https://mgoldstein.nyc Mitch Goldstein Fri, 12 Dec 2025 23:53:59 +0000 https://mgoldstein.nyc en http://mgoldstein.nyc/Things-I-Liked-2025 Fri, 12 Dec 2025 23:53:59 +0000 Mitch Goldstein 458728 Things I Liked: 2025 Another year. Another unsorted list. Good health and fortune to you and yours for 2026. – MJG&nbsp; (See previous years: 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024) <img width="1440" height="2160" width_o="1440" height_o="2160" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/629d181728349e59cd2374b1b49e3ecb48b39cf9e56bc10bc2fdbdf0fc1f1b25/blueprince.jpg" data-mid="1427254" border="0" data-scale="40"/> Blue Prince Blue Prince is a puzzle wrapped in a puzzle wrapped in yet another puzzle of a video game. You play as a young boy who has been left a manor estate in the will of your grandfather, but to receive it you first must reach its mysterious 46th room. To reach the 46th room, you “draft” (in both the architectural sense and cards-in-a-deck sense) rooms. Interconnected rooms may contain puzzles themselves, as do objects and items in some rooms, and so on and so on. Deceivingly simple at first, the game quickly reveals deeper and deeper layers unto itself, and its own game logic. It was one of the first games in a long time that, upon hitting the credits screen, left me wanting to return to continue to figure out more of it even after “beating” the game. <img width="1000" height="1000" width_o="1000" height_o="1000" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/75f78e7189c6e78d267ddd507b927ce4ece9d1448eceab8a0003e11dbd9a5af5/waving.jpg" data-mid="1427255" border="0" data-scale="40"/>I’ll Be Waving As You Drive Away by Hayden PedigoBorderline psychedelic country western ragas from Pedigo had this record in heavy rotation for me this year. It's great music for writing or working (instrumental, but not ambient!), and also just a fascinating exploration in how much one can still wring from a guitar. While this album is bordering on the genre of “blissed out,” another stand out record this year comes from Pedigo’s collaboration with noise/sludge band Chat Pile, In The Earth Again. <img width="1500" height="2000" width_o="1500" height_o="2000" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/196b4e078743eb32d2a7966dc192c480cd35dd67cb7147cb2d5bda0b3b812986/CP1.jpg" data-mid="1427256" border="0" data-scale="40"/>KM5 CP1 CD Player I’ve been on the internet long enough to know better than to make public pronouncements of new trends, and yet. One of the few shots I called earlier this year was that we’d start to see a mainstream-ification of the return of CDs as a media format (following the years-long ebbs and flow of vinyl in many facets of culture, a subject for another time.) For my own use, and also for use at Cafe Music events, I picked up a new portable CD player from Japanese brand KM5. The CP1 is slightly overkill for what I needed, but on aesthetic principles alone it’s pretty hard to top. The clear model pictured above was released in collaboration with BEAMS, was easy enough to buy online (though this was all pre-tariff mess.) USB C rechargeable, bluetooth connectivity built in, anti-skip, lightweight, and easy to bring with me in a tote bag or leave perched up next to my record player. When I first posted the picture above on my Instagram, multiple fellow heads reached out to inquire and a few bought CD players of their own. Year of the CD indeed… <img width="2764" height="4096" width_o="2764" height_o="4096" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/d4051f16ab7d51c72ee2680b0d8f2fa063f8352c238684e8556f1301dc712dc1/OBAA.jpg" data-mid="1427257" border="0" data-scale="40"/>One Battle After Another Another PTA film inspired by a Pynchon novel? Sign me up. One Battle After Another was maybe my most memorable theatre experience this year. A tale of revolution, a send-up of American political power aptly timed, and one liners delivered in such a way they are buried deep in my brain still (“a few small beers.”) Leonardo DiCaprio is, y’know, Leo, so no surprises there, but Teyana Taylor and Chase Infiniti both shine in roles that they seem born to play and Sean Penn as the film’s antagonist gave the already over-the-top film a bit more over-the-top-ness. <img width="1200" height="1800" width_o="1200" height_o="1800" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/b994585c137da89ba1fb0fdafaca2080e62388187804064b0bbc4b19759e5904/bf6.jpg" data-mid="1427258" border="0" data-scale="40"/>Battlefield 6 I’ve long been a fan of Battlefield games, though famously their quality has waxed and waned over time. The last major release, Battlefield 2046, was infamously buggy at launch, but eventually got to a decent state a year and change later. The previous WWI and WWII set games, Battlefield 1 and Battlefield V respectively, (look I will not give any praise to the naming structure of the series) were both great and when developer EA started saying that the next game in the franchise would be a return to that style of game along with comparisons to fan favorite Bad Company 2, hopes were high. It turns out that many gamers still just want a FPS game where you can squad up with friends and cause a lot of destruction, and BF6 delivers that in spades. The single player campaign was… fine (a thin plot aiming for Tom Clancy levels of twists that falls flat, predictable missions, and so on…) and a not-so-surprise drop of a free-to-play Battle Royale mode titled REDSEC gave the game a much needed boost in player count that led to the games industry announcing that for the first time in a very long time, Battlefield had toppled Call of Duty as the FPS game of the year. <img width="1000" height="1000" width_o="1000" height_o="1000" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/385625cf10bed60b3a198abf2ebf8081ac1761cbe41924859a5a45618bfd0039/HD600.jpg" data-mid="1427259" border="0" data-scale="40"/> Sennheiser HD600 Headphones One of my least favorite things this year has been the amount of construction happening on my block. A trusty pair of Sony WH-1000XM5 are still my preferred noise cancelling headphones, but in the heat of the summer in a Brooklyn apartment, a new problem arose: my ears were getting too hot. So, after some research and settling on wanting to try out a pair of open back headphones (both for audio and the aforementioned “head getting too hot”) I picked up a pair of HD600’s which have since become my daily drivers while at my desk at home. More comfortable to wear for longer periods of time, avoiding “ear fatigue,” and delivering a great wide sound stage with well balanced audio. <img width="1200" height="1304" width_o="1200" height_o="1304" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/10db6aba75c3c1a9cbd200e7df2dbeb4f5ce37040721fe92030aa3eb43456b6e/silksong.jpg" data-mid="1427260" border="0" data-scale="40"/>Hollow Knight: Silksong A game that diehard fans had been waiting so long for that even a teaser of it became a meme unto itself finally came out this year. Silksong is the sequel to cult(?) hit Hollow Knight, building on the Metroidvania platformer that I never made much progress in. Silksong, debatably, has a slightly easier on ramp to it than Hollow Knight, and builds upon its predecessor’s fantastic art and sound design. At its core, you're a bug, with a needle, fight other bugs and monsters in a fantastical world. Through extremely well crafted game design, you explore, uncover, and progress through a gated world utilizing new tools and tactics to further your progress. Boss fights, borrowing from Souls-like games, are increasingly hard to the point that multiple times in the game’s first act (when I was still coming to grips with the game’s combat systems) I’d have to take a break for a day or two. I still never beat this game, for what it’s worth, but roughly half of the game I’ve played has stuck with me long enough to merit its entry here.[An aside before these next few; I am not one for big grand New Year’s resolutions, but a silent goal for the year was to try and make a point to go see more live music. Perhaps one of the best things about living in New York is that almost every tour you want to see will stop through here. On the flip side, seeing music in New York has become an extremely expensive pain in the ass. Death to Ticketmaster.] <img width="3024" height="4032" width_o="3024" height_o="4032" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/de3277802e3446087a757d28e7011b019833d222c0ebd4fd25bc7482ca955d50/lenderman.jpg" data-mid="1427261" border="0" data-scale="40"/>MJ Lenderman: Live at Brooklyn Steel Given that Lenderman’s Manning Fireworks made my list of things last year, I was happy to catch him on tour at Brooklyn Steel early in the year. A set covering most of the album plus a few older tracks and a cover of Patterson Hood thrown in for good measure stuck with me, so it was a nice surprise to see the whole show as an official YouTube release a short while later. <img width="3024" height="4032" width_o="3024" height_o="4032" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/496fa335921ba623332fc3ec94b973eea727c06a87f8910dc08760b639085cba/nala.JPG" data-mid="1427263" border="0" data-scale="40"/>Nala Sinephro at St. Ann and the Holy Trinity Another from last year’s list, Sinephro’s Endlessness, became the soundtrack to a lot of reading and working. A chance performance of the suite was announced at a church in Brooklyn Heights, with tickets very quickly getting grabbed up. A friend had bought two and in our group chat offered up the spare which I was quick to jump on. To hear it performed live was spellbinding, aided in no small part by the atmosphere of a near pin drop quiet and pitch black church, save for the lights on stage. <img width="3024" height="4032" width_o="3024" height_o="4032" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/f236737d02ec018823974230660b957ee4c012228b68c96cf75dfe26767dcd96/arkestra.JPG" data-mid="1427264" border="0" data-scale="40"/>Sun Ra Arkestra at SFJAZZ Work had me traveling for a few weeks straight this summer, ending up in the Bay Area after filming near Stanford and hanging out in Palo Alto for a few days. Reconnecting with a friend who by chance had a spare ticket gifted to her to catch the first night of the Arkestra’s run at SFJAZZ. Blessed with basically front row tickets, that also got us to the GA area, had us dancing with the band at points of the night. After a long run of work, it was a release to take in some cosmic space jazz. <img