Friday Art Attack

Sometimes even I have to go back to some classic fantasy tropes.

I've never read the Dark Tower series, and I actually doubt that I'd like it, but the concept of fantasy that's Western rather than Medieval as it's base is something that really appeals to me a lot.

Dark Sun, as a kind of grim and gritty take on Barsoom through the lens of AD&D, is another concept that always struck me with its relatively exotic high concept.

More of Tron and Star Wars combined.

Again with using awakened apes in place of orcs.  I'm pretty much convinced that that's how I need to do my next setting, which does have an orc nation.  But it's going to look more like this than like Warhammer or even Lord of the Rings.

I'm pretty sure I've highlighed some of this artwork before, but this with the grayscale outline behind it is pretty nice.

A street scene from Destiny; the space opera that didn't quite deliver.

Although the twee kumbaya of Dinotopia always got on my nerves, the actual artwork I always loved and thought that there needed to be something that was cooler but based on a similar high concept.

I grabbed this image a long time ago as an AD ASTRA iconic pirate/smuggler space ship.  I still love it.

More of the type of wretched hives of scum and villainy that urban centers tend to be in my fantasy.  In reality, urban centers are wretched hives of scum and villainy in real life too, I'm coming around to believe, so it's hardly a stretch.

Some older Wayne Reynolds undead.  A Dread Wraith or something, but whatever.  It's a ghost, y'all.

Star Wars ranked

On Rotten Tomatoes all of the movies in the Star Wars saga have an aggregate critics and aggregate audience score. I'll tell you what it is for each and then add my own.  In order from most recent to least:

Solo: Critics--71 Audiences--65 Mine: 75

The problems this movie had weren't as bad as all that. Mostly, it was a pretty decent movie that got caught up in the flak from The Last Jedi.  Both aggregate scores are a bit underrated.

The Last Jedi: Critics--91 Audiences--46 Mine: 10

About the only credit I can give to this movie is in some aspects of the visual design. It's a complete and total dumpster fire. Plot structure, characters, chemistry, I mean everything was a caricature of a bad movie. Just awful.

Rogue One: Critics--85 Audiences--87 Mine: 70

While mostly pretty good, this movie isn't THAT great. The cipher of a main protagonist is a big part of it, some weak plot structure (especially regarding how and why the main character is even involved at all) and a downer of a plot make this competent and capable... But nowhere near the main trilogy in terms of rewatchability or even just plain charisma as movie in general.

The Force Awakens: Critics--93 Audiences--87 Mine: 25

Its just really not very good and the scores are way overrated. The plot is recycled from two prior movies in the series. The villain is a very cheap imitation of Vader with none of his screen presence. The good guys are boring. Han Solo and Leia were deliberately ruined just to spite the fans. And worst of all, SJW preachiness has already appeared in a fairly big way.

Revenge of the Sith: Critics--79 Audiences--65 Mine: 40

Here, a common theme unites all of the prequel trilogy entries: the problems with the movie are issues of craftsmanship. The movies COULD be good if only someone had done a rather thorough once over on the dialogue. If editing and directing had improved the pacing. If they'd been better cast. If the characters had chemistry. If some dumb ideas, especially about Anakin's character had been dropped or modified. 

Not saying the plots were great... but they were serviceable enough if a much higher level of craftsmanship overall had been applied.

Attack of the Clones: Critics--66 Audiences--56 Mine: 40

Same as above, mostly. I'm not sure which of these is the worst but I'm going to say that the first of the prequels is the best just because of Qui-gon Jinn and Darth Maul.

The Phantom Menace: Critics--55 Audiences--59 Mine: 50

Return of the Jedi: Critics--80 Audiences--94 Mine: 80

Odd--I'm right where the critics are albeit for different reasons. It's satisfying enough although the seeds of a lot of problems were already on display.  Not that most of us had the wit to perceive them without the benefit of hindsight. I certainly didn't right away. With the exception of Luke claiming he'd won by refusing to fight Vader and the emperor. Even as a kid I knew that was retarded.

The Empire Strikes Back: Critics--95 Audiences--97 Mine: 90

As time has gone on I've come to see this a somewhat overrated and what Lucas was trying to do as possibly antithetical to what he'd already done. 

Of course, most of the problems with this movie don't really start to manifest until later in the series. But here is where some of them get their start: sleazy, non-heroic, lying Jedi, boring exposition about a philosophy that has all of the depth of a fortune cookie, etc. But... it's easy to forgive a lot of that because of the many things the movie did right.

Star Wars (I refuse to use the much later added subtitle): Critics--93 Audiences--96 Mine: 98

Sure, it looks a little aged now. And there's a minor plot hole or two. But this movie is otherwise EXACTLY what space opera is supposed to be all about.

EDIT: Let's add a few more entries that also have Rotten Tomatoes scores:

Star Wars Rebels (TV Show): Single score: 100 Mine: 35

A poor follow-up to The Clone Wars marred mostly by characters who aren't very charismatic and who you don't really want to watch or care about.  I don't know where the 100% score came from, but it's grossly over-rated.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars (TV Show): Single score: 95 Mine: 75

A pretty good show.  When it's really on its game, it's excellent.  When it's really off, it's occasionally dreary, preachy and aggravating.  And sometimes it's just fine, without being great or terrible.  But it's a good deal more good than bad, and is a great example of what Star Wars, had it followed an arc suggested from the first movie, might actually have been more like.  Along with Knights of the Old Republic, the relatively high quality of this show went a long way towards rehabilitating the brand after the disappointments that were the prequel movies.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars (the theatrical release movie that served as a pilot for the show): Critics--18 Audience--38 Mine: 65

I have no idea why this is so badly bashed in the ratings.  It's really not that bad.  If you look at it as if it were a three or four episode arc in the show, it'd be up there among the better ones, and yet the show has an incredibly high score and this does not.  Why?  I don't get it, unless it has something to do with expectations of a show on in the Cartoon Network vs. a theatrical release movie. 

