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soleilonthesun · 18 days

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📸✨ An intimate interview with Alexis Ness, the magician of the Bastard Munchen ‼️

Contains spoilers for Blue Lock Chapter 161.

Soleil: *Looks at the cameras* Hello again! I'm Soleil, and after the spoilers for the last episode of BLLK, which involves two characters, Michael Kaiser and Alexis Ness, today we will interview Alexis Ness.

Alexis: *Looks at the camera, and places the microphone on his jacket correctly*

Soleil: *Looks at Ness* Good night, Ness. How are you?

Alexis: Well, to be honest, wrong? Good? Don't know. But, I think I'm fine.

Soleil: Are you sure you want to do this interview? You know consent is important. *looks at him with concern*

Alexis: Yes, yes. I'm sure. Only... my mind is blank.

Soleil: Okay... *looks at his notebook* There are many questions that the fandom, and especially among the FC GIRLFRIEND players, ask a lot... Therefore, *Looks at Ness again* How do you feel after chapter 161?

Alexis: Hmm... I think Kaiser is missing a great friend.

Soleil: What do you mean by that?

[Behind the scenes, @milaisreading was very surprised.]

Alexis: He just asked me what I did wrong. I don't know if Kaiser used me or not, but I think he's missing a friend.

Soleil: And... why do you think about that?

Alexis: Why? I'm sure he's making a mistake. Not only with me, but also with the team. Right now I feel frustrated and angry with Kaiser.

Soleil: And you have every right to be angry, young Alexis. But is it true that there was a certain manipulation? That's what is rumored.

Alexis: Manipulation? Yes, I guess so. I think I've been the perfect rabbit for Kaiser.

Soleil: Oh... And what will you do after knowing all this?

Alexis: I guess... take some therapy. I'm sorry, I'm just... I'm a little tense.

Soleil: Don't worry. But, let me say that the Blue Lock and CF GIRLFRIEND fandom is worried about you, young Alexis. You're not alone.

Alexis: *His face shines* Thank you. *Looks at the cameras* Thank you very much for all the support...

Soleil: *Smiles at him to reassure him* Don't give it a damn. You were another victim of Kaiser... Although, leaving this aside @galaxynajma asked me what kind of dessert do you like?

Alexis: Dessert? Well... Vanilla ice cream with Oreo chocolate chips?

Soleil: You have good taste. My respects.

Alexis: *Tries not to laugh* Any more questions, Miss Soleil?

Soleil: Actually, yes. By @blue-thief. Did you know that Kaiser was manipulating you all this time?

Alexis: No. Definitely not. But, like I said, he is losing a friend. To a loyal friend.

Soleil: I see... So, you're leaving Kaiser?

Alexis: I don't know. I guess so... But, at the same time I can't. It's like... if it were some kind of drug.

Soleil: You mean Kaiser is like an addictive drug?

Alexis: You could say yes. Right now, Kaiser and I have a somewhat... somewhat strained relationship.

Soleil: I understand. I just hope they're both okay. Although, there is a lot of devastation among BLLK fans.

Alexis: *Looks at camera* To the Blue Lock fans, to my fans and to the CF GIRLFRIEND, don't worry about me. I'll be fine in the future. I'm just a little surprised by the news. Thank you for the support I have. You deserve the best in the world.

Soleil: *Smiles at him with admiration* Thank you for your words, young Ness.

Soleil: *Looks at the camera* With that, the interview ends, although it seemed more like a podcast. Thank you for watching the interview, my dear viewers. With this, we will soon have more news about the Blue Lock characters! I'm Soleil, your never-before-seen reporter.

>>>Behind the scenes:

@blue-thief: Can I give you a hug?

Alexis: *raise your arms*

@blue-thief : *Hugs him, and from there, other members of the CF GIRLFRIEND appear*

@bueris : Group hug! 🥹✨️

#girlfriend fc #blue lock #bllk #blue lock imagines #bllk x reader #fc girlfriend #alexis ness #bllk spoilers

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ncisfranchise-source · 4 days

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“Tiva” is stepping up to the mic.

TVLine has learned exclusively that Cote de Pablo and Michael Weatherly — NCIS vets and stars of the upcoming NCIS: Tony & Ziva spinoff — are launching a Spotify video podcast titled Off Duty: An NCIS Rewatch.

In each weekly episode of Off Duty: An NCIS Rewatch, de Pablo and Weatherly will invite a special guest to join them as they rewatch iconic NCIS episodes.

Watch the Off Duty trailer below:

Present and past cast and guest stars making appearances include Sean Murray (who since Season 1, Episode 7 has played Special Agent Tim McGee), Brian Dietzen (Dr. Jimmy Palmer since late Season 1), Sasha Alexander (Special Agent Caitlin Todd in Seasons 1 and 2), Eric Christian Olsen and Daniela Ruah (NCIS: Los Angeles‘ Marty Deeks and Special Agent Kensi Blye), Season 13 NCIS guest star Jon Cryer and others, each of whom will join the hosts to reminisce about the long-running and well-watched procedural’s impact on television and pop culture, and reveal exclusive behind-the-scenes moments from making the TV series.

