#Roland also knows german

[masonlaend]

Chesed and Netzach speak spanish because I said so

[doyoulikethissong-poll]

Harold Faltermeyer - Axel F 1985

"Axel F" is an electronic instrumental track by German musician Harold Faltermeyer. It served as the theme song for the 1984 film Beverly Hills Cop, its eponymous character (as portrayed by Eddie Murphy) and the film franchise it is based from, which became an international number-one hit in 1985. The track reached number one in Ireland as well as on the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart. Additionally, it was a number two hit in Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the UK, and West Germany. In addition to the Beverly Hills Cop soundtrack, the song appears on Faltermeyer's 1988 album Harold F. as a bonus track.

Faltermeyer recorded the tune using five instruments: a Roland Jupiter-8 provided the distinctive saw lead, a Moog modular synthesizer 15 provided the bass, a Roland JX-3P provided chord stab brasses, a Yamaha DX7 was used for the marimba sound, and a LinnDrum was used for drum programming. All instruments were played by Faltermeyer. According to Faltermeyer, the initial reaction to his first presentation of the track to the film's producers and director did not result in an immediate approval; it was not until director Martin Brest voiced his approval that the producers showed enthusiasm. A music video was produced to promote the single, directed by Faltermeyer.

"Axel F" has been sampled in many songs, including "Champion" by South Korean singer Psy. In 2005, Crazy Frog's version became a summer hit. It topped the charts in the UK, with some of the best weekly sales of the year, and remained at the top of the UK Singles Chart for four weeks to become Britain's third-best-selling single of 2005, outselling and outperforming the original version. It also reached number 1 in Australia, the Republic of Ireland, Belgium, Denmark, New Zealand, Norway, Ukraine, Spain, and Sweden. In France, the song stayed at number 1 for thirteen weeks, only to be dethroned by Crazy Frog's second single, "Popcorn". This was only the second time that an artist had ever dethroned themself in that country. It peaked at number 3 on the US Digital Sales chart, and number 2 on the US Adult Contemporary Top 20. In 2024, as part of a tribute to celebrate the release of Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, the Crazy Frog Youtube Channel made a special crossover music video with Netflix, featuring scenes from the movie, but re-edited to feature Crazy Frog in them, being chased by the Beverly Hills Police and Axel Foley.

"Axel F" received a total of 88,3% yes votes!

[sgiandubh]

Out of the OL bubble

Sidenote: this post owes everything to the incredible sleuthing skills of an already longtime trusted friend, who wishes to remain discreet. All credit goes entirely to her - this is such an idiotic topic, yet the Ur Troll insists.

I answered one of you in the comment threads yesterday, that once you get the hell out of the OL bubble, things begin to make sense. Why? Well, because of distance and context, I suppose. And also because this always was the dirty little secret of our Dedicated Manipulative Trolls: to make you believe in a terribly poor narrative, fit for a linear world. A world without compromise, drama, secrets and lies. Collective lack of time, perspective and/or Internet research skills did the rest and gave birth to this monster: the OL Fandom.

We are now told and are supposed to believe that because Scottish Xena apparently chose on purpose (with this and only this, I could agree, but for opposite reasons) to show us she trains in a Cumbernauld gym, that means... well, you know the rest and it involves The Magic Golden Dirk. That troll was never exactly subtle, was she, bless her heart?

That mother and entrepreneur has a life of her own and an entourage of her own and business collaborations of her own and her own agenda. Some of it is shown on her Instagram account, most of it can be speculated. Connecting dots just for the sake of it is neither productive, nor remotely interesting.

Let's see, for example, how she reacts to a very insistent fellow German athlete, whom she is going to meet at the Hyrox Cologne event (13-14th of April, during the Landcon week-end):

😬😱

What is Flamingos Club? Nope, not an ikebana society, no:

Tee-hee.

They were there before, in good company, last year, when they actually first met (rings a bell?):

(April 2023, ok? I am still waiting for my own DeLorean)

Who is this guy?

Fellow athlete, HYROX Ambassador (something I bet the farm she wants to achieve) and a contestant in this year's German reality show First Dates Hotel, on VOX (https://www.vox.de/cms/sendungen/first-dates-hotel.html):

The concept is simple: a renowned German chef, Roland Trettl (no idea!) now takes his blind date cooking show to the next level, with singles from all over the country parked into a Spanish dream holiday resort (Mallorca), shake, stir and see whatever happens. The classical Endemol recipe, now produced by Twenty Twenty. It also has an UK version, running on Channel 4 (coincidence? I doubt that very much, thank you!).

On set, Max's 'love interest' is a certain Linda. He recently wrote her ' a sweet love letter', taking the good advice of his namesake cast friend Max-the-Bartender:

(I swear to God, I feel like I am prostituting my 🧠, right now).

There is obviously nothing to see, here (or is it, such as two wannabes desperately wanting limelight?). She leads the typical no strings attached life of a single mom and he is still looking for a real job:

Since VOX does not give his full name, neither will I. It took five minutes to find him, with a bit of luck.

Why on Earth would one connect that woman to S, rather than to this nice, ambitious Bavarian?

I know why. It's almost too damn easy.

Two words: Channel 4. Truman Show. Ginger and Fred (oops, these are Our Couple).

Is it anything we haven't seen before?

Nope. We've seen way worse. But gone are the Days of Flukenzie Floozy.

[Edited] - there is no need to further expose our people.

[ecargmura]

Wind Breaker Episode 11 Review - New Day, New Classmates

I’m a little confused. Tsugeura’s little motto revolves around the word “virtue”. In the manga, it’s virtue. The subtitles call it virtue as well, but I’ve seen some subs use “aesthetics.” What is the accurate word? A moot on Twitter says that the accurate word should be “aesthetics”. Virtue means a behavior showing high moral standards while aesthetics means a particular theory or connection to beauty or art. My moot told me that the word Tsugeura uses is actually more associated with aesthetic rather than virtue. I don’t know…. For now, I’ll just call it virtue since that’s what the subtitles say, but if they switch it to aesthetics or something, I’ll use that.

Anyways, it’s a new day, the fourth to be exact, and Sakura meets two new classmates. The first is Taiga Tsugeura who likes to talk about virtue, is a gym bro, and is an all around himbo. He speaks in Kansai dialect, by the way. While he’s a nice guy, he lacks personal boundaries, which is why everyone avoids him. Sugishita’s face says it all. Fortunately, Sakura, Suo and Nirei are nice enough to hang out with him after school. Tsugeura is a macho guy, but he’s surprisingly goofy and sensitive. While he doesn’t get along with Kiryu, he doesn’t let that bother him. He’s very funny, honestly. I think he brings a good dynamic to the group as the optimist in a way. His fighting style centers around wrestling with the way he did a German suplex to one of those scrubs.

Tsugeura’s voice actor actually surprised me. He’s voiced by Kengo Kawanishi. You might know him as Muichiro from Demon Slayer and Roland Fortis from The Case Study of Vanitas. Why I was surprised was because I normally associated with him quiet pretty boys, but remembering that he voiced Roland, he has the capability to go loud and dumb too. Also, another thing that surprised me about him was that Kawanishi always sounded like he could be Akira Ishida’s successor in terms of range and tone, but the voice he uses for Tsugeura makes him sound like Noriaki Sugiyama who you might know as the voice of Sasuke Uchiha from Naruto and also voiced Muichiro’s dad who appeared in the third season of Demon Slayer. Kawanishi’s range is seriously killer.

The second of the new classmates is Mitsuki Kiryu. He’s rumored to be from a rich family with the way he went to a rich kid’s school during junior high. His past sounds very interesting if he chose to rebel and went to Fuurin; I’m super curious as much as I am curious about Suo’s past. Kiryu is practically the total opposite of Tsugeura in every way. He respects people’s boundaries, especially girls’, but is rather effeminate compared to the macho himbo Tsuge-chan. He’s also a huge phone addict as he was first seen in episode 2 playing with his phone. I do wonder if he has a hamburger case alongside the hotdog case. His fighting style sort of reminds me of the Gentle Fist style from Naruto, especially with the way it focuses on deflecting as Kiryu deflects his opponents and sends them flying to his allies.

