Showing posts with label video. Show all posts
Showing posts with label video. Show all posts

Friday, July 10, 2015

Friday Night Videos: 2,000,000 Other Side fans Can't Be Wrong!

Welcome back to Friday Night Videos!

Tonight we do a little self-celebrating and mark 2,000,000 hits to the Other Side blog.  Yeah I know, a little self-aggrandizing, but hey. I pay the bills here.

I have talked about the history of this place before, so no real need to do that again.  Let's just get to the videos.

I am not 100% sure, but it is likely that the name "The Other Side" came from this Moody Blues song.  I had a newspaper article in my school newspaper back in 86-87 named "The Other Side of Life".  My first web site was then called The Other Side.  Kinda anti-climatic isn't it.  But still I like the Blues and this was a good album for 1986.
Like the song, thought the video was a little lame.




Interestingly enough the next Other Side, my website, came out a little after this Areosmith song did. It was from 1994, the same year I moved to Chicago to work on my Ph.D.




I have been a fan of the Red Hot Chili Peppers since "Mother's Milk".  The Otherside came out at a very, very weird time for me.  I might talk about it sometime. or not. Have not decided yet.




Here is a new one for me. Sirenia.  I know nothing about Norwegian symphonic metal, but I like the sound of this.  It certainly has all the elements of things I like.  This video is kinda cool.




If I had to be honest. Really honest. Well then I would have to stick with the Moody Blues story above.  But I was rewriting my personal story then this is the song that really motivated me to name my lexical outlet to the world then I would have to choose The Doors and "Break on Through (to the Other Side)".  Total cheat on the title too.




Red Sun Rising is another new band for me.  They have this Alice in Chains feel about them that I really enjoy.   I heard this one on the radio the other day when trying to come up with tonight's theme.




Hope you are all with me for the next 1,000,000 hits.

Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Witchcraft Documentaries

A few documentaries up on Youtube.


The Witches
This one is narrated by Leonard Nimoy.   There are some factual errors, but nothing major.




Salem Witch Trials
This one is from the History Channel.



This one covers some similar ground in terms of the Salem Witch trails.

Witchcraft and Magic


Professor Wrightson's Early Modern England: Politics, Religion, and Society under the Tudors and Stuarts (HIST 251) from Open Yale Courses.

Just a few I have had playing in the background while working on other things.

Edited to add:  This one was found by +Joseph Bloch.



Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Harry Potter Videos

Just a little YouTube silliness for a Wednesday afternoon.

Gandalf vs. Dumbledore




Every spell in Harry Potter




I do believe that the Harry Potter books will go down in time as just influential as Lord of the Rings.

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Adult Wednesday Addams taken Offline

Anyone that comes here often knows I am a HUGE fan of +melissahunter's Adult Wednesday Addams videos.

These skits deal with the trials of Wednesday as she struggles to be a single gal in LA.

They are clever, well done and Melissa has Wednesday's sardonic wit down pat.  They were a real gem.
Till last week:


http://newmediarockstars.com/2015/04/adult-wednesday-addams-pulled-from-youtube-over-copyright/

http://www.dailydot.com/entertainment/adult-wednesday-addams-copyright-claim/?tw=dd

Here is the post from Wednesday Melissa herself:
Hi everyone! Thank you for the outpouring of support and concern about the disappearance of Adult Wednesday Addams from the internet. As many of you have seen, the Tee & Charles Addams Foundation flagged the show and, for now, it is off of YouTube. I am working actively on coming to a resolution and will not let Wednesday be caged in internet purgatory. I appreciate your patience and support while I sort this issue out!

Obviously, this is very upsetting that the videos aren't online. Wednesday means so much to me as I know she does to you. Thank you for all of your enthusiasm. Your support every step of the way has meant the world to me.

****UPDATE: At this point, the Tee & Charles Addams Foundation cannot do anything to change the status of this issue, so sending messages and donations will not remedy the situation. If there is anything that can be done in support of the series, I will let you know. Thank you again for everything!****

Full Heart, Dead Eyes, Can't Lose.

xo Melissa

I hope there is a resolution that everyone can agree with.

Friday, March 20, 2015

Friday Night Videos: All Hail Dio!

Welcome once again to Friday Night Videos!

This week I have a special treat. Well at least for me.
Tonight features what must be the quintessential videos and songs of what was known as "Sword and Sorcerery Rock".

And the lord of all of these was none other than Ronnie James Dio!

