Sometimes the difference between critic and listener reviews for music is wild. I’m trying to listen to A Grand Don’t Come for Free from the 1001 Albums project. It apparently has a 91/100 on Metacritic, but a slew of 1-star listener ratings. I’m definitely leaning towards the 1-star crowd.
{
"type": "entry",
"published": "2026-02-10 13:44-0800",
"url": "https://gregorlove.com/2026/02/sometimes-the-difference/",
"category": [
"music"
],
"content": {
"text": "Sometimes the difference between critic and listener reviews for music is wild. I\u2019m trying to listen to A Grand Don\u2019t Come for Free from the 1001 Albums project. It apparently has a 91/100 on Metacritic, but a slew of 1-star listener ratings. I\u2019m definitely leaning towards the 1-star crowd.",
"html": "<p>Sometimes the difference between critic and listener reviews for music is wild. I\u2019m trying to listen to <i>A Grand Don\u2019t Come for Free</i> from the 1001 Albums project. It apparently has a 91/100 on Metacritic, but a slew of <a href=\"https://1001albumsgenerator.com/albums/365ETCJBUmEWroc4UGBS1u/a-grand-dont-come-for-free\">1-star listener ratings</a>. I\u2019m definitely leaning towards the 1-star crowd.</p>"
},
"author": {
"type": "card",
"name": "gRegor Morrill",
"url": "https://gregorlove.com/",
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"_id": "47320632",
"_source": "95"
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{
"type": "entry",
"author": {
"name": "Jared White",
"url": "https://jaredwhite.com/",
"photo": null
},
"url": "https://jaredwhite.com/articles/love-of-love-of-art",
"published": "2026-02-10T09:04:40-08:00",
"content": {
"html": "<img alt=\"\" src=\"https://res.cloudinary.com/mariposta/image/upload/w_1200,c_limit,q_65/hip-hop-artist.jpg\" /><h2>Learning to embrace the rewarding messiness of making art while human.</h2>\n\n<p>For all of my life, I have loved art. All of the creative arts. When I was a young boy wandering the corridors of the local mall with my parents, I was briefly interviewed regarding the latest \u201cG.I. Joe\u201d action figures at which point I proudly informed the pollster I wasn\u2019t \u201cinto\u201d that sort of thing. I was an <em>artist.</em> \ud83d\ude06</p>\n\n<p>There aren\u2019t very many art forms I haven\u2019t at least dabbled in. Even the ones you might not think of at first, like building a garden feature out of stone (at the direction of my mother who was the real green thumb) or live painting to a musical performance in a house of worship.</p>\n\n<p>That\u2019s not to say I <em>personally</em> love all creative arts equally. There are certain ones I gravitate to, same as any artist. For a long time, I thought music was my primary talent. But I\u2019ve cycled through a plethora of others over the months and years and decades. To be honest, if there\u2019s been any one constant, it\u2019s writing. <a href=\"https://jaredwhite.com/articles/i-am-a-writer\">I fear I\u2019ve never taken it as seriously as I should.</a></p>\n\n<p>Oh, and let\u2019s not forget: <strong>programming</strong>.</p>\n\n<p>I\u2019ve been writing computer code since I remember being a conscious human being. I learned how to program little graphical sprites and make them move around the screen of the family\u2019s Commodore 128 when using our <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KoalaPad\">KoalaPad</a>. Before that of course, I wrote the quintessential BASIC program:</p>\n\n<pre><code>10 PRINT \"HELLO WORLD!\"\n20 GOTO 10\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>and giggled gleefully as the computer acted silly and printed out the same sentence over and over again until I made it stop.</p>\n\n<p>But you know what? You know what I love <em>just as much as art??</em></p>\n\n<h3>Sharing my love of art with others \ud83e\udd70</h3>\n\n<p>Perhaps growing up right as the Age of the Personal Computer dawned\u2014and the Internet in short order\u2014made it seem completely obvious to me I could, and should, share my love for art with others. Try as I might, I can\u2019t remember a time when I haven\u2019t been a total nerd reveling in my enjoyment of one art form or another in spaces both online and off, and there\u2019s rarely been a moment of my teenage or adult life when I haven\u2019t been discussing or debating or teaching or learning the minutiae of some kind of art along with others.</p>\n\n<p>Perhaps nothing exemplifies my appreciation of love for art more than the first thing I did when I got on the World-Wide Web in 1994 and discovered you could, like, just write web pages. You could just write them?! ANYBODY CAN???!!</p>\n\n<p>(Hey, did you know you can STILL JUST WRITE THEM? Open your favorite plain text editor of choice, write some paragraphs, <a href=\"https://www.htmlforpeople.com/\">wrap them in a few HTML tags</a>, and <strong>tada!</strong> \ud83c\udf89 You\u2019ve just created a web page! <em>Eat a bag o\u2019 dicks, Mark Zuckerberg!</em>)</p>\n\n<p>Anyway, the first thing I did was figure out how to create a website for the Celtic music family band I was in at the time, <strong>Distant Oaks</strong>. And the second thing I did was <strong>create my own blog</strong>. Yes, friends, I do believe I may have had one of the very first blogs in Internet history, first called <em>Jared White\u2019s Internet Review</em> and then just <em>The Internet Review</em> (and then <em>iReview</em> many years before Apple trotted that name out). It was great fun recently to pore over saved pages in the Internet Archive and revive <a href=\"https://theinternet.review/\">The Internet Review</a> as a retrotech-themed blog, where the first blog post is dated September 1996 (published when I was only 13 years old!).</p>\n\n<p>Because, you see, I couldn\u2019t simply \u201clove the Internet\u201d and then stop there. I had to <em>share my love for the Internet</em> with everyone else because that\u2019s what you do when you\u2019re a nerdy kid with a new network connection.</p>\n\n<p><strong>I\u2019m still that nerdy kid at heart! And I\u2019ve never stopped sharing!</strong></p>\n\n<ul><li>I\u2019ve never been \u201cjust a musician\u201d, I\u2019ve also taught music (to kids! when still a kid!) and written reviews of music and run fan clubs of musicians.</li>\n <li>I\u2019ve never been \u201cjust a 3D graphics artist\u201d, I\u2019ve hosted online art galleries where I show off the work of other 3D artists.</li>\n <li>I\u2019ve never been \u201cjust a writer\u201d, I\u2019ve helped lead writing worships and host writing groups and <strong>I am currently writing this very article as a participant in a totally awesome Portland writing group run by a dear friend</strong>.