[Off-Topic] Community Chat Thread

[Lifeless]

One of my regrets about my young life is that I didn't go to see the concerts I wanted to see out of a combination of laziness, anxiety, and stinginess. Subsequently a large portion of the bands I loved from back when have broken up or literally died rendering it impossible to see them. I have worked hard on recent years to no longer allow these things to pass me by and have been going to 5 or 6 shows a year since 2018 (lockdown year was an exception of course). A couple of my bucket list bands were supposed to come to town together in June of 2020 and they never picked the tour back up. I'm still salty.

[toctheyounger]

I really want to see more of John Carpenter's films, and Event Horizon next. I've also heard really good things about X and Pearl respectively, as well as The Lighthouse, Green Room, the original of Suspiria, and Possession, but all of these I'm having trouble tracking them down through legal sources. I don't like to pirate unless I absolutely have to, but we'll see I guess. I'm less than a week away from baby two, so I'll have considerably less time on my hands shortly anyway

Not sure exactly how well this advice translates to New Zealand but the libraries in my area of the US have an absolutely massive selection of movies and you can order in movies that they don't have. I find them to be an excellent source of media for me.

Definitely worth a look. I've stayed away from libraries for a while as I'm a fantasy guy; there's nothing more infuriating than not being able to find the 3rd of 7 books but all of the others being available, if that makes sense. I'm sure it's probably a lot better with films, which is great for my purposes here but also makes me deeply cynical lol

[RxPhantom]

I used to see a lot of live music before my daughter was born. Now, I think I may be ready for my first post-pandemic* show. One of my favorite bands is coming in support of a new record, and I really want to go.

What band?

Alkaline Trio

I really want to see more of John Carpenter's films, and Event Horizon next. I've also heard really good things about X and Pearl respectively, as well as The Lighthouse, Green Room, the original of Suspiria, and Possession, but all of these I'm having trouble tracking them down through legal sources. I don't like to pirate unless I absolutely have to, but we'll see I guess. I'm less than a week away from baby two, so I'll have considerably less time on my hands shortly anyway

Not sure exactly how well this advice translates to New Zealand but the libraries in my area of the US have an absolutely massive selection of movies and you can order in movies that they don't have. I find them to be an excellent source of media for me.

I have really reignited my love of reading and thus the library this year. They have all kinds of media and other services; it's kind of mind-blowing. I may host a community Commander event there.

[cheonice]

The library in my town exploded with creativity. They have a so-call3d library of things, where you can get nearly everything, a wide range of board games and video games, seeds and crops, 3D printers and VR. It's amazing!

[materpillar]

Definitely worth a look. I've stayed away from libraries for a while as I'm a fantasy guy; there's nothing more infuriating than not being able to find the 3rd of 7 books but all of the others being available, if that makes sense. I'm sure it's probably a lot better with films, which is great for my purposes here but also makes me deeply cynical lol

The library in my town exploded with creativity. They have a so-call3d library of things, where you can get nearly everything, a wide range of board games and video games, seeds and crops, 3D printers and VR. It's amazing!

Again this will probably depend wildly on your location but my library has an online catalog where you can just search to see if they have the book/media you want. If they don't they can often borrow it from another nearby library in the area if it exists. This should solve your particular flavor of annoyance because you could just check if the library has the entire series. My library also has a phone app where I can directly download audio books onto my phone. All of this without setting foot directly in the library.

Another nearby library in my district has a small 3D printer that is super cheap to use. I've been printing small cosplay pieces from for a few years. There's also piles of video games and board games (not that I use that service particularly).

TLDR; libraries are flippin awesome

[Lifeless]

Alkaline Trio

I got to see them open for Coheed and Cambria in 2022 and they were great live. You should go, you'll have a blast.

On the library topic my Mom loves our local libraries for physical books but also their app where you can check out digital books, music, and movies as well. The library is such an underappreciated resource in most communities.

