News, essays, reviews, surveillance
No matter how many years in, you still find yourself bending over the console to recollect which stereo system cables connect to which devices, and doing so generally involves an upside-down photograph, more likely two, as the first will be out of focus.
Today in everyday cyberpunk reality: exposed ethernet cable connectors suggesting themselves as symbols of civilian surveillance pushback — both for the disabled device, and for the implied privacy of wired communication. In my imagination, the shape somehow begins to map to the “house” sigil of the band Negativland, and to the twin snake heads of Christopher Gadsden’s “Don’t Tread on Me” and Benjamin Franklin’s “Join, or Die.” And no, not condoning vandalism. Just pondering the potent emblems incorporated in otherwise mundane electronics.
Souled American wasn’t the first band I interviewed, as I did a lot of that in college. And they weren’t the first musicians I interviewed professionally. Those were rap metal group 24/7 Spyz and cellist Hank Roberts. But Souled American was, in 1989, my third professional interview gig. I fell instantly for their debut, and to this day I will occasionally just erupt into “Soldier’s Joy” based on their cover. More often, the deep swampy bass riffs of band co-founder Joe Adducci will run through my head. Now, 30 years after their last album, 1996’s Notes Campfire, they are returning with a new one, titled Sanctions — and come mid-May they’re playing just a few blocks from where I live (at the 4 Star Theater). It looks like “they” is Adducci and Chris Grigoroff. Not present, unfortunately: the great Scott Tuma, whose music has largely drifted away from “songs” (notably, for a spell, as part of Boxhead Ensemble), much as my own listening preferences have. I can’t wait for this concert.
From payola to P2P sharing to digital-era royalties to AI fakery, there’s never been a moment in recorded music without its period-specific business and distribution brouhaha, and varying degrees of resulting professional and public concern. I was reminded of this particular ancient rallying cry when I saw the sticker on an old LP, dating from the early 1990s. If the phrase isn’t familiar, “When You Play It, Say It!” was a push by record labels the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), beginning in the late 1980s, for radio DJs to always identify, on air, the songs that they have been playing. The plays of course were tracked for payments to songwriters, but the “Say It!” matter was an admonition meant to encourage record sales by keeping audiences informed about what precisely they were listening to. This sticker is an elegant bit of semi-astroturf (if by no means wrongheaded) propaganda from a less digitized if no more civilized age.
At the end of each week, I usually collate a lightly edited collection of recent comments I’ve made on social media, which I think of as my public scratch pad. I tag on what books I may have finished reading. Knowing I’ll revisit my social media posts, I’ve found, serves as a positive and mellowing influence on my online activity. I mostly hang out on Mastodon (at post.lurk.org/@disquiet), and I’m also trying out a few others. And I generally take weekends off social media.
▰ Me: Yow, that’s a lot of books I have stacked up.
Also me: Any news on upcoming novels from Don DeLillo, Jennifer Egan, William Gibson, Sayaka Murata, or qntm (Sam Hughes)?
▰ Plex (along with Plexamp) makes for a great music player (MP3s, etc.). I’ve got my audio files on an ancient Mac mini, and I can access them anywhere, at home and away: phone, laptop, iPad, TV, car. Plex is not great as a high-level overview of a music collection. Is there something good to run in parallel?
In response to my inquiry, I got plenty of recommendations, which was super, among them so far: Jellyfin, Spite Music Player, Roon, Mediamonkey DLNA, Audirvana, Subsonic/DSub. I’ll be checking them out.
▰ Reminder to download that audiobook before venturing into mountainous territory
▰ Took five episodes for Star Trek: Starfleet Academy to work a theremin into the story. (Not a great episode, especially the side story, but I was stoked for Lower Decks voice actor Tawny Newsome — who co-wrote it — to make an appearance, albeit as a different character.)
▰ Kinda fascinated by how when I think back to an episode of subtitled TV I watched (e.g., currently the German thriller Unfamiliar), my brain recollects fragments of dialogue as if they had been spoken in English (maybe because I’m remembering the voice[s?] in my head when I read/watched?)
▰ Wishing a posthumous February 14 happy birthday to the late great critic/teacher/violinist Edith Eisler (1925-2011), who’d be turning 101 this year
▰ Go back in time and tell younger me I’d get “too much” music in my inbox. He/I’d be like, “What part of ‘too much’ don’t I comprehend?” Tell him/me his/our inbox would have 3,318 emails at the start of the week, not counting the 18,000+ that get automatically sent to a subfolder. Anyhow, inbox is now down to 576 (as of 9:11am on Saturday, February 14, 2026), and should hit 0 by the end of the long weekend. Whew.
▰ Didn’t finish reading any books, but in the midst of several.
