Recently updated blogs

One of the mysteries about pop is its repeatability. The way that repetition of a song doesn't dim its power, or only at extreme degrees of repetition (absolute blanket radio coverage causing you to get temporarily get sick of a song). A great song is that seemingly contradictory thing: the repeatable surprise. The classic pop single as a radio drama that never wears out.This degree of repeatability is not unheard …

As you all may know, I love retro gaming. Heck, I grew up during the Atari and NES days, so it’s part of my childhood. But I do have one retro game that’s on my ‘wall of shame’ because up until now, I never figured out how to play it. And that game is Yars’ […]

Kassie Krut “Reckless” My friend Molly passed this along to me, telling me “this feels Matthew-core.” And she’s right, this is exactly the kind of song I’ve been looking out for on this site for over 20 years. Let’s go down the checklist – catchy but abrasive, big heavy beats, random bits of noise, a playful but aloof vocal by some ultra-cool girl, the kind of dance music that’s actually …

This story isn’t recent, but I’m going to mention it anyway because it’s a good example of why you should never consent to a search by police, even if you “have nothing to hide.” (It is also true that I noticed the date only after writing half the article, but I stand by my decision anyway). According to the Gainesville Times (free sub. required), 23-year-old Ashley Huff was arrested after …

There are plenty of ways to use LLMs ineffectively. For best results, lean into your own intelligence, experience, and creativity. Delegate the boring and routine stuff to closely supervised assistants whose work you can easily check. Mix Human Expertise With LLM Assistance for Easier Coding Part of the LLM series at The New Stack.

I’m not technically a boardgame designer, but I will be at the Hythe Community Games Day on Saturday 9 November taking place inside St. Leonard’s Church in Kent. I’ll mainly be hanging out by the Frostgrave table run by some friends. I expect it to … Continue reading →

So I was watching an ancient episode of Revolver, from 1978. Boomtown Rats closing the show with a buncha boppy hits, including "She's So Modern"Modern girls getting down to the New Wave soundsHang on, who let this chap in?!In his white collar shirt, his tie and mustard tank top! Looks twice the age of the kids around him - like Roy Kinnear, or a Tory backbencher.Still, he seems really into …

Prodigy Season 2 has served up many different flavors of Star Trek. In this “Ascension” two-parter, it’s the taste of a classic space battle action — one that could stand toe-to-toe against any of the best episodes of previous Treks in that genre. It’s cinematic in quality, reveling in the fantastic sights and sounds of ships attacking and evading, but also thoughtful in the choreography of the back and forth …

About last weekend …

The delicate little flowers are leaving Twitter. Or, and I’m not sure which is worse, they are announcing their departure like some shit airport and not going anywhere. As someone who is very much a left leaning centrist – and I need to make that very clear from the off, because the context is important here – I understand it, but I don’t agree with it. I am a firm …

A piece on new sensation Jimi Hendrix in the NME

Broken ribs. Three of them… I feel a little bit vindicated, because this much pain HAD to be something broken, didn’t it? Thank you – so very much! – for all of your kind messages. They keep me going… lots of love, Janice The post Not the Best Diagnosis… appeared first on The Vivienne Files.

I’ve put up another Austin Philips story on Dark Tales Sleuth. This one is supernatural! In “The Missing Word”, an old telegraph operator regales his colleagues on a stormy midnight, about the night that he “heard” his fellow telegraphist’s murder–over the wire. The murderer’s never been found. Yet. This is the story that Mike Ashley collected in his 2018 anthology Glimpses of the Unknown. It’s quite a good one. I …

first in a series of posts related to the last time Trump ran for election (rather than for reelection)Article for MTV.com, 2016, On Alice Cooper's "run" for President in 1972.Forty-four years ago, Alice Cooper ran for President. Okay, not really – but the singer and his group did release the single “Elected” in September 1972, timed for the final stretch of the Nixon versus McGovern race for the White House. …