Big Ol’ Billy
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bigolbilly.bsky.social
Big Ol’ Billy
@bigolbilly.bsky.social
250 followers 210 following 360 posts
Doom modder | bouzouki, etc. with Wasted Wine | PhD, ex-academic (expect some sociology)

Doom projects: https://doomwiki.org/wiki/Big_Ol%27_Billy
Music: https://wastedwine.com
Solo music: https://manifestsons.bandcamp.com/album/rich-idiot-condos

He/him
Posts Replies Media Videos
bigolbilly.bsky.social
PURCHASED A PAIR OF FLABBY WINGS-AH
Pope Leo leaning close to a microphone
November 23, 2025 at 3:48 AM
bigolbilly.bsky.social
#nowplaying on #compactdisc

Ulver - Shadows of the Sun (2007)

S-tier gloomy Tuesday morning music
A somewhat decrepit CD jewel case for the album, whose cover features a mysterious photograph of the sun encircled by the enormous curved horns of a shadowy animal
October 28, 2025 at 2:15 PM
bigolbilly.bsky.social
P impressed with #nokings in downtown Greenville, SC. Massive crowd, speakers on Palestine, reproductive rights, police brutality. LGBTQ+ and immigration signs probably outnumbered the “Putin’s Puppet”-type lib stuff, which is great to see in this neck of the woods
A crowd of protesters in Falls Park, downtown Greenville, SC.
October 19, 2025 at 7:33 PM
bigolbilly.bsky.social
Thumbnail for a YouTube video entitled “HD Quake: Good or Bad?” with an ugly ass shot of an HD chainsaw ogre in a brick hallway
September 25, 2025 at 11:38 AM
bigolbilly.bsky.social
#nowplaying #compactdisc

This deeeeep cut Italian prog album makes me thankful for the improved (if imperfect) translation tools we have today. Not my favorite LP musically, but it’s really fascinating that this is a concept album about the (internal) migrant experience in 1970s Italy.
CD digipak version of the album “Frontiera” by Procession. The cover depicts a square suitcase with a newspaper tied to it. The newspaper headline reads “IL NORDISTA DEL SUD HA VINTO LA SUA BATTAGLIA” (roughly, “The northerner of the south won his battle,” I think). The band and album names appear as cartoony stickers stuck on the suitcase).
September 19, 2025 at 2:20 PM
bigolbilly.bsky.social
One day campus speech will be so free that every class will simply rehash the Dubois-Stoddard debate (Dubois side optional)
Poster for the 1929 debate between W.E.B. DuBois and Lothrop Stoddard, titled “SHALL THE NEGRO BE ENCOURAGED TO SEEK CULTURAL EQUALITY?" with the subtitle, “[Has the Negro the Same Intellectual Possibilities As Other Races?]” Above a picture of DuBois, “YES!”; above a picture of Stoddard, who looks like someone you would cast as Racist Villain #2 in a 1920s period drama, “NO!”
September 17, 2025 at 2:29 PM
bigolbilly.bsky.social
It’s been interesting to return to 70s Italian prog, maybe the first hyper-niche music genre I obsessed over in my teens, as the USA is experiencing its own Years of Lead. Wild to think how much I loved this music while not understanding that there was anything particularly political about it
Io non so da dove vengo e non so dove mai andrò. Uomo è il nome che mi han dato. (1973) De De Lind 1. Fuga E Morte Correvo per sentieri Per strade senza fine Regnava nero il buio Compagno era il mio affanno "Attento al tuo vicino" Mi avevano sempre detto... "Può essere il nemico Che aspetti già da tempo" E mentre nell'intrigo Di una foresta antica Il sole si insinuava E un raggio mi baciava Mi colse il grigio piombo Di un uomo senza volto Cercai di dare un grido, oh... Ma ormai ero già morto I don't know where I come from and I don't know where I'll ever go. Man is the name they gave me. (1973) De De Lind 1. Escape and Death I ran along paths Along endless roads The darkness reigned black My companion was my worry "Beware of your neighbor" They had always told me... "It could be the enemy That you've been waiting for a long time" And while in the intrigue Of an ancient forest The sun crept in And a ray kissed me The leaden gray Of a faceless man struck me I tried to scream, oh... But by then I was already dead
September 11, 2025 at 2:42 PM
bigolbilly.bsky.social
Playin the bouzouki, feelin a lil spooky
A man (me) playing the Irish bouzouki, illuminated by red light against a dark blue in the background. The man is wearing a suit coat and a red hat. A drum set is partially visible in the back, and the DragonCon logo is visible.
September 8, 2025 at 2:25 AM
bigolbilly.bsky.social
Keeping on my current Italian prog kick with this hard-rockin’ but also prettily-flutin’ album by De de Lind. Bonus points for the wonderfully named frontman Vito Paradiso 🇮🇹

