Anyone know if Discogs is a good place to work? They're hiring. They're not like doomed for some reason or anything, or just laid off all the good people or something? I feel like the #vinyl#music people here might know
@spacefuzz@bourgwick oh totally. I'm reconciled to the compromises of capitalism. There are a few deal breakers I'm looking out for: genuinely lunatic executive leadership and/or those with a snakey golden parachute "pump the value and sell" plan, and companies in an unbreakable financial death spiral. I've played those games. That's what I'm trying to suss out. I'm def applying
Recently finished and recommend Shadow Speaker by Nnedi Okorafor aka @nnedi. I haven't read everything she's written, but everything I have read I've liked a lot, so I'll certainly read the second book in this series. She writes everything from "good for adults too YA" like the Binti stories to "very much NOT for youth" like the superb but intense Who Fears Death. Shadow Speaker lies somewhere in between, I'd say, and I enjoyed it a lot.
๐งต #sff#Books#bookstodon
@nnedi Okorafor is a gifted character writer especially. Her protagonists and other key figures are always striking and memorable. She describes her approach or vision as Africanfuturism and it's powerful, one that exists on its own terms, not defined in relation to historically mainstream western SFF. This context difference is for me a very welcome and enriching, and certainly sometimes humbling, one. There's an enormous sense of dignity and strength to her characters ๐งต #sff#Books#bookstodon
Shadow Speaker itself is an interesting book because it's one of those that refuses to choose between science fiction and magic. You can read a synopsis at the link, so I won't recap it, and I wouldn't dare give away more of the plot, because a lot happens. Suffice it to say that if the description interests you, go ahead and grab it, you'll probably like it. And if that story idea doesn't grab you, check out her other books instead.
An unexpected but clever development on the Esther front: she's shifted from one purple sleeping surface to another, better lit one. Kind of a loose stance here but a bit of extension and as always with Esther the sweetness is in the details: the little whiskers and ear highlights and such. I feel like there's more potential here. Stay tuned
Good news, unexpected sunlight means Jumpy has attained a very tight tuck position in his favored office-bed window spot. If you're going to contend with a basic approach like this you have the nail the technique and I think Jumpy is showing his veteran experience here, 14 years in and the cat knows how to nail a perfect curl and tuck.
I hereby declare Sir Hans von Hake the patron anti-saint of effective trolling. Hear me out:
So it's the Holy Roman Empire days before the Reformation and the Catholic Church is at its most corrupt. Pope Whatever the 95th stomps the gas on selling indulgences in order to fund building the big ass Saint Peters building in Rome, and also enrich his cronies. One of the lead cronies is this putz named Tetzel, a corrupt priest who comes up into the HRE selling indulgences
๐งต #history
After a long run of disappointments and a lot of reading in other genres I'm finally hitting a run of good modern #sff#books I can recommend. First across the finish line is The Future by Naomi Alderman. It starts off in a pre-apocalyptic, more hopeful Bill Gibson mode with a highly capable young female protagonist getting dragged into an oligarchic power struggle by means of a Macguffin. Very readable, enjoyable catnip for anyone who despises tech billionaires.
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There's a lot going on in this book but it moves along quickly. I suppose it is in the style I've seen called "hopepunk" but people need to stop trying to make fetch happen with that. There were a couple minor things about it that I personally didn't love, like too much time spent retconning the Bible and a primitivist-Romantic cultural vibe I can't buy into but these are nitpicks. Mostly it's a smart, well told story of resistance to the looming tech driven disaster.๐งต
Some other bullet point/keyword type notes on The Future by Alderman:
forcefully, thematically feminist
lesbian main character
diverse characters
very on trend/current in its tech biz references
None of the above feels forced or anything at all though. And the politics in the book are interesting, being anti techbro capitalist but not anti technology. I'm not really buying it but it's enjoyable to read and think about.
Just realized that egg roll production efficiency is an apt example of superlinear scaling. We still doing TED talks? No? Well, probably for the best #tedtalk#complexity#ComplexAdaptiveSystems
As a young fella just getting into #jazz in the late eighties my first impressions of David Sanborn were that he was corny and overly smooth, in an unhip bag I didn't dig with guys like Metheny and the Breckers. Then he blew my fucking mind with the Night Music show and I've respected him ever since. There was almost no really cool weird music on TV in 1988-90 except that show, and man, Night #Music was legit!!! Nick Cave, Bongwater, Pere Ubu, Miles Davis...
@mrcompletely
Very true!
I think Willnerโs work, connections, & inspiration brought the really different musicians together but Sanborn had to direct traffic once they were there & that took great skill, knowledge, energy, & patienceโฆ
Sanborn, Wilner, & a few other folks like G.E. Smith had very mainstream jobs, like network T.V., and still took part in more obscure, heady projects.
It reminds me of Bill Graham intentionally booking older blues & jazz artist with new & psychedelic rock.
The new school #NBA has fully arrived with these playoffs, and it's awesome. The LeBron/Curry/Durant era is over, all love and respect to those guys, but the league has moved into the start of a new era. The two western conference series in particular feel super fresh, every team is unique in lineup and style. Love this moment we're in. And the Wemby Spurs aren't even good yet!