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Gerritt “Murder Ballad” McThrill

@mcthrill.bsky.social
207 followers 369 following 1.2K posts

He/him. Freelance animator, artist, illustrator and amateur clawhammer banjo enthusiast. Very tired most of the time.

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Gerritt “Murder Ballad” McThrill @mcthrill.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
There's a lot to say, good and bad, about my home state of New Mexico but one thing they definitely got right is their absentee voting. So easy and quick to do, it's really great.
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Gerritt “Murder Ballad” McThrill @mcthrill.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Chemicals that smell exactly like rootbeer are sometimes used to mask the scent of Porta-potties where I am in Germany, which I can only assume is also an unpleasant association for most.
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Gerritt “Murder Ballad” McThrill @mcthrill.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Boy nothing makes you move faster than when your kid starts screaming „IM GONNA THROW UP!!“
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Gerritt “Murder Ballad” McThrill @mcthrill.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
Summer camp ended yesterday and at the farewell party they had the kids sing and do a dance to a song that had the lyrics „Im eating a mango, now I’m pooping out a mango“
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Gerritt “Murder Ballad” McThrill @mcthrill.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
Found a friend living in one of my sunflowers.
A cute green garden spider nestled snuggly in what will soon be a giant sunflower bloom.
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Gerritt “Murder Ballad” McThrill @mcthrill.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
„Wandering Boy“ with vocal accompaniment by the crowd that live in the tree behind our apartment. Based off Brad Kolodner‘s arrangement of the song. #clawhamer #banjo #banjofeed
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Gerritt “Murder Ballad” McThrill @mcthrill.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
In the past 2 months I've tried to travel outside of Hannover by train 3 times. I've successfully reached my destination once. 33% success rate on train rides is not great, Deutsche Bahn.
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Gerritt “Murder Ballad” McThrill @mcthrill.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
„They always said you can’t climb that mountain, but I said no way! I’m going to be the first person to climb Diarrhea Mountain.“
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Gerritt “Murder Ballad” McThrill @mcthrill.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
Waynesboro, the latest tune I’m learning that my neighbors are probably sick of. Love that A minor chord in this tune. #banjo #clawhammer #banjofeed
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Gerritt “Murder Ballad” McThrill @mcthrill.bsky.social · 30/05/2026
„i have three lives. If my pants fall down and show my butt to everyone i lose a life.“ – my son, shortly before his pants fell down because he refused to tighten his belt one more notch.
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Gerritt “Murder Ballad” McThrill @mcthrill.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
Shoutout to Deutsche Bahn for their exemplary service and punctuality today (derogatory)
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Gerritt “Murder Ballad” McThrill @mcthrill.bsky.social · 16/05/2026
It was father‘s day in Geemany recently and my kid made me a mini-Minigolf course out of cardboard, complete with a hole where the ball goes into a cow‘s mouth and comes out its butt.
A set of 5 Minigolf holes made out of cardboard and construction paper, to be played with tiny golf clubs and a ball bearing. Hole #2 front view, showing a cow‘s face with a hole under the nostrils for the ball to enter. Rear view of hole #2, showing the lovingly drawn and surprisingly human-looking buttocks of the cow from which the ball exits.
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Gerritt “Murder Ballad” McThrill @mcthrill.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
@theworldofrpgs.bsky.social @theoriches.bsky.social not sure if this is either of your jam or if you have time but could be interesting…
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Gerritt “Murder Ballad” McThrill @mcthrill.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
My kid is playing charades with his friends on his 9th birthday, the word was „train station“ and one of the kids yelled out „the german recession of 1973 due to the oil crisis“ as a guess.
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Gerritt “Murder Ballad” McThrill @mcthrill.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
@pnmartinez.bsky.social pretty sure we both know who the math cop is here…
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Gerritt “Murder Ballad” McThrill @mcthrill.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
A cool thing about being a human being is that sometimes, you’ll just suddenly be really really bad at something you’ve done thousands of times over the last couple decades. My face looks like a cat fought it after shaving today.
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Gerritt “Murder Ballad” McThrill @mcthrill.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
since I took up banjo and started playing songs that are almost exclusively 100 years old or older, one thing that's stood out to me over and over is that no matter what I'm worried about someone 100 years ago wrote a song that perfectly sums up how I'm feeling.
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Gerritt “Murder Ballad” McThrill @mcthrill.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
Cherokee Shuffle, my latest song obsession. It’s so good! I love the dip into f#m. The light show in the background is courtesy of my kid who was building something at the time. #clawhammer #banjofeed #banjo #oldtime
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Gerritt “Murder Ballad” McThrill @mcthrill.bsky.social · 28/01/2026
BIG DAY ACTIVITY TIER LIST available for "binky" tier and higher Patreon supporters!