</li>\n <li>I\u2019ve never been \u201cjust a programmer\u201d, I\u2019ve run multiple programming blogs and forums and open source projects and chatrooms and have taught programming workshops and <a href=\"https://www.whitefusion.studio/\">I work among other things as a consultant</a> where I educate on the topic of coding as much as I write code personally.</li>\n <li>And so on and so forth, etc., etc.</li>\n</ul><h3>Yet somehow, this concept has become a target of, er, controversy? \u2639\ufe0f</h3>\n\n<p>So imagine my surprise when the \u201cAge of AI\u201d is suddenly upon us somehow for some reason, and I am told, repeatedly, by multiple parties on LinkedIn and elsewhere, that finally, <em>finally</em>, <strong>FINALLY</strong> the gatekeepers are gone, the stingy artists with their stuck-up ways no longer hold influence, and the people, the PEOPLE have been liberated at last. \ud83d\ude03 Now you can create music and 3D graphics art and writing and code and all sorts of things, and it\u2019s all thanks to the <em>miracle</em> that is AI. \u2728</p>\n\n<p>?</p>\n\n<p>????</p>\n\n<p>?????? ??? ? ??? ???</p>\n\n<p>???? ?</p>\n\n<p>?? ??? ??</p>\n\n<p>? ????? ?? ???</p>\n\n<p>??? ???? ?</p>\n\n<p><strong>I don\u2019t get it.</strong></p>\n\n<p>Thankfully I don\u2019t have to, because it\u2019s utter bollocks and <a href=\"https://buttondown.com/theinternet/archive/down-with-the-gatekeepers-apparently/\">I already debunked it in an issue of Cycles Hyped No More</a>. That\u2019s not what this essay is about!</p>\n\n<p>What I\u2019d <em>much</em> rather talk about is how vitally important it is that now, more than ever, <strong>we stand together in solidarity as artists.</strong> And I don\u2019t mean than in a highfalutin way, I mean literally anyone who likes to self-identify as a creative person. We need to band together to strengthen and form communities where artists young and old are supported\u2026whether they\u2019re just getting started or they\u2019ve been in the game for 50 years.</p>\n\n<p>We must celebrate traditions and breaking from those traditions, and relish the truth that most great art comes from the inherent tension between the two.</p>\n\n<p>We must advocate for safe spaces where slop is out and craft is in and people know they are welcome to participate as their authentic selves without the specter of extractive capitalist overlords dictating the terms of engagement.</p>\n\n<h3>Fighting the \u201cLone Wolf\u201d syndrome</h3>\n\n<p>All right. I\u2019ve been making all these grandiose statements about loving art and being joyful in community, but I have an uncomfortable truth to share with you: I haven\u2019t always <em>felt</em> like how I\u2019m now describing myself. \ud83d\ude2d</p>\n\n<p>At times I have suffered from a syndrome\u2014not Imposter Syndrome, that\u2019s an affliction I don\u2019t usually suffer from (make of that what you will!)\u2014which I call <strong>Lone Wolf</strong> syndrome. When I\u2019m in the throes of Lone Wolf syndrome, I somehow think there\u2019s nobody around to support me, or that apparently there\u2019s nothing valuable I have to offer. \u201cThey\u201d don\u2019t \u201cget me\u201d and that must be why I\u2019m not successful. I don\u2019t know how to collaborate with anybody in a meaningful way. I must be destined just to make art in a vacuum, experienced by an audience of virtually no one as I sink into an ever-darkening void. \ud83d\ude35\u200d\ud83d\udcab</p>\n\n<p>Yeah yeah I know! That pity party better be over soon and enough with the <em>stinkin\u2019 thinkin\u2019</em>. But perhaps we all go through those sad times when the Lone Wolf has taken hold in our psyche and we can\u2019t seem to shake the bastard.</p>\n\n<p>Finding (or starting!) artistic communities where you feel like you can really fit in is <em>hard</em> sometimes. And maybe for you, right now, it\u2019s <em>been</em> hard for much longer that you ever thought possible.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Time to give up, throw in the towel, call it a day! Stick a fork in it, you\u2019re done!</strong> \ud83e\udd69</p>\n\n<p>Just kidding. \ud83d\ude02 Sometimes it helps to name your worst fears and embrace them for a split second before you realize they are silly and unhelpful.</p>\n\n<p>The best way that I\u2019ve found to fight Lone Wolf syndrome is to declare it is <em>unacceptable</em> for you to live in that state. Because it is unacceptable, you will of course need to make some changes in your life in order to <strong>get the results you deserve</strong>. But that\u2019s a topic for another day\u2026</p>\n\n<p>I will share <em>one</em> potential remedy however, as it dovetails with the theme of this essay.</p>\n\n<h3>How can you share the love? \ud83d\udc9e</h3>\n\n<p>Instead of the \u201cnobody loves my art, I\u2019m all alone\u201d pity party, the inverse question you can start to ask yourself is \u201chow might I share the love of my art with others?\u201d And don\u2019t mean the love of your own art per se, I mean the love of the art form(s) you work in.</p>\n\n<ul><li>Maybe you can write more about the techniques you like to use.</li>\n <li>Maybe you can make a video about your greatest creative inspirations.</li>\n <li>Maybe you can join a fanclub dedicated to other artists who are in the same overall genre as you.</li>\n <li>Maybe you can start a meetup group where people work on their art or the ideas for their art.</li>\n <li>Maybe you can launch a review blog where you highlight other artists\u2019 work.</li>\n <li>Maybe you can work up the courage to reach out to that \u201cfamous\u201d artist who makes you feel weak in the knees and see if they\u2019re actually just a regular person who would love to offer you a collaborative opportunity or at the very least a word of wisdom.</li>\n</ul><p>And all of this is 2X, 3X, maybe even 10X as vitally import in the \u201cAge of AI (Slop)\u201d when real art and artists feel more devalued and unappreciated than ever. The best way to fight slop? It\u2019s to <em>love</em>. The Beatles were right after all: all you (we) need is love, and love is all we need.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Love art. Love your art. Love their art. Love artists. Love the messy, difficult, fun, rewarding, challenging, frustrating, liberating process of making art while being human.</strong> \ud83e\udde0</p>\n\n<p>And at the risk of sounding totally hippie-dippie, your love of art, and your love of the love of art, <em>can spark the change you wish to see in the world.</em> \ud83c\udf38\u270c\ufe0f\ud83e\udd70</p>\n\n<p><br /></p>\n\n<p><em>Photo credit: <a href=\"https://pixabay.com/photos/music-hip-hop-night-concer-singer-7974197/\">L\u01b0\u01a1ng \u0110\u1ea1t Nguy\u1ec5n on Pixabay</a></em></p>\n\n\n\n <br /><p>\n \n <a href=\"https://jaredwhite.com/tag/creativity\">#creativity</a>\n \n </p>",
