What I'm currently…

Updated 2023-Jan-29

Some notes on what I'm currently listening to, reading, and thinking about.

What I’m reading shouldn’t be considered as recommendations—indeed, I often don’t enjoy them and don’t finish them. However, what I’m listening to definitely can be considered as recommendations.

For what I’m listening to, I typically link to YouTube for the songs—for lack of a better option. I highly suggest using the uBlock Origin browser extension (and the Firefox browser).

There is also a YouTube playlist of all the songs referred to below.

February, 2023

Listening to

An early–mid 2000’s theme this month.

Modest Mouse - Third Planet
The first track off their great The Moon & Antarctica album, which is well-worth listening to in its entirety (a couple of other standouts are Tiny Cities Made of Ashes and Life Like Weeds). Their previous album, The Lonesome Crowded West, is nearly as good (sometimes I think it is even better); e.g., Teeth Like God’s Shoeshine, Trailer Trash. They have lots of great songs on their other albums too, such as Float On (despite its over-exposure), Dramamine, Spitting Venom. Excellent travelling music.
Joanna Newsom - Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie
The closing track from her excellent first album, The Milk-Eyed Mender. Her later albums would get more expansive, refined, and sprawling (in track length and number), but I particularly like her simpler early stuff—see also Sadie, Peach, Plum, Pear, Bridges & Balloons. There are great songs on her later albums too, though; e.g., Sawdust & Diamonds, Does Not Suffice, Sapokanikan. I have seen her perform live three times, each one great and memorable: in 2005 on tour with Smog, in 2007 in The Famous Spiegeltent as part of the Sydney Festival, and in 2016 at the Sydney Opera House.
The Microphones - I Want Wind To Blow
The album The Glow Pt. 2, which this track opens, is best listened to in its entirety (and through headphones)—it feels especially wrong to separate it from the album-title-sharing next track. Other stand-out tracks are Headless Horseman, I Want To Be Cold, I Felt Your Shape. From their next album, Mount Eerie, I really like Solar System (careful of the loud static at the start!)—particularly this live sing-along version (I know you’re out there).

Reading

Thinking about

World Athletics Cross-Country Championships - Bathurst, February 17–19, 2023.
Multidimensional representations of data and xarray.
How great it is when software has excellent documentation—for example, jsPsych, JATOS, xarray.

January, 2023

Listening to

An Icelandic music theme, as this month will be 20 years since I left Reykjavík after spending a semester as an exchange student at the University of Iceland (Háskóli Íslands).

Sigur Rós - Untitled 1 (Vaka)
This is a great live version of one of the best songs on their very consistent () album (which was released while I was in Iceland—a great winter album). I also really like their previous album Ágætis byrjun (e.g., Viðrar vel til loftárása), which was one of the main things that made me interested in studying in Iceland. A lot of their subsequent music is great too (e.g., Hoppípolla, Gobbledigook). I’ve also seen them live a few times, and they have always been excellent.
Björk - Army of Me
This is the opening track on the Post album, which is my favourite of hers (see also Hyperballad, Enjoy). The album actually reminds me a bit of Massive Attack’s Mezzanine from last month—this was released a few years earlier. The subsequent album, Homogenic, is also great—e.g., Bachelorette, Pluto. I also quite liked the next album Vespertine (e.g., Pagan Poetry), but haven’t been able to get into her more recent releases. I saw her in concert in the forecourt of the Sydney Opera House, which was amazing.
Múm - Green Grass Of Tunnel
This is from their great Finally We Are No One album (see also The Land Between Solar Systems for a great epic). It’s also worth listening to the version in Icelandic, Grasi Vaxin Göng. Their previous album Yesterday Was Dramatic - Today Is OK is also good (e.g., I’m 9 Today).

Reading

Thinking about

jsPsych
I popped a tyre while driving over the holidays; I wish I either knew more about cars or did not need to drive them.
A review of an enjoyable year of running in 2022:
- Total distance: 1934km
- Run locations: Bathurst, NSW (215); Little Bay, NSW (16); Wangaratta, VIC (8); Jindabyne, NSW (3); Lithgow, NSW (3); Forster, NSW (2); Albury, NSW (1); Carcoar, NSW (1); Firefly, NSW (1); Orange, NSW (1); Valentine, NSW (1); Warners Bay, NSW (1).

December, 2022

Listening to

Another mid-to-late 90’s theme—with a different vibe.

