Author: Grey

Categories
Review

“Meddling Kids,” or, “alright, who gave Shaggy a gun”

Edgar Cantero
I am a big fan of Scooby-Doo. It’s got something of that James Bond aesthetic to it — every few years, there’s a new one, and we get to see a new take on the tropes. The recent series have been pretty good — What’s New was, basically, a straight modernized version of the original; Mystery Incorporated did some interesting things with the characters; Be Cool is one of the funniest shows I’ve ever watched; and Guess Who is a love letter to the people who watched the original series.12 The movies are a bit more hit-or-miss, but growing up in the 90s meant I had Zombie Island, Witch’s Ghost, Alien Invaders, and Cyber Chase; Alien Invaders is a hilarious concept, Zombie Island is, I’d argue, the best Scooby-Doo media to date, and Witch’s Ghost is part of why I was so excited to visit New England.3
In short, I love the different takes on the same story; there’s nothing new on Earth, but the different ways people combine ingredients are still creative and interesting. So when I saw that somebody had written a Scooby-Doo book with Lovecraftian influence? Alright, I’m interested.4
The writing style is interesting — Cantero switches back and forth between a more conventional novel style and something inspired by a movie script, with labelled dialogue and annotations for Scooby.5 Where it really shines is the occasional action scene; the sentences get longer, flow together, and it feels like a choreographed fight in a movie.
It’s also definitely creepier than anything in my usual reading; the book is set roughly a decade after the gang broke up, and Fred having died in the interim doesn’t stop him from showing up when Shaggy forgets his meds. The interactions between Shaggy and his hallucination of Fred range from hilarious, through bittersweet, and occasionally into the grotesque.
Plot-wise, the book is enjoyable; it gets a bit weird in places, but eventually pulls itself back together, while leaving room for Cantero to come back and write more if he wants.
Which leads me into something that I felt he did excellently: tie-ins. Because, yes, it’s a Scooby-Doo book that can’t say “Scooby-Doo,” or “Fred,” “Daphne,” “Velma,” or “Shaggy.”6 It’s also a Lovecraft book, though — the Necronomicon is explicitly mentioned, and there’s a passing reference to Miskatonic University, as well as several scenes in Arkham. And other bits and pieces makes appearances — Cantero has certainly read more Lovecraftian horror than I have, but based on what I could pick out as references, there were quite a few that I missed. And it’s tied together to give the book the feeling of being part of a larger universe — you could pick up one of Lovecraft’s books, read it, and mentally slot it in to this same continuity without an issue.
So hey, if you want a creepy, fun little romp in the Pacific Northwest, watching Shaggy, Daphne, and Velma try to deal with PTSD and the results of living in a world that has both “some guy dressed up in a costume to scare people away” and the Necronomicon, I can heartily recommend Meddling Kids.

  1. Seriously, it’s artistically gorgeous, and whoever is doing the soundtrack? Give them a raise, it’s excellent. ↩
  2. Yes, I know I left one out; we don’t talk about Get a Clue. ↩
  3. Zombie Island also made my time in Louisiana more enjoyable, and Cyber Chase is set in an amalgamation of MIT, Stanford, and UC Berkeley, two of which I’ve visited. The moral of the story is, I need to go to Roswell to finish my Scooby-Doo Tour of the United States. ↩
  4. Admittedly, it’s not an official Scooby-Doo book, so everybody has different names, but it’s also clearly meant to tie in to the same “hey, recognize this trope?” pattern, and gains a lot by then subverting them. ↩
  5. As mentioned in the previous footnote, the dog isn’t named Scooby, but I don’t feel like writing a conversion chart for what’s meant to be a short review, so I’m just going to do the name-swapping myself. ↩
  6. It’s possible they could get away with “Scrappy,” but didn’t try. ↩
Categories
Playlist

Playlist of the Month: August 2019

If you ever want to feel extremely hipster about your taste in music, try to find anything you listen to with the iTunes Search API. “Billie Eilish? Never heard of her!”
Silhouette – Aquilo
Cologne – Haux1
Sober – Edwin Raphael
Coincidental – Betcha
How You’ll Be Remembered – Aron Wright
Power Over Me – Dermot Kennedy
Cocoon – Tommy Ashby
Me, The Prodigal – Lane Norberg
Connor – SYML
Bed – SYML
Antidote – Mr Hudson
Before You Knew It Was Me – SYML2
Let Me Hold You – Nick Wilson
Without the Lights – Elliot Moss
99 – Elliot Moss
Snowblind – Saro
You There – Aquilo
I Won’t – Richard Walters3
Bad for You – Billy Raffoul
Spoke Too Soon – Jake Scott
Caves – Haux
Hold Me While You Wait – Lewis Capaldi
Falling Down – Harrison Storm
To the Rhythm – Mattis
Loverboy – Mattis4
Must Have Been the Wind – Alec Benjamin
Drew Barrymore – Bryce Vine
Angel – H. Kenneth
Heaven – Avicii
All Time Low – Jon Bellion
F**k Collingwood – Hayden Calnin
Up, Up & Away – Chance Peña
Visible – Hayden Calnin
The Chain – Mattis
Bristol – Imaginary Future
Coyote – Mako
Affection – Amber Run
The Sea – HAEVN
Real – Majik
Smoke Filled Room – Mako
One with the Mountain – Firewoodisland
O.C.C.D. – Abra Taylor
Slept on Me – Mr Hudson
Murder (Acoustic) – Mako
Maybe We Shouldn’t Be Friends – Marshall
Hey, Ma – Bon Iver5
Soothsayer – Of Monsters and Men
Wars – Of Monsters and Men
Glass House – LIEZA
Haunted – Saint Claire
Bigger Things – Imaginary Future
Decisions – Sidi
Taken By the Sky – Dalli
22 (OVER S∞∞N) – Bon Iver
Mars – Alexander 23
Stuck in Gravity – Of Monsters and Men
Under a Dome – Of Monsters and Men
When Love Was Easy – VACAY
Party – Jon Bryant6
Touch the Sky – OLIPHAUNT
Leader of the Landslide – The Lumineers
Made of Bones – James Quick
Bones – JC Stewart
Show Me – Gavin Haley
Places – Portair7
Reach – Robert Shirey Kelly
Without You (feat. H. Kenneth) – Alle Farben
Quicksand Arms – Adam Agin & Watts
Silence Is Broken – Cal Trask
Cadillac – Joel Ansett8
Sh’Diah – Bon Iver
Faith – Bon Iver
Salem – Bon Iver
For My Help – Hayden Calnin
Oceans – Noah Mac
Piece Of Your Heart (feat. GOODBOYS) – Meduza9
Levee – Bo Baskoro
Why Do You Love Me – Charlotte Lawrence10
iMi – Bon Iver
Breathe – Mako
Hairpin Turns – The National11
Crying at the Party – Harry Strange
Something About You – Elderbrook & Rudimental12
Byegone – Volcano Choir
Laura No Està – Nek
Cars at Night – By The Coast13
Imagine – JV Jumpin’
Holyfields, – Bon Iver
Wonder – JacobNeverhill
Same Place (feat. Keelan Mak & Thomas White) – Fossa Beats
Jelmore – Bon Iver
Feeling You – Harrison Storm
Llt – Leo Islo
Comrade – Volcano Choir14
I’m Doing Everything I Can – Imaginary Future
Nowhere – Black Match
Oblivions – The National
Light Years – The National
Nothin’ – Navincii
Meant to Stay Hid – SYML
5AM – Amber Run15

