#also I'm sorry I decided I couldn't answer the rest of the fandom questions loool

[synobun]

Please tell me about the music event you manage!

ok here I go I'm gonna force myself to reply to this at 3 AM

SO!

I play an online game called mafia. It can be played IRL but I do not. The communities I'm a part of have a side game/activity called walruses.

Walruses are a music event where a host/judge sets a series of category prompts, and then people send a song they feel represents that prompt. Usually the expectation is that the person submits music they like themselves, but it's not mandatory. The host listens to every song, scores every single one, and then also tacks on a little write-up about their thoughts for every song. Then, everyone gets together in a Discord voice chat where a bot plays the music from worst to best (usually) and we all have a big laugh about the host's opinions, the submitter's choice, etc. Typically it's one category per reveal, because they can take a long time to get through.

I run one every year and they've grown to be a big event! My first was in 2021 and had maybe a dozen people. This year it had 44! Which means, since it was a walrus of 8 categories, I listened to 352 songs. x) Most multiple times. It was a lot of work.

But yeah! It's a lot of fun. Usually other people's walruses are more technically minded, where they spend quite some time on history, trivia, music theory, etc. I do not do that. Both because I don't know anything about it and I don't really find it fun. I just go by vibes, make jokes, and try to make sure everyone is in on the joke so we all have a good time every week for 2-3 hours just bantering and getting to know new artists.

It's become a big part of my social life and it's revolutionized how I listen to music. It's also really broadened my horizons. I'm a little sad because the community I'm part of has been dead for a while and convincing others to host their own event has thus far failed. This year I almost considered canceling, as a week before the deadline I only had 7 entrants. I got a humongous push at the very last second. It was close, though. I'm not sure how it'll go next year, if there's a next year. (For reasons. One of which being my ex. But that's unrelated to the question. >_>)

So the two playlists I sent you a while ago are a new thing I'm doing, because people always ask me what my music tastes are whenever I run these. I figure it's easier to just put together all the songs that either (a) won a category, or (b) ended up on my auditions list for a while.

(My "auditions list" is my playlist where any song that seems potentially interesting goes. I listen to my auditions list primarily, and eventually every song on it goes to a failed playlist or onto my daily playlist.)

With how receptive you were to all the new music, I admit I was tempted to invite you the next time one is being run, if you're still on Tumblr/still talking to me then. But I have no idea if you'd be interested in that sort of thing! It can be a pretty significant social commitment. And it'd be a lot of strangers and inside jokes that can be tough to insert yourself into (though I encourage it).

Anyway! Now you know. Maybe.