{
"version": "https://jsonfeed.org/version/1",
"title": "Raincatcher Records",
"description": "",
"home_page_url": "https://dosh.codeberg.page",
"feed_url": "https://dosh.codeberg.page/feed.json",
"user_comment": "",
"author": {
"name": "DON'T USE"
},
"items": [
{
"id": "https://dosh.codeberg.page/book-2-awakening-ladies-leadership-and-the-lies-weve-been-told-by-areva-martin-aocs-summer-reading-challenge-10-was-crazy.html",
"url": "https://dosh.codeberg.page/book-2-awakening-ladies-leadership-and-the-lies-weve-been-told-by-areva-martin-aocs-summer-reading-challenge-10-was-crazy.html",
"title": "Book 2: "Awakening: Ladies, Leadership, and the Lies We've Been Told" by Areva Martin (AOC's Summer Reading Challenge 1.0 Was Crazy)",
"summary": "The word \"empowering\" gets thrown around a lot. This book is legit empowering. I love that Areva Martin stands up…",
"content_html": "
The word \"empowering\" gets thrown around a lot. This book is legit empowering. I love that Areva Martin stands up for herself and other women. Frankly, I found it pretty generous that she even said men should have seats at the table, albeit clearly not at the head any longer but rather listening to women (we're worse, let's be real here guys and girls et al. ...[half-joking]).
\n
Much of the book's advice deals with the workplace, and I feel like the game has probably changed somewhat the last couple of years. But the gist - that this country and much of the world are designed to keep women down, and that there's no sense in indulging these systems - remains a critical lesson.
\n
",
"author": {
"name": "RR Charles"
},
"tags": [
"Books",
"AOC Summer Reading Challenge 1.0"
],
"date_published": "2026-08-17T23:50:00-07:00",
"date_modified": "2026-08-17T23:50:00-07:00"
},
{
"id": "https://dosh.codeberg.page/aocs-summer-reading-challenge-10-was-crazy-book-1-i-am-america-and-so-can-you-by-stephen-colbert.html",
"url": "https://dosh.codeberg.page/aocs-summer-reading-challenge-10-was-crazy-book-1-i-am-america-and-so-can-you-by-stephen-colbert.html",
"title": "AOC's Summer Reading Challenge 1.0 Was Crazy - Book 1: "I Am America (And So Can You!)" by Stephen Colbert",
"summary": "So back in December or January I heard about this page-a-day reading challenge. That was a lost cause, but I…",
"content_html": "
So back in December or January I heard about this page-a-day reading challenge. That was a lost cause, but I guess there's all kinds of ways to do things cause I actually did complete 10 whole books and parts of several others this summer on account of AOC's challenge (I don't live in her district but it was supposed to be like a token of support if she does run for President - unfortunately I guess she started saying s*** like \"Woke 1 was crazy\" since June [of course I haven't watched the actual clip], so we'll see how things develop...).
\n
So just real quick, some highlights and stuff about them, starting with I Am America (And So Can You)! by Stephen Colbert.
\n
This one I'd already started a long time ago and never finished. It's written in character as Colbert's conservative persona from The Daily Show and his first show and it's basically a satirical manifesto about being a Real American. A lot of it is amusing, particularly the margin notes, but honestly it was pretty depressing to read now that Colbert's off the air and these kinds of crazies/bigots are running (\"running\") the government. Also there are some graphic pictures of animal parts that were wrong then and now...
\n\n\"America's White Slavery Crisis They Don't Teach You About\" by PBS Origins. Brought to you by Morgan & Morgan.\n\n
\n
",
"author": {
"name": "RR Charles"
},
"tags": [
"TV",
"Politics",
"Intrusive Thoughts"
],
"date_published": "2026-08-17T22:30:00-07:00",
"date_modified": "2026-08-17T22:48:13-07:00"
},
{
"id": "https://dosh.codeberg.page/wolf-hall-and-historical-accuracy-master-of-phantoms-or-ken-burns-the-civil-war-and-the-assassination-of-collective-memory-by-the-coward-trickle-down-history.html",
"url": "https://dosh.codeberg.page/wolf-hall-and-historical-accuracy-master-of-phantoms-or-ken-burns-the-civil-war-and-the-assassination-of-collective-memory-by-the-coward-trickle-down-history.html",
"title": "Ken Burns' "The Civil War", and the Assassination of Collective Memory by the Coward Trickle Down History; or BBC's "Wolf Hall" and 'Historical Accuracy', Master of Phantoms (and White Supremacy)",
"summary": "Last year I started watching Ken Burns’ The Civil War on account of the Civil War (as in, the actual…",
"content_html": "
Last year I started watching Ken Burns’ The Civil War on account of the Civil War (as in, the actual war) being kind of in vogue right now. I only ended up watching the first two episodes, but from just the first one it was pretty apparent that…while it’s definitely not in Lost Cause territory, the series is remarkably romantic towards and even nostalgic for the Confederate-era South (minus slavery). Many great scholars have already said this at length, including way back in the show's response/companion book I did end up reading in full, but I always have to remind myself that the U.S. is a chronically low information environment so good points bear repeating even poorly...
\n
Although the book in question, Ken Burns's The Civil War: Historians Respond, has several excellent, critical essays - the late Dr. Leon Litwack's comparison of the documentary to The Birth of a Nation is especially apt considering how influential it had already been by the time of publication (and it doesn't help that the fact it's straight up called \"The Civil War\" makes it hard to displace) - as a whole, the collection leans in favor of the documentary, and the historians mostly come to bury Ken Burns, not to praise him [Mark Antony/Shakespeare was being ironic so it means the opposite, he actually came to praise Caesar and incite an insurrection against Caesar's political foes]. In fact, one of the writers and Ken Burns himself each have their own entries at the end and get pretty defensive and bring up their rings, and tell Litwack and Barbara Fields et. al. to Google them Chuck...but while posterity has explicitly and implicitly proven Dr. Fields and company correct that this film failed to emphasize slavery and racism as the drivers of the war, propelling reconciliation over reconstruction, I think there's an even more fundamental problem with the \"historical\" film/TV genre that calls for a reckoning of its own.
\n
The thing is, one common point raised by both supporters and critics among the historians in the book is that the documentary, and historical TV/films more generally, are a tremendous boon for historians and the discipline of History because they get people interested in their subjects, and the knock on effect of their boosting sales of related books - and by extension the public consciousness - makes them a net, if not overwhelming, positive for society.
\n
But are they really…?
\n
Notwithstanding that the principal author this documentary benefited must certainly be Shelby Foote, whose talking heads tellingly credit him as a writer rather than an historian and whose southern debonair folksiness ain’t cute anymore in 2026, I think the self-hating historians (and I weep for the professional self-image issues this country has induced in them) were all of them deceived…cause doesn’t that positive externality, multiplier effect deal sound a little like trickle down economics...?
\n
Surely we're not getting ahead with a percentage of historicity while Foote and Burns etc.'s narrative is being made free to watch on PBS' YouTube channel this very year (the first episode at least, I noticed it up the other week).
