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Robo jaaaag time again. This time it's for the Pointer s Sisters at Stern Grove

Bobby Whitlock, 77. ...and fuck cancer. https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/articles/bobby-whitlock-derek-dominos-co-172001576.html

All right, thought they were batteries... So perhaps it's not really "portable", to the office yes, but around mmmm

This guy reel-ly likes analogue.

These are DC-DC converters

I was thinking, Kevin, are those bricks rechargeable? Does it need a battery management board?

True story: Kenji Kawai wanted to use Bulgarian folk singers for that, but couldn't find any (in Japan), so he had the Japanese folk singers (that he worked with before) learn how to sing like that. (Paraphrasing the rest from memory, so it may not be accurate.) By the time he was done, he had created a new genre, with Bulgarian harmonies, but distinctly Japanese notes and melodies.

As I referenced in the film thread awhile back, I haven’t been reading much the last few years, generally bored in and out of work, and live silly close to Stanford, so Continuing Studies it is. Took classes on (internal v. external) Meaning (Julia Sweeney, on topic, was another student ) and Middle East history. Reading about split between primary and auxiliary texts, but if you’re looking for non-summery end of summer reading... Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling, Nietzsche’s The Gay Science (aka The Joyous Science) & Beyond Good and Evil, Cleveland & Bunton’s History of the Modern Middle East, and Gelvin’s The New Middle East. Yeah, stuff I should have read 30 years ago. Two classes are too much with work, so cutting down to one, but standby for Mesopotamian archaeology recommendations next.

This came up in my IG feed the other day. Thought it was awesome. and reminded me of this.

Very Lovely! Triggers me to post this.....

Where was I? It's kind of a nightmare to cross reference which photos I've already posted, so I'm just going by "date uploaded" at this point. Sharp eyes can differentiate between a Series II and IIa. Bork!

Japanese market Panasonic SA-PM50MD CD/Minidisc system. Serious cassette futurism vibes.

Jim Lovell, Apollo 13 commander, dies aged 97 https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/aug/08/jim-lovell-astronaut-dies

Just so pure and classic. Makes me think of my vocal teacher from back when. That vibrato is so gentle and subtle and perfect.

Orange glazed, pan seared salmon. Scalloped potatoes and steamed broccoli.

I went to Chicken Alley today to divest myself of a Logitech wireless USB/keyboard combination and a whole stack of Revere Ware pots and pans (which will be missed, modern Revere Ware is not as good as the stuff they made in the 20th century, but I just do NOT have room for it.) I checked their CD stack and picked up two things: Peak 90s trip-pop. I bought it when in '96 when I was stoned out of my gourd it was new. It remains one of my favorite albums of the 1990s. The perfect blend of trip hop beats, dubby basslines, ethereal almost shoegaze vocals and a hint of retro 60s lounge. No skips. (I didn't actually need a second copy, but I have no idea where my original one is, and it was fun to play a CD on the ride home.) Kooky, ethereal Icelandic music that defies description. I had it on CD in 2002 and haven't seen my copy since about ...2003. Weirdly, I still have my 1997 copy of _Von_ which has been on many adventures with me. I played it on the home stereo tonight and my (sainted, octogenarian) mother didn't seem to mind it

Also for anyone interested, Magnum is running a 20% off Summer Course sale right now with some heavyweights. Just picked up... Mark Power: Picturing Place Cristina de Middel: Stranger than Reality Gregory Halpern: Documentary Sur/Realism Matt Black: The Documentary Commitment Jonas Bendiksen: Curiosity in Practice Bieke Depoorter: Chance Encounters Alec Soth: Photographic Storytelling

That was fun. I was belly laughing at one point. HS

James Hoffmann bought one of David Lynch's old coffee makers (an Italian Velox Ferrara Minibar design from the 1960s and 70s):

Hilarious - and yet people are still buying it. I remember checking out one of these things more than 10 years ago (the first RX100 was released in 2012). It was $650 then. The RX1R II was released in 2015 at $3,200 (gasp). They still haven't fixed the ergonomic problems!

[funny accent] This camera is jewelry. [funny accent] $300 thumb grip. [funny accent] It's fun to take photos with it. [funny accent] It's too big to be a compact camera. [funny accent] Chromatic aberration. [funny accent] For north of 5 grand, I want a UD element and CA under control. At that point Sony need to really commit to the Leica price point, give a lens that's much better wide open and charge $7000 for it.

Yesterday was an Isao Tomita kind of day: Today is a Vangelis kind of day:

Tarzan by Various Artists (1999) https://album.link/89gxj8dmg0md6 Example: This soundtrack has no right to be this good for a mediocre Disney movie. Phil and Mark went hard on this one.