what does one watch in post golden-age era of television?

lots of good shows on the telly interwebs these days, including

• Mr. Robot
• Peeky Blinders
• Wet Hot American Summer
• Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
• Jessica Jones
• The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
• Master Of None

data nerding on my KALX playlists

Playing around with Tableau and Pandas.

Here are my top 30 most played artists since 2007 along with the number of plays:

Tuneyards                    13
Jens Lekman                  11
The Mountain Goats           10
Flying Lotus                 10
Kishore Kumar                10
Goldspot                     10
Veronica Falls                9
Wax Idols                     9
Television Personalities      9
Aphex Twin                    9
Charanjit Singh               9
Dreamdate                     8
Jay Reatard                   8
Thee Satisfaction             8
Wire                          8
Radiation City                8
Devendra Banhart              8
Why?                          8
Mogwai                        8
Battles                       8
Mount Kimbie                  8
Bishop Allen                  7
Dog Faced Hermans             7
Das Racist                    7
Vampire Weekend               7
State Of Bengal               7
Sonic Youth                   7
LCD Soundsystem               7
Thurston Moore                7
Six Organs Of Admittance      7

And here are my top 11 new records from 2015 based on airplays

 
Film Student       SLC035                    5
Thee Satisfaction  Earthee                   4
Piano Movers       Girlfriend's Lover        4
Cold Beat          Into The Air              4
Girlpool           Before The World Was Big  4
Kamuran Akkor      Kamuran Akkor             3
Robert Glasper     Covered                   3
Colleen            Captain Of None           3
Battles            La Di Da Di               3
Michael O          Really?                   3
Ben Khan           1000                      3

free as in beer

I've been keeping a beer log ('b'log?) on Evernote for the past couple of years and I just discovered that I could publish it.

Beer me!

insomnia

Lying awake at 3am and having random thoughts ... Why is my Chromecast blinking? I really hope that is the sound of raindrops. Also, why don't they call illegal defense in the NBA anymore? And is it any more or anymore?

Top 5 Tabletop Games

Time for a random list.

• Carcassonne
• Munchkin
• Forbidden Island
• Ticket to Ride 
• Settlers of Catan

2014 Music List

OK - finally had some time to collate my shit. Here is my list:

2014 - Best Records:

1. Andrew Jackson Jihad - Christmas Island.
   http://sideonedummy.bandcamp.com/album/christmas-island
   The weirder, more neurotic cousin of the Mountain Goats. Sooo good.
2. The Rentals – Lost In Alphaville
3. Lunchbox – Lunchbox Loves You
4. Tacocat - NVM
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXbZle8VNk4
5. tUnE-yArDs – nikki nack
6. Dark Beach - Scream Queen 7”
   http://darkbeach.bandcamp.com/album/scream-queen-7
7. Perfume Genius – Too Bright
8. FKA twigs – LP1
   FKA Twigs is awesome! This is the evolutionary Bjork with the whole perf. art meets music thing.
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99YyWeqHaBo
9. Divorcee - S/T
   Yoni Wolf (aka why?) from Anticon doing a nice little side project
   http://yoniwolf.bandcamp.com/album/divorcee
10. The world is a beautiful place and I am no longer afraid to die - Between Bodies
    A bit like Slint … spoken word emo?
    http://theworldis.bandcamp.com/album/between-bodies

2013 Records that I dug this year

• Bleached – Ride Your Heart
• Terry Malts – Nobody Realizes This Is Nowhere
• The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die – Whenever, If Ever
• CHVRCHES – The Bones Of What You Believe

Random Genius Record that I discovered 34 years later:

• Young Marble Giants – Colossal Youth
  Haunting, spare, minimal, dark. Taking the whole no-wave thing and turning it inside out.

Stuff I wanted to like, but couldn’t get into:

• Aphex Twin - Syro.
  Here’s the thing - if you listen to old Aphex it is fucking mental. This album was really tame and I felt a little jobbed here.
• Flying Lotus - You’re Dead
  Too much dissonant jazz. Not enough hiss. I found this grating.

the power of non-habit

So for my mini-, randomly induced midlife crisis I decided to angst about my habits. As in routines. Or rituals. Or things that I do on a consistent every-day basis.

