Hi everyone! It has been a while since I wrote for the UWM Post, but I am so glad to be back.
This piece kicks off a brand-new series: a life advice column that is now a part of the paper!
Optimistically, I would like this column to be published every week, as long as this fall semester doesn’t eat me alive. I will be answering any questions you send in and offering insight from some of my personal experiences. On top of that, I’ll be providing music and movie recommendations to help you get through this school year.
Without further ado, let’s get right into it! I couldn’t be more excited to go on this journey with you, and I hope you enjoy.
One Album:
I just hopped on the Lizzy McAlpine train this past week, and I could not be happier for doing so. I did miss out on her for years, with some of her folk-pop tracks already going viral, but I do not think her Joni Mitchell-inspired work could have entered my life at a better point.
Her new album, “Angel,” came out this last month, which is my first introduction to her. The record is quickly turning into one of my favorite projects of the whole year.
“Angel” has a beautiful cover that is a muted swirl of confusing and sober colors, and this perfect fall album immediately made me feel like I was living in a log cabin, overlooking a sprawling prairie. It invokes a feeling of sitting on the porch with a vivid quilt across my lap whilst sipping on a warm cup of coffee, watching my younger self play in the front yard.
“Little House in the Big Woods” is a childhood favorite book of mine, with a large part of that being due to the fact that this first installment in the classic series takes place in our beloved Wisconsin. I was reminded of the book as it immediately stuck out as a visual inspiration during my listening experience. I was embarking on something familiar while an unsuspecting harsher undertone was simultaneously thawing.
I saved nearly the whole album to my library, but the standout tracks I wholeheartedly recommend are “Anybody’s Fool,” which will be one of my favorite songs of the year and “Ugly Things.”
“Anybody’s Fool“
The first tune I mention is about the muddled aftermath of an unsatisfying breakup, which comes with the realization that a painful separation was the healthiest move for everyone involved. McAlpine documents how a part of you still yearns and wants to reach out to the other person.
You walk past the places you had treasured memories with that special person. You think of new endeavors you could be doing with them instead of being alone. McAlpine’s devastating lines sell this melancholic song to me.
"Want to move on and I'm trying to
But when the bombs hit, I look at you"
"I know this is right and I know that it's sad,
Want you to want me again like that
I like the way it feels to not be anybody's fool"
You might still have a soft spot for this failed endeavor and desire them to carry on their feelings for you, as you are perhaps hesitant to get over your intense attraction to them and want to run right back at the first sign of trouble.
At the same time, you know you will have future experiences with someone who will better understand you on an emotional level, and that is okay because this eventual progress is genuinely what is most healing for you. You know you will find a partner who doesn’t make you feel like Carrie Bradshaw showing up on the doorstep of Mr. Big with a top hat on, making you feel like your love for them is embarrassing.
You are a complete and whole by yourself. It is important to enjoy that independence and in this song, McApline is enforcing the idea that you shouldn’t push down what you are going through.
“Ugly Things“
As for the second song, I viscerally understand the awful feeling of seeing someone you love and care about act in a manner that is unbecoming of their character, as McAlpine describes here in poignant lyrics.
"All the ugly things will come back around
Wish they made me not love you
Wish they made you love me too"
"Watching you move from a distance
Coming back to a lonely existence"
In my experience, I relate to this as it is hard to witness a close friend changing themselves for social media, trying to look cool, which is disparate from their wonderful personality that I was used to. It is hard to see them behave in a way that is not like the version of them you knew well.
You still holding onto lingering affection despite perceiving unhealthy tendencies. You know that this individual has to figure things out on their own, as that hurtful but necessary distance between the two of you grows further. You miss the secret language you used to speak with them effortlessly and the assorted trinkets decorating your room serving as souvenirs of the good times shared.
These lyrics remind me how you can wish that you did not hold these passionate sentiments towards this particular person, knowing that letting go would be the best for you in moving on.
One Movie:
I have always found suggesting a documentary to someone an incredibly hard sell. My friends constantly come to me whenever looking for a new film, trusting my cultivated recommendations. I have maintained a favorite movies list since I started college, containing almost 200 flicks now. My end goal is to add one for every day of a whole year.
But I feel as though people I know are frequently turned off by this divisive genre, finding these educational pictures too boring or drawn out to be enjoyable to watch, as they do not arrive at the overarching thesis or entire point of the piece quickly enough.
I am about to frustrate that demographic tremendously, with the selection of this week being “Baraka,” a non-narrative documentary that features no dialogue or plot. It is simply a total feast for the eyes as audience members are taken on a beautiful globe-trotting journey around some of the mystical and naturally stunning locales in the world.
The best way to describe the project is that it feels the same way as the experience of playing a late ’90s or early aughts point-and-click adventure game, like “The Longest Journey” or “Myst.”
You have to make up a personal tale for yourself instead of the story beats simply being handed over to you. You must find reason and significance behind why all of these striking images are paralleled with one another.
You have to figure out the interlocking puzzle with the miscellaneous pieces provided to you; picking out the clues from scenes of people celebrating in the Amazon rainforest and African savanna, to the desolate violence of volcanoes erupting and manmade oil fields burning, directly juxtaposed with each other.
I was also heavily reminded of my childhood. I used to play the first few entries in the “Assassin’s Creed” series, climbing around on city rooftops and exploring legendary historical places.
