#podcast: eurovision legends

[vintageurovision]

Jan Johansen's Eurovision story started with him losing track of an appointment and arriving at a studio to record a demo four and a half hours early. In the same studio songwriting legends Bobby Ljunggren and Håkan Almqvist were working on a Melodifestivalen entry for Christer Björkman, and asked a clueless Jan if he could help them with some singing. That song was to become Jan's breakthrough, a megahit and placing third in the Eurovision. On site in Dublin he still hadn't grasped his own status and went around and collected autographs from the other artists, and at one time during the week he ended up at the home of the mother of one of his idols. Since 1995, Jan has competed with several more songs in Melodifestivalen, among those the second-placed duet "Let Your Spirit Fly" which Jan later, unbeknownst to and unauthorized from songwriters Anders Dannvik and Ola Höglund, recorded together with Maltese Eurovision legend Chiara. Of course we get to listen to this version as well as several other demo-songs from Jan, and we also speak about various collaborations with artists such as Shirley Clamp, Pandora, Pernilla Wahlgren and Charlotte Perrelli.

Eurovision Legends Podcast - Jan Johansen

[clubheavenofhelen]

🕊️ Short introduction

So I've got a feeling that it would be nice having my own space here. For my own thoughts. I'm gonna post here photos taken by myself as well as the ones I've found somewhere on the Internet. Maybe some recommendations like songs I'm listening to a lot at any given moment, books, movies. Anything that's gonna come to my mind.

🕊️ List of topics:

• 100 days of productivity challenge

🕊️ Some facts about me

• My name's Helena.

• I'm Polish.

• I've got 4 siblings. I'm the oldest one (yeah, I think it's a big part of person's identity).

• I speak polish, english, french.

• I'm a proud catholic, so Bible verses may be present, too (been to a catholic school also). Mary Magdalene is my patron saint of confirmation.

• I am studying Romance philology, but I don't see myself working in this field. I don't think I will continue my studies after obtaining my bachelor's degree.

• I'm an artist. I'm so grateful for being blessed with a natural talent for drawing, painting and everything that comes with that. I'm a creative person. I love art of all kinds. I was also learning to play guitar for some time thanks to my love for music. I'm writing (ever since I was a little child, I dreamed of writing my own book).

• I would like to become a graphic designer. I'm currently working on it.

• I'm also working hard on my mindset. Learning to be positive. Good vibes only. Unfortunately, I am very anxious and emotional person, so there's a lot to work on.

• I keep pushing myself to work out regularly.

• I've been listening to a lot of podcasts for some time now. Usually the ones focusing on self-care, motivation and the others girly things, you know. It keeps me going.

• I drink a lot of tea, water, love flowers, pretty pictures, essential oils, Eurovision, decadent poetry, fashion, history, long road trips. Travelling (especially airplanes!!!). Planning my own wedding. I would dream of living in Florence, if it weren't so crowded...

• I am interested in natural medicine.

• Currently learning how to cook and getting rid of my social media addiction.

Fav things:

• Music: Lana Del Rey, Taylor Swift, Nessa Barrett, Aurora, Sanah, Palaye Royale, My Chemical Romance

• Books: The Poppy War, The Secret History, A Little Life, Harry Potter, The Hunger Games

• Movies: Howl's Moving Castle, My Neighbor Totoro, My Own Private Idaho, Hacksaw Ridge, Call Me by Your Name, Coraline, Mulan, Memoirs of a Geisha

• Series: American Horror Story

• Games: I enjoy playing Anno, Kingdom Come, League of Legends (LUX SUP + TFT top). The Sims is nice too one time a year.

Hope you're all having a good day!

xx

Helena

[bookgeekgrrl]

My media this week (7-13 May 2023)

ᵗʰᵉ ᵗʳᵘᵉ ᵏᶦⁿᵍ

📚 STUFF I READ 📚

😍👂‍Gilded Cage (Lilywhite Boys #2) (KJ Charles, author; Cornell Collins & Victoria Aston, narrators) - I fucking love Susan Lazarus so much. Love a prickly, irritable female character that ISN'T softened by 'true love'.

