#radio free appalachia

[lucislibari]

I decided to finish those sketches. I cannot get enough of this little dude's face. Sorry Chronicles of Darkness tag you get more of this little demon blooded Thearch bastard!!!

(half of these poses were referenced from @mellon_soup on tiktok btw!! Go sub to their patron it's divine)

[bloodtreachery]

#I probably could make a seperate list of stupid shit my characters say or impactful moments

Okay then top five/top as many as you like moments of your characters saying Some Shit.

DAMN OK. One of my proudest accomplishments as a player is that I am so good at monologues they have been listed as characters highlights and are given proper names, such as

- “Disappointed Dad Speech”

-

- The “Getting Worse” Monologue

AND MORE! But we’ll focus on the out of character highlights, I was going to go through all my old games but turns out none of my pcs have said funnier out of context shit than Frankie-Martin Martinez-Jackson so consider this an FM highlight reel

[magusarchives]

sooo if i ran a rusty quill network horror fanzine would people apply?? 👀

[severusskywalker]

I’m looking for some more podcasts to listen to.

I’ve recalling liked The Magnus Archives, Welcome to Night Vale, Malevolent, Wolf 359, and a couple others, and I’m looking for more. I like ones with overarching plots, if that makes sense? Any recommendations? Thanks!

Edit: A few more I have enjoyed/finished (including from the list below, as I listen to them!)

Archive 81

Auricle

The Deep Vault

The Scarab Archives

Vigil

The Technomacy Project

What Will Be Here

Re: Dracula

Stellar Firma

Out of Place

I Am In Eskew

Ars Paradoxica

The Antique Shop

And now the ever increasing recommendations, so they are all in one place… please feel free to keep recommending ones too, I love growing recs lists! (Now alphabetized!)

Aftershocks

Alice isn’t Dead

A Voice From Darkness

Camp Here and There

Captain Skyjacks

Case 66

Critical Role

Cryptids

Dames & Dragons/LegendLark

Darkest Night

Death by Dying

Derelict

Desert Skies

Desperado!

Deviser

Dimension 20

Don’t Mind Cruxmont

Dungeons & Daddies

Either

Ethics Town

Find Us Alive

From Caulk and Candles

Ghost Wax

Girl in Space

Greater Boston-the vignettes

Hello from the Hallowoods

Interstitial AP

Just Roll With It

Kakos Industries

Keep it Steady

Last Call at the Bluebell Cafe

Life With Althaar

Limetown

Mabel

Midnight Burger

Midst

Mirrors

Mission to Zyxx

Mockery Manor

Monstrous Agonies

Murray Mysteries

Neighborly

Newts!

Not Quite Dead

Old Gods of Appalachia

Oz 9

Paralyzed

Potterless

Red Valley

Revolution

Riley Hopkins and their Amazing Friends

Rusty Quill Gaming

Sayer

Second Star to the Left

Seren

Somewhere, Ohio

Spines

Spirit Box Radio

Spirits Podcast

Steal the Stars

S-town

Strange Case of Starship Iris

The Adventure Zone

The Amelia Project

The Black Tapes

The Bright Sessions

The Cellar Letters

The Deca Tapes

The Invictus Stream

The Left Right Game

The Liberty Podcast

The Milkman of St Gaff’s

The Mistholme Museum of Mystery, Morbidity, and Mortality

The Newest Olympian

The Night Post

The Pasitheaa Powder

The Penumbra Podcast

The Sheridan Tapes

The Silt Verses

The SPC Foundation Database

The Storage Papers

The White Vault

Time:Bomb

Unwell Podcast

Vast Horizon

We’re Alive

Within the Wires

Woe.begone

Wooden Overcoats

[pyrrhocorax]

Re: Sweden, Norway, and Denmark's Japanese dialects in Hetalia (and potential implications to their characterization) (with briefer notes about Fin and Ice)

Thanks to @nordickies for being the spark that lit the fire to write this post. This information also personally has informed some of my personal takes on the Nordic 5 for over a decade now, so I hope it is useful. A lot of this was more common knowledge back in the livejournal days of the fandom.

Disclaimer: my Japanese is limited and by no means do I claim to fully understand all of the cultural complexities surrounding this topic. I will try, where I can, to back up my claims with at least somewhat credible sources especially since I am someone who is not Japanese in origin either ethnically or culturally, however I DO know more than the average person would because I have lived in Japan, was exposed from my practical birth to the culture and language waaay more than is typical due to me living overseas, and I have studied the language on an elementary level in several academic settings. I am by no means an expert (I am a wildlife biologist by trade), but all of this is done in good faith, and if you do know more than me (especially since I am limited in my ability to get access to academic texts right now — nor am I going far out of my way to find those, as this is a meta post about Hetalia of all things and I am not going to do a whole giant thesis about this for one post), feel free to correct me and/or send me further resources, as I want to convey as accurate of information I can as possible. Part of my motivation for making this post was to spur conversation and hopefully have others who know more than me contribute to the ongoing conversation, to which, I encourage those who read this post to check the notes for any further updates. Another note that I also do not originate from a Nordic country, so there may also be additional layers people from those countries may be able to add. Thanks! Let's begin.

