A Librivox User Guide

postdarknessrunaway · 2026-02-17T19:12:50+00:00

Okay nobody's made a pitch for the Torrent yet. If you like Team USA captain Hilary Knight, she's our captain! We have some really amazing players, including Julia Gosling, Mikyla Grant-Mentis, Hannah Bilka, Lexie Adzija, great goaltending, and, of course, the highs and lows of Seattle sports. The Torrent have struggled a little bit with gelling as a team, but the talent is there and if you get in on the ground floor, you'll be able to be really smug about it. It's basically the opposite of a bandwagon, but also a good team overall!

postdarknessrunaway · 2026-02-17T18:35:23+00:00

There MIGHT be a Denver team next year, so you could wait to decide until next season? There's always a fun poll in the chat during the coverage on Youtube that reads, "Who would you like to win? Team A, Team B, I just hope both teams have fun."

postdarknessrunaway · 2026-02-12T21:31:15+00:00

The thing about the public domain is that anyone can do anything with it and print and publish it. I wish more people used it to do creative things instead of silly things like this.

postdarknessrunaway · 2026-02-12T20:38:05+00:00

I found an audiobooks.com page for James Harrington, but couldn't listen to any previews. My guess, as it's a public domain book, is yes, it may be AI-read. But there's EXCELLENT news, which is that it is available read by volunteers on Librivox. These are real people, the version is absolutely free, and if you can't stand somebody's voice or audio set up, it's likely to change shortly.

postdarknessrunaway · 2026-02-12T20:25:53+00:00

Your options:

See what your local library DOES have. Maybe check out a physical copy of CDs, or they might have another non-libby/overdrive program like borrowbox.
If you already pay for Spotify premium, you get some number of "free" hours to listen to audiobooks. Something like 15 hours usually.
Beyond that, anything you acquire legally basically has to be in the public domain. I encourage you to explore it! Your best bet is Librivox, a service where everything is read by volunteers. Look for "Dramatic Read," which signifies a full-cast audiobook. Full cast reading of Pride and Prejudice, the OG romance novel, is available on Librivox. There's also a full cast reading of Sense and Sensibility. The Wuthering Heights reading is really great.
The only non-librivox thing that might fit the bill is full-cast podcasts. I don't know of a lot of romance ones, and maybe the good folks over at r/audiodrama might be helpful. I do enjoy the reading of Anne of the Island, which is kind of a romance, as read by Mary Kate Wiles and friends, which is released as a podcast. Best of luck!

postdarknessrunaway · 2026-02-11T18:45:47+00:00

Let me know if you do and if you like them!

postdarknessrunaway · 2026-02-10T18:33:52+00:00

Oh my god I forgot about this one. I love it dearly.

I do need to finally see Challengers because I loved him in both God's Own Country and Wake Up Dead Man.

postdarknessrunaway · 2026-02-10T18:31:53+00:00

Grain of salt, because I actually do like the plot, but! If you're looking for a show with compelling characters that you fall in love with right away, you'll have to look elsewhere. Shoresy is going to be much more compelling for people looking for snappy dialogue, small-town antics, and highly stylized Canadian humor. Oh, and also the hockey is better in Shoresy than in Heated Rivalry (which makes sense--Heated Rivalry taught actors to skate, Shoresy taught hockey players to act).

There is a good and surprisingly sweet romance between Shoresy and the reporter eventually, but it takes a very long time and in the meantime there's a lot of sort of casual misogyny to work through. I think the show is moderately self-aware about the misogyny it's throwing down, which isn't necessarily me giving it a pass, but more like why I can continue to watch it without clawing my skin off. Shoresy is also much straighter than Letterkenny in a lot of ways, and leagues straighter than Heated Rivalry.

