Music

After 5 months with @swinsian, I’m switching back to iTunes. Many reasons, but the final straw is the need to have Prince songs on my phone.

☔️

Spike Lee’s block party honoring Prince is the first thing I’ve smiled at all day.

Spike Lee and friends celebrate Prince. 💜

Spike Lee’s Prince block party. 💜

Taking a slightly different route home tonight.

This sucks.

“When you were mine
You were all I ever wanted to do
Now I spend my time
Following him whenever he’s with you”

I designed this @propublica app promo page two weeks ago. Every time I see it, “Take Me With U” plays in my head. propublica.org/mobile-apps

That time when the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame was being reliably boring and then Prince burned the fucking place down. youtu.be/6SFNW5F8K9Y

Purple Rain was one of the first albums I ever got. I loved it. Still do. When the PMRC denounced it, I became obsessed with it. RIP Prince.

Two minutes into the JavaScript lessons on @Codecademy and I’m already crushing it.

Played in season opener for @propublica’s softball team. Bumped into my pal @martinez_emily. Now Melt-Banana is gonna play some songs. 👍🏻

Big congrats to the @saintvitusbar crew on their fifth anniversary! They’ve created a truly special place. villagevoice.com/music/greenpoi…

I always want to dismiss Baby Metal as having an appeal limited to bizarre novelty, but I can’t. They make me smile. youtu.be/rZApf9c8Tes

Anonymous BrooklynVegan Comments, Rest in Peace

Glad to see BrooklynVegan taking on its cesspool of a comment section. Rolling my eyes at the inevitable naysayers.

Lupita Nyong’o and Trevor Noah, and Their Meaningful Roles

My mom was like: “Jesus didn’t have his dad, either. You have a stepdad.” People always make it seem like there’s one experience that’s the gold standard to aim for. I didn’t grow up that way.

One of the best things… See more →

Song for today (and most other days). youtu.be/LUNf36LtCRo

The new @danielclowes book is here! Good news, but now one of the shittiest Guns N’ Roses songs is stuck in my head.

“Whatever catharsis I found in [Michael Gira’s] work previously now has an asterisk next to it.” So disappointing. villagevoice.com/music/as-a-wom…

Dreamed I was running a 5K as a surrogate for @DaveMustaine. Scott Adsit worked the registration table, singing “Killing Is My Business.”

Hundreds of rock shows have surely wreaked havoc on my ears over the years, but maybe not so much as the screeching wheels of the C train.

Fun fact: The first time I heard Master of Puppets, I didn’t know my Walkman’s batteries were dying. At ≈60% speed, it’s still potent.

Master of Puppets is thirty years old today. I feel it is appropriate to celebrate by listening to Master of Puppets.

Glad to see @brooklynvegan taking on its cesspool of a comment section. Rolling my eyes at the inevitable naysayers. brooklynvegan.com/anonymous-broo…

“Bass solo, take one.”

RIP Jon Bunch from Sense Field. He was 45 years old. Here’s one I spun quite a bit back in the day. youtu.be/VnQ4DgQMf4U

The Website Obesity Crisis

Everything we do to make it harder to create a website or edit a web page, and harder to learn to code by viewing source, promotes that consumerist vision of the web.

The 2015 ProPublica Year in Visual Storytelling

A nice roundup of ProPublica’s more visually and interactively rich stories from the past year.

Animated homage to The Wire

When I hear Blind Boys of Alabama’s cover of “Way Down in… See more →

The stained glass Oderus Urungus @iancorey made for me is pretty much the best thing I own.

“Does Boba Fett have a car?”

This is about as perfect as analogies get. twitter.com/pattonoswalt/s…

“…heavy metal is discipline in service of the preposterous… the genre solemnizes the impulses of adolescence.” nytimes.com/2016/01/24/mag…

Secret Cosmic Music of the East German Olympic Program 1972–1983: Good Kraftwerkian fun. Probably fake backstory. kosmischerlaufer.bandcamp.com

Realized today that I got into @TRTS over 20 years ago, making it arguably my longest-running fandom of something unequivocally cool.

So many great hip-hop albums would be considerably greater without all the stupid interstitial/skit BS.

A bit late on this, but my favorite film of 2015 was It Follows, and my favorite record was The Ark Work by @LITVRGY.

I never got into Bowie in a big way, but I’m eternally grateful to anyone who makes oddity meaningfully accessible. We are all weirdos. RIP.

When I hear Blind Boys of Alabama’s cover of “Way Down in the Hole” (The Wire, Season 1), I see Bubbles singing it. vimeo.com/150635087

RIP Lemmy. May we all wring as much life out of our short time here as you did.

Trying to use @stamp_importer to move my music from @Rdio to @Spotify, a task that will apparently take several lifetimes to complete.

Help settle a dispute for the missus and me. Which is a shittier band name: Can or Leftover Salmon?