#i need to listen to the podcast ep they did together

[variousqueerthings]

I know that many mash fans have already watched this (the “vestal persons” joke has been shared with me before I watched this), but the fact that he goes “this is the speech I want to make” and then thanks arlene and that’s it is both hilarious and sweet

[levyfiles]

some people are mad at steven for a moral issue, tbf. regardless of your thoughts on watcher’s streaming service he did still say he has racist and homophobic friends. he still goes to a homophobic church.

STEVEN LIM??? OF WATCHER ENTERTAINMENT??? HOMOPHOBIC???

I assume that you must have been recently introduced to The Pod Clip that the twitter teens who hate him preserved to break out whenever it's a fresh moment to rally hate against him, but I would advise anyone just receiving this clip from August 2020 being passed around with the angle that Watcher tried to hide this to examine the facts of the situation more critically.

I and many others were there when this all went down and just know that I have a zero tolerance standard for people who show no remorse or growth when they uplift racists and bigots so if this was true I would have been long gone from this fanspace.

Myself and other fans who were startled by the statement hoped publicly that it would be an opportunity to clear the air for Watcher because the current political climate was just finally examining anti-blackness in everyone's biases and as someone who is mixed-African growing up in an Asian household, I know that anti blackness is and has been a normalised mindset in the Asian community.

But the thing is, months before this, Steven platformed Tammy Cho and her colleagues to discuss how all of us can work together to stop Asian hate and one of the conversations I highlighted back then was how very clear Tammy was that allyship from the Asian community to the African-American community was tantamount to moving forward. That the us vs them rhetoric has and continues to be harmful for both parties. Ryan and Steven were very involved in this discussion and agreed wholeheartedly.

Having said that, the narrative around the podcast ep never had a chance to be discussed rationally. It really ended up skewed because Steven's response to the backlash from that clip was this

I hope that's legible to you. Many people who felt uneasy about what he said felt a lot better and his intention to say something at the top of the next episode would once again, unfortunately, get derailed because Twitter users (some who are particularly loud about loving and supporting Watcher yet constantly join in on the throng of bullying as soon as the tide turns) were adamant that they needed Watcher to post the clip and Steven's apology publicly on their youtube front page and on the main socials, to literally advertise it when the reality is that not many people were watching/listening to the podcast. For what reason would it be intelligent or good business practice to broadcast this hurtful moment so that more people could get hurt by it?

Watcher's response amid the harassment was to release a full podcast episode where they all discussed what they would do going forward to show that they are allies, not just by not being racist or homophobic but by being anti-these things. They showed that they cared about their impact. It was emotional and devastating to watch and by that time, we knew the pod was likely going to wind down. 2020 was already a miserable time and it was made worse because no matter what Steven or Watcher said at the time, the "stans" on Twitter wanted the man fired, they posted memes saying the world would be better if Steven Lim didn't exist, they wanted him shamed by his staff, and for Ryan and Shane to publicly disavow him. Many of these so-called devoted fans raided the server to yell about how Steven's alleged homophobia hurts them, most of them were white and pointedly talking over people of colour telling them "it's not your apology to accept!". It was a blood bath.

And I see waaaay too many of the same faces utilizing this completely neutral move--that of COURSE could have been executed better--to terrorize Steven, to make petitions to get him fired, commenting on his wedding photo telling him that Tammy should leave him, posting those same damn disgusting memes because you see, a whole bunch of people forgot how disgusting and evil this vendetta was to the point where even watcher's socials started to FOLLOW some of these genuinely mean-spirited individuals. They didn't give a shit about a movement or activism.

What kills me--what absolutely THROWS me--is that these same people expect to be able to return to interacting with the staff, attending live shows, buying merch and sending fan mail as soon as the hate tide winds down. All these people so concerned about a statement referencing faceless hypothetical racists and homophobes that Steven never named nor attributed any context for--as he was never given the chance--are so quick to dehumanize and caricaturize real human beings to their faces and they think this is a normal and acceptable behaviour.

You'll have to excuse me, as an older fan who has seen my fair share of normalised homophobia and racism in these communities, if I disagree.

[rentalboos]

Watcher has lost almost 100 thousand subscribers

Hi babygirl, thank you for your 6 new messages, I love that you think my opinion is this important, though I genuinely don't quite get it. I'm not even a Watcher fanaccount, like, I have maybe two followers who even know the channel. What beef do you have with me lmao Since you're so interested in it though, I'm going to give it to you! FOR FREE! Since that's so important to you!

Here's the tldr: You're on anon sending hate, so you already know you're in the wrong and everyone else knows it too!

Great. Now that that's covered, here we GO! My precious opinion that you value so much! For free:

I'm sorry it offends you that I have the 5,99 to pay them and am doing it, but like. Do you do this with everyone? Do you go into people's DMs (no of course not, you only hate anonymously, wonder why that is!) to yell at them about subscribing to Twitch streams? Spotify? Youtube membership? Patreons?

What about this offends you so? That a bunch of youtubers had to make a tough choice between "we have to stop creating the art we want" and "we could try and keep creating the art we want, but we'll need to get paid for it" and chose to try and get paid for it? Is the offense, to you personally, that other people will still get to enjoy the content they like, opposed to absolutely no one getting to? It certainly can't be that you, personally, can't access their content anymore, because, quite frankly, I doubt you actually like it very much.

As for your five billion questions for why this makes you racist: You singling out Steven makes you racist. They founded this company together and they doubtlessly made this decision together and the narrative that is currently spun of "Shane (the white dude) would never, his evil non-white co-workers are forcing him to!" is .... extremely parasocial, and wildly random and coming out of nowhere.

Except for all the parts it's not, because of COURSE. Of course the evil guy and the guy who creates content "no one wants to fund" and who now everyone calls "boring" and who now has viral hate tweets saying he's "dragged Ryan and Shane down", is the asian guy who's pushed for diversity on the channel from the very start.

Like, he's well aware that his shows are the least popular. There's a reason for that, sweetie, and I promise you, it has to do with the fact that they've focused on diversity and quality rather than shittalking in front of a camera. And I'm not even a Steven girlie, I'm a Ghost Files ride or die, baby!

But this narrative that he's "homophobic and racist" because he said in a podcast once that he chooses to stay friends with people who sometimes sprout ignorant views, that's like- Get a fucking grip. I know y'all haven't reached adult life yet, it is painfully apparent, but there comes a time in life where you'll have to realize that sometimes the people around you aren't as socially aware or educated as you, but in their nature good eggs, and you can, of course, choose to drop their asses, if you don't happen to be otherwise connected to them in an adult environment, where jobs and friend groups often overlap or they're part of your family or family's circle, but the far, far better choice is to be their friend and educate them. Because that's the best way the ignorant views become less ignorant. That's literally what he's been saying in that podcast ep, by the way. I don't need to "google" that and I don't need your twitter links, I was there when that episode dropped. I listened to it as I did the dishes. I was applauding Steven for putting in the time and effort and energy to DO that with people, because I oftentimes find myself too scared to have the conversations he is having.

Watcher has donated to queer charities. They sell queer merch. They have queer employees. Their fanbase is mainly queer. He's not homophobic, y'all are insane. If any of that would go against his values, he'd a) not be in a company with Ryan and Shane, because they wouldn't be having it and b) wouldn't stand up for, employ and cater to queer people. He'd be out with the homophobes, telling us how Jesus died for our sins or whatever.

He's also not racist which- duh. Before I even knew Steven Lim, I already knew this is something he is incredibly(!) sensitive about, he literally hates racism (And I don't know if you noticed. But he's very often the target of it, you absolute bufoon) and specifically went into Watcher to be able to help marginalized voices have a platform. That was his goal for Watcher that he couldn't properly fulfil in Buzzfeed. I know that. Because I was there from the start and actually listened to them talk. And it was stated and proven many, many times.

Y'all so eager to jump on a hate train and take shit out of context, it's pathetic. And "homophobic" good God, he had a book on his bookshelf. Wow. I have Harry Potter in three different editions on my bookshelf, I've learned reading with them. They have tear stains on the pages where Dumbledore died. You're gonna say I'm a transphobe if you see them in a photo? Gonna go ahead and call me, a trans guy, a transphobe now? Knock yourself out. Because I'll care about that about as much as I care about how many angry little kids are unsubscribing from Watcher rn: Not even a little bit.

