yewknee
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An internet waystation.

it me - michael eades

πŸ‘‹ Hi, I'm Michael Eades; a long time Internet dweller, design dabbler, dangerously amateur developer, online social experimenter and frequent curator.

Currently working as a Product Manager at Mosaic. I also keep the lights on at a boutique record label called yk records, a podcast network called We Own This Town and a t-shirt shop called Nashville Galaxy. Previously, I built things for Vimeo OTT, VHX, KNI and Spongebath Records.

This site is an archive of ephemera I find entertaining; tweets, videos, random links, galleries of images.

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find me elsewhere

 

contact

Reach out via twitter or good ole email if you have anything to discuss. I do my best to reply in a timely manner.

for the record: "yewknee" is a nonsensical word with no literal meaning but a unsurprisingly nerdy etymology. It is pronounced, "yoo • knee."

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ongoing projects

yk Records →
started in 2009 as a conduit for music that friends had no plans on releasing. now it's a full fledged boutique label focused on releasing quality music from a variety of styles. you know, like a label does. Here's a sampler on Soundcloud and a different one on Spotify. Options.

We Own This Town →
Originally a Nashville area music blog, this site has grown into a full blown podcast network as of 2018. It's an attempt to bring together creative folks about a variety of interesting topics.

I host this show all about Nashville local music outside the expectations of the city. I'm biased but all the shows are good.

Nashville Galaxy →
An online t-shirt shop featuring beloved and defunct Nashville area businesses. Very niche audience on this one but I tend to think niche is good.

some noteworthy other things

Chris Gaines: The Podcast →
published along with co-host Ashley Spurgeon; a limited series podcast that takes an absurdly researched deep dive into the time that Garth Brooks took on a fictional personality named Chris Gaines.

Garth Brooks Chris Gaines Countdown →
to celebrate the 20-year anniversary of the time Garth Brooks took on the fictional personality Chris Gaines and appeared on Saturday Night Live in character, I GIF'ed the entire episode. It's a lot of GIFs; please use them.

Whiskerino →
a social network built around communal beard growing for four months. yes, it was as weird as it sounds but equally fascinating and enjoyable.

Moustache May →
an offshoot of the beard growing contest mentioned above. equal amounts of oddball fun but only a month long.

Summer Mix Series →
before all music was streaming everywhere, Internet music fans would swap zip files of music. it was truly a strange and wonderful time.

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Zotify

download any song, podcast or playlist from Spotify up to 320kbps. I am always amazed when tools like this exist out in the open.
It's right there on the tin - Typeset in the Future is a film blog investigating the usage of various typography in futuristic settings. Even if you're familiar with such exercises looking at Alien or Blade Runner, you haven't read this take on it. I've never seen a breakdown on Wall-E or Moon before, so there's plenty for every body.

I don't consider myself a typography nerd by any stretch of the imagination but I am always appreciative of an investigation into world building. It's remarkable how typography (and iconography) helps to influences this.
Absolutely smitten with this animation of Shai-Hulud the Colossal - a giant sandworm that is part of a larger body of work from mazinflow.eth. I believe this is actually NFT related but that's only meaningful if you're looking to "own" the piece. Just go browse - really remarkable work; lo-fi, glitchy and immersively surreal.
This trailer for Hundreds of Beavers is captivatingly unique. There's a pull quote in there that says "Exists at the crossroads of Looney Tunes, Benny Hill, Cannibal: The Musical, Blazing Saddles and Adult Swim." That's a helluva intersection but you can see all of it in just the 1:20 of the trailer. I'd even toss in a pepper of Guy Maddin.

There's an extended trailer if you're curious to see a bit more of the action. My hope is that it never crosses over into gory but I'll just have to watch it to find out.

HT Pootify
I know zilch about Philadelphia band full body 2 but I do know that their 2023 album infinity signature is checking all the right boxes for me. It's steeped in shoegaze (so play it loud) but there's also a great deal of electronic music influences flowing through as well. Excellent blend start to finish. Dive into "wonder limit" - enjoy!
I will rant and rave all day long about how I think nostalgia holds people back from appreciating new things - a prison of the past that restricts you from being open to new experiences. But when I look at this Old Windows Icons repository, I can't help but be overjoyed.

I love a modern icon but there's something charming about the artistry of a tiny cassette, animated rose or some connected computers that I can not deny.
Recently encountered this upcoming Syne project, a 12" x 15" display that connects with your Spotify account to show what is currently playing. The pitch is that it's kind of like a vinyl record cover but it's powered by your streaming choices.

All told, not a bad idea! Giving a bit more real world presence to streaming music would be nice - especially in a public space. That said, there are a lot of questions to be answered that hopefully the early March 1st launch will answer. Does the "Syne" logo have to be visible at all times? What happens to it when I'm not listening to music? What's the price?

That last one is a real clincher. If it's even vaguely expensive, it's going to be tough to convince folks this is worth purchasing. I'm curious to find out how it all goes.
For the majority of 2023 I was under water. Vimeo let a bunch of people go which resulted in a lot of increased responsibilities for myself and, eventually, a new job at Mosaic. Then that went away in early 2024 and I found myself with a small window of free time. In between job hunting, I've been making up for lost time by posting lots of episodes of my We Own This Town: Music podcast.