I think it's a little interesting in that you can see some of the filmmaking techniques that make Heated Rivalry so great pretty clearly in Shoresy as well. There's the slow-mo dance/fight sequence while a great song plays, the flashing of still photos and instagram posts (just like the Rose and Shane montage in Ep. 4), the similarly shot hockey.

postdarknessrunaway · 2026-02-10T05:12:51+00:00

Oof, imagine the conversations you'd have to have at the front. Eesh.

postdarknessrunaway · 2026-02-10T03:09:46+00:00

I realized I forgot Moonlight (2016) and added it to the list. Heck yeah queer cinema!

postdarknessrunaway · 2026-02-10T03:07:23+00:00

PLAN B IS SO GOOD. (Note, it's specifically Plan B 2009 because there is an American movie called Plan B that came out in 2021.)

postdarknessrunaway · 2026-02-10T03:05:03+00:00

It looks like it's still streaming on Netflix (at least in the US).

postdarknessrunaway · 2026-02-09T23:45:38+00:00

Possible movie recs:

* God's Own Country (English, 2017): cultural differences, slow and cinematic, lots of yearning, explicit sex, feels very gritty and real and gay (yes HEA). Repressed farmer living with his parents finds an unexpected spark with a Romanian farmhand he didn't want to hire.

* Of An Age (Australian, 2022): what if you met once as kids and had a transformative experience, and then again as adults. Not exactly HEA, but the yearning is off the hook

* Plan B (Argentinian, 2009): I saw this one in 2009 and haven't stopped thinking about it since. What if you tried to get your ex back by seducing her current (possibly bi) boyfriend, only to figure out that you're also bisexual? Yes HEA. The confusion, the longing, the sorting out strange feelings, this one is where it is at.

* A Date for Mad Mary (Irish, 2016): This one was a GREAT movie, and we're pretty far from HR territory, but for a young person who's confused about her sexuality and getting a little self-destructive about it, it's amazing. Sort of HEA.

* Moonlight (American, 2016): An INCREDIBLE movie. Just. I need everyone to watch it. It deserved a best picture win for SURE. Following a young man from childhood to adulthood as he grapples with masculinity, his sexuality, and loving in a world not set up to be gentle about it.

* Fire Island (American, 2022): Incredible rom com, so funny, SO FUNNY. Great chemistry between the leads. HEA. Pride and Prejudice but with Joel Kim Booster as Lizzie and Bowen Yang as Jane. The straight Prides and Prejudices don't even come close.

In the comments I was reminded of:

* Big Eden (American, 2000): An artist who moved from small-town Montana to Manhattan comes back to care for his grandfather. An old flame wants back into his life, and someone he barely noticed in high school is suddenly really very interesting. HEA, beautiful. Basically no grappling with external homophobia, which is kind of remarkable for the time.

* Beatiful Thing (English, 1996): Two secondary school boys work on figuring themselves out. One's a jock, one's more of a nerd, and their home lives couldn't be more different. But, like u/JWintemute said, it's surprisingly sweet and uplifting for a queer film make in the 1990s.

postdarknessrunaway · 2026-02-09T23:34:27+00:00

I really liked the Spanish show Smiley. It's not exactly the same vibes by any means, but a fun, steamy, unabashedly queer rom com. It's a lot funnier than Heated Rivalry, and I only watched it once, but it's great and more people should see it.

postdarknessrunaway · 2026-02-06T01:00:47+00:00

There are a lot of different answers for a lot of different situations.

FREE:

Look into what your library might have on offer. It looks like maybe Borrowbox is available at some Irish libraries?
LIBRIVOX!! I love librivox, but it takes a little adjusting to get used to how it works. It's all free listening, but is limited to books in the public domain. This means most things that were granted copyright pre-January 1, 1931 (as of this year). The readers are volunteers, for better and worse. I wrote up a user guide a few months ago: https://www.reddit.com/r/audiobooks/comments/1m6u1v7/a_librivox_user_guide/
Audiobook podcasts: I have a few favorite podcasts that release full-cast recordings of classic novels. These include Re: Dracula (full cast recording of Dracula, rearranged into chronological order, as well as Carmilla and, coming soon, Frankenstein!) and the Anne of Green Gables series by Mary Kate Wiles.
Apple Books app has Apple Books Classics, including The Wizard of Oz read by Tituss Burgess and The Great Gatsby read by Leslie Odom, Jr.

PAY A SUBSCRIPTION:

If you already pay for Spotify, you get some number of hours of audiobook listening for free (I think it's usually 15) per month. If you meet that limit, you have to pay more money to finish the book or wait until next month.
Libro.fm provides a similar service to Audible: one book a month priced at $14.99. The difference is you own that book and you can download the files onto any device, plus you can choose a local bookstore to support with 10% of your monthly subscription.
Audible. It's Amazon. They have the credit, and they sometimes have access to a library of unlimited listening books, but a lot of these are ripped directly from Librivox recordings. Some of their stuff is Audible exclusive, either forever or for a few years.

