changes

1. Tried Taqueria Los Lee for lunch today. +

   I’ve procrastinated actually trying this place for a year or two, so I’m lucky it still is open - the good, easy fast food taco place by my work closed down a couple of weeks ago, so I was finally driven to find a new option. I had gorditas with rice and beans and it was all very solid. I’ll be back for a burrito or tacos or something.

   I like their happy little website, too:

2. This interview with Alok Vaid-Menon was by far the best thing I’ve read/listened to/otherwise taken in this week. +

   Listened casually while eating my lunch - I’m going to need to listen again more carefully and unpack this, and then explore their work.

3. I came back to the office and climbed the stairs without limping or even using the handrails! +
   I was carrying an iced coffee. There was no pain, just a little stiffness and awkwardness - my knee is actually getting better, finally.

(This was a major lunch excursion - I’ve taken to eating boring cafeteria food or microwaved things at my desk most days.)

Standalone post link: Lunch Today

I’ve explored a lot of alternatives, but I’m going to continue with posting bespoke reading updates here; I’m also going to try and get back to sharing updates on Goodreads again.

[Note: I originally wrote this on 2/21/2022, and found it in my notes yesterday, 7/1/2022, as I was working through updating my reading here and on Goodreads. Seemed relevant still to what I’m doing so I decided to post it now.]

Longer:

One of the things I’ve been trying to work through as far as how I want this website to function and how I want to participate in, or, more commonly these days, avoid various social media platforms, is how best to explore and share my reading life. I didn’t attend, but today lurked and poked around with interest on the notes and blog posts associated with the recent IndieWebCamp Pop-up on Personal Libraries. I always learn a lot when I start poking around on the websites of participants in the IndieWeb, and today was no exception. However, I did not find in the discussion or posts a viable alternative for Goodreads, at least not for my needs.

The key for me is that I’m already connected to many friends, colleagues, and, on occasion, even actual authors on Goodreads - it is one of the few social networks that I still participate in that actually kind-of works without distracting me too much from my original purpose. My original purpose when I’m on Goodreads is to explore what books these people I know are reading, or share my own reading with them, or find new books to read myself or purchase/share in my school library world. It’s not like twitter, where I log in at work to do a specific social media task and end up doomscrolling and angry about a bunch of different things that really have nothing to do with me. And in my experience there is not a lot of toxicity on Goodreads, at least compared to many other networks. (It does have its moments, though.)

There’s mainly just the philosophical problem that it is kind of a silo, and it is tied in with Amazon (though not as much or as well as it could be, to be honest). The fact that design-wise it is stuck in 2007 is maybe actually an asset these days?

At any rate, I’ve discovered nothing in the IndieWeb or decentralized offerings shared that I could ever hope to convince all or even a few of my contacts on Goodreads to adopt as an alternative to Goodreads. Even if there was something completely awesome I don’t know if I could do that; No one likes me that much to follow me to a whole new platform - it would have to sell itself.

So I’m going to post reading updates on my website so that I have them for myself, but I’m also going to continue to use Goodreads. I think I’m also going to continue to use Letterboxd for movies, and for now I’m continuing to scrobble all my listens to Last.fm. I can’t be a pure evangelist for the indieweb. For my website updates I may eventually figure out JSON or something to make them fancy or standardized, but for now I will just be typing things into markdown and html. That’s the origin and mode for a lot of what I do with this site, anyway.

Standalone post link: On Reading Updates

[Inaugural entry!]

A log of my full album or playlist music listens from the past week, with occasional notes and context. Does not include completely random shuffles, unless something worth commenting came up.

[Next week look for a “Links Last Week” log feature as well.]

