#The Age of Madness trilogy Book 1

[will80sbyers]

Do you still have the list of movies that inspired ST4? I had a picture of it but I lost it and I haven't been able to find it since. Please and thank you in advance.

Yep!

Long post warning lol

300

2001: A Space Odyssey

47 Meters Down: Uncaged

12 Monkeys

28 Days Later

13th Warrior

Ace Ventura: Pet Detective

Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls

Altered States

Amelie

American Sniper

Analyze This

Annihilation

Aristocats

Armageddon

Assassins Creed

Avengers: Age of Ultron

Arrival

Almost Famous

Batman Begins

Batman V. Superman

Basket Case

Battle at Big Rock

Beauty and the Beast

Beetlejuice

Behind Enemy Lines

Beverly Hills Cop

Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey

Billy Madison

Black Cauldron

Black Swan

Boondock Saints

Borat

Bram Stoker’s Dracula

Burn After Reading

Broken Arrow

Blade Runner

C.H.U.D

Con Air

Cast Away

Congo

Constantine

Children of Men

Cabin in the Woods

Crank

Casablanca

Carrie

Crimson Tide

Clueless

Dukes of Hazzard

Don’t Breathe

Death to Smoochy

Doom

Dark Knight

Dogma

Deep Blue Sea

Dreamcatcher

Drop Dead Fred

Die Hard

Die Hard 2

Die Hard 3

Don’s Plum

Dances with Wolves

Dumb and Dumber

Edward Scissorhands

Enter the Void

Ex Machina

Event Horizon

Emma (2020)

Forrest Gump

Fargo

Fisher King

Full Metal Jacket

Ferris Bueller

Fallen

Fugitive

Ghost

Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Ghostbusters

Good Fellas

Girl Interrupted

Godzilla: King of the Monsters

Get Out

Good Will Hunting

Hackers

High Fidelity

Hellraiser 1

Hellraiser 2

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Hidden

High School Musical

Hurt Locker

Heat

Hunger Games

Highlander

Hell or High Water

Home Alone

I am Legend

It’s a Wonderful Life

In Cold Blood

Inception

I am a Fugitive from Chain Gang

Inside Out

Island of Doctor Moreau

It Follows

Interview with a Vampire

Inner Space

Into the Spiderverse

Independence Day

Jupiter Ascending

John Carter of Mars

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

James Bond (All Movies)

Julie

Karate Kid

Knives Out

Kingsmen

Little Miss Sunshine

Labyrinth

Long Kiss Goodnight

Lost Boys

Leon: The Professional

Let the Right One In

Little Women (1994)

Mad Max: Fury Road

Magnolia

Men in Black

Mimic

Matrix

Misery

My Cousin Vinny

Mystic River

Minority Report

Mr. and Mrs. Smith

Neverending Story

Never Been Kissed

No Country for Old Men

Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors

North by Northwest

Open Water

Orange County

Oceans 8

Oceans 11

Oceans 12

One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest

Ordinary People

Paddington 2

Platoon

Pulp Fiction

Papillon

Pan’s Labyrinth

Pineapple Express

Peter Pan

Princess Bride

Paradise Lost

Primal Fear

Prisoners

Peter Jackson’s King Kong

Reservoir Dogs

Ravenous

Rushmore

Road Warrior

Rogue One

Reality Bites

Raider of the Lost Ark

Red Dragon

Robocop

Shooter

Sky High

Swingers

Sword in the Stone

Step Up 2

Spy Kids

Saving Private Ryan

Shape of Water

Swept Away

Star Wars: Return of the Jedi

Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back

Superbad

Society

Swordfish

Stoker

Splice

Silence of the Lambs

Source Code

Sicario

Se7en

Starship Troopers

Scrooged

Splash

Silver Bullet

Speed

The Visit

The Italian Job

The Mask of Zorro

True Lies

The Blair Witch Project

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy

Tangled

The Craft

The Guest

The Devil’s Advocate

The Graduate

The Prestige

The Rock

Titanic

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

The Fly

Tombstone

The Mummy

The Guardian

The Goofy Movie

The Peanut Butter Solution

Toy Story 4

The Ring

The Crazies

The Mist

The Revenant

The Perfect Storm

The Shining

Terminator 2

The Truman Show

Temple of Doom

The Cell

To Kill a Mockingbird

Timeline

The Good Son

The Orphan

The Birdcage

The Green Mile

The Raid

The Cider House Rules

The Lighthouse

The Book of Henry

The A-Team

The Crow

The Terminal

Thor Ragnarok

Twister

The Descent

The Birds

Total Recall

The Natural

The Fifth Element

True Romance

Terminator: Dark Fate

The Hobbit Trilogy

Unforgiven

Unbreakable

Unleashed

Very Bad Things

Wayne’s World

What Women Want

War Dogs

Wedding Crashers

What’s Eating Gilbert Grape

Welcome to the Dollhouse

Welcome to Marwen

Wet Hot American Summer

What Lies Beneath

What Dreams May Come

War Games

Who Framed Roger Rabbit

Weird Science

Willow

Wizard of Oz

Wanted

Young Sherlock Holmes

You’ve Got Mail

Zodiac

Zoolander

[jgthirlwell]

2023 Year In Review

This year once again I invited some friends and colleagues to reflect on 2023

JG Thirlwell Composer Foetus Xordox Manorexia Steroid Maximus Venture Bros Archer

2023 was an intense year. The year began with the premiere of my symphony for Alarm Will Sound and ended with guesting vocalizing with Dinosaur Jr on some Stooges classics. I completed the final season of Archer. Wrote a lot of material for new Xordox and Foetus albums. Released an album of string quartets and scored a Venture Bros movie. Worked with some great singers and premiered my Ensemble project in London. I spent several months traveling and set up a small studio in Melbourne for a bit. Road tripped through NZ with my partner, Dora. I played some excellent shows in London, Colchester, Auckland, Wellington, Melbourne and Sydney. I still woke up 5am in a panic on too many occasions. And I saw some great concerts.It was difficult to whittle down this list but here are a lot of albums I enjoyed in 2023, in no particular order.

Albums

Poil Ueda Yoshitsune (Dur et Doux) Poil Ueda - Poil Ueda (Dur et Doux) Genevieve Artadi Forever Forever (Brainfeeder) Knower - Knower Forever (Brainfeeder) Ultraphauna No No No No (Dur Et Doux) Gahlmm Break A Leg (GEIGER Grammofon) Oneohtrix Point Never Again (Warp) Lankum - False Lankum (Rough Trade) Evian Christ Revanchist (Warp) Chromb Cinq (Dur et Doux) Deskartes A Kant After Destruction (Cleopatra) Gazelle Twin Then You Run (Original Score) L’Rain I Killed Your Dog (Mexican Summer) Loraine James Gentle Confrontation (Hyperdub) Royal Blood Back To The Water Below (Warner) John Luther Adams Darkness and Scattered Light (Cold Blue) Catherine Christer Hennix Solo for Tamburium (Blank Forms) Rachel Fannan Bjork Impersonations (Instagram) Regal Worm Worm! (Quatermass) Wild Up Julius Eastman Vol. 3: If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich? (New Amsterdam) PJ Harvey I Inside the Old Year Dying (Partisan) Poppy I Disagree (Sumerian) Sparks The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte (Island) Queens Of The Stone Age In Times New Roman (Matador) Time Wharp Spiro World (Leaving) Murderpact Ultraheaven (Bandcamp) RVG Brain Worms (Our Golden Friend) HMLTD - The Worm (Lucky Number) Catarina Barbieri - Myuthafoo (Editions Mego) Ligeti Quartet and Anna Meredith - NUC (Mercury KX) Mandy Indiana I’ve Seen a Way + EP(FireTalk) Kate NV WOW (RVNG) Kelly Moran Vesela EP (Warp) Kurws Powiez / Fascia (Korobushka) Fever Ray Radical Romantics (Mute) Netherlands Severance (Svart) Tim Hecker No Highs (Kranky) Bohemian Flesh Bohemian Flesh (Ojet) Pure Adult II (FatCat) Model/Actriz - Dogsbody (True Panther Sounds) Laurel Halo - Atlas (Awe) Water From Your Eyes - Everyones Crushed (Matador) Moritz Von Oswald - Silencio (tresor) REZZETT Meant Like This (Trilogy Tapes) Jess Johnson and Simon Ward 'Terminus' Virtual Reality exhibition at the Museum in Dunedin NZ.

Books

Naomi Klein Doppelganger Graham Rayman and Reuven Blau Rikers : An Oral History Thurston Moore Sonic Life Malcolm Gladwell The Bomber Mafia Tony Cohen Half Deaf, Completely Mad Brett Anderson Coal Black Morning Book Wesley Doyle Conform To Deform Primo Levi Survival in Auschwitz

Films + TV

Beef Barry Fargo The YouTube Effect Mutiny In Heaven Beau Is Afraid In The Court Of The Crimson King Oppenheimer

Concerts

01.28.23 Kodak Quartet performed at the Jack Studio Festival Event at The New School, performing a work by Khyam Allami and a stunning rendition of Ligeti’s String Quartet No 1. 02.21.23 Pure Adult opened for Gilla Band at Brooklyn Made and both were excellent! 02.22.23 Clown Core (featuring Louis Cole on drums and keys) Elsewhere in NYC. 03.02.23 Laurie Anderson performs at a drone event anchored by Lou’s guitar generating feedback drones, on the occasion of Lou Reed’s birthday .Other musicians joining the drone included Shazad Ismailey, Steven Bernstein, Stan Harrison, Briggan Krauss and more. 03.09.23 Michael Byron’s new work In One Second There Will Be A Thousand Plateaus Perhaps for two pianos and small orchestra featuring pianists Joseph Kubera and Steve Beck with Petr Kotik conducting members of the S.E.M. Ensemble. At Roulette Intermedium. 04.04.23 Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs brought the rock power and played an intense and triumphant show at Mercury Lounge to end their first US tour. 04.08.23 Amarcord Nino Rota, a reimagining of the Hal Willner’s Nino Rota tribute album, at Roulette Intermedium. 05.03.23 Genevieve Artadi played a grreat set at Public Records in Brooklyn to support her new album Forever Forever, with Louis Cole on drums. 05.27.23 Gloryhammer at Irving Plaza. Saw them in Melbourne too. 06.27.23 Sparks played a brilliant show at the Beacon Theater in NYC and I also caught them at Palais Theater in St Kilda, Melbourne, Australia on 10.26.23 07.04.23 75 Dollar Bill at Union Pool 08.20.23 BeatFox . Incredible luck to see this guy busking on Brick Lane. 08.21.23 The very wonderful Deerhoof at The Lafayette in London 08.22.23 clipping. played a killer show at Outernet in London 08.23.23 The incredible Poil Ueda from Lyon, France played in London at the Lexington + Lost Crowns 08.24.23 Swans played an epic set at The Troxy in Londo 09.24.23 TENGGER played an amazing set at the Art Gallery of NSW. 10.06.23 Fuji|||||||||||ta at Tempo Rubato in Melbourne, Australia. 10.07.23 RVG played a killer show to a packed house at Northcote Theatre in Melbourne, Australia 10.17.23 Chloe Sobek at Make It Up Club in Melbourne Australia. 10.21.23 Paul McCartney at Marvel Stadium in Melbourne Australia 10.28.23 Sarah Mary Chadwick at Wesley Anns as part of The 86 Super Saturday Festival 10.28.23 Party Dozen from Sydney played a great set at The 86 Super Saturday Festival in Melbourne Australia. 11.10.23 Devon Townsend played a beautiful, brutal and ecsatic show in Melbourne Australia at the Forum. 12.06.23 Ashley Bathgate and percussion sextet Mantra Percussion performed Matt McBane’s Topography at National Sawdust in NYC.

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Michel Langevin (aka Away/Voïvod)

My coups de coeur in 2023:   TV Series: The Last of Us   Music: The Damned - Darkadelic Godflesh - Purge Crown Lands - Fearless Gong - Unending Ascending Soft Machine - Other Doors   Best show: KISS End of the Road World Tour in Montréal on Nov 18th   Best Moments: -Recording and touring the new Voïvod album, Morgöth Tales, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the band -Celebrating my 60th birthday on stage in Lyon on the Voïvod/Testament Euro tour -Jason Newsted joining the band on stage in Fort Lauderdale, USA -Eric Forrest joining the band on stage at Hellfest, France  

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Lydia Lunch

https://www.lydia-lunch.net/

“Time-one long second that goes on forever” So enjoy it motherfuckers!

BOOKS

Love the World or Get Killed Trying Alvina Chamberland Mother Howl Craig Clevenger Nein, Nein, Nein! : One Man's Tale of Depression, Psychic Torment, and a Bus Tour of the Holocaust Jerry Stahl Mystic Debris Justin Gradin Niagara, NY Ric Royers The Pale-Faced Lie : A True Story David Crow The Conspiracy Against the Human Race: A Contrivance of Horror Thomas Ligotti The Field: The Quest for the Secret Force of the Universe Lynne McTaggert Yuval Noah Harari Box Set (Sapiens, Homo Deus, 21 Lessons for 21st Century) Season of the Witch Cathi Unsworth Every word John Tottenham utters or writes

TOURS with Sylvia Black & Gregg Foreman, Joseph Keckler, Marc Hurtado (tribute to Alan Vega & Suicide), Ian White, Kevin Shea (Sinister Impulse), Tim Dahl & Matt Nelson (Murderous Again)

Workshop & Performance Badass Babes of Burlesque w Rita D’Albert Zebulon LA

Workshop at the University of New Mexico thanks to Greg Moss

Reading with Zoe Hansen & Ron Athey at The Philosophical Research Center LA Reading with Eugene Robinson Makeout Room SF

Finishing the documentary with Jasmine Hirst Artists - Depression, Anxiety, and Rage and premiering it in Italy

Meeting butuh Queen Azumi OE and discussing up coming performances together with Tim Dahl

Completing the 233 episode of The Lydian Spin with Tim Dahl

FUN

Nights in London & Brighton spent with Nick Soulsby, Cathi Unsworth, Billy Chainsaw, Chris Bohn, Jack Sargeant, Pam Hogg,

Tina Kit (opened for my Suicide tribute in London & Brighton) best new band of suited and booted bad boys

Squired around Europe by Sebastien Greppo, a man like no other - who so lightens my burden…

Watching every episode of The Dark Side of The Ring with Kevin Shea

Training squirrels, levitating objects, saving lives, screaming into the void.

