#SPACE krewe essential reading

[krewe-yukii]

S.P.A.C.E. Krewe Press Release, 13 Phoenix 1336 AE

The Survey and Perambulation of Adjacent Celestial Environments krewe (F.S.R.A. Krewe Yukii) has been made aware of new, temporary import restrictions in place by the nation of Cantha. These restrictions have delayed, but not cancelled, the full opening of the Tyr offices and launch facility. We, like many others, are disappointed by these developments.

Fuel Systems is continuing work on reducing the volatility of our fuel and fuel storage technologies. The team estimates a 1-3 month timeframe before we will be able to fulfill the new requirements on volatile material imports set forth by the Canthan government, at which time the final materials and initial consumable supplies will be accessible by the Tyr facility for the first time.

The Personal Mobility Vehicle team proudly announced their new "Zoomies" model of epiaquatic transportation this week. Krewe Yukii expects sales of this model, as well as strong continued sales of the "Wubray" and "Dwagon" aerial models, to sustain the krewe through the current practical research drought.

Þekking úr fjarska.

#space krewe essential reading

[violetmuses]

Reflections || Chapter 1

TITLE: “Reflections” (Modern AU) 

FANDOM: “Altered Carbon” (Netflix Adaptation)

CHARACTER: Takeshi Kovacs (Joel Kinnaman, Season 1 Portrayal)

PAIRING: Female Reader + Takeshi Kavocs

WARNINGS: Adult themes, strong language, etc.

STORYLINE: Kovacs earns his reputation as one of the wealthiest businessmen. When begrudgingly needing to hire a personal assistant, his life might change forever after meeting you. 

Author’s Note: Another project! Feedback would be greatly appreciated and thanks so much for reading as always. 💜

J Krew: @nerdysuperchick @a-reader-and-a-writer @babblydrabbly @lacontroller1991 @shadowkittybucky @loverhymeswith @justin-hammers @weallhaveadestiny @xoxabs88xox @katjnordstrom96   @mayhem24-7forever @lilisangel @skvatnavle @sociiallydiisoriiented @heresathreebee @alieninoklahoma @bewitchedignition @maddu-oliveira @reveluving @sugapapichulo @hodgepodge-of-rog @ijustthinkrickflagisprettyneat @ed-baldwin

Reflections - Masterlist

__________

This long-awaited process began not long ago, when the job opening first pinged online. You had just graduated from college, but still made a point to clean up your resume, completing required paperwork and sending over documents as needed. 

Onboarding moved out of the way and Ortega screened candidates via video chats, insisting on this rush to prepare you for visiting the office in person. Time and time again, Kristen noted that anyone selected for the position needed this warning or else.

Now, days later, you stand in front of this well-known skyscraper that towers near the middle of downtown, looking upwards through sunlight that beams directly overhead: 

Kovacs Corporation. Bold silver lettering etched onto the leftward side of this building and you allow yourself to smile, knowing that you could truly be part of an organization like this. 

Your heels click forward as you enter that building and pull open one of those glass double doors. Ortega must be out for the day, as you see someone else work and answer calls while right behind the reception desk. 

Her plated name tag reads Mariam Bancroft. To you, this woman probably wants to be hustling elsewhere. She might as well leave this building for good and own another company, especially considering how mad she seems while facing you now. 

 “If you’re on the clock to work for Kovacs, go to our top level and your office is two doors down. He’ll return in probably the next twenty minutes.” Bancrofts deadpans the instruction and you pull back quite an urge to cringe. 

No meetup? No one-on-one chats? Only immediate work? Shit! Your thoughts scramble, but there’s no other choice but to nod and run off towards the elevator in these damn heels. 

“Thank you!” You call out to Mariam, but she doesn’t answer in the slightest before that elevator closes right away. 

________

This top leveled wing is gorgeous. Floor to ceiling windows prompt your eyes to widen time and time again. Bright lighting illuminated overhead in every space. 

Even your own designated office looks to be far above that confirmed pay grade.

Out of one rear window, a sculpted bridge gaped its structure between land and this near shoreline. Ocean waves crashed in the distance. Yet, you still organized your desk and checked emails, keeping a front door open in case Kovacs arrived earlier. 

Soft but accented knocks pull you out of work mode. You look up and nearly gape for a moment. 

This well-dressed but suited man leaning against the threshold. His blondish hair is styled perfectly. Deep hazel eyes almost stare towards you. His handsomely chiseled face should’ve belonged in magazines or reached social media nowadays. 

“Are you the new assistant? His voice is low enough to sound menacing, but you don’t tremble. 

“Yes, Sir.” You set down more essentials on the desk, walk around to shake hands with Kovacs out of respect. “It’s an honor to meet you, I’m Y/N L/N.” 

“Takeshi Kovacs.” He introduced himself. When he reaches to shake your hand in return, his palm seems calloused but gentle all at once. 

“I’ve scoped your morning plans already. Is there anything else you need right away?” You remain kind now and settle away from the handshake seconds later. It’s clear from previous emails that someone else handled morning duties before you showed up. 

Doesn’t hurt to ask more questions. You think to yourself and stand up straight. 

“Not exactly, but go ahead and print off my afternoon schedule early. Poe copied you on the new email.” The gesture is small, but Kovacs juts his chin and faces you with a smirk before daring to sit down in front of your own mahogany desk. 

“Yes, Sir.” You answer obediently and make another point to smile. Again, staying cordial and organized would hopefully keep you on the payroll, no matter how clipped or low his instructions sounded. 

You click through screens once again, find his document in question, and the printer whirs to life, inking additional responsibilities on paper. 

Gathering these documents in full order, you staple everything together and slide that schedule right across the desk towards Kovacs. 

“Thanks.” He clips the phrase without looking at you and eyes that document, furrowing his brow for a moment. 

“You’re welcome.” You shift back into work mode for a few minutes until he clears his throat out of nowhere and prompts to make eye contact once more. 

“Believe it or not, I detour these objectives most of the time. There’s a Monthly check-in scheduled for 2:00 PM, but I’d rather do something else.” Kovac’s pivot almost shocks you, but there’s no other choice. You can’t pull back and gape now. 

“What do you suggest, Sir?” You ask, anticipating. 

“Lunch this afternoon between you and me. I know a restaurant located just near the shore. Y/N, clear my schedule for the rest of the day and email Bancroft as a warning.” Kovacs nearly smiles, but the expression is so faint, you almost miss it. 

“Yes, Sir.” You almost stammer, but catch yourself and fall right back into work mode, eyeing the clock as if not doing so would’ve scared Kovacs out of this room. 

At least it was Friday. You think to yourself. 