If you're unfamiliar, it's basically a radio show - approximately an hour of music from Nashville area bands with a focus on indie rock, hip-hop, noise, ambient, electronic, et al. Things outside the city stereotype and incredibly enjoyable. Episode 366 focuses on a niche collective of artists that are swimming in shoegaze styles (that's an oversimplification but a good place to start).
It's actually one of the lengthier episodes of late because I really like what they are doing. Specifically, the artists are - Total Wife, Zook, Thomas Luminoso, Rowen Merrill, Celltower, Rig B, Melaina Kol, Make Yourself at Home, Fresh Air 4 and Rube Oh, and they've got a new record label going called Second Floor Recording Co.. Follow all that.

I've got many more episodes queued up, I just need to edit them and get them into the world. If you're looking for some old school music discovery, consider subscribing.
Brand new podcast from Jed Sundwall that features conversations with "technologists about the literature that has influenced them." First up is Time O'Reilly talking about Dune. That's a helluva first episode if you ask me.

The animated logo is real charming but the title is even better - Techs on Texts. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, RSS or, if you're not yet convinced it is worthy of your subscription, read up on why the podcast should exist. Jed's doing a great job and it's just getting started.
Don't let anyone tell you the Internet isn't still fun. Enjoy Bongo Cat. via.
Excellent short film here - Duct Tape and Dreams - all about the revival of the SFMOMA soapbox derby back in 2022. It really is irrelevant that it's in San Francisco or that the MOMA is involved, it's just a pleasant exercise in creativity. Anytime someone races a prawn down a hill, I'm in.

Shockingly, much of the music for the short film is pulled from the Uncle Skeleton catalog. Through the magic of music licensing, there's no less than seven of his songs throughout the piece. Musicbed - the licensing service they used - even recognized it as worthy of acknowledgement, not too shabby!

For convenience sake, I also turned that list of tracks into a playlist, enjoy at your leisure.
Every few years, Blind Melon comes up in conversation and, inevitably, I learn that yet another person in my sphere adores the band's second album Soup as much as I do. It's an album about addiction, serial killer Ed Gein, murder Susan Smith and lighter topics like halitosis and a grandmother named Vernie. For being known as that bee girl band, they really went out of their way to show they were more than that. I appreciated it more than I could say in 1995 and was beyond bummed to learn of Shannon Hoon's passing just two months after it was released.

All that is to say, I've been going down the YouTube rabbit hole of Blind Melon material I was previously unfamiliar with.
  • Intimate, Interactive show - a fantastic hour long set comprised primarily of Soup songs, interspersed with some song anecdotes.
  • From Shannon To You And You And You - a collection of acoustic home recordings from Hoon's mother given to a fan forum in 2008.
  • Woodstock 94 - don't think I'd ever watched this before. A good year before Soup was released but the songs were, obviously, already there. Can't tell if it's a good or bad idea to play mostly unreleased material to a crowd this size.
There's plenty more out there I'm sure but that's a smattering of what I'm listening to in between album rotations.
Really nice read from Chain of Thought on How Sora Works and the Future of Filmmaking. Those are two enormous topics but the piece keeps it simple. The first half is a relatively layman's explanation of how OpenAI's Sora is getting the kind of results it is getting. I don't say "layman" in a demeaning way, it's literally the only way I can understand these concepts - so I appreciate it even if it is overly simplified and leaving a lot out.

The second half deals with how technology and filmmaking have such a turbulent relationship. It's hard to articulate but technology lowers the barrier to entry, a great thing for folks looking to be creative but not so great for an industry known for gatekeeping.

Generally speaking, I love the idea of lowering the barrier to entry to any creative endeavor. That Glif Extension that lets you create any image in any specific style? Great! ElevenLabs letting you submit your voice for emulation and getting paid when someone uses it? Wonderful. Sora letting you create consistent film characters in whatever world you want? Should be great! I don't think any of it supercedes the need for story, art direction and human decision making. I also don't think we're going to be generating sitcoms for individuals - that's taking the microculture war too far!

This is just a simple blog post to steer you towards something to ponder. It's certainly a topic worthy of it.
I'm not incredibly familiar with the works of Ted Gioia but he's published 12 books and runs a popular substack called The Honesty Broker. Back in December of 2023, he published this piece on the tension between Macroculture and Microculture and how, in his opinion, the war between them was imminent.

It's great read and filled with pertinent observations on both the dichotomy of Silicon Valley dependency on microculture content and Big Media's total lack of understanding of the same cultures.

Using the term "Big Media" feels like a big red flag but I'm not using it in the conspiracy theory sense. I simply mean big Hollywood studios, primary news outlets and mainstream content creators with giant budgets.