Massive Attack - Group Four
Although I liked their albums Blue Lines (particularly Unfinished Sympathy) and Protection (particularly the title track), I really loved (and still love) their album Mezzanine. This song is my favourite (also see this great live version), but the whole album is great. Other highlights include Angel (which I remember giving the bass boost functionality on my walkman a workout), Teardrop (which might be overplayed now but is still great), Inertia Creeps, and Dissolved Girl. But yeah, just listen to the whole album. I was fortunate to spend six weeks or so in their hometown of Bristol, England, a while back, and I thought about them a lot while I was there.
DJ Shadow - Midnight in a Perfect World
The Endtroducing..... album, on which this track appears, is great and worth listening to in its entirety (see Stem / Long Stem for another great track). It was my main introduction to sample-based music, and I had fun using software like Pro Tools and AudioMulch. The subsequent album, The Private Press, is a bit more uneven but still has some great songs—including what I think is my favourite song of his, You Can’t Go Home Again. The singles collection Preemptive Strike is also worth a listen—particularly the epic four-parter What Does Your Soul Look Like and the fun Organ Donor.
Air - La Femme D’Argent
Continuing the theme, the whole Moon Safari album is worth a listen. They have a different, spacey, oddly retro and futuristic vibe to them—and great bass. A couple of other highlights are All I Need and Talisman. I didn’t follow them too much after Moon Safari, but they have a few other great songs—such as Alone in Kyoto.

Reading

Thinking about

Advent of Code
Potential running events to enter in 2023.
The World Cup.

November, 2022

Listening to

A mid-to-late-90’s theme.

Tool - Reflection
A very important band for me at the time and one that I enjoy re-visiting. Their great musicianship, esoteric themes, and interesting video clips were right up my alley—the crudeness and edginess not so much, but that was easily ignored. Lateralus is my favourite album of theirs (e.g., the title track), and I also like Undertow (e.g., Flood) and Ænima (e.g., Pushit). I could never get into 10,000 Days, but there are some songs on their latest album (Fear Inoculum) that I quite like (e.g., Descending). A great live band, too, that I have seen a few times (four times, I think).
Faith No More - Caffeine
My second-ever concert, at the Hordern Pavillion in Sydney in 1997. Just a great band with a great and diverse sound, from early stuff like From Out Of Nowhere and The Real Thing to mid-career stuff like Digging the Grave and Just A Man. They were also an entry-point into the universe of Mike Patton—particularly Mr. Bungle, who I am also a fan of (e.g., The Air-Conditioned Nightmare). The cover art for the King for a Day… Fool for a Lifetime album also introduced me to the artist Eric Drooker, whose graphic novel Flood! was a big influence on me (and who I remember emailing back in around 1997—and receiving a reply!).
Smashing Pumpkins - Tonight, Tonight
My first-ever concert! Again at the Hordern Pavillion in Sydney, this time in 1996. I was majorly into their Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness and Siamese Dream albums at the time—and still greatly enjoy them. The voice of Billy Corgan and the guitar tone are probably the most recognisable aspects to the sound, but I have come to realise that Jimmy Chamberlin’s drumming is critical—one of the best around. I’ve also grown to like the second disc on Mellon Collie (yes, I still think of it as two CDs) much more than I did back then (e.g., Bodies and Thru The Eyes Of Ruby). Perhaps oddly, I also really like the instrumental title track. Siamese Dream is great all the way through—e.g., Disarm, Mayonaise, and Geek U.S.A. (see what I mean about the drumming!).

Reading

Thinking about

October, 2022

Listening to

An early-90’s theme.

Nirvana - Aneurysm
In the midst of the hype and legacy, it can be easy to forget that Nirvana is a great band. This song is from their essential Live at Reading performance (see Cokemachineglow for a wonderfully-written review that I keep coming back to). All their albums are great, including their MTV Unplugged session—particularly the covers, such as The Man Who Sold The World. Their posthumous You Know You’re Right is one of their best; a great surprise when it came out.
Alice in Chains - Them Bones
I love that this is the first song on their great Dirt album—just launching straight into it! I like their different approach on their Jar of Flies album just as much, if not more (see Don’t Follow and Rotten Apple, for example). Their MTV Unplugged session is also fantastic; see Nutshell, for example (it’s cool how they enter and start playing separately—and I think the bass sound here would be up there with the best I’ve ever heard).
Jane’s Addiction - Stop!
Their two albums from this period, Nothing’s Shocking and Ritual de lo Habitual (the latter in particular), are great all the way through. Their bass player, Eric Avery, is one of my favourites—I don’t have the music knowledge or vocabulary to explain why, but I love his playing in their epic Three Days (their best song) in particular (e.g., how his playing changes from fluid at about 5:30 to just the essentials at about 5:55 as it build up).

