I think he is. The original review and follow-up are not making the point that the social media element is a core element of his work, but rather the core element. Davis' says things like the work is not presented in an "actual gallery." Describes his work as "conventional" and a hand in one of the works as looking "like a small rotisserie chicken." Beyond saying that Rodriguez is a good a technical painter, Davis doesn't really say anything much positive that would imply he thinks the works have value. Really, both articles pretty clearly state that the paintings don't have enough value to stand on their own merit, and are instead only popular due to the way Rodriquez has marketed them. Which Davis' then presents that as problematic due to the fact that the situations are faked. So if he thinks the work is lacklustre, and then also find Davis' social media problematic, then he's essentially calling the whole thing shite. Then he acts surprised about backlash from his fans...Was he really arguing that the art lacks value, though?...the original review seems to be more making the (obvious) point that the social media channel and performative use thereof is a core element of his work.
It's been awhile since I sat down for a drink. A fair bit has been going on. I'm 9 months into the first serious relationship of my adult life after being intentionally single for quite a few years. It's nice, feels surprisingly natural. We get on well and balance each other out, finding ways to help each other grow. And we're quite balanced in long-term life plans: not favouring casual relationships, no desire for kids, indifferent to marriage... It's an adventure I'm enjoying and learning a great deal from. The last few months has also seen me learning to drive and I passed my test a couple of weeks back with 0 faults. Now I just need to find a car. A large part of the motive was so I could be more self-sufficient with getting out to kayak. I want to get some coaching qualifications and help out at the club, especially with coaching people who are held back by their mental game. That's an area I think I can bring valuable experience and learnings to. It's also nice to be able to help out driving in the relationship. Progress on the album release is slow but still moving. I have officially finished all the shortlisted tracks and the label are now deciding the final track-list. Some tracks will inevitably get cut as they want it to all fit on one vinyl, but we should be able to release the spares as digital promo EPs. Exciting times. I've got a fair few friends in various creative industries, so we have some cool plans cooking on how to present and promote the release. B2B sales is hard. The marketing I've been managing for family the IT business has gotten us a fair few leads now for our flagship product, but we just can't get anyone over the line. It's not like B2C where if you can just convince someone to click 'buy' for a second then it's job done. With businesses there's multiple layers of approval, contracts, security questionnaires and all this other random shit. I think we might have to change which product we push the hardest, as the current approach is just not viable for much longer.
Haha, damn. I knew I was few days late but didn't realise I'd been pipped to the post.
I wouldn't be surprised. I mean, Johnson's a cunning narcissist who wants to be remembered as some great prime ministerial hero alongside his idol Winston Churchill. He himself backed Truss for PM and he must've known she would flounder spectacularly. For this contest, there's a 100 MP nominations threshold for hopeful leaders and Johnson already has 50. As an aside, Truss only got 88 during her bid, so wouldn't even qualify under these new rules. The depressing fact is that, despite Johnson being horrid, the Tory's don't really have anyone better to replace him as leader. At least from the perspective of being able to win an election*. That's why it took so long for them to oust him in the first place. *As evidenced by a BBC vox pox last night who said they think Johnson should be the next leader because he's a "good character".
The Political Editor for The Times just tweeted that Boris Johnson is expected to stand in the Tory leadership contest...