width="3024" height="4032" width_o="3024" height_o="4032" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/c1258d31348c2e13539f6e34236f5b23da3493a0e97b011194f07118b1f9ac6f/sturgill.jpeg" data-mid="1427265" border="0" data-scale="40"/><img width="3024" height="4032" width_o="3024" height_o="4032" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/b5d0ed4ea065e2dc28e232388cdde54eb20d16e25e6add4d76254d3a14fca16b/deadandco.jpeg" data-mid="1427266" border="0" data-scale="40"/> Sturgill Simpson and Dead and Co. at Golden Gate Park Look, if the work trip was going to drop me in San Francisco and it just so happened to coincide with the 70th anniversary shows of the Dead… I’ve discussed this all day affair with my more heady inclined friends already so to save the rest of you the more intricate details: the show was great, the crowd was not. It was great to finally catch Sturgill Simpson live, having missed or been out of town the last two or three times he was playing in New York, and compared to the first night of the three night run, Dead and Company sounded great. I even managed to find a cousin and some college buddies in a crowd of 70,000. <img width="3024" height="4032" width_o="3024" height_o="4032" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/1dffa9785f071e0a91d54bc33b69a7e08adee0720dbd6f597c271edf3638e0bf/neil.jpeg" data-mid="1427267" border="0" data-scale="40"/> Neil Young and the Chrome Hearts at Jones BeachI don’t think I’ve been to Jones Beach since I was a kid, when my parents took my brother and I to see Jimmy Buffett. Coincidentally, my parents happened to be in town for the weekend and, on a whim, decided we should get tickets and rent a car and go catch Neil at Jones Beach, and so we did. It was a great set, mixing hits, B-sides, and a few contemporary tracks. Even at 80 years old, Neil sounded great on both guitar and vocals. <img width="1200" height="1800" width_o="1200" height_o="1800" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/6989ac78b178502eec8ceaa7798c4920702b47371eb91318dde08fccf7257e71/babysteps.jpg" data-mid="1427268" border="0" data-scale="40"/>Baby Steps Baby Steps is an incredibly funny game, and an incredibly frustrating game, that is vaguely about contemporary toxic masculinity. Made by a small team including indie game maker Bennet Foddy, maybe best known for QWOP, which shares some DNA with Baby Steps. You play as Nate, a 35 year old failson. You get sucked into your television and placed into a video game world. Unlike most video games you’ve ever played wherein you move the left analog stick forward and your character automatically walks, in Baby Steps you have to control each leg individually. Through progressively challenging terrain, puzzles, and obstacles you meet other characters, many of whom are pantsless donkeys. The writing in the game is Flight of the Concords-esque humor; self referential, and extremely sharp, with cut scenes both hilarious and absurd. <img width="2876" height="3834" width_o="2876" height_o="3834" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/b2a8d82e1b0fcd6d96f1a058d04fcfe7cc88c447b9f353b8f4c765028ea8d596/maine1.jpeg" data-mid="1427269" border="0" data-scale="40"/><img width="3024" height="4032" width_o="3024" height_o="4032" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/f1b93526ea6f1f0ffebca69e31b148486fb1d7a7699cc8a68d7ad332dceb0abf/maine2.jpeg" data-mid="1427270" border="0" data-scale="40"/>Acadia National Park/A Visit to Maine Towards the end of summer, I shared a rented house in Hancock, Maine with a group of friends, about a 30 or 40 minute drive away from Acadia. We managed a few hikes, seeing a fair bit of the park and getting to jump into the (very cold by that point) ocean. The trailheads aren’t the most accessible compared to some of the other national parks I’ve visited, but once you’re on a hike you quickly feel removed from the infrastructure of the park in a nice way. Quick stops in nearby Bar Harbor and Ellsworth made for some good meals, but we spent most nights cooking big dinners, taking out kayaks, and sitting around a fire pit at the house we’d rented. <img width="4284" height="5712" width_o="4284" height_o="5712" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/9baf6f4ff67b5acdf372a5194e2fff1b1ed003c4ff0e609741c6269d418ee918/skye1.jpeg" data-mid="1427271" border="0" data-scale="40"/><img width="2928" height="3904" width_o="2928" height_o="3904" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/e5ac276f8b477d661259f23c756719a5223c2ad5b3a7043327cdf0484a2eeeab/skye2.jpeg" data-mid="1427272" border="0" data-scale="40"/> Isle of Skye If you’re going to do a destination wedding, it helps to maybe do it somewhere your guests otherwise might not go to. My friends got married in September on the Isle of Skye, with the wedding party bookending the trip in Edinburgh. With the little time we had in Edinburgh, the city didn’t exactly grab me. Skye, however, felt otherworldly. Lush rolling hills, a roadside stop at a castle on the bus ride, and mostly fantastic weather save for the actual wedding day (“It’s like rain on your wedding day”), and an afternoon tour of photo spots made for a brief but great visit. <img width="3024" height="4032" width_o="3024" height_o="4032" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/8b88f2798535e3139f3964879d88dfb2e16d5e494876bffc72cb4c0214f6b949/cindylee.jpeg" data-mid="1427273" border="0" data-scale="40"/>Cindy Lee at Brooklyn Paramount Diamond Jubilee was one of my favorites from last year, and it feels like it remains one of those secret handshake records among music heads in my circles. I missed out on tickets for the Brooklyn Paramount shows and couldn’t justify the steep resale prices, but a friend reached out with an extra ticket the week of the show so sometimes it just works out. Lee’s set, already lauded, was nothing short of watching an artist hold the entire venue in the palm of their hands. The entire place fell silent as they walked out, adjusted their microphone, and started singing. Outside of applause between songs the audience remained largely quiet throughout the rest of the show (a blessing in a year that left me mired with encounters with chompers.) With very little dialogue between songs save for a “thank you” and a dedication, and Lee’s guitar playing sans guitar strap led to an almost theatre performance energy. <img width="1440" height="2160" width_o="1440" height_o="2160" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/e8a890fba61e7c6f373366310ef821af3c0514896aeba6d52c3a7c25aacebd9f/arcraiders.jpg" data-mid="1427274" border="0" data-scale="40"/>Arc Raiders Extraction shooters are a divisive genre to say the least. The most popular of the genre, Escape From Tarkov, exists as a complex network of systems, menu management, and rage inducing runs leaving you with no progress. The gameplay loop is simple; build a loadout, deploy to a map, fight (both against other players and NPCs), loot, and make your way to an extraction point. If you fail to extract (either from dying or from running out of time), you lose all the equipment you brought in with you or collected. Frankly, I never saw the appeal. The games ask hours of commitment for miniscule progress and, at least for Tarkov, your progress is wiped entirely at the end of each “season” of the game. Someone described Arc Raiders as “Tarkov for adults with jobs” which has become the elevator pitch for many gamers. The NPC enemies are all sci-fi robots, there is a loose narrative about a post-apocalyptic world ravaged by machines, more importantly the gameplay feels good and is easy to grasp. Inventory management, once you get the basics down, is simple and you can quickly progress to “endgame” loot and join others in limited time events to take down very very large robots. In-game proximity chat leads to a meta layer of social gameplay: can you trust the stranger you just met, who is also armed to the teeth? Can you talk your way out of a stand off next to a pile of loot? It quickly climbed up the ranks of what we wanted to play among the group I play games with. <img width="1200" height="1200" width_o="1200" height_o="1200" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/c56042c26faf045693e014729b4082bb9cbd292e05956f8360795711c0719c5c/caroline.jpg" data-mid="1427275" border="0" data-scale="40"/>Caroline 2 by caroline Post folk emo rock is back(?) Really just a great step forward in what was already a pretty good year for “guitar music.” The first single, Total euphoria, has a moment that just hits you like a wave and then continues building from there. Caroline takes the genre in some interesting directions, pushing towards a more post-rock production style (overwhelmingly warm and distorted) but in the same turn pulls in Caroline Polachek for a guest vocal spot. <img width="3024" height="4032" width_o="3024" height_o="4032" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/5ae72743d3689c3f4dea1ce947a37100c3a9f32106a7da07aeb1e703e1b6cb1c/paul.jpeg" data-mid="1427279" border="0" data-scale="40"/>Paul Spring and Friends at Sunny’s I got turned on to Paul’s music through a friend who plays with him. Paul’s music is great and his output is somewhat prolific, having released two albums this year, one of which is entirely written and sung in Classical Latin. During last winter, Paul held a residency at Sunny’s, a classic favorite down in Red Hook, with a semi rotating cast of musicians (including my pal Jon) sitting in alongside him doing mixed sets of his originals and covers in the wheelhouse of John Prine, Neil Young, and Gillian Welch. Intimate and cozy, (though by the time the residency returned this winter it felt like it was basically standing room only), the performances made for a good night out. <img width="1200" height="1200" width_o="1200" height_o="1200" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/e7439258cbc41de0e2cb12f1ecf7e016a4c24584f7eaf9a012954edc2b1b06e4/paradise.jpg" data-mid="1427277" border="0" data-scale="40"/>Paradise Pop. 10 by Christian Lee Hutson Another win for the year in guitar music, Hutson’s latest release has some extremely good songwriting and lyrics. Catching his album release show in Brooklyn (featuring cameos by a cloaked and hooded Phoebe Bridgers, singing harmonies on a few songs) bore out that the album basically works as a setlist. Songs about heart break and hopes, one inspired by a short story a fan sent him about a mediocre version of heaven, and others that feel like short stories of their own. Few other artists right now evoke a sense of backstory and character narratives like you’ll find here. <img