pinterest is over, you are yourself now (sorry)

perhaps this blog is more a journal entry, given i just saw the news of pinterest's C-suite reshuffle about two hours ago while procrastinating on linkedin. new hires include lee brown (doordash, spotify) as a newly-created chief business officer and claudine cheever (amazon) as chief marketing officer as the platform heads towards fulfilling its potential as an "ai-driven shopping platform" - literally bill ready's words, and baby he just made ceo. 

according to axios it is shopping, rather than browsing, which makes up the primary activity on the platform. but as a gen z pinterest addict, this doesn't resonate at all. pinterest has a clearly defined role in shopping and trend construction but my experience of the app and various pieces of reportage suggest a more individual, personalised use case. 

pinterest is one of the few "quiet" social media platforms remaining. others include tumblr, bluesky, x (to an extent), and reddit. these platforms aren't video-forward with short-form on autoplay. pinterest's somewhat siloed design also allows a media-no-social experience, where likes and comments are secondary to your own personal curation. the content, rather than the engagement, takes centre stage. alongside tumblr, it's possibly one of the only mainstream (yes tumblr counts as mainstream) platforms to have that. in an article by meg donohue for elle, pinterest rep andréa mallard emphasised the lack of performance required for pinterest users, and the priority of creative collaboration.

users are protective of this space. the backlash to the flood of genAI slop on pinterest was immediate, and has since been remedied/plastered by a setting that allows you to toggle genAI for different content categories (which assumes it can be identified - obviously it doesn't always work). the platform is both used and reviled by artists, who make extensive "drawing ref" boards but also find their work reposted to pinterest sans-credit on the reg. 

but genAI isn't what bill ready means when he says ai-driven; he's talking about recommendations. they want to use ai to refine recommendations for a hyper-personalised pinterest feed experience. 

the personalised feed has been feeding (i know) my reservations about pinterest for some time now. as someone who endeavours to avoid instagram and tiktok, and who rarely uses bluesky, and who uses tumblr obsessively for one week every 3 months, it's kind of a safe haven to avoid having to interact. the scroll-with-music time is great and i have always loved to curate. over the past 4 or so years i have legitimately discovered my personal taste through at least 80% pinterest use, and i do genuinely love it. but my appetite feels too big for it; the feed feels limiting. i can and do search for pins outside of my usual taste, but most of my app usage (and i imagine the same is true for many others) comes from scrolling the feed - and at times, it's genuinely boring.

so can ai introduce diversity to an algorithm, or only reduce it? the intention of these algorithm trends towards ai features, such as dialogic algorithms you can speak to, is to create a perfect algorithm, one that will show you exactly what you need when you need it. they want the ultimate content: something that perfectly resonates with you, drawing the maximum emotional and digital engagement from you.

it sounds delightful and convenient to have that, but the trends are already bucking in the other direction with 2026 predictions including a rise in demand for IRL experiences and "analog" systems (a term already being hailed as overused and it's not even february lol). in my social media circles, there have been endless discussions around developing taste, who has taste, and what taste even is nowadays, which all in some way centre around friction and escaping this hyper-personalised bubble.

but i've not actually seen any evidence that we actually DO want friction in our lives. bean soup theory is alive and well in comments sections even when it's not egregious. the phrase "i built this fyp brick by brick" humorously emphasises the unique fit of a ridiculous video for the viewer by referencing continued interaction (as a substitute for any real work) that results in a supposedly tailored experience. even the virality of bedrotting (about which you can read this great post) vaguely valorises completely frictionless "hobbies". it remains to be seen if 2026 is the year we're all outside, but the ipods and wired headphones are not convincing me so far!

besides my distaste for frictionless personalisation, the commerce aspect completely undercuts the positive messaging pinterest is keen to uphold. cheever says she wants marketers to be able to capitalise on the relevance pinterest can daub their products with; aiming for ads to never "feel creepy or weird" but instead "rich and useful". at the end of the day though, you're still capitalising on want. it is creepy and weird. so why are we intent on pretending otherwise? 

it's the latest instalment in the insidious flip that marketing has taken - from creating a narrative you choose to be a part of, to creating a narrative about you without your consent. it's always been creepy - marketing has always meant to push into your psyche and give you a way out. that's why it's so interesting! it's always been about constructing a narrative for yourself. but now you don't get to discover that narrative. you don't get to have the feeling of seeing something completely outside your life experience for the first time and going "holy shit, that's me, i need more of that". every piece of content will feel like it was made for you and so you never get to escape yourself. you never get to be in charge of the narrative.

