ExtraPenguin

Music-wise, my likes include:

• things that have both a melody and a beat
• music that goes and goes hard
• vocalists with big voices
• symphonic metal (e.g. Oryad, Pythia ...)
• power metal (e.g. Battle Beast, Unleash the Archers...)
• dance pop (e.g. Rihanna, Lady Gaga...)
• contraltos
• Eurodance
• instrumental music
• presence of low frequencies (bass guitar, contrabass, deep drums, etc)
• Western orchestral and choral music (e.g. Bach, Beethoven, etc)

Music in languages other than English is welcome, as is music from non-Western musical traditions! I like knowing what they're singing about, so unless it's in English or Finnish, I'd like translated subtitles. If you're wondering "is this music too high-octane/pompous/grand for ExtraPenguin", the answer is no.

I generally don't vibe with folk, ballads, or rap.

In vids, I like women, women doing things, motion and motion matching, "thematic" vids/vids focusing on a theme, lyric matches, "danceability", humor/comedy, and weird/odd stuff. In general, if you're thinking "is this too bonkers for ExtraPenguin?" the answer is no.

I'm not too keen on diegetic audio, especially if it's on top of the lyrics. Het romance does nothing for me.

Babylon 5
I love Susan Ivanova and all her moments of badassery! I also ship her with Talia. "I am the right hand of vengeance, and the boot that is going to kick your sorry ass all the way back to Earth, sweetheart!" -core is gr8, as is Susan/Talia. I also like Lyta Alexander! I like her escaping the Psi Corp and making it on her own in the galaxy.

I also like the whole myth arc/philosophy thing with the elder species and Shadows and Vorlons and such are trying to affect the younger species, and the whole philosophical thing there!

Opt-in: footage from the pilot movie (The Gathering) + all the tie-in movies, as well as Babylon 5: Crusade.

Not into: Garibaldi, Ivanova/Marcus Cole, Talia/Garibaldi

双镜 | Couple of Mirrors
10×45 min, assassin lady trying to be a regular photographer × author lady in an abusive marriage. Yan Wei is my absolute blorbo and I'd love anything with her, whether her relationship with Xu Youyi or something thematic about how she's tried to escape her past but oops she still needs to pull out a gun, or her dealings with the justice system.

Oh and at some point I hallucinated a Yan Wei & Detective Jiang vid that had a song going "she's the one that got away / but maybe that's okay" and recontextualized it into a detective & criminal cat and mouse thing, so if that floats your boat, that as well!

Nirvana in Fire
I love Xia Dong and some sort of Xia Dong tribute would be amazing! I also like her friendship with Mu Nihuang, and if you want to do a Mu Nihuang/Xia Dong vid, I'm all eyes!

I also like the whole justice theme, where esp at the start, MCS was just eliminating corrupt officials left and right, and then the whole justice for Chiyan/Emperor's birthday banquet scene.

Also I like Prince Yu as a tragic figure and 100% here for something wrt him wanting his father's approval, being willing to do anything for it, and then realizing he can never have it, will never be able to have it for reasons he cannot change, and how he's only a tool being used to keep any other princes on their toes.

Yan Que, too – I like his arc of going from bitter widower to taking care of his son and joining the plan of revenge over the Emperor.

And also just a martial arts/battle scene choreography vid would be cool!

Not into: Xiao Jingrui focus, ship vids for F/M or M/M

Nirvana in Fire 2
I love Lin Xie! Would 100% be down for a Lin Xie solo vid. Love her helping the plague/poison victims.

On a more high-concept note, something about the betrayals and hunger for power and treason and idk having to bear the consequences of others' actions. I think Xiao Yuanshi (new baby Emperor) POV would also be interesting in a high-concept way!

And also just a martial arts/battle scene choreography vid would be cool!

Not into: ship vids for F/M

Short films directed by Liu Yunrui
Intro post by douqi, list of asian wlw short films (Ctrl+F for 流云蕊), bilibili, Douqi's YouTube for engsubbed versions (search for Liu Yun Rui).