  1. This song was, in part, the inspiration for my playlist backup automation – I wanted to have a ‘nostalgia’ playlist, sorta built around Cologne, but my “gotta have history” thing wouldn’t really allow it. So: git. ↩
  2. Similarly to Cologne, I’ve now got a playlist built around Before You Knew It Was Me. It’s good for late at night, when you want to be tired but not fall asleep. ↩
  3. I like this song, but the album art doesn’t really work for me; it looks like a screengrab from a lyrics video on YouTube. ↩
  4. Still very fun to sing along to. ↩
  5. So far, my favorite off the new album, but I haven’t finished listening to the whole thing yet, so we’ll see. ↩
  6. This album art gives me some serious JVN vibes. ↩
  7. It’s like the Dr. Seuss book, if Dr. Seuss had been on antidepressants. ↩
  8. Forewarning: this will probably get stuck in your head at least once. ↩
  9. The opening bit here, “wait, sorry, what if it went-“ is amazingly catchy. ↩
  10. I recommend listening to the lyrics, they’re fun. ↩
  11. So far this is the song off this album that gets stuck in my head most. ↩
  12. This link is to the YouTube video, which I rather liked; here’s the iTunes link ↩
  13. Ed Tullet/Novo Amor vibes, obviously I’m a fan. ↩
  14. In the ‘Haux’ vibe, though a little more electronic. ↩
  15. Thought about this song halfway through a swim and had to hop out, dry off my hands, and add it to this playlist before I forgot again. ↩
Categories
Technology Tools

Automatic OCR with Hazel: The Easy Way

I have previously written about how to run OCR (Optical Character Recognition) on a PDF using Hazel and… a complicated pile of Python scripts and other software. Since I wrote that post, several of those pieces of software have been updated, and the core component has been, apparently, entirely abandoned.
Recently, while I was waiting for yet another keyboard replacement on my MacBook, I took another look at the OCR thing and found that there’s a much easier way available: OCRmyPDF.
It’s easy to install, assuming you’ve already got brew: brew install ocrmypdf
From there, it’s just a single action in Hazel. “Run embedded shell script: ocrmypdf $1”
Admittedly, you can use some of their many settings to get something a bit nicer than just OCR; personally, I’m using --rotate-pages --deskew --mask-barcodes – the first two to help with variations in the input because I sometimes use a bed scanner, and the latter to help Tesseract, which can have issues with barcodes..
I’ve also paired it with a couple additional actions, just to keep everything organized:

I also took the time to stop using Dropbox as the go-between for my scanner and the Mac running Hazel; I’d forgotten that the scanner has a USB port. Plug in a cheap flash drive, and it’s available as a (very slow) file server. Mount the drive, add it as a Login Item so it’ll auto-mount on boot, and you can set Hazel automations to run right there. I’m not OCRing them there, though — like I said, it’s a very slow server, so it tags them ‘for OCR’ and moves them to my desktop.1

  1. With iCloud Drive handling my desktop, I’ve found it to be a pretty great ‘intake’ folder for all of my Hazel automations. It’s quite nice to be able to save a PDF from my phone, add a tag, and watch it disappear again as it’s auto-sorted, or throw a PDF on my desktop with a tag and see it pop in and out as the OCR runs. ↩
Categories
Technology Tools

Automatic Playlist Backup

You may have seen my monthly playlist posts on here; I put those together with a Shortcut that grabs the playlist, runs through all the songs, and makes a spirited attempt to fill in all the links off the iTunes Store Search API without hitting their mysterious rate limits.1
It’s not the be-all end-all, though — I’ve been wanting more and more lately to start making more and smaller playlists, things to match different moods. Y’know, the way normal people do playlists.
But, of course, I’m me, and I want to have the history of my music tastes, because, hey, sometimes you feel like reminiscing.
So, what to do? Well, I’ve done some work with the iTunes Library XML file, and while it’s sorta true that just wrapping that in, like, Git or something for version control could work, there are three problems with that:
1. iTunes is a weird, weird piece of software, and I don’t want to mess with its files too much.
2. The result is not at all human-readable.
3. It isn’t an excuse to learn something new.