width="1200" height="1200" width_o="1200" height_o="1200" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/928c88543dd610ae2aa52f930f224cdaf64f3170f25f3930ac5c613f1c2e6c5b/geese.jpg" data-mid="1427278" border="0" data-scale="40"/>Getting Killed by Geese By the numbers, my album of the year. The band’s 2023 album 3D Country was good, but didn’t hook me, but this one? Sheesh. Enough ink has been spilled by others (I would point you towards GQ’s profile of the band) to set the stage for what the young band is up to and how willing they are to experiment and fuck around to produce something that sounds significantly new. Certainly feeling like a band du jour, most critics have heaped praise on the album and the band instantly sold out their shows in New York, leading to resale prices of $800+ (I can not stress enough how many times I got pissed off at Ticketmaster this year.) I can’t find it again now but I remember a post saying that if The Strokes Is This It was “the” post-9/11 album, Getting Killed might be the first “post” (I know, I know) Covid-19 album. It feels apt, there are certain emotions and gradients of anger and other forlorn emotions that feel inherently tied to life in America post 2024. Well worth watching the band’s From The Basement performance, too.Honorable mentions: Racing Mount Pleasant by Racing Mount Pleasant Box for Buddy, Box for Star by This Is Lorelei Loud and Clear by Brian Anderson The Rest is Noise by Alex Ross Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe&nbsp; Sinners Pluribus Things I Liked: 2025 Another year. Another unsorted list. Good health and fortune to you and yours for 2026. – MJG&nbsp; (See previous years: 2021, 2022,... http://mgoldstein.nyc/Where-Social-Media-Likely-Goes-From-Here Wed, 08 Jan 2025 20:55:41 +0000 Mitch Goldstein 455411 Where Social Media (Likely) Goes From Here Yesterday, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Meta would be kowtowing to the pressures of the incoming Trump administration and roll back its efforts to fact check its platforms Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and Whatsapp. The policy update, which reportedly was given ahead of time to the Trump camp, was initially announced on Fox News by Meta’s new head of policy Joel Kaplan (replacing Nick Clegg as of last week), and was not announced via email, push notification, or in app notification to Meta’s billions of users. In effect, Zuckerberg and Meta really were only trying to reach one person with the announcement of what they were doing. Trump, during a press conference later in the day yesterday, said Zuckerberg was “probably” responding to his threats against Zuckerberg personally and Meta as a company. It is clear then that the policy, safety, and moderation changes that were initially made in large part because of posts from Trump, far right wing extremists, and fascist groups, are being removed to welcome hate speech back onto Meta’s platforms and apps. If history is any guide, it is highly unlikely that Meta will be the last company to alter its policies in the face of the transition of power in the coming weeks. Everyone in the industry will be keeping a close eye on Google, Microsoft, Apple, and Reddit to see what they do. Nobody in the industry wants to be the first mover, but once Meta has cleared the way there is little to prevent other platforms and social networks from following suit. Facebook and Instagram existed before the active third-party fact checking on the platforms, and even some of the third-party partners in the fact checking program criticized how it was utilized and put into effect (unclearly, too slowly, or otherwise.) The fact of the matter was that Meta was in effect helping keep a lot of these fact checking organizations in operation, paying some of them hundreds of thousands of dollars or more a year for their services. That money will now stop, and it is unclear if the organizations will be able to continue on. While the removal of third-party fact checkers and a transition towards community note style moderation was the headline story, there are other deeper policy changes that read to me as far more serious to the long term health and usability of Meta platforms. In response to “recent elections” that “feel like a cultural tipping point towards … prioritizing speech” Meta is loosening its content policies around topics Zuckerbeg described as “out of touch with mainstream discourse.” (I would love someone to ask Mark what he meant by this!) These include topics such as gender, gender presentation, sexuality, immigration, religion, and “civic content” which is how Meta sometimes refers to content about politics. Updates to the company’s Hateful Conduct policies specifically calls out that it is now fully permissible to refer to lesbian, gay, trans, and queer people as “mentally ill” on the company’s platforms. Additionally, the policies now state you are allowed to say LGBTQ people should not be allowed in the military, or to teach in schools, or use public restrooms. You are now also allowed to refer to women as household objects, per the revised policies. A provision that forbade targeting people based on race, gender, religion, or ethnicity as “spreading the coronavirus” has been removed, so that users may now freely blame the next pandemic on the group of their choosing. Prior to yesterday, there were additional restrictions on the kinds of content that could be placed in paid ads or boosted posts to ensure that one could not easily create hate speech and then amplify it to a massive audience. Those additional restrictions appear to have been removed. The opening of Meta’s hateful content policies page used to say that hateful content “may promote offline violence.” That sentence has also been removed. In case there was any doubt of the intention of these policy shifts, Zuckerberg also stated in his announcement video that “we're going to move our trust and safety and content moderation teams out of California, and our US-based content review is going to be based in Texas.” (Never mind that there were already trust and safety teams based in Texas.) Why? “I think that will help us build trust to do this work in places where there is less concern about the bias of our teams,” said Zuckerberg. People in California are more “biased” than those in Texas, apparently. I wonder what he could mean by that… It is clear what kind of speech Meta is choosing to prioritize here, it is not the kind of speech a decent or civil society particularly enjoys. The alteration of these policies, in addition to the shift towards community note style fact checking (which, to note, have no evidence towards working better or more effectively than the third-party fact checking system previously in place), have led a former Meta employee to say that it is likely a “precursor for genocide.” Without a change in course, we are very likely going to see an increase in hate speech (one only needs to look at the increase in hate speech on Twitter/X after Musk’s takeover and gutting of the company’s Trust and Safety team), as well as an increase in politically radicalizing content. On top of that, disinformation and misinformation will flourish, especially when a system like community notes can be easily gamed or brigaded, and will not do anything to prevent the algorithmic spread of such information designed to go as wide as, and reach as many people as possible. The industry watched as there was an exodus from Twitter as users, especially those representative of a minority or other protected group, left the platform for other online spaces where they felt safer. I do not think it is unforeseeable that a similar exodus could occur from Meta’s platforms. As someone who has spent a majority of my career working on the business end of social media marketing, I also would flag that this change in direction and policy is going to create far higher likelihood and possibilities of advertising content appearing next to “non brand-safe” content. The Coca-Cola’s and Nike’s of the world do not want their ads appearing next to posts calling a gay person mentally ill, so it is also possible we see advertising dollars allocated away from Meta platforms as well. We are perhaps entering a new chapter in social media. One where AI profiles appear on your feeds, hate speech is openly welcome, and we are stuck to self moderate the results. We have watched as internet activity has moved behind closed doors, with Discord groups and private DM chats surging in popularity over the last decade, especially over the last 6 years. We will likely see further moves towards more closely moderated spaces. With Twitter/X’s slip from mainstream relevance, we saw a fragmenting of social activity as different groups moved their activity to different platforms. We will likely see another surge in new signups to Bluesky, and possibly new platforms will emerge to offer an alternative to Instagram or Facebook, where videos and photos were more prioritized than text posts (something that most other smaller or alternative platforms can’t or don’t intend to do.) As with every new seismic shift in the social media landscape, those of us dependent on these platforms for our careers and livelihoods are stuck in the lurch, waiting to see what happens next. This time around, that likely means we’ll be exposed to an increase in hate speech, some of it directly attacking those who run the accounts of brands and companies on Facebook, Instagram and Threads. We will have to again explain to our bosses and leadership that because Meta is now “prioritizing free speech” there is likely little we can do to stem any hateful comments on our posts besides turning all comments off or walking away from the platform entirely. We will be asked to justify our ad spend, or advocate against it, with knowledge we are or would be giving money directly to the host of said hate speech. It isn’t going to be fun. But hey, at least we get to mess around on Facebook and Instagram all day as a job, right? Mitch Goldstein Jan. 8, 2025 Further reading: Meta to End Fact-Checking Program in Shift Ahead of Trump Term - The New York Times Mark Zuckerberg’s Political Evolution, From Apologies to No More Apologies - The New York Times The X-ification of Meta - WIRED Mark Zuckerberg’s Eternal Apology Tour - New York Magazine Meta is getting rid of fact checkers. Zuckerberg acknowledged more harmful content will appear on the platforms now - CNN Business Meta surrenders to the right on speech - Platformer Zuckerberg officially gives up - Garbage Day Where Social Media (Likely) Goes