[cheonice]

Definitely worth a look. I've stayed away from libraries for a while as I'm a fantasy guy; there's nothing more infuriating than not being able to find the 3rd of 7 books but all of the others being available, if that makes sense. I'm sure it's probably a lot better with films, which is great for my purposes here but also makes me deeply cynical lol

The library in my town exploded with creativity. They have a so-call3d library of things, where you can get nearly everything, a wide range of board games and video games, seeds and crops, 3D printers and VR. It's amazing!

Again this will probably depend wildly on your location but my library has an online catalog where you can just search to see if they have the book/media you want. If they don't they can often borrow it from another nearby library in the area if it exists. This should solve your particular flavor of annoyance because you could just check if the library has the entire series. My library also has a phone app where I can directly download audio books onto my phone. All of this without setting foot directly in the library.

Another nearby library in my district has a small 3D printer that is super cheap to use. I've been printing small cosplay pieces from for a few years. There's also piles of video games and board games (not that I use that service particularly).

TLDR; libraries are flippin awesome

That's so great! Mine even has a streaming service for movies!
You could look for the libraries of universities, too. Often they are free to visit or you can get a guest card. Their media selection is huge, sometimes even outside of scientific works.

[RxPhantom]

Alkaline Trio

I got to see them open for Coheed and Cambria in 2022 and they were great live. You should go, you'll have a blast.

On the library topic my Mom loves our local libraries for physical books but also their app where you can check out digital books, music, and movies as well. The library is such an underappreciated resource in most communities.

I"ve caught them a few times and they were great. I haven't seen them since This Addiction, so I'm long overdue.

Tangentially related, Matt Skiba's stint with Blink-182 really frustrated me. Of course A3 is one of my favorite bands ever, but I also did some growing up with Blink-182. With their untitled album, I felt that we kind of became adults together. That album was mature and experimental, with no potty humor. They even had Robert Smith on it! Then the band imploded, released a meh album a few years later, and fast forward to the announcement that Skiba would be joining. I thought it was going to be so awesome. If they continued their creative trajectory with Skiba in the fold, it should've been unbelievably killer. Then it wasn't. Further compounding the weird disappointment was Alkaline Trio releasing one of their best albums in between two duds from Blink. Now Blink is back with Tom and a bland, lame new album that fans are calling amazing. Hearing a new Trio song kind of set things right, in a way.

I hope people were ready for a mini-treatise on my pop-punk ruminations.

[RxPhantom]

Definitely worth a look. I've stayed away from libraries for a while as I'm a fantasy guy; there's nothing more infuriating than not being able to find the 3rd of 7 books but all of the others being available, if that makes sense. I'm sure it's probably a lot better with films, which is great for my purposes here but also makes me deeply cynical lol

I don't know how things work where you are, but if my local library doesn't have something, they transfer it from another library in the county, or the state if necessary.

[Dunadain]

Libraries are awesome

[Hermes_]

Libraries are awesome

Only if they are vashta nerada free.

[toctheyounger]

It's been a long long time since I engaged with libraries, and some of these advancements do sound amazing. For the longest time I worked for a major book retailer and it was logistically just a ton easier to buy what I wanted with discount. But it might be worth a look these days, sounds like there's lots of scope for it to be a resource that should be utilised by more.

I doubt we have the scope that libraries in the states have if I'm honest. I know they do a ton of cultural stuff around the wider community, with like Te Reo Maori classes and cultural outreach events, which is awesome, I'd really like to learn Te Reo anyway. But I'd be very skeptical as to whether our local libraries would have the funding for 3d printing and such. That said there probably is a good chance that they have some of the films I'm wanting to see.

[toctheyounger]

One of my regrets about my young life is that I didn't go to see the concerts I wanted to see out of a combination of laziness, anxiety, and stinginess. Subsequently a large portion of the bands I loved from back when have broken up or literally died rendering it impossible to see them. I have worked hard on recent years to no longer allow these things to pass me by and have been going to 5 or 6 shows a year since 2018 (lockdown year was an exception of course). A couple of my bucket list bands were supposed to come to town together in June of 2020 and they never picked the tour back up. I'm still salty.

