[Harriet]

Oh no, everyone seems to have a sinus infection or cold at the moment. Are you doing okay?

 

Oooh something about the soft red lighting is very inviting. 

 

Oops posted at the wrong moment. Will wait patiently for tattoo picture.

[Laghail]

Life updates (continued)

I need to figure out a class name for this year. Usually I try and figure a fantasy cognate to any hobbies I have going on, with a heavy nod toward aesthetic conventions for class names from “The Wandering Inn.” Probably will end up with a class like, (noun 1) of (noun 2) and (noun 3).

 

Noun 1

- Weaver (nicely mythic)

- String-dancer (sounds like a kenning)

- Raveler (a contranym, in that it contains the sense of both tangling/weaving, and untangling/unmaking)

 

Noun 2 and Noun 3

- string

- stone

- chord

- gem

- filament

- story

- myth

- steel

 

Tattoo

turns out tattoos close to the knee hurt, especially closer to the inner thigh. Manageable, but much sharper than expected. Outer thigh, above the IT band, that’s practically painless. 🤷‍♂️ 

 

Birthday Cake

Danish bakeries are superior. It’s just facts. 

[Sovalis]

Happiest of birthdays! May you have enough in the coming year!

[Harriet]

I was planning on complimenting the tattoo but the cake steals the show. That's a beautiful cake. Is it your birthday? Happy birthday!

[Laghail]

9 minutes ago, Harriet said:

I was planning on complimenting the tattoo but the cake steals the show. That's a beautiful cake. Is it your birthday? Happy birthday!

 

It was on the second. I had a introvert birthday of cake and housemates only, but I'll do sushi and fancy coffee tasting on Friday with a few more people. Part of my WWHD? life plan.

[Sea-to-sky]

Tatoo looks fab. Also excellent cake. Hope you had a wonderful birthday

[Scaly Freak]

8 hours ago, Laghail said:

 

It was on the second. I had a introvert birthday of cake and housemates only, but I'll do sushi and fancy coffee tasting on Friday with a few more people. Part of my WWHD? life plan.

 

So you are doing double birthday celebrations? Excellent plan! 

[Laghail]

15 hours ago, Scaly Freak said:

 

So you are doing double birthday celebrations? Excellent plan! 

 

WHAT WOULD @Harriet DO?!

2x the delicious cake, 1/2x the obnoxious party guests

[Harriet]

24 minutes ago, Laghail said:

 

WHAT WOULD @Harriet DO?!

2x the delicious cake, 1/2x the obnoxious party guests

 

On 4/4/2024 at 5:24 PM, Laghail said:

 

It was on the second. I had a introvert birthday of cake and housemates only, but I'll do sushi and fancy coffee tasting on Friday with a few more people. Part of my WWHD? life plan.

 

Wait, WWHD stands for what would Harriet do? I am slightly alarmed for you. But on the other hand no one really knows what I would do, so I think you are probably safe for now. Enjoy your sushi and fancy coffee.

[Laghail]

 

Hoodo Hersi is a Canadian Slayer with a drug problem, and her drug of choice is making pale folks uncomfortable. Born to Somali immigrant parents in Toronto, she has the power to discomfort white people by simply existing, but she's honed a keen Zennial voice using sardonic back-handed cultural commentary with a bone-dry delivery. She moved south to hit the NYC standup circuit in 2022 and took the city by storm, winning a slot on the Daily Show before landing in the writers room for Ramy Youssef's A24 comedy. She's the subject of a brilliant interview in The Stranger, and her best quote from the piece is below.

 

Quote

Can you talk about your beginnings as a comedian and what factors led you to devote your life to comedy?

 

Hoodo Hersi: Like most comics, number one, trauma. No normal person wants to stand up onstage and then make total strangers laugh. Something has to go wrong. 

 

Our slayer's 9:47 tight ten set from 2023 on Comedy Central

Spoiler

 

Our slayer in a 5:10 set on Late Night in 2022

Spoiler

 

[AI images generated via hotpot AI with the prompt "The lady comedian Hoodo Hersi as a vampire slayer, wearing a headscarf and wielding a microphone as a weapon."]