So, what else can I do? Well, I’ve done a very light bit of tinkering with AppleScript,2 so I know it can interact with iTunes pretty well; there’s gotta be a way to do it there, right?
There is! I’ll share the script in a moment, but the functionality I wanted was “clear out the folder I give you, replicate my playlist hierarchy as directories, and spit out each playlist as a markdown file listing the title, artist, and album for each track, then commit the changes to a git repository.”
It took a while to get working — I’ve learned that AppleScript’s repeat with in loop is hilariously slow, unless you change it to repeat with in (get). I’ve also found out that the way it works with paths is super annoying, and that while it can write to a file, it can’t conceptualize creating a directory. There’s some great workarounds for that.
Now, here’s the script: I’ve left a couple {replace me} type things where you should fill in variables – namely, the path to your home directory (or wherever else you want it), and your own username, to fix some permission issues that can crop up.3

https://gist.github.com/grey280/9b95fdc8c16ec544a214f159bd008bbc

But wait, there’s a caveat: it’ll fail if the folder you gave it isn’t a git repository. Considering that I wanted this as a ‘set it and forget it’ sort of thing, I figured it wouldn’t be worth the effort to write a bunch of conditional code to do the setup. Do it yourself: git init && touch temp.txt && add temp.txt && git commit -m "Initial commit" takes care of all you need.4
Oh, and if you want it to be pushing the changes somewhere, because you’re paranoid and want everything in someone’s cloud, at least, add the remote and set it as the default upstream: git remote add origin {remote URL} && git push --set-upstream origin master

Set It and Forget It

So that’s pretty neat, but it isn’t really “set it and forget it,” now, is it? You’ve gotta open up Script Editor, pull up the script, and run it every time you want it to back up your playlists. Possibly workable for some people, but I don’t have a home server for nothing. Let’s make this truly automated.
From my prior experience with AppleScript, I know that you can set it off through a shell script by way of /usr/bin/osascript, so my first thought was to add a cron job. After a bit of research, though, I found out that Apple would prefer we use launchd instead, so I set about figuring out how to do that.
Now, if this wasn’t all an excuse to learn how to do something, I’d probably have just bought one of the GUI clients for launchd; Lingon looks pretty nice, and seems to work well.5
The process for writing your own launchd process is actually pretty simple: create a .plist file containing some XML, add it to the launchd queue with launchctl, and you’re off to the races!6
(Hint: if you want an easier way to see if your script runs than waiting and checking git log, you can add a line to the start of the AppleScript: display notification "Running playlist export".)
So, creating the XML: you want it to live in ~/Library/LaunchAgents/, and the convention is the usual reverse-TLD. (You can also use local.{your username}.{your script name}, but I’m so used to using net.twoeighty. in bundle identifiers that I just went with that.)
The important parts are the ProgramArguments array and the StartInterval integer. For ProgramArguments, give it the path to osascript,7 and as your second argument, the full path to the .scpt of the AppleScript.
Then, set the StartInterval to the number of seconds between runs; I’m using 3600, because hourly change tracking seems frequent enough for my purposes.
The result:

https://gist.github.com/grey280/f643a159a426ae25eb57139afd4f3cd5

(You can skip the StandardErrorPath and StandardOutPath – they help a little with debugging, more so if you’re running a full shell script and not a wrapper on an AppleScript.)
Finally, add it to the queue:

launctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/net.twoeighty.backupPlaylists.plist

And there you go – every hour, your iTunes playlists will get backed up to your Git repo, and you’ll have a nice history of your music tastes over time.

  1. iTunes Search is a really fun API to use, because via Shortcuts you only get a single input to it, and it is really bad at finding anything. Seriously — try to find anything off the top charts. As far as iTunes Search is aware, Billie Eilish doesn’t exist. ↩
  2. In lieu of Shortcuts having a way to set the volume on a HomePod, I’ve achieved a similar result with “run SSH script: osascript -e tell iTunes ...”. ↩
  3. Related: don’t put this anywhere with weird macOS access control things. Y’know, places like “Documents”, “Desktop”, anywhere in iCloud Drive or Dropbox, or even “Downloads”, which apparently is a much worse work directory than I thought it was. I eventually configured it to run out of and into my Public directory, because I figured that’d be easier than trying to mess around with the permissions somewhere else. ↩
  4. Without a file there, the git rm -rf . && git clean -fxd bit at the beginning is unhappy. ↩
  5. I used the ‘free trial’ version as a viewer for my works in progress; I figured if I’d done something really wrong, it’d complain about it being an invalid file or something. ↩
  6. He said, glossing over the couple hours of “fight me, macOS, why isn’t this working” ↩
  7. Probably /usr/bin/osascript, but you can use which osascript in Terminal to check. ↩
Categories
Review

“Radicalized,” or, “this just keeps getting more upsetting”

Cory Doctorow
One of my favorite concepts in science fiction is making one change and extrapolating it forward. What if Tesla and Edison’s war of the currents had resulted in most of the world outlawing electricity and doubling down on steam power? What if Superman had landed in Soviet Russia? What if somebody invented a machine that let you step between parallel worlds?
What Doctorow has done here is that, but instead of making one change, he doesn’t make a change, and extrapolates. What if we never fix copy right law? What if Juicero hadn’t collapsed? What if we never sort out healthcare?
The result is terrifying, because it feels… so very possible. It’s not the first time he’s done it, either — Little Brother was my first introduction to Doctorow, and it remains a poster child for the concept.
Reading both Little Brother and Radicalized, I didn’t feel like I was reading a novel; I felt like I was reading a warning. “We’re on a path that leads to this, or something just like it,” he’s saying. “I’m worried, and you should be too.”
Worry with me; it’s a good read, and well worth the time.1

  1. It also contains a great take on Superman, and a strangely uplifting story about the apocalypse; seriously, read it. ↩
Categories
Programming Technology

Publishing a Private Angular Library via Git

So, you’ve built yourself a nice new Angular library and you’re excited to put it to use in your apps! It’s an exciting time. But wait: the code you used is proprietary, and you can’t upload it to NPM.1
Good news: thanks to some features of Git, NPM, and most Git hosts, there’s a way to bypass NPM, and you don’t even need to set up your own repository. Sound good? Let’s go.
Now, I’m assuming that you’ve already (a) created your Angular library, and (b) have it in Git. If you haven’t done (a), there’s a pretty good guide on Angular’s site; if you haven’t done (b), allow me to evangelize source control to you: Git is awesome, and you should be using it. This book, available online for free, is an excellent getting-started guide.
So, you’ve got a version-controlled library; how do we make it available?
1. Build the library. ng build {YourLibrary} spits out your library as a ready-made NPM package.
2. Track the built files. git add dist/{your-library}. If you’ve got that in your .gitignore, you’ll need to remove it, or git add -f. I’d recommend the former; you’ll need to do this every time you update the library. Wrap it up with git commit and a nice message explaining what you’ve changed.
3. Set up a second repository. This is where the NPM package version of your repository will live. Leave it empty; we’ll push to it in a moment.
4. Push the subtree. This is the the magic part: we’re going to treat the built files as their own separate repository. git subtree push --prefix dist/{your-library} {path to the second repository}2
5. Tag the release with a semantic version number.3 While it’s possible to do this via the command line, it’s not fun, so I’d recommend using the GUI for your Git host of choice.
6. Generate a read-only token for the second repository. In GitLab, this is under Settings > Repository > Deploy Tokens. Configure it as you’d like, but be sure to enable read_repository.
7. Add the library to your app’s package.json. Give it the Git address for your second repository, and follow it up with either a tag or branch name to pull from. (For example: "your-library": "git+https://{GitLab token username}:{GitLab token password}@gitlab.com/{your username}/{your-second-repo}#master would pull the latest version from master.)

