#or Porridge on tape

[diabhalin]

and we still dont talk about ewan mcgregor war pigeon movie

[trevlad-sounds]

The Village Balloon

Released 26.04.2023

Gilroy Mere-The Age of the Train Alex Tyson-AQUACRUSH Pearl & The Oysters-Paraiso The Twelve Hour Foundation-Square One Sara Berts-Mayflies Binaural Space-RTWSF Suite Movement 3 Digitonal-Sphericals Joseph Shabason-Balloon Round The JWA-Dayglo Moonbeams, Pt. 2 Scanner-The Village Movement ybot-smoke Vague Imaginaires-Space Birthday Ajukaja-Sunda School 2 Sababa 5-Keyf Felix Laband-Minka Mary Yalex-Epic Room Two Bob Marley & The Wailers, Chineke! Orchestra- Is This Love David Boulter-Across Sea to Sand - Crab Claws

[whumpy-daydreams]

Purpose

Masterlist

Previous Next

CW: captive whump, light non-sexual noncon

Olive woke up feeling slightly sick. Doubt began to form in her mind as to whether she had done the right thing by complying with Mr Camberton’s rules.

She had spent the previous afternoon going over the rules, trying to commit them to memory, pretending it was for a school test. Or what she imagined a school test to be. Growing up in the circus didn’t leave much time for exams.

A knock on the door had her scrambling out of bed. Grim as ever, Ms Carter held out a pile of clothes.

“Shower and get dressed. Breakfast in half an hour.”

Good morning to you too. Olive took the pile of clothes wordlessly, bobbing in a small curtsy before heading for the tiny bathroom. She showered quickly, wanting to spend as little time naked in the house as possible, towel drying her hair before getting changed.

Another dress, this time in a deep red colour. And tight fitting. Not in a scandalous way - but it wasn’t exactly modest. Olive had worn plenty of revealing clothes before, it came with the job, but for some reason this felt different. More… exposing.

Another knock on the door revealed a servant she hadn’t seen before. The girl didn’t talk as she motioned Olive to sit at the vanity by the window, pulling out a bag of makeup and hair products. She made quick work of her, pulling her hair up into a simple but elegant updo, only using the smallest amounts of makeup to hide the dark circles under her eyes, a little mascara and tinted lip balm to finish the look.

Olive hardly recognised herself in the mirror. The young woman staring back at her was too refined, too polished. She still had no idea why she was here, what Mr Camberton wanted her for. A doll perhaps? Something to look pretty and parade around? But he was rich, surely it wouldn’t be difficult for him to find some social climber to do what he wanted?

It turned out the servants ate breakfast in silence, sat round a large kitchen table making as little eye contact as possible. The food was good, though. Not five stars by any means, but as porridge went it was flavourful and filling.

Too soon it was over. Olive had hoped she’d get the day to herself, even if all that meant was to sit in her room with nothing to do. Instead Ms Carter led her upstairs, into the main house. Mr Camberton was waiting inside a large living room, talking quietly to another man. Olive curtseyed deeply to both of them.

“Ah, Olive.” Mr Camberton smiled, gesturing for her to come closer. “This is my tailor, he’s here to take your measurements so I can furnish you with a proper wardrobe.” He paused as if waiting for Olive to do something.

“Thank you, sir.” His jaw tightened and Olive flinched internally, suddenly subconscious of the red lines still visible from the previous day’s… training.

“Remove your dress.” Ah. So that’s what she was meant to do.

Olive only hesitated for a moment before starting to pull it over her head. The air was warm, warm enough she didn’t need a jumper, but goosebumps pickled on her arms anyway. She hoped she hadn’t gone red.

The tailor was mercilessly professional. He didn’t speak, directing her with only the smallest of nudges, only his tape measure touching her for more than a second. 

The only intrusive thing was Mr Camberton’s eyes. He watched her with a predator’s gaze, never straying, scrutinising every inch of her. When the tailor was finished, Olive reached for the dress, discarded on a sofa armrest.

“Wait.” It was all the command he needed to give for Olive to stop moving, shoulders tense as she looked at the floor. Mr Camberton turned to the tailor. “Thank you, you may leave.”

The tailor made a small bow, remaining silent as he gathered his things and left. Olive resisted the urge to beg him to stay.

Mr Camberton turned his attention back to Olive. He walked around her in a circle, never touching her, though she could feel his intense stare even when he was out of view.

“You were marketed as a contortionist. I assume your previous mistress wasn’t lying?”

“No, sir.”

“Show me.”

Olive thought for a moment, considering what performance she should do. She bent backwards until her head was between her knees, arms extended to the side as she lowered herself to the ground. The movements felt comforting - a routine she had practised so often it was pure muscle memory.

“You wish to know why you’re here?” A rhetorical question. “You are here as an exhibition. An exotic display for me to use as I wish.” Olive continued bending herself into graceful knots. “You will perform for me, of course, but also for my acquaintances. I will provide a room for you to practise in, which you will do every day, and I will help choreograph performances for events. Stand up.”

Olive did so, unravelling herself from the last position easily. Mr Camberton stepped forward. His fingers were cold as they held her jaw, forcing her to meet his eyes.

“You are a piece of art for me to curate. And you should know I do not like flaws in my possessions. Do not forget that.” He studied her for a minute, eyes flicking across her face before he let go. “Get dressed. Ms Carter will show you to your practise room.”

And with that he left, Olive dropping into a curtsey he did not acknowledge.

So she was here to perform. She could do that. It was a strange predicament: a private performer who received no pay, but it wasn’t much different from her previous job. And perhaps… perhaps if she was clever she could find a way to escape.

[akesdraws-blog]

Unexpected Help

You will see a lot of soft, sweet, comical shorts with probably many spelling mistakes. Warning: None •°~•°~°•~°•~°•~°•~°•~°•~°•~°•

After the turtles' patrols as well as their countless confrontations with criminals, let's say that the turtles have become more and more prone to wounds, injuries and more every day. Their last and most dangerous mission ended up resulting in them having to hide in the nearest place, which happened to be a Veterinary Clinic. Donnie could at least grab maybe one or two supplies so he could treat her brothers' wounds. But let's say the injuries turned off their ninja mode.

R. -Just look for tape and let's go- Y/N. -If you are going to treat that shell you will need to remove the damaged tissue and an antibiotic ointment-

None of the turtles noticed the fact that an individual was staring at the wound on the huge shell as if it were nothing. Honestly, their first meeting was a bit blurry in their heads, they were only certain that they had been helped by a veterinarian, although they were also scolded. They hadn't even been able to leave because of that vet's instructions, but it was probably more than anything because of the anesthesia that had their heads in the clouds.

The turtles stayed in place for a few days. In which they were thoroughly treated and deprived of any type of junk food, especially pizza. (A suffering for everyone) At first it was difficult to start eating a strange porridge that a stranger gave them. But after Donnie watched how you prepared it and you explained the benefits of it, it was easier for everyone to eat it. (But none of them liked the taste)

The turtles could only watch that little human walk from one end of the room to the other as he changed bandages, cleaned wounds, even fed each turtle, and sometimes even dragged them to a corner so they could get some sunlight. of a special lamp. (Which Mikey certainly loved)

The most difficult time was cleaning time, needless to say they constantly refused, but after hearing the consequences of poor hygiene for the wounds and shell, they agreed at the end of it all.

° Raph was the hardest to clean up as he constantly complained about how slow you were at cleaning him up. (Prefers water at natural temperature) ° Mikey felt like a King, and he always insisted that he still felt dirt on his shell. (He likes warm water) ° Donnie was the most talkative, although he made a mental note of what you did so he could do it himself in the future. (Prefers cold water) ° Leo is the easiest to clean, once he accepts he puts himself in a position where it is easier for you to clean him. (Prefers hot water)

Once the four turtles' shells were almost completely healed, and his wounds had closed enough to leave. There was only one thing left to do.

L. -We appreciate that you have helped and cared for us during this time- D. -But, we would like to ask you please not to talk about us- Y/N. -Are you talking about how I treated four giant turtles with ninja weapons? No problem.- R. -How are we sure that he won't give us away?- M. -Well, he cured us, I don't know about you, but I felt like a vacation, except for the porridge he fed us- L. -What my brother means is… How can we trust your word?- Y/N. -Veterinarians use our knowledge and skills to protect the health of animals, alleviating their suffering, and not to harm them… I won't say anything, but it's better for everyone to come regularly for a general health check-up.

Needless to say, after that unexpected help. The four turtles regularly visited the veterinary clinic. But someone always ended up being scolded.