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Mike Berdan

(Uniform) https://uniform-nyc.com/

ALBUMS

Lankum - False Lankum

Surgeon - Crash Recoil

Ryuichi Sakamoto - 12

Fellwinter - The Dawn Of Winter

Abysmal Lord - Bestiary Of Immortal Hunger

Death Kneel - Dawn Simulation

Shit And Shine - 2222 And Airport

Carnivorous Bells - Room Above All

Agonal Lust - Mankind Is A Talisman Of Misfortune

Godflesh - Purge

FIRST-TIME READS

A History Of Violence (1973) - David Cotner

Someone Who Isn't Me - Geoff Rickly

Your Dreams - Thomas Moore 4. In A Lonely Place - Karl Edward Wagner

Burn You The Fuck Alive - B.R. Yeager

The Holy Day - Christopher Norris

A Collapse Of Horses - Brian Evenson

The Devil Thinks I'm Pretty - Charlene Elsby

Let's Go Play At The Adams' - Mendal W. Johnson

Counterillumination - Audrey Szasz

MOVIES

Godzilla Minus One

CIGARS

Cohiba Magico Maduro Petit Robusto

God Of Fire Serie B Double Robusto

Padron Family Reserve no. 95 Maduro Petit Gordo

El Pulpo Toro

Tatuaje Reserva J21 Broadleaf Robusto

Atabey Benditos Double Corona

Romeo y Julieta Línea de Oro Nobles

H. Upmann Half Corona

Foundation Cigars The Tabernacle Robusto

OpusX Eye Of The Shark

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Mario Diaz deLeon (composer, Luminous Vault, Bloodmist)

ALBUMS Evita Manji - Spandrel? Eartheater - Powders Slowspin - Talisman Marta DePascalis - Sky Flesh Kalia Vandever - We Fell in Turn Eraldo Bernocchi + Hoshiko Yamane - Sabi JakoJako -  Verve Surgeon - Crash Recoil Cavalera - Morbid Visions / Bestial Devastation Bell Witch - The Clandestine Gate Steve Lehman + Orchestre National de Jazz - Ex Machina

SONGS Kelly Moran - Vesela Vines - I Don’t Mind Cybotron - Maintain Barker - Birmingham Screwdriver VMO - Supergaze Omar Hisham - Adhan (Be Heaven)

EVENTS New Firmament: MONAD - Roulette Peter Evans: Being and Becoming - Roulette Anna Sperber: Amplifier - Roulette 20 Years of Shinkoyo - Roulette Anthony Braxton + Wolf Eyes - Pioneer Works Caterina Barbieri - Pioneer Works Felipe Lara + Claire Chase + Esperanza Spaulding + NY Phil TAK Ensemble: Swoonfest - The Clemente Center Kayo Dot: Choirs of The Eye - MilkBoy Cecilia Vicuña / Raven Chacon - The Poetry Project Krallice / Indocrithere / Geryon / Ocrilim - Saint Vitus Cavalera: Morbid Devastation - Irving Plaza Hulder / Blackbraid / Aeviterne - Le Poisson Rouge Eartheater / Concrete Husband - Elsewhere

BOOKS Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz - An Indigenous Peoples History of the United States

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Alexander Tucker (Microcorps)

I started off the year by releasing a project very close to my heart: Fifth Continent, a collaboration with the late Keith Collins, partner and collaborator of film maker and artist Derek Jarman. The album was partially recorded in Jarman’s cottage in the desert-like landscape of Dungeness, on the South East coastline of Kent, in the UK, with elements constructed from Collins own spoken word pieces, and environmental recordings. The album was released on James Ginzberg’s Subtext label, and we also produced Fifth Quarter, an anthology publication of writing, recollections, photography and newly commissioned artworks about Jarman, Collins and Dungeness.

Although I probably made more music than usual this year, and had a greater focus than ever on the various projects I have underway, 2023 felt like a weird and often frustrating year for me and music. About five years ago I set about teaching myself modular systems, experimenting, and recording the results as I went along. This culminated in a new solo guise primarily for electronics and the synthesis of voice and acoustic instruments, MICROCORPS (the debut album Xmit came out on Alter records in 2021). Using these systems is at the same time liberating and incredibly frustrating. For a while this year nothing felt good enough: I could feel the potential of my ideas glimmering in the distance but was unable to catch up with them. I decided to take a short break from the modular, and focused upon compositions for cello, saxophone, and clarinet. But the pull of electronics is never far, so I began processing these recordings, using granular synthesis to stretch, mutate and reorganise the audio into new pieces. As soon as you want more from your practice and yourself, things can become more laborious - it’s difficult to be in the moment and focus on what’s in front of you. I used to be happy with the immediate effects I produced, but I think this is being replaced by a different approach, something more considered, which is exciting and, in some ways, sobering - even if the results are far from what you would describe as sober. I’m also so lucky to have many friends and fellow artists around me to offer help and suggestions, to whom I’m eternally grateful. As R.Crumb says, “Keep on truckin”.

Music I dug this year: Godflesh - Purge (Avalanche Recordings) Rắn Cạp Đuôi - *1 (nhạc_gay) Mun Sing - Inflatable Gravestone (Planet Mu) RS Tangent - When A Worm Wears A Wig (The Trilogy Tapes) Arnold Dreybaltt And The Orchestra Of Excited Strings - Resolve (Drag City) Elvin Brandhi and Lord Spikeheart - Drunken Love (Hakuna Kulala) Mark Fell and Will Guthrie - Infoldings / Diffractions (NAKID) Afrorack - The Afrorack (Hakuna Kulala) Kinn - Dogtooth (First Light Records) General Magic - Nein Aber Ja (GoTo Records)

Live shows: Emptyset - Village Underground Elvin Brandhi - IKLECTIK Mick Harris/FRET – Downwards’ 30th, Centrala Mun Sing, Crys Cole, Penelope Trappes - Boundaries Festival  Maxwell Sterling - Cafe OTO Pole - EartH Nik Colk Void - Too many to count! Phew - Cafe OTO Residency Acid Horse Festival Devo - Hammersmith Apollo Kinn - New Cross Road Baptist Church

Comics: In 2023 I produced a new issue of my ongoing oblique and nonlinear comic series, Entity Reunion. For this issue I drew upon my love of HP Lovecraft, using the repetition of the comic format to peel back layers of the everyday to reveal omnipotent entities underlying all reality. The viewpoint of each page is from the point of view of the protagonists, who hold an electronic device, photographing their surroundings only to capture the blurred features of some insidious face. There are also references to Lovecraft’s own fictional grimoire the Necrononmicon. I wanted that dreamlike sensation of being the protagonists of the dream but also viewing yourself as separate entity.

Books: I read nearly all of Patrica Highsmith’s ‘Ripley’ books, a bunch of John Le Carré novels, Mark Kermode’s book on The Exorcist and I’m currently working my way through the spy novelist Eric Ambler’s books. I also re-read Bruce Robinson’s analysis on Jack the Ripper and Victorian society, ‘They All Love Jack’. 

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Tom Chiu (composer, Flux Quartet)

2 0 2 3  IN  REVIEW

Albums Worth Exploring (including a couple entries from 2022 that I discovered late)

Bar Italia                 Tracey Denim (Matador)

Blur                         Ballad Of Darren (Parlophone)

Bush Tetras             They Live In My Head (Wharf Cat)

Death Valley Girls    Islands In The Sky (Suicide Squeeze)

Dummy                    Mono Retriever (Sub Pop)

Duster                        Remote Echoes (Numero Group)

En Attendant Ana       Principia (Trouble In Mind)

Everything But the Girl     Fuse (Verve)

Horse Lords               Comradely Objects (RVNG)

Kelela                         Raven (Warp)

Lael Neale                  Star Eaters Delight (Sub Pop)

Lana Del Rey             Do You Know That There's A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd (Interscope)

Lewsberg                   Out And About (12XU)

Munya                        Jardin (Luminelle)

Slowdive                    Everything Is Alive (Dead Oceans)

Sweeping Promises    Good Living Is Coming For You (Sub Pop)

Wednesday                Rat Saw God (Dead Oceans)

Yo La Tengo               This Stupid World (Matador)

Night at the Movies

Poor Things Past Lives Monster

Recurring Personal FAVES

FAVE Sandwich: Mekelburg's  Clinton Hill, Brooklyn

FAVE Burger: Two8Two Bar & Burger, Boerum Hill, Brooklyn

FAVE Craft Beer Brewery Omnipollo (Sweden), brewed at Twelve Percent Beer Project, North Haven, CT

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Pierre Cerrato

Producer - Editor  Floyd County Productions (Archer)

Favorite Movies/TV Archer Season 14 The Last of Us Gen V Beef This Fool Season 2 Fargo Season 5 Primo (Amazon Prime Show) The Bear Season 2 Episode Barry Season 4

Favorite Records  I listened to a lot of music but these were in constant rotation.  Some are from last year but what is time and who cares?

Boris/Uniform - Bright New Disease (2023) Birds in Row  - Gris Klein (2022) Fleshwater - We Are Not Here to Be Loved (2022) Asunojokei - Islands (2022) Everything But the Girl - Fuse (2023) Night Owls - Versions (2022)

Honorable mention Boris - Feedbacker (2003) this was my introduction to Boris. This year is the 20 year  anniversary of its release. Roberto Carlos Lange shared it with me one day while at work. He said it was something he thought I would like. Blew my mind and I have been a fan  ever since.

Favorite Concerts The Cure - State Farm Arena - also saw The Cure at Riot Fest but this was better of the 2. I regret not going to Night 2 in Atlanta because they played Disintegration.  H20 - Riot Fest 2023 Set Fleshwater - Riot Fest 2023 Set Future Islands - Shakey Knees 2023 Set The Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Shakey Knees 2023 Set Converge / Brutus - The Masquerade Drain / Drug Church - The Masquerade Donny Benet - Terminal West Idles - Re:Set 2023 Set

Favorite Food

MF Sushi - Atlanta - went twice and each time it was a special occasion.  Heirloom Market BBQ - Atlanta - best BBQ in my neck of the woods. The Aviary - Chicago - specialty cocktails with spectacular presentation.  Cafe Tola - Chicago - best empanadas i've ever had in my life.  Selva Negra - Miami - a solid contender for Nica food. Jaguar - Miami - great vibes, service and ceviche! No Hard Feelings - Chatanooga - great cocktails and vibes! 

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Zachary Lipez

(editor at large of Creem Magazine, writer, singer of Publicist UK)

Music I made a (very) long list on my wildly popular blog, Abundant Living. But, for kicks and with the understanding that maybe you don’t feel like reading (or subscribing to) my wildly popular blog, here’s some stuff I included and some stuff I forgot (with particular attention paid to albums I think might be of particular interest to JG friends/fans but which may have slipped through the radar) (meaning: I mainly put the stuff that wasn’t on too many other lists). Fatboi Sharif Decay (Backwoodz) Skech185 He Left Nothing for the Swim Back (Backwoodz) Zohra Murder In The Temple (American Dreams) The Native Cats The Way On Is The Way Off (Chapel)  Geese 3D Country (Partisan) Gold Dime No More Blue Skies (No-Gold) Algiers Shook (Matador) EXEK The Map and the Territory (Foreign) Skinhead Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt (Closed Casket) Débruit & Alsarah Aljawal ا​ل​ج​و​ا​ل (Soundway) Fairytale Shooting Star (Toxic State) Among The Rocks and Roots Pariah (Cacophonous Revival)  Full of Hell, Nothing When No Birds Sang (Closed Casket) Uniform & Boris Bright New Disease (Sacred Bones) Sleaford Mods  UK Grim (Rough Trade) Money&King Act Unnaturally (self released) Blu Anxxiety Morbid Now, Morbid Later (Toxic State) Nana Benz du Togo  AGO (Komos) Citric Dummies Zen and the Arcade of Beating Your Ass (Feel It) Ghösh  Prismassive (Ramp Local) Peasdez  Fenomenologia Del Espiritu Agonico: De La Existencia Sordida Al Pendulo De La Nada (SPHC) Upper Wilds Jupiter (Thrill Jockey) Death Valley Girls Islands In The Sky (Suicide Squeeze) Raphael Rogiński Talán  Body Void Atrocity Machine (Prosthetic) Feeling Figures Migration Magic (Perennial) Ryan Davis & the Roadhouse Band  Dancing on the Edge (Sophomore Lounge) Nosaj from New Kingdom & steel tipped dove House of Disorder (Fused Arrow Records) mclusky unpopular parts of a pig / the digger you deep (self released) Advertisement Escorts (Feel It) King Vision Ultra  Shook World (hosted by Algiers) (PTP)

Live Shows that Stand Out In My Memory Moor Mother/Armand Hammer/The Caretaker/Raphael Roginski for the Unsound Fest at Lincoln Center (I covered this for The Quietus if yr interested) Sleaford Mods at Coachella (profiled them for CREEM) Lydia Lunch/Zohra at St.Vitus Lydia Lunch Retrovirus last American show ever (?) at TV Eye Various skinhead/nü oï bands at the Monarch/TV Eye etc. with Liberty & Justice being the standout Son Rompe Pera at TV Eye Chisel (the Ted Leo outfit, not the neo-bootboy band with the “the” in their name) at LPR

BOOKS My phone has pretty much eliminated my ability to read. I did read the first 100 pages of more books than I care to admit. I finally finished Mark Andrews’ Paint My Name In Black and Gold: The Rise of the Sisters of Mercy and I recommend it if, like me, you think The Sisters of Mercy are better than the Beatles (or whatever inane comparison annoys your friends the most). I also discovered Gene Wolfe and read the first book in the Book of the New Sun trilogy. Otherwise, it’s pretty much been just using Louise Glück poetry as inspiration to write terrible versions of Louise Glück poetry. 

TV Doom Patrol Pokerface Rick and Morty (idc idc idc idc) HasanAbi twitch stream  A ludicrous amount of Britbox mysteries and—passively, yes, but not without a fair amount of emotional investment—various Real Housewife shows/spinoffs

Movies Didn’t watch any new movies this year but I did have a lot of youtube videos playing in the background while I did other things, and sometimes those videos would be three hour long screeds about what was wrong with a number of movies I’d never heard of. So I feel like I got the gist. 

LIFE Converted to Islam and married Zohra in January. Both choices have proven to be rewarding as all hell. Cashing in my “as a Jew I…” argument card—while simultaneously being too new a Muslim to reasonably claim either special knowledge and/or marginalization status—has really fucked with my ability to be self-righteous online. But the love that Zohra and her family have shown me has more than made up for my newfound inability to really wipe the floor with a motherfucker in the instagram comments. In fact, I liked marrying Zohra so much that I did it again in December (first time was a religious ceremony, the second time was our rendering to Caesar etc). If you know me/us and weren’t invited to either that’s because essentially no one was. As my parents couldn’t attend (on account of being dead) I didn’t really see the point of a big party. That was perhaps selfish. We love you (probably) and will have some sort of to-do in 2024. 

Otherwise, I am still very much enjoying working for the new CREEM Magazine (please subscribe) and doing my newsletter (please subscribe). Musically, I lived vicariously through Zohra and the release of her first solo album. Murder In The Temple, with amazing production by Ben Greenberg and contributions by Lydia Lunch, is a synthesis of so many of Zohra’s obsessions. It’s unlike anything in the post-goth-dark-whatever sphere and I can’t express how proud I am of it and her. As for my music, I did some neat-o Scientists-esque stuff with Telematics (Sohrab Habibion, Robert Austin, and Alexis Fleisig) and Zohra and I did a Sheer Terror cover in the style of Tindersticks to commemorate Paul Bearer’s marriage. Also, I’m pretty sure my most successful band (Publicist UK) got dropped by our label (apparently taking eight years to finish a demo is a long time) so get at me if you have a low-to-mid tier label and want to put out an album of eight minute gothic metal songs with zero mosh parts, about an aging hipster loving his wife and cats and missing his dead mom and dad. C’mon, do it. You’d be printing money. 