Et voilà; you’ve got a private Angular library, ready for use.

  1. Or maybe you’ve got issues with the fact that NPM is a private company, and can remove, un-delete, or hand over your packages without your permission. ↩
  2. i.e.: git subtree push --prefix dist/my-own-library https://github.com/grey280/my-own-library.git ↩
  3. This isn’t strictly necessary – I’ll explain a bit more in step 7. ↩
Categories
Playlist

Playlist of the Month: July 2019

I’ve got a little bit of free time right now, which means I’m spending it desperately trying to stop myself from signing up for a bunch of new things. Like, please remember that you’re starting grad school in September, I promise you won’t have too much time on your hands at that point.
Silhouette – Aquilo
Cologne – Haux1
Sober – Edwin Raphael
Coincidental – Betcha
How You’ll Be Remembered – Aron Wright
Power Over Me – Dermot Kennedy
The Bird – SYML
Cocoon – Tommy Ashby
Gentle Punches – Jack in Water
Leave a Light On – JacobNeverhill
Me, The Prodigal – Lane Norberg
Killer Queen – FIL BO RIVA
Connor – SYML
Bed – SYML
Antidote – Mr Hudson2
Before You Knew It Was Me – SYML
Let Me Hold You – Nick Wilson
Without the Lights – Elliot Moss
99 – Elliot Moss3
Snowblind – Saro
You There – Aquilo
BITCH (takes one to know one) – Lennon Stella
Until We Meet the Dust – Jack in Water
I Won’t – Richard Walters
Bad for You – Billy Raffoul
Spoke Too Soon – Jake Scott
Wake Up – The Native Sibling
Caves – Haux
Waves – Dean Lewis
Hold Me While You Wait – Lewis Capaldi
Falling Down – Harrison Storm
To the Rhythm – Mattis
Signs – Leon Else
Pteryla – Novo Amor & Ed Tullett4
New Stories – Steve Benjamins
Loverboy – Mattis5
Rich, White, Straight Men – Kesha6
Must Have Been the Wind – Alec Benjamin
Stay (Don’t Go Away) [feat. Raye] – David Guetta
Drew Barrymore – Bryce Vine
Angel – H. Kenneth7
Something Good (feat. All Tvvins) – EMBRZ
Slow Down – Joel Ansett
Heaven – Avicii8
Enemy – Sandro Cavazza
All Time Low – Jon Bellion
Nostalgic – A R I Z O N A
F**k Collingwood – Hayden Calnin9
Never Really Over – Katy Perry
Up, Up & Away – Chance Peña
Down – Marshmello
Visible – Hayden Calnin
The Chain – Mattis
Bristol – Imaginary Future10
Cuando Me Miras (feat. Enry-K) – C. Tangana
lowercase – Luna Shadows
Someone You Loved – Boyce Avenue
Electric Touch – A R I Z O N A
Coyote – Mako11
Cross My Mind – A R I Z O N A
Affection – Amber Run12
The Sea – HAEVN13
Real – Majik
Smoke Filled Room – Mako
One with the Mountain – Firewoodisland
scared – Jeremy Zucker
O.C.C.D. – Abra Taylor14
Slept on Me – Mr Hudson
Murder (Acoustic) – Mako
Green Light – Lorde
Neon Circus – Amber Run
Maybe We Shouldn’t Be Friends – Marshall
Those Three Words – Portair
Hey, Ma – Bon Iver15
Thinkin Bout You – Emily Afton
Powerline – Phangs
Soothsayer – Of Monsters and Men
Wars – Of Monsters and Men
Sorry – Tyrone Wells
Glass House – LIEZA16
Haunted – Saint Claire17
Bigger Things – Imaginary Future
Decisions – Sidi
Taken By the Sky – Dalli18
Down – Marian Hill

  1. One of my favorite things about iTunes is that it can show me play counts for songs; I think it’s neat to see what my Clear Favorites are. ↩︎
  2. Two songs by Mr. Hudson on this list now, and I only started listening to him because I hit the wrong thing while trying to play Coldplay one day. Gotta love random chance. (Or a good marketing strategy, I suppose.) ↩︎
  3. Found this song by way of Elementary, who usually have pretty good final songs. And speaking of Elementary, it’s ending this season, I believe. I’ll be needing a new Sherlock Holmes show soon… ↩︎
  4. A bit more from my nostalgia break last month. ↩︎
  5. I really enjoy this one; Mattis has a good voice for it. ↩︎
  6. Gotta love Kesha. ↩︎
  7. One of my top two favorite additions this month; not the album art I chose, though, because Elliot Moss had an excellent design. ↩︎
  8. I… do not want to admit to how long it took me to figure out that this was Chris Martin singing. Just a lot of “wow, I didn’t know Avicii sounded so much like the Coldplay guy!” ↩︎
  9. My other favorite addition this month; some serious Bon Iver circa 2016 vibes. ↩︎
  10. If you like Haux, you’ll like this one. ↩︎
  11. Very catchy, also an excellent pick. ↩︎
  12. I’ve been getting more and more excited for this album over the past month, I’m quite looking forward to it. ↩︎
  13. Again, an excellent addition in the Haux vein. ↩︎
  14. Eventually I’m gonna have an entire playlist of songs that I picked because they reminded me of the excellent sound design in the opening to Passengers. ↩︎
  15. Hey, Bon Iver is back! Bon Iver is great. ↩︎
  16. Lyrically, at least, this is sorta… Evanescence-y? ↩︎
  17. Similar song on this list: “How You’ll Be Remembered.” Sadness and piano, definitely my aesthetic. ↩︎
  18. Reminds me of when I used to listen to Noon Pacific. I wonder if they’ve stopped doing the whole “Spotify-only” thing?
    Follow-up, having taken a break to go check: no, they’ve gone deeper into it and won’t even show song names now. Exclusivity: it’ll reduce your audience! ↩
Categories
Playlist

