Episode Transcript
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>> Jordan (00:17):
Hi, I'm Jordan.
>> Kit (00:18):
And I'm Kit.
>> Jordan (00:20):
Welcome to Starry Time, where stars
plus lines
>> Kit (00:24):
equal stories.
>> Jordan (00:26):
In this week's episode, we'll be getting silly and
exploring the pop culture of our constellation
this month, Corona
Borealis.
>> Kit (00:34):
In this episode, we share our favorite and least
favorite occurrences of this month's constellation in pop
culture, broadly
defined.
>> Jordan (00:43):
Loosely defined.
>> Kit (00:46):
And then we take over the brand to wish upon a
star for what we wish existed.
>> Jordan (00:51):
All right, Kit. So we decided to focus in on the
Borealis part of Corona Borealis for
this exercise, can you get us started with
your favorite instance of Borealis
in pop culture?
>> Kit (01:04):
Yeah. So there was actually a lot to choose from when
we looked at Borealis including a
number of things not on the Wikipedia
disambiguation page. So somebody is sleeping on
that on Wikipedia. Um, and I had a
favorite picked out, but then as I was browsing the web, I
came across Borealis
(01:24):
Vintners And not only is
the name great, the website
really, really understood the
assignment. When you go to the first, uh,
page, uh, the first thing that you see is
don't forget to look up, there's pictures of the northern
lights. Um, we've got sort of
a space slash night sky
(01:47):
related iconography throughout the entire
website. Uh, it looks great. It is
a, um, a wine company
based up in the Pacific Northwest, I
think Oregon or Washington. And, yeah, I was
like, they just really understood the assignment
and, um, better than, like, anything
else I found. So that was my favorite.
>> Jordan (02:08):
I'm on their website now. Love
their wine labels here. Absolutely. It
seems like the northern lights is their total
inspiration.
>> Kit (02:17):
So, uh, what was your favorite? Where did you go with this one?
>> Jordan (02:20):
Kit, I also chose another small
business, a little bit further north of
Borealis Vintners. My favorite
is actually something that, uh, in all my years, I
had not come up with this pun, so I was
very appreciative of it. It was
the Aroma Borealis
(02:41):
herb shop, which is
sells all natural body care,
aromatherapy, herbal skin care
products, herbal teas, all of
which have been inspired by
plants of the boreal
forest and the people who live there.
So this is based in Whitehorse,
(03:04):
Yukon.
>> Kit (03:05):
Aroma Borealis, yeah, I like that. That's very good.
That's very good.
>> Jordan (03:09):
Had you thought of it before?
>> Kit (03:11):
No, never. I wish I had.
>> Jordan (03:14):
I wish I had. As soon as I read it, I was immediately
jealous. And it's been around since
1998.
>> Kit (03:21):
Do you have any honorable mentions that you want to shout out
in your favorites before we move to least favorites?
>> Jordan (03:27):
Yeah, I had a couple honorable mentions for
my favorites. The second was Borealis
the Freezing Fog. Did you read this
entry?
>> Kit (03:36):
No.
>> Jordan (03:37):
Borealis the Freezing Fog
is an ice dragon
from the Elden Ring video game, which I
found on the villain Wikipedia.
>> Kit (03:48):
Oh.
>> Jordan (03:49):
Um, I watched a YouTube video of how
to beat Borealis the Freezing Fog,
and it would have been my top choice over
Aroma Borealis if it looked cool,
but pretty derpy this
dragon. It says it's a minor
antagonist, um, which, you
know, makes sense. What were your honorable
(04:11):
mentions for favorite of Borealis?
>> Kit (04:14):
I had a couple. One of them was Borealis
Philanthropy. Uh, they are,
and I quote from their website, "a social justice
philanthropic intermediary working to resource
grassroots movements for transformative change."
They are funding things
like, um,
Emerging LGBTQ Leaders of Color Fund,
(04:36):
a Black Led Movement Fund, Fund for Trans
Generations, a Immigration
Litigation Fund, um, lots of just
sort of social justice related, um,
initiatives that they sort of, it sounds like they sort of serve
as an intermediary between
community organizing and community groups
(04:57):
and for funders or, you know,
people that have money. Um, so, yeah, so I was like
that, it doesn't really make sense, Borealis, you know, I'm
like, I don't really know what, why we're using the Borealis brand,
but I like what you're doing.
