More than ever, a little levity is a welcome gift. Maybe a lot of levity? Here's a bunch of treats for you that I hope bring that for you.

• Knorr Soup Schloup - sometimes an ad emerges online that is absolute perfection. Both pure joy and pure terror. No notes.
• James Brown's Japanese Miso Soup Commercials - speaking of soup commercials, here's a pair of classics.
• 2001 Nissin Milk Seafood Noodles - speaking of classic Japanese commercials. Nothing will ever top ole Cheesieboy and Pepperman. Well, maybe this? Tough competition.
• The Legend of Beavis - can you mix footage from The LEgend of Zelda cartoon and Beavis? Turns out the answer is, "Yes, perfectly." Huge props to KhalidSMShahin for the amount of work this must have taken. I know ten minutes is long for a Friday vid but if you enjoy a Beavis, this hits the right spot.
• Introducing A Toilet In The 18th Century - I'm happy Mitchell & Webb are back with a new series, mostly because I'm always on board to see David Mitchell be impatient, incredulous and perturbed.
• Your neighbor is playing DK Bananza at 3am - silly but amusing.
• LinuxCon Worldwide 2021 - so many Linux jokes I do not get but I appreciate the execution.
• Tom Jones & Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - can you mix Tom Jones with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young? Turns out the answer is, "Yes, perfectly."

I put the Knorr soup guy on a loop. I can watch it forever.

I don't consider myself a Nirvana completionist by any stretch of the imagination. I'm of the age where Nevermind was a big deal. I'm also of the personality type that I certainly listened to as many b-sides as I could get my hands on (hi, "Marigold"). But I've never heard From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah nor thought for a moment about picking up any anniversary boxsets. After Cobain passed away, I moved along and was happy with my level of fandom.

Ironically, that lack of interest paid of! This Live at the Paramount concert popped up in my YouTube feed the other day and I was quite intrigued. A 70-minute show from Halloween 1991, filmed in 16mm and performed just four weeks after Nevermind was released?! Incredible!

Turns out it was released back in 2011 as part of a Nevermind anniversary release and I was just completely ignorant to its existence. Whoops! Regardless, my brain is ready for a revisit on this material and maybe yours is too.

I rewatched Mars Attacks! the other night for the first time in maybe 15 years. If you are somehow unfamiliar - it's a 1996 comedy directed by Tim Burton with absolutely perfect special effects and an absurdly stacked cast. It's silly, it's absurd, it's great. Go watch it.

One thing that had not registered with me previously* was the opening credit that the film was based on a series of Topp trading cards of the same name. Browsing through the set, it's impressive how much they took from the card stories. There's plenty left out but the martian & saucer designer are spot on. The shrinking ray. The robot suit. Even the idea that the aliens are enjoyable watching from afar was in the cards!

If you haven't seen the film in awhile, it's a fun browse to augment your viewing.

* OR, I forgot

Ars Technica has this exhaustive article on the emerging Tiny Vinyl format. No, not the 3" Records you may have seen pop up at Record Store Day or in other novelty situations but 4" records manufactured by... Tiny Vinyl.

The article covers every aspect of the process, going as far as to describe as how all vinyl records are made and what challenges face this new format. Primarily, the biggest hurdle is that automated record players can't play them because they take up the same physical space where 12" LPs have a label - so the player assumes it should not play. Maybe bigger still is that the minimum order on records is 2,000 units. Lemme tell ya, that's a giant hurdle for any record company unless you've got the deepest of pockets.

All of those challenges are covered in the article but I can't be mad that companies are continuing to experiment with the format. I have a They Might Be Giants Mini CD for "They'll Need a Crane." Why do I own it? Because it's tiny!

I hope that more companies start to lean towards what Good Neighbor is doing with environmentally friendly processes. Maybe ole Tiny Vinyl and Target can get on board?

Twenty-one minutes of Richard Ayoade talking with the one and only David Letterman - who, surprisingly, seems to be a genuine fan of Ayoade. It's good chat. Full stop.

It's also an abbreviated chat. It seems to cut off mid-sentence on Ayoade! But don't worry, there's a Part 2 that lets you continue the goods.

As a random sidebar, this is also a bit of a testament to the power of YouTube thumbnails and how bad they can be! Maybe this change in the future but the current thumbnail looks like this - some nice type with some quote bubbles around it. If you are cruising YouTube in 2025, this is barely going to catch your eye. Why not put a still of Letterman and Ayoade in the image? Facial recognition is going to happen quicker than text comprehension. C'mon folks! Who knew I had this rant in me? Certainly not I.

If you're a fan of the art of Nine Inch Nails, you'll likely familiar with the name Rob Sheridan. He played a big part in the visuals of With Teeth, as well as several other albums. I'm partial to his work with How to Destroy Angels.

He's launched a Kickstarter project for a book of his works The Glitch Art of Rob Sheridan. It's $100 for the first edition but I imagine that'll be a small price to pay for the final work. The pitch video is insightful and entertaining - particularly the little easter egg at the end.