🥰The Scandalous Letters of V & J (Felicia Davin) - an epistolary historical fantasy romance with two nonbinary main characters - read this via email and it was great, can't wait to reread in book form

🥰Do Not Meddle in the Affairs of Grad Students (for They Are Caffeinated and Quick to Nerd Out) (theemdash) - 46K, stucky no-powers modern AU - roommates-to-lovers where they're both HUGE LOTR nerds

🥰when i don't touch you it's a mistake in any life, in each place and forever. (antithetical_dreamgirl) - 48K, steddie AU - actual AU where Eddie dies (apparently) in the Upside Down and then wakes up 10 years in the future in an alternate universe, more or less married to Steve - lots of good angst with an HEA

💖💖 +140K of shorter fic so shout out to these I really loved 💖💖

Lucky Screwdriver (Zenaidamacrouras1) - MCU: stucky, 6K - a ridiculous bit of fun, riffing on that grindr screwdriver borrow tweet/post - just left me with the biggest grin

Gold Sunlight and Deep Water series (justanotherStonyfan) - MCU: stucky, 19K - great short series with mer!Steve; the 2nd installment in particular has some really, really quality monsterfucking

my soul's adorning grace (goseaward) - KJ Charles' Lilywhite Boys series: Jerry/Alec, 1.6K - Jerry buys some lingerie for Alec - hot af + nailed the character voices

No School of Desire (drunktuesdays, michaud) - AEW: OC/Chuck, 6K - I know zero about wrestling but I do know this is a hilarious and hot af fic

The Haunting of Harrington House (Kedreeva) - Stranger Things: steddie, 8K - Steve Harrington inherits a haunted house - absolutely DELIGHTFUL (and tho it's tagged with MCD it's not actually sad)

📺 STUFF I WATCHED 📺

Finding Your Roots - s9, e3 (Carol Burnett & Niecy Nash)

The Brokenwood Mysteries - s9, e5

Ted Lasso - s3, e9 [x2]

Um, Actually - s2, e10, e12-16; s8, e4

Eurovision 2023 - Semi Final 1

Eurovision 2023 - Semi Final 2

Dirty Laundry - s2, e12

Eurovision 2023 - Grand Final

🎧 PODCASTS 🎧

Re: Dracula - May 7: Stranger in a Strange Land

Re: Dracula - May 8: Foul Bauble of Man's Vanity

Into It - 'Mrs. Davis' Just Wants You to Be Happy

Re: Dracula - May 9: Castles in the Air

Switched on Pop - The Jonas Brothers' Yacht Rock Revival

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - National Poo Museum

The Sporkful - The Musical History Of Jelly

⭐Decoder Ring Plus - Who Owns the Tooth Fairy?

ICYMI Plus - We’re Sorry

Pop Culture Happy Hour - Best TV Series Finales

Strong Songs Bonus Episodes - The Light and Dark of Music, with Lily E. Hirsch

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Close to the Edge

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Iowa Remnant Prairies

Vibe Check - Britney Spears Was Onto Something

⭐99% Invisible #536 - Nuts and Bolts

Re: Dracula - May 11: Pray for my Happiness

Richmond Til We Die: A Ted Lasso Podcast - A Guide to Midwestern Conversation (with Taylor Kay Philips)

Ologies with Alie Ward - Invisible Photology (INVISIBILITY CLOAKS) with Greg Gbur

Dear Prudence Plus - My Co-Worker Repeatedly Ignores My Boundaries. Help! (with LeVar Burton)

⭐Endless Thread - #BlackFaeDay

Into It - Are We Into a New 'Zelda' Game, the End of MTV News, and 'Jury Duty'?

