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[Music] Orville Peck & Bu Cuaron - Miénteme via Youtube. Probably old news for people who keep up with Orville Peck on the regular, but new to me. Heard this song on the radio the other day and totally loved it. :V

[Blog rec] Tanuki-Kimono via Tumblr. A themed blog focused primarily on pretty photographs of kimono. Occasionally with interesting commentary.

[Internet] Engineering for Slow Internet from Brr.fyi; a blog post written by someone who was doing IT in Antarctica. Can't remember where I saw a link to this post, maybe Latest Things? Anyway, it's about how a lot of modern internet is kind of a pain in the ass when you're working at the South Pole, as well as some practical suggestions for developers to make things work better. A lot of it was kind of over my head, but I still found it interesting, since I do feel really strongly that tech should take into account very slow connections (even if Antarctica is a bit of an outlier). Note to self: go back and read some of this person's other posts later.

+ It's around that time of year when the internet gets boring. People are busy! NaNo is around the corner and all the writers will disappear for a month (unlike October, when the artists treat us to awesome inkwork for a month :V). Real-life events are coming up for many. ...Maybe I'll dial things back a bit too; there are few things cozier than curling up with a book and some hot tea on a cold evening, and obviously I can't do that and be an internet lurkbeast at the same time.

+ It snowed the past couple of days. I still don't have my snow tires on. Things are going to be interesting until I get that done, oh boy. I have an appointment, but I assumed I'd have more time. Famous last words. :V

+ Thought I was feeling better and that I was over this cold, but yesterday mom said that I still look like death, so I don't even know any more. And meanwhile, still resting my foot. Ugh, I am going absolutely stir-crazy over here. (Impatiently waiting for my physio appointment on Thursday... hopefully he'll have something good to say to me.)

+ Made a Bluesky account recently. An artist that I like is jumping over there, so I decided to take a look. It's very much a Twitter clone, and I haven't played around with it enough to know if there are any features I prefer at Bsky rather than Xitter, or what's even there as far as fandom goes... Anyway, I'm yuuago over there as always. I have 5 invite codes - if anyone's interested, let me know that you'd like to try it out, and I'll PM one to you.

+ Book rec: Last Call by Elon Green. True crime nonfiction about a series of murders in NYC in the 90s; the victims were gay men picked up at piano bars. I thought it did a pretty good job with the research, exploring the period, the victims, and what was going on culturally (gay bar culture, AIDS, etc), as well as the in-community activist response to the murders. And whathaveyou. Obviously, kind of a depressing subject, but worth a read if it's your thing and you're in the mood for it. Apparently there's a rather good documentary series based on the book, but I haven't seen it myself.

+ Found myself kind of missing the Duolingo forums. I was never super active there, but sometimes there were really useful resources posted, and it was nice to read some of the more thoughtful posts people made discussing their strategies and progress. Does anyone know of an online language-learning community like that?

+ The Dead South released their latest single a few days ago, "Tiny Wooden Box" [Bandcamp | Youtube]. Oh, this is bluegrass goodness. It's nice to hear something new from them; their stuff is always great. I see the album Chains & Stakes is going to come out in February; I'll have to keep an eye out for it.

+ Halloween coming up. Trick or treating isn't much of a thing in my apartment building, so I assume it's just going to be me, candy, and a horror movie. Well, that's not a bad way to spend it, anyhow. Question is, should it be Crimson Peak or The Exorcist?

I found my O-Zone CD last night. Haven't listened to that one in... a while.

I don't know if there's a word to describe feeling warm nostalgia and simultaneously feeling as if your soul is gonna leave your body, but I sure felt it when listening to that last night.

"Dragostea Din Tei" is still awesome, though.

+ Woke up early. Got stuff Done instead of messing around. Feels good!

+ Suddenly overcome with the desire to re-read The Count of Monte Cristo. I can't find my copy of it (how does one misplace a book that thick?) but that is a small obstacle. :V It's such a good novel! So much happens in it! ...I've forgotten most of it aside from the general premise! What.

+ Language Brain is all over the place lately. "I want to learn Polish. No, Dutch. No, Chinese. No, I want to get better at Norwegian. Actually, my English kind of sucks, and I should work on that". Settle down, self!

+ I've had Taylor Swift's Midnights album on loop for the last few... weeks. At some point I think I'll have to buy the damn thing instead of borrowing it from the library. ;V Not as expected! ("Mastermind" is so good. And "Sweet Nothing". And "The Great War". And...)

Whoa, why the heck did nobody tell me that Orville Peck's music is really good? Wow!

One of his songs came on the radio, and it totally knocked my socks off. Dude has quite a voice. It sounds very... smooth and sturdy, with a kind of old-fashioned quality that I don't have the vocabulary to describe. And his music itself is exactly the flavour of country that I really like - retro styled and kinda' gay.

(Also, much to my surprise, that fringed mask thing he has goin' on is really doing it for me. IDK man, IDK. It's quite a Look.)

The song I heard was "Daytona Sand"*. It's from his album Bronco, which came out this past April. I'm definitely going to have to listen to more of his stuff, 'cause I really like what I'm hearing here. Right now I'm listening to his 2019 album Pony*, and enjoying it a lot. Can't get enough of this dude's voice.

I've really been missing out! :V

Anyway, if you've been living under a rock like me, give his stuff a try! It's pretty neat.

( Youtube embed of 'Daytona Sand' under the cut )

+ There seems to be a DW event going around for this month in which people post about stuff they love. It doesn't seem to be a formal thing with a comm and whatnot; rather, it looks almost like a meme. Anyway, I just think that's such a nice idea. Maybe I'll see if I can put together some rec posts or something. (If I can find the energy...)

