things my grandmother loved

• birds
• rabbits
• babies
• matryoshka dolls
• milk
• a can of coke
• fine china
• guns n' roses, ac/dc
• linnea calendars
• the homegoods/tj maxx/marshalls trifecta
• j. crew, especially on sale
• spy starring melissa mccarthy
• billy elliot
• my cousin vinny
• my family's dog, bilbo
• her backyard
• marimekko patterns
• a british crime show (but it can't be too violent)
• coffee with lots of creamer in the morning
• the occasional cup of tea
• renting a house on the cape for a week at the end of summer
• hydrangeas, dogwood trees
• cooking & baking (but not cleaning up)
• her children and her grandchildren, myself included 

rings

supplemental viewing: "the ring, the great dark, and proximity to god" on ethel cain's youtube channel

ethel cain explains the ring as a visual representation of the forces of sound and how they converge to form something much bigger, something divine. the great dark, the unknown, underlies it all, with the sigh blooming above. it's very comprehensible in terms of how the frequencies and tones of all instruments, vocals, and sounds involved evoke something higher when the ring is fulfilled. i've been really into the idea of the sublime (specifically in american romanticist and transcendentalist poetry). one of my profs best described it as looking out from a mountain range and realizing how magnificent and beautiful the natural world we get to live in is, all while simultaneously experiencing a sort of primal terror because you are so, so small. there is god, or at least something bigger than us, on the horizon. this is directly parallel to the ring. there's the beauty, the sigh, the light, at the same time as the terror, the unknown, the great dark.

some of her rings include:

• cosmic love by florence + the machine
• grandloves by purity ring ft. young magic
• the culling by chelsea wolf
• pedestal/cover me by vera blue

as a longtime purity ring lover, i was so happy that one of my favorite artists had felt the same holiness/otherworldliness that i constantly hear in their music. it's not just me who has experienced this, and someone (someone i adore!) had put into words how it felt. this is divinity to me. and it is SUBLIME!

without further ado, here is an incomplete but important list of my personal rings. (note: i do have a rather upbeat & electronic music taste – these are not the same genre/feel/vibe as ethel's. these are my rings ♥)

• begin again by purity ring
• meateater by alaskalaska
• snakeskin by rina sawayama
• dallas by glass beach
• cocoa hooves by glass animals
• i wanna be with u by charli xcx
• family tree by ethel cain
• sunset by caroline polachek
• setting sun by you'll never get to heaven
• solid liquid gas by eartheater
• those eyes, that mouth by cocteau twins
• the four tempers by theodore shapiro
• follow the leader by magdalena bay