*********************************************************** Like several characters in Hetalia, the Viking Trio speak in unique Japanese dialects that further make them distinct and characterize them in Japanese. Sweden speaks in a Touhoku dialect, Norway in the Tsugaru dialect (which is a specific type of Touhoku dialect), and Denmark speaks in Ibaraki dialect. The Ibaraki dialect is sometimes seen as belonging to the Touhoku dialect group or the Kantou dialect group, and the classification is debated. Generally, Touhoku accents are characterized by slow speech, the slurring of words together, and the muttering of words — as well as being associated with rural country folk (Kumagi 2011, direct PDF download). This dialect is often translated into English as a redneck/hick accent and drawling speech — and as those who speak it are often characterized or stereotyped as unintelligent folks from out in the sticks. Kumagi cites Inoue (1977) as saying that Touhoku dialects are "degraded at the bottom in the Japanese language" scoring low on "intelligence and emotion-related associations." One American English rough equivalent (not localized, but in terms of reputation in U.S. culture) by my best estimations would likely be Appalachian dialects, which are also stereotypically characterized as being a hillbilly, unintelligent, and rural accent also featuring drawled speech and often truncated speech (source). Like many Touhoku dialect speakers in Japan, Appalachian dialect speakers often hide, mask, or reduce their accent, especially if they relocate someplace outside Appalachia, in order to seem more credible to others, as it is generally seen as an ��inferior” dialect of American English in the wider culture (personal/family lived experience, but also a good radio piece on it here). The other way Touhoku dialects are translated in media are as Upper Midwest or Northern Plains dialects of American English (not the most credible source, but a lot that is on here that I can confirm to be correct). This characterization is likely a more accurate candidate for the Nordics (and may be why Hima chose this dialect group for them), as many immigrants from Nordic countries settled in the Upper Midwest/Northern Plains (source, personal experience living in this region for a lot of my life). Touhoku dialects are also a more northern dialect group, which geographically coincides with the Nordics being, well, northerners!

(Map of Touhoku dialects regionally) I have not been able to find any information re: if Sweden speaks any particular type of Touhoku dialect (or if it is more broad), but I will talk a bit about how his speech was transliterated in early scanlations before moving on to the other two. Because of how slurred/more truncated/less intelligible Touhoku accents generally are (and remember, Den/Nor/Ice did not make their appearance until well after Swe/Fin did!), likely early translators decided to chop off letters/make Sweden's speech seem less intelligible in order to convey that to readers. Unlike Norway and Denmark, Sweden also often speaks in shorter sentences/phrases in Japanese, and given that Finland canonically says "it's just hard to communicate with him" (see Running Away with Mr. Sve) that is also likely why early Hetalia scanlators before official translations of the comics were available (note: god this is making me feel old as hell) made the decision to give him the speech patterns that they did, and that ended up spreading through the fandom. When the other Nordics with their regional dialects dropped, given how Sweden’s vocal trait got translated into English and then fandom ran with it to varying degrees of intelligibility, I think the decision was made to not translate Norway the same way to cause less trouble in fanworks, while the Ibaraki dialect did influence how Denmark was translated (more on that below.

Norway speaks in a very particular Touhoku-family dialect within the series that is generally not well-reflected outside of the source material at all. The Tsugaru dialect is spoken in the northwest part of the country, specifically in the western part of Aomori Prefecture — Tsugaru dialect is a particularly unusual dialect, even by Japanese dialect standards, by being one of the most difficult dialects in Japan to understand (source). Even within Japan itself, people speaking this dialect often have to be subtitled on television for other Japanese audiences to understand, and there have been occasions where the dialect has been displayed on television to marvel at how strange and unintelligible it sounds to other Japanese speakers. Sometimes speakers of this dialect have been characterized (or mischaracterized for comedic effect) as French in Japanese because the odd sound and unintelligability of the dialect (source). Kumagi (2011) also states that "[...] within the Tohoku [alternate transliteration of Touhoku] dialects, Aomori [prefecture in which Tsugaru is spoken] dialect is at the bottom [of the hierarchy]," meaning that even among the already disrespected Touhoku dialects, Tsugaru belongs to the worst of the bunch in terms of reputability and respectability in Japanese perceptions. The Tsugaru dialect is a source of fascination, comedy, and disrepute/low standing all at the same time. While we don’t know why Hima selected Norway to have this dialect, I have a few proposals. First, this gives him a similar flavor to the other members of the Viking Trio while keeping him distinct — while Ibaraki is a more southern dialect geographically (for the region), Tsugaru is spoken both more north and more west than it. So if you map their dialects out on a map, their geographical location to each other also somewhat resembles their actual locations as nations to each other in the Nordics! Which is neat!

