vote no

at some point politics went from being public to personal for me. a private thing that matters to me but not something I feel comfortable talking about in any kind of public forum, because it feels so damn stressful. I mean I still believe more or less the same things I've believed for a long time. and no - age has not made me "more conservative" or whatever (I really don't understand this one). I just decided to stop making it a public thing since I have no capacity left in me to have a discourse around any of this stuff. that said, you should still vote no on (or before) tuesday. okthxbye.

In Praise of Giannis

I am genuinely happy for Giannis. He seems like a fundamentally good dude, and a normal human being (apart from being 7 feet tall and insanely athletic). He is funny and real and has a such an inspiring backstory. He seems to be the opposite of the LeBron industrial complex that has controlled the basketball narrative over the past decade. Bonus points for beating Chris Paul - the most annoying dude of his generation (Point God? More like Point Godawful amirite?). 

On a more sombre note, I am truly terrified of how these finals are going to end up being a series of superspreader events with no discernable masking or distancing, and the Delta Variant gaining steam. Adam Silver - I'm really disappointed in how you've dealt with this after being so serious about the bubble last year. I'm really, really hoping that this will spur people into taking vaccination more seriously. We shall see. 

 

 

Not A Total Cachu Hwch

The last couple of days have been not terrible. It is saying something about the collective trauma of the last four years that "not terrible" is all I'll allow myself right now, but small steps right?

So in no particular order, stuff that happened:

• George Floyd verdict
• I'm fully vaccinated
• Steph going supernova
• The European Super League nonsense sputtering and crashing

OK - so the truth is when people claim to post lists in no particular order, they are probably not being completely honest. Our brains aren't wired that way. There is always an implicit order encoded in there, certainly at the beginning of the list. Just sayin'.

A bit of a footnote - Cachu Hwch is apparently Welsh for "Total Fucking Disaster" (literally "Pig's Poo"). See also the David Tennant / Michael Sheen episode of Staged 

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.

2018 Music

Albums

This list gets smaller each year which makes me sad, but I still think there is a place for a coherent set of songs released together.

• Haley Heynderickx - I Need To Start A Garden
  • This was soo soo good. She has this weirdo voice and does this folky/punky/warped garden elf music that sounds old, but totally fresh. Also my favorite live show this year.
  • Standout Track: Oom Sha La La
• Beach Slang (Quiet Slang) - Everything Matters But No One Is Listening
  • Apparently they are divisive but whatever - they are super fun, and unapologetic about being bombastic, pretentious art school poseurs. Quiet Slang is James Alex’s acoustic-ish solo-ish version of Beach Slang stuff.
  • Standout Track - Future Mixtape for the Art Kids
• Instant Music - Instant Music
  • A 1981 reissue that never got due credit back in the day. Minimal Synthy Post-Punk. Dark Entries is a really nice label for these kinds of reissues. A bit like Young Marble Giants.
  • Standout track - My Boy

Random Songs

• Travis Scott - Sicko Mode (I guess I didn’t listen to much rap this year. But you should also watch the Warriors listening to a “special version“ of this. Dray and Steph are the best)
• Migos - Motorsport (I guess I didn’t listen to much rap this year pt. 2)
• Parquet Courts - Total Football (Socialism, Soccer, and a “Fuck Tom Brady” Drop in the end - so I’m required to like it!)
• Death and the Maiden - Wisteria (Reminds me a bit of that Primitive Radio Gods song)
• Iron & Wine - What Hurts Worse

Pre-2018 Stuff I found

• Psychic TV - Orchids
  • OMG - This might become my favorite song ever. It is that good. If you listen to one thing in this post, listen to this.
• Snail Mail - Thinning
  • This track is way better than their new album which made its way into everyone’s lists, because people found this track and then felt like they needed to recognize them post-fact. It’s cool. I’ve done this too.
• William Onyeabor - Atomic Bomb and Fantastic Man
  • I kinda knew about him, but I didn’t really give him a listen until now. Oh wow. This is so much fun, and intersects nicely with old bollywood and afro-funk.