Dark fantasy horror RPGing

One of the 3.5 books that you'd think would have been right up my alley, but which I'm actually just now reading for the first time, is Heroes of Horror.  While much of the advice is about what I expected (i.e., I hardly need it) there are a handful of interesting tidbits of stuff here and there.  For instance, check out the following campaign model, "Death is Only the Beginning" followed by the soul-locked trait, which it references.

DEATH IS ONLY THE BEGINNING
Nonhumanoid monsters are extremely rare in this campaign, and each is likely unique. Perhaps they are the results of the gods’ anger or of curses or foul magical experimentation. Whatever the case, each one is practically impossible to kill; every monster is considered soul-locked (see page 47). Only those with the skills and fortitude to investigate each monster and determine what methods can be used to permanently eliminate it can hope to rid the region of the beasts that terrorize it. 

The Soul-Locked Creature
If you really want to hammer home the notion that a particular creature is almost unkillable—or the fact that violence is not a winning solution—consider giving some of your monsters the soul-locked trait. This is something like a template, since it takes a preexisting monster and modifies it. It makes only a single change to the creature, however: namely, it cannot be killed under normal circumstances! 

Soul-locking functions similarly to a ghost’s rejuvenation ability. Whenever the creature dies, it makes a DC 16 level check (d20 + HD). If it succeeds, the creature returns to life—or undeath, or animation—4d20 days after being slain (or twice that if the body is completely destroyed, such as by disintegrate or immersion in lava). Each soul-locked creature has one specific way in which it can be dispatched permanently. In some cases, this might be a particular type of weapon, or even a specific weapon. In most instances, the creature can be permanently defeated only through indirect means. If the monster is the manifestation of a familial curse, it can be banished forever only by making amends for the sin that called the curse down on the family in the first place. If it’s a demonic entity, the heroes must find the ancient symbols that drew it to the Material World and destroy them. If the beast is a creature of taint, the characters might have to cleanse an entire area of taint or lure the creature to a sacred purifying spring before it will stay dead. 

Even though being soul-locked makes a creature almost impossible to permanently destroy, it does not increase the monster’s Challenge Rating, since it is no harder to defeat the monster in any given encounter. You should give the PCs extra XP as a story award—perhaps an additional 25% over and above the XP for defeating it in that particular encounter—when they finally best it permanently.

This is very much up my alley, although it's not necessarily horror themed.  The Percy Jackson books basically use the same model, after all.

I'll repost text from a post I made many years ago now which summarizes my take on monsters, because the two approaches complement each other a great deal. Anyway, the reposted text starts below:

A problem that I often see in roleplaying games, and frankly, in D&D in particular, is that monsters completely fail to be scary. Rather, they are viewed as tactical gamepieces and challenges. Arguably, this is what Gygax and Arneson wanted all along, but it is not something that I want, and I think the idea of reducing monsters to a statline that has tactical implications is to make them not monstrous at all.

Granted, it doesn't have to be like this. I've managed to engender some of the same kind of dramatic tension in D&D games (occasionally) as you get while reading a scary book or watching a scary movie... but frankly, not very often. Part of it is the paradigm and attitude that the players bring to the table; if they're playing D&D, then there's an assumption that they'll be facing challenges that they should be able to overcome if they're smart and tactically sound. It's just the tone and nature of the game, or at least it's often expected to be so.

I like monsters to be scary. I like players to really question whether or not they want to fight these monsters. But I admit that my success, what of it there has been anyway, in accomplishing this is something that I've done more intuitively rather than rationally, and I'm not 100% certain that I fully understand how to pull this off. So for this post, I'm going to noodle around some ideas and see where they go.

1) Monsters should be set pieces. The idea of going through a "dungeon" and fighting monster after monster has really diluted the concept. In any good story of supernatural horror, the monsters are never routine. Be careful about showing off too many monsters. Granted, D&D has truckloads of monsters. But don't assume that all of them are hanging around waiting to be discovered. Think of how the ancient Greeks did it. There were not "medusas"; there was one Medusa. There were not hydras, there was one Lyrnean hydra, etc. While you don't need to go to this extreme, keep in mind that monsters are much more monstrous if they are extraordinary. No matter how monstrous the description or the statline makes them appear, they never will be if they're routine. If you're not fighting monsters all the time, what are you having the PCs spend their time doing otherwise? Bad guys! Thugs, cultists, criminals, spies, and the like. Don't underestimate the value of contrasting monsters to larger hordes of plain old bad guys. Besides, bad guys are fun to fight for the most part on their own too. And also don't underestimate the challenge of dangerous animals. In this era of high powered hunting rifles, enclosed off-road vehicles, and completely tamed terrain, we forget exactly how dangerous it would be to come across a herd of wild elephants who feel that their calves are threatened out in the middle of nowhere with nothing to defend yourself with except a few sharp pieces of metal that you need to hold close to yourself to use. Or how dangerous a pack of wolves could be to a lonely traveler, or a pride of hungry lions.

2) Closely related to that, monsters should be unknown. There's few things more prosaic than the GM of a game casually announcing what his monsters are, when their properties, strengths and weaknesses are well known to all the players. Does this mean that you should only use unfamiliar and unusual monsters that you make up yourself or find in obscure third party sources? Of course not, but you should take steps to, again, keep your monsters from feeling routine. Think about possibly making them difficult to identify for a time. The PCs don't actually see them well until they're well into the thick of it, but they see the effects of their attacks on NPCs or something like that. Mix up your descriptions so that the PCs can't easily match them to a monster that they know. Statistics and descriptions can be decoupled and rearranged. One of my most memorable encounters was with a handful of hellhounds that I simply described very differently—I used some artwork from Paizo of Lovecraftian hounds of Tindalos to represent them, gave them a chittering Predator-like growl, and had their fiery breath transform into a vomit of tiny, toothy little demons that crawled all over their victims. Consider giving some of your monsters surprise abilities. A zombie that has a poisonous bite, or something. It doesn't have to be a big deal, just enough to keep the PCs guessing and unsure of what exactly it is that they're up against.