Re: Dracula - May 12: What Manner of Man is This

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Butter Sculptures

Twenty Thousand Hertz+ - Songbugs

American Hysteria - Munger Road | Urban Legends Hotline

Overinvested - Ep. 279: Jurassic Park

American Hysteria - Hysteria Home Companion: The Vanishing Hitchhiker

🎶 MUSIC 🎶

lofi hip hop radio �� - beats to sleep/chill to [LoFi Girl]

synthwave radio 🌌 - beats to chill/game to [LoFi Girl]

Dub Instrumentals

Back To The Yacht

Eurovision 2023

The Album [Jonas Brothers]

The Family Business [Jonas Brothers]

[escinsight]

Eurovision Insight News Podcast: All Our Alloras

In the latest Eurovision Insight News podcast... the annual look at Ireland's budget, some promising schedule news for the United Kingdom, and we remember two legends of the Song Contest.

The Eurovision Song Contest is a rich tapestry of music and memories. We are always looking backwards and forwards as we enjoy the Contest, especially today as we remember Toto Cutugno and Patricia Bredin while watching the pieces for Malmō 2024 come together. Eurovision Insight News Podcast: All Our Alloras The annual look at Ireland’s budget, some promising schedule news for the United Kingdom,…

[residentraccoon]

Happy sleepover :))) have you listened to any podcasts, if so whats your favourite ?

OH I used to listen a lot to Eurovision Legends!! There's this guy from Sweden where he talks to some former eurovision participants (even with some from the 70s/80s!) and I love them a lot. They usually talk about their experience on the stage and I found it interesting to hear especially from the older ones how it was to participate in ESC back in its earlier days.

So far I've listened to the ones with Merethe Trøan, Ilinca, Anne Marie David, Tajci and Monica Aspelund. Here's a link:

https://shows.acast.com/eurovisionlegends/episodes

[emrys-with-a-little-star]

Hiya!!

Always looking for new friends!

I like so many things that i'm not even gonna name them all but here's just a bunch of thing I like:

Video games and fantasy romance books/manga/movies/tv series/anime own my heart (also love comedy tho, not the biggest fan of drama but for some reason still make myself suffer through it)

LOVE HORROR!!!

Adore board games and card games

Also love plants and animals

Favourites:

TV shows: Good Omens, The Adventures of merlin, Dirk Gently's holistic detective angency, Our Flag Means Death, What We Do in The Shadows, Dead Boy Detectives, Midsomer Murders, BBC Sherlock

Animated tv shows: The owl house, She-ra(new)

Movies: Lord of the rings

Anime: The seven deadly sins, Given, Saiki K, Doukyusei, Bakuten

Podcast/audio drama: The Two Princes, Distractible

Manga: Promised Neverland, Moriarty the patriot

Video games: Undertale, Cuphead, Apex legends, Stardew Valley, Danganronpa, Sonic generations, Persona (i'm sorry, i can't just pick one, there's so many genres)

Board games: Catan, Monopoly, bunch of card games + a lot more board games

Food: chicken.

Bands/Singers: Good Kid, Ninja Sex Party (these are just my top two, I actually listen to a lot of different artists)

Musicals: Hamilton, EPIC, Heathers, Dear Evan Hansen

Youtubers: Markiplier, Jacksepticeye, Game Grumps and many many more

EUROVISION!!!

More stuff I like to do: baking, cross stitching, crocheting, overall crafting, and pixel art

I'm panromantic ace and genderqueer

[bookclub4m]

Episode 175 - Revisiting Genres

This episode we’re talking about the very many genres we’ve read for the podcast…and which ones we’d read again! We discuss Jeff VanderMeer’s Zorro, Boat Fiction, We Have Always Hosted The Podcast, Bubble Gum Fiction, Cheese-based Erotica, whether the 1980s count as Historical Fiction, and more!

You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, or your favourite podcast delivery system.