Second, Hima characterizes Norway has being slightly otherworldly and unusual largely due to his fairy-friends and such. But I also think that he likely chose Tsugaru for him not only because that makes him seem like he’s out of this world, but also because Japan is kind of fascinated by that dialect in particular despite not holding it in high regards by it too — sure, it is a hick accent, but it is an interesting hick accent. I think the fact that Japanese speakers sometimes liken the dialect to French is interesting specifically because of how Japanese people often view the French — French culture something that is often romanticized and idealized, and given how Tsugaru dialect can sound French-ish to Japanese speakers, that may be why Norway is kind of designed as the “pretty boy” of the trio by the fandom? In the same way that “Paris Syndrome” is a thing, where Japanese who go to France are often shocked at how their idealized version of France does not live up to the realities of the country (trust me it's real there is a wikipedia page lol), I think you can argue that in-universe Norway can be seen in a lot of different ways depending on the preconceived notions of how you view the dialect. If you view it as French-like and think it sounds interesting, you may find it alluring/beautiful. If you think it is crass, you'll look at it with disdain and disgust. If you think it just sounds silly and stupid, it is. If you think it is nostalgic (as Kumagi states that this is the only positive association this dialect has) and has a close association with nature/pastoral life because of that, it is. I think Norway in canon is characterized on all four of those axioms at the same time (if you really wanna pull canon receipts I will at another time) which makes this make a lot of sense to me as to why that dialect was chosen for him. Third, I think that given Norway was largely the worst off of the three kingdoms for most of history, it makes sense to give him the worst accent in terms of reputation/status out of all of them, too. Note: specifically, re: how Norway uses "brother" in Japanese is also interesting when referring to Denmark. What he is saying is "anko" (あんこ), which literally means "young man/eldest son" directly translated and is specifically only used to mean that in northern Japanese dialects. A good way to put it is it is like people in the U.S. use "bro" as a catch-all term for a similar-aged guy you are trying to get the attention of kind of informally, in the same way you can say "nii-san" to both mean "older brother" and also "guy who seems older than me I am addressing informally" I guess?? Funnily enough, which I didn't know until researching shit, it apparently also means bottom (homosexual) in prison slang??? Which may or may not be intentional I guess on Hima's part, and could also influence your characterization of Norway as a result. Finally we move on to Denmark. The Ibaraki dialect is characterized by number of things, but for our purposes I think that the two most important traits are the general lack of polite speech and the slightly faster rate of speech (unfortunately, my only written sources I can point to are wikipedia and TV tropes again, but I have heard this orally from someone a long time ago - I looked for more credible sources but couldn't find any easily). Because of it being debated as to whether or not is a true Touhoku dialect or if it is actually a Kantou (more southern/eastern) dialect, I think you can also argue that makes sense given Denmark is kind of the "gateway" into the heart of Europe geographically. People have generally translated this as him being excitable and more casual in the way he communicates to other people. I have been able to find less resources on this particular dialect and how it is perceived culturally, so I will sadly have to leave it at that, but from my understanding he is generally translated appropriately in the manga from what I have seen, with the -in' instead of -ing and ya instead of you to have it seem more relaxed/familiar/casual.

Final notes on Finland and Iceland: I cannot confirm this personally, but from what I can hear from Finland, it sounds like he speaks pretty standard Japanese to me, but take that with a grain of salt since I am not the expert here. Which, dialect-wise, places him as the odd person out (which fits with Finnish being the linguistic outgroup of the five) and also puts him as the relatable “stand in” for Japanese people learning about the Nordics — reminder he is the one who introduces them all in that one comic (see The Nordic 5+a) and even earlier comics (see Running Away with Mr. Sve), and we’re viewing the Nordics from largely his perspective). Since Finland in this series is largely characterized (and often deemed a poor stereotype by Finns) because of the Japanese perspective on Finland/Finns, it makes a lot of sense Hima used him kind of as a self-insert for Japanese readers/viewers to understand the Nordics from, as of the Nordic nations, Japanese folks are likely going to have the strongest familiarity/connection to Finland because of the Moomins. Please take the following information about Iceland with heaping grains of salt, but from a memory, I believe he also speaks the Tsugaru dialect, at least some of the time???? This makes sense he shares the Tsugaru dialect with Norway, as he’s Norway’s in-canon sibling, but I have a vague memory of a meta post I cannot 100% confirm or deny exists re: him only speaking the dialect/the dialect coming out more when he’s alone?? This following is speculation since I cannot confirm/deny that right now with my current abilities, but if it is true, would also be an interesting level to his character and make sense — it puts further distance between him and Norway if he purpsefully doesn’t speak the same way as his brother when his brother is present, and it also is reminiscent of my own experience living with people with discriminated accents who then mask their “less desirable” dialects in their teens/20s so they don’t get discriminated against as they move up in the world. Kumagi (2011) states that "Therefore, young female native speakers of Tohoku [alternate transliteration] dialects feel ashamed of their dialects and hesitate to speak them in big cities such as Tokyo. They are made to feel inferiority complex about their dialects, which are stigmatized as unfeminine". Since Iceland is very much characterized as a teen in canon, I think that this makes sense to do in the broader context of Hima’s choices. The specific reason as to why I state that I believe he speaks Tsugaru some of the time but not always is because there are some panels he speaks without it and some where he does seem to have an accent (HWS Chapter 112, relevant screencap below, this is the only time he speaks like this from what I can find in scanlations/translations, but it has to be a deliberate choice). Would love more info on this from someone who knows more about Japanese than I can do.

Again, please check the original post and/or notes for any future additions that I will add/edit accordingly (with notes as to where/when that happened) if any other relevant information surfaces, but I hope that was at least a little informative and interesting to read. I consulted a bunch of other resources too (read a bunch of papers I could find online), but a lot of those I read several months ago and no longer can find :x otherwise I would list them here.

Let me know if there are any typos/things are unclear, b/c holy shit this took a lot more effort and time for me to write up than I thought it was going to, and I am too tired to proofread it after spending several days on it. X_X

[ashes-in-a-jar]

In my head, you’re a Magnus Archives blog. I mean, I know you obviously listen to other things, but In my mind it’s things like Welcome to Nightvale, Malevolent, Hello from the Hallowoods, The Sheridan Tapes, things like that, horror and supernatural.

So I had to do a double-take when I saw a Dungeons and Daddies post from you, I really didn’t know you listened to it. Then I see you reblog a Fawx and Stallion post, and now I’m just wondering how many podcasts you’ve listened to that I’ve also listened to.