*tosses spaghetti at wall* There's a lot potential here for a high concept frame story! Maybe it's, like, one of those rapid transmigration stories and the couple/protagonist (there are a bunch starring Sheng Wei and Ai Ye, and also Qi Xiaxia) has to solve the riddles three before acquiring a happy ending? Or they're somehow all in the same universe? Or simply a showcase of women overcoming obstacles and earning their happy endings together!

Long time no see? *g*

Currently doing ficinabox. I have 200 words done; 9800 to go!

I've also been plonking stuff into the Taggle NeoCities over the past few months; as part of trying to set up A World That Makes Sense, I've looked into a variety of anthropological-adjacent stuff so that it hangs together at least somewhat.

Also I'm backing up/publicizing my conlang vocab on Lexiconga. Xaras (Kharas) is done; currently working on Tuhet, which is the prestige language, due to having the largest empire/only actual empire in a land of glorified kingdoms.

I've had thoughts on the writing systems, since next year Taggle will involve fixing the metro, and some flavor images with metro station names might be a cool addition to the lore. Current thoughts are:
Tuhet: cuneiform, logographic; similar form of character formation to Chinese (radical + phonunciation guide), except while Chinese uses the rhyme (everything ending in -aŋ is in the same phonetic series), Tuhet is trochaic and will use the initial part (everything beginning with la- is in the same phonetic series)
Kharas: local cuneiform hiragana-analogue syllabary made from simplifying Tuhet logograms
Chuharah: probably also some cuneiform hiragana; idk if it's the same glyphs as Kharas or different
Rlyat: alphabetic; I'll just appropriate Glagolitic for now ⰓⰎⰋⰀⰕ
Zlas: due to cultural contact with Rlyat, also Glagolitic ⰆⰎⰀⰔ
Eut: I would need some way of indicating tone for any syllabary or alphabet
Fyeriu: due to consonant clusters etc, syllabaries would be hard; would probably steal from Eut or perhaps Tuhet
Vassal: logographs from Tuhet?
various minority tongues: no literary tradition; academics will have some sort of alphabetic pronunciation transcription that I'll represent as IPA

I've also been thinking about not just making the setting Europe 2.0, but it's own thing (despite the quick pitch being "Genghis Khan declares himself Emperor of Rome" – tho given the time depth, more "Attila the Hun declares himself Emperor of Rome"). This'll involve thinking about various local traditions for the summer solstice (most religiously important day of the year for them) and also food. Kharas will have noodles and gooseberry chutney and I need to do some research on what non-stereotypically-European stuff grows in ~France.

All right, I am back in Finland, and so is my stuff! For the forseeable future, my lifestyle will consist of doing laundry (bc bedbugs yay).

My battleship replacement, taggle, is currently in sign-ups! We've already got a hair over 50 people, which means we're going to be able to make teams and run it. Slightly behind schedule on a number of things (my new hobby is moving internationally while in the setup phase of my events), but we're doing it! If interested, go and join the discord (link in the rule post at taggle) or just drop some prompts. Sign-ups will run for at least another 24h, unless we have a huge surge for some reason. (Hard cap 140 people; currently still under 60.)

Also I need to write a bit on vidukon_cardiff, which I experienced online, mostly either on airport wifi or on a train. (Again, my new hobby is moving internationally.) I premiered three vids, one in the Then vs Now vidshow.

Swan Lake is, after the Nutcracker, perhaps the most basic ballet there is. It's considered the peak of classical ballet (note: in ballet, the romantic era comes before the classic, so that while Tchaikovsky is a romantic composer, he is a composer of classic ballets), but I think the part of the reason for its longevity is that it has multiple ending variants, broadly divided into "villain wins" and "lovers prevail".

Short synopsis:

including the prologue!

[Prologue] Princess Odette gets kidnapped by an evil sorcerer, Rothbart, and cursed to become a swan who can only turn human by night. (He has a collection of women he's done this to.) Her mom turns up and cries so much her tears form the titular Swan Lake. Basically no-one performs this part anymore.