#nowplaying #compactdisc
Compact disc in a cardboard digipak: “Io non so da dove vengo e non so dove mai andrò. Uomo è il nome che mi han dato” by De De Lind. The cover art shows a puffy, pale abstract figure bending down on one knee, turning its torso, and covering its mouth with one hand, against a white background.
September 4, 2025 at 1:14 AM
bigolbilly.bsky.social
Hard to pick my favorite part of these auto-translated 1973 Italian prog album liner notes, but “Lil Mental Block” is a real keeper.
Close up of text from Blocco Mentale’s 1973 album POA: PERCHÉ NOA? (ERBA): VOGLIAMO PARLARE DI NATURA. L/IMMAGINE CHE CITSI PRESENTAS, SENZA-NEMMENO RIFLETTERE, E INDUBBIAMENTE UN PRATO D'ERBA: CON QUESTI BRANE VOGLIAMO QUASI RINCORRERE QUEL CHE ANCORA FORSE ESISTE UN MONDO DIVERSO DA QUELLO CHE CI SIANO CREATI: UN MONDO TANTO SEMPLICE E CON TANTA ARIA PULITA. L'UOMO CHE SI INCAMMINA CON LO SFONDO MUSICALE DEL 33 GIRI. SCOPRE ATTRAVERSO ON DIALOGO CON IN FIORE, QUELLA STRADA SENZA SASSI CHE AVEVI BBANDONATO DA MOLTO TEMPO ASCOLTANDO QUESTO CHE VI PRESENTIAMO CHISSA CHE NON GAPITICANCHE A VOI DI RINTRACCIARE I TANTI VALORI DELLA, VITA- CHE ABBIAMO UNAPO TRASCURATO- Con simpatia: IL BLOCCO MENTALE Auto-translated version of the text: “WHY NOA? (GRASS) WE WANT TO TALK ABOUT NATURE. THE IMAGE THAT CITSI PRESENTS WITHOUT EVEN THINKING, AND UNDOUBTED. MIND A GRASSY LAWN: WITH THESE SONGS WE ALMOST WANT TO CHASE THAT LITTLE GREEN THAT STILL SURROUNDS US. PERHAPS THERE IS A DIFFERENT WORLD FROM THE ONE WE HAVE CREATED. A WORLD SO SIMPLE AND WITH A LOT OF CLEAN AIR THE MAN WHO WALKS WITH THE MUSICAL BACKGROUND OF 33 TURNS, DISCOVERS THROUGH A DIALOGUE WITH A FLOWER, THAT STREET WITHOUT STONES THAT HE HAD ABANDONED FOR A LONG TIME. LISTENING TO THIS THAT WE PRESENT TO YOU WHO DOESN'T UNDERSTAND YOU TOO TO TRACE THE MANY VALUES OF LIFE THAT WE HAVE A LITTLE Neglected With sympathy LIL MENTAL BLOCK”
August 23, 2025 at 9:47 PM
bigolbilly.bsky.social
The lowest form of this is the microgenre of books I read for my dissertation research: basically guides for using startup principles to build new churches
August 11, 2025 at 5:42 PM
bigolbilly.bsky.social
This passage in particular is a pretty shocking conflation! The purposeful design of the Pac-Man ghosts is such a fundamentally different thing than “sure, let’s just use ChatGPT for NPC dialogue.” If someone doesn’t understand that idk if they should be writing about games
“Most experts acknowledge that a takeover by artificial intelligence is coming for the video game industry within the next five years, and executives have already started preparing to restructure their companies in anticipation. After all, it was one of the first sectors to deploy A.I. programming in the 1980s, with the four ghosts who chase Pac-Man each responding differently to the player's real-time movements.”
July 29, 2025 at 10:51 AM
bigolbilly.bsky.social
Got the turntable set up in my new place just in time! #vinyl
Record sleeve for Black Sabbath - Vol 4
July 24, 2025 at 10:36 PM
bigolbilly.bsky.social
“WE MUST STEAL YOUR ART” in the style of the old “YOU WOULDN’T STEAL A CAR” PSA image
July 23, 2025 at 11:10 PM
bigolbilly.bsky.social
July 14, 2025 at 11:10 AM
bigolbilly.bsky.social
There was a massive amount of protest, although its impact was hard to feel in the US, especially in media. My memory of the time is certainly a lonely one—the first real political thing I ever did was taking part in a pitifully small antiwar protest at my conservative Southern college
Wikipedia article for “15 February 2003 anti-war protests”: “On 15 February 2003, a coordinated day of protests was held across the world in which people in more than 600 cities expressed opposition to the imminent Iraq War. It was part of a series of protests and political events that had begun in 2002 and continued as the invasion, war, and occupation took place. The day was described by social movement researchers as ‘the largest protest event in human history’.”