[howieabel]

"One evening Ilyich (Lenin) wanted to see for himself how the young people were getting on in the communes. We decided to visit our young friend Varya Armand who lived in a commune for art school students. I think that we made the visit on the day Kropotkin was buried, in 1921. It was a hungry year, but the young people were filled with enthusiasm. The people in the commune slept practically on bare boards, they had neither bread nor salt. "But we do have cereals," said a radiantfaced member of the commune. With this cereal they boiled a good porridge for Ilyich. Ilyich looked at the young people, at the radiant faces of the boys and girls who crowded around him, and their joy was reflected in his face. They showed him their naive drawings, explained their meaning. and bombarded him with questions. And he, smiling, evaded answering and parried by asking questions of his own: "What do you read? Do you read Pushkin?" -- "Oh, no," said someone, "after all he was a bourgeois; we read Mayakovsky." Ilyich smiled. "I think," he said, "that Pushkin is better." After this Ilyich took a more favourable view of Mayakovsky. Whenever the poet's name was mentioned he recalled the young art students who, full of life and gladness, and ready to die for the Soviet system, were unable to find words in the contemporary language with which to express themselves, and sought the answer in the obscure verse of Mayakovsky. Later, however, Ilyich once praised Mayakovsky for the verse in which he ridiculed Soviet red tape."

Nadezhda Krupskaya ["Reminiscences of Lenin by His Relatives" (1956)

[i-eat-worlds]

The Subject Part 8

After the flashback of last week, this one is pretty sweet. CW: pet whump, medical whump (gentle wound cleaning), self dehumanization, hospital setting, character with stutter

B127 sat curled up on the bed, legs pulled in tight. The warm, porridge was still in his stomach, lling him much more than he could ever remember lled. The clean hospital gown was still soft against his skin. He had never experienced something like this before, and it was all too much. What would he have to do to deserve this? Liam, the nurse, had said that Dr. Brenner would visit him soon. So until the doctor came in, B127 lay curled up on the sheets, appreciating the food in his stomach, the gift of clothing, and the luxury of the bed. “Good Morning, B127.” B127 watched as Dr. Brenner entered the room. If his left arm, he carried a file. He sat down on the rolling stool by the side of the bed. “How are you?”

Right, he was allowed to talk. “V…very good, doctor. It is th…thankful for the luxuries.”

“You’re welcome.” Dr. Brenner gave a kind smile. “So, I’m going to talk about what going to happen, okay? I don’t want there to be any surprises.” B127 nodded. He finally got to know why he was getting these luxuries. “So I’m going to check you over again, then I’m going to ask you some questions. You understand?” The doctor pulled on a pair of bright blue gloves.

“Y…yes, doctor, It understands.” That didn’t sound so bad. Maybe Dr. Brenner would find a way to make it hurt. He was a subject, after all, he deserved to be in pain.

“Good.” B127 could feel the warmth growing through her at the word. “Is it okay if I pull down your gown?”

B127 didn’t understand why Dr. Brenner was asking. Maybe it was a test. “Yes, d…doctor. You can do wh…whatever you want with it. Its body does not b…belong to it.”

Dr. Brenner scooted closer. He slowly pulled B127’s gown down, revealing the bandage that covered the incision site. “Does it hurt or feel weird?” The doctor asked as he started to peel the tape away from his skin.

“A th…three, doctor,” B127 recalled the pain sensitivity training that he had gone through at the training center. The subjects experienced each step on the scale so they could accurately answer the researchers’ questions.

“Okay, I’ll put in an order to get you some pain medication.” Dr. Brenner said as he looked over the wound. “Your wound is healing nicely. I’m going to put some cream on it to prevent scarring, and then I’ll rebandage it.”

B127 braced for the pain that someone touching his wound would bring, but Dr. Brenner was surprisingly gentle as he rubbed the cream over the stitching and covered the wound with another fresh bandage. Another one! He’d been gifted three bandages in less than twenty-four hours. After that was done, the doctor had pulled his gown back up over his shoulder, tossed his gloves into the trash can, and started asking questions.

The first couple had been easy. Dr. Brenner had asked for his identication number, his height and weight (those numbers might have changed, but the doctor didn’t seem to care), blood type, and some questions about past experiments. These were all standard fare. But the next one wasn’t.

“Do you know where you are?”

The question made B127 nervous. He didn’t know he was supposed to care. All labs were the same anyway. He gave the best answer he could. “It’s s…serving humanity by advancing science for the g…greater good.” A nice trained response, that the doctor should have been happy to hear.

Instead, his eyebrows furrowed, and a look spread across his face. “Did nobody tell you?” B127 was confused. It was a subject. A useless rat. It didn’t need to know. “B127, you’re at a recovery center. You’re done-your five years are over.”

What was a recovery center? B127 remembered those words vaguely from training, but it felt like so long ago, and he didn’t know what they meant. Was he supposed to? What about those five years? What did that even mean? “It is s…sorry. It doesn’t understand, d…doctor.” B127 confessed, hoping that Dr. Brenner would just explain to him. “Okay, I’ll explain.” B127 nodded, tears brimming in his eyes. “This place isn’t going to be like any of the other labs you’ve been in. We are not going to hurt you. I am not going to hurt you, do you understand?”

“It will not be h…hurt, doctor?” B127 tilted his head to the side. Was Dr. Brenner serious?

He nodded. “You won’t be hurt. Also, you will always have food, clothing, and comfort, yeah?” Dr. Brenner shifted in his chair. “We won’t punish you. You can talk whenever you’d like, and you can ask for help at any time. You don’t ever have to go back to a lab, you aren’t being hurt again, not anymore”

B127 was blown away. He never had to be in a lab again? Was it really over? We’re all the privileges that Dr. Brenner had said he would get real? “Th…thank you, doctor. It th..thanks you for all the privileges you have g…granted it.”

“You’re welcome, B127.” Dr. Brenner's facial expression lightened a little bit. “Now the last thing we are going to do right now is get you a name.”

B127 dropped his jaw. “Th…thank you, doctor!” Did the doctor say he would get a name? Didn’t rats like him not deserve names? Maybe those were just lab rules. This place was different , right?

“So I’ve got a couple of names already prepared, but do you have one that you want to be called already?” Dr. Brenner pulled a piece of paper from the file as he talked.

“It likes wh…what you ch…choose, doctor.” B127 tried to keep himself contained. Doctors didn’t like when subjects showed emotion like this, but he was excited.

“Okay.” Dr. Brenner placed the piece of paper on the bed so B127 could also see it. On it was typed three words. Names, B127 realized. He didn’t remember how he knew what they said, nor where he learned it, but he remembered what they meant. The doctor pointed to each word in turn. “Archer, Beau, and Casey. Which one do you want?”

B127 looked at the squiggly black lines on the paper that he somehow understood. He thought the second one was funny. B-E-A-U did not look like it was pronounced “bow,” but he kind of liked it. He liked how it looked. He liked how it sounded. Slowly, B127 placed his nger on the name, claiming it has his. “Beau, doctor.” He said, his voice free of stutter for once.

“Okay, Beau,” Dr. Brenner smiled a little bit, “That’s what you get.”

Taglist: @stabby-nunchucks @rainbows-and-whumperflies @wolfeyedwitch @pigeonwhumps

[winged-unicorn-trash-can]

[M4F] Ill Met by Moonlight - Part Two  [M4A] [Fantasy-themed roleplay] [Drama] [Romance] [Inner-monologue] [Reverse Care]

Storyline- After the witch, Lucas, had found his sacrifice, he puts her to rest, and then he himself goes to sleep. After all, there are now only a few days left until the new moon and the night of the ritual. After a strange dream, Lucas awakes to find the Listener in good spirits and their leg nearly healed. Which was odd because Lucas had yet to fully heal that leg. As the two talk over breakfast, the Witch begins to worry if he can keep his little bird still in her cage.

Part One

Rules:

[ Not a rule, but I apologize in advance for any spelling mistakes you may find ]  

-Give credit to me, please, and thank you (Mystic Grove Audio)

-This script is free to use for monetization

-You can improvise and add things if you wish, like if you like a script but it seems to be tailored to a certain gender: change it so it fits what you like! But please, still give credit

-You can share the script outside of Archive, but again, please give credit

-If you make an audio/video, send me a link! I would love to see your work!

-Have Fun!

-------------------

[ There is a calm and soft wind blowing by; it's a spring morning, and the birds are singing off in the design. Someone is brushing Lucas's hair and humming ]

Lucas: [ In a soft tone, not sad but a little disappointed ] This is a dream… isn't it

Beloved: [ A little giggle ] Yes, I am afraid so. Are you disappointed?

Lucas: [ Deep sigh ] No…When I see your face, how can I be?

Beloved: Good, [ She leans down and kisses his head ] then let this dream continue in sweet bliss~

Lucas: For now, but it won't be a dream for long; I promise you

Beloved: [ Her tone of voice is soft but worried ] Lucas…please don't

Lucas: [ Nerves laugh ] What? What are you talking about?

Beloved: This ritual of yours, don't do it…please…

Lucas: But I'm doing it for you, for us. No longer will you haunt me in dreams, but you will be by my side, in flesh and blood!

Beloved: [Sad and worried] Lucas, please…

Lucas: It will be just like the days before [Pause, then said softer] before I lost you! We will be happy!

Beloved: [Angry sounding] Lucas!

