Rob Masters

 A little while ago I announced that I'd finished " Scout and Shaman". Then a voice spoke to me, and I am finding that I am committing Sequel. So say 'Hi' to Joyful Finder, a descendent of the characters in the original story. I hope you enjoy " Shaman Scout ".

Originally published at  https://aus.social/@rdm/113674412653690387 . Content warning - mention of bullying. The headmistress stalked the halls of the school. One of the second grade teachers had reported that one of his students was missing, and had been present earlier in the day. As she passed a storage cupboard, she heard a small noise and stopped. A quick check showed the door was locked. Interesting. A quick wave of her hand, and there was a "click". She opened the door. Inside was the missing student, Britney Butler. She had clearly been crying, and her clothes suggested that she'd been manhandled into the cupboard, not climbing in.  "There you are, Miss Butler. Out you hop, and let's go and have a little chat." "Mrs Aitkins ... I'm sorry, it ..." "None of that now. Come along, you are not in any trouble." The little girl climbed out, and the headmistress closed the door.  "This way, please". And started down the hal...

This story is one that I thought I had finished. Then one of the characters started poking me, and telling me that there needed to be more. Finder tells me it is done, for now at least. So here is what I think is the complete story of Lorn, Scout Explorer and Finder-of-Unnoticed-Details, Shaman. https://rdmasters.lympago.com/p/scout-and-shaman.html Diligent readers Of A Certain Age may well have suspicions about the larger universe that the story is set in. I will neither confirm nor deny this resemblance. Anyway, I filed the serial numbers off, and gave it a new coat of paint. 

  https://writing.exchange/@ewdocparris/109877287387918829 and https://writing.exchange/@ewdocparris/109882779820415999 Tannis was not quite sure how she ended up embedded in the middle of a Varan combined tactics formation, but none of them appeared to have noticed her Cerian fighter. "Oh, well, I may as well go with it for now. It is not like they can do much with me in the middle of them, even if they do notice. Who knows? I might even be able to do some good", she mused to herself. A quick glance showed the CVR was running. Not bad last words. With that, she started checking her weapon loads.

Written  In response to this  prompt over in Mastadon. Part 1 Twice a year it came out of the river, always stopping in exactly the same place, no matter what was there. Buildings, vehicles, animals, anything there would be crushed - but it never went any further, and anything along the way was avoided. There it would stand for an hour, and then return to the river. No one knew why, or where it came from, or where it went. But they all agreed that it had a beautiful singing voice. Part 2 You wondering why none of us are worried? Well, it has been doing this for as long as folks have been here. Probably longer. We've had wars come through, and it pays no attention. Mind you, if you shoot something at it, it will come straight back at you! As for the crushing thing, well a few years back Old Harry left his ute there when he was on a bender. Only reason insurance paid up was that it was worth so little to begin with. Then there was that developer guy from out of town. Tried to st...

Well we've got a fun one this week! Banjo spaceships, alien abductions, and a country cover of a classic rock anthem. Offering up a counterpoint to my belief that almost any song can sound good when played by the right people (see - " ...Baby One More Time" by Ahmet and Dweezil Zappa ), this shows that some songs cannot be harmed by the style in which they are played. So sit back and relax (or not) as The Dead South cover "People Are Strange", from 2021.

There's been a bit of a hiatus, but I'm back! This time I go all the way back to 1933, and the legendary Fleischer Studios. Fleischer were the creators of the infamous Betty Boop and many others, and were the original animators of both Popeye and Superman. Here we have them taking on Snow White in their distinctive style, accompanied by jazz legend Cal Calloway.  Enjoy "St James Infirmary Blues" by Cal Calloway from 1933.

 Consider the following installation.  By itself, it could be almost anything. Maybe slightly ominous, depending on what the music is like. Now let's add a character. Maybe a nice old lady astrophysicist . Suddenly, it is probably just some funky radio telescope or similar. Perfectly normal, nothing bad is going to happen to anyone because of it. So let's change it to some bloke scientist. Everything is still probably fine, depending on the music. Just some researcher. This does not mean that things might not go horribly wrong, but they seem to be perfectly normal. We can make it even more normal by using two characters - Honey! I'm home! But I digress. Back to the slow decline. Now things are looking dodgy. Red glasses, self-satisfied smirk, weird flask of something green... it all adds up to this is probably nothing good for anyone. But we can step it up more. OK, exposed brain alien dude. Let's face it, we're in for a rough and nasty ride. Probably with some awfu...

