https://www.joshbeckman.org/blog/watching/letterboxd-review-1030754741-one-battle-after-another One Battle After Another This movie is long but earns the runtime by keeping you running through its entirety. A deep family backstory builds ...

https://www.joshbeckman.org/blog/attending/sg-lewis-at-radius S.G. Lewis at Radius I most wanted to see the opener, Sofia Kourtesis, a Peruvian producer, vocalist, and DJ from Berlin. So we got there ...

https://www.joshbeckman.org/blog/practicing/reinvesting-in-local-ci Re-Investing in Local CI I read this great post by Brandur over the weekend and got inspired. Specifically, the sketch of a world where contin...

https://www.joshbeckman.org/blog/practicing/the-box-model-a-framework-for-role-clarity The Box Model: A Framework for Role Clarity I spent months as a Senior Staff Engineer before realizing nobody had clear and consistent expectations of what I sho...

https://www.joshbeckman.org/blog/practicing/bending-the-fiddle-leaf-fig Bending the Fiddle Leaf Fig This fiddle leaf fig has been in two homes with us now for about 7 years, maybe 8. It first grew from about a foot t...

https://www.joshbeckman.org/blog/attending/polo-pan-at-the-salt-shed Polo & Pan at The Salt Shed Polo & Pan came to the Salt Shed for our friend Paul’s birthday and brought Tycho along as an opener. We ate ...

https://www.joshbeckman.org/blog/listening/on-keeping-a-notebook On Keeping a Notebook by Joan Didion, Read by Parker Posey This is my favorite essay on writing, by Joan Didion, read by Parker Posey. Your browser does not support the ...

https://www.joshbeckman.org/blog/practicing/apple-calendars-search-just-doesnt Apple Calendar's Search Just Doesn't I cannot, for the life of me, figure out what Apple Calendar’s search feature doesn’t return events/results with titl...

https://www.joshbeckman.org/blog/attending/big-wild-at-the-salt-shed Big Wild at The Salt Shed This was my fourth time seeing Big Wild (previously) and it seemed like the shortest concert; I wanted it to last so ...

https://www.joshbeckman.org/blog/attending/lady-gaga-at-united-center Lady Gaga at United Center It’s a good thing there’s a stage as big as this to hold Lady Gaga’s drama. She needs (and deserves) a lot of attenti...

https://www.joshbeckman.org/blog/practicing/directed-notifications-for-claude-code-async-programming Directed Notifications for Claude Code Async Programming This afternoon I leveled up my previous Claude Code notifications. Now I have Claude’s notifications: grouped by p...

https://www.joshbeckman.org/blog/watching/letterboxd-review-1014860664-unknown-number-the-high-school-catfish Unknown Number: The High School Catfish The story so far:Cell phones were created.This has made a lot of people very sad and been widely regarded as a bad move.

https://www.joshbeckman.org/blog/practicing/releasing-ghprstaleness-github-cli-extension-for-commits-behind-target Releasing gh-pr-staleness: GitHub CLI Extension for Commits Behind Target Working in a monorepo and with a merge-queue (as we are now doing inside Shopify - I’m grappling with...

https://www.joshbeckman.org/blog/practicing/website-redesign Website Redesign I’ve spent the last week or so redesigning my personal blog/site to make images/video/code/tables stand out more whil...

https://www.joshbeckman.org/blog/watching/letterboxd-review-1013829523-crooked-house-2017 Crooked House While I appreciated the color palettes and I appreciated Gillian Anderson, I didn’t find the characters likable in th...

https://www.joshbeckman.org/blog/attending/darius-at-outset Darius at Outset Scenes from the Darius show: at one point, someone dancing in the front row takes a FaceTime call and gives their ...

https://www.joshbeckman.org/blog/attending/wet-leg-at-the-salt-shed Wet Leg at The Salt Shed This second time seeing Wet Leg (previously) was bigger in every way. Bigger stage, bigger band, bigger venue, bigge...

