The Mecha Comet is "a handheld Linux computer that brings extensibility in hardware and software adapting to your needs." But let's call a spade a spade, that's a Tricorder! Obviously not exactly the functionality of the famed Star Trek device but certainly on the same path.

I have no personal use for a Mecha in my life but I do love that it exists. It's extensible, it runs on open source software and it's promoting an ecosystem of development and creativity. Win Win Win.

It's also not real! The Kickstarter campaign launches soon but everything we're seeing are mockups and prototypes. As we've all learned in one way or another, manufacturing often changes things. I am optimistic for these folks and will continue to keep an eye on it - just for pure curiosity!

Liz Pelly has written a book called Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist, that serves as a documentation on her deep dive investigation on how Spotify is replacing musicians with stock music. This Harper's Magazine excerpt - The Ghosts in the Machine - is a phenomenal overview of the subject. The TLDR is: Spotify created a program called "Perfect Fit Content" in which they partner with production companies to create sound-alike / stock music that gets placed on playlists and receives millions of plays. Because of this, they pay out less to real artists. The TLDR on the TLDR is: Spotify is in a race to the bottom.

Pelly's reporting is fascinating but she also admits it is not entirely new. This Vulture piece from 2017 talks about it and this Music Business Worldwide report from 2016 does as well. It's not that the tactic is being unearthed for the first time, it's that they've built a full-on system for it now.

How did all this happen? Well, this particular bit gives a great overview:

"In reality, Spotify was subject to the outsized influence of the major-label oligopoly of Sony, Universal, and Warner, which together owned a 17 percent stake in the company when it launched. The companies, which controlled roughly 70 percent of the market for recorded music, held considerable negotiating power from the start. For these major labels, the rise of Spotify would soon pay off. By the mid-2010s, streaming had cemented itself as the most important source of revenue for the majors, which were raking in cash from Spotify’s millions of paying subscribers after more than a decade of declining revenue. But while Ek’s company was paying labels and publishers a lot of money—some 70 percent of its revenue—it had yet to turn a profit itself, something shareholders would soon demand. In theory, Spotify had any number of options: raising subscription rates, cutting costs by downsizing operations, or finding ways to attract new subscribers."

Cutting costs to increase efficiencies and attempt a return-on-investment for venture capitalists should sound like well trodden territory at this point. Again, it's not new it's just gotten exhaustively better at being bad.

There's lots more to say on this topic but, for now, read the Pelly excerpt, consider ordering the book and give some thought to cancelling your Spotify subscription. I certainly am. *

* and before you think that X streaming service is better and would not participate in such a thing.. go read the article. Spotify is egregious but not alone.

I'm a sucker for strings synthesizer. Add in a flair for the dramatic and I'm ready to double down. That said, encountering Rondò Veneziano - the Italian chamber orchestra that sometimes dressed like Daft Punk and played lavish renditions of classical music with some modern instrumentation... well, I'm in! Here's a few gems I enjoyed:

• Sinfonia Per Un Addio- performing on Miss Fortuna Nadia Cassini in full Daft Punk gear. Of course this is 1983, so maybe Daft Punk was in full Rondo gear? The corresponding album has phenomenal art.
• La Serenissima- apparently iTV used to show this animated bumper between shows from the same era of the band. Once again, I think we see Daft Punk's playbook.
• Rondo' Veneziano- an earlier "non" costumed appearance where the entire orchestra is still in full-on baroque apparel.

I'm sure the Daft Punk comparisons have been made elsewhere but it's all surprising and new to me. I'll continue my journey.

There are plenty of bands that definitively formed and shaped my preferences on music but it's safe to say that Failure had an outsized influence. Maybe one day I'll write up just how impactful they were but just know that by listening to Fantastic Planet I opened up doors to many other bands. One in particular was a collaborative project called Lusk that featured members of Failure, Medicine, The Replicants and bassist Paul D'Amour from Tool. I am sure I saw the video for "Backworlds" on 120 Minutes but it wasn't an album that many people had heard or even heard of. It's an album that's been out for 28 years and I still stand by how much I enjoy it and how enjoyably unique it is.

Anyway, all of that is to say that I've never really seen much written up about Lusk. I randomly stumbled on this history of the band from Alicia Berbenick that includes a direct interview with D'Amour himself. It's nice to know there are some others out there as impacted by Free Mars as I have been and even better to get this kind of insight from everything about the collaborations, the song compositions and even the artwork.

