Ahoy Mateys! It is time for the 5th #letswriteamystery thread, Nancy Drew and the Curse of the Arctic Star, an adaption of the ND Diaries. If you are not familiar with these collaborative mysteries, I write a basic story and post chapters every Monday, each chapter has a poll at the end and you just comment if you want A, B, or C. You could even write in your own option if you feel like it. You have all week to vote, and then whatever option gets the most is used in the story! For the sake of clarity, I will post this week's chapter, and last weeks chapter in case you missed it. There are usually about 10 chapters total, so buckle up for a couple months of fun. Let's set sail on adventure!
NDARCTICSTAR #Titanic
“Dear Hannah,
Thanks to a client of my father, Becca White, my friends and I are off on a transatlantic journey of a lifetime! She works for Arctic Star Line, owned by an eccentric billionaire named Clive Parker whose passion project is finally coming to fruition, a full scale replica of the Titanic. Her maiden voyage is the most exclusive cruise in the world, and will have all sorts of famous celebrities and important people in attendance as we sail across the Atlantic, from New York City to Southampton and Belfast. Guests can dine on items from the original menu, enjoy a 5-piece band performing the set list of the doomed musicians before them, and sail to the site where so many souls were lost for a tasteful ceremony, hopefully returning unscathed to the Titanic’s port of origin. Becca assures me it has fully modern safety measures in place and there will be no iceberg. But it hasn’t been all smooth sailing, after a series of mishaps that have delayed the launch for several years, Becca is worried something very real is cursing this ship, and has asked my friends and I to go undercover and make sure nothing happens on her maiden voyage. Will she be doomed to the depths, like her namesake? Or sail off into the horizon, unscathed? Off I go, on an adventure through time. Bon voyage!
🚢🚢🚢 🌅🌅🌅 🧊🧊🧊

Went to a place the other day and every roll seemed to have “imitation crab” as an ingredient… so I ordered a “soft shell crab” roll so that I knew if I was going to get crab it would be real…
Well they definitely served real crab alright… and atop it? A giant pile of that fake crab krap.
I don’t remember seeing fake crab, imitation crab, “krab”, surimi, or any variation on ANY sushi in Japan, not once. Yet I look at the highest rated sushi places on yelp (southern CA) and fake crab is on everything… including glopped on top of REAL CRAB…
I honestly hope for nothing but bad things for whoever is responsible for this even existing, whether the first person to do it or just the strip-mall-sushi restaurant owners who see it and go “well that looks cheap, let’s add it to every single item we serve!”
I also don’t see the appeal. If I took someone’s favorite sushi roll, say a tuna roll, and “deconstructed it”, you would have a nori sheet, a good portion of rice, and sashimi grade tuna with some avocado and cucumber garnishing it… most people would love to have that! But if I deconstruct your “California roll” (the name says it all I suppose), then you’re left with a pile of rice and a ladle full of that goopy white and red slime called “krab”. Are you REALLY going to enjoy that? Okie dokie, bon appétit 👌

With the new PTS having dropped this weekend, I decided to try it out after hearing news that Moji would be one of the Champions looking towards massive changes to her Abilities, her Talents and her Cards as well.
Having played Moji ever since her release back in OB65, I was curious to see how much different she'd play as a Support role instead of a Flank class, and if I can be honest? There are some negatives, but after spending the last two days having played her in a couple matches, the positives are starting to outweigh the negatives! However, I'd like to use this post as a means of expressing my thoughts on the new changes, alongside a few ideas on how to change certain aspects of her new kit as well. Let's begin!

SKILLS

SPIT (MOUSE 1)
Spit is still part of her base kit and has received a straight buff to her base damage of 500 per shot, from 300 w/o a Mark on an enemy. It also saw a steady increase from .7 seconds to .85 seconds per shot, meaning she will fire a bit slower. It's a fair trade-off, since Support units aren't meant to be entirely offensive unless needed, but with the increase to her base damage, I see it as a beneficial change than a detriment. On the other hand...
SPARKLE (MOUSE 2)
Once known as Familiar Spray, Sparkle is a - for lack of better words - familiar attack that no longer applies Magic Marks to enemy players, but to allies! Sparkle is limited by a consumption bar that runs out once the bar is entirely depleted, and regenerates over a few seconds. The Magic Marks can still be used up by firing a Spit that will instantly heal affected ally players for 500 and for an additional 450 health over 4s if a full 10 stacks (aka, a full Magic Mark) is detonated.
Sparkle can also be used as an additional attack but it only damages for 15 health per 0.08s and no longer applies Magic Marks that can detonate and damage enemy players. I've seen a lot of benefits from using Sparkle as a healing option, especially when the whole team is crowded next to each other so as to save the hassle of waiting for the bar to refill once again. However, using it as an offensive option is no longer viable, and is a terrible habit for me to get rid of - but, I am learning to! All in all, I think the change to Spray is one that's more than welcomed.
MAGIC SHIELD (ABILITY 1)
Once known as Magic Barrier, the Magic Shield is an altered version of the Barrier that once was. Instead of granting instant invulnerability to all forms of damage, crowd control and various effects, it grants both Moji and any allies she's within near distance of a shield that instantly grants 100 Shield health and then 400 more over Magic Shield's duration. After having tried this new change in various matches, I see this as a massive nerf to her survival options.
For one, Magic Barrier was one of Moji's best options for prolonged survival in matches due to its 100% invincibility & invulnerability effects, whether she had to escape a 1vX or cancel out the effects of certain attacks like Jenos' Void Grip or Ash's Shield Bash.
And two, the new Shield change can very easily be negated with either enough damage dealt, or just an easy purchase of Wrecker 1, rendering Magic Shield completely useless after the first round. Personally, I'd like to see this change either reworked into something else or reverted back to old Magic Barrier. Otherwise, her only survival option is Scamper, which I will get into next.
SCAMPER (ABILITY 2)
Scamper is the same old Scamper, but with a massive change! The ability now runs infinitely instead of stopping after a few seconds of dashing, rendering this as one of her best escape options if she happens to be stranded alone after a near team-wipe. There's not much else I can say about this change, other than that it's an amazing change to her kit, and one I think will benefit me and the handful of other Moji mains who remain in the game.
Her Ultimate, Bon Appetit, remains much the same. With her class change to Support, this may be more useful for taking down difficult enemies who pursue her rather than focusing the Ultimate on Front Line or difficult Support players.

TALENTS

Next, I'd like to move onto the changes to Moji's Talents! Two of them saw complete reworks, while one saw a name change and a slight buff. Let's start in order of which these talents are unlocked, starting with...
SPIT SHINE (TALENT 1)
Spit Shine is a brand-new Talent that serves as a replacement to her old base Talent, Snack Attack.
Snack Attack, the old Talent, used to drop health packs that can be picked up by Moji or her allies that instantly heal for 900 health, granted that Moji either kills or eliminates an enemy.
Spit Shine, the new Talent, now heals any ally she fires it at for 250 health per shot on top of any Magic Marks she applies as well, also granting same ally with a short 20% speed buff for 2s with no cooldown, meaning the speed buff can run indefinitely unless Moji stops firing.
I have noted positive effects with this Talent, particularly in the early game where it is more effective. It can be an effective enough Talent with a well-coordinated team, but eventually does become weaker later into the game. Rejuvenate and cards for certain Champions can help alleviate the negative effects of Anti-Healing in the game, but only for so much.
JUBILATION (TALENT 2)
Jubilation is a brand-new Talent that serves as a replacement for the Tier 2 Talent, Boom Boom.
Boom Boom, the old Talent, had the ability to share the damage dealt related to the old Magic Marks mechanic. For example, if an enemy has a full Magic Mark, and two other enemies are standing nearby that enemy, the Marked enemy receives 1000 damage after the Mark is detonated and the nearby enemies receive 75% of that damage, which would be 750 damage per nearby enemy.
Jubilation, the new Talent, has a much more different effect. Using Sparkle no longer slows Moji while she's using it and sees a slight increase to the damage dealt per tick, from 15 damage to 35 damage per 0.08s.
Honestly, this Talent is... something. It's certainly something. Unfortunately, it's not a very good something, and I think this could use a drastic change before this ever goes live, because this Talent is not going to be used at all. If it means anything, the Talent could easily be changed to something that changes her play style, whether it's relative to her Magic Shield ability or reverting her to her classic play style of being able to apply Magic Marks to enemies for extra damage again.
Either option would make her far more versatile than whatever the aim was for Jubilation in its current state. TLDR; Jubilation is trash.
REALM RUNNER (TALENT 3)
Realm Runner, once known as Toot, practically works exactly the same as it once did, with the slight change of the healing cloud now lasting for 4s rather than its initial 3. It still activates in the place where you start your Scamper. Not much to say, though the one-second buff is a nice touch!
Other than Jubilation, the other two Talents are good and great in their current states, and I think they'll see some use between the few players that happen to pick Moji up in the near future!

CARDS

Lastly, I'd like to discuss both all the current Cards and the changes made to certain Cards for this update. I have some positives, some negatives and suggestions to share.
WEAPON / ARMOR CARDS
FLUFFY Perfect as is, I see no reason to change this card whatsoever. It's the backbone to many of Moji's builds, whether Level 1 or higher.
SYMBIOTIC A change to this card was made. Old Symbiotic made it so that Moji would receive a higher percentage of healing, starting from 7% at Level 1 and capping at 35% at Level 5, after falling below 50% health. New Symbiotic now increases her Sparkle consumption meter by a certain percentage, starting at 6% on Level 1 and capping at 30% on Level 5. Another good change, one that can also be utilized in a lot of her builds.
PEPPY A change to this card was made. Old Peppy used to grant Moji a cooldown decrease to her Abilities with every Kill or Elimination she deals, starting from 10% at Level 1 to 50% at Level 5. New Peppy now generates a percentage of Ultimate charge for every Kill or Elimination, starting from 0.4% at Level 1 and capping at 2% at Level 5. A mixed change in my eyes, but I can see some people utilizing this for anti-Front Line or Flank builds.
WILL-O-THE-WISP No changes to this card, though it is now niche at best, considering Moji's new infinite-duration Scamper.
SPIT CARDS
DENSE WOODS No changes to the card, good as is.
GREATER GOOD A change to this card was made. Old Greater Good used to grant lifesteal against enemies with maximum Magic Marks, starting from 6% at Level 1 and capping at 30% at Level 5. New Greater Good now grants allies a miniature Shield after detonating a maximum Magic Mark, starting from 20 Shield health at Level 1 and capping at 100 Shield health at Level 5.
Personally, a very niche change. I can't see much a use for this card at all, especially as this can be negated with chip damage or Wrecker 1. If I could suggest a change for this card, it would either be a card that slightly increases the damage of her Spit or a card that helps regenerate her Sparkle energy with each glob of Spit she lands on an enemy.
MORNING BREATH A change to this card was made. Old Morning Breath used to increase Moji's speed for 4s after applying a full Mark to an unmarked enemy, starting from 5% at Level 1 and capping at 25% at Level 5. New Morning Breath now slows any affected enemy hit with Sparkle for .5 seconds, the slow effects starting from 5% at Level 1 and capping at 25% at Level 5. A really good change, in my opinion! This card can be very effective when it comes to dealing with difficult Flanks or Damage Champions.
NATURE'S BLESSING A change to this card was made. Old Nature's Blessing used to generate Ultimate charge to each enemy who is applied a new Magic Mark, the charge starting from 0.4% at Level 1 and capping at 2% at Level 5 - this card's effects are now reserved for the new Peppy, if you may have noticed. But, the new Peppy utilizes with charges per Kill/Elimination instead of Magic Marks.
The New Nature's Blessing now grants allies a movement speed bonus for 3s after being healed with Sparkle, starting from 5% at Level 1 and capping at 25% at Level 5. This card could see some use for those who would like to utilize it, but personally I think this is a bit of a niche card. It may have its uses though, I could be wrong!
SCAMPER CARDS
BOOP No changes to this card were made, which is a shame considering the change to Moji's Scamper. With Scamper now running indefinitely until cancelled, this card is entirely useless and should see a revision before this update is pushed to live servers. If I can suggest an idea for this card, it can be something that reduces or negates crowd control effects during the first 2 or 3 seconds after starting Scamper, which can make it so that escaping from difficult situations are made easier for Moji. Or it could become the old Scoot, which reduces the cooldown of Scamper.
SCOOT A change to this card was made. Old Scoot used to decrease the cooldown of Moji's Scamper, starting from .4s at Level 1 and capping at 2s at Level 5. New Scoot now reduces the damage received while using Scamper, starting from 4% at Level 1 and capping at 20% at Level 5 - a slight nerf from what was the old version of Wobbles at 8% (Level 1) AND 40% (Level 5), which we will get to later. However, this is a good change overall! Although it would've been preferable to have the cooldown effect be shifted to another card, rather than removed entirely.
SCURRY A change to this card was made. Old Scurry used to only heal Moji whilst using old Scamper, starting from 100 health at Level 1 and capping at 500 health at Level 5. New Scurry now heals Moji a certain amount of health indefinitely whilst using new Scamper, starting from 20 health per .3s at Level 1, and capping at 100 health per .3s at Level 5. An incredibly good change, one that Moji will massively benefit from if she is not targeted and tagged by Anti-Heal shots from enemy units.
WOBBLES A change to this card was made. Old Wobbles used to grant Moji damage reduction while using Scamper, the effects now shifted to the new Scoot at a lesser percentage. New Wobbles now grants Moji reduction to the effects of Slowness, starting from 10% at Level 1 and capping at 50% at Level 5. A decent change, although Slow itself isn't as crucial a crowd control effect as the others present in the game, it can prove useful in some occasions. Some, but not all - thus, really only a situational card.
MAGIC SHIELD CARDS
COZY A change to this card was made. The old Cozy used to grant Moji a healing over time bonus while the old Magic Barrier is active, from 50 health per second at Level 1 to 250 health per second at Level 5. Now, the new Cozy heals any nearby allies for a much smaller health bonus, from 6 health every .25 seconds at Level 1 to 30 health every .25 seconds at Level 5.
Personally, not a big fan of this change, especially since it can be easily overshadowed by healing others with Sparkle instead or using a combination of Sparkle and Spit Shine. If anything, if Magic Shield isn't changed once this update goes live, it can at least buff the Shield's health over the duration of the ability instead. Otherwise, if Magic Shield does get reverted back into Magic Barrier, the old Cozy is more than welcome to return.
GLIMMER A change to this card was made. Old Glimmer used to give Moji a speed boost for 2s if her Barrier is hit during its use, from 10% at Level 1 to 50% at Level 5. New Glimmer now grants a cooldown reduction to Magic Shield if she detonates a maximum Magic Mark on an ally, from .2s at Level 1, capping at 1s at Level 5. Not that great of a change, though someone can probably find a way to utilize this, if there is a way to.
HARMONIOUS A change to this card was made. Old Harmonious used to reduce the damage Moji receives immediately after Magic Barrier ends, starting from 3% at Level 1 and capping at 15% at Level 5. New Harmonious now regenerates Sparkle energy for Moji and replenishes ammo for any allies affected by her Magic Shield, Sparkle energy regeneration starting at 3% at Level 1 and capping at 7% at Level 5.
Honestly, a really good change that helps replenish Moji's Sparkle energy whilst giving two mini-buffs to her allies while in the midst of battle. It can be better utilized for her healing potential, in my opinion.
SHIMMERING A change to this card was made. God, I cannot say this enough, can I?
Old Shimmering used to reduce the cooldown of Magic Barrier, starting from .5 seconds at Level 1 and capping at 2.5 seconds at Level 5. New Shimmering now grants any allies affected by Magic Shield an additional crowd control reduction bonus for 4 seconds, starting from 3% reduction at Level 1 and capping at 15% at Level 5. While this does seem like a good change, I haven't had enough play time with this card specifically to tell if the change is good. However, a small percentage to crowd control can easily pair up with other cards or the Unbound item in the in-game shop - or at least, that's what my hope is.

SUMMARY

After having spent time playing on the PTS, I think I can agree with a good number of the changes applied to Moji while she makes her great leap from Flank to Support. Although I do believe there are a number of other things to change about her to turn my favorite leipori into a great Support hybrid, the decisions are all left up to Evil Mojo as to what makes it into the live servers and what does.
Hopefully, some of the developers will take some time from their busy days or days-off to read through some of the suggestions I put forth and consider them or any other alternatives for the near future. Otherwise, I think the changes to Moji's kit are good, and will admittedly take some time for me to get used to. I'm incredibly used to playing Moji as an offense character, but I will do what I can to get myself used to playing her as a supportive character for the team.
If anyone would like to talk about any ideas relating to Moji's new abilities, cards and talents, I'm more than welcome to discuss! Thank you for bothering to read this entire thread. Normally, I don't make posts this long but, this is about a character I'm truly passionate with maining, and am happy to see she's finally receiving some long overdue reworks.

Saturday, May 04 - Friday, May 10, 2024

Top 60s

score	comments	title & link	mirrors
44	3 comments	[1965] The Yardbirds - Heart Full Of Soul	[Sp] [AM] [BC] [Dzr] [SC]
29	9 comments	[60s] Van Morrison - Sweet Thing	[AM] [BC] [Dzr] [SC]
28	3 comments	[1968] Steve Miller Band-Living In The U.S.A.
15	1 comments	[60s] The Mamas & The Papas - California Dreamin' (Official HD Video)	[Sp] [BC] [Dzr] [SC]
13	1 comments	[1963] Frank Zappa teaches Steve Allen to play The Bicycle (1963)

 

Top 70s

score	comments	title & link	mirrors
617	79 comments	[70s] Debbie Harry, 1970s
548	33 comments	[70s] Bill Ward turns 76 today. Happy Birthday to this legend!
422	48 comments	[1974] On May 9th, 1974, Bonnie Raitt played two shows at Harvard Square Theatre in Cambridge, Mass.; opening act was 25 year old Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. Rolling Stone critic John Landau saw Springsteen and wrote 'I have seen rock & roll's future and his name is Bruce Springsteen'.
314	65 comments	[70s] Yes, Peter Frampton and Gary Wright played at JFK Stadium, Philadelphia, PA. June 12, 1976. “The Spirit of Summer ‘76”. An estimated 120,000 fans attended the show. Tickets were $10.00
203	27 comments	[1972] The Rolling Stones - Dead Flowers (Live in Texas 1972)	[Sp] [AM] [Dzr] [SC]

 

Top 80s

score	comments	title & link	mirrors
146	69 comments	[80s] Bruce Springsteen to play extraordinary three-hour set in Ireland this month
52	52 comments	[1981] Help me find something like Tom Sawyer by Rush
48	6 comments	[80s] The Traveling Wilburys - End Of The Line (Official Video)c	[Sp] [AM] [Dzr] [SC]
41	10 comments	[1982] Huey Lewis And The News - Workin' For A Livin' (1982)	[Sp] [Dzr] [SC]
28	4 comments	[1986] Inxs-Good Times ( Featuring Jimmy Barnes ).