>> Jordan (05:10):
Did you have any other runners up?
>> Kit (05:13):
Yeah, I had Borealis
Records, which
>> Jordan (05:17):
Did not see this one.
>> Kit (05:18):
a Canadian record label. And their
mission is basically, like, only
sign Canadian musicians.
>> Jordan (05:27):
Cool. All right.
>> Kit (05:28):
It's like folk, that kind of thing. I did
not recognize immediately any of the,
um, people listed on their wiki, but I was like,
you know, Borealis you're up north in Canada.
Okay, I liked it.
>> Jordan (05:42):
All right, Kit, so we've gone over our favorites
and our honorable mentions. Should we now get to
our least favorite appearances of
Borealis in pop culture?
>> Kit (05:53):
Oh, yeah. So. Wow. I have to go first because I
feel very- some kind of way,
um, the name of this
organization is Borealis Exploration,
which sounds like a just, uh,
you know, chef's kiss supervillain corporation
name.
>> Jordan (06:11):
Just you wait till my least favorite, which is
seemingly, literally a villain corporation,
but keep going. Yes.
>> Kit (06:19):
So on this company's
wiki, they started in Canada, and
they are now currently not allowed to do any trade in
Canada.
>> Jordan (06:27):
That's a good sign.
>> Kit (06:29):
Yeah, that's probably that seems like a red
flag to me. They're an oil and gas
quote unquote exploration service. Their
logo makes me uncomfortable. It looks
like a dolphin holding a pickaxe.
>> Jordan (06:43):
What?
>> Kit (06:44):
I just...
>> Jordan (06:45):
It sounds phenomenal. Oh, wait, no, now I need to see
this.
>> Kit (06:48):
I'll make sure to post it onto the socials. Their website
looks like something from 1995,
and there's, like, it's, like, not a developed
website. There's just, like, a report on it. And you're like,
what is this report about? I just put a link
into the chat so you can see.
>> Jordan (07:05):
I'm clicking it right now. Borealis press
release. This is 2019, it
says, uh, okay.
>> Kit (07:12):
And up in the corner, we have our Borealis
Exploration limited logo.
>> Jordan (07:17):
Wow. Yeah. Now that I'm seeing this dolphin,
what is going on here?
I'd say it's closer to a beluga then perhaps a
dolphin, you know, similar family.
But, um, why it is holding this
this miners axe? Um, well, it's
because belugas love digging for oil.
>> Kit (07:37):
Right.
>> Jordan (07:38):
That is the, the what, the symbology we're
supposed to be taking away here?
>> Kit (07:43):
I don't know. Um, yeah, and, like,
the website, as you can see, there's, like, nowhere
to link, like, there's nothing to click.
>> Jordan (07:50):
That's it.
>> Kit (07:51):
That's it. And then you, like, go to the root of it, and
there's nothing there. You're like, what is this
website? Yeah, just. I don't know. And so
I was like, this is my least favorite because it seems so
shady. And. And, wow. There's just. Yeah,
there's a lot here. So that's what I went for, for my least
favorite. And how about you? Where did you go for your least
favorite?
>> Jordan (08:12):
Kit, well, I searched Borealis all over
the web, and I thought I'd come up with
the ultimate evil corporation with
the Borealis name. Um, but now that
I'm investigating this website, this beluga
is, we're going to have to have a
villain con here face off to figure
out which of these two corporations using the
(08:35):
Borealis name is perhaps
more evil. The Borealis that I
was going to nominate is
Borealis VC, which
is a venture capitalist, already one of
my least favorite terms,
healthcare
entrepreneurial company. And
(08:56):
they are located too close to home,
I would say. I don't need to disclose the
name, the proper noun, of this town. Let's just
say that I have walked past
Borealis venture capital
many times without acknowledging
it. Quote, "we are life
(09:16):
cycle investors with
syndicate partners to ensure
that our companies have as many
resources available as
possible."
>> Kit (09:28):
It's just like, you read that sentence
and you're like, I know what all of these words
mean, but I do not know what this
sentence means.
