This ROM hack of Super Mario Bros - officially called Play It By Trust (Sky Blue Super Mario Bros.) - is impossible to play unless you are intimately familiar with the game. Every single pixel has been changed to the same shade of sky blue - meaning you can't see anything. I've seen YouTubers play blindfolded, so maybe there is someone out that that could play this and actually make good progress? Even if it's a fools errand, it's fun to try.

The best part of this hack is the thought behind it..

The game is specifically an homage/reference/exploration of Yoko Ono’s classic work “Play It By Trust (White Chess Set) (1966)” which is a chess set in which all the pieces are white, with the core idea being that if you play with someone you will inevitably lose track of which pieces are yours and which are theirs, and then “there’s a moment when you feel like it really doesn’t matter which pieces are yours or the opponent’s.” There’s a really great discussion from Ono herself (I think) on the page linked above.

What parallels are there between this project and Ono's? Any? I'm not really sure there are but I like that a silly hack about Mario Bros led me to a thoughtful art piece from a controversial figure about a topic that is as timely now as it was then.

I vaguely recall Razor1911 from their shortened handle RZR; a warez and demo group that leaked a lot of software from 1986 to.. now? They seem to still be active in some capacity, despite at least one of the members being convicted to prison time.

Regardless, this Dubmood music video serves as a tribute to 40 years of the group. It's an onslaught of vintage computer references, ASCII art and visual delights for anyone that thinks fondly about modem dialup sounds. There's a moment about 4 and a half minutes in that really struck me - truly delightful.

Don't let that 10 minute runtime scare you, it's really only about 6 minutes and it's gripping the whole time.

And once you're done with that, watch this video I made that has similar vibes! Yes that is a selfish plug but it's my site and I'm allowed.

A few weeks back I was browsing the bootleg archives of TheFeatures.live and ran across this show from 2000 where the band played the song "God Save Rock n' Roll." This was before they were signed to Universal, before they had released their EP The Beginning but were strongly established as a fan favorite. You can hear the crowd singing along with every word.

Eventually the band did release The Beginning, which caught the ear of Universal and got them signed. In 2003, they headed down to Oxford, MS to make their major label debut with producers Mike McCarthy (Spoon) and Craig Krampf. They recorded 17 songs during that month of sessions. Together, they mixed the record and turned it over to the label - including a proper version of "God Save Rock n' Roll."

The label made some changes to the track listing, got the band to re-record some things and even had a new mix done. It's not unusual major label behavior and it was intended to be helpful; to give the band the best shot at breaking through to an audience. The band eventually released that album, entitled Exhibit A, in 2004. It launched their career and gained them much a bigger fanbase than the tiny capacity crowd back in 2000. But that recording of "God Save Rock n' Roll" was never released.

Until now. After twenty-six years as a fan favorite, "God Save Rock n' Roll" is available as part of a reissue aptly entitled Exhibit A (Original Sweet Tea Mix). This twenty-seven track collection is exactly what it sounds like, the original mixes that the band and the producers created back in 2003 (bundled with a ton of demos, including a demo for "God Save Rock n' Roll." We liked it so much, we're releasing it twice!). This is their sonic vision of what the major label debut would have sounded like, sourced directly from McCarthy's mixes.

The album is available in my shop, on Bandcamp and on Ampwall. It will be streaming Friday, Apr 10.

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This is already a massive post so I will refrain from adding too much else but I have been working on this for two and a half years. Not all day, every day, but steadily for years. I am overjoyed that it actually exists and is available for others to enjoy. I hope you'll partake.

Ryan Norris makes music as Coupler and has released a number of records with the likes of Third Man Records and my own yk Records. He's also been in The Privates, forrest bride, Hands Off Cuba, HeCTA, Lambchop and tons more. He's also the first person who ever introduced me to Brian Eno's Oblique Strategies and remains one of the people I find the most fascinating to hear talk about music. I actually recorded a chat with him not too long ago and still think about it often.