 

Top Remaining

score	comments	title & link	mirrors
1,767	275 comments	Keith Richards and Mick Jagger at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas on Halloween Night, 1981. Does this seem rather... dangerous?
468	50 comments	Bon Scott stands above the crowd during a free AC/DC concert in Victoria Park, 1975
327	50 comments	Alice on the cover of Rolling Stone May 10, 1973. 51 years ago today.
253	29 comments	Stephen Stills performs 4 + 20 on the Dick Cavett Show the day after Woodstock, August 18 1969
240	78 comments	The night Christopher Cross filled in for Ritchie Blackmore in Deep Purple

 

Top 5 Most Commented

score	comments	title & link	mirrors
153	337 comments	[70s] What is the ultimate "old man yells at cloud" classic rock song?
120	317 comments	To those of you over 65 (like me), what were your first 45s and albums? Do you still have them?
82	285 comments	Who was the band that invented the genre Arena Rock (A.K.A. Corporate Rock)?
46	217 comments	Favorite classic rock love song?
39	198 comments	Roger Waters versus David gilmour

 

There is an essay by "raver anthropologist" Simon Reynolds that has become a kind of cult thing amongst Hardcore Techno aficionados. It got published in The Wire in 1998; it turned into a cult object not only because it was one of the rare cases where Hardcore music was mentioned in a bigger zine during the late 90s (as opposed to the many badly xeroxed Hardcore-fanzines, with a run of ~50 copies, of which most were destined to end up on soaked squat party toilet room floors), but because it also focused on a very specific person: Marc Acardipane, his releases, and his label family. [1]
In it, he called Marc "the forgotten man of Techno", and followed up with the reasons for that: even though he was right there at the proper beginning of "Techno", was hugely influential, and good friends with many people that are now considered to be true pioneers and legends by vox populi, he fell out of favor when Hardcore itself fell out of favor amongst the Techno folk; because he stayed true to his "core roots" and didn't disown them, like so many other producers did on their way up to the place amongst the stars (and on their way down to the sewers again).
But let's move on from Simon, The Wire, and the year 1998. What happened after that date? First, Marc itself was pulled out from the "shadow zones"; because at least the Hardcore and Gabber scene finally remembered its Techno roots, and kept worshiping those roots again; although under different monikers, such as "oldschool", "oldstyle", "early rave", and so on - I guess "the names have been changed to protect the innocent". This meant that "Technoid Hardcore" could be enjoyed at Hardcore parties and festivals once more (often on separate floors), which led to a lot of gigs and exposure for Marc and his Planet Core Productions sound. [Note: PCP aka Planet Core Productions was a label family run by Marc Acardipane and Thorsten Lambart in the 90s.] It also influenced the Hardcore scene as a whole. A succession of genres such as "newstyle", "millennium" and "mainstyle" came into existence; genres that to 98% were built upon PCP and PCP-adjacent tracks: "Stereo Murder" (produced by Acardipane), "Atmos-Fear" (produced by Acardipane), "Poltergeist" (released on his label), "Flesh is the Fever" (released on Things To Come Records, a label with personal ties to PCP and that was inspired by PCP), plus various others.
This was already a good thing. But then, slowly but steadily, the Techno folk re-gained their interest in Hardcore and harder sounds, too; and now that the "millennial dominance" of the Techno scene, together with their favoring of minimalist and dandy-esque sounds, is slowly fading away, a younger generation is taking over the scene, and that new generation is very, very hardcore.
This led to a renewed interest in the works of Marc Acardipane, his crew, and his output again, coming straight from the heart of the Techno world. Marc himself acknowledged this development in some of his interviews, and added that the Techno people are sometimes even more zealous and knowledgeable about this music than the die-hard old-school gabbers!
A very fine evolution indeed; and we hope Marc gets into the spotlight again because of this, and that he finally reaps the respect that he deserves!
But why is the Techno folk favoring him and his sound specifically - in fact, more than a lot of other "Hardcore" players? I think this is because - and now we cycle back to 1998's "The Wire" essay - his sound is *indeed* heavily connected to Techno. It's not just some ultra-aggressive, ultra-noisy Gabber outing. It's real, true, bona fide Techno music. More than that, it represents a "road not taken" in the history of Techno music. Because, when you go back to the advent of Techno, to Detroit, Chicago, Berlin, London, Frankfurt, there was always a Hardcore contingent. Hardcore was always part of the Techno spirit, it helped to shape and mold the Techno sound. Alas, as mentioned above, it got disowned, and it became almost "forbidden" to speak of this type of music within Techno circles.
A liminal space that always lingered next to the scene as time moved on; a place that people did not dare to enter.
All this is changing now again. And while "every boy and his dog" (i.e. zines, webcasts, music academies) had their own Marc Acardipane feature by now, focusing on his more Hardcore and Gabber output, we decided to do the very opposite here, and showcase the Techno tracks from the past days of the PCP oeuvre, released using a cornucopia of aliases.
Bon appetit!
Oh, and by the way: we very dearly love "I like it loud", too!
(This list is in no particular order)
1. The Mover - Over Land and Sea how can one not love this track? great techno beats, rhythms, groove... and then this cosmic, celestial arrangement in the middle... the beats come back in, and the dancefloor erupts into madness. the flip side ("underwater operations") is also very well worth a listen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuYMsR1Cae8
2. Cyborg Unknown - The Year 2001 (Deep in Detroit mix) this is going deep into the history of detroit techno indeed. it's not enough to be friends of the jaguar here, this track channels cybotron just as much as it does metroplex. funky!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2q4v8_YxbE
3. Trip Commando - Cross The White Line a techno behemoth of the most epic proportions. has probably one of the most elongated build ups in dance history, until the epic cinematic breakdown unfolds. highly recommended!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGWv1e2hBZk
4. Turbulence - Whurlstorm this was on the second release by Industrial Strength Records - a label that shaped Hardcore history, too. it starts as a nice little nasty techno track, until everything breaks apart in the mid-riff, and turns into a hurricane of bass frequncies.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sngue8baqPs
5. The Mover - Nightflight (Nonstop 2 Kaos) and this was on Industrial Strengh Records number one! As Lenny Dee licensed "We Have Arrived" (a fantastic hardcore track, to say the least) for his label, and put that number on the back side. a cold groove, percussion that almost feels like a breakbeat... lots of bass, cyber-synth.... this is just dancefloor heaven.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snnHspK1QYI
6. Countdown Part V - Untitled (A1) Countdown FFM is another sub-label to go for if one is looking for some technoid gems. stellar electronic intro, then we get into dance grooves, and things become more deviant as acid sounds sneak in.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfIL6OCtN3o
7. Alien Christ - Of Suns and Moons (Phase II) inspired by "Suburban Knights - The Art of Stalking" (a true classic, originally released on Transmat). Marc made this influence his own, and delivered a very detroit-ish underground rave anthem.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGmmDrQTyyY
8. The Mover & Lunatic Asylum – Frequency Surfers Lunatic Asylum aka "Dr. Macabre" is another person that was entwined with electronic music history while turning into a global player in the hardcore sector at a later date. this is a joint-venture of these two titans of techno, and the result is a very trippy, very twisted and surreal track.
(Cannot be found on youtube, but here are audio previews: https://www.toolboxrecords.com/en/product/17643/techno-hardtechno/dance-ecstasy-2025/ )
9. The Mover - Astral Demons (Original Mix) you should have realized by now: the mover is a synonym for high quality productions. this is one of my favorite pics from the legendary "frontal sickness" releases; and indeed adds a very demonic vibe to the whole dance thing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSMT2KdQt5Q
10. Rave Creator - A New Mind (Thai Acid Mix) "Thai" was a pcp sub that focused specifically on techno, acid, even a bit of trance-ish tracks. despite the alias, this was put out on DE 2001 instead. It's a remix of the famous "A New Mind" track.
starting with pure bass drones. it builds up very slowly, until thunderous, reverberated bass drums come in, and then it goes into full-on acid feeding. similar to "cross the white line", this track could be given the title "cinematic techno soundtrack".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGpuMbLicZU
Honorable Mentions:
T-Bone Castro - Return 2 Planet E Reincarnated Regulator - Italian Stallion Craig Tayaffo - Reduction (Back For Acid-The Expanded 0,25 Hrs Mix) Barracuda - Braineaters Two Tonys - Organ Bitch Nasty Django - Ey Loco Cold Rush Records Frontal Sickness 1+2 Reincarnated Regulator - Mindeater Climax - Relax Nasty Django - 3 P Rules! SexDrive Entertainment - No.2 T-Bone Castro / Ace The Space - Ace In The Hole Project Æ - Whales Alive Ultra Spaceman - Ultra-Style
Footnotes: 1: The original Wire essay - http://reynoldsretro.blogspot.com/2015/03/marc-acardipane-mover-pcp-dance-ecstasy.html

It's time! Congratulations to our Banana Buddha for her absolute slayage of the season, the finale, and nearly the entirety of this poll!
Category Is: Ultimate Season 16 Favorite - 1,724 Votes

• 1st Place - Episode 3: Nymphia Wind, Call Me MotheFather Eleganza - 44.8% (773 votes)
  
• 2nd Place - Episode 15: Nymphia Wind, Top 3 Couture - 13.3% (230 votes)
  
• 3rd Place - Episode 8: Nymphia Wind, Dancing Queen - 12.8% (221 votes)
  
• 4th Place - Episode 7: Sapphira Cristal, I Can Buy Myself Flowers - 5.5% (94 votes)
  
• 5th Place - Episode 5: Nymphia Wind, Faster Pussycat, Wig! Wig! - 3.9% (67 votes)
  
• 6th Place - Episode 16: Nymphia Wind, Finale Eleganza (Top 3) - 2.6% (44 votes)
  
• 7th Place - Episode 10: Sapphira Cristal, True Colors - 2.1% (36 votes)
  
• 8th Place - Episode 9: Nymphia Wind, See You Next Wednesday - 1.8% (31 votes)
  
• 9th Place TIE - Episode 2: Nymphia Wind, Entrance Look & Episode 4: Plane Jane, Everything Every-Cher All At Once - 1.7% each (29 votes each)
  
• 11th Place - Episode 16: Nymphia Wind, Top 2/Crowning Couture - 1.6% (27 votes)
  
• 12th Place - Episode 11: Nymphia Wind, Flashback! DragCon 1980 - 1.5% (26 votes)
  
• 13th Place - Episode 12: Nymphia Wind, Chain Reaction - 1.2% (21 votes)
  
• 14th Place - Episode 3: Q, Mother Goose - 1.0% (17 votes)
  
• 15th Place - Episode 6: Q, In the Dollhouse - 0.9% (16 votes)
  
• 16th Place TIE - Episode 3: Q, Significant Mother & Episode 16: Plasma, Finale Eleganza (Returning Queens) - 0.8% each (13 votes each)
  
• 18th Place - Episode 16: Nymphia Wind, Top 3 Performance Look - 0.6% (10 votes)
  
• 19th Place - Episode 1: Q, RuVeal Yourself - 0.5% (9 votes)
  
• 20th Place TIE - Episode 1: Dawn, Entrance Look, Episode 2: Nymphia Wind, Made Ya Look!, & Episode 15: Mirage, LaLaPaRuZa Realness - 0.3% each (5 votes each)
  
• 23rd Place - Episode 14: Nymphia Wind, Fan-dango - 0.1% (2 votes)
  
• 24th Place - Episode 13: Nymphia Wind, Vegas Dancer Makeovers - 0.1% (1 vote)
  

Ultimate Favorite Lip-Sync: Season 16

• 1st Place - Episode 16: Nymphia Wind vs. Sapphira Cristal, "Padam Padam" - 32.8% (566 votes)
  
• 2nd Place - Episode 12: Morphine Love Dion vs. Dawn, "Body" - 18.3% (315 votes)
  
• 3rd Place - Episode 15: Morphine Love Dion vs. Megami, "Everybody Dance Now" - 14.4% (248 votes)
  
• 4th Place - Episode 11: Morphine Love Dion vs. Mhi'ya Iman Le'Paige, "Dim All the Lights" - 8.5% (146 votes)
  
• 5th Place - Episode 15: Morphine Love Dion vs. Mirage, "This Time I Know It's For Real" - 5.8% (100 votes)
  
• 6th Place - Episode 15: Morphine Love Dion vs. Geneva Karr, "Million Dollar Baby" - 4.2% (72 votes)
  
• 7th Place - Episode 15: Megami vs. Mhi'ya Iman Le'Paige, "We Got the Beat" - 4.1% (70 votes)
  
• 8th Place - Episode 9: Mhi'ya Iman Le'Paige vs. Plasma, "Bloody Mary (TikTok Version)" - 3.1% (53 votes)
  
• 9th Place - Episode 15: Mirage vs. Hershii Licquor-Jete, "Alone 2.0" - 1.9% (33 votes)
  
• 10th Place - Episode 8: Morphine Love Dion vs. Xunami Muse, "I Wanna Dance with Somebody" - 1.7% (29 votes)
  
• 11th Place - Episode 1: Sapphira Cristal vs. Q, "Break My Soul" - 1.2% (20 votes)
  
• 12th Place - Episode 2: Plane Jane vs. Geneva Karr, "Shower" - 0.9% (15 votes)
  
• 13th Place - Episode 15: Megami vs. Amanda Tori Meating, "Shoop Shoop Song" - 0.8% (14 votes)
  
• 14th Place - Episode 7: Mhi'ya Iman Le'Paige vs. Megami, "Flowers" - 0.6% (10 votes)
  
• 15th Place - Episode 10: Sapphira Cristal vs. Morphine Love Dion, "Made You Look" - 0.5% (8 votes)
  
• 16th Place - Episode 6: Mhi'ya Iman Le'Paige vs. Geneva Karr, "Control" - 0.3% (6 votes)
  
• 17th Place TIE - Episode 4: Geneva Karr vs. Mirage, "Dark Lady" & Episode 14: Plane Jane vs. Q, "Better Be Good to Me" - 0.3% each (5 votes each)
  
• 19th Place - Episode 13: Sapphira Cristal vs. Morphine Love Dion, "Miss Me More" - 0.2% (4 votes)
  
• 20th Place - Episode 15: Megami vs. Q, "What About" - 0.2% (3 votes)
  
• 21st Place TIE - Episode 3: Geneva Karr vs. Hershii Licquor-Jete, "Maybe You're the Problem" & Episode 15: Mhi'ya Iman Le'Paige vs. Plasma vs. Xunami Muse, "Milkshake" - 0.1% each (1 vote each)
  
• Last Place TIE - Episode 5: Q vs. Amanda Tori Meating, "Emergency" & Episode 15: Amanda Tori Meating vs. Dawn, "Damaged" - 0.0% each (0 votes each)
  

Ultimate Favorites Of All Time

Season	Ultimate Favorite Look	Ultimate Favorite Lip-Sync
Season 1	Nina Flowers' Drag on a Dime	Ongina vs. Bebe Zahara Benet, "Stronger"
Season 2	Raven's Top 3 Eleganza	Jujubee vs. Sahara Davenport, "Black Velvet"
Season 3	Manila Luzon's Pineapple Couture	Manila Luzon vs. Delta Work, "MacArthur Park"
Season 4	Sharon Needles' Post-Apocalyptic Couture	Dida Ritz vs. The Princess, "This Will Be (An Everlasting Love)"
All Stars 1	Raven's "Bad Girl Chic"	Jujubee vs. Raven, "Dancing On My Own"
Season 5	Detox's Black & White Finale Look	Coco Montrese vs. Alyssa Edwards, "Cold Hearted"
Season 6	Trinity K. Bonet's "Animal Kingdom Couture"	Adore Delano vs. Trinity K. Bonet, "Vibeology"
Season 7	Violet Chachki's Top 3 Crowning Look	Kennedy Davenport vs. Katya, "Roar"
Season 8	Kim Chi's "That's My Mama Realness"	Chi Chi DeVayne vs. Thorgy Thor, "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going"
All Stars 2	Katya's "Pants! Pants I Say!" Look	Alyssa Edwards vs. Tatianna, "Shut Up And Drive"
Season 9	Sasha Velour's Crowning/Finale Lip-Sync Look	Sasha Velour vs. Shea Couleé, "So Emotional"
All Stars 3	Trixie Mattel's "Red For Filth" Look	BenDeLaCreme vs. Aja, "Anaconda"
Season 10	Aquaria's "Mermaid Fantasy" Look	Monét X Change vs. Dusty Ray Bottoms, "Pound The Alarm"
All Stars 4	Manila Luzon's Eleguence After Dark	Naomi Smalls vs. Gia Gunn, "Adrenaline"
Season 11	Yvie Oddly's Crowning/Finale Lip-Sync Look	Brooke Lynn Hytes vs. Yvie Oddly, "Sorry Not Sorry"
Season 1 (UK)	Divina De Campo's Day At The Races Eleganza	Blu Hydrangea vs. Cheryl Hole, "Call My Name"
Season 12	Crystal Methyd's Superfan Makeover	Gigi Goode vs. Widow Von'Du, "Starships"
All Stars 5	Jujubee's Top 3 All Stars Eleganza	India Ferrah vs. Yvie Oddly, "Livin’ la Vida Loca”
Season 1 (Canada)	Priyanka's Top 3 Coronation Eleganza	Priyanka vs. Kiara, "I Drove All Night"
Season 2 (UK)	Bimini Bon Boulash's PreHERstoric Eleganza	Tayce vs. Cherry Valentine, "Memory"
Season 13	Utica's Sleeping Bag Ball Eleganza	Denali vs. Kahmora Hall, "100% Pure Love"
Season 1 (España)	Hugáceo Crujiente's Best Drag Eleganza	Carmen Farala vs. Killer Queen vs. Sagittaria, "La gata bajo la lluvia"
Season 1 (Down Under)	Art Simone's Sea Sickening Eleganza	Maxi Shield vs. Etcetera Etcetera, "Absolutely Everybody"
All Stars 6	A'keria C. Davenport's "The Frill of It All" Eleganza	Trinity K. Bonet vs. Laganja Estranja, "Physical"
Season 3 (UK)	Krystal Versace's "Oh My Goddess" Couture	Vanity Milan vs. Scarlett Harlett, "Scandalous"
Season 14	Willow Pill's "Spring Has Sprung" Couture	Lady Camden vs. Daya Betty, "One Way or Another"
All Stars 7	Raja's "She Done Already Had Herses" Finale Eleganza	Monét X Change vs. Jinkx Monsoon, "The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia" (Spoken Word)
Season 15	Anetra's Crystallized Eleganza	Anetra vs. Marcia Marcia Marcia, "Boss Bitch"
All Stars 8	Jimbo's "Net Gala" Couture	Aja vs. Kahanna Montrese, "Freakum Dress"
Season 16	Nymphia Wind's "Call Me MotheFather Eleganza"	Nymphia Wind vs. Sapphira Cristal, "Padam Padam"

Look forward to our All Stars 9 polls! :)

