Open Notebook – June 20, 2026 - Obscure Curiosities

Oh look, my old tumblr STILL EXISTS! I need to clean it up a bit… phoenixdesertsong.tumblr.com

Here’s the advice I’m following: “The best number of queued posts on Tumblr is 10 to 15 posts per day, spaced out over the peak engagement hours (5:00 PM to 1:00 AM EDT). This keeps your blog highly active and visible to followers across time zones without flooding their dashboards.” Thanks, Google AI.

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Lyrics I wrote down from my Moleskine:

Olivia Rodrigo <3

“How’s the castle built off people you pretend to care about?” – Livie, Vampire

“Aren’t you the sweetest thing on this side of hell?” / “Dazzling starlet, Bardot reincarnate” / “And I despise my jealous eyes and how hard they fell for you / Yeah, I despise my rotten mind and how much it worships you” – Livie, “Lacy”

“I stumbled over all my words / I made it weird, I made it worse / Each time I step outside / It’s social suicide” – Livie, “Ballad of a Homeschooled Girl”

“And when does wide-eyed affection and all good intentions start to not be enough? When will everyone have every reason to call all my bluffs? And when are all my excuses of learning my lessons gonna start to feel sad? Will I spend all the rest of my years wishing I could go back?” Livie, “Teenage Dream”

“Yeah I’m a candle in the wind / I’ll turn you out, I’ll turn you in” – Livie, “girl I’ve always been”

Death Cab for Cutie! In 2026!

“Trying to take the first step / Into the arms of wherever / Whenever” – Death Cab for Cutie, “Stone Over Water”

“The acceptance of collapsing / Under unspeakable weight / The righteous indignation / Began flowing as expected / You were a question without an answer / An introspection best deflected / There was no closure in your exist / It was a perfume for the scentless”

‘When there’s no making sense / Of the past or present tense / I will breathe for you / I will breathe for you / Death lingered in your doorway / And then reached across the threshold / You grasped the hand extended / And were pulled in to the unknown” – DC4C, “How Heavenly a State”

“I pledge myself to your misery / I kneel at its throne / Respecting your proclivity / To languish on your own / Like a snowflake starting an avalanche / It always depends…” – DC4C, “Trap Door” (the song is amazing all the way through)

“Riptides” from DC4C is ALL GOOD!

“Our summers spent on trampolines / With the lawn darts impaling the groomed fields of green.” – The Flavor of Metal, DC4C

And finally…

“Let Me Down Slowly” by Alec Benjamin: “Don’t cut me down, throw me out, leave me here to waste / I once was a man with dignity and grace / Now I’m slippin’ through the cracks of your cold embrace” (I heard Audra sing ‘gold’ because I am dumb.)

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Really neat collection, one of the nicest I’ve ever seen! And it didn’t cost anywhere as much as you’d think.

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These twins are SO GORGEOUS! And GREAT! Their names are Alanna (bass) and Brianne (guitar). And their band is Fionn (pronounced fee-un). They need to be seen and heard about a million times more than they have been. How have they been around since 2018 and I never heard of them?

The algorithm really came through with them:

Their latest single, “The Game”:

More of these twin goddesses:

This is a song Brianne and Alanna wrote with Josh Ramsay of “Call Me Maybe” songwriting fame. Not only does “Dirty Dancing” absolutely bop, but these two may be the most gorgeous twins in the history of mankind.