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moonvie nigih
Nov. 21st, 2025 10:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
phosfateBUT it had Henry Rollins, Ice-T, and Beat Takeshi, which made it fucking awesome. T has that James Garner thing where he works really hard to look like he's just showing up, and the audience is all, Ice-T is here, we'll be okay.
Erin Watches: The Switch + Hazbin Hotel S2
Nov. 20th, 2025 09:37 pmerinptahThe Switch is a tiny little 1-season, 6-episode comedy about a trans woman living in Vancouver. It’s part quirky workplace comedy, part quirky roommate comedy, and part “she moves in with her ex who’s secretly an assassin, who spends the whole season trying to dodge the investigation for an executive they recently killed, but, like, in a funny way.”
Half the cast is trans, a ton of the crew is trans, so it’s a big part of the show in a way that feels genuine and natural. Even though the show in general has a fun heightened-reality vibe. (The original Kickstarter campaign mentions a sorceress character. She’s not in the final cut at all, which I kinda suspect was a broader “oops, we’re trying to stuff too much in 6 episodes, we need to cut the magic subplot” decision. But, listen, if they had made a second season where Sabrina the Teenage Witch moved in down the hall, it wouldn’t feel out-of-place.)
I watched the whole thing for free on Tubi! There are some other streaming options on their official website. They also just straight-up tell you “want to be a pirate? here are the torrents” — but give them some ad revenue, if you can.
—
So I guess I’m a Hazbin Hotel fan now, huh?
FFA did a rewatch of season 1 in the leadup to season 2, so I rewatched it along with that. Then ended up watching S2 as it came out (dropping two episodes a week), because now I’m invested enough that I didn’t want spoilers.
(Couldn’t totally avoid them, because…listen, there is a deep vault of Fandom Lore here, which I have never actually looked at. So there were regular comments like “sure, we already basically knows Plot Point X, because of the leaks/interviews/character designs posted on DA in 2012” where I had no idea about X at all. It worked out fine, though, because sometimes the fandom was wrong! And I had no way to predict when.)
All the music is good, and some of it is great. Their animation budget must be incredible, and you can see it paying off — Vox Populi showcases some amazing dynamic tracking shots, and the reprise Vox Dei has them just showing off. It has the same overstuffed pacing as S1, where they’re trying to pack about a thousand different character beats into eight episodes — there are setups that never get payoffs, and payoffs to things that weren’t actually set up — but the central arc of the season does hold together, and all the individual moments are fun to watch.
There’s a recurring theme of “look, this is shameless pandering to the iddiest of fandom desires” that goes so hard, you have to respect it. The saddest woobie with the softest vulnerable heart gets manhandled in all-new ways!
The most Tumblr Sexyman spends multiple episodes tied up and gagged, strapped to a chair, in his jealous rival’s bedroom!
There are moments that honestly feel like “the show won’t bother going too deep into this, because they know they can just toss the idea in front of their audience, and wait for a million fics to fill in the gaps.” And given the size of the fandom, I don’t think they’re wrong, either.
…The size of the fandom means there’s an overwhelming number of Youtube videos. But a lot of the ones I’ve watched are, well. Bad? Like “hidden details you missed” but it just lists basic plot points, or “fixing the character designs” but it’s fixating on things that aren’t problems.
Have a few recs, because these deserve to be watched without viewers having to dig them out of the heap first:
- An Exhausted Defense Of Angel Dust (posted before S2, has some heavy discussion about sexual assault)
- The Character Design of Hazbin Hotel (also posted before S2, the only video about the designs where I haven’t gotten exasperated and stopped watching)
- Collider Ladies Night interview with Vivziepop (released after S2, plenty of spoilers)
this post is not Descartes apologia
Nov. 20th, 2025 10:25 pmkaberettbut I did spend this morning sat down with my printouts and my page markers and my highlighters, and I did this evening take some photos of the relevant pages of a book I've loaned to someone else, and the essay (I say, grandiosely) tentatively entitled The Obligatory Page And A Half On Descartes: against a new dualism is definitely In The Works.