Reading

Thinking about

September, 2022

Listening to

Grandaddy - He’s Simple, He’s Dumb, He’s the Pilot
Their sound and tech-relatedness resonate greatly with me; their Sumday album, in particular, is worth listening to in its entirety, but they are all excellent. In addition to being a great song, Jed’s Other Poem (Beautiful Ground) has a great video based around an old Apple computer. Also, their cover of the Beach Boy’s In My Room was a COVID-19 lockdown anthem of mine.
Built To Spill - Goin’ Against Your Mind
Lots of candidates for my favourite song of theirs, but I think this (just) comes out on top. Some other possibilities are Broken Chairs, All Our Songs, Untrustable / Part 2 (About Someone Else), and Tomorrow (yeah, I love their epics!).
Cat Power - Metal Heart
The entire Moon Pix album, on which this song appears, is great (and also features two of the Dirty Three); What Would The Community Think (e.g., In This Hole) and You Are Free (e.g., Good Woman—featuring the third member of the Dirty Three) are also excellent. I also really like the epic Willie Deadwilder. I’ve seen Cat Power in concert twice; once was very slick and professional but not all that great, and once was pretty ramshackle but excellent.

Reading

Thinking about

Signing up for another trail running race, after I enjoyed completing my first one recently (the Ridgy Didge 22km in Lithgow, NSW).
Levels of measurement
Getting into TypeScript.

August, 2022

Listening to

A bit of a country-ish theme this month…

Songs: Ohia - Just Be Simple (thanks for letting me win)
Jason Molina created so much wonderful music. Here are just a few of my other favourites of his: The Black Crow (it’s fading!), Being In Love, Didn’t It Rain, Hold On Magnolia (I think it’s almost time), Whip-poor-will (demo version), Hammer Down (I saw the light), I Can Not Have Seen The Light (do I have to be alright all of the time), Long Desert Train (never be … enough), O! Grace.
My Morning Jacket - Welcome Home
I had mostly liked their earlier albums At Dawn (e.g., the title track) and It Still Moves (e.g., Steam Engine), but this album that this song is from took me by surprise by how much I enjoyed it. It was released during COVID-19 lockdowns, and was a comfort.
Gillian Welch - Time (The Revelator)
A longtime favourite—her and David Rawlings at the Roxy Theatre in Parramatta in 2004 is one of the best concerts I have been to (and at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco in 2010!). She has many great songs, but a selection of one from each of her albums is Orphan Girl, My Morphine, Wrecking Ball, and Hard Times.

Reading

Thinking about

Intelligent tutoring systems.
The design and implementation of experiment control platforms.
Light fields.

July, 2022

Listening to

Low - Nothing But Heart
A great winter band, from Duluth, Minnesota. They have many great songs, but this might be my favourite. See also their Silver Rider (used in an episode of the great TV show Rectify) for a similar style.
No Age - Cruise Control
An underrated band, with many great songs and albums.
Nina Nastasia & Jim White - Late Night
I like a lot of Nina Nastasia’s music, but I think this album (You Follow Me)—a collaboration with the great Jim White of the Dirty Three—is her best. See also the great review on cokemachineglow (a sorely-missed music website with lots of excellent writing).

Reading

Thinking about

Being a student again.
Looking more into NixOS.
Starting to use type checking in Python code.

June, 2022

Listening to

Eleanor Friedberger - My Mistakes
I really like all of Eleanor Friedberger’s solo music, and this was the first single from her first solo album. It reminds me of Minneapolis / St. Paul, where I was living at the time it came out.
The Flaming Lips - The Gash
The Flaming Lips played the last concert that I went to before the COVID-19 restrictions began. It was a great concert, at the Sydney Opera House—one of the best sounding gigs that I’ve been to. This song is off the great The Soft Bulletin album.
Tori Amos - Putting the Damage On
This song has only recently made it into my ranking of top-tier Tori Amos songs. Maybe it is the odd intro, but it hadn’t stood out to me until the past year (the same thing happened with “Hey Jupiter”—it wasn’t until I saw it played live that it became a favourite). There is also a great live version of this song.

Reading

Thinking about

Mistakes in research programming and strategies for their avoidance and tolerance (see the resulting post).
Where to start with gardening, now that I have a few areas of soil to tend to.
Playing through Portal 2 again. I still think the first Portal is quite a bit better.

May, 2022

Listening to

Reading

Thinking about

How to present all the details of a statistical model in a manuscript without distracting or alienating readers.
The best strategy for staying warm through the upcoming Bathurst winter (my first serious winter since Minneapolis, USA, in 2012–2013).
The writing, scenes, and characters in Don DeLillo’s “Underworld”.