changes

I’m playing around with reorganizing almost my entire site into topic- and theme-based files and folders on the back end.

With keeping my new “digital garden” off to the side of the rest of my content, I can’t decide where to put things. It feels redudant; so I’m making the whole site into the garden.

Keeping most of my content in a chronological organization just doesn’t make sense anymore for the direction I want to take this site. I’ve successfully set up “stream”/“recent updates” pages and an RSS feed that pull in all the new or newly-updated posts chronologically, regardless of where in the folder structure they are located.

I’ll gradually start gathering files together that go together topically/thematically or as series. Posts clearly about music will all go together. Changelogs will all go together. Reading updates all go together. Within the reading updates, notes about a specific book all go together. Things about my backyard all go together. Random surreal essay-poem-list things (I should have more of those) all go together. If something doesn’t have a clear focus or is all over the place, maybe it will stay in the chronological notes folders?

I’ll continue the taxonomy as-is but it will just be a secondary way to make more connections between things. The whole site will be a garden; displaying whether something is a “digital garden”-type entry or note will be a matter of unique templating/post-types. I’m going to have to play around with the templating a lot more now. Always be cataloging and meta-ing, I guess…

Standalone post link: 20220718 Changelog

Really, most of the time I just like sitting beneath trees, and it turns out my backyard is an extremely serviceable place for that, so no need to go anywhere else to write or work.

And right as I was about to post this my laptop ran out of battery power, and now I have to decide whether to go inside or set up a huge extension cord or just keep sitting here and not use my laptop.

What I decided:

Standalone post link: Just Trees, Really

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

Date | Album or Playlist | (Year of Release) | Artist or Curator

Sun.2022.07.17 | Beatopia | (2022) | beabadoobee

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: chores, puttering, whatever

Mon-Tue.2022.07.18-19 | The Moon and Stars: Prescriptions For Dreamers (Deluxe Edition) | (2022) | Valerie June

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: driving

Tue.2022.07.19 | Outer Peace | (2019) | Toro y Moi

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: driving, whatever

Wed.2022.07.20 | Underneath the Pine | (2011) | Toro y Moi

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: driving, working

Wed.2022.07.20 | Causers of This | (2010) | Toro y Moi

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: working

Wed.2022.07.20 | The Moon and Stars: Prescriptions For Dreamers (Deluxe Edition) | (2022) | Valerie June

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: working

Wed.2022.07.20 | Digital Meadow | (2021) | Dora Jar

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: working

Wed.2022.07.20 | Comfortably In Pain | (2022) | Dora Jar

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: working

Fri.2022.07.22 | Causers of This | (2010) | Toro y Moi

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: driving, whatever

Fri.2022.07.22 | Underneath the Pine | (2011) | Toro y Moi

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: driving, whatever

Fri.2022.07.22 | Comfortably In Pain | (2022) | Dora Jar

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: whatever

Fri.2022.07.22 | Digital Meadow | (2021) | Dora Jar

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: whatever

Sat.2022.07.23 | Hope For Sale | (2021) | Chiiild

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: driving

Sat.2022.07.23 | Fantasy Gateway | (2022) | Cuco

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: driving, whatever

Sat.2022.07.23 | [Playlist] July 22 New Releases | (2022) | Diabolical Records SLC

Format/Source: Streaming - Tidal

Location/Context: driving, whatever

Notes: Diabolical Records is a record store in downtown SLC that has influenced my musical listening. One of the only reasons I ever go on Instagram is to see their posts about new things in stock and get music recommendations…but I’m a little ashamed to confess that I’ve never actually set foot in their store. (I did order one of their quarantine grab bags for delivery once during the early months of the COVID.) At any rate, I owe them business and money, but going downtown feels particularly epic, and I would either find $100s in records to buy, or just as likely glance around weirdly for like 60 seconds and feel self-conscious and awkward, and then walk out.

Sat.2022.07.23 | Space Ghost | (2022) | Attia Taylor

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: driving, whatever

Standalone post link: Listens Last Week (July 24, 2022)

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

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)

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)

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

Just read the June 2022 issue of Poetry.

Longer, with details: just seriously injured my knee by tripping and falling over my daughter’s bike in the garage - I was rushing through while doing maintenance on our water heater. So, instead of continuing with the water heater, I am laid up with an ice pack in my son’s bedroom, reading the June 2022 issue of Poetry until I feel rested enough to try to go upstairs to my own bedroom.

My favorite entry in the magazine was actually the closing prose essay from Shelby Handler about translating ancient Hebrew texts - “Astrological Speculum,” and Other Objects Found on My Way to the Ancestors

I might write and share more thoughts on the essay at some point - besides being beautifully written and thought provoking, it made me cognizant of some of the Jewish/Hebrew cultural appropriation I once engaged in as a Mormon.

Standalone post link: Reading June 2022 Issue of Poetry

I’m reading The Hobbit with my son at bedtime now.

We hit 21% completion tonight, so according to my new reading update ‘best practices’ I can post about it now.

Standalone post link: Reading The Hobbit with my son