#on my third relisten and I've been thinking a lot about this

[sparrowace09]

Thinking about the themes of guilt this season. Shane realising he's been a terrible person, Kelsey building large parts of her personality around her encyclopaedias but feeling guilty knowing she's been plagiarizing to write them, Tony trying to atone for his actions, Trudy realising she hasn't been a good mother to the only real child she has (which isn't really her fault but that doesn't make it any less guilt-inducing), Francis' initial guilt about what he did to Shane (along with Catholic guilt but that's played off more as a joke)...

[chaos-reprisal]

Ooh my God I've not yapped in so long?? Think I got strung up with the Sonic fixation (ongoing) but yeah... my procrastinated Be Born interpretation!!

(Left this in drafts for a few days even after writing that part. Sue me.)

I've seen a lot of Be Born interpretations that I've really liked in the past, and mine's been a long time coming! Also! This isn't going to be backed up by lyrics like it might usually, this is just an idea of mine.

My explanation for Mind's glitches is the most interesting part about the interpretation. I like to think that every time he's speaking in that higher register, he's speaking as Soul. And not just when his voice glitches, either.

I think the entire song is Mind taking and twisting things Soul has said to the two of them to make them fit how he feels about Heart and how he perceives Heart. Perhaps they're things Soul has said in an attempt to get them to work together. Maybe Mind sees all of this as Heart's fault and is trying some sort of "You heard what he said" kind of deal.

Maybe it hits Heart harder BECAUSE it's things that Soul himself has said, and that's why Mind is twisting Soul's words so much. Maybe he thinks it'll snap Heart out of it if it's SOUL saying this to him instead of Mind, who is very obviously biased against him.

It kind of makes sense of how he refers to himself in the third person once or twice, too. But yeah.

In Short: Be Born is Mind taking things Soul has said and twisting them in a way that will paint Heart as the villain and the reason for all of their suffering.

Another interpretation I came up with while relistening to the song FOR THIS POST.

I think this song is yet another layer of nuance. Each time Mind glitches out, he sounds "normal". "Normal", as in he sounds like the other two, therefore like Whole (Chonny) himself.

Perhaps this puts emphasis on the fact that all those heavy layers of modulation and voice manipulation, it's still CHONNY singing.

Under all of those layers, Mind is hurting just as much as Heart and Soul. It doesn't matter how deep his voice is or how much he tries to set himself apart from the other two by being the cold, analytical, logical one; he's still suffering just like they are. And those changes in his voice - between something deep and imposing to something higher and emotional - are indicative of his state.

He lashes out, just like the other two do; because at the end of the day, as different as they are, they all make up the same person, do they not? Mind isn't some foreigner just because he sounds and acts different. He is part of their Whole. And their Whole is hurting. That doesn't just mean Heart and Soul suffer - Mind also suffers - and I think his voice glitching acts as a sort of reminder of that. A reality check, if you will.

I know I said that I wasn't gonna pull out lyrics for this but I lied because one particular one stuck out to me that backs up this interpretation.

"What if I told you, I am not the villain? What if I told you, you're the same as I? Half a hollowed person, ruled by his depression, cloaked by noise - in Mind and Heart - who split his voice into two parts."

"Half a hollowed person, ruled by his depression" comes RIGHT AFTER "You're the same as I". Mind is very obviously saying that he's suffering with the rest of them, and Heart (in his opinion) drowning in his own self-pity isn't helping in the slightest.

I guess in simpler terms, his voice glitches because he's more emotional in the song. Which kind of dumbs down everything I just said to the point that it doesn't hit anymore so like... Yeah.

[ask-trashhunter]

Ok folks!!! OOC post!! I have 16 Trash Hunter designs now, which means I should be able to run a bracket tournament that lines up pretty neatly! :D

First though I wanna introduce you to all the designs I've done so far!!

All of these have a unique name for voting purposes, but don't worry about remembering them all I'll show pictures of them every time!

Human Hunter 1

Starting off simple, this is Human Hunter 1! The OG, the classic, my pfp! Honestly I kinda rushed this design bc I made this blog on a whim, so I had to make the design super quick! I spent like a little over an hour on this, and I had only really spent 15 extra minutes beforehand thinking about their design, so that's around 1 and a half hour total...... Idk how long I spent on the others. Anyway, basically their top half is pretty human looking, EVERYTHING about them is as green as I managed to get it (green is Their Color to me) and then their bottom half is basically meant to just be a trashy sludge that sort of melts and merges with their landfill. It's hard to tell where the landfill starts and where Trash Hunter ends. Oh yeah- and I have like 3 drawings of them in this style, their skin tone varies a LOT between each drawing lol. um. you haven't seen. the third one btw haha. it's totally not of me and trash hunter holding hands why would you even say that

Human Hunter 2

Alright, this is my second "human" Trash Hunter design. I wasn't quite happy with my first one, so I wanted to change it to something more like this. However!! I never actually got to finish my design until I watched something that changed the way I thought forever. I finished this drawing just this monday actually, because I'd forgotten I had no finished drawing of Human Hunter 2. I want you to remember that giant grapply arm they have and those spider legs. Also, you'll notice there's a line next to them, and it says "Cop" under. That's how tall Copper would be (per my headcanons) next to the various Trash Hunter designs. They really vary in size. For reference, I headcanon Copper as 152 cm, or 5 feet. I'll add a size chart in at the end- they won't be 100% accurate to the pictures but it'll be in the same area at least.

Trashbag Hunter

Ok this. This is where my life changed. I watched the hodgepodge audio new year's patreon video and got friggen mentioned. Hi Raddagher if you're seeing this I'm still not normal about Trash Hunter. I started feeling a bit insecure about my designs like I'd been boring about them so I was trying to redeem myself. When I started imagining Trash Hunter as a fucking trash bag with grillspyd- er- collapsible grilling skewer thingies- for legs. And holy FUCK I could not get the image out of my head it's hillarious and adorable. Relisten to the episode and imagine Trash Hunter like this TRUST ME /nf

Either way, this is where I started to expand my horizons. The trash bag and the grillspyd are sort of reocurring atp. Also this was my Discord pfp for a while, now I've changed it. Might change it back eventually honestly? I don't do that. I don't repeat profile pictures ever. Ok I might have done that at some point. But for now my pfp stays the same. This is my PFP over on bluesky though!

