“My assessment … suggests that the blues has very old roots, originating with
performers who found new ways of playing African-inflected music in the New
World — but typically in rural areas where they could remain immune to many of
the influences linked to commercial trends in American music.”
posted 9/15/2022 8:00pm ∞
“[Edison] pushed aggressively for a standardized way of singing — one that aimed
to keep American music under unrealistic constraints. This only made the public
all the more enthusiastic when something more expansive and free came along.
And he unwittingly provided the tools these radical new musicians needed to
advance their agenda.”
“They also found that, in general, the size of the birds’ repertoire decreased
as anthropogenic noise increased, especially when the birds were exposed to
levels of anthropogenic noise that were above the usual noise to which they were
accustomed.”
Alejandro Portilla Navarro ,
City birds are changing their tune
(Knowable Magazine ,
November 14, 2022 ,
via Ars Technica )
posted 11/25/2022 8:00pm ∞
“Twitter wanted all of the credit for the innovation and none of the credit for
the impact, when the reality was the other way around. Time after time, they
came right up to the limit of acknowledging that, always to turn away at the
last moment.”
posted 9/17/2022 8:00pm ∞
“Veil’s website hadn’t been saved, and Pictures for Sad Children was hard to
track down in its entirety. The last, tangible vestige of the comic came from
those who had ordered a copy of the book. … They resolved to share the
collection, mailing copies to whoever hadn’t cracked its spine yet.”
posted 8/23/2022 8:00pm ∞