The Curse: a prince must publicly proclaim to love Odette and only Odette; if she is betrayed in love, she and all the other swan maidens are condemned to stay swans forever. Allegedly this will also happen if Rothbart dies before the curse is broken.

[Act 1 Scene 1] The production will probably start here, in a palace courtyard. Lots of partying and jolly dancing. Prince Siegfried gets gifted a crossbow. His mom tells him that tomorrow, at his 18th birthday party, he will have to pick a girl to marry.

[Act 1 Scene 2] Siegfried goes hunting! He sees a beautiful swan, who then turns into a beautiful woman. He is awed and they then fall in love. Corps de ballet is the other swan maidens, with divertissements of the four little swans and three large swans.

[Act 2 Scene 1] The birthday party. Lots of dancing in the form of divertissements. Siegfried turns down all the women his mother has thoughfully assembled, to everyone's shock. But then! The party is gatecrashed by a dude and his swan-y daughter, Odile – the black swan. The dude is none other than Rothbart, and Siegfried enspelled to see Odette when he looks at Odile. (In basically every production over, it's the same ballerina; all that changes is the color of the tutu.) Odette tries to fly in the window but is stopped. Siegfried proclaims his undying love to Odile, at which point Rothbart goes lol and draws back the curtains to reveal Odette behind the window, watching all this. Much drama ensues, Siegfried runs off, his mom faints, etc.

[Act 2 Scene 2] Back at the lake, Siegfried searches out Odette amidst the other swan maidens who have now all been condemned to an eternity as swans due to him. They meet and dance together. Then Rothbart shows up, and this is where things get interesting wrt potential ending variants. In a bunch of them, Rothbart takes Odette and she becomes a swan forever, and Siegfried tragically beseeches the audience etc (unless he's danced by Nureyev, in which case he drowns). In others, Rothbart gets defeated either by Siegfried killing him somehow, or simply by the True Love (TM) being so powerful it outpowers the curse; cue happy ending.

The Paris Ballet Theatre put on the happy ending which I believe is most popular in Russia: Siegfried steals one of Rothbart's wings (he is owl-coded), thus depriving him of his powers and defeating him. As usual, I bought the program, and this time they even had DVDs, so I bought one! Next up, buying an external DVD drive so I can rip it...

Dancing: Their principal danseur is very good at projecting this sort of naïve and innocent vibe, which fits Siegfried well. Their prima ballerina worked great as Odette, though Odile could've had a bit of extra spice. The costuming was amazing, with 109887 sequins on everyone, and I appreciated the slightly softer tutus (vs hardcore platter tutus) of the swans.

Also this is basically the Ballets Russes reborn. They dance Vaganova/Russian style, the dancers got their training in places like Armenia and the Komi Republic (in Russia), were soloists in places like the Bolshoi Theater and the Ural Opera (both in Russia), and the maîtrisse de ballet is Belarusian. Also the live music, The Orchestra of Budapest, is basically an international company formed out of almost exclusively Eastern European musicians, with a Belarusian conductor.

Note to self: rows G-P probably the best for seeing stuff, since it's far enough up that you can see the back of the stage/some of what the corps de ballet is doing formation-wise and aren't upskirting everyone nonstop, but close enough you can see expressions.

While I didn't have any song titles in all lowercase, I do have some in all uppercase! All by the same band! So I picked the one with a music video.

a song title that is in all uppercase
Illumishade - ELEGY


These guys are more on the symphonic rock end. Very light and soothing.

Another Side of You by Illumishade came out in Feb 2024.

prompts under the cut

a song you discovered this month
a song that makes you smile
a song that makes you cry
a song that you know all the lyrics of
a song that proves that you have good taste
a song title that is in all lowercase newest release
a song title that is in all uppercase
an underrated song
a song that has three words
a song from your childhood
a song that reminds you of summertime
a song that you feel nostalgic to
the first song that plays on shuffle
a song that someone showed you
a song from a movie soundtrack
a song from a television soundtrack
a song about being 17
a song that reminds you of somebody
a song to drive to
a song with a number in the title
a song that you listen to at 3am in the morning
a song with a long title
a song with a color in the title
a song that gets stuck in your head
a song in a different language
a song that helps you fall asleep at night
a song that describes how you feel right now
a song that you used to hate but love today
a song that you downloaded
a song that you want to share

