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Another newsletter, another experiment in format.
If you’re reading this, hit like or reply and say hi or something or give me feedback (feedforward?), because without interaction I forget I have this thing.
What I’m reading:
Birds And Frogs In Physics - “Birds are thinkers who look at the big picture and survey the landscape from a great height. Frogs are thinkers who love playing around in the mud of specific problems, delighting in finding gems and then polishing them so that they become part of the superstructure that birds survey.”
I want to be a frogbird.
A cool website:
Map of the Best - Helps you find good restaurants around you. Remove AAA and Gayot for best results. Found a few new places around me with this!
What I’m listening to:
Audiobook: Chip War. (I still think it should have been plural.) I’m learning a LOT from this, especially about how TSMC is pivotal to Taiwan’s security and also how they basically control all modern semiconductor production. Incredible. It’s obvious the US needs a pure play manufacturer, but who is going to spend the $5 billion to do this?
Music: Enjoy the Silence. Next month I’m going to DCFC’s 20th anniversary tour for Transatlanticism (their best album, let’s fight about it), but honestly mostly because Pedro the Lion is opening for the Santa Barbara Bowl show. I’ve been listening to David Bazan in PTL since mid-90’s even before DCFC and I’ve been to a bunch of his house shows and I think he’s brilliant and this doc is worth a watch. Anyway I saw a clip of DCFC + The Postal Service playing a cover of Depeche Mode’s “Enjoy the Silence” (their cover is a bit meh… maybe it’ll get better by the time they come around to my side of the country) — but it made me wonder, how many times has this song been covered?
Well I think the answer is like dozens of thousands? My search led me to lullaby versions (not too bad) and punk (NUFAN must have thrown this together) and french (is this a genre?) and psychobilly and then to my final destination: 8-bit.
That led me to 8-bit misfits and I realized this is not a “band” it’s a business PUMPING OUT THE PRODUCT (check out how many songs/albums they have on every platform). So I traced ownership back to Roma Music Group and they have a ton of these copycat music uhhhhh groups? “Twinkle Twinkle Little Rockstar” where you can listen to lullaby’s of Jimmy Buffet (their version of jumping on trending news), “Midnight String Quartet” has a nice classical version of Miley Cyrus’ Wrecking Ball for your next wedding. Etc etc they have a bunch of these genre things. It’s interesting they made a whole business out of this. I won’t lie I considered for a minute if we should add this kind of thing to Brainjolt somehow.
Anyway my favorite cover has always been Nada Surf’s feel free to try and change my mind but listen honestly it might even be better than the original they got rid of that second minor chord WHICH I KNOW IS COOL and avant-garde or whatever but also kinda obnoxious and vampire-y.
What I’m watching:
TV: Silo. It’s engrossing, which is nice because I haven’t had a show grab my attention in a while. Also I just didn’t have the desire to watch TV, still mostly don’t.
Youtube: The Deadly Basement of a 4chan Doomer (Documentary). I watched this over a week or so of lunches… it’s just all so weird and sad and unbelievable.
TikTok: Pill bugs are not insects. I’ve always loved roly polies, I had no idea they breathe through gills! NO DO NOT SLANDER THEM BY CALLING THEM WOOD LICE!!!
Bonus: Cursor Parks
// Josh
PS: Confession… I played the entire wrecking ball classical song.
Thanks to Emily for pointing out this new format to me!
8 bit misfits is worth rabbit hole'n!