[Beloved's voice is drowned out as there is a clap of thunder, startling Lucas awake]

-------

[If you don't wish to do or don't have any extra voices, here is an alternative way to open the audio]

-The alternative opening starts here-

[A soft, forest-like soundscape, bubbling brook and birds singing. That fades out as a thunderstorm rolls in. Then, a very loud crack of thunder startled Lucas awake. ] 

-The alternative opening ends here-

--------

Lucas: [Frantic] My Love!!

[There is a storm outside Lucas's cottage. The Cat meows in response]

Lucas: [Confused] That…that cat from before? [Takes a deep breath] How on earth did you get in here, my friend?

[Cat meows and hops off the bed; Lucas follows them into the kitchen where Listener is cooking]

Lucas: [Slightly surprised] My-my dear? What on earth are you doing up? You-You should be resting that leg of yours.

Lucas: [To himself] Her leg healed faster than I thought…I was sure I didn't focus on the healing spell that long-

[Lucas's stomach growls]

Lucas: [Slightly embarrassed] Ah! Forgive me...might I know what it is that you are making? It smells wonderful!

[Listener answers, they are making pancakes]

Lucas: Pancakes? [Surprise chuckle] Well, that is something I haven't had in many years; I tend to make simpler things for breakfast, porridge, and the like.

[More kitchen noise, the kitchen utensils taping on plates as pancakes are transferred onto a plate]

Lucas: Well, they look wonderful-

[Lucas gets cut off as Listener lightly smacks his hand away from the plate]

Lucas: [Caught off guard] Wh-what was that for? I thought you were done?

[Listener speaks]

Lucas: [Being shooed off] Okay, okay, I'll go sit down! [Slightly playful] Forgive me, my dear. I didn't take you for the bossy type.

[Kitchen sounds]

Lucas: [Inner thoughts] Something strange is at play here [Pause] That spell was only to ease the pain, but she still has a limp, so perhaps-[Cut off]

[Cat meows]

Lucas: [Annoyed 'Tsk]

Lucas: [Clearing his throat] My dear, how are you feeling? How is your leg?

[Listener speaks]

Lucas: Still sore, I see, Well! Then allow me to make you an herbal blend! Something that will help.

Lucas: [Inner thoughts] And something that should put you right back into that bed! I will not have you escape my grasp, not when the ritual night is close!

[Lucas gets up and walks over to his glass containers. Glass being moved around]

Lucas: [Under his breath] Damn it!

[Listener speaks]

Lucas: What? No-no, it's nothing. I just need to go out into the garden and restock a few herbs for that blend.

[Listener speaks]

Lucas: Ah, don't worry, my dear, the rain won't cause me to melt! [Short Laugh] I will be fine!

[Lucas walks, opens a door to the stormy outside, and walks out into the garden.]

Lucas: [Mumbling, annoyed]

[Rustling of plants, sudden thunderclap, and strike of lightning on a tree. A Branch falls onto Lucas]

Lucas: [Cry of pain] Ah!

[Ringing ears and the rest of the sounds have been muffled for a moment]

[Listener comes running out of the house]

Lucas: [Struggling a little] N-no, I am fine, just go back into the cottage- [Sharp intake] Ah! My-my damn shoulder!

[Listener tries to help]

Lucas: I said I was fine! I don't need help with my- [Angry] Don't touch me!! Get away from me! Go!

[Lucas shoves Listener and is trying to get to his feet, only to stumble and fall again]

Lucas: [Frustrated] Ah! Damn it!!

[Pause]

Lucas: [Bitter] I told you to leave me…

[Listener helps Lucas to his feet and leads him back into the cottage. Sitting him down on a chair, the fire sounding a little louder]

Lucas: What is that smell- [Shocked] The fire!

[Listener quickly runs over, trying to put the fire out, which they succeed in]

Lucas: [Bitter] What beautiful blessings the sprites give me! First, my shoulder, and now you almost burn my house down!

Lucas: [Sharp intake of air] N-no, I don't think it's broken.

[Shirt being removed]

Lucas: Wh-what are you doing?! I can remove my own shirt!

Lucas: [Grunting in pain, struggling with the Shirt] S-see?! [Letting out a gasp] Alright [Pause], fine, could you…please help…

[Shirt removed]

Lucas: [Grunt in pain] Y-yes, that doesn't look good-Ahh! Don't touch it!

[Footsteps]

Lucas: Where are you going?

[Glass containers being moved]

Lucas: [Taken aback] Well, yes, arnica and moon moss do work well with swelling

[Water being poured, and a wooden bowl is scraped, then the paste is applied to Lucas's shoulder]

Lucas: [Wince] N-no, you are being gentle. I just didn't realize how cold moon moss could be.

[Listener whispers something]

Lucas: [Surprises] What did you say?

[Listener says nothing, walking away]

Lucas: [Inner thought] That was most definitely a-[Cut himself off] No, no, that's not possible. No mortal would dare utter something like that, especially a child of a Witch Hunter. And yet…

Lucas: [Taking a sigh] Tell me, where did you learn about moon moss? It's not a common herb used by most mort-[Clearing throat] by most people. I once heard the Council call it the "Devil's Tears."

[Listener speaks]

Lucas: A friend? Keeping odd company, I see [Chuckle]

[Listener frowns]

Lucas: W-wait! I meant no offenses. I'm [Pause and sigh] sorry, I am sorry for many things. My actions towards you have been very uncalled for. I had no right to shove you like that or..or yell at you. And I am sorry my own brashness caused you to burn that wonderful breakfast.

[Plate being placed on the table]

Lucas: You say it's still salvageable? My dear, I say this with as much respect as I can muster. It looks like dragon droppings.

[Pause, before laughter]

Lucas: [Laughing] No? Then, by all means, why not take a bite?

[Pause, before crunchy chewing]

Lucas: [Playful] My dear, it looks like you are trying to swallow gravel. It hurts too much to watch, please. Stop.

Lucas: I can see that smile; you know I'm right

[Listener speaks]

Lucas: No, no, please don't apologize. It's quite alright. Here, let me check in the- [Tries to stand up, only wince in pain] Ah! Turned too quickly on that one.

[Listener speaks]

Lucas: I was trying to get up and see if I still had my jar of dried fruits in the pantry.

[Listener walks to the pantry and opens the door]

Lucas: My dear, please, let me look for them. I am the one who should be looking after you, not the other way around.

[Listener says they don't mind]

Lucas: Well, if you insist.

[Listener walks back over and opens the jar]

Lucas: [Deep breath] Ah, apricots, I haven't had these in ages, in fact [Pause, softly] I think this the last jar they made [Trail off]

[Listener asks if "they" was the one that used to go to the festival with]

Lucas: [Softly] Yes…they were the ones I used to go to the festival with [Pause], the one that isn't around anymore. Yes.

[Listener asks if they are dead]

Lucas: [Getting a little more upset] Yes, they died

[Listener asks how]

Lucas: [Upset] What are you?! A Red Inquisitor?! What business of yours to pry and pry!!?

[Listener apologizes, and saying they understand]

Lucas: No! No, you don't understand! You understand nothing!! [Braking down] You don't know what it's like to be helpless! You don't know what it's like to be afraid! To return to a pile of ash that was the home you had built together! To see…to see a corpse so bloated as it hangs in the tree that you can't even recognize those eyes you fell in love with! You understand nothing!

[Getting to his feet, wincing in pain]

Lucas: [Inner thought] But you will. I'll make you understand!

[Walking into another room, slamming the door, leaving Listener alone]

End of Part 2

[amethysts-angel214]

I found 2 more canceled Stain episodes

WELL, LET'S EXPLORE THEM, SHALL WE?

(I had an idea of Stain finding a camera, but it was just him taking pictures)

"Video Camera"

Stain picks up a video camera. He turns the video and looks into the lens as Stain walks around the junk street. Seeing this, the baby (who has grown up a bit) relentlessly chases Stain and stands in front of the camera in his place.

The baby was interfering too much with the filming, so Stain took his place, and the baby grabbed the video camera and headed towards the monkey. A menacing Fukuro monkey. But the baby's getting closer and closer. Stain saves the baby from a monkey trying to scratch her.

While Stain is being scratched, the baby turns to Palvan, who was lying on his back. She pries his mouth open and starts thrusting the camera into it. A baby puts his head inside Palvan's mouth. Palvan wakes up, grumpily pulls the baby out of his mouth and goes to sleep on his stomach. The baby goes somewhere else.

When Stain, covered in scratches, finds the baby, she has cornered the pylon against the wall and is spinning tape. A baby tries to force the pylon off a poor coconut crab. Pyron raises his scissors to protect himself. This time, before Stain can stop it, the baby's slightly injured. The baby's so surprised that she drops the video camera and starts crying. Even after the tape fell to the ground, it continued to spin.

It turned to night as the baby cried himself to sleep. Stain was struggling to figure out how to watch the tape, for the camera was so old, it didn't even have a screen. The tape would probably never be seen on Junk Alley which it didn't have cords or fragile televisions. Stain sees that the tape is still there and starts filming again. This time, the baby was sleeping soundly.

Oh, here's another one!