Hahaha yes this blog has been mainly for tma stuff for years now, I still feel like I'm new to the fandom but honestly I've been here through a lot of it since the beginning of season 5

Buuuuut in the past few months I've stopped going into the tma tag regularly and been feeling a little detached from it, at least as opposed to before. My listen to tmagp has been way less interactive and I hardly reblog content anymore (which is something I like doing but because of various bad experiences on the internet recently I have yet to recover from I feel safer posting my own original posts rather than reblogging)

And that freed up a space in my mind to realize I've actually been listening to a lot of podcasts besides tma and it's honestly a shame not to talk about them more with others

I do listen to a lot of horror fantasy supernatural and science fiction podcasts! I also love a lot of dnd and ttrpg podcasts, I also love everything dropout and wish I could get into critical role but it's so big I don't think I'll manage it

I put under the cut a (quite long) list of the podcasts I have listened to and/or have notifications turned on

Anyone following me, you're welcome to send me an ask about one of them if you like them as well or want to hear about them!

I also put a list of podcasts on my to listen to list. Feel free to drop a recommendation for which them to listen to first!

-------------

Podcasts I'm caught up on (the lists are long so it's alphabetical without "the")

Ongoing podcasts

The Amelia project

Ask your father

A voice from darkness

Black box

Brimstone valley mall

Camlann

The cellar letters

Death by dying

Derelict

Eeler's choice

Ethics town

Fawx and stallion

Hello from the Hallowoods

The hundred handed

Levian

Lost terminal

The Magnus protocol

Malevolent

Midnight burger

The mistholme museum of mystery morbidity and mortality

Neon inkwell

New years day

Not quite dead

Old gods of Appalachia

The penumbra podcast

The program

Red valley

The Sheridan Tapes

The silt verses

The sound museum

Super suits

Tell no tales

Tiny terrors

Traveling light

Unseen

The vesta clinic

Victoriocity

The white vault

Completed podcasts

Absolutely no adventures

Archive 81

Borrasca

The bright sessions

Camp here and there

Descendants

Give me away

I am in eskew

Monstrous agonies

Parkdale haunt

The Magnus archives

Re: dracula

The secret of st kilda

Spirit box radio

Steal the stars

Time:bombs

We know none

Wolf 359

Wooden overcoats

Ttrpgs

The adventure zone

Campaign skyjacks

Chapter and multiverse

Dark dice

Dice shame

Dimension 20 (not a podcast but I listen to it like one)

Dungeons and daddies

Not another d&d podcast

Rusty Quill gaming

Worlds beyond number

Podcast on my listen next list:

The Alexandria archives

Alice isn't dead

Ars paradoxica

Believer

The Black tapes

Blackwood

The box

The bridge

Carrier

Counterbalance

The cryptid keeper

Darkest night

The darkroom

The dark tome

The deca tapes

The deep vault

Dreamboy (this one is nsfw so it makes me nervous lol)

Duggan Hill

The earth collective

Either

The far meridian

The fountain road files

The glass canon

Jar of rebuke

Kings fall am (I started but heard not great things about it)

Knifepoint horror

Kollok 1991

Less is morgue

The leviathan chronicles

Liberty

Limetown

The lost cat

Mabel

Maeltopia

Marscorp

Mirrors

Mockery manor

Next stop

The no sleep podcast

The orphans

The Orpheus protocol

Out of place

Paired

Palimpsest

The phone booth

Point mystic

Pseudopod

Rabbits

The right left game

Shadows at the door

Spines

Stellar firma

The storage papers

Stories from among the stars

Super ordinary

Superstition

Tanis

Tides

Unwell

Vast horizon

Victoria's lift

Video palace

Welcome to night Vale (I listen to this one very sporadically lol)

We're alive

Within the wires

Woe begone (I started but got stuck on episode 20ish but want to continue)

Wrong station

Ttrpgs

BomBARDded

Critical role (it's sooo long tho)

Dames and dragons

Dragon friends

Join the party

The lucky die

Queens of adventure

Realms of pearl and glory

Rude tales of magic

Skyjacks courier call

Three black halflings

[codexnuminous]

Live-blogging a Podcast - Podcast Ideas

Hello people of tumblr! I would like to try live-blogging my reactions to a podcast (as you may have guessed from the header) and I am curious to hear your suggestions as to which podcast I should pick.

PREFERENCES / PARAMETERS - an audio drama rather than an Actual Play / whatever the ones where people just talk about things are called (chat show podcasts? Discussion podcasts? Nonfiction podcasts?) Short - I would prefer not to try and live-blog something with 3-hour long episodes, and by the same token I don't want to try wrestling a series with 200+ episodes and counting. Queer - from what I can tell, most audio dramas seem to be pretty queer, so this should be pretty easy. N.B. If you have any suggestions that don't quite fit these, feel free to still recommend them! Just be aware that this is what I will lean towards.

PODCASTS I HAVE LISTENED TO Both to give you an idea of my interests and also just so you know those that there is not much point recommending; The Silt Verses. Welcome to Night Vale. Jar of Rebuke. The Magnus Archives. 0ld Gods of Appalachia. Spirit Box Radio. Monstrous Agonies. The Magnus Protocol. Stellar Firma. Death by Dying. Trice Forgotten. Super Suits. The Amelia Project. The Bright Sessions. Ars Paradoxica.

PODCASTS THAT ARE ON MY "TO LISTEN" LIST These are some of the podcasts that I just haven't got to yet. All of these are eligible for live-blog recommendations. Hi Nay. Breaker, Whiskey. Tiny Terrors. Hello from the Hallowoods. Unwell. Within the Wires. Breathing Space. Midnight Burger. The Far Meridian. Night Shift. Midnight Radio. Greater Boston. The Penumbra Podcasts. Among the Stacks. Travelling Light. Camlann. The Waystation. Not Quite Dead. Here be Dragons. The Program. Malevolent. The Orbiting Human Circus. The Secret of St. Kilda's. The Storage Papers. Wooden Overcoats.