Anyway this is the cutest shit I've ever imagined- the drawings that follow are mostly random doodles I've made at D&D or during class. BUT FIRST!!!

Pony Hunter

Ok so I play ponytown. I played a bit ages ago and then I almost forgot it existed, then my friendo kept showing off what they were doing on there and I'd seen a few vids on it recently and long story short I've made 16.5 new ponies on there and most of them are Hodgepodge Audio themed. Ponytown Pony Hunter doesn't usually wear that turtle but in this screenshot they do. The drawn version shows a bit more how I actually view them though. Oh and that IS a croissant behind their ear, thanks for asking!! (I've been waiting to say that for months, I'm overjoyed now)

Their tail is a compact mirror btw! And that tarp they have in game, those are actually wings, teehee! Oh and I forgot to say why they have croissants behind their ears- basically I was looking at the horns and realized one set of horns was kinda curvy in a croissant-y way. So I was like eh, heck it. Croissants.

Seagle Hunter

This is where the chaos started. I was at DND, and we were on a quest to help a god. We met a seagull who was definitely not a fucking seagull. I ended up getting downed and when we were like what, 5 hp away from killing whatever creature was wrecking our shit, our 2 remaining teammates fucking left us. My character Thomoras only survived because one of our teammates asked the seagull to intervene, and the seagull fucking killed the creature. Thank you, seagull. I called you Karl but I never got your real name. I'm sure you wouldn't have answered if I asked. Anyway!! All that talk about seagulls that session got me thinking "Seagull. Trash Hunter. Trash Hunter seagull." this is an accurate depiction of how I think Always. So yeah I drew them as a seagle (<- that's how I prefer writing seagull) and I was like hell yes let's draw them as more silly things because I focus better when I draw!

So I started asking people for ideas.

Goblet Hunter

And this is officially were I lost it I think. I mean, I learned to disregard canon with this. I have a few different Little Guys as I call them, and they're definitely not canon at all, BUT THEY'RE SO CUUUUTE HELLO!!! ����😭 I asked my DND buddy to give me a random item and so I drewed this bc they said goblet....... I fucking love these so much honestly

Soup Hunter

I love soup. What more is there to say? They call me the soup enjoyer. I switch in whenever we're about to have soup. I soup my faves. I spam the soup emoji (🥣) when I get too excited for words. It had to be done! It just had to! If you want you can imagine the soup is garbage soup. Or you know those witch potions a lot of people made as a child? Using acorns and grass and flowers and whatever you could find? Could be that too. Or maybe it's brogle soup becos it's my fave and they are my fave :)

Perfectly Generic Object Hunter / PGO Hunter

It had to come eventually. The Homestuck reference. My friend said for me to make them cube and I was like "I heard Homestuck, yes? Homestuck it is."

So yeha they're a green cube now :3

Egg Hunter

They're an egg now. They're just a huge fucking egg and they roll around. They just roll around.

I'm not allowed to add more images hold your horses for the reblog, I'll get image IDs done before I post this though so next reblog should be up in not all that long

[hamlets-bootycheeks]

Okay so now the question is how long can I hold out before starting to listen to TMA for the third time.

I just finished relistening and I. I love it so much.

And I don't think I've mentioned this before, but I think I'm going to switch my major from anthropology to media production. Because of this podcast.

My end goal has always been to write. Since I was like eight. That's what I've wanted to do. But you gotta have a day job! And unfortunately I am not interested in anything that would make any money so I decided to major in anthropology.

And I genuinely love it so much.

I've also been working as a stage tech for the last year, and love that as well, I love the technical aspect of performances and things like that. I genuinely would not mind doing that for a living. (I mean it's a lot of moving furniture around but it's also super cool beyond that.)

But. I was listening to the Q&A episodes this summer at work. And they were talking about sound design and the production of the show. And I thought that sounded. Really fucking fun.

And I've. Done sound stuff for live shows. I know the basics of that. I can set up mics and know the basics of how to make them work good! I love it.

I think I'd love audio editing.

And if I went into audio stuff. I could work on all sorts of things. There's audio in everything.

It would also be a much better way to get into a writing gig of some sort. My backup would be directly related to what I want to devote myself to. And if it didn't work I'd still probably love it and get to work on cool things.

(I mean most people who see this have probably seen me talk about it on Discord but I just want to talk about it cause I'm thinking about it and have started classes and stuff.)

So not only is this a top tier piece of media for me, but also it may have just totally changed my career path. By pointing out something I already enjoy and saying "you can do this with stories, not just concerts and lectures."

I'm taking some intro journalism courses this semester (the journalism program at my school has a film and media production emphasis), and at the moment it's really rough. I love social sciences and am quite frankly really good at them, so it's a total shift from taking a 400 level anth class last semester as a freshman to intro writing classes as a sophomore with a bunch of freshmen. I'm really going to miss anthropology. (I also switched schools so that's impacting things.)

But I'm looking at the media production classes and the script writing class and podcasting class that I can take in the future and I'm getting so excited. I'm also considering taking an acting class next semester, which I never would have done before I considered the fact that I could make my own projects. I am not limited just to writing.

It's been wild.

I'm hoping I get through this semester alright. My creative writing class will keep me sane, hopefully. :p

But yeah.

Yeah.

I'm excited. :)

Also ERKJHSEKLRJHSELRGHSLEKRJGESRHKLJSGH MAGNUS

Protocol finale on Thursday too, it'll be fucking wild.

Also I'm cosplaying season two Jon at FanX on Friday and season three on Saturday so I may post pictures of that if it turns out alright.

Thanks for coming to my Ted talk.

[iantimony]

I didn't post last week's on dreamwidth or tumblr so I'm gonna combine this week's with last week's for crossposting! still in FL hell but things are moving along. look at neocities if you want it more granular by week.