3) And closely related to that, make your monsters horrific. Granted, another of my most memorable scary monster encounters was with a little blighter that due to some relatively weak stats and some extraordinary good rolls by the PCs, ended up going down like a chump in the first or second round of combat, but that was the exception not the rule. He was creepy because of all the other stuff I had him do, but by and large a monster that the PCs aren't sure they can beat is one that's more likely to scare them than one that's only going to "reduce their resources by XY%" or something inane like that. In fact, ignoring the advice of the Challenge Ratings system completely (which is a good idea for a lot of reasons, only one of which I'll get into here and now), you can pit the PCs against foes which they literally can't defeat in straight-up combat. Monsters shouldn't often be creatures that cause heroic PCs to shout, "Huzzah!" and charge at to engage in melee; they should be monstrous. There should be a lot of doubt about how to deal with them, if they're up to the challenge, and what exactly can be done to get around the many strengths that monsters might have. Rather, you can have the PCs need to research specific dirty tricks or weaknesses that allow them to have a chance against the monster; without which they'd be committing certain suicide. A demon that can be banished back to its home dimension only via a desperately hurried ritual is scarier than one that can be banished back to its home dimension after the PCs just jump in and attack it.

4) And that gets a bit into my last tip; foreshadow your monsters. There's nothing worse than having a monster just pop out of nowhere, get defeated and then promptly forgotten. The chump monster that I mentioned above? He was mostly memorable because of the excellent (and extraordinary; I haven't quite had this level of success many other times, sadly) foreshadowing. While the PCs were attempting to sleep at a crowded and sleazy dockside inn, they were woken up when a young woman in the room next to them screamed. Barging into her room, they found that her eyes had been scooped out of her head. There was no sign of any attacker, just the sobbing victim's almost nonsensical cry that the last thing she saw was a hideous face over her shoulder in the mirror. A few more clues, a bit more foreshadowing... and then a half-glimpsed movement in their own mirror, and the players were keyed up, tense, and on edge. When it turned out that their invisible assailant was actually killed rather easily, it didn't diminish the feeling of dread and creepiness that the encounter had managed to elicit. And this foreshadowing harkens back to my point #1; if monsters are set pieces, then you can craft an entire "adventure" around finding and defeating one, which means that you should have plenty of opportunities to foreshadow, to drop in unsettling or horrific clues or feelings, and generally ratchet up the tension on your way towards the final confrontation.

Nostic

What do you do when you've already sorted all 80 DJ sets, have them all perfectly lined up, and you've actually gone and made just over half of them, but then you discover a new artist that you should have included from the get-go had you had them on your radar?

Sigh.  I'm probably going to stop now with making any for a week or two anyway, because I'll be too busy.  But when I get back, instead of 80 DJ sets, I'll have 81 or 82, and I'll use a d12 to pick songs out of currently queued up sets and replace them with Nostic songs.  The songs picked out will go into 81 and/or 82.

Kind of a hassle, but worth it.  Nostic has some good material.

http://www.nostic-music.com/portfolio/

Incredibles 2

The Incredibles is still the best movie Pixar has done.  The hype surrounding the very late-appearing sequel is subsequently quite high.

This review will contain spoilers.

The movie is pretty fun.  The characters have the same chemistry, more or less, that they had before, and some of them at least have a development arc (although curiously, some of them which get a lot of screen time, do not.)  The action scenes are well done.  (My kids are universal in their praise of their improvement over the first movie.)  The setting is extremely well animated, and significantly expanded, in some ways.  There's a bigger cast of characters and a wider place in which they play, and yet at no point does it feel forced.

As Daddy Warpig noted; it's not perfect, but still better than the last two Star Wars movies combined. (I'm not sure exactly what he means by that, but given that The Force Awakens contributed very little, and The Last Jedi was actually a negative, being better than those two isn't saying much.  It's probably better than the two spin-off movies too, but not combined, and it's not a slam dunk against either Rogue One or Solo either one.)  After as long as we've all waited, it was fun to see the characters put through their paces again, and for the most part, they didn't really miss many beats.  (I should note that my daughter was highly distracted, and mentioned many times that the characters all sounded old.  But nobody else appears to have even noticed that.)

So... that's the good news.  And it's quite a bit, even though I've breezed through it quickly.  It's worth seeing. It's even worth seeing in theaters.  It's even worth seeing at full evening price, although I hardly ever see any movie at full evening price anymore; I almost always buy the last showing at matinee price on a weekday.  This is significant to me because it means that I don't contribute to the all-important opening weekend box office very much, if at all.  Considering that I saw this movie on the Monday afternoon after opening weekend, I didn't at all. 

At the end, though, most likely Incredibles 2 will be seen as relatively forgettable.  Like The Force Awakens, it's fun the first time you watch it, but as it ages, its flaws will become more obvious and harder to ignore.  At least that's my prediction (after watching it once.)  What are these flaws?

First off, at a high level, the plot is actually exactly the same as the first movie.  In spite of what you thought happened in the first movie, we start off with superheroes again facing legal pressure to not be superheroes.  Once again, a mysterious and obviously wealthy donor recruits superheroes (in this case Elastigirl instead of Mr. Incredible—more on that later) to do some superheroing on the side.  And once again, they turn out to (OMG! Big surprise!) actually be the villains that need to be faced at the end.  Once again Frozone and the kids get involved and the family has to pull together, overcoming their own separate issues, to defeat the villain, because none of them can do it alone.  Once again they save the city right there on the same waterfront at the last minute and once again the people all cheer and it looks like the supers can come out of hiding.

And once again, there's even a somewhat gratuitous visit to Edna Mode's place to get a new suit and some exposition.