There's no shortage of weirdo art kids doing interesting projects in NYC. History is teeming with them. Fortunately, that doesn't make the rate of return any less interesting! Weirdo art kids doing weirdo art things never gets old!

The U-Haul Gallery is the brainchild of James Sundquist and Jack Chase. They rent a U-Haul, put up some fake walls, real art and then illegally park it for anyone to enjoy. This profile encapsulates it quite well.

I am sure U-Haul will eventually catch wind of this and order some sort of cease and desist but there's always Penske.

Lots of designs to enjoy from Sicknik Productions but I'm particularly drawn to this Devil Topstone Mask and Witch Topstone Mask. The textures, the colors, the illustrations - all fantastic.

I'll admit I wasn't that familiar with the term "Topstone Mask" but it's a real vintage mask set that is quite haunting. Seeing the real things makes me enjoy these prints even more.

Here's a rundown of some recent musical enjoyments that I believe you'll also appreciate. I never know if these should be their own individual posts or one megapost. Hit me up if you have an opinion. Regardless, tap through and give yourself a little sample of each.. your future self will appreciate it.

Count Bass D - Bells Majestic
Mostly instrumental album from one of hip hop's finest. I love Count's lyrical albums but there's a special production quality to his instrumental records that can not be denied. He did include a cover of "Maneater" on this one - an outlier among the others that I am sure will be enough to draw folks in. Outside of that, be sure to hear "Hunker Down", "Hear We Grow" and "Affirmative."

---

Patrick Cowley - Hard Ware
Patrick Cowley died in 1982 due to AIDS-related illness. Prior to that, he wrote and recorded a lot of music. Tons of synth pop and disco tracks. Since 2009, Dark Entries has been working with his family to unearth and revive that treasure trove of music. The latest in that series is Hard Ware - set for release in mid October. Only one track is available at this time but it's a damn good enticement to pick up the release.

---

Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament - Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament
Some years ago I came across the shoegaze band Tape Deck Mountain, the pseudonym of Travis Trevisan. I think he was in NY or San Diego at the time but moved to Nashville at some point. I've followed his work regularly and he's become involved in many other projects; including this new four piece. It's steeped in shoegaze, psych and atmosphere. It's not bombastic or aggressive, it's a wall of sound that envelopes you. I recommend putting on headphones and turning it up. Then turning it up some more.

---

Shiner - BELIEVEYOUME
I don't recall when I became a fan of Shiner but they've been in regular rotation for as long as I can remember. Generally when a band breaks up and reforms 9 years later, my pessimism says they won't be able to capture their original magic but the second wave of Shiner has been every bit as enjoyable as the first. BELIEVEYOUME is their sixth album and, judging from the two available songs, it will be every bit as good as their previous five. "Asleep in the Trunk" is sinister, spacey and completely captivating.

Absolutely riveting longread here from retired venture investor Jerry Neumann - AI Will Not Make You Rich. The disruption is real. It's also predictable.

The first two thirds of the piece give a lot of historical context to the waves of innovation we've seen over the last few hundred years and frames up some phases of innovation - Irruption, Frenzy, Synergy and Maturity. I realize in describing this it sounds extremely droll but I was riveted.

The final third tackles this idea:

Let’s grant that generative AI is revolutionary (but also that, as is becoming increasingly clear, this particular tech is now already in an evolutionary stage). It will create a lot of value for the economy, and investors hope to capture some of it. When, who, and how depends on whether AI is the end of the ICT* wave, or the beginning of a new one.

Now, I'm not smart enough or investor-minded enough to say what the answer to that question is but the position that Neumann puts forth is hard to argue with; we're in a maturity phase of technology and not in a phase with massive disruption. Tho, he does state that AI could lead to a new phase. I don't have concrete takeaways here, just an urging for you to go read it.

Comparing AI to the globalization of shipping containers was not something I thought I'd be riveted by but here we are. I think you'll enjoy. Link via jmsdnns.

*ICT = Information and communication technology

Cal Newport posted this short article on Saving Civil Society in the wake of the most recent gun violence activity and I gotta tell you, it's the most concise and good insight I've seen in some time. It will take you 2 minutes to read the entire piece but I'm still going to extract my favorite bit here to preserve it:

We know these [social media] platforms are bad for us, so why are they still so widely used? They tell a compelling story: that all of your frantic tapping and swiping makes you a key part of a political revolution, or a fearless investigator, or a righteous protestor – that when you’re online, you’re someone important, doing important things during an important time.

But this, for the most part, is an illusion. In reality, you’re toiling anonymously in an attention factory, while billionaire overseers mock your efforts and celebrate their growing net worths.

After troubling national events, there’s often a public conversation about the appropriate way to respond. Here’s one option to consider: Quit using these social platforms. Find other ways to keep up with the news, or spread ideas, or be entertained. Be a responsible grown-up who does useful things; someone who serves real people in the real world.

To save civil society, we need to end our decade-long experiment with global social platforms. We tried them. They became dark and awful. It’s time to move on.

A simple bit of advice that I think, deep down, we all know we should heed. I don't think I could quit using them completely but I can say, without hesitation, that X and Threads are bad for me. I quit X some time ago and I think it's time to pull the plug on Threads.