"Beanbag"

Stain finds three beanbags. He immediately starts playing catch with Palvan in front of the room, but gradually the trajectory of the ball changes from a parabola to a straight line. Just when both of them could no longer help themselves, Palvan threw a fastball that hit Stain in the face. Stain growled and crouched down, but he immediately fought back with the remaining two beanbags he had in his pocket. A game of catch turns into a snowball fight. There was someone watching from inside the room. It was Rings who received a donut that fell on the floor.

The beanbag fight continues and Stain is covered in bruises. He tried to dodge the ball and fell. Palvan's shadow looms. Stain panics. Palvan's hand was brought down like a trebuchet, and the beanbag flew like a gale. Stain suddenly notices a lot of empty bottles in front of him, and immediately grabs an unbroken bottle to protect his face. The bean bag bounced off the bottle, and the bottle hit Stain in the face. Stain rubs his face and looks around for his bean bag, and finds that he got caught in a broken bottle or something, with red beans scattered all over the place. And one big candy ball. Stain gushes about it. Seeing this, Palvan tears the bean bag in his hand with his nails and gets to the candy. Rings peeks at it.

After licking the candy, Stain picks up one last bean bag. Stain shook his head as he looked at the begging Palvan and the beautifully patterned beanbag, then placed the beanbag on the table and brought a pot. Someone picked up some scattered red beans. Then Rings came along.

They heard the sound of red beans falling to the floor, and when they looked into the room, they saw Rings holding the last candy. The two ran towards the Rings. But they couldn't be in time to stop him.

But as soon as Rings swallowed the candy, he started to suffer by holding his neck. The color of his face changed, and even if he tried to spit it out, he couldn't. Rings fell off the table in agony and the last thing he saw was Stain and Palvan coming at him. But then it became blurry and pitch black.

It turned to night as Stain and Palvan are happily sipping red bean porridge. Rings' body was bulging in the pot of red bean porridge.

Ok, that's the last you hear from me. Bye bye!

[arabellaflynn]

I went down a few rabbit holes while researching the Advent Calendar last year, that didn't make it into the queue because they got too long or went too far afield. Here's one of them!

One thing you notice when you watch a bazillion videos about old games consoles is how the design of circuitry has evolved. If someone says 'circuit board' today, you think a light piece of leafy green board, filled with parallel lines of copper at 45° and 90° angles, dotted with lots of tiny inscrutable plastic and metal doodads. But it took a long, long time for them to get that way.

If you look at really old circuit boards -- and I mean really, really old circuit boards, like from the beginning of the transistor era, they look completely different. They're brownish, for one thing. And kind of... wiggly?

Apologies for the transfer quality. It's not your connection, it just sucks. This piece appears to be some sort of promo-tainment thing from Tektronix themselves, from 1969. The rounded corners and bluish fuzz at the edges is an effect called 'vignetting', and it means this is originally from a 16mm film reel. There's no earthly reason for film to look this terrible. The uncentered picture means someone copied it by pointing a camera at a projection screen instead of bothering to get a proper kinescope setup, and the fact that it only goes up to 240p makes me feel like it was originally transferred over two decades ago for RealPlayer and nobody bothered to fix it for YouTube. VHS is about 240 lines, but if this were a crap transfer from a VHS tape you'd also see scanlines. It's possible there's a better copy at VintageTek, a museum dedicated to the history of Tektronix; they are an all-volunteer institution, and they probably have more important things to funnel funding to than updating their YouTube channel.

Point being, it looks like porridge and I'm sorry, but at least the content is interesting.

The brownish color, which is actually from an evolutionary stage earlier than what's covered here, is because many early boards were milled of bakelite rather than electrodeposited onto a glass or fiberglas backplane. If you want to see some of what that might have been like, you can hop over to Usagi Electric. He uses CAD to mill boards, rather than the photochemical process described by Tektronix, but it's pretty much the same idea. He does a lot of it in pursuit of his mad obsession with building a vacuum tube computer here. (If you're curious, his logo says うさぎ電気, "Usagi Denki". "Usagi" is Japanese for rabbit or bunny -- there is one who appears at the end of some videos -- and the spelling of "denki" here specifically means electrics, as opposed to 電機, which is usually rendered electronics. It still pops up in the names of some engineering or technology firms, but generally only the really old ones.)

The wiggly nature of early boards is neatly explained by watching the drafting process, starting about three minutes into the video. It was originally done by hand. The rest of the half-hour video goes through the whole multi-stage process, but the gist is that when you lay out the board, you draw dark lines where you want the conductive traces to be on the final product. To get a consistent size, tape is used for "holes" and tape lines are uses for the traces. If you've ever used stripe tape in nail art, it was apparently something like that -- vinyl tape with a bit of stretch, so you could curve it around. It was a methodical sort of art form. Ever solved one of those "connect the same-color dots without crossing lines" puzzles? It's basically that. If you can't find a topologically-appropriate solution on a single plane, you can produce boards with traces on both the front and the back, as Tektronix does here, and these days you can actually bury traces in internal layers as well. It's just a pain and makes the cost go up exponentially. 

The mention of "holes" is interesting. Early circuit boards were nothing but holes. Everything had legs and was soldered on from the underside. Today these are known as "through-hole mounted" components; the alternatives are "surface-mount" components, which are generally smaller and fiddlier to solder on by hand, but considerably easier to lay down and solder in place by machine. Surface-mount technology has been around since before this Tektronix piece, but remained NASA-grade esoterica until the automated assembly process became cost-effective in the 1990s. Today the conductive holes are referred to as "vias" and the little medal dots surface-mount things are soldered to are "pads".

I'll also note that they show the automatic soldering process for these boards late in the video. It involves skimming the boards across the surface of a pool of molten solder. Solder in the 1960s contained a lot of lead. I would not personally like to be in that room. Today a machine places little surface-mount doojiggers in place along with solder beads, and then melts it all very gently in a very hot oven until it all melds together, not unlike a pan of slightly too-runny cookies. If you do it right, the surface tension of the solder keeps it on the pads and out of the traces. This is particularly useful for placing CPUs, whose myriad tiny pins in a tight grid would be far too difficult to solder by hand, and the origin of "reflow" repairs for electronics that are exhibiting symptoms of flaky solder joints.

The "silkscreening" process here does not use silk, but originally it did -- it was invented in Asia, logically enough. The gist of it is that you take a piece of finely woven mesh, traditionally light silk but in modern times also metal or synthetic fiber, and you plug up all of the little holes in it in the areas where you don't want ink to get through it, usually with some sort of water-repellent substance. In the days of yore, you painted on some kind of sap or wax, but nowadays it's usually a light-sensitive plastic that's scraped across the whole mesh, topped with a stencil that is opaque where you want ink to flow, and exposed to UV light that sets the substance. The unset areas that were in shadow are rinsed clean, leaving the mesh permeable in those places. The ink emulsion is then applied to the printing surface beneath in the reverse process: Ink is spread across the mesh, then squeegeed through with enough force to push it through the holes in the weave and onto the surface beneath. The dots of ink bleed just enough to flow into one another, producing a solid area of pigment. The circuit board designs were originally drafted in black on a white background, then photographed and reduced to 1/4 their original size, and the film used as the stencil for the silkscreen.

Holes are drilled mostly by hand(!) in this clip, which is an error-prone process, as you can see from the Usagi Electrics guy. The worker uses what's called a pantograph drill. A pantograph is a device that translates motion from one place to another, often with a change in scale. Typically pantographs are mechanical in nature, based on the complimentary motion of opposite corners of a parallelogram, but you could make a pretty good argument that modern systems that accept movement inputs from a user and translate them elsewhere by computer are also members of the class. Robot-assisted surgery comes to mind. If you cared to have an even longer argument, you could also consider systems that scan items with laser photons in order to reproduce them on a lathe or CNC machine pantographs in spirit, if not in fact. 

A visual or optical comparator is just a device that projects a magnified view of something up on a screen, along with a point, grid, or profile it needs to match, not unlike a microfiche viewer with a targeting reticule. They're still used in some areas, although software image processing is steadily gaining ground. 

You'd be amazed at how many things still need a look-over by a human with a brain. The lack of human brains is how we got the sharply-angled board traces we have today, in fact. Computer-aided drafting was developed to a usable level in the 1980s, and predictably the people using it were mostly engineers. The kind of route-finding you do in those connect-the-dots puzzles, and that the electronics engineers did when drafting the boards, is one of those very slippery human things. You want to find the shortest path, to save on the precious metals you use as conductors, but the absolute shortest path (with reasonable tolerances) is often a very snaky curve that would require a large number of points to define. It's much simpler to work on a grid, hence the 45° and 90° angles -- this ensures that all trace paths can be defined exclusively by where their corners lie on a square coordinate system, and is much less calculation-intensive. This was a lot of what early graphics tablets (or digitizers) were used for, and some light pen systems. 