Premiering Tuesday, June 4 (soon!), the Spotify video podcast will also feature recurring and interactive segments that will further connect fans and NCIS loyalists.

Weatherly starred as NCIS‘ Special Agent Tony DiNozzo from the series’ backdoor pilot (as a JAG double episode) through the end of Season 13, and made a surprise cameo in the most recent season’s second episode.

De Pablo played Special Agent Ziva David from Season 3 through 10, surprised viewers with her own cameo in the Season 16 finale, and then appeared in multiple Season 17 episodes.

De Pablo and Weatherly are heading to Budapest this summer to begin filming Paramount+’s Europe-set NCIS: Tony & Ziva series, which finds the title characters “trying to raise their tween daughter and save the world.” John McNamara, whose past TV credits include co-creating Profit Fastlane and The Magicians, penned the spinoff’s premiere and will serve as showrunner.

Off Duty: An NCIS Rewatch is produced by Spotify Studios in partnership with Rabbit Grin Productions, with Jeph Porter and Rob Holysz as executive producers. Natalie Holysz, Kasper Selvig and Derek Johnson also serve as producers.

#tiva #ncis #ncis tiva #densi #ncis la

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beazlerat · 10 months

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TAZ Amnesty

Ok, I listened to the Balance arc of The Adventure Zone (a BRILLIANT podcast that is a must to listen too! also, SPOILERS) and I finished Amnesty a few weeks ago!! I wanted some time to gather my thoughts. First off, I loved all the characters. Duck Newton, a forest ranger who ran from his destiny (but is it really his destiny?). Ned Fuckin’ Danger Friendly etc. Chicane, a man who owns a cryptid museum and then gets involved with more cryptids then he knows how to handle (who’s status is “brave” which always makes me cry). Aubrey Little, a stage musician who is actually a REAL magician (with a heart of crystal gold) with Dr Harris Bonkers her pet rabbit. Even when I have personal favorites, they are all such fun characters that I still have such a good time! What I really loved was the surprise Sci-Fi arc tho (SERIOUSLY, SPOILERS). I have seen some people say it was tacked on, or didn’t really fit, but I think it was amazing. The whole point you think that something in Sylvain is sending creatures to Earth in an attempt to kill humans, but it’s actually someone from behind the scenes the whole time. They have been trying to cause both worlds to hate one another, but it didn’t happen! Aubrey fell in love with Dani, and with the world of Sylvain! Her character spends more time in Sylvain then anyone. Ned dies for Dani, and does everything in his power to keep the angry mob from Sylvain! Duck saves Billy, who is technically a REAL enemy, and that friendship saved them! He also falls in love with Minerva and they get to do what she couldn’t for her world. We even have Vincent falling in love with Earth movies, Indrid Cold drinking the shit out of eggnog while tries to save people, and Jake Coolice finding friendship with the Hornets (tho it was pre-podcast). There was so much love that exists even when a malevolent force that has killed tens of thousands of worlds tries to tear them apart! Was the story a little bumpy? Sure. The ending will always have a place in my heart even when all the critiques I see about it I can’t really deny. But the McElroy’s have a love for stories filled with love, and I think it’s just as evident in Amnesty as Balance.

#Im also a sucker for surprise scifi twists #so I may be a bit biased #taz amnesty #duck newton #ned chicane #aubrey little #taz dani #taz vincent #taz billy #jake coolice #indrid cold #the adventure zone #hope this makes sense

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ome-magical-ramblings · 1 year

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"The McCarthy Shill", Egregores, and the influence of different magical schools into the thinking

This blog post was in regard to one of my friend's comment and him feeling pessimistic about it, he told me how "gods sucks, kabbalah is elitist. Don't matter how much I practice, someone gonna get the dream initiation cause they just meant for it. McCarthy shill is actually legit" I hope that this preceding quotation clears up the topic of why I am talking here or why I feel the need for talking about this considering that my friend is reading Quaeria's book right now.

I am someone who personally have his own reservations about the author and magic teacher Josephine McCarthy alongside her course Quareia. I am afraid the adage that says If you're not paying for the product, then you're the product , that's the case with Quaeria's course. I don't like beating around the bush but something to say from Jean Dubuis's essay "Group trips or Solo traveler" if we work in a group, or under the direction of a pseudo "master" or "guru" or through some mediumship we will only perceive the Astral. I hope that at least this clears up some concepts here. I personally recommend the work of Mouni Sadhu, G.O Mebes. Valentine Tomberg, and the french-russian tarot/occult school with their in-depth explanation of egregores and tarot concepts, Stavish in his book egregores talks about it passingly from the french russian school view, worth a read if you don't want to go down that rabbit hole. That's done...Back to the "McCarthy's Shill" a lot of stuff feels very general and "modular" and "not attached to any school". I mean that's what Quareia is about no? in Module 2, Lesson 1 you say

I (say your name), as an apprentice of the Quareia, ask that I begin the journey of the cup.” Why do you have to say that out loud? and she have weird stuff to say about getting practical results:

If you try to dodge that growth process through results magic, you will not only end up magically weak and ineffective, but you will also start to slide down the long slope of degeneracy as a magician. For example, I have been in magic for nearly forty years, and I have connections with magicians all over the world. I have yet to meet a long-term results magician who is not broke, lonely, sick, depressed and screwed up. They all do well for a small number of years… and then the backlash comes home to roost.