You're whining like little bitches in random fan's inboxes, are throwing insults, false accusations and racism around to stirr the pot, you're coming for Steven as if Ryan and Shane aren't literally HORRIFIED by y'all doing this in their name to someone who's their close friend. As if Watcher would even exist without him, when he saved it from going bankrupt in their first year, when Ryan and Shane couldn't be arsed to step up and figure out how to run a company.

You weren't paying them anyway. I'm subscribed to their Patreon at the highest tier, because I know good art doesn't come free and I knew they were gonna struggle on Youtube views alone and I enjoy their content and want to help them keep making it. I don't expect anyone to be able to do that - And they don't either. They also don't expect everyone to pay or be able to pay for their streaming services. They're currently working on responding to the feedback and make things more accessible. They certainly didn't handle this perfectly and they certainly didn't want to make this choice if they had another one. Neither of the three.

You won't pay for it. That's fine. That's literally all there is to it. There's no need to sling this shit around, but you're doing it anyway. Not because you care, but because you're having fun with it. Well, go ahead. The more hate you send, the more I know I'm standing up for the right people.

[vestaclinicpod]

Audio Drama Sunday - 14th April ✨

Oh my god, the audio sure did drama this week!!  

👻 @tellnotalespod (S2E7.5) HOW did none of us put this together sooner?! Oh my god, what an absolutely INCREDIBLE little twist. I love the undercurrent of hopeful resilience in Tell No Tales (Leo is going to get with the programme really soon 🤞) and I am screaming, crying and throwing up imagining the end of season reunion 😭 HOWEVER, don’t think I missed for a second that Riley is asking for another packet of painkillers . . . it would be so like him to think that 16 paracetamol is two doses of paracetamol but still! He needs to be okay!!

🌲 @hellofromthehallowoods (147) hhhhh what a GOOD episode. There’s something different about the horror of season 4 that I want someone with a literature degree to talk to me about for hours. Can we please talk about how the murder victim had a treble clef carved into them . . . i.e. the symbol at the start of a piece of music. It’S SO CLEVER I love the intricate details of this show!!!!! And, can we also talk about how emotional I feel about Clem (namer of everything) is in love with Shelby (has a cat named Cat). There’s something in that which is giving me palpitations. 

🦀 @thesiltverses (39) You wouldn’t think one would be happy to have silt in their ears, but I am!! I’ve missed this story so much and I loved the twist in this episode. Carson has practically wrapped Shrue in a bow and handed them to Carpenter and Hayward. I can’t WAIT for that conversation. 

🧳 Travelling Light @monstrousproductions (17) Oh this is so beautiful! Do humans do this with ice?? I think we should 1000% do this with ice! I don’t have voting privileges (yet 💸) but I think they should go easy on their foes in the snowball fight. I would love to see how adorably smug Óli is if allowed to win 🥺

🤴 Inco @itmeblog (S3E20-34) If anyone takes SAWA away from Nova again I am going to throw HANDS. I’ve always considered SAWA to be endearingly overbearing with her prompts to Nova but we got such a good glimpse of how vital she is in the library/archives and I love her 😭

♦️@grottopod (8) Grotto finale! I loved the music at the start of this episode and it was so satisfying to hear David get to express some of his frustrations. Season two sounds like it’s going to be wild. 

⚔️ @camlannpod (7) This episode KILLED me. Here are the quotes that made me scream: “GWEN: You can’t love the mental illness out of someone.”  (10/10, true, valid, hurts) “PERRY: Eat a dick, Kay.” (11/10 the crowd goes WILD) “RHIANNON: (calling to the group as they leave) Cousin. About your lover. You didn’t fail him. You just needed more time.” (1/10 OW?????? OW OW WHY? OW!!!!) “MORGAN: You’re just as bad as Arthur. Worse. At least he was honest about it.” (??/10 JAW ON THE FLOOR) I need this podcast forever 🥺

🖥️ The Magnus Protocol (11) Oooh I liked this episode!! I love it when you’re left to fill in the blanks in a horror story - my mind is still whirring through so many awful scenarios. 

🍎 @notquitedeadpod (XXXIV-XXXV) ah! I’ve accidentally caught up to Not Quite Dead! What will my Sunday afternoons look like now?? There were so many moments in these eps which made me laugh but I’m mostly just so in awe of how complex and real these characters are. Neige genuinely feels 10000 years old and shaped by the trauma of each of them. I need to check the release schedule because I cannot wait for more!! 

Have a good week of listening, everyone! 🌈

[dreamweaversfavsandthoughs]

Rick and Morty S7 Ep. 2: The Jerrick Trap

(Not Rick, not Jerry, but some secret third thing)

Spoiler alert ahead!

My Favs

The new voice actors:

I wanted to bring this up again because I think that Ian Cardoni has really evolved into his role as the new voice actor for Rick. It’s really hard to believe that Cardoni has only had this job for about month or two but is already playing this character like he’s been there since the beginning. It didn’t once cross my mind during this episode that I was not listening to Justin Roiland anymore. Harry Belden’s Morty sounds like a nice blend of Roiland’s Season 1 and Season 6 performance of that character.

Freaky Friday:

I appreciate that they didn’t do a clean body-swap but gave RickBody and JerryBody an amalgamation of the two minds in conflict with each other, but then evolving over the course of the episode into someones (or something) with its own identity.

Chuxly:

I kinda have a soft spot for Chuxly. He’s just a mid-tier criminal who’s trying not to cause any unnecessary trouble. He doesn’t need any incompetent goons kidnapping the precious grandson of the most dangerous man in the universe and he’ll kiss as much ass as he can until his lips are ass-colored.

Your dad’s a gay assassin?:

It’s a spectrum

Conehead missle:

So gross but RickBody looked so happy! Also I get why RickBody and JerryBody would like that movie because it is so dumb and so weird in a good way.

Burger and Fries!

God I love their cute name for each other! Also, am I the only person who found them snorting crystals together as they remember their love for Morty weirdly endearing.

Rick and Jerry’s half-assed note to the family:

But they wrote a novel for Gene

Do you hear the symphony of atoms dying in space?:

I don’t blame Summer for wanting to listen to a podcast. I would want to distract myself from whatever that is driving the car.

The Stupid Rake Gag:

This joke is older than God herself and in hindsight I should have seen this coming. The inciting incident was due to Gene stealing a rake. It was all laid out for this to happen but it was so cleverly concealed until it happened that I was absolutely taken off-guard. God I love that Jerry and Rick were rescued from their monstrous Jerricky form by a corny rake gag.

Rick and Jerry care about each other. They really do!

Though they’ll never admit it.

Memory Rick!

He’s alive and well and kept Rick and Jerry from completely losing their minds to Jerricky. Sadly, he might be stuck in Jerry’s mind for awhile unless he can make use of springs and gears and only springs and gears. I imagine there’s going be an episode in the future about his escape.

My Not Favs:

Jerricky:

He will haunt my dreams until my dying breath in which he will then greet me at the gates of Hell where he will orchestrate my torture for all eternity and a day. Personally, I wasn’t a huge fan of Jerricky and the final fight with him and why did they give it a six-pack? Neither Jerry or Rick have a six-pack. Who do they think they’re fooling?

Rick’s mind was a bit overpowering:

Maybe this is because Rick is a character with such a big personality but I felt like the aspects that could be Jerry was a bit drowned out. RickBody and JerryBody acted mostly like Rick with sprinkles of Jerry rather than an even mix of the two.

A criminal lack of Morty:

Morty (or should I say, Rick Jr.) maybe turning into a little criminal but I would like to have some more screen time with him. There’re eight more episodes left so I’m not too worried about this but I think Morty is a little underutilized for a character who has some great story potential (and his name is in the title of the show). However, I’m glad we got to see more of him compared to the last episode. He is getting so confident and not waiting around for his grandpa/dad and dad/grandpa to get himself out of trouble.

My Thoughts:

I love myself a Rick and Jerry team-up episode and this episode was no different. Rick and Jerry may never admit it, but they are more alike than different and their minds meld well together ( as long as they don’t make a Jerricky). The Rick/Jerry dynamic has always been rife with conflict since the first episode when Jerry tried to convince Beth to put Rick in a nursing home because Rick pulled Morty out of school, repeatedly, behind their backs. In a sweet moment in the middle of the episode we hear them admit that Rick doesn’t believe Jerry is useless and that Jerry sees Rick as a friend. By the end of the episode, they are back to bickering at each other again but we know as an audience that it comes from a place of love for each other and their love for Summer, Morty and Daughterwife. This episode, in my mind, was much stronger than last week’s and oh so weird in the best possible way, except for maybe Jerricky. Jerricky was the weakest part of the episode with the fight scene being a bit lackluster for an otherwise bonkers episode. Though that rake gag killed me. They really did just sneak that in and thought I wouldn’t notice, which I didn’t so good job on their part. It absolutely felt like a classic Rick and Morty episode and I hope each episode continues getting better and better. Also, it was nice seeing Memory Rick again and,

“Yeah, Memory Rick, Rick totally got rid of you on purpose.”