Worth a read or two just to stick the landing on the similarities between the 60's counterculture and our modern microculture. Should be an interesting year ahead.

jQuery 4.0.0 BETA!

never thought I would see another jQuery version. Honestly quite happy about it.
The folks over at Glif recently released a new browser extension that lets you remix images directly from the web. The promo video explaining it does a good job (and provides some hilarious music) but I suggest you just try it. Glif is doing great work to make AI interactions very accessible and doing so with a great deal of fun. Ya love to see it.
Ran across the work of Chris Cunningham while scooting around New Orleans and had to share this Protect Ya Neck piece. There are more in the series but this specific Tom & Jerry swirl just hit the spot.
Century Club from Ryan Ervin was once a band but now it's a "lo-fi" collage endeavor, many of which are available as prints.

Been a minute since I've gotten a nice collage fix and Ervin does a damn good job of it. Go give it a browse.
Near my office there is a historical marker dedicated to the 1910 Kentucky Derby winner - a horse named Donau. I'm not sure how many historical markers exist dedicated to specific horses but this one certainly struck me as strange.

Reading up more on the situation, it seems the horse was owned by William Gerst, a brewer who ran the Nashville Brewing Company, later known as the Gerst Brewing Company. The plaque is located near where the brewery once stood and where Donau spent his final days.

The horse was overworked, even by early 1900's standards. The Wikipedia says "Donau's unruly behavior worsened to a point where he would lie down on the track if prompted too harshly by racetrack employees or trainers." I don't blame him.

I love this plaque and admire the horse for embracing such a fiery attitude in the face of abuse. In the spirit of this admiration, I put him on a shirt. My Yawning Kat store has no real rhyme or reason to the wares I offer, so Donau seems like a wonderful addition.
When I saw the new METZ album artwork was by "Sara Cwynar" I felt a twinge of familiarity. How do I know that name? Turns out, I know the name because I've been admiring their work since 2010!

Catching up on more recent offerings from the Brooklyn artist is a real treat. The collage work from over a decade ago is still present but has, clearly, evolved and changed dramatically. Click on over and be sure to watch the "Glass Life" short film excerpt and view the Tracy exhibition. Then click on everything else.

ElevenLabs Voice Actor Payouts

train an AI on your voice, get paid when people use it. Honestly nuts to think about.

METZ - Up On Gravity Hill

hard to tell from just two songs but seems like the band has figured out how to flesh out their songs beyond just unrelenting power energy. excited to hear it all.

Stickers to Manage Replies By

A batch of images you’re going to want to save locally. Absurd, brilliant and legit useful.

Who makes money when AI reads the internet for us?

A good read with great quotes like β€œIt fails to ponder the consequences of what happens when you roll out products like this.”

Evidence Maximalism Is How the Internet Argues Now

Fantastic piece. Absolutely nailed it. Only thing I would add is that we just let everyone get dumber and dumber.
Fairly certain YouTube has got my number when it comes to "weird things you might like to watch." Case in point, this Pixel POV Effect video just 3 minutes long (perfect), displays a baffling visual effect (intriguing) and manages to describe it sufficiently (approved). There's even a follow up that builds on the concepts but still keeps it just to 2 minutes.

The comments are event pleasant and lead to some even more interesting videos.

Maybe you'll enjoy as well.
Back in December of 2021, Uncle Skeleton released the album Golden Hour. At the time, I had the idea and intention of putting together an album visualizer that featured one long sunset set to the album as soundtrack; a nod to the literal intention of the record - taking time to just reflect. For no good reason, it never happened. Mostly, I just ran out of time with work and couldn't ever get it over the finish line.

I finally put the rubber to the road and put together the video. It's not one long sunset as originally envisioned but many sunsets through the duration. It's not a music video, so I don't expect you to give it your full attention but I do recommend that you toss this up on a TV somewhere and let it roll. It's pleasant and the album is a banger; likely overlooked because it was released in December of 2021; a notoriously terrible month for releasing records.
I don't see near as many music videos these days as I did in my youth but I still know a good one when I see one. This video for "Take Me To A Lake" from Cloudmouth is phenomenal. I suggest you hit play on it right away as it requires no context to appreciate but here's some extra info on the making of from vocalist Kyle Numann:
It was the summer solstice, and I asked my wife Emily "will you bury me in the backyard tonight?". Despite us having a healthy relationship, she said yes.

We'd just finished making a new flower bed in the front yard and had about 40 square feet of topsoil and dirt heaped in a pile in the backyard. For years I'd had a loose vision of a scene of human faces emerges from the earth, and I figured this was as good a chance as I'd get to capture something that would satisfy the creative itch.

We filmed it using a smartphone, with natural light and only an on-the-fly idea of framing and pacing. This ended up setting the tone for the rest of the video: filmed with handheld smartphones, pulling scenes together as we could, using only practical effects, and considering the editing stage as a 'canvas' to bring all these disparate scenes together to form a full visual flow.
The face emerging from the dirt is striking but they continue the trend with plenty of variations with other members of the band. And on top of all that striking imagery, the song is quite compelling as well!

Cloudmouth has a history of interesting videos worth watching (I suggest this one and this one specifically) but something about "Take Me To a Lake" really levels them up. Ya love to see it.

Supertape, band website builder

just recently stumbled on this and am intrigued. I have no problem building websites but one that actively updates itself is a pretty neat trick for musicians.

In Loving Memory of Square Checkbox

an excellent rundown on a UI component you probably take for granted