Author: harold

Retrofandom

“It’s not that nothing happened in the music of the 2000s. In many ways, there was a manic bustle of micro-trends, subgenres and recombinant styles. But by far the most momentous transformations related to our modes of consumption and distribution, and these have encouraged the escalation of retromania. We’ve become victims of our ever-increasing capacity to store, organize, instantly access, and share vast amounts of cultural data. Not only has there never before been a society so obsessed with the cultural artifacts of its immediate past, but there has never before been a society that is able to access the immediate past so easily and so copiously.”

Reading Retromania by Simon Reynolds.

Lots to ponder here. Implications about the now, the future, how it relates to the world we’re in. It’s fascinating.

This book was written ten years ago and Bruno Mars (and so many others, including myself) is still doing 70s/80s stuff. I keep thinking that in terms of core values, those two decades are peak musicianship: from influences to straight samples, the 1970s and 1980s boast the biggest, tastiest meal of all.

We’re still eating at that table. And that’s fine. Or is it?

Me Myself&I

Lot going on around

South Korea had around 8,000 deaths from COVID since the beginning. They just got 2,000 new deaths in the last month, after relaxing all precautions.

Here in the US, we’re still over 10K deaths a week. That’s before the mask mandates disappear totally.

It must be wild to be Russian and against Putin since the beginning. Witnessing the West embrace him for twenty years, trying to survive in this crazy giant country by doing a lot of work online, and losing it all in ten days after every single western company stopped being active there. Confusion. Anger.

Meanwhile, we’re still importing Russian gas. And while the western media pokes fun at the Russians, it looks like they are moving fast and steady.

Europe. It’s lost the UK and now France and Germany are as awkward as ever while Germany is boosting its defense by the most ever since WWII. The rest of Europe has barely any power over European decisions, and it shows. But they know how hard it was to get into the EU –Greece remembers- and now they get to witness Ukraine, Moldavia and Bulgaria get on the VIP list, maybe about to get into the EU through a fast lane. Confusion. Anger.

It’s hot.

Me Myself&I

Pushing 🅿️pfizer

My booster shot hitting my body like

I will sleep tonight. I sure will.

Me Myself&I

Team basketball >>>

There’s tons of hot takes about the Lakers, probably.

But the main lesson is very simple: basketball is a team sport, and the bigger, stronger the team, the better.

My Spurs are tasting blood, losing close games or winning with poise. They’re not doing so well but the team spirit is alive. It’s visible from YouTube highlights.

The Clippers have been phenomenal. Winning a back to back game down 30 points on the road? They did that. With basically their third unit. That’s a deep team. They hustle, play hard, progress.

The Lakers are a bunch of individuals making way too much money.

Me Myself&I

War Hot takes

I still can’t wrap my head around what’s going on over there. The West acting like we didn’t welcome Putin at every opportunity since he came out of Russia lol.

It must be wild in those darknet/hacker/nsa streets right now.

This morning I was at the French embassy, reminding me that I was technically in France, reminding me of borders and stuff. When you become international, borders make even less sense. So war for territory? Just visit, bro.

We are so inter-dependent. Ubisoft having studios in Ukraine for instance. If aliens exist, they must be rolling on the floor right now. “those animals don’t even realize that they’re shooting themselves in the foot repeatedly, these mfs have NO memory LMAOOO”

It’s really harsh to experience how progress is so not linear. We get apartheid and the Berlin wall out, next second we have 20 years of occupation in Afghanistan while the Queen, Occupation OG #1 is still here!

I just read this headline:

“The US Space Force plans to start patrolling the area around the Moon”

For what, skaters using the parking lot? WHAT IS GOING ON

Me Myself&I

There’s no presence anymore

Post author By harold
Post date March 3, 2022
No Comments on There’s no presence anymore

In 2020 my neighbor across the street had a baby. He would go out in the morning with his son in his arms. Then the baby was in a stroller. By the end of the year, the baby was walking.

This man never looked away from his phone. Pretty much the whole time.

I keep being horrified by the memory. That first year of development in a child is so freaking amazing, unique and short. I’m mad at that man and engineers crafting that pull to scroll. We came to accept the neck-down-the-phone behavior and that was a wrap.

There’s no presence anymore.

Audio&Games Music

Epic x Bandcamp

Interesting.

Why would Epic do that? They have enormous platforms with Fortnite and the Unreal game toolchain. They did deals with the music industry –concerts with millions in Epic’s metaverse- but I bet the majors were too slow for a software company. Plus, the majors are risk averse which is the opposite of game development. Just not the same mindset.

Enters Bandcamp. Bandcamp has been doing its thing since the beginning and I’ve always loved the platform. Tons of great, diverse music, but also (probably) tons of legal issues with sampling. Because they’ve been small, the copyright holders never went at the indie company. The indie company grew and is quite popular these days, attracting eyes.

So Epic x Bandcamp makes sense. Epic gets to promote ready-to-roll indie artists in their metaverse, and legally and financially protect Bandcamp. They also now own an unlimited amount of music for any of their products, ala Sketchfab. This is pretty great for streamers (and Bandcamp artists).

The possibilities for virality –the mother of all filthy profits these days- through crossovers are definitely huge.

Now as usual with monopolies and powerful companies, there’s a risk for Epic to misbehave and abuse their position. For now though, we can’t say much.

My bandcamp page.

Me Myself&I

Period

Post author By harold
Post date March 2, 2022
No Comments on Period

I’m super big on UBI these days because of NFTs.

We live in a world where we apparently have those, sure.

Then UBI should absolutely exist. That’s the least we should do, right?

Me Myself&I

Big Government

I’m voting for the presidential elections in France this year and the far-right is super hot.

I’m also becoming an American citizen, after eight straight years on California soil.

It’s super intense because if I think about democracies, the right to vote, conflicts etc. Boy, am I in the luckiest tier of humanity with both US and French passports in my hands soon. Not that they mean as much as they used to I guess, but still.

Big responsibilities. I take them.

Me Myself&I

That timeline though

Dear future,

I don’t know what to say but it feels like there’s something noticeable happening right now. A moment in history.

The blend of old problems, new technology, current algorithms. Everyone and everything dissociates constantly.

I think it’s the oscillation; it’s way too powerful. One second you are slammed to the left, laughing on the floor at a meme or a moment in a show. The next one you are slammed to the right watching war footage from 30 minutes ago, while NBA and pandemic scores float above it all. Social media is all kind of batshit crazy.

It’s really way wild right now.