Generalities:

My favorite pastime is learning.

If something is unconventional it’s typically better for it.

Music is crucial and experiencing it is mandatory - be it through listening or creating.

Reducing suffering is the best life goal I’ve come up with.

  • 4 Posts
  • 49 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 12th, 2023

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  • The image is actually emblematic of why you’re having trouble finding good new music. You’re still just looking at the outside of the haystack. In the modern era it’s incredibly easy to access good new music, but perhaps more difficult to find that music (based upon your tastes). The prevalence of independent music exploded over 20 years ago. At this point, if you’re relying on the vestiges of major labels and popular distribution channels as your tastemakers you’re basically doing it wrong.

    The drawback is that you may actually have to put in some time and effort to find new stuff you like, but it’s definitely out there. Probably much more exists than you have time to consider, really. How much time you’re willing to spend searching depends on how important it is to you to find new stuff that you enjoy. Use shortcuts and find a different tastemaker associated with genre’s that you like if you want (e.g. online publications, youtube channels, online forums/communities, playlist where they exist, podcast, etc.) You’ll have to put in some time to find the relevant ones to you, but perhaps not as much time as combing through new stuff on your own.

    Lots of us with interests in genres with an extensive underground scene have been sifting through the mud to find gems for decades already, and I still enjoy the process a lot, though many people might think I waste a lot of time. These days that skillset is transferable and almost a requirement to find the good stuff in any and every genre. Unless you are lucky or don’t mind enough that the most commercial stuff is still your jam.

    (edit: unless of course this post is more a condemnation of broadly popular tastes in music. I’d have to type more to address that, but I’ll save it. It’s nothing new, and also hinges on subjectivity.)



  • Last I saw it isn’t actually clear whether or not Fadades is parody or legitimate. Very clear in any either case that Fadades is great.

    Especially within a genre like black metal where bands will make contra-conventional artistic decisions by way of course as it is, stumbling upon a vibe like this out of honest artistic expression vs. deriving it with a manifest ambiguity where the tongue seems to sprout from the cheek almost hardly matters. However Fadades came to be, it’s a monument to whatever it actually is.











  • What I mostly see in this article is somebody putting forward some somewhat salient points to bolster their own opinion. That’s to say, his is a defensible position to take, but it doesn’t stand up to the very real fact that there are so many different opinions within the Godzilla fandom, and what different people prefer in a Godzilla movie, that to try to make a broad generalization like this is in itself folly.

    To illustrate this, though he believes audiences are fundamentally disinterested in any human character centric plotline, the single most frequent complaint I have heard from people both inside and outside of the fandom about the 2014 film is that they were disappointed that Brian Cranston’s character was killed off too early. To the same effect, I think the article understates the human element in some of the Japanese entries in the franchise.

    And to insert some personal bias into this, not only am I in the camp that posits monster fights as not the most important part of a Godzilla film, but I also consider both 2014 and King of Monsters (2019) to be successful American entries into the franchise.

    Like I said, so many takes inside the Godzilla fandom. Everybody has a different selection of favorites. This guy’s opinion is just one of many.