yewknee
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An internet waystation.

it me - michael eades

👋 Hi, I'm Michael Eades; a long time Internet dweller, design dabbler, dangerously amateur developer, online social experimenter and frequent curator.

Currently working as VP of Product at Smarter Apps. I also keep the lights on at a boutique record label called yk records, a podcast network called We Own This Town and a t-shirt shop called Nashville Galaxy. Previously, I built things for Vimeo OTT, VHX, KNI and Spongebath Records.

This site is an archive of ephemera I find entertaining; tweets, videos, random links, galleries of images.

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find me elsewhere

 

contact

Reach out via threads or good ole email if you have anything to discuss. I do my best to reply in a timely manner.

for the record: "yewknee" is a nonsensical word with no literal meaning but a unsurprisingly nerdy etymology. It is pronounced, "yoo • knee."

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ongoing projects

yk Records →
started in 2009 as a conduit for music that friends had no plans on releasing. now it's a full fledged boutique label focused on releasing quality music from a variety of styles. you know, like a label does. Here's a sampler on Soundcloud and a different one on Spotify. Options.

We Own This Town →
Originally a Nashville area music blog, this site has grown into a full blown podcast network as of 2018. It's an attempt to bring together creative folks about a variety of interesting topics.

I host this show all about Nashville local music outside the expectations of the city. I'm biased but all the shows are good.

Nashville Galaxy →
An online t-shirt shop featuring beloved and defunct Nashville area businesses. Very niche audience on this one but I tend to think niche is good.

some noteworthy other things

Chris Gaines: The Podcast →
published along with co-host Ashley Spurgeon; a limited series podcast that takes an absurdly researched deep dive into the time that Garth Brooks took on a fictional personality named Chris Gaines.

Garth Brooks Chris Gaines Countdown →
to celebrate the 20-year anniversary of the time Garth Brooks took on the fictional personality Chris Gaines and appeared on Saturday Night Live in character, I GIF'ed the entire episode. It's a lot of GIFs; please use them.

Whiskerino →
a social network built around communal beard growing for four months. yes, it was as weird as it sounds but equally fascinating and enjoyable.

Moustache May →
an offshoot of the beard growing contest mentioned above. equal amounts of oddball fun but only a month long.

Summer Mix Series →
before all music was streaming everywhere, Internet music fans would swap zip files of music. it was truly a strange and wonderful time.

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Researchers find way to spy on remote screens — through the webcam mic

absolutely wild:

“Because of the way computer screens render a display—sending signals to each pixel of each line with varying intensity levels for each sub-pixel—the power sent to each pixel fluctuates as the monitor goes through its refresh scans. Variations in the intensity of each pixel create fluctuations in the sound created by the screen's power supply, leaking information about the image being refreshed—information that can be processed with machine learning algorithms to extract details about what's being displayed.”

Pellet Ice Is Extremely Overrated

I dont share a passionate opinion on this but I do love the editor’s note at the top.

jazz parrot playlist

from Defend New Orleans: perched above the bullshit ~ tropical jazz for life!

Menomena - Cough Coughing

revisited this recently and still love it

Joe Derr – Kako Gallery

stumbled across this while walking through NOLA. note to self to take a deeper dive later

John Linnell - Roman Songs

Linnel releases solo EP of songs with Latin lyrics. Intrigued.
For awhile now, I've been admiring the work of director Seck. His YouTube channel is filled with extremely well shot, highly creative videos. I downright love this, am astonished by this and find this downright brilliant in its simplicity.

When I helped release the No Stress album for Prelude No. 1, I hoped that I could find a way to work with SECK through the promotional process. The No Stress songs can be short but maybe that would be the perfect pairing?

Well, we made it happen and SECK directed this No Stress video for "Sunset on Saturn" - the closing track from Prelude No. 1. It's 90-seconds but there's a lot of world building in that short time. The Nashville Scene premiered the track and made some excellent insightful remarks about the plot of the piece; is it a Twilight Zone style nod or is it a social justice think piece? Somehow, I think it's both.

Everyone involved here is brilliant and I'm so glad I got to be a conduit for getting a little short film made like this. Enjoy.
The name Cody Uhler may not ring a bell for you immediately but if you've been reading this blog for any amount of time, he's been mentioned in many different forms over the years. He's released multiple albums under the pseudonym Nahnee Bori (if you've never heard "External Recap," prepare for greatness), he's collaborated on every single Uncle Skeleton record, he's partially responsible for the greatness that is Kindercastle and he has helped craft all of the music for the series of DOTS mobile games. That last bit doesn't get mentioned too often because mixing day job credits with solo work can feel a bit exploitative but it contributes to the fact that Uhler is extremely adept at writing music, particularly in a videogame framework.
With the release of Darbo's Island, his first album under his own name, he takes that experience to the next level. He spent a very long time studying the intricate restrictions of music made for systems like the Super Nintendo; very low sample rates and very few samples playing at once. Even within those restrictions, many of us have extremely fond memories of soundtracks for the likes of the Zelda, Kirby and Mario series.

