I’m going back to work, so it’ll take me a while to find a new rhythm for posting. Hopefully the lulls won’t be too long. In the meantime, here’s a few thoughts. The MP3 is dying already? I’m not so sure it’ll disappear entirely. My experience as a one-time music obsessive is that streaming services suck. The albums I have aren’t often available (licensing bs), so I can’t listen to songs I like on particular albums. They might be on a different version of that album released by another label that doesn’t sound as good as the version I have, but that isn’t very satisfying. That’s not even the main problem. The database can’t seem to determine that 2 different bands with the same name are not the same band. If you have free versions of streaming services like I do, then you can wind up with both of these bands being played in a shuffle. It can be jarring. I haven’t figured out how to report this either. You also get suggestions that have nothing to do with the artist/album you are listening to (and in fact dislike), and must skip through. Except you can only skip so many songs, so you’re listening to music you don’t want to hear because of some algorithm. Tell me again why I should pay for this? I think at least some part of the resurgence of vinyl and other obsolete physical media is the frequent inclusion of digital downloads. I’m curious what the sales figures are with/without? Ripping vinyl is still a big hassle, and if mac does away with USB ports, it’s probably only going to get more annoying. Or more expensive; forcing us to replace cheap gadgets with proprietary ones.
I’m going vegan by osmosis – my wife decided to go fully vegan, and we don’t have enough fridge space to buy 2 sets of groceries. It shouldn’t be too big of a stretch, we were mostly there except for dairy. Look for some fun recipe/cooking experiment posts, and links to her blog. She’s taking a molecular gastronomy course online, and will be blogging about her assignments. It may will be more interesting than my blog. She’s a better writer than me.
More importantly in politics…
A bunch of people are doing some interesting things in response to Trump.
Blog friend and excellent writer Selena Chambers‘s new project is Nasty Writers. It’s literature for women by women (by birth and identity) “to dedicate a space for the preservation and exploration of the radical intersections between feminism, art, and literature, with a cross-genre bent. Included within these discussions, I hope, will be race, gender, sexuality, and disability within a national and international context.” It sounds totally awesome, so I’m looking forward to supporting that.
Dim Shores will be doing a regular anthology of some kind. You should check out their Facebook where you can sign up for the newsletter to get more info.
Tell all your friends!
Even if you don’t live in the USA, here are a few reasons to go to a local Women’s March on Washington.
See you soon, I hope.
fmalexander 