"text": "Learning to embrace the rewarding messiness of making art while human.\n\nFor all of my life, I have loved art. All of the creative arts. When I was a young boy wandering the corridors of the local mall with my parents, I was briefly interviewed regarding the latest \u201cG.I. Joe\u201d action figures at which point I proudly informed the pollster I wasn\u2019t \u201cinto\u201d that sort of thing. I was an artist. \ud83d\ude06\n\nThere aren\u2019t very many art forms I haven\u2019t at least dabbled in. Even the ones you might not think of at first, like building a garden feature out of stone (at the direction of my mother who was the real green thumb) or live painting to a musical performance in a house of worship.\n\nThat\u2019s not to say I personally love all creative arts equally. There are certain ones I gravitate to, same as any artist. For a long time, I thought music was my primary talent. But I\u2019ve cycled through a plethora of others over the months and years and decades. To be honest, if there\u2019s been any one constant, it\u2019s writing. I fear I\u2019ve never taken it as seriously as I should.\n\nOh, and let\u2019s not forget: programming.\n\nI\u2019ve been writing computer code since I remember being a conscious human being. I learned how to program little graphical sprites and make them move around the screen of the family\u2019s Commodore 128 when using our KoalaPad. Before that of course, I wrote the quintessential BASIC program:\n\n10 PRINT \"HELLO WORLD!\"\n20 GOTO 10\n\n\nand giggled gleefully as the computer acted silly and printed out the same sentence over and over again until I made it stop.\n\nBut you know what? You know what I love just as much as art??\n\nSharing my love of art with others \ud83e\udd70\n\nPerhaps growing up right as the Age of the Personal Computer dawned\u2014and the Internet in short order\u2014made it seem completely obvious to me I could, and should, share my love for art with others. Try as I might, I can\u2019t remember a time when I haven\u2019t been a total nerd reveling in my enjoyment of one art form or another in spaces both online and off, and there\u2019s rarely been a moment of my teenage or adult life when I haven\u2019t been discussing or debating or teaching or learning the minutiae of some kind of art along with others.\n\nPerhaps nothing exemplifies my appreciation of love for art more than the first thing I did when I got on the World-Wide Web in 1994 and discovered you could, like, just write web pages. You could just write them?! ANYBODY CAN???!!\n\n(Hey, did you know you can STILL JUST WRITE THEM? Open your favorite plain text editor of choice, write some paragraphs, wrap them in a few HTML tags, and tada! \ud83c\udf89 You\u2019ve just created a web page! Eat a bag o\u2019 dicks, Mark Zuckerberg!)\n\nAnyway, the first thing I did was figure out how to create a website for the Celtic music family band I was in at the time, Distant Oaks. And the second thing I did was create my own blog. Yes, friends, I do believe I may have had one of the very first blogs in Internet history, first called Jared White\u2019s Internet Review and then just The Internet Review (and then iReview many years before Apple trotted that name out). It was great fun recently to pore over saved pages in the Internet Archive and revive The Internet Review as a retrotech-themed blog, where the first blog post is dated September 1996 (published when I was only 13 years old!).\n\nBecause, you see, I couldn\u2019t simply \u201clove the Internet\u201d and then stop there. I had to share my love for the Internet with everyone else because that\u2019s what you do when you\u2019re a nerdy kid with a new network connection.\n\nI\u2019m still that nerdy kid at heart! And I\u2019ve never stopped sharing!\n\nI\u2019ve never been \u201cjust a musician\u201d, I\u2019ve also taught music (to kids! when still a kid!) and written reviews of music and run fan clubs of musicians.\n I\u2019ve never been \u201cjust a 3D graphics artist\u201d, I\u2019ve hosted online art galleries where I show off the work of other 3D artists.\n I\u2019ve never been \u201cjust a writer\u201d, I\u2019ve helped lead writing worships and host writing groups and I am currently writing this very article as a participant in a totally awesome Portland writing group run by a dear friend.\n I\u2019ve never been \u201cjust a programmer\u201d, I\u2019ve run multiple programming blogs and forums and open source projects and chatrooms and have taught programming workshops and I work among other things as a consultant where I educate on the topic of coding as much as I write code personally.\n And so on and so forth, etc., etc.\nYet somehow, this concept has become a target of, er, controversy? \u2639\ufe0f\n\nSo imagine my surprise when the \u201cAge of AI\u201d is suddenly upon us somehow for some reason, and I am told, repeatedly, by multiple parties on LinkedIn and elsewhere, that finally, finally, FINALLY the gatekeepers are gone, the stingy artists with their stuck-up ways no longer hold influence, and the people, the PEOPLE have been liberated at last. \ud83d\ude03 Now you can create music and 3D graphics art and writing and code and all sorts of things, and it\u2019s all thanks to the miracle that is AI. \u2728\n\n?\n\n????\n\n?????? ??? ? ??? ???\n\n???? ?\n\n?? ??? ??\n\n? ????? ?? ???\n\n??? ???? ?\n\nI don\u2019t get it.\n\nThankfully I don\u2019t have to, because it\u2019s utter bollocks and I already debunked it in an issue of Cycles Hyped No More. That\u2019s not what this essay is about!\n\nWhat I\u2019d much rather talk about is how vitally important it is that now, more than ever, we stand together in solidarity as artists. And I don\u2019t mean than in a highfalutin way, I mean literally anyone who likes to self-identify as a creative person. We need to band together to strengthen and form communities where artists young and old are supported\u2026whether they\u2019re just getting started or they\u2019ve been in the game for 50 years.\n\nWe must celebrate traditions and breaking from those traditions, and relish the truth that most great art comes from the inherent tension between the two.\n\nWe must advocate for safe spaces where slop is out and craft is in and people know they are welcome to participate as their authentic selves without the specter of extractive capitalist overlords dictating the terms of engagement.\n\nFighting the \u201cLone Wolf\u201d syndrome\n\nAll right. I\u2019ve been making all these grandiose statements about loving art and being joyful in community, but I have an uncomfortable truth to share with you: I haven\u2019t always felt like how I\u2019m now describing myself. \ud83d\ude2d\n\nAt times I have suffered from a syndrome\u2014not Imposter Syndrome, that\u2019s an affliction I don\u2019t usually suffer from (make of that what you will!)