#altered carbon au #au fanfiction #modern au #ceo au #joel kinnaman fanfiction #joel kinnaman #takeshi kovacs x reader #takeshi kovacs #au fic #au #reader insert #new story idea

[krispyweiss]

The Best of Live Music 2018

Another year is coming to a close and with it, another year of wonderful - and a few not-so-wonderful - live-music experiences.

In an effort to accentuate the positive, Sound Bites is devoting this space - and many column inches of copy - to review excerpts from his favorite concerts of 2018. They’re grouped is as good an order as he could come up with in categories of A+, A and A-; shows of B+ and below didn’t make the, uh, grade.

The numbers in parentheses indicate the number of times Sound Bites has been privileged to see the artist in question.

A+

I’m With Her (3) at Southern Theatre, Columbus, Ohio, Nov. 5: Though I'm With Her are incomparable, the closest thing might be Crosby, Stills and Nash, if that group ditched the rock 'n' roll and managed to stay on key always. Their version of John Hiatt's "Crossing Muddy Waters" is to Hiatt as CSN's "Blackbrid is to the Beatles - an improvement on what’s already essentially perfect. There really are no words to describe the intensity of their performances, which have been on a steady uphill climb on their three Ohio appearances in the past 15 months, even though their first of those, in Cincinnati, seemed impossible to improve upon.

I’m With Her (2) at Memorial Hall OTR, Cincinnati, Ohio, March 5: Even if it’s 100 degrees, sweaters or jackets should be required at any I’m With Her concert, because Sara Watkins, Sarah Jarosz and Aoife O’Donovan’ll send shivers up and down concertgoers’ spines. Take any superlative modified by any adverb, and you still couldn’t adequately describe the quality of this concert.

Rhiannon Giddens (2) at Memorial Hall OTR, Cincinnati, Ohio, May 20: Barefooted in a yellow, floor-length skirt and a black blazer, with playful splashes of red dye in her black hair, Giddens sawed her fiddle and clawed at her banjo for about half the evening and spent the reminder of her time onstage using her greatest instrument - her expressive voice. Jumping, punching the air to accentuate notes, losing herself in the music with her eyes up in her thrown-back head, Giddens was entranced by the music and cast the same spell on the audience. Part opera singer, part jazzy chanteuse, part Southern wailer, part preacher, Giddens is a nearly supernatural force - like a once-in-a-century storm of music - the rare vocalist who spends entire concerts spitting out notes most singers would be happy to hit once a night.

Magic Dick and Shun Ng with Acoustic Hot Tuna (8) at Jorma Kaukonen's Fur Peace Ranch, Pomeroy, Ohio, Nov. 10: It's too bad Fur Peace Ranch doesn't have a marquee because seeing the billing of Magic Dick and Hot Tuna in lights would've been priceless. As it went, hearing the former J. Giles Bard harp player paired with virtuosic, wonder-kid guitarist Shun Ng headlining over Acoustic Hot Tuna was also priceless, as the top of the bill put on one of those impossible-to-believe concerts and Hot Tuna were their typically terrific selves during their warm-up slot on a cold, frost-filled Nov. 10 concert in Pomeroy.

An Exclusive Evening with Jorma Kaukonen (5) at Gramercy Books, Bexley, Ohio, Nov. 15: Jorma Kaukonen answered questions, read from his new memoir and played a few tunes when he held court in front of 60 devotees inside Bexley's Gramercy Books. The guitarist's only bookstore stop on his tour to promote "Been So Long: My Life and Music" was billed as “An Exclusive Evening with Jorma Kaukonen” and found the Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna co-founder perched on a barstool taking questions from former Rock and Roll Hall of Fame chair and Zeppelin Productions founder Alec Wightman and the audience; reading from the book; and showing off his unique picking style on chestnuts such as the Airplane's "Embryonic Journey" and the "trad." "How Long Blues."

A

Outlaw Music Festival feat. Willie Nelson (12) and Family, Van Morrison (4), Tedeschi Trucks Band (8), Sturgill Simpson, Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real (2) and Particle Kid (2) at Hersheypark Stadium, Hershey, Penn., Sept. 8: Though he's absolutely earned the right, Willie Nelson probably shouldn't follow Van Morrison and the Tedeschi Trucks Band. He followed an uncharacteristically jovial Morrison, who, dressed in his trademark dark suit, fedora and shades visited many corners of his storied songbook in a generous, 90-minute set. Meanwhile, the 12-piece Tedeschi Trucks band slayed the smallish audience in the cavernous stadium. And Sturgill Simpson played a jaw-dropping, 80-minute concert that was boiling stew of blues-based rock with the faintest hint of outlaw spice.

John Prine (2) at Ohio Theatre, Columbus, Ohio, Sept. 28: John Prine and his four-piece band played a career-spanning, genre-bending, tear-jerking, joke-telling show that found them running through all of this year's The Tree of Forgiveness - but not in sequence - along with many of the best tracks from Prine's songbook.

The Del McCoury Band (3) at Sugarloaf Mountain Amphitheatre, Chillicothe, Ohio, July 8: Despite fronting and giving ample spotlight time to his band, Del McCoury was the obvious star of this show, his acoustic guitar cutting through the music every time such a riff was necessary, and his voice hitting high notes most men can’t reach in their 30s let alone on the cusp of their 80s. He was in a playful mood and granted so many requests, he good-naturedly stumbled over lyrics to long-dormant tracks such as “40 Acres and a Fool” and “Blackjack County Chains.”

Huffamoose (2) at Ardmore Music Hall, Ardmore, Pa., Nov. 24: At the Ardmore, the Philadelphia-based Huffamoose played a triumphant, 17-song, 105-minute set just outside its hometown that featured cuts culled from its four LPs - its long-out-of-print, self-titled debut (on the local 7 label) and ’97’s We’ve Been Had Again along with the two most recent ones - and demonstrated that although much has changed, much has remained the same. This was the rare comeback concert where the words “we’re gonna do a new one” weren’t bad news.

David Byrne at Rose Music Center at the Heights, Huber Heights, Ohio, Aug. 11: Whether David Byrne is a simpleton masquerading as a genius, or - more likely - an intellectual hiding behind inane lyrics, the former Talking Heads frontman is nevertheless quite impossible to figure out even after 40 years of pouring himself out with his music. And Byrne is perhaps the only musician who can sing about donkey dicks (“Every Day is a Miracle”) and “Toe Jam” and somehow not come off as a cretinous moron.

Taj Mahal (5) Trio at Thirty One West, Newark, Ohio, Sept. 22: Playing a resonator guitar and with his solidly in-the-pocket rhythm section - the Taj Mahal Trio, ladies and gentlemen - right with him, Mahal got things going with a double greeting of sorts, playing rock-infused versions of "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl" and "Good Morning Miss Brown" back to back. These set the tone for an uproarious evening of song in which Mahal played the blues on his banjo and hollow-bodied electric guitar, played reggae on his ukulele, played folk on his resonator, played boogie-woogie on his piano and played rock 'n' roll on his acoustic guitar.

