Eurovision

Mixtape Mondays: Spectacle Politique

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Good Morning, Folks! Also, Happy Memorial Day to those who celebrate both the meaning behind it… and just the fact that we as laborers get the day off. Normally, I would not make a post on a holiday, but given that this series is called Mixtape Mondays, and I have a Mixtape in the hopper ready to go, I am doing the thing and making the post. For those new to this series, Mixtapes are probably the artifact of the 80s and 90s that I am the most nostalgic about. It used to be a currency that you traded with your friends, and at least for me attempted to use them as part of a largely unappreciated complex mating ritual. Since I no longer have cassette tapes, and my dual tape deck is no longer a super power… I now make these largely for me and for you, my readers. When you listen to one of my mixes, you are hearing a part of my soul, because I spend so much time laboring over the correct order of the tracks so that they flow nicely and become what we used to refer to as a “listen through” album. I might be nonchalant about most of the things on this blog, but these mixes mean an awful lot to me on a fundamental level. You can always find the full archive of what is not 30 mixtapes over on the landing page for this series.

30 – Spectacle Politique

I love Eurovision, but that relationship has become a bit more complicated of late, especially with the whole Israel trying to dominate votes thing, and so many countries and contestants boycotting this past year. There are, however, a whole slew of songs from recent Eurovision outings that live rent-free in my head. There have been a lot of great moments that were honored, but also a lot of songs that I feel like deserved to win but were not really given the love that they deserved. There are two tracks that did, in fact, go on to win, but I included them because I love them as well. What you end up with is a really solid mix that is super good to “listen through”. I’ve played through it several times and farmed it out to my team of beta testers, who I thank greatly for putting up with my nonsense. Sometimes I have some greater purpose or nostalgia behind a mix, but this one is just a list of bangers that I think everyone should know about. I will be honest that sometimes I think of Eurovision as this bubble where only things exist there, without realizing that every single one of these artists has a rich career outside of the contest. Side note… apparently, I really like Finnish music because I included four artists in this list from that country. Onwards to the track list, and I am including the country of origin just to make it interesting for folks.

Track List

  • 01 – Viva, Moldova – Satoshi – Moldova
  • 02 – Rim Tim Tagi Dim – Baby Lasagna – Croatia
  • 03 – Ich Komme – Erika Vikman – Finland
  • 04 – Eins, Zwei, Drei – Look Mum No Computer – United Kingdom
  • 05 – The Show – REDDI – Denmark
  • 06 – Zitte E Buoni – Måneskin – Italy
  • 07 – Cha Cha Cha – Kaarija – Finland
  • 08 – Choke Me – Alexandra Căpitănescu – Romania
  • 09 – Blood & Glitter – Lord of the Lost – Germany
  • 10 – Jezebel – The Rasmus – Finland
  • 11 – Dark Side – Blind Channel – Finland
  • 12 – Doomsday Blue – Bambie Thug – Ireland
  • 13 – Stefania – Kalush Orchestra – Ukraine
  • 14 – Bara Bada Bastu – Kaj – Sweden
  • 15 – Milkshake Man – Go-Jo – Australia

Listen to it yourself

So there you have another one of my Mixtapes. This one was not necessarily premeditated like so many of mine are, but largely just something that popped into my head the other day. I wanted this mix for myself, and like always, I end up sharing it with you, my readers. This round of chemo has been a bear, and I start back with my fifth round tomorrow… and I never felt like I fully recovered this time. It is supposed to keep ramping up from here, so I feel like the back half of the chemo is going to be a nightmare. Thanks for all of the support, but I will probably get more scarce as some days I just don’t have it in me to sit down and write. I am banging this out on my laptop downstairs, and its keyboard is sort of shit for long-term typing. This is what happens when you buy a laptop and prioritize gaming prowess over its ability to be a functional laptop.

I still have the challenge from Ace in the back of my head, but honestly am not even sure how to approach a mix for They Might Be Giants.

The post Mixtape Mondays: Spectacle Politique appeared first on Tales of the Aggronaut.

Mixtape Mondays: Spectacle Politique

by

Good Morning, Folks! Also, Happy Memorial Day to those who celebrate both the meaning behind it… and just the fact that we as laborers get the day off. Normally, I would not make a post on a holiday, but given that this series is called Mixtape Mondays, and I have a Mixtape in the hopper ready to go, I am doing the thing and making the post. For those new to this series, Mixtapes are probably the artifact of the 80s and 90s that I am the most nostalgic about. It used to be a currency that you traded with your friends, and at least for me attempted to use them as part of a largely unappreciated complex mating ritual. Since I no longer have cassette tapes, and my dual tape deck is no longer a super power… I now make these largely for me and for you, my readers. When you listen to one of my mixes, you are hearing a part of my soul, because I spend so much time laboring over the correct order of the tracks so that they flow nicely and become what we used to refer to as a “listen through” album. I might be nonchalant about most of the things on this blog, but these mixes mean an awful lot to me on a fundamental level. You can always find the full archive of what is not 30 mixtapes over on the landing page for this series.