In this episode

Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | Jam Edwards

Old Episodes

Episode 090 - Adventure Fiction

Episode 106 - Alternative/Alternate History

Episode 086 - American Gothic

Episode 143 - Amish Romance

Episode 160 - Biographical Fiction & Fictional Biographies

Episode 069 - Bizarro Fiction

Episode 094 - Chick Lit Romance

Episode 151 - Classics

Episode 053 - Comedic Science Fiction & Fantasy

Episode 110 - Comedic/Humorous Fiction

Episode 021 - Coming of Age

Episode 147 - Contemporary Fantasy

Episode 007 - Cozy Mysteries

Episode 127 - Crime Fiction

Episode 131 - Cyberpunk

Episode 025 - Detective Fiction

Episode 172 - Domestic Thrillers

Episode 041 - Dystopian Fiction

Episode 070 - Erotic Romance

Episode 135 - Erotica

Episode 037 - Experimental Fiction

Episode 045 - Family Sagas

Episode 002 - Gothic Literature

Episode 014 - Historical Fantasy

Episode 098 - Historical Fiction

Episode 001 - Historical Romance

Other Media We Mentioned

Käärijä - Cha Cha Cha (Here’s a time stamped link to the finals performance in a half hour video of the top 10 songs this year. I can’t link solely to the performance due to region locking, booooo.)

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Wikipedia)

Marvel Snap (Wikipedia)

Far Cry (Wikipedia)

Tomb Raider (Wikipedia)

Horizon Zero Dawn (Wikipedia)

The Sandman (comic book) (Wikipedia)

Earth Abides by George R. Stewart

My Macaroni And Cheese Is A Lesbian Also She Is My Lawyer by Chuck Tingle

Inheritance: A pick-the-path experience by Darrell Dennis, Daniel Arnold & Medina Hahn

The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante

The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante || Talking Simulator (stream Matthew watched)

The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle

His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik

Links, Articles, and Things

Hark! The Holiday Music Podcast

Eurovision Song Contest 2023 (Wikipedia)

World Goth Day (Wikipedia)

Just Plain Wrong

Bubblegum music  (Wikipedia)

Episode 028 - Accidental Romance

Dairying and Cheese Erotica

12 Southern Gothic books by Authors of Colour

Every month Book Club for Masochists: A Readers’ Advisory Podcasts chooses a genre at random and we read and discuss books from that genre. We also put together book lists for each episode/genre that feature works by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) authors. All of the lists can be found here.

Ruby by Cynthia Bond

House of Cotton by Monica Brashears

The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas

Ghost Summer by Tananarive Due

The House of Erzulie by Kirsten Imani Kasai

A Visitation of Spirits by Randall Kenan

When the Reckoning Comes by LaTanya McQueen

Beloved by Toni Morrison

Cane by Jean Toomer

Bitter in the Mouth by Monique Truong

Sing Unburied Sing by Jesmyn Ward

We Are a Haunting by Tyriek White

Give us feedback!

Fill out the form to ask for a recommendation or suggest a genre or title for us to read!

Check out our Tumblr, follow us on Twitter or Instagram, join our Facebook Group, or send us an email!

Join us again on Tuesday, June 6th we’ll be discussing the genre of Fantasy! 

Then on Tuesday, June 20th we’re talking about how we’re bad at scheduling!

[betweenthetimeandsound]

Three Minutes to Eternity: My ESC 250 (#31)

#31: Duo Datz -- Kan (Israel 1991)

"כאן ביתי, פה אני נולדתי, במישור אשר על שפת הים, כאן החברים איתם גדלתי, ואין לי שום מקום אחר בעולם"

"Here is my home, here I was born, On the plain by the sea Here are the friends I grew up with And I have no other place in the world"

One of my favorite moments as a Eurovision fan was finding out Emil Lofstrom's favorite Eurovision song. A few months ago, he made the listeners of Eurovision Legends guess what was it, because he was interviewing that artist. Going from the hint that the song was Israeli, I guessed that it was Kan, because it was a major fan-favorite and was quite lively. And I was right!

