#but if not I'll definitely get there in time for the live ep thursday

[padawanduck]

still catching up on the episodes, but Lisa made sure she would lose the AI comp and get sent home with this DR

[eiriee]

Night Vale does have internet, of a sort? People definitely use websites. They've been mentioned a lot, on and off.

They don't access via computers, true as they're kinda banned, probably phones. The methods of using the websites are different from our own, but have been explored before.

These are all the references to websites I can find, taken from the transcript site

http://erinptah.com/NightValeTranscripts.html

EP 9 "The Pyramid" Cecil accesses Audible.com and talks about how he's previously used it, and how the listeners can use it: "I use Audible to catch up on best-selling titles like "The Help" and "Van Gogh Notes for Technical Communication 11\e." I'm on their website right now, and I'm typing in a search for "Dog Park," "So check out Audible.com. New Audible members can get one free audio book just by smudging their computer monitors with baby's blood and humming the Spanish translation of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic."

EP11 "Wheat and Wheat-By Products" has Comptroller Barnett directing the listeners to the Mini Cooper website: "Barnett added that those new Mini Cooper sedans are really cute, and wanted us all to look at their website."

EP14 "The Man In The Tan Jacket" is literally sponsored by Squarespace in canon, and they offer website redesign (although breakdown crying out how beautiful "your" website already is) - see entire sponsor section.

EP17 "Valentine" is when the post office reopens and Cecil says: "But hey, at least everyone can get Amazon deliveries again. As their slogan says, 'Amazon dot com The only website now. Where did the rest of them go? Do not ask. Do not ask.'"

EP26 "Faceless Old Women" - the FOW says she's going to build a website to explain her ideas about running for mayor: "It's an innovative plan, and I'm gonna build a website that explains it, and other great ideas I have that could help this town."

EP35 "Lazy Day" The FOW is back, browsing a website: "The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives in Your Home is finding herself clicking the same apiology website she has read a million times."

EP43 "Visitor" says that the Museum of Forbidden Technologies has a website: "On Thursday, the Museum of Forbidden Technologies will open their new exhibit, called "Thought Crimes." Anyone who attends the exhibit is obviously interested in learning about forbidden technologies, and will be arrested immediately. Tickets are available on the museum website, "

EP48 "Renovations" Lauren Mallard wants to take photos of Koshekh's kittens to put on the website (unclear if Strexcorp's or the Station's): "Good point! I'll send our producer Daniel in there to take some pictures of the little guys. We'll post them to the website, and listeners can figure out which ones they want to take, and come and get them."

EP50 "Capital Campaign" Cecil ends up on the Applebee's website when looking for Tourniquet where Earl Harlan works: " I think I've been looking at the Applebee's website. It's very easy to misspell Tourniquet. Anyway." "Umm, let me see...nope, nothing. Oh! Wait! Yes! Yes! I got one! I– oh. Nope. No, I'm on the Applebee's website again. Never mind"

EP53 "The September Monologues" The FOW judges the websites Chad visits: "What I saw next, Chad, was beyond me. I have seen death in its many heaving forms. I have seen the low-flying ships that hide on the horizon in front of the setting sun, and I have seen the misshapen silhouettes of their pilots. I have seen the websites you visit."

Bonus Episode 1) "Minutes" The entirety of Item 13 is about how to access part of the school's website and update your tax information. It also mentions computer licences.

So while there haven't been any direct mentions of websites since 2014, Night Vale definitely has them and uses them! And they are as weird as you'd expect. And yet surprisingly normal.

I know why Night Vale can't have internet or use computers

Picture how fucking crazy OUR internet is. Now add nightvale’s weirdness to that. How INSANE DOES THAT SHIT HAVE TO BE??!?!?!?

[youspoketome]

My Favorite Albums of 2018

I tried something new this year. All year long, every time I bought a new album I added it to a note on my phone as a list so that I could adjust the order as needed. Some things settled into their order quickly, but a couple spots went down to the wire. Embarrassingly, I was just looking at my 2015 list and six albums on that list were the previous albums by six of the bands on this list, and one was a solo album by the singer of a seventh band listed here. I'm not quite sure what that means in the grand scheme of things. And that seems like a long enough introduction, so here we go!

