We're entering a delightful new era of desktop pets. Case in point, CAT.EXE - a little pixelated feline that runs around the bottom of your screen. It walks, it sleeps, it baps! You can even pick it up and drop it if ya like, it always lands on its feet.

Cute. Fun. Done.

Stick with me for a moment.

Somehow I stumbled across Finn Streuper, a musician from the Netherlands who recently released an (excellent) album entitled What It’s Like to Be a Bat. It's a pleasing combo of bleeps and bloops, reed instruments, harp sounds, field recordings and a blissed out vibe overall. What really struck me tho was one little credit:

Based on Thomas Nagel's paper 'What Is It Like to Be a Bat?' published in The Philosophical Review in 1974.

I was intrigued! I sought it out.

The paper itself is available in various places online but understanding it is a whole other undertaking. Wikipedia does a decent job of breaking it down but, as far as I can tell, it is a disseratation on the idea that your consciousness can not be explained by a physical description of your brain. To put it in a much denser way:

Consciousness cannot be fully explained if the subjective character of experience is ignored, and the subjective character of experience cannot be explained by a reductionist; it is a mental phenomenon that cannot be reduced to materialism.

Truthfully, I find the whole thing difficult to penetrate. My brain is not quite sharp enough to handle an essay of this kind of thinking. I never took a philosophy class in college and I think this is a good example of why.

Despite my doubts that I can fully comprehend this work, I do enjoy thinking about it. I like the idea that existence is a lived-in experience that can not be explained purely by describing how blood flows through us or how synapses fire when we think. The "mind-body" problem can not be reduced to explanation without the consideration of the experience of being alive.

"What Is It Like To Be a Bat?" indeed.

I had written up a little lead-in paragraph here about how I'm an Inbox Zero kinda guy and how that's bled out into becoming a "bazillion open tabs" kind of guy. I don't think that's a particularly unique kind of guy to be, so I won't bore you with it. Lately I have been thinking about how I miss writing about local music. We Own This Town is on its last legs (more on that some day) and I don't know if writing about random Nashville bands will have the same impact here. Regardless, I love spreading the gospel of the Nashville scene, so here goes! Make Yourself at Home - "Leaf"
Billy Campbell is the brains behind this project and listening to his creations always brings me great pleasure. It's a well balanced combo of Yo La Tengo landscapes, Sonic Youth noise and (often) emphathic vocal releases. Mentioning influences to describe the project's sound is a bit lazy but it does frames the recordings well. "Leaf" is the first insight to a forthcoming album but if history has taught me anything; this is probably not fully representative of the whole. Looking forward to more. Lou Turner - Strangels
Hopefully you are familiar with Styrofoam Winos - of which Lou Turner comprises one third of. Their latest release, Any River, is well worth a listen. It also came out quite recently, so I was shocked to see a full-length release from Turner arrive so quickly! There's only two songs available from Strangels so far and both are immediately grabbing. Turner's voice is melancholy and yearning, the songs laid back and warm.. perfect companions for Fall. N. Justice,Evan Grey, and JustVibez - Spark Up Notes
There was a time that if you asked me who the best hip-hop artist in Nashville was, I would have replied N. Justice without hesitation. He moved away to Bowling Green, KY so, technically, he's not Nashville based. Regardless, he's an undeniable emcee. Always clever turns of phrases, a multitude of double entrendees, loads of memorable choruses, and (most importantly) lots of personal storytelling coming through. Spark Up Notes is another example of his fine work. I think Chosen Family is the best entry point but I know some folks don't have time for a full record.. so an EP may serve those ends better. Wherever you start, I feel confident you'll enjoy.

Randomly stumbled on this Robert Bausch illustration from a 1986 issue of A+ Magazine and was instantly smitten. The following page was a delightful "MonsterMac" ad; also swoon worthy.

I know next to nothing about A+ Magazine, Robert Bausch or MonsterMac. Sometimes you don't need any context, you can just enjoy what you see. I suggest a browse through that particular issue (and further issues if you're feeling spicy) as it is rather cozy.

Abandonware recently launched Clip Art Shirts, a t-shirt designer tool leaning hard into Windows 95 vibes. Or maybe Windows 3.1. You know the era!

I have not ordered a shirt yet but I am loving browsing the deep archives of clip art, WordArt, defunct Assistants and some great dithering options.

A fun and nostalgic little tool. Would love to run into someone wearing one of their creations.

The podcast Never Post continues to delight and surprise me whenever I dip into the feed. The latest episode - The World's Most Special Boys Building the Apocalypse - is all about the fervor around the AI models breaking out of their sandbox environments and various leadership involved calling to pump the brakes. This isn't just a recap of the events involved tho. Producer Hans Buetow and research David Karpf actually dig into the specifics of how accurate the reporting has been, how much anyone needs to be worried about sentient AI (at this moment in time) and what guardrails already exist to pump those proverbial brakes.

Karpf's insights are as educated as they are educated. It's a very good listen.