James Taylor (12) & His All-Star Band with Bonnie Raitt (2) at Schottenstein Center, Columbus, Ohio, June 30: It’s not only Taylor’s catalog, but his presentation, that keeps fans coming back decade after decade. Not only does he switch up songs from tour to tour, he also tinkers with arrangements to keep things fresh. Raitt’s show would’ve been disappointing as a stand-alone concert. But as an entree to Taylor’s portion, it fit nicely.

Toubab Krewe (2) at Thirty One West, Newark, Ohio, Nov. 26: The five-man rhythm section known as Toubab Krewe took concertgoers on an aural journey that lifted off from Newark and went 'round the world during a stupendous, all-instrumental concert inside Thirty One West. It takes serious chops and exceptional song craft to hold an audience's attention for two solid hours while never singing a word. Toubab Krewe have both and both were in full flight Nov. 26 in Newark.

Dead & Company (7) at Blossom Music Center, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, June 20: If Dead & Company wanted to prove something with their 100th show, they did. They proved that they are finally & truly a band - a band capable of putting together complete, knockout shows, rather than throwing a few solid punches surrounded by the musical equivalent of rope-a-dope.

Alison Krauss (4) at Fraze Pavilion, Kettering, Ohio, June 15: If the term Americana means anything, Alison Krauss is defining it on her solo tour in support of Windy City, on which she and her seven-piece band touch on virtually every type of music a group could possibly cram in to 90 minutes of stage time. Throughout the evening, Krauss accentuated the music with clipped chords and short runs on her fiddle. Though she was clearly the star, she happily allowed her bandmates to shine just as brightly as she did and seemed genuinely flattered to have each of them along for the ride.

Marty Stuart & His Fabulous Superlatives at Memorial Hall OTR, Cincinnati, Ohio, March 30: Stuart and the Fab Supers were terrific. Ostensibly a country band, they’re equally adept at playing rock ‘n’ roll, rockabilly, surf music, honky tonk, folk and bluegrass and did all that and more exceedingly well for a near-sell-out crowd that was as energized as the music itself.

Steep Canyon Rangers (7) at Midland Theatre, Newark, Ohio, Feb. 2: The Rangers spent two generous hours running through tracks new and old in a concert that ended with an enthusiastic standing ovation that caused guitarist Woody Platt to suggest we all follow them to the next gig in Chicago.

The Avett Brothers (2) at Fraze Pavilion, Kettering, Ohio, Aug. 14: The Avetts made Sound Bites cry as band donned at least 10 musical guises over the course of its staggering, two-hour, 10-minute show. From the first note in daylight at 8 p.m. sharp to the final bows in darkness, shortly after 10, the audience was on its collective feet, singing along to nearly every word, as the band held them rapt with its eclectic mix of county, folk, classical, rock and even a bit of prog that featured cello solos, bowed bass, rhythm banjo, piano-cello duets, screeching guitars and lengthy pieces that featured piano and organ a la the Band.

Larry Campbell & Teresa Williams (3) at Woodlands Tavern, Columbus, Ohio, Feb. 28: The couple set the standard early, opening with the Carter Family’s “You’ve Got to Righten that Wrong” before moving into their own “Surrender to Love.” Historical and contemporary. Universal and personal. It was a pattern that would continue all evening as Campbell on guitar, mandolin and fiddle, laid down a bed for the pair’s luxurious harmonies and Williams’ occasional rhythm guitar and shakers and made Sound Bites wonder yet again why Larry Campbell & Teresa Williams are playing bars to scores of fans instead of playing arenas to thousands.

Phil Lesh & Friends (14), Hawaii Theatre, Honolulu, Hawaii, Dec, 31, 2017: This show counts because one-third of it took place on Jan. 1, 2018, and because it was the best Dead-related concert Mr. and Mrs. Sound Bites had seen in ages as Lesh covered not only his former band, but Funkadelic, the Band, Velvet Underground and others.

Los Lobos (17) at Rose Music Center at the Heights, Huber Heights, Ohio, Aug. 7: Los Lobos are so hot, they can parlay a short-handed opening set into a standing ovation from a half-full house of George Thorogood partisans, who found themselves cheering the band from East L.A. as if they were the second coming of the Destroyers.

Richie Furay at Natalie’s Coal Fired Pizza and Live Music, Worthington, Ohio, Aug. 12: Richie Furay - best known as the Buffalo Springfield vocalist/guitarist not named Stephen Stills or Neil Young - plumbed the Springfield, Poco and Souther-Hillman-Furay Band songbooks during an acoustic set that followed an afternoon show earlier in the day. Daughter Jesse Lynch joined Dad on vocals and tambourine on all but the opening salvo of Poco’s “Pickin’ up the Pieces” and Springfield’s “Sad Memory.” At 74, Furay looks and sounds 20 years younger with a full head of salt-and-pepper hair, a life of clean living on his face and a voice that still shows why producers tapped him to sing Young’s songs with Springfield.

Todd Rundgren’s (37) Utopia (3) at Taft Theatre, Cincinnati, Ohio, May 10: Just as Utopia was essentially two bands, this was essentially two shows. Billed as Todd Rundgren’s Utopia, but featuring a four-piece reminiscent of the group that emerged after Rundgren’s proggy big band dissolved, the quartet of Rundgren, bassist/guitarist Kasim Sulton, drummer Willie Wilcox and last-minute replacement keyboardist Gil Assayas (who stepped in for the ailing Ralph Schuckett, who stepped in for the ailing Roger Powell), powered through a nostalgic - material ranged from 1972 to 1985 - 130-minute concert that served as a musical way-back machine for the Utopians in the two-thirds filled house. The arc of the band’s diverse songbook was on full display and as amazing as ever.

Todd Snider (10) at Stuart’s Opera House, Nelsonville, Ohio, June 22: An 80-minute, solo-acoustic performance that was both musically and comedically pleasing, as Snider combined his insightful numbers - and a few choice covers - with split-your-sides-open stories that often appeared mid-song but somehow didn’t interrupt the flow.

Elizabeth Cook (3) at Thirty One West, Newark, Ohio, May 16: Over the 80-minute solo set, Cook - who popped cough drops because of a cold but sounded healthy - mostly eschewed heartrending numbers like “I’m Not Lisa” and instead sung of an ex-husband who preferred beer cans to her can on “Yes to Booty;” the alcohol-fueled atmosphere she grew up around on “Stanley By God Terry;” recovery on “Methadone Blues;” and resilience on “Sometimes It Takes Balls to be a Woman.”