June 19, 2025 at 4:41 AM
bigolbilly.bsky.social
I’m intrigued but not sure if I’ll be able to fully appreciate it without watching the first Lusty Liaisons 🤔
IMDB summary of Lusty Liaisons 2: “The unholy desires of a monk who has taken a vow of celibacy, the erotic deductive method of a detective persistently searching for intimate clues. The world of sensual fantasy knows no bounds.”
May 27, 2025 at 1:14 PM
bigolbilly.bsky.social
Amazing just how well Fritz Lang’s M holds up at nearly 100 years old. Besides being beautiful and eerie, it has a shockingly relevant take on how real predation on children can feed into state repression of undesirables, general paranoia and distrust, and unhinged vigilantism
Still from the film. A young German girl presents Peter Lorre’s child murderer character with the pocketknife he dropped.
May 27, 2025 at 3:27 AM
bigolbilly.bsky.social
Lotta possibilities here
“YOU CAN DOWNLOAD A CAR IF IT MAKES LINE GO UP” In the style of the old “you wouldn’t download a car” PSA
May 26, 2025 at 11:42 PM
bigolbilly.bsky.social
“WE MUST STEAL YOUR ART” in the style of the old “You wouldn’t download a car” PSA
May 26, 2025 at 11:27 PM
bigolbilly.bsky.social
Laura Beyer’s Doom Remastered when
May 9, 2025 at 12:59 AM
bigolbilly.bsky.social
I’ve been reading this since Feb and it’s been a great slow read with a lot to savor
W.E.B. Du Bois, Black Reconstruction in America, 1860-1880
May 2, 2025 at 2:30 PM
bigolbilly.bsky.social
Not sure I understand the “type” categories—so if something is a family mass killing it isn’t a felony mass killing? And a few “public” mass killings were committed in residences? Also I see there’s a separate family “situation type.” 🤔
April 27, 2025 at 8:11 PM
bigolbilly.bsky.social
Du Bois on the “fetich-worship” of the Consitution: “No more idiotic program could be laid down than to require a people to follow the written rule of govt 90 years old… Rule-following, legal precedence, and political consistency are not more important than right, justice, and plain common-sense.”
Highlighted passage from Black Reconstruction: “The discussion which has raged round the Reconstruction legisla tion is of the same metaphysical stripe characterizing all fetich-worship of the Constitution. If one means by ‘constitutional’ something provided for in that instrument or foreseen by its authors or reasonably implicit in its words, then the Reconstruction Acts were undoubtedly unconstitutional; and so, for that matter, was the Civil War. In fact, the main measures of government during 1861-1870 were ‘unconstitutional.’ The only action possibly contemplated by the authors of the Constitution was secession; that action, the constitutional fathers feared and deprecated, but their instrument did not forbid it and distinctly implied the legality of a state withdrawing from the ‘more perfect union.’ Certainly no one could argue that the founders contemplated civil war to preserve the Union or that the Constitution was a pro-slavery document. Yet, unconstitutionally, the North prevented the destruction of the Union on account of slavery; and after the war revolutionary measures rebuilt what revolution had disrupted, and formed a new United States on a basis broader than the old Constitution and different from its original conception. And why not? No more idiotic program could be laid down than to require a people to follow a written rule of government 90 years old, it that rule had been definitely broken in order to preserve the unity of the government and to destroy an economic anachronism. In such a crisis legalists may insist that consistency with precedent is more important than firm and far-sighted rebuilding. But manifestly, it is not. Rule following, legal precedence, and political consistency are not more important than right, justice and plain common-sense.”
April 25, 2025 at 7:01 PM
bigolbilly.bsky.social
Post a picture of who you wanted to be as a kid.
Bernard Herrmann conducting with a pencil
April 19, 2025 at 12:33 PM