The result of that study grew into Darbo's Island; an album that somehow manages to simultaneously feel nostalgic and incredibly modern. It's an homage but it's also entirely original. It's not an easy balance to strike but he's, honestly, crafted a beautiful thing.

You can buy the album digitally on Bandcamp or stream it on your preferred service. If you were ever infatuated with video game soundtracks, I promise this is for you.

Everything is a Remix 2021 Trailer

Kirby Ferguson returns with a new series on his well established idea. Very relevant in our meme fueled world.
Seems like it's been since February since I posted a Friday Videos. That's a helluva long time between distracting posts of idiotic videos. Frankly, between my day job, my little label, my podcast network and my upcoming nuptials I really haven't had the time to browse for dumb, shareable, content. I still plenty plenty of dumb stuff but nothing you'd want to see!

Aside from my personal obligations, I feel like between Instagram, IG Stories, TikTok and whatever other app is hot at the moment, you have plenty of distractions at your fingertips. Sure, they aren't curated by lil ole me but a distraction is a distraction at the end of the day! Whatever you need to get by.

I digress. Let's get distracted. Aside from that I've really just been watching an unbelievable amount of Taskmaster, David Lynch Weather Reports and revisiting the Kazoo Kid Trap Remix. What else should I be doing?

Hope you got that vaccine! Stay safe.
I can't begin to express my excitement for unveiling this new Cody Uhler video for "Purple Barrelling." A few months back, we hit up Director & Animator Mike Kluge (aka MKAV) about making a piece for the song. We were fortunate enough to have recording artist Glume contribute some dancing footage and Kluge went to work. The results are astounding.

The track comes from an album called Darbo's Island, which is meant to be the soundtrack to a Super Nintendo videogame that never existed. It is inspired by the restrictions and patterns of old SNES music but, ultimately, it goes for a much more modern take. The "Purple Barreling" video follows that same line of thinking - it's a nod to 90's nostalgia but it's modernized in every way.

I've been fortunate enough to watch this thing more times than I can count already and I hope you'll do the same. It's just mesmerizing.

Creative Works Conference 2021

returning to Memphis this year on Oct 7-9. Lineup looking good.

Luka's Replika chatbot creates a digital representation of you the more you interact with it

pretty interesting concept and execution. A bit creepy too but still interesting.

Havana Syndrome

pretty wild reports that sound 100% like conspiracy theory but seems like some sort of radiofrequency weapon, based on best guesses. Will this be the next QAnon topic?

Best Movies Never Made: Derek Kolstad

nice interview episode with the creator of the John Wick series. Plenty of enjoyable insights

Bachelor - Doomin' Sun

Jay Some + Palehound collab project. Def worth a listen.

The Donut King

Austin Kleon recommends

Nashville Ambient Ensemble: Live at Grimey's

a very special Nashville group giving a very cool performance
The kind folks at Record Crates United premiered a new video for Jack Silverman today and his track "Searchlight." Taken from his EP, Now What, the song feels ripped from the screen of classic film noir... so it's fitting that the video is ripped from the screen of classic film noir.

Watch it, enjoy it, get snag the EP.
Today, Vimeo spun off from its parent company IAC and went full on public. If you're the kind of person that buys stock, get yourself some VMEO and see what happens.

When I started at VHX some nine years ago, I had zero inclination that we'd be acquired by Vimeo and end up here. It's quite surreal but I feel honestly proud of where we've ended up and excited to see where it goes.

I'm sure one day I'll have more nuanced thoughts about the entire endeavor but, for today, I'm just stoked about it.
Premiered this new video for "Beats Me" by the band Full Mood and I am reposting it here because, frankly, it's a damn fine ode to Twin Peaks and David Lynch. It's a slow burner but well worth the reveal. Give it.. 3 minutes. I know that's infinity in Internet Time but the reveal is satisfying.
Over the weekend I saw a friend tweet a random hash in order to "secure his Arweave" account. Intrigued, I poked around the official ARWeave site and learned that it's a technology that "enables you to store documents and applications forever" thanks to a "collectively owned hard drive that never forgets."

If that smells suspiciously of blockchain, you're not wrong. ARWeave is built on top of a Blockweave is an alternate version of the traditional blockchain that is "a set of blocks that contain data, linking to multiple previous blocks from the network."

From a high level, it's not very illuminating. The sites rundown on its own technology is interesting - basically saying that the blockweave rewards you for duplicating historical data (unlike the blockchain) and eventually results in a "permaweb" of data.

I can't say that I fully understand at all but I remain intrigued. Maybe you will be as well.
As we, hopefully, careen towards embracing more renewable energy sources at a larger scale, I find myself going down various YouTube holes learning about some options. This Undecided with Matt Ferrell episode on The Future of Solid State Wind Energy is a pleasantly educational look at some near term and long term alternatives for harvesting wind power. It's also just 12 minutes, so it's just the right length too. Do give it a watch.

Matt Berry 'The Blue Elephant'

another new Berry record?? Intrigued!

The Palindromists Documentary Official Trailer

trailer was posted in 2018 but the doc is out now in 2021. Curious to watch.