Fake YouTube thumbnail as if a baby had a big day. The thumbnail shows a baby reaching towards a big maple leaf, with a doggy and some sand buckets photoshopped into the image as well. The entire image is done in the style of a badly photoshopped youtube thumbnail with lots of stock glow and shadow effects. The text is in comic sans and says "Went to playground! Saw a doggy! Really big leaf??!"
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Gerritt “Murder Ballad” McThrill @mcthrill.bsky.social · 26/01/2026
Me waiting for the new router I ordered that was supposed to arrive last Friday.
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Gerritt “Murder Ballad” McThrill @mcthrill.bsky.social · 25/01/2026
Putting this out there: how am I supposed to contact my senators through their official websites when I am an expat living abroad? I haven’t had a US phone number or address for 12 years and both my senators require those to use the forms they have instead of a direct email address.
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Gerritt “Murder Ballad” McThrill @mcthrill.bsky.social · 22/01/2026
My son‘s music teacher gave him a list of songs to listen to and the „rock“ song is „how you remind me“ by Nickelback. I guess today i learn how to formally file a complaint in the German school system.
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Gerritt “Murder Ballad” McThrill @mcthrill.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
Got introduced to the tune „Dry and Dusty“ at the last oldtime jam session and it’s a good one, I like it. #clawhanmer #banjo #oldtime #banjofeed
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Gerritt “Murder Ballad” McThrill @mcthrill.bsky.social · 17/01/2026
„wow you out that bed together pretty fast for a man who doesn’t usually put beds together.“ - my eight year old after I’d been working on this bed for about ten hours.
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Gerritt “Murder Ballad” McThrill @mcthrill.bsky.social · 12/01/2026
Bonaparte Crossing the Rhine. This song is really fun to play. #clawhammer #banjo #oldtime
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Gerritt “Murder Ballad” McThrill @mcthrill.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
Well it was a good run. My kid‘s favorite song for the last 4 months has been „northwest passage“ by Stan Rogers but it has been replaced with a song called „My Farts.“
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Gerritt “Murder Ballad” McThrill @mcthrill.bsky.social · 31/12/2025
New Year’s resolutions: 1) more screaming. 2) ghosts! 3) That’s all actually.
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Reposted by Gerritt “Murder Ballad” McThrill
Felix Colgrave @felixcolgrave.bsky.social · 22/12/2025
"users quickly bypassed the AI's safeguards by prompting it to roleplay as"- ok so what I'm hearing again and again, is they've built a dumb guy in a Bugs Bunny cartoon. You just gotta run back into frame in a wedding dress and now the AI thinks you're getting married. Robots are now all Elmer Fudd
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Gerritt “Murder Ballad” McThrill @mcthrill.bsky.social · 16/12/2025
Sure I’ll bite. If you see this we IMPLORE you to post a picture from whatever device you’re using without explanation.
Title screen from some weird forgotten Amiga-era game called „Dr. Fruit.“ A scary looking strawberry with Angevin green chases a one-legged purple fruit, maybe a plum, towards the camera.
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Gerritt “Murder Ballad” McThrill @mcthrill.bsky.social · 15/12/2025
RIP Rob Reiner. I think the hardest I’ve ever laughed is watching that tiny Stonehenge monument getting lowered to the stage when I watched this with my friends senior year in highschool.
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Gerritt “Murder Ballad” McThrill @mcthrill.bsky.social · 14/12/2025
You’ve been visited by the ghost of Kwissmas UwU
Photo of a gingerbread cookie in the shape of a ghost with the tiniest, cutest face I could draw on him with a toothpick and Buttercreme frosting.
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Gerritt “Murder Ballad” McThrill @mcthrill.bsky.social · 09/12/2025
@hannahcomb.bsky.social not sure if any of the local stories they want told involve extinct Silurian invertebrates. It maybe you’re interested…
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Reposted by Gerritt “Murder Ballad” McThrill
Dungeons & Possums @dungeonsandpossums.com · 26/11/2025
Hey @bsky.app @safety.bsky.app @support.bsky.team please unsuspend Goran immediately. Goran is a great person, a great artist, and the whole anti-Palestine thing youre on is one of those "Ford funding Hitler" disasters you remember being shocked and dismayed by when you learned of in middle school.
An art piece by Goran Gligovic of a sword resting against a battered tree in front of a rocky dungeon entrance amidst a snowy field. The text says UNBAN GORAN GLIGOVIC.
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Gerritt “Murder Ballad” McThrill @mcthrill.bsky.social · 20/11/2025
I am trying to imagine working for any company that is excited about being able to finally use emojis in file names, and the only thing imaginary me is doing is quickly updating his resume.
Screnshot from a pop-up windows on logging into Dropbox announcing that you may now use emojis like "rocket ship, music note, cat, pride flag, and pray" as part of your file and folder names.
