#this post brought to you by parentheses

[explodingsilver]

2022 book recap

(Based solely on books I’ve actually finished, not ones that are in progress)

Favorites (in the order that I finished them):

Tehanu by Ursula K. Le Guin

Now this is how you have a series mature alongside its reader, and not just in the sense that Earthsea actually acknowledges that interesting things happen to adults as well. It’s probably the most grounded book in the series, showing what life is like for normal people in a fantasy world, while still managing to have an actual plot and conflict, plus themes that aren’t dumbed down. You know Le Guin’s quote about disliking the cult of women’s knowledge? This book is kind of like a novel-length exploration of that concept. (She even says in the afterword, written years later, that she finds it funny how people always quote one particular character talking about how women are more in tune with mysticism and never include the protagonist’s reply that she used to be surrounded by that mysticism and it’s actually a terrible way to live.)

Raptor Red by Robert T. Bakker

This was written by an actual paleontologist and was originally meant to be a sort of educational novel, but isn’t really useful for that anymore, as a lot of the information is now outdated. You should read it anyway, because it made me cry over a dinosaur. Despite this book containing no dialogue because it takes place in the Cretaceous, the characters all have unique personalities and even the ones that show up for only one chapter are incredibly lovable.

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Much like Foucault’s Pendulum, I read this to acquire a bit of culture and was surprised by how funny it is. Austen understood obnoxious personalities in a way that few other people do. As for the actual romance, given how uncomfortable I am when people try to play matchmaker with me, I loved the fact that absolutely no one was rooting for the main couple to get together.

This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

I read this one in one sitting, and the moment I finished I felt the need to immediately reread it. The writing style is more poetic than a lot of actual poetry, and the plot comes together beautifully. It’s also one of those books where the world actually feels much bigger than what is shown on page.

Off to Be the Wizard by Scott Meyer

This one ended up on the list by the sheer force of how fun it is. I mean, the central concept is “reality is a computer simulation; programmers exploit this to become actual wizards”. Kind of scratches a similar nerd itch as Ready Player One but is actually good. And if you like Chekhov’s Gun as a trope, this book has an entire Chekhov’s Arsenal.

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco

Eco was so damn smart that reading his books makes me feel stupid in comparison, but I’m too busy being fascinated by his knowledge to mind. Ostensibly a murder mystery, but the theology and history are what really shine here. Plus, the ending made me feel like I needed to just sit down in the backyard and stare off into the distance for a few hours. And as I’ve said before, the postscript convinced me that I really need to read Eco’s nonfiction stuff.

Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

The only book I read this year that was actually release this year. Definitely the odd one out in the series, but having a story that shows what life is like for regular people outside the Nine Houses is something that I didn’t realize the series needed until I read it, plus the flashbacks to pre-Resurrection Earth provided some much-needed context for why Jod is like that.

Fevre Dream by George R. R. Martin

Kind of a shame that you only really see this book recommended in the context of “spooky vampire books for Halloween!” and even then it often gets overlooked. I’m someone who can usually keep my emotions level while reading (my reaction to a lot of notoriously heartbreaking moments in books is usually “yeah, that’s pretty sad” said with a blank face), but this book actually gave me adrenaline rushes at certain points. I was guessing all the way up until the end whether it was going to have a happy ending or not. (I also suspect that Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, Vampire: the Masquerade, and The Dresden Files all took inspiration from this book, but I don’t think I can prove any of that.) If A Song of Ice and Fire is written like this, I can see why it got so popular.

The Age of Darkness series by Katy Rose Pool

I mentally describe this series as “YA fantasy that subverts the genre by being good instead of bad”. Which is needlessly inflammatory, but it really is nice to read a YA series that goes out of its way to avoid all of the things I dislike about the genre (ex. the second book contains the setup for a love triangle, and then the author just makes it a non-issue). Also, and this will surprise no one, I appreciate how apostatic it gets in the third book.

Worst of the year: I read all of Onision’s books. Do not do this. (I did so in a way that did not involve giving him money, for the record.)

Did not finish: On Beauty by Zadie Smith. To be honest, it’s now my go-to example of “good as in well-constructed, bad as in I hate it” (though hate might be a bit too strong of a word for it). It really is well-written, but about halfway through I realized that this is the least I’ve ever cared about a book’s plot. (I still plan to read something else by the author in the future).

Goals for 2023:

5 nonfiction

3 books that were originally written in a language other than English

3 books that I’ve been meaning to read since middle school

[baileythebean]

Reasons why you should read… Wings of Fire!!

Random LONG-ASS post but idc because this has been my favorite book series since 3rd grade and I still HEAVILY fixate on it - for anyone interested (after I explain ofc) These books are by Tui T. Sutherland and are available in audiobook, paperback, hardcover, and Kindle I think.

Reasons you might enjoy WoF and features of the books!

-creative character designs

-full plot with little to no holes and if there are any, they’re probably explained in one of the MANY side books available.

-well-written characters that can be powerful without being a “Mary Sue” and having their own personalities

-each book follows a different protagonist, sometimes with the protagonist switching up mid-book

-a prologue and epilogue in each book

-15 main books released so far with more coming!!

-STUNNING cover art

-the main characters are dragons!!

-Written like those fanfics where you read them and you forget you’re reading a fanfic but it’s still not quite written like an ‘official’ book, y’know?

-descriptive writing so you don’t have to imagine stuff in weird vague ways

-LOTS OF LGBTQIA+ rep! Including but not limited to: mlm rep, wlw rep, non-binary/non-conforming rep - and the best part about it? It’s casually brought up! It’s normalized! Not even the villains or shitty parents show an OUNCE of homophobia or transphobia!

-There are humans in these books! And POC rep!

-women in leading/strong roles :3

-different continents!

-different tribes of dragons each sharing similar traits depending on their habitat!! NOT JUST RANDOMIZED DRAGONS EVERYWHERE ALL MIXED TOGETHER WHERE YOU DONT EVEN KNOW WHO CAN DO WHAT!!

-Each book features a map of the continent it’s set on, a description of the dragons of each tribe living on that continent (including looks, powers, diet, affiliation in war depending on the book, and current Queen) and a page for the prophecy the book fixates around (different for each arc)

-Three arcs, each solving a different conflict but STILL IN THE SAME PLOT!!

-creepy mind-control stuff!

-well-written villains

-lines that have made me CACKLE out loud multiple times

-TONS OF SIDE BOOKS WITH EXTRA LORE/INFO IN THEM!!

-and so much more! Read them for yourself to find out!!

ALL THE BOOKS IN ORDER PLUS THE NAME, SPECIES AND A PICTURE OF THE PROTAGONIST IN PARENTHESES:

THE DRAGONETS OF DESTINY ARC: 1) The Dragonet Prophecy (Clay of the Mudwings)

2) The Lost Heir (Tsunami of the Seawings)

3) The Hidden Kingdom (Glory of the Rainwings)

4) The Dark Secret (Starflight of the Nightwings)

5) The Brightest Night (Sunny of the Sandwings/Nightwings)

THE JADE MOUNTAIN ARC: 6) Moon Rising (Moonwatcher of the Nightwings)

7) Winter Turning (Winter of the Icewings)

8) Escaping Peril (Peril ((the one in front)) of the Skywings)

9) Talons of Power (Turtle ((the green one)) of the Seawings)

10) Darkness of Dragons (Qibli of the Sandwings) (MY FAV CHARACTER YIPPEE)

THE PANTALA ARC: 11) The Lost Continent (Blue of the Silkwings)

12) The Hive Queen (Cricket of the Hivewings)

13) The Poison Jungle (Sundew of the Leafwings) (MY FAV BOOK YIPPEE)

THE RETURN ARC (not sure if that’s actually what it’s called but oh well): 14) The Dangerous Gift (Snowfall ((the one on the right)) of the Icewings)

15) The Flames of Hope (Luna ((the obvious-looking one)) of the Silkwings)

THERE ARE ALSO GRAPHIC NOVELS UP TO BOOK 7 SO FAR AND SIDE BOOKS LISTED HERE: Legends: Darkstalker

Legends: Dragon Slayer

A Guide to the Dragon World

The Winglets Quartet

There might be more but there are also a coloring book plus an activity/storymaking book and as far as I know the fandom is pretty non-toxic and full of artists and cosplayers!! So have funnnn :33

ALSO SEND ME ASKS IF THERES ANYTHING ELSE YOU WANNA KNOW ABT IT, I’D BE MORE THAN HAPPY TO ANSWER THEM (sorry if Tumblr fucks up the image quality)

-IRL Bailey

@toniothegammafish @thesilliestofallqueers @rebootgrimm @ask-sora-aguilar @schnozzlebozzle

@bioexorcismss @piigeonss @weirdassartist @clown-prince-of-gay @lilacquintet 

@wakatoshi-main @metal-mage @vv4loe 

[heygirltimeformorning]

HI. I HAVE to ask about "housewife buck girlfriend salary"? and also, "dragon buck"? the parentheses have intrigued me greatly 🧐

-- oshaskell :-)

hello!!! thank you for the ask!

I'm just going to answer one & I hope you don't mind!

dragon buck!

So. Listen. Apparently I thought this was common lingo but everyone I've said this to is like "ali i have no idea what you're talking about" so uh.

I SWEAR I've heard the term "dragon" used to describe a bisexual man who is brought into a failing marriage to like, keep the spark alive or whatever -- usually referred to as "unicorns," but I SWEAR i've heard "unicorns" for women and "dragons" for men. I also could have dreamt this -- that's very possible.

None of dragon buck fic exists yet, but @distractionpie made this AMAZING post, and so. Dragon Buck is an AU where Bi Buck Buckley is brought in to save Abby and Tommy's marriage and everything crashes and burns!

ty for asking 💙💙

(wanna play?)

[kissingarthurclaus]

Ok I feel a bit unwell tonight (gee I wonder why ._.) So since I can't do much else I gotta spew my thoughts and be a little insane about this song for a while

Ramblings under the cut ofc

OUGGHGHH OKKK this whole song is so fucking good but I'll start with this bit for now but my god the whole song has this theme of someone singing TO Achilles, begging him to come away from some edge or precipice. Ofc there's lots of ways to look at this but I choose to think of it as Anakin teetering on the edge of falling to the dark side, thinking that he has no choice.