10,000 Stolen Days

May 10, 2024 marked exactly 10,000 days since Sophie’s life was taken. 10,000 days which had they not been stolen from her in December 1996, must have seemed to be filled with possibility .1996 had been a banner year, she had achieved so much in the previous 6 months, setting up her production company "Les Champs Blancs", and producing three different productions, with more on the way. But it had been exhausting few months with all this work and travel, and although Christmas is a holiday, it is not always a relaxing one.
Christmas had often been a difficult time for Sophie. She walked out her first husband Pierre Jean at Christmas 1981, so suddenly, she left her infant son behind and had to steal him back with a ruse involving a relative. She broke up with Bruno Carbonnet over Christmas in 1993. leaving him a puzzling note;
“Je suis partie là où tu n'a jamais été, là où tu n'iras jamais".
“I have left there where you have never been, there where you will never go”. This didn’t make much sense to Bruno. He waited alone for two weeks in the apartment hoping she would return, he a had bought a bicycle for Pierre Louis for Christmas. In January he left to teach in Le Harve and when he returned the locks had been changed and all his stuff was on the landing. Sophie was deliberate about change in her life she didn't just let things happen to her. Her agenda year planners reflect this. She was meticulous in recording meetings, calls, contact details and travel plans. She brought 1995, 1996 & 1997 year planners with her. There are notes and reminders stretching into February 1997. She even tore off the little perforated corners as each week passed. It's a poignant reminder of how abruptly her life was cut off in full flow - the week beginning 23/12/1996 still has its corner intact.
Sophie’s style was austere, almost minimalist. Her cottage was painted white inside and out, with a except for the ground floor, which was black slate with a shiny varnish. The only decorations were a few sprigs of holly placed by the housekeeper to welcome her. A traditional Christmas week filled with loud music, tinsel and overconsumption was the diametric opposite of her character.
Worse there is the prospect having to trade pleasantries with tiresome relatives.
That Christmas Daniel had decided for the first time to have a big family Christmas inviting his extended aristocratic family to his chateau in Ambax in the South of France. For Sophie, who even after six years of marriage barely knew Daniel’s relatives, this was an easy choice and a hard no.
She bought her ticket on the morning of her travel planning to spend nearly a week in Ireland including Christmas Day and return on the 26^th. It may be that this was the only return flight she could get at the time. Or it may be, as she told her aunt Madame Opalka “she was going to go to Ireland to spend Christmas there, because the house in Ambax was full of people”. From what Daniel has said, and from what others have said, it may be he tried to persuade her to come to Ambax for Christmas and convinced her. Sometime during the weekend she got an itinerary by fax at the cottage confirming her flight back on the 24^th. But even on Sunday afternoon she told friends she had not made up her mind which flight she would take.
It is difficult to say how well their marriage was going at that time because the reports vary. Daniel said it was "harmonius and peaceful" which was far from accurate. There are several biographies of Daniel Toscan du Plantier, and they paint a vivid picture of a man who though incomparably charming, lived his life his own way without much concern for his family. He married four times and in three cases his wives were already pregnant before they got married. When he married Sophie, his eldest son and daughter were not even told about it, they only found out later in the summer when Sophie turned up at events.
Some witnesses including Daniel said was it was the happiest period, others say she was basically “an official wife” and that “their open marriage was an open secret”. The truth was probably somewhere in between. She had visited Ambax in November and collaborated closely on the documentary Europa 101 with Daniel. Whatever their personal arrangement, Daniel was deeply affected by her death, even though he refused to come to Ireland. His daughter Ariane wrote how she spent months taking care of him, feeding him sedatives and sleeping pills. He was clearly overwhelmed, so Sophie must have been more than an "official wife" to him. Was their marriage "open"? They clearly had a high degree of independence from each and had affairs in the past.
Nevertheless, Sophie may have balked at spending Christmas in Ambax. For one thing, it was far away from Paris, where her friends and family lived. For another, Daniel’s family and entourage knew very little about her. Apart from his second son Carlo, who was friends with her son Pierre Louis and some servants, she would have been on her own. Christmas in Paris would have been tolerable, she could escape and visit her parents and friends whenever she wanted, but in Ambax, she would be cooped up with nowhere else to go.
There is a question of whether Daniel was having an affair at the time. According to a Garda memo, French journalist Caroline Mangez said that Daniel was with a female film producer. However the files are full of unsubstantiated rumours and lies. Even if he wasn’t having an affair Sophie may have suspected he was. If Daniel had invited a mistress, or even a former mistress, or a former wife to Ambax, it would be unbearably awkward for Sophie. Daniel had uncountable affairs, and many of his mistresses knew each other, some remained on good terms.
Daniel may have been faithful at that time, perhaps he was telling the truth when he said their marriage was harmonius, but in any case Sophie had other reasons to skip Christmas. She had wanted to come to Dunmanus for months, but work got in the way. The heating had just been fixed and she needed to pay the plumber and her housekeeper. They preferred cash.
And if Daniel was unhappy that she wasn’t going to be there for Christmas, they were going on holiday together in the New Year to Dakar, Senegal. It would be much easier for Sophie to be with Daniel by himself than his whole family. This trip to Ireland would be a breather for her. She didn’t want to be alone, she asked at least 8 different people to accompany her, including 2 former intimate partners, though there is no evidence that she was having an affair or intended to have an affair.
There is a post-it note with a message in Sophie's hand seemingly inviting someone to spend Christmas: "Je vous laisse le choix : venir ou de refuser histoire que vous passiez un bon noel"
"I leave you the choice: come or refuse just so you have a good Christmas"
Whoever that note was written to, it was to someone she addressed as "vous" so not one of her closest friends or family.

Work

If she had another relationship, it is not obvious from her diary and it was unknown to her friends. What her diary does show though is that she had thrown herself into work.
Apart from her agenda she kept a working notebook, a red hardback book which is filled with a tantalizing mash of different references to famous works of art, music, and contacts details of artists and philosophers. She had recently completed work on three different films. The first work was a documentary on African Art. The next was Europa 101, a documentary written by Daniel showcasing the wealth of European cinema. This was Daniel’s pet project, he loathed US cinema and the dominance of Hollywood. He once likened his wife’s death to a “bad movie”. His life’s work was a “struggle against cheap portrayals of violence, which is what leads to deaths like this” (Irish Independent 12/07/1998). This project involved gathering interviews and footage from dozens of famous directors and actors, including John Malkovich, Ingmar Berman, Pedro Almodovar, Werner Herzog, Nanni Moretti, Jean Luc Godard and many others. It was broadcast on December 8, 1996.
The third was an art house movie called “He sees folds everywhere”, a concept movie exploring the idea of folds and creases in everyday life, in hanging clothes, paper, wrinkles on skin, folds of a human brain. This was a project of the director Guy Girard, and it was the work to complete this that delayed her trip to Ireland. But she had other projects in train in her notebook. She was researching Greek folk music, Rebetiko. She had a project or projects in mind which were somewhat dark in nature.
She was in contact with George Didi-Huberman who had written a book called “The Invention of Hysteria”. This is a photographic history of how Jean Marie Charcot – one of the giants of 19c French science – locked up thousands of women for the imagined maladies of hysteria, lethargy, catalepsie and experimented on them, deliberately photographing them in contrived and frightening poses. It is a very weird and frightening history.
Her next project seems to have been based around human fluids. Her final notes are filled with references to human flesh, death and the four medieval humours of blood, phlegm, black bile, yellow bile. There are extensive notes to what seems to be a lecture given by linguist Jean Claude Milner on the subject of melancholia. Note that “melancholia” is a synonym for “black bile”, one of the four humours.
She was researching the avant garde Irish/British painter Francis Bacon, who was known for producing uniquely disturbing images. She references “Three Studies for the Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion”. There was a Bacon exhibition in Centre Pompidou in 1996 and Sophie must have attended it. Her notebook contains her jottings from a lecture on Bacon by writer Philippe Sollers which seemed focused on blood.
"Why does painting touch the central nervous system?" "We are carcasses of meat, meat above all" "The canvas bleeds, blood spurts red" "Dostoyevsky had a crisis in front of the 16^th century Hans Holbein’s painting “The Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb She jotted down a quote from the play Libation Bearers from Aeschylus:
Orestes sees the Furies coming and exclaims "O Lord Apollon look! Now they come in troops, and from their eyes they drip loathsome blood!"
The last entry reads "research the Furies"

Friday

Having failed to convince anyone to join her in Ireland for Christmas, she went alone. She telephoned Josephine on Tuesday 17^th, told her she would be arriving alone on Friday. She called her again on Thursday to ask her to make sure the house would be warm.
She went to the airport on Friday morning, bought a ticket with the return date on the 26^th, carrying with her a rather hefty bag filled with clothes, including some eveningwear. Perhaps she envisaged visiting people at Christmas time. She expected to stay nearly a week. Later, possibly on Sunday she changed her ticket, she called the Aer Lingus ticket desk in Charles de Gaulle airport, Paris and got a return flight for the 24^th. She received the itinerary details by fax, as she had a machine in the cottage.
She was not in a good mood when she arrived. She had some words with the woman at the Avis counter who passed her to her colleague. The photos on CCTV show a woman looking tired and drawn, something which was remarked upon by the Avis rep, who estimated she was in her forties, a little older than her 38 years. But nobody looks their best walking off an aircraft. She had also attended the Unifrance Christmas party the night before. This was a lavish party held in “Les Bains Douche”, a unique Paris nightclub combined with a swimming pool. Apart from the late night, the social effort must have been tiring. There was a rumour that Sophie had a row that night at Les Bains, a row with one of Daniel’s mistresses, but I have never heard that confirmed. But other reports say that those who met her there found her "radiant", "in good form", "playful". "She went arm in arm to see friends," one guest at the party told Paris Match, "but she always came back to the table where Daniel was sitting." (Paris Match 09/01/1997) Daniel was quoted years later by Michael Sheridan - “She spent some hours having an intense, passionate conversation with a film-maker” - Alain Terzian, producer of Les Visiteurs, one of the most successful French comedies of the 1990s.
Strangely though, Daniel’s first statement said she left on Wednesday. So perhaps it didn’t register with him that she was at the Unifrance party with him on Thursday 19^th, or perhaps he had forgotten the party altogether.
Sophie was captured on Cork Airport CCTV at 14:41 pushing a trolley through the arrivals gate. The scheduled arrival time was 13:20, but because of almost an hour’s delay in departure it didn’t touch down until after 2. It would have taken about 15 minutes to pick up baggage from the carousel.
Cork is a small airport and it is quick to get through the arrival hall to the car hire desks, only a matter of a few meters away.
Sophie hired a silver Ford Fiesta and would have been on the road by 14:50.
The quickest route to West Cork would have been via Bandon and Dunmanway but it is more likely she went via Clonakilty and Skibbereen. She stopped in Ballydehob to buy kindling. She may have stopped in Skibbereen to buy petrol. A pump attendant reported seeing a woman matching her description driving a silver Ford buying petrol. He also noted a tall male companion in the passenger seat. The Gardai discounted this sighting because they accounted for the petrol in the car when it was hired and the mileage thereafter. There were also some discrepancies in the vehicle’s appearance and its description in the statement. Also the Ballydehob sighting is more reliable as the woman got a chance to talk to her. It would seem odd to stop in both Skibbereen and Ballydehob, both petrol stations.
But she seems to have stopped again in Schull because she bought bread and cheese in the Courtyard Deli, and this was most likely on Friday. She talked with the proprietor, Denis Quinlan to ask if there would be live music. At this stage it would have been around 4:30pm and after this she went to the cottage. She called her caretaker Josephine at 5:15, so she must have been at home by then. We don’t know if she went out after that point. She may have stayed in. At 10:15 she called her friend Agnès Thomas and spoke to her for half an hour.

Saturday

Sophie’s whereabouts on Saturday morning are unknown. Perhaps she stayed in, perhaps she went out. Finbarr Hellen was working on his land nearby and saw her car outside the house 12 to 1pm. He didn’t see her and thought it was unusual for her not to come out and say hello. He also remarked her car was parked in an unusual place. He did not elaborate more than this.
The next event we know is that she bought some groceries in Brosnans supermarket on the main street in Schull and took £200 out of the ATM.
For the curious, her shopping list is listed below:

Item	Price
Firelighters	0.85
Independent Newspaper	0.85
EP Televised "Chopped" & Her	0.52
Parsley	0.40
Low Fat Yoghurt	1.90
Ballygowan Natural Spring Water	0.85
Napolina Penne	0.75
Rashers	1.26
Courgettes	1.23
Chicory	1.79
Onions	0.09
Fox's Classic Biscuits	0.83
Flat Mushrooms	0.65
Pepper Coated Salami	0.85
Cooked Turkey	1.89
Mushrooms	0.34
Avonmore Leek & Potato Soup	0.99
Monini Olive Oil	3.45
Ballygowan Natural Spring Water	0.85
Avonmore Carrot & Coriander Soup	0.99
Ballygowan Natural Spring Water	0.85
	22.18

This list does suggest she was buying just for herself, but also that she planned to cook moderately elaborate meals with parsley, courgettes and chicory. Together with the cheese, bread and fruit already in the house she had enough food on there to last a few days. This quantity of food suggests she had not decided to travel home on the 24^th at this stage.
The till recorded a time of 2:49pm.
Sometime after this or perhaps before Sophie entered Tara Fashions, the clothes shop run by Marie Farrell. What Marie Farrell saw that day and subsequent days has been subject to revision, retraction and details seemed to be added with each telling. But I think the most reliable report is the first and all the subsequent revisions cannot be trusted. Farrell called the Gardai on the 25^th but they didn’t get around to taking a statement from her until 27^th. Even so we can assume her memory was fresh. Here is her statement, verbatim.,
On Saturday the 21st December 1996 I was working in my shop at Main Street, Schull, Co. Cork. Between 2p.m. and 3p.m. I noticed a weird looking character across the road from my shop. He was approx 5’10” in height, late 30’s, scruffy looking, long black coat, flat black beret, thin build, sallow skin, short hair. He was there for about 10 minutes. On Sunday morning at 7.15a.m. approximately I noticed the same man on the road at Airhill. When I saw him he was walking towards Goleen on the right hand side of the road and I was travelling in the opposite direction. When he saw me he stopped and put up his hand to thumb a lift. I did not see this man before or since. On Saturday the 21.12.1996 at approx 3p.m. there was a woman in my shop. She did not buy anything. I now know that this woman was the deceased woman from Goleen. I recognised her from the photograph on the television.
There is also a record of her questionnaire which may have been taken earlier than this statement.
In reply to question no 8 When/where did you last see him/her alive? She replied "saw her in shop. She bought a "Carrig Donn" aran sweater aran nap coloured, rolled neck late Sat aftemoon. Paid £39.00. Questions No. 9, 10, 11 & 12 were left blank. In reply to question No. 13 "any other help?" Marie Farrell replied "saw a man on Sat afternoon hanging around street. Desc late 30's, 5'10" very short hair wearing black beret. Saw him again Sun morning @ 7.20am walking towards Airhill but thumbed her.
In a later questionnaire, Farrell said the sweater was too big and she didn’t buy it.
What is interesting her is that Farrell does not draw any explicit linkage between the weird character in the long black coat and the woman in the shop. They were just there at approximately the same time. Farrell did say in later statements that the man followed her up Ardnamanagh road, but this was many years later. Her statements that she saw the same man at Kealfadda bridge at 3am on Monday are untrustworthy, but we won't go into this here.
A farmer, Frank Lannin, saw Sophie driving towards Schull from Goleen around 3pm. She saluted him as she passed him in his tractor. The time or the direction of travel must be wrong here.
The final sighting on Saturday she was seen in the Courtyard pub, eating a crab sandwich and left at 3:30pm. Sally Bolger went to feed her horses on Alfie Lyons land at 4:15pm and says she saw Sophie’s car at her house.
Saturday evening is a complete blank. Nobody saw her, she may have called people on the phone but we don’t have precise details. Her husband said she called him twice on Saturday, but we don’t have any confirmation of this.
At some point Sophie changed her ticket home. Her diary has a number listed as “O’Mahony” and the number was the line to the Aer Lingus ticket desk in Charles-de-Gaulle Roissy airport. The new itinerary was faxed to her in her cottage. The reason why she decided to come home early is not known. Her friend Jean Senet said her husband Daniel persuaded her. For his part Daniel said there was no particular plan and he was to pick her up from the airport at Toulouse at 8pm. Another report tells that she came home early to meet her father, so she could help him with his taxes.