Having watched my father do a lot of this as a kid, I gather that at least in modern CAD software, you can just pick things up and put them wherever you want, but that the autopathing gets very confused if you do it too much -- mostly it's better to let the computer figure out where the traces go and tell you if you want something impossible in 3D space. And if you screw up anyway, there's always blue wire.

Circuit boards don't have to be the ubiquitous green, either. That's just the color of the solder mask, a lacquer painted all over the parts of the board you don't want solder to stick to. It's mostly tradition at this point, but you can get boards in pretty much any color you like -- the second most common I've see is a dark navy blue, probably because copper traces and white silkscreening stand out best on those two colors. You're welcome to get neon purple, if you can find anyone offering it.

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[mywifeleftme]

35: Supreme Dicks // The Emotional Plague

The Emotional Plague Supreme Dicks 1996, Homestead (Bandcamp)

In the ‘80s it became a trope of punkier/grungier alternative bands to include little gobs of noisy tape experiment gunk on their releases, often as a b-side or hidden track. By the ‘90s there was a whole loose subgenre of artists that could be summarized as “if Dinosaur Jr.’s ‘Poledo’ grew limbs and became a band”—Dino alum Lou Barlow’s Sebadoh being the most obvious outcome, but Amherst, MA’s Supreme Dicks maybe the purest. Early conceptions of post-rock as a genre had an apocalyptic undercurrent: what would music sound like a century after rock’s disappearance, when the hairless blind mole children crawl out of the fallout shelters and discover a half-eaten guitar?

Supreme Dicks’ The Emotional Plague sounds like a primal soup of life. Protozoan cells of folk, free jazz, noise rock, minimalist chamber music, etc. mill around, eating and interbreeding. Occasionally enough of them stick together for something burly and song-like to lurch from the bog and stagger around for a few minutes before crumbling back into the pool. Yet even in the formless stretches afterward, the texture is fascinating, blobby with saxophone skronk and unplaceable cries reminiscent of bleating lambs. When something familiar emerges it feels like a remnant of the old world being rediscovered, like the resplendent exotica of “Along a Bearded Glade.”

Sprawling movements like “Porridge for the Calydonian Bear” and “Siberian Penal Colony (Ode To Joel Stanley)” push a certain version of dreamy post-hardcore past anything recorded by Slint or Unwound, and nearly 30 years later The Emotional Plague feels like a landmark. While there are certainly some passages that begin to grate, I often find myself with Dicks on the brain (ugh, fuckin kill me).

35/365

[iviarellereads]

Gideon the Ninth, Chapter 20

(Curious what I'm doing here? Read this post! For detail on The Locked Tomb coverage and the index, read this one! Like what you see? Send me a Ko-Fi.)

(Seventh House icon) In which I have far more feelings than the scene really calls for.

Nine hours later, Gideon and Harrow go back down the hatch. Having been awakened five minutes before the promised eight and a half hours were complete, Gideon still feels half asleep, and everything feels a little bit off axis. Harrow had to apply Gideon's face paint for her while she ate her porridge, and none of that submission had unsettled Harrow in any visible way.

Gideon asks what they're supposed to be doing down in the facility, more bone men? Harrow says that was just one of the challenges, there'd be no point in repeating it in the next one. Gideon, still running slow, asks what Harrow means by the next challenge.

Harrow points out that the hatch key is the first step, just asking Teacher for access to any place he can allow, and some of their "so-called rivals" didn't even manage that much. The hatch key provides access to the laboratory, and anyone who can successfully complete an experiment is rewarded with the key. Gideon says, sure, the key that lets you into an old room where you can look at old necro notebooks.

Harrow doesn't turn around, but Gideon can practically feel her rolling her eyes. Harrow explains that the Second House study had a perfect explanation of the theorem that was used to move the construct. Any necromancer would be able to reproduce it after studying it. She is fully equipped to "ride another living soul", a phrase Gideon tries not to think about. Harrow says she can even make bone regenerate now.(1)

At the bottom of the ladder, there's tape on the floor where the Fifth's bodies had once lain, and the blood is skeletonised. Harrow says the Sixth is too enamored of the body, and besides, the method is far less important than the who in this whodunnit.

From the shadows, Dulcinea says she rather likes the idea of a what, rather than a who. She finds the idea that something still lingers here comforting, after ten thousand years, that maybe the echo is louder than the voice after all that time. Harrow says a spirit can only come at invitation, not sustain itself, but Dulcinea asks, what if it can? Isn't that more interesting than boring old murder?

After a moment's awkward silence, Dulcinea greets the Ninth and says they're brave to come back, after Teacher's speech. Harrow says they might say the same of Dulcinea. Dulcinea waves this off, as one stops worrying so much about death when it's already guaranteed by other means. Besides, it would be so predictable to kill her off.

Before Dulcinea can flirt too much with Gideon, Harrow says they have business elsewhere, and Dulcinea says that's what she's here about: they should team up. Gideon considers that Dulcinea is not the least likely to team up with Harrow, but far from the most either.

Dulcinea continues that she's completed one lab and is on her way to completing another, but if they worked together, they could do it in half the time. Harrow says the trials are not meant to be collaborative, and Dulcinea asks why everybody keeps thinking that.(2)

At this, the necromancers size each other up, then Harrow asks what's in it for Ninth. Dulcinea says all her knowledge of the theory so far, and first use of the key. Harrow asks what's in it for Seventh, and Dulcinea says use of the key afterward, because she can't physically do this challenge. Harrow suggests she could do it alone, but Dulcinea says it took her a long time to work out the parameters and theory, so good luck.

Harrow fixes her hood and starts walking, then turns back and asks if she's coming. Dulcinea is openly grateful, and Gideon stunned. She strides to catch up to Harrow, and finds her muttering cusses under her breath until she says "Thank God we got to her first." Gideon says she didn't expect Harrow to say yes, but Harrow says if they didn't, Sextus would have with his bleeding heart(3) and then he'd have the key, not her. Gideon says she forgot for a moment that Harrow wasn't "a huge bitch."

They follow Dulcinea and Protesilaus down through to laboratory 8. At one point there's a part where the grille floor has been "staved in"(4). Protesilaus picks Dulcinea up and sweeps her over the hole. Gideon jumps the gap, but looks back and finds Harrow hesitant. She's not sure why she holds out a hand, and she's even less sure why Harrow takes it.(5)

After dusting herself off, Harrow catches up with Protesilaus, trying to engage him in conversation. Dulcinea takes Gideon's arm, and says she wishes Silas would fight her instead of their cavs dueling. "Not much can hurt me anymore … it would be an interesting sensation, is what I mean."

Dulcinea keeps chatting, until a coughing fit hits, and some spasms after that. Gideon holds Dulcinea by the arms so she doesn't fall, and finds herself looking down the woman's shirt where it falls away from her collarbones. Gideon sees a delicate chain holding the keyring with two keys: the hatch key, and "a thick grey key wih unpretentious teeth, the kind you'd lock a cabinet with."

Gideon makes herself look anywhere else, and finds a door labeled "LABORATORY EIGHT". As they all go inside, she sees old file boxes, and someone has affixed "a beautiful swirl of human teeth above the door" to the test chamber, which is labeled "14- 8 DIVERSION. PROCEDURAL CHAMBER." Beneath that, in fainter ink, someone else has written "AVULSION!"(6)

Dulcinea requests blood so she can allow Gideon and Harrow through her blood wards, and this "nod to paranoia" makes Harrow relax a fraction. They provide a lanceted drop each, and Dulcinea explains how her ward will alert without stopping, as she wants to see what would try to sneak up on her.

After the narration describes Lab Eight(7), Dulcinea opens it all up. Harrow walks up to the line, puts her fingers across it, and yanks them back. She removes her glove to reveal that her fingers have aged, though they recover quickly. Harrow says it seems easy enough, but when she tries her first thought of defence, it backfires splendidly, her hand worse off than before. Gideon has to fight off a desire to Do Something.

Harrow tries a few more tricks, until Dulcinea says it's two spells overlaying each other. They discuss it out: one half of the spell field controls senescence(8), and the other half is an entropy field. Harrow has Gideon throw an old bone from Harrow's pocket, and it makes it about half a meter before shattering. Harrow necromantically grows the bone from the distance, but can't sustain it.

Harrow declares it impossible. The senescence decays too quickly, and the entropy field disperses magic. She's just curious how the whole room hasn't decayed. Dulcinea offers that the field is a few micrometers away from its surrounding walls and floor. She says it's not a lateral puzzle, either, there's no way around. Palamedes Sextus estimated you could walk for three seconds before you died.

Harrow focuses suddenly, and says-asks if Sextus has really seen it. Dulcinea reveals she asked him first, and when she told him the method she worked out, he said he'd never do it. She found that fascinating, and would love to get to know him better. This gets every bit of Harrow's attention, and she asks what it was that Sextus wouldn't do. Dulcinea says the only way forward is to siphon your cavalier's strength. Harrow says she won't do that, either. Dulcinea says, not like Octakiseron does, sending the soul elsewhere and working with the power that rushes to fill the body's space. No, for this, you must share the soul, draw on the power to keep pushing off the dual fields long enough to reach the other end.

