Alex Reed

1989-style computer labs in 2026 are a classic McLuhan-style reversal.

A lot of people say AI isn't very good for the world and its outputs are routinely unreliable, but these haters fail to see how it's revolutionizing how we incinerate schoolchildren.

A wonderful, overlooked singer. "Valentine Heart" simply crushes me.

RIP Bob Power, my colleague and sometime collaborator, brilliant engineer behind some of the greatest rap records ever

Screenshot of Mastodon user @scott@carfree.city writing: "As an ethical AI user, I begin each session by asking the chatbot to give a stolen data acknowledgement. It is an important first step toward justice."

Victims of their own success, unfairly maligned; "Walk on the Ocean" is secretly great.

Now I'm thinking about the "Don't You Want Me" dynamic: "five years later on, you've got the world at your feet."

Headcanon: in “Born To Run” when Bruce sings “I wanna die with you Wendy on the streets tonight in an everlasting kiss,” he’s singing to Wendy Carlos.

Wonderful to see his name. The Forbidden Zone and (of course) Wisconsin Death Trip both made a huge impression on me.

R.I.P. Éliane Radigue, one of the most innovative and radical composers of our century- if you haven’t heard her music yet, prepare for something simultaneously delicate and oceanic. I don’t love the word “genius” but she deserves it.

Really puts the WOO! in "Werke ohne Opuszahl."

Anonymity is one of the saddest casualties of AI slop. Now when a new act is "shrouded in mystery" with unidentifiable members, I just assume it's fake. And I hate that.

I really enjoyed and appreciated Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die. Dark and robust sci-fi comedy with explicit anti-AI messaging and surprisingly powerful 12 Monkeys energy.

After they make the Fanny Hensel movie, I really think the Gottschalk scandal deserves a film treatment. A hot mess for the ages.

a pug dog looking out a window with its tongue out ALT: a pug dog looking out a window with its tongue out

YES

Charles-Valentin Alkan - Étude WoO from Encyclopédie du Pianiste Compositeur (Viner) YouTube video by The Alkan Society

Do you know this facemelter by Alkan, from 1840?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVGc...

Despite the (ridiculous) "moderatissimo" marking, I think it would shred at about 200bpm.

This piece is great! Those downbeat dissonances around m61! I may use this the next time I teach a Theory 2 class.

Allowed!

(I am once again asking @bsky.app to allow a poll function.)

Strong Bad Email #109 - Crying YouTube video by homestarrunnerdotcom

See Li'l Brudder: www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1P_...

gotta say no, because then we'll wind up crying again and again over The Last Unicorn

No! But when I was in high school I saw him give a career retrospective talk with cartoons interspersed, and it was one of the best nights out of my teenage years!

Like, Chuck Jones drew thousands and thousands of frames for WB, yet I'm guessing that even he had to pause for his own laughter on this bit.

Almost none of them had encountered it. We were talking about compound time signatures, and Ride of the Valkyries is in 9/8, but I'm very disinclined to dignify Wagner by serving his music straight. Hence the sudden, inspired pivot.

March Madness cartoon horses bracket

It's very very hard to think of a better horse

My first-year music class just met this wonder.

Trying to get a lossless download of Kitty White's 1957 recording of "Three Ravens."

The very few places that seem to offer it all block U.S. access. I'm happy to reimburse anyone able to obtain it. Might any folks in EU/Asia be able to nab it?

Legendary composer Laurie Spiegel on the difference between algorithmic music and ‘AI’ Music Mouse is back for its 40th anniversary. 

Laurie Spiegel on the difference between algorithmic music and ‘AI’