https://www.joshbeckman.org/blog/attending/beach-bunny-pool-party-2025-at-the-salt-shed Beach Bunny Pool Party 2025 at The Salt Shed This second time seeing Chicago-native Beach Bunny (previously) was in much colder weather but the stage still exudes...

https://www.joshbeckman.org/blog/attending/ric-wilson-and-air-credits-at-edgewater-music-fest Ric Wilson and Air Credits at Edgewater Music Fest Two Chicago bands playing in the street on a cool summer night got the crowd bouncing. I had gone to see Air Credi...

https://www.joshbeckman.org/blog/watching/letterboxd-review-1006297102-sorcerer Sorcerer Just… wow.  First of all, this soundtrack has Tangerine Dream *and* Keith Jarret which is unbelievable. Second of all...

https://www.joshbeckman.org/blog/traveling/us-open-in-nyc US Open in NYC After reading about the old version of the US Open from David Foster Wallace (on my way to stumbling into a tournamen...

https://www.joshbeckman.org/blog/listening/just-cosmo-ep-by-cosmo-pyke Just Cosmo - EP by Cosmo Pyke Man, this would be one of my deserted island albums. I don’t know how I found this when it was released in 2017 but ...

https://www.joshbeckman.org/blog/watching/letterboxd-review-1003621942-shifty-2025-1 Shifty I don't think Adam Curtis actually wants you to watch this one, and that makes me sad. I'm sorry you're q...

https://www.joshbeckman.org/blog/watching/letterboxd-review-1002818668-citizen-kane Citizen Kane I was waffling between a four and a five but what’s it matter? Ned thought I was joking when I walked off the plane a...

https://www.joshbeckman.org/blog/working/desk-july-9th-2025 Desk, July 9th, 2025 I am getting rid of my big desk because this room is being turned into a guest bedroom.. So I’ve made some shelving i...

https://www.joshbeckman.org/blog/watching/letterboxd-review-996832737-hellraiser Hellraiser I think *Se7en* has better "what's in the box?!" energy than this film, but this was fun. I did not exp...

https://www.joshbeckman.org/blog/attending/orchestra-resavoir-at-millennium-park Orchestra Resavoir at Millennium Park This was part of the annual Millennium Park Summer Music Series, so we went with a picnic blanket’s worth of friends ...

https://www.joshbeckman.org/blog/watching/letterboxd-review-993243061-blood-simple Blood Simple I didn't actually like much of the first two acts, but the final act is *just* so perfect. And I gave another sta...

https://www.joshbeckman.org/blog/listening/vice-city-magic-by-mustard-service Vice City Magic by Mustard Service I’ve been listening to Mustard Service’s Variety Pack album since I saw them last year. This newest album from them h...

https://www.joshbeckman.org/blog/watching/letterboxd-review-991467845-mulholland-drive Mulholland Drive This review may contain spoilers. A mobius strip of dreams that I enjoyed more while watching it than I did while tur...

https://www.joshbeckman.org/blog/listening/aint-no-damn-way-by-kaytranada AIN'T NO DAMN WAY! by KAYTRANADA This isn’t full of bangers but it’s full of bops that are fantastic to listen to while working in the morning. Just l...

https://www.joshbeckman.org/blog/bookmarklet-to-find-and-display-rss-feeds Bookmarklet to Find and Display RSS Feeds I wanted to get notified when my friend Kevin posts new photos to his Flickr profile. Flickr’s documentation says it ...

https://www.joshbeckman.org/blog/the-barrelaged-cocktail-experiment The Barrel-Aged Cocktail Experiment We went to The Office (beneath The Aviary) for Marybeth’s birthday last year and on their menu they had a barrel-aged...

https://www.joshbeckman.org/blog/practicing/my-markdown-preview-utility My Markdown Preview Utility Please take your last response and pass it directly to the preview-md command as a string argument for visual preview...

