so nice to be able to open the windows (sound on)

"viewer discretion" means watching the videos, no?

this doesn't do justice but the sunset was absolutely cooking tonight

gmail just showed me a preview of an AI-reply I could use to respond to an email, and while I shouldn't be so shocked, I was truly flabbergasted that the answer it composed drew from recent in-person conversations (as spied on by my phone) and my browsing history (to divine my travel plans). creeps.

a piece I wrote last year about dembow dominicano for Hyperlocal is now online: hyper---local.com/magazine/dem... a post-script today would add that the recent Tokischa collabs with Ice Spice and ASAP Rocky suggest that dembow might have more room for English verses than reggaeton.

I love the idea of trying to fire a dog. Good luck with that.

far prefer the Pru to tell me the Celts are playing than that we're bombing other countries

we discussed W.C. Handy's "St. Louis Blues" in class last week, and now my snitch-ass phone is pushing me notifications about the hockey team

the impressive choppa (scammer) code-switching is the big sell here, but I can't get over the irony that at the same time as this dembow lawsuit, dancehall drums have gravitated toward a 3-2 clave pattern (as also heard in trap and afrobeats). www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEzW...

you wouldn't trumpwash your car and yet...

riding my bike around town like a complete maniac (for riding my bike around town on these streets)

"sound system culture has expanded all over the world…The result of this is hundreds & hundreds of sound systems in Jamaican molds scattered around the world - as in Brazil, w. the sound history of this culture being passed on decade after decade, preserving the trajectory & creating new memories”

What channel is the Bad Bunny SOTU on?

gonna need some serious motivational music to get through this post-blizzard shoveling. too subjective to take requests -- I run toward Mingus and El Malo -- but wish me well.

unpopular opinion apparently: there are no bad fruits

just answered an unknown call with a local number. I know they're often spoofed but it could have been the dentist. anyway I said hello, was answered by the first two measures of Satie's Gymnopedie #1, and then they hung up on me. maybe it was the dentist?

sometimes eggs come out looking like decorative gourds

william shakespeare didn't have this to write about

and the winner for best slopumentary goes to...

"If humans could perceive the ultrasonic range, rat chirruping would be as much the sound of New York as sparrows, starlings, and traffic." #soundstudies #ratscapes #ultrasound www.newyorker.com/science/elem...

technically, your honor, cabrón refers to a male goat

the investigation

se nota que Benito shouted out Cuba twice toward the end there.

an hour of shoveling snow = more firewater. I make the rules.

@ericdharvey.com oh the quotes you could have quoted

nevermind spanish, some of you have three days to learn how to dance

😂 www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/faq...

time to take back Electric Boogaloo from the fash

vindication

thinking I might have to buy a trumpet for when it finally happens. just imagined myself beating a skillet and honking the car horn but surely there are better options.

the mighty @eddiestats.bsky.social goes deep on the multicultural roots of the Bam Bam riddim -- and the musical genius of Sly Dunbar -- making a rich case for why this one has enjoyed such resonance since its release and such ongoing reverberation. pitchfork.com/reviews/trac...

last night, Boylston & Mass, no filter. some beauty amidst the slush.

Best New Music, Jan 2026

fun frozen egg trick #63748

Sly & Robbie & Grace covering Tom youtu.be/q9jb3lgE7D0?...

this track is amazing. incredibly dense with references to other music (from soul to rap to classical), and yet also brimming with ideas of its own. it's a journey! long live Sly & Robbie

so sorry to hear about Sly Dunbar, gone far too soon at 73. one of the greatest drummers of all time, without a doubt. such range, such groove, such spirit. his beats will live forever.

all of a sudden Gmail keeps offering to "Polish" my emails, but I don't even know any Polacks

thinking about George Washington's teeth

sinners oscars and bad bunny super bowl say tell your mfin story however YOU want

it was twenty years ago today -- ok, Monday -- that the Boston Phoenix published a cover story about a hot new genre called reggaeton, my first foray into music journalism. RIP the Phoenix, long live reggaeton! web.archive.org/web/20090605...

I appeared on a recent podcast splitting some big musical hairs -- namely, whether the so-called "dembow" rhythm (or more particularly, the kick-snare boom-ch-boom-chick) now at issue in a huge copyright lawsuit has an important, unignorable antecedent in soca drumming www.iheart.com/podcast/1119...

today's fkn reading, sorted

when you're a superpower they let you do it

the final paragraph is truly a kicker, beginning "And that just suggests there may be no limits"

this many bingo cards can't be wrong. here's to some happiness in the new year.

The sun It destroyed the clouds Yes YES The sun is out

morning coffee with anisette, fresh baked cookies, and this on the stereo. tidings of comfort and joy, my friends.

is there a Sirhan Sirhan Jr.?

I've long thought of "fiddle" as a colloquial way of naming the musical/cultural/class differences between ways of playing the violin. today I learned that "fiddle" is actually the same word as "viola" and "vihuela" -- all from "fídula"! 🤯 (in La Manta y La Raya #19, Dec 2025)