\n
But that's using an example of a film that, aside from its thematic flaws, also had quite a few factual liberties taken, as well as plain factual inaccuracies; some examples from the response book are pictures of different subjects being shown onscreen from what's actually being discussed - which I'd agree was a basically reasonable practice given the state of photography at the time, though people should be made aware going into documentary films that they fundamentally are narratives rather than straight or objective records of facts and that little liberties like this aren't uncommon - and the date of Lincoln's death being misstated (FDR's was given instead). What about a historical production that's super \"historically accurate\", utterly authentic to the period it depicts?
\n
Wolf Hall is a fantastic show about Henry VIII’s Tudor England (I still haven’t gotten around to watching the last season, though I read the third book when it came out and it was super compelling). Everything is top notch - acting, cinematography, set design, the beautiful natural lighting and Debbie Wiseman score (and period music selections arranged by Claire van Kampen). And of course, the writing - dramatically speaking that is, because the story is revisionist as hell.
\n
It seemingly causes Tudor historian Dr. Estelle Paranque physical pain to witness, basically swapping the historical Thomas Cromwell - villainous reputation - with Thomas More - literal Saint - by casting Mark Rylance as the former and Maester Qyburn as the latter. Even if you were to read Hillary Mantel's page-turners on which the show is based, you would still be getting Thomas Cromwell's perspective (as Dr. Paranque reminds, and also notes that the historical Cromwell is actually kind of obscure). And as much as I've enjoyed David Crowther's The History of England Podcast, or Claire Ridgway's The Anne Boleyn Files, or Dr. Paranque's YouTube Channel that I just recently found out about and her book Thorns, Lust, and Glory: The Betrayal of Anne Boleyn that I just started, it certainly feels like historians are desperately playing catch up to Hollywood and even historical fiction books.
\n
In fact…in a certain sense, Showtime’s The Tudors is actually the more authentic show. Spiritually. No, seriously. I’ve only seen the first season, or maybe the second too (it was a long time ago) because I just didn't find it very compelling on the dramatic merits, never mind the rampant ahistoricity, but as Dr. Paranque points out it does a fantastic job of capturing the toxicity of Henry VIII; Damian Lewis may be the spitting image, but Jonathan Rhys Meyers’ Entourage f***boy turn is such a powerful analogue and does a much better job, as Dr. Paranque often speaks about, of capturing the humanity of these people who really existed in our world at one time...and since those people didn't just disappear overnight before we fell out of a coconut tree, so to speak, viewing \"historical figures\" through a human lens, as basically similar to ourselves, can give us a better idea of why things are the way they are today - exemplified in the shift to, \"it was wrong then and it's wrong now\", as opposed to the familiar line of eschewing transposing so-called 21st Century values onto history, when dealing with racism and stereotypes (hm hm...).
\n
And perversely, a more obviously loosely historical show like The Tudors, sexed up as it is for cable and launching a thousand hot takes, does not feed into the misleading standard of historical accuracy the way Wolf Hall does - because point of view aside, top-notch attention to historical detail aside, Wolf Hall is a TV show and can never be more than a tangential glance at the past, not in anywise a clear picture of it. And it sure seems like the greatest (meaning large or immense) effect of the expectation that an historical show can be that \"historically accurate\" has been to keep Hollywood, broadly conceived, white...I'm sorry, but hopefully the example of Wolf Hall shows why it's hypocritical and absurd to focus so much on, say, the casting of a Black woman, Jodie Turner-Smith, as Anne Boleyn in the eponymous 2021 show when, as again Dr. Paranque would tell you, there are among everything all these very essential things not historically true about Wolf Hall's depiction of Anne Boleyn that I highly doubt most of the viewers who've made that show a classic know and/or much care about, and that certainly didn't generate the same kind of reactions to Claire Foy.
\n
Another example - the Odyssey racist controversy we just had. And I hope to Yah nobody takes The Odyssey as history but you know people do...
\n
[Note - I honestly haven't heard, organically speaking, any furor over The Mirror and the Light's integration of its cast, but I don't look at like, forums and stuff, so don't take that to the bank...but oh my Yogg, the House of the Dragon backlash...]
\n
And to consider historical productions more holistically, as a genre; recently I read most of historian Dr. Alex von Tunzelmann’s \"Reel History\"Guardian columns (I will return for the rest). And it’s telling that her overall outlook is very forgiving of historical inaccuracies in favor of making good movies; these historical productions, as an institution, are fundamentally not “historically accurate” in any meaningful sense. Selma, the gold standard for a historical film, is very much the exception rather than the rule, and even there it has to be understood that any art necessarily departs from the historical record/reality to some extent, which is why Selma complements and even incorporates, rather than replaces, the historical footage we have of the events depicted.
\n
What (a)historical films and shows are though is incredibly influential - The Tudors, Gladiator, Titanic, 300 (really hard to miss the white supremacist subtext/overtones in 2026 - the “Persians” are literally just Black people), The Social Network (basically a morality play dressed in names from real life), Braveheart (or The Passion or any Mel Gibson “historical” movie except apparently Gallipoli), Walk the Line (apologies to Joaquin Phoenix making his second appearance here, he does phenomenal work, haven't seen Napoleon, but Johnny Cash really comes off as a deadbeat stalker scumbag and also everyone's white), The White Queen etc., Ray, Downton Abbey, Django Unchained (I hypothesize that Quentin Tarantino, through the power of mass media, has done more to propagate the n-word than anyone/thing else in history), True Grit, The King's Speech…I feel like just these works from my lifetime, to say nothing of the countless golden age Westerns or war movies or Gone With the Wind that preceded them, have drastically and indelibly warped most Americans’ (the \"moviegoing public\") conceptions of the past, and therefore the present and future. Cause to get to the heart of a story, you need to go back to the beginning (again, see The Birth of a Nation)...
\n
And yeah, #OscarsSoWhite. Again, not saying anything new or better than its been said before, but these things clearly bear repeating.
\n
So is there hope? Necessarily, as James Baldwin said. Rebellions are built on hope. I mean, my friend didn't even know about The Civil War (the Ken Burns show) when I brought it up last year. And Sinners was a critical and commercial megahit, full of both history and truth. I've heard The Gilded Age is pretty good too. So let's all try to keep living with great intention, and I'll just leave off with this meme I found on the Crusader Kings II Steam community hub...