Besides that, 1991 had, in my opinion, the best top three of all-time. It’s not only because of the seven-point gap between first and third, but also because the songs are so awesome in their own different ways. The performers were charismatic and snapped on Rome's stage, and showcased what makes their country unique.

While Carola and Amina's fans clash with each other, Duo Datz fans act as the third way for the class of 1991, with their lively and proud song. From the opening flute notes, the melody gets stuck in your head, with the upbeat percussion and the celebratory feeling in the orchestration. Arguably, Kobi Oshrat (the conductor) had to spend a lot of time getting it right. And it was worth it.

Also, Orna and Moshe have great chemistry together, with their harmonies and how they compliment each other with their choreography. Plus, how they shout out "Kan!" in every chorus is so invigorating; you just feel such joy and energy with it despite the song being in the minor key (it was also initially written as a lullaby. It's absolutely glorious, especially when their backing vocalists join them. (Also, Orna’s dress was so pretty.)

Plus, the message of the song stands out--a patriotic song, Duo Datz talk about how the Jewish people wandered out for thousands of years, only to find home again. It's hopeful and proud, but in the thirty years since this song was released, the theme would have holes poked through it.

Two years after this, we had the beginning of the Oslo Accords, which was meant to give way to a final peace settlement between the Israelis and the Palestinians through giving the Palestinians some form of self-governance (though it did not give them a state). Despite this, opposition still existed, with some Palestinians questioning how long this process would take and some Israelis believing that would mean the end of a Jewish state. For the latter, it would result in Yitzhak Rabin's assassination in 1995 (which some have argued harmed the peace process irrevocably. Also check out Killing a King: The Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin and the Remaking of Israel; it's a good cat-and-mouse book, though it focuses on the Israeli government).

And after that, we've seen more attempts at peace, increased cynicism because of the violence, another Intifada, and further concerns about Palestinian human rights. I think there's also a shift in seeing Israel-Palestine from a geopolitical issue (which still is, mostly) to a human rights one. Once that view is more mainstream, then the Israeli government has a lot more to answer for, lest they become a pariah state.

I thought Kan was a bit weaker than the rest of the top two, partially because Israel had done this before (which you will see next), and it may not be as well-received had it been released today. This doesn't mean I don't love it in all its ways; it's definitely "Israeli" for better or for worse, and it's enough to bring joy to my day and act slightly patriotic for a country I don't have any roots in for three minutes.

Personal and actual ranking: 3rd/22 in Rome

[thesinglesjukebox]

Bonus Tracks for week ending in February 8, 2020

We have more writing for you to read this weekend!

Ashley Bardhan reviewed Louis Tomlinson’s Walls for Pitchfork.

Also for Pitchfork, Joshua Copperman reviewed Torres’ Silver Tongue.

Leonel Manzanares de la Rosa reviewed Ethiopian jazz legend Hailu Mergia’s new single “Abichu Nega Nega” for Passion of the Weiss.

Iain Mew wrote about the Wipeout video game series and how dance music was crucial to its success.

Leonel Manzanares de la Rosa also put out a new issue of his Eurovision newsletter A Week in May and a new episode of his metal-themed Spotify podcast.

[vintageurovision]

It was 1997, and the Eurovision Song Contest tried out televoting for the first time, albeit on a small scale with just five countries. This made the largest difference for a, for the time, risque and experimental act from Iceland, since Paul Oscar and his song "Minn hinsti dans" scored 16 out of their total 18 points from just three of these countries. In this episode he tells Emil about how the song grew into being and what happened to him afterwards. As the first openly gay artist in the contest it was natural for him to go on the Pride circuit all over Europe, but this actually made him end up in bankruptcy!