so yes, i will be paying attention to what happens next. we'll have to see how pinterest will change as a result of this; i just find it hilarious to name-drop ai for a platform that i perceive to have a heavily anti-ai userbase. but this is the year of Me - personalisation is the watchword. it's probably a great move for pinterest to lead the way on that. it's just a shame that brand narrative has to capitulate.

anyway, i've already spent recent months diversifying away from pinterest - are.na will give you the magpie functionality you so desire, but you have to find the content yourself. it has the healthy amount of porn gifs that signifies it's still a user-centric platform (you can toggle).

peace

ode to jade west

for as long as i can remember, i have wanted an eyebrow piercing. i got my first ear piercings at 16 and since then 6 more, but still the eyebrow piercing haunts me. i wanted one before i had any piercings, even when my style icons were, like, girly girl kpop idols.

from the title of the blog you can see where this is going but shockingly dear reader i had not. my sister is rewatching hit nickelodeon tv show victorious once again and i am being trapped in front of the tv like a moth. for a show that does not whatsoever hold up today, contains a disturbingly zach schneider-motivated number of feet scenes, and is generally not that funny half the time, i am glued to the screen.

for nostalgia, yes, but also. because the grip of jade west on my heart has never left.

and, mid-episode, i let out a gasp. you know when something is really crazy to you but when you explain it no one really cares and you have to deal with the knowledge that only you are having this galaxy brain realisation? that was me when i clocked that the source of my lifelong eyebrow piercing obsession, was standing right in front of me. 

for some reason i had just internalised the eyebrow piercing need entirely independently of the source. apologies jade and katie gavin elford, who from imdb appears to be the costume supervisor with the longest connection to the show. 

when i was a kid i was just absorbing the various character outfits like a regular viewer. but now, because i'm insane and this is my life now, every episode i have been locked in to what everyone's wearing. and what i have to say to you is this: i was right the whole time.

people typically refer to jade as emo online, but really her outfits lean more on a punk-lite grunge. lots of flannel, combat boots, spikes, etc. it doesn't fully veer into subculture though - they tend to still be pretty..... pretty, and have elements of conventional popular 2010s style like the relatively understated jewellery. this actually somewhat reflects her character, as she's typically standoffish and tbh mean (side note: i've discovered people ship jade and tori and honestly you lot could convince me on it because tori has to be down BAD to let jade talk to her like that. but i never liked her much anyway so i could also just believe that she lets it happen) but also frequently a Teenage Girl. see the episode where slapmaps updates its map for hollywood arts and it looks like jade is picking her nose so she makes sure they retake the photo and is hands on hips posing ready for it. do i think these were intentional decisions? maybe. i actually think they just wrote her to do whatever bit they had planned and then styled her to be the hot goth archetype, but let's imagine a world where it's that deep.

also deeply important to me is the fact she mains knee-high all-black converse in like half the episodes. they're kind of her go-to shoe. the IDEA of wearing knee-high converse with skinny jeans in 2026 has just made me actually laugh out loud while writing this, but i wanted them so badly when i was a kid. my mom never let me get them, thankfully at the time because they went out of style fast but also sadly because those pictures would have been great to look back on.

which brings up a more general point that i don't really see anyone dress like this...? and i live in a major city? i don't see that many goth/emo people in general to be honest but i definitely think i haven't *noticed* anyone that hits this exact kind of style.

i think it's because the 2010s aren't really back yet. they are online - my queen trinity zmazzzy on insta is the most committed i've seen, and the twilight style resurgence counts, with its revival of the scoop-neck long sleeve. but out and about? the 2010s revival is not visibly happening. it's still wide leg jean city on the tube, black puffer jacket/long coat rotation, and slimline sneakers.

the seeds of 2010s style revolution are there. a permeating nostalgia for pre-IOS7 iphone and white girl club music. a jeans trend cycle that hit speeds so fast it became obsolete and now you can wear whatever jeans you want. y2k has been done. a new generation who don't remember the reality of 2010s style (2010s is to gen alpha what y2k was to millennials) is ready to take the lead..........