What about her own vision of Pentagram Ritual as she calls it(LBRP spin off) ?

Get out your notes from your astrology lesson and your work with the chart and the pentagram. Look up your planets again in relation to you standing in the centre of the chart/pentagram. Focus on the positions of Saturn and Pluto.

The full ritual is in module 2, lesson 3. Suffice to say, WHY WOULD YOU WORK WITH SATURN AND PLUTO in your pentagram ritual. It just sounds insane and don't get me started with her Arbatel or PGM takes. What do you get in the last lesson of Apprentice's lesson?

Remember, from now on, for the rest of your life, you have agreed to be judged in this life and to walk the path of the Mysteries.

She says it's not an oath, but...isn't it an oath since you said "I Agree" to the angel in the vision of the 81st lesson? One last thing to consider is that.. in one of her podcast she mentions that the magician is on the altar of greater force. ENOUGH McCarthy lol! that's the general message here, yes she have inner contacts but the forces she's in contact with might not be very suitable with everyone. I will ask you, do you want to learn your own life lessons or do you want her life lessons? A misconception some people have is that they have to force themselves to go through certain experiences to validate their beliefs that they're going on the right track. You don't need me, McCarthy, or anyone else to tell you that! You have your own life lessons, Josephine have some good stuff here and there, her technique works but clearly there's an agenda going on. Maybe not her..but something behind her pushing these ideals or thoughts. Visionary magic, it works but are you sure you want to get into contact with the "forces" that she got into contact with? I ended up making 60% or maybe 70% about bashing Quaeria and the course, but let's focus on something more important here. The author you read ,the books, the courses, the spirits, the land, etc all of that gathers up and add up. Take a step back and see how they affect you and how they affect the way you think about stuff. Really just look at each school, tradition, or even methods. Take a step back and think about the methods being pushed here and there, they all have their own preconceptions and ideas that are forced upon us willingly and unwillingly. What started in my thought of this blog to not give up on this or that, became more of an introspective of are you taking the right steps? are you doing the right thing? for who? for you. It is sometime comforting to just take people's insight, or take their views on stuff and work with them temporarily. Sometime people are overly skeptical of stuff and act like know-it-all and sometime people are too trusting of the authors or people who wrote stuff. I will borrow the word of someone( @HieraTechne ) in the hermetic house who said

a) Persevere, persist. b) It won't be pleasant, you will feel alone in the silence, but persevere, persist. c) It can help to treat your path as a Leap of Faith. Imagine yourself blindfolding your self, and making a step into the unknown. if you can't reward yourself with the content of the contact, reward yourself with your faith, your determination, your persisting. d) Stuff will happen beside seeing or hearing. e) You not seeing or hearing them doesn't mean they not hearing or seeing you. f) Do not be jealous of other people amazing or, from your perspective, even otherworldly experience. It will happen. Forgive yourself and go on. g) You will still have amazing experiences, just of a different grade. Learn to love what you have, and get the best out of it.

And that's 100% true, you don't need to have my experience or someone else who's naturally psychic's experience. I personally knew the difficult of spirit vision and visualization when I first started and couldn't wrap my head around it, just do the other stuff like petition, prayers, talismans, work in nature, work at home, invocations, etc. So it is with taking all of that consideration, don't give up. If it is a dream initiation you want, then dream incubation you must. If you keep going, praying, doing rituals, and all of that, it is heard. Keep going and it will be answered, just like R.O's Seven Sphere or Stavish's dream incubation through elements and planets. I ask that you pray to the planets, to gods, to the land, pray to them and for them. Pray to the divine, pray to the earth, just keep praying and applying yourself to the craft and you will make it. If anything, just like the sun goes down at night and die. So your aspiration shall be reborn like a blazing, strong, and powerful ray of solar flare in the morning. I believe in you, friend(s) <3 with all the efforts you put in I believe you will be rewarded. I hope my ramblings was helpful for someone who feel defeated or hopeless in regard to practice.

youtube

#occult #magic #witchblr #magick #ceremonial magic #western magical tradition #egregore #thoughtforms #thoughts

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misscammiedawn · 1 year

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is there a strictly auditive piece of media that has inspired you in some way ?

Audio only media, hmm?

I'll tackle this as a hypnosis question and a general question individually because I'm not 100% sure how to parse it.