 

Slayer Training

• Lore 
  • Reading in bed by 11pm - 5x/week
    • ✅🔲🔲🔲🔲  
  • Duolingo streak by noon -  5x/week

    • ✅✅🔲🔲✅🔲🔲

• Meditation
  • Ass on meditation pillow - 5x/week

    •   ✅🔲🔲🔲✅🔲🔲

  • Bodhrán meditation 3x/week

    •    ✅🔲🔲 

• Strength
  • Chin-ups
    • 3x3
  • Inverted Rows
    • 5x5
  • Pendley Rows
    • 5x5
  • HIIT and 3x8 None for two weeks

 

Life Stuffs

• This month has had a lot of non-standard interruptions to explain my middling outcomes so far, but I think I've identified behaviors that are important to support my goals, now I just need to brainstorm better compliance. We dropped rewards for this challenge, and we focused in on explicitly controllable behaviors. I think I'm going to reduce the 7x/week goals to 5x/week so I'm not fighting the tyranny of perfection. Lets see if I can get a greener week next week, and I'm very open to continuing the same goals into next challenge, if these are the correct goals and I just need more runway to adopt them as habits. 
• Season 3 of "The Other Two" wrecked my sleep hygiene last night. I have a love/hate relationship with Lorne Michaels but his show lands a few great moments.
• Pull day at the gym was interesting with the restriction of zero low-body lifting, and I have interesting DOMS as a result, but seems sustainable. Also no HIIT or medium/large sets for a fortnight. Gotta avoid a leg pump at all costs while the quad tattoo is healing. Who knew??
• Wednesday lesson with teacher Bob was grand, covered the beginner renditions of Jed Clampett and learned a cool silent practice technique to keep working on the chord changes. Apparently "the Ballad of Jed Clampett" violates some conventions in bluegrass music and it was composed by a showtunes writer for the American TV show, "The Beverly Hillbillies". Teacher Bob has his students learn it because open mics inevitably ask banjo players to cover the piece, and it has so many chord changes that it's excellent practice. 

[Laghail]

1 hour ago, Harriet said:

 

 

Wait, WWHD stands for what would Harriet do? I am slightly alarmed for you. But on the other hand no one really knows what I would do, so I think you are probably safe for now. Enjoy your sushi and fancy coffee.

Please, "WWHD?" means have a gorgeous red maple in your front yard, advocate for yourself, enjoy a season of rest as needed, and work your ass off on your goals. 

Flawless

[Harriet]

1 hour ago, Laghail said:

Please, "WWHD?" means have a gorgeous red maple in your front yard, advocate for yourself

 

That sounds great, actually.

 

1 hour ago, Laghail said:

enjoy a season of rest as needed, and work your ass off on your goals. 

 

I'm definitely not doing either of these.

 

1 hour ago, Laghail said:

Flawless

 

It's like Lawless, but with ffffff. Very good.

 

 

2 hours ago, Laghail said:

This month has had a lot of non-standard interruptions to explain my middling outcomes so far, but I think I've identified behaviors that are important to support my goals, now I just need to brainstorm better compliance. We dropped rewards for this challenge, and we focused in on explicitly controllable behaviors. I think I'm going to reduce the 7x/week goals to 5x/week so I'm not fighting the tyranny of perfection. Lets see if I can get a greener week next week, and I'm very open to continuing the same goals into next challenge, if these are the correct goals and I just need more runway to adopt them as habits. 

 

Solid insights. May they serve you well.

[ViperN7]

I am late to the party and so sorry to be late! 

 

On 3/26/2024 at 1:03 PM, Laghail said:

ITS DISSERTATION TIME!!!

The official title of the dissertation is “SPECULATIVE ESCAPISM IN CONTEMPORARY FANTASY: LABOR, UTILITY, AFFECT”; which translates to Liam examining the ways capitalism hates reading for pleasure, especially when it’s sci-fi and fantasy. 

I totally would have watched Liam defend his dissertation if I had seen this on time! That sounds awesome and interesting. Many congratulations to him! 

 

 

On 3/21/2024 at 1:19 PM, Laghail said:

To find the true slayer, I need to train like a slayer

Ahh! Buffy!!! You're reminding me that I still need to finish watching...

 

 

On 4/5/2024 at 2:29 PM, Harriet said:

 

 

I have never seen Xena, but the high concentration of Xena clips in these forums has convinced me to add it to my "to watch" list.

 

 

On 3/22/2024 at 9:21 PM, Laghail said:

 

@Sea-to-sky turned me onto AJ Sherwood’s light novels for when I need brain candy that has great banter and a slow burn M/M romance. 

 

 

But for nights when I have some brain left at the end of the day, there’s a lengthy and breathtaking series by David Verbung that expands the range of the fantasy genre. It’s truly exceptional, completely free, and I’m getting a quote from the series tattooed on my leg in two weeks.
 