2/25 - who would win: one 103-year-old or one palette of 60 water bottles ... had to jet down to old people land again to act as support and it is mega sucking. I didn't get the chance to make this post yesterday so I am actually typing this from the ER while we wait for her scans to come back hahahaha..... (scans came back while I was working on this: she has a fuuuuuucking spinal fracture. i am going to kill the ortho she saw last week.)

listening

a lot of just king things

never the muse (madilyn mei)

splendor & misery (clipping.) - duuuuuuude this album rules. rec from a discord server I'm in after a convo about how weird and racist tumblr is about rap music. jaw literally dropped at the second track.

relistened to montero lil nas x. still a good album.

reading

started haunting of hill house. first paragraph was so good that I had to put the book down for a second after reading it.

mirror life by kamran javadizadeh

born to (gen) and stress position (M) by friend B, see watching section. yayyyy fic

DeepSeek and the AI Murder Cult: rats strike again

in defense of pretension (Ayan Artan): read most of this, agreed with some of it in the vein of how intellectualism is very much out of 'style' right now, hit the line "you will never come across a well-read zionist", closed the tab in exasperation. while being well-read is good for a lot of things it does not inherently make you more moral, or vice versa. there are plenty of well-read zionists, right-wingers, liberatarians, [insert political ideology you disagree with here]. being exposed to a lot of viewpoints and art etc can influence your politics and ideology, sure, but like. I don't think equating intellectualism with morality is the move. bizarre take imo.

shamefully: I am reading homestuck, the beyond canon stuff. a friend recommended it and so I was like. sure. why not. I'm in rot zone.

watching

severance!!! it happened I finally watched s1. I have gone in knowing many of the major spoilers but it's a good enough show that it doesn't matter. halfway thru the s1 finale, was watching it with B but had to stop for Grandma Assistance and then it got too late to finish lol

creating a digital garden to end my doomscrolling (Anna Howard): where I got the first entry of 'reading'! this led me to:

Obsidian: The King of Learning Tools (Odysseas): okay this is what finally got me to download obsidian. I have been in notion land for many moons now but it just isn't cutting it for me for some of the things I want. I still think my dnd stuff and some other things will live in notion but I needed a brainstorming space and I think this will be it for me. we'll see! I've always liked the idea of commonplace books etc but I know myself and I know they won't be organized or legible and I will literally never look at them again which defeats the whole purpose imo so this is a digital and eaiser to reference version of that.

understimulating my overstimulated brain for a week (Michelle Gia): the counting rice killed me but also, tru as hell. third eye opened. etc. also really funny that she managed to choose the UHC assassination week to do this

Algorithms are breaking how we think (Technology Connections): you may be noticing a trend lol. this one made me go through and clear out my youtube subscription list of the channels that don't update/I'm not interested in any more and I plan on using that as my youtube home page instead going forward.

Drawing And Talking About Fairies (Stanilka): in a different vein, deeply charmed by these little guys.

playing

dnd....the one-shot turned 4? 5?-shot I made Vesper for is allllmost done, I think next game is the final battle so I will finally have to figure out how monk combat works after an insane amount of espionage-style play. there have been many moments where I had the thought "this would have been better in a non-dnd system" but this is the terminally dnd-brained group so...

fallow though I think I will start playing/reading miseriechord this afternoon or tomorrow.

making

back to pottery! made some new bowls:

the majolica on my fish plate and fern sake cups came out great thank god! I was a little heavy-handed on the underglaze for the fish so I tapped some clear on top and sent it back to the kiln but I think it should turn out great.

did not get pictures of this but: I have been trying to paint a dino fossil on the inside of a large decorative bowl for a while and realized that it might be easier to get the level of detail I want if I carve it in relief first and then flood that with white undergalze...I'm about halfway through scraping it into the bone-dry clay so lol we'll see how long that takes

fallow as all hell. some brainstorming for short stories I suppose

eating

fallow

oh EXTREMELY fallow. a lot of chinese takeout. publix rotisserie chicken.

moving

I think I'm removing this section actually. I might just keep a spreadsheet for myself because that means I can track numbers more easily :3

[believeintheruin]

Carnival Au 02-16-25

Sorry for no update the last couple of days. I have been working on this project and had a word count I could've updated with. However, I have both been super distracted by the new Sanrio switch game and also done a lot of reworking with basically everything new I typed out. I've gotten to the pivotal scene and while I know the sequence of events and all the information that has to be relayed here, actually finding a way to relay it in the moment on paper is... hard. Lmao. So if I had given a word count it would've been honestly only a third of words actually written and a lot of what's on paper currently is already going to be deleted and rewritten.

Generally, I tend to have pretty strict rules with myself not to edit a project while I'm writing it to keep from just giving up entirely. However, the end has been progressively getting more out of character and Kokichi was just not sounding like himself so. I sat myself down and relistened to the ch4 trial and am reworking a LOT of Kokichi’s dialogue and actions because I literally cannot progress until he's feeling like Kokichi Ouma to me again. Luckily, I'm feeling more on track with it and have also mentally fleshed out a lot of the background world stuff in the progress so!

Hoping to be done by end of week. Not in time for my birthday like I wanted, unfortunately but. Still pleased with myself nevertheless.

In the meantime, thinking I might post a couple sneak peak "files" that'll tell you all a little info about the world you'll be reading in this fic. Cuz even though I'm holding my brain down and begging it to limit the worldbuilding to just info needed to write a one shot, it literally never listens soooo. This is definitely the sort of thing that could feasibly have a decent length, multi-chapter project attached to it. However, I have zero room for anything that time consuming at the moment so all you guys will get is a quick, open-ended one shot for the time being. Because after I post this, I'm gonna have to dive straight back into the thick of writing the next chapter of Poor Unfortunate Souls because. I'm so behind schedule for that.

Anyway, wishing everyone a good weekend!! <3 See you all soon with some preview content soon, hopefully.

[chaosandwolves]

Okay so I'm just at the end of the third sum of its parts story. I love love love. Stiles doing detective work, making divine moves to combat his foes (the trick with the wolfsbane in his blood was both smart and stupid) and the fact that someone put a little service dog vest on Derek's wolf form is just so so adorable (I want to find fan art of this). I do wish Peter hadn't been 100% villain mainly cause I think this BAMF Stiles and him could have had a lot of fun plotting together but otherwise I adore these fics. Thank you so much for recommending!

AAFGHFFSFHHDGHHJ

YEEESSSSSS OMG YESS

You have no idea how DELIGHTED I am that you're loving it omg

Yes omg it's honestly one of my fav things in the entire series how Stiles fucks Kali up and tricks her

I feel that's where he REALLY steps into being an alpha

And it's SUCH a Stiles way of doing it!