Murder By Death - THE OTHER SHORE

Honestly, I thought Murder By Death was finished having albums on top of my best of lists. I had been so disappointed in GOOD MORNING, MAGPIE. That album had like two good songs, but the rest was at best forgettable filler and at worst sounded like a parody of themselves. The two albums since then had definitely been better, but still not at the levels of their earlier albums. Enter THE OTHER SHORE: an incredible return to the long form concept album following a story of love and dying planets in a western in space. It's full of catchy hooks without ever being clichè, small character moments and big, world-ending finishes. Best of all, it's got ripping 2-minute long cello solos. This is peak Murder By Death right here.

mewithoutYou - [UNTITLED]

mewithoutYou is another band I've loved for years, but thought was coming off of a weaker album. I enjoyed PALE HORSES (it made my top ten list the year it came out), but it didn't have anything that really grabbed me and made it a necessary part of the mwY canon. [UNTITLED] immediately feels important. It's not the most easily accessable album, but when have mewithoutYou ever been accessable? This is an album that has layers that you can appreciate as you dig down to them on further listens. Over the years mwY's sound has evolved from the heavier hollerin' of [A->B] LIFE and CATCH FOR US THE FOXES to the completely clean and folky IT'S ALL CRAZY... and back again. [UNTITLED] really blends things together by taking the heaviness from early albums and adding them in for flavor rather than building the songs around them, giving the songs depth and intensity. For my money, it's their best album since BROTHER, SISTER. Still waiting on that album/EP collector's edition to ship though, so no pictures.

Gregory Alan Isakov - EVENING MACHINES

I've enjoyed Gregory Alan Isakov's previous albums of folky songs fit for sitting on the front porch at your farm while reading an old book, but whenever I'd see him live my favorite song was always the non-album track "Liars" and I'd always wish he'd record it. That song seemed darker than anything else he'd written and had this slow build to an epic climax that almost gave you chills. He finally did record it on his studio album with the Colorado Symphony in 2016 and then he followed that up with his most eclectic album yet. From the soft and haunting opener "Berth," all the way to the end, EVENING MACHINES expands on what Isakov is willing to do, keeping that same welcoming, mellow feel, but getting there in new ways and with new instruments. "Caves" captures that darkness "Liars" had in a way that is wholly satisfying to me. It feels like he wrote the album I didn't even realize I had been wanting him to write all along.

Emery - EVE

I've always enjoyed Emery, but it wasn't until their last album YOU WERE NEVER ALONE when they broke the album down song by song on a behind the scenes podcast that I fully appreciated them as musicians. Unlike a lot of bands that came out at the same time in the same genre, Emery is a band with multiple members who have actually studied how music works and can point out and name every single time signature and key change in every song. Now with EVE, I've been able to listen to the little details, noticing and appreciating the attention they give to every little part of each song. The way they don't add the screamed vocal at this part of the song because that seems to obvious, so they save it for when it'll be more striking. How they add the harmonies and layer the vocals. Some bands with that kind of background forget how to write a catchy song or what makes a song enjoyable to listen to, but Emery has this ability to perfectly blend this crazy musicianship with honest, straight from the gut songwriting. The end result is an album full of fantastic songs with awesome little parts and details that make it special and stand out.

Thrice - PALMS

For me (and a lot of people, I think) Thrice and Thursday have always been kind of linked. I discovered them at the same time, both on their second albums. They were post-hardcore bands, similar enough sounding to compare to each other and they both started experimenting with their sound on their fourth albums. Then they both announced they were breaking up within a day of each other. The weird thing is when I first discovered them, I preferred Thursday hands down. Then they both released their third albums and cemented my opinions of them, so much so that I decided not to buy Thrice's fourth album when it came out. Man, that was a huge mistake. That fourth album, VHEISSU was the album when Thrice hit their stride, expanding and exploring their sound with each release since then. Each of their post-reunion albums have continued this trend and PALMS might be their best full album yet.

