Doing my favorite thing this morning, abandoning an opening course halfway through on Chessable to start a new one, goodbye 1.e4 e5 hello Sicilian

What's the purpose of saying that there's no position so extreme that someone could lose your vote? Especially this far out? You're effectively giving possible candidates the all clear to move as far right as they'd like. This seems foolish.

I used to dread the caro kann, and now with the Panov C6 is thrilling! it doesnt always go THIS well but this was a fun one

Amnesia Vivace YouTube video by Frank Zappa - Topic

I'm watching myself become one of those people that's obsessed with Frank Zappa. I listened to The Yellow Shark, Joe's Garage, and Hot Rats yesterday, loved them so much I'm just going chronological now. Freak Out was good, Absolutely Free is amazing. Stravinsky Refs galore in track 3.

Saw Bugonia, absolutely loved it, and what a huge moment for contrabassoonists everywhere! not often you hear that featured

If you abandon the game instead of resigning on chess.com you should lose double the elo.

I sacrificed, THE ROOOOOOOK! #chess is there any kind of chess BlueSky community? Thinking of doing a 100 days of chess type of thing

Chess game from chess.com with a rook sacrifice

And he sacrifices THE ROOOOOOOOOOK

The Ruy Lopez opening is so annoying to play against that I am just going to start using it myself. #chess

What was your favorite early clas NOT in your eventual major. Mine was Ethnomusicology: an introduction to folk music.

I am wondering what Natalie Wynn (contrapoints) could’ve said about Israel that wouldn’t have resulted in an internet dogpile.

There are only three political positions in America today

1) I like the fascism

2) I'll acquiesce to the fascism (reasons for this one vary: cowardice, access, denial, misguidedly thinking that acquiescence is savvy, etc)

3) I oppose the fascism

The rest is details

Ohio State announces it is now a joke.

A chessboard from chess.com showing 2 knights giving checkmate

Don’t ask my elo but just know I’m way prouder of this checkmate than I should be

If equal temperament has 1,000,000 haters, I am one of them.
If equal temperament has 1 hater, it is me.
If equal temperament has 0 haters, I am dead.

I think it’s time to reverse the curse everyone, we need to go back before the early modern era and set things right, I will be attempting to turn back time by playing the lute and using only 16th century chess openings, do your part.

The dog in question, 13 year old Merlin, a lab-hound mix.

Something that surprises me about having a 13 year old dog is that I have to tell him to slow down so he doesn’t get hurt. A truly bizarre combination of geriatric and toddler behavior

Every time I see Musk’s name in media it should be formatted like this

Elon Musk, who recently gave 2 Nazi salutes, …

“Clap on 2&4 never on 1&3!”

Hey. Stop clapping! You’re bothering me

Love those groovy covers! And that album

Posting like: who’s minority leader of the house, I would like a word with them!

I just finished Neal Stephenson’s Baroque Cycle. I liked it a lot but mostly I just want to say that I finished it because it’s almost 3000 pages long.

Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there--on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand. …To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known. — Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 1994

That’s here. That’s home. That’s us.

assignedmedia - Twitch assignedmedia streams live on Twitch! Check out their videos, sign up to chat, and join their community.

EXCITING ANNOUNCEMENT:

Assigned Media will be doing our first ever live Twitch stream this Monday.

Our trans journalists are counterprogramming the Trump inauguration. They'll play games, goof off, answer questions, and update you on the news, occasionally.

We've even got a special guest!

Luckily it’s easy to find lots of info that’s not conveniently threaded together based on the book, the podcast Historiansplaining has several eps that cover various topics in early modern Europe and they’re a favorite.

Halfway through the final novel of Neal Stephenson’s baroque cycle, and/or halfway through the 7th of 8 novels of the BC. Has anyone read this? I love it. I wish someone with actual credentials would do a historical series unpacking the history of the era the book is focused on.

Reporting to you from the other side of the rag, Glickman crushed it. it also seems I may have gotten the year wrong, the label on the LP says 1978 but I assume it must be the year of reissue as Stokowski died in 77. He was active til the end but was exclusive with Columbia beginning 76.

Stravinsky Histoire du Soldat [A Soldier’s Tale] ensemble info in alt text of next picture, album art depicts the soldier playing his violin attended by his gf, while the devil sneaks up behind him

Igor Stravinsky Speaking roles (In both French and English versions) MADELEINE MILHAUD, Narrator JEAN PIERRE AUMONT, the Soldier MARTIAL SINGHER, the Devil L'HISTOIRE DU SOLDAT (The Soldier's Tale) Libretto by C. F. Ramuz Instrumentalists Gerald Tarack, violin Julius Levine, double bass Charles Russo, clarinet Loren Glickman, bassoon Theodore Weis, trumpet John Swallow, trombone Raymond Desroches, percussion Conducted by LEOPOLD STOKOWSKI

Listening to a 1978 recording of Histoire du Soldat conducted by stokowski, probably one of my all time favorite pieces and if you’re a bassoonist incredibly fun to play (and wickedly hard!). Loren Glickman is crushing it on this record-although I haven’t gotten to the ragtime yet…

I say we rename Beethoven’s Große Fugue as one of the following

Beethoven’s Fat Ass Fugue
Big ‘n’ Juicy Fugue
Oh that fugue? She thicc.
Gyat-DAMN that fugue!
Dat fugue doe
Big Ol’ Fugue

Who’s with me!?

Top text of pg 1-2: A collection of 24 Magnificent Stereo Albums Every Home Should Have Page 1 of an included advertisement for the library which includes the selection process and pictures of the 24 albums

Bottom text from pg 1-2: 66 Musical Masterpieces Selected by Experts for your Family’s Enjoyment Page 2 of the ad for the family library, continued pictures of the included albums

Back page of the advert, includes the image of a wonderfully stylish binder to house all the included biographies, free with your purchase of album 2!

Some more images from inside the included brochure, I’m definitely going to have to track down this exclusive binder to store all the included composer biographies in