Playlist of the Month: June 2019

All of these links point to music.apple.com instead of itunes.apple.com now, but the tool I use to get them is still at itunes.apple.com. It’s a slow death that iTunes is having.
Silhouette – Aquilo
Coldplay (feat. Vic Mensa) – Mr Hudson
Cologne – Haux
Sober – Edwin Raphael
Coincidental – Betcha
bury a friend – Billie Eilish
How You’ll Be Remembered – Aron Wright
Power Over Me – Dermot Kennedy1
A Big World – Joel Adams
The Bird – SYML
Cocoon – Tommy Ashby
Gentle Punches – Jack in Water
listen before i go – Billie Eilish
Leave a Light On – JacobNeverhill
Me, The Prodigal – Lane Norberg
WHEN I WAS OLDER (Music Inspired by the Film “ROMA”) – Billie Eilish
High Beams (feat. slowthai) – Flume & HWLS
Killer Queen – FIL BO RIVA
I Make Sparks – Novo Amor
Connor – SYML2
Bed – SYML
Antidote – Mr Hudson
Before You Knew It Was Me – SYML
Find Someone – A R I Z O N A
Rebota – Guaynaa
Let Me Hold You – Nick Wilson
Denim Darlin’ – Edwin Raphael
I Of The Storm – Of Monsters and Men
Where Your Secrets Hide (feat. Katie Garfield) – Klergy
Big Yellow Taxi (feat. Vanessa Carlton) – Counting Crows
Girl – SYML
Without the Lights – Elliot Moss
99 – Elliot Moss3
Snowblind – Saro
You There – Aquilo
BITCH (takes one to know one) – Lennon Stella4
Half a Man – Dean Lewis
Until We Meet the Dust – Jack in Water
I Won’t – Richard Walters
Bad for You – Billy Raffoul
Saturn – Sleeping At Last
Gold – JacobNeverhill
Spoke Too Soon – Jake Scott
Wake Up – The Native Sibling5
Amor Genuino – Ozuna
So Called Love – Melis
I Found – Amber Run
Three Strikes (feat. Jack McManus) – Afrojack6
Caves – Haux
Silence (feat. Khalid) – Marshmello
Big Jet Plane – Angus & Julia Stone
Waves – Dean Lewis
Hold Me While You Wait – Lewis Capaldi
Falling Down – Harrison Storm
To the Rhythm – Mattis7
Signs – Leon Else
This Song Reminds Me Of You – Jai Wolf
Do You Mean (feat. Ty Dolla $ign and bülow) – The Chainsmokers
Oceans Away – A R I Z O N A

  1. I heard this playing on the radio the other day and was thoroughly confused, and then confused about why I was confused. I think the moral of the story is that I don’t really understand the concept of radio anymore. ↩︎
  2. This one keeps getting more fun to sing along to. ↩︎
  3. About two weeks after I’d added both of these songs to this list, I was like, “oh, maybe I should try listening to the rest of the album.” So, y’know, look for that next month. ↩︎
  4. Pretty catchy, but I do have to ask: is this actually something people say? ↩︎
  5. This would actually work pretty well in one of those ‘gentle alarm clock’ type apps. ↩︎
  6. This pops up whenever I’m in a nostalgic mood, because I just go to the folder of playlists from a past year, and iTunes sorts by artist first, so this is up a the top. ↩︎
  7. I think this is the catchiest addition this month. ↩︎
Categories
Playlist

Playlist of the Month: May 2019

Album cover from Syml's album 'Syml'

In theory, a couple days from now we’ll find out that iTunes is being retired; I’m just going to hope that whatever they replace it with still supports smart playlists, because otherwise my entire music workflow is going to collapse.
Silhouette – Aquilo
Coldplay (feat. Vic Mensa) – Mr Hudson
Hide & Seek (Imogen Heap Cover) – Amber Run
Cologne – Haux
Sober – Edwin Raphael
Coincidental – Betcha1
Heavy Lungs – FLØRE
St. George – Mt. Joy
bury a friend – Billie Eilish
How You’ll Be Remembered – Aron Wright
Run – Harrison Storm
when the party’s over – Billie Eilish
Starboy (feat. Daft Punk) – The Weeknd2
Power Over Me – Dermot Kennedy
Jumper – Natalie Taylor
A Big World – Joel Adams
The Bird – SYML
SKINNYDIP – Jake Miller
WHAT IF YOU FELL IN LOVE? – Jake Miller
my strange addiction – Billie Eilish
Ooh Love Love – sophiemarie.b
Emotion (feat. Panama) – Hazey Eyes
bad guy – Billie Eilish
Cocoon – Tommy Ashby
Last Thread (feat. Huntar) – EMBRZ
Gentle Punches – Jack in Water
listen before i go – Billie Eilish
Leave a Light On – JacobNeverhill
Me, The Prodigal – Lane Norberg3
WHEN I WAS OLDER (Music Inspired by the Film “ROMA”) – Billie Eilish
Eastside – benny blanco, Halsey & Khalid
Loving You – Seafret
High Beams (feat. slowthai) – Flume & HWLS
No Church in the Wild (feat. Frank Ocean & The-Dream) – JAY-Z & Kanye West
Thinkin Bout You (Frank Ocean Cover) – Midnight Pool Party4
Killer Queen – FIL BO RIVA
Best Behaviour – Mansionair
Everything All at Once – SYML
Will You Think of Me Later? – Edwin Raphael
I Make Sparks – Novo Amor
Easy – Tycho5
You Spin Me Round (feat. Silver Letomi) – Auralnauts6
Carry On (From “POKÉMON Detective Pikachu”) – Kygo & Rita Ora7
Isle of Strawberries – Edwin Raphael
Maze (Acoustic) – Angel Snow
Saving Grace – Nathan Ball
Connor – SYML
Bed – SYML
Antidote – Mr Hudson8
Before You Knew It Was Me – SYML
Find Someone – A R I Z O N A
SOS (feat. Aloe Blacc) – Avicii
Rebota – Guaynaa
Let Me Hold You – Nick Wilson
Forever Young – Ursine Vulpine
Denim Darlin’ – Edwin Raphael
Alejandro – Lady Gaga9
I Of The Storm – Of Monsters and Men10