Cheryl Wheeler at King Arts Complex, Columbus, Ohio, March 24: Cheryl Wheeler was at turns funny, tender and socially conscious - but mostly funny - always folksy and 100-percent entertaining. We laughed - so hard we cried. And we looked forward to the next Cheryl Wheeler concert and the opportunity to hear the things we missed while doubled over in hysterics.

Los Lobos (16), Memorial Hall OTR, Cincinnati, Ohio, Jan. 25: Missing bassist Conrad Lozano, who was replaced, and multi-instrumentalist Steve Berlin, who was not, Los Lobos played an aggressive, one-set show that immediately erased any disappointment the absences might have caused.

Bettye LaVette at Jorma Kaukonen's Fur Peace Ranch, Pomeroy, Ohio, Oct. 13: Bettye LaVette was backed by guitar, bass, drums and keys/piano as she explored 12 back pages from all eras of Bob Dylan's songbook, from protest anthems to Christian declarations of faith, from well-known numbers to obscurities written between the 1960s and the 21st century. Indeed, the only person who might have rearranged these songs more radically than LaVette is Dylan himself.

Jorma Kaukonen (3) At Natalie’s Coal Fired Pizza & Live Music, Worthington, Ohio, June 13 (Early Show): There’s something refreshing about the way Jorma Kaukonen refuses to cash in on his legacy as a founder of the famed San Francisco sound with the Airplane. And as he played and sang his grizzled blues like a man walking the Mississippi Delta in the first part of the 20th century, it was again clear that Kaukonen chose the right path.

A-

Elton John (3) at Schottenstein Center, Columbus, Ohio, Nov. 2: If Elton John is really going to quit touring when his current trek ends - in 2021 - he’s going out in top form. From the first, teasing note of “Bennie and the Jets,” to the final, lingering sounds of “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” the musicians tinkered with arrangements just enough to keep things interesting for people who know these songs as well as they know anything. And if this is really farewell - and if "Yellow Brick Road" is really the last song 18,000 Columbus residents will ever hear John play live - it's a fond one.

Tedeschi Trucks Band (9) at Palace Theatre, Columbus, Ohio, Nov. 9: The 12-piece band begun its "An Evening With" show just after 8 p.m. with a 55-minute opening set that set the table for what came later. Singer Mike Mattison wailed the blues and crooned jazz when he joined Susan Tedeschi on incendiary renditions of "Key to the Highway" and "Right on Time," the front woman got introspective on Bob Dylan's "Going, Going, Gone" and the group wound up powering through yet another spell-binding concert of originals and covers that spanned the past 100 years of music and its myriad styles.

Todd Rundgren (38) at Express Live!, Columbus, Ohio, Sept. 12: Always unpredictable, Todd Rundgren is even more so when he tours as Unpredictable. On these occasions, he and his long-time band - guitarist Jesse Gress; former Tubes drummer Prairie Prince; Utopia bassist Kasim Sulton; and keyboardist Greg Hawkes of the Cars - work off a list of several dozen original and cover songs and play the ones that strike Rundgren's fancy on that particular evening. And on this night, the result was a wildly diverse, two-hour set of songs that bounced around nearly as much as Rundgren’s career itself.

Bruce Hornsby (9) & the Noisemakers at Columbus Commons, Columbus, Ohio, Aug. 24: Hornsby and his current band channeled the pianist's former band, the Grateful Dead, and their taking-the-music-for-a-walk ethos. Stretching it out is a way of life for Hornsby & Noisemakers, who played just 16 songs in 130 minutes.

Roger Daltrey Performs the Who’s Tommy at Fraze Pavilion, Kettering, Ohio, July 2: On a stage packed full of musicians, Daltrey, the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra and members of the Who’s touring band played Tommy front to back. And they played the shit out of it. The Philharmonic was a fully integrated part of the show, kicking off the concert with “Overture” as it’s always been meant to be heard; turning “Tommy Can You Hear Me” into a whimsical pops-concert moment; adding welcome flourishes to “Sally Simpson;” and filling “We’re Not Gonna Take It” with majesty.

Peter Rowan’s (2) Twang an’ Groove at Jorma Kaukonen’s Fur Peace Ranch, Pomeroy, Ohio, June 16: Once one of Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Boys, a co-founder of Old & In the Way and author of classics including “Midnight Moonlight” and New Riders of the Purple Sage’s signature song, “Panama Red,” both of which were played toward the tail end of Set Two, Peter Rowan has been a part of some of bluegrass’ most-important 20th-century moments. He’ll be 76 on the Fourth of July, but his hands are still supple, his voice still able to climb to high-and-lonesome heights with his yodel intact, as his version of Jimmie Rodgers’ “Blue Yodel No. 3” demonstrated.

Dead & Company (6) at Riverbend Music Center, Cincinnati, Ohio, June 4, 2018: Anyone looking to understand why Dead Heads keep going back to see former Grateful Dead members year after year, decade after decade, needn’t look any farther than Dead & Company’s June 4 performance in Cincinnati. It was - by far, and until June 20 - the best of the half-dozen Dead & Company concerts Sound Bites has attended since the group came together in 2015.

Steve Kimock (3) & Friends at Ardmore Music Hall, Ardmore, Pa., Nov. 23: “Were gonna sort of front-porch our way in to this,” Steve Kimock said as he and his Friends took the stage and cooked up an ethereal, post-Thanksgiving stew that slowly bubbled into the one-off band’s - which came together for a special Black Friday performance in the City of Brotherly Love - opening number, KIMOCK’s “Careless Love.” It was a show that satisfied like a second helping of turkey.

David Crosby & Friends (2) at Kent Stage, Kent Ohio, Nov. 28: David Crosby, Michael League, Becca Stevens and Michelle Willis came into Kent and over the course of an hour-and-40-minute performance proved themselves a top-tier acoustic/harmony group that, with the right setlist, could be a salve for those still mourning the loss of Crosby, Stills and Nash. But with only a few exceptions - excellent exceptions but too few nonetheless - the quartet stuck with 21st-century material, resulting in a concert that consisted of near-perfect execution of fair to very good songs.

Steve Earle (3) & the Dukes (2) at Newport Music Hall, Columbus, Ohio, June 10: Steve Earle is like an outlaw version of Bruce Springsteen, singing everyman songs with a left-wing political bent that’s sometimes so subtle, people will miss it if they’re not playing close attention. Also like Springsteen, Earle finds himself in the midst of a late-career renaissance, as a triad of fire-breathing tracks from 2017’s So You Wannabe an Outlaw were among the highlights of a career-spanning set that opened with a full performance of 1988’s Copperhead Road.