Yeah, I can't get enough of it. I got to experience it for the first time last weekend at a festival whilst being extremely high (Shazam got me the ID). It was a good time. Here's a vid of the main stage where it played: https://streamable.com/85wum8
I like how this is now a video game thread even though that's not what the OP is about. I'll join the derailment. I've played quite a few games since the last one of these threads. Rocket League remains a daily driver for me. Nothing else scratches quite the same itch. The complete control you have, the endless sense of progression, and the perfection of the physics sim make it all something completely irreplaceable. I achieved my goal of reaching Grand Champion rank a while back, which was the highest rank at the time of setting said goal. But now there's four new ranks above me, so I guess the grind never stops. Here's a nice clip I hit yesterday. OlliOlli World is a fantastic momentum-based platforming game with skateboarding mechanics laid on top. It's pretty tough but I got a bit obsessed with this one and got the 100% completion. It's so satisfying to master nuances of the levels and get the perfect run. However, be prepared to say goodbye to your thumbs if you like chasing the high scores. Outer Wilds: Echoes of the Eye DLC. I was apprehensive about this one. The base game is an all-time favourite which felt perfect and complete. How do you expand on that without risking comprising the original? Fortunately, the DLC was beautifully made, offering the same sense of wonder, surprise and revelations as the original. Not only did it achieve that, but it also managed to redefine and elevate the base game in a wonderful conclusion. Bravo to Mobius Digital, I can't wait to see what they make next. Pogostuck: Rage with Your Friends is another platformer. This time, it's in the vein of the Bennet Foddy "rage as you lose the last two hours progress in an instant" design philosophy. What makes it different from Foddy's Getting Over It is that the platforming mechanic is actually quite intuitive and fun. This is countered by absolutely brutal level design. I had fun completing the first map, which is the easiest of the three despite only 3% of the players ever completing it. Gorogoa is a wonderful puzzle game with a completely enchanting and unique presentation. You have up to four drag-and-drop panels in a 2x2 grid which act as portals into different parts of the universe you're exploring. The game is about diving into each panel and finding the ways they link, offering surprising ways of changing your perspective and travelling through time and space. Dorfromantik is cute "city-builder" tile-based puzzle game. It's fairly simple on the surface, but requires a some patience and planning if you start trying to get those high scores. This is a good one to fiddle with in the background whilst watching a show or chatting to friends. Hell Let Loose is a fairly hardcore WWII sim. I didn't like it at first, but once you get into the groove of it the immersion is second to none. Best played with a full squad of friends with comms.
Sounds like a good time, enjoy!
Youtube inventor/tinkerer Colin Furze has an ongoing series where he's building a tunnel underneath his land to link up his house, garage, and underground bunker. Quite an entertaining watch if you're interested.
Louis Cole is such a beast on the drums, so tight. Can't say I've ever used DistroKid, so no thoughts to share unfortunately.
That Alva Noto track is cool. Reminds me of this. In regards to the bassline, I'd imagine it's sped up or programmed. The two guys in the project are a guitarist and saxophonist, and there's no bassist credited on Bandcamp page. If it's not, I'd have to see it to believe it!
An article on immigration that 'skews right': "Illegal immigration into the America is part of a longterm communist program to destroy the U.S." I think their categorisation might need some fine tuning.
Yeah, people somtimes refer to it pejoratively as 'note salad'. I think what elevates Ichika Nito's piece for me is that he finds a real strong sense of melody. So no matter how complicated his overall playing is at any one moment, there's still a relatively simple musical idea to latch on to.There is a lot of innovative guitar playing coming out of Japan, I don't want to listen to most of it but It's still impressive.
Haha, yeah. I watched that back a few times. Somewhat related, but it reminded me of this amazing dropped stick recovery at 12:09 in this video.
Enjoy your travels, tng. You can get in touch with me for a chat whenever, I'll always have time.
Relevant clip:
I don't like it. I feel as though I should be able to remove as much as my presence as possible when I delete my account on a website. It's one thing that comments remain. Now usernames remain attached to them? You may as well not have the delete account feature because at this point all it will do is just remove access to the account for the user in question.
Nice. Yeah, it's easy to get gushy over the latest synth and forget that the native plugins can do a lot for you. I really need to explore The Grid in Bitwig once I've got my current project over and done with. And like you, it saves on a lot of processing power too. I have had a few people comment on my chord progressions. My approach has always been a very exploratory one. Sit at the keyboard, find a chord I like, then experiment. What happens if I change bass note? Can I keep the left hand the same and change the right hand? What if I just move all the notes up by one? What if I replace this chord with one from a parallel key? Eventually, the mind's ear senses a shadow of a chord progression in the vague fog of creativity. From there, it's just about finishing the puzzle. Looking forward to hearing what comes out of your learning!