'The self is not so weightless; nor whole and unbroken' UGHH Anakin carries so many heavy things in his heart. His pain, his grief, his GUILT, his conflict. Yet he's not ONLY these things. I'll never be an Anakin apologist PER SE (except when it's funy) but every bad thing he does can usually be tracked, and so can his deterioration THATS THE WHOLE POINT. Despite all this he's been a great friend and brother, he has love and hope and faith in his heart as well as all these bad things.

'Remember the pact of our youth' the unyielding loyalty and affection that Brea and Anakin have for each other!! But it's true, she'd follow him anywhere, not only because she trusts him and knows what a capable leader he can be but she literally wouldn't be who she is today WITHOUT him. Without his friendship and without the ways they've encouraged or allowed each other to grow 😭😭😭

I'VE SAID NUMEROUS TIMES ON THIS BLOG THAT LOVE TORE ANAKIN APART. More accurately his inability to keep holding it inside him, his fate not letting him express it properly, the fear that he'd lose it and the grip he has on it eventually crushing it UGH MY GOD and I didn't screenshot it but the first verse has 'all of us, some of us love you/it's not really much but there's proof' BUT HE COULDN'T SEE IT 😭😭😭

And maybe the second part of the chorus is more Brea being OPTIMISTIC, maybe in a state of denial.

OK so the song does this cool thing where it switches back and forth in a couple verses to the 'inner voice' of 'Achilles' that berates and criticizes him, but obvi in my narrative I'm choosing to see it as literally Palpatine 😂😂 and ofc the parentheses would be both Brea reaching out to him, but ALSO everyone who loved Anakin, and the tiny glimmer of him that still remembers who he was. I love also that while trying to ease him with words of encouragement the parentheses also just like...basically tell the other speaker to shut up 😂 like yeah Brea WOULD straight up just tell Palpatine to go fuck himself!!

Ok and this bit gets me SO hard. Cause if u listen to it (which I highly recommend but it's ok if u don't 🫶) the opposing voices harmonize and then sing in unison, and to me it gives me a really strong visual of Anakins inner turmoil!! And not only that, it makes me think of my AU where instead of fleeing the temple during Order 66 in the confusion she sees that its Anakin leading the attack and decides to try to confront him!!! And I can see it being something she says to him, and their one on one fight that would ensue 😤😤

Ugh and not to mention how brilliant an Achilles comparison is, as I've mentioned I'm a sucker for religious and mythological imagery. Achilles. The PERFECT warrior, powerful, and NEARLY flawless. Emphasis on nearly. His end being brought upon him by that one thing.

I could go on and on about EVERY verse and little bit about this song tbh but this post would be forever long but my god. My fucking god. I've been thinking about this a lot today as u can see 0_0

[lemonhemlock]

A Comprehensive (Long) Critique of HoTD

https://www.reddit.com/r/HOTDGreens/s/qfRwIOOK9L

I was browsing the HOTDGreen Subreddit and found this long post about the show, and I thought you might be interested in reading it.

so i finally came around to reading this and. how do i say this. OP could use an editor. they themselves make some inaccurate statements that suggest a misunderstanding of feudalism and their wordy presentation, with many superfluous parentheses, is not helping either

[...] who exactly is benefited by the decision to ingratiate Alicent with Rhaenyra as friends? Who is benefited by stripping Alicent’s proximity to Jaehaerys and the Grand Council? Who is benefited by vastly simplifying Criston Cole to a point where he seems more of a historical caricature than the living, real thing? Some of these may be clearer to you than others; for Alicent, her moral justification in the book had no relation to Rhaenyra as a person. It was not about who Rhaenyra was, nor who she was to Alicent, as it is in the show; that sort of personal, emotional, almost vaguely sapphic plot line might be sensitive enough to tug at the heartstrings of young viewers, but it does not actually contribute anything to a Green justification in Westeros. What it does is erode the Greens’ /precedent/, which is the entire basis of their argument and coup in Fire & Blood. It makes Alicent more personally likable perhaps, at the expense of the entire reason for Alicent becoming an autonomous political leader. Good justifications make good characters, not cheap likability.

who is benefiting? alicent. alicent is benefiting. the plain truth is that many people are casually misogynistic or carry internalised misogyny and, if a female character doesn't tick some boxes widely accepted for validation, she is not going to be sympathetic to the viewer. sometimes people are way more likely to show their entire prejudiced ass when it comes to fictional situations, because they think they can say anything they want about imaginary scenarios. whereas, in real life, they put on a filter of respectability.

but, yeah, people have an unhealthy relation to fiction where they are way less forgiving of female characters than they are of male or male-coded characters, i.e. female characters that exhibit traits stereotypically associated with men, like some form of combat skills or 'kicking ass', aggressiveness, lack of emotionality etc

for the record, i don't believe there are such things as "female" or "male" character traits, but many people force themselves to conceptualize the world within these gender binaries and in this context, book!alicent would have been viewed as just another cersei

if strong characters had to be likable, all conflicts in the history of fiction would be muddy, unclear, impossible to navigate and overly sentimental to an almost bipolar extent, as is Alicent’s trajectory in Season 1. This same mistake is extended to Aemond Targaryen and the death of Lucerys, which is enough to affirm that this is a unique view of Ryan Condal, and that probably this creative opinion will resurface throughout his tenure with HoTD.

there isn't a relation of causality between how likeable a character is and how "right" they are. not sufficiently building up the greens' legal argument is a separate scriptwriting decision from having aemond regret killing lucerys or softening alicent

What the Greens needed, whether Rhaenyra was right or not, was independent justification. In the book, they had it in the form of the Grand Council, which simultaneously was later the rallying-call that brought Rhaenys and Meleys to Rhaenyra’s side. The Grand Council serves as the key platform that the Greens weaponize to establish Aegon II, and its existence is enough to /show/ (rather than vaguely hint) that the feudal strata of Westeros has chosen men, and will choose them again. It gives Rhaenyra the practical claim to reform by violent means, and it gives Alicent’s belief that men rule and will /always/ rule enough weight to sound like a real opinion, rather than an empty excuse to justify something she herself didn’t even agree with.

i think OP is making a confusion here. there was no "grand council" during the dance. the green council was just the small council in KL deciding to crown aegon as king. the small council comprises a few noble lords who act like ministers in a pseudo-government, it isn't a representative body of the nobility to the extent that an ad-hoc, one-off legislative body is (such as a great council)

based on Otto, Vaemond, and Jason Lannister, who all describe some vague ‘precedent’ or ‘tradition’ for male primogeniture that is /never actually proven or described to us/, we can see that the Grand Council was neither replaced nor erased, simply poorly adapted and inadequately conveyed. Unfortunately, without it, the only vaguely legalistic and justified argument that exists is Rhaenyra’s, claiming Viserys’s appointment as heiress. Whereas discourse between Fire & Blood readers was about ‘who is justified’, discourse in HoTD is simply about ‘who is cooler’—whereas F&B was ‘Viserys named Rhaenyra heiress’ vs. ‘Jaehaerys & the Realm set this precedent’, HoTD lacks the depth of context and thematic interest in politics to base these conversations on.

the legal argument is both simpler than OP presents and more complex of a discussion than that. in the case of rhaenyra vs aegon, simple andal law suffices: a son before a daughter. the "precedent" of jaehaerys' great council does not function in the way OP suggests

in any case, a great council involves the establishment of a legislative body for a limited amount of time, tasked with one specific question, which is solved via a vote, after which said body is dissolved immediately. it doesn't automatically mean that the result will be the same every time, hence the whole purpose of voting would become irrelevant. it's very likely that had an ad-hoc committee been asked to vote in the matter of rhaenyra vs daemon in the line of succession, they would have chosen rhaenyra. it is also very likely that they would have chosen aegon, had the question been rhaenyra vs aegon. it's very likely they would have chosen true-born rhaenryra, had the question been rhaenyra vs her bastard son jace.

jaehaerys' great council does not even solve the same legal dilemma: in that case, it's daughter of eldest son vs son of second son, with both the king's respective sons predeceased.

i guess the point is not to say that the lords of the realm would never willingly pick a queen for themselves, it's more that they sometimes would. female inheritors do exist in westeros and they have peers who accept and defend their right to rule, even if there's always some entitled arsehole who'd like to weasel himself in their seat (see lady jeyne arryn)

For Martin, it was legalistic arguments partly built on prejudice, and partly on practicality, which go on to overshadow countless lives and culminate in vast legal disagreements which spark continental conflicts and change history. For Condal, it was a teenaged friendship between two adolescent girls going sour, a relatively framework friends-to-enemies plot.

i was tempted to disagree, but i suppose there is some truth in that the fumbled legal argument on the greens' side kind of makes this whole thing look like alicent is just pissed at rhaenyra and is doing it because she cut her off. at least to the casual viewer, who is not going to be watching with the eye of the hawk to remember a casual explanatory statement made as an aside several episodes ago

Condal seems to take the view that Westeros feudal succession is vague (it wasn’t), that royal succession was mostly a matter of might-makes-right (it wasn’t—Maegor learned that lesson), and that politics is a matter of people not getting along when if they’d only sit down and talk it out, everything would be fine. One thing to expect from Season 2 is a reversal of audience sympathies. Condal will weaponize B&C against the audience to make them twist with guilt for supporting Rhaenyra, again using personal rather than contextual arguments to define the audience’s support. Aegon will receive audience sympathy without truly earning it. Rhaenyra will simply become the product of negative creative direction; because Condal has a point to make about ‘talking it out’ and (anticipating it now in the after-show talks) ‘choosing revenge over diplomacy’, though her justification and character in the overall picture remain almost unchanged, Rhaenyra will find herself cast as a darker character—an antihero if she remains a protagonist at all, and a half-antagonist if Condal insists on the ‘both-sideism’ that Abramson critiques. The problem is that, upon any given rewatch, removed from the immediate emotional reaction scenes elicit, this will not actually change whether Rhaenyra or Alicent are right or wrong; the Greens have no firm justification for their coup in HoTD whether or not they become victims of an overzealous revenge plot or brutal, no-holds-barred warfare, and therefore from a thematic approach can’t really be all that sympathetic as characters. In the end, choosing sides in HoTD is an arbitrary process because it is not a conflict of competing claims or justifications, but of ‘who you like better’. For this reason, I can’t help but feel that HoTD would fail the overall point of F&B.

yeah, i agree with this / kind of expect this to happen, but this point is buried too deep within that wall-of-text it becomes challenging to pluck out.

i will always insist on first watching the show before appraising it with any degree of authority, but i do find interesting the observation about aegon receiving audience sympathy without earning it. because it is true - at most, he will be doing nothing and bad things will happen to him, inviting the viewer to engage with his pain. it is basically a lazy way to make the public connect with a character - more tragedy porn than actual characterisation, but here we are. the decisions they made for aegon in s1 don't really leave them with much choice

[therecordchanger62279]

163 PLAYLISTS

My listening habits are changing. The real evolution began when we were forced to move to a small two-bedroom apartment from a three-bedroom, two-story house. Living in an apartment complex with neighbors above you, and on either side requires a bit of consideration, and discretion when it comes to noise. As a result, I’m finding myself listening to music more often on my computer, and my iPod. My records still get played on my turntable, of course, but my cassette deck, and CD player often go unused for weeks. The new CDs, or those I’m playing more often get downloaded to my iTunes program. And the cassettes usually are limited to accompanying me on walks when the weather is friendly, and whatever I’m in the mood for is only available to me in that format.