\n",
"author": {
"name": "RR Charles"
},
"tags": [
"TV",
"Intrusive Thoughts",
"History",
"Film",
"Books"
],
"date_published": "2026-06-18T01:14:00-07:00",
"date_modified": "2026-06-18T01:14:03-07:00"
},
{
"id": "https://dosh.codeberg.page/ok-but-how-come-nobody-said-they-got-tessa-thompson-and-ms-rachel-for-the-anti-trump-concert-rise-up-sing-out.html",
"url": "https://dosh.codeberg.page/ok-but-how-come-nobody-said-they-got-tessa-thompson-and-ms-rachel-for-the-anti-trump-concert-rise-up-sing-out.html",
"title": "OK But How Come Nobody Said They Got Tessa Thompson and Ms. Rachel For the Anti-Trump Concert; "Rise Up, Sing Out: A Concert for the First Amendment" - Some Brief Highlights & Calls to Action",
"summary": "So tonight The Committee for the First Amendment produced this concert as counterprogramming against that UFC cage match or whatever…",
"content_html": "\n
So tonight The Committee for the First Amendment produced this concert as counterprogramming against that UFC cage match or whatever that's happening at the White House. I wasn't going to tune in cause I perpetually have no energy and to be honest I never really cared much for music, but I'm glad I did end up catching most of it (minus about the first half hour), cause it was a very pleasantly surprisingly very encouraging experience. You can watch the recording above and Acyn Torabi clipped it, and I really don't want to go through the whole thing, but just real quick:
\n
\n
Great to see \"woke\" (actually not even in scare quotes, see below) finally becoming a cause célèbre again, and the billing was even more impressive than the posted billing because - and I can't stress this enough - they got Tessa Thompson (who connected the shootings of Renée Nicole Good and Alex Pretti to police shootings and general oppression of Black people) and Ms. Rachel (who was part of a segment on Texas' Dilley Detention Center and the kids who've been detained by ICE there). Also, Robert de Niro, who's been outspoken and making appearances since last year, was here too (although I think I heard him say he's a \"free speech absolutist\" - maybe he doesn't know the connotations cause he also said \"I want my country back\"...but it was really a very good speech, very enlightened Goodfellas). And Ayo Edibiri, who I have heard of but admittedly am not actually familiar with, also talked about the Freedom Summer initiative against voter suppression/gerrymandering in the South and presented several other calls to action (below) with host Jane Fonda.
\n
There was lots of consciousness raising. It was blessedly intersectional, not just about the 1st Amendment or Trump - Black people, Native Americans, LGBTQ+ (particularly T) people, women, immigrants (children) in detention, Palestinians in the genocide, all got spotlighted and there was emphasis on \"no one gets left behind this time\" (as one of the original songs sung goes). As Black Votes Matter co-founder LaTosha Brown said during her segment, \"our politics will not save us, our humanity will\", and \"we need to start seeing ourselves as architects of a new America\".
\n
Favorite musical highlight for me was definitely LaTosha Brown singing \"Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around\" around 2 hrs and 22 minutes in:
\n
\n\n
And the calls to action, which are mostly also up at riseupsingout.com, were...
Sign up with Indivisible and No Kings (I highly recommend at least getting updates so you can know what all stuff like this is going on).
\n
\n
Also, if like me you take offense when people say, out loud and in public, that they're supposedly introverts, Vote Forward is a great way to turn out voters without direct human contact by mailing letters.
\n
All in all, as Kayla Davion and Broadway Inspirational Voices sang in the closing song, \"progress is possible, not guaranteed\", and, to paraphrase, we may not live to see the goal but we need to keep marching. I guess we'll see. As LA politicians like to say, if Hurricane Katrina happened on the West Side, everyone would be housed in two weeks...
",
"author": {
"name": "RR Charles"
},
"tags": [
"Politics",
"Music",
"Concerts"
],
"date_published": "2026-06-14T20:08:00-07:00",
"date_modified": "2026-06-14T20:14:42-07:00"
},
{
"id": "https://dosh.codeberg.page/my-reading-lifehack-of-a-lifetime-exploit-infinite-scroll-on-your-phone-plus-misc-summer-reading.html",
"url": "https://dosh.codeberg.page/my-reading-lifehack-of-a-lifetime-exploit-infinite-scroll-on-your-phone-plus-misc-summer-reading.html",
"title": "My Summer Reading #Lifehack of a Lifetime - Exploit Infinite Scroll on Your Phone to Read More; Plus - The Fire this Time: America, Read "Burn Down Master's House" by Clay Cane",
"summary": "It's basically summer and you may have seen AOC is doing a summer reading challenge, and NPR came out with…",
"content_html": "
It's basically summer and you may have seen AOC is doing a summer reading challenge, and NPR came out with this list of \"5 ways to read more books this summer\". One of the tips from NPR is to go with paper books over digital to minimize distractions, which is certainly one good approach, but as a counterpoint I would strongly recommend reading on your phone in vertical scroll mode (if you have a smartphone).
\n
Vertical scroll - vs default horizontal page-flipping, a digital holdover from physical books - allows you to harness the power of doom scrolling for something more edifying. But as a prerequisite, I highly recommend adopting an allow-list approach to mobile notifications - disable almost all notifications and just leave on essentials for dramatically better quality of life. Also I send unknown callers to voicemail...but anyway, I got back into reading in 2023 using vertical scroll on my phone, after not reading too much after college, so maybe you can benefit too.
\n
Apple's reader app has this mode, as does Readest, which I believe is now the best mobile reader on iOS (it's also cross-platform - and the main functional advantage over Apple's reader, which quietly introduced semi-adjustable margins in the last iOS or the one before, at this point is being able to freely import and export book files).
\n
Also...I kind of hate to recommend it, but KyBook3 is extremely good for reading PDFs on iOS - it can crop/zoom comfortably to the width of the text, and automatically adjust the color scheme to improve legibility (like how scanner apps can make a photo black and white). Unfortunately the developer appears to be some kind of Russian Nationalist, who stopped updating the app in 2019 (wonder what happened in 2019...). It looks like it uses Google for analytics, but other than that I think the downside to using it, for free, is just ideological...(for a really great Ukrainian-made app, Anywhere is the best music player on iOS money can buy).
\n
And as far as the substance of reading...you would be derelict in not reading Burn Down Master's House by Clay Cane. This is a profoundly powerful book, both in the sense of being personally affecting but especially in its power to effect social change. It's not a coincidence that it's been written now, just like MAGA and Trump are not in power by chance or contrary to America's history and values, and I believe it's the next first autobiography of Frederick Douglass, or Roots, or The Fire Next Time - it's extraordinarily humanizing, holistic, and direct. And the fire is coming.
",
"author": {
"name": "RR Charles"
},
"tags": [
"Tech",
"Books",
"#Lifehack"
],
"date_published": "2026-06-13T18:44:00-07:00",
"date_modified": "2026-06-13T18:44:00-07:00"
},
{
"id": "https://dosh.codeberg.page/its-amazing-how-much-faster-nba-2k23-loads-since-they-killed-mycareer-myteam-and-the-servers-also-california-pass-ab-1921-the-protect-our-games-act.html",
"url": "https://dosh.codeberg.page/its-amazing-how-much-faster-nba-2k23-loads-since-they-killed-mycareer-myteam-and-the-servers-also-california-pass-ab-1921-the-protect-our-games-act.html",
"title": "It's Amazing How Much Faster NBA 2K23 Loads Since They Killed MyCareer, MyTeam, and the Servers; Also - California, Pass AB 1921, the Protect Our Games Act",
"summary": "[CA, tell your State representatives to enact AB 1921, the Protect Our Games Act 👇] So back in 2022 or…",
"content_html": "
So back in 2022 or so I got into basketball, mostly for the drama, and around the 2023 finals I bought the PC version of NBA 2K23. It's pretty good, I have to say (as someone who doesn't play games online) - even MyTeam didn't feel pay-to-win (again, only playing by myself) because they took out the energy meters and you could get good stuff from the auction house fairly affordably in in-game money. But like they usually do, 2K shut down the servers after two years [I think it's two years, maybe two and a half, from launch], and in today times that included taking down even the single player story...
\n
On the bright side, I reinstalled it yesterday, what with the Finals and being unable to pick a bandwagon, and it's so much snappier now that it's been gutted...I want to say a big part of that is not having to play the videos on loading screens, but they just go so much faster...