small wins

it has been a couple of weeks. failed attempt at adopting a dog. fires. smoke from the fires. being cooped up in the house from the smoke. a stir-crazy 11 year old not excited about being stuck in the house. took the week off, but felt myself on edge the whole time. plus my usual release - deriving joy from our local world-beating basketball team, has turned into its own form of angst, bickering and ugly losses. these are all temporary things. the rains are here. steph will be back. our new house is finally emerging from a sea of boxes. but i need some small wins - now! i'm tempted to ... gasp ... go for a run, just to count that as a small win.

football's coming home

based purely on their name, and knowing nothing else about them, huddersfield town seems like the team most likely to be relegated in the premier league. in other news i'm a bandwagon football fan now. i just need to find a wagon to band to.

world cup edition

Dear World Cup 2018,

I have some questions.

Why do teams seem to be taking so many short corners, when the set-piece has been shown to be the biggest statistically underutilized xG inefficiency? Bend it in for the inswinger and let probability do its work. (Note: It is also entirely possible that I don't actually know what I'm talking about, and I'm saying this because I read a book and now I'm basically a Blog Boy)

Why are sliding tackles ok again? I seem to remember there being a concerted effort to get rid of them in the 90s. Not sure if this is just confirmation bias, but it does seem like injuries are up this year. I really want to see some transcendent Messi/Neymar shit, dribbling fools out of existence, and mostly all we get are these ugly fouls.

Why aren't yellow cards reset after the group stage? It really sucks to watch teams playing without their top dudes. The 2 yellow cards = suspension rule seems a little too low of a bar. My solution for these last two questions: Just hand out more reds for dangerous tackles and do away with suspensions, unless they are for really flagrant fouls or non-football shenanigans. The NBA gets this right.

Why are most of the Fox commentators so awful? I am so done with all the "as it stands" commentary. We all know that if the score is Uruguay 2 Portugal 1, "as  it stands" Portugal and Ronaldo will out of the tournament. And can we please ditch the guy that sounds like Troy Aikman?


(To be continued ... )

open src

When I retire I want to spend my time curating a tiny but useful open source tool. I mean, I could theoretically do this right now, but I do plenty of ((mostly) satisfying) software work in my day job and I'd rather spend my free time doing other life things. Eric Raymond's excellent The Cathedral and the Bazaar and this great interview with the creator of curl* got me thinking about this, but really, I've kinda had this as my retirement plan pretty much since I graduated from college.

Other things I want to do when I retire:

• Do a longish bike ride.
• Actually finish a Coursera course.
• Play one-on-one basketball with my daughter (this is more of a waiting until she gets big enough/skilled enough for this to be a contest thing).
• Move to a fancy loft space.
• Spend several months in a totally new country.
• Join a beer brewing co-op**.

Maybe what I'm after isn't retirement so much as Keynes' fabled 15 hour work-week.

*What is the correct form of capitalization for UNIX utilities like "ls" or "curl"? The English language doesn't seem well equipped to handle computer commands.
**I don't have the patience/dedication/knowledge to be a solo homebrewer, but it seems like a fun group activity.

2017 Best Music

I think I officially stopped listening to albums this year. Once I gave up on that, listening to music became a lot easier and I was able to come up with my best-of list pretty easily.