Harrow drags Gideon out the doors and out of earshot, and they have a quick discussion. Harrow wants to do what Palamedes Sextus would not, to teach him to look these matters in the face. She just needs to know Gideon consents to the procedure first. She does. Harrow says that Gideon will be in tremendous pain, the Second house is said to do something similar only to their enemies, who die screaming, feeding the energy back into their cavaliers.

Gideon still agrees. Harrow asks why. Gideon says, because she asked, instead of assuming or taking. Harrow is baffled. That's all it takes? Gideon says that's all she ever demanded, was to be given the chance to say yes instead of being commanded.

They go back into Lab Eight, where Dulcinea still awaits. She suggests they could practice, it won't be easy. Harrow asks why she makes that assumption. Dulcinea acknowledges that she shouldn't, and offers to take care of Gideon on this side. Gideon doesn't know why she should need looking after, standing at the edge, her hand on her sword as if it might help her.

Harrow approaches, and puts one hand on Gideon's neck, and at first Gideon doesn't feel any different… until she feels a jolt, and keeps losing track of whether she's Harrow or Gideon. There's quite an ordeal, as Harrow walks and Gideon feels increasing and traveling pain, and Gideon hears someone talking to her, saying things like "you poor baby" and saying she's so young and she shouldn't give herself away, it's not worth it, none of this is. Then Harrow reaches the box, and the voice says she wishes she were up there, she wonders if Harrow has worked it out… yes, Harrow has the key, Dulcinea was worried she'd break it. Dulcinea says this is all her fault, and bids Gideon to stay with her.

As Harrow comes back, she stumbles, and Gideon heaves herself further into the connection, supporting Harrow. Dulcinea tells her it's very easy to die, but she shouldn't, not now, not yet. Just as Gideon thinks she may not have a choice in the matter, it stops, and when she opens her eyes, Harrow is kneeling next to her, naked of body and face, saying Gideon's name. Gideon remarks it's the first time Harrow's ever not called her Griddle, and faints.

When Gideon wakes up, Harrow is wearing Gideon's overcloak and wants to get her out of there and out of Dulcinea's arms immediately. Dulcinea suggests giving Gideon a minute to recover, but Harrow insists, and drags a not quite fully conscious Gideon up the steps. Before fully leaving, Harrow asks Dulcinea abruptly why she wanted to be a Lyctor. Gideon mumbles "Harrow, you can't just ask someone why they want to be a Lyctor,"(9) but is ignored. Dulcinea answers simply that she didn't want to die.

Harrow and Gideon leave without another word, though outside Gideon says Harrow didn't have to be so mean. Harrow says she doesn't like that woman or her cavalier. Gideon asks if she got the key, and Harrow shows it off: silver-white, "austerely plain with a single loop for a head and three simple teeth on the shaft." Gideon grabs the ring from her pocket, and slides it on, then says she's sorry Harrow's clothes melted. They banter, and it's adorable.

Gideon has no idea how they make it up the ladder, or back to the Ninth chambers. She half wonders if she did, in fact, die down there, and this is her afterlife, wandering the halls of Canaan House with a Harrowhark Nonagesimus so chastened that Gideon has no choice but to be gentle with her.(10) She even lets Harrow steer her to the big bed, though when she's laying down, she tells Harrow to stop looking at her like that, she's still alive.

"You nearly weren't," said Harrow soberly, "and you're not even aggrieved about it. Don't price your life so cheaply, Griddle. I have absolutely no interest in you losing your sense of self-preservation. What are these theorems for?" she suddenly exploded. "What did we gain from that? What was the point?(11) I should have walked away, like Sextus- but I don't have the luxury! I need to become Lyctor now, before-"

Harrow stops suddenly, and Gideon wants to know what she was going to say. She closes her eyes to wait, but opens them when she panics and realizes that she's forgotten how long it was since she shut them. Harrow is still sitting there, watching her, worried. She tells Gideon to get some rest, and for once Gideon obeys without compunction.(12)

=====

(1) Not entirely clear how this relates to the living soul bit but maybe the trial had two purposes, and two ultimate reward theorems. (2) Finally, someone who actually read the memo! (3) He's certainly acted politely toward Dulcinea but I can't help but wonder what kind of perceptions Harrow has to call him a bleeding heart. (4) staved in - broken or crushed inward. (5) FEEEEEEELINGS! Oh, stop toying with my emotions, Tamsyn Muir. (Said not me, ever.) (6) Avulsion - the act of tearing away, or a forcible detachment. Think skinning an animal during butchering. (7) As someone who can't visualize things inside my head, I have no way to describe this other than the way the text does. (8) Senescence - the process of aging in living beings. Growing old. (9) Mean Girls reference! I highly recommend the film for the massive meme factor if you haven't ever seen it before, even if it's aged poorly. (10) These two trauma babies have it so bad for each other and they just won't admit it and it's so cute and so heartbreaking to see them circling around each other like this. Harrow feeling guilty that she could have done damage to Gideon, and Gideon feeling bad for being the reason Harrow's upset. (11) See 9, really. Gideon is more than a resource to Harrow now, more than a thing, more than an indentured servant. She might even be a friend. (12) Compunction isn't used very often and even less often is it used correctly. It means anxiety from a feeling of guilt over your actions. Here, it's the perfect summation of the shift in their relationship. Gideon once felt wrong about obeying Harrow, and now… now she'd feel wrong not to, at least when her orders make sense.

[dustedandsocial]

Top 30 Full-Lengths of 2022

1. Padkarosda - Sötét Végek LP [World Gone Mad] 2. Z Money - Back 2 The Blender [Self-Released] 3. Intensive Care - That We Be Made Worthy LP [Closed Casket Activities] 4. Winged Wheel - No Island [12XU] 5. Carla dal Forno - Come Around LP [Kallista] 6. Rush to Relax - Misli LP [Pop Depresija / Hidden Bay / Look Back And Laugh] 7. Fievel Is Glauque - Flaming Swords LP ["la Loi"] 8. CEO Trayle - HH5 [Do What You Love] 9. Dame Area - Todas las mentiras sobre Dame Area LP [BFE / Màgia Roja] 10. Nail Club - Mise en Abyme LP [Hot Releases] 11. Derviche - Murs absurdes CD [Ayler] 12. Boldy James & Nicholas Craven - Fair Exchange No Robbery [Nicholas Craven Productions] 13. Yes Indeed - Rotten Luck CD [Bison] 14. Bezbog - Dazhbog LP [Favela Discos] 15. The Birthmarks - Slowly CS [Icecapades] 16. Speck - Speck CS [Primordial Void] 17. Ssabæ - azurescens LP [Few Crackles] 18. PANSTARRS - Batee2 LP [Nashazphone] 19. Regno Maggiore - Esasumma [Gang Of Ducks] 20. Crisis Man - Asleep In America LP [Digital Regress] 21. Kurws - Powięź / Fascia LP [Red Wig / Dur Et Doux / Korobushka Records] 22. Onyon - Onyon [U-Bac / Flennen / Trouble In Mind] 23. Christina Vantzou - No. 5 [Kranky] 24. Tacita Trjj - Meeting On Purpose CS [Iriai Verlag] 25. Radnik - Sport [Krava 22] 26. SLOI - SLOI LP [Iron Lung] 27. Jone Takamäki, Umut Çağlar & Fahrettin Aykut – Myth of the Drum LP [Zehra] 28. VA - Elsewhere XX LP [Kalahari Oyster Cult] 29. Sunfear - Octopus [Dark Entries] 30. Th Blisks - How So? LP [Altered States Tapes]

Top 30 7"/EPs/12"

1. skitungen - Längre än Långtån 7" EP [Rubber] 2. Rare Spam - EP CS [Contact Minimal] 3. Mars89 - Night Call 12" [Sneaker Social Club] 4. Dalibor Cruz - Deviance 12" [Chicago Research] 5. Heavy Petting - Anfahr'n Am Berg [U-Bac / Muskel] 6. Slimex - Easy Money 7" EP [Spared Flesh] 7. Elektronik Body Girl - Elektronic Body Girl 12" [Emotional Response] 8. D.B.R. - Nuclear Dreams [Urticaria] 9. Lower Tar - Blank stare CDr [Fantasy 1] 10. Tapes meets Nikolaienko - Sunda School II 7" EP [Porridge Bullet] 11. Umarell & Zdaura - Aux Morts A l'Aise- Dada ! EP [KRUT] 12. Oscar Mulero - Desde La Boca Del León 12" [PoleGroup] 13. Christoph de Babalon - Leaving Time 12" [Super Hexagon] 14. Paperniks – Paperniks 7" EP [Self-Released] 15. Lawrence Le Doux - Insula Dulcamara 12" [Nous'klaer Audio] 16. Greymouth - Twilight Furl 7" EP [Kashual Plastik] 17. Gabys - The Gabys 7" EP [Fruits & Flowers] 18. soFa elsewhere - All My Friends Are Witches 12" [Planet Trip] 19. Tropa Macaca - Animais Sintéticos 12" [Self-Released] 20. Pisse - Lambada 7" EP [Phantom] 21. Tsap – Crimes Against Time 12" [Altered States Tapes] 22. [ RTZ ] - Brechen 7" [Höllenfrau] 23. Ostseetraum - Mondmenschen 7" EP [Mangel] 24. Ruutu Poiss - Demosoup 7" [MIDA] 25. De Ambassade - Young Birds 12" [Optimo Music] 26. Troth - Blood In My Hair 7" [I Dischi Del Barone] 27. Chimers + Die! Die! Die! - Split 7" [Not On Label] 28. Mutated Void - Slash The Altar 7" EP [Sewercide] 29. Mižerija - Mižerija 7" EP [Doomtown] 30. Grim Lusk - Diving Pool 12" [Domestic Exile]

[twistednuns]

May 2024

Spending the first day of the month completely alone. At home. Working on little projects. Labeling all the boxes in the basement. Hanging art. Building a wooden frame for my new kitchen shelves. Tiling my bookcase.