Sunday

For Sunday morning we don’t have any reports.
She called to Dunlough at in the early afternoon, perhaps around 1pm. Sophie had walked here several times before. It is a spectacular headland featuring a lake and three crumbling castles. It was cold and dry at the time, good weather for a walk, if bracing. It is necessary to pass the farm to walk the headland and when Sophie did so she met Tomi Ungerer. This was the second time they had met. Sophie had called here in April but it seemed Tomi and his wife were having a row at the time and Tomi had not paid much attention. Daniel said that Sophie feigned a puncture as an excused to call to the farm. In June Sophie had sent Tomi a fax about the death of a mutual colleague, Gilbert Estève. She may have been seeking information or just making contact. Sophie made a habit out of making contacts with important artists and thinkers. It was one of the things that a colleague said of her, she knew all the right people. It is possible that Tomi was one of the people Sophie wanted to meet for a while. Tomi invited her in for a drink after she had finished her walk. She returned an hour later and they had a conversation over two glasses of wine.
Tomi was a renowned visual artist, with a keen eye and a professional interest in culture. Born in Alsace he was marked by World War II and had seen the ravages of the Nazis and the backlash from the French afterwards. He worked for as a cultural ambassador to improve Franco German relations.
The statement that Tomi gave is remarkable in the insight it gives to Sophie’s character her interests and state of mind.
“She was saying how great Ireland was for literature and education compared to France, how France had thousands of books published every year but that there was no good Authors there, how Ireland was vibrant as a centre of literature for a small Country. She discussed her family, moreover her children and their education in France. She indicated that the reason she was here in Ireland was she wanted to be alone for Christmas. I considered this strange but I sometimes like to be alone too. We talked about books and culture and how the language here was more meaningful and truthful compared to the superficial nature of the French.”
“She seemed a very genuine person, a fine person, not pretentious or snobby. I thought she was deep and intelligent, so much so that I made notes of some things she said, “In a language there should be no need of the use of cuteness” “The problem of France is her lack of modesty”. I wrote those saying they might be useful for my work in the futre. I wrote the quotes on a card in which we exchanged addresses before she left. On hindsight now I would go as far as saying she was not beaming, that she had something on her mind. It’s hard when you do not know someone well to say. I offered her a third glass of wine but she did not take any. We gave her some eggs to take with her, half dozen for her supper. We have hens.”
The word “genuine” is telling. Tomi was struck by Irish people, how the highest compliment an Irish person can give about another, is to say that person is “genuine”.
Tomi described her appearance:
“She was wearing some type of black leather expensive looking pants, brown suede hiking boots, a white/cream ribbed polo necked sweater and a beige wool blazer and a navy blue wool jacket with belt and a navy wool cap and red suede gloves, wine/red gloves. She was dressed very well. She had her hair tied back.”
As to her demeanor, this seems to have grown with the telling. The documentaries made much of the legend of the lady of the lake, whose appearance is reputed to be a harbinger of death. This lurid tale does not feature in the early Garda statements. Tomi remarked that “she was not beaming”, that she may have had something on her mind. His wife Yvonne turned up while they were chatting.
“While we were chatting, Sophie told me that while she was up at the castles she felt this great anxiety almost fear. This is not an uncommon feeling for people who visit the castles. She wasn’t in a cheerful mood but she wasn’t really glum either. She talked about her plans for the future and we spoke about meeting up in Paris in the Spring. She seemed happy to be here and she wanted to be here. She said she liked it here but her husband didn’t. She said she would be back at Easter. We made vague arrangements to meet over the next three days. I gave Sophie some eggs and she left here at about 5.45 p.m.” Yvonne’s estimate of the time she left must be an error. It is more likely she left at around 3:45.
After leaving Dunlough Sophie went to Crookhaven to Sullivans pub, a legendary stop. Here she spoke with the proprietor Billy O’Sullivan and his son Dermot, both of whom speak good French and knew Sophie from prior visits. They also knew her friend Alexandra Lewy. One time Alexandra had arranged to buy a cast iron church gate for Sophie’s birthday, Sophie was fond of antiques and bric-a-brac. Dermot had carried this gate up to the cottage. Sophie asked about getting logs for her fire. Dermot recommended she go to a filling station. She said there was only kindling at the filling stations.
It is interesting that so much of Sophie’s alleged stops and conversations were about fire, kindling, logs etc. Despite this, the photos from her house show she had a lot of fuel. There is a stack of logs, several bales of peat briquettes, what looks to be a 40kg bag of coal and one, perhaps two baskets full of kindling. She had enough for days of fires, unless she lit both hearths, which would be unlikely considering the second hearth did not draft properly, and she was arranging to have it fixed. The kindling may have been bought from Camiers Garage when Kitty Kingston reported meeting her on Friday.
She told her friend Alexandra before she left that she was going to sleep in the guest room because it was the warmest room, being directly above the oil range. There was also a brass bedwarmer found next to her bed. All these details point to Sophie being acutely aware of the cold.
A witness heard her discussing the old Coastguard houses with the Sullivans. These are a prominent landmark visible from O’Sullivan’s pub across the water. The witness left before Sophie did at 4:30pm so she must have returned to the cottage no earlier than 5pm.
The witness noted she was wearing “black leather pants and brown suede desert boots and a long chunky jumper”. This matches well with Tomi Ungerer’s account.
Note the "desert boots" seen by this witness and the "suede hiking boots" mentioned by Tomi Ungerer are probably not the hiking boots she was wearing when she died. The hiking boots she was wearing were very worn, the laces had snapped and had been tied halfway down the lace holes. It looks to me she shoved them on without untying/tying the laces. Sophie would not have visited Schull wearing old worn-out shoes. A pair of dark brown suede "desert boots" are visible at the bottom of the stairs in the garda photos. These match better with the shoes seen by the witness.
It’s 25 minutes drive from Crookhaven back to the cottage so if Sophie left at 4:30 she would have been back home before 5pm.
We know she most likely went home, because at 5:32pm she called her friend Agnès Thomas to wish her a happy birthday. Agnès was out so Sophie left a message.
The postman called at 6pm and noted the lights were on. Presumably he was doing a Sunday shift to cope with the Christmas rush. He didn’t see Sophie’s car, but as he only went as far as the lower gate, it is quite possible he missed it.
At 7:30pm she called her housekeeper Josephine but she was out. She tried her again at 9:10pm but again she was out. Josephine returned and called her back at 10pm. Sophie told her she would be leaving on the 24^th, not the 26^th as she originally intended. They arranged to meet the following day at noon.
Sophie’s phone records were not available, as the exchange she was on was a traditional analogue exchange, with no recording facility. Schull was one of the last places in the country to have such an old system. Days later Garda technicians tried to retrieve call details from her cordless phone but its batteries were flat and nothing was found.
At around 10:30pm she called her husband Daniel, who said he couldn’t take her call. He said he was in a meeting with Unifrance associates. As it was nearly midnight in France, this an unusual time to have a work meeting. Daniel called her back “about twelve minutes later”. He said she was sleepy and probably in bed. Given that the cordless phone was found next to her bed, this seems plausible. He also said that she told him about her visit to the Ungerers and had formed a work project with him. He said she told him she returned home at 9:30pm, but he could be wrong about this. The phone calls to her friend and housekeeper strongly suggest she was at home from 5:30pm.
This was the last anyone heard from Sophie until her body was discovered at 10am the following morning.
From this point all we have is are the police photos and the story they tell is ambiguous, there are multiple possible interpretations.
The fire was lit that evening and there was an empty wine glass on the mantlepiece with dregs of wine in it. There was a loaf of bread, a white crusty “basket loaf” which had been sliced and left open. This is odd as there are no crumbs visible on the table and no plate. Would Sophie have gone to bed leaving the bread out? It’s possible. Another possibility is that the bread was sliced in the morning. But if so where is the plate that she used?
Conceivably Sophie may have left these items from another evening, but it is more likely she consumed the wine that evening, possibly with some cheese she had in her pantry, and the bread she had cut. There was a book open on the table, propped open by a jar of honey next to an empty teacup. However as the cordless phone was found by her bedside, it seems likely this was all left from the previous evening.
It seems the most likely Sophie spent her last night reading, went to bed and then took the call from Daniel.
The book propped open was not a Yeat’s anthology. There is a tale repeated by many true crime authors that Sophie was reading a Yeats poem called “A Dream Death”. It contains the lines
I DREAMED that one had died in a strange place Near no accustomed hand,
Ralph Riegel titled his book after this poem. But this is not the poem she was reading, if any. Yes there was a Yeats anthology found on her bed, but not the bed she slept in, it was on the bed in her personal room which she didn’t use that weekend. The anthology is “Quarente-cinq poèmes suivi de La Résurrection”, a collection of later Yeats poems translated by Yves Bonnefoy. It does not contain the poem “A Dream of Death” but it does contain a poem called “Death”, a meditation on how animals die versus men.
Nor dread nor hope attend A dying animal; A man awaits his end Dreading and hoping all;
But the Yeats anthology is not open on the bed, it is closed in the police photos. Unless the Gardai picked it up before photographing the room, then we cannot be sure what poem or poems she read. As regards the book propped open on the kitchen table, it’s prose and it is French. Journalist Lara Marlowe wrote that the book open on the table was a book about lighthouses.
Among the exhibits the Gardai took are three books

1. Le Coeur Battant – “The beating heart” – this is the title of a 1960 French movie.
2. Le Tenes Vert – Unknown – looks like a transcription error by the Gardai, could be “Les Terres Vertes”
3. Le Cine Monde – World Cinema

Other books in the house seem to correspond well with what we know of her character. On the landing there is another book from an Irish writer, Sean O’Casey, “Les Tambours de Dublin” in French.
On the shelf in her box bedroom we can see a book by Virginia Woolf, the title itself is illegible in the photo but Woolf’s distinctive profile photo is visible on the spine. I wonder if the book might be “A Room of one’s Own”. This essay advocated that a woman writer could never accomplish anything unless she had financial independence and her own space to work in. Even if it was some other book by Woolf, this essay would have been known to Sophie. It hints at what the white cottage meant to her. Her tiny box room tucked under the gable and raised single bed was a quasi-monastic cell - a creative space, a room of her own in West Cork.

Asking for suggestions seems to be a common theme on this sub-reddit, so I’ve updated my list of the best dining restaurants on the Cape for 2024.
This is absolutely one subjective opinion, but I like to think it's at least a qualified opinion. Having lived on the Cape for 20+ years, worked in the industry in the past, and dined out around the world for business/pleasure, I have a decent sense of what a stellar restaurant experience should be like.
I've been lucky enough to dine at a number of Michelin Star ranked establishments over the years while traveling. While none on the Cape is going to be earning that honor (especially since it’s only given in a few major cities) I’ve experienced what great can be like enough times to recognize the glimmer of it here at home. With each of these I'm still dreaming about the meal days later and want to go back as soon as possible.

The Best Dining On Cape:

1. Ceraldi (Wellfleet) $$$$
2. Water Street Kitchen (Woods Hole) $$$
3. Twenty Eight Atlantic (Harwich) $$$$ - Kid Friendly
4. The Pheasant (Dennis) $$$ - Kid Friendly
5. La Tacodilla (Dennis) $ - Kid Friendly
6. Ten Yen (Orleans) $$$

These are the only places that make the cut here, as nowhere else I’ve been to quite rises to this amazing level these provide. Yes, the Cape is a big place, but each of these is well worth the drive from Falmouth or P-town.
Changes for 2024:

• Ten Yen moved down a little. Michael still serves the best sushi on the Cape, but they reduced variety by dropping their ala carte nigiri offerings. (-1 consistency/variety - EDIT: Comments mentioned they will likely have more variety once the summer starts, will update!)
• La Tacodilla moved down a little. Still amazing street food, but their open days/hours keep changing (-1 to consistency/variety). Don't let that stop you though, the food is still amazing and an extraordinary value in todays food inflation climate.
• Ocean House moved off to Runners Up. Still one of the better cocktails and dinner views on the Cape, but total meal prices are up, variety is down, and quality is down. They removed the lower priced burgers and flatbreads, limited vegetarian options and no longer have a viable vegan option on the menu; grilled cauliflower is not a meal and egregious for $33! We also had a few quality problems last season. They dropped below my cut off of 45 points to remain on the best list. (-1 to food, -1 to consistency/variety, -1 to value)

Coincidentally, there is something for every budget. Ceraldi deserves the top spot but is a tough reservation to get and expensive with their fixed menu. They also added a delightfully inventive no reservations taken first come communal table menu that was fabulous, and they’re amazing about allergies and accommodating most food restrictions. The others don't have to break the special occasion bank if you pick the right options.
At Ten Yen you can stay under $50 and get a couple of world class sushi rolls and a glass of sake or spend over $200 eating an amazing sushi meal with drinks.
La Tacodilla is the real deal and has 2 for $6 street tacos on Taco Tuesday, as long as you don’t mind waiting an hour+ when they are busy.

Runners Up:

If you can’t get a reservation at the above, there are other very good restaurants around the Cape that are well worth the visit if they have availability. These are all pricey though, so certainly shoot for the ones above first when possible. Note, these are just in alphabetical order.

• Bleu – Mashpee $$$
• Cape Sea Grill – Harwich $$$
• Chillingsworth – Brewster $$$$
• Cuvee - Chatham $$$$$
• Fin – Dennis - $$$
• Inaho – Yarmouth $$$
• Misaki – Hyannis $$$
• Outer Bar and Grille – Harwich $$ - Kid Friendly
• Pain d’Avingnon – Hyannis $$
• The Mews - Provincetown $$$
• The Nor'East Beer Garden - Provincetown $$$
• The Ocean House – Dennis $$$$

Honorable Mentions:

I didn't want to leave these next ones out, as they are consistent standards when friends drop in for a visit and want to eat out. Most of these don’t take reservations and you have a good chance of getting a table eventually, especially for lunch or if you are willing to arrive early for dinner:

• Anejo - Falmouth (Hyannis location is fine, not as good as Falmouth though)
• Crisp – Osterville
• Drifters – Chatham
• Terra Luna - Truro CLOSED
• The Block and Tackle – Eastham
• The Canteen – Provincetown
• Bread + Roses Bookstore and Café – Hyannis - 100% vegan!

My Rating Scale:

1. Food: starts with food that is over the top great and changes variety for repeat visits.
2. Service: has to be consistently excellent.
3. Location/Scene: Does it set the terroir for the food, is it nice to be there, do they have a good view, do they maximize the space they have, things like parking, bathroom vibe, etc. For example, La Tacodilla is just a little window in a little house with a fake turf seating area right on 28, but it’s hands down the best street food on the Cape and the location/scene is super appropriate for the food. Cuvee is the opposite, with super high end food but served in a cramped under ventilated room with no outside view, dirt parking lot, and no valet parking.
4. Consistency & Variety: must hold up to greatness over multiple visits. Do they have vegetarian and vegan options? Does the menu or specials change regularly?
5. Cocktails/Wine/Drinks: extra points for being creative and delicious. The head bartenders at Water Street Kitchen take things to another level. Ceraldi’s wine pairings are great, and their homemade soft drink pairing is always inspired for those who don’t drink alcohol. Having an expansive & pricy wine list is less appealing to me than a creative cocktail menu with the bar skill to elevate the craft.
6. Value: how much of the above 5 items do you get per dollar spent.

I keep a spreadsheet with 1-10 rankings for each of these categories for all the top restaurants (and some of the bottom ones as calibration). Here are examples of my rating scale:
Water Street Kitchen:

• Food: 9
• Service: 8
• Scene: 8
• Consistency: 9
• Drinks: 9
• Value: 9
• Total: 50

La Tacodilla:

• Food: 8
• Service: 7
• Scene: 7
• Consistency: 8
• Drinks: 5
• Value: 10
• Total: 45

Cuvee:

• Food: 9
• Service: 9
• Scene: 5
• Consistency: 8
• Drinks: 8
• Value: 4
• Total: 43

List To Try Based On Recommendations:

Here are some others I’ve heard good things about but have not had the chance to eat at yet, I’m sure some of them belong on the lists above. I managed to try ~10 places in the offseason and shrink the previous recommendations list. Falmouth is overrepresented here as I live mid-cape and gravitate to Water Street Kitchen repeatedly when headed to Falmouth, it’s that good!
I’ve starred* the ones we're trying to hit next.

• Abroad - Orleans
• Belfry Inne and Bistro - Sandwich
• Blackfish* - Truro
• Branches - Chatham
• Brewster Fish House* - Brewster
• Bubalas By The Bay - Provincetown
• Bucatino - North Falmouth
• Carolines - Eastham
• Casa Del Cabo* - Eastham
• Clean Slate Eatery - Dennis
• Del Mar* - Chatham
• Dan’l Webster Inn
• Devour* - Falmouth (Lunch only)
• Epic Oyster - North Falmouth
• Estia - Mashpee
• Flying Bridge - Falmouth
• Freemans - Provincetown
• Front Street - Provincetown
• Geraldi's - South Yarmouth
• Hanger B - Chatham
• Impudent Oyster - Chatham
• Island Cafe & Grill - Hyannis
• La Cucina Sul Mare - Falmouth
• Le Bon Jour* - Falmouth
• Leonesa** - Yarmouth Port
• Liz's Cafe - Provincetown
• Lobster Trap - Bourne
• Local 186 - Provincetown
• Lune*
• Mac's - Provincetown, Wellfleet, Chatham
• Mahoney’s Atlantic - Orleans
• Navillus - Orleans
• Osteria La Civita - Falmouth
• Pates - Chatham
• Pilot House - Sandwich
• Pisces* - Chatham
• Sesuit Harbor Café - Dennis
• Spinnakers - Brewster
• The Beacon Room - Orleans
• The Bookstore - Wellfleet
• The Buffalo Jump - Falmouth
• The Chatham Cut - Chatham
• The Glass Onion* - Falmouth
• The Lobster Pot - Provincetown
• The Red Inn - Provincetown
• Victors - Provincetown

All The Rest

Below are all the other (non major chain) Cape restaurants I’ve eaten at in the past ~10 years in no particular order, although I’m sure I’ve missed a couple.
Most of these are fine spots, just not close to the caliber of top spots above. For example, Kream n Kone in Dennis is our go to fried food spot, but I wouldn’t go out of the way vs whatever fried seafood spot is closest to you. Some of these I haven’t gone back to in years with good reason. I would love to hear opinions on any that have improved and are worth returning to!

• 3 Monkeys
• 908 Bistro
• Bangkok Thai
• Barbyann’s
• Baxter’s
• Bluefins
• Bobby Byrnes
• Buca's - Harwich
• Brax Landing
• Brazilian Grill
• British Beer Works
• Brothers Pizza
• Captain Parker’s
• Chapins
• Chatham Bars Inn
• Chatham Squire
• Chatham Wayside Inn
• Ciro and Sals
• Clancy’s
• Colombo’s
• Common Ground Cafe
• Cooke’s
• Craigvile Pizza and Mexican
• Crown and Anchor
• Dennisport House of Pizza
• Double Dragon
• Embargo
• Encore
• Ember
• Firestarter Pizza
• Fisherman’s View
• Five Bays Bistro
• George’s House of Pizza
• Governor Bradford
• Golden Fountain
• Guapos
• Hearth n Kettle
• Knockout Pizza
• Kream n Kone
• L’Alouette
• Landfall
• Liam McGuire's
• Mattakeese Wharf
• Mike’s Pizza
• Mom & Pops Burgers
• Mooncussers Tavern
• Naked Oyster
• Noble House
• Nor’East Beer Garden
• Not Your Average Joe’s
• O’Shea's
• Old Yarmouth Inn
• Pepe’s Wharf
• Pizza Barbone
• Portside Tavern
• Quarterdeck
• Quicks Hole Tavern
• RCs Pizza
• Royal Family
• Saga Sushi
• Sam Diegos
• Scargo Cafe
• Sea Dog Brew Pub
• Sea Street Cafe
• Seafood Sam’s
• Spanky’s Clam Shack
• Spinners
• STARS at Chatham Bars Inn
• Starbucks (gone)
• Sundancers
• Sweet Tomato’s
• Tap City Grille
• Taste of Siam
• Thai Ocha
• The Black Cat
• The Chart Room
• The Kettle Ho
• The Knack
• The Marshside
• The Original Seafood Restaurant
• The Oyster Company
• The Pelham House
• The Port
• The Red Nun
• The Roadhouse (gone)
• The Squealing Pig
• The West End
• Thuan Loi
• Tiki Port
• Trader Ed’s
• Tumi
• Viera on Main
• Wee Packet
• West End
• Wicked
• Wimpy's
• Wooden Shoe
• Zoe’s Pizza

Hope this list helps some locals and tourists alike have an amazing meal!
Edit #1: Removed Gina's By the Sea, Brine, C-Salt, and Terra Luna as closed, added Spinnaker's and Flying Bridge to the list to try next.
Edit #2: Starred Leonessa and Lune to try next based on a recommendation. Fixed Drifters location. Added Bubalas By The Bay, The Lobster Pot, Dan’l Webster Inn, La Cucina Sul Mare, Navillus, The Island Blue Crab, and Hanger B to try.
Edit #3: Moved La Tacodilla up, removed dig about how they stopped serving alcohol based on comments. I hope they reopen Friday's though, that's my go to end of week lunch spot.