I haven't quite worked out the It is a truth universally acknowledged... opening sentence, and it's probably mostly going to be a series of quotations accompanied by EMPHATIC GESTICULATION in the form of CAPSLOCK, but it's not actually (in its entirety) germane to The Book, so here the indignant yelling can go.
Iceland continental rift dive
Nov. 19th, 2025 10:50 pmtiggymalvernhttps://youtu.be/5CZhf-NdpRo
You're diving the no mans land between the European and North American plates at Thingvellir National Park in Iceland. The water clarity is transparent. It's insanely blue - I actually reduced the amount of blue in the video to make it look a little less fake, but it barely helps! There's not much alive down there - some algae on the rocks, and I saw a few small fish, but it's really just about the geology and the experience.
Much of the dive is in a narrow channel. A couple of spots get wider and very shallow. Apologies for the camera work there - it's hard to hold it straight when you're crawling over the rocks with your tank sticking out!
The water is cold - 2-3C, and that doesn't improve if you dive it in summer since it's melted snow. I wore my heated undergarment, which I was extremely glad about. I didn't notice the cold during the dive itself, though I could feel my lips going a little numb around the reg. When I got out and had to change in the driving wind and lightly falling snow, that was frigid! That part at least might be a little better in summer 🤪
Wednesday Reading Meme for Nov 19 2025
Nov. 19th, 2025 09:16 pmkitewithfishWitness for the Dead by Katherine Addison – finished this re-read literally today! I had actually re-read this earlier this year, when my book club had finished The Goblin Emperor and I needed more. You can find that review from July 2025 here (https://kitewithfish.dreamwidth.org/486536.html), but what stuck with me was this line “Both books are from the perspective of a person who wants to make the world better and kinder, and is actively working to do that, to the extent of their means.” I stand by that – this is a world with problems recognizable to us and likewise, full of people trying to help make life better. It’s also got a fascinatingly beautiful subtle romance that starts with our main character looking at the second cup for his tea that the waiter brought him and wishing he could share the honeyed spoon with someone -it’s such a sweet longing and it runs thru the book so softly that I only noticed it when I re-read it properly.
Alien Clay – Adrian Tchaikovsky -Oh, I loved this! It’s very alien, and very weird, and yet Tchaikovsky builds the story like an argument, point by point until you’re nodding along and like, oh, of course, what else could this have ended as. It’s weirdly inspiring and wonderful and also could be a body horror movie with great ease. It’s quite decent!
What I’m Reading
Guillermo del Toro Cabinet of Curiosities – with Marc Scott Zicree. I am enjoy this, as it mostly appears to be a person writing with breathless adulation about how much he enjoys being in Guillermo del Toro’s house and looking at the weird stuff he’s got. I’m here for it, mostly!
The Artists Way – Week 6 – Sense of abundance – eh.
What I’ll Read Next
The Fortunate Fall by Cameron Reed - xing book club
Next Earthsea book?
No clear idea, honestly, I would take a suggestion!
[food] breadferences
Nov. 19th, 2025 09:26 pmkaberettAt the weekend we made a mildly unusual detour to a fancy local bakery; one of the things they had on the shelves about which I went "oooh" was fig, hazelnut & anise bread. So that flavour combination (plus some spelt) was went into the oven this morning!
The way bread normally works around here is that I make it, via the Ritual Question of Do You Have Any Breadferences (Bread Preferences). To facilitate this call and response, A List of our Usual Options, doubtless to be added to. Suggestions welcome. :)
( Read more... )
Want to Write a Creature Feature?
Nov. 19th, 2025 10:07 amdannye_chaseWant to write a creature feature?
Check out my Weird Wednesday blog for writing prompts!
Doggos:
The Black Shuck: English Hell Hound
Whatever these things are:
The Gytrash: World’s Scariest Cow
Water beasties:
Bitey folks:
Outwit the Undead With This One Weird Trick
++
DannyeChase.com ~ AO3 ~ Linktree ~ The Vampire Haven erotic romance series
[embodiment] ... ha
Nov. 18th, 2025 10:52 pmkaberett"Ugh," I thought, "why am I feeling weirdly migrainey? My Next Phase Of The Menstrual Cycle is very much not due for like another week? I've been weirdly super regular basically since it reasserted itself post-surgery?"