Any and all recommendations and questions welcome.

[nightspires]

so i made a post a couple of months ago asking for new podcast audiodrama recs (inc. actual play dramas) and i got a TONNE. so here is the list of all the suggestions + stuff i've listened to myself:

2298

Absolutely No Adventures

Adventures in New America

Alba Salix

Alice Isn't Dead

Archive 81

Arden

ars Paradoxica

Badlands Cola

Blackwood

Boom

Borrasca

Brimstone Valley Mall

Camp Here & There

Death by Dying

Desperado

Dungeons & Daddies

EOS10

Finding Satan

Ghost Radio Project

Girl In Space

Gossip

Gray Matter

Hello from the Hallowoods

Hello from the Magic Tavern

Hi Nay

I Am In Eskew

Jar of Rebuke

King Falls AM

Knight Falls, CA

Lake Clarity

Life With Althar

Life/After

Light House

Limetown

Mabel

Malevolent

Mayfair Watchers Society

Midnight Burger

Mission Rejected

Monstrous Agonies

Moonbase Theta, Out

Neighbourly

Oak Podcast

Old Gods of Appalachia

Olive Hill

Parkdale Haunt

Polybius

Redwood Bureau

Rex Rivetter: Private Eye

Sayer

Station Arcadia

Stellar Firma

TANIS

Tapes From Beyond

Terms

The Adventure Zone

The Amelia Project

The Beautiful Liar

The Big Loop

The Black Tapes

The Bright Sessions

The Darkroom

The Hidden Almanack

The Kingmaker Histories

The Left Right Game

The Magnus Archives

The Message

The Mistholme Museum of Mystery, Morbidity and Mortality

The Penumbra Podcast

The Secret of St Kilda

The Shadow Diaries

The Six Disappearances of Ella McCray

The Shadow Over Innsmouth

The Storage Papers

The Strange Case of Starship Iris

The Subjective Truth

The Two Princes

The White Vault

Tribulation

Victoriocity

Video Palace

We’re Alive

Weeping Cedars

Welcome to Night Vale

WOE.BEGONE

Wolf 359

Wooden Overcoats

Feel free to add any others that are missing to this post!

[lesbian-jack-barnabas]

I’m adding this to my pinned intro but but but. the podcast masterlist. feel free to rb with your recs. every time I finish a pod I have a wheel I spin to choose my next one

LISTENED/CAUGHT UP:

The Magnus Archives

Welcome to Night Vale

The Penumbra Podcast (Junoverse)

Camp Here & There

Red Valley

Archive 81

Malevolent

Wolf 359

either (because I helped make it)

101.7 OUROBOROS (because I made it)

CURRENTLY LISTENING:

Mnemosyne

The Penumbra Podcast (Second Citadel)

Hello From the Hallowoods

TO LISTEN:

The Bright Sessions

Old Gods of Appalachia 

The Silt Verses

Jar of Rebuke

The Night Post

Spirit Box Radio

Woe.Begone

Ethics Town

Somewhere, Ohio

Orbiting Human Circus

The Storage Papers

Deca Tapes

Mistholme Museum

Sheridan Tapes

The Antique Shop

Station Arcadia

Borrasca

Pasithea Powder

Midnight Burger

Wooden Overcoats

Station 151

Kane and Feels

ars PARADOXICA

The Far Meridian

[randomvarious]

Today's compilation:

Baby Boomer Classics: Electric Seventies 1986 Hard Rock / Blues-Rock / Progressive Rock / Heavy Metal / Southern Rock / Glam Rock

Another superb dispatch here from the California-based compilation label JCI's Baby Boomer Classics series that gathers together a grip of classic rock tunes from the 70s. Here we have a really satisfying road trip mix of stuff that goes a combination of hard, bluesy, proggy, metallic, southern, and glammy 🤘.

Now, ultimately, it's pretty hard for me to pick an absolute favorite among this already mostly well-known dozen, but I've got three especially in mind here, and all of them are by bands who, coincidentally, ended up as one-hit wonders in the US.

So, first, there's "Mississippi Queen," a terrific blues-rockin' piece of southern-styled, heavy and fuzzy proto-metal by a band called Mountain, who, based on both the sound of this song itself and the band's own name, you couldn't be faulted for thinking hailed from somewhere like Appalachia. But get this, folks: this group that played at Woodstock and then delivered this mud-caked hit the following year were actually from none other than Long Island, a locale that is neither remotely southern nor mountainous! Buncha poseurs who ended up making one of the greatest southern rock hits of all time! Uh, excuse me? CCR would like a word!

Next, Mott the Hoople's "All the Young Dudes," a glam rock classic that David Bowie gave to this group so that they'd stay together. Bowie had just released a couple albums of his own and still had plenty of ideas left in his tank to give to other acts, so he started playing parts of this song that he'd fleshed out for one of Mott's members on an acoustic, and the band decided to take it and then smashed it. The super catchy singalong chorus on this one sounds like something Oasis could've spun up about 20 years later, and actually, upon having that thought, I find that they adapted that very chorus for a live performance of "Whatever," which also had some of the Beatles' "Octopus's Garden" in it too:

And lastly, probably the least known and most unique song of this whole bunch: "Hocus Pocus," a song by a prog rock band from The Netherlands called Focus that is largely instrumental, but also incorporates some signature yodeling too. This one's a free-flowing, unorthodoxly crafted rock odyssey of sorts that comes with a solo flute portion as well, and while it's definitely not *obscure*—it was a top-ten hit in the US—I can say that, with the many, many hours I've spent with classic rock radio over the years, that I've definitely never heard it on there before. And as far as instrumental classic rock hits go, this one deserves to be the song that you immediately think of rather than Edgar Winter's "Frankenstein," which is also a great song that's on this comp too. Plus, the version that appears on this record seems to be different than the one that most people are probably familiar with! 👀

Really enjoying this series so far. Don't know how many of these installments are left for me to sift through, but I know there's still a lot left. Gonna be taking it in drips and drabs, though, so stay tuned!