Hubby Jenkins at Jorma Kaukonen's Fur Peace Ranch, Pomeroy, Ohio, Oct. 20: This was a fascinating concert - musically, spiritually and intellectually. Prior to taking his audience to church in a gospel-heavy second set, Hubby Jenkins took them to school, using his brief, 45-minute first set to educate concertgoers not only about the African origins of the banjo he was playing but the evolution of African-American culture and stereotypes via slavery, the Black Codes and Jim Crow and the minstrel tradition.

An Acoustic Evening with Lyle Lovett (3) & Shawn Colvin (2) at Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium, Athens, Ohio, March 21: It was one-third Lyle Lovett, one-third Shawn Colvin and one-third the Lovett-Colvin comedy hour. Together, the three-thirds equaled an evening of well-rounded entertainment.

12/27/18

#im with her #carolina chocolate drops #hot tuna #magic dick #outlaw music festival #john prine #grateful dead #steep canyon rangers #del mccoury #huffamoose #marty stuart and his fabulous superlatives #david byrne #taj mahal #james taylor #toubab krewe #alison krauss and union station #the avett brothers #los lobos #larry campbell & teresa williams #richie furay #todd rundgren #todd snider #elizabeth cook #cheryl wheeler #bettye lavette #elton john #tedeschi trucks band #bruce hornsby and the noisemakers #the who #peter rowan

[mondofunnybooks]

MONDO FUNNYBOOKS; HITLER, BREXIT THE COMIC ,WEIRD INDIAN GAY PORN AND SADDAM HUSSEIN ON AN OSTRICH!

There was a time where comic creators worked to cause up a stink. Keith Giffen shot a comic (We're still after one, please, Dave or anyone else who worked for Blackball.) Kevin Maguire made ALL of Steve Rogers embossed. Spawn shipped 2 issues out of order. Lobo punched God in the face. Kyle Rayner became a Green Lantern. Barry Windsor Smith said some of the early Image Comics were a bit rubbish while promoting his new book 'Storyteller'. Youngblood: Year One would feature fully painted art by Rob Liefeld, akin to just released hit 'Marvels', featuring painted art by Alex Ross. Tom DeFalco famously declared his new ongoing from Marvel, 'Sleepwalker', would be 'Sandman' done right.

Copies of Sleepwalker are usually found in cheap bins across the Western hemisphere so feel free to judge for yourself how successful he was with that.

But for our money, nobody stirred up trouble like Gregarious Grant Morrison. His interview alongside Mark Millar with Comics World to promote their upcoming mini-series 'Skrull Kill Krew' remains one of the funniest moments of 'What a load of old bollocks this is!' vindictiveness since John Buscema told everyone in his art class to swipe since 'this stuff ain't going in the Lourve, pal.' Some of the less informed American hype rags attempted to suggest that SKK was the natural sequel to Zenith since it would see Morrison reunite with his partner in crime: Steve Yeowell.

Which either means they didn't know, or thought it wiser not to mention a strip that ran in Crisis circa 1990 called 'New Adventures Of Hitler'.

We'll come back to Crisis in more depth because it's probably the answer to the question a lot of the UK retailers are asking at the moment: How do we get people reading comics again. Crisis or something like it would be a good attempt, featuring a ton of original strips in a format that didn't suggest it ought to be stocked amongst a bunch of plastic bags full of toys and a magazine. Crisis also featured two of our favourite stories: 'Dare' which finished off from the sadly cancelled Revolver (Again, more another time.) as created by Grant and Rian Hughes and 'Trip To Tulum'. Which oddly was the only way to find the English translation of the collaboration by Milo Manara and Federico Fellini for quite a long time. God knows how they even got that in the first place.

NAH featured in issues 46-49 and surprised a few newsagents opening their delivery at 5am across the UK when confronted with 'Mr Hitler's Holiday', featuring your man from The Third on a bike against a dirty lurid purple cover. NAH concerned itself with Adolf taking a trip to Liverpool from 1912-1913 and learning a few tricks about fascism from the English while reality warps itself silly around the wee lad. Morrisey shows up singing 'Heaven Knows i'm Miserable Now'. A bunch of randoms begin chanting 'Hitler Has Only Got One Ball' on a bus he's on leaving the future Fuhrer mystified and mortified.

'NAH' originally ran in something called 'Cut' magazine but one of the editors, also someone from a band called 'Hue & Cry' having a strop so either 'Cut' itself stopped or at least stopped running the story. In any event, it migrated over to Crisis. It's rather excellent and while we don't know who owns the rights to it, it's one of those things that really ought to be in print.

Speaking of which......

Those more in the know will have to explain it to us, because the common answer is 'Because Grant and Mark aren't friends anymore.' and we're not sure that's how book publishing works, but the question is obviously 'Why isn't Big Dave in print?' If ANY comic were a timely insight into the mindset of the Brexit voting population of the UK, 'Big Dave' prophetically nails it like a time bullet fired from 1993. Essentially a high budget Viz strip beautifully pencilled by Steve Parkhouse, BD is a series of increasing ludricious adventures featuring that wide necked bloke in an England shirt with a bulldog tattooed to his forehead you see every St George's Day with a copy of The Sun in his back packet. It is ludicriously sexist, homophobic, racist and pro-monarchy.

Or at least the character is. Quite a few people seemed to confuse 'the portrayal of an attitude' with 'the glorfication of same attitude'. 2000AD apparently getting a bit narky if you bring this not being in print up. Frankly, if you don't find Dave having a threesome with Princess Di and Sarah Ferguson funny, you're probably reading the wrong column. We'd like to see this back in print. And please, please do not feel compelled to update this strip the same way 'DR & Quinch' was earlier this year. We'll stick that little relaunch in the same bin as the 'Femme Fatales/What if our artists swiped from Loaded and stuck some 2000AD related costumes on the art.' supplement from 1994, aye?

Finally, we go from the unreprintable to the never even published and perhaps not even written!

Unless somebody does something incredible, we will probably go to our graves saying that 'Kill Your Boyfriend' by Morrison & Bond is the best single story in comics ever published. This, before old men start getting heart attacks, does not include long form series, mini-series, single graphic novels, cartoon strips, etc. In terms of a story that starts, continues and ends in one issue with no knowledge of any other comic ever published, KYB is it. It brings up and destroys the notion of the personality as anything other than a series of reactions to various traumas and conditioning far faster than 'The Dice Man' does and with much funnier results. It could be read as the documentation of how a good acid trip will crack the inner monologue of the ego and set your inner self free, if you were of such a mind. It's certainly one of the best things Vertigo ever did.