Much respect to Robert Ashley - host and producer of A Life Well Wasted, one of the finest shows about videogames both in terms of production quality and content covered. The show started in 2009 with six extremely captivating episodes. Another dropped in 2013. Another in 2022. And now, it's back again in 2025 with "Game Over" - an episode that actually catches up on a previous topic and the tumultuous events that have occurred between breaks. Pardon the Apple embed - I have no other good option!

Ashley also makes music as I Come to Shanghai, who have multiple albums also worth your time.

I largely respect that the episode makes no mention of the gap in time between episodes. Ashley owes no explanation but a "typical" podcast would certainly say something to acknowledge the gap. Major respect to him for knowing it's not necessary in the slightest. Just glad to hear a new episode.

The headline really says it all - BogdanTheGeek has figured out how to Host a website on a disposable vape. The blog article is a technical deepdive into the components inside of a vape and how Bogdan was able to put just the right software in place to allow the vape to support serving files over the web.

Even if this sort of information does not appeal to you, you must admit the phrase "Hosting A Website On A Disposable Vape" is something we all needed in our lexicon.

Really great gallery of arcade cabinet marquees from Dan Sinker. I always loved how these images set the tone for the game you were about to play but, obviously, the tech couldn't match the imagination. Still, lots of fun styles and rabbit holes to explore here.

While you're in the headspace, might be a good time to revisit the Soviet Arcade Cabinet Museum or the latest Love Hulten creations. Different from above but overlapping in your interest, I promise.

I don't recall how I originally encountered Human Milk but my best guess is I was handed a CD at SXSW in 2008. Maybe I bought it. Memories are unclear. What I do know is that in the seventeen years that I've owned this album, I revisit it regularly. It's indie pop in the vein of The Unicorns or Animal Collective - often sickly sweet with a childlike buoyancy, undercut with a darkness in the lyrics and harmonies. It is very much up my alley.

Whenever I revisit it I try to find more information about it but my searches come up completely empty. Zero information is returned for a band called "Human Milk" with an album called "Grape Fruit Clouds." I know 2008 was a long time ago but it strikes me as incredibly bizarre that the Internet is devoid of information on this one. There's not even anything on Discogs! Shocking.

Since I have the CD, I can confirm that the record was written by Kerstan Wallace - an artist now living in Denver and creating music under his own name. He's got a Bandcamp, several albums on streaming and an Instagram. But his online activity seems to have gone silent around 2019.

I've posted Grape Fruit Clouds over on archive.org so that others can enjoy these sounds. It's 31 tracks that fly be. If Wallace disapproves, let me know and I'll be happy to remove it.

I caught Nine Inch Nails for the first time in 2022 when they played at FirstBank Ampitheater - an outdoor quarry. NIN is a band that I've been listening to since 1994 - a big influence in teen me! The experience of seeing them outdoors was lackluster to say the least.

On Saturday, I finally got to see them indoors at Bridgestone Arena - an indoor venue with all the bells and whistles to support their two stages and absolutely brutal light show. The Scene writeup says they Transcend Time and Space - I think that's quite the apt review.

Nine Inch Nails having an impressive live show is not news to anyone but if you've never caught it (like I hadn't), I highly suggest you make the effort. After market tickets were quite affordable, especially considering the reward that comes with attendance.

As I am wont to do, I made the setlist into a playlist on Spotify and YouTube Music. Let's all agree that the YouTube embeds for music playlists are awful but it's an annoyance worth putting up with. Here ya go.

Thanks to a suggestion from Poprock Record, I found myself immersing into No More Skulls, the latest album from Gregory Pepper. The record is short, just sixteen minutes across ten minutes but packs in a ton of ideas, all executed incredibly well. Pieces of this remind me of Benji Hughes, The Unicorns or any number of bands that let themselves get weird and dark while still embracing maximum pop sensibilities. It's a rare ability to find that balance but Pepper does it perfectly.

No More Skulls is just my first foray into the world of Pepper.. I'm happy to report there is a lot more to hear.

I somehow stumbled upon Danger Testing, a site that claims to be "early access to new app drops before anyone else." I am sure this is connected to some hustle culture in some way and I am sure I do not understand it. However, I was entertained by several of these single serving website ideas like the Iceberg Generator or Knowing Fun - a rabbit hole explorer.

Certainly not for everyone. Possibly not even for me. But worth a tap around.

Some intriguing things to read... just for you!

• Code Is All You Need - an interesting take on MCP's and how they aren't likely to be the big solve to taking LLMs to the next level.
• Hierarchical Reasoning Model (HRM) Analysis - that's a mouthful of a name but it's worth noting these early insights on a different approach to AI. I fully admit to this being over my head but it serves as a reminder that anytime you're frustrated with the state of AI, remember that it's basically a teenager. Changes are afoot.
• Artificial Labor - mostly an article about how musicians are trying their damndest to get politicians to make streaming platforms pay artists but also a pretty wild story about musician Emily Portman, who recently had a new album release much to her surprise. It was entirely AI generated music, likely trained on her own voice, and released without her knowledge or permission. Not good.