+ Bandcamp Friday is coming up on Feb 04*. That's the deal where Bandcamp waives its share of the revenue on the first Friday of the month, and everything purchased on that day goes to the artists. I keep losing track of when these are, so it's nice to be able to mark it on the calendar. It's been a while since I bought some new music, but I'm definitely pre-purchasing Ibibio Sound Machine's new album - the preview tracks alone are amazing.

+ Hetalia news: Himaruya posted a character design for Ireland*! And ROI seems to be in the latest Jump strip, too*, though as usual the strip is so chaotic that I won't be able to figure out what's going on until the translation is posted. I'm kind of so-so about the design; I like the red hair, but unsure about the rest. (Okay, I'll be honest, I'm a little disappointed that his clothes are unremarkable - ROI's illustration is the same format as the UK bros set, and they all got stylish outfits. Come on, Himaruya, stuff Ireland in some fancy duds! Ah, well.)

+ [Life] Woke up the other day. It was -38C outside. I had a day off, and I had plans, but when I saw that I said "How about no". I made a chocolate cake and worked on an exchange fic instead. Sometimes, it's just too brutal to go out unless you absolutely have to.

+ [Music] The radio was playing Paul Anka's swing jazz cover of Wonderwall and it was so neat I just had to share. It's so light and fun; I really like his voice too. There was this brief period in university when I was really into swing jazz... Ahh, maybe it's time I revisit it. :'D

+ [Hetalia] Himaruya posted a new illustration of the UK bros on his twitter! Yay! Will admit, I still have a few nitpicks about the character designs, but overall I think this looks pretty nice! Good to have some more detailed colour references for them, at any rate.

+ [Also Hetalia] And THEN Kyuhu did a fanart of Lithuania inspired by the UK set! Man, I love it when fans grab concepts/aesthetics/etc from the official art and run with it. I hope she'll do one of Poland to match. *_*

A few weeks ago, Sabaton released their latest single, "Christmas Truce".

I've had mixed feelings about most of their recent releases. In fact, I've tried to draft reviews of them twice, but my thoughts were so negative overall that I decided not to post them. Though, I think I can manage a condensed version.
( Brief thoughts on 'The Royal Guard', 'Kingdom Come', and 'Defence of Moscow' )

Anyway, because of the above, I was a little hesitant to listen to this one - the 1914 unofficial Christmas ceasefire makes for such a stirring story, and I was worried I'd be disappointed with it.

Fortunately, this one wasn't a disappointment at all. :D

The song starts off slow, but the music builds quickly, hits really well. Joakim's vocals sound great. It's the sort of medium-paced song that Sabaton is really good at. And the choral stuff in the background sounds awesome; the effect isn't narmy or overdone.

Lyrically, this one works for me. Sometimes Sabaton gets extremely cheesy, even for power metal, but this one... It's stirring/uplifting, not too much.

The music incorporates the 'Carol of the Bells', which might make people think of Trans-Siberian Orchestra's "Christmas Eve Sarajevo 12/24"*, but the similarity is just in the use of the carol. "Christmas Truce" doesn't sound like a re-tread of anything TSO has done. It's possible there's some influence there, but the feel of the thing is 100% Sabaton. (And is it just my imagination, or are there a few parts in the music that reference Beethoven's 5th in addition to 'Carol of the Bells'?)

This song isn't a banger, and it probably won't be one of my top favourites, but it's still very good. Essentially, it's Sabaton doing all of the things that they do well.

"Christmas Truce" is one of the songs that will be included on Sabaton's upcoming album The War to End All Wars, which is due to come out in March 2022. I'm a little surprised that they decided to do another WWI-centred album directly after The Great War, but I'm certainly not going to object to that. This is the only single from it that's been released for preview, but if the rest of the album is this good, I bet it'll be great.

You can listen to "Christmas Truce" here:
Bandcamp
Youtube - Official music video (song starts 1 minute in.)

Turns out Evan Runge, the violinist from Musk Ox, also does solo work. I've loved Musk Ox's neoclassical music for a good while now, but I didn't stumble across Runge's solo stuff until today.

Only two tracks up on Bandcamp at this time, but they're both pretty damn good.

Oceanview -Intense and sexy, pretty in line with the kind of stuff I love when I look for violin music honestly. Very different from Musk Ox's delicate and elegant output, for sure.

The Haunted - Released a couple of weeks ago. Lots of creepy vibes here, turns it up to something almost metal toward the end. I feel like, if split up into sections, this would fit right in on a horror film soundtrack - not the trashy kind of horror, but the kind of horror that turns into a classic. The ending is pretty unsettling.

Looks like I'll have to keep an eye on this one, I guess!

Whooo, Mdou Moctar is releasing new music!

I loved Ilana: The Creator when it came out in 2019, so I'm really excited to hear about the album he's releasing soon.

Afrique Victime will be available in late May, and honestly, I'm tempted to preorder it, because the two preview tracks that have been put out so far are so damn good.

You can listen to them at Bandcamp over here.

The first track, "Chismiten", is also up on youtube here. It has that same full, alive energy that I fell in love with the first time I heard Mdou Moctar's music. That amazing electric guitar work, wow!

The second preview track, "Tala Tannam" (here) is much different - it has a slow, lovely, gentle sound, and I think I could listen to it a million times over... It's just really beautiful.

If you love rock, or want to try some neat music from Niger, give these a try! ...And then go back and listen to the whole of Ilana: The Creator while you're at it. ;V You won't regret it.