... TURNS OUT that I had lost track of time a bit and I'm not a solid week early at all, it's a whole two days. This Means Some Things:
- ... still super regular by my pre-surgical standards,
- I will not be at the worst stage of my cycle during Significant Travel next week, and LAST BUT VERY MUCH NOT LEAST
- the migraine is still in fact very clearly associated with hormonal changes even when I'm not expecting them, take THAT Headache Is The Second Most Common Form Of Psychosomatic Pain ~statistics~ (and ongoing anxiety).
Book review: Roleplay at Randy's by Rikki Leighton
Nov. 18th, 2025 10:58 amdannye_chase
New book review!
Roleplay at Randy’s by Rikki Leighton (Queer contemporary romance)
“Maybe we could dance together sometime.”
Matty’s a dancer with a broken heart. Elias is a single dad trying to keep his life together. When they meet at Randy’s Diner, something flares between them, passionate enough to scare their shaky hearts. But once Matty meets and bonds with Elias’s adorable son, they begin to wonder if it might be worth it to try again.
This entry in the Randy’s series is sexy and emotional. Past heartbreak has given Matty and Elias painful lessons in setting boundaries and communication, and it’s very sweet to watch them realize how good they are for each other, and how much they want to fight for this new chance at happiness. I loved that author Rikki Leighton was able to weave their experiences as a transmasc and hard-of-hearing writer into Matty’s character. Check out Roleplay at Randy’s for a fun twist on fake dating, an incredibly sensual dance on stage, and some very hot smut.
DannyeChase.com ~ AO3 ~ Linktree ~ The Vampire Haven erotic romance series ~ Weird Wednesday writing prompts blog ~ Resources for Writers
vital functions
Nov. 16th, 2025 10:36 pmkaberett... has done so many things and is Going To Bed and will fill in this placeholder Tomorrow.
Reading. ( Descartes, Gouldercourt et al., Clifford )
Forgotten Fruits (Christopher Stocks) got auto-returned to the library for a second time while I was still, like, a third of the way into it. I am going to try to take the DNF with grace this time, but the Completionist Itch is still there...
Writing. Grumpy e-mails to HMPO. Grumpy e-mails to uk.bookshop.org (on the plus side, the book I bought from them now has a shiny wee DRM-free tag! on the downside, I can download it in neither of the browsers I've tried so far.) Mental drafting of context-setting on movement and sleep, which really need to get out of my head and onto the page.
Playing. Inkulinati! We have Completed All Three Journeys. In the second stage we achieved an absolutely bullshit strategy that made things astonishingly easy; the third stage (with SEAL) was much harder work.
Little bit more I Love Hue.
Cooking. Two things of particular note, of which the first was ridiculous parsnip risotto with thyme pesto from The Modern Vegetarian, extremely good, would very happily eat again but I'm more dubious about the prospect of cooking it again, though I will concede it would probably go faster now I know what I'm doing.
Item the second was THE MEDLAR STICKY TOFFEE PUDDING. I am not entirely convinced I can actually detect the, you know, medlar, but it is very tasty.
Elsewise I have two batches of medlar jelly on the go (first batch did not set properly, BAH, I have not made enough jam recently, so I'm going to need to redecant and reboil that before I move on to the spiced) and some ridiculous quince sorbet that needs forcing through the sieve before churning.
And I have still not touched the apples.
Eating. Saturday lunch at Holtwhites Bakery :)
Exploring. Stupid little walk on Sunday revealed unto us, among other things: a pair of cyclamen in a bit of the verge outside our house we don't normally walk past; a discarded fork; a local bush of Purple Metallic Berries; a secret holly hedge.
Growing. SEEDS arrived. Jalapeños (at least at home) turning red.