My biggest live concert regret is not seeing probably my favorite heavy metal band, Pantera, when they last toured New Zealand back in 1997 thereabouts. I was very young, probably 15, and as a 5'1" teenager I had the feeling I would be absolutely decimated in the crowds. I was probably right, but given that the Abbott brothers have now both left us I still regret not going. The remainder of the band are now touring again with new bandmates who are lifelong friends, which is a nice tribute, and they sound great, but I still would've liked to see the original lineup. There's a fairly good chance the new lineup don't tour here anyway, so I might well miss out again.

I also missed Primus the year they played Big Day Out, a now defunct summer music festival, as well as Fantomas, who played their entire Director's Cut album back to back (I think it might've been the same year Primus played). Neither band is likely to come back in my estimation.

I've seen a ton of live music from across the board, but these are all definite regrets to have missed.

[RxPhantom]

One of my regrets about my young life is that I didn't go to see the concerts I wanted to see out of a combination of laziness, anxiety, and stinginess. Subsequently a large portion of the bands I loved from back when have broken up or literally died rendering it impossible to see them. I have worked hard on recent years to no longer allow these things to pass me by and have been going to 5 or 6 shows a year since 2018 (lockdown year was an exception of course). A couple of my bucket list bands were supposed to come to town together in June of 2020 and they never picked the tour back up. I'm still salty.

Lots of bands are touring again now, so keep your ear to the ground!

Some of my favorite memories are at shows. My first show ever was a massive radio festival and my friend passed out halfway through the second band (which was Lit, if you're curious). We didn't realize how quickly we would dehydrate. Some people we had been talking to before the show helped carry she and I over the barricade to get her some help. Then there was the time seeing Billy Talent where I almost killed someone by pushing them back into the pit into someone's flailing elbow. At two separate shows (Korn and N.E.R.D.) I ended up 'rescuing' girls from the pit. Another time, I showed up super early to a Goldfinger show, so they let me come back stage while they set up.

And these are just bonus memories on top of some really kickass shows.

[toctheyounger]

Lots of bands are touring again now, so keep your ear to the ground!

Some of my favorite memories are at shows. My first show ever was a massive radio festival and my friend passed out halfway through the second band (which was Lit, if you're curious). We didn't realize how quickly we would dehydrate. Some people we had been talking to before the show helped carry she and I over the barricade to get her some help. Then there was the time seeing Billy Talent where I almost killed someone by pushing them back into the pit into someone's flailing elbow. At two separate shows (Korn and N.E.R.D.) I ended up 'rescuing' girls from the pit. Another time, I showed up super early to a Goldfinger show, so they let me come back stage while they set up.

And these are just bonus memories on top of some really kickass shows.

It'd be cool to see Billy Talent, they're not that well known here, but they're a cool band. I've done a lot of these too; the dehydration one is scary, you really don't realise how much in danger you are given the sheer throngs of people around you. It's very overwhelming.

My more memorable ones are getting to meet Disturbed backstage in something like 2003. A female friend of mine came pretty close to going back to their hotel room, I think she made the right call though. One time at a Fear Factory concert in 2001 someone threw a steel chair from the balcony overhead into the mosh pit below, and it literally hit the guy standing right next to me. He did not miss a beat, just kept on moshing. What an animal. I saw Tool in the very first show on their 10,000 days tour. First one in something like 6 years, packed to the rafters, Danny Carey freshly back from recuperated a torn bicep, and they absolutely slapped. I saw System of a Down twice, and they had crowd tramplings both times.

The big nostalgic one was seeing The Mars Volta in 2005 at the Big Day Out. My good friend and I had a boogie in the mosh pit just as the sun was going down, and once we'd had enough we just wandered to the back of the field and did some....uh....imbibing, just chilled and watched an afro-cuban prog rock punk band do their wild rituals on stage. A friend of ours wanders up out of nowhere, didn't know he was there, wasn't expecting him. He chilled with us, chatted a bit, smoked a little and then made his way off. About 3 years later another friend of mine calls me to say this guy was found dead in a hotel room in Cambodia, apparently some underlying heart condition. Turns out to be the last time I ever spoke to him. It was a cool experience that became bittersweet over time.

