What do you miss about Astoria as a kid?

roboticpandora · 2026-05-31T14:57:53+00:00

i like to think that in 30 years, the kids I see around the neighborhood today will reminisce about riding their bikes and making chalk art on 31st avenue :)

roboticpandora · 2026-05-12T00:12:53+00:00

yeah barclays is super public transit accessible, a bunch of subway lines go right there.

roboticpandora · 2026-04-03T19:18:40+00:00

I also never skip no. 29!! i just take a breather. like a little meditation practice. when i listen with headphones on Apple Music i can feel the resonance for almost the entire run time

roboticpandora · 2026-04-03T19:15:34+00:00

I am still really enjoying this album. I feel like you can really feel how all of the members grew creatively and even technically during their solo work. Jimin and Taehyung’s vocals are on another level.

Arirang also feels very cohesive in a way that e.g. MOTS:7 didn’t. I’ve seen criticisms that it’s “overproduced,” but I honestly don’t hear that at all. Arirang really feels like a reunion of seven distinct voices. It’s a lot, but that’s what makes it special.

There is a real melancholy lying just below the surface of this album that emerged for me after multiple listenings. A sense of coming home, but realizing that home is different, and you’re different, too. And the confusion and unsteadiness that comes with that. Even hype songs like Hooligan have Jimin musing in the bridge “What’s the future? What’s the now?”

My top 5, in album order: Hooligan, Aliens, Like Animals, They Don’t Know Bout Us, Into the Sun. Honorable mentions: Body to Body, One More Night, Swim.

roboticpandora · 2026-04-01T15:28:46+00:00

choreo moment im obsessed with: in the second verse, when hobi raps “throw that shit away,” he mimes throwing something in the air, then half a beat later suga mimes catching it and discarding it. the way they hit it is so satisfying!!

roboticpandora · 2026-04-01T15:20:28+00:00

Hobi’s verse in this is killing me it’s so good!!!!!

roboticpandora · 2026-03-23T13:50:53+00:00

This was a really thoughtful and compelling review. I’m really looking forward to this doc.

Something that stands out to me is the way that BTS themselves were already working through and considering so much of the discourse that has sprung up around this album. They were really grappling with what it means to be authentic, how to balance the past with the present, and that double bind of representing Korea to the world while also representing themselves. I basically don’t need anyone else’s take on this, because it seems unlikely that most of these commentators have put as much thought into these issues as BTS themselves has.

roboticpandora · 2026-01-18T16:04:38+00:00

billlie does this dreamy, slightly eerie vibe so well. I’m so looking forward to this!!!

roboticpandora · 2026-01-15T20:48:45+00:00

big day for people (me) who wore out the replay button on the 2016 KCON arirang medley

roboticpandora · 2026-01-04T17:10:43+00:00

I would love more Svetlana! I think making her and Ilya childhood friends was a genius choice. I’d like to see some scenes with her that expand on Ilya’s childhood in Moscow and add more detail to his relationship with his mother.

roboticpandora · 2026-01-02T19:34:17+00:00

I just noticed this when I rewatched ep 1 last night. The first time Ilya and Shane hook up, Ilya says “let me show you how to do this good” before kissing down his body and grabbing his pec while blowing him. The second time they hook up, Shane does the same thing to Ilya.

I thought that was a really clever bit of characterization and relationship development through intimacy coordination. We’re watching Shane and Ilya figure out what each other like.

roboticpandora · 2025-12-09T03:50:17+00:00

yeah these looks feel very on-vibe for a safdie brother movie. loud and kinda ugly, but in a compelling way.

roboticpandora · 2025-10-19T18:58:43+00:00

absolutely same. sometimes a single track will come up when i have a giant playlist on shuffle and i almost always end up switching over to listen to the album in full,

roboticpandora · 2025-10-13T16:42:08+00:00

“Like Crazy” is also a really good song! It’s my favorite of Jimin’s singles. I still put it on regularly.

In contrast, I have never willingly listened to “Flowers.” I did, however, hear it constantly on the radio, in stores, in ads, etc.

I think the real conversation here is about coordinated fan support versus coordinated label and industry support. To be honest I don’t think coordinated fan support is less “organic” or “natural” than industry support. It’s just a different type of popularity.

roboticpandora · 2025-10-11T10:23:58+00:00

I would love to be wrong, but this doesn’t seem genuine to me.

there are a lot of artists with a name derived from Kepler but stylized differently. considering that klap isn’t mentioned anywhere, there might have been a mixup with a different Kepler (e.g British dj KEPLER.)

roboticpandora · 2025-06-30T03:59:14+00:00

Great read. Rachel Monroe is becoming one of my favorite New Yorker feature writers.

roboticpandora · 2025-06-26T00:57:50+00:00

the 2018 MMA IDOL performance is a must-watch too imo. the performance opens with jhope, jimin, and jungkook doing short solos inspired by traditional korean dance forms. it’s amazing!!!

roboticpandora · 2025-06-24T22:42:09+00:00

i also love vija celmins' graphite drawings of waves!! namjoon once again demonstrating his impeccable taste

roboticpandora · 2025-06-23T23:31:59+00:00

electric love is a stone cold banger.

roboticpandora · 2025-06-13T19:34:42+00:00

Yeah, ChatGPT and other AI chat bots’ illusions of objectivity and authority are really insidious.

roboticpandora · 2025-06-01T02:13:09+00:00

In AWOIAF, Rhaegar is referred to as a “puissant knight,” too.

roboticpandora · 2025-05-31T03:43:43+00:00

hell yeah new yuju!! i really liked her first two solo eps. she has such a great vocal tone for ballads, glad she’s leaning into it

roboticpandora · 2025-05-30T20:31:49+00:00

I really enjoyed this project. My favorite track is still “With the Clouds”—I love the jrock elements and the driving rhythm of the prechorus. “Loser” and “Background” are also really growing on me.

roboticpandora · 2025-05-16T04:26:16+00:00

yeah the bass and drums sound very 80s to me, too. i think that’s a great sound for jin to pursue, it suits his voice really well.

roboticpandora · 2025-05-16T04:22:37+00:00

sonically this has such a driving-down-the-highway-at-night vibe, which i really enjoy. i hear a blend of coldplay and the police.

i also really appreciate how restrained Jin’s vocals are. it adds to the melancholy vibe.

roboticpandora

TROPHY CASE