'KYB' was part of a line called 'Vertigo Voices' published in 1995. The other books were 'Faces' by Pete 'Shade' The Changing Man'* Milligan and Duncan 'Oh, all the good things' Fegredo a book about why is plastic surgery and what does it say about us that we've conditioned ourselves to believe that there is such a thing as an imperfect face. Also 'Tainted' by Delano and Davidson (we've not read it, but the line up is well sound) and another book that we'll come back to in a bit but what's relevant here is that there was meant to be another comic in this line.

That comic would have been 'Bizarre Boys' by Grant Morrison, Pete Milligan and Jamie Hewlett.

The legend is that a suitably refreshed Grant and Pete were out in India and were looking around at various stalls filled with magazines, amidst the chaos the publication 'Bizarre Boys' caught their eye and was so outlandish (we're not Googling it, but nor are we stopping you from doing so.) that they committed right there to sell a comic with the same title to Vertigo. It got as far as being previewed in Spin Nov 1994 along with talk of an Invisibles TV Show (and come on. PLEASE. Netflix has cleared the deck of all the boring Marvel Superhero things so now is the PERFECT time for the adventures of Lord Fanny And The Other Ones.) but somewhere along the line it simply dropped from the publication schedule with no word of why, although as the comic was to be a fictional biography of Milligan and Morrison's alter egos, it's suggested that they were too busy living the life to settle down long enough to document.

We'd have to make the point that an oral account of the Vertigo offices circa 1994-1996 as spoken by Pete and Grant while drawn by Jamie would be a far more interesting thing to bring us back to the shops for new comics than, well, Tank Girl or Green Lantern.

The following pitch ran as part of The Time Is Now: DC Comics' Editorial Presentation 1994.

'Here's the solicitation copy for Bizarre Boys, which ran as part of The VERTIGO does what it does best in VERTIGO VOICES - a new umbrella title for four distinctive one-shots - where four of VERTIGO's most creatively deranged writers give voice to their most outrageous, gripping and graphic imaginings. Each "VOICE" delivers its own sound, in turn hyperreal, darkly disturbing, irreverent, and biting. FACE is the first "VOICE" to be heard, followed by KILL YOUR BOYFRIEND, and closing with BIZARRE BOYS. These are stories with sounds all their own, tearing a jagged rip through reality.

BIZARRE BOYS, VERTIGO VOICES' most irreverent title, is a story within a story within a story. It's about some fictional characters called the Bizarre Boys, and about the writers who write them and about the writers who are writing about the writers... There are two voices telling the tale of BIZARRE BOYS, and they don't agree with each other at all.

BIZARRE BOYS is a comic about a comic and about the process of putting together a comic. It's a sparkling tapestry of post-modernism and a fast- moving breathless chase across time and space.

It all takes place - naturally - on Bizarre Boys Day, when writers Peter Milligan (SHADE, THE CHANGING MAN) and Grant Morrison (THE INVISIBLES) join forces with artist Jamie Hewlett (SHADE, THE CHANGING MAN, Tank Girl) to tell the tale of two writers called Millison and Morrigan, and their fabulous creations, The Bizarre Boys. Echoing James Joyce's Bloomsday, whatever events happen on Bizarre Boys Day also happen in the comic.

As the two writers begin their quest for the fantastic Bizarre Boys, whose sweat contains miraculous healing and hallucinogenic properties, these latter-day Brothers Grimm weave some dissolute modern fairy tales, take the wraps off the creative process itself, and tell a joke or three.'

We're told by inside sources that elements of 'Bizarre Boys' ran in the final book of The Vertigo Voices line: 'The Eaters' as drawn by Dean Ormston and Pete Milligan.

And that's us for now. What do YOU think? Should these projects remain in the dustbin of FunnyBook History? Maybe Kickstarters, er, started to try and release them as independent books (Lord knows if Cyberfrog can be a thing again, then...) Amazon have begun publishing comics directly from creators like Kyle Baker and Rick Veitch, which could sidestep the whole 'Comics are for kids so why is this in Sainsbury's!?' furor all over again. Image has put out some fairly anondyne nonsense lately and could do with something like this in their line-up. Let us know in the comments and as ever we'll see you in The FunnyPages.

(Big Dave ran as part of 2000AD's 'Summer Offensive' in 1993, some of the most fun the Progs have ever been. Big Dave features in the following issues*:)

"Target Baghdad" (with Steve Parkhouse, in 2000 AD #842–845, 1993) "Monarchy in the UK" (with Steve Parkhouse, in 2000 AD #846–849, 1993) "Young Dave" (with Steve Parkhouse, in 2000AD Yearbook 1994, 1993) "Costa del Chaos" (with Anthony Williams, in 2000 AD #869–872, 1994) "Wotta Lotta Balls" (with Steve Parkhouse, in 2000 AD #904–907, 1994)

*according to Wiki, anyway.

'New Adventures Of Hitler' can be found in Crisis: #46 - 49.

#Grant Morrison #Mark Millar #2000AD #New Adventures Of Hitler #Crisis #Skrull Kill Krew #Zenith #Vertigo #Steve Parkhouse #Phillip Bond #Steve Yeowell #DC #Jamie Hewlett

[walterh00952299-blog]

Struggle From The Tv Sirens! The Ladies Of Television Dazzle On The Welcome Mat.

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[krewe-yukii]

*holds open the floodgates to let all the info out*

HEY!!!!! What's the differences between our space and tyrian space? Also, what advancements in space study have been/are being achieved by your krewe?

@mystery-salad

deep breath

ok so, there's one MAJOR difference here: Tyrian stars have completely different life cycles, and are legitimately useful for augury.

Firstly, the night sky evolves much, much faster than it does in real life, and that's why constellations are all named in modern language. There's no "Cuspis" but there is a "Siege Devourer," and I posit that this is because the stars change position (or existence status) relatively quickly, so ancient constellations simply don't exist anymore. I feel justified in saying this, mostly due to the fact that Elder Dragons form new stars when they appear, and also it's just really odd to not have any Old Names for constellations.

For the second point, the Canthans in GW1 did divination with the positions of the stars (and planets, see note below), as did the Jotunn, and some Norn culture as well (if memory serves).

Tyria does, in fact, have an inclined axis of rotation. The different lengths of day and night in core maps, combined with the equal lengths in Cantha, imply this directly.

There are other planets (almost certainly discovered by the Jotunn before their fall, given the massive telescope found in the Jotunn path in Arah).

The following are pure headcanon with zero base in canon, though it's all perfectly compatible.

Tyria has two moons, the large one we see in-game being named Tungl and a much smaller, nearly too-dark-to-see named Flakkari.

The sun is named Ljos, but is near-identical to Earth's Sol.

