not today or tomorrow

Today on "playlists I will never make": something something Church and Tex, something something The Forgetting Room.

From the individual who brought you a playlist for A House of Many Doors, we have the latest in playlists for niche media - and of course I had to take a crack at CJ Cherryh's Finisterre duology sooner or later. It was an interesting challenge to try and capture a frontier vibe without too much straightforward American West.



And a second playlist, just because: I realised a while ago I was amassing quite the collection of songs about climate change, and sometimes that's the sort of catharsis you need after reading through the latest figures and reports and predictions. It swings somewhere else by the end, though, because I also think it very needful to remember why it still matters.

I keep idly constructing a post in my head about my personal thoughts on the pros and cons of Dreamwidth vs Tumblr as a primary centre for fandom interaction, but then never get around to writing it - which is, incidentally, one of the points in Tumblr's favour. Whenever I miss it, it's usually for that addictive ease of use and the fact it's a platform designed for short, punchy dispersal of content. As someone tends almost exclusively towards short and punchy over extensive meta or chapter fics, it did work for me.

But Dreamwidth still better represents the kind of fandom and information sharing culture I both like and find healthier. I've even just about stopped startling every time someone mentions their grandkids.

Outside the intersphere, the coronavirus outbreak way down south has been hard to hear about and doubtless even worse to experience. It would be nice if this prompted a reassessment of the aged care system, but at the same time it's not as though its flaws haven't been known for many years. How many royal commissions does one industry need, really? Meanwhile, the media's been showing its arse in a big way by choosing to name two - of numerous - cases of selfish breaches putting others in danger, and effectively ruining these girls' lives in the process. I don't deny their wrong-doing, but I have never much liked judgement by frothing mob and the headline by the Courier Mail in particular was just gross.

A less troubling piece of Australian culture - I fell down the hole of looking up catchy ads from my youth. I know, I know. In my defence, the 90s and 00s had some real bangers. Make Those Bodies Sing, anyone? I still can't talk about bananas without it popping into my head. Slip Slop Slap (tadaa~!) and It's A Big Ad remain visceral memories as well, and you'll be hard-pressed to find an Aussie who can't respond to a call of "one-three-double-o!" like a Pavlovian game of Marco Polo. This whole jaunt was mostly spurred by an American coworker, however, when she admitted she had only recently learned about the origins of Not Happy Jan.

When I am not staring off into the distance contemplating sense-memories of a flawed past that was nonetheless fairly soft and fuzzy for me at the time - or, you know, working - I am still neck-deep in A House of Many Doors. I even puffed the dust off the playlist I started putting together for it yonks back and rounded it out in earnest, and I have to say, I'm pretty pleased with it! Helps that there is an endless fountain of convenient symbolism to drawn on from the canon.