This passage from "The Reverse of the Medal" really stood out to me. Stephen enjoying a leisurely stroll through the English countryside on his way to Ashgrove Cottage.
For the first mile his road was a lane between high banks and hedges, with woods on the left hand and fields on the right – well-sprung wheat and hay – and the banks were starred all along with primroses, while the hedges had scores of very small cheerful talkative early birds, particularly goldfinches in their most brilliant plumage; and in the hay a corn-crake was already calling. Then when the flat land began to rise and fall this lane branched out into two paths, the one carrying on over a broad pasture – a single piece of fifty or even sixty acres with some colts in it – and the other, now little more than a trace, leading down among the trees. Stephen followed the second; it was steep going, encumbered with brambles and dead bracken on the edge of the wood and farther down with fallen branches and a dead tree or two, but near the bottom he came to a ruined keeper’s cottage standing on a grassy plat, its turf kept short by the rabbits that fled away at his approach. The cottage had lost its roof long since and it was filled tight with lilac, not yet in bloom, while nettle and elder had overwhelmed the outbuilding behind; but there was still a stone bench by the door, and Stephen sat upon it, leaning against the wall. Down here in the hollow the night had not yet yielded, and there was still a green twilight. An ancient wood: the slope was too great and the ground too broken for it ever to have been cut or tended and the trees were still part of the primaeval forest; vast shapeless oaks, often hollow and useless for timber, held out their arms and their young fresh green leaves almost to the middle of the clearing, held them out with never a tremor, for down here the air was so still that gossamer floated with no perceptible movement at all. Still and silent: although far-off blackbirds could be heard away on the edge of the wood and although the stream at the bottom murmured perpetually the combe was filled with a living silence.
On the far side, high on the bank of the stream, there was a badger’s holt. Some years ago Stephen had watched a family of fox-cubs playing there, but now it seemed to him that the badgers were back: fresh earth had been flung out, and even from the bench he could distinguish a well-trodden path. ‘Perhaps I shall see one,’ he said; and after a while his mind drifted away and away, running through a Gloria he and Jack had heard in London, a very elaborate Gloria by Frescobaldi. ‘But perhaps it is too late,’ he went on, when the Gloria was ended and the light had grown stronger, a brighter green, almost the full light of dawn. Yet scarcely were these words formed in his mind before he heard a strong rustling, sweeping bumping sound, and a beautifully striped badger came into sight on the other side of the brook, walking backwards with a load of bedding under its chin. It was an old fat badger, and it grumbled and cursed all the way. The last uphill stretch was particularly difficult, with the burden catching in hazel or thorn on either side and leaving long wisps, and just before the entrance the badger lifted its head and looked round, as though to say ‘Oh it is so bloody awkward.’ Then, having breathed, it took a fresh grip on the bundle, and with a final oath vanished backwards into the holt.
‘Why do I feel such an intense pleasure, such an intense satisfaction?’ asked Stephen. For some time he searched for a convincing reply, but finding none he observed ‘The fact is that I do.’ He sat on as the sun’s rays came slowly down through the trees, lower and lower, and when the lowest reached a branch not far above him it caught a dewdrop poised upon a leaf. The drop instantly blazed crimson, and a slight movement of his head made it show all the colours of the spectrum with extraordinary purity, from a red almost too deep to be seen through all the others to the ultimate violet and back again. Some minutes later a cock pheasant’s explosive call broke the silence and the spell and he stood up.
At the edge of the wood the blackbirds were louder still, and they had been joined by blackcaps, thrushes, larks, monotonous pigeons, and a number of birds that should never have sung at all. His way now led him through ordinary country, field after field, eventually reaching Jack’s woods, where the honey buzzards had once nested. But it was ordinary country raised to the highest power: the mounting sun shone through a faint veil with never a hint of glare, giving the colours a freshness and an intensity Stephen had never seen equalled. The green world and the gentle, pure blue sky might just have been created; and as the day warmed a hundred scents drifted through the air.
‘Returning thanks at any length is virtually impossible,’ he reflected, sitting on a stile and watching two hares at play, sitting up and fibbing at one another, then leaping and running and leaping again. ‘How few manage even five phrases with any effect. And how intolerable are most dedications too, even the best. Perhaps the endless repetition of flat, formal praise’ – for the Gloria was still running in his head – ‘is an attempt at overcoming this, an attempt at expressing gratitude by another means. I shall put this thought to Jack,’ he said, having considered for a moment. The hares raced away out of sight and he walked on, singing in a harsh undertone ‘Quoniam tu solus sanctus, tu solus Dominus, tu solus altissimus’ until a cuckoo called away on his left hand: cuckoo, cuckoo, loud and clear, followed by a cackling laugh and answered by a fainter cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo far over on the right.

I just wanted to do this for fun kinda but also so I have self-closure to hype myself up for ATAVISTA 🥴
Lots of hints have been dropping recently for the release of ATAVISTA — the most recent of which being the deletion of the original version of the album from streaming. I’m convinced that the reasoning for this is to gear up for the final product while also maximizing streams once it releases. Keep in mind, though, other major albums are coming out within the next few weeks! Some to keep in mind for are
Billie Eilish, Zayn, Cage The Elephant and Crumb are releasing albums on May 17
Wallows and Twenty One Pilots are releasing albums on May 24
Maya Hawke and the Mariahs are releasing albums on May 31st
Bon Jovi, Charli XCX for June 7
Suicideboys and Normani for June 14
My BEST-CASE timeline for ATAVISTA is out like this:
Possible LFBF Music Video / Single Release — May 24 or 31
Additional single if any June 7 / 14
Full album in late June or early July (probably somewhere in between June 28 and July 5)
My regular timeline which also happens to be the more probable one (knowing Gambino) goes like this
LFBF Music Video / Single release — Flexible but most likely between May 31 and June 21 — average date is around June 14
Additional single if any around June 21-July 5
Maybe some other random Instagram storyboard shit just for kicks and giggles (idk) probably thrown inbetween all this
Full album release in late July — early September (July 19 — September 11, around August 9th is the middle date)
The reason why I say this is because most of his STUDIO albums seem to come out during the wintertime or between November — March (Camp 11/15/11, BTI 12/19/13, AML 12/10/16, 3.15.20 is obvious) — releasing ATAVISTA in September would give him the leeway to use his relevance then to promote and release Bando Stone in December or so
I just spent way more time than I wanted to writing that but whatever! 😊

There is an essay by "raver anthropologist" Simon Reynolds that has become a kind of cult thing amongst Hardcore Techno aficionados. It got published in The Wire in 1998; it turned into a cult object not only because it was one of the rare cases where Hardcore music was mentioned in a bigger zine during the late 90s (as opposed to the many badly xeroxed Hardcore-fanzines, with a run of ~50 copies, of which most were destined to end up on soaked squat party toilet room floors), but because it also focused on a very specific person: Marc Acardipane, his releases, and his label family. [1]
In it, he called Marc "the forgotten man of Techno", and followed up with the reasons for that: even though he was right there at the proper beginning of "Techno", was hugely influential, and good friends with many people that are now considered to be true pioneers and legends by vox populi, he fell out of favor when Hardcore itself fell out of favor amongst the Techno folk; because he stayed true to his "core roots" and didn't disown them, like so many other producers did on their way up to the place amongst the stars (and on their way down to the sewers again).
But let's move on from Simon, The Wire, and the year 1998. What happened after that date? First, Marc itself was pulled out from the "shadow zones"; because at least the Hardcore and Gabber scene finally remembered its Techno roots, and kept worshiping those roots again; although under different monikers, such as "oldschool", "oldstyle", "early rave", and so on - I guess "the names have been changed to protect the innocent". This meant that "Technoid Hardcore" could be enjoyed at Hardcore parties and festivals once more (often on separate floors), which led to a lot of gigs and exposure for Marc and his Planet Core Productions sound. [Note: PCP aka Planet Core Productions was a label family run by Marc Acardipane and Thorsten Lambart in the 90s.] It also influenced the Hardcore scene as a whole. A succession of genres such as "newstyle", "millennium" and "mainstyle" came into existence; genres that to 98% were built upon PCP and PCP-adjacent tracks: "Stereo Murder" (produced by Acardipane), "Atmos-Fear" (produced by Acardipane), "Poltergeist" (released on his label), "Flesh is the Fever" (released on Things To Come Records, a label with personal ties to PCP and that was inspired by PCP), plus various others.
This was already a good thing. But then, slowly but steadily, the Techno folk re-gained their interest in Hardcore and harder sounds, too; and now that the "millennial dominance" of the Techno scene, together with their favoring of minimalist and dandy-esque sounds, is slowly fading away, a younger generation is taking over the scene, and that new generation is very, very hardcore.
This led to a renewed interest in the works of Marc Acardipane, his crew, and his output again, coming straight from the heart of the Techno world. Marc himself acknowledged this development in some of his interviews, and added that the Techno people are sometimes even more zealous and knowledgeable about this music than the die-hard old-school gabbers!
A very fine evolution indeed; and we hope Marc gets into the spotlight again because of this, and that he finally reaps the respect that he deserves!
But why is the Techno folk favoring him and his sound specifically - in fact, more than a lot of other "Hardcore" players? I think this is because - and now we cycle back to 1998's "The Wire" essay - his sound is *indeed* heavily connected to Techno. It's not just some ultra-aggressive, ultra-noisy Gabber outing. It's real, true, bona fide Techno music. More than that, it represents a "road not taken" in the history of Techno music. Because, when you go back to the advent of Techno, to Detroit, Chicago, Berlin, London, Frankfurt, there was always a Hardcore contingent. Hardcore was always part of the Techno spirit, it helped to shape and mold the Techno sound. Alas, as mentioned above, it got disowned, and it became almost "forbidden" to speak of this type of music within Techno circles.
A liminal space that always lingered next to the scene as time moved on; a place that people did not dare to enter.
All this is changing now again. And while "every boy and his dog" (i.e. zines, webcasts, music academies) had their own Marc Acardipane feature by now, focusing on his more Hardcore and Gabber output, we decided to do the very opposite here, and showcase the Techno tracks from the past days of the PCP oeuvre, released using a cornucopia of aliases.
Bon appetit!
Oh, and by the way: we very dearly love "I like it loud", too!
(This list is in no particular order)
1. The Mover - Over Land and Sea how can one not love this track? great techno beats, rhythms, groove... and then this cosmic, celestial arrangement in the middle... the beats come back in, and the dancefloor erupts into madness. the flip side ("underwater operations") is also very well worth a listen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuYMsR1Cae8
2. Cyborg Unknown - The Year 2001 (Deep in Detroit mix) this is going deep into the history of detroit techno indeed. it's not enough to be friends of the jaguar here, this track channels cybotron just as much as it does metroplex. funky!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2q4v8_YxbE
3. Trip Commando - Cross The White Line a techno behemoth of the most epic proportions. has probably one of the most elongated build ups in dance history, until the epic cinematic breakdown unfolds. highly recommended!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGWv1e2hBZk
4. Turbulence - Whurlstorm this was on the second release by Industrial Strength Records - a label that shaped Hardcore history, too. it starts as a nice little nasty techno track, until everything breaks apart in the mid-riff, and turns into a hurricane of bass frequncies.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sngue8baqPs
5. The Mover - Nightflight (Nonstop 2 Kaos) and this was on Industrial Strengh Records number one! As Lenny Dee licensed "We Have Arrived" (a fantastic hardcore track, to say the least) for his label, and put that number on the back side. a cold groove, percussion that almost feels like a breakbeat... lots of bass, cyber-synth.... this is just dancefloor heaven.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snnHspK1QYI
6. Countdown Part V - Untitled (A1) Countdown FFM is another sub-label to go for if one is looking for some technoid gems. stellar electronic intro, then we get into dance grooves, and things become more deviant as acid sounds sneak in.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfIL6OCtN3o
7. Alien Christ - Of Suns and Moons (Phase II) inspired by "Suburban Knights - The Art of Stalking" (a true classic, originally released on Transmat). Marc made this influence his own, and delivered a very detroit-ish underground rave anthem.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGmmDrQTyyY
8. The Mover & Lunatic Asylum – Frequency Surfers Lunatic Asylum aka "Dr. Macabre" is another person that was entwined with electronic music history while turning into a global player in the hardcore sector at a later date. this is a joint-venture of these two titans of techno, and the result is a very trippy, very twisted and surreal track.
(Cannot be found on youtube, but here are audio previews: https://www.toolboxrecords.com/en/product/17643/techno-hardtechno/dance-ecstasy-2025/ )
9. The Mover - Astral Demons (Original Mix) you should have realized by now: the mover is a synonym for high quality productions. this is one of my favorite pics from the legendary "frontal sickness" releases; and indeed adds a very demonic vibe to the whole dance thing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSMT2KdQt5Q
10. Rave Creator - A New Mind (Thai Acid Mix) "Thai" was a pcp sub that focused specifically on techno, acid, even a bit of trance-ish tracks. despite the alias, this was put out on DE 2001 instead. It's a remix of the famous "A New Mind" track.
starting with pure bass drones. it builds up very slowly, until thunderous, reverberated bass drums come in, and then it goes into full-on acid feeding. similar to "cross the white line", this track could be given the title "cinematic techno soundtrack".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGpuMbLicZU
Honorable Mentions:
T-Bone Castro - Return 2 Planet E Reincarnated Regulator - Italian Stallion Craig Tayaffo - Reduction (Back For Acid-The Expanded 0,25 Hrs Mix) Barracuda - Braineaters Two Tonys - Organ Bitch Nasty Django - Ey Loco Cold Rush Records Frontal Sickness 1+2 Reincarnated Regulator - Mindeater Climax - Relax Nasty Django - 3 P Rules! SexDrive Entertainment - No.2 T-Bone Castro / Ace The Space - Ace In The Hole Project Æ - Whales Alive Ultra Spaceman - Ultra-Style
Footnotes: 1: The original Wire essay - http://reynoldsretro.blogspot.com/2015/03/marc-acardipane-mover-pcp-dance-ecstasy.html

There is an essay by "raver anthropologist" Simon Reynolds that has become a kind of cult thing amongst Hardcore Techno aficionados. It got published in The Wire in 1998; it turned into a cult object not only because it was one of the rare cases where Hardcore music was mentioned in a bigger zine during the late 90s (as opposed to the many badly xeroxed Hardcore-fanzines, with a run of ~50 copies, of which most were destined to end up on soaked squat party toilet room floors), but because it also focused on a very specific person: Marc Acardipane, his releases, and his label family. [1]
In it, he called Marc "the forgotten man of Techno", and followed up with the reasons for that: even though he was right there at the proper beginning of "Techno", was hugely influential, and good friends with many people that are now considered to be true pioneers and legends by vox populi, he fell out of favor when Hardcore itself fell out of favor amongst the Techno folk; because he stayed true to his "core roots" and didn't disown them, like so many other producers did on their way up to the place amongst the stars (and on their way down to the sewers again).
But let's move on from Simon, The Wire, and the year 1998. What happened after that date? First, Marc itself was pulled out from the "shadow zones"; because at least the Hardcore and Gabber scene finally remembered its Techno roots, and kept worshiping those roots again; although under different monikers, such as "oldschool", "oldstyle", "early rave", and so on - I guess "the names have been changed to protect the innocent". This meant that "Technoid Hardcore" could be enjoyed at Hardcore parties and festivals once more (often on separate floors), which led to a lot of gigs and exposure for Marc and his Planet Core Productions sound. [Note: PCP aka Planet Core Productions was a label family run by Marc Acardipane and Thorsten Lambart in the 90s.] It also influenced the Hardcore scene as a whole. A succession of genres such as "newstyle", "millennium" and "mainstyle" came into existence; genres that to 98% were built upon PCP and PCP-adjacent tracks: "Stereo Murder" (produced by Acardipane), "Atmos-Fear" (produced by Acardipane), "Poltergeist" (released on his label), "Flesh is the Fever" (released on Things To Come Records, a label with personal ties to PCP and that was inspired by PCP), plus various others.
This was already a good thing. But then, slowly but steadily, the Techno folk re-gained their interest in Hardcore and harder sounds, too; and now that the "millennial dominance" of the Techno scene, together with their favoring of minimalist and dandy-esque sounds, is slowly fading away, a younger generation is taking over the scene, and that new generation is very, very hardcore.
This led to a renewed interest in the works of Marc Acardipane, his crew, and his output again, coming straight from the heart of the Techno world. Marc himself acknowledged this development in some of his interviews, and added that the Techno people are sometimes even more zealous and knowledgeable about this music than the die-hard old-school gabbers!
A very fine evolution indeed; and we hope Marc gets into the spotlight again because of this, and that he finally reaps the respect that he deserves!
But why is the Techno folk favoring him and his sound specifically - in fact, more than a lot of other "Hardcore" players? I think this is because - and now we cycle back to 1998's "The Wire" essay - his sound is *indeed* heavily connected to Techno. It's not just some ultra-aggressive, ultra-noisy Gabber outing. It's real, true, bona fide Techno music. More than that, it represents a "road not taken" in the history of Techno music. Because, when you go back to the advent of Techno, to Detroit, Chicago, Berlin, London, Frankfurt, there was always a Hardcore contingent. Hardcore was always part of the Techno spirit, it helped to shape and mold the Techno sound. Alas, as mentioned above, it got disowned, and it became almost "forbidden" to speak of this type of music within Techno circles.
A liminal space that always lingered next to the scene as time moved on; a place that people did not dare to enter.
All this is changing now again. And while "every boy and his dog" (i.e. zines, webcasts, music academies) had their own Marc Acardipane feature by now, focusing on his more Hardcore and Gabber output, we decided to do the very opposite here, and showcase the Techno tracks from the past days of the PCP oeuvre, released using a cornucopia of aliases.
Bon appetit!
Oh, and by the way: we very dearly love "I like it loud", too!
(This list is in no particular order)
1. The Mover - Over Land and Sea how can one not love this track? great techno beats, rhythms, groove... and then this cosmic, celestial arrangement in the middle... the beats come back in, and the dancefloor erupts into madness. the flip side ("underwater operations") is also very well worth a listen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuYMsR1Cae8
2. Cyborg Unknown - The Year 2001 (Deep in Detroit mix) this is going deep into the history of detroit techno indeed. it's not enough to be friends of the jaguar here, this track channels cybotron just as much as it does metroplex. funky!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2q4v8_YxbE
3. Trip Commando - Cross The White Line a techno behemoth of the most epic proportions. has probably one of the most elongated build ups in dance history, until the epic cinematic breakdown unfolds. highly recommended!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGWv1e2hBZk
4. Turbulence - Whurlstorm this was on the second release by Industrial Strength Records - a label that shaped Hardcore history, too. it starts as a nice little nasty techno track, until everything breaks apart in the mid-riff, and turns into a hurricane of bass frequncies.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sngue8baqPs
5. The Mover - Nightflight (Nonstop 2 Kaos) and this was on Industrial Strengh Records number one! As Lenny Dee licensed "We Have Arrived" (a fantastic hardcore track, to say the least) for his label, and put that number on the back side. a cold groove, percussion that almost feels like a breakbeat... lots of bass, cyber-synth.... this is just dancefloor heaven.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snnHspK1QYI
6. Countdown Part V - Untitled (A1) Countdown FFM is another sub-label to go for if one is looking for some technoid gems. stellar electronic intro, then we get into dance grooves, and things become more deviant as acid sounds sneak in.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfIL6OCtN3o
7. Alien Christ - Of Suns and Moons (Phase II) inspired by "Suburban Knights - The Art of Stalking" (a true classic, originally released on Transmat). Marc made this influence his own, and delivered a very detroit-ish underground rave anthem.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGmmDrQTyyY
8. The Mover & Lunatic Asylum – Frequency Surfers Lunatic Asylum aka "Dr. Macabre" is another person that was entwined with electronic music history while turning into a global player in the hardcore sector at a later date. this is a joint-venture of these two titans of techno, and the result is a very trippy, very twisted and surreal track.
(Cannot be found on youtube, but here are audio previews: https://www.toolboxrecords.com/en/product/17643/techno-hardtechno/dance-ecstasy-2025/ )
9. The Mover - Astral Demons (Original Mix) you should have realized by now: the mover is a synonym for high quality productions. this is one of my favorite pics from the legendary "frontal sickness" releases; and indeed adds a very demonic vibe to the whole dance thing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSMT2KdQt5Q
10. Rave Creator - A New Mind (Thai Acid Mix) "Thai" was a pcp sub that focused specifically on techno, acid, even a bit of trance-ish tracks. despite the alias, this was put out on DE 2001 instead. It's a remix of the famous "A New Mind" track.
starting with pure bass drones. it builds up very slowly, until thunderous, reverberated bass drums come in, and then it goes into full-on acid feeding. similar to "cross the white line", this track could be given the title "cinematic techno soundtrack".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGpuMbLicZU
Honorable Mentions:
T-Bone Castro - Return 2 Planet E Reincarnated Regulator - Italian Stallion Craig Tayaffo - Reduction (Back For Acid-The Expanded 0,25 Hrs Mix) Barracuda - Braineaters Two Tonys - Organ Bitch Nasty Django - Ey Loco Cold Rush Records Frontal Sickness 1+2 Reincarnated Regulator - Mindeater Climax - Relax Nasty Django - 3 P Rules! SexDrive Entertainment - No.2 T-Bone Castro / Ace The Space - Ace In The Hole Project Æ - Whales Alive Ultra Spaceman - Ultra-Style
Footnotes: 1: The original Wire essay - http://reynoldsretro.blogspot.com/2015/03/marc-acardipane-mover-pcp-dance-ecstasy.html