From Here Yesterday, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Meta would be kowtowing to the pressures of the incoming Trump administration... http://mgoldstein.nyc/Things-I-Liked-2024 Thu, 05 Dec 2024 15:10:54 +0000 Mitch Goldstein 455099 Things I Liked 2024 Another unsorted list of things from this year. Health and happiness to you and yours in 2025. -MJG&nbsp; <img width="700" height="700" width_o="700" height_o="700" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/ffba718ffed3ac5bd964b0be97f30d9591400caee13e7d99f176732d23d82193/a4102233832_65.jpg" data-mid="1386916" border="0" /> Bright Future by Adrienne Lenker Heartbreakingly soft, with some real gut punch lyricism, Big Thief frontwoman’s solo album release of the year is packed with some great songwriting. Songs about love, death, heartbreak, all set to sometimes haunting sometimes jaunty folk tunes. <img width="700" height="700" width_o="700" height_o="700" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/5556879de9dcf6359f8ff9da9f6eb24ffbd1055de884cddbf685468e59597393/a0163036795_65.jpg" data-mid="1386917" border="0" /> Two Star and the Dream Police by Mk.gee Mk.gee’s sound is hard to define, which is partly what drew myself (and many others, I’m sure) into the debut album. Super distorted guitars, synth pad ambient spaces, programmed drums, influences that one can hear range from Frank Ocean to Prince to Grouper to Hendrix. Inventive guitar playing, muted and garbled catchy lyrics, and an ethos and aesthetic shrouded in mystery. <img width="700" height="700" width_o="700" height_o="700" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/5879e2913c8255e2ff359726b5a98908e6c322b8b4399ba56cc1a2c1e9a46fd7/a1888800323_5.jpg" data-mid="1386918" border="0" /> Manning Fireworks by MJ Lenderman The first big release from Lenderman didn’t grab me, but after hearing him on the Waxahatchee single Right Back To It, this year’s album stuck with me. Lyrics that get stuck in your brain for days on end (“I’ve got a houseboat parked at the himbo-dome”) and some slick guitar work and songwriting that give you just enough to keep your ear’s attention but not something totally unfamiliar. Folk-rock-Americana ain’t dead yet. <img width="473" height="701" width_o="473" height_o="701" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/848cceffa78093a09c331d1cd324164dbef7f71dc48b5cf0e4b5890f44b5be82/civilwar.jpg" data-mid="1386919" border="0" /> Civil War Apparently this one was pretty divisive, among friends and critics alike. I point the fault partly at the marketing and trailers for the movie, which made it out to be a Call of Duty/Saving Private Ryan-esque war flick set against our divided political status as a country. This movie is not that. It is a study of the role of the media and journalism, and individual journalists, in conflict zones, politics, and the rise of violent fascism. The film punches up and down at legacy media and makes room for interpretation. Watching it mid-day, in IMAX, with too much coffee in me nearly fried my nerves. The film builds tension for long stretches of time counterpointed with some (sometimes off putting or oddly timed) needle drops, beautiful cinematography to couch some otherwise upsetting content within. <img width="426" height="700" width_o="426" height_o="700" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/b5a070f712fffc9ca2ad6192b4f844f66fed0e8aeef2f80a97fffb405bb6114c/hyp.jpg" data-mid="1386920" border="0" /><img width="455" height="700" width_o="455" height_o="700" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/ee907accd15cb23cc46e2a8519d4932fcbf341666a0d80a9d92ac6514d169409/fhyp.jpg" data-mid="1386921" border="0" /> Hyperion/The Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons On a recommendation from a friend, I borrowed her copy of Hyperion, a 1989 multi-award winning sci-fi novel and was through it in about a week. A Canterbury Tales story of space pilgrims on their way to a death cult shrine on a mysterious planet, a story of time travel, Jewish mysticism, space battles, and intergalactic politics. The second book in the series, The Fall of Hyperion, is told in a more traditional format, but tackles much of the same themes. My only fault is a chapter/section in each that becomes unnecessarily horny, but hey that’s 80’s/90’s sci-fi for ya… <img width="525" height="700" width_o="525" height_o="700" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/35ba1b8a466dd5f2cdbf8286c502a84c76ef07821741715da48e0df203194a0c/IMG_7943-2.jpg" data-mid="1386924" border="0" /><img width="525" height="700" width_o="525" height_o="700" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/bfbd7a50c366634995af42462ee0e732a71a57d17248754da2e0d6f81b811cf7/IMG_7940-2.jpg" data-mid="1386925" border="0" /> (Left, shot with native iOS camera and right, shot with Halide on “Process Zero” mode) Halide I spent the last few months experimenting with Halide, a camera app that earlier in the year added a feature (or more accurately, a mode) called Process Zero, which in effect removes all the post-processing computational photography stuff Apple has spent likely millions of dollars and man hours alike creating and perfecting in the latest iPhones. Basically, I can use my iPhone camera the way I really found my way to digital photography all those years ago with a Canon PowerShot camera somethingoranother. The images no longer try to push highlights and lowlights, creating a near HDR effect, colors stay more true to what you see with your eyes, and you have a bit more fine control over the focus, white balance, and exposure settings that are otherwise hidden from you. If you know your way around manual camera controls, it is at least worth trying out to see how it allows you to reutilize your most accessible camera. <img width="700" height="368" width_o="700" height_o="368" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/c60b748b047584afe73929e118d35d310aff6a52fa540bdb7aa9c4db576624f4/bsky-2.jpg" data-mid="1386926" border="0" /> Bluesky finally catching on I wrote in my wrap up last year that Bluesky was “still finding its legs,” and now I think most would say that it has firmly arrived. Though, to be sure, it is not a “new Twitter,” but maybe thats for the best? The election this year saw another spike in folks leaving Twitter and a nearly equal spike in signups for Bluesky. Twitter being temporarily banned in Brazil also saw another huge active internet contingent join the platform. Just recently, it felt like for the first time I was able to follow a breaking news moment (the South Korean near-coup and martial law declaration) live on the platform, from people, politicians, and reporters on the ground, with photos and videos. It is still not the all-in-one Twitter replacement but it has become my most checked/used social media platform.&nbsp; <img width="700" height="933" width_o="700" height_o="933" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/3ace90d3469493175d4394b4ef06735298b428a11ee884fd43895dead7a4f7da/cafemusic-photo.jpg" data-mid="1386927" border="0" /> Cafe Music After kicking the idea around for a while during visits to the various “listening bars”, “hi fi bars”, and other watering holes with big sound systems, my friend Elliott and I decided to try our hand at hosting our own more idealized version of what a night of active listening might look like. Each night has included a selector picking three albums, to be listened to in full, with a theme or notes on how they relate or what to listen for included. Some snacks or lite bites, some beer and wine. Nothing crazy. We’ve held three so far with more in the works, but it was a relief to see that not only were people interested in what we had to offer but that we’ve hit capacity on each event so far. It feels very good to bring a group of folks together for a more “adult” night out, finding like minded folks commingling over shared deep interests in music and production. <img width="700" height="394" width_o="700" height_o="394" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/bc1c5cd0673a1217fd5a40bbd5dd5247282d132a4665a63f4e79a38c2c9a146b/infowras.jpg" data-mid="1386928" border="0" /> The Onion buying Infowars Look, you do in fact have to hand it to them. What started as a joke post on Bluesky (see mention above, it has the juice), led to now CEO of The Onion, former NBC reporter Ben Collins working to team up with Everytown for Gun Safety and the parents of those who were killed at Sandy Hook to buy Infowars out of bankruptcy. In the midst of a year of bad news, global tragedy and genocide, and more right wing fascism, it felt really good to see a leftist satirist site really be able to get one over on notorious conspiracy nut and hate spewer Alex Jones.&nbsp; <img width="700" height="394" width_o="700" height_o="394" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/5f694134756be24599240ca7797625b1a34e8b41e3d0ad252ddacaa92f44ca83/deadlock.jpg" data-mid="1386929" border="0" /> Deadlock There is a genre of game called MOBAs, short for “Multiplayer Online Battle Arena” which is just all to say “you control a guy on a team and you click around a lot trying to defeat a team of other guys.” There are lanes, there are towers, there are “mobs,” there are “jungles.” I know these terms just from basic gamer cultural osmosis. League of Legends, the biggest MOBA in the world is, in turn, one of the biggest video games period (and cultural juggernaut among a certain demographic.) I had tried to get into these games years ago and bounced off them. Too much clicking, too toxic of a community, too many systems and metas to learn. Earlier this year, a friend in the gaming industry DM’d me on Discord to see if I wanted to check out a new thing they had some work involved in. I said sure, it was an invite to the then still secret game now quite publicly known as Deadlock. Taking the gameplay mechanics of a MOBA and applying them to a more traditional shooter instead of top-down clicking somehow made it work for me. That it was still early days and the community was small enough that sometimes there would not be enough players to start a match in the limited playtime windows meant that everyone was pretty civil in matches. Word got out quickly and the game, though still very much in a “private” beta, has been at the top of the charts for most of the year. Being able to play from the get go and roll with the many many balancing and feature changes the dev team is rolling out has made it an enjoyable game to pick up with some friends or just drop into solo matches for a bit. <img width="700" height="1037" width_o="700" height_o="1037" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/fbca449411744332c0d7aadc3d6e6806652d4b56888714e687aebcc4f5b45d64/industry.jpg" data-mid="1386930" border="0" /> Industry S3 It does feel like we’re on the tail end of “peak TV” but the latest season of Industry felt like it had taken all the learnings of the shows that came before to craft a really great arc of episodes. The drama has, in many ways, left the trading floor of the fictional financial giant the show started with but has developed characters and conflicts that help it stay one of the smartest and sharpest cultural critiques around.