Kiryu’s voice actor is Toshiyuki Toyonaga. It’s been a while since I last heard Toyonaga voice a rather effeminate character. I actually really like his acting a lot! He has so much range that his voice is so hard to detect because he sounds so different in whatever anime he’s in. If you’re curious on what roles he had done in the past, some examples include Yuuri Katsuki from Yuri on Ice, Kazuki Kurusu from Buddy Daddies and Nayuta Yatonokami from Paradox Live. All three of those roles sound different, yet they come from the same person. Amazing, isn't it? I love how Toyonaga gives Kiryu a boyish voice; that tone is so cute.

The fighting scene in the anime was well-animated! All three have such distinct styles, but it meshes so well together. Heck, even Suo gets to be a part of the fight, despite him being at the back protecting Nirei and the girl Kiryu saved and only fighting when mooks try to run towards the back. I really like the part where Sakura is flipping around after Tsugeura throws in a punch and then Kiryu deflects a guy towards him.

The episode is also has some development towards Sakura as he gets new fighting allies in Tsugeura and Kiryu and even gets five new contacts in his phone. He’s the most chronically offline teenager, and he’s even slowly adjusting to the teen life by attempting to participate in group chats and stuff. I hope that Sakura becomes an expert at instant messaging by the time the story ends.

The episode ends with the second years coming to Sakura’s class in order to pick a Group Captain. What is a group captain? It’s like a top of the class or something. Suo volunteers Sakura to be captain. What happens next will be shown next week. However, the second years showing up is great because Enomoto is hilarious with the way he rolls his R’s. Can you believe that he’s voiced by Taishi Murata, who voices Pieyon from Oshi no Ko? Crazy, right? That’s the third voice actor with crazy range in this episode. Also, this is the introduction to Kaji but I’ll talk more about him next week as he’ll finally talk. I can’t wait to see people’s reaction to Kaji. He’s such a great character.

There are two more episodes left. With how popular this show is in the Japanese fanbase, I wouldn’t be surprised if a second season will be announced; I certainly want it. What are your thoughts on this episode and are you also wanting a season two like I am?

[sissylittlefeather]

Introducing:

Vivian Choquette

A new OC for the upcoming fic Your Love's Been a Long Time Coming.

Headcannons:

- Born in 1940, she's 19 when she meets Elvis

- Her mother, Delphine, was French and she never knew her father. Her mother was a dancer and she married Vivian's stepfather, Roland Everett, an American officer, during WWII in 1945. Delphine passed away when Vivian was 14. Now, she lives with her stepfather where he's stationed in Germany.

- She speaks English and French fluently and knows how to communicate in German fairly well.

- She smokes, drinks, and cusses like a sailor, but there's an elegance and grace to her that seems to make everyone forget how crude she can be.

- She writes poetry in English and French and is obsessed with reading, specifically literary criticism, philosophy, poetry, and classic literature.

- She's also an actress, a singer, and plays the piano.

- Her aesthetic is romantic academia and her favorite colors are light pink and mint green.

- Her birthday is February 26th, making her a Pisces.

- She's an outgoing introvert, meaning she loves to work the room at a party, but she also needs time alone to recover from the interaction.

- Her first love was a boy in high school who wrote poetry and played the violin. He promised to marry her, took her virginity, and then disappeared.

- She's a hopeless romantic who is obsessed with all things related to love and the beauty of human connection. She thinks people are poetry and nature is spiritual.

- Her hair is dark brown, her eyes are deep blue, and she's 5'2" tall. Her build is petite and slender and her hands and feet are small and almost fairy-like.

- Despite her French blood, she prefers American food. Still, she herself cannot cook to save her life. She's been known to burn toast and struggle with boiling eggs.

- The other thing she cannot do is any kind of visual art. She can't paint, draw, or sculpt and finds it infinitely frustrating.

- She has a quick, short temper and will explode easily and then forget why she was mad ten minutes later. She also has a sense of melancholy about her and when she's in a mood can spend hours weeping over a sad song or poem.

- She loves music, but her exposure is fairly limited to classical and pop. Her favorite music is her mother's collection of Claude Debussy, specifically Clair de Lune and La Cathédrale Engloutie.

- All in all, she's like a summer thunderstorm, beautiful, chaotic, calming, and poetic all wrapped into one.

******

Stay tuned to meet her as Elvis does

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Taglist:

@ccab @aliypop @your-nanas-house @rjmartin11 @elvisfatass @tacozebra051

Let me know if you want to be tagged in her fic!

[spadeoftears]

30dtsc day 1: Favorite Episode

→ Herz der Schlange

Es ist nicht weit hergeholt zu denken, dass das Herz der Schlange meine Lieblings-Spatort-Folge ist. Stellt sich nur die Frage nach dem warum. Warum ausgerechnet Herz der Schlange?

Die Antwort ist recht simpel. Der Fokus liegt genau so auf den Ermittler*innen wie er auf den Mordopfern und der Lösung des Falls liegt. An gewissen Stellen kann man schon fast vergessen das es garnicht darum geht den Mord an Roland Schürk zu lösen um Adam aus der Haft zu holen, ähnlich wie Leo das auch regelmäßig über die 90 Minuten hinweg tut. Ich muss selber zugeben das ich nach dem ersten Mal schauen garnicht mehr so genau wusste was der andere Fall eigentlich war.

Es ist auch irgendwie die Folge die es mir ermöglicht hat mehrere Personen in den Spatort-Wahn zu ziehen, zuletzt noch meine Schwester über die Weihnachtstage. Zuerst ist leichtes Interesse da, aber eher weil es halt ein Krimi ist und man dann doch wissen will wer denn jetzt diesen gerade erst vorgestellten Nebencharakter umgebracht hat. Dann kommt man zu Herz der Schlange. Es fängt an wie jeder andere Krimi im deutschen Fernsehen auch, mit einem Mord. Doch dann ist da ein zweiter Mord und es war augenscheinlich einer der Ermittler. Vielleicht auch noch nicht ganz originell. Aber wenn dann der Ermittlerkollege alles stehen und liegen lässt um den anderen rauszuholen und dabei seine eigentlich Arbeit aus den Augen verliert. Dann ist irgendwie doch jeder hooked dem ich versucht habe den Spatort näher zu bringen.

Das Storytelling in HdS finde ich auch einfach sehr schön. Das wir Adams Seite des Abends erst nach und nach erhalten, zuerst selbst nicht wissen ob Adam denn jetzt seinen Vater umgebracht hat oder nicht. Und das wir dann dabei zusehen können wie Leo selbst alles zusammensetzt, kurz nachdem wir das Wissen aus einem Flashback erhalten haben. Und ganz ehrlich, es ist schon ziemlich gut wie die der Hauptfall und der Tod von Roland Scherk am Ende doch irgendwie mit einander verwoben sind.

Ich muss ehrlich sagen, rückblickend ist Herz der Schlange auch die Folge über die ich am meisten nachgedacht habe. Man siehe nur diese eine Fanfic die ich in einem Wahn geschrieben hab als sich plötzlich eine etwas makabre Idee in meine Kopf festgesetzt hat und dann ein What if entstanden ist in dem Adam das Froschgift nicht überlebt hat. Eigentlich bringe ich meine liebsten Charaktere nicht so gerne um, aber hier hat mir das Source Material einfach eine zu gute Vorlage geliefert.

Das sind wohl schon genug Gründe warum Herz der Schlange meine Lieblingsfolge ist obwohl ich noch Stunden so weitermachen könnte.