Erin Reads: What Moves The Dead, The Queue, Mogworld
Nov. 15th, 2025 10:41 pmerinptahWhat Moves The Dead: Another T. Kingfisher novel, and, wow, it’s a good thing I didn’t start with this one. DNF halfway through. I figured out the twist pretty quickly, double-checked on Wikipedia that I was right, and wasn’t gripped enough by the characters to enjoy the process of “listening to them bumble around for a couple more hours failing to figure it out.”
Future game plan: stick with her fantasy works, skip the horror.
The Queue, by Basma Abdel Aziz: Bought this on Audible years ago, and didn’t remember not liking it. So I downloaded it when I tried out Libation, and gave it a re-listen.
Definitely worth it. Reminds me of 1984, in that it’s a near-future dystopia run by a government that is as totalitarian as it is surreal. At the same time, it’s set in Unnamed Middle Eastern/Muslim City (the author is from Cairo), so it all plays out in a way that’s culturally-specific to that part of the world.
Cool and enriching to see which parts are different. Depressing to see that certain things are the same. The POV residents have a range of perspectives and life experiences, but they’ve all been more-or-less frogboiled into accepting an untenable situation as Just How Things Work. One guy spends the whole book actively dying, but he was injured during the Disgraceful Events that nobody will talk about directly, and his friends/loved ones/doctors keep running into “of course the government will authorize him to get life-saving surgery…just as soon as you have all the proper paperwork.” The titular Queue is all the citizens lined up to get their paperwork. It hasn’t moved for a month now. But it’s going to start soon! Somewhere between the MOASS and the Rapture, probably!
Also, there’s a character named Yehia, which I assume is the same name as Yehya Badr with a slightly different Anglicization. So that was entertaining.
Mogworld, by Yahtzee Croshaw: Checked this out based on how much I liked Will Save The Galaxy For Food, and it did not disappoint.
Starts as a fantasy story about a necromancer overlord’s reign of terror through his undead hordes, but from the POV of Jim, a beleaguered zombie who just wants to die (again) (for good, this time). Then it develops into a parody of fantasy-adventure video-game mechanics. Then you start to see the chat logs between the game developers. Then Jim starts to see the chat logs between the game developers…
It’s like if Terry Pratchett wrote Guilded Age. It’s full of absolutely incredible turns of phrase. (One that I had to stop and write down: a group of supernatural beings is described as “heading off to deliver unwanted resurrections, like a flock of poorly-briefed storks.”)
There’s a character type you see sometimes, where the male protagonist has the support of a devoted female hanger-on, who he finds grating and annoying and never appreciates…but he keeps her around because she does useful things for him. She conveniently never notices his disdain, so she keeps giving him endless support for zero care/support/respect in return. (Misa from Death Note is…a deconstruction of this trope? A commentary, at least.)
Mogworld pulls a twist on this that I’ve never seen before. Undead bodies don’t heal, so Meryl is the local expert in sewing them back together. When the plot drags Jim off on a solo adventure, Meryl follows, conveniently dedicating herself to repairing all the dramatic injuries he gets along the way. But, the reason is: Jim is the only other zombie from Meryl’s home country…and Meryl is a huge [their country] supremacist! So there’s something Jim can legitimately resent about her, he’s not just being an entitled sexist. (They both do a bit of learning and growing as the story goes on, too.)
One warning: the R-slur gets thrown around a bunch. It’s a book that deals with video-gamer culture and was published in 2010, so this isn’t hugely unrealistic…but the writing mostly doesn’t have other slurs/profanity outside of that, so it was kind of a jumpscare.
As long as that’s not a dealbreaker, definitely give this one a read.
[food] medlar jelly recipe
Nov. 15th, 2025 11:30 pmkaberettIrritatingly, the medlar jelly recipe I used last time I made the stuff, over at the RHS, is no longer extant (web.archive.org link!). Herewith my own readily findable copy of the thing, plus my notes on what I'm actually doing this time around.
(For amusement: I apparently first found the medlar sticky toffee pudding recipe in 2023...)