But that's all to say, he has a wealth of creative experience and I am, personally, a fan of how he expresses it. He recently posted this excellent piece about the art of editing - This, Not That. (or Editing as a Creative Act): A Provocation.

This "provocation" weaves through the idea of creation as reduction. It has a style and a cadence that is uniquely Norris. I actually recommend listening to the "Article voiceover" option, that he reads himself. I could pull quote many bits of it but I'll leave with this one:

The illusion great works present is of a springing forth fully-formed, inevitable, devoid of the messiness of this-not-that-ing. Unfinished works appear somehow different, yet in certain ways similar; pure, unaltered, primal, fundamental, brutal, prior to the edit. They pose versions of the same question; are they form without void, absent the negotiation of this-ing and that-ing? Were they never dipped into the muck?

I am a subscriber to the Poprock Record list - a regular dispatch of musical treats. Recently, they mentioned the Japanese surf rock band The Routes and their Joy Division cover album Surfin' Pleasures. Granted, "Love Will Tear Us Apart" in a surf rock style doesn't carry quite the same melancholy burden that the original does but that's not the point! Every track on here is extremely well executed and somehow manages to fuse the two styles together extremely well. And that cover art is pretty brilliant.

Every year during the Tennessee Williams Festival, a contest is held in honor of A Streetcar Named Desire. This contest involves people recreating that scene where Stanley Kowalski screams for his wife Stella's forgiveness. The results are fantastic.

Stanley Kowalski is an despicable character but take a moment to browse the YouTube results for a bit of silly goodness. There's so many great results.

Earlier this year I quit Spotify. There's plenty of streaming service providers in the world and I'm happy to not be a daily active user on that one.

However, one thing Spotify had that I really enjoyed was a embeddable player. This let me get the playlists I'd made on Spotify out into the world - like on my old music page. It wasn't super fancy but it was sleek enough. Unfortunately, the same can not be said of YouTube Music embeds. The embeds they offer are undeniably awful - it's just a YouTube playlist with a drawer. The drawer isn't even open to let you see that more than one track exists!

Fortunately, there are a lot of APIs to let you interact with YouTube. Why not whip up a little interface to fetch a playlist and make it look nicer? That's exactly what YewTube is. A nicer looking YouTube Music embed!

The name is absurd (thanks jms) and the URL is insane but I am happy with the functionality. Just go here, paste in a YouTube Music Playlist* and you should get back something relatively nice looking! If not, please contact me on Bluesky and let me know what happened.

* to my surprise, this actually works for almost any playlist on YouTube. So, go nuts!

The other morning I got tagged on Instagram by an account I'd not heard of. They doodled me and it was on the main grid! WTF?!?

Turns out, the account was MUGZ Coffee, a NY based coffee roaster from designer, illustrator, typographer, artist Jason Powers. The doodle was part of a morning routine, just like the coffee.

Turns out Jason had also emailed me a heads up about the doodle and the coffee, I just hadn't seen it yet. Honestly tho, it was a delightful treat to see my little visage. I've got a bag of coffee on the way to me now. Maybe snag one for yourself.

Looking at the work of Kirill Semenovich I am blown away. Enamored. Gobsmacked. Entranced. Every single post is beautiful and surreal and often chaotic in the most mesmerizing way.

These clips are taken from larger bodies of work - THE OLD MAN and SAFE HAVEN in particular. The work on their official site and Instagram is worth a perusal to say the least. Not all of it is pixel art in the least, that just happens to be the first that caught my eye.

I'm a lifetime fan of Michael Madrid. I shared an office with him for awhile. I was in awe of his Buddytown creations, his work at Asterik and Wonderful Union. He was always relentlessly creative and driven by authentically joyful desires. The last few years he's been involved with many adventures off the Internet. They occasionally manifest at Summer Holiday, a print label for photo books, hats and whatever else he fancies.