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Jim Siegel

Vivid Oblivion

Records And Other Things I Liked In 2023

Lankum - False Lankum (Rough Trade)

Milford Graves with Arthur Doyle and Hugh Glover - Children Of The Forest (Black Editions Archive)

Nakibembe Embaire Group (Nyege Nyege Tapes)

Henning Christiansen - Mediterranean Music-Water (Holidays)

Alain Goraguer - La Planete Sauvage (Expanded) (Decca)

Phill Niblock - Boston III (Alga Marghen)

Sam McLoughlin & David Chatton Barker - The Heavenly Realms (Folklore Tapes)

Svitlana Nianio & Tom James Scott - Eye Of The Sea (Skire)

Half Mortal - Creature Of Christ (Hospital Productions)

Pharoah Sanders - Pharoah box (Luaka Bop)

Ragnar Johnson & Jessica Mayer - Spirit Cry Flutes And Bamboo Jews Harps From Papua New Guinea (Ideologic Organ)

PJ Harvey - I Inside The Old Year Dying (Partisan)

Jana Winderen - The Blue Beyond (Touch)

Rezzett - Meant Like This (The Trilogy Tapes)

Arsenije Jovanovic - Sailboat Galiola Nuria's Unfinished Logbook (Pentiments)

Only Voices Vol. 1 + 2 (DDS)

Wounded Son - Pain Is All I Have For You (Hospital Productions)

Various - Cease & Resist: Sonic Subversion & Anarcho Punk In The UK 1979-1986 (Optimo Music)

Umeko Ando - Upopo Sanke (Pingipung)

Philip Jeck & Chris Watson - Oxmardyke (Touch)

Lori Vambe - Space-Time Dreamtime: The Four Dimensional Music Of Lori Vambe (Strut)

Mozart Estate - Pop-Up! Ker-Ching! And The Possibilities Of Modern Shopping (West Midlands)

Sandwell District - Feed Forward box (The Point Of Departure)

Japan Blues - Japan Blues Meets The Dengie Hundred (DDS)

Various - A Web Of Braided Willow - The Folklore Of The Wickerman (Folklore Tapes)

Surgeon - Crash Recoil (Tresor)

Mark Glynne And Bart Zwier - Home Comfort (La Scie Doree)

Ariel Kalma - French Archives Vol. III 1964-89 (Black Sweat)

Marginal Consort - 06 06 16 (St Elisabeth Kirche, Berlin) (901 Editions)

Brendan Perry - Eye Of The Hunter / Live At The I.C.A (4AD)

The Complete Obscure Records Collection box (Dialogo)

Various - Avant Garde 21xCD Box (Deutsche Grammophon)

Bill Nace Live at Public Records, December 2023

The Elephant 6 Recording Co. Documentary

Squaring The Circle - The Story Of Hipgnosis 

Shame And Dignity with Stanley Schtinter and Sukhdev Sandhu at UnionDocs, NY November 2023

Godland, dir. Hlynur Palmason

Wawa Pretzel w/ Melted Cheese (Sandwich)

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Simon Karis

(CEO of Nice Music, recording artist)

Okay so fave releases of 2023

Absurd Cosmos Late Nite 'These Magic Clothes Don't Play Themselves' (Reseach Laboratories) Actress 'LXXXVIII' (Ninja Tune) Armand Hammer 'We Buy Diabetic Test Strips' (Fat Possum) Danny Brown 'Quaranta' (Warp) De-Bons-En-Pierre 'Card Short Of A Full Deck' (Dark Entries) Evian Christ 'Revanchist' (Warp) Eyes Of The Amaryllis 'Perceptible To Everyone' (Horn Of Plenty) Francis Plagne 'Into Closed Air' (Bison) Francis Plagne 'Udge' (Horn Of Plenty) Giuseppe Ielasi 'Down On Darkened Meetings' (Black Truffle) HHOST 'Windswept Italics' (Altered States Tapes) HHOST 'Veil' (Snail Editions) JPEGMAFIA & Danny Brown 'Scaring The Hoes' (no label) Kassell Jaeger 'Shifted In Dreams' (Shelter Press) Khanate 'To Be Cruel' (Sacred Bones) Klein 'Doubt'/'Normani's Torment'/'STORM' (no label) L'Rain 'I Killed Your Dog' (Mexican Summer) Land's Air 'Land's Air' (Tone List) Locust 'The First Cause' (Mysteries Of The Deep) Low Flung 'The Wheel' (Snail Editions) Matt Harkin 'The Door Knocker' (no label) Nick Ashwood 'Inside The Body Of A Wave' (no label) Nuno Loureiro 'Lua Onus' (Super Pang) Patten 'Mirage FM' (555-5555) Pissed Jeans 'No Convenient Apocalypse' (Sub Pop) Princess Nokia 'I Love You But This Is Goodbye' (Arista) Red Wine & Sugar 'Turkish Coffee & Twice Baked Potatoes' (Chocolate Monk) Rezzett 'Meant Like This' (The Trilogy Tapes) Richard Youngs 'Modern Sorrow' (Black Truffle) Rory J S 'P' (no label) Rrose 'Please Touch' (Eaux) Solo Andata 'Slip Casting' (12k) WPH 'III' (no label) 100 Gecs '10,000 Gecs' (Dog Show/Atlantic)

fave back catalogue listens that made sense in 2023 Armand Hammer & The Alchemist 'Haram' (Backwoodz Studioz) Beherit 'H418ov21.C' (Spinefarm) Bernard Parmegiani 'De Natura Sonorum' (INA-GRM) Bowery Electric 'Beat' (Kranky) Charalambides 'Exile' (Kranky) Def Leppard 'Hysteria' (Mercury) Elastica 'Elastica' (Deceptive/Geffen) Elucid 'I Told Bessie' (Backwoodz Studioz) Emptyset 'Demiurge' (Subtext) Emptyset 'Recur' (Raster-Noton) Hematic Sunsets 'Musik Aus Dem Aroma Club' (Klang Der Festung) Joey Beltram 'Classics' (R&S) Ka 'Languish Arts' (Iron Works) Kim Cascone 'Cathodeflower' (Ritornell) The Kinks 'Lola Vs Powerman And The Moneygoround Part One' (Reprise/Pye) Kreator 'Terrible Certainty' (Noise International) Lol Coxhill & Morgan Fisher 'Slow Music' (Pipe/Aguirre) Low 'Hey What' (Sub Pop) Marsfield 'The Towering Sky' (Faraway Press) Massive Attack 'Mezzanine' (Virgin) Matt Harkin 'Sanctuary 1, 2015-2016' (Hobbies Galore) Maurizio Bianchi 'Endometrio'  (no label/Dais) Moodymann 'Mahogany Brown' (Peacefrog) Moor Mother & billy woods 'Brass' (Backwoodz Studioz) Nearly God 'Nearly God'  (4th & Broadway) Nightcrawlers '2031 AD' (no label) Richard Youngs 'Beyond The Valley Of The Ultrahits' (Sonic Oyster) Rita Revell 'I Had A Very Bad Time!' (Happy Endin') Roc Marciano 'Reloaded' (Decon) Seine Trance-Parenz Fredi Alberti 'Klaenge Aus Dem Engelsraum (Die Verdunklung Der Sonne Und Des Mondes)' (Scribble Art) Simbiosi 'Elements' (Werkdiscs) Suede 'Dog Man Star' (Nude) Valerio Tricoli 'Say Goodbye To The Wind' (Shelter Press) 100 Gecs '1000 Gecs' (Dog Show)

fave melbourne/naarm restaurants in 2023

Khabbay (Indian/Pakistani, Carlton) Laksa Village (Malaysian/Chinese, Donvale) Cinger Biang Biang (Dolan/Uyghur/Chinese, Carlton) Lim Kopi (Malaysian, Naarm/Melbourne CBD) Raya (South East Asian desserts, Naarm/Melbourne CBD) Taste Hunan (Hunan/Sichuan/Chinese, Naarm/Melbourne, CBD) Laksa House (Malaysian, Naarm/Melbourne, CBD)

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Brendon Randall-Myers

(composer, Scarcity, Marateck, Glenn Branca Ensemble)

If 2022 was the Return of the Show and the Return of Travel, 2023 was about Building Stability (i.e. making my teaching studio a primary income source), Hunkering Down to Finish Two Albums, and Re-Learning How to Be a Human Being. I also played a bunch of cool shows with Dither (collabs w/ Carla Kilhlstedt, Lee Ranaldo/Brian Chase, Amirtha Kidambi, AJ Santillan, and Laurie Spiegel; playing Electric Counterpoint on GFA), a couple fun Scarcity shows (playing with Liturgy, improvising on graphic scores by Anthony Hawley) and did some performances with Whimbrels and Contemporaneous. 

These were albums I enjoyed (incessantly) at some point during 2023 that were mostly - but not exclusively - also released in 2023.

Agriculture - Agriculture Armand Hammer - We Buy Diabetic Test Strips Arnold Dreyblatt - Resolve Big Brave - Nature Morte Blackbraid - Blackbraid II Bummer - Dead Horse Caroline Polachek - Desire, I Want to Turn Into You goat (JP) - Joy in Fear Goldfeather - Change JPEGMAFIA & Danny Brown - SCARING THE HOES Jute Gyte - Unus Mundus Patet KEN Mode - VOID Killing Joke - Night Time Krallice - Mass Cathexis 2 - The Kinetic Infinite Model/Actriz - Dogsbody Modern Nature - How to Live  Nabihah Iqbal - Dreamer Neil Young - Greatest Hits Oren Ambarchi - Shebang Pink Pantheress - Heaven knows The Prodigy - The Fat of the Land  Rid Of Me - Traveling  Slowspin - Talisman Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream Swans - The Beggar Trauma Bond - Winter’s Light  Tristan Kasten-Krause and Jessica Pavone - Images of One Victory Over the Sun - Dance You Monster To My Soft Song! Yaeji - With A Hammer

Here were some shows I attended:

Wolf Eyes + Raven Chacon @Union Pool Liturgy @TV Eye Gamelan Dharma Swara, Ridgewood Presbyterian Church Moor Mother @Merkin Hall Object Collection @The Brick Theater Spectral Wound @Saint Vitus Pyrrhon + Barrsheadahl @Saint Vitus The Smile @Forest Hills Stadium Krallice @Saint Vitus Mediaqueer @Windjammer Sarah Hennies + Tristan Kasten-Krause @Issue Project Room Peter and the Wolf @Guggenheim Model/Actriz @Music Hall of Williamsburg  

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Grace Bergere

(songwriter / singer / performer)

This year was full of firsts for me! 

Definitely the most musically eventful year of my life to date. I went on my first tour playing bass with my great friends in COP/OUT, supporting Days n' Daze (A band I'd been listening to for years as a young punk kid.)  I immediately realized touring is really all I want to do.  I also got to tour alongside Subhumans in Cop/Out. Meeting them and getting to know them was mind expanding.  They were all kind and humble thoughtful individuals, completely down to earth and engaged with everyone they spoke to. Every night across the midwest they brought the crowd to a cathartic screaming euphoric mess. Working with COP/OUT, whose message is so clear; to be good to each other, question everything even when it means swimming upstream with every bit of strength you have, filled me with hope.  Playing on that tour with them, and watching Subhumans every night reminded me the power of music to affect real social change which is something I believed to have been  lost in recent years.  I met my great friend Jessica Mills on that tour and we still talk all the time. 

I also started playing guitar in The Art Gray Noizz Quintet. One of my longtime favorite bands (that my very talented cool boyfriend happens to play bass in.) We went all across the West Coast, landing in Las Vegas. Playing with them has demanded I advance as a guitarist, stepping into Andrea Sicco's shoes. Andrea is a complete beast of a musician and all of his musical projects are awesome. Check out MOVIE MOVIE, his most recent project. 

I also joined Crazy And The Brains on second guitar. They’re a super fun high energy punk band. I love being around such positive fun loving musicians and watching them bounce around while I do my best to keep up. 

I recently finished recording my album at HOBO SOUND in Hoboken by James Frazee. The time and effort it took over the several years since I started, was at times grueling. But James never stopped caring or checked out. He helped me shape this album into something I am truly proud of, along with Richard Dev Greene, one of the first people to ever believe in my music. I am so grateful to both of them.

I started spending time with Victoria and Kay of Puzzled Panther. They quickly have become two of my best friends. It is so meaningful for me to have found such badass, driven young women to share a dream with. Puzzled Panther is raw and hypnotizing. They have a unique strong hold over their audience and every show of theirs I’ve been to has been fantastic.  Victoria has joined me a few times on a song at my shows, and every time I believe has been one of the strongest points in my set. 

I Met Eugene Hutz of Gogol Bordello (the first huge band I ever went to see as a young teenager.)  He will be releasing my upcoming single and video for “Come And Go”  on his label Casa Gogol Records in early 2024. 

I just played the biggest show I’ve ever played with my solo project that plays under my name.  We were on a bill with Gogol Bordello and JON SPENCER (Also one of my favorite artists.)  Being on that stage standing there in front of more people I’ve ever seen in an audience from that vantage point, I felt like every second of my life was leading to that moment. Each song brought me back to the time in my life when Id written it and it felt very much like watching my life projected in front of me. It was indescribably satisfying to be on that stage. Later, in the audience, I screamed along to Gogol and watched my mom dance to songs she'd heard me blasting through the house as a kid, and felt just as moved by them as I did as a young teenager the first time I saw them.

I am so grateful to be working with Eugene. He is kind and thoughtful in his feedback and hugely supportive of me and my dreams. 

I will be playing New Years Eve with the Art Gray Noizz Quintet before Kid Congo Powers and The Pink Monkey Birds !!

This last week I can honestly say, has been the best of my life to date. Like looking out over a valley after climbing for years.

BEST SHOWS

(other than the ones I was lucky enough to play at listed above) 

RICHARD DAWSON 

I got to see Richard Dawson three whole times!!! it was his first US appearance. He is a completely unique force. I’ve never seen such a captivated crowd. we all cried and screamed along with him. 

PIGS X 7 

One of those times he was playing with Pigs x7. They quickly became another favorite band of mine despite having severe technical difficulties. it was actually kind of a highlight because their front man just started joking around and had the entire audience laughing along with him and talking for about 10 minutes. I got to see them two other times that went perfectly. What a band.. 

JON SPENCER AND THE HIT MAKERS

I saw them at TV Eye. I had been able to squeeze myself into the DJ booth for their set. They hammered away into some kind of magical hypnosis that made me feel like I'd taken MDMA. (I had not.) I had to lean against a wall to keep my balance. They played with Licks, a badass 60s garage rock inspired band fronted by my friend Skunk. 

LYDIA LUNCH RETROVIRUS 

Also driving and hypnotic and loud as hell. I was left with a similar feeling of having been dosed with something at all of their shows…

JOSEPH KECKLER

The first time I saw Joseph perform was at TV eye with Lydia Lunch. He’s completely unique. He writes gorgeous songs that he sings in an incomprehensibly wide range, sometimes in languages that he has invented himself! His seamlessly mixes humor with honest beautiful songwriting.

SONGS I LISTENED TO A BILLION TIMES THIS YEAR. 

ART GRAY NOIZZ QUINTET- Lie Come True  JOSEPH KECKLER- The Ride JON SPENCER AND THE HIT MAKERS- Death Ray  GOGOL BORDELLO- Shot Of Solidaritine  PUZZLED PANTHER- Smoke And The Mirrors We Broke  PIGSX 7 - Reducer  ARCHERS OF LOAF- Banging On a Dead Drum 

OLDER HITS THAT WERE NEW TO ME

LAURIE ANDERSON- Poison  POISON GIRLS- Fear Of Freedom CULTURE SHOCK- Things To Do  CAPTAIN BEEFHEART- Tropical Hot Dog WARREN ZEVON- Desperados Under The Eves MINNIE RIPERTON- Les Fleurs  BOBBY GENTRY - Ode To Billy Joe TOWNES VAN ZANDT- Highway Kind

BOOKS 

Joseph Keckler-  Dragon at the edge of a flat world.  Mark Lanegan- Sing Backwards and Weep Miriam Toews- Fight Night

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Marc Urselli

producer / engineer / sound designer

I want to thank JG Thirlwell for inviting me to submit my 2023 Year in Review. I had never done one of these before and it's been a fun challenge to go through my calendar and social media to remember and realize how much I was able to pack into this year! Selecting and writing down all of these things also helped me further grasp and understand how tremendously privileged and lucky I am to be able to do what I love all year around, year after year, and to live my life to the fullest and according to my own wishes and my own design. I don't take this lightly and I don't take it for granted. I am very aware that it comes from hard work, limitless passion and unweavery dedication, not just luck and good fortune, but nevertheless I am grateful every single day for this life and for being healthy, being able to do all of this, and for all the people in my path who trust me, inspire me, support me, challenge me, and enlighten me!