\u2014which I call Lone Wolf syndrome. When I\u2019m in the throes of Lone Wolf syndrome, I somehow think there\u2019s nobody around to support me, or that apparently there\u2019s nothing valuable I have to offer. \u201cThey\u201d don\u2019t \u201cget me\u201d and that must be why I\u2019m not successful. I don\u2019t know how to collaborate with anybody in a meaningful way. I must be destined just to make art in a vacuum, experienced by an audience of virtually no one as I sink into an ever-darkening void. \ud83d\ude35\u200d\ud83d\udcab\n\nYeah yeah I know! That pity party better be over soon and enough with the stinkin\u2019 thinkin\u2019. But perhaps we all go through those sad times when the Lone Wolf has taken hold in our psyche and we can\u2019t seem to shake the bastard.\n\nFinding (or starting!) artistic communities where you feel like you can really fit in is hard sometimes. And maybe for you, right now, it\u2019s been hard for much longer that you ever thought possible.\n\nTime to give up, throw in the towel, call it a day! Stick a fork in it, you\u2019re done! \ud83e\udd69\n\nJust kidding. \ud83d\ude02 Sometimes it helps to name your worst fears and embrace them for a split second before you realize they are silly and unhelpful.\n\nThe best way that I\u2019ve found to fight Lone Wolf syndrome is to declare it is unacceptable for you to live in that state. Because it is unacceptable, you will of course need to make some changes in your life in order to get the results you deserve. But that\u2019s a topic for another day\u2026\n\nI will share one potential remedy however, as it dovetails with the theme of this essay.\n\nHow can you share the love? \ud83d\udc9e\n\nInstead of the \u201cnobody loves my art, I\u2019m all alone\u201d pity party, the inverse question you can start to ask yourself is \u201chow might I share the love of my art with others?\u201d And don\u2019t mean the love of your own art per se, I mean the love of the art form(s) you work in.\n\nMaybe you can write more about the techniques you like to use.\n Maybe you can make a video about your greatest creative inspirations.\n Maybe you can join a fanclub dedicated to other artists who are in the same overall genre as you.\n Maybe you can start a meetup group where people work on their art or the ideas for their art.\n Maybe you can launch a review blog where you highlight other artists\u2019 work.\n Maybe you can work up the courage to reach out to that \u201cfamous\u201d artist who makes you feel weak in the knees and see if they\u2019re actually just a regular person who would love to offer you a collaborative opportunity or at the very least a word of wisdom.\nAnd all of this is 2X, 3X, maybe even 10X as vitally import in the \u201cAge of AI (Slop)\u201d when real art and artists feel more devalued and unappreciated than ever. The best way to fight slop? It\u2019s to love. The Beatles were right after all: all you (we) need is love, and love is all we need.\n\nLove art. Love your art. Love their art. Love artists. Love the messy, difficult, fun, rewarding, challenging, frustrating, liberating process of making art while being human. \ud83e\udde0\n\nAnd at the risk of sounding totally hippie-dippie, your love of art, and your love of the love of art, can spark the change you wish to see in the world. \ud83c\udf38\u270c\ufe0f\ud83e\udd70\n\n\n\n\nPhoto credit: L\u01b0\u01a1ng \u0110\u1ea1t Nguy\u1ec5n on Pixabay\n\n\n\n \n\n \n #creativity"
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"name": "Sharing the Love of the Love of Art",
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I was reminded of Paradigm Shift’s 1995 self-titled album and how good it was. It’s not on any streaming services since the label is defunct, but there are some high quality YouTube uploads for it (playlist).
I started digging to see if they’re still making music. It looks like they are, with the latest track released in 2024:
{
"type": "entry",
"published": "2026-02-04 18:12-0800",
"url": "https://gregorlove.com/2026/02/paradigm-shift/",
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"music"
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"text": "I was reminded of Paradigm Shift\u2019s 1995 self-titled album and how good it was. It\u2019s not on any streaming services since the label is defunct, but there are some high quality YouTube uploads for it (playlist).\n\nI started digging to see if they\u2019re still making music. It looks like they are, with the latest track released in 2024:\n\n\u201cTalk to Me\u201d (2024)\n\n\u201cForce One\u201d (2023)\n\nTheir domain paradigmshiftbeats.com redirects to their Facebook, facebook.com/PShiftBeats. They are also on Instagram, instagram.com/pshiftbeats\n\nOne of the co-founders, Chris Sawyer, passed away in 2013 according to this Facebook post.",
"html": "<p>I was reminded of Paradigm Shift\u2019s 1995 <a href=\"https://www.discogs.com/master/2539588-Paradigm-Shift-Paradigm-Shift\">self-titled album</a> and how good it was. It\u2019s not on any streaming services since the label is defunct, but there are some high quality YouTube uploads for it (<a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrknKNv8FtI&list=PLGxWOkaSwLi4f7zFUY-fye8qqCKoocqo4\">playlist</a>).</p>\n\n<p>I started digging to see if they\u2019re still making music. It looks like they are, with the latest track released in 2024:</p>\n\n<p>\u201c<a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewruiX4nZ5o\">Talk to Me</a>\u201d (2024)<br />\n\u201c<a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ac0CyJlj44w\">Force One</a>\u201d (2023)</p>\n\n<p>Their domain <a href=\"https://paradigmshiftbeats.com\">paradigmshiftbeats.com</a> redirects to their Facebook, <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/PShiftBeats\">facebook.com/PShiftBeats</a>. They are also on Instagram, <a href=\"https://www.instagram.com/pshiftbeats/\">instagram.com/pshiftbeats</a></p>\n\n<p>One of the co-founders, Chris Sawyer, passed away in 2013 according to <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=505114399549092\">this Facebook post</a>.</p>"
},
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"type": "card",
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"url": "https://gregorlove.com/",
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Why yes I did burn CDs of the full length versions of all 100 of my #100DaysOfMusic songs organized into cohesive albums. And yes you can also find them on Spotify but this is much more fun.
