Category Archives: Misc.

Song of the Month: Efflo, Horror Movie

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There’s a lot of good new music right now, so I had a bit of a struggle picking a single track for November’s Song of the Month. The song Chvrches did for Death Stranding is fantastic, and the new Monowhales single is pretty bangin’, too.

But I had to signal boost the new track from Winnipeg’s Efflo. I’ve featured them before a few times, and their new song, Horror Movie, is as beautifully different as ever (though the video should probably have an epilepsy warning).

I do have to laugh that they said at the beginning of the year their sound was going to become more positive, and this is what they’ve come out with. Not that I’m complaining — I love bleak music, and they’re masters of the form.

Off Topic: A Year of Depression, Pictured

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About a year ago I started using a mood tracker app. I hoped it might help me detect patterns in my moods that could help me change my habits towards promoting better mental health. In reality, I’m not sure it confirmed anything other than “bad days make me sad.”

But I do think looking at the big picture of the last year is an interesting illustration (quite literally) of what living with depression is like.

A graph of my moods for the period of one year.I’m not terribly interested in contextualizing particular peaks or valleys, but I do think this does a good job of demonstrating what I mean when I say depression shifts your whole emotional spectrum.

Obviously this graphic paints a fairly bleak picture of my life, but I think what’s truly disturbing is not how much time I spend at “bad” or “awful” but how little time I spend above “okay.” I reported my mood as “great” precisely once in an entire year.

I’m not sure I’m going to keep using this app. Looking at the big picture is just making me even more depressed.