He fronted Black Sabbath, Rainbow and his own band Dio. He was a rocker and showman and by all accounts a great guy.

So here we have some of his most "D&D" songs ever.  These were huge inspiration to me in the day and then again later one when I was working on newer games.

Man on the Silver Mountain might just be one of the first "Sword and Sorcerery" songs recorded by a "metal" group.  Ritchie Blackmore left Deep Purple and after hearing Dio sing wanted him for his new band, Rainbow.  Of course the reasons Deep Purple had problems continued to plague Rainbow, but not before we got Man on the Silver Mountain.



Dio left Rainbow and about that time Ozzy was kicked out of left Black Sabbath.
Heaven and Hell is considered to be one of the penultimate Dio-fronted Black Sabbath songs.



Black Sabbath and Dio parted ways, but that gave us one of the best 80s metal bands and early darling of MTV's metal playlist.  Many nights when playing D&D we had to stop to watch Holy Diver or The Last in Line.

Rainbow in the Dark became something of a theme during my Buffy playtests.








Friday, March 6, 2015

Friday Night Videos: Guest VJ Elizabeth Chaipraditkul of WITCH

Welcome once again to Friday Night Videos!

Tonight I want to welcome my very first Guest VJ.
Back on the original FNV guest VJs were a staple.  Usually they had something to promote, a new movie or TV show, or they were pop-culture icons.

Tonight I want to welcome my very special guest Elizabeth Chaipraditkul, author and designer of new game WITCH!

I featured WITCH this morning on my Kickstart your weekend post so please check that out.
So without further ado here is Liz!
--

Hi! I am Liz and I was asked by Tim to guest VJ and make a playlist based on my game WITCH and what I listened to while creating it. This was difficult and I spent a lot of time agonizing over my Spotify playlists and YouTube history before I came to this core essence list. I hope you enjoy it.

Florence and the Machine - No Light, No Light


When I need to get in the mood for writing I love listening to beautiful things and for me that is Florence and the Machine. Their lyrics stay with me and make me think. No light, No Light is no exception. It is a simple love song with beautiful lyrics. “You are the night time fear, you are the morning when it’s near, when it’s over you’re the start, you’re my head, you’re my heart.” When creating WITCH, the fluff pieces that are meant to tempt and entice readers, I try to emulate what I feel when I listen to Florence and the Machine

Lana Del Rey - Gods & Monsters



Lana is so apathetic in all her songs, it is brilliant. I am a pretty passionate person, at least I like to think so, and Lana is the perfect Yin to my Yang. Furthermore, the subject matter of her songs is darkly shallow, the perfect mood for a simple noir setting- smoking a cigarette, sipping a martini, and trying to hide the run in your stockings. Lana Del Rey just works for WITCH, she’s mysterious, deceptively shallow, and seductive- just like magic.

Johnny Cash - I Hung My Head



Anything Johnny Cash was the soundtrack to my university years. He is a fantastic storyteller. His voice conveys so much emotion, it’s clear and it’s strong. I try to emulate Johnny when I write and listening to him clears my mind. I Hung My Head is one of my penultimate favourite songs by Mr. Cash, it is a simple story of utter tragedy. It makes me think a lot about WITCH, what would you do if you did something so stupid, what would you give up to get out of a stupid mistake you made?

Stevie NicksEdge of Seventeen



We’re shaped a lot by our parents. I wasn’t the coolest kid in school so, when I wanted to get into music, I asked my mom to buy me “cool” tunes (big mistake). She came back with Fleetwood Mac. While this didn't make me the most popular kid, I am now happy she did. I love Stevie Nicks and she helps me when things just aren't working the way I want in WITCH. Stevie Nicks and Fleetwood Mac are my editing music. They get my head bopping, they allow me to let go of crappy pieces of text I through were brilliant weeks ago, and the help me get work done.

Shireen - Unmarked



Shireen is actually a band who’s lead singer I know pretty well. She’s my friend and her name is Annieke and she has the voice of a siren. Normally, when you meet people and they tell you they have a band you cringe a bit. (Note: This normally has nothing to do with the band and more me just being too judgmental). However, when I heard Shireen I was sold. Their music is amazing and haunting. I ended up listening to this one track so much while working on our Kickstarter Campaign. It’s a perfect song for WITCH (especially if you take the lyrics a bit too literally).