anyway. when i reread the hunger games undoubtedly i will be giving a style review of my IRL style influence from that time, katniss everdeen. 

smooth sloperator

hi guys

my other blog which i was using largely for Get A Job purposes got almost completely abandoned once the mission was completed. i also don't really think anyone was reading it, which is fine because the way i was writing on there (see the two acceptable examples crossposted here) was really kind of gross. now i have been liberated back into my lowercase freedom.

writing a blog is not something that comes naturally to me. i don't have much to discuss (notmuchtosay dot blogspot dot com was taken). fundamentally, i genuinely don't think i really have unique insight to share that deserves a place online - i am the ulysses ogre. but i saw a post from an artist i like about how we should all start dailyblogging in 2026. 

i was kind of captivated because in the past year working in social media has really pushed me over the edge in terms of hating it. from a distance, social media discourse (like actually about the platforms) is all well and good. i find it interesting to know how people are using social media and what the platforms are doing - really, i'm deeply invested in social media. 

i grew up on fandom internet in case that much wasn't clear from the way i am as a person. in 2012 i made my first internet friend on my "aesthetic feed" instagram who became a regular in the kik group chat with my earliest secondary school friends. from 2013 to c. 2021, i was an avid stan twitter member, moving from youtube (tyler oakley dm celebrations; troye sivan skinny ratio girls; phan privacy defence league), to anime (edits; "minors dni" creation myth; the absolute rule of the phillipines on the tl; haikyuu last chapter lockdown drop), to kpop (getting my internet friend into seventeen; fanwar obliviousness). throughout secondary school i was a long time listener failed caller on studyblr, which iykyk is where i got my handwriting from and how i became an OG proponent of mildliners before they started selling them in WH smith (and how i actually learned to study and enjoy it).

so like to say i am obsessed with social media and its influence is true. but unfortunately i now find myself becoming one of those people who is preoccupied with the negative impacts of endless scroll, short-form video predominance, and the loss of desktop computer time. it's worn out and almost boring to criticise this; the new trend is "offline" anyway, everyone is already talking about it. morning raves, in-person speed dating, sober hobby culture, etc. i just read an article yesterday about how much it sucks that "relatable" humour of "my bed understands me and won't judge me for eating a pint of ice cream while watching netflix!!!!" that used to be restricted to superwholock binge-watching is now every third tiktok comment left by the "my new years' goal is to sleep more" brigade. the online noisemaking about club culture dying, for example, is only one iteration of the online/offline tension (although many people miss the austerity part).

but the problem is that that is kind of really genuinely actually how i feel. as much as i try to avoid it - as much as i have defended the six seeeveennn 8 year olds from my peers - i genuinely feel that we had social media that was social, enjoyable to use, and fit into our life in a way that made sense. i'm angry about the fact that people have spent their working lives custom-designing an addictive technology to rip time from users' lives. do i really think that the instagram where you could post one (1) picture at a time was the ultimate tool for creativity? no, of course hosting video is good too. but i also scroll to the very bottom of anyone with 2012 posts on their account (sorry emily axford) to reminisce on a time where there were not ads, it was cool to post, and people wrote earnest captions with #HashtagsThatWereAFullSentence.

so blogging is an interesting one. i never took to it as a teen because i was fundamentally terrified of people from my real life finding me online - i don't have much evidence of my fandom activity online because i meticulously deleted accounts, used pseudonyms, and did my best to be as anonymous as possible. that mentality has now somewhat permeated my "public" social media accounts, like instagram - posting selfies isn't cool any more anyway, but the fear of a digital footprint has now reached everyone. 

the ai of it all is responsible for, i would say, three strands of what i'm talking about here. firstly the genAI wave has eliminated the desire to post face (alongside arguably the pandemic-era social justice emphasis in online discourse branding selfies as tone-deaf). it hasn't escaped my contemplation that anyone could deepfake me from the content i've posted for work. the second strand, which is the floodgates opening ai slop, has sent the "dead internet is here" death toll posts through the proverbial engagement roof.

which brings us to the third point, the return to blogging and the rise of (faux?)intellectualism to combat the perceived cognitive decline ai has brought about. see the ridiculous growth of substack in 2025. i don't know if there have been any real, significant trials about cognitive function decline resulting from ai use. the oft-cited paper involving essay writing and brain activity i believe was an exploratory study with a tiny sample size. i also don't by any means think that the phenomenon of people who don't want to think is a new thing. people who want to take shortcuts, do the easy thing even if it's wrong or worse, or simply don't care about quality are not new. but there is a general concern about the mental laziness inspired by ai tools like chatgpt, hilariously at odds with the sloperator prompt engineer grindset that characterises the entire ai sector. 