{
"type": "entry",
"published": "2026-02-01T17:26:45-08:00",
"url": "https://aaronparecki.com/2026/02/01/15/",
"category": [
"music",
"100daysofmusic"
],
"photo": [
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],
"content": {
"text": "Why yes I did burn CDs of the full length versions of all 100 of my #100DaysOfMusic songs organized into cohesive albums. And yes you can also find them on Spotify but this is much more fun.",
"html": "Why yes I did burn CDs of the full length versions of all 100 of my <a href=\"https://aaronparecki.com/tag/100daysofmusic\">#100DaysOfMusic</a> songs organized into cohesive albums. And yes you can also find them on Spotify but this is much more fun."
},
"author": {
"type": "card",
"name": "Aaron Parecki",
"url": "https://aaronparecki.com/",
"photo": "https://aperture-media.p3k.io/aaronparecki.com/41061f9de825966faa22e9c42830e1d4a614a321213b4575b9488aa93f89817a.jpg"
},
"post-type": "photo",
"_id": "47232727",
"_source": "16"
}
When will riding in self driving cars get old? I try to do this at least once when I visit SF. I'm guessing it'll be at least 5 years before this is anywhere near normal.
{
"type": "entry",
"published": "2026-01-29T07:14:02-08:00",
"url": "https://aaronparecki.com/2026/01/29/30/",
"category": [
"travel",
"365"
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],
"content": {
"text": "When will riding in self driving cars get old? I try to do this at least once when I visit SF. I'm guessing it'll be at least 5 years before this is anywhere near normal."
},
"author": {
"type": "card",
"name": "Aaron Parecki",
"url": "https://aaronparecki.com/",
"photo": "https://aperture-media.p3k.io/aaronparecki.com/41061f9de825966faa22e9c42830e1d4a614a321213b4575b9488aa93f89817a.jpg"
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"_id": "47232585",
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Finally got around to tucking the exterior Ethernet runs into a box so there aren't random wires dangling from the side of the house anymore. In hindsight I would have placed these slightly better and put them inside a box in the wall, so this will do instead.
{
"type": "entry",
"published": "2026-01-31T16:30:34-08:00",
"url": "https://aaronparecki.com/2026/01/31/9/",
"category": [
"triplex",
"365"
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],
"content": {
"text": "Finally got around to tucking the exterior Ethernet runs into a box so there aren't random wires dangling from the side of the house anymore. In hindsight I would have placed these slightly better and put them inside a box in the wall, so this will do instead."
},
"author": {
"type": "card",
"name": "Aaron Parecki",
"url": "https://aaronparecki.com/",
"photo": "https://aperture-media.p3k.io/aaronparecki.com/41061f9de825966faa22e9c42830e1d4a614a321213b4575b9488aa93f89817a.jpg"
},
"post-type": "photo",
"_id": "47232562",
"_source": "16"
}
{
"type": "entry",
"published": "2026-01-24T20:00:00-0400",
"url": "https://martymcgui.re/2026/01/24/machine-knitting-the-life-and-death-of-dishcloth-chattie/",
"category": [
"machine-knitting",
"upcycling"
],
"name": "Machine knitting: the life and death of dishcloth chattie",
"content": {
"text": "I made this test-version of a chattie hat, learned some lessons, and decided I was ready to try a \"real\" one for producer Amy. I have this pretty-weird cotton-blend yarn that I got from Fab Scrap\u00a0some months ago. It's green, it's got slubs, some kind of elastic core maybe, I dunno. Every time I make something with it I think \"this feels like a dish cloth\".\nMirror-assisted selfie showing the front and back of the beanie known as the dishcloth chattie.The main body of the hat was made the same as my test version, with a little more care and no dropped stitches. I wanted to do as little off-machine hand-sewing as possible, so I started the rib with a fresh cast-on, then joined the finished rib to the hat body on the machine. I also hung the side edges together to seam up on the needle bed. This is where I made some mistakes!\nI sewed up the side seam inside out. \ud83e\udd26\u200d\u2642\ufe0f I was eventually able to un-pick the seam and re-do it, but popped some stitches in the process. Re-seaming was somewhat difficult.\n Once the seam was finished, I tried it on and found I had not made enough ribbing! This material is not very stretchy and I simply did not cast on enough stitches. The end result was a TIGHT band on the hat.\nThe photo above is slightly misleading - this was actually the hat right off the machine, before washing and blocking. The washed hat was too tight to wear.\nOh no!\nThankfully, Home Ec NYC\u00a0(the wonderful Brooklyn fiber arts workshop and studio of Hillary O'Dell) was hosting a sweater upcycling workshop, taught by Anne Warren, all about disassembling knits to reclaim yarn.\nProducer Amy and me, at a wooden work table, picking apart some knits.Amy has separated the band from the body of the hat.Everyone at the workshop was lovely. And it was so fun to learn that Anne is a machine knitter with a studio in Industry City, and a great newsletter full of local knitting events and resources!\nUnfortunately, the chattie did not survive being de-seamed, re-seamed, and de-seamed again. We weren't able to unwind it back into usable yarn.\nThank you for your brief service, dishcloth chattie. Sometimes our purpose in life is to serve as a warning to others. Your sacrifice shall not be in vain.\nKeen eyes might have noticed a familiar blue sweater\u00a0in front of me in those photos. I don't own any thrifted sweaters or other knits that I wanted to disassemble in the workshop, so I decided to embrace the circle of life. I decided to let go of my first sweater, and the crop-top life that could have been.\nI was able to fully unseam one arm of the sweater during the workshop.Back at home, I used my yarn winder to form to both unwind the sweater parts and cake the yarn at the same time.The five panels (front, back, sleeves, and neckline) became 8 balls of yarn of various sizes.While I didn't quite get the clean conversion of five panels into 5 big cakes of yarn, there was a lot less waste than I expected!\nHere's to this yarn becoming something new! Preferably not crop-length.",
