List of Likes

I just wanted to get on here quick and tell y’all that I like two things and they are romantic emo anime and Torpedo Crepe, the hot dessert crepe and bubble tea cafe on Irving and Suydam.

I did not know of either of these likes until tonight. The romantic anime happened after work, when I was recovering from a soul-crushing day with a nice herbal shoulder wrap I’d found, and decided to just relax beneath its lavender-scented heat and watch an anime on my computer because I am what’s known as a modern-day warrior. I’d recently seen the movie Your Name with Angelica and we both thought the movie was phenomenal, so I searched for other films from the director and found an early one called 5 Centimeters a Second. The title comes from how quickly cherry blossom petals fall to the ground. I learned this in the first few minutes of the film, as two childhood friends ran through the cherry blossoms between loving shots of suburban streets and traffic signs, and one asked the other “will we we watch the blossoms fall together next year?” in a voice over as their blue–pink shadows were cast against the sidewalk and you could just tell they would not be together next year and immediately I thought, “Yep, this is the thing for me. I am all about this movie and now identify myself by it.” It filled me with such natural, familiar goodness, like when you eat a bunch of kale and suddenly feel strangely fantastic cos your body needed its iron. Romantic emo animes are my iron.

I told my friend Ryland about this during dinner tonight, cos if there’s one other thing I like it’s catching up with friends. We met up at Lucy’s for banh mi and vermicelli and he told me of his job and current writing struggles, and I told him of my progress towards becoming a solarpunk technowizard. (My progress: slow but sure). I am v. happy for his friendship, because we know each other from all sides, and can see each other’s ideals, and the paths we are trying to take, and where we are coming from. And this makes his opinion far more frank and honest and cherished. I’ve been in a bit of a hermitage, moving away from the comedy path I’d been on with its constant social media and content milling and thoughtless self-promotion and getting way deep into a strange technomagical space. But the tech space I find myself is so in the clouds and esoteric that it’s hard to tell what’s truly world-changing and what’s academic jackerish (that’s gibberish you jack off to). friends help you separate this. In other words, I told Ryland about my sneakernet conferences and computer cleansing rituals and he was supportive but roasting me where needed, and told me I should do what makes me happy but post more about it so other folks know about it too.(I am still writing, I told him, it’s just on an alternative internet, and then he properly made fun of me.)

After dinner we were still restless, and decided to go find a cafe. As we were walking we passed a friend of ours headed to a pizza bar to meet a roommate to discuss how their constant flirting with other roommates is creepy, unwelcome, and rude–but hopefully discuss it in a nice way. Our friend was reasonably stressed, but still found time to stand on the corner and talk to us about booming octopi populations. He’d read an article about this, he said, about how the oceans are inexplicably filling with octopi, and he’d thought of me; because if there’s one thing I like it’s octopi and their status as an emergent civilization. He promised to send me the article and headed on his way and now I had that pleasant feeling of enjoying the current moment, but knowing i’m going to go home soon and read something coooooool. (and horrifying cos of global warming and general imbalance, but animal’s adapting to overtake this world is cool).

Ryland and I walked up Irving and the convo turned back to the internet, and how your approach to what you make changes when you write it on your own site instead of someone else’s. We also talked about where we should go for a drink, and I recommended a kava and kratom bar nearby–cos if there’s two things I like it’s homemade websites and natural heroin substitutes. But I couldn’t recommend this place with full gusto because it is so needlessly expensive and faux-fancy, and both of us just wnated somewhere bright and quiet with big deep booths. Luckily, we passed Torpedo Crepe and it’s display window filled with beautiful eggy dessert bouquets. This place looked much better than a hipster fauxpium den, so we went inside and found true heaven.

Torpedo Cafe has it all, guys. Egg Waffles and Crepe dishes for the ovo-eating friends, and coconut milk bubble tea for the vegans. bright clean atmosphere and big deep booths in the back. Big TV’s on the wall that are turned off and unplugged. A framed artist’s map of Melbourne. A stereo that only plays Demi Lovato, Carly rae Jepsen, and acoustic T. Swift. It has such a sweet suburban vibe that I miss so much living here. Ryland filled me in on other romantic animes I’d like, and how some of the best movies in recent years are linked to the Digimon film, and how he’s in love, and doing well, and pleasantly mystified by it. As we talked, two teens came in for a date and literally just read through a black and white composition book together while they sipped on each other’s bubble tea and Demi Lovato’s “Heart Attack” played and I loved all of it.

Then we said goodnight and I walked to Ridgewood listening to this phenomenal Hundred Waters song, “Blankets” while it rained v. soft and there I met Angelica outside a bodega with silverblue christmas lights all around its windows and we walked home together and this list of likes has to end somewhere so I’ll just say thank you for reading this, you who I like so much too!