calm before the ???

I know a lot of people are super anxious about the election right now, but I'm just going to put this out there. It is OK to be cautiously optimistic. 

homebound

so 2020 took on quite the weird turn, eh? we're all home recalibrating everything about everything, while a microscopic half alive thing wreaks havoc on our conception of what it means to be a social society. i think i'll be in a better place to offer up words as a retrospective somewhere down the line. in the meantime, i'm going to take comfort in lists. here is all the media that has kept me distracted while also offering up some level of enjoyment:

• Charles Yu - Third Class Superhero 📚
• Black Crouch - Recursion 📚
• High Fidelity 📺
• Everything is Going to be OK 📺
• Sharon Van Etten - Seventeen ♪
• Grosse Pointe Blank 📽
• Tokaido 🎮
• Robin Sloan Newsletters 🗞

i'll keep adding stuff here as i go. 

i'd include it on the list (it has been a great way to stay in touch with peeps), but scrabble go is pretty much scrabble at its worst - lots of ads, stupid power-ups, crappy zynga-ish ui, too much distracting visual bling etc. but, thanks to copyright, it is the only thing out there. 

the gawd, the trade deadline, distortion

Messi to Man City? A reunion with Pep? Almost certainly just rumors, but the possibility has me salivating!

NBA trade deadline leaving me strangely uneasy. I guess it feels weird to lose a bunch of players you kinda became semi-attached to. Dubs season about to get even uglier. On the bright side maybe I can get some courtside seats on the cheap.

On a JAMC kick lately (kicked off by this lovely Chromatics cover of On The Wall). Funny how different flavors of feedback can date a song to a particular era. Also there is this: 🔥🔥🔥 (that is supposed to be a link, but emojis don't bend to ordinary href tags)!

8-24

I've been in a state of shock all day. Kobe Bryant has died at the age of 41. I don't want to paper over the fact that Kobe was a problematic dude. But there is something about a celebrity who was pretty much my age dying, seemingly randomly, that has me messed up. Plus I'm an NBA junkie, so my twitter feed is pretty much full of other people in shock which is maybe adding to the effect. Anyway - this all just feels weird and I feel bad that someone died while taking his kid to their game. 

MUSIC TIME

2019 Fave Albums:

• Florist - Emily Alone
• Tinariwen - Amadjar
• Girl In Red - Beginnings 
• Hot Sick Vile and Fun - New Sounds From San Francisco (Rocks in Your Head Compilation)
• Cindy - Cindy
• Eerie Wanda - Pet Town 
• Tullycraft - The Railway Prince Hotel
• Julia Shapiro - Perfect Vision

2019 Fave Songs:

• Lizzo - Truth Hurts
• Habibi - Come My Habibi
• Acid Arab - Staifia
• The Jeanines - Either Way
• Juan Wauters - Rubia
• Lucy Dacus - Dancing In The Dark
• Japanese Breakfast - Head Over Heels
• Billie Eilish - Everything I Wanted

Spotify Playlist

Muh bad

Damn - I really didn't post anything in 2019. I really need to write more. It doesn't matter what - just say stuff. Like for example, here is a hot take 4 years late. Rae Sremmurd is the best band* name. There can be no argument here. Ear Drummers spelled backwards wins every hypothetical band name contest.

*I use the term "band" loosely to include any musical act that is a duet or group. Kinda like the Grammys do.