The devil is in the details of course—considering that Edgar Rice Burroughs is my favorite author, it might seem a bit rich for me to be complaining about rehashed plots.  Then again, ERB's series tend to fall off in interest level quite rapidly after the first story arc is done too, don't they?  This problem doesn't make the movie any less fun to watch (once, at least) but it will almost certainly contribute to its eventual downfall after we're more used to it.  From a story perspective, this not only doesn't raise the bar, but it significantly lowers it.

Another significant turn-off was the obnoxious you go, grrl feminism about Elastigirl and the subsequent hapless, bumbling husband jokes about Mr. Incredible being left at home. While I certainly admit that this could have been worse, and I kind of expected it to be worse given how much Disney hates American culture and American tradition, it could have been worse isn't, of course, all that much of an endorsement.  It was present enough that it's hard to ignore.  But, it was undercut by two things: first, once Bob kinda finally gets over himself and dives head-first rather than somewhat reluctantly and resentfully into being the guy who stays at home, he actually is pretty good at it after all.  Arguably, he was better at that than he ever was at selling insurance in the first movie.  (Sadly, though, this means that Bob's emotional character arc is almost exactly the same as it was in the first movie, even though he's doing less fighting of robots and more dealing with math tutoring and Jack-Jack's ever growing repertoire of out of control powers.)  Of course, in the end, his stint as Mr. Mom doesn't last very long; really just long enough for him to prove that once he puts his mind to it, he can do it just fine.  Secondly, one of the main proponents for You Go, Grrrl feminism was actually the villain of the movie in a plot twist that nobody didn't see coming.  (The only question was: was it going to be both the brother and sister, or just the dry, obviously manipulative sister who was bad, and her brother really was the positive, excited, idealistic guy that he appeared to be.  The answer is the latter.)

A side effect, perhaps, of this you go, grrrl attitude was that Elastigirl had to already be pretty perfect or something.  She couldn't really have any weaknesses, because that would admit that there are things that she can't do, and the Mary Suewalker characters can't ever be that lest some poor, hateful and unlikable blue-haired landwhale have feelbads or something.  Because the plot actually focuses quite a bit more on her than the last movie did, this is to the plot's detriment.

Or maybe it's just a side-effect of the fact that Mr. Incredible is just a more interesting and charismatic character, and the movie was a little overstuffed, so Elastigirl ironically got way more screen time but no emotional character development arc at all.

Anyway, we'll probably buy this movie.  It's pretty good.  It's worth seeing, if you haven't already.  But it's a rather pale imitation of the first movie in many ways.

Hardest hard dance

Talking to some kids (including my own, and some of their friends) briefly about EDM yesterday, I mentioned that the kind of stuff I listen to is the kind of EDM that melts your face off and kicks your butt so hard that you're still pooping out pieces of its shoe several days later.  My wife literally can't listen to this stuff at anywhere near full volume (or really at all) without starting to really suffer from some anxiety, one of my sons claims that it just sounds like random power tools and tornado sirens and that listening to it causes cancer, etc.  The truth is; it's not for women, children or soyboys.  Only those man enough to listen to real warrior music can handle the stuff I listen to.

One of the girls thought it would be funny to slip a few tracks into an upcoming dance playlist and see how well they went over.  I'd probably laugh, but that's a lot of work for a chuckle.  In reality, I don't think the intensity of most of what I listen to is that extreme, and even when it is, I greatly prefer a melodic touch too (which is why in general, I prefer hardtrance to hardstyle—the latter tends to be a bit more noisy for little gain in "hardness" sometimes.)

Anyway, for the heck of it, I whipped up real quick a short set (half an hour) of some of the stuff in my collection that leans on the more intense.  It's not comprehensive, and it's not meant to be; it's meant to be a sample of some of my favorite of the harder of my songs.

These need to be played on a system that can handle the bass, though.  Especially about halfway through, between 14:53 to about 15:15 or so.  If that section doesn't kick your butt, your sound system is not capable.

The tracks are, in order:

• Luca Antolini vs Steve Hill "Contatto (RVRS BASS Mix)"
• The Donkey Rollers "The Last City on Earth"
• Builder "Her Voice" (Combination of two slightly different versions of the Headhunterz remix)
• Masters of Chaos "Retribution (S.H.O.K.K. Retro Remix)"
• Blutonium Boy "Floorkilla (Nik Import Mix)
• R.B.A. "No Alternative (DBD Remix)"

Friday Art Attack

If it isn't obvious, retro-pulp stories, which are confident and politically incorrect celebrations of Western Civilization are my favorite.  This comes, I think, from the Hollow World RPG, which is very heavily based on the Pellucidar series by Edgar Rice Burroughs and his imitators.

Labelled for convenience in case you didn't know what it was.  A D&D Yeti specifically.  I don't know what the deal with the horns are, except that clearly The Empire Strikes Back has had an effect on pulp that followed in its wake.  Yetis aren't exactly the same as wampas otherwise.

A sketch (prior to the movies) of the oliphaunts from Lord of the Rings.

Ubese bounty hunters, by Sam Wood, from the Wizards of the Coast RPG.  Most will recognize the outfit as one Princess Leia used as a disguise to infiltrate Jabba's palace.

I'm not quite sure what this is.  An undead donkey-headed guy?

Primarchs celebrating.  This is probably cover art for some Horus Heresy novel.

 I think that's supposed to be a drow, but the skin color is all wrong.  Art for these guys often doesn't match the descriptions.

Some kinda cheesy art that's nearly van art in its cheesiness. Keep in mind, though, that I was a little kid in the 70s.

Snake-men from some D&D publication or other.

Music rambling

Because I've pretty much just thrown my earlier hardstyle sets in with the new hardtrance sets I'm making, I'm finding a few odd things here and there.  For one thing, I have a few early hardstyle songs mixed in with my hardtrance, because it fits really well.  Some of these songs are also in my hardstyle sets, though.  For instance, I've had four K-Traxx songs on my hardtrance list, and two of them have already come up (the Technoboy remix of "Hardventure" and the unremixed version of "Noise Tool."  I've had "M.O.D.U.L.O." by Jimmy the Sound and "Hardcore Suckas (Trance Generators Remix)" by The Juvenile pop up in both groups.  Same for the Blademasterz remix of "Acid Nightmare."  The final one, I think, is that I recently added "Go Go Go" by Julian DJ and Davide Sonar to a hardtrance megamix, and it's already in a hardstyle megamix too.