• St. Vincent - "New York" - Masseducation (Loma Vista)
  This was my jam for the year. Beautiful and sassy.
• Rostam - "Bike Dream" - Half Light (Nonesuch)
  I've been super impressed with his post Vampire Weekend stuff. It is earnest and bombastic and really well crafted.
• The Courtneys - "Tour" - The Courtneys II (Flying Nun)
  Hits my sweet spot in terms of fuzzed out garage pop.
• Destroyer - "Tinseltown Swimming in Blood" - ken (Merge)
  Some heavy shades of When In Rome. Super catchy - some may call it derivative. I call it a throwback.
• Wax Idols - "Born Without A Mind" - Evaluate What You Tolerate! Volume 1.
  This isn't on Spotify, so I'm linking here. Cover of a 7 seconds song, that is sadly even more relevant now. Musically, I like the direction that Wax Idols is taking (moving away from the gothiness of their last two albums and bringing in more sonic density).
• (Sandy) Alex G - "Powerful Man" - Rocket (Domino)
  Weird and twangy, in a good unexpected way.
• The Mountain Goats - "We Do It Different on the West Coast" - Goths (Merge)
  A Mountain Goats song, but with a funk bassline that makes you smile. And lines like "Almost always something happening in Ohio".
• Lil Uzi Vert - "XO Tour Llif3" - Luv Is Rage 2 (Atlantic)
  The Ringer describes the anhedonia that this conjures much better than I can, so I'll just link.
• The Drums - "Blood Under My Belt" - Abysmal Thoughts (Anti)
  Synthy pop revival goodness.
• Ariwo - "Alafin" - Ariwo (MANANA)
  I kinda cheated since I only heard this song this morning. But I'm going to put this here anyway. A dubbed out afro-beatish electronic jam that is both new and old.
• Shabazz Palaces - "Eel Dreams" - Quazarz: Born on a Gangster Star (Sub Pop)
  Rap is clearly going through a phase change, but its nice to see oldheads putting out stuff that updates indie-rap with some fresh soundz.
• Younger Lovers - "Ballad Of Two Stubborn Men" - Younger Brothers (Southpaw)
  I saw him live and it was the most raw, raunchy, eff-you perfomance I've seen! The record has a very different feel but still captures the lo-fi minimalist punkish aesthetic.

Here is the Spotify version, with a couple of Bonus tracks:

dreams

I've been having a ton of weird dreams lately. Well - not exactly weird - let's call them uncharacteristic. But I don't remember them anymore, which is probably for the best.

paint it black

So for the longest time I thought that the lyrics to Paint It Black were "I see a rainbow and I want to paint it black". Imagine my disappointment when I learned that "rainbow" was, in fact, "red door". Seriously, painting a rainbow black is way more poignant.

I think I'm doing this wrong and this should be a tweet.

books

I'm reading like 8 books right now which feels fun and daunting all at once. Like literally 8 books ...

• Golden: The Miraculous Rise of Steph Curry by Marcus Thompson
• My Cat Yugoslavia by Pajtim Statovci
• Thinking in Systems: A Primer by Donella H. Meadows
• What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami
• Unf*ck Your Habitat: You're Better Than Your Mess by Rachel Hoffman
• Microcosmos: Four Billion Years of Microbial Evolution by Lynn Margulis
• The Design of Everyday Things by Donald A. Norman
• The Lean Startup by Eric Ries

In this process, I did discover a little lifehacky trick, which is probably totally obvious to the rest of the world, but is a revelation to my idealist, completist brain.

So when I read a book, I really commit to reading it - to expend brain-cycles actually thinking about it. This means I read all the boring parts, footnotes and all. The downside is that I give up on a lot of books that I can't keep up with. Also, I'm not really big on "business books" per se. I sometimes feel like I need to read them, to keep up professionally and get the terminology down but it is hard to get excited about these books.

What I (finally) realized, as I tried to get through Lean Startup is that I don't actually need to read a 300 page tome that basically goes into a lot of detail on some pretty basic concepts. Most of these books have nicely summarized versions on the internet, and these versions along with some Wikipedia / Google foo will pretty much get you all the good parts. Now I can get back to my summer fun reading!

And as I write this, I realize that I just came up with Cliff Notes. 

sports nosports

OK - so I was wrong in my last post. The 2015-16 warriors were not the greatest team of all time. Turns out this year's version are even better (thanks to the new model KD turbo drive). Alas the season is over, and there are no real sports to watch this summer. Baseball seems utterly pointless to me, and this is a non-World Cup, non-Olympics summer. So enough about sports.

ball don't lie

Dubs play the Cavs tonight on MLK day in what seems like a regular season game with some deep implications. I decided to get some court time at Bushrod - I wish I had played more when I was younger. I coulda been a contender ... What else? My favorite 2 basketball players will always be Hakeem and Steph. One of my favorite sounds in the world is the "swish" in nothing but net. In an alternate reality I'd want to be a stats wonk for a professional basketball team. And I really think that the 73-9 Warriors were the greatest team of all time. They should have won the championship - but got unlucky at the wrong time. I guess 2016 was the year of these kind of stupid bad-timing low probability debacles (see also: the election of you-know-who). Almost makes you wonder if Zaphod Beeblebrox hooked up the infinite improbability drive to the year 2016.