  1. The problem with having these playlists be in order like this is that I wind up with the ‘vanguard’ of stuff that’s made it through months of the playlist, and I don’t have any new comments to add to them. ↩︎
  2. In my head, the origin story of this song involves the two guys in Daft Punk just being… paralyzed by introverted terror when The Weeknd walked into their studio ↩︎
  3. This is… pretty off-brand for me, gotta admit. But hey, it sounds good. ↩︎
  4. This is one of two blocks of “it’s time for some throwback music!” in this playlist. ↩︎
  5. Tycho is excellent “lazy Saturday morning” music. ↩︎
  6. Link for context ↩︎
  7. I want to see this movie, but I also… keep forgetting that it’s actually in theaters right now. ↩︎
  8. A+ song for singing along to, surprisingly ↩︎
  9. Fun fact: if you just search for “Alejandro” in Apple Music, you’ll get several covers of this song, but not the original. ↩︎
  10. Found out that a friend of mine recently moved to the neighborhood where I live, and immediately got this album stuck in my head – it came out right when we moved out here, and I spent a lot of time listening to it while getting deliberately lost so I could learn the lay of the land. ↩︎
Categories
Playlist

Playlist of the Month: April 2019

If I’d planned better, I would’ve written this up before I took my laptop to the Apple Store to get a new keyboard. Again.1
Silhouette – Aquilo
Coldplay (feat. Vic Mensa) – Mr Hudson
Hide & Seek (Imogen Heap Cover) – Amber Run Body – SYML
Better – Khalid
Cologne – Haux
Teardrop – José González
Shadow and a Dancer – The Fray
Hands Held High – LINKIN PARK
Sober – Edwin Raphael
Love Me Back – RITUAL & Tove Styrke
RLNDT – Bad Bunny
Coincidental – Betcha
Heavy Lungs – FLØRE
St. George – Mt. Joy
bury a friend – Billie Eilish
How You’ll Be Remembered – Aron Wright
Faded – Alan Walker
Bigfoot – Mt. Joy
Sheep – Mt. Joy
Run – Harrison Storm
when the party’s over – Billie Eilish
Dinner & Diatribes – Hozier2
Starboy (feat. Daft Punk) – The Weeknd
Power Over Me – Dermot Kennedy
Jumper – Natalie Taylor
Human (feat. Tom Walker) – dodie
A Big World – Joel Adams
WDWGILY – SYML
honest – GOLDN
Freedom Falls – Khushi
The Bird – SYML3
My Boy (feat. Amor Romeira) – Allen King
Tell Me Its a Dream – Phillip LaRue
all the good girls go to hell – Billie Eilish
SKINNYDIP – Jake Miller
WHAT IF YOU FELL IN LOVE? – Jake Miller
my strange addiction – Billie Eilish4
Ooh Love Love – sophiemarie.b
Emotion (feat. Panama) – Hazey Eyes
ilomilo – Billie Eilish
bad guy – Billie Eilish
Cocoon – Tommy Ashby5
Vhs – Mykey
Last Thread (feat. Huntar) – EMBRZ
Gentle Punches – Jack in Water6
listen before i go – Billie Eilish
I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For – Imaginary Future
Fade (feat. Paris Jones) – J.u.D.
I Love You (Quintet Version) – Woodkid
Bad Day – Daniel Powter7
HP – Maluma
Purple Sand (My Home) – Big Wild
Leave a Light On – JacobNeverhill8
Me, The Prodigal – Lane Norberg
WHEN I WAS OLDER (Music Inspired by the Film “ROMA”) – Billie Eilish9
Eastside – benny blanco, Halsey & Khalid
Loving You – Seafret
High Beams (feat. slowthai) – Flume & HWLS10
Pity Party – Melanie Martinez

  1. This is the fourth keyboard replacement since I got it last summer; gotta love that butterfly keyboard. ↩︎
  2. There are some excellent jokes about Hozier’s new album, but I won’t be repeating any of them, because I like to pretend I’ve got a better sense of humor than I actually do. ↩︎
  3. This didn’t make it into my playlist on the first listen, but then I came back to it and liked it more, and I’m glad I gave it a second chance. ↩︎
  4. But seriously, Billie Eilish is amazing ↩︎
  5. In the same musical aesthetic as Cologne, above, so of course I’m a fan. ↩︎
  6. Putting this playlist together is actually the first time that I’ve seen the album cover for this. Very ‘Noon Pacific.’ ↩︎
  7. This is what happens when the person driving says “hey, we should listen to a bunch of throwback music.” ↩︎
  8. Still can’t read this title without getting part of Midnight stuck in my head. Coldplay: I’m still a fan. ↩︎
  9. I don’t know how I missed this when it came out, but I’ve listened to it like a thousand times this month, so I guess I’m caught up ↩︎
  10. It’s got an aggressive intro, but I really like the way the guy goes through the lyrics. ↩︎
Categories
United States

Reservoir

Consider this a continuation of my previous post; same vacation, different day.

I was trying to come up with a clever caption, but I got distracted by making half-formed ‘Barsoom’ references instead.

This was actually one of the last things we did while I was over there; a nice little walk in the woods. That picture doesn’t do it justice—the walk started in the “it’s not spring yet” portion, but as we made our way downhill, we started to see actual greenery.

We saw so many dogs, but I didn’t take their pictures, that’s an invasion of privacy. Dog privacy.

We had pretty good luck with the weather—it was nice and sunny while we were at the top of the hill; the wind picked up a bit right as we were getting to the shore of the reservoir, just enough to give the trees some fun movement.

Again, I kinda wish this was a live photo, there’s something really pleasing about the way trees move in the wind.

Reservoirs are a fun bit of infrastructure; for the most part, they don’t really look like infrastructure, right up until they really do.

I’m just now realizing how damp and unpleasant it must’ve been to actually get over there to do the graffiti.

There’s little pieces that are obviously man-made, sure, but for the most part, it’s easy enough to just let nature handle it.

I linked to my post about Detroit Lake earlier, and it’s actually kinda eerie how much this photo looks like the view from the campground we stayed at there.

And then there’s the unofficial pieces that people add.