STUDIO SESSIONS, ALBUMS & PRODUCTIONS When compiling this list, it really dawned on me how fortunate I am to be working with such incredible talents and how priviledged I am to be able to witness, participate and contribute to the creation of exceptional works such as the following:

Producing, Recording & Mixing sessions with David J of Bauhaus, Norwegian artist Ihsahn (of Emperor) & Toby Driver (of Kyao Dot), John Stanier (of Battles), Brian Chase (of Yeah Yeah Yeahs), Restless Spirit, Vicki Peterson (of the Bangles), John Cowsill (of the Cowsill Family and The Beach Boys touring band) and many others for my new RAMONES tribute album to come out next year on Magnetic Eye records

Producing, Recording and Mixing a cover of Soundgarden's song "4th of July" with my doom metal / throat singing project SteppenDoom for the Magnetic Eye album "Soundgarden (Redux) and featuring Matt Cameron of Soundgarden themselves on drums

seeing the release of Brian Carpenter's "Ghost Train Orchestra & Kronos Quartet - The Music of Moondog" album featuring Kronos Quartet (which I recorded at EastSide Sound) and many other amazing guest artists

Producing, Recording, Mixing, and Mastering a live album by Brazilian artists Zé Ibarra, Dora Morelenbaum and Julia Mestre of Bala Desejo for Glasshaus Presents & Tower Records

Mixing new albums by Glenn Max Vanderwolf (produced by Dennis Martin), by Bloodmist (Toby Driver, Mario Diaz De Leon, Jeremiah Cymermann), and by Ikue Mori & Zeena Parkins at EastSide Sound fully utilizing the analog console and the analog outboard gear (something nowadays is more and more rare)

Recording & Mixing 6 new albums by John Zorn this year alone, which brings my total JZ count to over 120 albums, and which as of this year can finally be heard on streaming platforms as well!

Recording and Producing a new album by Marco Cappelli's Italian-inspired band IDR at EastSide Sound in NYC and then going to Rome, Italy to overdub trombone and vocals with famed contemporary Neapolitan singer Raiz

Producing, Recording, Mixing, and Mastering 2 new albums by incognito jazz / blues artist Russell Orr with legendary Brian Marsella & Brian Mitchell on keys, respectively

Recording, Mixing, and Mastering two new albums by Jessica Pavone and her trio

Producing, Recording, Mixing and Mastering a "We Are the World"-type track for NYC Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs with a song composed by Captain Beefheart / Jeff Buckley's guitarist Gary Lucas and 10 other musicians from various parts of the world playing their local instruments and singing in their mother's tongue

Recording and Mixing the new album by Italian singer/songwriter Beppe Voltarelli, produced by Simone Giuliani, which took second place in Italy's Premio Tenco

Recording a new film score by composer Billy Martin (of Medeski, Martin & Wood) and arranged by Simon Hanes (of Tredici Bacci)

Producing, Recording, Mixing, and Mastering contemporary classical music sessions commissioned by Miller Theater and Columbia University with artists such as Laura Barger & Julia Den Boer, Miguel Zenon, Matt Mitchell & Miles Okazaki, Russell Greenberg & Vicky Chow

Recording new albums by contemporary classical/jazz musicians such as Miles Okazaki, Brian Drye, Anna Webber & Matt Mitchell and others Recording new albums by amazing Latin Jazz artists such as Gili Lopes, Homan Alvarez, Rodrigo Recabarren, Benjamin Furman

seeing the HBO release of John Lurie’s “Painting with John” new season where all the music was recorded & mixed by me and seeing my face briefly on TV

recording in an old church in Italy with Adriano Viterbini and Vincenzo Vasi for a project that will come out sometimes next year hopefully 

SOUND DESIGN GIGS & LIVE SOUND MIXING GIGS Similarly to the list above, I am eternally greatful for the fact that all these wonderfully talented people trust me with designing, mixing and amplifying their sound so that the rest of the world can truly and fully experience their art in the most complete, sonically articulated, detailed and full spectrum way there is! Some of these highlights include:

Mixing a 90-piece orchestra + 90-piece choir playing the score to Stanley Kubrick "2001: A Space Odyssey" live-to-picture  conducted by Brad Lubman in the Auditorio Nacional of Mexico City to a sold-out crowd of 10'000 people 

Mixing the Grammy Award Premiere Ceremony in Los Angeles and being there to amplify and mix the immensely talented house band led by Cheche Alara and the performances by musicians such as Samara Joy, Anoushka Shankar, Arooj Aftab and more…

Mixing the Robbie Robertson tribute concert & memorial organized by Martin Scorsese at Village Studios in Los Angeles with artists such as Jackson Browne, Jason Isbell, Rocco DeLuca, Citizen Cope, Angela McCluskey, Blake Mills and Jim Keltner

Mixing the National Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony concert at the White House with artists such as Dionne Warwick, Samara Joy, Joe Walsh of the Eagles, St. Vincent and others.

Sound Designing and Mixing the world premiere of "Perle Noire: Meditations for Joséphine" at the DNO Dutch National Opera House in Amsterdam, a beautiful performance/concert/opera directed by Peter Sellars, composed by Tyshawn Sorey and performed by Tyshawn Sorey and ICE International Contemporary Ensemble with soprano Julia Bullock

One of my sound design pieces inspired by Icelandic nature sounds and folklore was presented at the "Le Son 7" Art Gallery in Madrid between the 3rd and the 13th of May 2023, after it was presented the year before in London and will be presented in January 2024 in New York

mixing 12 shows by John Zorn in 2 days at Big Ears Festival in Knoxville TN

mixing more shows by John Zorn to celebrate his 70th birthday in places like Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Miller Theater in New York, Reggio Emilia and Modena in Italy, Philharmonie in Paris, November Music Festival in Den Bosch Netherlands and Mexico City

Mixing Brian Carpenter's Ghost Train Orchestra live at Roulette with special guests David Byrne, Karen Mantler, Joan As Policewoman AND doing so right after I mixed another matinee gig earlier in the day with the New York Choral Society

working sound for the Met Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art with musical guests Lizzo and David Byrne

Mixing Claudia Acuna at Lincoln Center

mixing Idina Menzel's performance in Trafalgar Square in London for Gay Pride 2023

playing keys (something I almost never ever do!) for Japanese electronic artist Coppé's first-ever performance in Italy

mixing my first ever K-pop gig in Times Square NY

teaching Mixing Workshops at SAE in Mexico City and MOB Studios in Rome, Italy

RECORDS In no particular order, here are some of my favorite records of 2023 that I was not involved with but I wish I had been ;-)

Anohni and the Johnsons "My Back Was a Bridge for you to Cross"

Lil Yachty "Let's Start Here"

Boygenius "The Record"

Ryuichi Sakamoto "12"

Jaimie Branch "Fly or Die Fly or Die Fly or Die ((World War))"

Arooj Aftab / Vijay Iyer / Shahzad Ismaily "Love in Exile"

Peter Gabriel "I/O"

Hania Rani "Ghosts"

Meshell Ndegeocello "The Omnichord Real Book"

Bill Frisell "Four" - Ambrose Akinmusire, Bill Frisell, Herlin Riley "Owl song"

Porcupine Tree "Closure / Continuation"

Dr. John "The Brightest Smile in Town"

Spencer Zahn "Statues II"

Meshuggah "Chaosphere 25th anniversary 2023 Remastered edition"

Ennio Morricone "Segreto Songbook 1962-1973"

Sin Fang, Kjartan Holm "Angakok"

MUSIC SHOWS It's always hard for me to recount the shows I've seen because I usually see about 300-500 shows every year. LPR (Le Poisson Rouge) definitely shines through as my favorite venue and the one I've visited most often! Here are some of the highlights of 2023:

Spotlights, Imperial Triumphant, Puzzled Panthers at Saint Vitus

"La Splendida", a heavy metal opera by Laurent David & Kilter at Culture Lab LIC

Exotech 3 times, at Public Records, Mark Morris Dance Theater and at LPR

Tredici Bacci at least 2-3 times, one of which at Sultan Room

John Cale at Paradiso, Amsterdam

Plini at Melkweg, Amsterdam

Mary Halvorson Quintet at Bimhuis, Amsterdam

Thurston Moore at OCCII, Amsterdam

Jeff Goldblum at Town Hall

Xylorius White at LPR

Hal Willner's Amarcord tribute concert at Roulette

Snarky Puppy at Beacon Theater

Tim Bernardes at LPR

Groa at Taste of Iceland showcase at Pianos

JG Thirlwell & Mivos Quartet at National Sawdust

Bloodywood at Irving Plaza

Hermeto Pascoal twice, at Pioneer Works and LPR

Sexmob at Fotografiska

Grace Jones at Hammerstein Ballroom

Lisa Fisher at Blue Note

Iggy Pop and Debbie Harry / Blondie, London

Laurie Anderson & SexMob Let X=X at Barbican in London and BAM in Brooklyn - The Cult at MEDIMEX festival in Taranto, Italy - Tom Morello at MEDIMEX festival in Taranto, Italy

Emperor at Kings Theater

Ibrahim Malouff at Drom - Elan Mehler & Dave Douglas at Fotografiska

The Misfits at Prudential Center - Oumou Sangare at Brooklyn Bandshell

Red Fang at Gramercy Theater

The Eagles & Steely Dan at MSG - Tammy Faye Starlight at Joe's Pub

Julian Lage at Village Vanguard - Mdou Moctar at Summerstage

Makaya McCraven at Locus Festival, in Locorotondo Italy

Fatoumata Diawara at Locus Festival, in Locorotondo Italy

Sisters of Mercy at Cinzella Festival, in Grottaglie Italy

SunRa Arkestra at Locus Festival, in Locorotondo Italy

Robert Plant at Locus Festival, in Bari Italy

Mr. Bungle at Terminal 5

Melvins, Boris and all the other amazing bands at Desert Fest at Knockdown Center

Front Line Assembly at LPR

Peter Gabriel at MSG

Empire State Bastard at LPR & St Vitus

Cavalera Conspiracy at Irving Plaza

Swans at Music Hall of Williamsburg - Steven Bernstein w/ Millennial Territory at Dizzy's

Nick Cave & Jonny Greenwood  3 times, twice at Beacon Theater and once at Kings Theater

The Mission at LPR - Titan to Tychons at NuBlu

Dresden Dolls at Bowery Ballroom

Robert Glasper's Art Blakey tribute at Blue Note - Puzzled Panthers at Bowery Electric

Ghost Train Orchestra at Roulette

Arthur Brown in London

The Mongol Khan theater production at the Coliseum in London 

8 Bit Big Band at Sony Hall

Bud Spencer Blues Explosion at Monk in Rome Italy

plus all the amazing artists I can't recall individually that I have seen at Winter Jazz Festival, Long Play Festival and Big Ears Festival

BOOKS I am sadly a slow reader and my pile of books on my bedside table is always bigger than the time awake I have when I finally do get to bed, but here are some I have read, or started to read or am planning on starting to read:

Kid Congo Powers "Some New Kind Of Kick"

Nick Cave & Seán O'Hagan "Faith, Hope and Carnage"

Warren Ellis "Nina Simone's Gum"

Rick Rubin "The Creative Act: A Way of Being"

Quincy Jones "12 Notes: On Life and Creativity"

Quincy Trouple "Miles & Me"

MUSEUMS I try to visit museums in every city I go to, whether I am on tour, working, traveling for pleasure or whatever the reason is… Art is my passion, my love and a way of life…

Museu Picasso, Barcelona, Spain

Fundcaio Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain

The Salvador Dali Theater and Museum, Figueres, Spain

Salvador Dalí House / Fundació Gala, Cadaqués, Port Lligat, Spain

Park Gúell, Barcelona, Spain

Moco Museum, Barcelona, Spain

Sagrada Familia, Barcelona, Spain

Vermeer Exhibit, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Moco Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Amsterdam Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Art on Paper, New York

Frieze, New York

Karl Lagerfled "A Line of Beauty", Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY

Yayoi Kusama "Infinity Mirror Rooms", Tate Modern, London, UK

Frida Kahlo & Diego Riviera House & Studio, Mexico City

Palacio De Bellas Artes, Mexico City

Museo Jumex, Mexico City

Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporanea, Mexico City

Paul Gugelmann "Poetic Machines", Aarau, Switzerland

MOVIES There are soooo many movies I still want to / need to see… I love movies but I prioritize work and live music in my life and I will only watch movies on planes, on (very very) rainy days or those rare times when I don't have a concert on my calendar, so here are a few of those rainy/non-concert films, in no particular order:

Killers of the Flower Moon (for the story, the acting and the soundtrack)

Equalizer 3 (because aside from its Hollywood-ish story and ending, it's a realistic look at how organized crime works in Italy)

Little Richard: I am Everything (for his story, his character, his music and his courage!)

Psychedelicized: The Electric Circus Stroy (for the amazing portrait of a time that's past but that changed NYC forever!)

American Symphony (for the amazing story, talent, spirit and courage of Jon Batiste)

32 Sounds (because my life is about sound…)

Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song (because Leonard was an amazing artist and songwriter and singer and so many friends are in this movie)

Oppenheimer (because that history is so complex and so divided as the country in which it took place)

TRAVEL Travel is the richess of life! I travel SO MUCH that I am on a plane AT LEAST once a month and usually it is to an international location… This year was no different, so I've decided to only list 12 trips for this section:

January: Ringing in the year in a medieval tower in Barcelona and spending the first 4 days of the new year trying all the tapas bars, restaurants, food stands this beautiful city has to offer and seing the Sagrada Familia cathedral for the 3rd time in my life

February: Living in Amsterdam for 3 weeks visiting all the musuems, all the music venues and all the while working at the Dutch National Opera with some amazing folks (see list above)

March: Snowboarding the Swiss and the French alps

April: Visiting Knoxville Tennessee for Big Ears (easily the best independent music festival in the US!!!) for the 2nd time in 2 years, and hopefully the beginning of many more visits in the future!

May: Spending time in sunny Los Angeles and plotting a way to spend more time there and make music

June: Visiting London twice in one month to work and see amazing music shows, theater shows and art exhibits

July: coming back from London on July 6th only to realize that strangely there is no travel for the rest of this month! So weird and unusual!

August: Spending the month in Puglia, Southern Italy eating good food, kitesurfing in the Adriatic and Ionium sea, seeing tons of concerts and playing one myself!

September: arriving in Mexico City and getting my very own police escort motorcade to make it in time from the airport to the theater

October: On tour with John Zorn in Italy, France and the Netherlands

November: Flying to Los Angeles with a 36 hour notice for a concert I was hired for in secrecy having been told "we need a mixing engineer who can mix music for a room full of musicians" and showing up for the Robbie Robertson tribute orgnaized by Martin Scorsese with people like Joni Mitchell and Leonardo DiCaprio in attendance

December: DC-to-DF aka flying to Washgington DC to work at the White House and then flying straight to Mexico City I've finished the year with travel to my motherland of Switzerland, my fatherland of Italy and my second home of London UK!