>> Jordan (09:38):
It sounds like evil corporation.
>> Kit (09:40):
It does.
>> Jordan (09:41):
And then working with your "syndicate partners
to ensure that," yeah, this
gave me some real villain con vibes.
>> Kit (09:51):
Wow.
>> Jordan (09:51):
Wow. Two great options out there.
>> Kit (09:54):
Yeah, definitely. I also came across a
Borealis website for a business.
Just, bor- borealis dot com.
And it's literally just a website with
an email address on it for, it's like some
company and you go to their website and it's like
contact this person at borealis dot com.
And it's actually the Borealis holding. So
(10:17):
the place that was Borealis
exploration has become Borealis holding. And the
Borealis holding website is literally just like, email this
person for more information. I can't.
>> Jordan (10:38):
Alright, Kit, so those were our favorites and
our least favorites. If you've done some deep
dives out there on Borealis let us know
on our socials if you have any other
choices.
>> Kit (10:50):
We're at Starry Time Pod on Mastodon on the
Universeodon server, and the same handle
on Twitter as well as
occasionally on Tumblr.
>> Jordan (11:00):
Kit, we've had a wide range of good and
bad here in the Borealis brand. Now
it's our chance to wish upon a star
and take over this brand. So what did you wish
for if you were in charge of
Borealis in the pop culture?
>> Kit (11:16):
So before I came across the Borealis
Vintners, I had sort of wanted to create a sister
brand to your vinery in Australia,
Corona Australis. And I wanted it to be
Corona Borealis but they make mead
and they were going to have Corona Borealis Maenad's
Mead was going to be their like flagship.
>> Jordan (11:36):
Love it.
>> Kit (11:37):
Yeah. But then I was like, well, I already have a, uh, Vintners.
Like somebody's already got it. So I had to share that
because I felt really proud of it. But then I decided that
I think what I'd like to see is the
Corona beer brand come out with
an Australis and a Borealis
beer. Um, of course they need
(11:58):
to be space themed. They need to be
contrasting maybe like one's a lager and one
brown ale. Seems, um, like there's something
there that, uh, that would be
interesting. So that's what I came up with if I
was going to use the Australis
Borealis Corona space, that's,
I think a, uh, natural fit since the
(12:19):
vinery's, uh, already been done.
>> Jordan (12:21):
Corona, I'm sure you're owned by
Anheuser Busch or something of that nature, but get
at us, we can design you some good brand
opportunities.
>> Kit (12:30):
How about you? What did you wish for for the
Corona Borealis brand?
>> Jordan (12:35):
Well, Kit, it was hard because like you, what
I actually want to have exist
already does exist, but
not quite in the way that I wished
it would. So I was thinking
about long named music festivals
like Lollapalooza and Bonnaroo
and Coachella. And I thought, if you say it
(12:58):
really quickly, Corona Borealis could be
another really great name for a music
festival. My idea for Corona
Borealis is that it's a music festival that
takes place around winter
solstice that happens in a
giant sphere like
virtual space where they
(13:19):
show you all the best parts of winter, the
snowstorms, the blizzards, the northern
lights, while you are nice and
warm and indoors and don't have to
be subject to the cold. It's kind of like, what if
we had a big music festival that was
during wintertime, as opposed to all the ones that we see,
(13:40):
of course, during summertime, which
are outdoors. That was my great
idea. And then I went on to Wikipedia
and saw that the Borealis festival
already exists in Norway
currently.
>> Kit (13:55):
This also makes me want to have a, uh, Corona
Borealis like, rave in, like, a
giant ice, you know how they have those, like, ice hotels,
but, like, an ice dance hall of some kind,
like, up again, like you said, in the Arctic circle, big
ice palace. And they do, like. Like, I love your idea
of, like, they put the northern lights on the ceiling if they're not
(14:16):
happening.
>> Jordan (14:16):
Well, Kit, one of our wishes has
already come true, and hopefully it's only
a matter of time before the other one
comes true as well.
>> Kit (14:35):
This has been Kit
>> Jordan (14:37):
And Jordan.
>> Kit (14:38):
Sisters, lovers of stars and stories.
>> Jordan (14:41):
And we'll see you next time,
>> Kit (14:43):
On Starry Time.