the people are craving friction! so give them blogs!

nostalgia-fuelled, ai-hating, former-gifted-kid-sadposting millenials and gen z are embracing long-form with open arms, despite the fact that many of us were honestly a little too young to really have experienced the era of original blogging. but we have a craving to actually hear each other again, not the stupid voice of the short-form attention grab or the ai r/Relationships voiceover.

it's just that it's all on purpose. i logged into substack last night after not really using it at all when i made an account last summer. in a 20 minute scroll, i read two good articles and maybe four posts that lamented how the content on substack has become uninteresting and cheap, decrying the listicle and social media commentary. substack, the original blog platform that did what medium kind of couldn't and become a mainstream success, has immediately fallen to the sphere that linkedin operates in. thought-leadership posturing. not a single person who knows marcus aurelius has released you from the obligation to have a take.

and this is what i'm saying about social media nostalgia: we can't go back. the plague of the substack creative outlines what social media has become. before, you would be laughed at if you said your job was in social media for a brand. it wasn't a legitimate part of marketing. now it's millions of peoples' job. everyone is encouraged to become a brand, to build a platform online - to live out the rags to riches dream that accompanies having a good take online. it's obliterated gatekeeping, in a way. but in doing so  it's tied us to the stage. we're not posting to our friends but our audience, not for likes and comments but for a generalised "engagement".

the call to personal dailyblogging hopes to circumvent all this by avoiding the curse of readership desire. it's the one true magic bullet solution to the attention-seeking darkness that consumes social media! it's writing about things you like, for other normal people. it's not "building a platform". it's unique, original insight on topics that you 🫵 are interested in, for no reward.

where have i heard that before?

ALL of the internet is about getting attention. sorry. that is what stands in the way of me living my blogger truth. yes, the aforementioned audience issue has compounded it severely. but, in my most not like other girls take i'll have in this blog, i have always hated the notification-checking that accompanies posting. it makes me feel gross. i have deleted countless posts hours after posting because the phrase "no one actually cares tbh" is on loop in my head. not that literally no one cares about what i have to say - but why would i post hundreds of words into nothingness when i can have a real conversation with friends (this isn't referring to people who don't have the option to talk to people in real life about their interests. it's about me. this isn't a bean soup situation). 

content creation as a hobby requires a level of belief in your own self-importance which i simply do not have. a belief i'm not criticising whatsoever, because how would i have been keysmashing about youtube videos on twitter if people never made youtube videos? i just don't have it.

all this to introduce a blog which i hope to continue writing. why?

well firstly because i have to honour my love affair with old social media. there was a time when we were all posting genuine, earnest updates on our days and lives without worrying about "our data" (a fear which most people don't even know the meaning of) or ai or doomscrolling. now i've moved back home after uni and the fog of mental illness war is dissipating, i find myself desperate for those times back. is it a heartbreaking nostalgia for teenage fun i wasn't really having? that's none of your business. i want to be earnest on social media again! i want to stop feeling dread when i hit a "post" button! 

secondly, i kind of need a place to rant about pop culture. guys, i just watched twilight for the first time in december and i have so many thoughts about these shitty mormon vampires. i'm going to read them soon approaching them from a horror angle (it's real) and where am i going to talk about it all? also, i keep having these lengthy conversations with multiple people and it's kind of driving me crazy repeating like the BULK of my dumb theses to different people.

thirdly i kind of do believe in the project of us all blogging again. i want to read your niche takes on things i've never heard of, i want to know about what's going on in your life, i want to read what you're thinking, i want to hear from you.

so, the demons i will be fighting in this endeavour

1. my need to never have a digital footprint on any platform and my addiction to deleting posts

2. the dislike for my own writing

3. my lack of understanding about how to keep up with blogs, having had a feed on everything i've ever used

4. ulysses ogre complex

wish me luck. and make a blog! please!

peace

Men are so BACK?

