H. Wren D'Arcy @hexwren@cybre.space

#introduction (last?)

The last of the bullet points in my profile is one of the hardest to outline. Ludomantic Witchcraft is a theory I have been slowly assembling, the work of which I hope to share here as it develops. Simply put, I love games, almost as much as I love music. From the incredibly simple to the obnoxiously complex, simple acts with cards, dice, boards, pawns, et al. allow us to interact with what one might call fate or fortune. Rule sets are rituals. I have experiments and ideas to share.

#introduction (more)

I also make mixtapes! It's been a minute since I've done so, but I hope to start up again in the near future.

Here's a link: https://www.mixcloud.com/hexwren/

All that's currently posted are what I call Community Mixtapes, done for the queer gaming discord I often hang out on. Everyone who signs up submits 3 tunes, and I pick 1 out of every set and string a tape together from them. I'll be going back to these soon, and am looking to see how Community Tapemaking works on the fediverse.

#introduction (more)

I am a terrible music nerd. I will often speak in obscure references, suggest records you may never have heard of, and generally go nuts for good tunes. I consider myself an amateur pop music historienne.

However, if there's one thing I've learned in learning all I have about music, it's that there is always more to learn and to listen to. I absolutely want to hear what you're into and what is missing from my rotation. I love nostalgic sounds, but I don't want to be defined by them.

#introduction (more)

I do many things, and this account is here to share them with you! I also hope to get more social with the fine folx of this instance, but as I work nights and sleep days, it's going to be a work in progress.

One of the things I do is write! I work mainly in prose, which is occasionally smutty, because I am occasionally a crass person. Any 18+ work will be labeled as such.

I have also begun writing my first computer game! As of "now," I am maybe 10% of the way to a finished product.

#introduction

Hi! I'm Hex, or Wren, whichever you feel is best, it's all me. I like birds and bird puns, hence the name.

This is an account where I will be mostly posting the end result of Work. There will be personal elements, of course, but this isn't a personal/vent/AD/etc account. I'll have more (pinnable) introductory posts to describe what those are coming up soon, but in the meantime, I'm going to post something we can interact with while I go to my mundane job on the other side of the city.

I know part of the reason this is a thing is patriarchial ideas about female characters and actors, but our leads are literally wearing a different outfit in every single scene and it's great outfits all the way down

turns out the shot is framed like it's sexual assault, but the old guys in the nursing home are just attacking the nurse to get at the head matron's chicken lunch, since they're not allowed to have greasy food. comedy!

anyway, here's some 1985 style for your eyeholes

I'll try to get some corroborating screenshots later - I'd just link the trailer, but it's got a weird gross sexual assault comedy bit in the middle because the 80s, amirite

the problem with media is that there's always cool stuff where you end up just not knowing about it until you stumble across it years after it's been a thing

tonight, that thing for me is "yes, madam," a 1985 corey yuen-directed hong kong cop movie which featured the first starring roles for michelle yeoh and cynthia rothrock and fashionwise, may be the futchest single thing ever put to film

staying home from work tonight because holy fuck, the last twenty hours did a number on me

me: doing nothing quietly

my brain: THE BUTTER WOULDN'T MELT SO I PUT IT IN THE PIE, ALRIGHT?

* but not "You Suffer," which is a song (for certain values of song) by grindcore pioneers Napalm Death which is often cited as the shortest song ever recorded.

It basically consists of one downbeat.

context: Into the Unknown was the group's second album (after the foundational hardcore of How Could Hell Be Any Worse?) and saw the group pivot to...well, not full-on "prog" as a lot of accounts will say, but an aggressive brand of new wave, with synth-organ riffs pushing more melodic songs that do end up bearing more than some slight resemblance to the strongly melodic and vocal-harmony-based work they'd get into in later years

however, in an era where punk identity politics were, as always, built on puritanical rules of "you can do anything you like, as long as it's hard, fast guitars and yelling," the backlash against the record was enough to break the band up for a time

when they reformed several years later, they put out an EP of straight-ahead hardcore punk entitled Back to the Known in what is probably the most blatant piece of backpedaling seen in popular music. It would be several more years before they'd begin peaking with strongly melodic tracks such as "You," "Suffer,"* "Generator," and such

lawyerdad guitarmaker PRS is getting into the effects pedal market

their first three pedals have terrible names, even for a genre of product name where the Big Muff Pi, Way Huge Swollen Pickle, and the Super Hard-On are longstanding sellers

They are the
- Horsemeat (overdrive)
- Mary Cries (compressor, because, yeah, when I think about hendrix, I obviously think about compressed signals [non-tech types, this is sarcasm])
- Wind Through the Trees (dual flanger)

and here I am so internet-poisoned that I just look at the term "horsemeat" and end up thinking about furry porn

I am simultaneously okay with and a little disappointed by the fact that my social circles do not really contain anyone who would have a major opinion about the fact that I really like the album into the unknown by bad religion

me, hearing that the much-dreaded car repairs might be at least partly under warranty: great, gonna save a few dollars

also me, two seconds later: what if I bought something really splashy for myself to treat myself after having to put up with the stress of the last 14.5 hours

hi morning crew, I'm part of you today (i have yet to go to bed because of problems)

at the auto repair shop

just saw an ad on tv for a fancy new style of artificial christmas tree

ugh

just got a notification in my email that it's been twenty years since I started my livejournal

probably about ten or eleven since I last used it, but still

watching anime, considering the forbidden half-jorts

safely home, car is at the shop, I'll try and get a taxi back to the shop when they open in four and a half hours, I guess, I don't know, I'm probably making bad decisions here

definitely going to be hemorrhaging money on this thing

might need to put out a call for support, idk. I'm too terrified to look at my bank account right now and it won't matter anyway until I can see how much the repairs are going to cost me

fuck me

downtown at a sketchy gas station, car broke down, waiting for a tow that is going to cost unreasonable amounts of money so i can get a repair that is also going to cost unreasonable amounts of money

autumn is also time for king crimson's red lp, but only at night

starless is magical at night, especially at high volume

spring albums include everything is wrong, are you ok?, partie traumatic, and others