Eurovision Legends Podcast - Paul Oscar

[baccaraoficial]

Thanks @grandluxuryoverdose ❤️😘🌹Reposted from @eurovisionlegendspodcast Baccara 2.0 - The One in the white outfit Two years ago Emil spoke to Maria Mendiola and Cristina Sevilla from (one of the constellations of) Baccara. Since then they have gone viral, made a comeback on the charts and published new music, but on a much sadder note Maria alas passed away in 2021. Emil and Cristina have a new conversation, revisit some of the topics from the previous interview and Cristina tells us everything about the rather chaotic history of the group Baccara after the split of the two original members Maria Mendiola och Mayte Mateos, since Cristina has the rather unique position of having been the replacement partner of first Mayte and then Maria. What went wrong between them, who was to blame and did they ever bury the hatchet? This interview was recorded especially for the Podcast Radio station, where Eurovision Legends episodes are currently airing. . . #baccara #yessiricanboogie #parlezvousfrançais #soytuvenus #eurovision #eurovisionsongcontest #eurovision1978 #mariamendiola #cristinasevilla #rolfsoja #disco #70sdisco #podcast https://www.instagram.com/p/CZgxzpYtYw8/?utm_medium=tumblr

[bookgeekgrrl]

My media this week (8-15 May 2022)

📚 STUFF I READ 📚

😍👂 The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (Hercule Poirot #4) (Agatha Christine, author; Hugh Fraser, narrator)

😍 Heal Thyself (astolat) - 46K, Drarry - primarily the story of how Draco becomes a Healer (in fact, the greatest Healer every known) after the war - excellent as per usual from astolat

🥰 Small Magic (harriet_vane) - 98K, original work - entertaining novel about disaster gay Ezra who has to move back home to parent his teenage siblings after their mom suddenly dies and he's extraordinarily bad at being an adult to begin with but then it turns out magic is real and his mom's death wasn't an accident and now someone is trying to kill him and also his straight crush from HS has turned into an incredibly hot math teacher who ISN'T actually straight and it's all just really a LOT for Ezra to be going on with!

🙂👂 The Big Four (Hercule Poirot #5) (Agatha Christine, author; Hugh Fraser, narrator)

💖💖+169K of shorter fic 💖💖

📺 STUFF I WATCHED 📺

The Great Pottery Throw Down - s5, e1

Our Flag Means Death - s1, e5

Star Trek: Discovery - s2, e9-14

Legends Of Tomorrow - s3, e18; s4, e1-2

Eurovision 2022 - Semi Final 1

Eurovision 2022 - Semi Final 2

Eurovision 2022 - Grand Final

🎧 PODCASTS🎧

99% Invisible #490 - Train Set

Decoder Ring - “We Got Ourselves a Convoy”

Disaster Girls: A Podcast About Disaster Movies - Volcano (1997)

Hit Parade - The Queen of Disco Edition

Hit Parade - The Twerking and Chatrouletting Edition

Hit Parade - The Veronica Electronica Edition

Lingthusiasm - #07: Kids these days aren’t ruining language

Lingthusiasm - #12: Sounds you can’t hear - Babies, accents, and phonemes

Lingthusiasm - #33: Why spelling is hard — but also hard to change

Lingthusiasm - Bonus 1: Real swear words vs pseudo swears

Lingthusiasm - Bonus 13: The grammar of swearing

Lingthusiasm - Bonus 63: What makes a swear word feel sweary? A &⩐#⦫& Liveshow

Ologies with Alie Ward - Urology (CROTCH PARTS) with Fenwa Milhouse

Partners - Wesley Morris & Jenna Wortham

Still Processing - Skip Intro

Still Processing - We, Tina

Switched on Pop - Will Ukraine win Eurovision 2022?