Guessing correctly why I suddenly got a tummy ache. Doing exactly the right thing to make it go away (coffee and meds on an empty stomach are never a good idea).

Mentally apologizing to my body for only really moving it once a week during yoga class.

Recreating my grandma's potato goulash. Eating it with sour cream.

Buying a stool on sale that might or might not look like a little sheep.

Strawberry milkshake on a stressful day. It literally cooled me down.

Getting to know the lady who lives in the cool and airy apartment across the street.

Caught in the act: a little birdy landing on my sheepskin, ripping out a big fur ball for its nest.

Prioritizing alone time. Saying no to social obligations.

Long naps. Sleeping with the windows open, a nasal dilutor and mouth tape. Such a difference. Sometimes I even put a teeth whitening strip in and I want to start experimenting with self-hypnosis tracks.

Unearthing one of my old favourites: Dallmayr Ginger Ginseng green tea.

Sorting out my jewellery just to find a few pieces I really wanted to wear again!

Going to Gregor von Raffay's (Kathi's dad) vernissage. Falling in love with his painting Am Meeresgrund. Having a good time with Chili, Kathi and their kids Luis and Maya.

Rolling down the car windows. Singing along loudly to Soak Up the Sun by Sheryl Crow. My summer jam 2024. Also, I was surprised when I saw what a detailed Wikipedia article this song has.

Coconut porridge and fresh peaches (what a divine smell) for breakfast. Eating outside on the balcony.

Self-massage and gua sha with Aesop Breathless oil - a subtle blood orange smell.

The sudden urge to listen to Unison again. And again. Masterpiece.

Making a playlist of podcast episodes that left an impression.

Watching movies from the late 80s/90s/early 00s I haven't seen yet. I need more feel-good cinema in my life.

Singing at church with my choir. Emotional... such dense energy in there, every time.

Buying spices, bread and Greek antipasti at the market. I wonder why it's so rare for me to go shopping there. I always enjoy it tremendously. But it's probably because I've always thought that it's too expensive. I might have to put market days in my calendar! Hope that helps.

The golden chain tree has started to bloom in yellow cascades in our garden!

A spontaneous decision to join some friends at the drag flea market at Pathos. Exactly the right kind of people I needed that day. Julia, Daniel, Patricia and Katharina. I bought two wigs and a sassy Queen of Hearts costume. Then we sat outside an Italian restaurant until it got cold. Quite entertaining and the right amount of socializing.

My first time in a Float tank.

Finding Isabel Allende's Eva Luna in a box of free books after the thunderstorm.

Making banana ice-cream as a midnight snack.

An improv theatre workshop. So many good ideas and such fun! I even got a day off for it! (and one of the participants who noticed that I was having a tough time and offered me her yoghurt; we really vibed in the word association exercise, too)

Not an exclusively good thing because it came with a lot of fear, an activated abandonment wound and some emotional damage (I spent my lunch break locked in the handicapped toilet trying to calm down my tense body, not knowing how to properly release my emotions, crying big teardrops on the tile floor): three tough but cathartic conversations with C. Deciding that we would stay together. And that lovely moment in the morning when I felt my affection for him coming back.

Sneaking into yoga class. Listening to my body. So glad I went.

Being a member of the little team that is going to suggest new outfits for our gospel choir. Using Miranda Priestley as our group icon. / Also: everyone's joy when Beate got a phone call from Sarah telling her that her son was born a few hours before!

Baffled parents asking me how I manage their kids - and I'm the only teacher who can. Apparently I'm doing something right.

Single use changing mats. Best idea ever. So liberating. I hate wet spots.

The first rays of sunshine in the morning after a few horribly rainy days. Hoping for a chance to dry everything wet on the balcony.

Running into Uschi and Andrea. Dealing with their gossip with a new, detached energy.

Adding a few lemon slices to my tap water. Using my Retap bottle with the wooden lid for the first time in years.

A lengthy journalling session with lots of insights.

Flight mode for more peace of mind.

My strelitzia producing a huge new leaf. The baby is bigger than all the old ones.

Meeting some members of the Burn Family at Stroke Art fair. Good conversations with Sandra, Yeli and Kathi. Discovering a few inspiring artists.

Cinema and dinner with LenObi. It's been a while.

The moon appearing as a faint but full disc with a thin crescent in the lower right corner.

Eggplant burgers.

Visiting Ramapriya's yoga studio for the first time. I don't know what took me so long. We reconnected immediately and now I'm thinking about doing a Yoga Vidya teacher training. I learned so much in that one class. Her pelvic floor asanas and explanations were fantastic. Afterwards we talked about HSP, Human Design (she’s a fellow member of the ManGen club), her daughter, and she showed me a mantra to remove obstacles / gain energy, inspiration and joy. I left after more than two hours. C. called me and told me about a crazy dream featuring an erupting volcano.

Buying a FeetUp as a birthday gift to myself to practice handstands and improve my balance and core strength.

Hanging laburnum branches above C.'s kitchen table.

A walk through the forest/Filzen with C. Picking a bouquet of wildflowers. And “old people sex” which is what we called lying in bed attached to the same EMS machine, having a good conversation. Jumping on the trampoline together. Receiving little caresses and holding hands while watching TV. An intimate high pressure massage. Telling our dreams to each other in the morning. Making travel plans. Turning it around.

When the podcast is about to end right when you arrive at home.

Talking to Annika about portals.

Body doubling. Grading English tests while C. was assembling his new standing table. I love working side by side. Or even just somebody being present - it's some sort of control mechanism, I feel supported. I did that for C. when I just sat with him while he sorted out his storage space. And I think it really helped him, too.

Reading the lyrics of Die Interimsliebenden by Einstürzende Neubauten with C. In ihrem gemeinsamen Mund lebt ein Kolibri. Mit jedem seiner Flügelschläge, dafür das Auge viel zu träge, Kulturen erblühen und vergehen; ganze Kontinente untergehen.

Getting to know Elena, who works with Somatic Experiencing and Craniosacral Method. We got to know each other and I drew two pictures of my body. How it currently feels and what I want it to feel like. Interesting insights.

Waking up in a weird but calm energy on my birthday. Drawing the receptivity card. Attending a workshop on Deep Listening at the Art Academy. We meditated and played with sounds, even synthesizers. While some of it was too much for me (I could hear the electric current and most of the synthesizer sounds felt threatening) I enjoyed the concept and exercises. The other participants were all art teachers too. I felt resistance around one of them, Bastien, but we started talking over lunch. It got interesting really quickly and we spent two more hours in the English Garden after the workshop. B. told me his story. How he received healing. Experiences he's made. It was batshit crazy but I think I believe him. Was that the story I needed to receive that day? / Then I had tacos with Ben and we got along famously. I told him how much I like him when he's sober. I rented a karaoke box for two hours and sang with lots of friends - even Manu came which delighted me more than I would have expected.

Another relational abyss. Melodramatic scenes, right out of a movie. Turning around one of the saddest days of the year by truly talking and listening to each other. Seeing the wounded inner child in my partner. Being there for him. A commitment to doing the work. Growth.

Thoughtful birthday presents. A pillow for my uncomfortable car, a beautiful wok with wooden handles, homemade liquor and roasted pistachios. A video note from Christian and Lian.

Joking with C. and L. Easy, relaxed, appreciative. Developing C.’s idea for his outside platform. A relaxed morning with a kiss goodbye.

Lucie blessing me by singing the Om Tryambakam mantra for my birthday.

Shower Citrus! Eating a citrus fruit in the shower. My theory: the warm steam enhances the smell of the essential oil in the peel. It smells divine! What an experience.