It turns out that I don't. I never have. No really - I don't know that there is a single thing that I've consistently done every day, for an extended period. I shave whenever I feel like. The brushing of teeth tends to happen at odd, random hours. I ride my bike to work when I can, but there are lots of exceptional days. Antibiotics? Let's just say that I usually finish my doses several days after the prescribed time.

What this means is that I'm really good at winging it - when I need to get a specific thing done, it gets done. But when something needs to turn into a habit, I honestly have no idea how to do it. I never have. I'm very good at improvising but terrible at the the set pattern.

So now I'm finding myself in need of having to do something on a set schedule, and I'm pretty much screwed. Help!

world cupping

top 5 players
5. keylor navas CRC (had to include a keeper)

4. james rodriguez COL (that's ha-mess to you)

3. robben NED (the raw speed-acrobatic diving combo)
2. neymar BRA (the tragic hero)
1. messi ARG (well - umm - messi)

top N moments (with a generous dutch bias)

• Robin Van Persie - The Flying Dutchman (best goal)
• The death of Tiki Taka
• Tim Howard's 16 saves vs. Belgium
• Neymar goes down 
• Van Gaal's mind games - Krul as substitute goalie in PKs vs. Costa Rica.
• Robben's expert dive beats Mexico
• Mmm ... tasty Italian ear (starring Luis Suarez) 
• 7-1

 

Also - I can't stop saying vɛ̃sɑ̃ kɔ̃pani

Almost at the end of the tourney. Will update this post

ron swanson birthday

Every year, I take a strange delight in turning off my Facebook wall and _not_ allowing a million birthday messages to inundate my wall. It might seem like a jerk move, but a bunch of my wishes come from people that I barely know ... people that I haven't been in touch with for a long time. It just feels vaguely disingenuous to wish someone, not because you remembered their birthday or needed to connect with an old friend, but because a computer program sent you a reminder. Anyway - for those of you that actually mean it, you know how to reach me. 

Notable things that happened in 2013

Dusting off an old unposted entry for the sake of posterity:

I got a road bike.
We went to NZ.
E got a job.
Tinu started 1st grade.
New Bay Bridge.

Fave 2013 records (actually done before the end of the year!)

I'll make a spotify playlist eventually … in the meantime 

Records I liked in 2013:
=================

My Bloody Valentine - MBV. A shoutout to their past that evolves into a futuristic sounding thing. 
http://pitchfork.com/news/49344-my-bloody-valentine-share-new-album-mbv-site-crashes-check-out-cover-art-and-tracklist-now/

Savages - Silence Yourself. A dark nervy record. And they are absolutely fantastic live. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuIB8HEmnoY

Devendra Banhart - Mala. Very underrated and cheeky album. 
http://www.nonesuch.com/albums/mala

Bleached - Ride Your Heart. I'm a sucker for shambly C86 style indie pop
https://myspace.com/hellobleached

Kids On A Crime Spree - Creep the Creeps EP. A garagey take on indie pop. Oakland style. 
http://www.slumberlandrecords.com/catalog/show/253

Legs - Pass the Ringo. Can I say indie pop Oakland style again?
http://logladyrecords.com/ll012-legs-pass-the-ringo/

Lorde - Pure Heroine. I know she was overplayed, but this kid is only 16. and writes her own music. and she is good. and she is from NZ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlcIKh6sBtc (Yes - you've seen this before, but listen to again anyway)

Daftside - Random Access Memories Memories. Daft Punk never really did it for me. This remix record by Nicolas Jaar et al. (Darkside) was much weirder and far more interesting than RAM IMO.
https://soundcloud.com/daftside-2/sets/random-access-memories-1

Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City. They do well-crafted studio pop and they do it right. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANznirklths

Disclosure - Settle. Dark, dancey and british.
http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/18091-disclosure-settle/


Older records deserving a shout:
=======================
Various Artists - Rocket Infinity: The Global Rise Of Rocking Music, 1942-62 - digs up allfthese gems from around the world interpreting early rocknroll. Ace Bunny Killer! 
http://www.discogs.com/Various-Rocket-Infinity-The-Global-Rise-Of-Rocking-Music-1942-62/release/4219704

Suicide - S/T - Holy crap - this is so good and so different from anything else that came out of the 70s. Fuzzy distorted almost-electronic music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LayQ98lR8I

you down with btc?

is there a non-sketchy way to do bitcoin?

Open Letter To Myself

Don't try twerking. You are not a sex object. Plus, you lack the necessary rotational flexibility in your hips.