English version under the cut :)

It’s not that far off to think that Herz der Schlange is my favorite Spatort-Episode. It just leaves the question of why. Why Herz der Schlange of all things?

The answer is pretty simple. The focus lies just as much on the investigators as it is on the victim and solving the crime. It is possible to even forget that the main directive isn’t solving the murder of Roland Schürk to get Adam out of jail at certain points, just like Leo forgets about the main case many times over the 90 minutes of runtime. I have to admit myself that I wasn’t sure what the actual main case was after watching it for the first time.

It is also the episode that made it possible for me to pull multiple people into the insanity of Spatort, the last one being my sister who I got over the Christmas Holidays. At first there is general interest because it’s a crime show and those are often responsible for us wanting to know who killed the side character that was just introduced. And then there’s Herz der Schlange. It starts like any other crime show in German TV, with a murder. But then there’s also a second murder and the murderer is most likely one of the main investigators of the show. Maybe to the most original idea but it gets so much better when the other investigator stops everything and sets heaven and hell in motion to get his colleague out of jail while loosing sight of the actual case he’s supposed to solve. At that point everyone who I tried to get into Spatort was hooked.

I also just like the storytelling of HdS. That we get Adam’s side of the evening bit after bit and that we just don’t know if Adam actually killed his father or not. And that we get to watch as Leo puts the pieces together just after we got the answer in a flashback. And let's be honest, it’s pretty great how the main case and the death of Roland Schürk do turn out to be connected in some way.

In all honesty, looking back Herz der Schlange is the episode I thought about most. Just look at the fanfic I wrote in a haze because the slightly macabre idea just came to me all of a sudden and didn’t leave again causing a what if story in which Adam didn’t survive the frog’s poison. Normally I don’t enjoy killing my favorite characters that much, but this time the source material gave me a too good premise to work with.

I think that are quite enough reasons why Herz der Schlange is my favorite episode, despite the possibility that I could just continue for hours.

[tgrailwar-zero]

Ah. Big Chuck is basically the father of Europe, he was mostly known as a politician and king but there are stories about his adventures as a swordsman in his youth. He was the King of a very large part of central Europe known as the Holy Roman Empire. Which was neither Holy, Roman nor an empire. But from what I remember of stories he was known to be a very competent statesman who managed a large amount of vassals. He also made educational reforms and united and converted the German people... I think. So basically he's a giant brain while the Paladins would be the more mythic figures meant to go on adventures for ancient relics and be exemplars of knighthood. Asfolto also flew to the moon once if I recall? Roland was known as having a diamond body I believe, which likely is enhanced by the T-summon if it is indeed Mandricardo who had the armor of Hektor.

...Basically a Knight. That strips. A really tough Knight.

MUSASHI: "Huh. Well, the stripping part was pretty apparent, but the rest is good to know."

NERO: "On the topic of Roland, segueing back into the Flaming Bout… I've made some adjustments to Saber's mystic code, as agreed."

MUSASHI: "Oh, right! Caster basically made me into a certified water spirit… or what's the word you used? Right, sea-nymph! I never thought I'd say this, but I feel kind of pretty wearing it. No, sexy! No, wait--"

GIUSEPPE: "Let's remember propriety before you throw out a word more intense than 'sexy', please?"

MUSASHI: "Hehehe~ it's pretty good~!"

NERO: "Hahaha! I'm glad you like it! I knew you'd appreciate my genius!"

Based off NERO's skills, it seemed like the stuff she could make was pretty weird. But… well, this seemed like it turned out fine. Probably.

MUSASHI's Servant Matrix has been updated!

[rolandrockover]

Paul's Balls-in-the-Zipper Voice (Special)

Donington, Monsters of Rock 1988

Kiss' or rather Paul's performance of Strutter at the Monsters of Rock Festival in Donington in 1988 is regularly spit out in popular polls on fan forums, especially when it comes to determining one's vocal best performance as precisely as possible based on a certain representation of a certain era of the band.

And that's pretty hard stuff, as I would like to point out, because I personally always find such a result a little thought-provoking, as my Paul's Balls-in-the-Zipper column owes its name to precisely this appearance.

I can't remember exactly when I first consciously saw and heard this one version of Strutter in today's context, maybe five or six years ago on Youtube, who can say for sure in this age of the internet. I can only remember being pretty sure that I clicked on a video with the title "Kiss Strutter Live Donington 1988" or something similarly unambiguous (1).

I can also remember just as clearly how the further the video progressed, the more unsure I became as to whether it was actually Kiss I was watching, and not in fact a mis-tagged band like Poison or some other shrill-squealing contemporary hair metal band. You have to understand, the picture quality really wasn't the best (2), but my ears still worked without the slightest problem.

Needless to say these doubts only grew in me after I made sure that I hadn't accidentally switched the video to increased speed replay beforehand.

And only then did I take a closer look at the figures jumping around on the stage. Blurry figures with curly long black hair: Check! A drum kit with a good half meter of swirling curls and a round traffic sign with a Japanese symbol on the bass drum: Check! Gene in all black leather gear trying to hump his staccato McBrown bass in routine leg-spreading rock-it poses: Check! Bruce Kulick confidently and casually immersed in his guitar playing and strolling across the stage with playful ease: Check!

But there was this other figure, dressed in white sporty clothes, armed with one of those not really shapely headless Steinberg guitars of that late 80s period that Paul had been photographed with on one occasion or another (3). And I admit, it could well have been Paul, but, it sounded nothing like him.

Maybe it was just the sound engineers having a nasty little joke that everyone but me had missed, but could that really be the case? And so it actually went on for the entire video, until it gradually but inevitably dawned on me: Yep, that's actually Paul, and not Vince Neil after some hardcore vocal training, or a similar figure in a black wig.

Well, and now you know the whole story.

And should this not be the truth in all truthfulness, and I shout this to the heavens with a raised fist, may I jam my balls in my zipper every day for the rest of my life when I get dressed, or undressed!

As my name is Roland Rockover!

Side Note:

(1) The complete concert of their Monsters of Rock performance in Schweinfurth '88, however, was shown on German cable television a few days before Christmas. My mother spontaneously and secretly recorded it on video and surprised me with it, unsuspectingly, the day before Christmas Eve. God bless her immortal soul.

(2) I think I even managed to find this YouTube video again. It's a good five years old, so that should work.

(3) I think Paul had mentioned at some point that he had played these things for hip health reasons, as they were considerably lighter than the classic models he was used to.

Strutter (Live at Donington, 1988)

[herrlindemann]

Sonic Seducer - 2015, Interview with Till

"Rammstein is my life. My job, my family."

Sometimes a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do. A truism that no one knows as well as Till Lindemann. For more than twenty years, the 52-year-old muscle man has been playing as Rammstein's frontman on records, stage and paper with the Neue Deutsche Härte-Feuer - after several postponements, the time has finally come: with his solo debut 'Skills In Pill’s announced at the beginning of the year will be released in mid-June, the most discussed album of the year!

Outside of the limelight, Till Lindemann tends to be the introverted, taciturn type who likes to avoid public appearances and feels much more comfortable in the rough wilderness night fishing than on red celebrity carpets. After one or the other time in the recent past at least raised eyebrows - on the one hand through the rather bizarre guest appearance of pop singer Heino during the last Rammstein show at Wacken Open Air 2013, on the other hand through Lindemann's songwriting work for Roland Kaiser's new album, also keep your fan base in suspense with the collaboration with Hypocrisy/Pain mastermind Peter Tägtgren: On the joint album 'Skills In Pills' Till Lindemann rolls his enigmatic lyrics in English throughout and thus causes divided reactions within the metal World.