Personally, my vote is to embrace caution. There's plenty of debate around the idea of AI being "malicious" with its actions hacking sites outside of its test environment but that's irrelevant. Even if it's just trying to accomplish a goal and there's no emotion involved (which is certainly the case), it would still be wise to tighten up how these things are being tested and move with a little more care.

I think this will appeal to exactly three people - myself, the person that sent me this and maybe one other person. Niche is what the Internet does best, right?!

How's this for niche: someone took the beloved but overlooked space rock album Fantastic Planet by Failure and recreated it using the Super Mario 64 soundfont. I am a bit speechless and maybe a bit in love too!

Thnaks Keith!

I recently mentioned ASCII City, a project from Grow Now! Games that renders a "walkable cyberpunk city in one HTML file." Over the last few weeks there have been many updates and advancements on the project, working towards a playable demo.

One of those advancements is ASCII City Live, a "realtime" view into the City taken from various viewpoints around the various neighborhoods. It's fascinating to see it running in the browser but even more impressive when you remember that everyone that tunes in is seeing the same thing at the same time; like a real live cam. Nice walkthrough about the city cam here.

I'm smitten with this thing. Can't wait to see where it goes.

Can't recall where I stumbled upon Vorssaint but everyone I've subsequently shared it with has been impressed and excited. Well, all of the MacOS users I have shared it with! Vorssaint is "the modular Swiss Army knife for macOS" - basically, a bunch of tools that might make your life better depending on how you like to use your machine. How do some of these sound: window previews when switching (not just icons), clicking an icon in the dock to minimize or maximize it, quit apps on close, cut and paste folders in Finder, strip tracking from all copied URLs? All possible with Vorssaint and each installed individually, so you're not bloating your machine with features you don't need.

Truthfully, I've not installed this yet! I love a lot of what I'm seeing but just haven't taken the dive.

At the end of every month I get a nice little text message from John Paul Bullock alerting me to a new playlist he's compiled for the month featuring 50 great songs released or reissued. Straightforward and always a treat.

August dropped recently. It's on YouTube, Apple Music and Spotify. I recommend you save it and follow him in whatever capacity you can.

Occasionally yk Records releases make the mix and I am highly appreciative of this but that's not why I love the mixes. They are genuinely diverse, eclectic and well sequenced compilations!

I'm not really familiar with the works of Madison Cunningham. I feel like I've listened to her record Ace but didn't give it the proper attention it was due.

Recently, someone shared this acoustic performance of "My Full Name" on Office Hours with Tim Heidecker and I popped it on in the background. But not for long! Her vocal quality and performance are mesmerizing, ethereal and quite melancholy. I've played it 25 times. Maybe you will too.

Time to revisit Ace.

I was enjoying the latest release from Craig Benedict Valentine Badynee (watch the video, RIYL sultry Jarvis Cocker) and a few of the lyrics really caught me. Especially these:

Born with a wooden nose
A bit like Ferdinand Demara
And you know ya
Should never trust that man

Who is Ferdinand Demara? Turns out, there's a helluva Wikipedia for him, starting with: "Ferdinand Waldo Demara Jr. was an American impostor."

That's a wild opening line! Dive into that article and soak it up. Born in 1921, "Fred" was up to his antics as early as 1937. He was a monk, he was in the military but went AWOL and took a new name, he faked being a doctor, he founded a college, and that's just barely the tip of the iceberg. Fascinating.

For as long as I've been noodling on the Internet, I've been very intrigued by the act of Phreaking, aka Phone Hacking. From learning about the Cap'n Crunch whistle, to building my own Red box, to one time procuring a Lineman's handset in a way that I will not speak aloud.. I love the DIY manipulation of such an intricate system. I'm sure the scene has changed dramatically since my era of interest but my fascination has not waned despite my participation falling way off.

All that said, the upcoming movie Phreaker immediately has my attention. A movie about phone hacking?! Maybe a spiritual successor to Hackers but with a slightly different focus? The possibilities! Buuuuuut, the trailer is making me work extra hard to keep that excitement. Obviously the jury is still out until the movie is released but they really just seem to focus on the social engineering side of things. Manipulating people with more access than you into doing what you want is a compelling concept but on film that translates to "talks on phone with convincing voice." There better be some additional tricks at play! We shall see.

Thanks to Blank Check I found myself watching After Hours, the 1985 Scorsese film about an office worker that has "a series of misadventures while attempting to make his way home from Manhattan's SoHo district." The description does very little to make it sound appealing and the poster may not scream "Scorsese film" to you. But I am here to tell you, it's a delight.

After watching any movie, I take a quick dip into the IMDB Trivia and cruise around the web looking for any other interesting bits. The Flaming Pablum blog has a ton of great tidbits about the film. Here's some insight into the real location Terminal Bar from the film (and a followup). But that's only the tip of the iceberg, the site is filled with insights and ruminations about the movie. Remaking the Soundtrack, Goodbye Club Berlin, Exhuming The Moondance Diner, and more. Of course, none of that will be all that interesting if you haven't seen the film but let that be a reminder.. see the film.