For hypnosis Ella Enchanting is my big inspiration. Goddess' stuff is way too high production to even enter my mind as a possible avenue and it blows my mind that I sleep in the same area as some of the files that I listen to nightly were recorded. It kind of makes me feel I should be better at this because every single thing that the most highly produced files I know of (and the podcast episodes that she ran too) are theoretically in the same space as me.

I dunno. Maybe one day I will ask her how the hell she did what she did.

For Ella she has about the same production as I do and is focused on the same area of concept based fantasies. She's way more energetic, inventive, practiced and polished than I am, but I see Ella and have a feeling of boldness that says I can do better if I commit myself.

I really need to more often.

Also back to Goddess for a moment, but The Realm of Bliss Podcast was one of my earliest gateways into legitimizing my kink. Up until then it felt like a sex thing people in relationships did or a medical tool that was done with clients or a theatrical performance piece for stage magicians. There weren't many episodes, but Realm of Bliss really brought me in to the fold. It's why I call Goddess my oldest friend in the community-- ignoring the collar and such.

For Other Media...

I used to be big into podcasts, particularly Maximum Fun network. There were so many MBMBAM jokes in my circle and I felt Adventure Zone helped me be a better DM. I listened to some stuff like Tanis and Rabbits but Rabbits burned me real hard and kind of poisoned the well for me.

Never got in to Night Vale but tried really hard for a friend who enjoyed it. I wanted to have common language with them. Listened to well over 20 episodes. They would have benefited me trying Magnus Archives but I didn't have the drive for it.

To give respect where respect is due, radio plays in general make me very happy and have since I fell in love with the Welles version of H.G Wells classic War of the Worlds in my teens. If Radio 4 did a dramatization of any of Gaiman or Pratchett's work I was there eagerly. I consider radio adaptation of Neverwhere to be the definitive telling of the story (and the Marquis focused original side story too) and deeply enjoyed Mort when it was done. Good Omens was nice but the TV version is best.

When I was young I listened to radio a lot and focused in on those radio dramas. It was either that or listen to Caeser the Geezer prank people, which dad liked but... not my cup of tea.

So when I was heavy in to tabletop I used to do a LOT of audio files as rewards and cookies for players. One character I had hours of audio and hundreds of thousands of words of backstory because they played an amnesiac and I wanted to make their life feel lived in and make the people feel more real before they showed up in canon.

Then I just became addicted to it and did it for fun. The group's DM was always better than me at it. Every time I got audio from them it felt like a fully realized piece where mine was conceptual at best.

I guess auditive media is something of a focus of mine, even if I can't really define my preferences or the things I gravitate towards.

Thank you for. The question, anon. This was a good one that got me thinking about things that haven't crossed my mind in years.

#camden asks

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jjscomicstuff · 11 months

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Not only do I try to make awesome general comic book content, I also host a podcast for Nerd Initiative called The Comic Press Podcast, where we interview comic book industry professionals and indie comic book creators every other Friday LIVE at 6pm est! Check out this clip from our latest episode!

Part 1

In this clip from The Comic Press Podcast, indie comic books writer and friend of the show, Allen Dunford, details the origins of his new indie comic series.

"Horus In Hell" is a brand new horror/comedy series spun out of Top Hat Studios smash indie hit, "Pocus Hocus".

Hirus was Hell's most decorated war hero, until he accidentally pledges himself to a magician for all eternity. That dame magician has screwed up big, and now Horus must fight his way to Hell and back (literally) to set things right. Did I mention Horus is a pink bunny rabbit?

You can back "Horus In Hell" at the link below before time is up on July 7th at 10pm est!

unknown

#indie comic books #indie comics #source point press #horus in hell #top hat studios #comic books #horror #horror comedy #horror comics

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ardenigh · 5 years

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“how many steps to the lighthouse?”

[alternatively: “i just binged all of rabbits and they did my jones dirty, they did him so wrong”]

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teabeenz · 6 years

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My HC for The Lady Flame!! I am absolutely in love with TAZ Amnesty so far, Griffin has outdone himself.

#TAZ #the adventure zone #taz amnesty #the lady flame #aubrey little #dr. harris bonkers #monster hunting #monster hunter #magician #punk #magic #fire #flame #tattoos #rabbit #podcast #podcast fan art #taz fan art

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bookshelfpassageway · 7 years

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Some d&d things from last night

Somehow the minotaur with -1 INT and the halfling with no impulse control were the head schemers/planners/leaders of our party as we go further into the Underdark, probably cause those two are the only ones aside from the DM not new to this game

The minotaur also effectively has this rogue on a leash for most of the session. He tied a rope around his middle and gave the other end to her so he could explore a dark tunnel, and then kinda just never took it off

we kept forgetting why we were here (rescue a kid named charlie. WHO’S CHARLIE demands half the party)

the DM manages to squick out the bio major with a weird brain room full of brains and tools, and other assorted squickiness

“oh god i know what those are for i hate those”

dm makes great sound effects that we kept making him repeat

he also has music on his phone that keeps getting a little too intense or loud at the wrong times.

we find a half elf in some kind of fantasy stasis chamber (we have a cleric now!), who gasps theatrically, tosses his hair out of his face and then blinks his two-color eyes, and proceeds to greet the party with a:

"Hello"

Everybody at the table flips out at this character voice like "NO!"