«Writing in English is a kind of a new start,» says Till Lindemann, explaining his discovered affinity for foreign languages. « A whole new field in which I can let off steam. It has become very difficult to write German texts today because I have already said almost everything in some form. Everything has already been covered. With Lindemann I'm starting from scratch lyrically. Free choice! An unplayed place waiting to be deflowered. »

The themes dealt with by Lindemann on 'Skills In Pills' don't really differ that drastically from those in his Rammstein texts or his two previously published books: Dark passions, the curse and blessing of various pills, and of course sex in all conceivable ways or form. This time, however, not in German, but with a double dose of deep black humor. « At first I wasn't so sure if the lyrics were really good because they came together so easily. It was too easy compared to the German texts. At Rammstein, six people work in their designated areas. Everyone has their place and their fixed area that they work on. However, you still have to reconcile six different opinions. Of course, this is not always entirely without complications. Nevertheless, we of course also learned a lot from each other. »

Knowledge that Lindemann brings to his solo project today. Until recently, the Berliner focused almost exclusively on his work with the Berlin pyro-metallers, but his urge to express himself seems to become stronger and more unpredictable with each passing year.

« I think it's normal to express yourself in different ways over the years. When you're young and you start a band, you put all your energy into that band. Music, stage shows, artwork, everything. Today everything is better divided so that each of us can concentrate our energies elsewhere. I can already say that this project will be a big part of Peter's and my future together, but my priority will always remain Rammstein. Rammstein is my life. My job, my family. I spend my vacation from this family with Peter. »

Holiday fun with a difference: With loud widescreen guitars, electronic programming and dark, erotic doom prose - switching off in Lindemann style. « It was also nice to travel up to the countryside to see Peter again and again. It only takes about three hours from Berlin and you're there. I visited him 20 or 25 times; even if sometimes it was just for a day. Sometimes he called and said I needed to come in for a quick recording. Then I quickly got on the plane and was there straight away. »

The result of these spontaneous excursions can be heard in the form of the Lindemann debut 'Skills In Pills' from June 19th, 2015. The continuation of the interview with Till Lindemann and Peter Tägtgren can be found in the next issue.

[seriousfic]

We Who Are About To Die episode 1

This got bad reviews, but what sword and sandals media gets good reviews? That said:

-Bewilderingly, the show has several Numidians and plays them as the most cliched African tribesmen imaginable, instead of as Berbers. I can only imagine that Peacock got more ESG points for black people than for Arabs. Either that or they saw that the source material had a "slaves trying to break free" plot and just had to make those characters black.

-It also plays them as Noble Savages entirely straight, being just aghast at how humans can kill for reasons other than eating. Okay, Tarzan, whatever you say.

-Naturally, the one gay character is the most debauched, out-and-out villain. Roland Emmerich is gay, so I think this is just his throwback to Spartacus and the like, but who would've thought a German would have that much of a sense of humor?

-In case you're wondering how dumbed down this all is from actual Roman history, they say at one point "All the people care about are bread and games." Because circus = spectacle = games is too big a leap for their target audience to make, one guesses.

-At one point, the chariot race announcer declares "Ride or die!"

-Anthony Hopkins gets the thankless role of old guy emperor. Would it be too much to ask that they get Pacino or Deniro for one of these? I feel Hopkins has done this character a dozen times.

-Speaking of, I know the British accent isn't realistically what ancient Romans would sound like, even if they were speaking English--but is it too much to ask for some consistency? It's just weird to hear the Romans go from British accents to American accents at random.

-The main 'Numidian' chick, Cala, has entirely too much plot armor. She's played something like a reverse Paul Atriedes who is induced into Roman society and immediately comes up with all these one-neat-tricks to improve things, as well as instantly becoming the right-hand man to antihero Tenax. It was unbelievable to me that Tenax has so small an organization that Cala is the first person to come along that he can delegate to, but at the same time he's such a huge power broker that he can affect the course of the Empire.

-This show has waaaay too many characters, man. Just for starters, we have three Spanish horse guys, four Numidians, two rival charioteers, the Roman emperor and his competitive sons, assorted gladiators, assorted politicians, random Romans who hold stock in the arena, and all their kooky love stories... it got to the point that two female characters started having a love scene: I had no idea who one of them was and whether the two had ever had scenes together before. And it's not like all of these characters come together at the end. Plenty of them are just THERE and never contribute to the larger plot. I understand not thinking this would get a second season, but surely they could've saved a few of these people for later instead of cramming them all in at once.

-A surprising amount of plot points arise from the charioteers 'boxing each other in' against a wall so that they can't get out of the way of an obstacle and crash right into it. I don't know, I'm not an expert chariot racer, but... horses stop, don't they? It's not just turning them left or right, you can actually make them stop, correct?

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

Luther Discovers Hus

“You are espousing the pestilent errors of Jon Hus, who claimed that Peter neither was nor is the head of the Holy Catholic Church." John Eck accused Luther "I repulse the charge of Bohemianism," roared Luther.

This was an intense moment in the German town of Leipzig in July, 1519. Luther’s old German friend, John Eck, had challenged Luther to a public debate. For eighteen days the debate between Eck, Luther and Andreas Carlstadt was the center of the western world. This debate was a major turning point for Luther and the Reformation.

Eck, a polished debater, tried to corner Luther to admit that he agreed with the condemned Jon Hus. At first Martin told Eck the Bohemian was not an issue for the debate, and that he didn’t agree with Hus. But Luther didn't really know what Hus believed, only that he was a heretic.

During a break for lunch, Luther went to the university library and read the trial notes that condemned Hus as a heretic. Historian Roland Bainton said Luther found “to his amazement,” that he did agree with Hus. Bainton continues, “When the assembly reconvened at two o'clock, Luther declared, ‘Among the articles of Jon Hus, I find many which are plainly Christian and evangelical, which the universal Church cannot condemn.’" At this admission Duke George in disgust muttered in a loud enough voice that all could hear, “The plague!”

Eck had cornered Luther into a surprising concession. Because of that, some say Eck won the debate, although many say it was a draw. The debate ultimately helped Luther, who felt the debate was a waste of time, free himself further from the papal system. And Martin Luther had found a friend and ally in Jon Hus, a man burned at the stake as a heretic one hundred years prior to Luther.

“I thought of John Hus as a cursed heretic,” Luther later said. “I counted it a sin even to think of him. I would gladly have furnished the wood to burn him. I would have felt I had done God a real service….I was struck with amazement as I read on, and was filled with an astonishment difficult to describe, as I sought out for what reason so great a man—a doctor, so worthy of veneration, and so powerful in expounding the Scriptures���had been burned to death.”

If such a man, he wrote, "is to be regarded as a heretic, then no person under the sun can be looked upon as a true Christian." The Leipzig debate sealed Luther’s fate. It was only a matter of time before he would be excommunicated from the Catholic Church.

Martin Luther's "discovery" of Hus tells us a lot about Luther. He reads Hus and immediately changes a long and deeply held belief he had about Hus, showing that Luther is very teachable and willing to admit he is wrong. He casually admits his error to a room full of peers and powerful men. He didn't seem to care or worry about how this admission would effect his reputation--which was an amazing tendency of Luther. This shows Luther’s bravery and willingness to accept the repercussions of his convictions. The Leipzig Debate reveals the character of Luther and why he was the spearhead of the Reformation. It also moved Luther and the Reformation even further from Catholic teachings. "The ship of the Reformation was cut from its moorings, and had to fight with the winds and waves of the open sea," writes Historian Philip Schaff.

Source: https://www.facebook.com/church.history01

This is a really good Facebook account. Check it out and give Church History a follow.

[fraeuleintaka]

Raymond Shields' new name: Eddie Fender

This is the 19th post in the Ace Attorney Investigations Collection Countdown: 62 days left until release!

Today's topic: Eddie Fender aka Raymond Shields!

I'm going to be honest: Ray isn't among my favourite characters. I do like him, especially for the role he plays in Investigations 2's story, but I'm not the biggest fan of his personality. I like his interactions with many characters but I'm not all that attached to him for his own sake so I basically would not have cared whatever his name in the official localisation would've been.