\n
What a shame and a waste. Well, the State of California is currently considering a law called the Protect Our Games Act (Assembly Bill 1921) that would require video game publishers to keep future digital games playable offline after support ends, or otherwise offer a refund - I actually don't know that it would cover a game like NBA 2K where it's communicated, in text somewhere between fine and prominent print, that parts aren't going to work in a couple years and you can still play like half of it offline, but this is definitely a great reform in any case. If you live in California, you can find your State representatives here or send them an email/fax/letter with resist.bot.
\n
So anyway, I haven't bought another NBA 2K - 24 definitely didn't seem worth an upgrade, especially since PC still got the last-gen version...I did want to get 25 but it never went on sale to the degree the previous one did (i.e. in a bundle), and all things considered I'm fine just staying with 23 at this point...but if we do get a proper offline MyCareer that'll probably change...
",
"author": {
"name": "RR Charles"
},
"tags": [
"Video Games",
"Politics"
],
"date_published": "2026-06-07T14:06:00-07:00",
"date_modified": "2026-06-07T14:23:05-07:00"
},
{
"id": "https://dosh.codeberg.page/that-fatboy-slim-kung-fu-fighting-dance-remix-is-actually-by-bus-stop-but-hes-apparently-played-another-one-called-kung-by-g104.html",
"url": "https://dosh.codeberg.page/that-fatboy-slim-kung-fu-fighting-dance-remix-is-actually-by-bus-stop-but-hes-apparently-played-another-one-called-kung-by-g104.html",
"title": "That Fatboy Slim "Kung Fu Fighting" Remix is Actually (a Cover?) by Bus Stop, but He's Apparently Played Another Called "K.U.N.G." by G104/Cem Oral",
"summary": "So this is actually by a British band called Bus Stop. It was apparently in Shaolin Soccer and at least…",
"content_html": "\n
So this is actually by a British band called Bus Stop. It was apparently in Shaolin Soccer and at least one other movie or show, but I for one am here from Ultimate Naruto Fanflash 4, which credited the track to Fatboy Slim. This appears to be a popular misconception online and I believed it for well over a decade...
\n
I also just learned that Carl Douglas actually came out to be in the music video (and on Top of the Tops), and some people online say he sings anew on this version too (hence the \"featuring\"), like Rod Stewart on that A$AP Rocky song, but I can neither confirm nor refute that:
\n\n
Interestingly, Fatboy Slim [Note: I don't actually know who that is outside of this remix that he didn't make] says on his SoundCloud that:
\n
\n
so many people ask me about a version of Kung Fu Fighting on Youtube which is credited as being by me. That version is shite and nothing to do with me. the one I used to play was this one, a white label bootleg with no credit on it (and isn’t by me either) So I've put it up here so you can all hear it in full (I’ve put the intro on a few mixtapes over the years)
\n
\n
And the mix he posted there, per a comment, appears to be called \"K.U.N.G.\" by G104, one alias of German musician Cem Oral (also AKA Jammin Unit).
\n\n
All this talk of \"Kung Fu Fighting\" also reminded me that there was yet another version in Kung Fu Panda 3, a movie I have little memory of despite having seen it in the theatre without having seen the second one...it was the one with Bryan Cranston and Po's biological panda family...? Anyhow, that version brings to mind nothing more than the Fallout Boy cover of the Ghostbuster's theme, and now I wonder whether that was some kind of trend...
",
"author": {
"name": "RR Charles"
},
"tags": [
"Music",
"Intrusive Thoughts"
],
"date_published": "2026-06-07T00:05:00-07:00",
"date_modified": "2026-06-07T00:05:00-07:00"
},
{
"id": "https://dosh.codeberg.page/storyteller-unfaithful-husband-punished-a-better-solution.html",
"url": "https://dosh.codeberg.page/storyteller-unfaithful-husband-punished-a-better-solution.html",
"title": "Storyteller: "Unfaithful Husband Punished" - a Better Solution",
"summary": "So I was playing Storyteller a while ago, and like seemingly many others I got stuck on this one puzzle. The…",
"content_html": "
So I was playing Storyteller a while ago, and like seemingly many others I got stuck on this one puzzle. The actual solution is here in case you clicked on this coming for real answers, but with all due respect, I feel like there is a configuration that makes more sense and I haven't been able to get over it...
\n
\n\nSpoilers - click to show\n
\n
\n\n
\n
\nSo panel by panel, left-to-right and top-to-bottom: \n\n
The Prince marries Snowy. I don't see anyone else around and Snowy doesn't seem to be any kind of royalty, so I take it it's an Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville kind of secret ceremony.
\n
The Prince and The Witch have a chance meeting in a forest. Signs of love all around.
\n
The Prince and The Witch kiss. Note that they are now on some body of water in a boat, so this wasn't some crime of passion - there was a degree of premeditation involved in this tryst.
\n
The Prince and The Witch meet at the altar. But the Prince (who truly ain't s***, in case you hadn't noticed) suddenly remembers he's a married man. Interpret this one as you will - he either can't let Snowy go or he's afraid to cross her (or to get in trouble more generally); regardless, The Witch is pissed. And why shouldn't she be? We have no indication she had any idea The Prince was married or even seeing anyone. This is the first she's even hearing of Snowy.
\n
The Witch transforms. Incidentally, I feel like the crone form is supposed to be her natural state, isn't it...? I guess Storyteller is just going by Snow White and the witch in that was also the queen...so she transformed into the crone to trick Snow White because people would have known what she looked like? But I don't think people generally knew what the monarch looked like in medieval times...anyway, when you think about it, it makes sense that a queen and a prince would get together like this - much more sense than the prince and a regular person or even lay nobility - so The Witch, or rather The QUEEN, has done nothing wrong in assuming The Prince was fair game.
\n
The Queen hexes The Prince and turns him into a frog. Justified.
\n
Frog and Snowy are reunited and Snowy is disgusted. By his philandering.
\n
This assh*** frog drags her out onto the same love boat where he just made out with The Queen and tries to go in for a kiss anyway, and Snowy is like, \"You CHEATED on me you piece of s***, what the f*** is wrong with you?!\" Frog is shattered.
This is justice. Also I guess he's just permanently a frog now - a horny toad, if you will. So an ironic punishment as well...
\n",
"author": {
"name": "RR Charles"
},
"tags": [
"Video Games",
"Intrusive Thoughts"
],
"date_published": "2026-06-05T21:35:00-07:00",
"date_modified": "2026-06-06T22:37:46-07:00"
},
{
"id": "https://dosh.codeberg.page/june-is-bustin-out-all-over-plus-henry-lewis-pioneering-black-genius-musician-and-conductor-from-la.html",
"url": "https://dosh.codeberg.page/june-is-bustin-out-all-over-plus-henry-lewis-pioneering-black-genius-musician-and-conductor-from-la.html",
"title": "June is Bustin' Out All Over; Plus - Henry Lewis, Pioneering Black Genius Instrumentalist and Conductor from LA",
"summary": "Every June I think of this song from Rodgers & Hammerstein's Carousel, since I was in the orchestra for a…",
"content_html": "
Every June I think of this song from Rodgers & Hammerstein'sCarousel, since I was in the orchestra for a high school production (our band director made a point of disclaiming the show's handwaving of domestic abuse...).
