Skyrim updated, again, mods broke, again

[annathepiper]

So Bethesda dropped another Skyrim update, with some patches for the new Creations menu added onto the game’s main menu.

Which of course meant that all the core community mods had to update again. Which meant everybody’s modded playthroughs got borked.

(Not calling this a hot take, because that would imply I actually have a heated opinion on this. And there isn’t any particular heat here. So call this a clement take if you like!)

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Comments

[sauronnaise]

I don't play video games (I do listen to their soundtracks, however), but I enjoyed your entry. It was easy to follow. I'm looking forward to what's next (I might find myself invested in this story)

Out of topic: what drew you to French Canadian/Québécois trad/folk music? What are your favourite bands? Curious because it's flattering that someone takes interest in the music of my people :D (Newfoundland has excellent drinking songs, btw)

[annathepiper]

Hi there, and thank you for commenting! :) I'm glad you enjoyed the post.

Re: Quebec trad and what drew me in: La Bottine Souriante was my entry point, way back in 2001. I was attending a concert lineup at a winery near to me, which has an outdoor amphitheater that they use for summer concerts.

That night they had a four band lineup: the Battlefield Band, La Bottine Souriante, Great Big Sea, and Natalie MacMaster. Great Big Sea and La Bottine both blew me the hell away.

I eventually decided I wanted more bands like La Bottine represented in my music collection, and that led me to discover La Volée d'Castors, and my current reigning favorite champions, Le Vent du Nord. <3 I am also extremely fond of De Temps Antan, Genticorum, Galant tu perds ton temps, and Les Charbonniers de l'Enfer.

In addition to the music just being awesome I've had the distinct pleasure of meeting several of the musicians, and in a couple of cases, actually taking workshops with them. André Brunet is an amazing fiddle player and a great teacher as well. And back in 2017 I even attended Camp Violon Trad to take classes there.

We have a lively little community of people in the Pacific Northwest that love the music, and who gather for sessions. I haven't been able to attend since the pandemic started--I've got some COVID medical risk factors, so I'm not going anywhere without a mask on. And I can't play my primary instrument (flute/whistle) while masked!

So until this situation changes, I'm at least working on learning the fiddle. :) That's also serving very well in keeping up my interest!

If you have any recs for bands or solo performers, do share! :)

[sauronnaise]

Woah, that was such a cool story. Glad you like our music ^_^ Since you like Celtic-inspired music, do you also listen to Métis, Acadian, Maritimes and Appalachian music? (I'm not too knowledgeable about Appalachian music though but I bet the area is full of traditions. It's funny because as a Québécois and ethnic French Canadian, I have more kinship with people on the northeast Atlantic coast from other side of the border, than Anglo-Canadians from Toronto and westward all the way to the Pacific. My take is that even though we have different origins and history, we share a common point that is being neighbours for 400 years XD It gave us ample time to build our folklore (and we share some folk creatures too!) and culture of our own, too.)

What do you think about songlyrics? When I show music to non-French speakers and there's no translation available, it's a trip having to explain them that yes, the lyrics are about suicide, alcoholism or familial violence, or Satan doing his shenanigans as per usual (he's the kinda main character of our legends and stories), and yes, the music is all happy like it's nothing.

What about folk and traditional music do you guys have on the other side of the continent? If you have any recs, Indigenous and/or colonial, I'm down.

How's playing the fiddle going? I find it annoying that the fiddle is seen as lesser than the violon. I know it's essentially the same instrument, but folk and traditional music for the people isn't held as the same regard as classic music, the music of the elite. (Farya Faraji said something of the kind in a panel with Luke from Polymathy on youtube. He's Québécois of Mazandarani origin (he was born in northern Iran, lived in France for a bit, moved here later). I recommend his music btw. He has four French Canadian songs on his channel on youtube.) I bet playing the fiddle and folk tunes is no easy task.

I follow two Québec troupes on social medias if you're interested in our dances ^_^ There's also an anglo-Canadian troupe I like a lot, they're from the Ottawa Valley (the Ottawa Valley crosses the Québec/Ontario border, so we obviously share cultural elements.

We are Vent du Nord fans in my household! My parents own a few of their albums.

I made a Spotify playlist back then in December (because upcoming Holidays = trad music season). It's mostly upbeat songs because I listened to them while working out or jogging. Enjoy! I'm sure you know many of the songs already.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4sUqtvzWLAeCsGZ7nFvg0T?si=8ba0c00ace034ff2

[annathepiper]

Re: what other kinds of music I regularly listen to... I'm aware of Métis but haven't listened to it much, some tunes from that tradition have been known to show up in the local sessions I've attended sometimes though.

I do have a scattering of various Maritime artists and groups in my collection, yeah. Newfoundland and Quebec mostly dominate my collection, but really, I'm open to listening to anything in the general Atlantic Canada area. :)

And Acadian music has a bit of a presence in my collection, too. Not much, I think I have maybe one Acadian group represented, but they're there!

About lyrics... I love digging into translating things on my own where I can, yeah. Not only because I'm a bit of a language nerd, but also just because it helps me actually understand the song better, and appreciate it on more levels than just "this sounds really cool".

So that's let me come to learn about some of the darker and deeper themes covered by some of the artists and groups in my collection, and pick up small bits of history sometimes too. And heh, yes, Celtic-flavored music is all about taking those darker and deeper themes and putting them to really catchy music!

Great Big Sea used to make regular jokes about that, in fact. ;D Particularly with their crowd-pleaser "Excursion Around the Bay", which I have very fond memories of singing along with at their concerts. But that extremely catchy ditty is, after all, about a guy's wife drowning and dying!

I am less versed than I'd like about the musical traditions specifically more local to me, but that's mostly because I'm pretty hyper focused on Quebec trad and related genres. But when I can, I go to local folk music festivals and I'm always looking for interesting new artists.

So from that I can at least recommend a young fiddler named Jocelyn Pettit, I've seen her perform a few times at local festivals and I have a couple of her albums. :)

Playing the fiddle is going less well than I'd like at the immediate moment, but mostly because right now I'm unemployed and can't spare the money to pay my teacher. So lessons will resume once I have a job again. My teacher's periodically giving me free teaching time when she can spare it, but I try not to take advantage of that because that is her income, and I want her to priortize her paying students.

So hopefully I'll be able to return to that once I get a job again.