[brilliantfantasticgeronimo]

(vibrates) it's slug time

loving the slang... "tightness all day long" "today is toasty". also love that "babes" survives way into the future. 15 this is ur legacy. "that woman was her sister" incest implication??? 2 minutes in

TURN LEFT /triggered

the design in this is impeccable.

this is so sims coded.... from the creators of "doctor who is a tv show" theory we bring u-> "doctor who is a videogame"

if u were disappointed with the focus on magic this ep this ep is rlly giving classic scifi parody lol

CRAZY DAYS

there's a lot of wordsmith-ing in this ep….eyes emoji

i love ruby sm now she's so resourful in every ep

this episode is like "this is how an anniversary multi-doctor multi-companion multi-master webcam special could still win"

ok but seriously. ppl are gonna be like "phones bad is dumb of course people look where they are!!!" bro. they dont. and yeah it can have deadly consequences. there's a reason "dont text and drive" campaigns happen.

ruby has done SO many callcenter type jobs forreal.

SLUG TIME SLUG TIME SLUG TIME.

DR PEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!

this episode is amazing

"is that thing something to do with you?" bitch (i got a bit spoiled that she's a racist (damn "looking at tumblr for 2 secs to vibe check" habit) so im looking at this with more hindsight than u are supposed to sdlkfjd)

bluie light celeste and gold motif in ruby and the doc's backdrops? also fifteen in orange <3333333 my beloved

the interior design is ON POINT this ep "you dont know how to walk without the arrows?" "condescending much?" bitch

this episode is so fun lol

"fifteen nd ruby react channel" realness (WHICH…..HEY…….DO U KNOW WHAT PPL REACT TO………………………. T V SH O W S (clown make up fully on))

ruby has done so much service calling jobs forreal lol the sheer patience

the doctor really wanting to lose their minds here but having to hold it together is peak doctor sdkjfsd (also very realistic of the struggles i expected a black doctor to work thru)

there's a bit of a theme of instinct vs programming going on here.

"surrounded by this woodland forest thing. it's like, really natural"

hashtag obsessed with it the catharsis im feelin tbh. 2 ppl being like "yo mass killing is rlly wrong" while the cacophony of the internet ~fun goes on and on. where's the [fiction]

ITS LIKE LOVE ISLAND THE PLANET. BRO. bro im so WIRED IN /clown make up intensifies

penny pepper bean still strong holding the 12 ppl still in the tory party together in the year something something

"ruby and the doctor struggle to lie in the moment" is my favorite recurring trope

the doctor using the sonic as a remote right there……………….. im running out of clown make up ya'll

"you did NOT just "@everyone" realism

no one ever listens to the goths….

until its too late…

its interesting that there's no cameras in their feeds, tho. right? like. that's the layer i think it's profoundly different to irl in this satire / social crit. ppl are *locked out* of the real world bc they're looking at their screens, but they do that bc the screens are a constant waterfall of billions of camera footage either of individuals or coporations or institutions. always producing "content". so like is not that ppl dont "see" anythign irl but they see it all thru a filter or thru editing,,,, but its fine i get what the satire is going for slkdfj but yeah. i think thats why it may feel a bit "not quite capturing" of the current ~digital ethos

fifteen so close to losing it- fifteen if u want to go for a bit of a timelord victorious i wont judge. u can have it. as a treat.

doctor who is a videogame energy bbc merch idea -> zombies run type podcast but it's the doctor and ruby telling u where to go for a job so u dont die. (russel get on this)

YOU STILL HAVE BATTERY PROBLEMS

"this is your fault!" iconic. classic who

so many ppl have presumably died so far. god bless. we needed an ep like this. proper high body count who feels good. feels organic.

rip the au where these were the beatles. thats 1 theory im really gonna mourn for the rest of the series lol

plaza 55…… orphan 55 reference???

great abrogation sounds important.

"i will get out out of here. i promise" obligatory doctor mirroring moment.

oh shit.

"thi iss SO manual"

"hands off" I LOVE THEM !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The doctor x companion x some bland guy love triangle DREAM omg

"he says they're saving us to eat for last (snob voice)maybe we're the most tasty" scream. this ep is so fun.

pentecost's style was so on point.

wasnt her battery running out? (i may have missed something sldkjf)

bro stop hitting the fucking gas pipes oh my goddddd

holy shit. RICKY NOOOOOOOOOOOOO

that was brutal.

racists are gonna hate this episode so much lol

fifteen getting to experience all the microaggressions/outright aggressions thirteen didnt. yay progress(???) "thats voodoo" holy shi t

"maintain the standards of finetime" rtd was pissed when writting this lol

fifteen is not doing all rightkids.

ncuti's "who's my doctor? he's a black man" prophecy comes FULL CIRCLE

fifteen looking at US tho…………… this is a tv show man. this is a tv show. this is - *im struggle against my straight-jacked as im graddged back to the cushion-walled cell*

the plot twist of this ep………… phones good actually. thank u phones. u are doing a service.

CONCLUSIONS!

so there's a lot of ways to chop this one…

"racism and capitalism still exists in the future" is a trope that it's kind of limiting / always grates me in some ways (it feeds into the anti-racism of ppl whose politics doesnt trascend idealist philosophy -> that is, it is an anti-racism that can't conceive of an end to racism bc it doesn't actually have a political project that address the material causes of racism and just tries to fix the "natural prejudices" away with "education". in other words, it cant portray a word without racism bc it cant *conveive* of one.) . however i think im more open to it this time / this series since s11 onwards the focus has been so much on telling stories about the present with scifi make up on. and i think this one manages to do that rlly well. ___

another vertice to look this one on is whether... is it really "doing anything" to have racism portrayed on screen (and other bigotry) in a scifi story? if u already experience racism or understand it happens, who is served by this? it's hurtful to watch and it's like missing the chance to "show a different world" is possible thru scifi. and the counterargument to that is on a """""color blind"""""" 2020s world it is rlly cathartic and re-affirming to have stories that *show* the realities of the world, and that dont shy away from showing those realities in fear of them coming off as "over the top" (bc they arent. some ppl will still walk away from this ep thinking "haha fun satires" but like. this is literally how White Rich People Talk. in real life.......) and again in this one time i think it works really well bc doctor who has… probably never done this? lol there's moments with martha and ryan for example, but never going this hard on it. but im open to discussion tbh. i think the angle of "is this a story about racism for white people to learn or is it a cathartic for *black / brown people to experience catharsis in" is gonna be one for fruitful discussion in the future. ___

besides the socio-political points,,,, bro this episode was a thrill ngl sdlkjf like so many simple, excellent moments like the girl walking into the light post. the made up slang and the real slang!!!!. the excellent interior design. "ruby and fifteen react to doctor who". just lots of fun little details. the execution was really inspired.

character point -> tbh fifteen at the end feels like a bit of Growth from like, ten at his worst moments -> "he's not the person you would have chosen to survive, but if you could decide who lives or dies, doctor, that would make you a monster"

also kinda wonder how this episde will hit for newbies / Not Us. i think a lot of its gut punch comes from dw never doing this before and so the strenght of subverting those expectations. is this an story that stands on its own w/o all the 60 years of context? we'll have to show it to our normie friends and see lol

[consoledacup]

What are your thoughts on this episode? Especially about Jordan and Layla together and individually?

I thought Jordan's stuff with football was really interesting. I'm really glad Jordan finally has a guy. I just hope his guy really has best interest in mind. I like that he was still concerned about Spencer up to a point. I loved all the fighting between the two. They both have different motivations now.

I don't blame Jordan for following the plays and didn't think he did anything wrong. But then Lexi and NoCo enlightened me and said Jordan still could've passed it to Spencer a little for stats or something. If that's the case, then Jordan might still have some resentment towards Spencer, mixed in with him trying to focus on being the best QB he can. I don't know that much about football, so listen to her podcast ep. Great!