But the availability of a computer program allows me to listen to music in a new way because I’m able to organize it. No longer do I have to listen to my collection one album at a time. Now, in order to get the most out of my collection (especially with time always at a premium), I’ve taken to creating my own playlists, and I’m particular about what goes in them, and always trying to think outside of the box so that the playlist can give me a completely fresh listening experience. That’s why I don’t use the streaming services. I don’t want to pay them to make playlists that aren’t as interesting or comprehensive as those I can make for myself.

I’ve done a few posts here about specific playlists, but this time I thought I’d provide the entire list. I’ve given each playlist an appropriate name, with a brief explanation of what’s in it, and how many songs (in parentheses) make up that playlist. I won’t list every artist in every one of the mixed artist lists, but you’ll get the idea anyway. So, here, alphabetically, is the complete list as of March 2024. Playlists come and go, and nothing is immune to changes, and tweaks. That’s what makes this so much fun.

…and Friends (115) I wanted a playlist that brought together a group of musicians who often played with one another, and whose music was somewhat similar. The title, and the concept came from the Delaney & Bonnie & Friends On Tour album where they were playing with Eric Clapton. That group of musicians, together, and separately also played with Joe Cocker, and Leon Russell who are here, among others. Clapton played with them and Duane Allman which opened the playlist to The Allman Brothers. I added J.J. Cale as well. The Band was also included because they played with Clapton on his No Reason To Cry LP. And, of course, Delaney & Bonnie, and Derek & The Dominos appear along with Blind Faith. Bobby Whitlock of The Dominos, and Rick Danko of The Band also appear as solo artists. Anyway, you get the idea. And the music fits together beautifully.

Alive/Total Energy (136) The first of many label playlists. Label playlists are open to any artist on that particular label. This list features everyone from The Black Keys to Datura 4 to Buffalo Killers, and more. It helps if the label does a particular type of music, and, if not, that you restrict the playlist to music that fits together.

Alligator Blues (457) Another label list drawn from all of the anniversary releases (there are 7) by the Alligator label along with a few artist collections, and a series the label did called Crucial Blues. Every artist who ever recorded for the label is represented (except one I don’t much care for), and because of the label’s consistency over the past 50 years, is a perfect playlist for the contemporary Blues fan.

Allman Brothers Band (44) A collection of my favorite songs by the band along with some of the solo stuff members did as well. It could be much bigger, but since the band is represented on a few other playlists, I limited this one.

AM Gold (1,404) A massive collection of artists and songs spanning AM radio in the 60s and 70s.

AM Soul (553) Same concept as AM Gold, but this one is strictly Soul music from the same period.

America (80) Songs from 7 different albums by the band America.

Americana (310) A genre playlist bringing together what I consider to be American Roots Music. So anyone whose music fits that description is on the list. So there’s Rock, Blues, and Country from artists ranging from Los Lobos to Johnny Cash to X to Doug Sahm to Ry Cooder to The Byrds, and so on.

Asylum Records (432) Not strictly a record label collection – although many of the artists included were on the Asylum label. But the focus is, instead, on the West Coast singer-songwriter movement of the 70s with room for a few artists who might well have spent time or should be in an Asylum. So there’s Linda Ronstadt, Eagles (group and solo), Little Feat, Tom Waits, Van Dyke Parks, the Buckingham-Nicks Fleetwood Mac, Frank Zappa, and so on.

Bang Yer Head (778) Exactly what you’d imagine – 778 of my favorite Hard Rock/Heavy Metal songs.

Bangles (226) Every Bangles group and solo recording I own.

Bar None (84) A label collection that features, so far, four of the artists who record for the label.

Beach Boys (114) My favorite songs by the band, along with some solo work by Brian, and Dennis. The surf stuff is not represented. You’ll see why later. This list focuses on the period after they stopped making surf records (although it does include a few early non-surf favorites.

Beatles (88) My favorite Beatles songs spanning 1963-1970.

Beatles Early Years (28) Star-Club and early Decca recordings only.

Beatles Solo (173) My favorites from each of the band member's solo catalogs.

Beck, Jeff Beck (37) Not to be confused with that other Beck. Favorites spanning his career.

Beserkley (77) A label playlist featuring the usual suspects – Modern Lovers, Greg Kihn, Earthquake, The Rubinoos, and more.

Bird (27) My Charlie Parker playlist is simply a digital version of Warner Brothers 2 record set The Very Best of Bird issued in 1977. It was never available on CD, so I reconstructed it from a box set I have. Same running order, same songs. By far, my favorite Parker recordings.

Bizarre/Straight (86) A label list featuring Frank Zappa, early Alice Cooper, Captain Beefheart, and the G.T.O.’s.

Black Sabbath (54) All drawn from the post-Ozzy era. The Ozzy stuff is represented in the Bang Yer Head playlist.

Blood, Sweat & Tears (45) The band’s first five albums complete.

Blues (319) My favorite Blues records minus anything on the Alligator label which has its own playlist.

Bomp/Voxx (258) A label list with artists ranging from The Barracudas, to The Crawdaddys to Iggy Pop, The Last, Paul Collins, Romantics, Shoes, Flamin’ Groovies, Zeros, and more.

Bowie (104) All my favorites. I’ve tried to make it smaller, and I just can’t.

Boz Scaggs (28) Drawn from his career-spanning My Time anthology, and his Memphis blues album.

Brian Auger (24) From a career-spanning Best of.

British Blues Boom (337) A who’s who of the British Blues movement from the beginning.

Bruce Power Trios (67) The Jack Bruce trios with Cream, BBM, West, Bruce & Laing, and Robin Trower

Buddy & Co. (103) A mix of Buddy Holly, Del Shannon, Roy Orbison, Bobby Fuller Four, Tommy Roe, Bobby Vee, and Marshall Crenshaw. If you know these artists, you know they fit together beautifully.

Cactus (30) Drawn from a career-spanning anthology, and the reunion album V.

CD5’s (368) A playlist of every CD single I own – all in one place.

Chick Corea (58) Drawn from 6 or 7 of my favorite Corea albums.

Chick Corea Elektric Band (67) The band’s complete catalog of studio recordings.

Christmas (150) Best Christmas and Holiday songs from every genre.

Chuck Berry’s Golden Decade (76) Modeled after his three volumes of Golden Decade collections along with the Blues collection, some rarities, and his final album CHUCK.

Clash (35) My favorites with some interview snippets thrown in for variety.

Clive’s World (266) One of my more inspired playlist ideas. Designed to chronicle the period at Columbia Records when Clive Davis took over the label, and remade it as a contemporary giant in the music business by signing artists the likes of Laura Nyro, Sly & The Family Stone, Chicago, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Taj Mahal, Johnny Winter, Electric Flag, Janis Joplin, Santana, and many more. It all fits together beautifully, and recalls an era (1968-1974) when Columbia really was one of the great record labels. Based on Davis’s first autobiography, Clive.

Coltrane ’61 (50) Every Coltrane recording live and studio from the calendar year 1961.

Coltrane ’67 (25) Every Coltrane recording live and studio from his final calendar year 1967.

Columbia Classics (180) 15 complete album favorites on the Columbia label from a dozen different artists (Miles, Sly, Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel, Santana, and more.)

Coolest Songs (141) Features 8 volumes of the Wicked Cool label series The Coolest Songs in The World, along with a collection they did called Halloween a Go-Go. A real mixed bag of cool stuff.

Country (551) All my favorite Country songs in one place.

Creem (817) Based on the artists written about and reviewed over a 20 year span in Creem magazine. All were welcome provided the song in question was true to the magazine’s style and mission statement. This was a challenge, but I got it right. Listening to the playlist reflects my experience reading the magazine. And this is the kind of playlist no computer program or algorithm could ever provide for you.

Cruisin’ (105) The Cruisin’ series 1955-1963, and a Wolfman Jack CD titled Howlin’ On the Air. Basically, radio shows from the Golden Age of Rock n’ Roll.

Dance/Pop/Hip-Hop (311) A mix of contemporary radio fare from the late 70s into the current century. There’s less of this kind of thing in my collection than most genres because my interest in and tolerance for it has limits. But the best of what I heard is all here from Kylie Minogue, and The Spice Girls to Beyonce and Amerie, Madonna to Taylor Swift, etc. there’s even some hardcore Rap.

Deep Purple (81) The Blackmore classic era is represented in the Bang Yer Head file. This one focuses on the Steve Morse years, and I threw in Slaves and Masters with Blackmore, but with Joe Lynn Turner on vocals just for fun.

Disaster (110) Punk from the Disaster label drawn from four volumes of the Old Skars and Upstarts CD series.

Discreet (57) Label playlist that features Frank Zappa, Zappa with Captain Beefheart, and Ted Nugent & the Amboy Dukes. Odd collection, but, like all the others, somehow it works. It helps they all come from the same time period.

Donna Summer (30) About a decade’s worth of her best. I wasn’t into Disco, but I was into Donna.

Doors (40) Just my 40 favorite Doors songs on one list.

Doug Snyder & (17) Doug Snyder was a regular customer at a record shop I worked at many years ago. One day he handed me two CDs, and a cassette of his own music. He was such a quiet, retiring guy, that he’d never even mentioned to me before that he was a musician, and had made some records. It’s all experimental noise Rock (a genre I love), and so I used the two CDs, and found a free download online of the cassette, and put it all together. It plays for 2 ½ hours, and you can get lost in it. The CDs are Daily Dance and The Rules of Play credited to Doug Snyder and Bob Thompson. The cassette is Interference by a band Doug was in called Sick Dick & The Volkswagens. I wonder what he’d say if he knew he’d made my playlists collection.