“I hate him SO MUCH already and I love it.”

I’m at like 3 hp for the entire session and have the worst rolls. My character is as useless as the many hacks and quacks who i threw in a blender to make him.

(Anyone who rolls badly basically blames it on the tavern we started at and all the alcohol our characters had probably consumed before our help was required)

i shoot one monster that wasn’t actively bothering anybody though

my boy also considers looting the brain room to sell things later, but none of the jars were very portable

And also leave this giant heavy shield we’re carrying (our Amazon, the owner, being unconscious) for the gnome to deal with

to be fair he has Zero strength and the gnome had a +2 it’s just practical logistics

The bard fights exclusively with Vicious Mockery

and plays the viol at inappropriate times, as bards do. Though she was the only one to be respectful about the brain room and played a small dirge for all of them

cleric: “I just want everybody to know, my chain-mail is like, really well tailored. It makes my ass look fantastic”

our (gnome, 3' tall) bard, who is walking behind him: “Awwhahahawww yeahhhh

he’s beauty, he’s grace, he’ll duck into a magically dark tunnel to pee and then fails a dex saving throw as we all leave via that same tunnel later

we’re all still kind of a bunch of randos that don’t know each other. we just happened to all be in the same place when a hysterical mom came crashing in and then all went down an unpleasant mine at the same time, and nearly got killed by many of the same things. we’re all a mess and we’re all the worst except the Amazon fighter who’s our token Good person that knows whothe heck Charlie is. Everybody else is SUPER True/Chaotic Neutral

#my posts #D&D #i Love this game i hope we play it next week even though we have a break between now and then #i also want to join More Games even though I'm a physics major which means I have NO TIME #*sob*#maybe over summer or something #but yeah #my brain seems to want to do the Obsessed thing but it's weird because D&D as a CONCEPT does not have all the things i usually obsess over #and like... i dunno man i don't really have the time for 4-hr episode podcasts otherwise i'd check some out #plus i'd just get too Overwhelmed with love of characters probably maybe it's good enough just to KNOW that Taako and Percival exist and not #actually go down that rabbit hole yaknow?#anyway other things i don't feel like sticking onto the list how it's all html-ified are: ''thanks i hate it'' and ''i basically look like a #*an evil magician?''#Who's Charlie?

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coreypress · 7 years

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Their cold, dead eyes watch us. Their dry hands guide us.

#occult #ritual #illuminati #gods #magicians #conspiracy #cults #secret chiefs #goth #gothic #steampunk #shirt #last podcast on the left #tanis #rabbits podcast #nightvale #skulls #dark

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who-do-i-know-this-man · 5 months

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⚠️Vote for whomever YOU DO NOT KNOW⚠️‼️

#ultimate obscure blorbo #polls #round 4 #The Magician (Rabbits podcast)#The Other (Mulberry Down)

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beginningspod · 3 years

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It's time for Beginnings, the podcast where writer and performer Andy Beckerman talks to the comedians, writers, filmmakers and musicians he admires about their earliest creative experiences and the numerous ways in which a creative life can unfold.

On today's episode I talk to musician and painter Tobin Sprout. Born in 1955 in Dayton, Ohio, Tobin is an American artist, musician and children’s book creator. As a musician, he was well known as a founding member of the indie rock band Guided by Voices before going out on his own, releasing his first solo album, Carnival Boy, in 1996. As an artist, Tobin is famous for his photo-realism large format paintings, especially the “Superchrome” series, although he does paint in other styles as well. His children’s book, Elliott, about a magician’s rabbit who finds the courage to leave his top hat, sold out of its first print run. His latest album, Empty Horses, was released late last year on Fire Records, and like everything else Tobin does, it's great!

I'm on Twitter here and you can get the show with:

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#beginnings #tobin sprout #guided by voices #indie rock #dayton #ohio #matador recor #fire records

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mochacoffee · 4 years

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i was tagged by @eowynsdeerstalker to share 10 niche interests of mine!! (thanks!)

1. youtube policy. as in The Algorithm™, monetization, feature changes, etc. every time youtube changes something you can catch me listening to three different podcast episodes that discuss said change for 40 minutes each

2. men’s olympic figure skating. i watched the winter olympics in 2014 and fell into a rabbit hole i’ve yet to climb out of

3. public spaces. the existence of these spaces is so incongruous with the way our society currently functions under capitalism and so reflective of our deeply communal roots as a species!! i could ramble about this for three hours

4. graffiti. the fact that people are so determined to put art in places they’re not supposed to, the general standard of avoiding private property, the circle of life that is graffiti being put up and painted over by the city and put up again. it’s SO COOL!

