Elizabeth Parmeter's Blog, page 7
January 16, 2018
Music: Jonathan Young - Unravel
I'm kind of a huge music nerd. Not a snob, because I like just about anything you put in front of my ears. I pride myself a little on having an ear for what's good or bad. In fact, when I was much younger and was buying tapes and later cds as they were released, I used to challenge myself to figure out which would be the next song released from the album for the radio. I feel like I did pretty well.
Although my access to new music was more and more restricted as I grew up and my family got more and more into the church. By high school, I only kept up with as much new music as I could pack into every other weekend at my dad's, since my parents were separated.
In recent years, I've really enjoyed having access to streaming services and YouTube. I signed up for a Google Music account pretty much as soon as it was possible. And I became a subscriber when that became an option. My Google Music subscription gives me YouTube Red access and whatever mess YouTube has going on currently, I like being able to have ad-free access to new and upcoming artists.
I used to do this thing on my tumblr where I boosted videos from YouTube that I was really into and I think I want to bring that over here.
Here's my first one. I've turned a bunch of my friends on to this guy through his metal covers of Disney songs (which are fabulous). Jonathan Young has an absolutely amazing voice and a really great ability to make a song his own. I've been enjoying this latest cover from him: "Unravel" from Tokyo Ghoul. Give it a listen.
Although my access to new music was more and more restricted as I grew up and my family got more and more into the church. By high school, I only kept up with as much new music as I could pack into every other weekend at my dad's, since my parents were separated.
In recent years, I've really enjoyed having access to streaming services and YouTube. I signed up for a Google Music account pretty much as soon as it was possible. And I became a subscriber when that became an option. My Google Music subscription gives me YouTube Red access and whatever mess YouTube has going on currently, I like being able to have ad-free access to new and upcoming artists.
I used to do this thing on my tumblr where I boosted videos from YouTube that I was really into and I think I want to bring that over here.
Here's my first one. I've turned a bunch of my friends on to this guy through his metal covers of Disney songs (which are fabulous). Jonathan Young has an absolutely amazing voice and a really great ability to make a song his own. I've been enjoying this latest cover from him: "Unravel" from Tokyo Ghoul. Give it a listen.
January 15, 2018
Life is Strange: Before the Storm
Today I had a whole day off work without any scheduled plans. Save one, finally, spend some time with a distant friend who is on a completely opposite schedule from me. Used to be she and I could make time for a chat on Discord pretty regularly, but that hasn't happened in a long time. And since she works third shift even in the time we have off, finding more than an hour to actually chat is difficult. Both of us having the day free -- and a workday for most everyone else -- meant we could get together.
Today, we picked up a game to play that we'd both been putting off so we could play it together. I bought Life is Strange: Before the Storm, the prequel game to 2015's Life is Strange by Square Enix and Dontnod Entertainment, during the Winter Steam Sale with a day just like today in mind. All three episodes of the game had been released, meaning if I wanted to spend a day on it, I could pick it up and finish it that same day.
So I did, with a friend on the other end of a Discord Chat and Steam broadcast. All hail the power of technology to bring people together.
Before the Storm picks up the story of Chloe Price some time before the events of the first game, before her friend Max returns from another school, to their hometown of Arcadia Bay. Instead, we meet the friend we'd only seen in pictures and spoken of in the past tense, Rachel Amber. Rachel and Chloe meet out of the blue at a concert one night and a very fast friendship, relationship, forms between them.
We learn more about Chloe's stepfather, before he married her mother and we meet Rachel Amber's parents. There are a few return names and faces in the students at Blackwell Academy as well, in addition to some new ones.
Overall, the game is compelling, as I expected it to be having played the first one. The original however has a very specific power/control set that pulls you through the story and helps you achieve Max's goals. This one doesn't have that. And... I don't think it's a worse game for it, but I'm definitely not a fan of the mechanic they choose (i.e. Chloe's "superpower", the Backtalk challenges). Aside from that however, the choices are meaningful, the story is wonderful and while the dialogue is very often clunky, it makes an impression.