Duffy (20) The two records by British chanteuse Duffy, a favorite of mine.

Dylan (55) Cherry-picked collection of my favorite Dylan songs.

ECM Radio (206) A collection of songs drawn from the Rarum series of CDs on the ECM label, along with a couple of label samplers. Virtually every Jazz artist in the label’s history is represented here.

ECM Touchstones (156) 50 of the label’s classic albums in one place.

ECM Touchstones II (167) 50 more of the label’s classic albums in one place.

Elmore James (73) The essential recordings from my favorite Blues artist of all-time.

Eric Clapton (56) My favorite Clapton stuff, but excludes his ’74-’77 years. For that go to….

Eric Clapton & His Band (55) All the recordings, live and studio from his ’74-’77 band. He’d kicked the heroin to become an alcoholic, but it seemed to lubricate his creativity. That was his best band.

Film Music (96) My favorite songs from my collection of film scores and soundtracks.

Fleetwood Mac (75) Group and solo favorites spanning the band’s entire career.

Folk (198) My favorite British and American Folk music from the 50s to the present day.

Garage Rock (1,024) Some of the greatest music of my lifetime made by kids not much older than me. Primitive, raw, energetic, and irresistible. Drawn from a variety of compilation series such as Nuggets, Back from The Grave, Pebbles, Teenage Shutdown, Psychedelic States and more.

George Jones (39) Favorites from Country music’s greatest voice. Tammy Wynette guest stars.

Georgie Fame (65) Primarily a download of a vinyl boxed set titled The Whole World’s Shaking. Includes a few extra tracks from my collection. Fame is one of the great voices in British Blues and Jazz.

Glenn Hughes (66) Hard Rock’s MVP award goes to this guy who has had a long solo and band career making music with some legendary names. Includes tracks from Trapeze, Deep Purple, Black Country Communion, Dead Daisies, and his solo career. Wall-to-wall great.

Gliiter & Glam (94) Platform shoes, capes, teased hair, makeup, and electric guitars fueled this 70s Rock movement. Bowie, T. Rex, Roxy Music, Sweet, Queen, Suzi Quatro, Slade, Mott The Hoople, and more.

Grand Funk Railroad (104) The people’s band live and studio best. I still listen to them.

Guess Who (32) Among Canada’s best exports. Hit after hit after hit.

Herbie Hancock (32) Drawn from his late 70s Jazz records with V.S.O.P., some 60s Blue Note favorites, and a one-off with Michael Brecker & Roy Hargrove.

Immediate Records (162) An overview of Andrew Oldham's Immediate label during the Swinging London period of the 1960s.

InsideOut (161) The best of the 90s European Progressive Rock label. Squire, Howe, Hackett, Flower Kings, Pallas, and more.

Jackie ’60-’67 (59) Eleven of the best of saxophonist Jackie McLean’s albums for Blue Note during the sixties. All of them gems.

Jazz (250) My favorite Jazz in the traditional mode.

Jazz Christmas (91) The best Christmas music is Jazz Christmas music.

Jazz Fusion (356) Miles, Weather Report, Return To Forever, Mahavishnu, Coryell, Herbie’s Headhunters, and more.

Jazz Is (671) The more commercial stuff drawn from the late 70s to the 90s, and beyond. The GRP artists, Bob James, David Sanborn, Candy Dulfer, Bobbi Humphrey, Crusaders, Chuck Mangione, the CTI stable of artists, Earl Klugh, Eric Gale, George Benson, Grover Washington, Jr., Joe Farrell, Joe Sample, John Klemmer, Rippingtons, Spyro Gyra….you get the idea. The stuff the Downbeat critics hated. No Kenny G, or other junk like that. Just the best musicians in the world cookin’, and groovin’. I built this from the ground up just a few years ago because I wasn’t buying it or listening to much of it back in the day. But it sure sounds great now.

Jefferson Starship (76) One of the most underrated bands of the 70s and 80s.

Jersey Shore (273) New York and New Jersey music – Billy Joel, Springsteen, Four Seasons, Rascals, Mink DeVille, Genya Ravan, Patti Smith, the Dolls, Ronnie Spector, Southside Johnny, and more.

Jimi Hendrix (55) All his best.

John Mayall (81) I have more than 40 Mayall titles in my collection. So I pared this down to his anthologies on the Deram, ABC, and Silvertone labels which covers about 40 years.

Joni Mitchell (26) Only the very best.

L.A. Witch (23) The catalog from the edgy all-girl band.

Led Zeppelin (86) The studio catalog – all of it.

Live! (72) A mix of favorite live albums. This is constantly changing.

Lorrie Morgan (47) Country music’s greatest female voice – to my ears anyway.

Michigan Rocks (523) Covers the cream of the Michigan Rock scene from Garage to Punk to  Metal to Glam to just plain ol’ Rock. Seger, Nugent, Ryder, Quatro, MC5, Stooges, Frost, SRC, Third Power, and all the rest. No stone left unturned.

Midnight Oil (86) The best from one of my all-time favorite bands.

Miles Davis 1957-1991 (59) The focus is on his 80s work with just a few tracks from the 50s, 60s and 70s. The rest is elsewhere.

Mod Revival (169) The best of the bands who formed in the wake of The Jam’s success in England. Mod style. Mod sound. Late 70s period.

Moondog Matinee (1,309) named after Alan Freed’s radio show, this is (I swear) every great record from the early days of Rock ‘n’ Roll. R&B, Doo Wop, Rockabilly, and that demon Rock ‘n’ Roll.

My Jukebox (1,000) My 1,000 favorite songs of all-time.

Nanci Griffith (209) Most of the catalog from the best artist of the past 45 years.

Neil Young + Friends (51) The absolutely essential Neil Young solo work and his stuff with CSNY, Buffalo Springfield, Stephen Stills, Crazy Horse, and The Stray Gators.

Nightclubbing (112) Live sets from bands of the New Wave, and Punk era.

No More Wars (63) A collection of anti-war songs.

Norman Whitfield (80) A collection of the best from Motown producer Norman Whitfield.

Norton Records (164) Some of the best from NY label Norton records.

NWOBHM (182) A generous sampling of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal movement of the late 70s, and early 80s.

Ono (67) The first four solo albums by Yoko Ono, and some rare singles.

Ornette Coleman (137) My favorite Coleman records beginning with his mid-60s Blue Notes, and continuing to his final recordings before his passing in 2015. Also includes tribute albums from Tim Berne, and Aki Takase & Silke Eberhard as well as five tracks from his funeral service by admirers, and fellow travelers.

Outlaws (117) Waylon & Willie, and a few others.

Ozzy Osbourne (107) All his best solo records in one place.

Paisley Underground (263) The best of one of California’s coolest musical movements. Bangles, Dream Syndicate, Three O’Clock, Green On Red, Game Theory, Long Ryders, Rain Parade, and many more. This took a lot of work. Much of this stuff had gone out of print. There really should be a box set. Are you listening Omnivore, or Rhino Records?

Patti Smith (48) All of her groundbreaking stuff in one place.

Paul Weller (34) The Jam are elsewhere. This is all Style Council, and solo work.

PJ Raw (117) The edgiest, and best of PJ Harvey’s amazing catalog.

PJ Stripped (92) Every track here comes from Harvey's demos series of albums.

Pop TV (100) The Monkees, Cowsills, Partridge Family, The Archies, and Josie & the Pussycats. A sugar overdose.

Post Modern (317) The best of 80s Modern Rock.

QSKY Radio (89) Soundtracks for Almost Famous, FM, and Dazed and Confused – all in one place, and all hailing from the same era.

R.E.M. (43) The cream of Athens, Georgia’s finest band.

Radio London (136) British Pop, and Rock from the Pirate Radio era in England.

Rainbow (67) Ritchie Blackmore’s other contribution to head banging.

Redbeard (1,544) FM radio in the 1970s named after its greatest DJ. Every great record is here – I swear on my stack of Circus back issues.

Reggae (153) A healthy sampling of Jamaica’s greatest export. And only 16 of the tracks are by Bob Marley & the Wailers.

Return To Forever (36) Live and studio very best.

Riot Grrrls (232) Begins with Joan Jett and The Runaways, and includes Bikini Kill, L7, Sleater-Kinney and many more.

Rolling Solo (153) What were the Stones up to when they weren’t rolling? Begin here.

Rolling Stones (136) The best studio tracks.

Rolling Stones Live! (64) Betcha can’t guess what’s in this one.

Ronnie Spector (91) Most of the Ronettes, and Ronnie solo recordings.

Rosanne Cash (40) Her very best as chosen by me.

Rush (34) Comprised of the ‘74’-80 Retrospective, Moving Pictures and Vapor Trails – my favorites.

San Francisco (289) The best music from one of America’s greatest cities. Dead, Airplane, Starship, Hot Tuna, CCR, Doobies, Groovies, Santana, Steve Miller, Youngbloods, Tower of Power and more.

Santana (98) The very cream of the band and solo albums.

Scorpions (47) These will indeed, Rock You Like a Hurricane.

Simon & Garfunkel (37) Just the duo’s best. The solo work is elsewhere.

Slash/Los Angeles (345) A killer collection of the best from Slash Records, Slash magazine, and the Los Angeles scene of the late 70s and early 80s.

Slayer (41) For my money, the last great Metal band.

Sleater-Kinney (40) A mix of live and studio stuff.

Softcult (19) Most of the catalog from this Bandcamp favorite.

Sonic Youth (38) Noise merchants live and in the studio.

Southbound (117) Songs by mostly Southern artists about living in, going to, or from the South. Great road music. From the bluegrass of Kentucky to the Voodoo of New Orleans to the Florida Keys. Just take 75 South.

Southern Rock (245) All the finest music from artists of the Southern United States.

Steely Dan (77) The entire catalog through Gaucho, amigo.

Stephen Stills (54) Best band and solo work, similar to the Neil Young playlist, but nothing repeated.

Steppenwolf (45) Like Grand Funk, a sentimental favorite, and a band I still listen to.

Surf & Drag (733) An entire playlist of surf and car songs. This is where The Beach Boys surf records are hiding.

Suzanne Vega (67) The best of her studio work.

Taylor Swift (42) Eleven early favorites, and the entire 31 track The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology.

Temptations (53) Motown’s finest.

The Mooney Suzuki (38) Garage Rock for the new century. Three studio records and one live. A wall of noisy Rock.

The Reivers (29) As Americana music goes, this is as good as it gets.