5. skateboarders. not individual ones, but the general way skateboarders navigate the world. they look at things you’d never think twice about, like an innocuous railing, and think “how can i engage with this in a way it’s not designed for” and then they DO it! public spaces (crossover interest!) are increasingly designed to specifically deter this from happening but SKATEBOARDERS FIND A WAY and i love them for it 6. magicians. i was obsessed with every magician-themed movie i saw growing up and i follow a lot of cardistry magicians on youtube to this day. i pray nightly to shin lim with his superhuman dexterity and charisma.

7. vexillology. aka the study of flags! ted kaye's Good Flag, Bad Flag guide to flag design is permanently carved into my brain and i think about it often

8. developmental psychology, especially in how it relates to parenting. i have no intention of raising kids but i’m a deeply reflective person who has a complicated relationship with my own parents.

9. celebrity culture. this is so fundamental to, like, all of our media, but i almost never see people analyzing it critically! except bo burnham and hank green (who both have a lot of fascinating things to say on the topic). i honestly don’t know how to summarize my interest in this without writing a whole-ass essay so let’s just say it operates on many levels.

10. astrophysics. the BIG SHIT. black holes? relativity??? just fuck me up mate

OKAY this was very long but in my defense i have A LOT of niche interests and a lot of passion!!! i’m awful with tagging for these things so i will tag @caffeinechic, @chamyl, and @losyanya - no pressure to participate obviously - but if i haven’t tagged you and you have answers for this, please do it and please tag me so i can read it!! i would genuinely love to know, this is such a fun question :)

#about #lucia talks to herself

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calamariimpossible · 3 years

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Magicians on the internet, crypto, and the email that broke me.

This is a continuation of a twitter thread that Muz (@mzkrx) started to write out in his car but then when he plotted out his thoughts, it made more sense to him to put it down in a blog format rather than a thread. You'll find out why as you read through.

Stuck in the car for half an hour so I'm gonna do a thread (Editor's note: Now a whole-ass blog post) about a strange email I got recently.

So I was casually watching magic tricks on YouTube. the funnest part of which to me is reading the comments. YouTube commenters love explaining how they think the trick is done and it's fun to read through their theories and connect dots between similar tricks, etc.

And then one time as I was scrolling I noticed a comment that didn't make sense. It was a string of an almost sentence. Intelligible enough to not be random words but odd enough to read like a trigger phrase for something.

The closest I can describe it as is like the string Zemo used to wake up the Winter Soldier, but with some syntax to it. Like "many thermos wiggle throughout exotic harbinger of circle ascending fuchsia entrapment".

Initially I thought nothing of it, but then I kept seeing them in these magic trick video comment sections. They're never the same string, and it's always under magic trick videos. from different channels even.

Hmmm.

The profiles that posted these comments are also always blank accounts with zero videos and no profile pic. Just their name. I felt like it was too much of a coincidence for these comments to only be under magic trick videos.

I also knew that the world of performance magic is thick with secrets. That is to say, there is deliberate obfuscation of information whenever you try to go online to find out how a trick works.

Magicians get together online and share information with each other just like performers of every other sort as well but the amount of code and doublespeak they use is an order of magnitude more annoying to decipher compared to say, an engineering message board or a gamedev forum.

Knowing that, I thought maybe this almost parsable gibberish I keep seeing everywhere was also some kind of code these people were using to talk to each other.

So I started investigating.

First things first, let's just Google one of the phrases. Maybe that's enough?

And it sorta was.

Pasting them onto the search bar lent me to only 1 result (wild!) and it was a website that looked really dank. Like geocities dank. Annoying neon colours and badly margined jpegs of tarot card images everywhere and a big bold header text that said something to the effect of:

"Congratulations, you've found our hidden message. This portal is only for those seeking knowledge beyond what is on the surface. Continue below."

* * *

I haven't been doing well. I feel like I say that too much. I say it on Patreon, on my personal podcast, whenever any of my friends ask me how I'm doing, pretty much everywhere. I feel very heavy. I understand I'm not the only one feeling like this during a pandemic.

Duh.

But I have this other version of worry that I can't quite articulate until right now: I'm scared I won't be funny anymore. Anwar and Farid can attest that even during our recordings I don't feel up to being funny. I question my jokes a lot. I barely enjoy telling them. I'm worried I'm letting everyone down.

To me, silliness and absurdism as virtues only make sense when the world has trace amounts of injustice and wrongness that training ourselves to see it in our everyday helps us remind ourselves of what is just and fair. The more we consume silliness, the more we are able to recognize silly and point it out. So we don't ignore it when things go wrong, so we talk about it, manage it. So we can take care of each other.

Maybe I can't be sure if we're all up for taking care of each other right now.

* * *

"Continue below" seems instructive, but it wasn't. Like I mentioned, the margins were haphazard and the CSS was all over the place. Some jpegs were straight up cropped off.

Meaning I can't be sure what "below" meant. But there were clickable images and text so I was readily intrigued.

It was tantalizing. Did I stumble into some secret order of Extremely Online Magicians? Maybe I'll finally find out why there aren't many female magicians out there. Maybe it's some sort of secret initiation to a secret message board full of secrety secrets. Secretly.