For instance:
In episode two, "Hell is Empty", we see the consequences of Chloe and Rachel's actions from episode one culminate in the expulsion of Chloe from Blackwell. From that moment, there's several really difficult scenes between Chloe and her mother, Joyce. These also include Joyce's boyfriend, David.
I had a very difficult time with these scenes for two reasons. One, having come from a set of broken home where both parents remarried to different levels of success, I'm familiar with what it's like having a new parent introduced into your life. Two, as a trained foster parent and adoptive mother, I know what it's like to try and be a parent to a teenager you've only just met. Both are difficult for a variety of reasons. I don't know there's a way to do it "right" but in as much as the game makes it all feel like it's done "wrong", then I think they did it well.
To be honest, I repeatedly said how much I hated it as I made the choices the game presented me with to get through those conversations. None of the choices felt like good ones. And while we only see the choices presented from Chloe's perspective... if there were a different game where you had to make the choices from Joyce's, or even David's perspectives, I have no doubt they should feel much the same. There's no right or perfect way to change the make-up of your family in a way that's going to feel good to everyone involved.
Now I wouldn't want to sell the game on those conversations, they're uncomfortable and frustrating. However, given how clunky and sometimes performative some of the dialogue can be in other parts of the game, this is one of the times when it absolutely feels real.
Today, we picked up a game to play that we'd both been putting off so we could play it together. I bought Life is Strange: Before the Storm, the prequel game to 2015's Life is Strange by Square Enix and Dontnod Entertainment, during the Winter Steam Sale with a day just like today in mind. All three episodes of the game had been released, meaning if I wanted to spend a day on it, I could pick it up and finish it that same day.
So I did, with a friend on the other end of a Discord Chat and Steam broadcast. All hail the power of technology to bring people together.
Before the Storm picks up the story of Chloe Price some time before the events of the first game, before her friend Max returns from another school, to their hometown of Arcadia Bay. Instead, we meet the friend we'd only seen in pictures and spoken of in the past tense, Rachel Amber. Rachel and Chloe meet out of the blue at a concert one night and a very fast friendship, relationship, forms between them.
We learn more about Chloe's stepfather, before he married her mother and we meet Rachel Amber's parents. There are a few return names and faces in the students at Blackwell Academy as well, in addition to some new ones.
Overall, the game is compelling, as I expected it to be having played the first one. The original however has a very specific power/control set that pulls you through the story and helps you achieve Max's goals. This one doesn't have that. And... I don't think it's a worse game for it, but I'm definitely not a fan of the mechanic they choose (i.e. Chloe's "superpower", the Backtalk challenges). Aside from that however, the choices are meaningful, the story is wonderful and while the dialogue is very often clunky, it makes an impression.
For instance:
In episode two, "Hell is Empty", we see the consequences of Chloe and Rachel's actions from episode one culminate in the expulsion of Chloe from Blackwell. From that moment, there's several really difficult scenes between Chloe and her mother, Joyce. These also include Joyce's boyfriend, David.
I had a very difficult time with these scenes for two reasons. One, having come from a set of broken home where both parents remarried to different levels of success, I'm familiar with what it's like having a new parent introduced into your life. Two, as a trained foster parent and adoptive mother, I know what it's like to try and be a parent to a teenager you've only just met. Both are difficult for a variety of reasons. I don't know there's a way to do it "right" but in as much as the game makes it all feel like it's done "wrong", then I think they did it well.
To be honest, I repeatedly said how much I hated it as I made the choices the game presented me with to get through those conversations. None of the choices felt like good ones. And while we only see the choices presented from Chloe's perspective... if there were a different game where you had to make the choices from Joyce's, or even David's perspectives, I have no doubt they should feel much the same. There's no right or perfect way to change the make-up of your family in a way that's going to feel good to everyone involved.
Now I wouldn't want to sell the game on those conversations, they're uncomfortable and frustrating. However, given how clunky and sometimes performative some of the dialogue can be in other parts of the game, this is one of the times when it absolutely feels real.