There is an essay by "raver anthropologist" Simon Reynolds that has become a kind of cult thing amongst Hardcore Techno aficionados. It got published in The Wire in 1998; it turned into a cult object not only because it was one of the rare cases where Hardcore music was mentioned in a bigger zine during the late 90s (as opposed to the many badly xeroxed Hardcore-fanzines, with a run of ~50 copies, of which most were destined to end up on soaked squat party toilet room floors), but because it also focused on a very specific person: Marc Acardipane, his releases, and his label family. [1]
In it, he called Marc "the forgotten man of Techno", and followed up with the reasons for that: even though he was right there at the proper beginning of "Techno", was hugely influential, and good friends with many people that are now considered to be true pioneers and legends by vox populi, he fell out of favor when Hardcore itself fell out of favor amongst the Techno folk; because he stayed true to his "core roots" and didn't disown them, like so many other producers did on their way up to the place amongst the stars (and on their way down to the sewers again).
But let's move on from Simon, The Wire, and the year 1998. What happened after that date? First, Marc itself was pulled out from the "shadow zones"; because at least the Hardcore and Gabber scene finally remembered its Techno roots, and kept worshiping those roots again; although under different monikers, such as "oldschool", "oldstyle", "early rave", and so on - I guess "the names have been changed to protect the innocent". This meant that "Technoid Hardcore" could be enjoyed at Hardcore parties and festivals once more (often on separate floors), which led to a lot of gigs and exposure for Marc and his Planet Core Productions sound. [Note: PCP aka Planet Core Productions was a label family run by Marc Acardipane and Thorsten Lambart in the 90s.] It also influenced the Hardcore scene as a whole. A succession of genres such as "newstyle", "millennium" and "mainstyle" came into existence; genres that to 98% were built upon PCP and PCP-adjacent tracks: "Stereo Murder" (produced by Acardipane), "Atmos-Fear" (produced by Acardipane), "Poltergeist" (released on his label), "Flesh is the Fever" (released on Things To Come Records, a label with personal ties to PCP and that was inspired by PCP), plus various others.
This was already a good thing. But then, slowly but steadily, the Techno folk re-gained their interest in Hardcore and harder sounds, too; and now that the "millennial dominance" of the Techno scene, together with their favoring of minimalist and dandy-esque sounds, is slowly fading away, a younger generation is taking over the scene, and that new generation is very, very hardcore.
This led to a renewed interest in the works of Marc Acardipane, his crew, and his output again, coming straight from the heart of the Techno world. Marc himself acknowledged this development in some of his interviews, and added that the Techno people are sometimes even more zealous and knowledgeable about this music than the die-hard old-school gabbers!
A very fine evolution indeed; and we hope Marc gets into the spotlight again because of this, and that he finally reaps the respect that he deserves!
But why is the Techno folk favoring him and his sound specifically - in fact, more than a lot of other "Hardcore" players? I think this is because - and now we cycle back to 1998's "The Wire" essay - his sound is *indeed* heavily connected to Techno. It's not just some ultra-aggressive, ultra-noisy Gabber outing. It's real, true, bona fide Techno music. More than that, it represents a "road not taken" in the history of Techno music. Because, when you go back to the advent of Techno, to Detroit, Chicago, Berlin, London, Frankfurt, there was always a Hardcore contingent. Hardcore was always part of the Techno spirit, it helped to shape and mold the Techno sound. Alas, as mentioned above, it got disowned, and it became almost "forbidden" to speak of this type of music within Techno circles.
A liminal space that always lingered next to the scene as time moved on; a place that people did not dare to enter.
All this is changing now again. And while "every boy and his dog" (i.e. zines, webcasts, music academies) had their own Marc Acardipane feature by now, focusing on his more Hardcore and Gabber output, we decided to do the very opposite here, and showcase the Techno tracks from the past days of the PCP oeuvre, released using a cornucopia of aliases.
Bon appetit!
Oh, and by the way: we very dearly love "I like it loud", too!
(This list is in no particular order)
1. The Mover - Over Land and Sea how can one not love this track? great techno beats, rhythms, groove... and then this cosmic, celestial arrangement in the middle... the beats come back in, and the dancefloor erupts into madness. the flip side ("underwater operations") is also very well worth a listen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuYMsR1Cae8
2. Cyborg Unknown - The Year 2001 (Deep in Detroit mix) this is going deep into the history of detroit techno indeed. it's not enough to be friends of the jaguar here, this track channels cybotron just as much as it does metroplex. funky!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2q4v8_YxbE
3. Trip Commando - Cross The White Line a techno behemoth of the most epic proportions. has probably one of the most elongated build ups in dance history, until the epic cinematic breakdown unfolds. highly recommended!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGWv1e2hBZk
4. Turbulence - Whurlstorm this was on the second release by Industrial Strength Records - a label that shaped Hardcore history, too. it starts as a nice little nasty techno track, until everything breaks apart in the mid-riff, and turns into a hurricane of bass frequncies.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sngue8baqPs
5. The Mover - Nightflight (Nonstop 2 Kaos) and this was on Industrial Strengh Records number one! As Lenny Dee licensed "We Have Arrived" (a fantastic hardcore track, to say the least) for his label, and put that number on the back side. a cold groove, percussion that almost feels like a breakbeat... lots of bass, cyber-synth.... this is just dancefloor heaven.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snnHspK1QYI
6. Countdown Part V - Untitled (A1) Countdown FFM is another sub-label to go for if one is looking for some technoid gems. stellar electronic intro, then we get into dance grooves, and things become more deviant as acid sounds sneak in.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfIL6OCtN3o
7. Alien Christ - Of Suns and Moons (Phase II) inspired by "Suburban Knights - The Art of Stalking" (a true classic, originally released on Transmat). Marc made this influence his own, and delivered a very detroit-ish underground rave anthem.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGmmDrQTyyY
8. The Mover & Lunatic Asylum – Frequency Surfers Lunatic Asylum aka "Dr. Macabre" is another person that was entwined with electronic music history while turning into a global player in the hardcore sector at a later date. this is a joint-venture of these two titans of techno, and the result is a very trippy, very twisted and surreal track.
(Cannot be found on youtube, but here are audio previews: https://www.toolboxrecords.com/en/product/17643/techno-hardtechno/dance-ecstasy-2025/ )
9. The Mover - Astral Demons (Original Mix) you should have realized by now: the mover is a synonym for high quality productions. this is one of my favorite pics from the legendary "frontal sickness" releases; and indeed adds a very demonic vibe to the whole dance thing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSMT2KdQt5Q
10. Rave Creator - A New Mind (Thai Acid Mix) "Thai" was a pcp sub that focused specifically on techno, acid, even a bit of trance-ish tracks. despite the alias, this was put out on DE 2001 instead. It's a remix of the famous "A New Mind" track.
starting with pure bass drones. it builds up very slowly, until thunderous, reverberated bass drums come in, and then it goes into full-on acid feeding. similar to "cross the white line", this track could be given the title "cinematic techno soundtrack".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGpuMbLicZU
Honorable Mentions:
T-Bone Castro - Return 2 Planet E Reincarnated Regulator - Italian Stallion Craig Tayaffo - Reduction (Back For Acid-The Expanded 0,25 Hrs Mix) Barracuda - Braineaters Two Tonys - Organ Bitch Nasty Django - Ey Loco Cold Rush Records Frontal Sickness 1+2 Reincarnated Regulator - Mindeater Climax - Relax Nasty Django - 3 P Rules! SexDrive Entertainment - No.2 T-Bone Castro / Ace The Space - Ace In The Hole Project Æ - Whales Alive Ultra Spaceman - Ultra-Style
Footnotes: 1: The original Wire essay - http://reynoldsretro.blogspot.com/2015/03/marc-acardipane-mover-pcp-dance-ecstasy.html

It’s a rainy chill day and I’m bored and want to hear everyone’s ideas for this ridiculous question. Sometimes I forget that cars are kind of a crazy invention, mobile metal death cages that can go super fast. I think medieval folks would be so flabbergasted by it.
Here’s my list:

• Gale: car enthusiast. To the most annoying degree. Either a fancy Tesla or a minivan simply because of all the features. He drives sensibly but his car is full of books so he can make you read to him as he drives. It smells heavily of leather and new car air freshener. He is in love with his GPS lady. Loves to change the oil. He loves that oil.
  
• Halsin: no way (but he respects the Prius) he takes the bus and talks to the elderly people. If he is riding in a car, he will stare out the window melancholically with it rolled down and try to spot animals or he reads all the billboards. Will ask to play Bon Iver every time.
  
• Astarion: hires a driver so he doesn’t have to do anything and is a passenger princess, constantly criticizing the driver and also does this in other people’s car. He wants the driver to go fast but if he is too fast he will insult him. Has a pimped out former hearse. The back is converted into the ultimate gothic cozy area with cushions and silky pillows, electric candles, the works. The car always smells incredible. Has special sun protective covers on the windows and sits with his feet on the dash. Always wants the heated seats. Will lean over you in drive thru’s to correct the person taking the order. Sometimes at night he drinks and drives on back roads while going really fast in a very dramatic, cathartic way just to feel something but never gets caught somehow.
  
• Wyll: the most normal driver I think. Has a sensible 4 door that is boring on the outside but on the inside it gets kind of weird, there are random items all over, like random pens, one half filled old Gatorade he occasionally sips from, multiples knives (swords too big for his car) empty packets of gum, lots of random papers and one single boot. Has the heat air freshener. He always wants to have car sex so he can play his playlist and feel like he is in a movie.
  
• Shadowheart: a little silver 90s cigarette car but it’s very sad girl vibes. Lots of color coordinated fuzzy covers on everything, a nice dark purple and always smells so good from the multiple air fresheners to cover the smell of all the trash. She has many Deftones cds as well as a really shitty mp3 converter so she can listen to Evanescence. She also likes to drive at night really fast and scream.
  
• Karlach: absolutely humongous truck, bright red with decals. Loves honking that horn. Maxed out speakers, lots of those pipe things to blow smoke everywhere, extra tires. Black ice air freshener. Scares everyone who rides in it from the crazy driving. Big dick energy to the max. She will talk to you and not look at the road.
  
• Lae’zell: she thinks cars are stupid because traveling on the ground is inferior and tedious. She also thinks it’s foolish to rely on technology/car mechanics for travel as it cannot be trusted and why drive when one has two perfectly good legs. If she is riding in a car, she will sulk or question your driving abilities. She hates the gps and doesn’t trust it.
  
• Evil Durge: hit and runs
  
• Resist Durge: multiple speeding tickets and fender benders from the distraction of the murder fantasies but they always pay for the insurance and damages. Lots of road rage. Nervous driver and will talk to fill up the silence or constantly change the radio in a very annoying, anxious manner. Always has a rental car from the accidents.
  

That was long but soo fun to write. I would love to hear what people think about other characters like Minsc, Minthara, Raphael, Jaheira, etc!
Edited my format

There is an essay by "raver anthropologist" Simon Reynolds that has become a kind of cult thing amongst Hardcore Techno aficionados. It got published in The Wire in 1998; it turned into a cult object not only because it was one of the rare cases where Hardcore music was mentioned in a bigger zine during the late 90s (as opposed to the many badly xeroxed Hardcore-fanzines, with a run of ~50 copies, of which most were destined to end up on soaked squat party toilet room floors), but because it also focused on a very specific person: Marc Acardipane, his releases, and his label family. [1]
In it, he called Marc "the forgotten man of Techno", and followed up with the reasons for that: even though he was right there at the proper beginning of "Techno", was hugely influential, and good friends with many people that are now considered to be true pioneers and legends by vox populi, he fell out of favor when Hardcore itself fell out of favor amongst the Techno folk; because he stayed true to his "core roots" and didn't disown them, like so many other producers did on their way up to the place amongst the stars (and on their way down to the sewers again).
But let's move on from Simon, The Wire, and the year 1998. What happened after that date? First, Marc itself was pulled out from the "shadow zones"; because at least the Hardcore and Gabber scene finally remembered its Techno roots, and kept worshiping those roots again; although under different monikers, such as "oldschool", "oldstyle", "early rave", and so on - I guess "the names have been changed to protect the innocent". This meant that "Technoid Hardcore" could be enjoyed at Hardcore parties and festivals once more (often on separate floors), which led to a lot of gigs and exposure for Marc and his Planet Core Productions sound. [Note: PCP aka Planet Core Productions was a label family run by Marc Acardipane and Thorsten Lambart in the 90s.] It also influenced the Hardcore scene as a whole. A succession of genres such as "newstyle", "millennium" and "mainstyle" came into existence; genres that to 98% were built upon PCP and PCP-adjacent tracks: "Stereo Murder" (produced by Acardipane), "Atmos-Fear" (produced by Acardipane), "Poltergeist" (released on his label), "Flesh is the Fever" (released on Things To Come Records, a label with personal ties to PCP and that was inspired by PCP), plus various others.
This was already a good thing. But then, slowly but steadily, the Techno folk re-gained their interest in Hardcore and harder sounds, too; and now that the "millennial dominance" of the Techno scene, together with their favoring of minimalist and dandy-esque sounds, is slowly fading away, a younger generation is taking over the scene, and that new generation is very, very hardcore.
This led to a renewed interest in the works of Marc Acardipane, his crew, and his output again, coming straight from the heart of the Techno world. Marc himself acknowledged this development in some of his interviews, and added that the Techno people are sometimes even more zealous and knowledgeable about this music than the die-hard old-school gabbers!
A very fine evolution indeed; and we hope Marc gets into the spotlight again because of this, and that he finally reaps the respect that he deserves!
But why is the Techno folk favoring him and his sound specifically - in fact, more than a lot of other "Hardcore" players? I think this is because - and now we cycle back to 1998's "The Wire" essay - his sound is *indeed* heavily connected to Techno. It's not just some ultra-aggressive, ultra-noisy Gabber outing. It's real, true, bona fide Techno music. More than that, it represents a "road not taken" in the history of Techno music. Because, when you go back to the advent of Techno, to Detroit, Chicago, Berlin, London, Frankfurt, there was always a Hardcore contingent. Hardcore was always part of the Techno spirit, it helped to shape and mold the Techno sound. Alas, as mentioned above, it got disowned, and it became almost "forbidden" to speak of this type of music within Techno circles.
A liminal space that always lingered next to the scene as time moved on; a place that people did not dare to enter.
All this is changing now again. And while "every boy and his dog" (i.e. zines, webcasts, music academies) had their own Marc Acardipane feature by now, focusing on his more Hardcore and Gabber output, we decided to do the very opposite here, and showcase the Techno tracks from the past days of the PCP oeuvre, released using a cornucopia of aliases.
Bon appetit!
Oh, and by the way: we very dearly love "I like it loud", too!
(This list is in no particular order)
1. The Mover - Over Land and Sea how can one not love this track? great techno beats, rhythms, groove... and then this cosmic, celestial arrangement in the middle... the beats come back in, and the dancefloor erupts into madness. the flip side ("underwater operations") is also very well worth a listen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuYMsR1Cae8
2. Cyborg Unknown - The Year 2001 (Deep in Detroit mix) this is going deep into the history of detroit techno indeed. it's not enough to be friends of the jaguar here, this track channels cybotron just as much as it does metroplex. funky!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2q4v8_YxbE
3. Trip Commando - Cross The White Line a techno behemoth of the most epic proportions. has probably one of the most elongated build ups in dance history, until the epic cinematic breakdown unfolds. highly recommended!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGWv1e2hBZk
4. Turbulence - Whurlstorm this was on the second release by Industrial Strength Records - a label that shaped Hardcore history, too. it starts as a nice little nasty techno track, until everything breaks apart in the mid-riff, and turns into a hurricane of bass frequncies.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sngue8baqPs
5. The Mover - Nightflight (Nonstop 2 Kaos) and this was on Industrial Strengh Records number one! As Lenny Dee licensed "We Have Arrived" (a fantastic hardcore track, to say the least) for his label, and put that number on the back side. a cold groove, percussion that almost feels like a breakbeat... lots of bass, cyber-synth.... this is just dancefloor heaven.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snnHspK1QYI
6. Countdown Part V - Untitled (A1) Countdown FFM is another sub-label to go for if one is looking for some technoid gems. stellar electronic intro, then we get into dance grooves, and things become more deviant as acid sounds sneak in.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfIL6OCtN3o
7. Alien Christ - Of Suns and Moons (Phase II) inspired by "Suburban Knights - The Art of Stalking" (a true classic, originally released on Transmat). Marc made this influence his own, and delivered a very detroit-ish underground rave anthem.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGmmDrQTyyY
8. The Mover & Lunatic Asylum – Frequency Surfers Lunatic Asylum aka "Dr. Macabre" is another person that was entwined with electronic music history while turning into a global player in the hardcore sector at a later date. this is a joint-venture of these two titans of techno, and the result is a very trippy, very twisted and surreal track.
(Cannot be found on youtube, but here are audio previews: https://www.toolboxrecords.com/en/product/17643/techno-hardtechno/dance-ecstasy-2025/ )
9. The Mover - Astral Demons (Original Mix) you should have realized by now: the mover is a synonym for high quality productions. this is one of my favorite pics from the legendary "frontal sickness" releases; and indeed adds a very demonic vibe to the whole dance thing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSMT2KdQt5Q
10. Rave Creator - A New Mind (Thai Acid Mix) "Thai" was a pcp sub that focused specifically on techno, acid, even a bit of trance-ish tracks. despite the alias, this was put out on DE 2001 instead. It's a remix of the famous "A New Mind" track.
starting with pure bass drones. it builds up very slowly, until thunderous, reverberated bass drums come in, and then it goes into full-on acid feeding. similar to "cross the white line", this track could be given the title "cinematic techno soundtrack".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGpuMbLicZU
Honorable Mentions:
T-Bone Castro - Return 2 Planet E Reincarnated Regulator - Italian Stallion Craig Tayaffo - Reduction (Back For Acid-The Expanded 0,25 Hrs Mix) Barracuda - Braineaters Two Tonys - Organ Bitch Nasty Django - Ey Loco Cold Rush Records Frontal Sickness 1+2 Reincarnated Regulator - Mindeater Climax - Relax Nasty Django - 3 P Rules! SexDrive Entertainment - No.2 T-Bone Castro / Ace The Space - Ace In The Hole Project Æ - Whales Alive Ultra Spaceman - Ultra-Style
Footnotes: 1: The original Wire essay - http://reynoldsretro.blogspot.com/2015/03/marc-acardipane-mover-pcp-dance-ecstasy.html

(As always, flyers are out Wednesdays, most store sales for the new flyer start on Thursdays)
Adonis

• Chicken breast (boneless skinless) - $5.99 per lb -- Fair price for chicken breast and a common price at Adonis. Lower is definitely possible, where $4.50/lb is a "best target".
• Chicken legs - $2.49 per lb -- Fair price for chicken legs and a common price at Adonis. The stock-up price target is about $1.50/lb.
• Fresh Sea Bass (free cleaning) - $6.88 per lb -- Nice! Fresh fish!
• Red Sea Bream (free cleaning) - $9.99 per lb -- Ohh, more bream this week! Nice to see!
• Shrimp skewers - $0.99 each -- Ad is a little unclear, but if these are 99c a skewer, that ain't bad!
• Red vine tomatoes - $0.99 per lb -- Excellent price for tomatoes!
• Flat cabbage - $0.99 per lb -- Good price for cabbage.
• Cucumber - $0.99 each -- Great price for a cucumber, but watch out for other deals.
• Blueberries - $2.99 full pint -- Good price for a full pint.
• Boursin cheese - $4.99 150g pack -- Nice!
• Jarlsberg - $9.99 300g -- Decent. We've seen Jarlsberg go as low as $2/100g.
• Camembert (Le Rustique) - $9.99 250g -- Fair price if it's really good camembert. You can score deals on soft cheeses like this that can swing that price down to about $2.50/lb, but it's rarer and rarer these days.
• Brie, triple cream (l'Extra) - $9.99 300g -- Fair price for really good brie.
• Deli - Havarti (Casetelo) - $1.99 per 100g -- Great price for havarti. Tasty stuff in a nice sandwich!
• Deli - Beef bologna (Solmaz) - $1.49 per 100g -- Cheap deli!
• Deli - Chicken breast (Alzahraa) - $1.29 per 100g -- Cheap deli!
• Deli - Turkey breast (Schneiders) - $1.99 per 100g -- Great price for medium-brand deli.
• Deli - Prosciutto (San Daniele) - $2.79 per 100g -- Great price!
• Produce Price Rating: Medium, but always has well-priced chicken, the deli meat sale rotations are always fantastic, and just the overall variety of goods is refreshing. Personal favourite store.