Current S.P.A.C.E. Krewe projects:

Our optical observatory is quite good due to Kanni's optical expertise and Cidda's specialty in high-detail photography, so we'll have good imagery of those other planets I mentioned, and I'll have an excuse to build up the entire Ljosian system.

Yukii is pioneering the field of radio astronomy (my real-life job), and Leppa is currently using that equipment to perform a survey of deep sky objects. There's some weird stuff out there in real life, and who knows what she'll find in this universe?

Nixxi and Takka are working on launch vehicles to officially start the space exploration process. Satellites fitted with optical cameras and other sensors will revolutionize cartography, geology, and navigation, once we get the rockets working.

Kovvi's current project involves extreme-range wireless data transmission, including images and live voice. This will initially be used in conjunction with the satellites, but will eventually result in things like long-range encrypted communication devices becoming much cheaper to produce.

There's lots I'm forgetting but it'll come up eventually I'm sure 😅 Thank you so much for asking about this aa

#SPACE krewe essential reading #Kanni #Cidda #Yukii #Leppa #Nixxi #Takka #Kovvi

[krewe-yukii]

I thought of a fun scene while trying to sleep last night and felt like writing it out. Nice and short, but it’s a good read if you want more insight on Yukii, Eviia, or Sakki’s personalities :3

Yukii leaned back in her wicker chair as she scrolled through the dense document on her datapad. The sunset felt warm on her face, streaming through the clouds to the balcony of her coworker’s apartment. “This… seems low,” she said, squinting at the screen.

“Business negotiations are one of my many specialties.” Eviia, the apartment’s owner, spoke without turning away from the balcony’s edge. The view of Ljos setting over the ocean was the only reason she felt regret over the planned move to Kryta, and she wanted to soak in the sight while she still could. She sighed. “I did have to commit to a longer lease to get the lower rate, but-”

“But you know our construction plans and don’t expect another move any time soon?”

“Exactly.”

Yukii chuckled. “Once we get that antenna built, we’ll be stuck there for a while.” She reached the end of the document and set the tablet down on the small glass table in front of her. Eviia turned her head to Yukii, still leaning on the railing.

“Stuck? It’s not like you to talk like that.”

“It was a joke, Eviia.”

“Ah.” She turned back to the ocean view. A faint beep played from inside the apartment, and the balcony door slowly opened. “Sakki. Nice to see you using the door for once.”

The new arrival stopped mid-step, halfway across the threshold. “I got tired of your downstairs neighbors always yelling at me for climbing on their railings!” Eviia could hear the pout on Sakki’s face.

“And?”

“And I don’t want to have to pay to replace their windowsill again.” She paused, noting Yukii’s confused expression. “How was I supposed to know that thing was held on with tape?”

Yukii laughed, stood up, and pulled Sakki in for a hug. “You’ll have to tell me that story later tonight, Novachaser.” The last word was spoken in a teasing tone, through a smile. Sakki pulled away and pumped her fist in excitement.

“Does that mean we got approved? Please please please tell me we got approved, I’m tired of our tiny office!”

Eviia picked the datapad up off the table and held it out for Sakki. “We did. With quite a large grant and a low lease on the facility grounds, might I add.” She paused and waited for Sakki to take the tablet. She did so, scrolled through until finding the relevant numbers, and whistled.

“Dang, you weren’t kidding. We might actually be able to build that dish our fearless leader keeps talking about!”

“Is that why you let me have the krewe chief title? To call me that?” Yukii put on a show of being hurt, but Sakki knew she was just teasing.

“Nah, I just hate the paperwork. You two are so much better at it than me anyway -”

Eviia cut her off there. “You’re a division leader, Sakki. That means paperwork for you too.” 

“I’ve got plans, don’t worry about that.”

“I wasn’t worried before, but I am now.”

#SPACE krewe essential reading #Yukii #Eviia #Sakki

[krewe-yukii]

if you'd like, have 6, 11, 26, and 42 for kriisa! :D @kerra-and-company

6. Do they consider laws flexible, or immovable?

That depends on what laws you're asking about! Laws of physics: true, concrete facts, and we must do our best to work within them. Laws of magic: more like guidelines, really. The laws of magic say nothing about the energy density of leystone but we're using it anyway, y'know? Just gotta be careful. Laws of man and beast: she likes the common sense, protecting people and safety kind of laws. Ultimately she is very aware that they're made up, but doesn't think she can do meaningful work from prison.

11. How do they cope with confusion (seek clarification, pretend they understand, etc)?

Confusion at work: Kriisa calls meetings, a lot, since her division is mostly sitting on their hands right now. Vehicle safety is far too unreliable for her to risk personnel on missions, so they're working on contracts of a terrestrial nature to keep themselves busy, and Kriisa's specialty is aerospace. In particular, she doesn't quite get how (ocean)ships are meant to be designed. Meetings are her way of getting the right people in the room who aren't confused. Confusion outside of work: you'd never know she didn't understand. She's got a particular way of asking questions that sounds like "clarifying a point" but are really "run that by me again please."

26. What is their preferred mode of transportation?

Kriisa lives in the Foundation campus, so doesn't particularly need transportation very often. She uses the gates to get anywhere when she's required at another facility, but if time wasn't an issue, her favorite transportation method is absolutely airships. Her work on airship safety systems is what got her into this krewe, after all. It's a passion 💞

42. How badly do they want to reach their end goal?

Alchemy, she wants to put someone into orbit so bad. But, first, the launch vehicles need to stop exploding and the fuel systems need to become more efficient and the engines need to produce more delta-V and the unmanned team needs to figure out how orbits work in theory and the engineering team needs to figure out how orbits work in practice and she really really REALLY doesn't want to have the first krewe casualty on her hands. Krewe safety is far above all other priorities, despite her desire.

Skydriver Kriisa was my second character ever, way back in September of 2012. We go back a ways, and she's had her outfit changed... twice? since then, and her environment and context are way different now, but she's always been... her. Love this lady to the end of Tyria and back, thank you so much for asking about her 💞💞💞

#kriisa #SPACE krewe essential reading

[krewe-yukii]

12, 19, and 32 for Eviia!

@mystery-salad

12. How do they deal with an itch found in a place they can’t quite reach?

Eviia keeps one of those Executive Backscratchers in her office at all times. If Sharper Image existed in Tyria, she'd have all of their corporate junk (purchased from her own salary, of course.) Other notable trinkets include a Neutonn's Cradle and one of those levitating globes made of laser-engraved stainless steel. The globe was a gift from Takka's team (that they made in-house) as thanks for dealing with all of their extraneous purchase requests.

19. What is their favorite number?

First place is Zero, because it means the budget is balanced perfectly :) But a close second is 1328, the year that the Foreign Soil Research Act was enacted by the Arcane Council. This act is what allows S.P.A.C.E. to receive grants from the colleges and council in Rata Sum despite being headquartered in southern Kryta and operating in Istan (soon to be Shing Jea).