Todd Rundgren & Utopia (50) The absolute finest Pop Rock you’ll ever hear. Has both his solo work, and his work with Utopia.

Tom Petty (169) Live and studio masterpieces.

Top 100 (100) My 100 most played songs. I update it monthly.

Troubadours (403) Singer-songwriters, King, Taylor, Paul Simon, Souther, Stevens, Croce, Buffett, Denver, Mitchell, Collins, Nyro, Loggins & Messina, Carly Simon, Newman, Vega, Waits, and many, many more.

Trouser Press (715) Like the Creem playlist, this is based on the magazine that ran from 1974 to 1984, and covered both the British music scene, and the blossoming Punk and New Wave movements. I did a brilliant job with this one as well. It’s like having your own Time Machine.

Van Halen (66) Probably all anyone needs.

Van Morrison (119) All solo work, and all essential.

Velvet Underground (64) 31 Velvets tracks, and 33 more from Reed, Cale, and Nico solo.

Vinyl Masters (398) Complete albums from the golden age of vinyl records – all personal favorites.

Voices (393) The greatest voices in popular music from Sinatra to Streisand to Bennett to Celine Dion to The Carpenters, and more. Not Rock. Not Folk. Not Blues. All stuff your parents loved. All stuff that anyone with an ear for quality will recognize as worthwhile.

Weather Report (87) Most of their brilliant catalog in one place.

West Coast Jazz (242) You thought I forgot about the other coast, didn’t you? Never. All great Jazz music from the Pacific coast state. Essential. Drawn from two boxed sets, and book of the same name along with a variety of things from my collection.

Who (33) 16 of The Who’s best and 17 more from Townshend, Entwistle, and Daltrey solo.

Wilko (46) Not the band, but the late ex-Dr. Feelgood guitarist. Includes his work with the Feelgoods, Roger Daltrey, and some solo stuff. I miss him.

Willy DeVille (65) Includes the best Mink DeViIle, and solo work as well. So underrated. And still missed.

Winwood (36) Career overview featuring Traffic, Blind Faith, Spencer Davis, and Powerhouse along with some sterling solo work.

Woodstock (28) A hodgepodge of my favorite songs from “3 Days of Love and Peace.”

Yoko (50) No, you’re not seeing things. This is the other Yoko Ono playlist. This one picks up with the Double Fantasy sessions, and runs through her 1995 Rising album. I love Yoko’s work. No, seriously. Stop laughing. I’m not joking.

Yuja Wang (95) Everything I have to date from the greatest pianist I’ve ever heard.

That’s it. Check back for updates now, and again. I’m always making playlists because I have nothing better to do. I hope this list gave you some ideas of your own.

[exoflash]

I'm not going to reblog it right now as I don't want to accidentally trigger anyone, but a friend of mine reblogged a post about how Evangelical Christianity (i am specifying evangelicals- there's a lot of denominations and i'm sure plenty are chill. But this post is about Evangelicals specifically.) is like a death cult + we need more sympathy for survivors and... yeah. I'll put this under a readmore to not clog anyone's feed.

One thing I feel we don't talk about enough is growing UP like that.

I grew up believing the apocalypse would happen before I hit 18. I didn't think I'd be able to live a full life like my parents and grandparents before me. I would bring this up and people would tell me this was a good thing- that I wouldn't have to live the remainder of my life in such a "broken" world. Seeing the beauty in everything was practically trained out of me by the church.

I remember first getting into Doctor Who when I was about 12. My Grandpa (who is an agnostic, I feel is worth noting,) really loves sci-fi. He asked if I wanted to watch a new show with him, and I agreed. And as you can tell, I love it to this day.

Using media as escapism really became prevalent in my early teens. I remember being 14 and when friends or family would start talking about how "all Christians are gonna get microchipped or executed for not worshipping the antichrist! The world will be like 1984! It'll end in nuclear war!" I would imagine the Doctor taking me into the future- showing me that i was going to be okay, everything was going to be okay. The sun still shines and the world still spins. No demon vs angel warfare here.

I remember being 16-17 and not caring about graduation, not even caring if something awful happened to me, because the world was ending, right? Better a car crash than decapitated for being a "Christian". I say that in parentheses for a reason, because people who use this horrible image to manipulate others are NOT like Christ.

I remember when covid hit. I had largely detangled myself from all that. I thought it was over. The pandemic brought so much trauma crashing back down upon me. The emotions of "what if they were right? What if you really WERE led astray...? What if the devil did this to you?"

The worst of the pandemic finally passed. Everything was safe.

To this day, I still get those emotions again whenever i see some news article or hear about some kind of war. Frankly, i don't know if they'll ever go away. But what i've learned- it doesn't matter, what happens to me. I don't say that in a pessimistic sense like i once did. I've learned that regardless of anything that happens- i can live for myself and my loved ones. I can make even the slightest difference. If i can make just one person smile- in my ENTIRE life- it would be incredibly worth it.

Maybe I'll write a poem about all this. I dunno. This is all just late night ramblings and spilled ink. Have a good night.

[voidsentprinces]

Claifying some questions brought in the poll tags

I thought this goes without saying but oh well, concerning the dating sim poll: every character introduced in each expansion is in place to date...except minors obviously. Minors can still serve as back ground and support characters for your romances though. I mean when dating Thancred in Shadowhunters you think Ryne WOULDN’T be involved? Hell, Thancred might want someone to talk to to work through his lost of Minfilia and seeing the world he has to leave to Ryne and Gaia. I mean for real. Yes that includes villains...uhh was thinking about adding “expansions” like Primal Fury (all Primals) for you conossieur monster fuckers out there. But...time and character limits.

Bottom line, if you want Zenos. Stormlove, if you want Emet you can wait for Shadowhunters. There stuff in parentheses (added) stuff is just Post-ARR, HW, SB, ShBr, and EW add ons included, respectively. And no, I don’t expect you to only have to pick one. If you’re a polyamorous individual looking to collect your favorite NPCs to date. Go for it, I’m not restraining anyone in what they are seeking out in the dating poll.

Also I fucked up, please mentally include an extra path for the Warriors of Dark, including Arbdert in Shadowhunters.

[drunk-on-starlight]

Alright for anyone who missed it, Fuhnaff over on YouTube did an interview with steel wool in May. I finally went through it, and this is what I found interesting.

Timestamps included. Anything in parentheses are my thoughts.

3:51 They work out what they want the games to be with Scott

5:31 Started Help Wanted with 7 people, ended with 12. Original goal was to make fnaf one, which clearly changed as time went on.

11:00 There were only 12-20 working on SB (I'm beginning to see why there were problems.)

Sounds like the initial pizzaplex idea was SW's 11:00

11:00 SB was their first big game

15:00 Spreadsheet of potential names. Scott pitched SB as title.

The easter egg no one was talking about was the multicolored notes 20:00

22:40 youtuber bait lmao

Anything scripted or findable notes are documented/in the script. The notes actually have named characters as pov, though only to steel wool.

25:45 there are mysteries about sb that have not been solved.

26:12 some stuff in the game so far haven't been payed off yet, or is setting up later characters/locations/events.

26:43 direct comparision to gravity falls forshadowing, where characters like Bill appeared long before their actual reveal.

26:54 there will be mysteries forever

31:27 no location of limits, as response to pizzaplex returning. 37:44 in reference to chica voicbox/fixing glamrocks "you're helping them all in Ruin." When you compare Gregory to Cassie, she's the healer. Chica and Roxie can be saved, Monty and Freddy are too far gone. Less a cut ending so much as who she is as a person/payoff for the player

39:00 happy to show stuff that was borded off, like Foxy's logride.

42:16 Mxes design (the computer) seems to be a reference to the computer in War Games; however, they also said "that is deliberately supposed to be an older machine." That reads like confirmation that the mimic was trapped for decades instead of merely post SB.

45:53 qa was involved from the start, basically. This is treated as a new thing, which partly explains the issues SB faced imo.

52:49 there's some unresolved issues with princess quest; we beat the game, but there's more. It was there early, but one of the last types of minigames planned. This is quote "the end of glitchtrap" the "old man's" misspelled words are intentional. Reference to NES games like og zelda.

1:08:48 script/location is always intentional. Everything made gets reviewed, if it could be misleading it's removed.

1:11:03 is to theorist community, be more open to others theories. Example brought up is someone going "we know this for a fact" and like. Is it? Are you sure? (Can't help but note that the problem here is that there don't seem to be many facts. That's a flawed approach to tell a story.)

1:16:59 Q. Is there anything you can tease about future games? A. there is work for 90 people in the studio right now. (So, likely future games. Considering the August revelations that have been announced since this interview, I'd guess they have more coming.)

[ufo-thetimesareripe]

David Grusch: Sources in his own words

I re-watched David Grusch’s Rogan, Carlson and Jessie Michels interviews followed by his committee testimony. I compiled the below set of quotes where Mr Grusch talks about his alleged sources (documents and individuals). The quotes aren’t exhaustive – I removed some duplicates and omitted things which seemed unimportant to me. I did this so I could get a better idea of the type of sources Mr Grusch used when he was on the UAP Taskforce.

I was also interested in any quotes which reveal other types of people (officials, staffers, etc) who were privy to details around Mr Grusch’s sources. **This post does not attempt to identify individuals**. This post also does not attempt to collect all the details of what Mr Grusch suggests he *learnt* from his alleged sources. That’s for another post.

Summary, some notes and references at the end.

All text in quotes is a quote from Mr Grusch, unless specified. Text in parentheses within quotes are clarifying notes by me to add context. **Bold** is used to add emphasis to things I found interesting.

**Background**

For four years while at the NRO and later NGA, Mr Grusch was on the UAP Taskforce. “In 2019, the UAP Task Force director asked me to identify all special access programs and controlled access programs, also known as SAPs and CAPs. We needed to satisfy our congressionally mandated mission and we were direct report at the time to the Dep Sec Def.”. (HOC,49m30s).

After leaving NRO and going to NGA, he was that agencies co-lead on “Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) and Trans-Medium Anomaly issues”. (HOC,47m20s).

**Quotes**

1. “(Grusch became a whistleblower) …following concerning reports from multiple esteemed and credentialed **current and former military and intelligence community individuals** that the U.S government is operating with secrecy above congressional oversights with regards to UAPs”. “My testimony is based on information I’ve been given by individuals with a long-standing track record of legitimacy and service to this country many of whom also have shared compelling evidence in the form of **photography,** **official documentation**, and **classified oral testimony** to myself and many my various colleagues. I have taken every step I can to collaborate this evidence over a period of four years while I was with the UAP task force and do my due diligence on the individuals sharing it.”. (HOC,47m).