And I've got a handful of early hardstyle songs in my hardtrance megamixes that aren't in hardstyle megamixes, but they're often stuff that straddles the line, like "Dusky Noises" by Analogic Disturbance, the Dark By Design remix of "No Alternative" by RBA, and various versions of songs by DJ Virus or Session One (otherwise known as Blutonium Boy) and DJ Neo.

I had actually thought about adding a few more early hardstyle songs to the hardtrance group of tracks; stuff like the original "Junior" by Speedwave, or something like that.

But I'm actually thinking of going the other way, not adding any more and in fact taking a few tracks out of consideration that are on my hardtrance population because they've already been in a hardstyle megamix (I'm thinking specifically of that Reversebass remix of "Focus" by Droid, and "Deadlock" by Future Tribes, the aforementioned K-Traxx songs that haven't come up yet, etc.

Sigh.  I'm on the fence about what I think is the right approach.

In the meantime, I'm up to 40 made mixes.

Megamix 35

• DJ Neo - Acid Overdose [Blutonium Boy Mix]
• Vanessa-Mae - White Bird [Cosmic Gate Remix]
• Marcos & JK Walker - Daykeeper [Marcos Mix]
• Cosmic Gate - Back to Earth [S.H.O.K.K. Remix]
• Jim Justice - Maximum Modulation
• Hennes & Cold - Darkness
• Paul Maddox ft Niki Mak - Synthosaurus [Moments of Madness Dub]
• Embargo! - Blackout [Original Extended Mix]
• DJ Scot Project - X [Y Mix]
• Sol Ray & Dark By Design - Future (In Your Eyes) [Part 1]
• Luca Antolini vs Steve Hill - Fly With Me
• Out of Grace - 140 BPM [Original Mix]

Megamix 36

• Talla 2XLC - World In My Eyes [Cosmic Gate Remix]
• DJ Virus - All Your Bass [K90 Mix]
• Tommy Pulse - The Messiah [Resurrection Mix]
• Cosmic Gate - Mental Atmosphere [Desdichado Hybrid Mix]
• Euphony - Carte Blanche
• Luca Antolini - The Race 2012 [Bluntseixal Remix]
• Arome - Scream [Original Mix]
• Hennes & Cold - Second Step
• Trance Town - Fingers [Max Savietto Part Two]
• Kan Cold vs Frank Ellrich - Transmission
• Planet K - Hockenheim [Nord Curve Mix]
• Apogee - Tribal Affair [Apogee Mix]

Megamix 37

• Marcos & JK Walker - Nightfinder [Solar Scape Remix]
• Luca Antolini vs Andrea Montorsi - Free [Luca Antolini Remix]
• Titchy Bitch & The Fallen Angel - Retribution [Hennes & Cold Remix]
• Twister's Silence - Listen to Me, Mama [DJ Scot Project Remix]
• DJ Scot Project & A*S*Y*S - Loco [Black Mix]
• DJ Wag - Cult House [Yakooza Extended Clubmix]
• Space Frog - X-Ray (Follow Me) [Derb Remix]
• R.B.A. - No Alternative [Nostic Remix]
• Overrider - Timebomb
• DJ X2000 - Modem [DJ Scot Project Remix]
• Age of Love - The Age of Love [Marc Et Claude Remix]
• Green Court - Follow Me [JamX & DeLeon's DuMonde Remix]

Megamix 38

• Sixth Sense - Unleashed
• Arome - Hands Up! [DJ Scot Project Remix]
• Steve Knight - Neo [Original Mix]
• Technoboy - The Future [Luca Antolini Remix]
• O.E.G. - Endless Horny [Accenter Three O RMX]
• Cosmik Vision - Cosmik Vision [Lost in Space Mix]
• DJ Wag - Music Non Stop [Dub Kontor Dub]
• Signum ft. Scott Mac - Coming On Strong [S.H.O.K.K. Remix]
• Warmduscher vs Derb - —
• Martin Roth & Frank Ellrich - The Orange Theme [Martin Roth Mix]
• Organ Donors & ASYS - We Call It Acid
• Marcos - Beat Junkie [Jay Walker Mix]

Megamix 39

• Marc Dawn - Expander [Flutlicht Remix]
• Russenmafia - Afraid of Us [Schwarze Puppen Mix]
• Servant of Light - Exhale [DJ Natron Mix]
• Steve Knight - Neo [Andy B Mix]
• Marcos - La Proxima Parada [Digital Pressure Remix]
• Bass Driver - Fatal Invasion [The Day After]
• Universal Dream - House of Music [Aquaplex Remix]
• D&A - Demons [Spacecom Remix]
• Rank 1 - Awakening [Steve Hill & Dark By Design Remix]
• DuMonde - God Music [Cosmic Gate Mix]
• S.H.O.K.K. - Folie A Deux [DJ Natron Mix]
• Tankis & Savietto - Outrageous [Remix]

Megamix 40

• Jay Walker - Strange World
• S.H.O.K.K. - Da Capo
• Y.O.M.C. - In My Mind [Y.O.M.C. Mix]
• Steve Hill, Luca Antolini & Dark By Design - Go Insane (Part 2)
• A*S*Y*S - Lost in Acid [Original 24 Hours Mix]
• Scooter - I'm Raving [Taucher Remix]
• Tankis & Savietto - Antea [Remix]
• Phil York vs BRK3 - Traffic [Fausto Remix]
• Nomad - Taken
• Digital Pressure - Digital Theory
• Luca Antolini - Secret Dream [Original Vocal Mix]
• Atomic Alliance - Atomic Bomb [The Elite Remix]

Hardtrance 12-song DJ sets 28-34

I could have made even more.  Quiet day today.  But why do I want to go so fast that I can't even hope to listen to them before I'm swamped in more new ones?  I mean, for crying out loud, I now have 34 sets made, with 35-42 tracked and sorted and ready to make.

