Consume

SLY LIVES! (aka the Burden of Black Genius)

Poster for "SLY LIVES! (aka the Burden of Black Genius)"
★★★★☆

I’ve waited decades for a definitive look at Sly Stone, and this is as close as it will get. Part of the documentary felt flat at the end, because as a mirror to Sly’s life, it is flat. It’s disappointing feeling the waste of great potential, regardless of how understandable it may be. I feel like Sly’s subconscious knows it, too, even if he can’t publicly admit it.

Discuss on Mastodon


Thoughts

Giving It Another Go

After 15 years away, I’ve decided to start up this blogging thing again.

In the 2000s, I was never a heavy blogger, and while I used to sign up to every social media platform, I was usually just a lurker. By the early 2010s I became even more dormant and stopped posting. I just liked my life better without the extra work. 

But an interesting thing happened over the last few years — the enshitification of social media made me reevaluate things. I’d browse Twitter through Tweetbot daily, but when Twitter killed off 3rd-party clients, I left Twitter. I was a huge fan of Apollo for Reddit, but Reddit pulled the same move and I left Reddit.

Watching what is happening across all corporate social media has made me realize that their incentives aren’t aligned with what I want out of social media. While the culture of any platform is crafted by the people who use it and the policies that guide them, it’s a balancing act that’ll eventually loose it’s balance.

People left after Twitter went to shit and landed on Threads. Then Threads drastically changed their policies and people landed on Bluesky. There is nothing I can see that implies that the same won’t eventually happen at Bluesky.

This has led me to abstain from corporate social media platforms — and reading that back makes me feel like I’ve become a self-righteous nerd 🤓, but here we are… But the flip side of all this is that I’m inspired by the movements of people owning their content and words through the indieweb, or even open source social media platforms like Mastodon and Lemmy (I’ve even tried my hand at moderating on Lemmy — I’m running a community for Metroidvanias). These sites aren’t as slick as the others, but they’re insulated from a single owner being able to ruin that nice balance and there’s no algorithm to influence you.

I don’t know if this blogging thing will stick for me, but I’m giving it another go. Feel free to follow me on Mastodon, Lemmy, and subscribe here. I appreciate that you’re even on this site. 

Here’s to the next post not being 15 years from now.

Discuss on Mastodon

Consume

Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin): A Memoir

Cover for the book "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) A Memoir"
★★★★☆

I’m a superfan, so I’m excited to hear these stories — but it’s sad to me that you can still hear how much he lacks self reflection. It’s going to be interesting to hear how this compares to the documentary coming out about him this week (which I’ve heard he didn’t participate, so maybe there’s a more reliable narrator).


Consume

Love Heart Cheat Code by Haitus Kaiyote

Cover for the album "Love Heart Cheat Code" by Haitus Kaiyote
★★★☆☆

This is one of my favorite bands, but this is my least favorite of their four albums. I’ve listened to it a handful of times, but nothing’s grabbed me the way “Choose Your Weapon” did. Still good, but not spectacular.


Consume

The Wonder of Stevie

Cover for "The Wonder of Stevie"
★★★★★

The moment I found out about it I binged all of it. It’s an analysis of Steve Wonder’s run of albums from I’ve been listening to that 5 album run in the early 70s. 50 years later it’s still perfection.


Consume

Silo: Season 2

Poster for the second season of "Silo"
★★★★☆

Still good, but not as good as the first season — much slower. But according to folks who read the books, it’s supposed to pick up in the next 2 seasons, which Apple just green-lit. Steve Zahn is a national treasure.


Consume

Neva

Poster for "Neva"
★★★★☆

It’s a beautiful and touching game, and the puzzles are solid. It’s an improvement over their previous game, Gris, but not by much.


Consume

Ladies & Gentlemen: 50 Years of SNL Music

Poster for "Ladies & Gentlemen: 50 Years of SNL Music"
★★★★★

They couldn’t have hired a better director for this. If you’re wondering if this documentary needed to be made, in the first 5 minutes you’d realize how misguided that would be. Loved it.


Media

The Brummies ‘09

After 6 months of serious and strenuous evaluation, the BrumBrum Academy is proud to announce the Brummies for 2009. Previously: 12

Music

Cover for Boom Shadow by Nino MoschellaBoom Shadow by Nino Moschella
2nd album from the guy who I anticipate new work from the most. It’s a near-guarantee that I’ll love every piece of music that he puts out.

Cover for "Good City for Dreamers" by General ElektriksGood City for Dreamers by General Elektriks
It’s been a while since their last release, but he picks up right where he left off 6 years ago.

Cover for "Ray Guns are not Just the Future" by the Bird and the BeeRay Guns Are Not Just the Future by The Bird & the Bee
Easily the closest I get to pop in my listening habits, but I think I’m a sucker for Greg Kurstin’s production

Runners Up: Carried Away by the People Under the Stairs, BLACKsumers’night by Maxwell, The Ecstatic by Mos Def

Movies

Movie Poster for "Star Trek" by JJ AbramsStar Trek by the J.J. Abrams
After the new Batman movies and this, I’m hoping that folks are figuring out how to properly handle summer blockbusters.

Movie poster for "In the Loop" by Armando IannucciIn The Loop by Armando Iannucci
Hands down the best use of swearing in the last decade. Even better than the TV series.

Movie poster for "The Informant!" by Steven SoderberghThe Informant! by Steven Soderbergh
My favorite thing about this movie is that this guy really exists.

Runners Up: MoonGood Hair

Books

Cover for the book "Asterios Polyp by David MazzucchelliAsterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli
I remember the author from one of my favorite super-hero graphic novels back in ’88, but I’m glad to see that 20 years later he’s done his first self-written graphic novel.

Nothing
I didn’t realize it until I started this list, but what the hell has happened to me?! I apparently stopped reading this year. Asterios Polyp is the only book that I can remember reading the whole thing. I mean, I read a few things that were published before 2009 which don’t count, but still…

Man… I better clean up my act.

Design

Dustin Curtis — Dear American Airlines

Interesting:

  1. Designer dreams up a redesign of American Airlines’ website and chastises the company (particularly their design department)
  2. An employee from the AA design group writes back to say, “You’re right.”
  3. AA fires said employee for breaking their NDA.

Lots to take away from this. For me, most of all is that I’ve been in this employee’s shoes and this story reaffirms that I will make sure to never be wearing shoes like his in a company like that again. It sounds clear that AA is a seriously messed up company, and, as folks have said, the original critique is a little naive of the situation: A little screenshot does not a website make.

More Posts →