2. On the beginnings of the investigation: “‘**Colleagues of mine, I’d known for years**, approached me, closed the door of my office” (and stated) “Look you need to know about some other stuff you guys are not getting access too” “that kind of led me down this.…” (JM,7m40s)

3. “A very **senior individual in the intel community** came to me when – I guess I was asking a lot of questions because I’m a very inquisitive guy and it was like, ‘I need to introduce you to somebody’. He listed that certain persons academic credentials which were beyond reproach, you know, PhD level education, clearance, resume was insane.” “And I ended up meeting that person in a top secret facility. He started discussing, ‘there’s a program’. ‘I was on it’ and, we were reverse engineering crash material that we’ve recovered **over the decades**, and he’s like, ‘I’m not joking’”. (JR, 11m).

4. “And that spooked to me. That was like fall of 2019. I don’t take a guy’s word for it. I’m like, you know what, **myself and my trusted colleagues** that had a lot of lot of special accesses like me, we cultivated our network, and we ultimately interviewed about **40 people** or so: all the way up to **multi star generals, directors of agencies, mid level guys that literally touched it**, **worked inside of it**, all the stuff, they brought **intel reports** for me to look at, you know **documents**, and a lot of that I could cross that vet, verify with other **oral sources** that my high level colleagues or I talked to. And it checked out.” (JR, 12m30s-13m).

5. ”I read some extremely interesting **foreign intelligence**, that was derived by **clandestine human sources overseas**, espousing….and this is something they were noting about the US… the US has a retrieval program, a reverse engineering program.” and “I had a chain of custody on how we got that information.” (TC,9m-10m)

6. “…and there’s some other people were bringing me documents to evaluate. And I’ll never forget, I had a, I’ll just say, ‘stolen by the US’, an **intelligence assessment from a certain foreign adversary**, discussing the US reverse engineering program”. “And so I had an adversary also confirmed this program literally because of exfiltrated intelligence. So they certainly had a limited knowledge, at least ‘fact-of’, that the US had a program like this.” (JR,41m).

7. ”I did talk to **extremely, extremely senior officials – both, former directors of certain agencies,** I’ve had the privilege of having a relationship with them and I talked to them about this issue and they confirmed… those details (that crash retrieval and reverse engineering programs exist).“ (TC,10m).

8. “I read some **intelligence reports** that were provided to me in that regard, I **went to the agencies that wrote those reports** and asked for access. And when they denied your access you know it’s a thing – and that’s what happened to me time after time over a couple of years.” (JM,9m).

9. “So I went to that **certain agency** (who wrote reports Grusch had seen on UAP) through the approved and official way. And this is kind of part of the reprisals against me. The agency was like, ‘oh, yes, we have what you’re looking for Dave.’” “You’re gonna need to sign a one time read into something you know.” “…and ultimately from what I was told by friends in higher places, my request kind of went up the flagpole at that agency.”…..“And they debriefed me from all my accesses over in that other sister agency and made-up some bogus excuse. Like I shouldn’t have been briefed on anything in the 1st place, literally, and basically gave me an administrative middle finger, like persona non grata, ‘don’t ever fucking ask us about that shit again'” “That was also another way I knew I was, you know, there was a lot of smoke and fire.” (JR,41m50s-43m)

10. “Some of the people who denied us access. They were like ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about but if I did why would you have a need to know?’. And I was like, well why did you have a need to know, you’re just some **multi-star general**.” (JR,1h17m40s).

11. ”We interviewed roughly forty people – many of which had **first hand knowledge**.” (TC,16m55s)

12. On verification: “I also went out of my way to find people who don’t know each other either. **I had other high ranking colleagues of mine go talk to other people that I didn’t even personally talk to**. That group of course, we took all that, and all the people who conducted those interviews, I made them get interview by the Inspector General because we’re crossing-our-Ts here.” “I was so frickin careful to make sure I wasn’t getting fed some bullshit.” (JM,11m20s).

13. Some of the sources were veterans of the programs: “I had to find some of the **old-timers** before they died. Because there is a brain drain.” (TC,41m10s)

14. On secrecy in the program: “That was the frustration that…I had some friends that I’ve known my entire career, like almost 14 years, right? I literally know them personally I had a relationship with them, but they ended up, you know, spilling the beans where, you know, look, we’re **on the program**. I’m an **engineer** for XY and Z. We can’t even cross talk across the cubicles. ” (JR,38m30s).

15. “There is a **senior intelligence officer** currently on the program that told us that they have struggled hiring the right technical people because of the obtuse security.” (TC,41m)

16. On the Italian crash: “That was the recovery of an artefact by the axis powers Italy and Germany in Magenta (sp?) Italy in 1933.” “That was one specific recovery that was brief to me by a **senior intelligence officer**.” “They recovered this object – it looked like an acorn and the intelligence officer that briefed me and – well let’s just say ‘**senior officials on capital hill**’…during a certain **private session** described how the edges of this – it was like a lenticular disk looking thing but the edges broke off when it hit the earth.**“** (TC,19m55s-21m).

17. “Crashes aren’t necessarily on purpose and I’m not just saying that as my own personal theory – I talked to **scientists** on the program – and this was one of their legitimate theories.” (TC,24m).

18. On NHI biologics: “**Certain directors of government agencies** we talked to, about this issue, and they were well aware of this program, they liked to use the term “extra terrestrials”. (TC 24m25s).

19. “They, specifically the **people on the program,** that handled the material, that were in **executive level briefings with intelligence community leaders and other folks** over the years – the last twenty years or so – they did use the term extra terrestrial.” (JR,54m30s).

20. “It’s a little easy to imagine an artefact or whatever but when you start talking about, you know, the biological side of it, it really throws you for a loop psychologically…it did for me and… I talked to the **people that were on that aspect of the program**.” (JM,17m).

21. “I talked to people who were familiar with the **biological analysis**.” (JR,1h23m40s).

22. “I was in the room when ah – I’ve got to be careful, I don’t wanna – I was in Washington DC with a very, ah, number of **senior people**, that work for **members of congress** \- put it that way – when I was still in government and, **I brought the people who worked on that stuff** (NHI biologics) to the Hill. This is why the members were so confident to put out the **Schumer amendment** and stuff….’I was like, please explain’ (indicating the people from the program should explain what they know). And they went into all those details and stuff. And I remember some of the professional staff members were like…whoa. They were like in g-lock right – their world bubble got burst right there for a lot of people.” (JR,1hr24m).

23. Rogan: “There are actual **reports** that we have biological remains?” Grusch: “Yes, oh yes, yes.” Rogan: “How many?” Grusch: “It’s up there as well, just like the…” (JR,1h28m40s)

24. On water-cooler talk: “There was water-cooler talk with some people I talked to on the program…” “….but the problem with that is it’s secondary information and I’m so anal retentive, **unless that person told me** ‘I had close personal’, ‘I touched it’ – whatever, like cool, well your coming to the inspector general or I’m going to at least give them your name because that’s what you told me. And obviously I did that.” (JR,1h29m55s)

25. “There was some water cooler talk about that kind of thing, but you know, I don’t even want to get into it because it’s like there were some details provided to me, but it’s like it’s secondary and I don’t know if that’s like the telephone game and I don’t know if it was hyperbolize in any way, you know, right.” (JR,1h30m40s)

26. “Those people who physically were there – were **on the program** \- did the thing – I brought to the inspector general.” (JR,1h30m25s)

27. On the topic of how many crash retrievals: “It is double digit and I’ve mentioned that publicly. I am familiar with the exact numbers. We had **multiple intelligence officers** brief us on all the numbers. Where, what, where, how.” And on the locations of these craft: “I do know of some specific locations.” (TC 32m).

28. On AAWSAP: “I had access to the classified archives from those previous UAP programs that Lou Elizondo and others ran years prior (referring to AAWSAP/AATIP and others?).” (TC,8m55s).

29. ”I asked people who **worked on that program** (AAWSAP) and people who were tangential to it who worked in **certain intelligence agencies**.” Mr Grusch was told “a certain cleared defence contractor wanted to transfer some of their material holdings to DIA for our program (AAWSAP). It was crash retrieval material, and this was a way to “horizontally protect” that information and physical material, from a **certain other government program and custodian** that lent that contractor the material.” (TC,12m). Mr Grusch was so “intrigued” by this, “I interviewed **ten people** who were in the meetings, that talked to the cleared defence contractor, who were involved in trying to persuade the government customer to release custodian ship and to give it (the material) ultimately to DIA and Bigelow Aerospace.” (TC,13m)

30. “I saw the staff meeting slides, I saw the **paperwork** like there’s a paperwork trail I’ve seen on this shit.” (JR,31m).

31. “I flew to Las Vegas with a couple of **colleagues** of mine to meet with Senator Harry Reid” (JR,26m35s).

32. On other high level sources: “This (Harry Reid) will give you an idea of the kind of people we talked to. This is the only one I’m going to talk about using their name.” (JR,26m).

33. “Like Harry Reid and I use him as an example, I talked to the **highest of the high you can possibly talk to – if you catch my drift**. So unless all of them are lying and they’re covering up something else, which I don’t even know what it would be at this point because the phenomenon is real.” (JR,54m).

34. “I think it was, some of the **really, really trusted high level people** we talked to when they stared us straight in the face very seriously and confirmed a lot of this information.” Another, “and the quality of people we talked to, if they ever go public, it’ll blow your mind who we talked to.” (JM,9m35s)

35. “I was like, wow, I can’t believe I’m talking to X, who’s a really important person. And they’re confirming these certain details and they’re saying like we need to protect this at all costs. They’re giving me kind of the whole speech about it.” (JM,9m55s)

36. ‘I remember talking to a **former director of a three letter agency** that we happen to know personally.” ‘That former director’s biggest issue was the counter intelligence implications (of disclosure).” (TC,28m15s).

37. “There was a **recent administration that had an informal offsite meeting**. I talked to multiple people who were at this meeting with **NSC staff** from the former administration.” (TC,29m)

38. “The people we talked to are not lying. The **documents** I meticulously went through, they were not forgeries, they were **not deception material**. “ (JR,2h29m).

39. On frustration felt by many sources: “They’ve kept the secret for so many years. They knew me. They knew what I was looking into.” “And and I think they wanted some change. At least that’s what they espoused to me is they felt that they were kind of limited in bringing people in (new staff on programs), the support they were getting, their treatment was harsh sometimes, and I guess they weren’t really feeling the love anymore.” (JM,8m).