Y'all.

I didn't click on any of the linked images or anything. I closed the tab. That was the end of that.

An earlier version of myself would gladly run headlong into this rabbit hole to find out more and sink hours into some goddessforsaken labyrinth of links. But the current version of me recognizes this for what it almost certainly is: an abandoned roleplaying game.

Back in the early 00s when the internet was the realm of nerds and nerds only, it was full of people who loved sharing things for sharing's sake. It used to be punk rock to maintain a blog that only talked about snails or have a lo-fi YouTube channel that uploads biweekly 3-minute news about your house, or manage a little message board where people roleplay as wizards who rummage around the net looking for clues.

That last part was a thing I remember being actively involved in. In '03, a group of online friends and I wrote up a scavenger hunt of sorts where we sent people through various blog pages that we have where the goal is to just dick around and have fun. We wasted each other's time for sure. Hundreds of hours of it for literally no gain at all but for some laughs and fun memories.

The internet isn't like that anymore. People don't share something online for sharing anymore. Not really. There's this idea that if you put stuff out there, you want people's attention because numbers are good. You get a lotta reblogs and RTs and Likes which means people Like you.

If you don't have a lotta numbers, you don't matter. If you do, everyone has to talk about what you said or did because it's 'News' now.

Isn't that kinda gross, you think? That we need people to interact through an app to be sure that we're Liked? I say "we" but I mean me. I've successfully poisoned my brain to believe this to a certain extent too and it's not good.

I felt myself physically react when I closed that geocities magician website tab. I shuddered because my brain went from "this is cool" to "I gotta let people know I found this" to "this'll get me hella RTs" to "ew Muz why did you think that" within 3 seconds and I was disgusted with myself.

As a dude who started my online presence on YouTube and parlayed it into my real life comedy/writing career, I've believed for a long time that doing good work and putting it out there is what it takes for a working creative to make it because that's what I did. So there's this idea that making stuff and having it be seen is some kind of virtuous.

But it's not anymore. People pick fights with children for clout. Newspapers post about people's tweets as if its important. People are investing in crypto, a thing that literally only exists as electrical waste on a grand scale. We're boiling the oceans to yell at each other over nothing and exchange bits of code everyone agrees has ever-rising value but doesn't. Everyone is making and eating junk, it feels like.

So am I making junk? Have I just been making useless junk for literally over a decade now? Is that what I've been good for this entire time?

* * *

So the email.

It was a response from a company I applied to for a job. I applied as a creative writer and they're an advertising agency.

Receiving emails from a prospective employer when you're in need of a job is exciting! So soon after I applied, too. Wonderful. Here's what it said:

We just received your application today but would love to extend the opportunity for you to participate in the Case Competition as a prerequisite of your job application for Creative Writer position with [REDACTED] and stand a chance to be a winner for cash awards up to a total worth of RM1,800.

Yea.

They want me to enter a competition where I compete with other candidates to get a chance of being hired.

This company saw how many people applied for a job with them, and decided to dangle some cash and throw it over the fence to see which candidate will fight for it the most.

I didn't expect to feel vomitous after reading an email but that did it. I almost dry heaved. That's where we are now.

Recruiters see a glut of applicants and decided to play Fall Guys. These people watch Istana Takeshi and think Takeshi is the good guy. It hurts. It hurt me. That email caused me pain.

I can't at all empathise with recruiters who think this was okay to do. They really believed that creative writers will do a little dance for them just for money.

Look, I know we all need to eat. But I can also hate that people undervalue the work of creatives to this painful extent.

I don't give a shit about earning a lot of dough. I just wanna make things that tickle people. I want you to smile more.

That's the whole point of that weird little YouTube comment that led to the quirky website. That's the whole idea of making silly videos and dumb tweets and memes. We just want you to laugh.

But it seems people think so little of joy that they'll do whatever they can to avoid legitimately supporting and paying for stuff that gets them through the day. So much so that they want free work from us for the potential of maybe being able to get paid for more work. It breaks me, man.

I hate that I cannot make a living just trying my best to make people happy.

That's the best way I know to take care of you.

I know I don't just 'make junk' for a living. People have messaged me personally that my work has helped them get through tough times in school, in their relationships, at the office and I am eternally grateful that they took the time to tell me that.

I just also wish my feelings about my work aren't easily brought down by the majority of people who insist its worthless. Even if sometimes those people is me.

So forgive me if I won't be funny for a while. I'm gonna need some time to process this. Thank you for reading. I love you.

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three--rings · 4 years

Text

You should listen to...

The Penumbra Podcast...

Okay, so I have this whole sideblog at @gentlysociallypinned and when I made it this main blog was almost entirely YOI and I was getting really into a bunch of podcasts/web content so it made sense. It’s where I have posted The Adventure Zone stuff (almost only reblogging art), my Penumbra thoughts on episodes and my Penumbra fic, and when I was HEAVILY into Critical Role for those few months two years ago, it was mostly that.