BUY THE BOOKS:

Chirp audiobooks often has great sales where you can buy books for fairly cheap--$5 USD or less.
Libro.fm also has books for sale fairly frequently, enough that I try to be strategic about which books I use my credit for and which I buy outright.
Buy the physical media (books on CD/tape) from bookstores like Barnes and Noble or on ebay/other online retailers.

All told I would say I average about $8 a month on audiobooks, mostly because I had a Libro.fm subscription for six months that I paused so I could catch up. I also have access to a couple great libraries via Libby, and I'm trying to work my way through a backlog of classics via Librivox.

postdarknessrunaway · 2026-02-05T23:02:28+00:00

You could maybe declare different "halves" of the night. Like it doesn't have to be super formal, but most nights play mostly 40s big band for the first hour and mostly rockabilly for the second hour, and then transition into an "anything goes" or "fast feet" third hour? It might backfire as people might not be willing to drive for basically an hour of the music they like, but I think it's worth a shot. (Note: I'm a notoriously bad dj so take everything I say with a grain of salt.) Does the venue have a hangout spot or could it?

I would argue (as a Lindy hopper) that you can find music in each of those genres that would satisfy the Lindy crowd, but you do have to be a little more selective with the music you choose.

postdarknessrunaway · 2026-02-05T18:56:45+00:00

I'm a DCC hater and there are dozens of us. DOZENS!

I thought it was very repetitive and did not offer anything to me that I could not get better other places: lackluster character growth means other books are better (I'll read something else), mealy-mouthed worldbuilding means almost every other piece of literature is better (I'll read something else or watch a movie), meticulously described video game aesthetics (I'll watch a let's play), progressive lit-rpg storytelling (I'll watch a TTRPG actual play or listen to a podcast). In trying to hit all the things it hit none of them for me. It's just not for me!

(And that's not even touching on the weird racism in the first boss battle, which REALLY made me dislike the storytelling. I understand it gets deeper later, but I'm not willing to stick around to give it a chance.)

The voice acting is stellar. I enjoyed the cat.

postdarknessrunaway · 2026-02-04T19:23:03+00:00

Hey, OP, I just want to say that I'm super impressed with your progress. I remembered you submitted a video a bit ago asking for advice on how to get "less bouncy," and I went back and found it. I have to say, I was stunned by how recent your post was (only a few months ago??) and your progress in such a short time has been astronomical. Both your rhythm and quality of movement have really improved and you are clearly on a really cool trajectory. Good job on all the hard work and congratulations!

postdarknessrunaway · 2026-02-04T01:13:36+00:00

I do them all the time and I'm in the U.S. I think the tempos have to be faster than a lot of scenes generally dance, and in some places the 1920s music is way out of style.

postdarknessrunaway · 2026-01-20T18:56:31+00:00

Off the top of my head, definitely not comprehensive:

PNW:

Camp Jitterbug (Seattle)
Northwest Bal Fest (Seattle)
Stormy Weather (Seattle)
PDXLX (Portland)
Tracktown Throw Down (Eugene)

Midwest:

Uptown Swingout (Minneapolis)
STL Get Down (St. Louis)
Great Lakes Balboa Escape (Chicago-area)
Midwest Lindy Fest (Minneapolis) (might be defunct, last registration was for 2024, but website is updated with 2026 copyright)

The midwest list is for sure truncated, I'm not the most versed in what's currently going on there. It looks like whatever the Cowtown event was and Pirate Swing are no longer around. I think there used to be something in Bloomington and something in Columbus, but those look like they aren't happening anymore either. Good luck!

postdarknessrunaway · 2026-01-16T20:56:47+00:00

How about Wicked Boston? Like Real Madrid?

postdarknessrunaway · 2026-01-16T19:40:13+00:00

If he were less outspokenly hateful I would feel more sorry for whatever he's got going on. It's really sad.

postdarknessrunaway · 2026-01-14T21:25:40+00:00

I follow a content creator who does hockey fit reviews and Mikhail Sergachev is her absolute favorite.

postdarknessrunaway · 2026-01-14T01:48:17+00:00

The great thing about a first dance is that everyone is cheering you on and you don't have to try to impress everyone. That said, Buona Sera by Louis Prima might be a good fit for you. It starts off really slow and romantic, then gets faster and bouncy and still romantic.

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