40. “These other gentlemen and ladies that came to me and my group on the UAP Taskforce because they wanted a change. Some of them were in tears because they were **threatened** over the years.” (TC,33m50s)

41. ‘We’ve had **multi-star generals** that we talked to as well. Both **current and former**. They said that this program is just the wild wild west in some sense. Where there’s all these silos of activity. There’s no monolithic, director of all these activities. It (the program) just became this uncontrolled unmanaged black abyss. It is so disjointed people are not even talking to each other.” (TC,48m20s)

42. On **murder** allegations: “‘….very very credible **senior intelligence officer** precisely make those allegations in-front of **senior officials on capital hill**. I was in the room.” (Staff of elected officials were present) (TC,59m20s). Grusch remembers: “Certain professional staff members being very upset in the room.” (TC,59m55s).

43. On the UAPDA 2023: “They (Young, Gillibrand, Rubio, Rounds) know this is real. I know what meetings they’ve had with **certain other individuals** that are, you know, even more credible than myself. ” (JR,47m).

**Non Sources**

“I’ve never talked to the Rockefellers”. (JM,1hr25s).

“I have no information on Bob Lazar”. (JM,1h08m).

“I don’t know James Lacatski (from AAWSAP)”. (JR,33m40s).

“I stayed away from UFOlogy because I had these contemporary people that were inside, I could check all their credentials, where they work, etc.”. (JR,1hr25m35s).

**Categorisation of Sources**

**There will naturally be category overlap among sources**. **So I’m not suggesting all these are different individuals – realistically that is not going to be the case.** But a rough list of categories can be derived:

* Political Officials / High profile individuals

* Intelligence officials and officers

* Members of the military (current and retired) including multi-star generals (41).

* Directors of Intelligence Agencies (including ‘three letter’, former and current) (7,18,36)

* Program members – Scientists, Engineers, Biological Analysts including ‘old-timers’

* Ten members of the AAWSAP program (29)

* Previous administration staff (including National Security Council staff) (37)

* Colleagues of Mr Grusch

**Physical Sources**

* Intelligence reports & documents (some reports produced by **foreign intelligence agencies**) (Noteworthy: 5,6,38)

* Photographs (1)

**Notes**

Mr Grusch claims some of his human sources are ‘three letter’ agency directors.

His physical documentation includes documents from foreign intelligence agencies.

He knows to evaluate and ignore water-cooler talk, deception material, etc.

The quote (22) about bringing the program member(s?) who had knowledge of NHI biologics to ‘the hill’ is fascinating. I wonder how many of this kind of meeting he facilitated.

His investigation was not conducted alone but was aided by colleagues in the UAP Taskforce.

Many of the briefings My Grusch describes *sound* like they were attended by quite a number of people (staffers, officials, politicians?).

When he said: “I talked to the highest of the high you can possibly talk to – if you catch my drift” (33). We can only wonder who that could be.

**References**

Tucker Carlson interview, 2023, Episode 51. Twitter/X. Referenced as TC.

[https://twitter.com/TuckerCarlson/status/1735083523050975277](https://twitter.com/TuckerCarlson/status/1735083523050975277)

The Joe Rogan Experience, 2023, Episode #2065. Spotify. Referenced as JR.

[https://open.spotify.com/episode/6D6otpHwnaAc86SS1M8yHm](https://open.spotify.com/episode/6D6otpHwnaAc86SS1M8yHm)

Copy: [https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8pudk2](https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8pudk2)

Jesse Michels, “UFO Whistleblower David Grusch Tells Me Everything”, 2023. YouTube. Referenced as JM.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRO5jOa06Qw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRO5jOa06Qw)

Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Implications on National Security, Public Safety, and Government Transparency. Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs Hearing. Referenced as HOC.

[https://oversight.house.gov/hearing/unidentified-anomalous-phenomena-implications-on-national-security-public-safety-and-government-transparency/](https://oversight.house.gov/hearing/unidentified-anomalous-phenomena-implications-on-national-security-public-safety-and-government-transparency/)

by ForeignSherbert1775

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VIEW 1 COMMENT

UFO

UFO sighting on video 03/09/2024

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Found this article from today with a sighting caught on video with another witness apparently. The guy is an attorney and he seems to be putting his personal email out there. Pretty interesting video too.

https://www.wyomingnewsnow.tv/2024/03/13/witnesses-report-potential-ufo-sighting-over-skies-rock-springs/

by who_says_owl

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[ask-a-rare-person]

The part you said in parentheses is most suited in my longer post taht will go up later, but I’ll answer your first question here!

My gender is fluid based on the baremetric pressure and so I chose genders that are nature related to help accept that part of myself. I also chose sun and light themed genders for many reasons

1. The sun is often related to the divine masculine. So it’s a way for me to preserve my identity as masculine without having to deal with the particulars of physical attributes, current gender, etc. it’s a nice, vague shorthand.

2. Both my birth first and middle name mean light and sun and I always strongly identified with them before I stopped repressing my dysphoria.

3. My faith is extremely accepting of queer people. And have I came out to those in my circle, they always brought up that we are all beings of light and that’s all there is to it! And really, whenever someoen asks my gedner I’d much prefer to just say “I am a being of light”

Currently making a Xenogender + neopronouns manifesto basically about why I use them.

What are some specific things you would like to be cleared up as someone who is outside of the community?(my target audience)

I’ll Likly answer your questions immediately and then include my answers on the post that will be made public later

[slumberingduckula]

Oh my god I just remembered this thing I typed out in discord back in May apparently because I went and found it, it’s so dumb but I put a lot of effort into writing it for some reason, I’m crying thinking about it again.  

Okay it’s this right here (link), which is an excerpt from “Stan Freberg Presents: The United States of America,” a comedy album that retells the United States’ early history while poking fun at it.  The album is from 1961, I grew up listening to it because my dad introduced it to me, we can quote it by heart.  It’s filled with sarcasm, catchy music, and useage of anachronisms, which is the use of chronological or cultural inconsistencies (in this case for comedy).

All this to say that there was one part I thought fit Goosewing and Heinrich very well (if you subscribe to the theory that Heinrich exists or did exist at one point). The track is “The Discovery of Electricity.” Historical and cultural inaccuracies aside, here is what I wrote (under the cut so it doesn’t consume your dash).

-- TIME magazine have visited the home of their next potential story. The subject of their front-page is currently looking for an invention to strike awe into the hearts of the citizens of Cluj.  Our subject begins to search for said invention.  As lightning crackles overhead, history is made in the backyard of Dr. Von Goosewing, brilliant inventor and vampire hunter. -- 

Goosewing: Heinrich? Oh Heinrich? Vhere are ya? 

A definitely real assistant that isn't imaginary at all: Over here Doctor Goosewing! With a kite! 

Goose: Eh! Yeah alright. How's it goingk? 

Heinrich: Pretty good. 

Goose: You got it vay up zhere? 

Heinrich: Yeah she's really up there 

Goose: Now be explaining to me uh, what zhe gimmick is here. 

Heinrich: Well I figure it this way. Lighting strikes the kite and it's conducted down the string! 

Goose: Ehh it's what? 

Heinrich: It's conducted! That means it travels down the string, to this little key I've got. 

Goose: Vhat little key... 

Heinrich: That key right there. *points to a key tied midway through the kite’s string*

Goose: Oh yeah... yeah you gotta little key on there. :) 

Heinrich: Well now watch.

(Zapping sound effects)

Heinrich: You see the sparks coming from the key? That's electricity! 

Goose: Why it's a miracle! Parenthesis, see "religion," close parenthesis. 

Heinrich: ...Huh?

Goose: Listen, are you feeling any tingling sensation in your hand zhere, does it hurt to hold onto the string?

Heinrich: Nawp, can't feel a thing. Oh by the way how are you enjoying them little glasses I made for ya? 

Goose: Uh- 

Heinrich: Those special lenses make it easier to read don't they! 

Goose: Yeah. *clears throat* Now uh, about zhe kite- 

Heinrich: I told you you'd like them! Just a matter of getting used to them! 

Goose: Look Heinrich- 

Heinrich: I told dad it was the best thing I'd done since my stove. 

Goose: *Looks to the side* Ahem, I wish you wouldn't discuss these things vith your father... Now about zhe kite. 

Heinrich: Well the way I see it, this proves that lightning is really electricity! 

Goose: Götterdämmerung!! What a discovery... Tonight mankind- er, birdkind, has taken a great leap forward! Parenthesis, see "sports." 

Heinrich: Close parenthesis.

Goose: Uh close parenthesis. 

-- Voices from the house call for the brilliant inventor -- 

Goose: Quick hand me zhe kite! Over here gentlemen, right over here. 

[vintagerpg]

A while back I posted about the 90s Bernie Wrightson retrospective A Look Back and said that it was the only way from me to see anything from his Frankenstein illustrations when I was a kid. And then I was like, thank god it is back in print and y’all were like, Dude, the Dark Horse Frankenstein (2008) is totally out of print and goes for top dollar (you all said it just like that, with the date in the parentheses and everything). And then we all cursed god together.

Well, friends, I figured I would share the Dark Horse edition of Frankenstein with you, since it is so hard to come by. But I come bearing good news: in 2020, Gallery Books brought it back in print for not a small fortune. The bad news is that it is digest size, so Wrightson’s art is shrunk. This is sort of a travesty, but I was psyched to get some of these plates on trading cards back in the day, so while not the ideal presentation, something is generally better than nothing. Centipede Press keeps threatening to re-issue it, and if they do, you know it will be good, even if it is a kick in the wallet.

And I mean, jeeze, just look at these. Wrightson’s control over light is shocking to me, as is his use of negative space. The plates are so rich and deep, even the heavily white compositions like that snowy cemetery. Look at those regular white dots punctuating the background of that one lab illustration. Or how those swooping lines add both dreaminess and tense movement to the bed illustration. And all the details, endless books and vials and stuff. Maximalism at its finest. A true masterpiece.

[comeontaylorspeaknow]

Album Rejects and Timeline of Unreleased Songs (Reddit Taylor Swift Post) By: ThisPaige

Hi, first off I want to say that this is not quite an original post. So I started looking around for this awhile and pulled a couple of postings here off Reddit. Credits to u/vicki296 (here), u/heliandin (here), and u/cruelsummer19 (here).