"html": "<p>I made this <a href=\"https://martymcgui.re/2026/01/11/machine-knitting-a-chattie/\">test-version of a chattie hat</a>, learned some lessons, and decided I was ready to try a \"real\" one for producer Amy. I have this pretty-weird cotton-blend yarn that I got from <a href=\"https://shopfabscrap.org/\">Fab Scrap</a>\u00a0some months ago. It's green, it's got slubs, some kind of elastic core maybe, I dunno. Every time I make something with it I think \"this feels like a dish cloth\".</p>\n<img src=\"https://media.martymcgui.re/82/a6/01/01/604748ae3e66df020b06cc993f1ac5734adddf793f7caee2fca1d692.\" alt=\"\" />Mirror-assisted selfie showing the front and back of the beanie known as the dishcloth chattie.<p>The main body of the hat was made the same as my test version, with a little more care and no dropped stitches. I wanted to do as little off-machine hand-sewing as possible, so I started the rib with a fresh cast-on, then joined the finished rib to the hat body on the machine. I also hung the side edges together to seam up on the needle bed. This is where I made some mistakes!</p>\n<ul><li>I sewed up the side seam inside out. \ud83e\udd26\u200d\u2642\ufe0f I was eventually able to un-pick the seam and re-do it, but popped some stitches in the process. Re-seaming was somewhat difficult.</li>\n <li>Once the seam was finished, I tried it on and found I had not made enough ribbing! This material is not very stretchy and I simply did not cast on enough stitches. The end result was a TIGHT band on the hat.</li>\n</ul><p>The photo above is slightly misleading - this was actually the hat right off the machine, before washing and blocking. The washed hat was too tight to wear.</p>\n<p>Oh no!</p>\n<p>Thankfully, <a href=\"https://www.homeecnyc.com/\">Home Ec NYC</a>\u00a0(the wonderful Brooklyn fiber arts workshop and studio of Hillary O'Dell) was hosting a sweater upcycling workshop, taught by <a href=\"https://circularknittingjourney.substack.com/\">Anne Warren</a>, all about disassembling knits to reclaim yarn.</p>\n<img src=\"https://media.martymcgui.re/10/a5/99/d8/16ef4b52c4c162faa95f3a137ed07161d3200410e76780c38af3d9d3.\" alt=\"\" />Producer Amy and me, at a wooden work table, picking apart some knits.<img src=\"https://media.martymcgui.re/a0/da/8c/50/d450cf453242ee4ca0eaf9e360866d03f492cc553e0a22bbd1439556.\" alt=\"\" />Amy has separated the band from the body of the hat.<p>Everyone at the workshop was lovely. And it was so fun to learn that Anne is a machine knitter with a studio in Industry City, and a great newsletter full of local knitting events and resources!</p>\n<p>Unfortunately, the chattie did not survive being de-seamed, re-seamed, and de-seamed again. We weren't able to unwind it back into usable yarn.</p>\n<p>Thank you for your brief service, dishcloth chattie. Sometimes our purpose in life is to serve as a warning to others. Your sacrifice shall not be in vain.</p>\n<p>Keen eyes might have noticed a <a href=\"https://martymcgui.re/2025/10/20/machine-knitting-the-secret-sweater/\">familiar blue sweater</a>\u00a0in front of me in those photos. I don't own any thrifted sweaters or other knits that I wanted to disassemble in the workshop, so I decided to embrace the circle of life. I decided to let go of my first sweater, and the crop-top life that could have been.</p>\n<img src=\"https://media.martymcgui.re/7e/bb/e4/57/784cdbdc1cd642a856f2c6cf3f3a6bae0d5c6f47fd448a85b9c9b744.\" alt=\"\" />I was able to fully unseam one arm of the sweater during the workshop.<img src=\"https://media.martymcgui.re/bc/1a/3f/60/a31d64094b8f6fdc6f53506b681bbf1afc0d0807b049dedb204276f5.\" alt=\"\" />Back at home, I used my yarn winder to form to both unwind the sweater parts and cake the yarn at the same time.<img src=\"https://media.martymcgui.re/59/e3/73/fb/4950e0c6898cd1e209598e1bee933f2df11f01fd5c7d058fc1c283ed.\" alt=\"\" />The five panels (front, back, sleeves, and neckline) became 8 balls of yarn of various sizes.<p>While I didn't quite get the clean conversion of five panels into 5 big cakes of yarn, there was a lot less waste than I expected!</p>\n<p>Here's to this yarn becoming something new! Preferably not crop-length.</p>"
},
"author": {
"type": "card",
"name": "Marty McGuire",
"url": "https://martymcgui.re/",
"photo": "https://martymcgui.re/images/logo.jpg"
},
"post-type": "article",
"_id": "47196477",
"_source": "175"
}
{
"type": "entry",
"published": "2026-01-19T22:00:00-0400",
"url": "https://martymcgui.re/2026/01/19/machine-knitting-fabulous-scrap-yarn/",
"category": [
"machine-knitting",
"fab-scrap"
],
"name": "Machine knitting: fabulous scrap yarn!",
"content": {
"text": "\ud83c\udfbcRetro-post, retro-post. Post whatever, a retro post.\ud83c\udfb6\nFor producer Amy's birthday this year, we went to one of her favorite places: Fab Scrap!\nFab Scrap helps fashion brands divert pre-consumer waste to be recycled or resold. Fashion companies send them literal tons of\u00a0stuff\u00a0that needs to be sorted into what can be resold, what can be shredded, what's recyclable, and what's trash.\nThe perfect birthday activity? Doing a three-hour volunteer sorting session together. Afterwards, they let you take home up to 5 pounds of scrap from your own sorting or from their resale store. And 30% off items that are sold individually!\nAmy picked out a bunch of fabric goodies for her sewing projects, but I only had eyes for yarn. These are sold on cones, sometimes multiple pounds, in a pretty weird variety of materials and colors. I'm probably never going to find a fancy-schmancy merino wool, but there are some pretty neat cotton and synthetic blends in interesting colors and textures. They're already pretty affordable as-labeled, but at 30% off, it feels like a steal!