HTM 28

• Cosmic Gate - Mental Atmosphere [Beam vs Cyrus Remix]
• Eamonn Fevah - Your Turn [Nick Sentience Remix]
• DJ Darkzone - Des Teufels Antwort [Hoellenheiss Mix]
• Digital Pressure - Hybrid
• Traum - Mirage Experience [Luca Antolini Remix]
• DJ Dean - Don't Stop
• S.H.O.K.K. - Isn't It All a Little Strange? [Krazy Nut Mix]
• DJ Wag - The Darkness [DJ Wag Mix]
• Hennes & Cold - Measure
• Dave Joy - First Impression [Madwave Remix]
• Luca Antolini - The Race [Hard Trance Mix]
• W.O.W. - Invocation

HTM 29

• Trance Town - The Silence
• Pacific Link - Contatto [Luca Antolini Mix]
• Flutlicht - Das Siegel [Original Mix]
• OEG - Endless Horny [Uberdruck RMX]
• Chris Liberator & The Geezer - 303 Power [Chris Liberator & Ant's Maxi Power Remix]
• DJ Wag - Ride [State of Trance Mix]
• Naxos Project - Cold Fusion [JK Walker Remix]
• Derb - My Johnny
• Sixth Sense - The Virus [Extended Mix]
• Kan Cold - Space
• Dave Joy - Second Chase [Extended Mix]
• Green Court - Inside Your Gates [Cosmic Gate Remix]

HTM 30

• Vincent De Moor - Fly Away [Cosmic Gate Remix]
• S.H.O.K.K. - Triple 7 [Original Mix]
• D10 - Fear the Dark [Sixth Sense's Old School Treatment]
• Naxos Project - Our Time [Original Mix]
• Hennes & Cold - The Second Trip [DJ Scot Project Remix]
• Walt - Bring the Pain [Original Mix]
• Emmanuel Top - Acid Phase
• MTW - Overload [Musikman Remix]
• Luca Antolini - The Race 2012
• Derb - D.F.C. [DJ Scot Project Remix]
• Cosmic Gate - Hardcore [Kaylab vs Chromedioxide II Remix]
• Trance Town - Fingers [Max Savietto Part One]

HTM 31

• Pro-Active - Straight On [Percussive Attack]
• Atlantic Wave - Black Mind Confession [Luca Antolini Remix]
• Fausto & Tommy Pulse - Pirates
• Sa.Vee.Oh - Nohacker.exe [Phil York & Dark By Design Remix]
• Dave Joy - First Impression [Acid Maniacs Remix]
• Brooklyn Bounce - Born To Bounce [Warp Brothers Remix]
• Beam - Amun [Cosmic Gate Remix]
• Taucher - Science Fiction [Cosmic Gate Remix]
• Sixth Sense - Panic Machine
• Lisa Lashes & Alex Kidd vs Kidd Kaos - Dissaray
• KGBs - The Disco Fans [Hardisco Mix]
• Luca Antolini vs Steve Hill - Through My Memories [Luca Antolini Mix]

HTM 32

• Tommy Pulse - Machine Man
• A*S*Y*S - Sad Euphoria
• Überdruck - Here's Freddy [Überdruck Mix]
• Nomad - Ahead of the Curve [Original Mix]
• Trance Town - Tahory
• Immortals - Mortal Kombat [Hard Trance Techno Remix]
• DJ Cyglas - Sweet Lies [Bismark vs Philippe Rochard Remix]
• Derb - Coole Sau [DJ Isaac Remix]
• Sa.Vee.Oh - Oh You Rock
• Sixth Sense - Space Ride [C & D Project Remix]
• Masters of Chaos - Retribution [S.H.O.K.K. Retro Remix]
• Guyver - Trapped

HTM 33

• Droid - Focus [Uptempo Mix]
• Cosmic Gate - Exploration of Space [Extended Mix]
• Blutonium Boy vs DJ Neo - Hardstyle Nation [DJ Neo Progressive Mix]
• Flutlicht - Icarus (The Flight) [S.H.O.K.K. Remix]
• DJ Scot Project & Derb - The Sound [Derb Mix]
• OceanLab - Sirens of the Sea [Cosmic Gate Dub]
• DJ Wag - Get Busy [DJ Wag Prodigy Club Mix]
• DJ Darkzone - Melo Surrounding [Hard Club Remix]
• Dare Devils - Daredevil [Cut & Desdichado Repair]
• Kamui - Drop Shot [Synthflut Mix]
• Hennes & Cold - Payback
• Marcel Woods - Advanced [Original Mix]

HTM 34

• DJ Wag - The Darkness 2010 [Busho Remix]
• Ricky T - Cape York [Mix 1]
• Cosmic Gate - Mental Atmosphere [Extended Mix]
• Hennes & Cold - The Second Trip [DBD Remix]
• Naxos Project - Our Time [Digital Pressure Remix]
• Sa.Vee.Oh - Loop Hole [Max Savietto Remix]
• Mikado - Sex-O-Matic [Club-O-Matic]
• Tankis & Savietto - Andromeda
• Flutlicht - Mutterkorn [Original Mix]
• Norman DJ - Go Back [DJ Neo Remix]
• E Nomine - E Nomine (Denn Sie Wissen Nicht Was Sie Tun) [Cosmic Gate Remix]
• James Horner & Leona Lewis - I See You (Theme From Avatar) [Cosmic Gate Club Mix]

Friday Art Attack

Y'know what the world is missing?  Pulp, gratuitous sword & sorcery artwork.  And an occasional space opera book cover thrown in too.  The kind that most publishing houses and certainly every roleplaying studio is afraid to make because they're a bunch of idiotic, politically correct people who don't understand that masculine men and feminine women are both attractive, but masculine man-jawed you-go girls and soyboys are universally repellent to everyone.