They all had the most in depth look and dates already spread out and noted in their original links. This is me trying to pull it all together and sort it out for a complete look and find some of the others. There’s also this image: https://imgur.com/a/4i3fwmW that lists all the different demo CDs she was going around with back in the day. With the IC down, I couldn’t really go back and check. I didn't do Fearless because we already have it lol.

Album Cuts:

Speak Now: Let’s Go (Battle), Drama Queen, Castle’s Crumbling, Bother Me

~ Courtesy of r/Swiftie9891, she found Foolish One, His Lies, I Can See You, Someone Just Told Me, Timeless and Wonderful Things also for Speak Now. See her post and excel sheet here!

Red: Nothing New (2012), Unknown collaboration with Ed Sheeran, I Bet You Think About Me, Babe (sold to Sugarland), Better Man (sold to Little Big Town), 14 more unknown

1989: Keep Going, 1989 (rumor)

Reputation: Family, Nothing but a Time We Never Had, Reputation (rumor)

Lover: All of the Girls, Need

Debut and Pre-Debut

2001: Don’t Hate Me for Loving You, Live for the Little Things, Lucky You

2002: Am I Ready For Love (not written by her), Can I Go with You, American Boy, Cross My Heart, Smokey Black Nights

2003 > Your Picture, In the Pouring Rain, This Here Guitar, Sugar, Honey Baby, Gail’s Song, Same Girl, Brand New World, Live for the Little Things, Spinning Around, Mandolin, Tennessee, That’s Life, You Walk Away, One More Day, Christmas Must Be Something More, Fire, Point of View, Baby Blue, My Turn to be Me, Never Fade, I used to Fly, A little more like You, Beautiful Days, One-sided Goodbye, Houston Rodeo, Kid in the Crowd, Lucky You, Mary Jo, Ride On, Half-Way to Texas, Closest to a Cowboy, For You

2004 > Angelina, Beautiful Eyes, Go Slow, Heaven, Someone Loves You, What to Wear, Today, You, Your Face, Your Anything, Dark Blue Tennessee, I Heart ?, Today, Who I’ve Always Been, This Here Guitar, The Diary of Me (likely), Your Picture

2005 > Sweet Tea and God’s Graces,Brought Up That Way , We Were Happy, Welcome Distraction, Wait For Me, Never Mind, Need You Now, What Do You Say, Don't You, Who I've Always Been, I'd Lie, R-E-V-E-N-G-E, Thirteen Blocks, This is Really Happening, Better Off, Brought Up that Way, Tell Me, Making Up for Lost Love

SONY SONGS-RCA DEAL (2004): Brought Up That Way (Acoustic), Me & Britney (Acoustic), Nashville (Acoustic), R-E-V-E-N-G-E (Studio), Ten Dollars & A Six-Pack (Studio), That's When (Acoustic), This Is Really Happening (Acoustic), Under My Head (Acoustic), Wait For Me (Studio x2), Welcome Distraction (Studio)

Sold Songs: Better Man, Babe, Being with My Baby, This is Really Happening, Permanent Marker

With the remaining unreleased songs that I pulled from the Wiki, I took out all the songs that weren't already mentioned above and checked the ones that had been leaked. Then I checked the ASCAP Website to see if any songs had been registered with co-writers. I also listened to the songs that I do have that are circulation to help out find those. Actually all the co-writers were most likely post 2004. I put all my guesses and notes in italics.

Registered songs but I put the estimated dates in the parentheses. I repeated some of the songs from above because I figured that they might have been written around the same time. Edited to include that Scream is registered but I'm unclear where.

Taylor: Foolish One, His Lies, I can See You, Someone Just Told Me, Someone Loves You (2005/06 – based on the lover journals), Timeless, Too Beautiful, Wait for Me (2005), Wonderful Things, You Don’t Have to Call (2005). So Taylor herself wrote these and they could be from any period. The one I put dates on are the ones I have and based it on her voice at the time.

Liz Rose: Acting Like a Boy, All Night Diner, Check out this view, Fall Back on You, Look at You Like That, Love They Haven’t Thought of Yet, Love to Lose, Made You Up, Matches, Perfect I have Loved, Stupid Boy, Thinking ‘Bout You, You Do, Tell Me, Her – We know that Taylor met Liz in April of 2004 and stopped co-writing with her in 2011, so the songs they wrote together were between those times. Not gonna lie all of them sound like from 04/05/ latest 06. I might be making this easy but some of these never leaked, but sound like they’re from the same period.

Patrick Michael Heeney: None of The Above (I’ve never heard this but I looked up the writer and he only does country music so anywhere around 2004 to 2008 maybe, he’s worked on some Eric Church songs)

Matthew Kyle Jenkins: This One’s Different (I’ve never heard this but I looked up the writer and he only does country music so anywhere around 2004 to 2008 maybe. He’s most known for working on Settin the World on Fire with Kenny Chesney and P!nk)

Brett Beavers and Deric J Ruttan: By the Way (2004/05)

Brett Beavers: Being with My Baby (2004/05), Wildflower (2004)

Robert Ellis Orrall: Better Off (2005), Just South of Knowing Why (2005), Need You Now (2005)

Brett D and Brad Warren: Long Time Going (04/05), Welcome Distraction (04/05)

Scooter Carusoe: Pretty Words (2005), Thirteen Blocks (2005)

Liz Rose and Brian Maher: Oh My, my, my (2005), Rain Song (2005 maybe 04), Sweet Tea and God’s Graces (2005), What Do you Say (2005)

Randy Contor and Jodi Marr: Scream (2005)

+++

These are the songs not registered. We know they are real because they’re all in circulation: Didn’t They, Down Came the Rain, Firefly, I Wished On A Plane, My Cure, Songs About You, Til’ Brad Pitt Comes Along, I Know What I Want, and the IC has Anymore.

Upon Listening to them: Firefly (2002), Didn’t They (2002/03), Down Came the Rain (it was only written by her but lyrics make me think 2005), I Wished on a Plane (2003), My Cure (2005/06), Songs About You (2004), Til Brad Pitt Comes Along (2004), I Know What I Want (2003), Anymore (2003 maybe? It's not leaked).

So this is my comprehensive post! It took me weeks on and off and various google drives to see if I could pin any of these down. In a nutshell I think that she was super busy in 2004 and 2005 coming up with a lot of original songs. I hope you enjoyed reading through this and special thanks to those that I mentioned up at the top!

Original post from Reddit

Post by: ThisPaige

[down-diabolical]

Abigail Thorn Trans Pride London Speech Transcription

Hey y'all,

So recently I had an assignment for my English course that required me to rhetorically analyze a text of my choosing in an essay, and I chose Abigail Thorn's speech from Trans Pride 2021.

Since I could only find a video of it (here's the link if you haven't seen it yet, it's amazing btw) and I was tired of scrubbing through and re-listening to get pieces of textual evidence for my paper, I transcribed the speech myself for personal use. I couldn't find any other transcription which is why I resorted to transcribing myself in the first place, and because this is the case I thought "hey, other people might be looking for a transcription of this amazing speech" and I decided to post my transcription here for any and all to read!

Because I was transcribing off of a live video of the event, there are a few words here and there that are cut out simply because I couldn't hear and/or make out what Abigail was saying due to the noise of the crowd. Other than that, I'd say I did a pretty good job!

Parentheses with italics mark noises from the crowd and any pauses that I feel effectively contribute to the effect of Abigail's speech. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to let me know!

The full transcription is under the cut:

Abigail Thorn Speech at Trans Pride London (Transcription)

[Brothers, sisters] and my nonbinary comrades! (crowd cheers) I am honored to speak at what is, in fact my very first pride. (crowd cheers) The organizers flatter me by assuming that I can tell you anything that you don’t already know, many of you are a lot wiser and more experienced than me. You have to excuse me if I speak plainly and to the purpose. I’m not an activist or a great leader or a great speaker, I’m just an actress, and the truth is that I’m scared to speak up at something like this because I don’t know if I’m going to have an acting career tomorrow if I tell the truth about what it is like to be trans in this country! (crowd cheers) ‘Cause the truth is—and you don’t need me to tell you—it’s pretty hard, and that’s not ‘cause of “toxic debates,” it’s not ‘cause of social media, and it’s sure as fuck isn’t because of “cancel culture!” It’s because, legally and politically, we are not allowed to control our own lives! (crowd cheers)

There is a word about how that makes me feel. The word is humiliated. When my doctor refuses to treat me and makes me use a segregated healthcare system, I am humiliated. When I am forced to beg and scrape for permission to get married from the government’s Gender Recognition Panel, I am humiliated! When I am thrown to the concrete by an officer of the Metropolitan Police for daring to protest the government that inflicts these indignities—and that officer was wearing a rainbow pride badge (crowd boos and jeers)— I am humiliated! It is the feeling that control over your life has been taken away from you, and you do not need me to tell you, we are not the only people in this country that feel that way. (Abby pauses, crowd cheers)

But…but there is something else, isn’t there? There is something else that has brought all of us here today. Despite the difficulties that cis people inflict on us, I don’t think that being trans is a burden. I don’t think that being trans is a curse. I think it is a gift. (Abby pauses, crowd cheers). There is POWER in this! To take control of your life, to reach down into your own cells and take possession of them, to name yourself! To take your destiny by the scruff of the neck and say “no, god damn it! […] This is my life and I will be the mistress of it!”

I remember the first day when I realized who and what I am. I remember that feeling like the clouds had parted and the hand of God had come down, a feeling that no doubt many of you have shared. Since that day I have felt electricity in my blood! (crowd cheers) […] POWER in my heart! I have felt the passion, a passion that outburns the sun! It is the desire to live! It is the desire to take control! I look at these faces now and I don’t see humiliated victims or timid creatures. I see lions, I see tigers, I see the real kings and queens of this country! I see the hope in a hopeless country! I see the harbingers of a new world that struggles to be born and is proud to come out fighting!

The Women and Equalities minister, Liz Truss (Abby pauses, crowd jeers), she says that she wants trans people to live in dignity. (Abby pauses, crowd chants “Fuck that bitch!”) Babes, I got dignity coming out of my ass. (crowd cheers) I don’t want pity, I don’t want condescension or charity, I don’t even want “visibility and representation.” I want control over my own goddamn life! (crowd cheers) That is an ambition that is worth being PROUD of! That is why we say TRANS POWER! (“Trans power!”) TRANS POWER! (“Trans power!”) TRANS POWER! (“Trans power!”) (crowd cheers)

[End of Speech]