Frank Turner - BE MORE KIND

To be honest, I'm surprised this album is this far down. If you had me rank my expected best albums of the year list at the beginning of the year, Frank Turner with have been number one with a bullet. But BE MORE KIND was not the album I was expecting, and I was a little let down by it. That I'm saying that my number 6 album of the year was a bit of a let down should tell you how highly I think of Frank Turner. It starts off strong with the mellow opener of "Don't Worry" followed by a full on banger in "1933." But the third track "Little Changes" just didn't hit for me. It seemed like Frank Turner dumbed down for the masses. And it's not that it's too poppy; I enjoy myself a good pop song. It's just that the songwriting seems so simple. There are a number of really good songs throughout the rest of the album (like "Blackout"), but the overarching feel for me is that it's too simplistic, there's no depth to any of the songwriting. All that said, it's hard to rag too much on it because how can you bash an album that's sole message is to be kind and positive and to treat other people decently? Maybe it's that message that made him lose his teeth. In summation, I like Frank Turner a lot, even when he's disappointing me.

Smoking Popes - INTO THE AGONY

INTO THE AGONY is the Smoking Popes first album in seven years. They were putting out albums more frequently than that while they were broken up! After being broken up from 1999-2005, the Popes returned with STAY DOWN, which was not the strongest album to come back on. It was mostly a downer and ended up being completely forgettable for me. This time, upon returning from a seven year album cycle with new album they've knocked it out of the park. It's upbeat and catchy, it's slow and meaningful, it features Josh Caterer's soaring vocals, and it's another fantastic entry into the catalog.

Death Cab For Cutie - THANK YOU FOR TODAY

I think Death Cab's existence as a band is better broken up into stages. You've got the pre-TRANSATLANTICISM era, the TRANS/PLANS era, NARROW/CODES, and now KINTSUGI/THANK YOU. TRANS/PLANS is my favorite era. It's where I discovered Death Cab, it's where I spend the most time with them, it's just the best. But after a bit of a dip there for a couple albums (not saying they were bad, it was just a dip), I felt like KINTSUGI was a step back up, and now THANK YOU FOR TODAY continues in the same vein. It's a more electronic/synthy sound than previous eras, which sets it apart from their highest peaks, so you're not just constantly comparing it to something they'll probably never reattain. I really enjoy where this era is taking them.

Alkaline Trio - IS THIS THING CURSED?

This past summer I decided to give Alkaline Trio's AGONY & IRONY a listen for the first time in I don't know how long. Everyone agrees Alkaline Trio used to be good and then got less good, and I agree, but that specific album was for me the low point, mostly because of "Love Love Kiss Kiss." But then this weird thing happened: I really enjoyed it. Even that song, which is still doofy, wasn't as bad as I remembered. I was so bummed out about it at the time, but that album has some really good songs on it. Even at their lowest point, I still really like Alkaline Trio. IS THIS THING CURSED? is a new Alkaline Trio album. It's got Matt songs, it's got Dan songs, it's got one Dan song that kind of too doofy (Little Help?), it strangely has multiple song titles that end in question marks, and it has an acoustic closer featuring Matt's scratchy-voiced wailing. This is another solid Alkaline Trio album.

The Decemberists - I'LL BE YOUR GIRL

Every year at the same time, all of the baseball websites post their top prospects lists, where they rank the upcoming minor league players in all of baseball or on each team individually, so people can get excited about the next wave of baseball All-Stars. In almost all of these lists you've got your top five or six guys who are clearly the best players in that team's minor league system in that order, but then at about number seven they kind of become interchangeable for a while. You could switch prospect #8 with #12 and no one would cause too much of a ruckus because they're all pretty similar at that point. We've reached that point in my best albums list (really, we reached that point with Alkaline Trio). These final couple spots could have also gone to 6666 by Four Fists, 9 by Saves The Day, KIDS SEE GHOSTS, or if I was in the right mood, even the new MXPX or the Matthew Thiessen solo album. What pushed I'LL BE YOUR GIRL across the line was (a) my wife's incredulousness at my mentioning it might not make the cut and (b) the fact that "Once In My Life" and "Everything Is Awful" have full-on been our anthem songs this past month. This is the Decemberists doing what they do. Folky songs about sea monsters, horse gallop rhythms, and cowboy sing-alongs. Throw in some synth lines to keep things fresh and baby, you've got a stew going.