Farm Boy

• Atlantic Snow Crab - $7.99 per lb -- Fun seafood option. Definitely a treat, but might make for a nice dinner!
• Bacon (Leadbetter) - $3.99 375g pack -- Not the cheapest option in bacon, but it's a step up from value-brand bacon.
• Vidalia onions - $1.88 per lb -- Ouufff, that hurts my feelings. Vidalias are my favourite onion, but at nearly $2/lb when regular ones shouldn't go over 80c/lb, it's a tough one to swallow...
• Cucumber - $0.99 each -- Great price for a cucumber, but watch out for other deals.
• Deli - Black Forest Ham (Brandt) - $1.99 per 100g -- Good deal on good ham!
• Deli - Chicken breast roast (Maple Lodge) - $2.49 per 100g -- Good deal on nice deli.
• Produce Price Rating: High

Farmers Pick (can be a little late on their flyer) (https://www.farmerspick.ca/flyer-specials)
Food Basics

• Chicken breast (boneless skinless, Maple Lodge) - $4.98 per lb -- Good price for chicken breast!
• Bacon (Leadbetter) - $3.88 375g pack -- Like the Leadbetter's at Farmboy, it's step-up bacon, and it's a good sale price.
• Atlantic salmon - $10.88 per lb -- Fair price for salmon.
• Carrots - $1.25 2lb bag -- Awesome!
• Onions - $1.25 2lb bag -- Awesome!
• Broccoli - $1.25 per crown -- Great price!
• Mini cucumbers - $1.99 6-pack -- Nice! Good price!
• Apples (various) - $2.98 3lb bag -- Fair price for apples, but mind the type you buy. Some varieties bruise up easily and you could easily lose a few soldiers if not careful.
• Lemons - $2.98 2lb bag -- Fair price for lemons.
• Oranges - $1.88 3lb bag -- Great price for oranges!! That's 60c/lb!!
• Blueberries - $1.88 half pint -- Good price for blueberries. About 1.50-175 for a half-pint is good.
• Mango - $0.67 each -- Wow! Haven't seen a 67c mango in months!
• Cantaloupe - $2.98 each -- Good ol' $3 melon.
• Mini watermelon - $3.98 each -- Great price for a small watermelon!
• Corned beef (Hereford) - $2.98 340g can -- Not the most exciting ingredient, but it's good to have one or two cans in the pantry.
• SPAM - $2.98 340g can -- Same as the corned beef.
• Smoked ham (Selection) - $8.00 675g toupie -- That works out to just about 1.18/100g, which is a good rate on ham for sandwiches, or frying up for a meal.
• Tofu (Fountaine santé) - $5.00 For 2x 400g packs -- Good price for tofu. $2.50 for 400g is "nice average". If you're paying $2, it's a good deal. $3+ and you're either outside of town, or you're paying for a special brand or dessert tofu.
• Silk plant bev - $2.88 1.74-1.89L -- Excellent deal on the Silk stuff. This is commonly $4-5 per jug, Under $3 is a good deal.
• Produce Price Rating: Low to medium low

FoodLand

• Pork chops (loin cut) - $2.99 per lb -- Fair price for decent cuts of pork. Given these are boneless, you're a meat gavel away from schnitzel.
• Chicken breast (boneless skinless) - $5.88 per lb -- Fair price for chicken breast. Lower is definitely possible, where $4.50/lb is the a "best target".
• Beef cross-rib roast (AAA) - $7.99 per lb -- Fair price for beef, but not my price-point. I prefer to see at least $6/lb before I start entertain these cuts and products. Though, I'm maybe a poor judge as I'm not really a fancy steak kinda guy. But, that's also how I save tons of cash. As the saying goes, the customer is always right in matters of taste!
• Atlantic salmon - $10.99 per lb -- Fair price for salmon.
• Brick cheese (Compliments) - $5.49 400g bar -- Not the best price for cheap brick cheese, but it's ok. It's at least 50c my standard go-to rate. But Foodland isn't an "in-town" brand, so the price scales higher as you move out of dense city areas.
• Luncheon meat (Holiday) - $1.99 340g can -- I think this is similar to SPAM, but I've never had it personally.
• Produce Price Rating: Medium-high to high.

Freshco (price matcher)

• Chicken breast (boneless skinless) - $10.00 4-pack -- Marge Simpson grunts, these products are deceiving. Throw these on the scale and make sure they're at least 2lb.
• Smoked sausages (Compliments) - $7.99 900g pack -- These come in a couple of different flavours, including "bacon cheddar". Works out to $4/lb, which ain't bad. I think these are pre-cooked as well. You can score good raw sausage for about the same price or just a bit more, but it'll be much tougher to find.
• Sweet peppers - $3.99 4-pack -- Fair price. Not the best, but not the worst either.
• Hothouse tomatoes - $0.99 per lb -- Excellent price for tomatoes!
• Corn - $2.00 for 5 ears -- Excellent! 40c an ear!!!
• Celery - $2.99 per head -- Ok price for celery. Lots of places charge $4 for nice big heads of celery...
• Bok choy, Napa, Flat Cabbage - $0.99 per lb -- Amazing price for choy and napa, fair for cabbage. The other day, I made a choy salad with a little light dressing. Super tasty.
• Green onions - $0.99 per bunch -- $1/bunch is basically the new normal when it comes to green onions.
• Ginger - $1.99 per lb -- Good price. You'll often find it more in the $3/lb range.
• Garlic - $1.29 5-pack -- Nice!
• Asian pears - $1.88 per lb -- Nice! Not bad for a fancier fruit. In season, you can score these easily under 1.50/lb
• Apples (Gala) - $1.49 per lb -- Not bad for a good apple, though it's still a bit high. 1.25/lb would be the better rate. But, short of sending your kids off to school with a head of bok choy in their lunch, I don't know what we're supposed to do here...
• Brick cheese (Armstrong) - $4.44 400g bar -- Nice! Sub-$5 brick cheese!
• Silk plant bev - $3.49 1.74-1.89L -- Nice little sale price. Down from about $5 this week.
• Carole's Japanese Cheesecake - $8.88 500g cake -- All I can think of is Charlie from It's Always Sunny, in the mail room freaking out about Pepe Silvia, and how there's no Carole in HR.
• Dr Oetkey pizzas (Ristorante) - $4.49 whatever -- Dude, what happened to these?! They used to be, like, $2-2.50 in 2020.
• Produce Price Rating: medium low (more on the medium side)

Giant Tiger (*note the VIP prices; sales begin today) (price matcher)

• Chicken breast (boneless skinless) - $6.97 500-818g -- Aaahhhh boyyyy! Freakin' lotteries again. Limit of 5. Assuming there's 650g in a pack, that'S 1.5lb for $7, which is about 4.66/lb, which is good. Find a scale and check the weights!
• Bacon (Olymel) - $3.88 375g pack -- Like the Leadbetter's at Farmboy, it's step-up bacon, and it's a good sale price.
• Breakfast sausage (Olymel) - $3.88 375g pack -- Not feeling bacon, you can swap out to sausages.
• Celery - $1.88 per head -- Great price, but careful, these are often smaller heads. Two of these is about the same as one big $4 head at Basics, for example.
• Iceberg lettuce - $1.88 per head -- Good price for lettuce!
• Green onions - $1.88 per bunch -- This may sound pricey, but I found the bunches have suffered some shrinkage. Last I went to GT, these were bigger bunches. Mind your step when it comes to green onions, I guess.
• Salad kit (Dole) - $1.97 340g bag -- Great price for a salad kit. These can range easily into the $4 range. In fact, Basics has them for $4 this week. So, consider these half-price salad kits.
• Mini cucumbers - $1.97 6-pack -- Nice, $2 is a good rate. We were seeing $4 6-packs some weeks (though, I doubt we've seen the end of those days...)
• Apples (Royal Gala) - $2.88 3lb bag -- Good rate on galas. On that $1/lb target.
• Lemons - $2.88 2lb bag -- Fair price for lemons.
• Clementines - $2.88 2lb bag -- GREAT price for clementines!
• Cream cheese (Lactantia) - $2.47 250g bar -- Great price! Can often range into $4 for the same bar.
• Dr Oetkey pizzas (Ristorante) - $4.97 whatever -- What the... How did it get worse from Freshco to GT....
• Produce Price Rating: Generally on the low side.

Green Fresh Supermarket (Vanier) (check https://greenfreshottawa20.wixsite.com/greenfreshottawa) * Produce Price Rating: Usually very competitive, catering to Asian cuisine. Warning: their newest sales start on Fridays - so this is a late advertising of their sales.
IGA (price matcher)

• Lobster - $8.77 per lb -- Scene Member Price.
• Bacon (Mere Michel) - $3.99 375g pack -- More $4 mid-range-ish bacon going around.
• Greenouse tomatoes - $0.99 per lb -- Nice! Another great $1/lb tomato deal!
• Blackberries - $1.44 half pint -- Scene Member Price.
• Brick cheese (Armstrong) - $3.99 400g bar -- Awesome!
• Dr Oetkey pizzas (Ristorante) - $3.47 whatever -- Bon, criss! And even then it's still too pricey for show shitty these pizzas are. What's a walk-in special at a pizza place these days?
• Produce Price Rating: Medium

Independent

• Beef brisket - $4.99 per lb -- Awesome price for beef brisket.
• Chicken breast or thighs (boneless skinless) - $4.99 per lb -- Good price. Go for the chicken and get out.
• Pork tenderloin - $3.49 per lb -- Fair price for tenderloin.
• Avocado - $2.49 each -- You know, you wanna give them the benefit of the doubt, but at 2.50 for an avocado, it better be big enough to kill a man, whether eaten or via bludgeoning.
• Blueberries - $2.77 full pint -- Awesome price!
• Brick cheese (Black Diamond) - $4.88 400g bar -- Sub-$5 cheese is always welcome.
• Produce Price Rating: fairly high with few exceptions

Loblaws

• Pork tenderloin - $3.49 per lb -- Fair price for tenderloin.
• Asparagus - $2.99 per lb -- Not bad for asparagus. We've seen better, but it's also not $4/lb we can commonly see.
• Salad Kits (PC) - $11.00 for 2 300g-ish -- We had mentioned earlier that GT has Dole-branded kits, same size, for $2. At $2, Dole could spit in my salad, and I still wouldn't look at these PC kits.
• Bok choy - $2.99 per lb -- Freshco has theirs for 99c/lb.
• Strawberries - $1.99 454g shell -- Awesome price for strawberries! Let's hope the quality is there. Sometimes cheap is cheap for a reason.
• Brick cheese (Black Diamond) - $4.88 400g bar -- Sub-$5 cheese is always welcome.
• Produce Price Rating: fairly high with few exceptions

Provigo

• Atlantic Lobster (live) - $7.99 per lb -- Good price on lobster.
• Beef striploin steak - $7.88 per lb -- Good price on steak, but no indication of the grade.
• Chicken legs - $2.49 per lb -- Faiaverage price for chicken legs. Same as Adonis.
• Strawberries - $2.44 454g shell -- Not as good as the 1.99 deal, but still quite good.
• Brick cheese (Ptit Quebec) - $4.88 400g bar -- Sub-$5 cheese is always welcome. Took some digging, but I found out that it's the same owners as those of Cracker Barrel, hence the easy-same-price swap between Provigo and Loblaws.
• Produce Price Rating: fairly high with few exceptions

Maxi (price matcher)

• Whole chicken - $1.99 per lb -- Awesome price for chicken! Learn to carve up a chicken. There's real savings there!
• Pork chops - $2.88 per lb -- Fair price for pork chops.
• Atlantic Salmon - $8.99 per lb -- Good price for salmon, under that $10/lb target.
• Small potatoes (Yellow, Russet) - $0.94 3lb bag -- Wow! 31c/lb! That's really good!
• Celery - $2.49 per head -- Good price for celery. Let's hope the heads are big and nice, and not "size-scaled according to price".
• Beefsteak tomatoes - $1.49 per lb -- Good price for tomatoes, but we're seeing some $1/lb sales. But if the quality is there, don't hesitate.
• Sweet peppers (green and red) - $3.99 4-pack -- Fair going price for peppers.
• Blueberries - $1.87 full pint -- WOW! Insanely good price for blueberries.
• Apples (Imperfect) - $6.00 6lb bag -- But is it 6lb?! Weigh the bag on a scale and check. Too much funny business in the fixed-weight products lately.
• Brick cheese (Ptit Quebec) - $4.87 400g bar -- Sub-$5 cheese is always welcome. Took some digging, but I found out that it's the same owners as those of Cracker Barrel, hence the easy-same-price swap between Provigo and Loblaws.
• Flour (Five Roses, Robinhood) - $13.99 10kg bag -- Hmm, these bags have seen a small increase from $11-12...
• Dry pasta (Primo) - $1.33 750g packs -- Great price! Stock-up a little!
• Produce Price Rating: Generally medium low pricing! This store can post some impressive deals at times.

Metro

• Beef prime rib roast and steaks (AA) - $8.99 per lb -- I want to like this sale. It's prime rib, which is a nice cut, but I wish it was AAA grade. Best go in with options in mind, and make your decision when you see the meat. Give it a poke, check the fat lines, make sure it's going to be nice and tender.
• Pork loin chops or roast - $2.99 per lb -- If the beef doesn't look good, you've got a pork parachute.
• Chicken breast and thighs (boneless skinless, Prime) - $5.99 per lb -- Not the best price, but definitely a little lower than regular.
• Strawberries - $1.99 454g shell -- Awesome price for strawberries! Again, always mind the quality at these prices.
• Burrata - $20.00 2x 250g balls -- This cheese is stupendous. It's a treat and priced accordingly, but worth trying. Think of super-fresh mozz balls or fior de latte, but with a mozz-cottage-cheese thing going on inside.
• Dr Oetkey pizzas (Ristorante) - $3.49 whatever -- How is it that we go from $5 for these, to $3.50... That's such a huge swing...
• Produce Price Rating: High. Kinda like Sobeys. You can see a 50% average mark-up compared to a lot of other stores. It's nice produce, but it costs you.

No Frills (price matcher)

• Chicken drumsticks - $1.87 per lb -- Good enough price for chicken drumsticks. I'd rather see legs at this price, but this is fair.
• Smoked sausages (No Name) - $6.99 900g pack -- Goodness these look a LOT like the Compliments bag at Freshco lol...
• Peameal bacon - $2.88 per lb -- Interesting. Sometimes it's hard to find peameal for less than $4. Meanwhile, I've never bought the stuff, and I don't think I've seen many put it in their cart. I don't get it lol.
• Atlantic Salmon - $9.77 per lb -- On that $10/lb target.
• Corn - $0.33 per ear -- Great price for ears of corn!!
• Potatoes (Red, Yellow, Russet) - $4.99 10lb bag -- Fair sale price for potatoes. Regular prices can float easily over $7 now...
• Blueberries - $1.99 full pint -- Another fantastic blueberry sale!
• Pears (Bartlett) - $0.88 per lb -- Awesome price for pears!!!
• Milk (Neilson) - $4.88 4L bagged -- Great sale price on milk considering it's about $6-7 at the very least.
• Canned tuna (Ocean's) - $0.99 170g -- There's some funny business in the flyer this week. There's, like, 3 different cans of tuna. This one for 99c, a Clover Leaf for 2.99, and another Ocean's for 2.99.
• Produce Price Rating: Generally quite low, selectively amazing for some items.

Produce Depot (usually a little late on the flyer) https://producedepot.ca/

• Ground beef (medium) - $4.99 per lb -- Not bad. Not a stock-up price, but this would be good burger material.
• Beef top sirloin steak - $7.99 per lb -- No grade mentioned, so mind your step. But if the quality looks good, it'd make a great treat!
• Cod fillet (fresh) - $11.99 per lb -- Fair price for fresh cod.
• Cucumber - $0.49 each -- WOW WOW! That's a DEAL! Meanwhile, Loblaws and affiliates can't sell us a cucumber for less than $1 on average, or 2.49 for a fancy organic one...
• Flat cabbage - $0.99 per lb -- Nice! Great to see cheap cabbage. I think we're going to see a resurgence of hardier, self-stable veg like this becoming popular.
• Sweet peppers - $1.99 per lb -- Great price for peppers. It's hard to find off-season peppers for less than $3/lb.
• Oranges - $1.29 per lb -- Not amazing, but still pretty good. $1/lb is really the better target. But, a couple of oranges won't risk the coop.
• Strawberries - $1.69 454g shell -- WOW! Produce Depot coming around to prove a point! These won't last, so plan your trip if you want these!
• Cheese counter - Fontina (Castello) - $2.79 per 100g -- Nice cheese for a good price. It's not cheap per se, but it's on point with prices for artisanal cheese.
• Deli - Pastrami - $2.39 per 100g -- Great price for nice deli meat!!!
• Produce Price Rating: Medium-low with very competitive specials on a shortened flyer. The small flyer is nice because it doesn't uselessly feature $6 heads of cauliflower and extremely high-price items that are either a confusion on the consumer, or an insult on the injury of not being able to afford supreme quality items.