You know what else I really loved? Jordan taking the time to be a listening ear to Asher. I think their friendship is so underrated. Even his, "why did you knock??"

I loved how much of a friend Layla was to Liv. She said things Liv needed to hear, and I really like when Layla shares about her mom with people she trusts.

I hate how much she's sharing with Ryan. I get the sense that she doesn't want to burden her loved ones with her ever-increasing burnout and numbness, so Ryan's a convenient ear. Unfortunately, he can't keep his mouth shut. Giving her advice about her dosage was so uncalled for. I rewatched the scene again, and there's a slight chance that he was alluding to her checking in with her doctor about it first. But he didn't say that, so I can't assume that.

Jordayla had a really beautiful first scene together. Did you see Jordan's face when she was rattling off his stats?? She may not be fully vulnerable with him about things she doesn't want to quite acknowledge just yet, but she is still so proud of him and loves him very, very much.

Thought the fallout from the "dance" was perfect. Jordan had every right to be frustrated with her. She tried to open up about feeling overwhelmed, but he obviously wasn't in the right space to hear it. He was probably thinking, "I turned down an important conversation with my coach for this?? What is even happening right now?"

And sidenote, but it was really funny that Ryan was just like, "yeah I'm out." Didn't try to defend Layla or anything like that. Just immediately bolted. And I loved that while Jordan was clearly annoyed about Ryan, he was more upset that she didn't book the wedding planner like she insisted she would. Again, bringing back the themes of "tired of people telling me a part of something when I'm not" and "if you're not going to take this seriously..."

What I like about jordayla's first three eps is there's movement. We keep learning new things about Layla's mental state. We see Jordan's growing frustration and continual heartfelt devotion. It makes for some good conflict. And they'll get through it! <3

[merlions]

The more I research things in relation to magnus protocol the more I'm just like utterly filled with that classic emotion known as "holy shit Jonny Sims did his motherfuckin RESEARCH for this bad baby *smacks side of podcast*"

I feel like in doing any research at all on any topic, I'm finding myself sucked with black hole force into a wikipedia hole and end up accidentally reverse engineering this like, massive writing research tree from the listening side. It's been so implausibly frequent and intricate to have one topic just happen to link to yet ANOTHER eerily related topic that I'm starting to second guess myself, like am I seeing connections where there are none???

But like idk I think there's just SO MUCH and every seemingly unrelated leaf actually does, in fact, end up connecting back to a branch that does seem intimitely related to the tree (...as it were.)(fuckin. Can't talk about trees no more. Fuck u Isaac Newton. Fuckin apple head. Dog apple head fuck. Calcinate ur god damn laboratory) but it's just like the largest kudzu on the fucking planet and there are so many god damn leafs and branches I can't even see a damn quarter of the whole picture, even just considering the historical and alchemical research, before even considering the fictional plot and worldbuilding and how that's tying the irl stuff and TMA stuff and its own stuff together and !! (Is Georgie...???)

And through all of that. I have learned much. And I can say I know for certain now two things.

One: I thought I knew what alchemy was and what its purpose was, and at least a couple of things about it. I did not!

Two: it is infinitely funny that literally right after the Hooke episode (#19) when I was doing research on just Hooke and Micrographia, I said, in total and utter ignorance of any importance this phrasing might have: "[this episode is] Sprinkling mint seeds of Spooky History Research on the fertile but barren golf course of my mind".

I hope Jonny and Alex saw that and got a little chuckle. "Wow this guy really is gonna flip his fuckin lid when he finds out about the steps of alchemy. Like, oh I dunno, Separation! For example" WELL I DID!!! I did flip my lid.

TMagP ep so potent in its in-world 17th century lore drop that it caused me to briefly see into the future. Supernatural cosmic horror writing so choice that it manifests real actual spooky happenings in the real world. wait isnt that a john carpenter film

anyways I'm mostly writing this just to get it out of my own head, bc I feel like I'm losing my mind like I've stepped into a twilight zone episode and I need to find a way back to my original dimension somehow. but also if u read this and are intrigued by what i mean by any of it. i strongly encourage starting some wikipedia holing of ur own. start with literally anything on any topic mentioned in protocol. but esp looking into Sam's comment to Celia in TMP 19, about "spiritual substitution of elements". and know that this will take u on a magical internet journey from which you may return, but not unchanged

[skayafair]

The brainworms be brainworming

Note: I want to chat about junoverse! Hit me up if you do too!

It's funny how I expected to ship the hell out of the main pairing just to end up utterly inenterested :D

It's amusing and gives Juno a good character developement, but mostly it's just corroding. Also by all accounts Nureyev should have been the type of character who is usually interesting to me, but mostly I couldn't care less and was slightly annoyed in s5 (made sense tho, so not complaining). And I don't understand why he kept showing up in Juno's life and even offered to run away together just to do his worst to try and disappear for good when things started looking up and settling for them, the whole Dark Matters ordeal notwithstanding. Did he try to shake Juno off because he became scared that his feelings got too real for comfort and he couldn't just "file them away" anymore? Would he have abandoned Juno on some faraway planet if Juno didn't change his mind and actually went with him?

Maybe my attitude was partly why I was so delighted by the ending, except for the fact that it simply made the most sense and the stories rarely go this route in order not to upset the fanbase. Personally I'd have said Nureyev to get lost after the 2nd disappearance but luckily for Peter Juno has a different approach. And their relationship might have not gotten through to me, but I really liked how it was developed: I'm on aroace spectrum and "love from the first sight" sounds ridiculous to me. Attraction, I can believe in, love - nah, this thing's built over time and looots of effort. And that's what they've been doing over the seasons - building it. Juno's resolution - "if you can do this, we'll be together, someday in future, if you can't - I guess we just aren't compatible", his acceptance of the fact made me very glad to hear had to undergo a similar realization in the past. Do I need to say that to me the person behind that door in the last seconds of the episode was NOT Nureyev. Too early.

On a different note, what I wasn't satisfied with was Sasha's plotline. It feels unfinished. I kept expecting it to get its resolution as well, to make me sympathize with her (not justify her actions tho), and I guess Nightmare was supposed to be it, but she just confused me instead. I still don't understand what exactly this whole case meant. Why did she look exactly like young Sasha to Juno but like Juno - to Mick?

I mean... the way Sasha was erasing herself from existance just for Agent W to be the only one left, and with how often neometh was mentioned - and the super-drug they pumped Jet with? - I thought Slip would come into the picture too somehow. It seemed like there was a joint overarching plot for these two lines, but they ended up completely unrelated. And Juno said he needed to reflect on Sasha and understand her even after they shook the DM off of their tail, but I don't think this was developed? Idk. And what with all the hints of "you don't know what I've been through" from Sasha? Did I miss the elaboration? It just feels like her plot line was planned but scrapped at some point.

I've started to listen again since ep 1 and realized I don't enjoy the podcast as much as the 1st time until the Aurinkos come into the picture. All the previous episodes were good, don't get me wrong, - just not as interesting to me personally. So after a few episodes I skipped right to the middle of season 2 and wow. I didn't realize Jet to be THIS hilarious the first time! Now the actual fun begins <3

And since I've already started - Juno was very funny and sooo coherent back in the desert. "Leave me be! I'll die but at least I'll do this by my own will!.. oh shit this guy looks scary and like he'll kill me if I don't shut up right now, ok fine". Aw <3

I think this is the first time when I can actually remember how unreliable and overdramatic our narrator is, take his descriptions of any situations with a grain of salt and not even be annoyed at this :D

[adudelol-reblogs]

okay. i believe now it's time to put it all together.

ep 1 the anglerfish: all in all, i like this episode. it did a good job of establishing the world, characters and plot of the magnus archives podcast as a whole. we are introduced to jon and his coworkers. the statement is believable and has a good mix of mystery and creepiness, with jon at the end bringing the perspective of an investigator in.

ep 2 do not open: not entirely sure how i feel about this episode ngl. i'm always a bit queasy when drugs are mentioned, and they were mentioned a lot. also, the coffin was literally just too much for me i was so scared and i WANTED to know what was in it. i do like the fact that he froze the key into a bowl of ice and then shattered it when it needed to be collected.

ep 3 across the street: i did not like this one. it wasn't so much as amy's actions that threw me off - although i didn't like that either - but it was more so the fact that seeing someone being replaced like that is my greatest fear. i kept thinking, "what if that were my sister and i was the one watching. . ." and that is a HORRIFYING thought to be having so no thank you.

ep 4 page turner: while i didn't like ep 3 because I was genuinely scared, page turner was the first episode where i actively got bored while listening. i just... it was only a book that made dominic feel as though he were falling by just looking at a picture and then maybe some ghost action at the end? it was not for me, sorry.

ep 5 thrown away: this one i liked lol. it wasn't because of the scariness, or the characters, it was literally just, "i like this story cus it fits." i have no clue why i felt that way but i really liked the statement. the description of the contents of the bags and the mysterious culprit.

and that's all for now! i think i want to do this for every episode so that i'm not as scared lol

-✨

:D glad ur enjoying it :D0

[theaberrantreport]

Did I miss #AudioDramaSunday? Yes! But I finished/caught up on a lot of audio dramas this week, so I'm just posting this today.