\n\n
What a show...and isn't it a little timely, mm...? But I wouldn't have bothered writing a post just for that, I don't have that kind of drive or energy anymore...
\n
I also happened to get a very interesting factoid in a newsletter today from Action St. Louis:
\n
\n
On June 1st, 1968, the 1st Black instrumentalist in a major symphony orchestra, Henry Lewis, became the 1st Black musical conductor of an American orchestra.
\n
\n
And what's more, the major orchestra Henry Lewis joined in 1948 was none other than his hometown LA Philharmonic:
\n
\n
Sixteen-year-old double bass player Henry Lewis made history in 1948 when he was hired by the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Lewis was the first African American appointed to a major symphony orchestra and one of the youngest players in LA Phil history, period.
\n
His early experiences with the orchestra sparked a lengthy career that saw him achieve a multitude of firsts in the orchestral music world. When he died in 1996, his New York Times obituary dubbed him the Jackie Robinson of classical music.
\n
\n
Also among those firsts:
\n
\n
When Lewis stepped onto the podium in 1961, he made history in more ways than one. He became the first native Angeleno to conduct the Philharmonic on a subscription series concert and the first Black conductor to lead a major orchestra on a regular season concert.
\n
\n
By the way, the orchestra he took over in 1968 was the New Jersey Symphony - it sounds like it was quite a tenure:
\n
\n
With the appointment of Henry Lewis as music director in 1968—making Lewis the first Black music director of a major symphony orchestra—the New Jersey Symphony entered a new era of high-profile musical activity. Notable highlights of the Lewis years included the New Jersey Symphony’s Carnegie Hall debut with famous soprano (and Lewis’ wife) Marilyn Horne, who became a regular guest soloist with the Orchestra during Lewis’ tenure; a performance at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, during the venue’s inaugural season in 1971; three outdoor concerts dedicated to the memory of Martin Luther King, in a vacant lot on Prince Street—the site of the 1967 Newark Riots—in 1968; and a concert at the Garden State Arts Center (now PNC Bank Arts Center) with Luciano Pavarotti making his American orchestral debut. (The Orchestra would perform with Pavarotti again in 1984, in the first classical music program ever performed at Madison Square Garden.)
\n
\n
And here he is in person in an educational film called The Symphony Sound with the U.K.'s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, which he himself apparently wrote, and...let's just say, give this to your friends who don't like European Classical Music:
\n",
"author": {
"name": "RR Charles"
},
"tags": [
"Musical Theatre",
"Music History",
"Music",
"History",
"European Classical Music",
"Black History"
],
"date_published": "2026-06-01T22:42:07-07:00",
"date_modified": "2026-06-18T00:18:48-07:00"
},
{
"id": "https://dosh.codeberg.page/shuffling-random-internet-radio-stations-with-radio-garden.html",
"url": "https://dosh.codeberg.page/shuffling-random-internet-radio-stations-with-radio-garden.html",
"title": "Shuffling Random Internet Radio Stations with Radio Garden's Balloon Ride Radio",
"summary": "Radio Garden is pret-ty neat. I found out about it from my musician aunt some years ago...it's got a globe…",
"content_html": "
Radio Garden is pret-ty neat. I found out about it from my musician aunt some years ago...it's got a globe filled with little dots, each representing an internet radio station, so you can hear music from all around the world (though I find it can be remarkably homogenous a lot of times). But my favorite part is the Balloon Ride Radio feature, which takes you to a random station and is also like a little geo-guesser game. You can't quite spam the shuffle button the way it's designed, but this is the easiest way I've found to put on something that's basically totally random.
\n
And it's free to use. From their privacy policy it looks like they use Google for advertising and analytics but don't appear to sell your data...and their roots at least don't seem for-profit:
\n
\n
Radio Garden started out in 2016 as a project by Jonathan Puckey & Moniker. It was commissioned in the context of an exhibition at the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision for the research project Transnational Radio Encounters.
Since 2019, Radio Garden has been operated by Jonathan Puckey as an independent company, alongside an enthusiastic team of gardeners.
\n
\n
And there's a bunch more artsy and social-experiment type stuff at puckey.studio.
\n
They have had a premium plan since 2023 that let's you get out of visual ads and use their sleep timer, and it looks like you can share with your family (not super clear but \"Family Sharing\" is a bullet point).
\n
As usual, I'm not an affiliate or anything, I just like using Radio Garden a lot. In fact, I will say you can use Radio Garden as a progressive web app on your mobile device to easily block tracking and ads with your browser (Safari with the free uBlock Origin Lite extension on iOS, Android probably has more options). You can't save your favorite stations if you do - no account needed to do that in the app store app versions by the way - but if you just want to listen/shuffle it works great.
",
"author": {
"name": "RR Charles"
},
"tags": [
"Tech",
"Music"
],
"date_published": "2026-05-29T16:44:00-07:00",
"date_modified": "2026-05-29T16:46:29-07:00"
},
{
"id": "https://dosh.codeberg.page/ign-got-soul-plane-so-wrong-and-they-need-to-be-shamed.html",
"url": "https://dosh.codeberg.page/ign-got-soul-plane-so-wrong-and-they-need-to-be-shamed.html",
"title": "IGN Got Soul Plane So Wrong and They Need to Be Shamed",
"summary": "OK, look. I enjoyed Soul Plane. There are very valid reasons why someone wouldn't. But we need to root our…",
"content_html": "
OK, look. I enjoyed Soul Plane. There are very valid reasons why someone wouldn't. But we need to root our disagreements in a shared factual reality, and this IGN review from exactly(?*) 22 years ago is so farcically wrong, not to mention hypocritical, that the now \"AI\"-scamified outlet and its author Jeff Otto need to be called to account for it even now in 2026.
\n
So here we go.
\n
Jeff Otto starts out his review somewhat favorably, if a little backhandedly, describes the film's prelude and airport sequences, and concludes the first section thusly:
\n
\n
The film's opening backstory is mildly amusing. It serves its purpose to set up the Soul Plane airline and what is to be their very first flight. Once we get through that, the film quickly finds a flow. The introduction to the NWA (that's the name of the airline) wing of the airport is a blast. I would be doing a disservice to give away any of the jokes, but suffice to say, this is a very different section of the airport than most frequent flyers are probably used to, a sort of urbanized, fashizzilized (is that a word?), macked out terminal. Many of the jokes are simple, many are actually quite clever, but either way, they provide the intended laughs. As we are introduced to the very different airline that is NWA, Soul Plane thrives on its ability not to take itself too seriously.
\n
\n
Alright, can't argue with that, Jeff. A little ignorant, but I'm from the suburbs too, and it was ought'4. But after liftoff, the problems start to trickle in:
\n
\n
After liftoff, the problems start to trickle, then eventually flood in. First is the inclusion of Tom Arnold and his ultra-white family. With no creativity whatsoever, they are called The Hunkees and have just come from a visit to Crackerland. Hardee har har. God, could these jokes be any more obvious? In fact, they are so blatantly thoughtless that I guess they can't even be deemed offensive. The use of a typical white family as a one of the targets of the film's humor is a pathetic disgrace when compared to the wit of the film's humor in the beginning. Like so many comedians on Def Comedy Jam, when one runs out of fresh jokes, white jokes are an easy mark.
