Asklemmy

They're Made out of Meat

One of the most eye-opening and clever articles I've read. It's still a good read, but it was totally mind-bending the first time.

Disco Elysium for sure.

Bach's Chaconne from his violin partita in D minor.

It's a song that was written around the time when Bach's wife died, and if you listen hard enough, you can almost hear that it's about her. It sounds like there are two voices, a low voice and high voice, who meet and fall in love with each other, and experience all the highs and lows of life and then are torn away from each other by death in the end. And it's all done with just notes on a violin. And what's more, it was written 300 years ago! It trips me out thinking about how somebody can write something so epic for a single instrument so long ago.

Jacsha Heifetz's version of it is my favorite. Some people don't like how fast he plays it, but he does the ending the best, in my opinion. You can hear the pain and denial and chaos of the two voices trying to enjoy their last moments together and leave nothing unsaid between each other most clearly the way Heifetz plays it.

Itzhak Perlman's version is very good too. He plays at a slower pace than Heifetz, and has a more epic sounding tone. The highs and lows are generally more epic sounding the Heifetz, but I don't quite understand how Perlman plays the ending. I have no doubt that he's trying to tell the same story as Heifetz, but there isn't any of that pain and chaos like Heifetz has. I've seen interviews with Perlman, and he seems like a very happy and well adjusted guy, so maybe that explains why his ending is so different. Maybe that's just how the ending is for happy people like that, and I can't comprehend it.

There are other good renditions to check out too, but Heifetz and Perlman are my favorites. Hillary Hahn and Nathan Milstein are other popular ones. Plus a bunch of others. That's another cool thing about Chaconne. Everybody has their own rendition.

Breath of the Wild. Game just blew me away when I first played it. The Switch was an amazing new console and this open-world adventure with its intricately crafted world was amazing to explore on the go. I couldn't put the Switch down and finished this game way too quickly.

I consumed the last 80ish% of The Martian in one barely interrupted (personally irresponsible) session. It hooked me hard and I couldn't put it down. I've had a fondness for novels written serially ever since.

Games: Outer Wilds and World of Warcraft.

The former because it's an experience unlike anything else I've ever had in gaming, and the story and meaning stays with you for years afterwards (possibly forever, but it's too soon to tell.

The latter because the very idea of being able to really explore Azeroth after years of playing the Warcraft games was the most exciting thing ever, and the moment I first exited the orc starting area and looked at the map and saw how big the world was will never leave me.

Books: The Hobbit. Read it when I was 4, with a not insignificant amount of help from my dad. It was fun, it was thrilling, it was scary, and it kicked off a lifelong love of reading. For an adult it's a very short read that will probably only take a couple days, which is also a big plus.

Honorary mention to Thud! by Terry Pratchett. Really the Discworld series as a whole, but that one particular book is the absolute perfect blend of comedy, social commentary and downright horror. Again, very much stays with you afterwards.

The Lateralus album by Tool. Specifically the songs Parabol and Parabola as they transition. Pure bliss and goosebumps.

Red Dead Redemption 2. I’ve never had a game impact me as much as it did.

One of the first things that popped in my head was this web series called Worm by Wildbow.

There was an epic moment there an Endbringer and Scion that still lives rent free in my mind. I remembered shedding a tear because of how awesome that moment was.

Another was my experience in watching The Disapperance of Haruhi Suzumiya. Right now I don't even know why it was such a great experience but I've been chasing that high ever since.

Reverend Insanity is probably a strong contender. The world building is super well done. The characters actually plot against each other. Not just the protagonist. It feels very lived in.

Princess bride the book. Indigo and fessik backstory. Parentheticals. The author tone and style is so much fun.

Ultima Online. This is the OG MMO. It was the Wild West, it had to make all the mistakes because there was no one else really before them to learn from. It was so new and interesting and was a blast the first few years.

Matilda, both the book and the movie.

The perverts guide to ideology with Slavoj Žižek is a documentary / informational movie I keep going back to. Just makes you think about a lot of stuff in a different way.

Disco Elysium was just mind-blowing good

The Muv-Luv trilogy, or rather Muv-Luv Alternative in particular. I just went into hermit mode for the full 60 or so hours it took me to read/play all of it.

It still has its flaws of course but the worldbuilding and character interactions with such a dark and conpelling but not edgy story are something that nothing else has matched for me.

Dunno if I'm biaised because it's recent, but books :

Foundation cycle from Asimov.(especially the original trilogy). It's SF from 1940's. Yet it holds superbly well , minus the absolute lack of computers. The universe it depicts is absolutely stunning, and some characters (salvor <3) are absolutely amazing.

I haven't read (or to be precise, listened to) the robots cycle, because it's not yet available in french. I did listened to the empire cycle, and it was WAY more underwhelming. Also the two sequels for foundation are just plain bad (but I love the prequels)

Kon Ichikawa's Revenge of a Kabuki Actor reconfigured my entire life trajectory. Ever since watching it for a global film course I've devoted myself to the study of Kabuki theater and gender subversion.

Games mainly, transistor, gris and inmost comes in mind, all of those titles talks about loosing someone or something, diferent points of view of the matter, its like it touches your soul in the process, even if you hadnt suffered the same way.

Songs, i prefer to say the artist, Tash sultana, its music was like catharsis on a gloomy months of my life, lets say it is alternative rock, charged with a bit of sadness but with a special emotional proyection in the vocals that in my case gives me chills.

i have more, but i continue writing later

Whiplash (2014)

The life is strange games. The great storys combined with the superpowers are an absolute blast!