I am reviewing Tell No Tales, Haunted House Flippers, Jar of Rebuke, Malevolent, and talking a bit about The Aberrant Report because I can! Here it goes:

Tell No Tales @tellnotalespod

I loved Tell No Tales! It is an empathetic take on ghost hunting. I got invested in the main character, Leo, just as much as I became invested in the ghosts they are trying to give a voice to. It is fun, it is silly, but it is also very emotional. Some episodes hit hard.

The plot (no spoilers): Leo has an invention they are tweaking they believe will help them talk to ghosts. The only problem? They work for a ghost removal company. But are ghosts just pests? How close to human are they? And do they consent to being removed?

I highly recommend it.

Haunted House Flippers

I also caught up with Haunted House Flippers! As someone probably on the spectrum, I really appreciate the characters in this podcast! Both Tom and Lee strike me as different "brands" of autistic, but in a very respectful and loving way. There is a lot of heart and soul put into all of the characters. Janet and Tom's relationship, while starting off a bit off putting (in ep 1-5), is one of the best couples I've seen in media in quite a while. Tom is ghost obsessed; Janet is true crime obsessed. Together, they must flip Tom's late grandfather's house. And Tom is convinced that it is haunted.

It is a horror comedy with wonderful characters. It's silly, often light hearted, but will remind you it is horror when it needs to. I love this podcast and I can't wait to see where this next season goes!

Jar of Rebuke @jarofrebukepodcast

Jar of Rebuke is another show where the main character feels autistic. And, much like Tell No Tales, the main character works with cryptid hunters(?) scientists(?) while empathizing with the cryptids around them. The day-to-day life of Jared is interesting in and of itself, but by episode 9, I was fully on the edge of my seat.

The non-spoiler plot summary is: Dr. Jared has lost their memories. They must work for The Enclosure, a sketchy organization studying cryptids, to regain them. What's more, they cannot seem to die. It's both a slice of life AND a paranormal mystery. I highly recommend it!

Malevolent @malevolentcast

I've started listening to Malevolent again. The gimmick (a detective whose eyes are controlled by his new demon headmate) works wonderfully in the audio drama medium. And the execution of that concept is spooky and highly compelling. We'll see how it goes! I'm on episode 8!

The Aberrant Report

I wanted to add my own podcast to the list this week, because why not? It's a paranormal mystery starring Junie Bahisa, and impulsive danger-prone student journalist at Abbottsville University. There is a wide cast of characters and a diverse cast of actors! The show is extremely queer.

The story focuses a lot on the relationships between Junie and the other characters, like her best friend Robbie, while also delving into darker themes with aberrant encounters.

We are on our midseason break with 6 episodes out, but we will be back late December! I really hope y'all enjoy what we've created so far in the meantime!

[bronanlynch]

this week's media roundup has even more incoherent rambling about gundam than last week. that's where my brain's at I guess

listening (podcast): once again still listening to the Wing episodes of Great Gundam Project but I listened to their ep on the finale today so I just need to listen to their Endless Waltz ep and then I will be finished with that and move on to uhhh probably their 0079 episodes sorry I am So gundampilled right now. anyway. this makes me feel so much better for being confused & frustrated by the politics at the end of Wing but also kind of excited to rewatch it with my roommate (who's never seen it) at some point in our Gundam marathon because I really do think that watching 0079 first at least helps you understand what they're calling back to. like the answer to 'why is Zechs like that' is 'because he's based on Char' and I, watching Wing for the first time before any other Gundam, did not know who Char was yet

listening (music): I am perpetually just a little bit late to listen to new music but at least I did listen to new music this week. my fave thing about Mitski's I'm Your Man is how jarringly nice & pleasant the guitar accompaniment is for the first half, contrasted with the kinda eerie echo-y quality of the vocals and also like, what the lyrics are saying

reading: same things still. Rule of Wolves remains kind of mid and does not do anything particularly anything with any of the ideas it raises. Water Outlaws continues to be extremely cool and Imo does an extremely good job of expressing what would be very cool action sequences in a wuxia drama in a different medium. but also sometimes I wish I could see the cool fights because I like good fight choreography

watching: my parents visited this past weekend and one of the things we watch together is Ted Lasso, so I've seen a few more episodes of season 3 and honestly I'm kind of underwhelmed I guess? I have extremely mixed feelings about the handling of both of the queer plotlines (Keely getting a girlfriend & Colin's whole arc) that I'm not sure I care enough to type out. I like that Trent is around more though, I do like to see him

we've been watching the current season of Bakeoff (me & my roommate, not me & my parents), but it's not far enough for me to have strong favorites so I don't have much to say here other than that I do like the new host, she's fun

and now the most important part of this post, we've been watching Zeta Gundam. man. we're 17 episodes in and I'm having so much fun. I love Kamille, I love it when the main characters are doing armed resistance against the military hegemony even though I wish I had a better understanding of the scale of any of these factions, I love Quattro's stupid obnoxiously shiny gold mobile suit, I love the concept of Cyber Newtypes because it emphasizes the stuff about exploitation and dehumanization that I wanted more of in the discussion of Newtypes. I have many complex thoughts about gender (wish it wasn't always the women who are the most outspoken about peace and/or want to settle down to raise their children, or that women got a few more options besides that and dying in battle immediately after kissing the nearest man, but also I think there's something interesting in how many of the Cyber Newtypes and honestly also Newtypes are women like so far it's mostly women and protagonists and also Char). I miss Sayla. I hate that 26 year old Mirai dresses & styles her hair like a generic 45 year old housewife, please let her keep her style & personality even though she's a mother now I am begging you. I love Quattro's extremely 80s outfit. my head is very full of thoughts about how the child soldiers from 0079 are now a little older but still stuck in the same patterns because they're stuck as the people they were forced to become during the war and now they're perpetuating that on the next generation of kids forced into the conflict. thinking about Quattro trying to mentor Kamille and turning him into a soldier, and how Char & Amuro are both so shaped by the violence they've done that neither of them can conceive of themselves as anything else, with Amuro resenting/fearing his role as a soldier but not seeing any options for what he can be instead and Char leaning into it, again because he doesn't think he has any other options. tasty narrative foil situation. they should kiss about it. also I'm obsessed with how much the Beltorchika-Amuro-Char situation feels like a love triangle. Tomino didn't have to make Amuro's love interest a blonde in a pink normal suit with a comet-related callsign but as someone who is constantly thinking about Eve Kosofsky Sedgewick's writings on triangulated desire I'm very glad he did. this section is a mess, I'm so sorry, shout out to Zeta Gundam, I love watching teenagers bully Char and I hope Kamille gets to punch more cops

playing: still working on Ace Attorney 5, still on 5-4. just met Aura Blackquill and I love her already <3 unethical science lesbian <3

making: continuing the autumn theme that I've had pretty much every week, we made an apple pie, except we ran out of flour while making it so we couldn't sprinkle the crust with enough flour to make the filling thicken so it had the soggiest bottom imaginable. still tasted good though

more importantly, we are in our gunpla era and made the Michaelis from Witch from Mercury, a suit that everyone else on the internet seems to hate but I adore. I like it when robots are purple and look like they're wearing high heels, and also Shaddiq was one of my favorite GWitch characters which I realize is also a uhhhhh fairly unpopular opinion but anyway here it is

also because I think it's funny, here's what it currently looks like on display, leaning against the wall because it doesn't stand super well on its own but we don't have a base for it yet, and it looks So short next to the Pharact & Darilbalde

drinking: Thirsty Robot Brewing's key lime cheesecake sour, a beer that tasted so good I had to restrain myself from saying "wow this fucks" in front of my parents. it had lactose in it so it was a really nice amount of smooth & creamy, and the key lime flavor was really strong

also had a cocktail that had the most tailored to me list of ingredients imaginable: lemon vodka, creme de violette, elderflower liqueur, butterfly pea flower simple syrup, lemon juice, & lavender bitters. it truly is a shame that I cannot be bothered to acquire most of those ingredients on my own because wow that was tasty. I love it when drinks are citrus-y & floral, is the thing

writing: once again thwarted by not being able to write while watching Gundam (not a complaint). I swear I'm going to finish a fic again at some point

[zed-air]

OZ's 2023

______

Ch-ch-ch-changes

••• 

Going to keep this year's recap brief. Not sure if anyone reads these, but I reference them sometimes when necessary.