He's so damn smart even though he's giving his pack a damn heart attack with it

Stiles is SOOOOO Bamf in this entire series!

Omg I don't think I've seen fanart of that but there HAS to be some

And part 4 is gooooodd but oh the feels...the feels!!!

Oooh also remember to read the "Onwards he upwards" parts in between!

I should probably start relistening to part 4 again...I stopped cause I had too many feels 😅

I do remember most of it, I think but can't hurt

Also yeah I get it about Peter but since they started writing the series after the prom ep, Peter hadn't been around as much more than the villain

Aaah thank you for yelling to me about it!!!!

Honestly makes me sooooo happy!

Feel free to always yell at me about it even mid story! I'm so here for it!

Can be here or in DMs if you want!

[composeroftheweek]

This week's composer: Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921)

Excellent! I've been wanting to listen to more of his music. I think all I've listened to so far is The Carnival of the Animals?

Current favorite:

Listened to his five piano concertos today. He has an interesting style, which I guess I should have expected from someone who composed a piece as weird as "Aquarium"

Favorites: Nos. 4 and 5 (Egyptian), the slow movement of No. 1

Listened to Danse macabre and currently listening to his third violin concerto

Listening to the Organ Symphony. It's lovely! I immediately went back and relistened to the first movement and am doing the same with the second movement now

It was Saint-Saëns' last symphony and he began composing it while also working on Le Carnaval des animaux (The Carnival of the Animals). It premiered in May of 1886 and after Franz Liszt died that July, Saint-Saëns dedicated it to him

Pointing out that it is Friday and that I did actually get around to listening to him today because I feel bad about my weekend plans! But I do intend to listen to some of his music on top of Chopin and Smetana's

Day 7

I listened to this earlier in the week but got really into it today. I think this might be tied with "Aquarium" for my favorite piece now; I love every movement of it

Currently relistening to The Carnival of the Animals since it's been a while and I really just remember "Aquarium." It is very fun!

I started listening in the car and the title for the eighth movement was cut off so that the only full word visible was "personnages," so I kind of assumed it was about people and was surprised and amused that that's how he would choose to represent humans. But it is actually about donkeys, which makes a lot more sense

After that, I started listening to Schubert and then ate too much pasta and then listened to more Schubert, so...that's it for Saint-Saëns! I guess I wasn't too into him given I had no problem ditching him for three other composers (or actually four since I did listen to half of Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time on Monday), but I really liked some of his pieces, enjoyed listening to everything else I heard, and am glad I went beyond The Carnival of the Animals

[cherokeegal1975]

I'm running a fun experiment

It won't benefit me very much, but it might give some benefits to the creators I'm contacting/promoting.

Basically I've been reading the Horsemisstress Saga by Toby Bishop, Freedom's Landing by Anne McCaffery as an audiobook and I was relistening to the Of Cats and Dragons series by Camilla Ochlan and Carol E. Leever.

Now, Anne McCaffery's a popular author, so I do see reviews for her books on YouTube, especially for her Dragonriders of Pern series. However, I haven't come across reviews for The Horsemisstress Series or the Of Cats and Dragons series on YouTube at all. Just reviews for it on the page for Of Cats and Dragons on Facebook, and a lot of nice comments about both The Horsemisstress series and Of Cats and Dragons on Amazon.

So I brought it to the attention of one of the smaller channels for book reviews and she said she thought both series were interesting and would read them and make a review for the Of Cats and Dragons series as soon as she finished reading all eight books. Could take a long time.

Then I got to thinking that the author would like to know I've done this, so I mentioned it and the one still living said she loved the idea, gave me a heart felt thank you and an applause and heart emojis. Then one of the followers of that group mentioned she'd like to see the video as well.

Now I'm starting to have some fun with this when I realize that what I'm doing is having an effect and want to know how far it'll go once people start talking about two of my favorite book series. It'll benefit the authors and the influencers in the process and I get a bit more perspective on what I read by listening to other people's opinions on the books. I like the idea of helping out some, but the starting a trend thing if possible is the fun part.

I contacted one more channel that does reviews for everything fantasy and sci-fi to see if they'd do a review for the books I mentioned.

Some people compare the Of Cats and Dragons series to Tolkien's work, but I personally don't see the resemblance and I did read/listen to the Lord of the Rings Trilogy (which in my opinion is just okay. Even the movies based on the books were just okay story wise. The acting and special effects were excellent though) and I find they don't resemble each other at all. Or at least I can't spot the similarities myself.

I'm going to see if I can make the books I like go viral on YouTube just for the fun of it. By starting very small and seeing what happens once people start becoming aware of the books I want them to try. Like ripples in a pond. That's the fun.

I do realize that most likely not much will happen, but if I don't try, nothing will happen at all.

By the way, the book series I mentioned are all good. They're in the sci-fi and fantasy category. I haven't finished the Horsemisstress Saga, I'm currently in the last one third of the second book. Lots of drama and tension between the Winged Horse Academe and the mad Duke that could lay everything to ruin with his obsession with trying to figure out how to ride a winged horse himself, which can't be because winged horses only like women. He does some crazy shit to his body to make it happen, bonded with a little winged filly and is now threatening the very existence of the Academe.

Freedom's Landing has four books to the series and I remember it to be very good. I've forgotten a lot and now I'm listening to the audiobooks and started with the second book because I've already listened to the first one two or three times already. This one is a sci-fi.

[newtsoftheworldunite]

I have been bat(man) signaled.

(The military valet kind, not the Gotham vigilante kind).

I've been relistening to the full Jeeves and Wooster saga over the past few months and of course have been fully Vorkosiganmaxxing since my introduction to the saga in 2019 and immediately jumped to the possibility of a Barrayaran Bertie. I have yet to make this beautiful beautiful dream a reality on ao3, but here's the bulletpoint edition.

Burtee Vorworcester (the family name has been mutated altered somewhat over the centuries) is a town clown of the first order. Legendary on the Vorbarr Sultana scene.

He attended a Vor military prep school along with the rest of the Vor Bores in training of his generation, went to the Academy, and then washed out due to an injury-- but not before acquiring a most interesting military issue batman during ship duty.

Guillame Reginald (referred to almost exclusively as Reggie) is not only a sartorial, culinary, and mixological genius of the first order. He is a man with an extremely wide and varied set of skills from both his military years and his somewhat less licit professional background prior to entering the service.