Back to that rich vein of videos, the 80s this time, and one of the musical greats the the era produced.  Our video is a stop-motion paper-cut surrealist dream-sequence, and that by itself would not gain it an entry to this series. What gets it in is the way it mirrors the song in a very literal way. This is someone who has achieved flight and is never returning to the ground. It might be an acid-fuelled vision of the narrative, but it is clearly what is going on.  I do wonder about the flippers and the slippers, though. Anyway, here is 1985's classic hit "And She Was" by Talking Heads from Little Creatures.

Another fresh tune this week, with a track released just ten days ago! Hold on for a ride you've not seen the likes of since Galaxy Quest. And no, do not expect spaceships mit der blinkenlights. But do expect a bunch of very quirky and rather naive aliens. What do they want from us? Why did they come here? All will be revealed! Hailing from the Isle of Wight, here are Wet Leg with "Too Late".

The old gag goes "We have both kinds of music here - Country and Western". Well, I don't usually have a lot of time for either.  This song is an exception, and it was always a crying shame it never got a decent video, until 19 years later, when a band that I also rarely have a lot of time for did a cover.  And the confluence of genres, song, band, and video combined to create something vastly greater than any one of the parts. Enjoy "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" by Primus from 1998.

This week I have possibly the newest video I will ever post. Released yesterday, and from their new musical Teaching a Robot to Love , I present "A Normal Human Party" by The Doubleclicks.  Many thanks to E. for bringing this to my attention!

Cosmetic surgery for anthropomorphic dogs. With Alison Goldfrapp as the end product. Really, I cannot say anything more about this - except that Alison is the Kate Bush of the 2000s.  Here is 2005's "Number 1" by Goldfrapp, from Black Cherry. 

Straight out of the 80's and visualised by channelling Leiji Matsumoto, we've got an epic space fantasy this week. Except it is from 2019 and Canada. A truly delightful flashback, this has everything - including cameos from the band, and from their associated act. Prepare for battle alongside "Starlight Brigade" by TWRP, from 2019's Together Through Time.

I thought long and hard about including this one, but in the end I gave it the benefit of the doubt, largely because the band are so perfectly in character for the entire thing. The band's own description of the clip on YouTube is, in itself, a work of art - claiming it to have a vastly older history than it does, and referring to the band in the third person.  Featuring an early 80s or late 70s retrofuturistic take on the music industry, complete with cheesy 'computers', enjoy "Do It All The Time" by I DONT KNOW HOW BUT THEY FOUND ME from the EP 1981 Extended Play from 2018. Now are you confused by this multitude of dates? I sure am!

Visiting the early 2000's now, and a hip-hop love song.  Better known for portraying a pastiche of themselves in a music video, this time we get alien tourists. And an amazingly sweet little story. One that is so full of hope for the world it is almost heartbreaking. Here is "Prototype" from Outkast and 2004.

It is becoming increasingly hard to find SFF music videos that are not intrinsically depressing or that end on a serious downer. In case you're wondering what that has to do with things... The world is in a terrible place right now, and I figure that keeping my videos on the light side for now is for the best. So, my hunt, aided by the amazing Leece, continues.  In fact, she dug up this week's little gem. This little post-apocalyptic visit to a funfair has just enough of an uncertainty at the end to make the grade, so let's run with "Carnival of Rust" by the Finnish band Poets of the Fall, from 2006's album of the same name.

So let's go for something a little simpler this week.  This time we get a simple silent movie, set in a circus. We've got a downtrodden hero, a damsel in distress, and a villain. Everything we need for a classic story. And yes, we get some real magic in it as well.  All in all, some simple entertainment. Enjoy "Magic" by Coldplay from Ghost Stories (2014).

Late again, I know! Once again, we are faced with the question of who or what the monster in this is. Amazingly evocative, and very thought provoking - but I will not say too much because spoilers. Be intrigued by "Monster" by Starset, from 2016's Vessels.

With Talk Like A Pirate Day just around the corner, I thought we'd continue with last week's theme. This time we have a darker look at the mermaid myth, and we get some firm warnings about how to treat promises.  Enjoy Ginny Di's "The Wave Soaked Maiden" from "Songs To Drown Sailors To"  from 2021.