\n
\n
OK, so first off: it's HILARIOUS that Tom Arnold's white family is called The Hunkees. Sorry this movie's humor isn't Marcel Marceau, or Sebastian Maniscalco, but that's funny as f***. Secondly: your outlook on this movie shifted real quick once they brought in the white stereotypes. I don't know, man, sounds like maybe you're the one who just came from a visit to \"Crackerland\" (👌). And I've never seen Def Comedy Jam except for the Bernie Mac set that I found about from Colin Jost, but I have the intellectual humility to admit it.
\n
Next paragraph:
\n
\n
The overtly obvious group satire doesn't stop there. There is a gay flight attendant named Gaemon (another unoriginal and obvious name joke, played by comedian Godfrey). Later in the film, Gaemon parades around the airplane with other stereotypically gay passengers. When a Middle Eastern passenger attempts to board the plane, he is met with the shocked, frightened stares of the passengers and soon double teamed by the security officers who refer to him as, I'm sure you guessed it, Osama.
\n
\n
So here we go with the \"overtly obvious\" factual errors, and another telling sign of the author's own views. Gaemon is not the gay flight attendant - it would be f***ed up if he were. He is the co-pilot. The gay man who \"parades\" around is Gary Anthony Williams' character. Starting to think Jeff Otto only watched clips of this movie.
\n\n
[Sidebar...I actually met Gary Anthony Williams at a fundraiser for an LA City Council candidate around 2019 - not the candidate you think - but I didn't recognize him cause I hadn't heard he'd lost all that weight. He was really funny in retrospect, he was like - to me - \"have I seen you somewhere before...?\", and when he signed his name on the check-in form he was like \"mmph!\" and made like the pen was heavy].
\n
And as far as the terrorist joke - look, it was wrong then and it's wrong now. Period.
\n
But I was a kid in the post-9/11 period of this movie, and I flew with my mom once and there was a man on the plane - I think he was Sikh - with a turban on — and you better believe I was afraid for my life, I'm sorry folks, just telling it like it is ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ 😎 😘 [my household went for Trump three times].
\n
So then Jeff Otto criticizes the plotline about Kevin Hart's character's ex being on the flight for a paragraph, and follows up with this:
\n
\n
Even the filmmakers of Soul Plane have gone on record as saying that this is a movie that isn't supposed to be taken very seriously. How could they not heed their own advice when they made the film? The movie starts with clever spoofs of airport terminals, security and preflight safety checks. As it moves along, the only saving grace is the few castmembers (Mo'Nique, Snoop Dogg, Method Man, Sophia Vergara and Clarence Witherspoon) who really \"get\" what this movie is all about and keep the jokes free-flowing and silly. Unfortunately, these are the supporting players in the film and, to get to their funnier moments, we have to sit through the laughless Kevin Hart, Godfrey, D.L. Hughley (as a restroom attendant, a joke that SNL did better over a decade ago) and the Hunkee family.
\n
\n
So if everybody in the cast and crew and audience is saying not to take this Blaxploitation parody of a parody of a \"made-for-TV disaster movie from the ‘50s\" seriously, why the hell are you getting so hot and bothered about it, and saying they don't \"get\" it, and giving s*** to all the actors except-
\n
Wait, hold on a second...
\n\n
CLARENCE Witherspoon? Did you mean JOHN Witherspoon, the legendary actor I know about from The Boondocks (to be fair, premiered the year after this movie)? And look - this is the SECOND time Jeff Otto made this mistake:
\n\n
And let me get this straight, Jeff - you were complaining about this movie's white and gay and Middle Easterner stereotypes, but you say the movie was saved by Snoop Dogg, Mo'Nique, and Sofia Vergara?!
\n
And that's SOFIA, with an \"F\", Jeff. It stands for fuckaas review.
\n
Disgusting.
\n
IGN -do better. Jeff Otto? Jeff Otto-asphyxiate yourself (👌👌👌).**
\n\n
*According to the URL IGN's review's from 5/28/04. The article was last updated in 2020, Yogg knows why...I only looked up Soul Plane reviews cause I just had a dream where I had a Genius-style transcript and could easily find the part where Snoop Dogg or somebody calls Gaemon \"gay dude\"...
\n
**I kid, it's been literally 22 years, this is insane.
",
"author": {
"name": "RR Charles"
},
"tags": [
"Intrusive Thoughts",
"Film"
],
"date_published": "2026-05-28T20:17:02-07:00",
"date_modified": "2026-05-29T14:04:04-07:00"
},
{
"id": "https://dosh.codeberg.page/it-really-wouldnt-kill-you-to-vote.html",
"url": "https://dosh.codeberg.page/it-really-wouldnt-kill-you-to-vote.html",
"title": "It Really Wouldn't Kill You to Vote",
"summary": "As I was out today I drove by a very old and/or decrepit man with a cane and ballot in…",
"content_html": "
As I was out today I drove by a very old and/or decrepit man with a cane and ballot in hand struggling towards a ballot drop box, fighting for his life against the unseasonably cold Los Angeles weather and against time itself, as if he were grasping frantically for a chalice from the Fountain of Youth or a thread from the hem of Yeshu's robe. On my way back I was proud to stop and drop my own ballot in the same box as that gentleman, although as I noted it were an unseasonably cold day in Los Angeles and I had pressing need of the restroom.
\n
I was watching Selma the other week on account of history repeating, and while voting rights are being blitzed back to pre-1965 and voting is variously more difficult than it needs to be in most of this country, we're not quite back at \"sheriffs rounding up a posse to keep the registrar's office white\".
",
"author": {
"name": "RR Charles"
},
"tags": [
"Politics",
"Film"
],
"date_published": "2026-05-28T13:49:10-07:00",
"date_modified": "2026-05-29T13:57:04-07:00"
},
{
"id": "https://dosh.codeberg.page/the-state-of-ios-music-player-apps-foobar2000-best-fundamentals-vlc-probably-best-outlook-maybe-try-anywhere-offline-music-player-for-visualizers-extras.html",
"url": "https://dosh.codeberg.page/the-state-of-ios-music-player-apps-foobar2000-best-fundamentals-vlc-probably-best-outlook-maybe-try-anywhere-offline-music-player-for-visualizers-extras.html",
"title": "The State of iOS Music Player Apps (Foobar2000 Best Fundamentals, VLC Probably Best Outlook, Maybe Buy Anywhere - Offline Music Player For Visualizers + Last.fm Scrobbling)",
"summary": "Back in Q4 last year when it came out that Spotify were running recruitment ads for ICE, I tried really…",
"content_html": "
Back in Q4 last year when it came out that Spotify were running recruitment ads for ICE, I tried really hard to find the ideal music player on iOS so I could just put the relatively few songs I actually listen to a lot on there. I basically wanted to relive the old Apple music player from my iPod Touch 4th Generation (a really, really good player), but with the freedom to easily move files on and off my iPhone.
\n
There is unfortunately no such app to be had for any amount of money. Even taking Cover Flow completely off the table. There are three very good players though, and only one costs money.