This is one of those things that isn’t all that funny but makes me laugh nonetheless. I just read it as being very plaintive. Please, somebody, just play ball with this tree, it’s so sad.

And, despite the signs posted every fifty feet along the path on the way in, ‘this is our water supply, don’t swim in it, people drink this,’ there’s always a rope swing.

I’m not kidding, either; apparently this thing gets taken down every week over the summer, and within a couple of days, somebody’s put up a new one.
Categories
United States

Wickham Park

I recently had the opportunity to visit a friend of mine over in Connecticut. I’ve never been to New England before (the closest I’d been previously was an hour spent in a New York airport, and given that I can’t even remember which airport it was, it clearly wasn’t the most fun visit), and I was pretty excited to see the sights.

Seriously, I’m never going to stop enjoying panorama photos.

The first place we went that made me glad I’d brought my camera was Wickham Park; it’s up on more of a hill than I initially realized, which made for a good panorama at the top.

I have an impressive number of photos of paths in my collection.

A bit lower down, there are a few different ‘gardens’ around the park; the first one we wandered around was the ‘marshland’ theme, if I’m remember correctly.

Every once in a while, I wish my DSLR could take a Live Photo, because the sound of all the birds when I was taking this one was pretty great.

Honestly, I think the top and bottom of the hill were the best parts; the gardens in between were… not all that impressive.

The “Oriental Garden”, for example, featured a rather sad pagoda and a very slimy pond.

I also didn’t bother taking any pictures of the “Irish Garden,” which looked like what happens when someone in the 1930s makes a garden, and it becomes too ‘historic’ to tear down for being a racist caricature. An aesthetic that was rather undercut by the sign at the end, which says it opened in 2016.

The “Scottish Garden” was a bit more interesting in the statuary, but rather lacking in actual plant life.

When we visited, I read through the pamphlet a bit, but it mostly boiled down to a list of all the different gardens, a brief mention that it was named after the rich fellow who’d established the place, and the fact that it’s a private park, owned and maintained by Bank of America on behalf of the family’s estate. (“Everything around here is owned by some bank of another,” I was told.)

Oh, you thought I was done with the panoramas for this post, didn’t you?

But hey, it’s sitting on some pretty land, and I do like seeing parks that’re at least somewhat open to the public, so who am I to complain?

(Technically speaking, this is also a panorama, just not as intensely so as they usually are.)
(It also wasn’t taken at Wickham Park, but still.)

Categories
Playlist

Playlist of the Month: March 2019

An update since last time: the iTunes Store Search API is nicer if you don’t try to do a lot at once. The moral of the story is… teach your algorithms to slow down and smell the roses?
Silhouette – Aquilo
Coldplay (feat. Vic Mensa) – Mr Hudson
Ibiza (feat. Romeo Santos) – Ozuna
You Found Me – The Fray
Hide & Seek (Imogen Heap Cover) – Amber Run
Congratulations – Blue October
Body – SYML
Better – Khalid
Cologne – Haux
Teardrop – José González
How to Save a Life – The Fray
Shadow and a Dancer – The Fray
Pyres of Varanasi – Thirty Seconds to Mars
Hands Held High – LINKIN PARK
Sober – Edwin Raphael
Flashback – Majik
Strangers – Majik
Friends (Under the Influence) – Majik
If You’re Gone – Matchbox Twenty
O Superman (For Massenet) – Laurie Anderson
Movement – Hozier
Love Me Back – RITUAL & Tove Styrke
Sola – Luis Fonsi
RLNDT – Bad Bunny
Coincidental – Betcha
Lust – Xela
Temporary – Ella Vos
Heavy Lungs – FLØRE
Let You Down – NF
St. George – Mt. Joy
bury a friend – Billie Eilish
How You’ll Be Remembered – Aron Wright1
Green Eyes – Edwin Raphael
Back In My Body – Maggie Rogers
Visions (feat. RBBTS) – Lane 8
Harbours – Edwin Raphael
Faded – Alan Walker
Places We Don’t Know – Kasbo
Bigfoot – Mt. Joy
Out of Love – Peter Manos
Queen of Coasts – Edwin Raphael
Sheep – Mt. Joy2
wish you were gay – Billie Eilish
Run – Harrison Storm
13th Floor (feat. Lil Halima) – Elias Boussnina
when the party’s over – Billie Eilish3
Dinner & Diatribes – Hozier
Starboy (feat. Daft Punk) – The Weeknd
Power Over Me – Dermot Kennedy4
Where’s My Love – SYML
Mirage – Elina
Not Easy – Evan Roman
Jumper – Natalie Taylor5
Lucky for You – Novo Amor & Gia Margaret
Human (feat. Tom Walker) – dodie
A Big World – Joel Adams6
WDWGILY – SYML
honest – GOLDN7
Freedom Falls – Khushi
The Bird – SYML
Here With Me (feat. CHVRCHES) – Marshmello
When It Ends – Imaginary Future
My Boy (feat. Amor Romeira) – Allen King8
Cama Vacía – Ozuna
Tell Me Its a Dream – Phillip LaRue
all the good girls go to hell – Billie Eilish
SKINNYDIP – Jake Miller
WHAT IF YOU FELL IN LOVE? – Jake Miller9
my strange addiction – Billie Eilish10
Thinking of You – Christian Kane11

  1. I still want this to be used in a movie. No idea what movie, but it feels very cinematic. ↩︎
  2. Fun to sing along to, 10/10 would recommend ↩︎
  3. This whole album is great ↩︎
  4. Instagram’s little ‘share a song in your story’ thing is a good way to discover music. Not as good as it could be — if they’d give Apple Music links instead of only Spotify, I’d be happier. ↩︎
  5. This is a really good cover. ↩︎
  6. This will very much get stuck in your head ↩︎
  7. Also very catchy ↩︎
  8. Protip: don’t google this guy; if you’re lucky, you’ll just find his YouTube channel. ↩︎
  9. This song really reminds me of “I Like Me Better” ↩︎
  10. As of this writing, this is tied with “bury a friend” for being my favorite song on this album. ↩︎
  11. If you haven’t watched Leverage, you absolutely should, it’s a wonderful, wonderful show. ↩︎
Categories
Playlist