Lueder is Marie Lueder’s eponymous menswear brand that takes inspiration from medieval armour to address mens’ mental health and anxieties about society. Implementing themes including disillusionment, vulnerability, and sensitivity, Lueder blends contemporary loose fits and historical elements to create 2020s-appropriate armour for mind and body. Additionally, Lueder operate with the intention of sustainability embedded in the workflow, such as using less water-intensive dying (LFW) and wood pulp faux fur (merde magazine).

Back in February much was made about the incoming controversy (that seemingly never materialised outside of a few Instagram comments) wrought by one garment from Lueder’s AW25 show at Berlin Fashion Week.

Photo: Lueder

It’s a white tank with shiny, plastic-looking red iron-on letters that reads: “Men are so BACK”. It seems cheap and low-quality, “like something you’d pick up from a Jersey City t-shirt shop” (Dazed). As well as the “so back” reference, the font is reminiscent of (if not actually - I don’t know) Impact, further fuelling the 2020s wave of brainrot-inspired creations. The space between lines is a centimetre or so too large, adding to the impression of poor quality and general atmosphere of an affirmation meme. The white tank is possibly the masculine garment; simple, shows off the upper body, etc. (although it's my personal opinion that slogan tees are for the girls... call it the iCarly effect) Paired with sagging, straight-fit jeans and a low puma trainer it reflects a modern masculinity that favours a vaguely fashion-conscious simple look.

Under backstage interrogation Lueder confirmed conclusively that the piece is about her fear of Trump: “being scared of him coming back” (Dazed). Although obviously humorous (or tacky, as per a few comments), the piece is very much in line with Lueder’s interest in masculinity and vulnerability. Lueder’s statement is that men are back - for the worse. Indeed it may be true – the simmering misogynistic violence, the pushback on LGBTQ+ existance, the political Olympics – but the overtly celebratory undertones of “so back” are somewhat overpowering and I wonder if it’s the best choice of pop slang to employ here.

Lueder debuted this on the runway in Berlin but also created a club-like show where models danced around guests with techno and strobe lights. But my first sighting of this tank was Lexie Liu’s music video for her song FFFFF, featuring vampire-Lexie alternating between hanging out with her human pizza delivery boyfriend, drinking blood for dinner with her blonde moms in their stately home, and doing mascara in the webcam of a laptop from 2005. 

Lexie Liu wearing Lueder in her vampire mansion

The masculinity presented here is starkly different that which Lueder pictured while designing the garment. It’s passive and in some ways lower status. It’s “boyfriend as accessory”, it's Ken. In this context the phrasing comes across almost entirely differently; men are validated on authority of Lexie’s it girl-ness. Not only does she have the power to turn her 2013 boyfriend into a vampire, she seemingly decrees that men are so back, as in: back in fashion.

Can we produce a new masculinity through it girl decree? I don’t think so. Undoubtedly iconic and a top-10 concept for the girls (myself included), it still suppresses any self-actualisation or reflection. More hopeful than Lueder’s ominous intention, but not going anywhere. We’re already past the point where it’s revolutionary to have the ditzy boyfriend replace the ditzy girlfriend, and well into the era where “positive masculinity” influencers are finding audiences. The accessory boyfriend isn’t contemporary enough to exist in real life, and this is reflected in Liu’s Y2K sensibilities, a trend which often draws more from nostalgic cosplay than historical reenactment.

Boyfriend in tow

So men are back, but maybe not all of that has to be terrifying. While the fragile, misogynistic nonsense portrayed by Trump and his ilk is in full catastrophic swing, their counterparts are working hard online to reclaim space for men to thrive. The it girls are toting their boyfriends around on Instagram and showing off how they care. Perhaps this piece can help us encourage that side of masculinity - manifest it, if you will. 

We can hold the fear and the celebration together. And of course, the club is the perfect place for that.

Smaller things inside bigger things

After a shocking getting-a-job related absence of 8 months (???!!!) I write to you today because - huge news - I saw a sick ass rug. Upon trusted recommendation I took my mom to Siena: The Rise of Painting 1300–1350 at the National Gallery for her birthday. The work on display was interesting enough but the highlight was two men who happened to run into each other while visiting, and stopped next to us to discuss (by example!) how a 14th century sheet of music would be sung, which was incredible. 

Despite covering the engaging output of what seems to be not a particularly long period, we did suffer mildly from either too many rooms or a minor lack of benches, so don’t ask me about the final two rooms because my legs had clocked off by then. However, you can ask me about the Confronted Animal Rug on loan from the Met which was (unsurprisingly) my favourite object on display.