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Forestiere Underground Gardens

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - National Ice Core Lab

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Ruins of Le Jardin d'Agronomie Tropicale

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - The Maiden of Deception Pass

This is Good for You - Ep 31: Sad Movies Are Good For You

Twenty Thousand Hertz+ - Windows_Logon.wav

You're Dead To Me - Ivan The Terrible

You're Dead To Me - The Asante Empire

🎶 MUSIC 🎶

Presenting Prince

Ambient Bass

The Very Best of UB40

Fleetwood Mac

Punjabi Remixes

Eurovision 2022 Semi Final 2

Presenting Massive Attack

'80s One-Hit Wonders

Presenting Doja Cat

Old-School Funk

[escinsight]

Eurovision Chat Over Coffee From The Archive: Conchita

Bring your coffee into the archives this week, as the podcast heads back to the Eurovision Song Contest 2014. It’s April, the Eurovision in Concert preview will be taking place in the hours after this interview, and Austria’s victory is more than a month away. Conchita is here, but Conchita the legend is not yet in the building. Join me in a taxi, somewhere in Europe, in the calm before the…

[miloscat]

2021 summary

What did I get up to during 2021? Let’s review.

I published a few comic scanlation projects with the aid of my translator Horseypope; the Umihara Kawase spinoff manga from the official guidebook, and Toshihiro Ono’s The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past gaiden one-shot Quark and the Fairy Queen. Both of these I imported the publications of and scanned myself, which is new for me. I also scanlated the Baraduke 2 promotional mini-manga with scans from my friend Gibbon, although the remarkable Kate Willaert has recently done her own excellent version of it.

I’ve continued publishing new pixel art projects on my DeviantArt while cross-posting them here. This year I made fewer artworks but they were much larger, with pixel cast portraits of (among others) the Umihara Kawase series, the X-Men cinematic universe, Hyrule Warriors Age of Calamity, and my largest ever piece: the expanded Donkey Kong & Friends, with 315 characters!

Podcast output was a little slow, with 3 episodes of the Arcade Era Power Hour with Gibbon, and 5 Eurovision commentaries. My streaming continued to be regular though, with lots of fun games played throughout the year. Game club spurred some mini-series: Tyrian led to an exploration of Compile’s shooters, I looked at some games tangentially related to Umihara Kawase, and the leaked Dinosaur Planet N64 ROM caused me to embark on an inflated months-long journey through Rare-related titles including fan games, Flash ephemera, and lots of fun obscure stuff. This included a complete 7-part playthrough of the excellent fan game Donkey Kong Country: The Trilogy, for which I also participated and won a contest to find a hidden secret! Towards the end of the year I also looked through the back catalogue of Ludosity and Daniel Remar, which was a lot of fun. You can see all the archived streams here.

I tried to tie streams in with my normal gaming choices too, which included Ludosity (hitting all the major points leading up to Slap City), Rare stuff (catching up on their Xbox output and indies inspired by the classics), and Umihara Kawase (the modern instalments and some fan games), but also X-Men movie games, the Castlevania Lords of Shadow subseries, and Metroid (Dread plus fan and inspired games). Somehow my serial playing of faux-retro games remained entirely off-stream. My PC helped with some of these, as well as regular online games with my brother, but otherwise my gaming was well spread among various platforms. I got new component output cables for Xbox and PS2 which look great, oh and a PS5 as well which I’ve mainly used to make playing PS4 games a bit better...!

Now for some awards. “Best fan game/romhack”: DKC The Trilogy, runners up Donkey Kong Land colour patch, Metroid Rogue Dawn, AM2R, Kaban-chan Chirari. The “making me wait” award: Pictlogica Final Fantasy, runner up Age of Calamity DLC. The “in retrospect actually didn’t mind too much having to play half the game again due to a permanent softlock” award: Castlevania Lords of Shadow 2. “Best crossover”: Slap City, runners up Complex Dream (the Chrono Cross event in Another Eden), Lego Dimensions which we continue to play sporadically. “Best original freeware”: Iji, runners up Ittle Dew 0, Ninja. “Least impressive remake”: Link’s Awakening HD, runner up Conker Live & Reloaded. “Best surprise sequel”: Metroid Dread, runners up New Pokemon Snap, Umihara Kawase Fresh, Axiom Verge 2.

Thanks for reading, and here’s to a pleasant and safe 2022 hopefully!

