January 20, 2020

13. Kurt Cobain Vocaloid

1 hour 10 minutes

Support Topic Lords on Patreon and get episodes a week early!

Lords:

Shannon Strucci does video essays at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCh9DnjvObUcvvwrYbJ4-cLQ and is a film correspondent for http://www.strugglesession.us/ and is a teen superhero on https://www.criticalbitcast.com/

JP makes stuff at http://vectorpoem.com, especially game tourism mods: http://vectorpoem.com/tourism/

Topics:

2:43 The pressure to monetize hobbies or perform them for social media vs just having hobbies

13:25 If you could create a 5 acre island in the middle of the remote south Pacific ocean, what would you use it for?

17:25 Level design lessons from Hawaii

Goats for hire, preventing wildfires in California. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n56opj5gJhc

Kalij pheasants. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C63tykplkhU

28:30 "The 2012 Oakland Athletics adapted 'Movin' Like Bernie' into their celebration routines after Coco Crisp played the song for third baseman Brandon Inge in the team's clubhouse before a game."

Oakland A's Bernie Lean: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJMBmsK5hXc

BOILeR season 2017 playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLj5IcL4eAydWVS2hTWFIjB7YFJBwt4D3A

34:07 Fictions that, as a throwaway gag, exist within their own worlds (Remembrance of the Daleks, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure)

Dick Justice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3epcX07t78M

Simlish pop songs: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeTlCMqy3jFUU_eqNhjiPBO88SU2PXZqI

46:05 First time you tried your favorite foods? Especially if you first tried them as an adult

Brussels Sprouts are less bitter than they used to be. https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2019/10/30/773457637/from-culinary-dud-to-stud-how-dutch-plant-breeders-built-our-brussels-sprouts-bo

52:06 Time Trap and creating mysteries from the outside in

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Trap_%28film%29

A definitive Timeline for Primer: https://unrealitymag.com/at-last-a-definitive-timeline-for-primer/

The self-lacing Nike MAG. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NimGxU4Qnhk

Microtopics:

Being confused by the existence of two separate Shannons.

Video games where nobody bothers you, and arguably that being the whole point of video games.

Doing calligraphy on Twitch.

Doing calligraphy just for yourself and that being way better.

The cost of getting more than one kind of value out of something.

Having an audience and feeling the need to entertain the audience whenever possible.

Finally deciding to get a real job because you have a kid on the way.

Imagining having a job as a programmer and not being happy about it.

Doing creative work in private because you're not good enough to do it publicly.

Producing a complete song in five minutes when it takes five years to make a game.

Always being able to see the geological phenomenon that will take your life one day.

The base of the Sutro Tower basically being a Quake level.

Being shot at as you approach the Sutro Tower.

Seeing Batman's head and knowing which way to go.

DragonCon's failure to produce parchment realm maps.

Hawaii having lava, hostile creatures and good landmarking.

Playing your anime theme song on your phone as you show up at the manga and wall scroll store with your katana.

Having an animated gif that represents your identity.

How to turn Binding of Isaac into an e-sport.

Stupefyingly long TV series lifetimes.

Text-to-speech deepfakes.

Chopping up Garret's voice to create dialog for your Thief fan mission.

Measuring Ian McKellen's voice and sending the data to people who have never heard Ian McKellen so they have plausible deniability.

Living on your own and eating Indian food for the first time.

Discovering a new continent at the Indian buffet.

Not wanting to eat a salad because probably there are bugs in there.

Stepping stones to eating sushi.

Food preferences being heavily shaped by first impressions.

Liking Primer two different ways, ten years apart, and being right both times.

The important lesson being hidden behind the interesting puzzle.

Unsolvable mysteries that haunt you for the rest of your life.

Enclosing a narrative with another narrative.

Assuming the Wii will remain ascendant because it's 1989 and Nintendo dominates your culture.

The story turning to mush when it comes time to actually answer to the question.

The thrill of reactive, improvisational storytelling.

The strength of remaining vague about whether your show is supernatural or not.

Imagining what happens next in a story as a way of enjoying the story.

The nectar that mystery storytelling is trying to extract.

Support Topic Lords

...more

View all episodes

By Jim Stormdancer

4.8

1212 ratings