a stream

A log of my music listens in the past week, by albums and playlists, not including completely random shuffles.

Sun.2022.07.31 | Florist | (2022) | Florist

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: don’t remember

Mon.2022.08.01 | Mahal | (2022) | Toro y Moi

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: driving

Notes: getting pretty obsessed with this album now, which is usually the case with Toro y Moi, but it was delayed this time. I think I just thought that throwaway “Mr. Postman” song was so stupid when I first heard it that I couldn’t listen beyond that, just took this for a whole throwaway album. But it is as solid as anything he has ever done, with some decent psych leanings.

Mon.2022.08.01 | Orange Blood | (2022) | Mt. Joy

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: dishes, chores, whatever

Notes: Meh. First listen to this album and this band. Feels like something I might have liked 15 or 20 years ago, but not a style or songwriting I’m excited by at this moment.

Mon.2022.08.01 | Remove Your Skin Please [EP] | (2019) | Chat Pile

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: reading, whatever

–

Mon.2022.08.01 | This Dungeon Earth [EP] | (2019) | Chat Pile

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: reading, whatever

–

Mon-Tue.2022.08.01-02 | Hey What | (2021) | Low

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: reading, whatever, driving

Notes: came up on shuffle and really hit the spot - I haven’t listened to Low enough, need to change that.

–

Tue.2022.08.02 | God’s Country | (2022) | Chat Pile

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: don’t remember

–

Tue.2022.08.02 | Hellfire | (2022) | black midi

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: don’t remember

Wed-Thur.2022.08.03-04 | Florist | (2022) | Florist

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: working, driving, whatever

Thur.2022.08.04 | American Rituals | (2022) | Cheri Knight

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: driving

Fri.2022.08.05 | Mahal | (2022) | Toro y Moi

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: driving

Notes: these songs are often in my head now and it is a good vibe.

Fri.2022.08.05 | [Playlist] August 5 New Releases | Diabolical Records

Format/Source: Streaming - Spotify

Location/Context: driving, whatever

Fri.2022.08.05 | [Playlist] New Music Friday | NPR Music

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: whatever

Sat.2022.08.06 | i’m in your walls | (2022) | Death Insurance

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: driving, errands

Sat.2022.08.06 | comfortably in pain [EP] | (2022) | Dora Jar

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: driving, errands

Sat.2022.08.06 | Oil on Canvas | (2022) | AJ Suede

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: driving, errands

Sat.2022.08.06 | Could We Be More | (2022) | Kokoroko

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: driving, errands

Standalone post link: Listens Last Week (August 7, 2022)

On spending Saturday afternoon driving around two counties in the rain making returns of dumb shit I bought online that doesn’t fit or that I don’t really need, and on being too self conscious to go to the art museum and go in with wet clothes on the last day of an exhibition I wanted to see, even though I was just a few blocks from it and going there was my original plan

• Most of the new music that I queued up to listen to while driving was unfortunately not that exciting to me

• Parley’s Canyon was stunning in the rain - the wisps of clouds hanging around the peaks and trailing up the side canyons, the wet washed sandstone faces several shades darker than their familiar sunbleached appearance, the scrub oak leaves just humming with so much green, thick life

• I hydroplaned four times, but I recovered before crashing every time and I’m okay

• I think I’ve finally cracked the textile-encoded messages letting me know that J. Crew and J. Crew “Factory” actually just don’t want short, fat people to wear their clothes

• I don’t care about going into Target with wet clothes from the rain

• I don’t care about going back out into the rain after shopping in Target, since I was able to cover my purchases so they wouldn’t get ruined

• I do I guess care about going into an art museum with wet clothes from the rain, but maybe that was just an excuse to indulge my self-consciousness

• I can hopefully browse and buy the artist’s book associated with the exhibition later, which is what I probably actually really wanted

• I have several hundred dollars coming off my credit card balances now

• I maybe should have stopped somewhere and taken pictures - I drove that way because I had to return some things to one of the “factory stores” by Park City, and I guess all in all it was worth it

Standalone post link: On spending Saturday afternoon driving around two counties in the…

Link: My Grandma Is a Meme | Alise Anderson

Type: Web Page for an Art Exhibition / Video

Source: Utah Museum of Contemporary Art

I felt for some reason that if I went to this exhibit or looked at the book it would give me some idea or way forward for what to do (or not do) with this website, as the process of archiving ephemera (digitally in my case) and cataloging mundanities resonates with me. (If you are for some reason looking at this web site for even a few seconds you will likely have already discovered this about me.)

But I’m not sure if I’ll get myself to go to it before it closes.

I was thinking of going there on my lunch break today, but instead I watched the video in my car while I ate lunch, then tapped this note on my phone.

Standalone post link: Art Link - My Grandma Is a Meme

The truth is I’m not listening to music right now but to backyard morning sounds: birds, creek, calm Sunday morning traffic from 1300 East, my neighbors' baby fussing a bit, an AC unit kicking on, and a single dog bark. I also really didn’t listen to a lot of music last week, between spending time at the cabin (cabin/canyon sounds are prioritized, just like backyard sounds) and people being around in the office at work when I did go back into work. There are some interesting things here nonetheless, and I have a lot of promising stuff queued up to listen to soon.

Sat-Sun.2022.07.23-24 | [Playlist] New Music Friday | (2022) | NPR Music

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: whatever

Notes: I also queued up / incorporated a bunch of new tracks I read about in various newsletters and other sources, intermixed with this playlist.

