention or anything. it definitely didn't make me laugh and cry and fall even more deeply in love with a character who lives in my soul now. i don't run to the internet every morning hoping for a s2 announcement. i never pause and think about how unexpectedly emotional the queer mentorship arc made me, or how astonished i was to hear the word queer used in a marvel disney series. what's it called? agatha all along. i think, you know, people might like it.

am i being a little facetious here? hey, you want straight answers, ask a straight lady.

7. Favourite actor of the year?

look, not only did i watch both bad moms and a bad moms christmas, i genuinely had feelings about kathryn hahn's character in them, and that should frankly tell you not just how much i like her but how good she actually is. i obvs loved her in wandavision and in glass onion and spiderverse, but having fallen right down the rabbithole this autumn, i am now realising i might love absolutely everything she's ever done? i am very very slowly watching my way through mrs fletcher - i had to pause after ep 2 to regain my equilibrium - and i'm just gonna. keep going.

and it turns out that not only has she been in some great stuff (and been great in some... other stuff...), but she appears to be a delight of a person as well? every interview with her just charms me anew. also i have some feelings about the way she snorts when she laughs.

[sapphoshands]

hii! 11 and 12 for the end of the year ask game <3

11. Something you want to do again next year?

this is actually a tough one! it feels like cheating to say things like going to the gym regularly, or writing more, because those are sort of ongoing. i can think of a lot of things i do not want to do again. and there are things that are annual things, like go to SDCC or TIFF, that also feel kind of like cheating because they are already in the plan. and most of what i'm looking forward to is not stuff i did this past year! but you know what? i would like to pop down to new york for a theatre weekend again, depending on other travel. @gabolange, u up? ;)

12. Talk about a new friend you made this year.

hilariously i am now balancing between work-friends and friend-friends with someone who has appeared in at least one fanfic i have written (as a character they were playing, not as themselves). they are filming here off and on for the next few months and will be living within shouting distance of me, too, which is deeply, deeply amusing.

[sapphoshands]

24!

24. Did you keep any New Year’s Resolutions?

so i made one single nyr this year and that was to stay in the diamond league on duolingo for the entire year. and that might sound simple, but i made the same resolution for at least one year previous, if not two, and failed. but this year. this year!! i am so close!!! (my streak in the diamond league is actually at 53 weeks right now, so technically more than a year, but not yet the entirety of THIS year.)

i think my nyr for next year might be to get at least two new body mods and also learn how to leave them the hell alone while they heal *pokes at sore piercing and winces*

thanks!

(end of the year asks)

[sapphoshands]

ONE THREE SIX TEN AND FIFTEEN but you're only allowed to talk about Agatha

oh no oh what a hardship

1 Song of the year?

ha ha ha ha haaaa oh man i have listened to "the ballad of the witches' road" so many times. you know how many times! but i refuse to admit the actual number in public. and uhhhh i still have it on repeat? at least when i go outside. i listen almost exclusively to the ep 4 rock'n'roll version and i just love it. i especially love how rough agatha's voice is. and i think a lot, still, about how well the lyrics map to agatha and rio.

3. Favorite musical artist / group you started listening to this year?

lollll hey guess what! it's kathryn hahn, patti lupone, sasheer zamata, ali ahn, and joe locke! things what i love about them: how well their voices blend; patti refusing to sing anything other than the high notes but modulating her voice to everyone else's; the way they manage to make each version of the ballad emotionally distinct. truly it's ridiculous how much i've listened to them.

6. Episode of tv or webisode that defined the year for you?

ahhhhh you know what, i can't believe it's not agatha ep 4, but it's actually agatha ep 7? WHAT AN EPISODE. that is why you cast patti fucking lupone!!! my post about the ep is still slowly racking up notes almost every day and i still stand behind it. the ep totally inverted our expectations, a great trick made better by being a non-linear narrative. that we all, including lilia herself, had to be reminded to value her experience and knowledge just broke me. the lines 'i'm a forgotten woman!' / 'so remember yourself' are frankly fucking iconic. and 'i loved being a witch' STILL chokes me up. oh, and watching lilia and jen get along? and lilia's history! and i'm not even TOUCHING on AGATHA this ep. 'i like the bad boys'? (side note: the other thing in the french subs that i loved was translating that as 'je les aime vilaines.' OKAY DYKE.) dressed like THEEE wicked witch of the west? and the start of the ep has the most incredible series of exchanges with her and billy. as i mentioned... still not over the whole overt queer mentorship analogy! god damn. god damn!! what a fucking show!

10. Something that made you cry this year?

stoppppppp!!! the entire show. agatha's face. 'sometimes, boys die.' marvel fucking using 'you want straight answers, ask a straight lady' as part of their social media promo. marvel posting fucking agatha/rio edits on their tiktok! half of what i mention about ep 7 above. 'please, my love.' looking back at wandavision with all the knowledge we have about agatha now. how much kathryn hahn loves agatha. 'you i made from scratch.' (this show gave me feels about a kid? like! fuck! how!) rio's face (also cannot believe i have an aubrey plaza problem now). the kiss.

15. What’s a bad habit you picked up this year?

sending people endless pics of kathryn hahn all day long so we can commiserate about how incredibly gay she makes us feel. wait, no, that's a great habit. how else can i be sure that in these trying times, i am maintaining an appropriate level of queerness? no, my bad habit is not having enough time to write agatha fic. yep. also maybe watching endless kathryn hahn podasts even though i hate podcasts. but mostly the fic thing.

[sapphoshands]

2, 18, 22

2. Album of the year?

lollll so my apple music wrapped really called me out this year and i can tell you that i listened to the OBC recording of lempicka just a ridiculous number of times. (prior to that it probably would've been the wheel of time soundtrack, because i listened to that a lot while working... although of course, now that's been supplanted by the 10-hour lo-fi ballad of the witches' road beach house atmosphere video on youtube, thank u marvel.)

18. A memorable meal this year?

do you know, i had fresh figs for the first time this year? i had just never eaten them fresh before! while i was visiting my mom, a neighbour brought some over from her garden, and then my aunt and her husband took some and had me over for dinner and did something delicious with figs and honey and goat cheese and arugula. plus local corn and local fish. very simple, very delicious.

22. Favourite place you visited this year?

i travelled to some annoying places this year and i didn't (yet) get to travel to some of my favourites. but you know what, i am gonna cheat. i am once again planning to spend new year's eve in vancouver with my bff and her fam, and that will be my favourite!

(year-end asks)