I like "Raymond Shields" as his name with "Shields" fitting to Miles' "Edge" in "Edgeworth" (similar to how their Japanese names have the meanings of "shield" and "sword" respectively) and "Raymond" coming from Proto-Germanic meaning "advice" and "protector" which handily fits his role in the game and his job as a defense attorney in general. Going from "Raymond" to "(Uncle) Ray" as a nickname also works really well.

From what I've seen "Eddie Fender" is only really a play on "a defender" which also references his defense attorney position but doesn't do much else. In that context I definitely prefer his fan translated name, it seems to have more meaning behind it. I don't know if he will also refer to himself as "Uncle Ed" or "Uncle Eddie" in the official localisation but somehow that sounds... dirtier than "Uncle Ray"? I'm not the biggest fan of his hug gimmick anyway (except that one time where Patricia Roland "out-hugged" him 😂) so I hope they won't make it worse. (I assume his "full name" is "Edmund" even though he'll only be called "Eddie" to make the pun work - similar to how Gumshoe's actual first name is likely "Richard" with "Dick" being a nickname but "Dick" has the detective reference so that's what he's called - so we'd have a similar nickname situation to "Raymond" and "Ray".) I don't care about his character enough to be particularly upset about the inferior name - and while it's less good than the fan translated one I don't think it's horrible either - but if I had to pick, I'd definitely go with his fan translated name.

[iliiuan]

Epic Fantasy through the Ages

A Chronology of Story

This is a work in progress, but here is my list as of 6 July 2023. Please feel free to send me additions or corrections. I have focused on epic (works that are long and took a long time to create) and fantasy (works that include an element of magic, the supernatural, or superpowers). Some of the list could be categorized as myth, some as Literature™️, some as science fiction, but beyond these categories are the two main criteria of epic and fantasy. I also don't fully know what all of the ancient to modern works encompass, but that's the fun of read and find out. I probably have added some things that don't properly meet my criteria, and that's fine with me. 🌺

Works by Mesopotamian Bards (3100 BC - 539 BC)

Enumah Elish (Epic of Creation)

Atrahasis (The Flood)

Epic of Gilgamesh

Descent of Ishtar

Epic of Erra

Etana

Adapa

Anzu

Nergel and Ereshkigal

Avesta by Zoroastrian Bards (1500 BC)

Ramayana by Valmiki (750+ BC)

Mahabharata by Vayasa (750+ BC)

The Illiad and the Odyssey by Homer (650+ BC)

Thoegeny; Works and Days by Hesiod (650+ BC)

Popol Vuh (4th century BC)

The Torah and other Jewish stories (4th century BC)

Argonautica by Apollonius of Rhodes (270 BC)

Bellum Punicam by Gnaeus Naevius (200 BC)

Annales by Ennius (170 BC)

De Rerum Natura by Lucretius (50 BC)

Poem 64 by Catullus (50 BC)

The Aenid by Virgil (19 BC)

Metamorphoses by Ovid (2 AD)

Punica by Silius Italicus (50 AD)

Satyrica by Petronius (60 AD)

Pharsalia or Bellum Civile by Lucan (62 AD)

Argonautica by Valerius Flaccus (70 AD)

Thebaid by Statius (90 AD)

The Irish Myth Cycles: Mythological, Ulster, Fenian, and Kings (3rd Century AD)

The Bible and other Christian stories (5th century AD)

Dionysiaca by Nonnus of Panopolis (500 AD)

The Quran and other Muslim stories (7th century AD)

Arabian Nights (7th century AD)

Hildebrandslied and other German heroic lays by Bards (830 AD)

Shahnameh by Ferdowsi (977 or 1010 AD)

Chanson de Roland (1125 AD)

Cantar de Mio Sid (1200 AD)

The Dietrich Cycle (1230 AD)

Poetic Edda and Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson and others (1270 AD)

Beowulf by Old English Bards (11th century AD)

Nibelungenlied by Middle High German Bards (1200)

Amadís de Gaula (13th century AD)

The Divine Comedy by Dante Alghieri (1308)

Teseida by Bocaccio (1340 AD)

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by Middle English Bards (14th century)

The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer (1392)

Morgante by Luigi Pulci (1483)

Le morte d'Arthur by Thomas Mallory (1485)

Orlando Innamorato by Boiardo (1495)

Orlando Furioso by Ariosto (1516)

Os Lusiadas by Camoes (1572)

Gerusalemme Liberata by Tasso (1581)

Plays and Poems by William Shakespeare (1589)

The Faerie Queen by Edmund Spencer (1590)

Discourses on the Heroic Poem by Tasso (1594)

Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes (1614)

L'Adone by Marino (1623)

Paradise Lost; Paradise Regained by Milton (1667)

Le Lutrin by Boileau (1674)

Order and Disorder by Lucy Hutchinson (1679)

Mac Flecknoe; Aenid English translation by Dryden (1682)

The Dispensary bu Samuel Garth (1699)

The Battle of the Books; A Tale of a Tub by Swift (1704)

The Rape of the Lock; Illiad and Odyssey English translations; Dunciad by Pope (1714)

The Vanity of Human Wishes by Samuel Johnson (1749)

Scribleriad by Richard Owen Cambridge (1751)

Faust by Goethe (1772)

The Triumphs of Temper; Essay on Epic Poetry by William Hayley (1782)

The Task by William Cowper (1785)

Joan of Arc; Thalaba the Destroyer; Madoc; The Curse of Kehama by Southey (1796)

The Prelude; The Execution by Wordsworth (1799)

Jerusalem by Blake (1804)

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Coleridge (1817)

Laon and Cythna; Peter Bell the Third; Prometheus Unbound by Shelley (1817)

Hyperion: A Fragment; The Fall of Hyperion by Keats (1818)

Don Juan by Byron (1819)

The Kalevala by Elias Lonnrot (1835)

Sohrah and Rustum by Matthew Arnold (1853)

Hiawatha by Longfellow (1855)

Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman (1855)

Idylls of the King by Lord Alfred Tennyson (1859)

Cantos by Ezra Pound (1917)

The Wasteland by T.S. Eliot (1922)

Ulysses by James Joyce (1922)

The Hobbit/The Lord of the Rings/The Silmarillion etc. by J.R.R. Tolkien (1937)

Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake (1946)

The White Goddess by Robert Graves (1948)

Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell (1949)

The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis (1950)

Anathemata by David Jones (1952)

Dune by Frank Herbert (1965)

The Dark Is Rising Sequence by Susan Cooper (1965)

Briggflatts by Basil Bunting (1965)

Earthsea by Ursula K. LeGuin (1968)

Dragonriders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey (1968)

The Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny (1970)

The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice (1976)

The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen Donaldson (1977)

The Magic of Xanth by Piers Anthony (1977)

Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolf (1980)

The Dark Tower by Stephen King (1982)

Belgariad and Mellorean by David Eddings (1982)

The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley (1982)

Shannara by Terry Brooks (1982)

The Riftwar Cycle by Raymond E. Feist (1982)

Discworld by Terry Pratchett (1983)

Mythago Wood by Robert Holdstock (1984)

Neuromancer by William Gibson (1984)

The Black Company (1984)

Redwall by Brian Jaques (1986)

Valdemar by Mercedes Lackey (1987)

Memory, Sorrow, Thorn by Tad Williams (1988)

Sandman by Neil Gaimon (1989)

The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan (1990)

Queen of Angels by Greg Bear (1990)

Newford by Charles de Lint (1990)

Omeros by Derek Walcott (1990)

The Saga of Recluse by L.E. Modesitt, Jr. (1991)

The Witcher by Andrzej Sapkowski (1993)

Sword of Truth by Terry Goodkind (1994)

Realm of the Elderlings by Robin Hobb (1995)

His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman (1995)

