Having not read this AAR since last April (because I am a procrastinator at everything), I have found my comfiest reading chair and caught up again on this incredible adventure through alternate history.
Welcome back Nathan! Always a pleasure to hear from you.
This update is simply fantastic. Music has always been a reflection of the time, so taking a look at music in the Commonwealth during this period reveals a lot.
Being a Buddy Holly fan myself, I got a particular kick out of seeing how he fares TTL.
Glad you enjoyed it! It was an update I'd been wanting to write in some form or other for a couple of years. Doing Buddy justice was always part of the plan.
From the perspective of an American, British Prime Ministers just seem to simply melt.
Rish! certainly seems to have done so. I frequently have to remind myself he is actually the PM (especially as his disappearing act is entirely intentional and he's just trying to ride out the storm until 2024). Shame even an absent prime minister can still wage draconian laws against the unions, but hey – lends a bit of colour to what David Lewis is up to, I suppose.
"Thank you for coming to Rewind. This content is currently only available to audiences in the UK."
The downside of being an American.
Ah, sorry Nathan!
There is the odd clip available on Youtube, if that helps – though again, might be hidden if you're not in the UK…
This conversation about Liz Truss, which took place back in July, is funny to read now.
To this day I genuinely cannot believe how that affair all played out. As I said at the time, I seriously began to question whether the end-of-volume 'chaos' I'd been planning for about two years was actually just small change compared to good old real life. Incredible to think the Tories would see Echoes and say: 'Hold my champagne', but here we are.
I didn't know he even existed until I started playing HOI2.
I am very sorry to have taken you out of your ignorance.
I still find these references amusingly discordant (as I am sure they’re meant to be
) as I happen upon them. Especially having lambasted the man so often in some of my own AAR writing.
Glad to hear some more of your thoughts, Bullfilter! Yes, there is definitely a heavy dose of irony to be had with a lot of those earlier chapters. Particularly from where I'm standing, it feels like a long way gone since I was making dark jokes about the anti-fascist Mosley. It only took three years or so, but at long last I too got to join the ranks of the lambasters.
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Thanks to those who have been catching up or reading back over the last few months, and a moderately belated Happy New Year to all in the Echoes community. I had hoped to ring in the new year with an update, but it's still only about half done. Been very sidetracked recently with a few things, none of them terribly fun but all of them very necessary to the work of 'being able to afford London life' and 'not being homeless'.
The next chapter does exist, though, so fingers crossed 2023 might actually see the completion of Volume 1. Though I appreciate this sounds more like a pipe dream with every passing year.
I will say, though, that voting is ongoing in two places at the moment. One is the
Q4 ACAs, which Echoes is not, so far as I'm aware, eligible for, but which you should all vote in anyway. The second, a bit more significantly, are the
2022 Yearly AARland Year-End AwAARds – the prized 'YAYAs' – which
@coz1 is once again co-ordinating. Go and do AARland a favour and take a few minutes to vote in each. The ACA's are open till
Sunday February 5, while the YAYAs remain open until the day before,
Saturday February 4. I will be filling out my own ballots within in due course, (though I've got two job interviews next week so it may not be till after then…)
Otherwise, see you all for the next chapter, hopefully before too long.