This is a great example of how much Orientalism contributed to early S&S.

Can you see why, as a 12 year old, I immediately fell in love with the John Carter of Mars books with this on the cover of the first volume?

Three waves of hardtrance

As I look over my collection of hardtrance (and similar, related genres, like the early trance-like hardstyle, and some of the acid trance stuff) it becomes obvious that there are three big "waves" of hardtrance.  The first is the early stuff from the mid-90s.  It's usually a bit faster, and much more acid, which isn't surprising, because it mostly grew out of the acid scenes in the UK and the rest of Europe.  This stuff peaked and crested, but then along came guys like Kan Cold (of Derb and Hennes & Cold, as well as other aliases and collaborations), Kai Tracid and his often times partner Frank Ellrich, and of course Scot Project.  They pioneered a new kind of hardtrance that was not quite as fast most of the time, and was more like traditional trance in most respects, except with really exaggerated kicks and basslines, but definitely focusing on big build-ups and drops.  Some artists, like DJ Wag for instance, bridged this gap, making hardtrance during both movements that fit in with the movement going on at the time fairly well.

Hardtrance seems to have mostly been replaced in most European markets with hardstyle or UK hard house, but it never completely went away, and as hard house and hardstyle have themselves faded away, a third wave of hard trance has come forward.  I'm thinking; I dunno—Log:One, or Wragg, the Sixth Sense, Steve Hill, etc.  Guys who often shade into subground and other more experimental types of EDM, but when they're making straight-up dance anthems, it's new hardtrance.  And some guys have bridged the gap from the second to the third wave, like Tommy Pulse, for instnace, or A*S*Y*S (although maybe the latter's just become a hybrid electro and subground and acid and hardstyle outfit.)

If I had to pick just one, I'd focus on the middle group, which really was at its peak from about 2000-2005 or so, but luckily, I don't.  I can listen to (and even mix with impunity) all three styles, and for the most part, most people who aren't really into esoteric style distinctions of EDM wouldn't really make a big deal out of distinguishing them anyway.  I already mix plenty of acid techno and early hardstyle in with my hardtrance, and even a bit of hard house here and there.

So, I realized that the last time I posted my setlists, I had only done through 18.  I've now actually made DJ sets of 12 songs each up through 27, and sorted another six after that, so up through 33.  Looks like I need to post a few more lists.  Sigh.  I do love lists.

Megamix 19

• Sa.Vee.Oh - Unlimited [Original]
• Wippenberg - Neurodancer
• Warp Brothers  - Blade [Jon Doe & Kutski Remix]
• Lisa Lashes & Alex Kidd vs Kidd Kaos - Nu Religion [Log:One & Wragg Remix]
• DDR & The Geezer - Mad Cows on Acid [Barmy Bovines Mix]
• DJ Darkzone - Da Name of My DJ [Short First Cut]
• Max Savietto - Techno Code [Mike Foyle Remix]
• Kan Cold  - Requiem
• Dave Joy - First Impression [Dave202 & Phil Green Remix]
• Mauro Picotto - Iguana [The Sixth Sense Remix]
• Yakooza - Cocaine [Limited Edition Nature One Extended]
• Blank & Jones - DJs, Fans & Freaks (D.F.F.) [Cosmic Gate Remix]

Megamix 20

• DJ Wag - Life On Mars [Y.O.M.C. Global Mix]
• Derb - Derb [Kan Cold Mix]
• Cosmic Gate - Exploration of Space [Tom Colontonio ReWORK]
• Luca Antolini - Powerfull (Act 3)
• Mark Richardson - In A Trance
• Arome - Hands Up! [Paul Glazby Remix]
• DJ Darkzone - Des Teufels Antwort [Mensch Teuful Halts Maul Mix] 
• Geilomatics - Geilomat [S.H.O.K.K. Mix]
• Ferry Corstein - Punk [Cosmic Gate Remix]
• Sa.Vee.Oh - Global Anthem [Remix]
• Cinderella - The Realm [D-Devils Mix]
• Dark by Design - Blackout [2006 Remix]

Megamix 21

• Blutonium Boy - Brainshooter [Thomas Trouble Remix]
• Derb - Satisfaktion [DJ Bonecrusher Joins Gary D Remix]
• Max Savietto - Nightly
• Pro-Tech - Dominating Power [Y.O.M.C. Mix]
• Luca Antolini - Lost in Time
• Hennes & Cold - Emotionless
• Dave Joy - First Impression [Skyline Mix]
• Goose - Synrise [Soulwax Remix]
• Voodoo & Serano - Blood Is Pumping 2005 [Remake]
• A*S*Y*S - Acid Squid
• Mind X - Feel the Generation [Rave Chapter Mix]
• DJ Choci & The Geezer - It's Beyond Control [Hennes & Cold Rmx]

Megamix 22

• A*S*Y*S - Acid Glitch [Organ Donors Remix]
• Tommy Pulse - Ghost Town
• DJ Darkzone - Infinity In Your Hands [Second Club Mix]
• Jens - Loops & Tings 98 [Bevoets & De Goeji Remix]
• DJ Wag - Life on Mars [Y.O.M.C. Remix]
• Cosmic Gate - Exploration of Space [Cosmic Gate's Back 2 The Future Remix]
• Code 37 - Astral 98 [Hardtrance Mix]
• Russenmafia - Alarm
• Dave Joy - First Impression [Nomad Remix]
• DJ Cyglas - Sweet Lies
• Luca Antolini - Lost in Time [Nomad Remix]
• Hypetraxx - The Promisedland [Extended Mix]