Wed.2022.07.27 | Drifting Toward the Absolute | (2021) | Josh Medina

Format/Source: sound files from bandcamp - tape music but I don’t own the actual tape

Location/Context: earphones cabin cleanup chores

Notes: Wanted something kind of lowkey natural while I washed dishes, and this came up in the shuffle first thing and was perfect. Then I listened to…

Wed.2022.07.27 | Chihuahuan Desert / Birdscapes | (2021) | Rob Frye

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music - tape music but I don’t own the actual tape

Location/Context: earphones cabin cleanup chores

Thur.2022.07.28 | Causers of This | (2010) | Toro y Moi

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: driving

Fri.2022.07.29 | Connection | (2022) | The Maghreban

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: driving, reading, whatever

Notes: First listen

Fri.2022.07.29 | Ginkgo | (2022) | Field Guides

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: reading, whatever

Notes: First listen. Didn’t know anything about this and tried it based solely on the band name and the cover art. Not quite what I had hoped for, whatever that unfairly means, but I may have to give them another chance.

Fri.2022.07.29 | Where Have All the Flowers Gone? | (2021) | Deb Never

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: reading, whatever

Notes: First listen

Sat.2022.07.30 | God’s Country | (2021) | Chat Pile

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: chores, driving errands

Notes: First listen. This is another great recommendation from that record store that I unfortunately never go visit. (This is also a record I would be unlikely to ever buy on vinyl because no one else in my house ever would want to listen to this.)

Sat.2022.07.30 | God’s Country | (2021) | Chat Pile

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: driving errands, chores, whatever

Notes: Immediate re-listen

Standalone post link: Listens Last Week (July 31, 2022)

My knee has recovered enough that I went on somewhat of an actual hike!

(That Moffitish peak in the background here is the destination I was aiming for, but I only got half way up.)

I ended up bushwhacking a bunch and felt like I should turn around before actually getting to the peak I was hoping to reach, but I went almost 3 miles with an elevation gain of 1100+ feet, without a trail over half of the way.¹

Considering that two or three weeks ago I didn’t even want to go up a flight of stairs, this was pretty good. My knee has relapsed a little bit since, but I think it will still be fine.

Standalone post link: a hike!

Here’s a photo of a grasshopper on the door of the shed in my backyard.

I took so many shots of this guy but this is the only one I even remotely liked.¹ I kind of hate this camera on my phone that tries too much to fix my photos for me. I need to get out our old late-00s DSLR, or get a film camera again, or something. I don’t think my cousin ever gave my film camera back to me, and I didn’t think that was a problem but now I miss it…

Standalone post link: Grasshopper Shed Door

Link: Reality Is Just a Game Now | Jon Askonas

Type: Essay

Source: The New Atlantis

I don’t have a quote, but this essay makes the case that we have basically gamified reality now. It’s unfortunately pretty spot on.

But I feel like maybe “reality” has always been gamed? Religion, The American Dream, class systems and economic struggles, war…

People mowing their lawn every week and getting rid of the weeds has always felt like some weird sort of game to me, a competition between neighbors. “Keeping up with the Joneses”…

P.S. This link came from a newsletter that made me feel seriously grumpy and dejected at several points. Wondering if I should have taken the advice from yesterday and just skipped it…

Standalone post link: Link - Reality Is Just a Game Now

Do I really need to get credit for every random thing I read and find at all interesting by semi-publicly recording it here on this website?

Maybe, yeah.

Standalone post link: Reading Credit Questionmark

Link: Authors on Authors: Nevada | Dan Bouk

Type: Book Review / Marketing Blurb

Source: Electric Eel Newsletter

Halfway through Nevada, Binnie gives us this line: “It’s clear that being responsible has not been a positive force in her life.” It’s describing an idea the protagonist, Maria Griffiths, is just then working out, or maybe taking for a spin.

She’s thinking about all the responsibility she had borne up to that point: a responsibility to hide, to fit in, to cram herself into the identities or check-boxes or cheap clothes that had been assigned to her and declared acceptable. She bore that responsibility to protect herself, but more so to protect those around her, from discomfort, from standing out: “When she was little, she was responsible for protecting everybody else from her own shit about her gender—responsible for making sure her parents didn’t have to have a weird kid.” This is a burden children bear, and especially trans kids.

I know this is basically a marketing email but I enjoyed reading about this book Nevada by Imogen Binnie and I think I now want to read this book Nevada by Imogen Binnie.

Standalone post link: Link Nevada

Link: “A Very Small Animal Entirely Surrounded by Water” | sam sax

Type: Poem

Source: The Atlantic

. . .
[music | oil | trash] filled our rivers
stayed up for the after [party | life | math]
the forests were [protected | sold | ash]
wrote [letters | checks | ads] against corruption
blamed [science | systems | depression] for our cities
when the [oceans | fires | droughts] came
when the [rains | bomb | flu] came
when the [weather | weather | weather] came
we [weathered | welcomed | watered] it
we were [prepared | shocked | responsible]
. . .

• This is perfect. Poetry is/as code.

• I wish I was actively writing poetry and had thought to write a poem like this. I wished for this kind of a poem back in college. I now wish I had followed through with writing such things instead of wishing and being distracted.

• Planning to do NaNoWriMo this November but just write weird poem and essay drafts and whatever I want instead of a traditional fiction narrative. I think I can make that work.

• Each of these thoughts should probably be their own little post, but I think I’m burying them on purpose here. Everything on and about my site is already obscured and hidden. A secret garden?

Standalone post link: Poem Link - A Very Small Animal Entirely Surrounded by Water