The latest release is Dreamlube, a compilation of photos taken between 2018 and 2025 by Madrid himself. He's a fantastic photographer and seeing a collection of the work together is a delight. Full stop. I suggest you follow him and Summer holiday on Instagram, as your feed should be filled with good things.

Dreamlube will have a book launch in a few spots. Check them out if you can:
Nashville — The Green Ray, Mar 20, 2026
LA — Dada Bar, Mar 27, 2026

I think Threads is, mostly, a Dumpster Fire of provoked engagement but occasionally there is a good feeling post on there. For example, this question:

has there ever been a song where the drum beats are Morse code that also serve as a separate layer to the lyrics

Lots of good replies in there - particularly this one. While it may not be answering the question directly, it did steer me towards this Erased Tapes compilation. I was familiar with the label but this particular release is new to me.

Released during COVID, the compilation is an intentionally ambiguous collection of works by undisclosed artists. All of the song titles are in morse code. You can decode them on your own but it will take spending time with the record. Despite not knowing who I am listening to at all on this thing, I can confirm that it's a diverse and well curated listen.

It's on Bandcamp, YouTube Music, etc. Give it a whirl!

• A Good Post - you are a creature. Never forget.
• "Metroidvania" Movies - I've never connected these dots before but Die Hard really is of the Metroidvania genre. Here's a whole list of them!
• Mr. Show: The Oral History - I have to assume at some point in my life I've encountered this article before but my mind is blank recalling it. So time for a re-read.
• New Farsi Numbers Station - wake up, new Numbers station just dropped!

Times can be tough. Let Nic Cage inspire you to keep going. Here are some distractions for your day as well.

• Top 5 Men's Freestyle Trampwall Runs - are you familiar with Trampwall Running? Welcome to your new favorite sport (?).
• System Of A Down - Chop Suey [ Cover by TORWAI] - honestly? perfect.
• Godzilla vs Zilla - remember the 1998 Godzilla movie? I recall it being a flop but had no idea that in 2004, the American version of the creature reappeared in the Japanese Toho movie Godzilla: Final Wars and got destroyed in mere seconds. Pretty brutal takedown.
• Shipping a Button, 2026 - some niche content here but if you're involved with Tech and Engineering at all, this will hit home. If not, it will be complete gibberish.
• Tele Novella - Broomhorse - did everyone in your high school suddenly become obsessed with Harold and Maude for a semester? They did at mine. This Tele Novella music video is an excellent tribute to it.
• Angine de Poitrine on KEXP - I don't want to know anything about this band. I just want to bask in their existence.
• Moron Movies Part 1 - endurance challenge: how many stupid clips can you make it through? Some are genuinely funny. Many are flat out dumb. A few are bizarre beyond description. Only one way to see them all.

The amount of work documenting and presenting every Walkman from 1978 to 2005 must have been a wild undertaking but that's exactly what you'll find at Walkman Land. Color me impressed to say the least.

Letting the site tickle those nostalgia feelings is worth the visit but, moreso, it's a fascinating journey to travel through time and watch the design trends of the equipment change. Most of the evolution is slow across the decades but, occasionally, you'll see a standout that goes against the paradigms of the time and looks futuristic. Those are my favorites to look out for.

MOSS is a drawing tool / playground from Brainfruit. Put simply, it's a place to doodle online with a limited (but intriguing) set of brushes. The limitations of the tools are part of the draw (pun intended) and the platform provides Challenges if you're stuck by the blank page problem (which I almost always am).

Primary takeaway here: people are still making fun things on the Internet. Go tinker with them.

Jenny Wen has an impressive resume! She's leads design for Claude over at Anthropic. She was Director of Design at Figma and spent time at Dropbox, Square, and Shopify. Regardless of what you think of the actual design of each of those places, you can't deny that there is likely a very robust design process and a lot of people trying to make informed decisions. As such, Wen has some interesting perspective on the future of design. Inversely, she's also employed by Anthropic, so that's likely going to inform her answers a bit as well.