 

Neither of these look like my usual thing, but they look so interesting I might give them a try anyway. 

 

 

On 3/24/2024 at 2:14 AM, Laghail said:

• How did Blue Eyed Samurai get made? The work is singular and beautiful. I have an episode left before it’s over, and I’m holding off as long as I can. Did we know anime could have this much to say about women and brutality and art and disability and beauty?! Fuck. 

I keep hearing how great Blue Eyed Samurai is!!! I'll get to it soon! I gotta finish Trails into Reverie before I can start another media project.

 

 

On 3/22/2024 at 9:21 PM, Laghail said:

Languages, I’m B2 in German and working towards A2 in Norwegian. My Spanish regressed and I’m half-heartedly pushing back to A2; mostly resentful because every American is studying Spanish on Duolingo, but I’m reading Angela Davis’ biography and she’s challenging me to get over the casual racist contempt that Americans feel towards Latin American political thought. Soooo, time to earn some literacy in Spanish I guess. Damnit. 

Cool! And good reason to study. 

I've never taken an official language rating test so I don't know what my levels are...I'm getting curious though. I feel like if I'm going to go spend money on a fancy test, I should get my level higher first though 😛

My own Spanish seems to be approaching a vanishing point, but it is nevertheless dramatically helping me to learn Italian. 

I've found that when a language seems to fade, most of it is just very, very, *very* deeply buried. 

Your Spanish is probably in there somewhere. You got this!  

 

 

On 4/1/2024 at 1:34 PM, Laghail said:

 

Jessica Fostekew is a weightlifting slayer with an axe to grind re: body fascism. Written up in the Guardian recently under the title, "the joy of pecs",  

She seems amazing! Thank you for the introduction. 

 

 

On 3/22/2024 at 5:37 PM, Laghail said:

Moar deets for tomorrows update, but you know that old saw about before concluding that the sky is falling, check if you need a snack, or a nap, or an orgasm? I propose a fourth check, see if you made a plate math error. Fucking a 😝 

Yiiiikes! That's rough, buddy.

The last time I did plate math wrong, I got hurt. I'm very glad you seem to be in one piece! But that's still rough. 

 

 

On 3/24/2024 at 12:34 AM, Laghail said:

 

Ah! Meditation cushions sure bring back memories! I'm glad it's helping you! 

 

 

On 3/29/2024 at 1:02 PM, Laghail said:

• In a better mood place after hitting the self-care a bit and reminding myself that I'm titrating down off of my SSRI
• Not my ideal outcome, but happy with how I managed an emotional day. 
• Apparently *checks notes* we're capable of getting better???

Well done being mindful of how the med change is affecting you and giving yourself some slack while you're finding your new equalibrium. Some days don't go according to plan, but sometimes you just gotta manage where you are in that moment, regardless of the schedule. I hope things are getting easier. 

We are, in fact, capable of getting better. That's awesome, I'm glad you're noticing your own progress. Good work! 

 

[Laghail]

On 4/5/2024 at 1:29 PM, Harriet said:

I'm definitely not doing either of these.

My dear, I can read, and I follow your challenge. To an outside observer, it looks like you’re managing your body/brain chemistry forcing you to rest, and you’re still staying with a community to help you follow your goals even when you’re being sidelined. That’s metal as hell. 
 

On 4/5/2024 at 1:29 PM, Harriet said:

It's like Lawless, but with ffffff. 

 

Liam calls her “Lucy Flawless” because of how she’s used her money and status as a celebrity. I guess in Auckland, she’s a big name in pediatric medical charity, and she’s a Greenpeace ambassador with significant presence in fighting the shell oil company. Flawless. 

[Scaly Freak]

9 minutes ago, Laghail said:

Liam calls her “Lucy Flawless” because of how she’s used her money and status as a celebrity. I guess in Auckland, she’s a big name in pediatric medical charity, and she’s a Greenpeace ambassador with significant presence in fighting the shell oil company. Flawless. 

 

Hail to thee, O Lucy Lawless, 

Xena actress great and flawless! 

Beacon by whom we all steer 

In this book. Wish you were here. 

Thou who art a constant charmer, 

Thou who wearest way cool armor, 

Thou who provest, day by day, 

Women have a lot to say 

Whether sword or child in hand, 

Spread our message through the land! 