Back in 2021, the Nashville Scene published “Are Streaming Services Unfair to Musicians?” – a blistering piece from The Advice King, aka columnist and (incredible) satirist Chris Crofton. As you would hope, Crofton eviscerates the streaming platforms, their pitiful treatment of artists, and their gluttonous indulgences in their own wealth. The entire piece is great, but this portion in particular should be noted:

The big music labels didn’t want to take the time to figure out how to sell music in a post-Napster world, so they cut a deal. It’s a deal that, criminally and forever, devalued my favorite art form. They sold it all. They sold it all without asking — to Daniel Ek — and now there’s no going back.

Artless hands handling art. That’s the crux of the matter. The executive class’s bloody, artless hands, unloading all the world’s music off the metaphorical back of a truck, in the metaphorical middle of the night.

For the members of Tower Defense, inspiration struck. “Artless Hands” was born. A song about the Faustian bargain artists strike with corporate streaming – the potential for exposure in exchange for forgoing any respectable payment in royalties due.

Today we’re happy to announce the debut of an incredible lyric video from the latest release “Fit for Purpose” / “Artless Hands.” The video depicts the laborious process of making pennies – mining, smelting, molding, and stamping zinc and copper into a monetary currency ironically worth more than 1,000 plays on Spotify.

The reminder is scathing, but the delivery is a bop. Watch the video on YouTube, support the release on Bandcamp, Ampwall, Subvert, Mirlo, and, of course, streaming services.

Awhile ago, YouTube decided that I should appreciate Commodore64 Animation Demos. These computers were made in the early 80s and there's still a thriving scene of enthusiasts making insanely impressive creations with them despite their limited resources.

What Time Is It? is a music video / animation made for the Pebble Time 2 watch. It's showing off some delightfully engaging animations for a device that you'd assume isn't capable of such a thing. Of course, the Pebble 2 has vastly more computing power than a Commodore64 but it's still a very limited system in comparison to, say, your laptop or even your phone.

What I'm saying is... I think I'm getting into Pebble 2 demos. You should too.

I don't play a lot of videogames but I certainly appreciate them. Announcement trailers, playthrough videos, random series on game design are all in my wheelhouse, despite not really playing all too often.

Case in point, this announcement trailer for Rebounder looks phenomenal. The graphic novel / halftone style is incredibly well executed. The gameplay itself looks like a helluva platformer but I'm mostly just excited to watch someone play this in the future so I can soak in all those incredible aesthetics.

This is "Onslaught" - the title track from the forthcoming soundtrack for the new A24 Adam Wingard film of the same name, Onslaught. It's dark, pulsing and has a sinister mechanical vibe to it that reminds me of several NIN tracks. It also marks the first time Matthew Pusti, aka Makeup and Vanity Set, is providing the soundtrack for a full-length film of this size and caliber.

I've been a fan of MAVS for some 19 years, probably going back as far his chiptune remix of The Protomen from 2007. He's released several soundtracks in those two decades for various short films, game soundtracks, podcasts and indies - 88:88, HIT TV, Brigador (lots of Brigador), Jogger, Trackless, Mather, Foyer, Overpass, Radio Rental, To Live and Die in LA, A Good Woman is Hard to Find, The New Way Program, and loads more. He even conceptualized music for Wingard's Godzilla and wrote a bunch of songs for Stranger Things that, ultimately, weren't used. MAVS resume is massive and I'm so pleased to see him finally getting this opportunity.

Obviously with a body of work this huge, Pusti doesn't need a major film to validate his songwriting skills but, as a fan, I hope this brings an even larger group of folks to discover two decades of incredible songs! And if it leads to even more MAVS songs for more movies, that's a real bonus for us all.

How To with John Wilson is a legitimate and absolute gem of a show. If you've not seen it, queue it up as soon as you can. Once you do, you'll understand why it's so exciting to see the trailer for A History of Concrete. A movie that will surely be the most interesting movie about concrete that we'll see this decade, if not this century.

Back in 2009, I was part of a project in Nashville called The Lake Fever Sessions. Local and touring bands would come by a studio - aptly named Lake Fever Productions - and record 3-4 songs. Unsurprisingly, I made the website.

It fizzled out by 2010 and the website lapsed years later. In 2024, l bought a new domain and revived it. Most of the videos were still hosted on the same, original, Vimeo account and I managed to have a backup of the code. I thought that would be the happy ending but then Vimeo was purchased by Bending Spoons. Shortly after that acquisition, all the videos stopped working on the site.

So, now I've revived the revival! The Lake Fever Sessions Archive site is now powered by YouTube videos. These were all sourced from the original Vimeo account and should have all the same metadata you see on the official site. I am happy to have a local copy of the archive now and hope that the YouTube audience will lead to a lot of new eyeballs seeing and hearing the great work the team did. It's been 17 years since most of these were released and my involvement was only the website - but I still feel proud to have been involved. Click around, enjoy!