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Month: January 2021

  • My 2020 Music Picks – 2020 Was Actually A Great Year for Music

    My 2020 Music Picks – 2020 Was Actually A Great Year for Music

    While 2020 was sort of a disaster in so many ways, there was great music to listen to.

    • Fleet Foxes / Shore – Man, I loved this record and it came at exactly the right time for me, this fall. A “return” of sorts, but it sounds exactly like you’d hope it would
    • Pinegrove / Marigold – I’ve turned into a superfan, and its a little weird because it’s been years since I’ve gone this deep into one band. Their songs are the kind that grow more meaningful with each listen; their playing is subtle, and technically really good. (Side note: the last live show I saw was Pinegrove in Seattle with my son in Feb. Remember those days? )
    • Fontaines D.C / A Hero’s Death – Oh man, I love these guys. A Yeats-spouting punk with a killer band? Sign me up. The lead singer’s delivery isn’t for everyone, but I love the energy, the attitude. And, the band are players. If you liked the Walkmen, you’ll probably like these guys. 
    • Sylvan Esso / Free Love – this one got a lot of repeat playing in our house. Crazy good electronica production, with a voice that has a million emotions. Great hooks. Ferris Wheel has been stuck in my head for months. 
    • Khruangbin / Mordechai – This has been on heavy rotation while I work, I’d call it power-pointing music, but that sounds terrible. Just a terrifically chill sound, and probably the coolest band I know of. Super talented musicians and tasteful, too. 
    • Taylor Swift / Folklore – I’m not (too) ashamed to admit how much I loved the folklore record. Surprised? Sure.  But, that group or artists couldn’t miss. 
    • Waxahatchee / Saint Cloud – Just beautifully written and performed songs. In my top 5 of the last couple years. 
    • Wye Oak / Fear of Heights EP – I love how rich the sounds are on this whole record. Fear of Heights was one of my top songs from 2020
    • Disq / Collector – A bunch of super smart teenagers from Madison WI? What could go wrong. These guys might be the find of the year for me. Came out in January. Sort of like Pavement, but a little more stoned. Daily Routine was a top 10 song in 2020. 
    • Phoebe Bridgers / Punisher – My sons are embarrassed at how much I like her music, but i’m not. Kyoto is just a great song.
    • Jason Isbell & 400 Unit – Reunions – Well, just superb songs and great playing. 
    • Kelly Lee Owens / Inner Song – I fell in love with her first record, but I think I might like this one even better. Chilly/Cool electronica meets singer songwriter. Plus, the first song is a smart Radiohead cross over
    • Los Days / Singing Sand – Desert landscapes, spaghetti western soundscapes. Instrumental, but great for getting lost. Or, powerpointing. 

    Also fun, but not from 2020: 

    • Nobody Can Live Forever –  This song gets stuck in my head all the time. This is from some hippy dude and it’s from 1976. You can almost feel how stoned everybody was when they were in the studio recording this. This is like the perfect driving song, for that time you’re heading home after the party with your buddies and your jamming out. We’re not here forever, you gotta love the people around you while you can, and be cool to each other. And, play your music: https://open.spotify.com/track/7w3ymiN6ciV6H11PpJLLIX?si=xG-zMy7ESdC-MJhjytL58Q
    • Post Doc Blues – I think John K Samson might be the best songwriter alive right now. Or Isbell. But, this song from a couple years ago got me through the pandemic. Everybody could benefit from having the narrator be their inner voice. Bonus points for working in the word dongle and powerpoint into a  beautiful song about hope when all around us is despair. https://open.spotify.com/track/5l1AMUJEA43GYqxpfTyhoT?si=L03XTDIYRP217y2xofEJWw
    • Superdrag / In the Valley of the Dying Stars – This sounds like straight up power pop from 2001 and it is. This record might be perfect, front to back. If you like thick guitars, heavy drums, and superbly written pop songs, i’m pretty sure you’ll love this. My Favorite record of 2020

  • The Internet is Still Amazing

    It’s easy to get overwhelmed by all the stuff coming at you from the internet. But, when you look around the edges, there are amazing things out there. I still love examples of creative, curious people using tech/tools to develop surprising solutions.

    I love this project:  Halt and Catch Fire Syllabus, from Ashley Blewer. It’s for people who love the show, Halt and Catch Fire, and want to create study groups to use the show to understand the history of technology in the US.

    Why I love it:

    • Its a super niche need, getting filled in a super creative way
    • it’s a great example of what a syllubus can look like outside a typical classroom
    • The materials linked are deep, not-typical and bound to spark a lot of ideas

  • Forget Section 230, We Need To Think Bigger

    This take from Benedict Evans on the challenges of Section 230 and regulating social media is, as typical, really thoughtful. The key takeaway is that a fight over Section 230 is sort of aiming low, at this point. Trying to make regulations around social media based on old forms (newspapers, radio, TV, phone companies) works if you assume those old forms and the new things work the same way-ish. And, clearly they dont. The size, the scale the speed, the targeting, the volume of makers and consumers – all those are different than radio or TV or magazines or pamphlets or telegraphs or phones or whatever. We need some new, imaginative thinking to address a future media/comms tools. Keep 230, but get some new laws in place to regulate.

    Meanwhile, here’s a useful take from Joan Donovan at Harvard Business Review on the fundamental difference between current social media platforms and the media of the past. Key point: A system that incentivizes and rewards items (content, features, mechanics) that produce high engagement at scale, with no limits on the bad actors in the system, will inevitably produce disinformation.

    Deep in her essay, she gets to the heart of the issue, something that’s not being discussed at all (emphasis mine):

    In every instance leading up to January 6, the moral duty was to reduce the scale and pay more attention to the quality of viral content. We saw the cost of failing to do so.

    So, do corporations have a moral duty to do anything? Is there a moral and ethical dimension to the working models of companies? Do we hold them to a different standard?

  • More Dangerous Than the Capitol Riot – The Atlantic

    I’m still trying to completely get my ahead around what happened last week in Washington DC. I’m pretty heavy reader of history, specifically the times around the first revolution and the Civil War. Given what happened last week, and the events leading up to it, Ive been thinking about how the history of this moment will get told. Short version: It’s not going to be good. 

    While much of the coverage was focused on the melee, I was stunned by how many elected representatives were so willing to go with the flow of their dumb, conspiracy addled constituents who had a range of ill-founded beliefs about the legitimacy of the election, running from thoughtful skepticism to raging nutjob fervor.

    Its just mind-boggling to me – now – that so many republicans were willing to turn over the election results. I “get” the politics involved, but I’m stunned by the lack of awareness of the broader situation: A mentally ill guy was leading the party, manipulating everybody, lying with every breath. And they all went along with it!

    From Zeynep Tufekc writing in the Atlantic:

    But the most important, most dangerous part of all this was Trump’s successful attempt to convince millions of his supporters that he’d won and was being cheated out of his win—and the fact that many leaders of the Republican Party, at all levels, went along.