( Notes )
New Vampire Haven sneak peak
Nov. 15th, 2025 09:23 amdannye_chaseNovember 2025 exclusive content available today for my Vampire Haven erotic romance series! Wholesome, romantic gay vampire smut (and also a plot).
The first problem with waiting until Saturday to fuck August was Saturday was six whole days away. The second problem was August’s roommates were gone for the week. The third problem was Finn could not forget August at the party saying “I swear I could get off to just your voice,” and that was how Finn ended up having phone sex with August on Wednesday night.
Read the rest, and other sneak peaks by signing up for my free newsletter. New content every month, plus access to the archives. (NSFW)
Current exclusive is from Book 1: Finn and August. A gorgeous, charming vampire looking for his happily-eternally-after falls ridiculously hard for a shy, nerdy human who’s never had a date in his life.
Finn Sullivan is among the most eligible bachelors in Chicago, with movie-star good looks and a reputation as a talented gentle dom. Secretly, he’s also a vampire looking for the love of his life in the shape of a human who wants a very long-term relationship. Finn realizes almost immediately upon meeting introverted, inexperienced August Amesbury that August could be The One. But Finn’s been disappointed in love before—will sweet, shy August only break his heart once more?
August Amesbury can get his head around the idea of actual vampires congregating in a diner to have lots of sex. And while he has no idea what these (very) friendly strangers mean when they say August is a sub in need of a gentle dom, he’s down for figuring that out. What August can’t believe is that Finn Sullivan, the most beautiful person in the world, could actually be interested in awkward, geeky August. But that could be a problem, because August is pretty sure he’s already falling in love.
Plus! A plot! What will August’s awful cousin Logan do when he finds out August has snagged the trophy lover Logan’s been chasing?
Tropes: charming/shy (my fave), gentle dom/sub, virginity kink, strangers to lovers
[pain] today in Descartes: green is the best colour because it is most like an octave
Nov. 14th, 2025 11:45 pmkaberett... Nor shall I say what objects of vision must be agreeable or disagreeable to it; for from what I have already said about the other senses, it is easy to grasp that light that is too strong will injure the eyes and moderate light must refresh them; and that, amongst the colours, green, which consistss in the most moderate action (which by analogy one can speak of as the ratio 1:2), is like the octave among musical consonances, or like bread among the foods that one eats, that is, it is the most universally agreeable.40
40 What the basis of this remark is is unclear, and although various writers have made suggestions about the relations between colours and sounds, the attempt to quantify green on a par with an octave certainly cannot be sustained. It is worth noting that Descartes will later advice Elizabeth to rid her mind of sad thoughts by reflecting on the greenness of a wood (Descartes to Elizabeth, May/June 1645, AT iv. 220).
(trans. and footnote courtesy of Stephen Gaukroger.)
Wednesday Reading Meme for Nov 12 2025
Nov. 12th, 2025 08:00 pmkitewithfishLiterally nothing!
Which was kind of an interesting experience. I did this as sort of a “see what bubbles up when you’re not filling your head with words” and some stuff did! Can’t call it unmixed, but not without merit.
I found the experience a bit like going to the abstract wing of an art museum. At first it's all, Why are there no landscapes? Where are the people? Who is an allegory in these blobs of color? What does the vague square here Mean? But you go and you gaze slowly into the washes of color and the suggestions of a shape and it seeps into your brain that that’s sufficient to be Art. You float on a formless tide, dreaming without concrete shapes, synthesizing the Art inside of you. It stabilizes and you stop wanting someone else's allegory. You know what that blob means, what that vague square is saying to you and you alone.
Then you step out and go out into the portraits gallery. You are assaulted by the grounded, constructed, firm, Realness of all the other Art. It overwhelms you. Why can I see this man's actual nose. Whose horse is that.
In the space I was not filling with words by other people, I did a lot of Feeling My Feelings (exhausting but do recommend) and writing (exhausting but exhilarating) and also puttered very productively around the house, accomplishing many a small and valuable task (comforting and rather nice).
