Friday Catch Up
Hey friends! I've been feeling under the weather this week (and it's birthday week for me too on top of things), so I haven't been doing a whole lot. Sunday was +15C (59F) it was beautifully muddy and smelled like fake Spring. Then fake Spring really began. It's been snowing the last couple of days. Even more annoyingly, the temps aren't really really cold but floating around the awkward -10C (14F) to 0C (32F) range. My dog is convinced I control the weather, and it's just been kind of a grey week. I'm so sorry this is going out on a Sunday afternoon.
What I've Been Watching
It's taken me the better part of a decade to get into ttrpg (table top role playing game) actual plays. Critical Role always seems like it's a lot, and I've had my fair share of run ins with rude game shop gatekeepers. It's not an avenue of storytelling I feel particularly welcome in or that feels like it wanted me. One tiktok of Brennan Lee Mulligan talking about religious vampires and the anarchist Halfing family convinced me to take a chance.
I was really excited to start The Unsleeping City because I had seen part of Robert Moses' choices monologue and urban magical realism is a genre I can't get enough of. What I didn't expect or count on, was Kugrash's relationship with his sons or his past. My Dad has been dead for a while, but Wally and Kugrash's relationship reminds me of our very messy Christmases.
Wally and Kugrash's Christmas. The worst little rat man and the sweetest, most forgiving son ever.
I can't believe it's been 5 years since Orville Peck released Pony and 4 years since Dragula Resurrection. I never noticed how many bands I listen to that wear masks, and I suppose that something I can think about.
Dead of The Night 5 Year Anniversary, Orville Peck
This is my birthday week and I've been feeling a little melancholy. I adore Ghost's cover of Roky Erickson's If You Have Ghosts and I like how this one feels.
Watch out for the jarring sponsor at around 3.30 minute ish mark
What I've Been Reading
An incredible, creeping short story that takes place on the 401.
There's a cozy novel by Julie Leong coming out later this year. The cover illustrator is Devin Elle Kurtz (I've got their artbook Windows to Worlds), which is kinda awesome because there's a lot of book covers being generated by AI lately. The premise seems neat (what if fortune tellers made the decision to only tell small fortunes), and the first chapter feels similar to the Robot and Monk series by Becky Chambers.
This week has been a lot for creators. Gum Road began banning all of their NSFW accounts, Patreon and Ko-Fi changed their what content is welcome or allowed on their platforms(which is incredibly confusing and somewhat contradictory), and it's looking kind of bleak out there if you create art that has anything to do with sexuality. Rowan has a great write up about this, what it means as an artist/writer, why this keeps happening, and probably why your friends who post stuff online are incredibly tired.
Motherlover that started 6 years ago is nearing it's end. I've really enjoyed reading it over the years, and I'm kind of excited to see how it ends.
Small Mammal Update
Potema (Popo) is just a small town Saluki trying her best even though it keeps snowing. Or raining. Or sleeting. Or hailing. She's not a big fan of water in any of it's meteorological forms. One day it will be warm again.
She is beauty, she is grace, she is having an existential crisis.
What I'm Working On
I'm still working on the intro to the post apocalyptic series.
A little ttrpg project that I missed the submission date for a this song reminds me of a... game jam (a year in the life of a scientist and demon). There are so many neat submissions, and it was a really cool jam.