His first name is Francophone but Guillame is a thoroughly Barrayaran mutt, with relatives and connections among all the Barrayaran language groups and some off planet as well. He jumps at the chance to follow his little lordling of a charge out of the service and into high (and sometimes low) society.

Their departure from the military is of course under somewhat false pretenses. They've been recruited together for Alys Vorpatril's Domestic Affairs circuit. She is their handler and direct impsec contact for most of their missions.

In addition to official missions they also do a wide range of freelance problem solving in the mid to high Vor scene, through a mix of Burtee's affable camaraderie and joie de vivre and Reggie's instincts for light skullduggery and occasional blackmail (among many other things).

I'm stuck a little on time period for this. On the one hand, it would be a lot of fun to make Burtee an Academy acquaintance of Ivan, Miles, et al and have the lot of them weaving in and out through the stories. On the other hand, military batmen seem to have gone out of style at some point between the death of Ges Vorrutyer and Miles' entry into the academy (or maybe it's only Ivan who never saw the need for one, since Miles went from having Bothari straight into having the Dendarii as a private fiefdom).

On yet a third hand I'm really curious about the middle period of the Regency-- after the Pretendership and Komarr Revolt, but before Gregor took the reigns-- and it could be very fun to do a series set in that lacuna with more OCs-- but also with Aral and Cordelia and Simon and Alys and the Koudelkas etc hanging about in the background like exquisitely competent vultures, and getting to see them from the outside from the perspective of a rather rash, slightly bufoonish, and deeply overawed impsec agent who runs into them at Residence balls and the occasional very High Vor house party.

Either way though there will be hijinks and shenanigans galore and Burtee having to repeatedly find ways to avoid an engagement because he's actually married to his career (and perhaps more than a little in love with his hypercompetent highly eccentric batman).

So that's the idea. Please let me know what you think, and feel free to use it as a jumping off point for your own ideas. This is very much a two cakes scenario. I only ask that you leave me the names I've invented for these characters until I have a chance to do what I want with them.

(Peter Wimsey voice) Let's get something out of the way. I know I look and sound like I personally know Bertie Wooster. I know that my entire mien is that of a devoted attendee of his gentleman's club. I know. Unfortunately I am the smartest person in a ten mile radius and there's been a murder.

[sarahsfixations]

Music Update post

I also like listening to lots of music and I am generally into electronic and metal but I've been trying lots of new stuff recently so I'm going to talk about some of that.

First is Symbolic by Death. This isn't a new album for me but I want to contextualize where I'm broadly starting from. I still include this here though as generally speaking this was a bit of a new development was my fixation on this band in particular. I decided to do a relisten to their whole discog to re-establish a baseline. Symbolic has their most iconic guitar work and melodies, I like the way the sound blends together if I suppose its on the softer, rounder sound of death metal. Momentum filled but not heavy. The drums are extremely tight. I've always felt some of the song structure changes throughout were weird but I think they've grown on me. You can kind of envision the state of mind throughout the structure of the song (which I give comparison to me personally on Children of Bodom)

Second is Hot Pink by Doja Cat. There is no rhyme or reason to me picking this other than I felt in the mood for some like hot pink sexually enpowered tunes. There's a lot of genre and stylistic blending though with great production, signing, rapping and very much a vibe. The good kind of catchy for me. It has to be said that of course as soon as I decide to try to listen to this type of stuff, Doja Cat gets into some drama about disrespecting fans which while I kind of get her points, some of her past is a bit sketchy so yeah thats off putting.

Third up was Baby by Petrol Girls. I like angry music with dissonant guitars and all and so I was interested in this but I didn't expect it to be so direct and sharp in its feminist message which is something great to scream and shout too when you see more misogynistic bullshit. It's also great like stylistically for me the female vibes together and the vocals that honestly give me some RWBY vibes. It's fairly short and the briefness of its lyrics fit, and I really like the instrumentation.

Fourth up was A Farewell to Kings by Rush. As I try to move a bit outside my electronic and metal territory, I've come across a myriad of rock bands but Rush is the only one that is really outside my 'Muse' territory. This was nice, go lucky, yet interesting to listen to. Rush's style just felt, naturally pleasant while not like a repetitive road trip rock. Also, the vocals are honestly relatable to me (high pitch and all)

Fifth up was The Money Store by Death Grips. A classic. And also this album cover goes hard, as does the whole album generally. It's pretty much the definition of going hard but more than that is the production quality among experimental modern music that I generally miss out on, especially in the hip hop sphere (if this even counts as that?)

In this search for new music, I was planning on checking out a Thank You Scientist album. I chose them because they have a sound that is different for me but still fairly accessible. And of course I chose the album The Perils of Time Travel as this is a Twin Paradox reference. It's once again that nice experimental but natural blend of sounds that just works. I don't have to work for it, it just works a bit analogous to the Rush case. It has a bit of that 'calling reaching out' vibe of some kind of rock, some jazzier parts, some parts a bit metal some parts a bit pop punk. I just like how the melodies go in this eclectic kind of technologic ig sound that the best reminder I have is Scar Symmetry (a melodeath band)

[idontwanttospoiltheparty]

I'm so curious. As you make your way through the Beatles solo stuff, which songs/albums do you find yourself going back to the most? Because, personally, I find that my initial reaction to a piece of music isn't necessarily representative of how I'll feel about it long term. Occasionally you mention relistening to a song or two, but I'd love to know if any concrete favorites have emerged so far? (Of course, I'd love to hear anything you want to say about those favorites musically, too.) Thanks!

Hi anon! You're very right! I actually make sure to listen to an album at least two or three times before fully forming an opinion on the whole thing.

My favourite albums as a whole have been Ram, Band On The Run and Walls and Bridges, I think. Those are the one I like basically all the songs on (also my personal hot take is that BOTR > Ram).

Ram is just so playful, production-wise, its personality is infectious. I've actually only quite recently gained an appreciation for 3 Legs (which is one of my top songs on the album now) and Monkberry Moon Delight (I know, I know)! As Vampire Weekend fan the album appeals to me greatly heheheh.