Old Kingdom by Garth Nix (1995)

A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin (1996)

Animorphs by H.A. Applegate (1996)

Crown of Stars by Kate Elliott (1997)

Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling (1997)

The Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steve Erickson (1999)

The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher (2000)

The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini (2002)

Prince of Nothing by R. Scott Bakker (2003)

Bartimaeus by Jonathan Stroud (2003)

The Gentlemen Bastard Sequence by Scott Lynch (2004)

Twilight by Stephanie Meyer (2005)

Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan (2005)

Temeraire by Naomi Novik (2006)

The First Law by Joe Abercrombie (2006)

Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson (2006)

The Kingkiller Chronicle by Patrick Rothfuss (2007)

Shadows of the Apt by Adrian Tchaikovsky (2008)

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (2008)

Graceling by Kristin Cashore (2008)

Riyria Revelations by Michael J. Sullivan (2008)

Night Angel by Brent Weeks (2008)

The Demon Cycle by Peter V. Brett (2008)

Inheritance by N.K. Jemisin (2010)

The Lightbringer by Brent Weeks (2010)

The Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson (2010)

The Expanse by James S.A. Corey (2011)

The Broken Empire by Mark Lawrence (2011)

The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer (2012)

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas (2012)

Grishaverse by Leigh Bardugo (2012)

The Traitor Son Cycle by Miles Cameron (2012)

Worm by Wildbow (2013)

The Powder Mage by Brian McClellan (2013)

The Broken Earth by N.K. Jemisin (2015)

Shards of Heaven by Michael Livingston (2015)

The Green Bone Saga by Fonda Lee (2017)

The Band Series by Nicholas Eames (2017)

Winternight by Katherine Arden (2017)

The Folk of the Air by Holly Black (2018)

The Founders by Robert Jackson Bennett (2018)

The Locked Tomb by Tamsyn Muir (2019)

Grave of Empires by Sam Sykes (2019)

Djeliya by Juni Ba (2021)

[biboocat]

I first heard about The Story of an African Farm (1883) by the South African writer Olive Schreiner in Vera Brittain’s memoir of the Great War, Testament of Youth. She and her fiancé, Roland Leighton were intensely interested in it, but its contents weren’t discussed, so I was curious to read it. Olive Schreiner wrote this debut novel when she was only in her 20s. The Story of an African Farm is set on an isolated farm in the South African veld. It is a coming of age story of the three children who live there, the two girls Em and Lyndall and Waldo, the farm manager’s son. Schreiner’s views are told mostly through Waldo and Lyndall as we follow their development and difficult quests. The novel is unconventional. Besides the traditional narrative sections it has the unusual features of an exposition (Times and Seasons) and an allegory as well as a lengthy letter. She describes Waldo’s spiritual journey from unquestioned religious belief to skepticism and apostasy and the replacement of the religious void with knowledge and an appreciation for the beauty and order of Nature. Olive Schreiner was raised by devout Christian missionaries but lost her religious faith after the death of her beloved 17 month old sister Ellie. Schreiner also raises the issue of gender inequality through Lyndall: the limitations on women’s education and their subservient roles in society, and she describes Lyndall’s desperate struggle for autonomy. I wasn’t surprised to learn that Olive Schreiner loved George Eliot‘s the Mill on the Floss and that she identified with Maggie Tulliver. Her views were quite progressive and controversial for her time, and the book was met with both wide appeal and opposition. I can imagine how it must have resonated with Vera Brittain’s own agnosticism and feminism. It’s a philosophical work that courageously challenges both the form of the Victorian novel and restrictive Victorian social conventions.

Memorable excerpts (among many):

“We must have awakened sooner or later. The imagination cannot always triumph over reality, the desire over truth…Now we have no God. We have had two: The old God that our fathers handed down to us, that we hated, and never liked; the new one that we made for ourselves, that we loved; but now he has flitted away from us, and we see what he was made of – the shadow of our highest ideal, crowned and enthroned.”

“But we, wretched unbelievers, we bear our own burdens; we must say, I myself did it, I. Not God, not Satan; I myself!”

I came across a reference to Olive Schreiner in a review of Lyndall Gordon’s biographical work, Outsiders: Five Women Writers Who Changed the World. I haven’t read it, but it sounded interesting, and I have provided the link:

The edition I read is from the Limited Editions Club. The cover material is Ugandan bark cloth, Isak Dinesen provides the introduction, and it is illustrated by Paul Hogarth. I have also seen editions from Oxford World’s Classics, Penguin, Virago, and Modern Library.

Memorable excerpts :

It is a terrible, hateful ending, said the little teller of the story, leaning forward on her folded arms; and the worst is, it is true. I have noticed, added the child very deliberately, that it is only the made up stories that end nicely; the true ones all end so.

They did not understand the discourse (the charlatan’s false sermon), which made it the more affecting. There hung over it that inscrutable charm which hovers for ever for the human intellect over the incomprehensible and shadowy.

To the old German the story it was no story. Its events were as real and as important to himself as the matters of his own life. He could not go away without knowing whether the wicked Earl relented, and whether the Baron married Emelina.

Times and Seasons is a very important chapter that outlines the course of one’s experiences with religious faith (if one is willing to think for oneself): belief, questioning, skepticism, disbelief, and finally the replacement of religion with knowledge and an appreciation of the beauty and order of Nature. Some excerpts from this chapter follow:

Is it good of God to make hell? Was it kind of Him to let no one be forgiven unless Jesus Christ died?

Is it right there should be a chosen people? To Him, who is father to all, should not all be dear?

We must have awakened sooner or later. The imagination cannot always triumph over reality, the desire over truth…Now we have no God. We have had two: The old God that our fathers handed down to us, that we hated, and never liked; the new one that we made for ourselves, that we loved; but now he has flitted away from us, and we see what he was made of – the shadow of our highest ideal, crowned and enthroned. Now we have no God...

We do not cry and weep; we sit down with cold eyes and look at the world. We are not miserable. Why should we be? We eat and drink, and sleep all night; but the dead are not colder.

And we add, growing a little colder yet, ‘There is no justice. The ox dies in the yoke beneath its master’s whip; it turns its anguish-filled eyes on the sunlight, but there is no sign of recompense to be made it. The black man is shot like a dog, and it goes well with the shooter. The innocent are accused, and the accuser triumphs. If you will take the trouble to scratch the surface anywhere, you will see under the skin a sentient being writhing in impotent anguish.’ And we say further, and our heart is as the heart of the dead for coldness, ‘There is no order’: all things are driven about by a blind chance.’. p117

What a soul drinks in with its mothers milk will not leave it in a day. From earliest hour we have been taught that the thought of the heart, the shaping of the rain-cloud, the amount of wool that grows on a sheep‘s back, the length of a drought, and the growing of the corn depend on nothing that moves immutable, at the heart of all things; but on the changeable will of a changeable being, whom our prayers can alter. To us, from the beginning, nature has been but a poor plastic thing, to be toyed with this way or that, as man happens to please his deity or not; to go to church or not; to say his prayers right or not; to travel on a Sunday or not. Was it possible for us in an instant to see Nature as she is – the flowing vestment of unchanging reality? When a soul breaks free from the arms of a superstition, bits of the claws and talons break themselves off in him. It is not the work of a day to squeeze them out...

Whether a man believes in a human-like God or no is a small thing. Whether he looks into the mental and physical world and sees no relation between cause and effect, no order, but a blind chance sporting, this is the mightiest fact that can be recorded in any spiritual existence. p118

Following this, the appreciation of the acquisition of knowledge and Nature’s own beauty and order fills the void of religion. pp119-121

We have never once been taught by word or act to distinguish between religion and the moral laws on which it has artfully fastened its self, and from which it has sucked it’s vitality.

But we, wretched unbelievers, we bear our own burdens; we must say, I myself did it, I. Not God, not Satan; I myself!