 

Shamelessly stolen from from the dedication page of the fantasy/sci-fi anthology "Did you say Chicks?!", the sequel to the popular and often misunderstood anthology "Chicks in Chainmail". They are hilarious and well worth reading.  

[Laghail]

3 hours ago, ViperN7 said:

I am late to the party and so sorry to be late! 

 

nope, late is always welcome. We all are “late” to living up to capitalist scripts that demand we have perfect bodies and effortless wealth. Instead we all working with the bodies we have and the economic realities that we live inside of. 🤷‍♂️ 

 

3 hours ago, ViperN7 said:

I keep hearing how great Blue Eyed Samurai is!!! I'll get to it soon! I gotta finish Trails into Reverie before I can start another media project.

 

oh what’s trails into reverie??

 

3 hours ago, ViperN7 said:

 

Cool! And good reason to study. 

I've never taken an official language rating test so I don't know what my levels are...I'm getting curious though. I feel like if I'm going to go spend money on a fancy test, I should get my level higher first though 😛

My own Spanish seems to be approaching a vanishing point, but it is nevertheless dramatically helping me to learn Italian. 

I've found that when a language seems to fade, most of it is just very, very, *very* deeply buried. 

Your Spanish is probably in there somewhere. You got this!  
 

 

thanks for the encouragement! Apparently Duolingo’s goal is for their courses to get a learner to B2 by the time they finish. Outcomes vary and not all Duolingo courses are equally effective, but this article has some interesting discussion on ECLF and Duolingo.

 

3 hours ago, ViperN7 said:

Ah! Meditation cushions sure bring back memories! I'm glad it's helping you! 

 

ooh, this sounds like a story! Share if you’re comfortable?

 

3 hours ago, ViperN7 said:

We are, in fact, capable of getting better. That's awesome, I'm glad you're noticing your own progress. Good work! 

Did you ever do west wing? S2:E10 “Noel”, has a trauma therapist as the main plot and the quote kills me. 

[Laghail]

3 minutes ago, Scaly Freak said:

 

Hail to thee, O Lucy Lawless, 

Xena actress great and flawless! 

Beacon by whom we all steer 

In this book. Wish you were here. 

Thou who art a constant charmer, 

Thou who wearest way cool armor, 

Thou who provest, day by day, 

Women have a lot to say 

Whether sword or child in hand, 

Spread our message through the land! 

 

Shamelessly stolen from from the dedication page of the fantasy/sci-fi anthology "Did you say Chicks?!", the sequel to the popular and often misunderstood anthology "Chicks in Chainmail". They are hilarious and well worth reading.  

loooooove! Apparently her fan club organized themself into a charity with a once a year charity blitz?? Flawless. 

[Scaly Freak]

3 hours ago, Laghail said:

Did you ever do west wing? S2:E10 “Noel”, has a trauma therapist as the main plot and the quote kills me. 

 

The episodes with Dr Stanley are some of the best ones in that entire show.  

[WhiteGhost]

Sounds like you had a great birthday, that cake looked perfect for the occasion

[Sepherina]

Popping on this morning to say that I am loving all the comedy stuff!

 

[Harriet]

17 hours ago, Laghail said:

My dear, I can read, and I follow your challenge. To an outside observer, it looks like you’re managing your body/brain chemistry forcing you to rest, and you’re still staying with a community to help you follow your goals even when you’re being sidelined. That’s metal as hell. 
 

 

it would be churlish to refuse a compliment twice, so I'll let this stand. 😛

 

17 hours ago, Laghail said:

Liam calls her “Lucy Flawless” because of how she’s used her money and status as a celebrity. I guess in Auckland, she’s a big name in pediatric medical charity, and she’s a Greenpeace ambassador with significant presence in fighting the shell oil company. Flawless. 

 

I didn't know that. I just watched Xena on Saturday nights, pizza nights at our house, way back when. Home made pizza every week. With cola. Glorious.

[Laghail]

Fern Brady is a queer autistic Scottish woman with a background in stripping to pay for her journalism degree. That sentence made me deeply happy to write, and this slayer's standup makes me even happier. Her material is expansive and conversational, with few repeat bits between her sets. Would recommend. 

 

Fern slaying in a 12:40 set at the Apollo in 2023

Spoiler

 

Our slayer in a 4:10 set at the 2024 Melbourne International Comedy Festival Gala

Spoiler

 

A 15:02 excerpt from our slayers "Power & Chaos" 2023 special

Spoiler

 

[AI images generated via Dezgo AI with the prompt "the Scottish comedian fern brady as a vampire slayer, wielding a microphone as a weapon."]