Writing & Research [Passages]: On using people
A content warning, I suppose, is in order for this. At least if it were me, I'd want to know that I'm about to talk a whole lot about some specific [if nameless] shitty Christians. Also, a trigger warning for abuse of a minor (it's an extremely brief mention).
I'm working on a story -- well, a novel, maybe -- and for that, I need to do a little bit of research. I want to build a framework around some old church sermons with a pretty specific theme. Thankfully (or not so much since there's a whole lot of things I'd rather have stuck in my head) I used to go to the kind of church that espoused the kind of ideologies and doctrines this story is going to feature. This means I know pretty easily the kind of people to look up who might have sermons online to listen to.
Specifically, I found sermons from a travel ministry my old pastor taught around the country in the years long after he was the pastor. I listened to one tonight, just one, and I had to skip ahead to avoid the most boring bits. But here's something I discovered upon listening: this asshole pastor (and he is for reasons I won't get in to right now) is using stories told to him by the teenagers from my old school to shill his bullshit to the masses around the country. Oh yeah. Shocked me too.
Sure I'm aware pastors and evangelists, revivalists and missionaries, they all use stories from their own lives to weave into their sermons. And for the most part, we don't mind because the stories are vague and mundane. They're stories that could really be about anyone.
This isn't one of those stories. My high school, in a good year, had maybe a total of 70 kids. 15 kids per grade, average for years 8-12. So when you talk about kids that attended the school at a specific grade level and whether or not they had a sibling and what gender they are. It's not that difficult (if you know the place) to start filtering down to who he might be talking about.
But this isn't just any story he told. He told a specific story about someone who'd graduated from school with enough details to figure out who it was. And maybe if this was a happy story about the person I wouldn't be so shocked. But this isn't a happy tale he's sharing with thousands of people (or is online for anyone to hear). He tells a specific story that this person shared with him in private about a time as a kid when they were abused. Using details and language that should not just be upsetting for someone that even sort of knows who they are (like me) but for a crowd of church-going strangers twenty years later. This old pastor though, he shares details about the abuse, details about this person's life... and does so not necessarily making light of it, but ignoring the depth of it in order to make a point, to use it as the core for his sermon. As a catalyst to action.
Listen, these people I was raised with, they weren't good people. I knew it then, I know it even better now. And yet somehow, each time I learn a little tidbit of information about one of them, like this, I'm still surprised.
How.... how can someone who worked for dozens of years as a pastor, a counselor, a teacher of minds old and young alike, casually toss out information like that in a sermon to strangers? I don't get it.
Now maybe I'm of base here and he got the permission of the person he speaks of in his sermon. Maybe, despite the gravity of the story, it's not a big deal to this person? Having heard the story and having a pretty good idea who this person is, I want to assume that's not the case. But readers... I was shocked and sad and really, really disappointed to hear it. And I didn't want to be listening to this mess in the first place.
So I don't know what of this series of sermons awaits me next, if there more stories from the people and places of my childhood to hear about. But I'm assuming there will be.
I'm working on a story -- well, a novel, maybe -- and for that, I need to do a little bit of research. I want to build a framework around some old church sermons with a pretty specific theme. Thankfully (or not so much since there's a whole lot of things I'd rather have stuck in my head) I used to go to the kind of church that espoused the kind of ideologies and doctrines this story is going to feature. This means I know pretty easily the kind of people to look up who might have sermons online to listen to.
Specifically, I found sermons from a travel ministry my old pastor taught around the country in the years long after he was the pastor. I listened to one tonight, just one, and I had to skip ahead to avoid the most boring bits. But here's something I discovered upon listening: this asshole pastor (and he is for reasons I won't get in to right now) is using stories told to him by the teenagers from my old school to shill his bullshit to the masses around the country. Oh yeah. Shocked me too.
Sure I'm aware pastors and evangelists, revivalists and missionaries, they all use stories from their own lives to weave into their sermons. And for the most part, we don't mind because the stories are vague and mundane. They're stories that could really be about anyone.
This isn't one of those stories. My high school, in a good year, had maybe a total of 70 kids. 15 kids per grade, average for years 8-12. So when you talk about kids that attended the school at a specific grade level and whether or not they had a sibling and what gender they are. It's not that difficult (if you know the place) to start filtering down to who he might be talking about.