\nSo, I filled up a bag and hauled a bunch home!\nBefore I can really make anything with these, I need to practice with them on the machine, find the right tension to work with them, and so on. So, it was time to make a bunch of tension swatches.\nFive knit swatches on a countertop. Details below.From left-to-right:\nA very fine dark blue, synthetic blend. This yarn is too thin to use single-ply, so I wound off a small sample and threaded in two strands. Even then, it knit at a very small stitch size. The swatch here is 40 stitches wide, with two sections of 50 rows each. One at tension T2 and one at T3. The stitch count is the same as the samples next to this one, but this fine stretchy yarn comes out quite small! I will probably try this in three or four ply, or combine it with another thin yarn, before planning a project with it.\n Neon pink cotton-synthetic blend. Nice and fuzzy! This needed to be knit at a much larger stitch size. This swatch is the same 40 stitches wide, with 3 sections of about 50 rows each, at T7, T8, and T9. It's so\u00a0pink! I'll probably use it for accent colors unless I come up with some absolutely ridiculous project.\n In the middle is a red acrylic yarn. It's slightly thinner and easier to work with than the fuzzy stuff. This swatch was made the same way as the pink swatch. It's a real\u00a0red's red.\n Next up, and this lighting doesn't do it justice, is a swatch of purple. This is a synthetic blend, that's very dense and not very stretchy. I made this swatch with the same 40 stitches and 3 sections of 50 rows. Suitable for Grimace cosplay, probably.\n Finally, the largest swatch is a neon safety-vest yellow swatch. This is bigger than the others because it's actually 50 stitches wide, and I did it in 4 tensions, from (I think) 7 to 10. Suitable for Big Bird cosplay, probably!\nWe learned that Fab Scrap would be hosting some special tours and sorting sessions for Martin Luther King Jr. day. So, of course, we signed up to return. I was a little more picky this time.\nTwo gauge swatches on a gray countertop. Descriptions below.On the left here is a bright safety-vest orange in my favorite fuzzy cotton-synthetic blend. On the right is a two-stranded blend of blue-green and white, also a cotton blend I think. Both swatches are 40 stitches with 3 sections of 50 rows each, at tensions T7, T8, and T9. The blue-green-white one was pretty painful to work with, and I dropped a bunch of stitches in the final section of the swatch. Thankfully it's just a swatch, so I was able to pick them up and work them into a section of waste yarn.\nNot pictured here is another very fine synthetic yarn, this one in light blue. I want to try this one three- or four-ply, maybe blended with the dark blue yarn from my first haul!\nSince these were all cotton and/or synthetics, I simply ran these through a machine wash and dry cycle on delicate. They haven't been pressed or steamed, so this is how they roll after drying.\nI should maybe plan to practice and swatch more than just plain stockinette with each yarn. Samples of ribbing and fair isle might save some time when considering which yarns might be good for project ideas. Then again, they might not be! Each project has its own needs, and I should be prepared to spend the time and materials experimenting to find combinations that work for each one.\nA lot of these yarns are on the\u00a0thicc\u00a0side for my setup - a standard gauge machine with needles spaced 4.5mm apart. This leads to a paradox where I have a\u00a0bunch\u00a0of yarn, but a lot of the projects I see out in the world are not really designed for these materials. I let this intimidate me more than I probably should. I can't help feeling that if I had more experience I would know better how these different yarns would produce different outcomes, or maybe that it was a mistake to purchase these.\nBut I don't know better, so I'm going to learn! Here's to putting these to good use!",
"html": "<p><i>\ud83c\udfbcRetro-post, retro-post. Post whatever, a retro post.\ud83c\udfb6</i></p>\n<p>For producer Amy's birthday this year, we went to one of her favorite places: <a href=\"https://fabscrap.org/\">Fab Scrap</a>!</p>\n<p>Fab Scrap helps fashion brands divert pre-consumer waste to be recycled or resold. Fashion companies send them literal tons of\u00a0<i>stuff</i>\u00a0that needs to be sorted into what can be resold, what can be shredded, what's recyclable, and what's trash.</p>\n<p>The perfect birthday activity? Doing a three-hour volunteer sorting session together. Afterwards, they let you take home up to 5 pounds of scrap from your own sorting or from their resale store. And 30% off items that are sold individually!</p>\n<p>Amy picked out a bunch of fabric goodies for her sewing projects, but I only had eyes for yarn. These are sold on cones, sometimes multiple pounds, in a pretty weird variety of materials and colors. I'm probably never going to find a fancy-schmancy merino wool, but there are some pretty neat cotton and synthetic blends in interesting colors and textures. They're already pretty affordable as-labeled, but at 30% off, it feels like a steal!</p>\n<p>So, I filled up a bag and hauled a bunch home!</p>\n<p>Before I can really make anything with these, I need to practice with them on the machine, find the right tension to work with them, and so on. So, it was time to make a bunch of tension swatches.</p>\n<img src=\"https://media.martymcgui.re/00/7a/e0/40/c90dc59dce77d5b68f4dcd1db810457e9f10cdf8a6ef8e8f81cd0758.\" alt=\"\" />Five knit swatches on a countertop. Details below.