Band On The Run is literally kind of a perfect album? It's just so expertly crafted and is the first album I ever listened to where I could FEEL the cohesion on the first listen. The transition from Mamunia to No Words is a highlight for me and also the title track is a straight up banger that I wish could be LONGER!! (specifically the intro parts!). Also interesting to me how much it parallels Sgt Pepper in structure (the loose "band" motif, the use of reprises, song transitions, the way the last track feels like an encore, ending on an earbursting crescendo, having a tiny little hidden track-like thing at the end).

Walls And Bridges is just A Good Time. One thing I like about it is how it revisits musical ideas from Imagine and – in my opinion – improves on them. It also feels really cohesive while being very versatile musically and vulnerable without compromising in on the unadulterated joy of music unlike some John albums. I think it's really adventurous and it's sooooooo sad that this is his penultimate album of original songs (well third-last, if you count Milk and Honey) because he showed so much growth here, as a songwriter AND as a producer. :( The verse of #9 Dream is straight up the most gorgeous harmony I've ever heard I think?

I also really love a lot of the songs on All Things Must Pass but I rarely find myself listening to it all the way through, because it's just a bit too much and a bit too slow for me. That being said, I listen to My Sweet Lord all the fucking time and it's very high up there among all the post-Beatles songs I've heard. The purest of serotonins, and as someone who is largely negative on religiosity it's kind of insane to me how much power this song holds over me.

Outside those albums, the songs I find myself relistening to the most are: Junk, (<- possibly my absolute favourite post-Beatles song) Man We Was Lonely, Isolation, Oh My Love, Crippled Inside, Tomorrow, the medley at the end of Red Rose Speedway, Who Can See It, 6 O'Clock, I Know (I Know).

But I have a Spotify playlist where I put in most of the songs I actively enjoy (also I basically only listen to the Raw Studio Mixes of Imagine cause I find production choices on that album… Questionable) lmao, which is actually pretty long cause overall I've been having a good time so far :) (I haven't added anything from Goodnight Vienna yet, cause I need to relisten once or twice before deciding which songs to put in lol)

[aro-oak]

Wonderful!! For the ars paradoxica route, I recommend SCP: Find Us Alive. It's one of the most similar in regards to vibe and listening experience that I've listened to yet. It's the longest ever yet, but there's still a decent amount out so far. I also recommend woe.begone, as they've also got complex time travel shenanigans and there's so much of it. It's also high quality and really well put together, like SCP: Find Us Alive and ars Paradoxica. If you listen to Woe.Begone and really like it, let me know because I have a whole section of recs that I think you'll enjoy.

From w359, I highly recommend Midnight Burger. In the way that w359 has hope and togetherness in its message, Midnight Burger does as well. There's also soooo much of it, and it is very well done. They do a really good job of balancing the humor, character relationships, and growth in a similar way to w359. If you like this one too and want more, I do have some shorter podcasts as well.

You would probably also like The Pasithea Powder. It's a scifi space post war one, that deals with the complicated politics that follow, and trying to handle relationships and life in the aftermath. It's got lots of brain stuff to work out like ars Paradoxica. It's also now complete, so you've got the whole story already.

From TAZ, I recommend both Rusty Quill Gaming and Dungeons and Daddies. Rusty Quill Gaming is very very good, though it takes a bit to get into. It is the absolute longest podcast I have ever listened to, and the character development has been haunting me on the regular for two years now /pos. I have yearly relistens of both TAZ Balance and RQG for a reason. If you start it and feel like it's too serious, it is a bit at first, but they do get very silly. If you do want to go the more silly route though, definitely listen to dndaddies. It is extremely silly throughout the entire podcast, and they are now getting into their third campaign. It has the most similar listening experience to TAZ that I have found yet.

I haven't listened to tsv yet BUT it is high on my list! Also, if you are interested in some shorter listens, I've got some more niche ones for you. And do let me know about the whole w.bg route, bc I can tell you more about Alice Isn't Dead, Mabel, Leaving Corvat, and others

Hi hello I have so many podcast recs. What are looking for (genre, length, story structure, examples of other ones, etc)?

ok heres a quick list of my top favs

wolf 359

taz

the silt verses

ars paradoxica

generally i prefer sci fi, longer stories are better. im pretty genre agnostic, as long as it's got good characters. the more complex the story/lore the better, as you can tell from me loving ars paradoxica

[mywingsareonwheels]

Sorry to bother you but I know youre in the fandom and your bio says you're a musician and since Im a bit tone deaf I thought you might be able to identify something better than me, but I've been listening to Her Sweet Kiss on a loop and am I right in thinking there is a sort of reprise of Toss A Coin To Your Witcher in the music there? The notes before "Im weak my love" (oh god my heart) sounds like it. Thank you for your time

Hello anon! Omg I love this question, and I wish I had the time and energy to answer it in as much coherent detail as I want to. But that would be like 5000 words or so. And with both recorded and sheet music examples and STUFF. Also while I am a semi-pro folk musician when my health allows me to be, my music theory is really rusty because it's (oh Gods) about 25 years since I last studied it with any degree of formality. So, yeah. I hope that what I'm about to say makes sense and is reasonably accurate. ;-)

But basically YES YOU ARE COMPLETELY RIGHT. I hadn’t noticed the precise bit you mean, but YES, the flute just before “I’m weak my love” does do the little arpeggio of “Toss a Coin” just before he comes in with the words. Oh Gods that hurts. Aaaah. <3 Right. Yes.

IT GETS BETTER because there are a lot of similarities between the two tunes generally. Remarkably (and powerfully) so considering that in-universe the two songs were written 22 years apart.

They’re not in the same key (”Toss a Coin”‘s in B♭ minor, except when Jaskier and the people in the tavern sing it unaccompanied in the selkiemore guts scene; “Her Sweet Kiss” is in B minor), but, well, both minor keys, plus:-

- I'd write them both in the same time signature (4/4); I think of them as roughly the same speed... actually on relistening "Her Sweet Kiss" is if anything a little faster, with a restless unsteadiness in the accompaniment (MY HEART), while "Toss a Coin" starts slow and takes a while to work up to the pace it's at by the middle of the song, but fundamentally you could absolutely sing them at the same speed very easily.

