I've never heard a set of all Latin American baroque music before. This concert is pretty amazing.

I've done it five times now!

I got banned for telling the guy posting Tucker Carlson on "Progressive Politics" that he's a chickenshit coward because he couldn't give a reason why he's platforming Nazi shit and instead deflecting to a hundred other topics.

I'm not mad that I got banned, I was very rude to the guy, but it is pretty gross that they're still promoting a reactionary white supremacist as "progressive politics." I reported the post to the mod and got banned instead.

Oh well, that place has a history of hosting that kind of garbage anyway. No big loss.

I like a whole lot of mediums, but my absolute favorite is the humble drawing. If pressed, I'd say pen on paper is my preferred category.

I love how one can take the simplest of materials and create a window into an abstracted reality. It's a raw medium, where it's hard to undo what is already there, so one has to either incorporate errors into the final piece or avoid them entirely.

So what is your favorite medium for visual art? Have you attempted it yourself?

Mattheson had written an opera called 'Cleopatra,' in which he himself took the part of Antony, and it had been his custom after the death of this character to take his place at the harpsichord and conduct the rest of the opera. This had been the arrangement with the former conductor, and Mattheson did not doubt that it would be adhered to when Handel presided at the pianoforte. But Mattheson had clearly reckoned without his host, for when the actor-composer, having departed this life on the stage, suddenly reappeared through the orchestra door and walked up to Handel's side with the request that the latter would yield his place to him, he was met by a flat refusal on the part of the conductor in possession. Possibly Handel may have been struck by the absurdity of a personage whose decease had only a few moments before been witnessed by the audience desiring to reassume his mortal dress in the orchestra. Mattheson's vanity, on the other hand, was no doubt deeply injured by his being made to look foolish, and he left the theatre in a rage.

At the conclusion of the piece Handel found his friend awaiting him at the entrance. An altercation took place, and it is said that Mattheson went so far as to box Handel's ears. A public insult such as this could only be wiped out by a resort to swords, and the belligerents at once adjourned to the market-place, where, surrounded by a ring of curious onlookers, they drew their weapons. After several angry thrusts on either side, the point of Mattheson's sword actually touched his adversary's breast, but, fortunately, was turned aside by a large metal button which Handel wore on his coat. The consciousness of how narrowly he had missed injuring, if not actually killing, his friend brought Mattheson suddenly to his senses, and, the bystanders at this juncture interposing between them, the duellists shook hands, and thenceforth, it is said, became better friends than ever.

Illustration and text from Story-lives of Great Musicians by Francis Jameson Rowbotham

I like pretty much every kind of bean, but if pressed I'd probably say that red kidney beans are my very favorite. I love the texture and how substantial they are. They do take a bit of extra soak time, but it's worth it.

I picked up some black-eyed peas a couple weeks ago; I've never had what I'd call an exceptional bowl of them, but I figured I'd give it a try since (not to brag) I can make really good beans and I'd never tried cooking them before. I made the best bowl of them I'd ever had— collard greens, boudin, lots of aromatics, herbs, and spices. After all that effort though, I still felt like they'd have been better with pinto beans instead. C'est la vie.

So what kind of bean do you prefer, and which ones leave you cold? Also, any advice on black-eyed peas would be nice; I'm still not ready to give up on them.

It's not the prettiest sandwich, but I made the bread and the pecan butter myself. Now I just need to try making jelly.

I'm not a huge fan of peanut butter, but I can't get enough of this pecan butter. Just drizzle some pecans with honey and toast them for a bit in the oven, then put them in a food processor and add salt and honey to taste.

I'm about done getting the VTT set up for our next campaign, Blades '68. I'm pretty excited for this one, I love the Blades in the Dark system, and also the late 60's/ early 70's aesthetic.

I'm curious how other GMs here have their VTT setup, particularly for PbtA or FitD games, but really any system.

Here's the setup I made for the original Blades in the Dark:

Our local university is known for it's historical music program, and they put on a production of the opera Alcina by Handel. It was sublime, and a treat to see a baroque opera performed in a smaller theater.

Do you ever go to see live theater? What was the last thing that you went to? Or, alternatively, what was your favorite?

Timestamp is 1:23:25 in case the link doesn't work for your player.

I generally prefer operas to be staged, but this is the best audio (with accompanied video) that I've found. I especially love the violin part on this aria, it's so expressive.

I'm specifically asking about the PvP part of the game.

This kind of game is my kid's favorite; we frequently play Towerfall, Duck Game, Rounds, and Hyper Contender (from UFO50).

It's so hard to find other games in this genre, because I don't know the standardized name, if it even has one, so I figured I'd ask here. What do you call low TTK platformer PvP shooting games? Do you have a favorite?

This whole performance was incredible, but my favorite songs were this duet (Timestamp 1:10:00) and Se Pietà Di Me Non Senti (Timestamp 2:02:04), sung by Sabine Devieilhe.

I believe this is a lithograph, but I can't find anything definitive.

I spent some time setting up a Pentium II with Windows 98 and a Voodoo 3 on PCem this weekend.

It's really cool software, and a fun little project.

I spent a little time playing some Rainbow 6 (crazy how much the genre has changed over time) and Castle of the Winds 2.

Black and White runs well, but has some pretty bad audio stutter that I'll have to figure out a solution for.

Do you have a favorite game from the period that I should try? I'm particularly interested in ones that are hard to run on modern versions of Windows.