<p>From left-to-right:</p>\n<ul><li>A very fine dark blue, synthetic blend. This yarn is too thin to use single-ply, so I wound off a small sample and threaded in two strands. Even then, it knit at a very small stitch size. The swatch here is 40 stitches wide, with two sections of 50 rows each. One at tension T2 and one at T3. The stitch count is the same as the samples next to this one, but this fine stretchy yarn comes out quite small! I will probably try this in three or four ply, or combine it with another thin yarn, before planning a project with it.</li>\n <li>Neon pink cotton-synthetic blend. Nice and fuzzy! This needed to be knit at a much larger stitch size. This swatch is the same 40 stitches wide, with 3 sections of about 50 rows each, at T7, T8, and T9. It's so\u00a0<i>pink</i>! I'll probably use it for accent colors unless I come up with some absolutely ridiculous project.</li>\n <li>In the middle is a red acrylic yarn. It's slightly thinner and easier to work with than the fuzzy stuff. This swatch was made the same way as the pink swatch. It's a real\u00a0<i>red's red</i>.</li>\n <li>Next up, and this lighting doesn't do it justice, is a swatch of purple. This is a synthetic blend, that's very dense and not very stretchy. I made this swatch with the same 40 stitches and 3 sections of 50 rows. Suitable for Grimace cosplay, probably.</li>\n <li>Finally, the largest swatch is a neon safety-vest yellow swatch. This is bigger than the others because it's actually 50 stitches wide, and I did it in 4 tensions, from (I think) 7 to 10. Suitable for Big Bird cosplay, probably!</li>\n</ul><p>We learned that Fab Scrap would be hosting some special tours and sorting sessions for Martin Luther King Jr. day. So, of course, we signed up to return. I was a little more picky this time.</p>\n<img src=\"https://media.martymcgui.re/96/83/61/c5/112804af96043016f593f1cabfb9c40c882f7e88eb42b33b9557b0a2.\" alt=\"\" />Two gauge swatches on a gray countertop. Descriptions below.<p>On the left here is a bright safety-vest orange in my favorite fuzzy cotton-synthetic blend. On the right is a two-stranded blend of blue-green and white, also a cotton blend I think. Both swatches are 40 stitches with 3 sections of 50 rows each, at tensions T7, T8, and T9. The blue-green-white one was pretty painful to work with, and I dropped a bunch of stitches in the final section of the swatch. Thankfully it's just a swatch, so I was able to pick them up and work them into a section of waste yarn.</p>\n<p>Not pictured here is another very fine synthetic yarn, this one in light blue. I want to try this one three- or four-ply, maybe blended with the dark blue yarn from my first haul!</p>\n<p>Since these were all cotton and/or synthetics, I simply ran these through a machine wash and dry cycle on delicate. They haven't been pressed or steamed, so this is how they roll after drying.</p>\n<p>I should <i>maybe</i> plan to practice and swatch more than just plain stockinette with each yarn. Samples of ribbing and fair isle might save some time when considering which yarns might be good for project ideas. Then again, they might not be! Each project has its own needs, and I should be prepared to spend the time and materials experimenting to find combinations that work for each one.</p>\n<p>A lot of these yarns are on the\u00a0<i>thicc</i>\u00a0side for my setup - a standard gauge machine with needles spaced 4.5mm apart. This leads to a paradox where I have a\u00a0<i>bunch</i>\u00a0of yarn, but a lot of the projects I see out in the world are not really designed for these materials. I let this intimidate me more than I probably should. I can't help feeling that if I had more experience I would know better how these different yarns would produce different outcomes, or maybe that it was a mistake to purchase these.</p>\n<p>But I don't know better, so I'm going to learn! Here's to putting these to good use!</p>"
},
"author": {
"type": "card",
"name": "Marty McGuire",
"url": "https://martymcgui.re/",
"photo": "https://martymcgui.re/images/logo.jpg"
},
"post-type": "article",
"_id": "47196478",
"_source": "175"
}
at the @CSSWG.org (@CSSWG) F2F (face to face) meeting^1, hosted by @Apple.com (@Apple) in Cupertino. Not counting at #w3cTPAC, the prior #CSSWG F2F meeting I went to was 2.5y ago, also in Cupertino, and before that 2019 in SF. Good to see so many longterm colleagues in-person.
{
"type": "entry",
"published": "2026-01-28 14:24-0800",
"url": "https://tantek.com/2026/028/t1/csswg-f2f-apple-cupertino",
"category": [
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"text": "at the @CSSWG.org (@CSSWG) F2F (face to face) meeting^1, hosted by @Apple.com (@Apple) in Cupertino. Not counting at #w3cTPAC, the prior #CSSWG F2F meeting I went to was 2.5y ago, also in Cupertino, and before that 2019 in SF. Good to see so many longterm colleagues in-person.\n\n#W3C #CSS #webStandards\n\n^1 https://wiki.csswg.org/planning/cupertino-2026",
"html": "at the <a href=\"https://CSSWG.org\">@CSSWG.org</a> (<a class=\"h-cassis-username\" href=\"https://twitter.com/CSSWG\">@CSSWG</a>) F2F (face to face) meeting^1, hosted by <a href=\"https://Apple.com\">@Apple.com</a> (<a class=\"h-cassis-username\" href=\"https://twitter.com/Apple\">@Apple</a>) in Cupertino. Not counting at #<span class=\"p-category\">w3cTPAC</span>, the prior #<span class=\"p-category\">CSSWG</span> F2F meeting I went to was 2.5y ago, also in Cupertino, and before that 2019 in SF. Good to see so many longterm colleagues in-person.<br /><br />#<span class=\"p-category\">W3C</span> #<span class=\"p-category\">CSS</span> #<span class=\"p-category\">webStandards</span><br /><br />^1 <a href=\"https://wiki.csswg.org/planning/cupertino-2026\">https://wiki.csswg.org/planning/cupertino-2026</a>"
},
"author": {
"type": "card",
"name": "Tantek \u00c7elik",
"url": "https://tantek.com/",
"photo": "https://tantek.com/photo.jpg"
},
"post-type": "note",
"_id": "47194776",
"_source": "2460"
}