 

Slayer Training

• Lore 
  • Reading in bed by 11pm - 5x/week
    • ✅🔲🔲🔲🔲  
  • Duolingo streak by noon -  5x/week

    • ✅🔲🔲🔲🔲

• Meditation
  • Ass on meditation pillow - 5x/week

    •   ✅🔲🔲🔲🔲

  • Bodhrán meditation 3x/week

    •    🔲🔲🔲 

• Strength
  • Bench
    • 3x1 90%
    • 5x5 75% 
  • OHP
    • 5x5 75%
  • HIIT and 3x8 None for another week
  • Yoga & Mobility

Life Stuffs

• Okay okay okay, looking more green in my checkboxes as of Monday, this doesn't displease me.
• IOU a Jed Clampett vid by Tueday evening. Just to force me to hyper-focus before I see teacher Bob on Wednesday. 
• Dope ass home repair program with my city is helping me afford fixing my crumbling front porch. Adulting extra hard with grant applications n shit, but the sweet sweet reward is we nailed down more deets for moving:
  • We were looking at doing polyamory poverty-friendly housing by purchasing a three unit for five adults with 4.5 mediocre incomes in Milwaukee, but two of those humans dropped out and are looking at single units, and suddenly we all caught single unit fever and the remaining three of us are looking at this odd grassy armpit of a neighborhood, sandwiched between a factory district and our favorite CCC park. The factory district keeps property values depressed, meanwhile the park and the lake are in this neighborhood's backyard.
  • Spoiler

    

  • Non-Americans, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was my country's single best attempt at socialism and it did righteous righteous work in paying unemployed people during the great depression to build public works, often in distressed or underdeveloped areas. The park is as cool as it looks, it's safe at night, and there's houses we can afford within 0.25 miles. Fuck yes, thank god for American classism and racism undervaluing gorgeous working class areas!
  • Spoiler

    

• Found religion on Sunday at the Chicago Art Institute's Radical Clay Show. Holy fuck, these ceramicist women ruined me in the best way: 
  Spoiler

  

  

 

 

[Sea-to-sky]

@Laghail wow that is some stunning clay work. Really top notch stuff. 
 

house hunting looks like its going well. Hope you lot find a spot you like in the armpit sandwich region of Milwaukee. Park does look cool. 

[Laghail]

 

Our slayer of the day is Leslie Liao, a triple-threat comedian/actress/writer. She slays with an introspective and matter-of-fact style, anchored in her experiences as a single Chinese-American woman living in LA. She's a newer slayer to me but also younger in her career - every standup set she has on youtube is her progressively polishing the same six jokes; A+ material TBH, but it's obvious she's perfecting a tight ten before she expands her repertoire. Like last week's slayer, Catherine Bohart, Liao's material is short and flawless. 

 

Our slayers "tight ten,"12:33 set titled "Fixing Straight Men", recorded by Don't Tell Comedy in 2023

Spoiler

 

[AI images generated via Dezgo AI with the prompt,"The Chinese American comedian Leslie Liao as a vampire slayer, wielding a microphone as a weapon and wearing an oversized tweed jacket."]

 

Slayer Training

• Lore 
  • Reading in bed by 11pm - 5x/week
    • ✅✅🔲🔲🔲  
  • Duolingo streak by noon -  5x/week

    • ✅🔲🔲🔲🔲

• Meditation
  • Ass on meditation pillow - 5x/week

    • ✅✅🔲🔲🔲

  • Bodhrán meditation 3x/week

    • 🔲🔲🔲 

• Strength
  • Chin-ups
    • 3x3
  • Inverted Rows
    • 5x5 
  • Pendley Rows
    • 5x5 60%
  • Yoga & Mobility

