every brilliant thing - june 2024
re-balancing branches, songwriting, girding my loins
Starting with a song I’m into this month, but will land my full June playlist down at the bottom. It’s a weird range—everything from a rap song by Irish children to some Beethoven sonatas.
I’ve gotten to a volume of brilliant things that I’m starting to forget what I’ve written already. The original intent was to have each entry be something distinct, but I’m not a stickler about repeats. The point is not quantity, is not originality. I could have 1 item on this list for all I care, or 2 of the same thing. The point is that I’m finding things that delight me, that amuse me, that remind me that life is worth living.
If you’re new here or want a refresher, you can click the link below for March’s list and a primer of why I’m writing an EBT list. You can find previous months’ lists on this page.
This will likely be clipped over email, so consider reading this on Substack’s website or app to see all of the footnotes photos/videos.
here’s every brilliant thing i encountered in june:
Walking past the first of two balanced branches I encountered at the end of March, but realizing it’s a different branch than from two months before, implying that someone has been watching over this spot, taking care of it when the first branch fell or was stolen1
Discovering that the second balanced branch had fallen, so after much straining (and a failed first attempt), I managed to put it back up. It felt like I had used a time turner. Maybe I’m the one who’s been watching over this spot all along?2
Birds of Golden Gate Park—a black-crowned night heron and a great blue heron3
The image of nice dress shoes abandoned by a tree4
Posters so sun-faded that they just become shades of blue5
Ignoring directions to detour through the Presidio just because
The Golden Gate Bridge appearing from behind buildings, surprising me by being so much bigger than expected
A tree that is so massive that, even while alone, it made me say out loud, “That tree is MASSIVE holy SHIT!”6
Umami bitters
When driving on the Bay Bridge towards San Francisco, positioning myself in the middle lane, so that as I exit the tunnel on Yerba Buena Island, I can enjoy the pylons and suspension cables in all their symmetrical glory
Silvi Alcivar & The Wave Chamber Collective’s performance, Cathedrals of Light7
Squirrels eating
Dogs wearing bandanas
Feeling CowPow’s breathing
Summer internship season at work8
God rays, especially through trees
When someone laughs so hard that they stop walking normally and start stomping their feet instead
Birb on birb (aka, a crow on one of Pixar’s giant seagulls)9
When one of my friends appeared in the wild while I had literally been crying about how much I wanted her support
The smell of the Panhandle after rain
A mysterious hatch in the Panhandle that I hadn’t noticed before. Think there’s a bonus level down there?10
The smell of cigarettes and rain, because it reminds me of Japan
Constructive conversations with a friend, so we can learn to love each other better
Being given permission to let it rip
Big bougainvillea blooms
Barrels of flowers11
Watching vibrations in a water glass
A couple playing fake catch with a dog12
Pretty light from stained glass13
Matsuoka Shūzō’s motivational videos14
Homemade cat calendars
Learning that people cry more readily at sad movies on planes and are generally on edge because the lowered air pressure causes mild hypoxia in the brain (low oxygen levels). It felt so vindicated for my absolute cry-fest when spotting Past Lives on my middle seat neighbor’s screen on my flight back from New York
Pixar massage therapist Esko. He always helps get the aches & pains out, while also being great at explaining what he’s doing and why
Driving as the leader of a caravan. It’s nice to focus on driving for efficiency of clarity rather than efficiency of speed
More IRL NPC dialogue: a British woman walked by Sotto Mare and proclaimed, “That smells FAH-bulous!”
Watching Sheku Kanneh-Mason play the cello15
A coworker playing beautiful piano music during lunch, providing a gentle soundtrack as I ate
Nuts falling from a tree and hitting the car with a satisfying “plunk”
Jam sessions in the Pixar Amphitheater
A low-flying plane hit by the pink golden hour light, flying right next to the bright moon
The cohesive yet distinct art deco-styled San Francisco fire stations
Flower petals with a gradient of color
Watching bubbles climb up the space between the ice cube and the inner wall of the glass
Sitting on the beach at night, gazing at the moonlit ocean16
Spontaneous adventures with a new friend
A last-minute visit from out-of-town friends
The participation and enthusiastic reception to my Monday Morning Welcome Committee17
Rachel Garlin’s ability to compose songs on the spot18
Giving myself permission to attempt the same into my voice memos, letting myself fumble and keep my inner critic at bay
September by Earth, Wind & Fire. I think it’s impossible to not have your spirits lifted when you hear the opening lick
A double corn lunch—corn soup with cornbread
Being able to do Hot Ones at work
Learning that it’s possible for me to write a draft of a song (two verses and a chorus) in just 15 minutes19
Seeing a literal car chase. I guess this isn’t brilliant in a good way, but it certainly was novel and memorable
Walking by the smell of pizza
Starling murmurations. I’m considering planning a trip to the UK or Ireland in the winter to try to see it with my own eyes.
