Fuck.

cc. @bwjones.bsky.social

Henry is a sweet soul. In retrospect, "De Mayaguez" feels like manifest destiny. Even if that journey began in fire, tragedy, and loss.

Indeed, David was likely holding the universe together. Blackstar influenced Donny's (and others') entire subsequent musical journey. (@bwjones.bsky.social, you should read this)

All you guys wishing me a Happy New Year? IT'S NOT WORKING.

1990s: Micro$oft 2020s: MicroSlop Go forth and spread the word.

No, wait, hear me out: Let's name our home security company "Sauron" — y'know, after the character that infamously let 2-ish hobbits sneak in undetected to ruin his entire fecking day.

We had to replace our TV this year, and I'd rather suck out my own eyeball-juice with a straw than let it connect to the internet.

Today's installment of the tech industry playing let's-roll-a-die-and-generate-"facts". The underlying technology is amazing, but we're building truly stupid products with it.

Kinda almost unfair how good Sarah Jarosz is.

This will forever be "too soon man… too damned soon."

Oh this sucks so much.

"The chatbots swayed opinions by citing facts and evidence, but they were not always accurate—in fact, the researchers found, the most persuasive models said the most untrue things." We're so fucked.

Here it is: the Best Jazz Albums of 2025 🎧

Ava rocking the holiday sweaters.

He asks the AI: "did I ever give you permission to delete all the files in my D drive?". The obvious answer to this is "yes", because he's running a program that *statistically* makes up commands as his own user (implication: under his own credentials). Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

If anyone wants to kill me, send me a Scotchy. I would spend all day giving belly rubs and completely forget to y'know, feed myself and stuff.

What a privilege to catch two sets of these masters play material from their Steel House and Three Visitors projects.

Henry Cole. Miguel Zenón's longtime drummer has a new album of his own. And what scope it dares to have. Bringing the ancestors to play bomba & plena with the sonic palettes of Hendrix, Fela & James Brown. Haven't heard music this ambitious in a long time. Go get it.

Anouar Brahem's latest album. What a jewel of music.

I predict this will be wildly successful. Just like that other famous metric of worker performance: lines of code.

Once again, The Onion wraps around to become real news.

To paraphrase: AI will become conscious because we will be duped into using the word "consciousness" to describe it. I eyerolled so hard I think I did myself an injury.

What a joy to read the words of present heroes about the music of heroes past.

Avrana Kern has entered the chatroom. (h.t. @aptshadow.bsky.social's outstanding Children of Time series, of which I'm currently in the middle of book 3.)

Jack DeJohnette, just one of the deepest musicians ever, and a personal hero. Here is my obituary for NPR Music.

Today's soundtrack will heavily feature this blistering album, in remembrance of the master whose drumming underpins its energy, and whose foresight preserved the recording itself. RIP Master DeJohnette.

LOL

Well *this* weekend's cooking is going to be fun AF.

Unix fan, tweaked hex to get in-game resources, jazz musician, emacs/vi user, loves Scheme. Thomas Morgan may be my perfect spirit animal. I can't wait to hear his debut as a leader.

Lesson #\infty on shooting one's own foot:

Obed Calvaire is a legend. The Haitian repository of musical traditions is a deep, deep wellspring.

FFS you guys, this timeline broke Randall.

Sure, guardrails imposed by government are often flawed, but we've seen over and over again that unfettered capitalism will not police itself. I'll take the flawed guardrails and do my best to make them less flawed.

Thread

Not far into the early set at The Village Vanguard on Thursday night, I had a wildly irresponsible thought: at this moment, the Miguel Zenón Quartet might actually be the best band in the world.

Nate Smith's new album is all 🔥🥁🎵

This beer pub comes WITH ITS OWN CAT. Her name is Amber (I mean, obv.) Also, the glass on the counter (right above the laptop because LET'S TEMPT FATE) has a sign next to it that says "Amber's drink". This vacation is awesome.

How you know you married the right person: She makes a special map of places in Amsterdam that sell HATS and CHEESE ♥️.

Over on Whatever today, I write on the Pixel 10 Pro's "Pro-Res Zoom" and how that "AI"-generated zoom feature is not creating photos, but illustrations, some of which have not much to do with actual reality, and what that means for taking photos with the phone: whatever.scalzi.com/2025/08/29/p...

There is no better end to a week than new music released by Miguel Zenón.

If the look is cool with some of the most massive objects in the universe, then I don't feel that bad either. #ThanksScience

Sometimes one has to look to the masters for perfection in irreverence and rulebreaking. (Seen at the Asian Art Museum in SF as part of the exhibition on new Japanese clay forms)

I've made a conscious choice this year to disconnect from most of the internet and just consume books and music, and make things I love (music, food). It remains a good choice. These are books #41 & #42 YTD.

My response to almost every LinkedIn post on AI these days.

ZOMG

@scalzi.com what did you do?

OK, I don't think I've been this blown away by a saxophonist's sound since I first stumbled into a Miguel Zenón set at the Jazz Bakery in LA 25 years ago. She's incredible.

<taps the sign>

It's that time of the year. To the question "Does this manager model Google's values?" I really want to answer: "Fuck no. They're *wonderful*."