[ISBPathfinder]

Tonight, my 3 year old decided that the Resolve foaming carpet cleaner looked like marshmallow and sprayed it in her mouth. That was a fun trip to the ER... (she is fine)

[duducrash]

Tonight, my 3 year old decided that the Resolve foaming carpet cleaner looked like marshmallow and sprayed it in her mouth. That was a fun trip to the ER... (she is fine)

Once when I was like 5, I tried to eat a rat poison thing that looked like a mentos candy. My mom gets anxiety attacks from this story 25 years later

On other news, new lurrus general just dropped

[TheAmericanSpirit]

Tonight, my 3 year old decided that the Resolve foaming carpet cleaner looked like marshmallow and sprayed it in her mouth. That was a fun trip to the ER... (she is fine)

It happens to the best of us. When I was 2 I ate some of my grandmother's heart medication because they looked like Tic Tacs and had to get my stomach pumped.

C'est la vie, sometimes you gamble and sometimes you lose. It's all part of growing up.

[cheonice]

On other news, new lurrus general just dropped

Been there, done that. The excitement is there, but in the end these builds are always kinda trashy, aren't they? Would have been great, if they hadn't nerfed the companions.

[Dunadain]

The best lurris deck in EDH is with lurris as the commander unfortunately.

[Ruiner]

I definitely recommend going to any concert you are remotely interested in whenever you get a chance. I haven't been to any in a few years (pre-pandemic i went fairly often), need to get back in the swing of it.

Some of my favorite concert memories have been:

Ruiner's final show ever (well, they've since sporadically played a few) at Sonar in Baltimore. They're from Baltimore and for a supposed final show the crowd was nuts. Seven other bands played including Pianos Become The Teeth, Defeater, and Killing The Dream. Crowd was (rightfully) insane during Killing The Dream's set, at one point the stage was full of crowd members and people started crowd surfing on the stage, it was crazy. Ruiner played last of course, and killed it.

Satyricon on their "Age of Nero" tour. It was the middle of December and starting to snow before doors opened, so my friends and I were in line in our jeans and T-shirts shivering. Satyricon played a bunch of my favorites including "Repined Bastard Nation" and "Mother North". The drive home was awful with all the snow but so worth it. Great show and I don't think they've toured the USA, at least in my area, ever since then so I'm glad I had the opportunity.

Got to see Every Time I Die quite a few times, they always put on a heck of a show. One tour their singer had to drop out due to a family emergency, but the band continued the tour. In some towns the crowd took turns on vocals and others they had other band's singers step up. I got to see them on that tour with the singer of Let Live on vocals, a once in a lifetime experience.

August Burns Red played a number of Christmas Carol's when I saw them one time, which was super fun.

GWAR, Every Time I Die, Ghoul was a hell of a show. Ghoul had a great low budget stage show, had a witch doctor that sprayed fake blood on the crowd and some janky robot costumed people fighting. Every Time I Die was solid as always, but they never have any props or costumes so they stood out. The GWAR was absolutely ridiculous in the best way. GWAR is awful musically but their stage show is super entertaining.

[duducrash]

The best lurris deck in EDH is with lurris as the commander unfortunately.

while true, I think the cool thing about companions in EDH is not the power increase they bring to a deck, but the fun of the restrictions

[TheGildedGoose]

Echoing Truth is the most underplayed card in the format. No, I will not elaborate.

[kirkusjones]

Echoing Truth is the most underplayed card in the format. No, I will not elaborate.

Why not?

[Toshi]

Echoing Truth is the most underplayed card in the format.

It certainly should be up there with Sudden Spoiling and Polymorphist's Jest for me.

All three have absurd potential! Especially Echoing Truth in times of Treasures and others.

Honorable mention Mystic Reflection for being hilarious in the right situations.