The Mood Bored Vol. #1

City pop, Rasslin, Aliens & Treasure Hunting

Welcome to my new concept.. The Mood Bored

What a heavy write-up I did last week on “The Loneliness That Comes With Being a Writer”. It was a bit peeling, so thank you to anyone who read it and can relate! 

Figure this week I wanted to return to more chill things, like hobbies. So figure why don’t I talk about all the things I’ve been hyperfocused on the past week or so. This can be anything that’s currently inspiring me from films I have seen, games I’m playing, down to food I’ve had. I also figure this is a way to celebrate my vast interests and try as much as possible to put them in one concise write-up rather than overwhelming everyone (mostly myself). So here’s the first installment that I hope to keep running, so if you enjoyed this or have experienced anything I’ve covered here, definitely leave me your thoughts by commenting or sharing! 

1. Playing - Judgement (PS5)

   

I’m new to the whole Yakuza series but I’ve always wanted to try them. What scared me is the commitment to their lengthy campaigns and a large amount of installments + spin offs. However, I recently purchased a trip to Japan this winter (2nd visit!) and I am beyond stoked. I wanted to play a game where I can experience it all again and this was my answer. Everything about it felt like roaming Shinjuku from playing gatcha machines, arcades, going into host clubs and fighting yakuza (didn’t do that part irl). Plus the detail on the FOOD! I often play this game paired with my Japanese city pop vinyl for the aesthetics, which brings me to #2. 

Record - Pacific Breeze Vol.1 (Japanese city pop)

I have been a city pop fiend for the past 2 months since visiting Seattle and learning more about them from really enthused employees at record shops (honestly, the best part about getting back into records is the conversation). I could mention a couple albums in my collection that I’ve been binging but this is the one that started it all. Again, because I’m visiting Japan, I’m overly excited about breathing this entire aesthetic and looking for more city pop records. Fave artists so far are Taeko Onuki, Tomoko Amran, Makoto Matsushita, honestly so many to list! 

The vibe is just so happy, sexy, oozing with personalities, but at the same time overly complex for pop music! 

Here is my growing city pop faves playlist below:

Watched - No One Will Save You (horror) 

Tip: Watch this blind! I did and didn’t know what I was expecting except that it was horror and the headline “A home invasion that no one saw coming”. This is basically like a Jordan Peel’s Nope I’ll leave it at that (ok yes there are aliens). This movie rips you from the start and the constant weirdness and our failure to understand the extra-terrestrial makes this so creepy. It also makes me realize how isolated my actual lifestyle is and how Aliens might want to abduct me cause of it (inside movie reference). 

Event - WWE Smackdown 

I attended my first non-house wrestling event last week and had a blast!! For those who don’t know, wrestling has been booming the past year or so and is considered cool again. In a televised event like Smackdown, I got to see the promos in front of me live, and experience backstage segments on the titatrons, and the matches felt like they had more meaning as they were all cannon. One of my bucket list goals is to attend a big Wrestlemania or even Royal Rumble event live and get close seats. But I gotta make a helluva lot more $$ cause with wrestling becoming popular again, you know those ticket prices aint cheap. 

Cooking - Pork Udon Carbonara 

So this was my 3rd attempt and making this dish, and it was the tastiest so far (according to my wife). I’ve been replacing pasta with udon noodles lately, cause they are so easy to cook and yummy! This one contains lots of eggs and parmesan cheese, mixed with the flavoured juices of pork belly to create the cream. Takes about 45 minutes to 1 hour to make and serves 6, I am happy to have leftovers of this creamy noodles full of emotion! 

Board Game - Clank! 

I attended a board game convention the other week where I was taught this game. It’s a deck-building adventure game good for up to 4 players, and the theme is dungeon crawler looting. I am first and foremost theme and presentation, so I dove right into it and found a simple yet strategic game of trying to collect as much treasure as much as possible while avoiding awakening the dragon that rests in the underground chambers. When the dragon eventually awakens, the challenge is making it back out while carrying as much treasure as possible which will count as points in the end, or failing to escape cause you got too greedy. I am 0-4 against my wife in this game! She has kicked my ass every time. I bought my own copy and looking to add more expansions to the mix. 

Thanks for reading the first edition of The Mood Bored. If you watched, played any of these or wanna trade recipes, let’s geek out and definitely sub for more! 

Cheers, 

Lamar