Harmless observations
THURSDAY 8 OCTOBER 2026
As the first post of this kind on this blog, I just have to say that the blog part of my site was never intended to be an exclusive blah of my feelings about musical progress - or failures - hence the predetermined hashtags you might've noticed around here, like fashion and food.
In this first edition / chapter of (long title) Harmless Observations: A semi-impersonal account of stuff I've encountered recently, I'll be sharing some cool and uncool things, ups, downs, complaints, and some lovin'.
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Firstly, Polaroid's new camera has followed up its pro-analog campaign from June / July. If you haven't seen these sets and the whole AI is inevitable and gonna do everything you love / can't do / wanna do and take your livelihood frustrates you while consuming and/or polluting the Earth 😅, it's worth checking out.
Above image from the OOH / Go Gen 3 campagin © Polaroid (unsponsored)
They also recently released some Pokemon-themed cameras. I probably won't get any as I've committed to just one more (a 1990-2000s Canon film camera) right now, but they are cute. Even the packaging alone makes me wanna hoard catch them all. I like! 👍
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Next up is for anyone looking for motivation or inspo to get some music done. Along with various other October daily prompts and challenges, there's a Beatober on right now that popped up in my YouTube. I was going to participate, but I'm currently coming down from the effects of a stressful period and trying to do things at a healthy pace. Anyways, I had a look and it's not just hip hop or lofi producers participating in making beats, so definitely worth joining even if you've missed the first week since habit-forming or daily challenges generally result in something rather than nothing.
Whilst on the topic of music, the results of the 2026 DJ Mag Top 100 are out. Nothing new to see here. Whether it's a true reflection of your reality or location depends mainly on whether you're on social media (namely, Instagram) and/or live in the US (e.g. so much EDM over the last 10-15 years).
I've been listening to a lot of so-called (new) schranz and not one of those DJs were on the list despite playing massive gigs around the world and the music they make and DJ having millions of streams (even in comparison to many on the "Top" list). I'm referring to artists like Kuko, Ueberrest, Luciid and many others. You can find hard techno / schranz at the end of each month's Listening Bar by scrolling to end of each month (via the "Date added" column). (I should probably just make a hard techno/schranz playlist...)
Something that didn't annoy me on the topic of electronic music was a post by Mixmag about this online demo of an illegal rave, Afters. The developer, portner, also made their own Solitaire game, which is finished and playable for free. I didn't know a game of Solitaire could be so good after a rave.
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Like everything, luxury fashion prices have been going up astronomically since 2020. Are companies (and real estate agents and investors) trying to recover lost revenue from a restrospectively brief period of parts shortages and production delays (and people moving to nicer seaside towns and cities)? Are they hoping we forgot about that and just keep upping the price at the rate they did back then? I dunno, but besides the fact that I/we also reluctantly moved from a very touristy place in 2022 that wasn't worth buying or renting in at the sudden fabricated prices, I used to be a Prada girl who, since 2020, can also no longer justify a Prada purchase.
After experiencing some FOMO, I went to the website of Prada's younger sister (maybe niece?), Miu Miu, and stumbled upon a reissue (though not noted as such) leather basket bag of mine that, at full price I think, was around AU$1500 (currently converts to ~US$1,050) in 2009, now asking AU$6300 (~US$4400). What-what?! Serenity now......Who is Miu Miu targeting or are there so many 20-somethings splurging on Miu Miu now?! I'm not ruling out luxe completely, having finally reached the age (yes, age, ahem) of Louis Vuitton, but some luxy stuffs is just extortion on top of exploitation (e.g. the well-known Christian Dior scandal, a more interesting detailed take here).
My circa 2009 Miu Miu patent leather basket bag in red with a better inside bag thingy that hides what's inside. Shot from 2009 (thanks to Nameless Photos for digging this up!)
Above, screenshots from the Australian Miu Miu online store in late July. They're pretty much the same as my red 2009 bag above, right?
According to inflation calculators in AUD and USD, the AU$1,500 / US$1,050 in 2009 would be AU$2,291 at the end of 2025 (Reserve Bank calculator only goes so far right now) or US$1,640 in August 2026. So we pretty much have the same bag, assuming they haven't cut costs anywhere, for almost triple the price when it should only be around 1.5 times more.
If you suffer from low blood pressure or have a weird sense of fun, you can calculate and compare a price in USD here or in AUD here.
But that's not everything...While on the Miu Miu website last week to check on the basket bag, I came across the Marshall collab, which may even be a bigger rip off. Basically, I saw two Miu Miu / Marshall products:
- Marshall X Miu Miu earphones with leather case AU$1,140 / US$795* (the earphones are the Mode USB-C model RRP AU$79.95 / US$59.99)
- Marshall X Miu Miu speaker with leather case US$1,640 / US$1,150* (the speaker is the Willen II model RRP AU$199 / US$129.99)
Above, screenshots from the Australian Miu Miu online store today showing both Marshall X Miu Miu products.
To compare, in 2013 or so there was an Alexander Wang x Beats collab. Yes, Alexander Wang is probably a lux level below Miu Miu and yes, it wasn't leather. But the Beats product part of the collab had Alexander Wang branding on them, which made it a proper collab. I don't see that here, just that they've thrown in some off-the-shelf, as-is Marshall products that happen to fit the leather Miu Miu cases. The cases are cute, but it's not much of a collab and let's not get started on how much those small cases would have been pre-2020 or if the pandemic and brief supply issue had never been a thing. 😡 And by the way, my Wang x Beats earphones still function (will take a pic or put on my vlog at some point).
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And finally, some random things I do wholeheartedly like right now.
- Commodore(-inspired) flip phone, Callback 8020
- Casio/G-Shock ring watch (DWN5600-4D)
- Behringer D Mini, a real analog synth (I recently got one and love it)
Until next time...
N.B. Everything on this page is unsponsored.