Highlights:

Grand Funk Railroad - "We're an American Band" Manfred Mann's Earth Band - "Blinded by the Light" Black Sabbath - "Paranoid" Gregg Allman - "Midnight Rider" Edgar Winter - "Frankenstein" Mountain - "Mississippi Queen" Santana - "Black Magic Woman" Uriah Heep - "Easy Livin'" Mott the Hoople - "All the Young Dudes" Brownsville Station - "Smokin' in the Boys Room" Alice Cooper - "I'm Eighteen" Focus - "Hocus Pocus"

[igotsnothing]

Lou Howell

Listening to: *Your Rocky Spine-The Great Lake Swimmers* 01:43 ━━━━●───── 03:36 ⇆ㅤ ㅤ◁ㅤ ❚❚ ㅤ▷ ㅤㅤ↻ ılıılıılıılıılıılı ᴠᴏʟᴜᴍᴇ : ▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮

I know Moonwood is based on the Pacific Northwest, but I can't help but think of Appalachia* when I look at it. In my head canon, Lou Howell lives in a home he inherited from his grandfather. It's a one-room Appalachian log cabin deep in the woods.

He lives simply: he likes to cook, he tends to a small garden, and he tinkers with building things. He works in construction and supplements his income (and acquires a few cheap or free materials) as a yard worker at a salvage yard.

Whenever he has time, he works on repairing the cabin and making improvements. It is filled with childhood memories: a working Sylvania cabinet TV, a tinny-sounding shortwave radio; it’s just a short walk away from old hiking trails, the creek, and fireflies.

After a night spent roaming the wilderness in wolf form, it sometimes takes Lou a little while to remember what he was up to. But he eventually remembers. He's learning to manage his curse. Until he does learn to control himself fully, he's resigned to being alone.

It is a solitary existence. For now.

Where are my damned car keys?

* A reading recommendation about growing up in Appalachia (and it's not that political guy who-will-not-be-named-and was-all-the-rage-after-the-US's-2016-election's book): The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls. It's been banned by pearl clutchers and turd munchers in some places in the US, so you know it's good.

[lucislibari]

im very late but it was his birthday:) Demonblooded baby born on 1/1/2000, im really creative.

[bookgeekgrrl]

My media this week (23-29 Apr 2023)

📚 STUFF I READ 📚

🥰👂‍Something Wild & Wonderful (Anita Kelly, author; Mark Sanderlin, narrator) - really enjoyable contemp romance about 2 guys who meet hiking the PCT - great MCs, great supporting characters

😍Backhoe (Zenaidamacrouras1) - 123K, no-powers modern AU with a smol Steve & beefy Bucky - absolutely incredible fic where Steve's an art grad student/activist & goes to protest a pipeline in Appalachia, which is going to be built across Bucky's family land - this fic was fantastic! Great (& authentic) sense of place & community, well-developed OCs (Bucky's sisters) - it's a meet-cute followed by all the work an actual relationship takes, very real & genuine with the emotions & hurdles that come up.

🥰Gravity's Got Nothing on You (zosofi) - 86K, sterek au, fake dating, frenemies-to-lovers with the encouragement(?) of some magic wolf figurines - it's probably been 8 years since I read this and it's as delightful as I remember - they're both so emotionally constipated it's hilarious

💖💖 +143K of shorter fic so shout out to these I really loved 💖💖

All I'm Saying, Pretty Baby series (IrisLanding) - Stranger Things: steddie, 21K - "Steve and Eddie stumble into a series of dirty talking sexual adventures that may actually lead somewhere."

turn down the lights, turn down the bed (rockinhamburger) - Ted Lasso: Trent/Ted, 25K - Trent, drunk & thirsty af & bemoaning his life, accidentally texts Ted instead of his bestie. Some really good dicking, angst & emotions ensue.

Love Runs Wild (DevilDoll) - TW: sterek, 9K - a fucking forever fave classic from the "Neckz 'n Throats" universe

Thursday Nights with Bucky Barnes (Ellessey) - MCU: stucky, 4K - short but super duper meet cute with grumpy Steve and NOT the normal laundromat guy

Not In The Answer But The Question (aimmyarrowshigh) - MCU: shrunkyclunks, 27K - reread this fantastic shrunkyclunks with cap!steve (who's busy not processing his trauma) meeting queer disabled jewish deli owner bucky. So fucking good. Plus it will make you crave BEC bagels (which I 100% ordered from our local place this AM)

📺 STUFF I WATCHED 📺

Dirty Laundry - s2, e11

Um, Actually - s1, e5; s6, e2-6,8-12, s8, e3-4

Shrinking - s1, e1

Schmigadoon! - s2, e5

The Brokenwood Mysteries - s9, e3

Ted Lasso - s3, e7 [x2]

🎧 PODCASTS 🎧

Wait Wait… Don't Tell Me! - Weird Al Yankovic

Into It - Roy Wood Jr. Is Ready for Late Night

Switched on Pop - Who killed the key change in pop music?