All that together makes for an interesting podcast episode talking about the future of design, process and the tools that will be used. It's a long episode with a lot of ground being covered, so block off a good chunk of time to let it sink in.

My personal design experience with AI assistance has been OK. From a generative art perspective, some interesting results came from it! Images I've used to augment existing designs or to help form something new. From a purely design perspective (i.e. layout, UI, UX), nothing has impressed me too much. But I'm a sample size of 1 and it's still very early days.

I'll refrain from monologuing too much about this but AI is fundamentally changing how writing code works... it will be interesting to see if it has a fraction of that impact on any other area.

Absolutely adored this Jon Hicks rundown on The Perfect Music App Doesn't Exist. Obviously that's true for a number of reasons but what exactly are those reasons? Hicks will tell you! Scrobbling, local files mixed with streaming, big beautiful artwork, immersion, organization, sorting, et all. Even better still, he'll show you what's lacking and what he proposes he'd like to see. Oh, and Hicks was a part of the branding work for Firefox, Mailchimp and Shopify so this isn't just an essay from someone without solid experience in the graphic design world!

The final proposal is very interesting! I love how he was able to incorporate so many of his requests into a very clean solution that finds that balance of robust info and entirely usable.

Because it's the Internet, I will add my two cents. I find the blurring on the right edge of the artwork to be offputting. It is immersive but I don't want my artwork blurry. Let it be a sharp cutoff! But, seriously, if any company dared to build this - they'd win over every designer still lamenting for Rdio's return.

Continuing my Larry Sanders kick, I recently ran across this book excerpt from Tinderbox: HBO’s Ruthless Pursuit of New Frontiers. I've not read the book but this piece is a great oral history of how The Larry Sanders Show came to be on HBO, what the work environment was like and loads of behind-the-scenes anecdotes.. many of them not very flattering! Here's a particularly jaw dropping one about Rip Torn (Arthur) from Linda Doucett (Darlene).

Linda Doucett: One episode, they were cutting lines, and Rip didn’t like it when his lines got cut. He was getting really angry, and the AD comes into the writers’ room and says, “Rip is going insane. He’s smashing everything in his dressing room and he has a gun.” Everybody froze and Garry says, “Oh shit, we have a show to shoot. Send Linda in. He won’t shoot her.”

Obviously gun violence (or the threat thereof) is not something I condone or praise but it sounds like no one on the show did either! Holy moly that is wild.

If you're a fan, it's a Must Read.

More often than not, YouTube's algorithm has got my number. I'm not sure when I was shown the work of Rusty James but it is right up my alley. James reinvents Nine Inch Nails songs as if they came from different albums within the NIN catalog.

More specifically, he'll take a song like "March of the Pigs" and rework it as if it was part of The Fragile. Or "Love is Not Enough" as if it were from Pretty Hate Machine. From what I've read, he is leaning into using actual samples from the original records to reimagine the songs.

This is obviously some deep niche fandom at work here but if you're into it, you're into it. If nothing else, it's a fascinating experiment.

If you're a regular reader here, you likely know that I've been enjoying Ampwall for a few years. It's an alternative to streaming platforms that is akin to Bandcamp but taking a different approach. One of their biggest differentiators is just how much they ship. For those of you not in tech, that means they are adding new features, improvements and optimizations to the platform all the time.

Their latest launch is the iOS app. Just like how Spotify, Apple Music and Bandcamp have apps to help you listen and discover music, now Ampwall does too. The experience is, obviously, not exactly same as those destinations because their catalog is different but it's provides a pleasant way to find new music, support that music and then enjoy that music. If you aren't on Ampwall yet, I think this may be the thing that gets you to finally check it out.

If you do sign up, here's some free music for ya: Bleary "bug", Fetching Pails "Duchenne Smile". That should get you started!