The main thing of note this year was my workload.

I returned to concert performance following the pandemic lull of 2020-2022. I played about a dozen shows with Pepperland in the second half of the year, beginning with a private event in rural Alberta and ending by closing an awards gala for hundreds of folks at the Edmonton Expo Centre (video below) and a sold out NYE show at the Blue Chair. More performances with Pepperland and others are planned for 2024.

I also broke my first guitar string(s) since 2011!

My radio work unexpectedly shifted into high gear this year. Following various developments in 2022, I planned to drastically scale back my fill-in work at CKUA - particularly during the daytime programs. However, through some cosmic irony, by the end of 2023 I ended up doing more radio work than ever before. My previous record for fill-in shows in a single year was 95. I ended 2023 having acted as a guest-host on 141 occasions, in addition to my own weekly show. This was not planned, and nearly all of those 141 shows have been classical music programs. I have been operating since February as the guest-host of Classic Examples during the long term absence of the regular host Mark Antonelli.

My weekly Friday night Albertan music program In Our Neighbourhood continues on CKUA. Also continuing, now in its fourth year, my collaboration with NME as the Senior Producer on their podcast series The No Normal.

Working this many weeknights has had the unfortunate consequence of my family rarely being in the same place together. What little time we've shared has been spent introducing my kid to Star Trek.

••• 

Some of my favourite 2023 music releases, in no order besides alphabetical, with apologies to any which I've overlooked, missed, or haven't had the chance to listen to yet:

ALBERTAN ALBUMS

Audrey Ochoa – Head of a Mouse

Betaboys – Just Yesterday

Confusionaires! – Westernization

Des Arcs – Masks

Downtown Exit – Bootleg Stardust

Miesha and the Spanks – Unconditional Love in Hi-Fi

Jesse Murray – I Did It All For You

Doug Organ – Quiet in the Library

Starpainter – Rattlesnake Dream

Trevor Howlett & the Cruz Bros - Self-Titled EP

Void Comp – Metropol

OTHER ALBUMS & SONGS OF NOTE

The Beatles "Now and Then"

Fifty Fifty "Cupid"

Go_A "Dumala"

Kinva - Kinva

Monks on Call "Capsized"

SZA "Kill Bill"

Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway - City of Gold

Wayfinding "Bad Blood"

- - - - -

OTHER MUSIC THOUGHTS FROM THE ZIBLIOTHEK

In 2020, I started an alphabetical exploration of the Zibliothek’s vinyl collection. I’ve also been documenting the LP library and other aspects of the collection on Instagram. At my current rate, it will take me 13-15 years to listen to the full LP library. I made inconsistent progress in 2023, listening in waves with long gaps between opportunities. Here’s some of what I listened to this year:

Lou Christie: I once read he was Egyptian. This has proven difficult misinformation to shake. Some goofy goodies in his catalogue.

Eric Clapton: Outside of his 1965-1968 period, I am decidedly not a fan of Clapton as a person or musician. With the exception of his Unplugged album, which has strong moments, nearly everything since Derek & the Dominoes has been criminally dull. I can honestly say I never need to hear his music again.

Petula Clark: Great voice. Sometimes great songs too.

Roy Clark: I like his music best when I can't see him playing it.

The Clash: Tremendous.

Joe Cocker: Great bands behind him. Often great performances too. Not always strong material.

Patsy Cline / Leonard Cohen / Nat King Cole / Perry Como / Sam Cooke: All tremendous.

Ry Cooder: I remain a bit mystified by Ry Cooder. Admired by countless people I enjoy, but his music does nothing for me.

Elvis Costello: A very strong catalogue, and consistently enjoyable.

Cream: Clapton at his best, fighting for space in a tempest of madmen.

Creedence Clearwater Revival: I've never been a big fan. With a few exceptions, the overplayed radio hits remain tiresome. I have a vague memory of their live "Royal Albert Hall" album being strong, and I like their debut album and Cosmo's Factory, but everything in between was pretty plodding and dull overall.

Jim Croce: What a catalogue he might have produced had he lived. Some gigantic tunes.

The Cowsills: The hits still hit.

Bing Crosby: The birth of croon, but not the greatest in his field.

Crosby, Stills, and Nash (and Young): Great when they're good, forgettable when they're not.

Bobby Darin: I love his work, his young voice was one of the all-time greats for that kind of music. As his voice changed, he still used it well, but it was never as magical after the early 1960s.

Dave Cark / The Dave Clark Five: Business genius, funny drummer, some of the best British Invasion songs going. Mike Smith was a tremendously underrated rock & roll singer in his youth.

Deep Purple: Finally listened to the bulk of their peripheral catalogue. Several of their albums are essential for any library. Their early Mk I period is underrated heavy pop, before they found their signature sound. The iconic Mk II period is musically tremendous and lyrically abysmal, and Made In Japan still might be the greatest live album of all time. The Mk III period (and the Tommy Bolin years) weren't as bad as I anticipated, but didn't keep my attention either. The quality of the music seems unconnected to the quality of the album artwork.

Deep Purple solo projects: These range from forgettable to awful in almost every case. Some of Jon Lord's early works are nice to hear, but I love Jon Lord. Still don't understand the appeal of Tommy Bolin.

John Denver: I enjoyed his Rocky Mountain High album, but curiously his two greatest hits albums are painfully weak.

Delaney & Bonnie & Friends: Alright, I guess. Nothing special. Early shades of Clapton the boring.

Derek & the Dominoes: Sometimes very good.

••• 

This song came out in 2022 rather than 2023. Despite being familiar and a fan of Bill McClintock, I only discovered it a month ago. I've listened to it dozens of times and it might be the greatest mash-up ever made. Maybe even the best thing period.

••• 

No pithy ending for 2023. Be safe. Be well. Good luck going forward in 2024.

OZ

[firesofgoetia]

so this gets a little dark and im drafting it over time because i have a lot of thoughts but the adventure zone is one of the biggest things in my life so far

i discovered the adventure zone properly when i was in the mental hospital. it was only my second time and they were, like, 4 years apart and i was in a whole new state and environment and thought i knew what to expect but was horribly mistaken. i was dealing with psychosis at the time, so i got put in the "violent" unit unless/until i could earn being in a better unit (spoilers: they rlly didnt like transferring ppl dealing with psychosis out of the violent unit). due to this, the unit didn't have games, books, or what have you, we had to share what people had brought or had dropped off. my now-fiance offered to bring some stuff in, and in the collection of stuff were the TAZ graphic novels.

i must have read through those 6 or 7 times. i love D&D, i rarely got to play though, and various stuff makes reading hard, but i kept reading those books and they were easy enough for me to get through. when i got out, we picked up the 4th and 5th books and i started listening to the podcast.

i don't have great focus either, so i'd listen to TAZ while walking, heading to work, any time i could get my brain to focus on it basically. i'm (as of writing this) still only up to ep 47 (the eleventh hour arc), and it still means so much to me.

TAZ has made me laugh when i could barely get out of bed. taako's monologue on being a fully realized creation kind of helped me come to terms with some other stuff i was dealing with (like, i've got DID and sometimes it's really hard to see myself as a whole person, and as much as that's still a struggle, it kind of helped me process that i'm not just a fragment of my own imagination, i'm like. an entire person. even if i am a little fragmented lol). some of the times the boys get reassured or supported, it feels like i'm being supported, too, even though it wasn't directed at me. theyre all living and growing together and maybe im living vicariously through them or something but every time i listen, something hits me in just the right way to make me feel like maybe i'll be okay after all. i mean, if trés horny bois can make it through all that, surely i can survive this lol

i don't think i needed a hero. i didn't need some wild fantasy where theres someone who swoops in and saves the day with seemingly no problems. THB might be a trio of pretty powerful people, but they don't execute everything perfectly, especially not first-try. they're still people with their struggles and mishaps and even if they always manage to save the day, even if they're quite literally living in a magical fantasy world, it doesn't feel quite so unrealistic. i didn't need a perfect hero, i just needed some people i could relate to to really show me that it'll be okay, that i'll get through this even if i fuck up seven ways from sunday.

the adventure zone made me feel like things might be okay for the first time in a long time.