The weird sensation of being in a restaurant, hearing the music and sounds of the ambiance, then getting into an elevator so insulated that the moment the door shuts, you’re thrust into silence. It was so disorienting. I felt like I was in the video game Portal
Songwriting as a cathartic way to process things
Sunny day clothing swaps
The sheer size of sunflowers
Great Danes
Pretty much anything by Hermanos Gutiérrez
Finding a tumbleweed in the middle of a San Francisco intersection
When I hummed a song as I got into my car, opened up Spotify to my daylist (which is randomly generated 4x a day) and found that the very first song was the song I was already humming (it was Casimir Pulaski Day by Sufjan Stevens. It’s been stuck in my head for a month straight, and I’m still not sick of it)
Window cats
The tech support office at work playing videos of Japanese trains driving through the countryside20
Having broken a CD that has the word “unbreakable” on it21
Surviving my first time back to trampoline in 3 months (post-MCL sprain)22
The malaphor “were your ears bleeding?” instead of “were your ears burning?”
Successfully remembering how to gird my loins23
A teacup yorkie named “Roast Beef”
Floating with the waves of the ocean, always
It’s so precariously balanced! It wobbles so gently! I was so glad to see that it was still there. It brings back fond memories.
Fixing the branch felt like a way to honor the aforementioned fond memories.
Photo of the black-crowned night heron featured in this haiku post:
and the great blue heron, strutting it’s stuff just before it’s about to have a snack, found here:
Whose shoes were these? Why did they abandon them? Why here, by this tree? Who ended up taking them?
Spotted in the Inner Richmond, near where I parked my car when I went on a field trip to Green Apple Books. Since these are in Japanese, my sense of nostalgia was amplified.
In Cow Hollow, as I finished up my meandering drive through the Presidio. I’m sure I’ve seen bigger trees, but the fact that it’s alone emphasized its scale.
Written about in this haiku post:
I adore our Story & Editorial interns. They bring such a wonderful energy to our departments, and it’s always great seeing Pixar through their eyes, to be reminded of all of the things that are special about working there.
In the wise words of the seagulls from Finding Nemo: “Moine, moine, moine, moine, moine.”
This reminded me of the platformer Inside, which is beautiful, concise, and has impressive non-verbal storytelling.
At Ridge Vineyards - Lytton Springs during a wine-tasting trip in Healdsburg with my hometown friend and his two friends.
I thought this was absolutely hilarious and also quite clever. No need to worry about your ball rolling away!
In Pacific Heights. What I think is interesting about stained glass is that it requires viewing it at the right time and in the right weather conditions.
These resurface every few months, and I’m always delighted when they do. It brings me a message just when I need to hear it.
I suppose this is a little meta, since it’s him rehearsing before the start of the open rehearsal.
When I arrived on campus around 8am on a Monday, the atrium was completely empty of tables except for four of these little ones by the main entrance, which made it look like a weird welcoming committee table. So I decided to be a weird welcoming committee. I sat there for two and a half hours, gathering Pixarians’ favorite songs, before compiling them into a Spotify playlist that I sent out to the studio. Many of the songs ended up in my personal June 2024 playlist.
Rachel was the instructor of the songwriting intensive I took at Studio A.C.T. a couple weeks ago. She had us each say our name and in one breath summarize what brought us to that class. She then took what we said and improvised songs in different styles as a way to introduce each of them. It was awesome.
By the end of the 4-day intensive, I had finished writing the whole 3-minute long song. I’m not sure what I want to do with it instrumentally, if anything, but I’m really proud of being able to create something from nothing.
This is the kind of thing that leaves me warm with the nostalgic glow of taking the train to my obāchan’s house.
Sad, but also very funny. The breakage prompted me to listen to this full album, which brought back memories of my teenage years.
I had to tape my knee because it was feeling unstable laterally, but I didn’t hurt myself further, which is a relief. Not captured on video, but I did a standing back tuck without needing wire support, which I had never done before! Below is a back drop half twist.
I’m pretty sure my first exposure to this was when I stumbled upon a copy of The Dangerous Book for Boys when I was a kid and, ever insistent on doing what boys could do but better, read through it all. This particular skill never left my brain, I think because it’s such a ridiculous phrase. Gird your loins? That sounds both biblical and icky. But I was at a wedding this weekend, wearing a long, flowy dress. I left the reception to go walk on the beach, and I didn’t want to have to hold my dress all bunched up in my hand when I put my feet in the water. This came to mind, and it worked like a charm. In case you find yourself wanting to get in the water or prepare for battle the next time you’re in a dress or a tunic, here’s an instruction guide I ripped off of some website called The Art of Manliness:
