Apple Music Replay 2023

Replay 2023

See the full-sized image here.

• Apple Music Share URL
• WTF Shortlink – https://davidblue.wtf/am23
• Playlist ID: pl.rp-0AA8HygLJv7
• Market Tools

   
• I will not revise them beyond the backspace key (within reason.)

   

• I will be as honest and genuine with you as I can be with myself.

   

• I will not revisit them after they’re sent. 

   

• I will not write you out of vanity.

   

• I will only write you when I feel like it.

   

• I will write you whenever I feel like it. 

There’s an obvious common thread, there. I have internalized words as my function, and my pride has long since turned to obsession over my voice. It has all but ruined my ability to tell stories. I may ramble. I may get things very wrong, but I have to learn how to do so, again.

I think I’ll start with some more intimate works I’ve been sitting on for a good while.

Until then,
David

• For God’s Sake, Just Sit Down to Piss
  • Outline

    • Preface

      • Not necessarily directed at young men of color. (Or definitely not directed at them, but at white, CIS, straight young men.)
      • Describing the “real” scope of my authority.
        • While I have not traveled outside of America whatsoever, I have traveled within it fairly extensively.
        • My authority is especially strong when it comes to protestant Christianity.
      • Function of the book.

    • Chapter 1: “I Don’t Care What You/They Think”

      “Apathy’s Misconceptions”
      “Apathy Misconceived”

      • You do not actually want to attain a state of true apathy, trust me.
      • Chris Cuomo exists.
      • Z-Ro
      • Apathy is even argued for in the Christian Bible. (The opinion of other people does not matter, only God’s.)

        • 3 Bible Verses for When You Feel Judged By Others | Bible Blog

          Galatians 1:10: “Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.”

    • Chapter 2: “Music Taste Through Generations”

      “Boomers’ Destructive Generational Tastemaking Disaster”

      • Quote From the Bandcamp Essay
        • It’s bewildering how content we are to abruptly abandon the substance music had to our teenage selves out of misconstrued justifications for our classic fainéance – actively choosing to subject our public ambiance to thousands of replays of “the best” records in favor of dipping even the most cowardly toe into unfamiliar waters, even when the opportunity cost is inherently halved – only to then have the audacity to evangelize our dilapidated conceptions of “good music” to our children as we demonize the music of their generation, depriving them of a very essential rite of their cognitive development. I can think of little more reductive, repugnant, reckless, or racist crusades as a model figure than indoctrinating your child with an inherent distaste for their own culture, and nothing more deeply alarming to hear from the mouth of someone born in the 21st century than shit like “Queen was better than any rapper will ever be,” or “real musicianship will die forever with Eric Clapton.” It’s unfair and unnatural: imagine if your high school classmates had consistently turned up their scrunched nose at the living whole of rock & roll, declaring Scott Joplin to be the last musician they could stand.
        • Consider if the industry-wide customer experience standard for the musical ambiance in 1970s American eating and drinking establishments was entirely comprised of works by John Phillip Souza, and the most prevalent cultural revolution manifested itself something like the following: In countless popular films set in the time (and the stories told today by your parents of their youths that informs them,) a group of popular high school boys – generally three longtime childhood friends and a single addition from the previous summer with an Army Dad and a moderate bad boy aura that’s made him one of the school’s notoriously attractive students and the somewhat-abusive leader in the pack. After spending some time trying to convince the other three (the crucial moment for his case being the bad kid’s rare moment of sincerity trope) of its guaranteed social, sexual and financial ROI, they seal their agreement to start a band with a four-way saliva slap. Imagine if in the progression of this exhausted old tale, it remained entirely classic (and boring) when it faded to a “THREE MONTHS LATER…” ceiling shot of the four the in full, gleaming, performance-spec get-up of the presidential marching band in their garage, and it was revealed that they’d they practiced “The Star Spangled Banner” every night just to make the girls swoon in the film’s resolution with an encore of “America the Beautiful” at an unsanctioned (and very patriotic!) house party. Would you have made out on your first date with someone in your 80s high school Chemistry class after they’d was about but suffice it to say that it’s absolutely fucking bonkers how often I encounter “Sweet Home Alabama” (and other tunes I’ve already heard hundreds of times throughout the first third of my existence, conservatively) dripping down from the overhead speakers in all manner of big retail stores, where it’s inappropriate and unwelcome. Even from the generous assumption that every single one of them is an objective masterwork of composition, the amount of affection the American music listening audience has for the same 500 singles is on par with our rampant gun violence in terms of our unanimous tolerance for ridiculously illogical habits. I’ve been sitting in a cute, moderately trendy coffee shop on the corner of the major avenue of access to my cute, moderately trendy Portland neighborhood for an hour now, and I’ve recognized every single one of the tracks played just a bit too loudly on the stereo. I’ve been sick of them all since Middle School. That one Bow Bow Chicka Chicka thing… How very charming. “The 70s, the 80s… the one-hit wonder channel!”
        • Contrary to the popular hipster narrative we’ve just defeated, it’s not the popularity of the lineup that makes these experiences so distasteful, but their regularity. It doesn’t take a doctor of psychology to observe that tireless exposure to any given work of art inevitably erodes its value, yet we continue to expend resources saturating most mundane spaces in our society with an unyielding regurgitation of the same brackish pop culture symbols as if we’re trying to either induce a canonical vomit, intentionally obliterate the Yelp! reviews for a distant future museum’s “North America Enters the 21st Century” exhibit, or both.
      • This issue is not unique to American society nor to men, really, but is entirely the sickness of white boomers and gen Xers. It is an anomaly that has genuinely and profoundly perturbed me for virtually the entirety of my existence as a culturally literate entity – certainly longer than any of the other disturbances addressed in this volume.
      • The process of jazz becoming mainstream (which I think it had definitely by the 1940s.)
      • “Boomers’ Destructive Generational Tastemaking Disaster”

    • Catcalling

    • Clothes

    • Stuff we should keep to ourselves

  • Credits
    • “I’m laughing at you and the best part is you won’t truly understand why, in any deep and meaningful way, for another 20 years.” – JustSomeGuy on Mastodon

Noun

1. state of disgrace resulting from public abuse
   • Synonyms
     • opprobrium
   • Less specific
     • shame
     • disgrace
     • ignominy
2. a false accusation of an offense or a malicious misrepresentation of someone’s words or actions
   • Synonyms
     • defamation
     • calumny
     • calumniation
     • traducement
     • hatchet job
   • Less specific
     • disparagement
     • depreciation
     • derogation
   • More specific
     • character assassination
     • assassination
     • blackwash
     • smear
     • vilification
     • malignment
     • libel
     • slander
     • name calling
     • names
     • name
     • epithet
   • Related
     • badmouth
     • malign
     • traduce
     • drag through the mud
     • calumniatory
     • calumnious
     • defamatory
     • denigrative
     • denigrating
     • denigratory
     • libellous
     • libelous
     • slanderous
     • defame
     • slander
     • smirch
     • asperse
     • denigrate
     • calumniate
     • smear
     • sully
     • besmirch
     • defame
     • slander
     • smirch
     • asperse
     • denigrate
     • calumniate
     • smear
     • sully
     • besmirch

• obloquy – LookUp

noun

1. strong public condemnation

he endured years of contempt and obloquy

disgrace, especially that brought about by public condemnation

conduct to which no more obloquy could reasonably attach

Origin

late Middle English : from late Latin obloquium contradiction , from Latin obloqui , from ob- against + loqui speak

Thesaurus

Noun

1. he endured years of contempt and obloquy

Similar Words: vilification opprobrium vituperation condemnation castigation denunciation abuse criticism censure flak defamation denigration disparagement derogation slander revilement reviling calumny calumniation execration excoriation lambasting upbraiding bad press character assassination attack invective libel insults aspersions mud-slinging bad-mouthing tongue-lashing stick verbal slagging off contumely animadversion objurgation

Opposites: praise

2. conduct to which no moral obloquy could reasonably attach

Similar Words: disgrace dishonour shame discredit stigma humiliation loss of face ignominy odium opprobrium disfavour disrepute ill repute infamy notoriety scandal stain disesteem

Opposites: honour

• Whyp
• Raw File

As of iOS17, it would appear that responsibility for synthesizing the Default Greeting preview (locally on one’s device) has now fallen to whichever Siri voice you currently have selected in settings at the time.

Upon noticing this, I verified that the actual recording a missed caller will hear is the same (apparently carrier-side) as its been since before the trees and rocks on Earth and it occurred to me just how much better stock, out of the box Siri Voice 2 sounds than her, so I gave it a shot.

I plan to leave it as my greeting for the time being so – if you’re curious/require hearing what your missed callers will actually hear – horrendous noise and all – I would encourage you to call me, anytime). I do not experience or follow up with unknown callers unless they leave a voicemail… which I’d also be more than fine with you doing.

+1 (573) 823-4380

Enjoy!

E

— Skrillex (@Skrillex) May 15, 2010

It came to my attention today that my good friend Sonny Moore (commonly known as Skrillex) Tweeted “E” from his BlackBerry at 0732 CST on May 15th, 2010. If I’m ever given the opportunity to interview him, I’ll begin by questioning his choice in smartphones. (Can you imagine how awful the Twitter for BlackBerry client must’ve looked in 2010?)

From what I’ve sampled of his art, I’m confident he’s an emotionally intelligent man, and probably not house producer Joel Zimmerman (commonly known as Deadmau5.) The most arresting evidence supporting this supposition is hair. Sonny Moore is not house producer Joel Zimmerman. I could be wrong, of course, but that’d only mean that both Sonny Moore and house producer Joel Zimmerman possess a slightly above-average ability to slow time and examine us as we obliviously go about our lives in slow motion. It could even be possible that house producer Joel Zimmerman is examining my big ole’ ears at this very moment in mild distaste. I guess I’d be able to hear him if he scoffed, but I think it would be down-pitched and extraordinarily terrifying.

Considering, allow me to tangent shortly and ask house producer Joel Zimmerman to keep any newfound otorhinolaryngological judgments to himself, if at all possible. If you must speak, Mr. Joel Zimmerman, please try your best not to frighten me.

Lots of individuals in my circles frequently chide Skrillex about his alleged misunderstanding of corporeality. While it is true that he’s been known to occasionally forgo performing at events in favor of desperately demanding answers from his audience to questions like “how big am I?” “how are we able to breathe in here?” and “who is the whispering lady who turns off the sun?!” I don’t think he is befit of such a reputation. In fact, I think Skrillex’s ability to make his irresistible clanking is one we should all aspire to hone. While we are kept on edge sometimes by the day-to-day stresses of contemporary life, Skrillex is able to clank them away and see the world from the broadest, slowest perspective – as a demigod.

epistolary

• Write.as

Adjective

1. written in the form of or carried on by letters or correspondence; “an endless sequence of epistolary love affairs”; “the epistolatory novel”
   • Synonyms
     • epistolatory
   • Similar to
     • informal
   • Related
     • epistle

• epistolary – LookUp

Adjective

1. Literature (of a literary work) in the form of letters
   an epistolary novel

Literary relating to the writing of letters.

Origin

mid 17th century: from French épistolaire or Latin epistolaris, from epistola (see epistle)

being real…

The Agony & The Ecstasy of the iPhone 12 Pro Max

Precisely 4750 days ago (give or take a few hours,) my First Generation iPhone was activated on an exceptionally cold Saturday – January 19th, 2008, a little over a week before my 14th birthday. In the time since, Apple has spread over 1 Billion of these devices across this planet. The Internet that gave that first device the i in its name has expanded by a factor of twenty or more. Consumer technology’s future seemed more and more exciting up to a point (I have always said iOS7, but obviously, it varies) when progress suddenly made less and less sense, rendering that future newly and profoundly confusing, and the bearing Western society would be taking there less and less coherent. Many of us are left now in that profound confusion, completely bewildered by anyone and everyone else’s personal utopia.

Myself and my peers’ development as human beings coincided with the development of this metamorphosis in such a way that suggested humor at the spectacle of it all might be the safest way to cope. For myself, I should report, now, at 27 years old – having witnessed the most significant expansion of our species’ intellectual capabilities (and corresponding divisions) in its history just since 8th grade – that the humor has run entirely out. Determining what remains has been my own prime interpersonal struggle as of late, but I can at least tell you for certain that whatever it is exists in a more absolute state of inevitability than I could have ever imagined possible as I watched some AT&T employee crumple the clear plastic wrapping away from that most extraordinary matte black rectangular box containing my very first iPhone.[^1]

It was an 8GB first-generation. I named­ it “Bob Geldoff” because I had absolutely no idea who that was,[^2] which I found hilarious.­ In the (admittedly unsolicited) self-psychoanalysis I’ve ended up in, these past few months, I would suggest that handset remains the single most powerful symbol of an era in my life when the future of technology felt absolutely enamoring. We were going to get to try everything just because we could, and it was going to make everything better. I watched and read the forming of the *Gadget Blogger- generation – Joshua Topolsky, then Joanna Stern, Paul Miller, Nilay Patel, Dieter Bohn, and others, all led by their seniors Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher – who would eventually form the establishment technology media as it stands right now. On early tech YouTube, my friend and I worshipped SoldierKnowsBest, iJustine, and Jon4Lakers from our MacBooks – Mark Watson, Justine Ezarik, and Jon Rettinger, respectively – who managed to convey with their embedded iSight cameras the sort of Consumer Tech Hype which can become addicting, especially to those young minds searching for a simple framework from which to understand existence and time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HX6R88QZB0

Big words for a cellular telephone review, eh? I realize I’ve already lost many of you, but I do not despair, for

“This *really is- my last iPhone.”

This is the last sentence of my very sentimental iPhone 8 Plus review from May, 2018, in which I bemoaned Apple’s decision to finally retire the basic hardware configuration which had defined the marque’s first ten years, citing my “loyalty.”

In the past half year, I have come to realize that the device which I now hold in my hands – which I cling to, in fact, at all hours and completely without reason – is the absolute manifestation of everything my 14-year-old, first generation iPhone-adopting self could have possibly dreamt of in its future. Unlike that iPhone 8 Plus review – which was a very sentimental reflection on “the last iPhone” designed in the configuration I had understood for a decade and therefore accompanied by a bunch of foolhardy lamentations *bitching- about the iPhone X – this review will be one of sincere wonderment regarding the thing, itself, first, before taking flight into a wider critique of our current consumer technology ethos.

Taken out of 2021 context and placed in my 14-year-old hand in 2009, this Pacific Blue iPhone 12 Pro Max would not have disappointed me in the slightest. By that, I mean… It is as unimaginably capable as I would have imagined. It eclipsed any compromising capability distinctions from desktop computers long ago, cast its tethers to the Old Ways off, and ascended into what I would have regarded as a true p o w e r o b j e c t. On this cellular telephone, I have run complex commands in a full Linux shell, captured massive 4K/60fps video files of myself falling over, played console-class video games and *streamed them live in HD- simultaneously, archived entire web domains locally, and on and on… In fact, this iPhone has done the majority of these measurably better than any desktop computer I have ever owned.

All of these capabilities contained within a form factor that has been smushed, you might say, in comparison to that First Generation device[^3]. It has slimmed by nearly half a centimeter (4.2mm,) widened by 17.1mm, and lengthened by 45.8mm, though it’s also gained almost 60% in mass – from 135 to 228 g – which I personally found the most surprising statistic. In fact, it invalidates literally years of my suppositions that increases in newer iPhones’ apparent resistance to drop trauma over time was certainly because they were getting lighter,[^4] but no… *Heft- is luxury… *Excess- is a point of pride… *Sensation- has become the upmost ideal of hardware interface design.

These past months, I have indulged myself thoroughly in the company of this long-dormant *Handset Enthusiast- part of me – this dork who seems to be infinitely enchanted by conversations vaguely about innovation in a business which seemed almost inevitably alienating of anyone who didn’t care enough about some unexotic discussion in the tech community to a demonstrably obsessive degree. Again, the experience has screamed over and over again that I am extremely vulnerable to high computing capability. In other words, the more a computer can do, the more I want to see what I can do *with- it. For a very long time, iPhone OS’ locked downness actually helped me tremendously in this regard.

about the tools we use to make things: how we learned to make them, how we learned to learn to use them, and how we learned to teach others – identifying it *truly- and meditating

It is a guarantee that no matter where I may go or who I may find myself unwittingly surrounded by, the option to escape into my own Computing World *in its entirety- and more – not just an abbreviated, *Mobile– facsimile – shall from now on and forever be with me, there against my right asscheek, just a grab and a glance away. Like The Holy Spirit was it pledged and prepared to stay by my side.

down to a depth of six feetYa know, I’m actually astonished by how much of this ritual *hasn’t- changed.

[1] I may actually be the most qualified person on Earth to reflect on this subject, given that I represent the very first microgeneration to have smartphones for all of our adult lives. (Just barely.)

[2] I still have no idea who Bob Geldoff is.

[3] Unfortunately, my own First Generation was lost during my Portland Debacle in 2017.

[4] Both public and private, unfortunately.