So stoked that the video for Lime Garden’s “Love Song” is way more unhinged than I had any reason to expect. If only I could remember their name when searching on YouTube or trying to ask Siri to play them when I’m driving. Today my guess was Green Patio.
Aritist and Fan-centric Music Streaming
I don’t care about the framing of this video, which is how Apple can beat Spotify, but I like the suggestion of how a more artist-friendly streaming service could run, which is basically that the company takes 10% of what I pay and the remainder is split up among the artists I listen to in a particular month, not the artists everyone listens to. Seems way fairer than the current setup, where I am paying infinitesimal fractions of a cent to people whose music I hate but even more minuscule amounts to those I love.
Tuesday, 20 May 2025
Came home from a slog of a day at work determined to do something substantial with the few hours of free time I have during our busy periods — read a chapter of a book, watch an episode of a show or even a whole movie — anything except aimlessly flitting about the internet.
Instead I flitted about the internet and came across an absolutely wonderful article about a bird in a scene in Charlie’s Angels. Although I’ve seen the movie, I remember absolutely nothing about it — certainly not a bird in one scene. Apparently the bird in question was misnamed and given a completely different birdcall. This it seems has vexed bird lovers for decades. This wonderful, pun-heavy article reveals what went on to cause this terrible “mistake”.
Hilariously, I seem to have rebroke the toe I broke back in January that was just now beginning to feel normalish. Maybe I need to become a shoes-on-indoors guy. The horror!
Paruna Walk
Last Saturday I went on walk through Paruna Wildlife Sanctuary. It was a good exercise, but I don’t think I’d recommend it for forest bathing just yet — needs some rain to fill the creeks and streams.
Happily, I escaped death twice. I did not get sucked into the earth after walking out onto an apparently, but very much not, dry lake bed that acted way more like quicksand than I was comfortable with. Clambered to safety with my sneakers caked in mud but not needing to have been thrown a rope like in some old timey cowboy show.
And I did not have a heart attack halfway through my walk after finishing a particularly gruelling uphill portion — I’m not a scientist, but how can a walk consist of eighty per cent uphill portions? I had no chest pain, but was suddenly aware that my mid-fifties sedentary body could give out on me at any time. And despite realising halfway that I had not brought enough water, I made it to the end.
Perhaps I’ll visit again when it’s cooler and has had some rain, but maybe it’d be better to head somewhere else. I think I’d rather feel enveloped by greenery rather than looking at it from a distance.
Posted in Journal, Photographs, RSS
Gumnuts
We’re finally starting to get a bit of rain so looking forward to park walks getting a bit greener with a bit more colour popping up here and there. My favourite of these is the one with the gumnuts that look like little tarts.
Posted in Journal, Photographs, RSS
This Will Destroy You
I stumbled on a listing for This Will Destroy You a couple of weeks ago. Hadn’t heard of them in the twenty years they’ve been around but they seemed right up my alley. Post rock? Atmospheric guitar soundscapes? Sign me up.
Having listened to just three songs from their self-titled album, which they’d be playing in full, I knew this was extremely my jam and bought a ticket.
Fantastic show! I’d listened to the album they played a bunch of times but with this kind of band it’s hard to tell one song from another. Usually that’s a criticism, but if you just want to be buried in beautiful guitars and synthesisers it absolutely is not. I was swept away from start to end.
One down-but-up-side of the evening was me messing up my camera settings so it ended up leaving the lens open for sometimes ten seconds — not a good thing unless you’re taking a picture of a very still piece of fruit using a tripod in a room with all the windows and doors closed. Most of my pics were just a blur of light, but a couple kinda picked up the vibe of the music better than if they’d been sharp and in focus.
Posted in Journal, Music, Photographs, RSS
Sunday Morning
Breakfast in the park. The Philly cheesesteak had me worried a bit when I opened the box, but it had enough structural integrity to be okay for pick-up-and-bite eating. Each bite left me with cheese sauce covering half my face, but I guess that’s part of the charm.
Was joined by a chittering little friend, who fluttered and hopped around the whole time I was there.
Posted in Journal, Life, Photographs, RSS
A Typical Severance Episode
One thing I love about Severance is that there’s no such thing, especially in this second season, as a “typical” Severance episode. Love and also kinda hate. Because after last week’s emotional rollercoaster revelations about Gemma Scout aka Ms Casey, I just sat through Harmony Cobel digging through her and the Eagan’s family history – an aspect of this whole story that I have next to no interest in. Currently writing a hundred times:
I’m sure they know what they’re doing and this will be time well spent.
I’m sure they know what they’re doing and this will be time well spent.
I’m sure they know what they’re doing and this will be time well spent.
PS: Mixed up my Harmonys – almost posted this with Korine instead of Cobel.
Posted in Culture, Journal, RSS, Television
Tagged Severance
Range Life: A Pavement Story
Fun times ahead. This, by the way, is not a trailer or teaser for the upcoming movie Pavements. It’s for Range Life, the fake biopic within that movie. Confused? Yeah, that’s probably the idea.
Posted in Journal, Moving Pictures, Music, RSS
Tagged Pavement
The Hard Quartet: Lies (Something You Can Do)
Oh, this is unexpected – new music from The Hard Quartet with Emmet Walsh on vocals.
Posted in Music, RSS
Tagged The Hard Quartet
Catch Your Breath
I loved Anora and I’m stoked to see it and its creators win recognition at the Oscars and I wish that a wider variety of indie films could’ve gone home with or even just be nominated for one. I’m sure Sean Baker wouldn’t have minded giving up one or two of his. That’s it for my Oscar commentary for the year.
They should’ve called it the State of The Onion address.
Through trial and error I have learned that you must ask for extra stuffing at Red Rooster if you want more than a twenty per cent chance of getting any at all.
Sitting in boxes in my living room is a sofa waiting to be assembled. I have been sternly warned by my eldest daughter that I will be murdered in my sleep if I make a start on putting it together before she gets home.
The Hardest Working Font in Manhattan
Marcin Wichary’s deep dive into the engraving font Gorton is one of the most beautiful things I’ve seen on the internet in ages. Even if you’re not a font person — I certainly am not — you’ll find this fascinating — and so gorgeously illustrated with hundreds of images and videos of the font in action.