Thank you for listening in with me. I had so much fun compiling this list :).
If you like the playlist and you’re interested in our Kickstarter for the corebook of WITCH, please check it out here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1568822309/witch-a-dark-modern-fantasy-role-play-game

--

Tim here again. Thanks Liz. That's a great playlist.
Are you interested in being a Guest VJ here at Friday Night Videos? Send me an email at timothy.brannan@gmail.com

Saturday, February 21, 2015

Zatannurday: Videos

Been on YouTube a lot lately; listening to music, watching a lot of videos of a lot of topics. It's been fun.

I found a few Zatanna videos out there. If you need some more information on the character then these are worth a watch.  Yeah some are a bit annoying, but hey you get what you pay for.

First up is a nice history of Zee from ItsSuperEffective.




Next is a topic that gets a lot of coverage. Well it does if you are me.
Who would win in a fight, Zatanna or Scarlet Witch?  ComicBookCast2 asks.




I loved seeing all the various Zatanna's on the Animated DC universes.  Here is a nice little guide to all her voice actresses.




I never watched Smallville, save for a couple of episodes, but here is Zee's introduction on that show.




There are some more. But this is a good batch.

Friday, February 20, 2015

Friday Night Videos: Steampunk Videos

Welcome once again to Friday Night Videos!

To celebrate the newest member of the Victorian / Steampunk RPG gaming community I thought some Victorian Chap-hop was in order.

Of course I love Victorian games of all sorts. Just love the time period and the endless possibilities.  You can have adventure, science, magic, occultism, spiritualism and the entire world is both at your fingertips and still large and mysterious at the same time.

So let's open it up with some good old Professor E!

+Professor Elemental donning his Fighting Trousers.




Professor Elemental might be the first name you think of when it comes to Victorian era chap hop but he is not the only one.   So just like Biggie had Tupac, the good Professor has Mr. B the Gentleman Rhymer.





I am not sure how one can describe Abney Park.  They are steampunk yes. But in more of a Forgotten Futures sort of way.  They have their own RPG, Airship Pirates which comes to us from the same people that brought us Victoriana. In fact it even uses the same system as Victoriana 2nd Edition.



+Lindsey Stirling might not be the first name you think of when it comes to Steampunk music, but her Roundtable Rival certainly has the right look and feel to it.  Plus Lindsey has upped her own geek street cred by providing a song for the Dragon Age soundtrack.  So there is that.
So here is the girl that my friend Cal refers to as a "magical musical pixie" or how I think a Ghosts of Albion Occult Musician would look.  Frankly I think she is amazing.



And lastly tonight back to the good Professor to remind us that we can all enjoy different things, but we are all in it together.  One of the reasons why many of us in the Victorian RPG community get along so well with each other.  We all enjoy each other's games and talk about our favorite bits.

Friday, February 6, 2015

Friday Night Videos: Long Distance Requests

Kind of mixing my 80s music mediums here.

I am pleased with the reactions I am getting for this feature.  I have often joked that my Appendix N consists mostly of 80s music and bad sci-fi movies.  I am starting to think I am not the only one!

I want to lead of though with this one.
I finally found a copy of the intro.  Really, could anything be more 80s than this?  The 8-bit sounding sound effects. The neon. The lone rocker dude against the world...yeah.


So here are some requests I have had since starting this.
Have a request?  Send it to me.
Have a long distance dedication for next week, Valentines Day Weekend?  Send that too!

Knightsky requested two songs. First up, Chris de Burgh's Don't Pay the Ferryman.




Next is Murray Head's One Night in Bangkok from the concept album Chess.



Murray Head is also the older brother of Anthony Stewart Head.

Rainswept requested Men Without Hats' Safety Dance.
While the video is more Ren Faire than it is D&D, I do have some good memories of this one and playing D&D as well.





Based on this weeks earlier Sol Invictus post, here is a request. Billy Thorpe's "Children of the Sun"


Might be better for a trippy near future space age game.  Or a 70s fueled psychic game.


Friday, January 30, 2015

Friday Night Videos: Iron Maiden

Ok.
Last week went great.  Had some good hits and some requests.
So lets get back to it.

This week I want to feature a band who I, and many others, consider to be the quintessential Dungeons & Dragons band.

Iron Maiden!

I was introduced to Iron Maiden via my Jr. High School DM.  He was a huge Iron Maiden fan and lived close to the Capitol Records/EMI plant. So we would ride our bikes there and shift through the discarded tapes that would litter the back lot.  We found tons of Kenny Rogers and The Tubes, but finding Iron Maiden was a treat.