I think the cross-platform Foobar2000 is fundamentally the best music player on iOS - in addition to handling virtually any audio format, it has audio normalization using ReplayGain. Basically what this does is it calculates a universal audio level at which all your tracks be played back (every part of a track will be boosted or softened by the same amount, uniformly - not to be confused with making the soft parts relatively louder and the loud parts relatively softer). ReplayGain uses a field from a file's metadata to tell a player how much of an adjustment to make, so the actual audio does not need to be modified. Even better, Foobar2000 has a ReplayGain scanner built-in so you can do everything on your phone.
\n
Foobar2000 has a bunch of advanced playback settings, the most prominent of which are very customizable gapless playback (called \"Skip Silence\"), crossfade, and equalizer - although, the equalizer is fairly spartan (as is the app in general) and doesn't come with presets.
\n
Apart from being able to transfer files through iTunes, Foobar2000 can create an FTP server (much easier than it sounds - one step, two taps), letting you use a file explorer such as KDE Dolphin on Linux or Windows Explorer to visit the address generated like you would visit any folder on your computer. You can then easily drag and drop your music files between devices. Foobar2000 is also able to read files from another directory on your phone, allowing you to include them in your library without having to copy them into Foobar2000.
\n
The one fairly basic thing Foobar2000 doesn't have is a queue. You can see the next song coming up but that's it. No history either, apart from being able to keep hitting the back button. There's also no CarPlay app, but you can of course play your Foobar library through your vehicle's generic player.
\n
Foobar2000 is what I'm using nowadays I was using when I tried to kick scrobbling (see below). It does what it does do very well, and purportedly doesn't collect any data.
Cross-platform, infinitely compatible, privacy-respecting VLC is free free, both in the sense that you never have to pay money to the purveyors for any part of it and also in the sense that you can legally modify and redistribute it as you like. It has most of the essential player features you'd expect coming from, say, Spotify - a queue/recent history, equalizer with presets. It also does CarPlay and has a sleep timer, and doubles as a video player [this is incidentally the best standalone video player on iOS, as of when I did this post's premise but for video players two or three years ago - I prefer Jellyfin but it needs a server. OPlayer Lite has partial PiP support, which is forthcoming in VLC, and was clear runner-up at the time but I now notice they collect a substantial amount of data for Google advertising].
\n
Similarly to Foobar2000, you can turn on an https server (one step) and use a browser to visit the address shown and easily upload/download files wirelessly, or transfer through iTunes. VLC has the additional advantage of being able to play a file from the Files app without copying it into VLC's library.
\n
The iOS version of VLC unfortunately has fewer features than its desktop and (apparently) android counterparts. There doesn't seem to be any reference to audio normalization in the code, or gapless playback or crossfade.
\n
I say this is probably the music player with the best outlook on iOS because while it is free/open-source and in relatively active development, it hasn't historically been super stable, and there are enormous barriers to iOS development and open-source iOS development in particular (not least of which is having to buy Apple products. There's also a significant publishing fee). When I tried it last winter, CarPlay would crash after a bit, but there have been several non-specific stability updates since.
\n
Anywhere (Freemium, $25 lifetime license or various subscriptions)
\n
OK, but I really wanted a visualizer of some sort and they are not easy to come by. Anywhere delivers with three different types of spectrum analyzer, plus a waveform analyzer progress bar (optional) and several distinctive skins.
\n
\n\nVertical Bar Spectrum Analyzer\n\n\nWaveform Spectrum Analyzer\n\n\nVertical Bar Spectrum Analyzer\n\n\nRetro skins\n\n
\n
Anywhere is the most full-featured music player on iOS. It feels very informed by streaming service players (laudatory) and does pretty much everything Foobar2000 and VLC do, except for audio normalization/ReplayGain and iTunes file transfer (you can use an http server easily like with VLC, connect a variety of cloud services, or import from another app/directory - though in the last case Anywhere will have to make a copy of the files). It is also in very active development, and for example just recently got Last.fm scrobbling (but unfortunately I've since found out Last.fm is owned by Paramount Skydance..[update: as of 5/27/28 Last.fm is apparently independent again and we are so back.]).
\n
I bought a lifetime license at a slight discount, I think like $23. Notably, the privacy policy presents Anywhere as a service [note also that Google Firebase error logging purportedly may log your IP address among other things] and access to the full app also sells for $2.99 a month, $14.99 per year, or on a couple of semi-annual bases.
\n
Although this is undoubtedly the best iOS music player money can buy, I probably wouldn't have been inclined to pay for a player except that the developer is Ukrainian and has to make a living during the ongoing invasion - I highly recommend trying out the app for free and buying/subscribing if you like it. I'm not an affiliate or anything, it's just that the combination of it's a fantastic app - arguably the best music player app of these three and therefor all, all things considered - and proceeds aid Ukraine was really compelling. I honestly have gone back to Foobar2000 because I ultimately need audio normalization [can't live without Last.fm, even taking it] over the awesome visualizers and excellent CarPlay app, but Anywhere has so much going for it.
",
"author": {
"name": "RR Charles"
},
"tags": [
"Tech",
"Music"
],
"date_published": "2026-05-26T16:29:35-07:00",
"date_modified": "2026-05-28T13:58:01-07:00"
},
{
"id": "https://dosh.codeberg.page/someone-pointed-out-an-obnoxious-sound-effect-alteration-in-the-complete-unaltered-trilogy-version-of-star-wars-and-years-later-i-cant-unhear-it.html",
"url": "https://dosh.codeberg.page/someone-pointed-out-an-obnoxious-sound-effect-alteration-in-the-complete-unaltered-trilogy-version-of-star-wars-and-years-later-i-cant-unhear-it.html",
"title": "Someone Pointed Out an Obnoxious Sound Effect Alteration in the "Complete Unaltered Trilogy" Version of Star Wars and Years Later I Can't Unhear It",
"summary": "Several years ago I came across a website that broke down the differences between the Star Wars special editions and…",
"content_html": "
Several years ago I came across a website that broke down the differences between the Star Wars special editions and the \"Original Unaltered Trilogy\", as fans apparently call the bonus disc versions of the theatrical cuts that came with that one trilogy box set around twenty years ago. Apparently even the nominally unaltered versions have some changes from the original original theatrical prints though (c.f. the fan restorations, Project 4K1977 etc.). I can't find that site again, but there's one sound effect change I can never unhear...
\n
It's in Star Wars, AKA Episode IV: A New Hope, when Luke and Han are in the Death Star cellblock and their cover gets blown. For about twenty seconds, starting at 1:12:13, Luke shoots a variety of fixtures...
\n
\n\nA...speaker?\n\n\nFire alarm...?\n\n
\n
...and when they explode they sound like glass breaking (I can't recall whether these sound effects are original or revised), except for this one light/camera-looking thing at 1:12:27 that sounds like dinnerplates shattering:
\n\nDinnerplate\n\n
It's just really wrong-sounding and hard to unhear, and a particularly bizarre alteration to make...especially since the last light that explodes (1:12:34) doesn't seem to make a sound at all...
\n\nSilent light\n\n
One more note about the Original Unaltered Trilogy...as my source that I can't find pointed out, the picture quality is kind of bad and also jittery on account of the release being a (spitefully?) poor laserdisc transfer, except for the title crawl that apparently was taken from, as I remember, a film print.