What I’m Reading
The Artists Way – Week 5 – Sense of Possibility
Alien Clay – very early on – We are getting into the big scifi questions.
What I’ll Read Next
Witness for the Dead Katherine Addison
The Fortunate Fall by Cameron Reed
Next Earthsea book?
Marvin Clark: The Missing Man Everyone Thought Was Found
Nov. 12th, 2025 11:08 amdannye_chase
Hey, y’all, it’s Weird Wednesday! Where on some Wednesdays, I blog about weird stuff and give writing prompts.
Today: Marvin Clark: The Missing Man Everyone Thought Was Found
Marvin Clark was a former town marshall in his early 70’s who set out from Tigard, Oregon, for Portland, Oregon, on October 30, 1926. He was planning to visit his married daughter, who managed a hotel. Some sources report that he took a stagecoach, but most agree it was a “motor stage” or bus. Unfortunately, he never reached the hotel, and never returned home. Today, Marvin Clark’s case is the oldest open missing persons case in the United States, having been officially in progress for nearly 99 years.
Marvin Clark was born in Iowa and had lived in Tigard for 15 years. Unfortunately, now that he was in his 70’s, he was not in the best of health physically. He walked with a limp and had some right-side paralysis of his arm. And, evidence may possibly show he was not in the best mental health either.
In early November, just days after his disappearance, Clark’s wife, Mary, received a postcard sent from nearby Bellingham, Washington, possibly from her husband. The message unfortunately did not make much sense, which could have been a sign of dementia. Witnesses also may have seen Clark at hotels in Bellingham on November 2 and 3. There were no further sightings.
And then, in 1986, a skeleton was found in the woods near Tigard: a skeleton almost certainly from around the 1920’s. “Multnomah John Doe” was found with coins dating to 1888 and 1919. It was widely assumed Marvin Clark had finally been found.
Check out the blog post for the whole story and some writing prompts, such as:
Let’s say you’ve got a missing persons case and an intrepid investigator, whether they be law enforcement, family, or a civilian sleuth. Here’s one possibility:
The missing person is found in a strange place. The sort of place your missing person could reasonably get to, but nobody would expect. Perhaps a missing person with no known access to money manages to get on a plane and end up across the country. Or maybe they find a kayak and are found on an island in the middle of lake. Or maybe some ordinary person is found in what should have been a highly secured location, like a closed bank or military base. You could have a natural explanation for all of these occurrences, or you could get speculative and invoke aliens, magic, or teleportation.
DannyeChase.com ~ AO3 ~ Linktree ~ The Vampire Haven erotic romance series ~ Weird Wednesday writing prompts blog ~ Resources for Writers
Image credit
some things make a post
Nov. 11th, 2025 11:04 pmkaberett- I will grudgingly concede that the ridiculously overengineered parsnip risotto from The Modern Vegetarian is actually very tasty and it's very obvious that without the THREE DIFFERENT PREPARATIONS OF PARSNIP it would also be significantly less Parsnip. It is not, however, sufficient to convince me to update The Risotto Rule. But, as I say, it's very tasty and we have at least another day (possibly two?) of it, which I am cheerful about as a concept!
- Blessedly my repeat prescription request had made it to the pharmacy by the time I swung by to pick up A's IOU and a new thing, so I won't need to make any more trips there
this week, at any rate. - Chillis in the greenhouse that I really need to bring home before I lose the gamble on frost are looking happy still despite a week+ of neglect.
- Through hunting duvet covers (the one I bought for myself when I first moved out of the Den of Christians and into My Own Flat, in very early 2014, has tragically failed catastrophically) I have been reminded of the existence of incredibly gaudy (watercolours of) tulips, and I'm probably not going to spend slightly silly money on watercolour stripy tulips, but I'm very glad they exist.
- We are continuing to Really Enjoy playing Inkulinati together, and I now definitely have enough grasp of the mechanics to collaborate on What We Wanna Do Next. One level fits quite neatly into some of the slightly awkward chunks of time in our week; I am looking forward to tomorrow's. <3