- the chorus of “Toss a Coin” and the initial verses of “Her Sweet Kiss” mostly stay within five notes: the tonic (that is, the "root" note of the chord - so, B♭ in the case of "Toss a Coin"; B in the case of "Her Sweet Kiss"), and the five notes above it, lingering on the third. I don’t want to overstate things - this is standard musical stuff, a lot of tunes do it, especially in the folk and similar genres where you want to keep things simple and easy for everyone to sing. But far from all, and the way these two do it is still notable.

- I'm not sure if you know any music theory or can read sheet music? So, okay, I’m going to try to do this in a way that I hope will be comprehensible, and I apologise if it isn't! I'm using some technical terms, but even if not all of it makes sense, hopefully enough will. :-)

So, here's the five note scale that both tunes mostly stay within for the chorus of "Toss a Coin" and the verse of "Her Sweet Kiss". But I'm putting both tunes in C minor (rather than B♭ and B respectively) to (hopefully!) show the patterns I mean:- 

C  D E♭ F G

Now, I was mentioning that the first three notes of the chorus of "Toss a coin" are an arpeggio up. Here it is:

C E♭ G

That's the tonic (C) to "toss", the 3rd (E♭) to "a" and the 5th (G) to "coin".

Now here's the full tune to the chorus, but with the tonic, 3rd, and 5th in bold, to, I hope, highlight the shape of it. (The B♭ is the one outlier that goes above the 5th, to the minor 7th instead. You can mostly ignore it except to note that it's an outlier and a peak and it's on the word "friend" I'M FINE THIS ISN'T GIVING ME FEELINGS AT ALL.)

C E♭ G F E♭ F G   G F E♭ D E♭ C  G F E♭ D E♭ C

(Toss a coin to your Witcher/O Valley of Plenty/O Valley of Plenty)

C E♭ G F E♭ F G  G B♭ G F G G G

(Toss a coin to your Witcher/A friend of humanity!)

Note that the chorus finishes on G. The harmony below reflects this, with the tune ending in the chord G7 - the "dominant 7th" chord to C minor's "root". I'm not sure if that's something that you have knowledge of or not, but the important thing is that it gives a feeling of incompleteness. In the case of "Toss a Coin", that incompleteness is exciting and awesome. And then sometimes, Joey sings a prolongued and triumphant "ooooh" to the B and the top C above what we've been working with and the chord *does* go back to C minor, and we get a feeling of resolution. The final note he sings is that top C, and the song as a whole ends in C minor.

(Reminder here that I'm lying because the song's actually in B♭ minor not C minor. ;-) But for the purposes of this comparison and putting them both in the same key, it's C. The point is: the song has some phrases that end on the "dominant 7th" chord but finally ends on the "root" chord that is the overall key of the song. Dramatically, but with resolution.)

Meanwhile, the tune basically goes up from C to E♭ to G and then comes back again. And then it goes back up to G and basically stays there except for when there are the "ooooh" bits. ;-)

And here's the notes of the first verse of "Her Sweet Kiss", but again with the tonic, 3rd, and 5th in bold.

C E♭ D C E♭ F G F E♭  C D E♭ F G F E♭ C E♭

(The fairer sex they often call it/But her love's as unfair as a crook)

E♭ F F G C  E♭ F F G C  E♭ F F E♭ F E♭ F F G

(It steals all my reason/Commits every treason/Of logic with naught but a look)

So again, we're going up to G and then down, but this time we're lingering a lot around E♭ rather than just passing through it (which is the note that makes this a minor key - as a result it *feels* more minor and thus sadder than "Toss a Coin" even though it's minor too), we're going up to G and back down to C as though we're *trying* to find that resolution, before giving up and going back up to G again.

And now let's do the chorus.

C C E♭ F G F  C C E♭ F G F E♭  B♭ F E♭ D C

(But the story is this/She'll destroy with her sweet kiss/Her sweet kiss, ooh)

C C E♭ F G F  C C B♭ F E♭ F G

(But the story is this/She'll destroy with her sweet kiss)

Again, it ends on the G, and the chord is G7. No resolution here.

Also instead of the top B♭ being on "friend", it's on "her" and the "roy" of "destroy". AAAH.

Like "Toss a Coin", the song does finally end with the root chord, but only with some very hasty "oohs". Like Jaskier is putting in a resolution for the sake of making the song work, but emotionally he is still absolutely in that unresolved place, and (rightly) thinks that Geralt is too.

RIGHT SO. Both tunes have those similar patterns. Both struggle to find resolution, but "Toss a Coin" in a way that is ADVENTURE and "Her Sweet Kiss" in a way that is uneasy and pained, and the resolution feels hasty and not quite genuine.

I note that the chords under the tunes are different from each other, though both start with the root chord and end (except right at the end of the songs) with the dominant 7th. I tried singing each tune with the chords of the other as an experiment and it didn't work. ;-) BUT you could absolutely mash the two tunes together easily, alternating lines even, and I think that would work.

Others might disagree, but I think they are far too similar for it to be a coincidence, either in-universe or IRL. And I've not even gone in here to the orchestrations and other things - I suspect that like the flute arpeggio you noticed in "Her Sweet Kiss", there are far more connections, similarities, and meaningful variations than I've listed here.

One thing more. :-) Looking at Episode 6: almost the first phrase we hear Jaskier write is "(Gorgeous/lovely) garroter, jury and judge". Here's that phrase, written as above:

(F F) E♭ F F E♭ F F G

((Gorgeous) garroter, jury and ju-udge)

And, yeah. I don't want to overplay things, but:

F E♭ F G

(To your witcher)

and I've not talked much here about the verses to "Toss a Coin" but...

C F E♭ F F G

(along came this so-ong)

Yeeeeeeeeah.

I don't think Jaskier was anticipating how he'd end up writing "Her Sweet Kiss" at that point (how could he); I especially don't think he was necessarily going to refer to Yennefer much, if at all. I suspect that initially it was going to be a cheerfully melancholy unrequited love song which on the surface could have been about anyone, but with clues there for at least his own satisfaction about who the “garrotter” really is. Getting some of the pain out in a measured way, unobtrusively riffing on the much earlier work which was his first song about Geralt.

And then... That Scene happened and what we have is something bitterly unhappy (brokenhearted and worried) instead. Still using "Toss a Coin" as a starting point. Perhaps even more than he'd already planned.