These days it’s mostly DEAD, but I’m still actively a fan of TAZ and TPP and am going to just bring them over to join the multifandom shitshow this main blog has become since it transitioned from YOI to The Magicians to MDZS mostly. Whatever, this blog is Shit I Like Right Now.

So I’m going to occasionally be posting and rb-ing TPP stuff. And since I’ve kept that fandom so much off this blog, I feel like maybe a lot of folks who follow me here might not be aware of it. Especially if you’re not in any other podcast fandoms. (Because all podcast fandoms are ultimately one, and NO I have not listened to Magnus yet. Big RQG fan, though.)

ANYWAY, so consider this my VERY LONGWINDED (ALREADY OMG IT’S 5AM WHY?) intro post about The Penumbra Podcast and why you should listen to it.

It’s Queer. The End.

Ha. But no, really, it is. Very. Queer. The mission statement of Penumbra is to tell tropey genre stories but Very Queer.

So there are two main fictional universes/storylines that currently make up TPP (at the very beginning of S1 there were one-off episodes but those stopped pretty quickly.) The main one, the one that starts at episode 1, and that most people think of when they think TPP is the Juno Steel series. Juno Steel is a noir private investigator who lives many centuries in some nebulous future. On Mars. It’s very light, pulpy sci-fi, totally uninterested in explaining its sci-fi-ness. But it’s also set in a world without our current understandings of gender and sexual categories. I.e. everyone is just very casually queer and it’s not talked about. Juno himself is NB and bisexual, though those words are not used in-universe. The master thief who becomes his potential love interest is an homme fatale. People are trans and NB without it being a Thing worth commenting on. It’s...lovely.

(Above: Official art by Mikaela Buckley.)

It’s also very noir. Juno is a broken, broken lady at the start of the series, for reasons that very slowly come to light over the course of two seasons. The end of the first season was enough of a downer to make me literally cry myself to sleep for three nights straight the first time I listened to it. (At which point I wrote fix-it fic because I was COMPELLED.) The series, while often silly in the episode to episode mystery plots, also touches on extremely difficult and dark subject matter like drug and alcohol abuse, childhood abuse, mental illness, suicide, etc. So I feel like I HAVE to put that out there. All episodes have trigger warnings in the description and you should read and mind them if needed. Some episodes can fucking WRECK you, in frequently utterly brilliant ways, but still, be mindful. Ultimately, I will say there is light at the end of the tunnel (though the series is ongoing in the third season atm) but it’s a long, painful road to get there. But JESUS CHRIST I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a narrative about a mentally ill and victimized character actually working through their shit in real-time in this way. While also being a show with a hyperintelligent car that communicates in beeps and whistles, and giant killer rabbits that live in the sewers.

The second ongoing universe is The Second Citadel. This one comes in part way through the first season. It’s set in an Arthurian-style fantasy universe, but one set in a jungle with all POC characters. The first few episodes all focus on different characters within the same world, most Knights of the Second Citadel, mostly ones that somehow have broken the stereotype of the usual knight. (There’s a female knight, a physically disabled prospective knight, etc.) The first few episodes aren’t that popular and are a little weak, but eventually it all comes together, right around the time that Sir Damien, his fiancee Rilla, and Lord Arum the anthropomorphic lizard monster are introduced as one of the strangest and most instantly charming love triangles ever.

This is where I started getting actually more invested in Second Citadel than Juno Steel. Because star-crossed queer love between a knight who kills monsters and one of those monsters and the scientist/doctor girlfriend who ends up also developing feelings for The Lizard....yeah. It’s Everything, y’all. I love all three people in this ship SO VERY MUCH. I even play one of them as a DnD character (Lord Arum. He’s a Dragonborn Fey Sorlock. ) Sir Damien the knight-poet with terrible anxiety, Lord Arum who desperately doesn’t want to admit to having Actual Feelings for a Human, much less Two Humans!! Fencing while developing Queer Lust! Rilla the scientist who doesn’t know why she has to have fallen for not ONE SILLY BOY but TWO?!

This series is much lighter in tone than Juno, so it’s a nice balance.

So anyway, the show is really filled with excellent writing and fantastic characters. The acting is also generally Very Good, but that’s more true the longer it goes on. Some of the actors are INSANELY good. But it’s not without its faults, especially towards the beginning of the show. In particular, the sound editing/design isn’t very friendly to the ears, especially if you’re sensitive to loud sound effects and like...blaring alarms and stuff. If it bothers you I recommend not using headphones and/or listening via an app/device that lets you adjust levels. It’s literally the one flaw that still annoys me with the show, though it’s gotten better.

So if you’re looking for a new fandom, or something to listen to in these trying times, something fun but also REAL, tropey and sincere...check it out.

And also I have six fics in the fandom, in case you didn’t know that. I feel like I could always just spontaneously produce more TPP fic at any time, too.

#The Penumbra Podcast #juno steel #Second Citadel

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