Also, white lines - don't do it.

Call Me Carly

First read this.

If you still don't appreciate the best song of the decade, well, maybe you hate life. Or maybe you haven't watched the actual video which was kind of a game changer and a subtle sign towards the upcoming political upheavals of the following summer.

Go watch it. I'll wait. There! Feel better? Also - catchy as hell, innit!

OK - you've caught the earworm. Go try this:


Now that you're in the mood, let's slow down the original by a teeny bit:

And we'll close it out with some Star Wars action:

There you go. coredumpin - your one stop shop for the greatest song of the decade. 

Link Dump Saturday

• Octopus Project - Truck: http://vimeo.com/5656770 OMG Earworm!
• Entropy is not as entropic as you think: http://www.mit.edu/newsoffice/2013/encryption-is-less-secure-than-we-thought-0814.html
• CS Refresher - Topological Sort: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topological_sorting
• Back when the North Sea was landlocked, we had Doggerland: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-18687504
• This is everything I love about little indie Flash games: http://jayisgames.com/games/experimental-shooter-2/

'twas a good day

• Listening to: Tristeza - Paisajes
• Drinking: Ryan and the Beaster Bunny
• Easting: Leftovers from Nick's and Homeroom
• Reading: Dai Sijie - Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
• Earlier in the day: 
• Coffee at CRO
• Doughnuts at Doughnut Dolly
• Breakfast at Homeroom
• Biking up Cyclotron road (demons bested!)
• Swimming in Roberts Pool

pre-retraction

So I was about to embark on one of my unsolicited rants re: the whole BBQ thing and how I don't get why it is such a popular phenomenon when most barbecued foods are kinda meh etc., when E reminded me that this is probably because I don't eat meat. Oh yeah - good call. I guess barbecue makes a lot more sense when meat is involved. I got nothing.

non-gate

Oh man. The conspiracy theories are starting to fly again. In response, I give you the words of Alan Moore:

“The main thing that I learned about conspiracy theory is that conspiracy theorists actually believe in a conspiracy because that is more comforting. The truth of the world is that it is chaotic. The truth is, that it is not the Jewish banking conspiracy or the grey aliens or the 12 foot reptiloids from another dimension that are in control. The truth is more frightening, nobody is in control. The world is rudderless.”
–Alan Moore, “The Mindscape of Alan Moore” (2003)

  
I am a big believer in incompetence ultimately triumphing over any well-orchestrated secret plan. Over time, stuff goes wrong and things come out. If anything, the age of the internet has proven that there are no secrets. There is always a whistle-blower, always an anonymous tip that makes it impossible to hide anything for very long. This is not to say that conspiracies don't happen. It is just that incompetence and dysfunction are often better explanations than any grand unified theory of whatever. I've seen all sorts of badly photoshopped images trying to link the Boston / Sandy Hook / 911 etc. to a government cover up, when the reality (botched foreign policy over time leading to radicalization) is more complex and harder to actually fix.

I generally find conspiracy theories to be far too simplistic and neatly tied together i.e. made up. Real conspiracies, more often than not, look nothing like the theories surrounding them. We're at a point where any given major event (good or bad) evokes a set of conspiracy theories without a lot of critical thought going into [i] whether said theory makes any sense, and [ii] whether the conspiracy theory actually detracts from a very real underlying problem. For example it is a lot easier to claim that climate change is a conspiracy and much harder to deal with the reality that we may have irreparably fucked our ecosystem. 

Which is all really just a longer-winded and less articulate version of Alan Moore's quote.

(cobbled together from a longish Facebook thread)

schadenfreude

[Warning: Sports related post ahead]

Top 10 schadenfreude inducers

1. The Utah Jazz (BTW - can we all agree that this is the most ill-fitting team name of all time?)
2. Ryan Lochte
3. Skip Bayless
4. Clay court tennis specialists (Rafa leads the charge on this one)
5. Smokin' Jay Cutler
6. Atlanta Sports Teams (Is it just me or do all Atlanta sports teams blend into one? Like a giant ball of slightly above-average mediocrity)
7. Cristiano Ronaldo
8. The Dallas Cowboys
9. The New York Jets
10. Tim Tebow (the Tebow-NYJ nexus has been schedenfreude heaven)

also, happiness is all the rage

ah - emo! :)