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

DJ Food aka Kevin Foakes

Music: Kosmischer Laufer - Volume 5 LP (UCR) Soia, Julien Sénélas, Jérôme Vassereau - In C for 11 Oscillators and 53 Forms LP (unjenesaisquoi) Cate Brooks - Tapeworks DL (Cafe Kaput) Memorials - Music For Film: Tramps! LP (State 51 Conspiracy) King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - PetroDragonic Apocalypse… LP (Album of the year) Brian Eno - The Lighthouse radio station (Sonos) (most listened to) Niholoxica - Source of Denial LP (Crammed Discs) SareemOne - Olivine Window Coast Contra - Breathe & Stop Freestyle/Never Freestyle/Scenario Freestyle Move78 - Grains LP Heiroglyphic Being - The Moon Dance LP (Apnea) Raj Pannu - Past Crimes EP 12" (To Pikap Records) Gordon Chapman-Fox - The Nine Travellers LP (Castles In Space Subscription Library)

Gigs / Events: Beyond The Streets exhibition @Saatchi gallery, London Sunroof / Finlay Shakespeare @iklectik, London The Light Surgeons - The Consensual Hallucination @iklectik, London Memorials at the State 51 Summer Psych party @State 51, London FogFest2 @iklectik, London JG Thirlwell & Ensemble @Bush Hall, London Machina Bristronica, Bristol Visiting Peel Acres with Eilon Paz for Dust & Grooves Nihiloxia @the Jazz Cafe, London

Design / Packaging: Yves Malone - A Hello To A Goodbye LP (Castles In Space) Drumetrics - Phuzzle (Drumetrics) Waclaw Zimpel - Train Spotter LP (State 51) David Boulter - Factory 3" CD (Clay Pipe Music) Fluctuosa - Wetware EP 12" (Analogical Force) Fluxus - Orbit & Shine LP (Castles In Space) Floating Points - Birth4000 12" (Ninja Tune) Cate Brooks - Easel Studies LP + badge (Clay Pipe Music) Brian Eno - Top Boy OST CD (Beatink)

Books / Magazines / Comics: Medical Grade Music - Steve Davis & Kavis Torabi (White Rabbit) Doctor Strange - Fall Sunrise - Tradd & Heather Moore (Marvel) Tales To Enlighten - The New Testament - Matt King and James Edward Clark Pop - Milton Glaser (Phaidon) Kevin O'Neill Apex Edition (2000AD) Mark Stafford - Salmonella Smorgasbord (Soaring Penguin Press) Savage Impressions - Bruce Lichen (Independent Project Records) Hexagon Bridge - Richard Blake (Image) Monica - Daniel Clowes (Fantagraphics) Acid Valley - Luke Insect Petrol Head - Rob Williams & Pye Parr (Image) Lawless - Dan Abnett & Phil Winslade (Rebellion) Giant Robot Hellboy - Mignola/Fegredo (Dark Horse) Facelss & The Family - Matt Lesniewski (Oni Press)

Films: Barbie Squaring The Circle : The Story of Hipgnosis

[bookworm-1196]

Part 2 of my yearly wrapup! My favorite 15 book series this year :

1. Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan - you have no idea how weird it feels to be technically the same age as / a bit older than Percy in the most recently published book from PJO after looking up to him sort of like to a big brother figure for so long. Also Percabeth my beloved !! First ship I ever shipped when I didn’t even know what shipping meant I just knew they were meant to be. Also ily Grover the whole time I was watching the TV show I was like damn I’m the Grover in my friend group 😂

2. Lockwood & Co by Jonathan Stroud - go read it if you haven’t yet! If you love PJO you’ll love this series. I’m already considering rereading the books and I finished reading them barely a month ago. And the world is so interesting too!

3. A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder trilogy by Holly Jackson - if ever there is an apocalypse I want Pippa Fitz-Amobi on my team because this girl is a badass genius. This book series made me want to read wayyy more murder mysteries so if you know any good YA murder mysteries with some of my other favorite tropes like found family pls comment!!

4. The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare - I reread them this year and this time I liked the second half way more than the first half (bc Sizzy and also shipping Clace was less icky)

5. The Infernal Devices by Cassandra Clare - I really want to do a reread either at the end of this year or in 2025. Herongraystairs have a hold on me that I could not break if I tried, and I’ve rarely seen any fictional character or real person love anyone the way those three love each other. They break my heart and the fact that Jem and Tessa will see Will again in TWP keeps me up at night because WHAT DO YOU MEAN?? As in the Will from their universe, their Will or one from an alternate universe? Bc alternate universe Will isn’t the same. CC already confirmed it wasn’t a dream but pls no alternate universe Will it just won’t be the same.

6. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins - I reread the series this year and read the Peeta POV fanfics of the book series from ao3 (the Peeta’s Games series on Archive of Our Own by igsygrace if you’re interested) and I am so mad that people don’t take YA seriously JUST because there’s also a romance or just because the target audience is teenagers or teen girls when this masterpiece exists.

7. Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo - I read the Grishaverse books last year and this year I read some SoC short fanfics. I love these characters and I love the world Leigh Bardugo built to house them. Why does Netflix keep cancelling book adaptation TV shows I love ? Praying it doesn’t happen to AGGGTM like pls just this once.

8. The Heroes of Olympus by Rick Riordan - I miss these characters and I really want to reread HoO soon. Something I’ve really wanted to either read or if it doesn’t exist yet write is Jason and Reyna’s quests and life at Camp Jupiter sort of like PJO (Camp Jupiter’s Version) because I love them so much (not as a couple but as friends and as individual characters) and it’s a shame Rick Riordan hasn’t written either a book about them or about the Amazons or the Hunters of Artemis or the Ramirez-Arellano sisters like?? Cmon

9. Heartstopper by Alice Oseman - I reread Heartstopper this year before reading Heartstopper 5 and watching the third season of Heartstopper and it’s such a heartwarming lovely graphic novel series. The whole time I was reading or watching Nick and Charlie fall in love I just wished that could be me. The Imogen storyline in the latest season >>>>>

10. The Eldest Curses by Cassandra Clare - I reread Red Scrolls of Magic while rereading TMI and it’s one of my favorite TSC books because it’s my comfort read and I enjoy reading it so so much. I definitely need to reread Lost Book of the White sometime, it’s been a while and I don’t remember much about it other than the fact that it takes place in Shanghai and the whole TMI friend group AND Jem are there (which can only be iconic).

11. The Last Hours by Cassandra Clare - I just love this book series so much!!

12. The Wicked Powers by Cassandra Clare - not even out yet but I’m half-excited half-terrified about this series. It feels surreal that the Shadowhunter Chronicles are going to end 😢 I love these characters so much and the world is so fascinating I hope the fandom keeps expanding on it even after TWP is done. There’s so much left to explore, especially with the immortal characters like Lily Chen, Catarina Loss, Raphael Santiago, Ragnor Fell, or even Tessa!!

14. Harry Potter series - putting this here bc of the fact that I’m in the Marauders fandom and I really SHOULD get back to posting chapters for that fic I’ve been writing for a year now (I apologize)

15. the Seraphina & Tess of the Road duologies by Rachel Hartman - someone gifted me Tess of the Road as a birthday present when I was 10-12 I don’t remember and when I first read it then, I was too young to understand some of the more mature themes of that book. But when I reread it recently I was better equipped to and it just hit me how amazing this book is. I also really loved the Seraphina duology. (In The Serpent’s Wake wasn’t quite as good but I still liked it). If you like complex flawed FMCs who are strong in their own way, fantasy and dragons (and don’t mind if there isn’t a sweeping romance because there isn’t much in this series) you will love these books I couldn’t recommend them more. But check the content warnings for the Tess of the Road duology it’s… let’s say questionable that someone gave me this book at age twelve.

Anyway yeah those were the book series that owned my heart this year! Apart from AGGGTM and Lockwood & Co there weren’t really any new book series that captured my heart this year. Pls recommend some if based on what I’ve written you think I’d enjoy reading something!

[aurorawest]

Reading update

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers - 3.75/5 stars

I hate myself a little bit for using this word to describe this book, but it's a meditation on modern (western) culture, the drumbeat of living a purposeful life, and, imo, the millennial condition.

It also, separately from that, made me think of the song 'New Constellations' by Ryn Weaver: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13EX7qGdUGI

The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen by KJ Charles - 5/5 stars

This book features Gareth Inglis, a member of the gentry whose father shipped him off to his uncle when his mother died. Gareth never saw or heard from his father (who remarried and had another child) again, and no one knew he existed because his father was a piece of human garbage. Which meant I couldn't stop thinking about my former father-in-law, who had two sons from his first marriage whom he, as far as I could tell, never had any contact with after remarrying and having another child. Life imitates art?

Anyway, it's KJ Charles, so you pretty much can't go wrong. I saw someone refer to this as enemies-to-lovers and realized my toxic trait is railing against people who want to apply enemies-to-lovers to everything. Spoiler alert, this is not enemies-to-lovers. But it is lovely, and includes Gareth and Joss Doomsday (a smuggler) bonding over beetles.

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by SA Chakraborty - 4.5/5 stars

It was no Daevabad Trilogy, but then again, I remember finishing City of Brass and being like, yeah, it was fine, I'll probably pick up the sequel at some point. It wasn't until Kingdom of Copper that I grew to really love the series, so I'm hoping the same happens with this. This book was a lot of fun, and the fact that all the characters were middle-aged was pretty delightful. I'm definitely excited to see where this series goes.

The Long Run by James Acker - 5/5 stars

Excellent YA book about two lonely jocks in New Jersey.

Feel the Fire by Annabeth Albert - 3.75/5 stars

His Accidental Cowboy by AM Arthur - 4/5 stars

Brida by Paul Coelho - 1/5 stars

One of the reviews for this book on Storygraph says it 'aged like milk' and I can't put it better than that. This is a soul mate AU where souls undergo cell division, essentially, and your soul mate is from your same base soul from before the soul split in half. Okay, great. Oh but wait, the soul always divides into male and female. And your soul mate is always someone of the opposite sex, even though that doesn't make sense because as souls divide again and again, that means there are a lot of people out there who came from the same original soul as you. Also, witchcraft? Also also, even though the book is called Brida and is ostensibly about the title character, her whole journey was really just to serve the unnamed male character, the Magus. This isn't implicit either, it's completely explicit. At the end it's like, 'sometimes young women come along to show men the way' (I'm paraphrasing but...not much).

This went straight to my give away pile, and I hated it so much that the rest of my Coelho books joined it (except The Alchemist).

Enlightened by Joanna Chambers - 5/5 stars

Or, For The Love Of God Please Give David Lauriston And Murdo Balfour A Break, And Preferably A Happy Ending.

They got one, btw.

Song of Silver, Flame Like Night by Amélie Wen Zhao - DNF

Honestly, the Mad Libs YA title should have warned me off of this one, but I always give my Illumicrate books a try. Cartoonish villains and protagonists I find myself liking less the more we get to know them. The prose is quite good but not enough to make up for the character deficiencies.

Solomon's Crown by Natasha Siegel - 5/5 stars

Blurbed by no less than Tamora Pierce (Song of the Lioness supremacy!), Rainbow Rowell, Freya Marske, and CS Pacat. Did I go into this book with insanely high expectations? Yes. Did it mostly meet them? Yes! If you're a Captive Prince fan, this one's for you.

Siegel tells us up front, before the book even starts, that it's a romance and not historically accurate. So don't go into this expecting a historically accurate love story between King Richard of England and King Philip of France. It is, however, a gorgeous romance. The world-building is top notch. Even if it's not totally accurate to the High Middle Ages, it feels accurate, if that makes sense? Siegel really captures the feeling of being in a different world. Lush writing, amazing sexual/romantic tension, lovely sad boys. Highly, highly recommend.

Daniel Cabot Puts Down Roots by Cat Sebastian - 4.75/5 stars

I docked .25 stars because it bugged me that they didn't move in together at the end. Idk, just felt too 'look, I'm subverting romance conventions!' Still good, obviously.

Like Real People Do by EL Massey - 4/5 stars

A very wholesome and low stakes hockey romance. I found myself often thinking that the interactions of the men on the hockey teams seemed unrealistic, but it was charming and sweet enough that I didn't care.

The book reads like fanfiction, which is because it was fanfiction—but it's in a mostly good way, not a bad way (*cough* All The Way Happy *cough*). Apparently the original version was Check, Please! fanfiction, which I am vaguely familiar with as a thing that exists. Apparently it's a web comic? Anyway, I enjoyed the book enough to pick up the sequel.

[goblins-riddles-or-frocks]

Top 5 characters you want to remove from tgt, kos, row

I wouldn’t really want to erase any of the characters! I’m usually more annoyed by execution rather than any particular character’s existence but sure let’s see

1. Elizaveta

She was really funny but wildly unnecessary. The Darkling coming back via random bee saint… we didn’t need that. There are so many other ways he could come back! Though like preferably he’d just stay dead lol. I also just found her fairly one dimensional. The gulf between what we’ve heard of Sankta Lizabeta and Elizaveta’s reality could be really interesting but Bardugo does nothing with it

2. Juris

Juris was decently fun on paper but he also contributed nothing that I liked. The dragon plotline pisses me off lmao. Both for the random introduction of dragons but also I was just really mad about Zoya getting that kind of level up. I really like her as a character that doesn’t have an extraordinary leg up, which plays off Nikolai not having any magic at all really well. So Juris facilitating that annoyed me!

3. Nina (in KoS)

I like Nina! Her plotline bored me to tears. I think the story itself was okay. But it probably should’ve been its own novella. It just didn’t feel like it was relevant to anything happening! I’m not a reader who ever skips anything, because I assume scenes are laid out in a way for a reason! But lol at some point I just started skipping her scenes, and then after finishing the book I went back to read them all straight through. I’d accept her POV in RoW because she was more important there, but ehhh honestly we probs could’ve just had the plot carry on without a direct glimpse into her perspective, and again she could just have a novella that just lays everything out from her end.

4. …. Grigori… I guess?

I don’t hate him, his body horror schtick was fun. But eh the Saints were superfluous and annoying anyway. They didn’t really have any interesting or in depth relationships with each other (Which seems unlikely! Given their ages!) and they broke what little sense the magic system made. So he can go too.

5. The Crows (in the duology)

They felt unnecessary and made everything feel like weird crossover fanfic. I don’t think these characters would have reason to interact/I’d rather see Bardugo try harder to make the KoS protagonists act like they’re adults in charge of an actual fucking government as opposed to outsourcing to a bunch of teenaged thieves! You can do better than this, ma’am. Worldbuild something oh my god.

I guess there aren’t any characters I’d remove from the trilogy 😅

Ask me my top five anything!

[luckspren]

I'm finally reading the Age of Madness trilogy. I just finished part 4 (so basically part 1 of The Trouble with Peace) and I looove it. I'm trying my hardest to be normal about the series, but my god. Abercrombie is definitely an auto-buy author for me. On the one hand I want to take my time with the rest of the trilogy and on the other hand I can't wait to read more. I am legitimately nervous about where some of those storylines will go.

While I wasn't exactly worried about not liking the trilogy (beause I heard many readers apparently prefer this one to the first trilogy and so far Abercrombie hasn't let me down), next-generation books can be kinda tricky for me, especially if the characters from the books before are still around. But I really like the new pov-characters.

Some thoughts and speculations under the cut:

So far I like the pov of Rikke and Orso the best. I do really enjoy the other perspectives too, though. Broad is probably the one I am least interested in right now

Rikkes prophecy... so up to the lion eating the wolf the events have already happened. So next comes the lamb eating the lion and we already know that Orso is the lamb. With the civil war brewing I have no reason to doubt that. So the question is who the owl represents. I guess the owl is often associated with wisdom, so maybe we are supposed to think that Bayaz wins it all again? Given that every other animal in the prophecy is connected to a member of the next generation though, I think the owl will also be one of them. Savine already likened herself to a snake, so I don't think it's her, even though she has a claim to the throne. So I think it's either Rikke or Jappo who we haven't really met yet, but Styria has to come into the plot sooner or later

(I haven't really considered Vick, Clover or Broad for the owl, because I read the animals/characters in the prophecy more as stand-ins for the nations they lead. Broad also already has the bull as an animal motif and so far Vick and Clover have no real power by themselves, so I just think it's unlikely, at least at this point in the story)

Leo is soooo doomed. It's amazing how he never learns from his mistakes. I don't actually dislike his chapters, but he is a very aggravating character to read about. He is so easily manipulated, I'm sure I still feel bad for him, when his downfall inevitably comes.

also with his colossal mommy issues I still can't quite tell if he's bi and in denial or gay and in denial. Either way, he's definitely into Jurand who I already feel bad for. Like I'm worried about Leos entire friend group. I feel like they are doomed by association. But not only is Jurand the only voice of reason in that group that nobody ever listens to, I also can't see Leo reacting favorably if his feelings ever come to light. Obviously Leo is married now, but I don't think even the friendship would survive, what with Leos pretty severe internalized homophobia. Also there was a moment in A Little Hatred where I thought Jurand may have something going on with Glaward (I think that's his name...definitely something with a G), because it's specifically mentioned that they spring apart when Leo runs through the camp after Rikke has her fit, so I thought maybe a little jealousy would move the plotline along, but that didn't happen. But maybe the Leo/Savine marriage reveal finally will ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Civil war is definitely coming and as I said before, I think Leos side will lose. Right now Orso seems in a worse position with everyone hating him. But Isher and co. seem to bank on the fact that Leo has allied himself with Stour who I can easily see betraying Leo. I don't know, I just think Leo will regret the decision to leave him alive. He should really listen to the women in his life but obviously he isn't gonna

I don't really know how things in the North will progress, now that the Dogman is dead ( :((( ). There is no chance in hell that Rikke will agree to an alliance with Stour and probably she's still pissed at Leo, so I guess she will rally the men (or at least a faction of them) behind her somehow... but the protectorate is also sandwiched between them and that seems like a terrible position to be in on her own.