&nbsp; <img width="700" height="1050" width_o="700" height_o="1050" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/84ec8050617c44cfd2a46b0da02f1f8468cf22e92357c9b3fa060bcee643beae/skeletonkey.jpg" data-mid="1386931" border="0" /> Skeleton Key: A Dictionary for Deadheads by David Shenk and Steve Silberman I picked this up shortly after hearing of the passing of Steve Silberman. I’d recently spent a few hours listening to Steve talk with, and about, David Crosby while doing research for a writeup on Crosby’s If I Could Only Remember My Name for the first Cafe Music event, so it was a bit of a gut punch to hear that someone whose voice was still fresh in my mind had left us. Skeleton Key, published in 1994, shows its age. Written as a dictionary and reference book, the authors are keen that you can just as easily read it front to back or as a Choose Your Own Adventure, hopping between linked definitions and terms. It goes deep, with interview snippets and quotes from the Dead and their extended network of businessmen, fans, musicians, and other extended heads, interspersed throughout. It pokes fun at its own culture, noting the tribal beefs (See: Toucheads) and traveling circus nature of “going on tour.” It is also filled with a true devotion to not just the band as figureheads, but the community around the band that has made the culture of deadheads such a lasting presence through to today. <img width="700" height="933" width_o="700" height_o="933" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/e318aa9af6d70bd6628e694045935e6e2c4c185a39121cfcd9b01584b2b52461/deadforever.jpg" data-mid="1386932" border="0" /> Dead Forever live at The Sphere I have already written extensively on my trip to see Dead and Company at the Sphere. So have many others. I am not a gambler, I don’t particularly jump at the chance to go to Las Vegas, let alone in the middle of summer. We ended up in the middle of a heatwave with advisories to stay indoors. The day I am writing this, the band has announced they’re returning to Vegas early next year for a run of spring shows and I’m cajoling my friends into getting a group together to go again. As anti-Dolan-MSG-Entertainment as I want to be, the venue truly is something special and I’ll try not to miss a chance to go see (the current iteration of) one of my favorite bands play there. <img width="700" height="700" width_o="700" height_o="700" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/658ecf904a5960b2a376ae98f876c87186e6641a576fbfb673ef36c71f18ea56/99pipb.jpg" data-mid="1386933" border="0" /> 99% Invisible: The Power Broker Book Club The Power Broker has always been one of those books I’ve seen people smarter than me talk about or reference in passing as a “must read.” Robert Caro’s tome on how Robert Moses then (and still) lasting effect on New York stands as the pinnacle of what a biographic book can be. My listening to 99% Invisible has waned over the years but for whatever reason, I downloaded and listened to the first episode of this book club they were launching, featuring some pretty great and remarkable guest hosts along the way. I still have not actually read the book, for what it's worth, but it was still enjoyable to listen along and get a sense of the overall arcs, and the work Caro put into the reporting of Moses’ life, along the way. <img width="700" height="700" width_o="700" height_o="700" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/4da3a70d6a733ea1f07ca00b2946bb71d6db9110fb602d5001a7829e9ef1e7c0/goose.jpg" data-mid="1386934" border="0" /> Goose, Live at Forest Hills It's hard for me to find a way into another jam band, to be honest. I spend a lot of time combing through Dead recordings as is. I dipped my toe in and out of the Goose catalog a few times, going through official releases as well as a few standout shows (as they put out almost every show on Bandcamp, usually within two or three days) on the recommendation of friends. As with all bands of their ilk, the common refrain is “oh you’ve really gotta see ‘em live!” And so, when the chance came up for some free tickets to go catch them on tour at Forest Hills earlier this year, I took it. They sounded pretty good, bordering on great. What dragged it down for me was the audience and fanbase that they’ve seemed to attract. What at Dead shows are now pointed to as “Co. Bros”, partying fratty types who, with tall boys or smuggled alcohol (or both) in hand, aren’t really there to see the band, but instead just to “have a bitchin’ time.” There was a guy basically right in front of me who spent most of the show trying to watch a live UFC fight on his phone, couldn’t get good enough service to do so, and instead watched the fight through clips on Twitter, all during the show. Anyway, the band has continued to get the co-sign of basically every jam/-adjacent act out there, and their prolific output of live shows continues to impress. I don’t know if I’ll go running to the next stop near New York that I’m around for, but will at the least keep up with any standout shows as people in my heady corner of the internet call them out. <img width="700" height="933" width_o="700" height_o="933" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/d8209fe7b8350be5c7b61f73637f16e7c13b360aab521f74f7ceb7416ad68ee4/animalwell.jpg" data-mid="1386935" border="0" /> Animal Well What a truly delightful little game. You control a little blob, you are dropped into the titular Animal Well with little direction. From there, the game becomes a bit tricky to talk about without spoiling things. It is in the style of old Metroid games, you can’t access everywhere yet until you find some more tools that help you access a new area where you can unlock a new tool… The game plays with expectations and stacking of abilities in a fun way. The game itself is really more of a big puzzle made out of smaller puzzles. More than once I’d hit my head against a puzzle, leave that area, stumble into an entirely new thing that suddenly makes the previous puzzle click, figuring out a new mechanic or trick. There was more for me to do and discover in the post-endgame state but after “beating” the main game I was satisfied. Worthy to pick up if you’re looking for something to keep you busy this holiday season. <img width="700" height="700" width_o="700" height_o="700" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/3ee36932af8d48e7e2250463292a80691551e535d6a2cd808519f97f3374c0c8/endless.jpg" data-mid="1386936" border="0" /> Endless by Nala Sinephro It’s hard to talk about ambient music without sounding a little… woo-woo? I don’t know. Sinephro is a producer, composer, and performer, who’s latest release Endless is treated as one continuous track. 45 minutes split up into different numbered “Continuums.” Organ, strings, synths, piano, samples, loops, however the album leans more towards jazz than the purely ambient soundscapes of the previous release Space 1.8. Extremely blissed out, and more approachable than some other new ambient releases, I found myself returning to Endless for getting work or writing done, taking a walk in the morning, or winding down for the evening. <img width="700" height="394" width_o="700" height_o="394" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/fc1578514a97a076b34c41899ff71484cd4bb7f9e2cbdc6774cbb3b0e5ff47a3/balatro.jpg" data-mid="1386937" border="0" /> Balatro Ok, so to get it out of the way, Balatro is my game of the year. I sunk hours and hours into it on Switch ahead of it coming out on iOS and being added to Apple Arcade, where I’ve sunk countless hours again into the game (even though it meant I’d have to unlock everything all over again.) A few years back I wrote about Neon White, which the developer had described as “a game for sickos.” I think the same applies for Balatro. It is a roguelike deck builder, meaning no two plays will be exactly alike and that you will over time unlock things that make runs more varied and in some cases easier. The scoring and progress is based on poker hands, (pair, two pair, full house, flush, straight, etc.) The game then throws in joker cards, which you can purchase in between rounds, that can add to your score. Some jokers give you an extra hand per round, others add multipliers to your score, others affect other jokers or specific suits or types of cards. If you are the type of person who plays games and likes to see the numbers go up, Balatro is a game for you. It is a finely tuned puzzle game that, due to its randomness, is endlessly replayable. <img width="700" height="1034" width_o="700" height_o="1034" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/0d55c12e1932271695d273c62fcdac2017662e0f3e71c7fe84d013b621419079/tvglow.jpg" data-mid="1386938" border="0" /> I Saw The TV Glow I caught a screening at Angelika with a few friends who had a spare ticket and walked in knowing next to nothing about this movie save for that the director's last film prior, We’re All Going to the World's Fair, had been described as deeply unsettling and intense. I Saw The TV Glow is a deeply beautiful analogy for understanding one’s self and how we find our communities and outlets through fandom. It also has some unsettling scenes, but on the whole should not be shied away from if you are, like me, not into horror movies. <img width="700" height="875" width_o="700" height_o="875" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/26ed406ce34e4288f75566ca05abc0f2345b3fe70cc01316da5a5f620882be2d/shogun.jpg" data-mid="1386939" border="0" /> Shogun One of those TV shows that feels like it was formulaically developed: a historical drama set in Edo period Japan with a dark comedic relief bend. The show is expertly written and cast, quickly drops you into its semi-fictionalized universe, and keeps the action going balanced with enough political intrigue and surprise twists to keep things interesting. Well worth a binge watch if you find yourself with downtime