Real Canadian Superstore (price matcher)

• Beef sirloin tip roast or steaks - $4.99 per lb -- Great price! I wonder about the grade, and I think I'd sooner do the roast because I know could get a tender bite out of the cooking method, versus fighting a tough steak that'll never rest into anything tender.
• Chicken breast (bone-in, skinless) - $3.99 per lb -- Good price for chicken breast, and bone-in is not bad. Boneless chicken loses out on a lot of flavour and moisture from the bone. And, there's so little bone along the breast that you don't really face the issue of undercooking it like you would with a leg (which requires higher temps or longer cooks, which can dry out if left too long in the oven or on the grill).
• Smoked sausages (No Name) - $9.99 900g pack -- From No Frills to RCSS, it'll cost you $3 to be in the store to get the same sausages...
• Asparagus - $2.99 per lb -- Good price for asparagus. When the crop-outs come through, we can see this dip to $2/lb, but out of that you can see as high as $4/lb.
• Mini cucumbers - $4.00 11-pack -- Well, considering we're seeing so many 6-packs go for $2, you've lose a cucumber with this 11-pack.
• Sweet peppers - $3.50 4-pack -- Great deal on a 4-pack.
• Vidalia onions - $5.99 3lb bag -- Sigh... $2/lb onions... Good onions, but damn...
• Potatoes (Imperfect) - $6.00 15lb bag -- Excellent! Great potato deal here, don't skip these! Pro tip: prep/cook whole potatoes in advance. Steam or pressure cook them, and keep them in the fridge. They slice real easy, and they fry/sauté really easily. Great for breakfasts, and a great alternative to bread.
• Grape tomatoes - $6.00 907g shell -- Great price for grape tomatoes. Freeze the ones that you don't use, and use them for stocks or to throw into soup to stew a bit before serving.
• Strawberries - $3.98 2lb shell -- Great deal. $2/lb, basically. That aligns with other great sales we see on strawberries.
• Pineapple - $3.00 each -- Good price for pineapple. $2 is the better target.
• Cantaloupe - $3.00 each -- Easy to find cantaloupe for $3, $2 occurs here and there. For the amount of melon you get, I don't think it's worth chasing that $1.
• Honeydew and Mini Watermelon - $4.99 each -- Meh prices for these melons. Not terrible, but not the greatest.
• Brick cheese (No Name) - $4.99 400g bar -- $5 brick cheese!
• Deli - Ziggy's Beef deli - $2.50 per 100g -- A consistent returning item and price for decent deli meat.
• Canned tomatoes (PC Blue Menu) - $1.59 796ml can -- Good price for canned tomatoes. Sometimes you can score canned tomatoes for as low as 1.25, 1.50 is still a very good price. $2 is not that great. 1.25 is the real stock-up price.
• Flour (Robinhood, Five Roses) - $11.99 10kg bag -- More and more I stand by having a 10kg bag in the pantry along with a jar of quick rise yeast. Making your own bread is not difficult. It's a fantastic skill to have. And after a dozen loaves, you'll get the hang of it.
• Produce Price Rating: Generally medium-low pricing, selectively amazing for some items.

Sobeys

• Chicken breast or thighs (boneless skinless, Compliments) - $5.88 per lb -- Upper-end fair going-rate for chicken breast. It's regular Adonis pricing, and more expensive than some of the better sales we see floating around.
• Chicken breast or thighs (boneless skinless, no antibiotics, Compliments) - $6.99 per lb -- Interesting to see the no-antibiotics version be $1/lb more. I wonder how that scales across all stores and brands... Seems to me $1/lb extra isn't bad.
• Pork tenderloin - $2.99 per lb -- Scene Member Price.
• Pork back rib - $2.99 per lb -- Scene Member Price.
• Beef brisket - $5.99 per lb -- $6/lb for AA grade ain't bad. Independent has the better deal on brisket, but choices must be made.
• Beef eye of round - $6.99 per lb -- It's a big cut of beef, but if you know how to spot and cut around the grain, you could get beef cubes, strips and marinating steaks out of this very easily.
• Scallops - $21.99 per lb -- Now, I usually don't recommend scallops, but I saw some scallop prices range of $28-32/lb. Farm Boy is just charging $3 for 2 scallops. LOL. And then you can score 300g frozen for $10 at Super C. Or get Metro bay scallops for $10/lb. No wonder I always go cross-eyed with scallop pricing.
• Cucumbers - $0.99 each -- Great price. Not the 50c sales we're seeing come up, but certainly better than some historical pricing we've seen.
• Red vine tomatoes - $0.99 per lb -- Awesome price for tomatoes!
• Brick cheese (Compliments) - $4.99 400g -- Good ol' $5 brick cheese!
• Cooked and frozen pork ribs (Compliments) - $13.99 680g pack -- I bring this up not because it's a valid suggestion. I bring this up because the same 1.5lbs of pork rib can cost you as low as $4.50 at the same store with the Scene pricing. You could get 4.5lb of rib. That's at least 2 big racks, which easily feeds 6 people with sides. Take that in. It is non-trivial! Manufactured/prepared products like this suck us dry.
• Dr Oetkey pizzas (Giuseppe) - $4.94 whatever -- Here we go again...
• Produce Price Rating: Generally a high price store, especially for produce. Some items are 50% more than more value-oriented stores. Kinda like Metro, some of the deals can be quite good.

Super C

• Chicken legs - $1.29 per lb -- WOW! Stock up! Fire up the BBQ! Marinate those legs over morning in some lemon juice, a little wine, rosemary, garlic, salt, pepper. Makes a great dinner main!
• Ground pork (extra lean) - $2.49 per lb -- WOW! Excellent price for ground pork!
• Tomahawk beef steak - $13.75 per lb -- Now, I'm not one to often suggest steaks like, this, but this is actually a tremendous cut. It might make a nice main for a special dinner!
• Bacon (Mere Michel) - $3.77 375g pack -- Good price for decent bacon. Lots of these sales going around.
• Asparagus - $2.77 per lb -- Great price for asparagus!
• Red vine tomatoes - $0.84 per lb -- WOW! Cheapest in town!
• Cucumbers - $0.99 each -- Nice! Let's hope these cucumber sales keep lowering!!
• Sweet potatoes - $0.99 per lb -- Great price! We're often seeing loose sweet potatoes range into the $1.30+/lb range.
• Blueberries - $0.99 half-pint -- Great price for blueberries!
• Lemons and limes - $0.99 for 3 -- Wow! Awesome price for citrus!
• Cantaloupe - $1.84 each -- Awesome! There's that $2 cantaloupe I was hoping to see!
• Oka cheese (and others!) - $4.75 170g pack -- Fantastic sale!!! Includes Monsier Gustav St-Paulin, Agropur Grand Cheddar, Notre-Dame brie, l'Extra Camembert. That's a lot of nice cheese at a nice price!
• Cheese Sale - $18 for 3 - varies -- Super cheese deal! Lots of varieties avialable, and you can score a lot of different products for basically $6 each.
• Earth's Own plant bev - $7.00 for 2x 1.75-1.89 --
• Dr Oetkey pizzas (Ristorante) - $3.47 whatever -- I think we can agree that these should be about 3.50 these days. Not $5...
• Produce Price Rating: Generally low, but can creep into medium for some items. But, there's always something decent available!

T&T Supermarket https://www.tntsupermarket.com * Produce Price Rating: Usually very competitive, catering to Asian cuisine. Warning: their newest sales start on Fridays - so this is a late advertising of their sales.
Walmart

• Whole chicken - $1.94 per lb -- Nice! I love $2/lb chicken! It puts us more on par with those loss-leader cooked chickens.
• Bacon (Great Value) - $2.94 375g pack -- Another bacon sale!
• Dinner sausage (Your Fresh Market) - $4.97 500g 4-pack -- Good price for raw sausage, but it's also close to the fresh-made price you can find at some stores ($6/lb). Note: precooked sausages and wieners are not something we should eat too often. They're packed with extra salts and fats, especially nitrites, which are used as a preservative, and it keeps meat pink. It's found in basically any processed meat you find on the shelf. In small quantities, it's fine, but North America is big on consuming these sorts of products, and some reports suggest 1/2 a hotdog a day, along with the bun and condiments, is linked to a 20% hike in rates of intestinal cancers. Raw fresh-made sausage often do not have nitrites. Just some food for thought and a reminder to check the ingredients listed on the package.
• Vine tomatoes - $1.94 per lb -- Not that great considering the sub-$1/lb sales we've seen.
• Green peppers - $1.94 per lb -- Fair and good rate on green peppers.
• Zucchini - $1.94 per lb -- A little high, but on par with other stores this week.
• Eggplant - $1.94 per lb -- A little high, but on par with other stores this week.
• Green onion - $0.94 for 2 -- Ouuu that's good for green onion. I was just saying $1 was the going-rate. This is half that! Excellent deal!
• Cilantro bunch - $0.94 for 2 -- Oh wow, that's really good for fresh cilantro. Bunches can be 99c, 1.50, or even $2.
• Mango (Red or Ataulfo) - $0.94 for 2 -- Awesome price for mango! There's an opportunity here for a mango salsa!!!
• Brick cheese (Armstrong) - $4.94 400g bar -- Good ol' $5 brick!
• Frozen veg (Great Value) - $2.47 500-750g -- More of a reminder to look out for this sort of pricing on frozen veg. Bags of corn, peas, string beans, these can all be had for about this price. And, they're perfect nutritious, if not more than "fresh" on a shelf as it's frozen after being picked when ready, instead of picked early and thrown onto a truck for a thousand kms.
• Olive oil (Sapurito) - $11.94 1L bottle -- Wow! $3 off the average doesn't sound like a lot, but 20% is 20%. It's kind of like "buy 4 and get 1 free".
• Butter (Gay Lea) - $4.94 454g bar -- $5 butter. Still expensive as all heck, but it's not $7-8.
• Produce Price Rating: A little all over the place. Some really good prices between a lot of average pricing.

Costco (Note that these are the online/shipped prices - reduce each item by $3 for in-store pricing)

• NOTE: NEED TO REVISE - --
• Paper Towel (Kirkland) - $27.99 12-roll pack -- 2-ply; 160 sheets
• Paper Towel (Bounty) - $27.49 12-roll pack -- 2-ply; 86 sheets
• Toilet Paper (Kirkland) - $25.99 30-roll pack -- 2-ply; 380 sheets
• Toilet Paper (Cashmere) - $24.99 40-roll pack -- 2-ply; 250 sheets (on sale)
• Dish soap (Dawn Platinum) - $18.99 2.66L -- Food Basics often has this jug for $10!
• Laundry detergent (Purex) - $24.99 9.24L -- 250 loads
• Garbage bags (30 gallon; large) - $15.99 100-pack -- Amazon has Glad standard 74L bags, 100-packs for $23, sometimes less if on sale
• Countertop green bin liners - $21.99 125-pack -- Amazon has Glad Compostable green bin liners 100-packs for $18, sometimes less if on sale
• Produce Price Rating: I need to do a proper check to be sure, but I find it's pretty average. There's an illusion of getting a good deal because of the bulk. Just be careful.

Jean Coutu (new sales start Fridays)

• Produce Price Rating: I have to start checking these just in case...

Shoppers Drug Mart (new sales start Fridays)

• Produce Price Rating: Sometimes they have cheap butter, eggs, and milk on weekends.

Some additional references!

• Grocery Review Google Drive Location https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1xhLvBP1smXb1eSnxAW5yyBjO2aYFLJHC?usp=sharing
• Cooking Tips and Recipes https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1TCcHm9y0kWIa3x18hznKN2ix0BPcUv-m?usp=drive_link
• Google Maps list of the Grocery stores in Ottawa https://maps.app.goo.gl/YT7cZmv8vMQWU4J59

As stated in my previous post, I'm raising money for my Aunt with down syndrome who had her inheritance money taken away from her. Dm me for questions and pics. Everything is negotiable unless stated. Everything is also NM unless stated otherwise.
Grimes visions VMP (large seam split on top - $25
Starset Vessels marble teal( some wear from being in an FYE) - $115
Highly suspect boy who died wolf Electric Blue ed - $150
PPC High Visceral pt 2 purple white swirl(tour press) - $145
King Gizzard Gaia Presumptuous 7' - $65
Carpenter brut Troligy orange smokey haze triple vinyl - $85
Aphrodite's child 666 MOV red ed /2000 - $90
Murlocs loopholes space cadet edition (I have 2 of these) (also includes stamped cardboard bag)- $65 each
Echosmith talking dreams rainbow splatter - $45
Pretty reckless death by rock n roll 7' gold - $80
Frankie and the witch fingers merry go round 7' - $70
Frankie and the witch fingers cookin 7' gold - $30
Oh sees drop Versace vomit ed - $20
John Dwyer Moon drenched clear with purple blob - $20
Hellfire black midi red w/Japanese obi - $40
Frankie and the witch fingers pleasure 7' pink - $80
Game of thrones season 8 OST nightwalker splatter(fye ed.) - $30
Game of Thrones season 7 white and blue marble - $15
Fuzzybrain Dayglo pink ed. - $30
Mind of the swarm buried feather creep eye ed(salty dog rec variant) - $50
Pink Floyd saucerful of secrets rsd mono black - $35
Halsey if I cant have love alt cover purple variant - $25
Pretty reckless death by rock n roll FYE clear variant - $35
Nolan Potter music is dead dinked edition (complete with all inserts and flexi) - $50 FIRM
Frankie and the witch fingers mepem primordial ooze variant - $40
Frankie and the witch fingers mepem monsters blood splatter (disc is decently warped , buy only for looking at or maybe putting on your wall lol) - $5 or free with any purchase of $100 or more(just ask)
Fuzz II cloudy marble - $25
Cloudberry dreamshake buried feather blue marble(no not numbered) - $35
Fuzz levitation sessions fire splatter - $30
Ren and stimpy you eediot hairball splatter - $40
Magdalena Bay Mercurial World Silver dispersion Ed. - $70
Magdalena Bay Mercurial World Red white swirl - $70
Magdalena Bay Little rhythm and a wicked feeling Black vinyl (signed, but decently smeared) - $40
Magdalena Bay Little rhythm and a wicked feeling pink marble (Brooklyn vegan exc) - $40
Little rhythm and a wicked feeling blue white marble (BC exc) - $45
30 sec to Mars - a beautiful lie (black vinyl) - SOLD
Acid crusheMount swan (clear with black splatter) - $24
The Witches All your Happy life (purple) - $11
Tess parks And those who were seen dancing (red with yellow and blue splatter, levitation variant) - $45
Alvvays blue rev (Spotify Fans First Blue variant) - $35
Melody's echo chamber bon voyage (black vinyl) - $15
Calico review Alla las(FYE exclusive Gold) - $12
Adtr common courtesy (anniversary rainbow splatter) - $30
Pipe eye cosmic blip (Black with white splatter reissue, no paper bag) - $18
Carrie Underwood cry pretty(pink) $10
Mars Volta deloused (VMP essentials gold marble, yes has the common noise defect) - $20
Billie don't smile at me (UO Red) - $28
Breaking Benjamin ember (black vinyl) - $19
Foals everything not saved will be lost pt 1 (black vinyl) - $18
Phantogram eyelid movies(black vinyl) - $25
Phantogram fall in love 7' - $5
Lightning bolt fantasy empire(clear vinyl with yellow and pink marbling) - $22
Fenella music inspired by feherlofia (clear vinyl) - $10
Death from above freeze me 7' - $5
Devils witches Guns drugs and filthy pictures (pink with black splatter)- $19
Harry Potter and the deathly hallows pt 2 OST(BAM exclusive blue and yellow vinyl) - $42
Night riots howl(blue vinyl) - $14
Lightning bolt hyper magic mountain(red vinyl with black splatter, side D etching) - $22
Kendra Amalie intuition(orange and black galaxy vinyl) - $7
Jerusalem and the Star Baskets LA Freeze(black vinyl) - $10
Acid mothers temple levitation sessions(heavy splatter explosion) - $35
Mamalarky s/t( orange creamsicle vinyl) -$19
Murlocs manic candid episode (orange vinyl) - $16
Mattiel s/t (black vinyl) - $50
Crobot mother brain(pink/purple marble) - $12
Peace love and outer space + cassette ( black vinyl) - $20 for the record, $28 for the vinyl+tape
Yazz Ahmed Polyhymnia (black vinyl) $45
Ghost prequel cassette $35
Osees protean threat(orange) $25
Mattiel satis factory + cassette (orange vinyl) -$30 for the vinyl, $15 for the cassette
Kelsea Ballerini Spotify singles - $65
Spud test pressing - $50
Psychic heat sun shower(transparent green splatter) - $15
Tell me how you feel Courtney Barnett( black vinyl) - $14
Dc4c thank u for today( black vinyl) -$20
Warpaint the fool rsd gold vinyl - $15
Chevelle the north corridor(FYE exclusive clear with black swirl) $55
Death from above the physical world(black vinyl) - $10
Flaming lips the terror (Black Vinyl) - $18
Youth lagoon wondrous bughouse(black vinyl) - $8
Purity Ring Womb(indie red vinyl) - $17
Avalanches we will always love you( Coke bottle transparent with green blob) - $30
Eternal tapestry wild strawberries( white vinyl) - $35

Any recommendations on junk haulers? I bought a place “as is” and while the person was not necessarily a hoarder I don’t need the full edition of bon appetite 1989 bequeathed to me either.

The results of The Season are in!
Denim, Natalia Pilacam, and Plasma Lip-Sync to "Festival" by Paola & Chiara. The three of them are all soaking into the emotion, with Natalia getting down on the front of the stage and praying before she looks up at the sky with her eyes closed. Plasma slowly spins around, picking up speed as Denim struts down the catwalk, all three putting emotion into it. As Natalia gets up from her prayer, her gown sheds off and shows a dancing outfit. She dances around the stage, throwing confetti and glitter into the air. Plasma does a signature eight count as she dances, with Denim continuing to strut around the stage, dropping to her knees, and doing sexy moves. Natalia jiggles around her titties on the ground as the judges laugh with both her and Denim fake twerking as she does her conga line, with Plasma & Denim joining in as all three of them dance in a line. They all spin off and do their own thing as Natalia pretends like she's making them fall over.
Italy's Next Drag Super Star of Lij's Drag Race Recasted: Italia Season 2, and the next Entry to the Drag Hall Of Fame is...

════ ⋆★⋆ ════

NATALIA PILACAM! Condragulations!!!

DRAG HALL OF FAME:

• Mo Heart (US S1)
• Jinkx Monsoon (US S2)
• Janey Jacké (US S3)
• Crystal Methy'd (US S4)
• Tatianna (AS1)
• Bianca Del Rio (US S5)
• Peppermint (US S6)
• Jaida Essence Hall (US S7)
• My Little Puny (US S8)
• Latrice Royale (AS2)
• Kylie Sonique Love (US S9)
• Detox (AS3)
• Daya Betty (US S10)
• Divina De Campo (AS4)
• Kita Mean (US S11)
• Pangina Heals (US S11)
• Elecktra Bionic (UK S1)
• Priyanka (US S12)
• Trixie Mattel (AS5)
• Brooke Lynn Hytes (Canada S1)
• Roxxxy Andrews (Holland S1)
• Kandy Zyanide (US S13)
• Alaska ThunderFuck (UK S2)
• Courtney Act (Down Under S1)
• Envy Peru (España S1)
• Violet Chachki (AS6)
• Kelly Mantle (Holland S2)
• Spankie Jackzon (UK S3)
• Angeria Paris VanMichaels (Canada S2)
• Isis Avis Loren (Italia S1)
• Bob The Drag Queen (US S14)
• Angele Anang (UKVSTW S1)
• Jessica Wild (España S2)
• Pangina Heals (AS7)
• Bandit (France S1)
• Aurora Matrix (Canada S3)
• Symone (Down Under S2)
• Carmen Farala (Philippines S1)
• Sasha Velour (Philippines S1)
• Bimini Bon-Boulash (UK S4)
• Natalia Pilacam (Italia S2)

Track Record