The secret of success is concentration; wherever there has been a great life, or a great work, that has gone before. Taste everything a little, look at everything a little; but live for one thing. Anything is possible to a man who knows his end and moves straight for it, and for it alone.

[randomvarious]

Today's compilation:

Vorsprung Durch Drum & Bass Selection One 1997 Drum n Bass

Absolutely ridiculous how this German-released drum n bass double-disc from the late 90s has only managed to net itself a sub-4 rating on Discogs over the years, because usually when something's under a 4 (on a 5-point scale), that means that it's not very good, but this album happens to satisfy on both of the genre's chaotically hard-charging and chillier atmospheric fronts, so the underwhelmed response definitely comes as a bit of a surprise.

But here's a couple things to consider that might help to explain it: one, Germany has never really taken too much to drum n bass in the first place—according to Discogs, only ~300 comps with dnb on them were released there in the 90s, whereas techno and trance both appeared on over 2,500 comps apiece for the same decade—and two, the label that put this out at the time, Sub Terranean, was never really much of a dnb outfit to begin with; their specialty was hardcore rave and Goa trance compilations, and this was the first comp of straight-up dnb that they'd ever attempted to put out themselves. So I think you can imagine that when a typical German fan of Sub Terranean who naturally wasn't too much of a dnb junkie picked this up, it wasn't really their cup of tea 😕.

And to be honest, as someone who *is* a fan of dnb, the start of this album really isn't my cup of tea, either—too slow, steady, and boring. But funnily enough, the first tune where things really do begin to unlock here is with Ed Rush & Nico's brilliant "Technology," a crazy and spaciously abstract groove that linearly strings together a very wide variety of splashily-sampled bits of percussion. And the reason why it's particularly 'funny' is because the old German Audi ad slogan that this compilation derived its very own title from—Vorsprung Durch Technik—actually translates to 'Progress Through Technology' in English! So, kinda fitting that a song called "Technology" would be the first real gem on this album then, especially as it progresses to get better through this very song, right?! 🤯

And then along with Ed Rush & Nico, there're a whole bunch of other household dnb names from the UK that collectively dominate this album too: Rob Playford, Goldie, Dom & Roland, Photek, Jacob's Optical Stairway (aka 4hero), DJ Krust, Jonny L., Blu Mar Ten, Omni Trio, and even Squarepusher, whose own "Beep Street" features his signature drill n' bass sound that pairs soothingly emotive pads with splatter-nutty drum patterns 🫨.

But Sub Terranean also made sure to feature a couple German-made tunes on here too, and one of them unfortunately isn't on YouTube right now, but the other one is. The one that isn't, "When Love Comes Down (Never Trust a Righteous Man Remix - Part1)" by The Righteous Men, sounds like it incorporates some sort of industrial scanner-copier-type sound, and one half of the duo that made it, Thimo U. Seidel, also helped compile this very album itself too. And then the one that is on YouTube, Xyphax's "Treplec," is a pretty uniquely gnarly thing that, among its own bevy of different sounds, may or may not have animal noises on it ⁉️🤔

So don't end up taking the word of the German audience that this comp appeared to originally be intended for, because evidently, they didn't really know what they were talking about when they'd heard this thing. And you can't blame 'em for that either, because as someone who digs plenty of dnb but is generally neither fond of hardcore rave nor Goa trance themselves, a lot of the people who made up Sub Terranean's own fanbase and gave this a shot were probably something like a direct inverse of me; so I think it stands to reason why they wouldn't necessarily totally *get* a release like this in the first place . Nice to see the label try to diversify though, even if this would prove to be the only selection of Vorsprung Durch Drum & Bass that they'd ever make 😅.

Highlights:

CD1:

Ed Rush & Nico - "Technology" Jacob's Optical Stairway - "The Chase The Escape (Chris Energy Mix)" Chaos & Julia Set - "Learn to Fight (First Generation)" Voyager - "Desire (Dave Wallace Remix)" The Righteous Man - "When Love Comes Down (Never Trust a Righteous Man Remix - Part1)" Xyphax - "Treplec"

CD2:

Omni Trio - "Trippin' On Broken Beats (VIP)" Squarepusher - "Beep Street" Intense - "1st Contact" DJ Krust - "Soul in Motion" Jonny L. - "Common Origin" Mastermind - "Imagine" Blu Mar Ten - "The Fountain"

[fallloverfic]

I went overboard (and kinda cheated cause some of these were just a lot smaller to nonexistent when I started posting for them, but are definitely not now), so with the caveat this is only going by Archive of Our Own stats (and also thank you to all the amazing tag wranglers who have wrangled tags that have been the only fic in that pairing/fandom for ages, small fandom authors love you so much):

Blind Men has 15 fics total, mine is the most recent (over a year after posting), and it is the fifth Hunter/Keegan work.

Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon REMIX had 5 fics before I posted the first Alex Taylor/Dolph Laserhawk fic. There are now 213 fics total and 21 Alex/Dolph fics.

It's hard to tell with this fandom because of active fandoms, backdating, and crossovers, but I posted the second fic for Castlevania: Nocturne and Mizrak/Olrox (I know because I went immediately to the tag after watching and I checked it before and after posting mine). There are now 257 fics in the fandom tag and 91 for the pairing. I also posted the second fic for Alucard/Olrox (it's been shifted out of order because another fic either backdated or added the pairing, but one reason I finally put mine up was because the only fic for the pairing at the time was one solely based on the games that predated the show by 8 years). There are now 7 fics for the pairing. I posted the third of the now 12 Olrox/Richter fics.

I created the Dorus/Styxx pairing for the Dark-Hunter Series. I still have the only fic. Dorus isn't an original character (he's a minor acquaintance in the book who meets Styxx twice), but I almost completely retconned his backstory and personality.

I started and was the entirety of the Dear Monster tag for some time (I wrote 3, there are now 4, with one published almost a year after my last fic), and I also published the only Faeryn/Allen fic.

I posted 1 of the 26 Rouxls Kaard/Mettaton fics for Deltarune/Undertale.

I posted the first Ameridan/Kordillus Drakon I fic from Dragon Age: Inquisition (there is now a second, published nearly three years after mine). I published the first Lacklon/Roland fic for Dragon Age: Absolution. There are now 21 fics. As I recall it was only like the third or fourth fic at most in the fandom tag at the time, but this is another fandom that's hard to track due to active fandoms, backdating, and crossovers. I also have 1/14 of the Solas/Felassan fanfics, and 1/41 of the m/m Davrin/Rook fanfics.

Element of Fire has 6 fics. Mine is the most recent and I posted the only Roland Fontainon/Gideon fic. And Roland Fontainon/Falaise, but I don't fully consider that the fic focus so. I think it's also the only one that even includes Roland.

I posted 1 of the 38 Augus Each Uisge/Gwyn ap Nudd fics for Fae Tales - not_poignant. That's 1 out of 15 if you only count fanworks, since all the canon and official AUs are included in the tag. I published both the 2 fanfics for Eran Iliakambar/Mosk Manytrees (the other 4 works are all canon and an official AU). I published the only fanwork for Anika/Terho (the other fic is a canon extra).

I created the crossover pairing Wing/Murata Ugetsu for Hunter X Hunter and Given and have the only fic for it.

I posted the only tagged Clark Kent/Lewis Lane fic for My Adventures with Superman. But I can't believe there isn't something else out there for a character who's technically existed since 1980. There may be one in German and another in English that's tagged for Louis Lane, the 1980 character(s), but they both predate My Adventures with Superman by some years.

I posted 1 of the 14 fics for Brad Boimler/Jack Ransom for Star Trek: Lower Decks.

I posted the most recent 2 of the 4 Van Fanel/Allen Schezar fics for Escaflowne.

I posted the only Lisava Ormevar/Aathis Rohethar fic for The Chronicles of Osreth.

