A new song from Kate Nash that I think is worth a listen.
Girl listen up,
You’re not radical
Exclusionary, regressive, misogynist
Germ! Germ
Nah you’re not rad at all
Kate Nash
The music video is age-restricted due to nudity, so I can’t embed it here. You can watch on YouTube: Kate Nash – GERM (Official Lyric Video) (Kate Nash – YouTube)
In the Who Cares Era, the most radical thing you can do is care.
Dan Sinker
The Who Cares Era (Dan Sinker /blog)
Must be funny, in the rich man’s world
ABBA
Here’s another song I like: ABBA’s Money, Money, Money.
ABBA – Money, Money, Money (Official Music Video) (ABBA – YouTube)
When I was a kid with a Super Nintendo, Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen was one of my favorite games. Unicorn Overlord, released last year, is a great spiritual successor to that old favorite. The core gameplay is similar, but Unicorn Overlord adds enough to be a fresh experience. I recently finished playing through the campaign and had fun with it right up to the end.
If you like strategy games, I recommend giving it a try.
This week’s thing I like is The House of Lowther, a comic by K. Lynn Smith that follows a woman who gets a job working at a home for people with special needs – things like being a werewolf or big foot. As a fan of her previous work, I’ve been reading and enjoying this story from the start.
If you don’t follow my gaming site, then this might be news. I submitted a short story and a BattleMech design to the Pirate Point fanzine. Its first issue was released earlier this week, and my entry about a jury-rigged Blackjack is in it. You can download the zine for free and read my entry plus a bunch of other short pieces of fan fiction set in the BattleTech universe.
If you play BattleTech and want to try out the custom Blackjack, I shared a record sheet for it over on my gaming blog: Pirate Point #1 and Ol’ Jackie. You should also probably subscribe over there too if you like BattleTech.
Digital Packratting is the antithesis of this trend. It requires intentional curation, because you’re limited by the amount of free space on your media server and devices—and the amount of space in your home you’re willing to devote to this crazy endeavor. Every collection becomes deeply personal, and that’s beautiful. It reminds me of when I was in college and everyone in my dorm was sharing their iTunes music libraries on the local network. I discovered so many new artists by opening up that ugly app and simply browsing through my neighbors’ collections. I even made some new friends. Mix CDs were exchanged, and browsing through unfamiliar microgenres felt like falling down a rabbit hole into a new world.
While streaming platforms flatten music-listening into a homogenous assortment of vibes, listening to an album you’ve downloaded on Bandcamp or receiving a mix from a friend feels more like forging a connection with artists and people. As a musician, I’d much rather have people listen to my music this way. Having people download your music for free on Soulseek is still considered a badge of honor in my producer/dj circles.
Janus Rose
The Digital Packrat Manifesto (404 Media)
Where possible I try to make sure I get DRM-free files that I can keep. For music, I buy mp3s, usually as albums. For movies and shows, I do mostly stream. For any movie or show that I want to actually keep, I buy discs rather than digital copies. On the rare occasions that I buy a digital copy of a movie, I make sure it is on Movies Anywhere so that there is less chance I lose access due to one tech company deciding to abandon their service. For books, I only ever buy ebooks from stores that sell without DRM, like DriveThruFiction. For other books I want to read, I’ll either buy a physical copy or borrow a copy from the library.
Scott Boehmer 