this holiday season. <img width="700" height="1037" width_o="700" height_o="1037" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/df05412737bde4e5b5f7084ba4f1d261238a8060e5cbca47b0026fcd5dc2888e/megalopolis.jpg" data-mid="1386940" border="0" /> Megalopolis I was surprised so many people vocally disliked this movie! I did not go into it expecting some large existential masterpiece of self reflection from Coppola. It is self indulgent, it is funny, it is bizarre (veering on camp.) There are some… odd performances and moments (“Go back to the club”) but overall I think the film (which, one day, should be adapted as a great stage play in my opinion), covers a lot of interesting ground. Through Greek tragedy and Roman epic lenses, it questions what greatness might cost, what art means in America, and how art is treated by those (politicians) in power. It kind of misses the point on most of those themes, but it does at least attempt to look at them, which is something. Its raw spectacle is worth sitting through the film alone, in my opinion. <img width="700" height="1037" width_o="700" height_o="1037" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/f7a384c6d228759f62e31ed021ad22ce73d55692d62f149ffbf828aeac1272e0/dunept2.jpg" data-mid="1386941" border="0" /> Dune: Part 2 It now seems clear that perhaps nobody could have returned to Dune on screen without Villeneuve attached. The second part of the Dune saga took the visual and directorial style of the first film and amped it up even further, to great success. Action sequences look slick, cinematography expertly feels alien but familiar, and further strong casting choices make for some great performances (even if just for a few scenes.) <img width="700" height="233" width_o="700" height_o="233" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/ef2a3372e529f7b6e5f95329600b8e1b8f57a23683792a35d15550a136247042/neverpost.jpg" data-mid="1386942" border="0" /> Never Post “A podcast for and about the internet” is an apt tagline for the show that, with rare exception, feels like a fresh take on internet culture for me, someone who is professionally logged on. Bringing in experts, academics, and first person accounts of what is going on online and how it affects us, our politics, and the world from a group of producers and hosts who you can tell truly care about the state of the web makes for a good and informative listen. Highly recommend following along as the show enters its second year on what I hope is financially stable footing. Things I Liked 2024 Another unsorted list of things from this year. Health and happiness to you and yours in 2025. -MJG&nbsp; Bright Future by Adrienne Lenker... http://mgoldstein.nyc/Music-of-the-Spheres Tue, 04 Jun 2024 20:29:30 +0000 Mitch Goldstein 453240 Music of the Sphere(s)<img width="768" height="1024" width_o="768" height_o="1024" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/06755662f44aae3ebc99932612f29b1401b07272373d08ea95d79cc14889673e/C5133465-0B13-4EB0-B8E0-8F92F083751D_1_105_c.jpeg" data-mid="1366519" border="0" data-scale="70"/> The two men next to me, one dressed like he came straight from the golf course and the other as if he needed everyone to know he likes Phish more than who all 20,000 or so of us were here to see tonight, were debating if that light coming through the garage door, slightly ajar off stage right, was real. What about that truck back there, the one next to a rolling flight case? Eventually, as these things tend to go when waiting for a jam band concert to start, they turned to me and asked me to settle it for them. “None of that is real. The only real lights in this place are those, above the stage, and way up there at the top” I offered, pointing them out with $19 beer in hand, the golf attire one leaning closer to me to see exactly what I was pointing at. “No way. Wait. So all of that scaffolding isn’t real?” I shook my head no back at them. The show had not started yet, but we were already debating if our eyes were deceiving our brains. From there, Sphere (which, throughout, I will have to default to writing as “the Sphere”, because it just creates such a weird grammatical quirk that I have a hard time abiding by and this is my blog so deal with it, Dolan) continued to prove itself as what can comfortably be called the next step forward in live audio/visual entertainment. It really is that good, that astounding, and that much fun to experience a concert in. Even I, a big Sphere non-believer when the first images of the completed, somewhat biblical demon looking, structure started surfacing online, must admit that they’ve pulled it off. The damn thing works. Videos and stills from the venue’s first residency, featuring aging Irish rockers U2 performing 40 shows with little-to-no variation between them, had some cool visual tricks, but reviews made sure to mention that only a couple of songs took full advantage of the massive display that is the true centerpiece of the arena-style venue. The tales of production woes getting even those few visuals to the finish line are well documented. However, we were here to see Dead and Company, the current (maybe/likely final) touring (but not, more on that later) iteration of what remains of the Grateful Dead. Under the banner of Dead Forever, a residency starting in mid-May and currently slated to run through early August, appears alongside the Dead Forever Experience, a two story exhibition (one story of which is really just off-site merch and sponsor promotions) hosted next door at the Venetian Resort. Tickets were about as easy to acquire via Ticketmaster as one could imagine, though plenty were to be found on the secondhand market the day of the show too. Throughout the weekend, anywhere one went on The Strip, tie-dyed and sandal-wearing heads were abound, constantly stopping each other with “did you go last night? How was it?” and “are you going tonight?” or, maybe just as frequently, a silent nod a thumbs up or shaka with one hand while pointing to their shirt and your shirt and back to their shirt. A silent recognition that, as always, we’re everywhere. <img width="768" height="1024" width_o="768" height_o="1024" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/8df1efaab4f2a3cf022aecd362076ab84eb3acc41dd5467e4dd62f2b4f595802/6C6CB072-23CF-4186-836E-A2F199CDE1AC_1_105_c.jpeg" data-mid="1366520" border="0" data-scale="70"/>The Venue Entry to the Sphere was as simple as walking over, (there is a pedestrian bridge from the Venetian, however it was closed for the weekend of our show), or more aptly through, as given the excessive heat warnings in place we opted to cut through the main floor of the Venetian and out the back to stick to oxygen drenched air conditioning and out into the shade for as much time as possible. Then, follow the signs for your entrance, split between general admission floor seating, VIP and/or reserved suites, and anyone else in a ticketed seat. Walk up, scan your ticket, walk through a metal detector, and away you go. All in all, as seamless an entry as one could hope for an audience of multi-generational, multi-substance imbibing hippies. Almost assuredly, there are some facial recognition cameras around (this is a MSG property, after all), but the lines moved quickly and smoothly. Once you enter, there are plenty of food and beverage options throughout, including self-checkout grab and go drink coolers and snack stands, as well as merch booths throughout the first floor. Clearly marked staff were around to help give directions if there was anything you couldn’t find. Bathroom lines were marked and had staff ushering people along to keep the flow of traffic moving. The entire non-venue area of the Sphere was bathed in slowly shifting rainbow tie dye colors, people quickly queued up to grab whatever coveted piece of “I was there” merch they wanted, and made their way towards their sections. Notably, not once throughout the rest of the four and a half hour night did anyone ask to see mine or any of my party’s tickets to verify that we were where we were supposed to be. Plenty of people could be seen milling around looking for a better angle in the section they started in, or changing to a different section or level entirely. The only time any of the staff or ushers flickered a flashlight was if someone was obstructing the stairwell for too long. Somewhat more surprisingly, (or not, if you’d already seen the guy who managed to bring in and smoke a glass bong to one of the Phish shows), no one made any scene about smoking or vaping, despite there being more than one “this is a no-smoking establishment” signs on the way in. After grabbing some souvenirs and beverages, we made our way towards our seats in the 100 section, in row 24, the first row of what the venue now refers to as “obstructed view” after a brief PR disaster during the early U2 shows where people who had paid full 100’s-level prices found themselves barely able to see the stage or the screen due to the 200’s-level mezzanine above their seats. The prices were adjusted after the first few shows, splitting the 100’s in half, with those closer to the stage and out from the overhang at the original price and a new slightly lower price for the “obstructed view” seats. My friend who I was seated next to, and who had gotten our tickets, had done his research and was correct: the only obstruction was if we were trying to look directly up. If our eyes were towards the stage, it was a panoramic view of the GA area, stage, and an eye-full of screen. Doors were at 6:00PM with the show scheduled to start at 7:30PM, and both via email and social media we were recommended to get there early as we wouldn’t want to miss the start of the show. Given how quick and easy entry was, we made it to our seats with maybe 20 or 30 minutes to spare before scheduled start. There was music playing and some type of slight visual action (lights flickering or changing, things moving) throughout the pre-show backdrop of a large arena stage site full of scaffolding and winding stairs. The band took the stage at 7:36PM and started playing less than a minute later. <img width="1024" height="768" width_o="1024" height_o="768" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/5dd1ff9c3f2b113be142d34ef325acb9d0a0f1505d36eefffe2f43ac358a83d5/06C079D0-F91D-469E-AEA0-E62E7C3A0998_1_105_c.jpeg" data-mid="1366521" border="0" data-scale="70"/>The ShowUnlike U2, Dead and Co. are sticking true to the live Dead ideology; no two shows are alike and you won’t hear the same setlist twice, let alone the same song more than once over a