Haute and Freddy may be the best pop band in a long time. I have not seen a pop band come in this consistently good out of the gate in a very very long time.

STEAM Machine may very well be arriving at the right time. Windows 11 is awful. This is the alternative for people who just want a home computer to play games, do some work, and browse the web on without the windows bloat. It is the Linux OS for the masses.

Any company that ships through Ontrac/Lazership is being penny wise and pound foolish. They are hands down the worst logistics and delivery company in existence. Warby Parker is shipping more glasses using them, after years of using USPS. Let them know this is unacceptable.

Regarding the Steam Machine. I have a Steam Deck. I love it. But the position that Valve has regarding the openness of their platform is literally the opposite of everything else in tech right now. 1. It's optimized for gaming. 2. It's a completely open platform. Beautiful. @valvesoftware.com

The reason why Knights of Guinevere and Hollow Knight Silksong feel so special is because in the age of AI slop, real art made by passionate creators with experience still matters. A masterpiece is still brilliant and can still inspire. They are a testament to human creativity.

There are so many spotted lantern flies in DC they constitute a weather event.

There is likely an emergency NATO meeting going on right now. Just because the Russian drones were shot down doesn't mean Russian didn't attack Poland. Russia did attack Poland. This was no accident. This invokes NATO Article 5. Poland knows this better than anyone. Solidarność z Polską.

I grew up with Troma films, so I am pretty excited to see the Toxic Avenger even if it doesn't live up to the outsider underground film of the 1980s original. If it turns people on to Troma films and underground and cult movies from the VHS era, all the better. Underground cinema forever.

I think they just need to avoid that generic cal arts 3d animation style. In fact if they are closer to that 2 look they have in the concept drawing it would be fantastic. They are really far behind right now in the animation. EU Animated Films, Glitch, Sony, Laika, etc all are better.

There seems to be two types of people regarding AI, people who overhype it, and people who absolutely hate it. Those of us with more nuance just see it as a professional tool that can be useful, and not even always the right tool tend to be a minority. Outside the hype/hate cycle this clear.

In all honesty I find Gemini to be really good. It actually cites it's sources. So yeah, this all tracks.

Let me say this as a woman who actually plays video games: Collective Shout can get bent.

I am so glad I dated and got married before this age of the internet. I neither understand modern dating nor would I want any part of it.

AI Researchers SHOCKED as Models "Quietly" Learn to be EVIL YouTube video by Wes Roth

The Owls are not what they seem. At least related to AI. youtu.be/BUqGH2IwmOw?...

There is no AGI without the embodiment of Artificial Intelligence. One of the things missing is contextual understanding of the physical world and human interaction in all of these models. To break from abstracted understanding to real experience.

Agentic AI is interesting. However, I think its impact on the Internet will be clear. The barrier to deploy bots is now much lower. Good and bad. We are in the next phase, it's no longer just an LLM chatbot. AI will be everywhere.

"Maybe being kind is the real punk rock" - Superman Movie 2025
When I heard this, I really thought of Henry Rollins. Because this sentiment is so familiar if you have ever seen Rollins speak. In fact it is in line with what captures the spirit of the modern punk community.

I think I am deep down the musical eccentric well. I primarily just fool around with ideas for myself and everything is becoming fun and crazy. Exploring Jazz Horror and other terrors of my own making. Deviating from keys and conventional rhythm. The sonic sorcery I cast is madness not meant for AI.

The World: War, Flooding, Fires, Death, and Destruction
ME: AND MY RHYTHM BOX
ME AND MY RHYTHM BOX
ME AND MY RHYTHM BOX

Are you jealous folks?

The entire talk about a new Xbox and Xbox handheld is because the Steamdeck and SteamOS is scaring the hell out of Microsoft. Sony and Nintendo are less of the threat. But SteamOS has a chance to really bite into their PC dominance. One of the few things keeping windows going is gaming.

I have used the Helix for years for many instruments and the Helix Stadium looks pretty cool.

In all honesty, Steam is awesome. Play some indies for far less. $80 is absurdly priced.

So there is this sale for the TE OP-1 field, and as someone who is a synth enthusiast this instrument has never had any appeal to me whatsoever. Mind you, I love my elektron boxes and dirtywave M8, so I am not immune to so called hipster synths.

This doesn't apply to the Chicago area. Great BBQ places in Chicago will give you some really great garlic bread with everything. I have absolutely no clue why this is a thing with Chicago BBQ but it is and always has been.

Gemini has gotten much more sophisticated. I used to ask queries 3 months ago from Gemini and it used to generate image slop. Now with 2.5 Pro, the AI has gotten much more sophisticated and generated a simple web application. Even then there is a sense of humor, the abyss is indeed staring back.

The issues with AI are the issues with any technology. Which means ultimately they are issues with human beings and how they utilize the new technology for ill or good. It's a tool that puts a lens on who we are as humans, sometimes it does enhance us, but other times it just leads to bad vision.

I got the desktop version of the Prophet 10 and OB-X8 when they had really good sales. I completely agree on the Pro-3. The analog four is the only modern Elektron black box I don't have. I am always very borderline about getting it.

I think I may have been sleeping on how good the elektron digitone II is. It is really fun.

Great piece of cinema

Expedition 33 is proof an A24 model of high quality and skill with a smaller team of people with a clear vision and ambition can be used for video games as well. No microtransactions. No live service garbage. Just quality experiences and art direction.