30 – Spectacle Politique

I love Eurovision, but that relationship has become a bit more complicated of late, especially with the whole Israel trying to dominate votes thing, and so many countries and contestants boycotting this past year. There are, however, a whole slew of songs from recent Eurovision outings that live rent-free in my head. There have been a lot of great moments that were honored, but also a lot of songs that I feel like deserved to win but were not really given the love that they deserved. There are two tracks that did, in fact, go on to win, but I included them because I love them as well. What you end up with is a really solid mix that is super good to “listen through”. I’ve played through it several times and farmed it out to my team of beta testers, who I thank greatly for putting up with my nonsense. Sometimes I have some greater purpose or nostalgia behind a mix, but this one is just a list of bangers that I think everyone should know about. I will be honest that sometimes I think of Eurovision as this bubble where only things exist there, without realizing that every single one of these artists has a rich career outside of the contest. Side note… apparently, I really like Finnish music because I included four artists in this list from that country. Onwards to the track list, and I am including the country of origin just to make it interesting for folks.

Track List

  • 01 – Viva, Moldova – Satoshi – Moldova
  • 02 – Rim Tim Tagi Dim – Baby Lasagna – Croatia
  • 03 – Ich Komme – Erika Vikman – Finland
  • 04 – Eins, Zwei, Drei – Look Mum No Computer – United Kingdom
  • 05 – The Show – REDDI – Denmark
  • 06 – Zitte E Buoni – Måneskin – Italy
  • 07 – Cha Cha Cha – Kaarija – Finland
  • 08 – Choke Me – Alexandra Căpitănescu – Romania
  • 09 – Blood & Glitter – Lord of the Lost – Germany
  • 10 – Jezebel – The Rasmus – Finland
  • 11 – Dark Side – Blind Channel – Finland
  • 12 – Doomsday Blue – Bambie Thug – Ireland
  • 13 – Stefania – Kalush Orchestra – Ukraine
  • 14 – Bara Bada Bastu – Kaj – Sweden
  • 15 – Milkshake Man – Go-Jo – Australia

Listen to it yourself

So there you have another one of my Mixtapes. This one was not necessarily premeditated like so many of mine are, but largely just something that popped into my head the other day. I wanted this mix for myself, and like always, I end up sharing it with you, my readers. This round of chemo has been a bear, and I start back with my fifth round tomorrow… and I never felt like I fully recovered this time. It is supposed to keep ramping up from here, so I feel like the back half of the chemo is going to be a nightmare. Thanks for all of the support, but I will probably get more scarce as some days I just don’t have it in me to sit down and write. I am banging this out on my laptop downstairs, and its keyboard is sort of shit for long-term typing. This is what happens when you buy a laptop and prioritize gaming prowess over its ability to be a functional laptop.

I still have the challenge from Ace in the back of my head, but honestly am not even sure how to approach a mix for They Might Be Giants.

The post Mixtape Mondays: Spectacle Politique appeared first on Tales of the Aggronaut.

AggroChat #568 – Anti-Fun Features

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Featuring: Ace, Ammosart, Ashgar, Belghast, Kodra, and Thalen
Good Morning, Folks! Last night we recorded what I think might be one of our better shows ever, because there were a lot of interesting discussions.  We start off talking about Eurovision and how it felt like it almost ended in a riot.  It’s a bit dated, but we talk about some of the details that came out of the Dan Frazier plagiarism situation in Magic: The Gathering. Ace talks a bit about Subnautica 2 and how some of the features caused them to bounce early.  Path of Exile II 0.5.0 reveal happened, and there are tons of things to talk about as they completely redo the endgame.  We talk a bit about the game Everything is Crab, and then follow up with an unrelated topic about how Everything is Roguelike now.  Bel goes down this rabbit hole that starts with Item Repair but follows up with pretty much all of the Anti-Fun Features that are in games and why they need to go. We talk a little bit about some of the Steam Controller reviews that are showing up, and Kodra discusses his further descent into Pokémon ZA.

Topics Discussed:

  • Eurovision
  • Dan Frazier Situation
  • Subnautica 2
  • Path of Exile II Spoilers
  • Everything is Crab
  • Everything is Roguelike
  • Item Repair is Bad
  • Anti-Fun Features
  • Steam Controller Review Units
  • Pokemon ZA
The post AggroChat #568 – Anti-Fun Features appeared first on Tales of the Aggronaut.