three show weekend. Once the lack of repeat performances was confirmed, the next question that got a quick answer was if the show would repeat visuals night to night, to which the answer is largely… sort of. The show takes place over two sets, per typical Dead show, and opens and closes the same way every night. There are enough visuals that every song (or in some cases, when songs blurred together, let's call it two songs) had its own distinct accompanying visual set piece, ranging from starting at the stoop of the house where the band lived in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco, and then taking off and rising until the view was of the entire planet, and then outer space, to psychedelic kaleidoscopic ink-in-water and tie-dye swirling, all the way to a three story tall Uncle Sam skeleton riding a motorcycle into a globe of death. Every visual was pretty engaging, making it the first arena style show where you don’t have everyone focusing at the same point and looking at the band on stage. With many sequences making use of the full height and width of the screen, you’d often see other members of the audience pointing to something way off to the side to call out to their friends. Throughout, almost every visual had at least some section of the screen showing IMAG footage, live closeups of the band on stage, utilizing remote controlled cameras on tracks around the stage and arena so that there was always still a pretty good view of the musicians without cameramen running in front of them. This might be my one gripe with how the band is utilizing the screen, there were some visuals that likely would’ve been just as fun if not more so without the added picture-in-picture IMAG masked in, blending reality in front of us with surreality on screen. While the visuals are the most obvious thing (this is a 160,000 square foot screen we’re talking about), maybe a more astounding feature for live performance is the sound. Hidden behind that giant screen is a massive assortment of beamforming speaker arrays, allowing for directional sound to be amplified towards every seat in the venue. Wherever you were sitting (from speaking to multiple friends and family members who have seen shows from various sections and rows), it sounds like you’re in the center sweet spot with clear sound and discernable differences in the sonic landscape. So even though we were fairly to the left of the stage, we could hear clearly when the sound engineers panned channels left to right (or in some cases, front to back.) I’ve been to a fair amount of concerts over my lifetime, the sound here is phenomenal and without the need for earplugs to protect my hearing from what you’d often find in an arena, where bands may be forced to trade clarity for volume to ensure everyone can hear the music. During the second set landmark of Drums and Space, which a friend who had gone to an earlier show had recommended I take my seat for, I understood why. Each seat or row is outfitted with speakers and some level of haptic vibration. Between the deep bass notes of the percussion section and whatever other vibrations were going on, you could feel certain drum hits in your chest without the volume being so overwhelming it would hurt your ears.Show Notes Dead and Company, 05/31/2024, Sphere, Las Vegas NV Outside of Drums and Space and some of the slower ballads of the night (Stella Blue, Black Muddy River), most everyone was on their feet the entire time. Anticipation, and the general energy, in the venue pre-show was high and the band matched that throughout. Impeccable solos from everyone across the next few hours remind me what I said leaving my last show at Citi Field last summer: it sure would be a shame if the “Final Tour” was the end of this iteration, because they’d never sounded better. Set One: 7:37PM As the house lights come down, the band launches hard into Shakedown Street. The bare-stage scaffolding becomes backlit with red, white, and blue. As Mayer and Chimenti set a twinkling intro to Jack Straw, the scaffolding begins to split open down the middle, with the edges forming, briefly, the Dead’s signature 13-point lightning bolt, to reveal the front steps of 710 Ashbury Street, with a superimposed caption denoting “Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco.” Slowly the camera pulls away from the house and looks down, giving the audience a somewhat-stomach-churning bird's eye view of the Bay Area, continuing to pull up and up until the band was soon backed by the entire planet. Panning up, the band almost floating off into a starscape. For full effect and a reminder of what the venue is capable of, the International Space Station flies overhead, back to front, with a loud enough whoosh that more than one person in our vicinity practically ducks for cover before laughing it off. For a while, we got to look out over the stars, before a floating feathered rectangle gave us a close up on Mayer’s famous guitarface, now superimposed over the milky way. <img width="768" height="1024" width_o="768" height_o="1024" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/6fd3c068bb20dfff7d087ed32355e90a76a9d23b2eeaf7800751e34108cb1829/86262279-E1E3-4459-84AA-9BC70CB455A0_1_105_c.jpeg" data-mid="1366522" border="0" data-scale="70"/> As the band riffed through the start of New Speedway Boogie, we’re sent through a stormy lightning filled cloudy wormhole that spits us out into a barren desert landscape, with hyperlapse weather moving through the sky. In fast-forward, we see the band’s (and largely Owsley Stanley's) impressive live sound rig, The Wall of Sound, get constructed. As the rig comes together, two banners unfurl, one from each side, serving as another opportunity for live picture-in-picture of the band. With the song’s end, we fade to black, leaving the band lit with a few on-stage lights. <img width="1024" height="768" width_o="1024" height_o="768" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/4b0b900c074f28b2ade9504262dd9f33988466012448b8f673aa104cba1b12ea/6A1FC191-E4D5-4BD8-85F3-3931930EDEF2_1_105_c.jpeg" data-mid="1366523" border="0" data-scale="70"/> As the band launches into (an almost reggae twinged) Jimmy Row, we are flying towards what looks like the California coast at sunset, low over the ocean. As we approach the cliffs, suddenly, we take a sharp turn down and dive, a moment that caught myself among many others, judging by the audible gasps, by surprise. As we dive, neon colored fish, plankton, and other underwater blob-life float up from the bottom of the space, with some featuring live pictures from the stage once again. As we reach the bottom of the sea, we’re met with a giant sunken pirate ship, its sails painted with Stealie skulls and roses. Not shown on screen but perceptible from our seats, Bob Weir is using his guitar as an oar for at least one verse. Neon coral and jellyfish change colors and pulse to the music. The whole thing feels a little Nikelodeon, honestly. This visual might be the most divisive among those who’ve seen it. <img width="1024" height="768" width_o="1024" height_o="768" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/9fa8c911045c47fe54814cb9271bd25746ca2f9d358f6b747d33ff409cf3ed2b/4393179D-B581-4F15-B81A-6DADC7C1A7C1_1_105_c.jpeg" data-mid="1366524" border="0" data-scale="70"/> As Jimmy ends, we are sent through a porthole of the ship, bright warm light fills the space and then slowly becomes inked in with a spiral tie dye pattern as the band kicks into a swinging Tennesse Jed. With the fan-favorite “Sleep all day / Rock all night” line, John Mayer is seen duck walking across the stage a la Angus Young of AC/DC. Mayer and Chimenti once again both mind meld to lay in some extremely bluesy solos here, trading Muddy Waters-esque licks. As the song progresses, the tie dye colors begin shifting and the band’s marching bears make an appearance, marching in a spiral pattern and growing in size, becoming maybe a story or taller by the time they reach the outer edges of the Sphere’s screen. As the song ends, we once again fade to black. <img width="768" height="1024" width_o="768" height_o="1024" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/3e06380957e815d395808eb7104ba3cdf285238ed978aceab3eba90ca17751b1/C8D2F403-8532-46F9-A60A-CEAEFF89E875_1_105_c.jpeg" data-mid="1366525" border="0" data-scale="70"/> The screen fades back to life, a red curtain draping the entire screen, with the lower-screen house lights coming back on for the first time since the show started, blending digital and practical lighting against the curtain in reds and blues. As the band jams their way into the signature intro progression of Playing In The Band, the curtain opens revealing a giant floating chrome-coated Stealie adorned with metallic roses, reminiscent of some of the 1990’s Liquid Blue merchandise for the Dead. The center circle of the Stealie serves again as live feed for the stage. <img width="768" height="1024" width_o="768" height_o="1024" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/ed52672a7e0274cfa90d91507e9c0158a04db6697cf0c19ffc7deacc2e1c5de5/77B98792-A82E-4C73-8723-126B175268A3_1_105_c.jpeg" data-mid="1366526" border="0" data-scale="70"/> As PITB ends, with Bob Weir giving a clear visual hand signal to wrap things up, I would’ve guessed we were hitting the end of the first set. Instead, the Dead steal a trick from U2’s visuals, transforming the curved screen into a cube, lined with a dizzying amount of posters, ticket stubs, and backstage passes spanning the Grateful Dead’s long strange history and launch into Don’t Ease Me In. Some elements fade in and out, allowing space for live shots of the band to peek through. For a few brief moments, it feels as if someone was slowly using a scroll wheel, the whole space shifting vertically (again, causing some nausea for some folks for sure.) About halfway through the song, and on beat, the entire scene inverts, creating a blacklight poster effect of neon colors on a black background. The neon elements then get repeated into a disappearing point and twist around, giving yet another treat for the psychedelic inclined members of the audience. After another round of solos, the band’s only speech to the audience of the night signals it's time for intermission, they’ll be back in just a little bit. <img width="768" height="1024" width_o="768" height_o="1024" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/199dd3ca99b5c783f542cac4f0a1a218d1d93e82ab26ffc34965abfa54d7faff/49ADB503-3B39-4439-A064-915B463CD6EA_1_105_c.jpeg" data-mid="1366527" border="0" data-scale="70"/> 8:55PM After a moment, the house lights come up to about half brightness and the entire screen is illuminated in neon pink, with choice lyrics stretching across the screen, each staying up for about a minute. <img width="768" height="1024" width_o="768" height_o="1024" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/2ebc4582cced88662c585c09a70a3a47c355dcab72a5fd39f144c524680b4f95/C91A5581-9FF6-4728-98C9-C2CA1263EA2B_1_105_c.jpeg" data-mid="1366528" border="0" data-scale="70"/> We reconvene with our group to grab another round of drinks and poke our heads out at the 200 level, spotting the A/V control stations nestled here, and getting a brief idea of the huge perspective shifts from level to level, or at least from the 100’s to anything higher up. I can’t think of any other major concert venues I’ve seen do this, but they do the whole “flash the house lights” to give a five minute warning that intermission is about to end. We make our way back down to our seats. 