Playlist of the Month: February 2019

Ideally I would’ve spent more time commenting on this list than I did fighting the iTunes Store Search API, but we can’t always get what we want.
Silhouette – Aquilo
start//end – EDEN
Coldplay (feat. Vic Mensa) – Mr Hudson
Ibiza (feat. Romeo Santos) – Ozuna
Ficción (feat. Bebe) – Costa, Mygal X & Bebe
You Found Me – The Fray
Unsteady – X Ambassadors
Save Me – Majik
Hide & Seek (Imogen Heap Cover) – Amber Run
Amen (LCV Choir) – Amber Run
Conversations with my Wife – Jon Bellion
Be Somebody – Kings of Leon
Congratulations – Blue October
Body – SYML
Better – Khalid
Cologne – Haux
Tongue – MNEK
Bleach Report – Ian Isiah
Sunflower (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse) – Post Malone & Swae Lee
Scared of the Dark (feat. XXXTENTACION) – Lil Wayne & Ty Dolla $ign
Ocean (feat. Khalid) – Martin Garrix
Dark Things – Vic Mensa
Teardrop – José González
Clean Eyes – SYML
Klonopin – Vic Mensa
Over My Head (Cable Car) – The Fray
How to Save a Life – The Fray
Vienna – The Fray
Shadow and a Dancer – The Fray
Hold My Hand – The Fray
Pyres of Varanasi – Thirty Seconds to Mars1
Hurricane – Thirty Seconds to Mars
Night of the Hunter – Thirty Seconds to Mars
Lost In the World (feat. Bon Iver) – Kanye West
Hands Held High – LINKIN PARK
Phony – KROWNS
Sober – Edwin Raphael2
Flashback – Majik
Strangers – Majik3
Friends (Under the Influence) – Majik
SOBER – daste.
If You’re Gone – Matchbox Twenty
O Superman (For Massenet) – Laurie Anderson4
Silver Lining – Mt. Joy
Movement – Hozier
Astrovan – Mt. Joy5
Jenny Jenkins – Mt. Joy
Love Me Back – RITUAL & Tove Styrke
Sola – Luis Fonsi
RLNDT – Bad Bunny6
Dirty Love – Mt. Joy
Clean Eyes (Acoustic) – SYML
Coincidental – Betcha
Thunder – Imagine Dragons
Good Old Days (feat. Kesha) – Macklemore
Lust – Xela
Temporary – Ella Vos
Heavy Lungs – FLØRE7
Let You Down – NF
St. George – Mt. Joy8
bury a friend – Billie Eilish9
Call It Love – Nathan Ball
Colder – Edwin Raphael
The Descent (feat. Lily Moore, Moss Kena & Jacob Banks) – Other People’s Heartache & Bastille
How You’ll Be Remembered – Aron Wright10

  1. I wrote a paper about this song, and haven’t the faintest idea of what grade I got. The moral of the story: stressing about grades has always been pointless. ↩︎
  2. I found an interview this guy didwhere he described his music as “feeling nostalgic about something or feeling some weird sadness about something,” which is exactly my aesthetic, given that I describe my taste in music as “sad hipsters crooning into microphones.” ↩︎
  3. Considering that Majik recently broke up, sorta, I was really happy when this came out and was a great addition to their repertoire; it feels a bit like a return to what they sounded like when I first started listening to them, which is, not coincidentally, why “Friends” is also in this list. ↩︎
  4. I love this, because it makes me nostalgic for the ‘80s. And not in a Thor: Ragnarok “look at how Aesthetic(TM) this time period was!” way, but I genuinely miss my experience of everyday life as a 20-something in the ‘80s. Which is impressive, given that I wasn’t born until the ‘90s. ↩︎
  5. This goes as a shoutout to my sister, who made me listen to this whole album. Told ya it’d wind up in my playlist. ↩︎
  6. Fun fact: I consistently read this title as “‘reliant,’ but pronounced wrong” ↩︎
  7. The first line is great, just “I’m not magnificent” ↩︎
  8. Probably my favorite off this album – “Jenny Jenkins” is really catchy, “Astrovan” has some great lyrics, but “St. George” just has the most visceral emotion in his voice. ↩︎
  9. This feels like the auditory version of a really good horror movie, and I love it. Which is weird, considering that I really don’t like horror movies. ↩︎
  10. Ooh, this is a weird note to end on, just ‘hey, time to be Sad’. Like, I love it, but I would’ve preferred to end on a slightly higher note than “let’s discuss your mortality” ↩︎
Categories
Photography United States

Joshua Tree

Joshua Tree National Park has been on my ‘places to visit’ list for quite a while. Honestly, I’m not sure how it wound up there, but I’m happy it did – from what I saw, it’s a pretty cool place.

These are some Hanna-Barbera looking rocks.

(I was told by a friend that you should really try to stay for the whole day, especially sunset, and just see what it all looks like with different lighting conditions, but unfortunately wasn’t able to do that this time; next time, though…)

I also climbed some rocks, but the ones I climbed were… less vertical.

The park was established in the 1930s by FDR. At the time, the Works Progress Administration – among other things – was running a poster campaign intended to inspire the American people, I believe along the lines of ‘look at all this neat stuff our country has!’

Panoramas are fun.

As far as I can tell, Joshua Tree didn’t get any of those posters, unfortunately; something about the federal government very busy all of a sudden.

Seriously, these rocks are fun to climb. I wish I’d brought some proper climbing clothes, I would’ve… probably injured myself much worse than the scraped elbow I got.

A lot of the posters that were produced are lost now, more’s the pity. It was an interesting aesthetic, and I’m a big fan of the whole “advertising for the national parks” thing.

The nice thing about making these with a DSLR and Lightroom as opposed to my phone is that I can pause and wait for people to walk by.

Apparently somebody else was as irritated by all this as I was, because there’s a modern imagining of what a WPA poster for Joshua Tree would’ve looked like; they’re for sale in the park’s information center.

Fun fact about the Joshua Tree: they don’t form rings in the way that other trees do; when scientists want to figure out how old one is, the preferred method is to measure the height, then divide by the species’ average growth rate.

The moral of the story here is that our national parks are a treasure, and we should continue to support them. (And expand them! Write to your congresspeople about it.)

I titled this photo ‘support’ before I started writing this post, so it’s really just an amazing coincidence that I worked it in right after I talked about supporting the parks.

After all, who doesn’t love a whole bunch of beautiful nature?