Date | Album or Playlist | Artist or Curator

Sun.2022.06.25 | Black to the Future | Sons of Kemet

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: cleanup at the cabin

Sun.2022.06.25 | A Light for Attracting Attention | The Smile

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: cleanup at the cabin

Mon.2022.06.26 | The Joshua Tree | U2

Format/Source: Vinyl LP

Location/Context: home stereo

Notes: My kids have been watching Sing 2 a bunch and I noticed that songs from this album kept popping up in the show, so I got this out and made them listen to it. And then it got stuck in my head, and I kept re-listening throughout the week. This was, for me, pretty much the definitive, ultimate album when I was a kid and teenager. Haven’t listened in a while, but won’t lie, I still really like it.

Tue-Wed.2022.06.27-28 | [Full Shuffle of 5 Albums] Lost Souls * The Last Broadcast * Some Cities * Kingdom of Rust * The Universal Want | Doves

Format/Source: combination of CD rips and Apple Music on my phone

Location/Context: over headphones at work, then while driving

Wed.2022.06.28 | Pink Dolphins | Anteloper

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: driving

Thur-Fri.2022.06.29-30 | [Playlist] The “Reconstructed” Joshua Tree | U2

Format/Source: CD rips

Location/Context: working and driving

Notes: As a teenager I read some obscure mention that The Joshua Tree was originally intended to be a double album, but that the producers or label talked U2 out of it. There was a supposed tracklist that incorporated the b-sides where they were supposed to be if it had been a double LP. I was obsessed with this, and even purchased on ebay the JT-era CD singles so that I could get access to these tracks. (They later of course released deluxe editions with all the b-sides, and now I think you can just get them via streaming.) Listened to my playlist of this expanded album for old-time’s sake. I do still love “Walk to the Water” and “Deep in the Heart” - “Silver and Gold” and “The Sweetest Thing” showed up later in other projects, but it is fun to hear the original versions in their original context. [This should become a digital garden entry and I should research out any truth to this and share the supposed tracklist.]

Thur.2022.06.29 | Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You | Big Thief

Format/Source: Double Vinyl LP

Location/Context: home while doing dishes, etc.

Thur.2022.06.29 | Butterfly 3000 | King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: laptop headphones

Notes: I got a Gizzyverse newsletter and then wanted to listen to their music. Also wanted to purchase a bunch of it on vinyl, but didn’t pull the trigger on that - yet.

Fri.2022.07.01 | [Playlist] New Music Friday | NPR Music

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: laptop

Fri.2022.07.01 | [Playlist - Partial] Wildflower | Apple Music Indie

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: laptop

Sat.2022.07.02 | Barbarism | Katie Alice Greer

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: driving around

Notes: First listen - discovered from the NPR New Music Friday playlist above. Not sure what I think yet, but there will be more listens.

Sat.2022.07.02 | Crest | Bladee & Ecco2k

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: laptop headphones

Notes: listened while setting up the template and details for these new ‘Listens of Last Week’ pages.

Standalone post link: Listens Last Week (July 3, 2022)

I admit, I absolutely thought this was a graphic novel that I was going to blaze through in an hour, until the moment I opened it the other night and found almost 400 pages of un-illustrated, small-font text. Started reading it anyway.

At this point I’m still only about 5-10% hopeful that it will have anything to do with My Bloody Valentine’s classic shoegaze album.

Standalone post link: Reading Loveless

Ugh. Fell into the “Writing the Great American Email” trap at work today. Several times.

Some people like hearing themselves talk, I guess I like reading myself write.

(I recognize that this could be the thesis statement for this website.)

Standalone post link: Reading Myself Write

Here goes my second “listens last week” post. Strange exercise, but whatever.

I think next week is going to be a Toro y Moi kind of week, but not yet. Currently listening to the sounds of the birds and the creek by my backyard, and somebody’s prop plane looping around above the city macking a racket this morning.

(This is a log of my music listens in the past week, by albums and playlists, not including completely random shuffles.)