Today I came across this factsheet on autism comorbidities (sleep issues, hypermobility, cardiovascular, immunology/MCAS, gastrointestinal, long COVID, chronic pain, reproductive, jaw/dental stuff), and a) I really need to get back into the melatonin game for my sleep issues, and b) it turns out that L-theanine ("caffeine of tea") is an analog of glutamate, and can thus be metabolized into GABA, which autistic brains generally have less of. So my tea habit is a medical expense!

(WRT the autism comorbidities mentioned, I def have the sleep issues, bruxism, a food allergy, and I guess some non-hEDS hypermobility? I bruise moderately easily, but my floppy joints are my shoulders, I've never dislocated anything due to good muscle tone, and my fingers and wrists are turbo normal, leading to me never getting over the threshold score in any assessments lol.)

Also I have good news WRT VidUKon: I can't be there in person, but my in-person commitment was altered to be only the Saturday, so I can watch the Sunday programming in peace! This year's themed vidshow is Unfinished Business, with vids for sources that e.g. were cancelled before their time, had a rushed ending, etc. So now I'm trying to think about canons that fit. My little lesbian shampoo commercials etc, short though they may be, don't count imo, as they all tell nice self-contained stories. The Star Wars Sequels, maybe, for Finn, but idek. Does anyone have any canon recs? I am willing to invest max 10h in your science fiction or wuxia that was cancelled (possibly mid-airing) or which has an unsatisfying ending.

For regular premieres, I currently have two finished vids. One is Star Wars Sequels (for my vid album); the other is for the Firebird ballet. I think I'll take a look at the full program and then decide which one I want to be my VidUKon premiere.

Procrastinating on my Tit4Tat assignment and listening to today's new release, Dreamerie by FlowerLeaf. (Kimara, I think you might enjoy The Wake!) But! I have also been reading! ...Dante Alighieri.

This is the 700th anniversary edition, translated by J.G. Nichols. It's ... surprisingly hand-hold-y. Like, each canto is prefaced with a prose explanation of what happens in the canto (spoilers!!!!), and adds footnotes in support of readers who can't count (e.g. "So in the smallest circle, at the centre" is footnoted as "The ninth and last"; Inferno XI) and who can't keep track of pronouns (sooo many occurrences of "Named Person, did this and that, and lo, a slightly long description! Is he¹ still alive?" with a footnote on "'He' refers to Named Person"). Judas Iscariot is given an explanatory footnote. ("Who betrayed Christ") One would think that anyone operating on even a pop culture osmosis level of Christianity would realize that the Judas dude being specially punished in the hell for betrayers is probably the one who betrayed Jesus.

Anyway! I have read Inferno, and just started Purgatorio. The translation is eminently readable, with transparent verse. (I guess I'd hoped for a slightly more showy take to mine for fic titles, but I'm not complaining.) Also Dante and Virgil's relationship, though probably considered normal enough by the standards of the period, comes across as very homo by present ones: Dante is incredibly appreciative of Virgil guiding him through the way, gets carried around by him, and kisses his cheeks with gratefulness on multiple occasions. Not really that many thoughts, but. Reading. Classics. I fully expect to go WTF at Purgatorio and especially Paradisio, because uhhh not a Christian at all lol, but hey, at least I can say I read them.

(Am I radically redefining the definition of Monday? Why yes, yes I am. Any day can be Monday if you believe hard enough!)