He would come up with adventures based on the album covers (at the time he had all five of their first four studio albums and "Maiden Japan") and songs.  Later when we got to High School and a new DM (we both kept on as players) we would work "Eddie" into a our universe as an undying assassin. I don't think we ever came up with stats.    

Somewhere in Time was my favorite album of those days.  So first up is one of my favorites, Wasted Years. This video also features a pictorial history of Eddie up to that point.



"Woe to you, Oh Earth and Sea, for the Devil sends the
beast with wrath, because he knows the time is short...
Let him who hath understanding reckon the number of the
beast for it is a human number, its number is Six hundred and sixty six."

Honestly. Could have anything sounded cooler to a bunch D&D obsessed 13 yearolds with an healthy obsession with the occult?  No. Nothing else was a cool as Iron Maiden's Number of the Beast.



No discussion of Iron Maiden and my early D&D days can happen without at least acknowledging The Trooper. This was my DM's favorite song and the one video we would wait for before playing.



And another great one from the time, Flight of Icarus.



And my first request, from Mercurius Aulicus, Fear of the Dark:



Going through all these videos and memories I realize I have enough for a Part 2!  So look forward to that at some future date.

Have a request?  Hit me up!
Want to be a guest VJ (video jockey for those that don't remember MTV)? Also hit me up!

Monday, January 26, 2015

Listserv - Going, Gone

It was going to happen sooner or later, I have to admit it was much, much later than I ever would have thought.

I just got this email from Wizards of the Coast regarding the listserv emails.

Hello!

On February 15, 2015, Wizards of the Coast will terminate our LISTSERV
system that manages this (and other) mailing lists. We've watched the usage
of these mailing lists dwindle due to the rise of other communication
platforms, such as forums and social media. Given this decreased usage, we
have made the decision that it was time to turn them off.

Please take these two weeks to back up or archive any emails you wish to
keep. After February 15, 2015, they will no longer be available and these
lists will cease to function.

—Wizards of the Coast
So the communication tool that began with MPGN.com (remember that?) and once was the primary voice of TSR (and later WotC) on the internet is now slipping away to join other relics of the 90s tech like the TSR pages on AOL  and Compuserv.

Frankly I am surprised they were still active, though the MYSTARA-L list was pretty much active the entire time I have been on it. That dates back to the early 90s.

So I don't have a good song to toast the life and death of the Listserv, so the Dropkick Murphys will have to do.   Going out in style.



BTW. Anyone know who the girl is this video?  The one in the screen grab above.

Satanic Panic!

I am fascinated with with the Satanic Panic of the early 80s.  Partially because I lived through it but also as someone who isn't religious I found the whole "panic" to be very confusing.
Here is an article that covers part of it.  D&D makes brief cameo.

A Brief History Of "Satanic Panic" In The 1980s

To get an idea of how serious people took this stuff here are a few other posts I made with links to articles and videos.

http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2014/04/a-to-z-of-witches-o.html,  Turmoil in the Toybox videos.
Here is a direct link to the D&D video (starting around 3:30)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWcH7Vd-N_0

http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2014/03/friday-video-satanism-unmasked-dungeons.html
http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2010/02/wait-is-it-1982-again-more-anti-d-crap.html

And a few other videos I have watched, but not otherwise shared.


I LOVE that he used my Mystery Science Theater 3000 version of the cover of Dark Dungeons track.  It is too bad that no more of this series was produced.  I also got a kick out some of the picture of old D&D stuff.  He had another series on his older account. https://www.youtube.com/user/Godlesspanther/videos
The first one is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPMtVjg636E (the production values are a bit low).
There is a playlist by another user of all these videos, warning there is a lot of crazy here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPMtVjg636E&list=PL641BF52EF9FA5963

I have to admit my own (at the time) anti-theism influenced my early D&D games.  So lots of undead, demons and (you guessed it) witches.  An immature reaction? Yeah. of course! But I was a teen at the time; by definition, immature.

It has though been fruitful in one respect, I have a ton of material that I wrote back then that I'd love to pull out sometime.

Thursday, November 20, 2014

Lindsey Stirling - Dragon Age / Occult Violinist

If your Bard is not as cool as this then you are playing her wrong.



I will admit I am a fan of this little pixie.

Of course with the right tinkering in Ghosts of Albion you take the Occult Poet and make an Occult Violinist.