32. Do they have a go-to story in conversation? Or a joke?

She absolutely loves to tell the story of the worst accident Takka ever had. Takka is a bit of a speed demon, and has an entire garage full of mono-cycles, so eventually she was bound to take a nasty spill. Thankfully, she was wearing safety gear, but she still ended up with a few broken bones and needed to be dosed with painkillers. Eviia, as the krewe's head physician, personally administered care to Takka, and had to listen to all of her slightly-out-of-her-mind ramblings. Takka denies this, but according to Eviia, she's very sweet and was more concerned about the trouble caused to the medical staff than her own pain and damage to her bike.

Eviia is a fun character to write about! She's a bureaucrat, very corporate and by the book, but it's clear she actually cares about the people in her organization, and not just the accounting. That being said, it's always nice to have someone willing to pick up that torch when it comes to getting funding for the next launch vehicle (and the fact that she can treat the chemical and magical burns from tinkering with the fuel just a bit too flippantly is a fantastic bonus as well). Thank you for the ask 💞

#eviia #also #takka #she's in here too #SPACE krewe essential reading

[krewe-yukii]

(legendary-renegade-stance) MAN. I LOVE THE IDEA OF A SPACE THEMED ASURA KREWE SO MUCH. these characters are SO cool and i wish i had anyone who could interact with them in some sort of capacity.... novachaser is a DOPE title

See that's the thing, all my krewe members have lives outside of work, and also the krewe itself has a whole network of logistics stuff and contracts to fulfill and all manner of things so there's always some reason to bump into one :)

Novachaser doesn't even describe what she does!!!! She's a mission designer + division lead but when we had to register the krewe we could only have one official Krewe Leader so Yukii got that title in exchange for Sakki getting to pick her own. I think I've got a couple of things about her in my essential reading tag (it's linked in my blog header somewhere) and she is SO fun to write

#Sakki

[krewe-yukii]

THE TYRIAN SUN HAS A NAME NOW

Well, not canonically. I looked everywhere to see if the sun had ever been given a name by anything official, but unfortunately it’s always just “the sun.” “The Sun” if you’re feeling spicy.

I wanted to change that.

One of the oldest things that we know is that the jotun were documenting the stars and their positions at least 13,000 years ago (it’s from the Jotun path of Arah, if you’re curious). It would make sense to assume that if anyone had a name for the brightest star in the sky, it would be the ancient jotun. However, their ancient language hasn’t ever been talked about outside of visible runestones in the Shiverpeaks, and those don’t exactly share much information on what words they had for things. BUT! Jǫtunn is a word from Old Norse, and we have lots of words from that language.

So, with this in mind, I’ve decided that the proper name for the Tyrian sun is:

Ljós. (pronounced “yos”)

It’s the Old Norse word for “light” and it’s really pretty and I like it so that’s what it is.

#gw2 #guild wars 2 #SPACE krewe essential reading #look #if you want something done right #do it yourself

[krewe-yukii]

I really love a lot of the questions from @dasozelotvonnebenan​‘s question list so I’m gonna be greedy and write out two more of my ideas hope that’s ok

Please. PLEASE explain how you think Mesmers work. (I have already heard so many unique takes and I want to hear more)

Right, so when illusions break we get a bunch of butterflies and geometric shapes, and we also see the same shapes as distortions around glamours and whatnot. The illusionary aspect of mesmer mesmer magic is manipulating the way light flows through air (and the butterflies are just for style). This’d result in strange intersecting planes around the edges, creating all those shapes. Phantasms are the equivalent of elementals for this kind of magic. When you include things like blinking, portals, chronomancy, it really leads to “mesmer magic is messing with spacetime” and I think that’s rad. Side note, of all the NPCs we’ve seen, only humans are mesmers (I think) which is super strange.

Have you put any thought into how Asuran Magitech works? (If yes the author of this game would love to hear as many details as possible ;D)

I have put a lot of thought into this actually! A lot of it is just, having electricity before everyone else and taking that in a weird direction, but there are some really fun things in there too. Power generation coming from reacting different magics with each other, the hardlight tech that we see as walls and floors everywhere, all the floating nonsense... I’ve always assumed that it’s what happens if you refine your society’s use of magic into well studied and highly specialized ways. There has to be an Ohmm’s Law of magical resistance and a Plankk who’s studied how magic travels through space, all that wonderfully dry mathematical stuff, to enable this specialization. If you focus a specific type of magic into a plane, you can generate a hardlight platform of an area proportional to the amount of power you’re putting in. Forcing enough of a different type of magic into an object imbues it with certain properties, like ignoring gravity, that kind of thing. Asuran magitech is magic focused by technology, rather than technology powered by magic.

#guild wars 2 #gw2 #is it allowed to use an ask list as writing prompts? #i sure hope so #SPACE krewe essential reading

[krewe-yukii]

5, 39 and 40!

5. How do the Asuran Colleges work?

I think they'd basically be a combination of internship with krewes, guided self study in your chosen field, and bureaucratic limitations. No forming your own krewe, no public funding applications, that kind of stuff. It's "can you effectively perform research and/or development before we set you loose on whatever project you want to do"? I just don't see any asura willing to sit through classes, nor any asura willing to take time away from research to actually give proper lectures. Any asura genuinely interesting in teaching would teach progeny.

39. What do Asura like to eat?

Have you seen our teeth? Obligate carnivores, my friend. Living underground for so long means there'd be a healthy culture of grubs, but we've been on the surface long enough to develop a taste for more conventional meats as well.

40. Describe [the] process of constructing a golem!

I'll focus on one of the octahedron-type golems (the type in my avatar. I hate it when people call them cubes they have EIGHT SIDES) that Sakki likes to build. The core is a small cubic power crystal that's been forced to think via electricity, much like computers are sand that we made do math. Essential wires are connected to the core via standard ports, thinks like datapad input receiver cables, speaker wires, appendage control wires and any accessories that should probably not be strapped to the outside. The core is then mounted in a frame-box slightly larger than it, which is filled with coolant. (Proper, legal golems have their serial numbers stamped into the frame but Sakki always forgets that part.) The frame assembly is fastened to the lower half of the main shell of the golem with a weld. The various wires from the core are connected to their rightful homes and the two appendage suspension pads are installed on either side. The upper half of the main shell is then welded to the lower half assembly, the appendages are paired to their suspension pads, then Sakki presses the power button and hopes her soldering was good enough. It is, about 80% of the time. She's R&D, not production.

Thanks for the ask, especially 40. That was fun to write 💖

#gw2 #guild wars 2 #asura #SPACE krewe essential reading