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Gerritt “Murder Ballad” McThrill @mcthrill.bsky.social · 14/11/2025
Loren‘s posts and process threads provide a fascinating glimpse into game making in general and procedural generation in specific. I don’t have money to subscribe but maybe someone who follows me does.
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Gerritt “Murder Ballad” McThrill @mcthrill.bsky.social · 10/11/2025
Just once this decade I would love to have a problem that I wouldn’tve faced in the 12th century. „A plague has come upon our land. Can I afford enough eggs for my family. Are our neighbors safe from religious zealots. Count the fingers on this hand to make sure it isn’t a fae trying to mislead me.“
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Gerritt “Murder Ballad” McThrill @mcthrill.bsky.social · 28/10/2025
Been very very busy the last few months but managed to learn a new song at some point, Old Mother Flannaghan. #clawhammer #banjo #banjofeed
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Gerritt “Murder Ballad” McThrill @mcthrill.bsky.social · 24/10/2025
„Daddy you‘re like a garbage can except you eat tasty food instead of garbage“ thanks kid. Choosing to interpret that as a compliment.
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Gerritt “Murder Ballad” McThrill @mcthrill.bsky.social · 19/10/2025
Time to see if I can use the microplane to grate some cheese without destroying the nail on my banjo strumming hand. Currently 0 for 4 with this thing.
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Gerritt “Murder Ballad” McThrill @mcthrill.bsky.social · 13/10/2025
Every artist you admire has, at most, 4 very specific tools that they use to create their work don’t buy them art supplies unless you know them exactly. If you buy me a set of pencils I will use the 2h and F pencils down to the nub and throw everything from 9b-2b into a drawer and forget about it.
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Gerritt “Murder Ballad” McThrill @mcthrill.bsky.social · 11/10/2025
My son this evening: „Uuugh there’s no gluesticks in this house and no peanuts either. I can’t do ANYTHING I want to do.“
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Reposted by Gerritt “Murder Ballad” McThrill
Brandon “Bouncing Beebles" Kirkman @kirkmanbrandon.bsky.social · 08/10/2025
The Songtober drawing for today is Black as Crow by Rhiannon Giddens requested by @mcthrill.bsky.social. A very beautiful Appalachian folk ballad so wanted capture something nice and simple with some hobo signs thrown in
A black crow standing on top of an old stone with the hobo symbol for safe camp drawn on it
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Brandon “Bouncing Beebles" Kirkman @kirkmanbrandon.bsky.social · 29/09/2025
After 2016: I think there’s many factors that have led us here. Starting with American imperialism and exceptionalism being fueled by past decades of Reagan policies and fear mongering, we can see how… After 2024: computer bad and computer should always have been in separate room, away from people
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Gerritt “Murder Ballad” McThrill @mcthrill.bsky.social · 27/09/2025
Finally made it through "Megalopolis" and man, it is wild that this film came from the same man who made The Godfather.
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Gerritt “Murder Ballad” McThrill @mcthrill.bsky.social · 16/09/2025
Today is my birthday and my son made me a stuffed ghost all by himself on the sewing machine as a gift.
Selfie of a newly-43-year-old man holding a handmade stuffed ghost with hollow black eyes and a toothy grimace by his face
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Gerritt “Murder Ballad” McThrill @mcthrill.bsky.social · 14/09/2025
6/8 jig time (or 9/8 if you’re doing a slip jig) is really tricky for clawhammer banjo but I think I’m getting the hang of it. The song is part A from „the Blarney Pilgrim.“ parts B and C are not shown because i cant play them as well as this section. #banjo #banjofeed # clawhammer
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Reposted by Gerritt “Murder Ballad” McThrill
Gerritt “Murder Ballad” McThrill @mcthrill.bsky.social · 28/08/2025
Sorry about the rain sounds, it seemed like a nice time to play something out on the balcony. The song is „Kitchen Girl“ and the tuning is sawmill. #banjo #banjofeed #clawhammer
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Gerritt “Murder Ballad” McThrill @mcthrill.bsky.social · 09/09/2025
Playing 6/8 jig time on clawhammer banjo is difficult and warping my brain. Thanks for coming to my talk.
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Gerritt “Murder Ballad” McThrill @mcthrill.bsky.social · 28/08/2025
Sorry about the rain sounds, it seemed like a nice time to play something out on the balcony. The song is „Kitchen Girl“ and the tuning is sawmill. #banjo #banjofeed #clawhammer
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Gerritt “Murder Ballad” McThrill @mcthrill.bsky.social · 14/08/2025
Somebody is finally taking a stand. Trumpets have had it easy long enough.
A photo of a trash can in the Ape Mountain area at the Hannover Zoo, with a sign painted in it of a trumpet with a big red X going through it and text underneath that says „no horn please.“
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