But this isn't just any story he told. He told a specific story about someone who'd graduated from school with enough details to figure out who it was. And maybe if this was a happy story about the person I wouldn't be so shocked. But this isn't a happy tale he's sharing with thousands of people (or is online for anyone to hear). He tells a specific story that this person shared with him in private about a time as a kid when they were abused. Using details and language that should not just be upsetting for someone that even sort of knows who they are (like me) but for a crowd of church-going strangers twenty years later. This old pastor though, he shares details about the abuse, details about this person's life... and does so not necessarily making light of it, but ignoring the depth of it in order to make a point, to use it as the core for his sermon. As a catalyst to action.
Listen, these people I was raised with, they weren't good people. I knew it then, I know it even better now. And yet somehow, each time I learn a little tidbit of information about one of them, like this, I'm still surprised.
How.... how can someone who worked for dozens of years as a pastor, a counselor, a teacher of minds old and young alike, casually toss out information like that in a sermon to strangers? I don't get it.
Now maybe I'm of base here and he got the permission of the person he speaks of in his sermon. Maybe, despite the gravity of the story, it's not a big deal to this person? Having heard the story and having a pretty good idea who this person is, I want to assume that's not the case. But readers... I was shocked and sad and really, really disappointed to hear it. And I didn't want to be listening to this mess in the first place.
So I don't know what of this series of sermons awaits me next, if there more stories from the people and places of my childhood to hear about. But I'm assuming there will be.
January 14, 2018
Wynonna Earp -- She ain’t anybody’s but her own.
Recently I picked up Wynonna Earp to watch on Netflix (Season 1 only at the moment). It's been on my list of things to watch for a while now, I've seen enough WayHaught gifs on my tumblr dash, to know there were good things waiting for me when I got into it. What I didn't know was how much I've craved an anti-hero like Wynonna. She's bad, she's crass and as Doc says, "She ain't nobody's but her own."
If you haven't watched Wynonna Earp, it's about a woman named, Wynonna Earp who is the heir of the Earp curse. When the heir reaches 27 years of age all the people Wyatt Earp killed return to Earth, possessed by demons which can only be put down for good by the heir. Or something like that. Also, Doc Holliday (Wyatt's best and closest friend) is still alive, having been granted a long life by a witch. He works at Wynonna's side to put down the demons.
What makes this show so great is how much Wynonna isn't the hero type. She comes back to her hometown of Purgatory after years of avoiding the place, hoping to stave off the curse. All the way back to high school, she's been a loose cannon. People didn't believe her about the demons (for obvious reasons) and she acted out. All the time. A whole lot. She left town with few friends (really just her younger sister, Waverly). The chosen one's refusal to take on a task is a common enough trope. As is the rebellious champion, someone who doesn't fit the mold we expect them to.
But you root for Wynonna because she tries.
She might hate the curse, but once it enacts in earnest while she's in Purgatory for a funeral, she stays. She's trying to do the thing she knows she needs to do. And she doesn't lose herself, or her personality and wit, in the process. Picture if Buffy was older, had a gun, and gave in most often to her baser instincts. Then put it all in the southwest where there's a lot of boots and guns and dirt. It's a good time.
Now, all I need is for Season 2 to arrive on Netflix so I can get caught up.
If you haven't watched Wynonna Earp, it's about a woman named, Wynonna Earp who is the heir of the Earp curse. When the heir reaches 27 years of age all the people Wyatt Earp killed return to Earth, possessed by demons which can only be put down for good by the heir. Or something like that. Also, Doc Holliday (Wyatt's best and closest friend) is still alive, having been granted a long life by a witch. He works at Wynonna's side to put down the demons.
What makes this show so great is how much Wynonna isn't the hero type. She comes back to her hometown of Purgatory after years of avoiding the place, hoping to stave off the curse. All the way back to high school, she's been a loose cannon. People didn't believe her about the demons (for obvious reasons) and she acted out. All the time. A whole lot. She left town with few friends (really just her younger sister, Waverly). The chosen one's refusal to take on a task is a common enough trope. As is the rebellious champion, someone who doesn't fit the mold we expect them to.