I posted the 3 most recent The Hunt fics, and all 4 fandom fics are for Hendrey/Cash (fic 1, fic 2, fic 3).

I posted 1 of the 34 Link/Tauro fics. I also went looking back when I posted and at least back then I couldn't find Link/those funky tower mechanical arm tentacles, so maybe I was the first with that? Only two fics pop up when I search for them now.

This is another fandom where it's hard to track things due to active fandoms, backdating, etc., but I recall I published the second Jaskier/Radovid V fic, and maybe the first focused on the Netflix show version (the one prior to that, as I recall, was game and/or book focused). I remember being surprised there still weren't that many when I posted my second one. Pretty sure the pairing was still in the double digits. There are now 345. I published one of the first couple fics for Filavandrel aen Fidhail/Vesemir, and I believe the first or second to specifically focus on their incarnations in The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf. There are now 37 fics. I also started the tag for Sirens of the Deep and still have the only fic in the tag.

This isn't a pairing but I somehow published the only fanfic for the Tomb Raider Top Cow comics tag? Similarly, I started the Golden Sparkle by Minta Suzumaru tag.

I published 1 of 32 fics for Anna Valerious/Gabriel Van Helsing for Van Helsing (2004).

I published the third of 6 fics for Dietfried Bougainvillea/Claudia Hodgins from Violet Evergarden. I think the second-to-last published before mine (that's currently a WIP) one came out cause I went on a sort of hiatus while posting.

This is another fandom where it's hard to track things due to active fandoms, backdating, etc., but my fic is listed as the 9th for Rand al'Thor/Ishamael. There are now 47.

My Shutendouji/Ryo fic is the seventh out of ten fics for the pairing for Ronin Warriors. When I originally made this post, it was the sixth. I assume someone backdated a fic or retagged it.

I published the second of the now 13 Jin Marito/Tahide Outa fics for a fandom with now 91 works (Bucchigiri?!).

This is another fandom where it's hard to track things due to active fandoms, backdating, etc., but I think I posted one of the first 20 Gongyi Xiao/Zhuzhi-lang fics for The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System. There are now 114. I posted 1 of the 33 Liu Qingge/Zhuzhi-lang fics.

There are 53 works in the Kyuujitsu no Warumono-san webcomic tag and 8 in the anime tag. I think I posted the third Akatsuki Red/Shogun fic (and there are now 13), and the first Rooney/Shogun fic. There are now 3. I've posted the second of the 2 Shogun/Yoiyami Black fics.

I posted fic #4 in the See You My King/The King and Me tag, and the first Xiao Wei/Evtiti fic. There are now 2/3(?) (it's hard to tell because the tag hasn't been wrangled). I also posted the 9th + 10th most recent Mimi/Zhang Li fics. There are 12 fics in the fandom tag.

I posted the first fic for Lang Qianqiu/Xiao Mengyou or Lang Qianqiu/Xiao Shiwei, but I believe the second fic about Xiao Mengyou (the first one didn't name him). There are now 13 fics in the tag.

I posted technically the second fic of the 2 for Peach Blossom Debt. The other fic for some time was just two words that say, "Coming 2024" (it's since been edited to have actual fic in it). Mine is the only one for Song Yao/Hengwen Qingjun.

I posted the 7th fic for The Imperial Uncle, and it's the second for Jing Chengjun/Liu Tongyi. The total fandom is 17 fics.

I posted the most recent 2 of still 3 fics for The Deer King, which includes 1 of 2 fics for Hohsalle Yuguraul/Van Gansa, and the only fic for Hohsalle Yuguraul/Makokan.

I posted the still only fic for Joseph Huh/Yongsoo Ahn in a fandom that I think had a lot fewer fics before mine back when I posted it, but it has 58 now. I am using the official English translation spellings. I'm not sure what Ao3 is using.

I posted one of now 8 total fics for Choi Jong-In/Sung Jin-Woo in Solo Leveling (it had 9 when last I looked).

I posted the second and most recent fic for Jaehwan/Karlton Javier for The World After the Fall. The fandom tag has 34 fics now.

I've posted 2 of the 14 fics for Anubis/Khnum in ENNEAD (fic 1, fic 2). (It used to have 15, I guess someone deleted one).

I've posted apparently the second of 11 works tagged for Lee Hakhyun/Yoo Joonghyuk for Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint.

I've posted the second of 4 fics for Chronos/Zagreus in the Hades fandom. I've posted the only Heracles/Icarus fic. I posted the first of now 14 total Odysseus/Moros fics.

For Blood of Zeus, I've posted the latest of 5 fics for Apollo/Seraphim. I posted the last two Seraphim/Heron fics in the 10 fic tag (fic 1, fic 2).

Not a romantic/physical ship, but I posted the first Mithrun & Milsiril fic for Delicious in Dungeon.

I'm currently writing a series of non-existent ships in the Ayashi no Ceres tag. Thus far I've posted one each for Alec/Ryurik, Alec/Kagami, Kagami/Toya, Yuhi/Toya, and Toya/Wei. I have one last one planned for another ship that doesn't exist. The only m/m fic in the fandom tag that isn't mine is for characters from another series. Most of the characters I'm writing don't have wrangled tags.

I've written two of the 12 Lawrence Bluewer/Edgar Redmond fics for Kuroshitsuji (fic 1, fic 2).

For The Sea Beast (2022), I wrote one of the five Jacob Holland/Original Character fics, and the only tagged Jacob Holland/The Surgeon fics (I think there are other fics, but they aren't using the wrangled tag).

For BoJack Horseman, I've written one of the 74 BoJack Horseman/Mr. Peanutbutter fics.

For Bridgerton, I've written the only Anthony Bridgerton/Lord Lumley fic.

For Epic: The Musical, I wrote one of now 26 Eurylochus/Odysseus fics (there were fewer than 7 when I published it).

For Dark Rise, I've written one of 61 Anharion/Sarcean fics (there were fewer than 46 when I published).

I have the only Babylon 5 fic tagged for Marcus Cole & Lennier, as well as Lyta Alexander & Marcus Cole.

I have the only Vlad Taltos/Haichfa fic in Dragaera, and it's one of only 15 m/m works in the fandom.

I have 1/35 and the most recent Jareth/Toby fic in Labyrinth.

I wrote the fourth and most recent fic for Ordeal By Innocence (TV) fanfic.

I started the Requiescence tag, and currently have the only fics in it, including the only Kaul/Kymil fanfic (other one is a crossover).

I wrote one of the now 96 Loid Forger/Yuri Briar fics for Spy x Family.

From what I can tell I have the only Starship Operators fanfic on Ao3. The fandom tag still hasn't been wrangled after nearly half a year.

I wrote the second of two fics for State Fair (1945).

I started the tag for Twilight of the Gods, though there were at least a couple fics for it before it was wrangled, and which are now likely in the wrong tags (one version of the tag was for a larger and incorrect fandom). The main relationships are unwrangled.

I have the only fic in the wrangled version of Koschey/Ivan for Im|mortal the webcomic. There are two others in different versions of the tag for the total 4-fic tag.

I have 1 of the now 24 Hirose Aiki/Nakamura Okuto fics for Go for it, Nakamura!!.

I have 1/10 of the Yu Shengyuan/Yuan Ying fics for Thousand Autumns.

I have 1/14 Cale Henituse/Bud Illis fics in the Lout of Count's Family tag, which is also 1/32 of the Cale/Tunka tag, and the only Bud/Cale/Tunka fic. I have 1/62 of the Clopeh Sekka/Cale fics. I have the only fic tagged for the Dragon Half-Blood & Ron Molran, which is also 1/4 of the Cale & Dragon Half-Blood fics. I have 1/3 of the Dragon Half-Blood & Sheritt fics.

Reblog and put your rare pair in the tags/comments! I want to see the depths people will go to create, for the most random two characters in the most obscure media.