\n
But Star Wars remains great. I came to really enjoy it again last year after Solo having broken the camel's back for a while (Solo was pretty good - I would take it over Rogue One - but enough is enough). The way I did this was by adopting the minimalist position that there's only one Star Wars movie - it came out in 1977 and it's called Star Wars. Just nice and simple, nobody's related to anybody or anything else. There's also one TV show, the Clone Wars microseries, and it remains phenomenal - although Andor sounds really good, especially for using its platform politically/consciously. There's just a lot of Star Wars...I didn't even know about the maclunkey cut on Disney+ until I watched a Han vs Greedo supercut...
",
"author": {
"name": "RR Charles"
},
"tags": [
"Star Wars",
"Intrusive Thoughts",
"Film"
],
"date_published": "2026-05-25T23:40:00-07:00",
"date_modified": "2026-05-26T19:19:56-07:00"
},
{
"id": "https://dosh.codeberg.page/guiles-theme-sounds-like-coming-of-the-white-man-by-xit.html",
"url": "https://dosh.codeberg.page/guiles-theme-sounds-like-coming-of-the-white-man-by-xit.html",
"title": "Guile's Theme Sounds Like "The Coming of the Whiteman" (1972) by XIT",
"summary": "I'm not saying Capcom or whoever stole it. But it would be pretty on the nose if they had. Also,…",
"content_html": "
I'm not saying Capcom or whoever stole it. But it would be pretty on the nose if they had.
\n\n
Also, XIT (Crossing of Indian Tribes) are really good. This is actually progressive rock, in every sense. I belatedly found out about them not super long ago - \"discovered\" them, if you will - I think in a YouTube comments section for \"Come and Get Your Love\", I wanna say the version linked in this article from ICT, \"ICT’s Annual Indigenous Valentine’s Day Playlist. I also hadn't been aware that the album version of \"Come and Get Your Love\" has a nice vocal intro before the single version intro that was in Guardians of the Galaxy and F is for Family and everything.
\n\n
",
"author": {
"name": "RR Charles"
},
"tags": [
"Rock",
"Progressive Rock",
"Native Americans/Indigenous Americans",
"Music",
"Intrusive Thoughts"
],
"date_published": "2026-05-24T23:35:03-07:00",
"date_modified": "2026-05-25T18:13:21-07:00"
},
{
"id": "https://dosh.codeberg.page/blade-runner-ending-scoring.html",
"url": "https://dosh.codeberg.page/blade-runner-ending-scoring.html",
"title": "A Crucial Difference in Scoring Between Versions of Blade Runner (Plus a Minor But Un-unseeable One)",
"summary": "I was editing together the director's cut and workprint versions of Blade Runner (1982) to make an ultimate cut that…",
"content_html": "
I was editing together the director's cut and workprint versions of Blade Runner (1982) to make an ultimate cut that doesn't have the drab, Inside Llewyn Davis-esque blue/green filter added in the Final Cut or the unicorn sequence/heavy-implication-that-Deckard-is-a-replicant added in the director's cut, or any narration from the theatrical and workprint cuts...
\n
\n\nBlade Runner: The Final Cut\n\n\nImproved Blade Runner (modified workprint credits)\n\n
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...and while doing that, I also noticed a couple things about the different scoring between versions (interpretation mine):
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At the end of the workprint, Deckard notices the origami unicorn and there's the voice-over flashback to Gaff saying, \"It's too bad she won't live! But then again, who does...?\" and it's a hopeful ending...as if to say, \"be that one in a million who really lives\" (I think Gaff really likes Deckard), and the music swells into some strings and twinkly, baby-mobile sparkles as if to reflect that...
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...whereas in the director's cut (and The Final Cut), there's instead some mysterious, depths-of-space Twilight Zone kind of twinkling when Deckard's looking at the unicorn in his hand, as if to say: \"what a twist!\" (I've been gradually watching the first season of the original Star Trek and this seems like the kind of music that would play going into the break at the end of a first act, just as some horrible truth has first been glimpsed). In fact, I am just finding out this new cheeky scoring was even in the theatrical cuts, which don't have the unicorn sequence...meaning Deckard is a replicant in every finished version of Blade Runner.
And secondly (this is more of a visual editing thing): the intro of every version but the workprint - with the shots of the city and fire and the eye - has been cut up a lot compared to the workprint intro and the score fits the editing of the workprint version a lot more closely (in particular, the additional shot with the fast zoom towards the windows on the exterior of the blade runner building feels tacked on - which it is, but I mean re: scoring - while in the workprint the music fades nicely with the camera dropping into the first interior shot). To my ear/eye.
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Anyway, the name Raincatcher Records was made in reference to that line from Blade Runner: \"All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain...\" (I hadn't actually watched the movie in a long time when I came up with it though, just the South Park Return of Covid special that references it...). I originally had a blog of that name up a few years ago in expectation of one day using it as a professional portfolio...but alas. It got to be mostly filler and not a lot of it was worth renewing the domain for. Maybe some highlights will appear here...
![\"Mobile](\"https://dosh.codeberg.page/media/posts/25/gallery/IMG_3290-thumbnail.jpg\")
\n![\"Mobile](\"https://dosh.codeberg.page/media/posts/25/gallery/IMG_3290.jpg\")
\n![\"Galaxybrain](\"https://images.steamusercontent.com/ugc/2500135638368387011/D78C7A0B07B7877232C9BFFCC30C4681076AB169/?imw=5000&imh=5000&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false\")
![\"Storyteller](\"https://dosh.codeberg.page/media/posts/19/gallery/Storyteller-thumbnail-2.jpg\")
![\"Screenshot](\"https://dosh.codeberg.page/media/posts/15/Soul-Plane-Cast-Quote.PNG\")
![\"Screenshot](\"https://dosh.codeberg.page/media/posts/15/Soul-Plane-Top-2.PNG\")
![\"Anywhere](\"https://dosh.codeberg.page/media/posts/13/gallery/Screenshot-2026-05-26-at-5.15.27-PM.png\")
\n![\"Anywhere](\"https://dosh.codeberg.page/media/posts/13/gallery/Screenshot-2026-05-26-at-5.14.06-PM.png\")
\n![\"Anywhere](\"https://dosh.codeberg.page/media/posts/13/gallery/Screenshot-2026-05-26-at-5.15.04-PM.png\")
\n![\"Anywhere](\"https://dosh.codeberg.page/media/posts/13/gallery/Screenshot-2026-05-26-at-5.16.15-PM.png\")
\n![\"Star](\"https://dosh.codeberg.page/media/posts/10/gallery/Star-Wars-Fixture.png\")
\n![\"Star](\"https://dosh.codeberg.page/media/posts/10/gallery/Star-Wars-Fire-Alarm.png\")
\n![\"Star](\"https://dosh.codeberg.page/media/posts/10/Star-Wars-Dinner-Plate-Light.png\")
\n![\"Star](\"https://dosh.codeberg.page/media/posts/10/Star-Wars-Silent-Light.png\")
\n![\"A](\"https://dosh.codeberg.page/media/posts/8/gallery/Blade-Runner-Final-Cut-Credits.png\")
\n![\"A](\"https://dosh.codeberg.page/media/posts/8/gallery/Blade-Runner-Workprint-Credits.png\")
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