The record is now streaming on all platforms and I do suggest you give it a whirl.

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I would remiss if I did not also mention that D'Amour went on to form a band called Feersum Ennjin that released an EP with SU Records back in 2005. It is excellent, as well as the full-length album that I believe is streaming on all the things.

Welcome to v13 of the site! Well, sort of. This is a work-in-progress. I launched v12 back in October of 2022 and felt very good about. Until I didn't. As with anything, it felt stale over time and all I could see were the poor decisions I made - mostly with spacing and typography. So, time for a facelift.

Unlike every other version of this site, I'm going to work on this version in the open. I'll treat this blog post as a changelog to document what's new or what I'm experimenting with. Truth be told, the whole site likely deserves a complete overhaul - from database to API to frontend - but I'm going to stick with lighter optimizations on the backend as I work on sprucing up the front end. I don't need to overexplain it, you get it!

If you prefer the prior version, you can browse that. Or just stick to the RSS feed, where you don't need to be concerned about what this looks like at all.

• 2025-01-03 - stripped down everything to bare markup and started from scratch. Still leveraging Foundation for my framework along with a custom toolkit.
• 2025-01-04 - ensured database connection and query is working. need to overhaul these queries but that's for another day, it works for now. Blog listing, pagination and deep linking work - that's all you really need, right?
• 2025-01-05 - fixed pagination logic on the backend; total number of pages actually correct now.
• 2025-01-06 - launched skeletal version of v13. Structural CSS and light javascript in place. Things are likely broken but that's okay.
• 2025-01-06 - added back alternate tag for RSS feed; whoops!
• 2025-01-07 - Friday Video playlists should work again. Emphasis on should. Wanted to rewrite all the JS but, instead, opted to make it more sensible to my 2025 brain.
• 2025-01-08 - changed post timestamps to show relative time for the first week - i.e. "posted 3 days ago." After a week, it reverts to a normal timestamp. Title tag always full date.

We're in that lost week between Christmas and New Year's - a wonderful time of, hopefully, doing as little as possible. I'm going to post a little Friday Videos rundown (admittedly, it is Thursday) and then figure out what's next for this site. A redesign is overdue. I digress! Enjoy and unwind.

• Jacuzzi Suit - Luann Van Houten, Milhouse's mom, dons the jacuzzi suit. May we all be so lucky.
• SEIDÄ PASS KRAMPUS - I know we're outside the bounds of Christmas at this point but these kinds of Krampus parades fascinate me year round.
• World Record Skateboard Slalom 3D!! - this is the weird, inexplicable, internet we all yearn for. More of this, anytime. via Jed.
• ELECTRIC BOOGALOO: THE WILD, UNTOLD STORY OF CANNON FILMS - without a shadow of a doubt, you are familiar with Cannon Films but I've always heard the story of the guys running the show was infinitely more interesting than the movies themselves. Definitely want to check this out.
• The Party Makeup Video - Found Footage Fest rarely disappoints. Once again, a gem.
• Sitting & Smiling #300 - truly unbelievable. a man sits motionless for four hours with an unnerving smile. Motionless. I am sure there are some therapeutic, meditative, upsides to this but wow it is unsettling.

Talk soon. Thanks for reading as always.

Really enjoyed this Ethan Mollick piece, What Just Happened - a ponderance on the last month of AI developments and how it may fit into the larger landscape.

The piece does a great job of giving context to recent developments, context on what is working and what is not and never gets too overhyped. The hardest part about keeping up with these developments is the hyperbole - every new thing is the greatest new thing, which just can't be true. I digress, Mollick does not write in such a way.

Give it a read and a subscribe, I believe there's plenty of good in there.

Yes, that image is meant to look that bad

If you're a regular listener of the Blank Check podcast, you are also familiar with producer Ben Hosley. While his role in that show is appreciated, I am quite intrigued by his artistic side projects. One of which is called Slow Xmas.

The first volume, Volume 0 was released back in 2020 and it featured extremely slowed down classics. It's marked as "Vaporwave" but it's got elements of ambient and sludge throughout. It should be unpleasant to listen to but it is a captivating listen.

Over the years, more volumes were released. All of which are worth your time. It's a pretty massive tome of work to encounter but there's no bad starting point. Over the years the compilations become more original covers slowed down - a pleasant change. I mean, listen to this "Christmas All Over Again." Wild.