Also I wonder if Styria will sweep in right after the Union weakens itself by infighting. Or maybe one of the sides will try to ally with Styria. Again that seems more likely for Leos side, buuut...Orso is half styrian and while Terez would fucking hate it, I could maybe see him giving up his claim to Styria entirely in his search for possible allies? He already didn't want to be king of the Union, I don't think he wants Styria. That would certainly be a twist regarding the tensions between the Union and Styria. But then again I don't now how that would fit into Vicks current storyline.

I am suspicious of everything. When Selest told Leo she wouldn't have missed his wedding even if Bayaz locked her in the House of the Maker I immediately went: Tolomei, is that you?? That's maybe more of an easter egg, but I am still pretty intrigued how and when the Bayaz plotline will come more to the forefront.

Jezal died (or was murdered?) and I'm being so brave about it. All in all not surprising. But I was so sure he would be assassinated at the end of the parade for Leo and Orso that I actually got my hopes up that he would at least survive book 1, only for the last chapter title to punch me in the gut. I literally started 2024 with reading his death. At least he died not knowing that his children had an affair.

It's amazing that I actually felt kinda bad for Savine and Orso and that they couldn't be together. It's him not knowing why that makes the situation so frustrating. I am not sure how many people in the story know of her true parentage. Maybe she will tell him herself later in the story. I guess he has to find out somewhere down the line

Given her marriage to Leo, maybe they will even use her parentage to strengthen his cause, but for that to happen, Savine would have to admit it to Leo first and right now I don't see it happening. Also the affair with Orso already seems subject to gossip, so trying to use her parentage wouldn't help her reputation at all (and I think Leo would also react with disgust) and people would for sure doubt the parentage of her own child

Speaking of which, I'm also not sure if I am supposed to question the parentage of Savines child? There was mention that she had her period shortly before Leo came to Adua, but wasn't Valbeck also right before his visit? Given that there are no paternity tests in this world, I am guessing I have to take Savines thoughts on the matter at face value and it's actually Leos child.

Interesting how the national conflicts are also kinda personal because of the partner switch at the end of A Little Hatred. Given that they are married now, I think Savine will support Leo in his treason. Still think he's a bad investment so to speak. So maybe she will use her pregnancy to get back into Orsos good graces once her side is losing.

Clover killing Wonderful also was quite the gut punch. I literally went 'oh no' the moment Stour made the request, because of course he would do it.

I find the similarities between Clover and Vick pretty interesting (in the sense that they both are betraying people around them so easily, at least seemingly)... While I am probably supposed to think that Vick will defect to Styria, the scene with Vitari makes me believe that she might actually stay loyal to Glokta in the long run. Clover on the other hand mostly thinks about his own well-being...and I don't know, I feel like Stour should watch his back around him. If the right opportunity comes along to get rid of him, I think Clover would take it. I would certainly cheer him on and it would endear him to Rikke... so maybe he will end up in her camp.

Even with all my precautions about spoilers, I think I managed to get spoiled about the identity of the weaver. I can only hope that is something that gets revealed soon, so I can go into book 3 completely blind

There is so much more I could write about these books and I am not even really halfway through (I haven't even touched on the breakers/burners etc)...

There is not one pov-character that I can't see ending up as a villain. Even the ones that start out more genial like Rikke and Orso might change for the worse, but Abercrombie does a good job of making them all the hero of their own story, if that makes sense.

I also keep thinking about people who start reading First Law with the Age of Madness trilogy and how that changes the reading experience. Don't think I would recommend that, but things like the half-sibling-reveal probably hit harder.

[litcityblues]

'Last Argument of Kings' --A Review

I didn't understand why this trilogy got tagged with the 'grimdark' label until I got to the end of the final book in the trilogy, Last Argument of Kings. I took them more to be a hyper-violent, highly realistic, pulpy, blood-spattered fantasy until we got to the end of this book, and hot damn is it kind of bleak.

I also- freely admit- that I looked ahead at the summaries for the next trilogy in the series (The Age of Madness) and thus spoiled some of it for myself-- but figuring out how it all came together, in the end, was interesting to watch (or to listen to, rather.)

At the end of the last book, our heroes had reached their destination only to find that The Seed they were looking for is no longer there, so faced with no other choice they return home and go their separate ways. Logen returns to the north, Ferro sticks with Bayaz to see if his promise of revenge comes through and Jezal goes back to Ardee West.

In short order, things change rapidly: Jezal is on the verge of resigning his commission to marry Ardee when he's given new orders to go out and put down a peasant uprising. He does this- just in time for the old King of the Union to finally die. With both Crown Princes gone, a succession struggle immediately begins and Glokta is thrown into the middle of it by Archlector Sult, who charges him with making sure the candidate they prefer wins. Bayaz, however, has other ideas and reveals Jezal to be a bastard son of the old King, places him on the Throne, and marries him off to Terez, the daughter of Duke Orso of Styria.

Logen returns to the north and reunited with his crew, offers the Union an alliance to finish off Bethod once and for all. The Northmen bait a trap for him and his armies come and while they're fighting off and waiting for the Union, Marshall Burr, West's mentor and friend finally dies and neither Marshall Polder nor Kroy are going to a damn thing until they find out who is in charge, which leaves the Northmen hanging. Agonizingly, it takes awhile for news to reach Adua and then return but Jezal, now King, gets irritated at his advisors and puts West in charge. West gets the army moving and comes to the aid of Logen and company just in time. Bethod is left besieged in the city of Karlium.

The long hinted-at Gurkish invasion of Middleland begins and before the Union army is pulled from the North, West gives Logen a day to sort the problem of Bethod once and for all-- he defeats the Feared in single combat and kills Bethod and is proclaimed King. He gathers the Northmen willing to go and heads back to fight the Gurkish.

Glokta in the meantime, has been put to work figuring out the true motives behind Bayaz's behavior and plans and doesn't seem to be coming up with anything much at all. He is, however, developing a certain amount of companionship/friendship with Ardee West as both are cynics and completely open with their own foibles and failings and willing to if not forgive each other for them, then certainly understand them. Ardee won't leave, even as the Gurkish begin the siege, and gets caught up with Glokta as things come to a culmination.

I'm going to stop there and give a strong SPOILER ADVISORY from this point on because I have to talk about the end and I don't want to spoil the end of these books for anyone who hasn't read them yet. So, consider this your SPOILER WARNING and SCROLL AWAY.

...3

...2

...1

Okay, the end: this is where I truly brought in to the grimdark of it all. Do the Gurkish win? No, of course not-- but everyone pays a price for it in one way or another in the end. Ardee, pregnant with Jezal's baby, gets married to Glokta and they honestly seem if not the happiest, then certainly the most content at the end. Her brother, West, however, is affected by the wasting sickness unleashed by Ferro and Bayaz's use of the seed against the One Hundred Eaters of the Gurkish- it doesn't seem as widespread as it was when they revealed it was used on the ruined city of Alcus in the far west, but it's still out there.

Jezal's wife, Terez is blackmailed into sleeping with her husband. Jezal, not knowing this, cannot understand her sadness and realizes that he, like the Union is under the thrall of the man behind the curtain himself, Bayaz.

I loved this, because, in fantasy, the powerful wizard tends to be virtuous, if occasionally bad-tempered (see: Gandalf) or powerful with a fondness for drink and not dressing the part (see: Belgarath) but I haven't actually come across a wizard in fantasy that so thoroughly embraces the role of all-powerful manipulative prick as Bayaz does. He's behind everything as it turns out. He is the Bank of Valent and Bolk that lent Glokta a million marks he can't repay. He arranged for Jezal's ascension. He makes it clear to both that they govern and do things the way he wants them done otherwise he's going to come back and he won't be happy about it.

Ferro, forever altered and driven slightly insane by the use of The Seed realizes that she has powers that make her more or less immune to the Eaters and very hard to kill. She sets off south to get her vengeance. (She too, might be the happiest of all the characters.)

Logen, who basically tells Bayaz to take a hike, despite Bayaz's warnings of what will happen if he does, returns home to find that a few people have other ideas about who should be King and winds up bringing the trilogy full circle by crashing through a window and dropping down below into a raging river.

Overall: The Bayaz Heel Turn I did not see coming and honestly, it almost undid the entire trilogy for me. Everything else is fine-- Logen has bad luck and wouldn't make that good of a King anyway. Jezal seems to be heading toward being a competent King- but not all marriages have to be happy, so that felt in keeping with the overall tone of the books. Glokta getting all the power only to find that he can't really use any of it is the perfect ending for that character- and honestly, remains amongst my favorite characters of this trilogy if not in the genre as a while- and his marrying Ardee works too. Even Ferro going off to get her revenge is fine.

But the Bayaz Heel Turn... almost cheapens the entire trilogy. Because what does it all mean if Bayaz has been manipulating everything the whole time? Why should we care? We get hints of Mamoon and Kalool and we don't actually see the big fight we should have seen. Don't get me wrong: it's an interesting subversion of what you usually see in fantasy, so I appreciate it for that- but it doesn't stick the landing. Therefore, I will have to say: My Grade: *** out of ****. (Those are stars, not censored curse words.)

[silverjirachi]

silverjirachi’s Works and WIPs Master Post - 2023

I have a lot in the works and a lot to be completed so I figured I’d put an updated list all in one cohesive place. This will also be available on a page on my blog directly, in case you want to check in.

---

Pokemon Fandom

The Dead Sea Trilogy, @the-dead-sea-trilogy

Pokemon RSE / ORAS

Pairing: Archie & Maxie

Book 1: The Devil and the Dead Sea (complete) - 76,000 words

“So, where would you be, Mr. Sunshine, if the blistering sun dried up the raging sea?"

The first book in my hardenshipping trilogy, The Devil and the Dead Sea, focuses on Maxie's desperation to reach the Seafloor Cavern. After his own plans fall through, he must enlist the help of his enemy in order to reach his goals, and joins hands with Team Aqua in order to reach the cavern.

But along the way, a hidden romance is discovered between the two teams, and Maxie must bring his team - and his own sanity - back under control, lest he lose everything he's ever worked for in the process.

A traditional Enemies-to-Lovers - featuring many parties Maxie does not want to be at. Gossip, nonsense, sad feelings, and sea shanties ensue.

Featured Characters/Concepts: Maxie, Archie, Courtney, Tabitha, Shelly, Matt, Groudon & Kyogre, original Team Magma/Team Aqua crew, Maxie and Archie fighting and falling in love on a ship.

Link to AO3

Book 2: Icarus and the Blistering Sun (being updated actively!) ~ 100,000 words

Thanks for instilling dreams in me, Max. I’m off to pursue mine. See you when I awaken the great and mighty KYOGRE!!

The preqel to The Devil and the Dead Sea, Icarus and the Blistering Sun tells the story of the beginnings of Archie and Maxie's relationship-turned-rivalry, and how there once was a close partnership and even a friendship therein - and how it all went so bitterly, catastrophically wrong.

Follow a young, aspiring, college-age Maxie as he strives to find his calling. He and Archie--along with one other peculiar blue-haired scientist--travel the region to chart and discover the legendary Pokemon--inadvertently feeding this information directly into the hands of Team Rocket.

Featuring Even More Parties that Maxie Does Not Want to Be At, and Colress, who is only there to break rules. There is some light Maxie/Colress content, a peculiar and disastrous ship I am referring to as FeralScienceShipping

Featured Characters/Concepts: Maxie, Archie, Colress (B2W2), Petrel (HGSS), Domino (Team Rocket, Mewtwo Returns), Archie's encounter with Jirachi, Maxie's backstory, and the inception of Team Magma

Link to AO3

Book 3: Mother Earth and Her Infinite Sky (wip) ~ 100,000 words (probably)

“Thwarted by two twelve year old kids." Maxie paused again.  “Hm.  I don’t like that this is a recurring pattern for some reason.” “It’s like every region’s just linin’ up waitin’ for their next apocalypse,” Archie laughed.  “Who’s next?  Kalos?  Alola?  Sinnoh?” “Please don’t talk like that.” “What?  Why?” “Sinnoh is home to creatures far more powerful than Kyogre and Groudon.”

The third book in the Dead Sea Trilogy, in which Archie and Maxie (and their third wheel, Colress) are working together to build something new from the ashes of their two retired teams. They join forces with their mutual parole officer (Looker) to keep themselves out of jail, and to a stop to an emerging threat in the Sinnoh region.

Featured Characters/Concepts: Maxie, Archie, Colress, Looker, Matt, Shelly, Courtney, Tabitha, Team Galactic, Archie and Maxie's fledgling romantic relationship, Courtney's weird computer thing, and the Creation Trio.

Spinoff: Ophelia and the King’s Madness (wip) ~ 140,000 words

"N's heart is pure and innocent. But there is nothing more beautiful and terrifying than innocence."

This is one of only three quotes uttered by Concordia in the entire game. Ophelia tells the story of Ghetsis' lesser-known children, Anthea and Concordia, and how Concordia came to the conclusion she did. It explores Team Plasma as a cult, Ghetsis as its leader, and the two sisters as sheltered prisoners in their own "heavenly" home.

The story centers greatly on Concordia and the secret, romantic relationship she develops with Colress, who hides a great portion of who he is while continuing to experiment with Team Plasma and Project Genesect behind her back.

Featured Characters/Concepts: Anthea, Concordia, Colress, N, Ghetsis, Project Genesect, the logistics of Team Plasma as a cult, Ghetsis' manipulation of Anthea & Concordia in order to "correctly raise" raise N.

LINK TO PREVIEW: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28881342/chapters/70850358

Currently Unnamed: Dead Sea Trilogy one shots collection (brainstormed)

This will be a collection of related stories and one-shots featuring the cast of characters from the Dead Sea Trilogy, similar in vibe and feeling to Stories from Exile.

---

The Legend of Zelda

Exile//Vilify (complete) ~ 150,000 words

The boy was special, and he intended to find out why.

An origin story for Astor from Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, Exile//Vilify tells the story of those that are chosen, and those who are not.

Astor has trained since childhood to become the next Royal Seer, but he is plagued with a dark secret: a prophecy that states that he will one day be expelled from the castle, sent into exile, and devote his life to Calamity Ganon.

General fiction, no extensive ship content. Featuring Astor as the royal seer, Astor having a deep, meaningful relationship with Zelda's mother, and a Fate-worshipping cult that calls themselves the Royal Order of the Seers.

Featured Characters/Concepts: Astor, Zelda's mother, King Rhoam, Master Kohga & Sooga, original Hylian characters, a deconstruction of the concept of fate & predestination, and an exploration of Astor's cult/eventual worship of Calamity Ganon.

Link to AO3

Stories from Exile ~ 50,000 words (ongoing)

In which Kohga and Sooga are really just friends.

Stories from Exile is a collection of one-shots, short stories, and other just general snippets, some much more serious than others, that are related to the world of Exile//Vilify. Majority focuses on "evil" Astor - aka, his time spent in exile - and his misadventures with the Yiga Clan, although there are a handful of stories of Royal Seer Astor in Hyrule Castle, including a few heartwarming ones with the baby Princess Zelda.

The Totally-Platonic relationship of Kohga and Sooga really takes the cake here though, and a great handful of stories also focus on Yiga-Clan shenanigans. There is a table of contents at the beginning so you are able to sort through and find what you'd like.

Updated sporadically as new ideas strike me, all canon or semi-canon to Exile//Vilify.

Featured Characters/Concepts: Master Kohga, Sooga, Astor, Lady Urbosa, Princess Zelda, the rest of the HWAOC crew. Antics.

Link to AO3

Trouble Will Find Me (wip)

"If I stay here, trouble will find me // If I stay here, I'll never leave." -The National, "Sea of Love"

Trouble Will Find Me stands as a prequel to Exile//Vilify. It is a story that focuses on Astor's mentor, Thelem, and what brought him to the Royal Order of the Seers, and to the events that take place right before his first meeting with Astor.