A lavish breakfast. The spontaneous decision to go on a roadtrip. So we just packed the car and went our way. First we visited C.'s friend Maxi. She's one of those people with whom you immediately feel comfortable with. Her home was lovely. I also want a garden, chickens, a yoga platform. We slept in a caravan, talked about Merlin Sheldrake, had green pancakes and herbs, vegetable cake, smelled her entire DoTerra essential oil collection (Cassium, Madagascar Vanilla and Grapefruit are my favorites). I adored her daughter’s hairstyle (two chopsticks in a bun) and felt very cheerful one morning when I came into the house and an old Cat Power album was playing. / Then we visited her mum and tested all her esoteric devices and appliances. Moved on, had to change plans because C. forgot his backpack. Stopped at a strawberry field. Met Maxi and Juna at a lake, went swimming. I was reminded of how much I love that kind of movement. Water really is my element. We slept at a campsite in Aue. Not my scene at all. But the next day, we went to a thermal bath and sauna. Another happy place. Then we stayed with Franzi in Leipzig. I adored her apartment and we had a long conversation on her balcony. We also visited Marie together the next day. I tried to convince her cat to like me - no such luck. And I also ran into Jonathan that afternoon who was in town to visit his brother. What a strange coincidence. We went vintage shopping - I bought stained glass (and really want to learn how to work with it myself), C. bought an iridescent fake python jacket and a postcard for his son. We checked into a hotel. Received another lesson on personal boundaries. Went for a swim and a sauna session. Had ramen noodles. After a big breakfast (with fresh nut butter, delicious) we went to Jena and spent Ralf's lunch break in the botanical garden with him. We had a lovely time and spent the rest of the day in the planetarium for a 360° full dome movie festival and a concert. I took breaks for a Thai massage and fantastic Indian food. What a great trip.

Chris Wormell’s incredible illustrations, escpecially his astronomical woodcuts.

The tiniest mushrooms starting to grow in my champignon kit.

Making strawberry Raffaello cake for the Filzhof pizza party. Getting to know some of C.'s neighbours better. Playing with the dogs.

Watching the first season of House of the Dragon together. I'm a Rhaenys fangirl now.

White Matcha chocolate. And the best snack: pecans, freeze dried strawberries and spelt flakes.

Going to the garden center with C.! I loved picking out plants for the empty corner in his garden.

Alone time. Feels so nice after spending a long time surrounded by people.

Finishing the sunrise decor on my kitchen cabinets. They turned out really lovely.

Re-folding all my clothes. Sorting them by type and colour.

Eating buckwheat for lunch and dinner.

A phone call with Ludwig. Learning about my crippling insecurity and the underlying fear. Paradoxically, insecurity is my safe space because it means inaction. I don't have to make a decision - which would come with the possibility of making a mistake. / The Lesson pt.II - I clicked on a random video to keep me company while eating cornflakes. It was, of course, on safety as THE basic human need. In my face.

Harvesting the first two tiny cucumbers on my balcony. The bush in front of my window in full bloom - thousands of tiny white blossoms.

Making myself a cup of herbal tea instead of aimless snacking, trying to meet an emotional need. It worked.

Activities with Lian: decorating pudding, folding origami Pokémon, playfights.

Finally grading the artworks from the final exam. Procrastination alarm.

Drawing my body now and in its desired state with Elena. Doing boundary exercises. Meeting my inner protector: a big fuzzy bear. Which made me think of Luki who like running around in dark brown sheep skin and radiates a very stable, secure energy.

Reaching a relative state of everything is as it should be in my apartment with hardly any loose threads.

A visit from Luna and her friend Jannik. Deep talk, hanging out in my bed.

The golden morning sun. The long days around summer solstice.

[formeryelpers]

Dim Sum Club, 2237 Taraval St, San Francisco (Parkside), CA 94116

Dim Sum Club had a wide variety of dim sum – deep fried, pan fried, rice noodle rolls, buns, (no carts), dumplings, soups, seafood dishes, pork dishes, chicken dishes, beef dishes, porridge, fried rice, noodles, clay pots, vegetable dishes, , and live seafood tanks. The menus are laminated. Write your order on them with a pen. They printed out the order and taped it to our table.

Bittermelon fish filet rice noodle roll ($6.75): The fish was mild and tender. The sauce was a bit too salty. The noodle was a bit thick but smooth.

Crispy scallion pancakes ($4.25): one small pancake, very thin and somewhat greasy but it did have a nice crispiness. Not many scallions.

Turnip cakes ($5.75): steamed and pan-friend, hint of dried shrimp, softer, liked the chunks of radish

Sticky rice chicken in lotus leaf ($6.75): two packets of sticky rice with ground chicken, Chinese sausage, salted egg yolk and steamed. Took awhile but arrived steaming hot. Nice version, variety of savory and sweet flavors, soft sweet rice

The owner (?) was very friendly but the other employees didn’t have that same outgoing charm. The dim sum was reasonably priced and a little greasy but with good flavors.

3.5 out of 5 stars

By Lolia S.

[double-croche1]

[DISQUAIRE DAY] 2023

La journée des disquaires indépendants a lieu demain (samedi) en France ! 📀 Une vaste sélection de raretés vinyles et d’inédits sera pour l’occasion mise en vente, avec de nombreux évènements sur toute la France. La liste des vinyles exclusifs par ici ! Tous les évènements par là ! On vous conseille vivement d’aller à la passionnante et passionnée boutique Balades Sonores pour y dégoter les plus beaux disques. A noter, en plus de leurs boutiques historiques du 1-3 Avenue Trudaine (18ème), ils ouvriront pour la première fois leur future adresse du 8 rue Pierre Picard (à 300m des autres boutiques). A noter, un showcase de Théo Lawrence aura lieu le lendemain (dimanche) à 18h. Toute la liste de leurs références par ici. Parmi les autres disquaires parisiens, on vous recommande également Ground Zero (114 Rue du Faubourg Poissonnière, 10ème), Supersonic Records (9 Rue Biscornet, 12ème), le Cracki Records Shop (30 Rue Etienne Dolet, 20ème) et Born Bad Record Shop (11 Rue St Sabin, 11ème). Parmi les références qui ont retenu notre attention, on pense notamment à un EP inédit 'Become' de Beach House, à un repressage avec pochette exclusive du premier album 'Yesterday's Gone' de Loyle Carner, à la première édition physique du single 7 Seconds de Porridge Radio accompagné par une démo inédite titrée Jealousy, à un live de DIIV en 2017 au Murmrr Theatre de Brooklyn, à un EP deluxe 'Mount Wittenberg Orca' de Björk et Dirty Projectors et enfin de la reprise de l'intégralité de l'album '(What’s the Story) Morning Glory' d'Oasis par Yumi Zouma. Pour cette journée exceptionnelle, de nombreux concerts seront également organisés. A Paris notamment, l’épicentre sera comme depuis quelques années désormais le Point Éphémère avec la Convention des Labels Indépendants. Plusieurs lives et DJ sets y auront lieu, avec notamment Quasi Qui, Rendez-Vous (DJ set) et Kevin Heartbeats (DJ set). On y retrouvera notamment nos labels chouchous suivants : S76, Born Bad Records, Pan European Recording, La Souterraine et Midnight Special Records. Horaires de la Convention des Labels Indépendants @ Point Ephémère : 14h : Kevin Heartbeats (DJ - salle Expo) 16h : Pleasure Principle (DJ - salle Expo) 17h : Beatrice Melissa (salle Concert) 18h : Paper Tapes (DJ - salle Expo) 18h10 : Dye Crap (salle Concert) 19h15 : Annabel Lee (salle Concert) 20h : Vestes (salle Expo) 20h45 : Nemo (salle Concert) 21h30 : Marie Delta (salle Expo) 22h15 : Quasi Qui (salle Concert) 23h : Rouge-Gorge (salle Expo) 23h45 : Lulu Van Trapp (DJ - salle Expo) 0h : Dalle Béton (salle Concert) 0h45 : Rendez-Vous (DJ - salle Concert) Les disquaires ont besoin de vous autant que vous avez besoin d'eux ! 📀 Une belle fête en perspective. A&B

[100dayproductivity]

Day 27/100 continued.

Nearly done this shelf!

Wild rice, quinoa flakes (I have no idea what to do with these; I think someone gave them to me), and a pile of miscellaneous stuff.

Oh, this is neat! It's a chart showing what produce is in season when, where I live. That's handy, I'm keeping this.

Ok, now this is a souvenir-gift I received from a relative when they were in Newfoundland (I've never been to Newfoundland, hope to go one day). It was a bag of split-peas with instructions on how to cook them the traditional way to make "peas pudding" (peas porridge).

It says it's a traditional Newfoundland recipe but actually it seems it's a traditional British recipe. Same thing, really.

You remember the rhyme from when you were little? Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old. Some like it hot, some like it cold, some like it in the pot nine days old. I loved that rhyme for some reason when I was about 4 years old. I think because it was fun to say.

Anyho. That's what peas porridge is. I remember it was hard to get it out of the bag. I wonder if there's an easier way.

And that's about it! There's a Ziploc bag, I put the peas pudding bag and recipe in there. And a paper bag that I put in recycling. The wild rice I put on the other shelf together with the other rice, and I moved the banana chips, cookies and chocolate syrup from the other shelf to this one. The produce chart I taped to the inside of the pantry door. Slowly getting organized!

Before and after. More space! 🥳