Date | Album or Playlist | Artist or Curator

Sun.2022.07.03 | LOVE QUANTUM | Theo Crocker

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: driving, chores, whatever

Notes: First listen

Sun.2022.07.03 | DRILL MUSIC IN ZION | Lupe Fiasco

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: chores, whatever

Notes: First listen

Sun.2022.07.03 | Barbarism | Katie Alice Greer

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: chores, whatever

Notes: second listen - more conflicted than first listen - at least one more listen is in order

Mon.2022.07.04 | Some Cities | Doves

Format/Source: CD rip to my phone via Apple Music

Location/Context: chores, whatever

Notes: songs were in my head while mowing lawn (engine too loud for my earphones), or otherwise doing yard work (I make myself listen to the birds, the wind in the trees, the creek, and random neighborhood noises rather than listen to music) - so later, inside, on it went.

Mon-Wed.2022.07.04-06 | Barbarism | Katie Alice Greer

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: driving, then work

Notes: I wanted there to be something profound about listening to Flag Wave Pts. 1 and 2 on the actual 4th of July, but my driving trip was over less than halfway through and I never got back to listening to music again until the 6th of July. Oh well. This album has actually never sounded more right than it did while blaring out of my phone speaker.

Wed.2022.07.06 | Happier Than Ever | Billie Eilish

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: direct from iPhone speaker on my desk at work

Notes: a song came up on shuffle and it was great and I realized I never gave much attention to this album when it came out, so I gave it another listen right then. I still don’t find it as exciting as her first album, but extremely solid with some great songs.

Wed-Thur.2022.07.06-07 | Pink Dolphins | Anteloper

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: driving

Thur.2022.07.07 | It’s Giving SELF LOVE! | Dear Silas

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: reading with earphones

Fri.2022.07.08 | Movement (Definitive) [2019 Remaster] | New Order

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: working

Notes: This edition has a bunch of their early demos on the second “disc” (not sure a CD version actually even exists.) I want to buy physical copies of the “Collector’s Editions” of their first four albums, because they have second discs with all of the original singles and b-sides from the time period and New Order singles are absolutely key tracks - in the meantime I won’t lie I got three of them from the library and ripped them.

Fri.2022.07.08 | Any Shape You Take | Indigo De Souza

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: working

Fri-Sat.2022.07.08-09 | [Playlist] Superbloom | Apple Music Pop

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: working, driving, reading

Notes: Added a bunch of albums to my library for future listening from this playlist this time. I wonder if Spotify still has that Pollen playlist I used to like, and what it would be like now if it even exists…

Standalone post link: Listens Last Week (July 10, 2022)

The first “links last week” still isn’t really happening today - I didn’t keep up with it other than the first day of the week, which happened to be the 4th of July.

I guess I could still post the links I did note at the first of the week, because a couple of them are really good, though a bit dependent on the “Independence Day” context. Find them after the jump.

Article or Link Title | Author or Creator

Miscellanea - Wonderful Random Internet Things

HOW 2 SURVIVE THE APOCALYPSE AND OTHERTHINGS even if you accidentally set everything on fire | Katie Alice Greer and maybe some other people.

Link: https://h2sta.tumblr.com

Notes: An old comic/collage/zine tumblr that I found and scrolled through and laughed at a lot. Found while clicking around on https://www.katiealicegreer.com trying to make some sense of her new album Barbarism, which I’ve listened to twice now and will probably be listening to more times, though I’m not sure whether I actually enjoy it or not yet.

Poetry

“Dependence Day” | John Daniel

Link: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/37902/dependence-day

Source: Poetry Foundation Poem of the Day Newsletter

Notes: I then of course had to read the other John Daniel poems from the November 1990 issue of Poetry.

Food / Travel

“The Challenges that Keep Asian Chefs from Cooking How They Want” | Esther Tseng

Link: https://www.bonappetit.com/story/asian-chefs-challenges-expectations

Source: Bon Appétit

Note: I get this random daily email/newsletter from Condé Nast (I don’t remember signing up for it) that has links to a bunch of articles from their different magazines. There is almost always at least one I read, and then I start clicking around in the magazine’s website after. Thus, this and the next link.

“Oakland Is America’s New Queer Food Capital. Here’s Where to Eat” | Ray Levy Uyeda.

