Focus!

One, two three… c’om, girls! Focus is an Ariana Grande single yet it doesn’t belong to any of her studio albums: The song was originally released as the lead single from Grande’s third studio album, titled Moonlight at the time. As the album’s concept changed and its title renamed to become Dangerous Woman, the song was removed from the main track list, including the standard and deluxe versions. In this process, “Dangerous Woman” replaced “Focus” as the lead single....

March 1, 2024

Tattooed Heart

Two songs from Ariana Grande’s debut album Yours Truly hold a special place in my heart, and they’ve earned their spots in my top 10 list. The first is “The Way”, and the other is “Tattooed Heart”. While “The Way” was an immediate hit upon release, “Tattooed Heart” gained recognition more gradually, especially after Grande performed it frequently in her later career, notably during her Sweetener World Tour. The setlist of the Sweetener World Tour was strategically divided into three sections....

February 29, 2024

all 'The Way' back

The countdown is on: just ten days until the release of Ariana Grande’s seventh album, Eternal Sunshine. As a tribute to my favorite artist’s new musical chapter and to alleviate the recent turmoil of work, I’m dedicating a ten-day series on my blog to my top ten personal Ariana Grande songs. My musical preferences have subtly evolved over time. Songs that once seemed mundane or whose acclaim puzzled me have, with time, revealed their allure....

February 28, 2024

will or should?

Let’s pause for a minute of reflection today. Here’s the question: In this moment, are the tasks you undertake today born of your heart’s desire, or are they mere obligations you’re bound to fulfill? It’s just a binary question with at most four combination of answer, but it’s not easy to give a simple, definite response or even directly confront the truth for some people. Here’s one answer from Ariana Grande though, in her Vogue 19 cover interview...

February 27, 2024

an artist's attitude | from Ariana Grande's Billboard cover story

There are conflicts happening every now and then. The best way is just to focus on something else. Because if one just gets distracted by all those negative things, he might as well doesn’t have anything more meaningful on his mind to do. It would be pathetic. The attitude expressed by Ariana Grande’s billboard interview (almost 9 years ago) pretty much reflected this pov: Grande’s determined to avoid any kind of controversy....

February 25, 2024

Freakonomics | Is Google Getting Worse? (Update)

The latest episode of Freakonomics podcast titled Is Google Getting Worse? (Update) covered a topic (sponsored search) that I thought I was familiar with, but after listening, found myself to be pondering with new thoughts. To begin with, the guest list of this episode is already unimaginably fantastic: SOURCES Marissa Mayer, co-founder of Sunshine; former C.E.O. of Yahoo! and vice president at Google. Ryan McDevitt; professor of economics at Duke University....

February 23, 2024

a study of the lowercase aesthetic

I prefer writing in all lowercases–especially devoid of conventional capitalizations of the first letters. First learnt this in Ariana Grande’s Sweetener album tracks’ all-lowercase namings and initially trying just for fun, I found this way of styled writing extremely comfortable so that it eventually forms into a habit. This seemingly personal preference however, coincides with a latest trend of writing style, especially among Gen Z. Ariana Grande’s iconic, abusive use of all-lowercase writings in her social media posts, do do her fans....

February 19, 2024