This is Thelem's origin story, featuring the formative years he spends on Satori Mountain, finding himself, his meeting and relationship with Azelphir, and a more in-depth look at the culture and religion of the Order of the Seers.

Featured Characters/Concepts: Thelem, Azelphir, deeper lore of the Order of the Seers, Thelem's origin story, Thelem and Azelphir's underlying feelings for one another. Blupees, Koroks, Hyrule's other supernatural phenoma, and the Lord of the Mountain.

PREVIEW - AO3

Rewoven into the Stars (complete) ~ 8,000 words

And this new king before him, he wasn’t like the old one.  He was stubborn and sweet.

Rewoven into the Stars was a gift/commission for a friend, which falls in the Stories from Exile universe. A portal opens through space-time and sends a rather strange (and kind) Ganondorf through. He and the formerly-royal seer spend the following weeks growing closer, even falling in love.

Featured Characters: Astor & Ganondorf from the Born Evil universe by @sherlocktheravencat

Link to AO3

Prophet to a Gerudo King (wip)

“Are you willing to vow your undying loyalty to me?  From not just now unto death, but into all your future lives to come?"

A one-shot that muses on the pact between Astor and King Ganondorf, with Astor acting as Ganon's royal seer. Semi-canon prequel to Exile//Vilify, depending on how you look at it.

Featured Characters: Astor, pre-Calamity King Ganondorf

The Rhoam Cucking Chronicles (complete?) ~ 4,600 words

"He fucked my wife." -King Rhoam, in the games (real)

A shitpost about Astor fucking Zelda's mom, the Queen of Hyrule. Based in the world of Exile//Vilify / Stories from Exile. I (might?) add more silly portions to it someday, although it is unlikely. I can be bribed to do it, however, as I can be bribed to do many things...

Featured Characters/Concepts: Astor, Zelda's mom, King Rhoam, Astor fucking Zelda's mom (obviously)

Link to AO3

Hyrule is Doomed! (ongoing)

Hyrule may be in a lot of trouble, yes. But under Link's professional, expert, and yes, even reckless care -- it certainly will not be doomed.

Hyrule is Doomed! is a SILLY collection of one-shot stories that detail my chaotic, shirtless himbo playthrough of BOTW/TOTK. Featuring tales such as Link scaling the castle naked and with six hearts (and beating Windblight Ganon), going west instead of east off of the Great Plateau, and the ever-beloved Guardian Tipping.

Updated as ideas and the memories come to me, or when I do something stupid in BOTW/TOTK again.

Featured Characters/Concepts: Link being silly

"Link" to AO3

[buriedself]

@ HIDDENJEM JUST POSTED … thank you for the incredible response to f&s just one day after release ! so excited for the book signing tomorrow. come say hi !!!!!!!

001. STATISTICS …

GENERAL DETAILS.

FULL NAME: james abeke muyiwa. NICKNAME(S): jem, jamie. AGE:   twenty8. DATE OF BIRTH:   february 9th, 1995. PLACE OF BIRTH: new brunswick, new jersey. CURRENT LOCATION:  upper west side. GENDER:  genderfluid. PRONOUNS:  she/he/they, no preference. ORIENTATION:  bisexual. OCCUPATION: author. EDUCATION LEVEL: mfa in writing from columbia.

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE, ETC.

HEIGHT:  5'6. TATTOOS:   none. PIERCINGS: one in each ear. CLOTHING STYLE:   1) comfortable. 2) colorful & fun. DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS:  biiiiiig smile.

HEALTH.

ALLERGIES:   peanuts. SLEEPING HABITS:   poor. will often wake up in the middle of the night to write & stay up very late. non-existent sleep schedule. discord status is always active. EATING HABITS: enjoys sweets a lot. SOCIABILITY: 10/10. highly sociable. the extrovert friend. DRINKING / SMOKING / DRUGS: no / no / no.

PERSONALITY.

LABELS / TROPES:  did not think this through, most writers are writers, affectionate nickname, beware the silly / nice ones, the cutie, disappeared dad, the heart, shipper on deck, affectionate nicknames, bad liar, book smart, cheerful child, cute clumsy girl, endearingly dorky, good cannot comprehend evil, hates being alone, open mouth insert foot, perpetual smiler, silly rabbit cynicism is for losers, you are not alone. INSPIRATIONS: jester lavorre (cr2), han sooyoung (orv), jessica day (new girl), phil dunphy (modern family). POSITIVE TRAITS:   ambitious, enthusiastic, creative, expressive, mischievous NEGATIVE TRAITS: clumsy, naïve, inexperienced, credulous, over-trusting LIKES: classical music, winter, cats. DISLIKES: alcoholic drinks, tight schedules, summer. FEARS: disappointing her mother, failure. HABITS:  bouncing on toes, nervous giggling, bouncing leg, filler words HOBBIES: watching tv / movies, reading, strategy games, d&d.

FAMILY, RELATIONSHIPS, ETC.

MOTHER: alive & well. FATHER: estranged. SIGNIFICANT OTHER: none. BEST FRIEND:  tba. EXES: none. SIBLING(S): none. CHILDREN: none. PET(S):  cat named cat the second after their childhood cat named cat.

002. BIOGRAPHY / HEADCANONS …

born and raised in jersey by a single mom. dad was out of the picture and mom always told a romantic story of how he's off doing something heroic to protect their family. jem still believes this.

mom wasn't well off by any means, she had to work to put jem through school, though jem got scholarships for college. their mom gained notoriety for her incredible singing voice after a stroke of luck on american idol when jem was already a college freshman.

has always been very talented at writing to the point that nearly everytime they entered a writing competition in middle/high school, they won. their short stories were always either very poetic and prose heavy, or contained an incredible amount of world building.

published their first book, zugzwang, when they were still in college. it got picked up by a big deal publisher and while it didn't get popular, they still kept them on under the impression that they'd do very very good for the company when the time was right.

their next book, long past dawn, gained popularity very quickly, especially with queer teens/new adults. easily their favorite book to date, it holds a very special place in their heart.

after that, it was all uphill. their trilogy, steele legacy, put them on the map. they're a highly sought after author to the point that they have even done some guest lectures at their alma mater.

sucks at writing romance because they've never been in a relationship and it's kinda making their publisher mad because the fans want romance !

personality wise they are very sweet, very funny, will pull innocent/harmless pranks on their friends. extremely extroverted. genuinely just here for a good time. always, always smiling.

unfortunately, they're also quite gullible and naïve, easy to manipulate. they grew up pretty sheltered as their mom always worried about them. really just takes things at face value.

steele legacy trilogy is getting a movie adaption ! but shh that's a secret.

003. CAREER …

zugzwang (2013) : a very da vinci code-like mystery thriller novel with some knives out/glass onion type humor. her highest selling novel after the steele legacy and f&s. only gained traction after steele legacy's release. long past dawn (2015) : a short coming of age novel in a first-person biography style about a new adult figuring out their identity as a queer person while navigating college life. happy, sweet ending. sheep in wolf's clothing (2018) : sci-fi horror written in an epistory style that was, honestly, not that well received due to how experimental the writing was. due to the success of the rest of her works, it has garnered a solid fanbase. steele legacy trilogy (2016-2022) : quintessential high fantasy series with incredibly impressive world building that put her on the map once booktok got a hold of it. easy to digest prose that walks the line between too-flowery and easy to understand. new adult / adult audience simply due to the heavy topics. as the rest of her books, there is no romance, but fans are obsessed with the three protagonists - luka, jingyi, and zora - as a throuple based simply on platonic relationships. faithless & stolid (2023) : the first book in a trilogy taking place in the same world as steele legacy, though it is technically a prequel. even better reception than steele legacy so far. publisher & fans are urging them to involve romance in this one. future projects : publisher is pushing them to write something before releasing the second part to f&s, preferably romance, despite their unfamiliarity with the genre.

004. CONNECTIONS …

best friends (0/∞) : she makes friends like no one else. clicks immediately with anyone and everyone

someone who she convinces to fake date so they can fake break up with her so she knows how heart break feels like so that she can somehow come up with a romance book to keep her people happy. maybe there's feelings. maybe there isn't.

actors to star in the steele legacy adaption !

authors she looks up to, authors she's friends with, authors that have beef with her

rivals but it's one sided because she doesn't dislike anyone honestly

crushes.... unrequited... probably her who has a crush and is going to do nothing about it.

fans !

people who get into prank wars with her <3

good / bad influence

???? idk profit. she's fun but naïve and i want her to be manipulated and stuck in places/situations that she feels out of her depth with because she needs to grow up. ruin her !

[weirdstuffinthewoods]

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

I'm awful at starting niche blogs, so I'm trying to stick to what I know and love. Something I know very well and love very much is this box set right here that I'm still mad at myself for getting rid of (I bought the 3-book treasury it's just not the SAME)

If you're a millennial of any age, you were probably traumatized by one or more of these bad boys. Alvin Schwartz sat down in the late 70s (book 1 was published in 1981!) and said, "you know what? I'm gonna scare the pants off a bunch of kids and they'll thank me for it later." And you know what? I kinda do.

I've spent a lot of time trying to find the root of my horror obsession, and I thought it was seeing the 1990 made-for-TV version of IT at a sleepover in 3rd grade, which resulted in two traumatic years of night terrors, calmed only by...reading the book it was based on? And then all of Stephen King's other works that were definitely not appropriate for a barely 9-10 year old? (For years, I'd skip the adulthood sections of IT when I read it because I found them so boring, so I had a half-finished story in my mind. Go figure.) But that wasn't it. I thought maybe it was finding the Informania: Ghosts and Informania: Vampires books at the Scholastic Book Fair and poring over them obsessively for years (more on this at a later date) but nope.

It was Scary Stories, Alvin Schwartz, and Stephen Gammell.

If you want some of the story surrounding these books, I recommend the Prime/Freevee documentary "Scary Stories". I remember none of it, but that's the ADHD and I can't help it.

From a quick Wikipedia search (they have never steered me wrong and this is a for-fun blog y'all), it looks like Alvin Schwartz is a folklore dude, which I aspire to be. He published multiple other kids' books of folklore aside from the Scary Stories trilogy, including A Twister of Twists, A Tangler of Tongues, but these were illustrated by a dude named Glen Rounds and I mean look:

A little weird, but not nightmare-inducing by any means. Although the amount of hair is concerning. American folklore gets lost in the shuffle a lot so it's cool for kids to see it. Then, a bit before 1981, he meets this fuckin' guy:

Who yes appears harmless but single-handedly molded me as a person with just some watercolor and pencil. Without his illustrations, Scary Stories wouldn't have the legacy they do today. Proof? The books were rereleased in 2011 with different illustrations. From the guy who illustrated the Series of Unfortunate Events books (Brett Helquist). I'm sure those were fine but like come on.

as compared to

Which one is a kid (ie me) going to cover with one hand while desperately trying to read the other page?

Stephen Gammell has a decades-long career which is briefly highlighted in this Bloody Disgusting article, excitingly enough. Before Scary Stories, he actually did another scary book series for kids which has some unsettling illustrations

and he did some historical illustrations for stuff like Thunder at Gettysburg and Terrible Things: An Allegory of the Holocaust which no I will not be looking up because I need to sleep tonight.

The article also goes on to mention how amazing Schwartz's research abilities were considering none of these stories were original- they were just collected from around the US and the world and compiled into a (not kid-friendly, no, but) kid-interesting version. There were also audiobooks (books on cassette? I guess?) for at least one of them so I assume all three, and I distinctly remember (I'll point to the exact stories later):

sitting:

-in broad daylight

-at the reading table in my classroom, probably 3rd grade too

-headphones on, volume up

-sweating absolute buckets because I was listening to this baby which ETSY SOMEHOW HAD

ARE YOU JOKING ETSY??? I'm okay though I don't need the nightmares back.

George S. Irving deserved every penny he got for this work and a whole lot more because that man scared the shit out of me. Also found out as I was reading his Wikipedia article that he played Heat Miser in The Year Without A Santa Claus. Well. The more you know, I guess.

Anyway, going forward, I'm going to go in depth on some of my favorites, and hopefully you come with! Send me questions or suggestions on stuff you want me to talk about or look at :)

Also yes I've seen the movie no I will not talk about it here but maybe later because it's been awhile since I saw it

[bogreader]

13 books tagged by @aceofthegreenajah thank you!

1) Last book I read

Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir. All the reveals at the ending oh shit! oh fuck! I’m starting Nona the Ninth soon

2) A book I recommend

City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty! The Tumblr fandom is too small, you guys are sleeping on the Daevabad trilogy!

3) A book that I couldn’t put down

Network Effect by Martha Wells. Read it in one day which is rare for me with books that aren’t novellas.

4) A book I’ve read twice (or more)

The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson, I’ve read 3 times

5) A book on my TBR

The Grey Bastards by Jonathan French. A fantasy about gritty warrior half-orcs riding giant war hogs, sounds like a lot of fun!

6) A book I’ve put down

The First Law series by Joe Abercrombie. I put the series down at The Heroes. I don’t know what it is about his books but they always feel disappointing and anticlimactic. The only thing I get out of them is the humour and that’s not enough to carry me through the series, even though I’m kinda interested to get to the Age of Madness trilogy.

7) A book on my wish list

The Judas Blossom by Stephen Aryan. It’s a historical fiction about the Mongol invasion of Persia. I’ll probably hold off on it cause I don’t want to start a series that isn’t fully released yet.

8) A favourite book from childhood

Silverwing by Kenneth Oppel. My old copy is completely falling apart lol.

9) A book you would give to a friend

Same choice as the moot who tagged me, All Systems Red by Martha Wells. One of my top 3 favourite series.

10) The most books you own by a single author

I own the most books by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson because of the Wheel of Time and the Cosmere. After that I own the most books by Robin Hobb.

11) A nonfiction book you own

A History of Inner Asia by Svat Soucek. I’ve read about halfway through. I’ve wanted to read about the histories of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Mongolia, and Uighur culture for a while and I thought this would be a good introductory book.

12) What are you currently reading

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin. I see a lot of potential for the trilogy but so far I’m mostly just invested in one POV.

13) What are you planning on reading next?

This Is How You Lose The Time War will probably be soon because everyone is telling me to read it and I just bought a copy.

My shelfies:

Tagging: @im-surviving-off-of-tea11 @readingwitharthur @tragediegh @ravenousgf @theamberarchive @mistbjorn @zellixir

[the-stray-storyteller]

you asked for a shitty poem istg this is the only poem ive ever written HEY COME BACK *grabs you and pulls you back* NOW YOU HAVE TO TELL ME ABOUT ALL YOUR NEW STUFF AND SHARE SOME OF YOURS >:(

also literally you don't have to feel pressured to answer this take your time like honestly you don't even have to reply I WANT TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR NEW WIP SACRIFICE!1?1?11??1

AAAAAAAAAAAAA! HI!

*offers you tea*

I sent you an ask a few days ago but my tumblr is acting funny so I don't think you got it. Anyways.....

The poem omigod. It's wow! Is it the complexities of human emotion that we hide with beauty. Or is it about romanticizing the dangerous and falling in love with it. The juxtaposition. The rhythm. The contrast. Holy fucking wow. ITS AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. ITS SO GOOD. *frothing mouth*

Also you new pfp is so cooot. eeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

Okay now to answer your questions. New stuff, nothing much there. I have been writing Rebel and Havenpoint (I should really post the next chapter) really slowly. Writing more chem notes than stories.

Rebel is a part of a series. I still haven't decided if it is going to be a duology or a trilogy. But there will be another book if I have the energy and will to write it.

And I have been concentrating on making two comic strips for my college scholarship. I finished the first one, one more to go.

Long rant below. Like really fucking long. Not joking.

Sacrifice is a placeholder name for my WIP. I haven't decided what its actual name will be. I am really hoping I don't abandon this WIP.

