Editor’s Note

Maya

A couple of weekends ago it was so hot,
people started fighting in public pools.

It suddenly made sense why the Montagues and Capulets lost their heads.
The sun was merciless. Tempers ran high. A plague on both your houses.

With such heat, it made sense that Ancient Rome apparently allowed for Extremely Hot Weather to be an acceptable legal excuse for (very) bad behavior.

In any case: it was hot.
It was fabulous.

The moment it cooled down to acceptable Central European temperatures again, I and many others were saddened, but people were melting in their offices, so maybe the hot weather should wait till August.

Either way, this is a short one since it’s acceptably warm, meaning you should be out and about doing outside summery things, not reading things unless it’s something frivolous on a lush terrace or a lovely beach. Which is why this edition is all about audio: songs and talks and podcasts.

Go out, put your headphones on, listen and bask in the sun.
Enjoy!

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Freedom

This song has been slipping in and out of the air waves for a while now. The interesting part is when this song is played, and by whom – from giant telecommunications companies ad-cycles to sophisticated cultural programmes. The juxtaposition between the use of the song as a sound base and the actual content of the song is often striking. Here’s the song. When listening, what do you immediately associate with it? And how much does that association really have to do with Freedom?

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Winner Takes All

1. And it came to pass that a man of speech and words took up his staff and arose and walked into the great lions’ den. 2. And in this den of lions, who among great cats were the greatest of all cats, there arose no murmur. 3. And in this den, the man of speech did stand and he did speak to the cats of their meat and of their hunt and of all their many ways. 4. And the man of speech stood beside the greatest of the great cats, deep within the lions’ den, and behold, the man of speech was not devoured; for the greatest of cats and their kindred, they did listen. 5. And after a roar and a flash of great teeth, yea, the great cats they were persuaded; and the words the man of speech had spoken were known for all to see. 6. And after many days, there was yet no wailing and no gnashing of teeth.

In other words, kudos to Anand Ghiridaradas for going full Nike.
I don’t know how many would actually
Just do it.

 

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Déjà-vu. Sort of.

Anyone remember Garbage?
The band not the people.

Anyone remember that attitude? Yes?

Then this little song might be something for you.

Tonally it is very different, yes, and I might be wrong, but Bad Guy has a bit of a late-stage-capitalism Supervixen to it. (And yes, my dearest youths, this is way late to the hype. Also, really, who cares?)

Enjoy. Or something.

 

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Deep!

There are fans.
And then there’s Binge Mode.

Warning: Binge Mode is an acquired taste, so proceed with caution.
Also, Binge Mode definitely contains adult content.

 

I came across Binge Mode by chance.
Browsing podcasts at the time, many moons ago, there was a lot of Game of Thrones fan-madness in the fiction/film sections. What made me look into this particular podcast series is that, not only did the casters not disappear into Westeros never to be seen again, but there were casts on Billions, Westworld, and incredibly, a full roster of Harry Potter episodes as well.

Really? How’d that work out, or so I asked naïvely. Billions is worthy of a good binge-watch podcast, as is Westworld, and Game of Thrones is all death and madness anyway, so why Harry Potter?

Well. Because HP is death and madness as well. Just PG rated.
And Binge Mode knows that. They also obliterated the PG-rating in their deeeeep analysis… Yes, shake your head.

I was skeptical, but also interested, and so took an audio-peek into one of the HP podcasts just to be sure this wasn’t some bogus joke-site. Turns out, it was genuine. And I actually learnt something about the septology I hadn’t considered before, which was a pleasant surprise. It took a while until I got used to Mallory Rubin and Jason Concepcion’s podcast-style though, so really, Binge Mode is an acquired taste.

Listening to the explicit fanpeopling (fansobbing, fanyelling) of the two casters actually helped me not only appreciate J. K. Rowling’s storytelling skills more, but also the utter darkness of the whole story, not to mention just how messed up the HP wizarding world really is. Or as both casters point out often: “Why are there still free Malfoys? How? How is that even possible?”

Most will probably be way more interested in the episode by episode, season by season analysis of Game of Thrones. Which is… Something Else. It’s a rare pleasure to witness humans absolutely and unabashedly adore a story, and Rubin and Concepcion really truly o b s e s s about Game of Thrones. So, if you are still enraged by Season 8 and need some way to deal with your anger/sorrow; or if you want to understand just why The Rains of Castamere can make GoT fans weep; or maybe you just want to dig deeper into every single bloody detail of the House of Stark vs. Everybody Else – if any or all of that is you, Binge Mode just might be the right thing for you.

Really, there are fans. And there’s Binge Mode.
You have been warned.

Binge Mode: BELLS!

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In Brief

We hope you enjoyed our sixteenth edition. Twelve Ten, No. 17 will be published on
12 October 2019.
We are sad to say that submissions are currently closed. We are unfortunately unable to take on any new manuscripts at present.
Even so: Don’t give up. Keep on writing!
Once submissions are open again, we will be very glad to hear from you.
Your von reuth Team

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