Coincidently, I got cottoned on to DOMi & JD Beck not long before your comment. Great stuff. They have an album coming out soon, which I'm very looking forward to. Any specific production techniques you've been looking into?
I'd be honoured. Stylus lets you target styles to specific URLs, which you can't do in pure CSS. So I'll create a version that works without that. I'll also make sure it doesn't break the mobile styles as it's only aimed at desktop at the moment. Would it make sense for it to be an optional 'modifier' to the user selected style? That way the user can still choose their own colours.
I use the Stylus extension to inject the CSS. It is available for both Chromium and Firefox browsers. Here's a pastebin of the code to import. It's fully commented, so you can edit it to taste.
----- Feed ----- 1. Increase font size to improve readability 2. Increase spacing between elements to improve readability 3. Domain and tag information moved over to the right to unclutter the left side of small text 4. Increased margins on main div to focus information into the centre as it stretches wide on larger displays ------ Posts ------ 1. Increase title and body font sizes to improve readability 2. Increase spacing between paragraphs to improve readability 3. Limit body text div so it averages around ~15 words per line. This makes it easier to track writing line-to-line and maintain focus ---------- Comments ---------- 1. Similar font and div size adjustments to posts 2. Increase spacing between comments to let them breathe more ----- Chat ----- 1) Import modern font and force it to override retro font 2) Reduce main div width and centre it to focus information 3) Increase font sizes to improve readability. 4) Increase spacing between messages so it doesn't look like one massive block of text 5) Move usernames and timestamp above the message. This gives separation between the username and the message and unclutters the start of the message.
I dislike it. I think it makes things more complex. And in the history of attracting users and improving their experience on a website, the answer has rarely been: "let's make things more obscure and add more option toggles." Not to mention, if you need to introduce a core piece of functionality with the option to turn it off, it's probably not the right direction. You say that people have complained to you that comments are tiring. Isn’t that just a consequence of ‘thoughtful discussion’? Thoughtful discussion demands time, effort and the willingness to be open to and understanding of other views. And sometimes it requires you to look at yourself and reassess what you thought and believed. Sounds tiring to me. But that doesn’t mean it’s not worthwhile. So it seems to me that by introducing this functionality, you’re trying to open up spaces where people can more casually chat without the worry of being called out. That’s fair. But the solution to that has little to do with governing the way we share posts and comments. Instead, it’s about increasing the amount of content on the site that offers those opportunities. That either has to come from the existing user base or new users. I do not believe that this experiment will address that. All it does is risk segregating an already small community. Also, I agree with kb. My suggestion for any immediate change would 100% be the UI. I've complained about it before, but it literally goes against a lot of the most basic contemporary UX guidelines. I inject over 100 lines of custom CSS just to make this place look okay. That's not right. Those of you older than me who grew up at the beginnings of the internet may think it's not that bad. But bad web design will absolutely drive newer generation users away before they even look at the content. And if users view the design of a website negatively, that will tinge their experience of the content. I mean, default Hubski is 9pt body text and 30 words per line (though the latter differs based on display size). That is egregious. Not to mention that it defies basic web accessibility standards.
I'm glad you enjoy the selections! I do have a penchant for instrumental music. It's so easy to write cheesy lyrics and they always ruin an otherwise a good track for me. Math rock and prog are big offenders. Having said that, some of my favourite music has vocals. Here's some off of the top of my head. Moses Sumney - Doomed R.A.P. Ferreira - Leaving Hell
For sure, I always made sure of the ownership thing in previous contracts. It's only a small label curated by an artist who's been in the scene since its inception. So there's not like there's a load of staff or anything. It's more that they just that they are well respected and know everybody! I believe that they do A+R for a bigger label too. Most of the cost I think will go into the physical releases as they produce vinyls and CDs for the LP projects they release. It's not a label that churns out loads of releases. Instead, they tend to focus on fostering emerging talent with original takes on the genre. So whilst I always be on the look, I don't expect them to do anything to screw me over.