[avaliveradio]

The Best Indie Christmas Songs of 2022 Spotify Playlist

The Best Indie Christmas Songs of 2022 that will keep you warm and stress free this holiday Season. Listen on Spotify

AVA Live Radio is ranked in the top 5% most globally shared podcasts on Spotify and in the Top 10% Video Podcasts viewed on Spotify in 2022.

Make this Christmas more enjoyable, by giving yourself a stress free experience!

It's that time of the year again. The days are getting shorter, you're counting down the days to Christmas so you can spend some quality time with family and friends.

You know what Christmas is like; there's always so much to do! This year, why not make it easier on yourself? Plan ahead, set goals and make a list of tasks you need to complete. Get organized and you will be able to enjoy yourself more than ever before!

Here’s something to check off your list!!

Our playlist is filled with the most unique Indie Holiday songs to light up your season. Arranged from songs that lift your spirits to peaceful melodies and more traditional unique recordings. Use this playlist while you prepare your Holidays and then play it for your friends for a stress free enjoyable evening filled with hours of amazing chill vibe holiday music.

All these tracks have the most chilled out elegant vibes. Give yourself permission to relax (and enjoy) this festive season by looking after your physical and mental health first. For me that starts with music and lots of time decompressing.

Follow my list for updates until New Years... <spotify>

Featured Artists on this Playlist:

Cabela and Schmitt

Each year Cabela and Schmitt puts out some holiday music for those who enjoy the sounds of the season. Nicolas Essig from Los Angeles, CA and Robert Venable from Nashville, TN did the engineering work for the EP- ENJOY !!! Read more.. <here>

‘Christmas Bells are Ringing’ is an ongoing memory from year to year reminding us of happier days when Christmas time was about being good to one another, cheerful parties, thoughts of the true meaning of Christmas and giving from our hearts rather from our pocketbooks, leaving the commercialism in the future. As another season soon approaches our hope is that we can once again come together as loving human beings.

Little Baby Jesus is basically the traditional story of Jesus Christ the King of Kings being brought into this world through humbling surroundings and the glorious account of His birth. We felt as one being there as this all took place with visions of experiencing it when writing the song.

Camila Cabello - "I’ll Be Home For Christmas"

Camila Cabello released her Amazon Music cover of “I’ll Be Home For Christmas” on all platforms in 2022, calling it her “favorite Christmas song” on Instagram.

https://open.spotify.com/track/6SiKqI0vm3N5NBjdgM2V9m?si=049d60116f2d45d9

ANNA VEE - Feeling This Way

'Billlboard featured songwriter Anna Vee from Sweden has worked with well known artists throughout her career. ANNA VEE is releasing her soundtrack for the upcoming Hollywood movie ”A Miracle Before Christmas” starring x Destiny’s Childs member Letoya Lucket. The movie is released first on BET NETWORKS Dec 8th. Produced By: Steven Langs -Written By: Anna Vee & Steven Langs

During the summer of 2022 Anna started releasing songs from her upcoming debut album that will see the light of day beginning in 2023. On top of that she’s now also releasing a Christmas album where one of her songs will be in the Hollywood movie ”A Miracle Before Christmas”.

https://open.spotify.com/artist/13BaOOsXXt71qRAX69F9OO?si=uPfYpfrgSxSeViNsbG7nOA

Afro Neat - It's Christmas in Ukraine - Afro Beat Mix

The new release I am promoting is ‘It’s Christmas In Ukraine’, featuring Afro Neat, is a charity single with all proceeds going to UNICEF and The British Red Cross, for Ukraine.I wanted to do a Christmas song in a different genre and with different musicians so recorded this track in Kenya using brilliant Kenyan musicians, vocalists and Producer.

https://open.spotify.com/track/7IP4Qfye1hp3y8QjwBaEwP?si=de0ae55e51e84c19

Chord Overstreet - "Everybody Loves Christmas"

Glee alum Chord Overstreet sings about his favorite holiday traditions on “Everybody Loves Christmas,” released as part of the soundtrack for his new Netflix film with Lindsay Lohan, Falling For Christmas. I have been writing songs since 1966 and have been releasing music independently for over 40 years.I write and release songs in different genres, mainly Country and Pop/Electronica, and now Afro beat/pop and release it on my own record label and my music gets played all over the world and have had several songs in the World Independent Chart in the past.

https://open.spotify.com/track/4Gq6cezJ21QZZ8EJHRN2JL?si=240529ea2bd44dc9

The Dangaleros - Xmas Morning Beer

"This song will grow on you if you dig Roots Rock 'n Roll and can’t hack holiday music ... and family gatherings lol 🤠🌵🛸" The 2022 Christmas holiday season is coming in hot and for some, can be more haunting than Halloween.  Especially for the jefe of the Dangaleros - Rance Lane - who grew up in a house full of know-it-all attorneys and professional bickerers.  And so to ease into Christmas morning, he’d crack open a beer at sunrise to help muster the strength to boldly endure this arduous traditional winter’s day of condemnation . . . that never seemed to end.  The DANGALEROS are a "Wreck ‘n Roll" band formed along the US-MEXICO border in 2017. They are feral drifters from both sides of the US-Mexico Border; who on special occasion honor a Cease-Fire to perform their unique brand of Western Funk Punk Surfabilly.

https://open.spotify.com/track/5AZzGiCaXw39gGYNQ6w9RL?si=75d0cfff41f44f41

Johnny Stuart - Deck The Halls (Fah Wah Wah)

Johnny Stuart is a singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist based in Tucson, Arizona. He has played hundreds of shows since starting his professional music career at age 15 in Upstate New York. 

Johnny’s love of music was handed down from his father Billy Stuart (professional vocalist and guitarist) and his grandfather Jan Stuart (professional clarinet player, sax player and swing-era bandleader). While his primary instrument is the guitar, Johnny also plays and occasionally gigs on the bass guitar, and he loves to use his mandolin and banjo in the studio. 

https://open.spotify.com/track/0YutXS6Nc36OPbmJSKlrwo?si=a0301f8c96264b6b

Brothers of Song -Giving It Up For Hanukkah

Hey there , this might be a bit outside your usual shares but I thought an original upbeat Hanukkah song might add a bit of diversity to your Holiday playlists ? An original Hanukkah song to inspire young listener's to celebrate the magic of the season,

https://open.spotify.com/track/6v3btdjcbLtMjBwYsiWa7E?si=3caf610ff8c045dc

Mick J. Clark - It's Getting Near Christmas

‘It's Getting Near Christmas’ by Mick J. Clark Captures the Busy Holiday rush as Christmas approaches.

https://open.spotify.com/track/01sMr37ROWrbS71BJvfNpy?si=3b17b69f4f544580

Mollie Rainwater - Winter Wonderland (Mollie Rainwater Cover)

The soft piano and strings come in beautifully. I am an artist who focuses closely on the meaning behind lyrics and how music can support a concept! My typical music contains a mellow folk sound with a lead acoustic guitar and occasional piano!

https://open.spotify.com/track/3QVeUvPJCNhAoQAeqxBr0B?si=7ac855884d5146f4

[no-reply95]

I was scrolling through the Beatles topic on Twitter the other day and came across a tweet from Mark Lewisohn referring to a talk he’d given to the Fab4cast podcast on the Get Back sessions and Spring period of 1969. I assumed that it was a recent talk so I gave it a listen but the talk is actually from 2019.

I tend to find Lewisohn’s podcast interviews to be very interesting. He’s obviously got decades worth of Beatle knowledge stored up so you’re almost guaranteed to learn something new or hear an anecdote that you’ve never heard before but more than the factoids he’s accumulated over the years I find his interpretations of the band extremely telling.

