blessingx

Jon Caramanica, NYTimes Pop Critic, Best Album of 2025 1. Effie, ‘Pullup to Busan 4 More Hyper Summer It’s Gonna Be a Fuckin Movie’ The rising Korean hyperpop star Effie is a heretical innovator, and this six-song EP — her best music in a year of several releases — feels like a deeply logical eruption. Imbibing from the spirit of 100 gecs, the freedom of 2hollis, and the pop scramble that often defines the best K-pop (a scene Effie exists outside of), her approach adds up to the sound of right this second. And also, undoubtedly, of tomorrow. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/05/arts/music/best-albums-2025.html

Effie's pullup to busan 4 morE hypEr summEr it’s gonna be a fuckin moviE EP Full EP...

Tracey Thorn‘s Tinsel and Lights

50th Anniversary of Vince Guaraldi’s Jazz Mass at Grace Cathedral Part One Part Two

We caught up with one of the kids who sang on 'A Charlie Brown Christmas.' He's 72 now. https://www.npr.org/2025/12/19/nx-s1-5640171/a-charlie-brown-christmas-christmastime-is-here-peanuts-schulz

Not to put too much weight on two photographs And in Sept. (center)

With Martin Parr’s recent passing, articles have resurfaced, including on a single vote getting him in Magnum. See how angry/joking photographers can get. “The other person to avoid was Martin Parr. As he put it, he was photographing a Magnum Annual Party for the first and last time – using a flash with a thing like a Styrofoam coffee cup on the end of it. My penile extension, he explained hopefully (but unsuccessfully) to any lady who passed by. I mean if Magnum had to hire someone to do the party pictures, did it have to be Martin? He’s clearly not as successful as we all thought, if he needs to do birthday parties, Bar Mitzvahs and weddings. I sincerely hope the Magnum blogsite goes down before he has a chance to post. I mean, if Magnum wanted to hire a party photographer, why couldn’t they have selected a nice ‘concerned photographer’ like Philip Jones Griffiths or Ian Berry to do them – photographers who photograph you with dignity and humanism and make you look good – instead of the appallingly ‘cynical’ and ‘ironic’ Parr? Garry Winogrand and Diane Arbus did enough pictures at the MoMA of people looking demented without Parr adding to them.“

Marcus Gilmore - "Journey to the New" Drum Solo (Nublu Performance)

https://9to5mac.com/2025/12/09/even-as-a-liquid-glass-fan-im-looking-forward-to-a-new-apple-design-era/

Didn't want to embarrass those kids.

Have missed a few of our normal holiday events this year, so happy to see Mountain View went all out for last night’s tree lighting ceremony.

Ye Olde 2: At the End of Time by Jacob Garchik

RIP Martin Parr, photographer of British life https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2025/dec/07/landmark-british-photographer-martin-parr-dies-aged-73 https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2025/dec/07/martin-parr-photographer-career-in-pictures

Frank Gehry’s Buildings Sound as Marvelous as They Look https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/06/arts/music/frank-gehry-concert-halls-classical-music.html?unlocked_article_code=1.6k8.gYMU.3NklH7ScE0v-&smid=nytcore-ios-share (Gift article)

Frank Gehry will be missed. RIP. https://www.npr.org/2025/12/05/527785250/frank-gehry-dead https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/frank-gehry-dead-guggenheim-bilbao-1234765549/ Two bonuses... https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/06/04/your-name-here and

And more Tiny...

Which makes me think of...

For what it's worth jury still out here too and much of that depends, of course, on what the eventual payoff is. I probably have a different relationship to sci-fi, and first episode isn't my favorite, but some of the theories out there* about what the show is truly about, takes me back all the way to weekly discussions during Twin Peaks' initial run (which may have never been resolved). Certainly feels like what Severance seemed to be for others and wasn't for me. A lot of this is trust, as you implied, with Vince. . . . . . * spoilers kinda . One of the theories, unlikely, but interestingly, is it's about individual (warts & all) love versus universal love. . . . . . spoilers likely . Another is that there are not only two teams in play.

The ‘Race Against Time’ to Save Music Legends’ Decaying Tapes https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/01/arts/music/iron-mountain-audio-tape-preservation.html?unlocked_article_code=1.5U8.T2jL.WEmPfaX9fX5G&smid=nytcore-ios-share (Gift article)

Jumpstarted the holiday cheer (winterless necessity) with a trip to lights.

Thurston Moore's (and Neneh Cherry, Joe McPhee, Bryan Coley, and Mats Gustafsson) new book on free jazz. https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/nov/28/free-jazz-history-most-maligned-music

Most of our guests switched to other pies, but I was determined. That said when juggling pie parts the fallen crust had a closer parameter than the apple slices and juices which took flight. Saved mess ratio was a little off.

Thanks. Losing the pie sucked, but the burns were fire.

Fortunately, important index finger was in the glove.