https://www.joshbeckman.org/blog/watching/letterboxd-review-980487650-its-a-mad-mad-mad-mad-world It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World I watched this numerous times as a kid in my grandparents' house in Michigan on an old TV set from a dual-tape VH...

https://www.joshbeckman.org/blog/attending/black-mother-super-rainbow-at-metro Black Mother Super Rainbow at Metro I hadn’t seen BMSR before but everyone else had and so I didn’t know the treat I was in for. They draped a big net...

https://www.joshbeckman.org/blog/practicing/ui-vs-api-vs-uai UI vs. API. vs. UAI First we built a user interface (UI) when the application was just going to be operated by humans. There’s a whole br...

https://www.joshbeckman.org/blog/feedforward-tolerance-feedback-improving-interfaces-for-llm-agents Feedforward, Tolerance, Feedback: Improving Interfaces for LLM Agents My team is building an agent for complex, multi-language artifacts with interdependent parts. We keep coming back to ...

https://www.joshbeckman.org/blog/watching/letterboxd-review-976481187-weapons-2025 Weapons Like a kaleidoscope but instead of you rotating it, it rotates you and behind every corner there’s another sick and s...

https://www.joshbeckman.org/blog/practicing/the-gem-exec-command-gives-me-hope-for-ruby-in-a-world-of-fast-software The gem exec command gives me hope for Ruby in a world of fast software As more and more software is being developed quickly by LLMs, I’m seeing this “fast software” as akin to...

https://www.joshbeckman.org/blog/practicing/dont-forget-remote-mcp-servers-are-just-curl-calls Don't Forget: Remote MCP Servers are Just cURL Calls You can call any streamable-http transport MCP (Model Context Protocol) server tool with any HTTP client - even cURL!...

https://www.joshbeckman.org/blog/practicing/building-paperboy-a-personal-reading-recommendation-engine Building Paperboy: A Personal Reading Recommendation Engine I have a problem. My Readwise Reader inbox has over a thousand articles waiting to be read. Despite reading daily, I ...

https://www.joshbeckman.org/blog/attending/magdalena-bay-at-the-vic-theatre Magdalena Bay at The Vic Theatre I absolutely adored Magdalena Bay’s latest album, “Imaginal Disk”, so I jumped on a last-minute ticket (with a group ...

https://www.joshbeckman.org/blog/attending/scoochie-boochie-at-schubas-tavern Scoochie Boochie at Schubas Tavern A friend of mine came into town and stayed with me this weekend and his friend was playing a concert at Schubas so we...

https://www.joshbeckman.org/blog/practicing/claude-code-notifications-for-async-programming Claude Code Notifications for Async Programming I’m doing so much asynchronous programming through agents now. While at work I’m generally running one to several age...

https://www.joshbeckman.org/blog/listening/overmono-boiler-room-manchester Overmono Boiler Room Manchester I watched this set when it was first released but it came back to mind this morning because I heard a spoken word tra...

https://www.joshbeckman.org/blog/watching/letterboxd-review-959583071-the-fantastic-four-first-steps The Fantastic Four: First Steps Lots of pretty CGI and claims of someone being smart but not doing smart on screen and lots of magic claiming to be s...

https://www.joshbeckman.org/blog/practicing/my-foursometimes-five-bullet-incident-snapshot My “Four-(Sometimes Five-) Bullet” Incident Snapshot Detection → Mitigation → Remediation → Impact (+ Comms) in under sixty seconds

https://www.joshbeckman.org/blog/practicing/my-graham-evaluation My Graham Evaluation So yesterday someone at work shared this fun video of a guy trying out the Dia browser and its “skills” feature to ev...

https://www.joshbeckman.org/blog/watching/letterboxd-review-956662260-eddington Eddington I was surprisingly locked in the whole time but I don't think I would recommend this to anyone. The first half I ...