The part of the conversation that really caught my attention was when the podcast hosts brought up the fact that John and Paul’s weddings were really close together and wondered if the two events were connected in any way, I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that this probably got the biggest reaction out of Lewisohn, the main points of the exchange are outlined below (time stamp 47:12)

Host: “Well also in this period there are two events, the marriages of John and Paul, within 8 days of each other… I read that John wanted to marry on the 14th, two days after Paul’s wedding but couldn’t do it because of legal issues, how much was his [marriage] a response to Paul’s marriage do you think?”

Lewisohn: “I’ve read that people say that it was but never heard John say that it was so there’s no validity to those claims they’re just people assuming that John didn’t want to be outdone by Paul… that’s the kind of writing that annoys me because it becomes part of the fact and it’s some writer thinking that’s what it probably was… Unless someone out there can find a Lennon quote in which he actually says it in which case I stand corrected and I’ll be very happy to do so”

There’s a lot going on in these quotes so I’m gonna break down my thoughts on this further:

The illusion of John’s honesty

What Lewisohn displays here is something I believe is pretty common within the Beatles’ authorship. I believe in Revolution In The Head Ian McDonald referred to John as “truth” and Paul as “beauty” and I think a lot of writers do tend to assign those attributes consistently to John and Paul. Reading (or listening) to the Lennon Remembers interview now, it’s hard to believe at one stage people took what John was saying as fact and never even questioned whether there were emotions or agenda behind what he was saying, despite the contradictions (“Me and Paul stopped writing together in 1962” vs “Me and Paul worked really closely together on Sgt. Pepper”) and because John was so charismatic and would speak openly in interviews and to people he knew about both the good and bad in his life I think people, and in this case Lewisohn, assume that John told us everything of note that happened in his life, which I don’t think is a realistic expectation of anyone, let alone someone as famous as John. I think it’s problematic to take John’s or anyone else’s words, especially when they’re said in public, as the gospel truth because everyone has an agenda and John was no different. I also think it’s unrealistic to believe that John would ever announce that the reason he and Yoko got married when they did was in any way connected to Paul, that would have sullied the sanctity of “John and Yoko TM”, I mean, how can you be the greatest love story ever if the reason you decided to get married was because your musical partner who you may have unresolved romantic feelings for got married? I don’t think John would publicly embarrass Yoko like that or risk undermining the strength of the brand he was trying to create with his new relationship by admitting that Paul’s marriage spurred them on. That Lewisohn is apparently holding out for a lost interview of John stating that Paul was involved in the timing of his marriage to Yoko just sounds pretty far fetched to me.

The timing of John’s wedding in relation to his and Yoko’s divorces

As discussed in this podcast, Paul and Linda got married (pretty unexpectedly I believe) on 12 March 1969 and John and Yoko got married 8 days later (and apparently they wanted it to be sooner) on 20 March 1969. Aside from the extremely close proximity of John and Paul’s weddings it should be noted that John’s divorce from Cynthia was finalised in November 1968 and Yoko’s from Tony Cox was finalised in January 1969.

So why am I bringing up John and Yoko’s divorces? Because it meant that they were free to marry each other from January 1969, there was no longer a legal issue preventing them and if John’s bursting out in song about it, you would assume that they would have started planning their wedding ASAP… but curiously they didn’t. How do we know John and Yoko weren’t planning a wedding before Paul married Linda? Because once Paul was married John and Yoko started scrambling to get married ASAP, suddenly there was a rush and need to be married that hadn’t existed before, John suddenly wanted to marry Yoko on a ferry but they couldn’t be married there, then John wanted to marry Yoko in Paris but they needed to be resident in Paris for a period of time before they could get married there so eventually they settled on Gibraltar as they could get married there at short notice. Clearly there was a sudden need for John and Yoko to get married that didn’t materialise until around March 1969, am I and countless other people (including Paul himself) crazy for assuming that Paul’s wedding impacted John’s sudden desperate need to be married? If it wasn’t Paul’s wedding, what was it?

Authorial interpretation and assumptions

I’m really fascinated by the visceral reaction Lewisohn had to just the suggestion that the timing of John and Yoko’s wedding was connected to Paul and Linda’s. For Lewisohn to state it annoys him was pretty shocking to me because, given what is publicly known about this period and the lack of any other logical reason for John and Yoko’s wedding to be so close to Paul’s and Linda’s, I don’t think it’s bad writing to point out the proximity and suggest that the timing was more than a coincidence.

Based on his reaction, you would assume that Lewisohn would be set against any form of interpretation where the principal in question hadn’t confirmed that the interpretation was in fact correct but that would be an incorrect assumption to make. Some of you may be aware of the Hornsey Road shows Mark Lewisohn was giving in 2019 around the 50th anniversary of Abbey Road. During these shows Lewisohn played a clip from the, now infamous, 4-4-4-2 meeting tape and gave a presentation on the Abbey Road period in the Beatles’ history. One of the points Lewisohn raised during the show was that during the sessions, after the car accident in Scotland, a bed was brought into the studio for Yoko so she (and sometimes John) could rest while work on the album progressed. According to Lewisohn, one morning they turned up to the studio and someone had removed one of the legs from the bed, leaving it with 3 legs *dramatic pause* which was him heavily hinting that he thought Paul broke Yoko’s bed on purpose and then bragged about it on the Ram album by including a song called 3 legs, I’m not going to go into the validity (or lack thereof) of this claim but I find it very interesting that Lewisohn was annoyed about authors suggesting that the timing of John and Yoko’s wedding was connected to Paul and Linda’s but he seems happy to publicly speculate that Paul was sabotaging Yoko’s bed in the studio based on the title of a song that he would release on Ram two years later and nothing else.

Is there any evidence that connects John’s wedding to Paul’s?

I’ve already outlined the suspiciousness of John and Yoko choosing to get married right after Paul, when they had been free to marry for weeks prior but is there any other evidence that either proves that the weddings were connected or is Lewisohn right to deem that suggestion as lacking in validity?

Interestingly there actually is unverified eyewitness testimony that does connect John and Paul’s weddings (something not mentioned by Lewisohn in this podcast). I believe there’s an anecdote from Les Anthony (John’s chauffeur at the time) about him driving John and Yoko around when news of Paul’s wedding suddenly came across the radio, to which John apparently said to Yoko that “we have to get married now”… I couldn’t track down the exact source for that story (if anyone knows the source please let me know) so I’m not sure how credible that anecdote is but, assuming it is accurate, then that would suggest a correlation between John and Paul’s weddings that Lewisohn is adamant doesn’t exist.

Why does this matter?

I do think that this podcast interview could be indicative of a few future concerns I personally have around the way the Beatles discourse will progress in the future. Firstly, this was only a podcast interview so it’s unlikely that when Lewisohn releases the final book in his trilogy that he’ll discuss the weddings in this manner (I.e. although he’s adamant the timing of John’s wedding had nothing to with Paul he failed to offer any sort of explanation regarding why John and Yoko were rushing to get married when they’d had weeks to prepare a wedding).

It’s a slight worry that Lewisohn seems to believe that John announced every single thing that happened in his life of note, especially concerning Paul and Yoko. If John had told us everything of interest about him, surely his Dakota diaries would be the basis of a Netflix series by now and not locked away in a vault (assuming they haven’t already been destroyed). To me, like several authors before him, Lewisohn seems to be mistaking John’s emotional honesty with factual honesty. It didn’t escape my attention that several clips of the Lennon Remembers interview were inserted into this podcast and Lewisohn quotes extensively from it in Tune In as well. There’s nothing wrong with using Lennon Remembers as a source but if you do use it you should be analysing the veracity of what was said as we know that John was in a torched earth mentality at that time and even he himself has said what he said in that interview wasn’t meant as a timeless manifesto. It’s a shame that given his ability of analyse sources Lewisohn has never (to my knowledge) critically analysed Lennon Remembers, given that other sources have been analysed this makes LR a strange omission.

Finally, Lewisohn does tend to make some good insights and does have the ability to read between the lines (I.e. him noting Paul’s tendency to say “we” when in most cases he means himself) but with John I do think he has a bit of a blindspot. Why Lewisohn is happy to speculate without evidence in some cases (3 legs) but he draws the line at the suggestion that John and Paul’s weddings being connected is anyone’s guess. If Lewisohn can turn his attention to reading between the lines with John and the other Beatles too and connecting the dots then we should get a Beatles biography that finally addresses a lot of the issues we cover on this site. However, if we take the approach of only using John and Yoko’s PR to understand the events that transpired before and after the band broke up then the story hasn’t moved much further than 1970 and given all that we know now I think that would be a huge shame.