But you root for Wynonna because she tries.
She might hate the curse, but once it enacts in earnest while she's in Purgatory for a funeral, she stays. She's trying to do the thing she knows she needs to do. And she doesn't lose herself, or her personality and wit, in the process. Picture if Buffy was older, had a gun, and gave in most often to her baser instincts. Then put it all in the southwest where there's a lot of boots and guns and dirt. It's a good time.
Now, all I need is for Season 2 to arrive on Netflix so I can get caught up.
January 13, 2018
TAZ: Podcast -- Amnesty arc
Aside from Critical Role, The Adventure Zone is the one actual play D&D series I've been able to get into. Maybe I enjoyed it so much from the beginning because I was already a huge fan of the McElroys. I enjoy Griffin & Justin's work at Polygon and I've been listening to the three of them on MBMBAM for a long time now. They started sort of at the right place, right time for me.
I'd been watching Tabletop on Geek & Sundry for a couple seasons, I'd started getting into Critical Role and looking into story-like podcasts that were something other than Welcome to Nightvale. And then the McEl-bros started The Adventure Zone.
And as I mentioned in yesterday's post... they just sort of started. There was no long lengthy introduction to their characters, there was no overly detailed explanation of anything. Griffin just started narrating and they just ran with it. As much as I love Critical Role (and that's a lot) something about the tight time of the TAZ podcast and the extreme humor they pack into those hour-ish long episodes really connected with me. Plus, Griffin's storytelling is pretty amazing. He started with that first Phandalin adventure that a lot of D&D 5th edition groups start with and then... he made the whole thing his own. Which is EXACTLY what you should do as a DM. Just start. And then figure out the story you want to tell. That doesn't always come before the players are around the table for the first time. At least, not the whole thing.
Anyhow. I say all that to say this, TAZ is one of my favorite things going. It's one of my favorite podcasts and fans of McEl-content, TAZ specifically are really, pretty great. The McElroy brothers have gone out of their way to try and make listeners comfortable with the stories their telling in the best way they know how. They don't always get it right, but the effort is always apparent.
With the ending of the TAZ: Balance arc, they guys have been working on shorter story arcs. Clint, their dad, ran one recently using the FATE system. Griffin is picking up a short arc using the Monster of the Week rules. Travis is working on his currently and cards are in the air on what if anything Justin will run before they pick up with a longer arc again.
The first mini-story arc, Commitment, wasn't my favorite. The 100 years arc in Balance that solidified how the end of the bigger story would play out was a low point for me as a listener. I'm not crazy about monster-of-the-week shows in general but I bided my time for the story to finally come full-circle. It did and when the whole story paid off, I bawled my eyes out in the final episode.
Commitment though, I felt disconnected from almost completely. I didn't listen to all of their set-up episode, I gave introductions about 15 minutes and moved on. The story was alright, the humor was present but really, I got through those episodes because the brothers are still themselves at the end of the day and know how to make jokes deliver. While it didn't resonate with me on a story or rpg level completely, it was worth it to listen to Clint stretch his storytelling abilities and Griffin take a turn as a player.
Now in our second arc, with Amnesty, I did make it through all of the setup episode although it was a near thing. The episode released Friday 1/12 though, that was something. And honestly, I wish this is the episode they used as their "set-up" episode. I didn't need to listen to them describe the game play and their characters for an hour. This hour long episode where each character Duck, Lady Flame & Edmund get a tiny adventure for themselves that we can assume is building to all three characters getting off on their adventure together.
So, yes, one of the things that helps ties things together better here is that Griffin's had three years of GM experience with the Balance arc. Whether or not all of the pieces in that story were successful is up to listener interpretation, but most fans can agree that the story pays off in the end.
For this first real episode of Amnesty, Griffin spoke into existence a story... and everyone just yes and-ed the hell out of what he provided them with. I really wish the previous episode had just been skipped. We'll get just as much knowledge of your character from context clues and in-game interaction through the course of this arc as you gave us in that one set-up episode. I find that makes that build up unnecessary.