⭐Desert Island Discs - Dara Ó Briain, comedian and television presenter

99% Invisible #534 - For Amusement Only (Free Replay)

⭐Vibe Check - You About to Lose Yo’ Job

Pop Culture Happy Hour - Harry Belafonte

ICYMI Plus - We’ve Learned Nothing From West Elm Caleb

Decoder Ring Plus - The Artist Who Was Both Loved and Disdained

Ologies with Alie Ward - Delphinology Part 2 (DOLPHINS) with Justin Gregg

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - The Last Wild Apple Groves

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Telling Time through the Trees with the Places Team

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Caring for Canids

Shedunnit - Bonus: What is "Cosy"?

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Moose Boulder

Into It - Are We Into Ed Sheeran's Lawsuit, Tucker Carlson's Firing, and Timothée Chalamet?

Endless Thread - The Birds and the Bugs

Sidedoor - Bill Nye the Sidedoor Guy

You're Dead To Me - The Rise of the Tudors

⭐Hit Parade Plus - The Bridge: Video Pilled Suburbia’s Child

ICYMI Plus - Should We All Be Pirating More?

🎶 MUSIC 🎶

Presenting Paul McCartney

Presenting Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

Instru-Metal

Emily King

Presenting Dio

Presenting Iron Maiden

Alestorm

synthwave radio [Lofi Girl]

Presenting Alice Cooper

Presenting Rush

The Look Of Love - The Very Best Of ABC [ABC]

[geniodiabolico]

Evil Genius Chronicles Podcast for December 8 2022 - I Hate His Fat Voice

In this episode, I play a song by Domenico + 2; I just realized the Garrison Keillor influence on this very podcast; the sandwich generation is wearing on us; I have no interest in true crime anything; have I completely lost the taste for cringey comedy?; I did send letters to voters via Vote Forward; am I individually on the hook for taking free and legal options?; I hearken back to Allan Havey’s Night after Night; I don’t know who Ben Shapiro is or what the Podcast Movement controversy; I have a narrow window of acceptable self-regard; there was something in the air in the mid-2000s maker culture; decluttering is full of overwhelming decisions; Scoble melted down over a timetable;

Here is the direct MP3 download for the Evil Genius Chronicles podcast, December 8 2022.

Links mentioned in this episode:

Support this show on Patreon

Domenico +2 via the Wayback machine

Te Convidei pro Samba

Skull Funk Radio podcast

Do You Need a Ride? podcast

Vote Forward

Oz 9 podcast

Old Gods of Appalachia podcast

Scotch and Comics podcast

Make Magazine

Unchained podcast

Dying Kindness podcast

Join the EGC Discord

My Keybase account

Subscribe to the shared RSS from my own TTRSS install

Auphonic podcast production tool is so good!

Theme song provided by the Gentle Readers

You can subscribe to this podcast feed via RSS. To sponsor the show, contact BackBeat Media. Don’t forget, you can fly your EGC flag by buying the stuff package. This show as a whole is Creative Commons licensed Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 Unported. Bandwidth for this episode is provided by Cachefly.

[rabbit-eclipsed]

HARMONIA

The Prologues: Merida

As the dark brown SUV traversed through the mountains, Merida stared out the window in contempt.

It wasn’t fair.

This was her first year of magic school, so why of all years did her parents have to choose now to relocate? And even if they absolutely had to move somewhere, why couldn’t it have been somewhere closer like Ireland or Wales? She was sure she even could have learned to love Scandinavia or Spain or the Alps. At least then she’d still be in Europe.

Not in bloody Appalachia.

What state were they even moving to again? Was it the one where they snogged their cousins? Merida could only pray that wasn’t the right one.

If worse came to worst, at least she wouldn’t be spending the entire year there - just the summers. She was already registered to go to some American magic school. “Harmonia,” they called it. Merida had been reassured that the island the school resided on was just as wild and free as her beloved Highlands, but that remained to be seen.

But, in a way, didn’t that just make everything even more unfair? Couldn’t she just stay in Scotland for her schooling and hop on a plane twice a year to make the trip over the Atlantic and back?

Merida pulled her black hoodie a little tighter around her as she let her frustration stew. It was easier to find new ways to be mad about the move than to just accept it. Looking on the bright side for too long felt a wee bit too much like admitting defeat for her liking. And Merida was too prideful for that.

She wasn’t leaving many friends behind. There was Catriona, true, but that was the only person who Merida bothered to stay in touch with. The other kids were intimidated by her, to be honest. But she and Cat had bonded over a shared love for archery when Cat had shown her how to make a bow out of school supplies. And she’d miss Cat like mad, but none of her other peers. And anyway, Merida would not hesitate to say that her true best friend was her horse, Angus.

It was fortunate that her family had arranged for the Clydesdale to fly out ahead of them. He’d already be making himself acquainted with the stables in their new home as they drove there. Fortunate for Merida’s parents most of all, since she would have likely run away from home before letting them sell her horse off. Angus was, after all, going to be her familiar this year.

But best not to look too closely at bright sides and complicate things.

After all, right now she was stuck in a cramped SUV with three babies. They might look like peaceful angels now, but her headache was proof enough that they’d been wailing devils only an hour before. Which had also set her father’s dogs off and into a fit of howls.

And the radio was currently switched to the classical station since it was her mum’s turn to pick the music and she was currently in a battle to stay awake.

And she was still burning alive in her jacket even with the AC blasting, but now it was too much of a hassle to get it off since she was buckled up and she was sure to get an earful if she unbuckled for a second just to take the garment off. Though the comfort of her familiar hoodie was almost enough for that gripe to be ignored.