A little something different for your holiday listening. Hope you enjoy!

Is Panic launching an OTT channel called Blippo via Steam? That's my knee jerk assumption to this delightfully weird announcement video but who knows what is really going on. It's Panic! It's bound to be interesting.

Today I learned: there's a tradition called Tió de Nadal in which a hollow log is adorned with a happy face and "fed" every night starting around December 8th. On Christmas Day, the log is partially placed inside the fireplace and beaten with sticks until it defecates presents. Making this up would be much less fun than actually reporting on a thing that really happens.

Tió de Nadal translates to "Christmas Log" but is often referred to as "Caga tió" - or "shitting log" / "poo log." It even has a song. Again, I could not make this up.

Atlas Obscura has a nice writeup on it. YouTube has plenty of logs being beaten. All told, it's a delightfully odd tradition to really let yourself deep dive into.

The Film Art Gallery seems like the sort of thing I should have been browsing for the last 20 years but it only recently came across my radar. It's a huge repository of one sheets, alternate film posters and huge theatrical film designs that are, generally, a bit rare! The 1988 Japanese Die Hard poster? Got it. Eternal Sunshine double-sided one sheets? Yep. A 1986 Czech design for The Beatles Help? Surprisingly, yes.

You can browse by director, genre, title, etc. I recommend looking at someone like Bob Fosse- you will be blown away by the results. I'm not even recommending you buy anything - just go be inspired.

There's also a Star Wars archive that is relatively interesting. And a Saul Bass archive that is infinitely fascinating. I'm really burying the lede here but the Bass archive is truly wonderful. The film posters are so wildly simple but clearly, definitively, him. Even the unreleased ones. Truth be told, it's non-stop gems as far as you can click.

This Kosmosphar album from 1977, Kosmische Wellen, is a rare bit of sprawling, spacey, Krautrock from the era. Except, it's not. The album is entirely AI. Specifically, the description says:

Warning: "Everything that happens on this channel is fiction. But what is the truth? F*ck it, just listen!"

It's a shame there's no further detail on how the record was made because it's actually quite an enjoyable listen. There's even a follow-up record and other releases from the label. The channel is actually rife with music. I'd be very interested to learn how all these were made and what human decisions were involved with the creation. I am positive it's not 100% a computer running the show.

I've not taken the deep dive but I am sure it has varying degrees of enjoyment. Just like a real record label. Quite frankly I'm not sure what to make of the evolution of AI generated albums. Like a lot of generated "art" there's a lot of heady discussions to be had. This is another interesting bit of fodder to contemplate.

You would think that as of December 16th, I'd be winding things down for the year with yk Records but the treats keep rolling out. Today, we release the official video for Shaboi's song "The Day After Christmas," a Yacht-Rock-y number that serves as a reminder to take it especially easy once the holidays have passed. It's a treat you enjoy before Christmas as a salve for yourself after Christmas.

The video is a delightful blend of stop motion and modern animation with a big surprise at the end. It's also the first Shaboi song since 2010. Nothing like breaking a fourteen year hibernation! I hope it means there is more to come but, also, maybe he just drops a jam every 14 years.. only time will tell! I'm ready either way. You can pick up this track (and 19 others) over on Bandcamp and Ampwall. If you buy it, we'll donate 100% of proceeds to CASA Nashville. No pressure tho, it's also streaming. Enjoy it however you'd like!

I dunno what's going on with that psychedelic dolphin but I figured as we head into the holiday season, we all need something to stare into for a little reprieve from it all. It's actually a great image to start a deep dive from - you're gonna see a lot of weird things. Good things but weird things.

Here's a handful of distracting videos for you. They aren't particularly holiday themed but I find them enjoyably ridiculous.