This is a bit of a rambling through process about how games and stories begin and what I think is successful. Sorry about that. But I wanted to post about TAZ today because I really did enjoy this episode. It was a good salve for being strangely.... caught up... on Critical Role.
I'm looking forward to what this new arc brings us (Bigfoot? *fingers crossed*), aside from the banging new intro Griffin wrote for it. But two days, two good beginnings on stories for my two favorite actual play games?
Yeah, I'm good here.
I'd been watching Tabletop on Geek & Sundry for a couple seasons, I'd started getting into Critical Role and looking into story-like podcasts that were something other than Welcome to Nightvale. And then the McEl-bros started The Adventure Zone.
And as I mentioned in yesterday's post... they just sort of started. There was no long lengthy introduction to their characters, there was no overly detailed explanation of anything. Griffin just started narrating and they just ran with it. As much as I love Critical Role (and that's a lot) something about the tight time of the TAZ podcast and the extreme humor they pack into those hour-ish long episodes really connected with me. Plus, Griffin's storytelling is pretty amazing. He started with that first Phandalin adventure that a lot of D&D 5th edition groups start with and then... he made the whole thing his own. Which is EXACTLY what you should do as a DM. Just start. And then figure out the story you want to tell. That doesn't always come before the players are around the table for the first time. At least, not the whole thing.
Anyhow. I say all that to say this, TAZ is one of my favorite things going. It's one of my favorite podcasts and fans of McEl-content, TAZ specifically are really, pretty great. The McElroy brothers have gone out of their way to try and make listeners comfortable with the stories their telling in the best way they know how. They don't always get it right, but the effort is always apparent.
With the ending of the TAZ: Balance arc, they guys have been working on shorter story arcs. Clint, their dad, ran one recently using the FATE system. Griffin is picking up a short arc using the Monster of the Week rules. Travis is working on his currently and cards are in the air on what if anything Justin will run before they pick up with a longer arc again.
The first mini-story arc, Commitment, wasn't my favorite. The 100 years arc in Balance that solidified how the end of the bigger story would play out was a low point for me as a listener. I'm not crazy about monster-of-the-week shows in general but I bided my time for the story to finally come full-circle. It did and when the whole story paid off, I bawled my eyes out in the final episode.
Commitment though, I felt disconnected from almost completely. I didn't listen to all of their set-up episode, I gave introductions about 15 minutes and moved on. The story was alright, the humor was present but really, I got through those episodes because the brothers are still themselves at the end of the day and know how to make jokes deliver. While it didn't resonate with me on a story or rpg level completely, it was worth it to listen to Clint stretch his storytelling abilities and Griffin take a turn as a player.
Now in our second arc, with Amnesty, I did make it through all of the setup episode although it was a near thing. The episode released Friday 1/12 though, that was something. And honestly, I wish this is the episode they used as their "set-up" episode. I didn't need to listen to them describe the game play and their characters for an hour. This hour long episode where each character Duck, Lady Flame & Edmund get a tiny adventure for themselves that we can assume is building to all three characters getting off on their adventure together.
So, yes, one of the things that helps ties things together better here is that Griffin's had three years of GM experience with the Balance arc. Whether or not all of the pieces in that story were successful is up to listener interpretation, but most fans can agree that the story pays off in the end.
For this first real episode of Amnesty, Griffin spoke into existence a story... and everyone just yes and-ed the hell out of what he provided them with. I really wish the previous episode had just been skipped. We'll get just as much knowledge of your character from context clues and in-game interaction through the course of this arc as you gave us in that one set-up episode. I find that makes that build up unnecessary.
This is a bit of a rambling through process about how games and stories begin and what I think is successful. Sorry about that. But I wanted to post about TAZ today because I really did enjoy this episode. It was a good salve for being strangely.... caught up... on Critical Role.
I'm looking forward to what this new arc brings us (Bigfoot? *fingers crossed*), aside from the banging new intro Griffin wrote for it. But two days, two good beginnings on stories for my two favorite actual play games?
Yeah, I'm good here.