Oh goodness, I was going to make this a short post. Aaaah.Okay, the short version: the two songs are I think too similar for it to be a coincidence. I need to give Jaskier a hug. And I also need to revise my music theory in more detail both to make me a better musician and so that I do better musical analysis again and explain things about a hundred times more clearly. ;-)

People with good solid music theory reading this: please give me a shout if I've messed anything up here? Or indeed missed anything obvious!

Also, anon and anyone else: do please ask if anything's not clear! Not promising I'll be able to answer (or will have the time or energy), but I will if I can. :-)

[frogobaggins]

Hi! Confession time, I've not really been keeping up with Amnesty, I listened to the first few eps but wanted to store some up so I could listen in a bulk and haven't got around to it again. HOWEVER I'm on probs my third whole TAZ relisten (in Eleventh Hour atm) so I'll try to segue straight into it when I've finished that. Are you all caught up? If so I will come and pester you with my thoughts/theories etc as I go through :) 1/2

Anonymous said: Whoops I ran out of room for Star Trek. Yeah, I mean I’ve been yelling in frustration at how ridiculous the episodes are (after like THE 5TH “intruder on the enterprise disguised as a crewmember” episode, why the fuck did they not institute secret code words, or, a simple question to suspicious people). But there’s something so kinda fresh and revolutionary about it (weird to say in the present day), I love the FRIENDSHIP and the characters, it’s so sincere. I <3 kirk too. Keep ranting pls 2/2

I actually only just caught up in Amnesty myself, so I get you. I honestly haven’t bonded to it the way I did with Balance. Balance was just so up my alley with the whole “light-hearted fantasy with lots of emotion and well-placed drama”, which is exactly the kind of content I love and crave at all times lol. Balance is my JAM. Plus, I got into it right when they started it, so experiencing it for the first time with the McElroys just getting into it I think made it easier to really love it, since there were no expectations of precedents to live up to. And don’t get me wrong, I’m really digging Amnesty. I think the characters are really well formed and they interact on a more real level, I think because the who arc is set in the “real world” it give them a more grounded feel. It works for the vibe of the show so well - I just miss the Tres Horny Boys brand of shenanigans…But anyway, the last few eps have gotten pretty intense, and I’d love to talk thoughts and theories once you catch up! :)

As for Star Trek, yeah, I get you. They recycle plots a lot and never really acknowledge that they’ve done the thing before, like they never learn from their past mistakes. It can get really frustrating at times. But then they come at you with episodes that are so out-of-the-box and so GOOD that you forget that half the time it’s just the same stupid shit every other episode. What have your favorite episodes been so far?

If you get through all of the original series and still feeling the Star Trek vibe, definitely give The Next Generation a try. It builds on what TOS did and gives it just a touch more realism. The ship and crew function a little more like what you’d expect from a large intergalactic vessel being operated by an even bigger organization like the Federation (i.e. they don’t put their CAPTAIN in nearly as many ridiculous situations off-ship. He’s the Captain. I get Kirk is the big hero and I LOVE HIM but come on. Your crew can handle exploring a new planet, at least on the first go. That’s what their job is.) It also focuses more on the characters and their relationships with each other, and how they react as they experience weird shit in space, rather than just focusing on the plot points themselves with character development on the sideline, and it has more cohesive plotlines that carry over throughout each season. It’s still the cheesy Star Trek we love (almost more so, because TNG was made in the late 80s), just a little more put-together, if that makes sense. Plus there’s way more of it, which is always good lol

[therealbrigeedarocks]

shrek the musical

i gave it a second chance the other week when i was bingeing the shrek films because the first time around i didn't particularly like it

and then a third chance

and i still don't like it

but here i am, a week later, and i've watched it at least once every night since. and will continue to do so until it finally burns itself out of my system

i'm trying to pinpoint what it is exactly that i dislike about it.

some of the jokes/lyrics certainly haven't aged too well, particularly the bi-polar and tranny lines. yikes on a bike.

watching the recorded version makes me cringe imagining everyone had to have lost like 5 pounds through sweating every night thanks to all those heavy costumes and makeup

especially with the fur suit daniel breaker had to wear for donkey and the prosthetics/makeup for shrek and fiona, though in the latter cases for different reasons. brian d'arcy james had to have felt claustrophobic in that head piece with -i assume- embedded mics/headset. i also assume the ogre-fiona makeup involved telling sutton foster to close her eyes as they did a quick airbrush to her face for the changes between scenes

the short-lord farquaad work around had to be an absolute pain in the knees for christopher sieber though they had great comedic moments with the fake legs

i know this probably couldn't work with a more abstract interpretation of the characters ala the spongebob musical since the whole conceit of the show/movie/etc is how different shrek/ogres look but there had to be something easier that could've been done for the actors at least

out of the whole soundtrack, i find myself only really liking and relistening to 4 of the songs. so much so that all 4 of them have animatic ideas in my head already

brian d'arcy james blowing out the mic during the first lines of "i'm a believer" probs had more to do with the embedded mics in his costume than anything

THAT SAID

the faux-wood texture on pinocchio's costume was great. john tartaglia did a great job with the voice

honestly a lot of the costume design is great. the 3 bears outfits are probably my favorite of the chorus

daniel breaker taking every chance he could to prat fall was great

sutton foster dancing with the pied piper's rats was a simple but well executed idea

brian d'arcy james' faux scottish accent is infinitely more preferable to mike myers and no i'm not afraid to say it

the dragon puppet is amazing and i'm actually kind of mad it didn't get more stage time

hiding the orchestra pit within the stage is cool but also at the same time i can't help imagining how close some people came to tripping and beefing it right into the string section either during rehearsals or actual shows

i think this was well cast despite everything

overall, its watchable but like...it could've been better

absolute best part of the show: the way they just fucking hurl a large cow plushie as the cow that jumped over the moon is still my favorite gag of the show absolute worst part of the show: admittedly this could be due to editing for the recorded version, but how quickly farquaad yells BOO after shrek sings the "big beautiful world reprise" is fucking horrific timing. barely a beat passes before the last word is sung and the mocking began and honestly it ruins a sincere performance absolute worst part of the soundtrack: i don't know what moron decided to chop up "the travel song" for the official release that didn't include the part where shrek and donkey start singing the other's lyrics (reverse counterpoint? i don't know the technical name for it) but if i ever meet them they will be catching these hands