Link: https://www.bonappetit.com/story/where-to-eat-oakland-queer-food-businesses

Source: Bon Appétit

[You can see my book reading here and my music listening here.]

Standalone post link: Links Last Week Not Happening Sort Of

Link: “The Treasure” | Robinson Jeffers

Type: Poem

Source: Poem-a-Day (poets.org)

Short-lived as grass the stars quicken in the nebula and dry in their summer, they spiral / Blind up space, scattered black seeds of a future; nothing lives long…

• Very Whitman-ish. Another poet to read more from someday…

Standalone post link: Poem Link - The Treasure

I read this 33 and ⅓ entry on Unknown Pleasures and then re-listened to pretty much every track Joy Division ever recorded.

I’ll say that this book was better and more detailed than just reading Wikipedia. It seemed to have good research, had its moments of good writing, and didn’t romanticize the end of Curtis' life as much as a lot of what I found when I scrolled through this copyright-infringing fan blog. And that’s okay.

The night that I scrolled through that blog turned out to be the eve of the anniversary of Ian Curtis’ death. It was eerie. Or maybe I was the one romanticizing things.

I think that would have been around the time I also ordered this weird t-shirt, which I now have in my possession but have not yet worn.

He that hath an ear, let him hear

Standalone post link: Unknown Pleasures

(This is a log of my music listens in the past week, by albums and playlists, not including completely random shuffles.)

Date | Album or Playlist | Artist or Curator

Sun.2022.07.10 | Warsaw Demos July 18, 1977 | Warsaw (l.k.a. Joy Division)

Format/Source: YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EE0CWIcB2mQ

Location/Context: while reading the 33⅓ volume Unknown Pleasures

Sun.2022.07.10 | RCA Demo Session | Joy Division

Format/Source: YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UYnyiL8-VI

Location/Context: while reading the 33⅓ volume Unknown Pleasures

Sun-Mon.2022.07.10-11 | [Playlist - various albums, eps, singles, non-album tracks, and live recordings] An Ideal for Living EP * Unknown Pleasures * Substance * Still * Closer | Joy Division

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: while reading the 33⅓ volume Unknown Pleasures, driving, working

Mon.2022.07.11 | Mahal | Toro y Moi

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: working

Mon-Tue.2022.07.11-12 | [full artist albums, mixtape, and singles shuffle] Mahal * Outer Peace * Soul Trash * Boo Boo * Samantha * What For? * Anything in Return * Freaking Out * Underneath the Pine * Causers of This * June 2009 * | Toro y Moi

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: working, driving

Tue.2022.07.12 | Comfortably in Pain and Digital Meadow EPs | Dora Jar

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: working

Notes: First listen

Tue.2022.07.12 | TWOPOINTFIVE | Aminé

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: working

Notes: First listen

Tue.2022.07.12 | Hajime EP | Yumi Nu

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: driving

Notes: first listen

Tue-Wed.2022.07.12-13 | Forest in the City | UMI

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: driving, working

Notes: first listen

Wed.2022.07.13 | Comfortably in Pain and Digital Meadow EPs | Dora Jar

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: working

Wed.2022.07.13 | Asha’s Awakening | Raveena

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: working

Notes: first listen

Wed.2022.07.13 | Harry’s House | Harry Styles

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: working

Notes: first listen

Wed.2022.07.13 | Mahal | Toro y Moi

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: working

Wed.2022.07.13 | Once Twice Melody | Beach House

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: working

Wed-Thur.2022.07.13-14 | The Turning Wheel | Spellling

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: driving, working

Thur.2022.07.14 | græ | Moses Sumney

Format/Source: Double Vinyl LPs

Location/Context: home stereo, cooking chili

Fri.2022.07.15 | Gemini Rights | Steve Lacy

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: driving, working

—–

Sat.2022.07.16 | Mahal | Toro y Moi

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: website puttering, finalizing this very list

Standalone post link: Listens Last Week (July 17, 2022)