[folatefangirl]

Introduction

So I’ve recently had an influx of new followers (Hello!) and I thought I’d do one of those intro posts to bring people up to speed about this blog since the description isn’t entirely comprehensive.

Who am I?

I am a nerdy, bi/queer, exmormon fangirl who is figuring out how to survive grad school at breakneck speed. Y’all can call me folatefangirl, Cinnia, or Aheshke. I’m a fairly busy person so I have a lot of queued posts and I just pop on here in my free time to vent my endless fangirl energy and talk about my hobbies and other interests.

I have a lot of writing-focused posts because I do hope to be a writer someday and/or help other writers out on their journeys to publishing. I prefer to read/write in the science fiction/fantasy, horror, and humor genres with an emphasis on LGBT+ characters and/or subversive themes or satire.

If you PM me, send an ask, or tag me in something, I can’t promise I’ll get to you right away, but I’ll try to get back to you eventually. Although… if it’s a troll or something that I really don’t feel comfortable responding to, I hope y’all understand that I will probably just delete that stuff. If you’re having a personal crisis and message me about it, I will most likely try to refer you to a trained professional who can help you better than I can. Also I prefer not to give out too much personal information, at least not beyond what I’ve already said.

What’s this blog about?

It’s a personal blog, so it can get rather chaotic. However, the upshot of this is that I tag for just about everything so you are more than welcome to filter things you don’t wanna see.

Beyond rambling in the tags, I do post original content such as book reviews, thoughts, life advice, writing, rants, etc. My original content is usually posted with one of these tags: #cinnia says stuff, #my stuff, #my writing, #my ocs

If I’m promo-ing another blog: #writers of tumblr, #other people’s ocs, #artblr (and I usually try to include the artist’s blog name in the tags)

On the other hand, there are several major topics/fandoms that appear repeatedly if you’ve somehow found me because of that.

Topics: writing and writing advice, book recs and book quotes, study tips, languages, LGBT+-related content, medical stuff, mental health, art, crafts, cooking, dancing, figure skating, anecdotes, psychology, comics, cute animals, science, fashion, music, funny videos, mythology, folk/fairy tales, social commentary, various religions (in the sense of analyzing/commenting on them because I have exactly zero interest in being a part of them)

Fandoms that appear the most on my blog: Star Wars, Harry Potter, Discworld, Dungeons & Dragons, All For The Game, Tortall, Emelan, Graceling Realm, Six of Crows, Lord of the Rings, Pride and Prejudice, Star Trek, Welcome to Night Vale (and related podcasts), The Adventure Zone, Check Please!, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Legend of Korra, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, The Good Place, Yuri On Ice, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Sharp Zero, Always Human, A Song of Ice and Fire, Marvel, Wonder Woman, Misfits, and dearly departed Netflix original shows (R.I.P.)

Things that seasonally appear on my blog*: the Olympics (especially figure skating), Eurovision, The Glorious Twenty-Fifth of May, Pride Month, Halloween, and Christmas stuff because my family takes it rather seriously and I’m along for the ride due to my cooking know-how

Also I tag for sensitive things/content warnings etc. Since politics these days can be an understandable source of anxiety and negativity, my tag for that is #us politics and occasionally #uk politics and #politics (for non-US stuff) in case you’d rather keep your dash more fandom/books and writing focused. Per any adult content that gets posted or reblogged, I have the tags #nsfw, #nsfw text, #nsfw audio, #nsfw-ish (when it’s in that weird gray area) and #alcohol

If there’s something missing that you’d like me to tag so that you can block or filter it more easily, let me know.

Also I’m happy to hear any questions you might have.

*I’m only mentioning these because my blog tends to have a different vibe when this stuff is going on and I usually reblog more stuff related to it. It’s only temporary, but it can throw some people for a loop.

[exyusimp]

FUCK YES A FULL ENGLISH PODCAST GO STREAM EUROVISION LEGENDS WHEN THE RIVA EP COMES OUT LETS GOOO