Friday, November 14, 2014

Kickstart Your Weekend: Adult Wednesday Addams

A while back I sang the praises of Melissa Hunter (+melissahunter)  and her web series Adult Wednesday Addams.

Well the for the longest time it looked like 6 episodes was all we were going to get, but now she is back with an Indiegogo campaign to bring us Season 2.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/adult-wednesday-addams-season-2#home



She is already at her goal, but a few more buck wouldn't hurt.  Plus at the bargain price of only $5 Wednesday promises not to kill you.

If you have not checked out the first 6 videos please do so.  Melissa does a FANTASTIC Wednesday. And it is a lot of fun to see her in new situations like Internet dating, one-night stands, part time jobs and looking for an apartment.  Sounds mundane, but not when it is Gomez and Morticia's youngest daughter.


Saturday, October 11, 2014

Zatannurday: Justice League Dark Fanmade Film

I was tooling aroung YouTube this week and found this fun little fan-made movie for Justice League Dark.

I am not a big fan of their Constantine, but Deadman and Zatanna are pretty good.
Check it out.




Zatanna is played by Emily Neves.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Emily-Neves/110873222449325
https://twitter.com/EmilyNeves

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Top 10 Movie Witches

Found this and thought I would share.

The Top 10 Movie Witches.



And of course that lead me to this:

Top 10 TV Witches and Wizards


Not sure if I agree with all these, but they certainly were fun.


Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Building a 5e Warlock

I have been playing around a little (very little really) with the Warlocks in 5e.  My son has made one and I have two that I started but have not gotten back too.

Though I like what I have played with so far.  The 5e Warlock is a nice mix of the 4e Warlock and even a little bit of the 4e Witch.

Concept wise I can build a number of "witch like" characters and can build a number of other sorts of warlocks and witches.  Again, the class is so nicely set-up that their is no real need for me to build a witch for 5e.

I have a couple more experiments with the 5e warlock to try out, but so far so good.

This video came up in my feeds as something that I would like and you know what, I did.
It is too simple for anyone reading this blog, but still a nice walk through.




Thursday, July 3, 2014

Interview / Round table Discussion at Aethercon

Here is a interview / round table discussion I did last month for AetherCon.

We spend a lot of time talking about Strange Brew but we talk for about an hour and half so we hit a lot of topics.



I really should have put a light on. It is kind of hard to see me.

So have a watch! Learn more about Strange Brew.

Thursday, April 10, 2014

This is not the greatest song in the world.

This is just a tribute to the greatest song in the world.


We'er off to the witch. We may never never never come home.
But the magic that we feel is worth a lifetime.

Sorry. But Dio (and Iron Maiden and Black Sabbath) are so much a part of my gaming history I figure a Dio Retro Clone would be appropriate.


Friday, March 14, 2014

Friday Video: Satanism Unmasked Dungeons & Dragons

I am obsessed with the 80s Satanic Panic.  Here is another little turd from that time.

Christians talking about how morally deficient and evil D&D is.

)

Why is that these people get their facts so wrong?
Not just the really wrong shit of satanism in a game, but they can't even get the basic facts right.

...Satanism is not part of Witchcraft and visa versa.
...Those are not the words from "Shout at the Devil"
...NecroNOMicon, not Necro"NOME"icon.
...no suicides due to D&D.
...what the hell is a "training 'prim-er'"?
...interviewing prisoners. Always a good source of "credible" information.

I could go on. But what is the point.  Here is a great podcast from "The Thinking Atheist".

)

And this gem, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jrMoVWl5KA

Ok. How about this.

Shield of Faith
(Basic Era/Labyrinth Lord/Basic Fantasy/S&W)
Level: Cleric 1 to 7
Range: 5' in front of the Cleric
Duration: 1 round per level
By means of this spell the cleric focuses their faith into a tangible shield that will protect them from harm from creatures the cleric can consider "Evil".  Typically this is a creature of Chaotic alignment (or Lawful for a Chaotic cleric) and an "outsider" or supernatural creature. This includes (but not limited to) undead, djinn, effrit, demons, devils and any type of spirit. Sometimes even faerie creatures.
The spell reduces the attacks of these creatures at a number of hp per the spell level.  So a 5th level cleric using a 2nd level Shield of Faith would be able reduce 2 points per attack for 5 rounds.
The cleric must present their holy symbol when casting and they cannot attack.
Material Components: The clerics holy symbol.