Megamix 23

• 4 Strings - Diving [Cosmic Gate Vocal]
• K-Traxx - Hardventure [Technoboy Remix]
• Spiritual Project - Risiko!
• Cosmic Gate - Back to Earth
• DJ Mirko Milano - Stopp & Go [DJ Arne L II & Mirko Milano Mix]
• Schattenmann - Amplifier
• Avatar - Red Planet [Warp9 Mix]
• Angel of Death - Angel of Death [Tracid Mix]
• DJ Wag - Life on Mars [Steve Hill vs D10 Mix]
• Yakooza - French Kiss [Scot Project Mix]
• A*S*Y*S - Acid Nightmare [Pila's 2006 Update]
• Flutlicht - The Fall [Original Mix]

Megamix 24

• Pro-Tech - Cosmic Vision [DJ Wag Mix]
• A*S*Y*S - Acid Nightmare [140 Squadron Remix]
• Guyver - You'll Know It
• 64 Bit - Virtual Discotech 1.0 [Cosmic Gate Remix]
• Julian DJ & Davide Sonar - Go Go Go [Hard Mix]
• Nightclub - French Kiss [Misar Club Mix]
• Dave Joy - First Impression [Alex Mac & Zeebra Kid vs Nicky D Remix]
• Arome - Here We Go [DJ Scot Project Remix]
• Mauro Picotto - Lizard [RAF by Picotto Remix]
• Misar vs Frost - Nature Cries [DJ Wag Mix]
• Tommy Pulse - Calling God
• Di Combo - Rock It to the Beat [Gary D Hardline Mix]

Megamix 25

• Jay Walker - Judgement Day
• Sound 2 Light - It's Like That [Club Campaign 1]
• DJ Virus - All Your Bass [Thomas Trouble Remix]
• Naxos Project - Mirage [Original Mix]
• Hennes & Cold - Journey
• Starsplash - Subway 903
• Digital Pressure - Aftershock [Original Mix]
• Re-An!mator - Re-Wire Your Brain [D-Gor Club Mix]
• Atomic Alliance vs Trance Generators - Rock To Da Beat [Trance Generators Mix]
• Chris Liberator & Sterling Moss - Massive Line
• Phil Green - The Discovery [Trance Generators Remix]
• Sa.Vee.Oh - Nohacker.exe [Original Mix]

Megamix 26

• Panic Machine - Beat [Panic Room Mix]
• Jay Walker - Equinox [Original]
• Marcos - Time [Present Mix]
• Cosmic Gate - The Wave [New Clubmix]
• Mat Silver vs Tony Burt - Teardrops [S.H.O.K.K. Mix]
• Push - Strange World [Spectrum Remix]
• Flutlicht - Ahmea [Original Mix]
• A*S*Y*S - Acid Flash
• Gollum & Gary D - Black Arrows [Gollum & Yanny Remix]
• Luca Antolini vs Steve Hill - Contatto [RVRS Bass Mix]
• DJ Wag - The Day the Earth Caught Fire [Technoclub B-Side]
• Masters of Chaos - Death Wish

Megamix 27

• Warp Brothers - We Will Survive [Club Mix]
• Nomad - Ahead of the Curve [Acid Mix]
• Thomas Trouble - Echoes [Michael Fusseder Remix]
• Veracocha - Carte Blanche [Cosmic Gate Remix]
• Age of Love - The Age of Love [Marco V 2004 Remix]
• Tocs - 1 [DJ Scot Project Remix]
• New Frontier Y2K - Musica che Domina [TRC Version]
• Russenmafia - Go! [East Mix]
• Josh Lang - White Thing
• George Acosta - Taking Over Space [DJ Wag Vocal Mix]
• Sol Ray & Dark By Design - Future (In Your Eyes) [Part 2]
• Tankis & Savietto - Outrageous [Original Mix]

I'll get the next six after I make them.

Worst Star Wars character of all time

Who is the worst and most unlikable Star Wars character of all time?

1. Jar Jar Binks.  Need I say more?
2. Whiny emo Annakin Skywalker from the prequels
3. feminazi robot L3-37 (cute name, rolleyes.  1995 called and wants its Usenet jokes back.)
4. Admiral Gender Studies
5. Finn's profoundly annoying "girlfriend" Jar Jar Chinks
6. Daisy Mary Suewalker
7. Horse-faced goth-boy discount Vader

This is why I read Galaxy's Edge.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07C5ZV6RZ?ref=series_rw_dp_labf

Personally, I find Jar Jar Binks less egregious over time.  Although, possibly, that's largely because he's been so eclipsed by terrible, unlikable characters in the years since his ill-advised creation.

Friday Art Attack

An alternative Vader.  Really nice looking.

Dragons.  In space.  Daniel Aronsen is really on to something, I think.  This is some cover art for one of his books, if I remember correctly.  I think I saved it off of Facebook.

This is also a book cover, although I can't remember from what, from the 60s.  Which is probably obvious by the style.

Barbarians, undead, and snow.  This meme has been greatly popularized by Game of Thrones.

TRON Vader!

I don't know what to make of this, which is titled "Abominable Beauty."  But hey; gratuitous sexiness is kind of a thing in fantasy art, amirite?

Part of a series by Wayne Reynolds where the Paizo iconics fight weird Oriental monsters.

Another Paizo adventure cover; against the fish people on the beach. 

WAR again, but from Eberron this time.  This is the cover art for Secrets of Sarlona, which spelled out a kind of alternate version of Eberron in some ways (not really, but it was a continent that was otherwise not covered by the setting, so it gave you all kinds of different things to do in Eberron.)

More Paizo and Japanese monsters.  Using the iconic samurai character was probably gratuitous.

And more Paizo and Japanese monsters. Using the iconic monk character was a bit less gratuitous than the samurai, but not really—it's only that the monk (for a variety of reasons, most of them bad) is considered more of a core class to Pathfinder (and D&D) than the samurai is.

Sasquatch!  Or gnoph-keh, maybe...

Floating islands is always a great fantasy idea, although the cheesy movie Avatar made it part of sci-fi too, I guess.