• Jaguar - Copy Nothing - this Jaguar ad campaign has been making the rounds. This is a few weeks old but I still can't tell if it was meant to be dead serious or satirical. I fear the former.
• WKNDR Concept Car - some friends were really losing their mind over this one. Personally, I can't tell if this is serious or satire! These vehicles look like bad CG renderings from A Sound of Thunder! How is this better than The Cybertruck?
• The Librarian: Quest for the Spear - speaking of bad movies, this looks like one for the books! Noah Wyle as action star isn't a terrible stretch but 2004 undertaking just didn't have what it takes.
• NEMESIS (1992) Trailer - I saw a review of Alien: Romulus that said the film was completely ripping off Nemesis from 1992. I don't understand how someone connected those dots but I am certainly entertained by this trailer. It's a B-movie but it is really offering up some innovation!
• Russian Floating Folk Dance - the Beryozka is a dance troupe that performs in long flowing gowns and dresses with a movement that looks like floating. There are loads of videos of this on YouTube and it's mesmerizing. Take the deep dive.
• life in 99 - Kyle Mooney does a little promo for his new A24 movie, Y2K. It's a perfect sequel to his early works. Dude has not lost it.
• 10 hours of silence occasionally broken up by the Taco bell Bong - endurance challenge! how long can you listen and how many Taco Bell bongs are there? Spoiler alert: first bong is at 4:05.
• The Korgis - Rovers Return - after that 10 hour undertaking of Taco Bell bongs, you deserve a downright delightful holiday-ish song from 1980. Heavy rotation for me these days.

I've mentioned it multiple times but the yk Records Holiday Sampler 2024 is now available everywhere. Our exclusive release on Bandcamp and Ampwall has ended! We were able to raise over $1,500 dollars for CASA Nashville (if you're feeling charitable, we're still taking donations!). It's on Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube Music and all the other destinations you may use.

I am extremely happy about this one and really think you will enjoy it. With other yk Releases I could understand the audience may be niche (not a bad thing) but this one feels universally appealing. Truly! I know that's bias talking but I don't care - it's really good!

Please give it a whirl and consider saving it / sharing it. Ideally, you may even put it on your Holiday Favorites playlist!

The folks at Don't Hug Me. I'm Scared posted their first video in two videos - Hark!. It is, without a doubt, one of the most unique announcements for a website. DHMIS.tv is the one stop shop for all the show episodes (TV and Web), a shop and a bunch of behind-the-scenes insights. It is also, most likely, the largest cursor I've ever seen on a website.

There is a short FAQ nestled in the site that says:

Will there be more episodes of the TV show?
There are currently no plans to make a second series of the TV show. However, we are not ruling out the possibility of more self-funded DHMIS content in the future.

While this is likely the end of the road for the series, you simply never know. Maybe someone with a deep well of funds will decide the world needs more of Duck, Red Guy and Yellow Guy.

There's a lot of fun commentary and insight in this 10 minute video about SNES games with odd time signatures and I invite you to read it all. OR you can just hit play and enjoy the aural madness.

Even if you're not a fan of much "chiptune" music, you gotta admit that the musicians involved with these compositions deserve some high praise. The limitations of these systems were quite limiting and they've done so much with it! Amazing.

The promotion for the yk Records Holiday Sampler 2024 continues! The compilation itself is available on Bandcamp and Ampwall now. We've managed to raise of $1,100 for CASA Nashville thus far.

To entice you to dive further in, New Man created this incredible animated video for their track "Christmas is a Mirror of the Mind." It's a healthy dose of cutting edge technology (plenty of AI at work here) and good ole fashioned animation experience. It's a great song and a damn fine video if I do say so myself.

I consider myself a fan of the band Lawndry - a Nashville based outfit that tends to lean a bit psychedelic but always laid back. The first thing I ever heard from them was an album called Lake Life, a single 26-minute track experience that gallops along at a steady and enjoyable pace. The album title is spot on in terms of vibe.

Every year, the band releases some original Christmas songs and plays a show around town. I haven't seen details about the show yet but their newest holiday EP is out and it may be my favorite yet. The Day Has Almost Come is just four songs but it covers a lot of ground. There's an adorable ode to Kraftwerk, a strangely sinister tale of a mysterious island and a loving ode to Santa and presenting giving. The EP ends with the title track and it's a gut puncher - a proper dose of melancholy for the holiday. I recommend it.

There's a vast body of work from the group but starting with the holiday songs is a good jumping off point.

Stumbled across this e-ink companion - TRMNL - that seems to be the perfect solution for a low power, easy-to-use, simple yet hackable solution for a little screen in your house. I imagine a simple little weather and calendar display for the fridge. Or a second display at my desk for To Do's. Or just a weird 8-bit image shown every evening.

I have not used one yet but the marketing has really grabbed me! The integration list is nice, the templating system is fascinating and the plugins really do seem easy to easy to build. Oh and it actually looks nice.