There are countless parts I could unpack here ad nauseam. From the emanating loneliness of Japanese society with everyone plugged into technology and failing to notice their equally isolated peers around them, to people bathing in India with a grand scene shot in the fashion of an old Hollywood epic; a new aspect of humanity lies around the corner waiting to be discovered.
The imagery of “Baraka“
Among the imagery includes Brazilian homes stacked together like a massively complex beehive with countless families dancing to the beat of their own drum inside.
Obscured individuals adhere to ancient traditions and make a devotional pilgrimage to Mecca en masse to feel something I will never know.
Laborers endlessly working in cigarette factories in Indonesia while others live in the lap of luxury half a world away.
Baby chicks being prepared for our consumption and never feeling the welcoming warmth of the sun on their backs.
Sex workers with a full face of bright makeup and silk robes waiting to serve their next client.
The collected skulls of those murdered in the Holocaust and the desolate reminders of the concentration camps with their ghostly halls.
A striking eclipse that every single member of our species can look up at the sky and see once in a blue moon.
The structures that have stood for thousands of years persist and showcase that we have always been here, for better or worse.
There is just an intrinsic part of humanity that wants to gather and be together in spite of the natural destruction happening in our own backyards and caused by us, as we are continuously exploited and struggle to survive, no matter if you live in the Kowloon Walled City or next to Notre Dame.
You can watch “Baraka” for free on Tubi, and I recommend it for its harrowing yet breathtaking imagery. It can remind viewers of the inherent dichotomy constantly at play in life.
One Slice of Life: Trials and Tattoos
One thing about me is that I loathe crowds with a burning passion. There is just something about a massive public space with a copious amount of unpredictable people gathered that quickly overwhelms me.
The blaring noises and constant distractions that cause me to not understand or hear my friends frustrates me, and I’m not able to focus on a single thing. The experience of spending time with my friends becomes less intimate in the process.
What also frustrates me is how people in crowds do not seem to practice personal space, whether intentionally or not. It feels inconsiderate when I feel as though people believe they are superior to others with no thought towards those around them. I think that there has been a real recurring issue impacting society with communal events turning stand-offish as guarded cliques form and act with only their needs in mind, not taking account of basic manners.
However, I also think in a hugely contradicting way, as despite the saddening way in which these superficial interactions do not make me feel closer to my loved ones and usually end up provoking unnecessary tension, I feel a consistent reliance on still craving a nearby individual to rely on in crowds like a security blanket.
It is a strange discrepancy to me, since I truly value and treasure my independence, when there is an inconsistent battle happening in my head.
When I first started going to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, unless I could drown out my busy surroundings through curated tunes in headphones, even walking through the student union hallways used to put me on edge. I would worry about who would see me or who I might run into that I was trying to avoid.
What if my outfit only consisted of sweats that day, or I wasn’t wearing makeup? Looking back on this notion now, this stressful sentiment comes across as incredibly silly and probably ruined several ventures for me in retrospect, but this underlying uneasiness was honestly a plaguing fear for too many years.
A couple of summers ago, I remember an awful occasion where this irritating concern of mine jumped out. My friends and I were set to see the love of my life, Megan Thee Stallion, racing through the crowded festival grounds to have a blast at her show-stopping performance.
While we ended up having a good time, the infuriating journey to get there brought out the worst in me. Everyone was already sort of having a bad start to begin with, as one of our party members was going through difficult romance drama and another was awkward in social settings, both feeling out of place.
I did not help the uncomfortable dynamic in the slightest by becoming touchy, constantly complaining about the long lines to get in, and behaving like a helicopter parent in bossing the unsure group around trying to find the right seats.
Simply put, I was insufferable! I was straight up not fun and miserable, ruining the entire vibe. I did not like myself acting in this controlling way, being taut and tense over minor issues, especially when everything clicked ultimately. As someone who is typically content with herself, this emerging trait did not seem like the Piper I know and love.
I had to change, not only for me, but for my loved ones, so as to not add insult to injury and stress them out more.
I decided to challenge myself this past week and go outside my comfort zone, to start conquering this detrimental anxiety of mine, as a small part of my ongoing journey to feel in tune with myself. My friend Ella and I were supposed to attend a tattoo convention in town together, but she had to cancel, with babysitting duties calling (shout out to her for being responsible and getting that bag).
Rather than throw in the towel and give up on the cool opportunity, I went alone! In a massive room full of strange characters and a constant stream of overstimulating intrusions, I got a new tattoo of a rose and sword interlacing. I went entirely by myself, now having a physical representation on my body that I can take on stressful social situations that are normally nerve-wracking for me solo and not have the unhealthy desire to have someone else there to retreat towards.
I felt some stares might have lingered on me for far too long. I was also determined to finish a journalism assignment, killing two birds with one stone, going up to new people and interviewing them, which earned a few eyebrows and questioning glances.
I had to take photos for the upcoming article as well, hitting some truly awkward poses that must have been a sight to see, crouching down and twisting every which way. But I was never going to see any of these onlooking individuals again, and I decided I didn’t care what they thought.
I was just doing me and having a great time, even if my bank account took a bit of a blow.
To get to the point of this section, I want to challenge anyone reading to go outside their comfort zones this next week, to achieve an important goal that has been on the back burner.
Do something you are genuinely proud of, like going into an overwhelming public space alone or making a new friend out in the wild, and do not look back! Exist how you want in a social setting, without anyone else stopping you, including that nagging voice in your head that is only going to stop you from new adventures.