Today's challenge was slightly difficult with my commitment to new music – it generally takes time and repetitive exposure to learn all the lyrics – so my options were some songs I'd vidded, basically ... and the one I like the most, I want to use next week! So then I remembered this joyous number about the awe and wonder of childhood, of the thrill of stories, of wanting to be taken for a ride, and realized I do know all of the lyrics, because how could I not? It is perfect.

a song that you know all the lyrics of
Deep Sun - Storyteller


( the lyrics )

prompts under the cut

a song you discovered this month
a song that makes you smile
a song that makes you cry
a song that you know all the lyrics of
a song that proves that you have good taste
a song title that is in all lowercase
a song title that is in all uppercase
an underrated song
a song that has three words
a song from your childhood
a song that reminds you of summertime
a song that you feel nostalgic to
the first song that plays on shuffle
a song that someone showed you
a song from a movie soundtrack
a song from a television soundtrack
a song about being 17
a song that reminds you of somebody
a song to drive to
a song with a number in the title
a song that you listen to at 3am in the morning
a song with a long title
a song with a color in the title
a song that gets stuck in your head
a song in a different language
a song that helps you fall asleep at night
a song that describes how you feel right now
a song that you used to hate but love today
a song that you downloaded
a song that you want to share

Slightly delayed by the fact that I only published 3 vids last year, even if I did finish a fourth and have a fifth only in need of like 10 seconds of clip. Anyway.

...Actually, let me publish the fourth one real quick. I vidded it last summer so I'll have it count here. So! Here's the 2025 published vids:

SW ST: Is There Anybody Out There? vidukon_cardiff
Fox Volant: My Loss ficinabox
Fox Volant: Sister Moon ficinabox
SW ST: Wide Awake
(The unpublished fifth, Free Me, one is also SW ST, and part of my vid album project like the other two.)

( 2025 vid review )

Didn't, like, actually go to the ballet, but I wanted to see the Firebird and uhhhh good luck seeing that outside of Russia. So I turned to YouTube, and found this recording, in all its 360p glory. It's a short ballet, less than 50 min long, and the music is by Stravinsky.



As for who performed it, well, I also found this recording of what looks to be the same production (with more close-ups) that says it's from the Bolshoi Ballet.



This one (same props etc) claims to be Mariinskiy, though. It also has more pixels if you absolutely require 1080p. They made some changes to where the Firebird is during the bit where Ivan is taunting Koschei with the egg which I don't like (in the original, the effect is that she's really enjoying it; the revision, not especially).

Pingu, I do not ballet; plz give synopsis

The Firebird: woman in red
Ivan Tsarevich: dude in red
Tsarevna: of the women in white, the one with the special costume
Koschei the Deathless: evil sorcerer dude with the staff

Ok so. Ivan is a prince, going to this enchanted wood (either to hunt the Firebird, investigate WTF is going on, or just to hunt). There, he sees the Firebird by golden apple tree and manages to capture her. She struggles to free herself, but he prevails. Then he realizes that the Firebird cannot live in captivity, and he sets her free. As thanks, she gives him her feather, with the promise that if he wields it, she will return.

Next it is dusk and thirteen princesses, captives of Koschei the Deathless, come to play with the golden apples of the tree. Ivan enters and has a Moment(TM) with the youngest, Tsarevna; they fall in love. Then trumpets summon the princesses back. Ivan wants to follow but is warned off. (The wall has a bunch of dudes who tried and were turned to stone.)

Of course our heroic prince doesn't care and opens the gates, setting off 198751834 alarms and all of Koschei's demons come at him. He fights some off before being subdued. Koschei himself then appears and tries to turn Ivan into stone. Ivan, in the nick of time, summons the Firebird.

The Firebird knows exactly what to do. She saves Ivan and makes all under Koschei's spell dance until they're exhausted and fall asleep. Then she tells Ivan the key to Koschei's immortality: he has his soul hidden in an egg that is hidden in a box.

Ivan, of course, immediately sets out to get this box. He gets out the egg, waking up Koschei, and taunts him for a moment before making the omlet.

Final scene: the warriors from the wall have been de-petrified, and reunite with their lovers, the twelve princesses. Group wedding! Ivan and the Tsarevna appear and also get married. They open the gates and walk away from the forest.

Anyway! I really like the Infernal Dance section, but also just the Firebird herself. She's sharp and powerful and her language of motion is so completely different from all the "classic" ballet protagonists that I can't help but love her.