Confronted Animal Rug, 14th century. Attributed to Turkey, 165.1cm length, 138.4cm width. (c) Met Museum

Confronted animal rug, 14th century

These “Early Anatolian” carpets are depicted in various paintings from 14th century Siena as trade between Europe and the Ottoman Empire strengthened. This example is one of several that made their way into the market as monks fled from Tibet during the Chinese Cultural Revolution.

The field depicts four possibly digitigrade quadrupeds in two confronted pairs, each raising a front leg. Enclosed within them are smaller animals with three visible legs. These smaller animals are within a shape which I took to be abstract, but which Michael Franses in God Is Beautiful and Loves Beauty: The Object in Islamic Art and Culture suggests is a third level of animal, perhaps the senmurv (sinmurgh) of Persian legend. I’ll just be focusing on these animals, not the borders.

As Daniel Walker writes, the smaller animal within the larger one appears to be a “play on the stock image of an animal within a compartment found in many ancient and medieval textiles”. Other rugs of like origin feature this geometric style and compartmentalised organisation, but the Matryoshka doll effect is rare - there is a very similar carpet at the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha that has it but it is otherwise unique.

Altogether the symmetric shape of the tail, nested animal motifs and tiny heads create a whimsy that makes this piece unusual, while the three-leggedness of the smaller animals furthers the geometric element but still retains a balance that makes the rug pleasing to look at. Given there are more naturalistic animal depictions in other styles, this simplicity appears purposeful.

Interlude on Matryoshkas

Briefly - it has to be said that my original ideas for this blog literally consisted of a list of “smaller things that go inside bigger things”. I love to harass friends when trying to think of what to write so in addition to the list I had I did ask a friend, giving the extremely specific requirements that the thing has to be a smaller version of the thing it’s in, they have to be discrete objects (therefore excluding e.g., Earth’s layers) and has to be completely enclosed in the other thing. Together we came up with:

• Matryoshka dolls (obviously, and the Japanese nesting kokeshi dolls they were based on)
• Layers of pass-the-parcel (excluding the prize I guess)
• One specific Chinese porcelain teacup set contained inside a big teacup
• Onion layers

Interestingly this photo of Matryoshka dolls was taken in Japan.

It was extremely difficult. If you have any other examples let me know because we were struggling.

Matryoshka dolls are popularly associated with maternal generational lines and fertility, and kokeshi dolls have similar associations with children. However, there’s also various interpretations of them as a representation of unity between body, soul, mind, heart, and spirit.

Our outlier: red animal on blue background as opposed to black/navy on yellow.


Journey to the centre of the ???

My point being that the inward direction of travel with nested symbols feels distinctly like an journey of self-reflection or truth. If we continue to pointedly and arbitrarily ignore the popular fertility interpretations for the time being, then the use of nesting objects as psychological metaphors becomes possible (verging dangerously on Shrek philosophy).

Given their representation in Sienese paintings of important religious scenes such as The Marriage of the Virgin, these rugs are imbued with significance well beyond their simplistic animal motifs. My guess is that their foreign provenance improved their luxury status - and indeed not every painted animal carpet has nested symbols - but it’s interesting to wonder about this inward journey in a religious context. Many religions have a reflective function and in Christianity this is no less the case.

I prefer this interpretation as my focus is drawn to the singular blue/red iteration of the smaller animal’s background in the top right, which hints at a difference between an individual and society. The outer animal is somewhat more flashy than the inner; their symmetrical (armoured?) tails are reminiscent of the antlers of these animals on a carpet in the Vakıflar Museum, Istanbul. On the raised front leg of each outer animal there appears to be a spur, and round the neck of each is a striped collar. Meanwhile, the inner animal has a much simpler rounded tail and no collar, as well as a simpler facial silhouette.

Combined, they have a distinct feeling of internal vulnerability/external hardiness. A group-oriented warning against individual difference, or a personal admission of feelings of isolation? The outer shell is identical to its peers in fashion (collar), anatomy, and stance, while the inner animal self is simpler, less intense.

Ultimately this single instance of variation draws the whole composition together. Regardless of intention, there’s a striking difference between the movement of the animals and the feeling of internal solitude that centres on this little guy. Or he was just sick af