Random Bag of Nonsense

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Good Morning, Folks. I don’t really have a purpose for today’s blog post other than not to have gone an entire damned week without making any other than Monday. This round of chemo has been a bear, and has mostly knocked me on my ass. The worst part right now is the peeling of my fingers, and no lotion seems to be making much of a difference. So even when I am not getting the “hand in lava” reaction to cold from the oxaliplatin, touching anything still hurts a lot. Like my overall pain index is relatively low, but it is entirely situational. Pick up my phone? The ridges on my case feel like they are cutting into my skin. My fingers are basically newborn skin, and just like when skin grows back from an accident… everything hurts when I touch anything. Weirdly enough, typing does not seem to cause much pain. I guess keys are smooth, and I am relatively light-handed with the keyboard. Since I don’t have a proper picture to post with this, you are getting the deckboxes that I created for Sorcery. I’ve still not gotten to play, but I want to hopefully next week when the world does not feel quite so shit.
Honestly, the winner for this week goes to some friends with whom I have had some good conversations. This has made the frustrations and pain of the cycle far more bearable. Y’all know who you are, and I am thankful. Part of this was watching Eurovision with my sibling Ace, and the random commentary that went along with it. Last night was round two of the semi-finals, and I just have to say that Armenia was robbed. For me, what I want out of Eurovision is the weirdest shit you can find and put on a stage. A guy with a jacket covered in Post-it notes? Check! The song was also a bit of a banger, so it absolutely should have gone on to the next round. Whereas they kept choosing some boring-ass songs like whatever the hell was going on with Czechia. As an outsider… Eurovision is about over-the-top pomp and circumstance, and a lot of these songs failed to get that memo. That said, I think Armenia was the only one of my favorites from the second round that did not make it. Romania was by far my favorite from yesterday’s round.
Something that I have played almost every single day for four or five years now… but never talk about… is AFK Journey. I always end up playing some sort of gacha game on my phone, because it fills the time between when I lie down and when I am actually sleepy enough to sleep. Usually, I end up hitting some sort of wall where I cannot progress without giving them lots of money. When I hit this point, I swap games, but for whatever reason, AFK Journey seems to have a reasonable enough gacha system that I can keep playing it happily without spending a dime. Talking with Ace who had tried the game before me, it apparently was not the case at launch, but over time has loosened up. Sure if I were playing this game super seriously, I would probably hit all of the walls, but playing for 30 mins or so every night seems to be fine. Right now there is a Frieren event, and I love Frieren so much that, like when they were running a Dungeon Meshi event, I am trying to pull for the characters that I care about. I only make one pull per day, and only use the free currency, and the other night I lucked out and got a pull with two Frieren’s. In theory, I might actually be able to get her up high enough to do useful things. I need to figure out how to get more copies of Himmel.
Path of Exile II Teaser season has been really interesting, because they are effectively breaking the tried and true mold that they have used for years with Path of Exile. Especially after a big reveal, they usually just chop up the elements from that reveal and release them as little teasers. They have done some of this, but more recently, they have been showing off some new uniques. These are connected in a way that would allow you to build a purely support character, which I always find interesting. I don’t play often enough with other players to make this viable, but I could see someone trying to dual-box a character like this to provide tons of utility. I honestly have no clue how Grinding Gear Games feels about dual boxing. I’ve not done it in years, and mostly did for the games where playing solo was not close to viable… like EverQuest and Dark Age of Camelot, and did a small amount with World of Warcraft and EverQuest II. I’ve always loved controlling an entire party in games, and the Mercenaries that we had in Path of Exile really scratched that itch for me. I am hoping at some point, they bring those back because there were a lot of really interesting gearing options.
I missed out on the original round of Steam Controller orders, but I am on the wait list. I was on and trying to buy it at the time it was launched, but kept running into credit card authorization issues and by the time that was resolved… they were sold out. We are starting to see the first review videos floating around the interwebs, and it has done nothing to dampen my desire to have this controller. Mostly, I have my old gaming desktop hooked up to the television downstairs, and I love the fact that, apparently, you can just use the Steam controller as a mouse and keyboard. Like, I am never going to do a lot of data entry through this means, but being able to use it to launch things is going to be a massive boon. Essentially, I want to set up my gaming desktop downstairs for controller gaming, and then I can remote into my new gaming desktop for anything that I want mouse and keyboard for. I am really hoping that the restock is not terribly long for the Steam Controller. I think in my circles, I was probably the most excited about having the prospect of effectively getting a Steam Deck without the screen in controller form. Anyways. I think I am done typing for a bit. I still feel like ass warmed over, but I love you all and appreciate every single one of you who checks on me. Y’all are legitimately the best. This cycle will pass, and starting Sunday, I will begin to feel more human again. The post Random Bag of Nonsense appeared first on Tales of the Aggronaut.