a stream

This really syncs with my recent 90s midwest emo indie rock deep dive. In fact, I listened to this a couple of times, then listened to the first two Sunny Day Real Estate albums, started listening to Foo Fighters' The Colour and the Shape, but wanted to come back to this again over all of that. [2024-04-27]

Standalone post link: Listening Log: Final Summer

Standalone post link: Listening Log: Diary / LP2 / The Colour and the Shape

Started drafting out a whole narrative of my thoughts and mixed reactions to this album, but realized probably absolutely nobody needs my take on this and I have plenty of other things to write about and do, things that might benefit from having more written and explored about them.

Guess I might still write and share about this later if I find I can’t let my thoughts on it go away, though…

Standalone post link: Listening Log: THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT THE ANTHOLOGY

Also didn’t realize I needed a countryish sometimes Beatlesish Beyonce album, but here we are.

Standalone post link: Listening Log: COWBOY CARTER

Didn’t realize I needed a new Vampire Weekend album, but it turns out I really did need it. And its the most Vampire Weekendish album they’ve ever made.

Weird how I felt almost giddy listening to this album the first few times. Like, people are allowed to make music like this? “Classical” is everything.

Standalone post link: Listening Log: Only God Was Above Us

This her progrockiest yet?

Surprised/disappointed that “ANNIE, PICK A FLOWER.. (MY HOUSE)” wasn’t included on this (not to mention the two other tracks that were just yanked from the single on streaming services) but I’m hopeful that that work is for her next full album, which this Pitchfork profile says will be “a collection of more conventional R&B songs.” Hard to imagine Gray doing anything “conventional,” but I guess “ANNIE, PICK A FLOWER” is one of her more straightforwardly organized compositions, and still pretty weird. Fingers crossed Saya Gray stays weird.

Standalone post link: Listening Log: QWERTY II

I’ve been a fan of Julia Holter for a long time¹. She occasionally creates moments that irritate me, but I kind of love her all the more for them.

This album only has a couple such moments. (With Aviary it was like the whole album. Need to listen to it again and see if that’s still the case. I’d pre-ordered that vinyl and didn’t get into it that much but felt like I should only listen to it on vinyl, loudly, when no one else was home, which is only like once or twice a year.) I should read and write more about this album. Or just listen to it a bunch more. That won’t be hard, I’m already doing that. And get it on vinyl. And listen to all her old stuff again. And. And. And.

Standalone post link: Listening Log: Something in the Room She Moves

I track my music listening pretty exhaustively using last.fm, and have about six full years of history there. This is a place for me to manually highlight particular listening projects or obsessions of the moment.

Not sure how retroactive I can be - weird, but I might go back roughly to the beginning of 2024 or even the end of 2023 to make sure I cover some key repeats or personally meaningful listens.

Standalone post link: My 2024 Listening Log

Below please find my bespoke reading log. I do still try to track my reading on Goodreads because I have a lot of old friends and colleagues there, but I want it first on my own website in my own way.

Standalone post link: My 2024 Reading Log

Now

• bought a new-to-me car a few weeks ago and I’m really enjoying it +

  2020 Subaru Forester Sport, dark gray, orange detailing, black wheels with chunky all-terrain tires, and moderate acne from having been in a Texas hailstorm (saving me possibly $8-10 grand?)

• at work, keeping up with Sora collection development +

  new releases, renewals, keeping the hold ratios down

• also at work, cleaning up the catalog +

  fixing book series, building out records, which is a satisfying practice in the moment but feels possibly fruitless afterwards when having worked on it for an extended amount of time - like playing a video game? An arcane MARC record video game.

• getting ready to do a presentation at UCET+UELMA 2024: Cataloging Tips for Busy Librarians +

  which is super boring and nerdy, even for a library and edtech conference, but maybe useful? I was about to cancel out of anxiety, embarrassment, and laziness and not go to the conference, but when I saw 84 people had expressed interest in attending in the Sched app so far, and there just aren’t that many offerings for librarians, I realized I couldn’t flake out quietly.

• still trying to establish a sustained writing and learning practice in my “thoughtgarden" +

  what I call my Obsidian vault instead of a “digital garden” now, because its digital-ness is not the most essential thing about it)

• trying to re-establish a personal sharing and curation practice on this website +

  and likewise re-establish a professional sharing and curation practice with work colleagues

Next

• thinking about getting some gardening going
• thinking about going off on some kind of overlanding-ish adventure in my new car
• building out this website again
• reading a bunch of books, watching a bunch of movies

This page was last updated on March 17, 2024. See my prior ‘now’ updates here.

Credit for the ‘now’ page concept goes to Derek Sivers. I tend to get aspirational when I update it, so I’ve decided to embrace that by calling it ‘now and next.’

Standalone post link: Now and Next (March 15, 2024)