On a positive note, if I'm getting targeted ads for Go boards featuring noticeably antiquated laptops, the Algorithm is telling me I've made some OK life decisions

Hilobrow.com is running a series of 25 short essays on “our favorite sympathetic villains.” Entries include Endora (Bewitched), Clarence Boddicker (Robocop), and Alexis Carrington (Dynasty). To borrow a phrase from David Bowie, my entry is about loving the alien. www.hilobrow.com/2025/09/21/e...

I can confirm that the 4.3 earthquake that occurred at 2:46am Monday morning, September 22, did significant damage ... to my sleep

Me in high school: The Beatles: 24/7 The Who: a close second The Rolling Stones: don’t get it Led Zeppelin: I’m scared Me decades after high school: The Beatles: been a while The Who: who? The Rolling Stones: hell yeah Led Zeppelin: pour it into my veins

The great hilobrow.com site is running a series of short essays on "our favorite sympathetic villains." Mine, about the Xenomorphs from Alien, is up next. I'll mention here when the piece goes live. Here's the list to date. Super fun.

Disquiet Junto Project 0716: Dense Fog Advisory The Assignment: That’s your band’s name; now record something. Deadline: Monday, September 22, 2025, 11:59pm (that is: just before midnight) wherever you are. Details: disquiet.com/0716 #DisquietJunto

A new #DisquietJunto music community project will appear at 12:10am Pacific tomorrow (September 18, 2025) at disquiet.com/0716, and go out at the same time to the email list (juntoletter.disquiet.com). The theme explores fog — or gets lost in it.

According to Discogs, there is currently no band on record, so to speak, named Dense Fog Advisory. Just sayin'.

Little known fact: guitar pedals were originally created to make practicing scales sound more interesting

Morning trio for power saw, passing bus, and washing machine

Are we ever gonna get another Mountain Man album?

Find the headphone jack and insert one of these for some peace & quiet. disquiet.com/2019/06/09/d...

Gonna call it a week. See ya Monday — or a week from Monday.

Disquiet Junto Project 0715: Err Apparent The Assignment: Make a mistake on purpose. Build something from it. #DisquietJunto

A new #DisquietJunto music community project will appear at 12:10am Pacific tomorrow (September 11, 2025) at disquiet.com/0715, and go out at the same time to the email list (juntoletter.disquiet.com). The theme explores errors.

Happy 909 Day to all who celebrate. www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Z4c...

Always interested when a director scores their own film. This is from Jim Jarmusch's upcoming Father Mother Sister Brother.

I got a pickup that separates a guitar into six separate outputs. It's neat seeing, thanks to an oscilloscope, how the notes ring out in a chord. This is three pairs of strings, from lowest (left) to highest (right).

When you live near the ocean, sunny day = lots of sirens

And on that note, have a good weekend. See you Monday, or maybe Tuesday.

Happiness is the developer of an app you use a lot adding a button/function you’d requested

An excellent simple (and affordable, and portable) second screen for a laptop (mine: MacBook) is an older-generation Android tablet (mine: Samsung) with both running Duet

Disquiet Junto Project 0714: Remix Yourself The Assignment: Rework your own music as if someone else had. Deadline: Monday, September 8, 2025, 11:59pm (that is: just before midnight) wherever you are. Details: disquiet.com/0714 #disquietjunto

Snowball playlist: heard a band, led by Roger Glenn, cover Ovis Mays’ “Don’t Let the Devil Ride” live; listened to Mays’ original; listened to a version by Leo “Bud” Welch, who was on the label Fat Possum; listened to heap of songs by an old Possum favorite, Junior Kimbrough, and on and on

Switching from iCloud to Obsidian Sync — for syncing Obsidian vaults — was a tad more complicated than I'd imagined, but it is now working for me on multiple devices. #whew

Weird. I'm having issues updating Disquiet.com currently, so this week's #DisquietJunto project may fail to go live when it normally does (that is: 12:10am Pacific Time on Thursday, in this case September 4). Worst case, I'll post it at llllllll.co in the morning. The theme is remixing yourself.

The ambient/techno Turing Test: I'll know my computer is sentient when it mocks me for playing Nils Frahm's Music for Animals and Monolake's Cinemascope on repeat all day.

perec, E = forbidden

Occasional reminder: video games, E = everyone music, E = explicit

This year's Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival lineup is getting insane. They just added Marc Ribot. (More artists are yet to be announced. Someone even bigger than Emmylou Harris, Rosanne Cash, and Lucinda Williams? Crazy.)

My vibe

It’s like the barber paradox — if the images are good, that means the good equipment was taking the picture

Something special about Craigslist ads for photography equipment that are out of focus

I pick an Oblique Strategies card at random every morning. Been a while since I got this banger.

When a maker of fancy stereo consoles for the retro-modern living room provides a list of recommended ambient albums: wrensilva.com/blogs/world-...

Disquiet Junto Project 0713: Airwave Workout The Assignment: Record exercise music for an imaginary broadcast. Deadline: Monday, September 1, 2025, 11:59pm (that is: just before midnight) wherever you are. Details: disquiet.com/0713 #DisquietJunto

A new #DisquietJunto music community project will appear at 12:10am Pacific tomorrow (August 28, 2025) at disquiet.com/0713, and go out at the same time to the email list (juntoletter.disquiet.com). The theme explores radio calisthenics.

Dang. RIP, Jim Kimball, drummer with Mule, whose self-titled debut album I was heavily addicted to for much of 1993, the year it came out. He was half of the duo that went by the Denison/Kimball Trio. Also played with Jesus Lizard and Laughing Hyenas. A powerhouse. www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0gK...

I’m trying to figure out which science fiction authors of note* have GitHub accounts. I’ve only found 4 though I imagine I’m missing some. Max Barry github.com/maxbarry Greg Egan github.com/nagegerg qntm (aka Sam Hughes) github.com/qntm Robin Sloan github.com/robinsloan *Vague but so be it

Listened to Lyle Lovett’s third album, Lyle Lovett and His Large Band (1989), for the first time in a long time, straight through, and (1) it really holds up and (2) in retrospect it was tailor-made for Gen X listeners raised on Schoolhouse Rock.

Love when a new game console is called a game-changer

Maybe this is also why we *like* loud noises -- an endorphin kick, like adding too much hot sauce. Okay, now I could go for some hot sauce.

Overheard on the street: One dude: “The airwaves are everywhere — when you think about it.” Other dude, after a pause: “Even when you don’t.”

Fairly intense emotional response when you're alerted that the email address of someone you're aware has very recently died is removed from a mailing list you moderate. Means someone out there is doing some difficult digital tidying.

When did the Bandcamp collection icon change from a heart to a stack? Makes sense. I own music I don't love.

Disquiet Junto Project 0712: Zebra Code The Assignment: What rhythm do you hear in a bar code? Details: disquiet.com/0712 Deadline: Monday, August 25, 2025, 11:59pm. Project proposed thanks to Jason Richardson, who shared this Boing Boing post: boingboing.net/2025/08/19/w... #DisquietJunto

A new #DisquietJunto music community project will appear at 12:10am Pacific tomorrow (August 21, 2025) at disquiet.com/0712, and go out at the same time to the email list (juntoletter.disquiet.com). The theme explores bar codes.

Nothing says hardcore like a Google Form