Saturday Nine: My Favorite Things (2018)

This week's Saturday Nine:

You can hear this week's song here.

1. This week's artist, Jennie Abrahamson, is very happy living in Stockholm, but she refers to Paris as "a flirt." She enjoys her time there so much she always wants to return. Is there a place you've visited that tugs at your heart and imagination, tempting you to return? Tokyo, Hong Kong, Paris, and New York City. I've visited each of these cities at least twice before (I've been to NYC at least 20 times), but there's something about each one that makes me want to visit again and again.
   
   
2. Jennie has said her music has been heavily influenced by 80s pop, which was popular in her early teen years. Are your favourite songs the ones you listened to when you were growing up? I would say with the exception of BTS, 80% of all the other music I listen to is from my the '90s and early 2000s. So, yes.
   
   
3. "My Favorite Things" is from The Sound of Music. Crazy Sam's high school claim to fame was playing Sister Margaretta in the senior class production. Though not a big part, her performance lives on because relatives love embarrassing her with pictures of her in an especially unflattering nun's habit. Who took an embarrassing photo of you? What were you doing? While I think all photos taken of me are embarrassing (I loathe being in photos), I think the worst ones are from when I was in Grade 5 and 6. I had braces, the ugliest round glasses you have ever seen (these are not the hipster, oversized kind you see nowadays, but truly the worst kind that was somewhere in between Harry Potter and John Lennon, and let me tell you, they are not flattering on a round face), and mild acne. There are a handful of photos from this time, usually from family gatherings with my cousins and taken by one of the aunts. I want to burn every single one of them, but my mom won't let me.
   
   
4. The lyrics celebrate "brown paper packages tied up in strings." What was in the last box you received in the mail? The last package I received was from Sephora, the contents of which I posted about here.
   
   
5. It mentions doorbells and sleighbells. What's the most recent bell or alarm that you heard? As I'm reading this question, it's occurred to me that I don't hear bells or alarms that often. (Like, I set my alarm clock every day, but my ring tone isn't actually a bell or anything remotely close to it. It's currently set to Jimin's "Promise," so I have something lovely and soothing to wake up to.) I guess I hear other people's phones receiving text messages, which is usually set to a sort of bell sound for notification.
   
   
6. This song has nice things to say about cold weather, specifically snowflakes and mittens. What do you like about winter? Winter sales, Chinese New Year, and the fact that it's not sweltering hot. I don't actually love winter, but I will always prefer the cold to the heat.
   
   
7. Dog bites and bee stings are singled out as things that can leave us feeling sad. What's most recently given you the blues? I think winter in general. The short daylight hours, ridiculously cold temperatures (I'm okay with 0°C to like, -5°C, but when it gets colder than that, it's somewhat torturous), driving in snow/ice/slush, people being miserable in general... It's called winter blues for a reason.
   
   
8. In 2018, when this song was released, Roger Federer won the Australian Open. Are you good with a racket? Dear god, no.
   
   
9. Random question — Your local zoo announced the hatching of three snowy owlets. All males. You won the honour of naming them. Go ahead. Obviously, I'd name them Hedwig, Hagrid, and Harry.