Life Stuffs

• Leg tattoo is the largest I've gotten so far and is healing nicely, albeit at the itchy/scabbing stage. I'm going through lotion by the cup to promote a smooth finish once the tattoo heals, and several earthy jokes suggest themselves, but I'm a classy bitch and I don't work blue. This time. 
• Operation "bedazzle the girls and gays" is going well. Dropped off several pieces for the ladies at the post office, and then got an order for a rose quartz and gold piece at the gym today. The reason we sweated so hard to keep our bead order at or below $1/strand, is now I can guilt-free give away pieces with a finished cost of $0.50/per. "Bedazzle the girls and the gays" is sorta using bling in lieu of actual social skills, and it lets me continually do the beading I love without drowning in finished pieces. Sometimes I charge hippy stores $10-$20/per piece and pay for a batch of beading supplies, other times I just eat the cost with a small part time job and my main job's healthy living payout program (VirginPulse anyone?). 🤷‍♂️
• The Chicago art institute had a lovely 13th century Mucalinda Buddah that I'm going to steal for my Bayard Rustin /Br'er Rabbit piece I'm working on. The myth of Mucalinda has the eponymous serpent king watching over the Buddha for seven days as the enlightened one meditated under the Bodhi Tree. Borrowing the iconography onto Renyard the fox and our queer civil rights leader, saint Bayard Rustin, that feels right.
  • Spoiler

    • 
    • 

[Laghail]

 

Emma Willmann is a slayer with a career stretching back to her first Watcher relationship with Stephen Colbert in 2016. Her second watcher was Louis CK, yes that Louis CK, and she afterwards abandoned opening act gigs in favor of podcasting with established comedians like Matteo Lane, before she moved on to slaying on the reg as a cast-member on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. Wielding the twin weapons of ADD and a Sarah Lawrence education, our lesbian slayer is described by one Chicago reviewer as "mastered chaos under control", and the sets below affirm that judgement.

 

Our slayer's "tight ten," a 8:33 set from Don't Tell Comedy, produced earlier this year. 

Spoiler

 

Willmann in an 12:57 full set from the Comedy Cellar in 2022.

Spoiler

[AI images generated via Dezgo AI with the prompt, "The lesbian standup comedian Emma Willmann as a vampire slayer, wielding a microphone as a weapon and wearing an oversized stripped sweater."]

 

Slayer Training

• Lore 
  • Reading in bed by 11pm - 5x/week
    • ✅✅✅🔲🔲  
  • Duolingo streak by noon -  5x/week

    • ✅✅✅🔲🔲

• Meditation
  • Ass on meditation pillow - 5x/week

    • ✅✅✅🔲🔲

  • Bodhrán meditation 3x/week

    • 🔲🔲🔲 

• Strength
  • Bench
    • 3x1 95%
    • 5x5 80%
  • OHP
    • 5x5 75%
  • Yoga & Mobility

Life Stuffs

• Class name options for level 38: 
  • Skald of Stereolithography and Strings
  • Steelsong Raveler
  • Gemheart String Adept 
• Diet/Weightloss stuffs

Spoiler

Had weight loss clinic today and although the whole thing is deeply stressful, it's yielding good/sustainable results. Apparently losing 1lb of muscle to 4lbs of fat is the target ratio, and I'm doing slightly better per the InBody scan. Also got gently chided for my 180g/daily protein intake being too high per this doctor, which is weird because I conversely feel self-conscious about my protein intake in lifting circles for it being too low. Because I trust this doc, I agreed to do 150g/daily for 4 weeks and then see what the InBody scan shows in May.

• Recorded the "Ballad of Jeb Clampett" but IG hates me. Standby and I'll try posting it again tonight. Having the IOU helped me get the piece to 90% by my lesson yesterday, and go figure; I sweated bullets prepping, then teacher Bob has me do a quick rundown before spending 75% of the lesson lecturing on the differential histories of the tenor banjo (5-string banjo's in Dixieland Jazz dropped the 5th string and became a rhythm instrument circa 1910, before crossing the Atlantic to become a set piece in Irish céili bands in the1920's, then infiltrating Irish and UK trad pub sets with parallel tuning to @Sea-to-sky's mandolin, before recrossing the Atlantic in 1950's and 1960's to sate America's new appetite for Irish music), vs banjo orchestras (bewildering 1880's fad of all-strings ensembles typically consisting of a Piccolo Banjo, Banjeaurine, First and Second Banjos, and Bass or Cello Banjo). The lecture was delightful, unplanned by either of us, and 100% teacher bob.
  • Tenor banjo player Colin Forhan performing The Lads of Laois, 2023. Gorgeous piece and Forhan is easy on the eyes too.
  • The Ingénues performing The Banjo Blues, 1928. If you're into flappers and inexplicable musical tidepools, this clip is your new pr0n. 

• Deadfire Archipelago continues to be a banger. Aaaalmost done with the game and I want a video game break afterwards. Always feel like I'm neglecting my reading list whenever I get into a video game, me have balance with hobbies someday.