Like I did with Masque, Woven Worlds, Orphic Academy, Timekeepers, Card Thief, Games of the Astute, Mortal Bound, The Playground, After the afterlife (dumb name), Stolen by Silence, etc.

So Sacrifice is an Indian Dark Academia novel.

25 of the best magic users from all over India will be invited to attend a prestigious and mythical academy after they finish 12th grade. So they take this mysterious train ride to another fucking realm where the school is (nobody knows its exact location cause they all faint in the train). Also the academy's architecture will be based off on Indian architecture throughout the ages, so I am currently researching on that when I get time.

The students have a year to conduct a study in the academy. They will have access to all sorts of ancient scriptures and previous alumni's studies. At the end of the year the Dean will see what they worked on. If the dean is impressed by you project they will tell you the secret of life and death magic. The Dean is never impressed. If they fail to impress the Dean they go home with absolutely nothing and they would forget the place.

However, the people who went back home with nothing went mad after a while and killed themselves. Their minds are not able to process the magical place they had just been to. Being at the academy also manages to mess with the minds of a person. It drives them a bit crazy. Some people have suicided there or have killed somebody else. The students don't know this.

Spoilers after this point.

So a group of six students join together and decide to help each other with their projects so they can get the secret. One of the group finds out about the whole madness thing and tells the others about it.

Now each of the six students has a hamartia (tragic flaw). From jealousy to manipulative. This is actually a small experiment from my side because the main characters are not good people, so I am gonna try and make them likable. Its going to be so hard.

Anyways desperate and power hungry the group decides to find the secret themselves and steal the academy's resources and escape before the end of the year.

The others fearful of dying/going mad start to push the limits of their magic. They experiment with things that they are not supposed to experiment with. 

With every experiment their hamartia takes over. They start going mad. They become a fucking cult. They start to sacrifice the other students to ancient gods (in true ancient fashion) and become more powerful. Once all the students are gone they start killing each other and the last one left ends up destroying the academy along with themself trying to become the most powerful being.

*sobbing* I talk too much.

[heyyoushouldexperiencethese]

GIANT REC LIST

LAST UPDATED 12/30/2024

Columbo

Bomberman Jetters

Id: Invaded

Useless Ponko

Yu-Gi-Oh (manga)

"My son is he man or beast" from action comics 400

Kagurabachi

Spy x Family

Chainsaw Man

Yotsuba

Frieren

N52 Superboy #26-34

Digimon (Especially Adventure, 02, Tamers, Savers, Appmon, & Ghost Game; for the movies, all of them aside from Tri)

Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth

Marx Brothers

Get Smart (1965)

Superman vs Meshi

Detective Comics #500 "To Kill a Legend"

Christmas with the Super-Heroes #2 "Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot"

Captain Atom (1987)

Bronze Age Firestorm

Legion of Superheroes

Amethyst Princess of Gemworld

Ookami Shounen wa Kyou mo Uso o Kasaneru/The boy who cried wolf tells another lie today

Hundreds of Beavers

3:10 to Yuma (1957)

The Maltese Falcon

Cast a deadly spell

Beetlejuice

Beetlejuice Musical

Beetlejuice 2

Paper Mario

Paper Mario the thousand year door

famicom detective club (both games)

Ace Attorney 1-4 & Great Ace Attorney Chronicles

Ghost Trick

Marvelous: Another Treasure Island

Pikmin 1-4

Kirby and the Forgotten Land

Kirby Planet Robobot

Kirby Triple Deluxe

Kirby Return to Dreamland Deluxe

Kirby's Adventure

Kirby Superstar

Dark Matter trilogy

Celeste

Batman: The Audio Adventures

Powerless (2016)

The Good Place

Arrested Development

Be Cool Scooby Doo

Sakamoto Days

El Chavo del Ocho

Chapulin Colorado

Arnold Drake's Doom Patrol

Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol

Rachel Pollack's Doom Patrol

Neil Gaiman's The Sandman

batman ego

Scooby Doo Team Up

The Batman & Scooby Doo Mysteries

Happy Halloween Scooby Doo

Tsukumojuku (2005)

Dragon Quest

Rocket Slime

Mario & Luigi (all titles)

JoJo's bizarre adventure

Witch Hat Atelier

Pluto

Monster

John Wick 1-4

UHF

Weird Al Biopic

Little Shop of Horrors (original film & musical)

Super Friends (1976)

A series of unfortunate events (books)

All the Wrong Questions

Power Bomberman

Custom Battler Bomberman/Bomberman 2

Tatami time machine blues

The Amazing World of Gumball

The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy

Codename Kids Next Door

Assassination Classroom

Villainous

Regular Show

The looney tunes show

Nedroid

Sonic Boom (2014)

Hector con Carne

The Book of Life

films starring cantinflas (preferably in spanish, but if you don't know spanish well)

Hourman

tear along the dotted line

this world can't tear me down

Casa de papel

Airplane

Everything Everywhere All at Once

Wayside School

Fullmetal Alchemist (Manga)

Meanwhile (Comic)

Way of the Househusband

Welcome to demon school iruma kun

Infinity Train

Hilda

"The Twilight Zone" Her Pilgrim Soul/I of Newton

The Twilight Zone (Original Series)

All of Alan Brennert's comics

Villainous

Class of 3000

Rankin Bass Christmas specials (shout-out to Santa Claus is coming to town)

Moral Orel

Dungeon Meshi

Dorohedoro

Don't Blush, Sekime-san!

No gyarus in this class

the Philadelphia story

Yuri is Taboo to a Yuri Otaku

True Detective S1

Superman & the Authority

All-star Superman

Morrison's Action Comics

Morrison's Animal Man

Moore's Swamp Thing

Multiversity

Filmore!

Muppets Most Wanted

Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat (specifically season 1)

Baba is You

Henry Stickmin

The Giver quartet

Bomberman Generation

Bomberman Journey

A Bomberman Journey 2023 Followup

Bomberman Battle Pack: A way too in-depth analysis

The Weird

Sam & Max series (comics games AND show)

Goodbye Eri

Only Murders in the building

Criminal

Archie's Weird Mysteries

Please Go Home, Akutsu-San!

Mousou Telepathy

Tomo Chan is a girl

Lovely Complex

Lovely Complex TWO

Shinobi Undercover

Barda

Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

The usual suspects

Ip Man

kiss him not me

Carole & Tuesday

Catch 22 (book)

Space Dandy

Vigilante

Dandandan

Rush Hour

What's up Doc

The cheap detective

The awful truth

charade

his girl friday

bringing up baby

your name

the afterparty

mad monster party?

Pippin

little shop of horrors (original)

sound of music

music man

singing in the rain

The great race

Artemis Fowl (main series)

Don't hug me I'm scared

ultimate exorcist kiyoshi

squid games

Dokapon kingdom

lego city undercover

Summer Wars

Culdcept Revolt

Casablanca

hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy

batman no man's land novelization

Ultraman Rising

“When I woke up I had become a girl” Disease

My New Wife Is Forcing Herself to Smile

She gets girls everyday

Detentionaire

Hero-san and Former General-san

the dangers in my heart

Heathers (film)

Scarface (1932)

you and i are polar opposites

the guy she was interested in wasn't a guy at all

Kaguya Sama love is war

We want to talk about kaguya

Arakure Ojousama wa Monmon Shiteiru

A Story About a Man and a Woman and When They Sleep Together, Money Appears Out of Nowhere

Nanaco Robin

The girl I like forgot her glasses

Tokimeki Academy ❤ Class of Princes

Please love the useless me

please love the useless me R

berry dynamite

Otona Najimi

Magokoro scramble

undead unluck

the night is short walk on girl

fire punch

akane bashi

kaiju no. 08

The Story Between a Dumb Prefect and a High School Girl with an Inappropriate Skirt Length

disastrous life of saiki k

jitsu wa watashi wa/my monster secret

Boarding School Juliet

Happy Kanako's Killer Life

Romantic Cider/Romantic Drop

Phineas and Ferb

bigtop burger

pseudo harem

gravity falls

Tatami Galaxy

Kindergarten Wars

My friend Irma

A story about smoking behind the back of a supermarket

Casino

shikimori is not just cute

no miyahira not you

A Story About Treating a Female Knight, Who Has Never Been Treated as a Woman, as a Woman

Asahina Wakaba to Marumaru na kareshi

Super Secret

mob psycho 100

reigen

sublo & tangy mustard

they might be giants

weird al yankovic

saint motel

cab Calloway

St. Arnaud

[phoenixlionme]

Pieces of Media that prove the whole "Go Woke, Go Broke" slogan and those with that belief is utter bullshit

NOTE: No ranking involved.

A Different World

Aliens franchise - specifically the first two

All of Us Are Dead - Korean zombie TV series

Arcane

Atomic Blonde

Avatar The Last Airbender

Avatar the Legend of Korra

Bad Boys franchise

Barbie 2023

Beef 2023

black-ish franchise

Blackkklansman

Blade trilogy

Blue Eye Samurai

Bones TV show

Bridesmaids

Brooklyn 99

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Cagney and Lacey

Candyman 2022

Captain Planet

Carmen Sandiego franchise

Charlie's Angels - not the most recent one

Cinderella 1997

Craig of the Creek

Crazy Rich Asians

Creed franchise - sequel movies to the Rocky franchise

Cyberpunk Edgerunners

DCAU's Justice League

DCAU's Static Shock

DCEU's Aquaman

DCEU's Wonder Woman

Disney's Aladdin

Disney's Amphibia

Disney's Beauty and the Beast

Disney's Big Hero 6

Disney's Elena of Avalor

Disney's Fairies franchise

Disney's Filmore

Disney's Frozen franchise

Disney's Gargoyles

Disney's Kim Possible

Disney's Lilo and Stitch

Disney's Moana

Disney's Mulan

Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarves 1937

Disney's Tangled

Disney's That's so Raven

Disney's The Emperor's New Groove

Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Disney's The Litte Mermaid

Disney's The Owl House

Disney's The Princess and the Frog

Disney's W.I.T.C.H.

Dora the Explorer franchise

Dreamworks' Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts

Dreamworks' She Ra and the Princesses of Power

Dreamworks' Trolls franchise

Eve's Bayou

Everything Everywhere All At Once

Fresh Off the Boat

Fullmetal Alchemist - Brotherhood version

Get Out

Girls Trip

Guillermo del Toro's Pacific Rim

Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth

Hair Love short

Hairspray film

Halloween franchise

Harley Quinn 2019 TV series

Heartstopper

Hidden Figures

Insecure TV series

Invincible 2021

I Love Lucy

Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous

Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken

Kill Bil Vol 1 and 2

Kill La Kill

Kim's Convenience

Laika Studios' Coraline

Little Women 2019

Living Single

Love Simon

Mad Max Furious Road

Matilda - the one with Danny Devito

Maya and the Three

Moonlight 2016

MCU's Black Panther

MCU's Black Panther II

MCU's Captain Marvel

MCU's Daredevil

MCU's Jessica Jones

MCU's Luke Cage

MCU's Shang Chi

Molly of Denali

My Life as a Teenage Robot

Never Have I Ever

Nimona 2023

Paper Girls

Pixar's Brave

Pixar's Coco

Pixar's Inside Out

Pixar's Turning Red

Pose TV series

Powerpuff Girls

Prey 2022

Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Rent - musical movie

Reservation Dogs

RRR - Indian film

RWBY

Sailor Moon

Scream franchise

Searching/Missing movies

Sex and the City

Silence of the Lambs - first one

Sony's Spiderverse franchise- ITSV and ATSV

Spawn - Todd MacFarlane TV series

Spy Kids

Squid Games

Star Trek - mainly the OG one

Steven Universe

Studio Ghibli in general

Teen Titans animated series

The Book of Life

The Casagrandes - sequel to The Loud House

The Dragon Prince

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (only the OG one)

The George Lopez Show

The Golden Girls

The Last Of Us

The Legend of Vox Machina

The Legend of Zorro

The Loud House

The Nanny

The Old Guard

Thelma and Louise

To All The Boy I've Loved franchise

Totally Spies

Winx Club

X-Men 1990s animated TV show

Yellowjackets TV series

Yotsuba!

Yuri on Ice

Please feel free to add but be respectful.

[sketchyfletch]

People you want to get to know better

Tagged by @dwead-piwate-meggers (thank you! I am having a stressful morning because of boiler noises so this is very sweet and appreciated)

1. Three Ships: Varies on depending what I'm into, but right now - Beau/Yasha from Critical Role, Leliana/F Warden from Dragon Age, Korra/Asami forever.

2. First Ever Ship: The earliest I can ever remember being invested in the relationship side of things I think was either Quasimodo/Esmerelda (Disney version) or Hercules/Meg. Although looking back Esmerelda was my baby gay awakening so I don't even know what was going on there.

3. Last Song: Last one was from tumblr - Sa Ma (Horse Races) by Haihuai Huang. The last song I intentionally listened to was the Punk Rock Factory cover of Poor Unfortunate Souls (an absolute banger).

4. Last Movie: Shotgun Wedding - 3 out of 5. Pretty fun. Last movie I really enjoyed is a hard decision between Knives Out: Glass Onion and the Lost City.

5. Currently Reading: I usually have two physical books and a couple of kindles on the go along with whatever section of Ao3 I am stuck on. Currently:

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karuntilaka - really good, a photographer in Sri Lanka who is dead trying to figure out what happened. But holy heck it's a grim read at times.

How to be a Woman by Caitlin Moran - a lot of people get put off by the title because they think it's a guide. It's more how Caitlin herself figured out what it means for her specifically, and she is a tremendously funny writer. She doesn't hold back on descriptions of various bodily fluids.

Crazy Rich Asians Trilogy by Kevin Kwan - this is my go to re-read at the moment. Rachel's reaction to the mad world of the super-rich is extremely relatable but Kevin's true talent is describing beautiful architecture and FOOD. Oh my god the food descriptions. I want to go to a Singapore hawker's market so badly.

The Adventure Zone graphic novels by the McElroys. The next book is out this month! I am ridiculously excited!

6. Currently Watching: Season 2 of the Legend of Vox Machina. I never watched the first campaign as the second was starting around the time I got into it, and this is a great way of saving me 400 hours of my life.

7. Currently Consuming: Tea with milk. I rarely drink tea but I have an engineer in the flat and it feels like I'm not entirely ignoring him if I offer tea periodically. Also it's cold as tits in my flat rn.

8. Currently Craving: I love making Chinese-inspired chicken thighs. The marinade is five-spice, soy sauce, sesame oil, rice wine and ginger. Sometimes I put a little tomato puree in there too. Soak in the marinade for two hours/overnight, and then bake in the oven for 40 mins. They are so good and I am never not wanting them.

Thank you! Tagging for the 'would like to know you better' - @forestlich @thessalian @yamisnuffles

[chroniicpessimist]

I got logged out for so long but I finally got back in. Anyway, I'm super mad about the election, I feel bad for the people in U.S, specifically women, POC, and the LGBTQ community. Trump plans to cut taxes only for the top 1%, banned trans people from joining the military, took away womens rights to abortion and plan b, as if we’re just baby machines, ending no fault divorce, ban contraceptives, higher taxes for the working class, elimination of unions and worker protections, raise the retirement age, cut social security and medicare, end the affordable care act, raise prescription drug prices, defund schools, Bible teachings in school, which goes against freedom of religion, ban muslims from entering the country, and banning books containing oppression against POC, women, dystopian societies,  and LGBTQ mentions such as A child called it, the hunger games trilogy, The Anne Frank Diary, A Handmaids Tale, Red White And Royal Blue, etc. This is only half of Project 2025, we elected a convicted, racist, sexist, homophobic felon before a woman. Trump also said he would date his daughter, so he may be a pedophile as well. Sure, all the women, POC, and LGBTQ people you know lose all their rights, but at least your groceries are cheaper! Though, that only applies to the upper class. As a Canadian, it doesn't affect me as directly, but they may want to follow some of those plans here. As much as I hate Trudeau, Pierre would make me, as a woman, lose my rights. Don't set back the movement even more by wanting cheaper groceries.