Merida pressed her forehead against the cool glass window and closed her eyes, wishing very much that she could be anywhere else. But she wasn’t. She was in West Virginia (she suddenly remembered the sign that they’d passed by when crossing the state line) and an ocean away from home.

Her phone let out a crisp vibration and “PING.” Merida was torn between faking sleep and acknowledging the buzzing device. She sighed and pulled it out of her pocket, curiosity having a hold on her.

Miss u already </3

Cat.

A smile tugged at Merida’s lips.

miss u 2!

A moment later, her phone buzzed again.

How’s the US?

What a ridiculous question! Merida shook her head.

haven’t made it 2 the house

Buzz.

Hmm… well, good luck!

“Merida!” The redhead flinched as her mother noticed her. “No excessive text messaging! You’ll run the phone bill right up!”

“I wasn’t-“

“If you want to have a conversation, just call.”

Merida groaned. Cat had been the one to text her first, but she knew that her mother would just scold her for not telling Cat that she needed to call her. And then her mum would get all nosey and butt into their conversations.

“Let me just tell her bye…” Merida murmured, typing a simple “thx, ttyl” and sliding her phone back into her pocket.

It wasn’t much later (or maybe it was - these things are hard to tell when you’re bored) that the DunBrochs arrived at their new home. It was a modest place made of gray stones with a charcoal colored roof. A rock wall wrapped around the driveway, patches of moss and lichen adding pops of green to the masonry. The size of the property more than made up for any lack of space. It was sprawling, with enough land to comfortably ride her horse around. It was also in the middle of nowhere, so she’d probably have to wait until she was well trained in defensive magic before she could push her limits and stay out past sunset without her parents fretting about local cryptids. Magicfolk knew better than anyone that there was a lot more truth to these legends than what even they would like to believe (and this applied doubly so to ancient forests, which were hotspots for the more unpleasant cryptids).

As soon as the SUV’s door opened, the hounds - Alfie and Bonnie - tore out of the vehicle, as eager as Merida to be free. But the process for her to get out of the car would be much more complicated and involve a lot more asking for permission.

“Och, we still need to do something about those shutters,” her mum scoffed. The house currently had red, garnish things on the windows. Their home in Scotland hadn’t had those at all.

“Aw, they add some life to the place,” Fergus argued, half joking.

“Then we can repaint them something a little more agreeable.”

“Can I go and see Angus?” Merida interrupted.

“Only after you get your bag inside,” her mum answered.

That was the only answer Merida needed. She sprung into action, racing into their new home with her duffle bag in tow. She threw the bag onto their couch haphazardly, thankful that her parents had hired a moving crew and that she wouldn’t have to linger around there any longer. Then she ran towards the stables, almost as swift as her family’s dogs. She threw open the doors and rushed inside to meet her horse. The clydesdale whinnied gleeful when he saw her.

“It’s good to see you, Angus,” Merida greeted him back, pressing her head against his. The horse sighed, content to see his friend after their long journeys apart.

Life was much better with a friend. And familiars were friends for life.

NOTES:

I had a hard time figuring out exactly what I wanted this prologue to say, besides just serving as an introduction to Merida’s character and why she’s going to a school in America.

I never really specified a reason that they moved there, I did imply a few times that the DunBrochs are well off, so in my mind Fergus has some important business job. I don’t think the exact details will ever be relevant, so fill in the blanks yourself if you actually care about it. I will say that it doesn’t necessarily have to be ~magical business~ because I don’t want there to be such a clear and hard divide between mages and normal society as there could be.

Anyway, I eventually settled on making the chapter have a theme of the bond between mages and familiars. There are a lot of pets and other animal companions involved in a lot of the properties that exhibit human or near human intelligence, so I wanted to sort of extrapolate on that by giving them a little bit of a magical aspect. I might get into this later, but my idea is that the bond between a mage and their familiar is strong enough that it subtly enchants the familiar to be more intelligent and live longer. Idk, I just really like building lore.

I figured it wouldn’t make a lot of sense for Merida to be totally friendless at her old school, hence the inclusion of Cat from the Merida books. Part of the reason this prologue took so long is because I was worried about getting her character wrong. I still have only read the first book, but I hope she’s in character enough.

Also, this prologue is the first example of establishing a setting here. It takes place in the late 2000s, which is hinted at by Elinor scolding Merida for texting. I don’t know how many people reading this remember, but texting used to be costly and less commonplace. I was never allowed to text as a kid because of the phone bill. I can’t really touch on this from Merida’s POV, but Elinor actually hates texting because she’s worried it’ll corrode Merida’s grammar and spelling.

Lastly, Merida is in West Virginia because the Appalachian mountains and the Scottish Highlands are actually sort of part of the same mountain range. West Virginia’s state animal is also the black bear. I was torn between putting her there or putting her in Alabama since they share that aspect, but WV is more mountainous, so she’d be more at home there.

[cornbreadlesbian]

*please keep in mind some of these podcasts are 18+, listener discretion is advised. Please read episode descriptions carefully before listening. Stay safe!*

Stories

Freaky Folklore

National Parks After Dark

Southern Haunts

Scary Stories From Camp Roanoke

It's Always Halloween

Spooky Cookies

Mabel

Things We Hear At Night

Lights Out

Stories With Sapphire

Radio Rental

R.L Stine's Story Club

Series

Ghosts In The Burbs

Parkdale Haunt

Old Gods of Appalachia

Limetown

Darkest Night

Unwell

Alice Isn't Dead

Hello From The Hallowoods

Non-spooky listens to chill to

Sleepy Cove

The Sleepy Bookshelf

Nothing Much Happens

Hello From The Magic Tavern

Free Audiobooks