9:33PM House lights fully go down and the band retake the stage. Oteil has found a pair of wayfarer style sunglasses and, per my notes, “looks cool as fuck.” A brief moment of tune up and checking pedals and the band begins playing the instantly recognizable opening riff to Uncle John’s Band, a song I have known by heart since I was a kid. The screen fills with a paint by numbers coloring book page (I haven’t been able to match it with any video online, but I have to imagine an easy alley-oop to match Touch of Grey’s “Paint by number morning sky / Looks so phony” here) depicting a stream winding through an autumnal forest. As colors fill in, one can clock a Terrapin Station-esque log cabin, way off stage left, with an oddly detailed Jerry Garcia can be found leaning up against the wall on the front porch. A sail boat appears over the horizon, making its way down stream. Eventually with the screen maybe 80% filled in, a rainbow arcs its way across the center view and beneath fills in, once again, with a live shot of the band appearing between the bottom of the rainbow and the horizon. Way off at either far end of the screen, cartoon turtles have walked out onto cliffs overlooking the scene, one playing a banjo and the other a tambourine. Towards the end of the song, when the band kind of goes up an octave for the last few verses, the colors all shift to a neon-soaked night time. As the song ends, we fade to black. <img width="768" height="1024" width_o="768" height_o="1024" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/939263af287078f55126562c6da90968a36b73de67e43ac45e1c4e4dfee45f6c/FC1DC1AA-1C21-41B4-8A84-13A3747E24C5_1_105_c.jpeg" data-mid="1366529" border="0" data-scale="70"/> A blues riff kicks in that, briefly, could’ve headed towards Mr. Charlie but instead moves right on into the intro to China Cat Sunflower. Rather than a full fade-to-black transition into the next visual spectacle, supersaturated slow-motion ink in water visuals start flowing upwards from behind the stage, backing the band with psychedelic swirls. As the song progresses, these visuals begin to mirror and kaleidoscope, coming in from all directions. By the first chant of “China Cat,” our eyes are drawn down to the left side of the GA pit where it appears the spinners are fully going for it, a small section of whirling dervishes having their moment. Blended in between the colorful layers, close ups of the band's hands begin fading in and out as colors start shifting.<img width="768" height="1024" width_o="768" height_o="1024" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/f74bac45d041553c58c94d27f0af2c0368573acdba5c810366d896e636f23e7e/2EA9F096-3A09-433E-840C-A93A676FBAA8_1_105_c.jpeg" data-mid="1366530" border="0" data-scale="70"/> As sure of a thing as one can guess at a Dead show, we move from China into I Know You Rider, completing one of the natural pairings of live Dead songs (colloquially known and as written across tapes for years and years as “China&gt;Rider”.) The inky water visuals slide down the screen to reveal an almost Playstation graphics looking sunset, as we pan down we find ourselves looking at the front doors of the Winterland Ballroom, home to more than one of the Dead’s famous concerts. We push through one of the upper windows of Winterland and find ourselves in Barton Hall at Cornell, home of the legendary 5/8/77 show. There is an audible yelp of excitement at this. We slowly push our way through the rear windows of Barton Hall and land at Red Rocks, with a day-glo orange sunset and numerous Dead icons scrawled up on the rocks to our sides. Flying over the rear of the amphitheater we land in front of the Fillmore West, topped with a Workingman’s Dead billboard. We move just around the corner and suddenly find ourselves on the east coast, as Radio City Music Hall comes into fruition and expands up and up and up, as out walk Uncle Sam and Bertha skeletons, leaning over the venue to recreate the Dead Ahead album cover. We go around the corner once again and zoom down the street to land at Madison Square Garden, complete with King Kong in a tie-dye tee shirt. Mayer tops the song with an extended solo with Oteil backing it up with some Phil Lesh style deep big bass drops. <img width="768" height="1024" width_o="768" height_o="1024" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/834f7faee2dcb4823b24b550378784e640981c55bc8f10bde8442f17c07365d6/9E9A0EB0-3C4C-41A0-9D10-2C390EE1E894_1_105_c.jpeg" data-mid="1366531" border="0" data-scale="70"/> As Rider ends, the screen goes bright, and we find ourselves once again floating in space among orbiting planets and stars circling each other. The band launches into a noodling improvisational jam and quickly the crowd around us starts debating where this is going to land. Chimenti is winding his way through chords on a heavily affected digital keyboard, reminiscent of later 80’s Dead. A few around us agree, it could be Bird Song, or at least it sounds like it's heading that way. Wait, no. Not Bird Song. There is a collective holler that spreads throughout the entire audience as we realize… It’s Dark Star. Bob Weir is pushing the limits of his vocal range but nails the notes into the first verse, as the dark inky blues of the background shift to warm, grain soaked oranges and yellows. We land down on one of the swirling planets on a rocky desert with curving structures framing more visuals of the band. Settling into an extended groove, the band sounds locked in, trading riffs and solos. As they land the final verse, a rarity to get a complete Dark Star these days, the front of stage members depart the stage. <img width="768" height="1024" width_o="768" height_o="1024" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/2d2c74fa4990c73d3d97076221c7e39f9e326efc39005f9a022440220a506333/74E89932-3318-4547-ADC8-41CCED3FF9AC_1_105_c.jpeg" data-mid="1366532" border="0" data-scale="70"/>It’s time for Drums. Mickey Hart and Jay Lane launch into a rather fast paced percussion groove as the screen slowly starts filling with kaleidoscopic color tinted images of forests. As Otiel makes his way back on stage, alongside a mystery sit-in guest (following, from the previous weekend, another percussion sit-in from Karl Perazzo, percussionist for Santana) which we manage to confirm post show was legendary tabla player and percussionist Zakir Hussein. As the four begin settling into their groove, a video clip of the just recently passed Bill Walton on stage, taking part in Drums with Mickey and Bill Kreutzmann, is superimposed above the stage, one of a few tributes to the friend of the band and one of the world’s biggest (literally, figuratively) deadheads. Morphing from the kaleidoscope, the screen is taken over with a mandala of percussion instruments, a giant drum in the center sometimes used as a video feed. Plenty of folks take their seats, as do I, which gives an additional element to the performance: haptic feedback as bass notes move through the stadium and are amplified by waves of vibration from the floor and seats. Three of tonight’s Rhythm Devils leave the stage, as Mickey Hart moves over to his signature creation The Beam, marking the start of Space. As the sonic journey continues, my notes mark two things: “the Sphere was designed for Drums&gt;Space” and “all the spinners are just laying down.” The visuals cycle between a color-filled 3D brain that breaks open to reveal extensive kaleidoscopes that break apart to reveal another color-filled brain that breaks open to reveal the kaleidoscope… <img width="768" height="1024" width_o="768" height_o="1024" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/f9842664c0f55dd228a6716e5971407fd9c92091aa95a6e3478e644a933bb04a/27B8AC45-BB19-4899-8800-C4337ACDB0FF_1_105_c.jpeg" data-mid="1366533" border="0" data-scale="70"/> After a bit, Mickey leaves the stage as the rest of the band reappears. The screen fills with a blue to black gradient, setting the space in a cool tone. A piano twinkle and guitar riff set them off into Stella Blue. Otiel, still wearing his shades, leans up against a stool as the walking bass riff starts. Weir croons his way through the forlorn romance of the song. Black and white live footage of the band sits over the stage, further setting the mood. The drummers make their way back behind their kits in time to finish off the song as a cohesive whole. <img width="768" height="1024" width_o="768" height_o="1024" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/a5c3b02248c1ee48a9b89f7cef472e69fe31d0993dbc8b9fd15f8c136af201d6/F2B580E8-824B-4D6E-923A-CD14C23DF58C_1_105_c.jpeg" data-mid="1366534" border="0" data-scale="70"/> With the crescendo ending of Stella Blue, Mayer begins a riff as the scene transforms into a nighttime ocean with northern lights twisting their way across our view. A massive roar of applause as the first verse of the Lady With a Fan intro begins. As the aurora borealis ramps in intensity we make our way into Terrapin Station. The oceanscape fades from view as the screen fills with an intricate spiral pattern, first in red and blue against the black background and then in a rainbow of colors, shifting and morphing like an oil slick atop water. There are few things that get a Dead show moving like Terrapin, with the collective chant and almost tomahawk arm chopping for the chorus' “Some rise / Some fall / Some climb…” refrains. The colorful spirals fade to black. <img width="768" height="1024" width_o="768" height_o="1024" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/efb506189697a026e90599ab16b72f9f45b39ab893f60dababb4f81bff684c8e/2DF462D5-8BEC-440B-9E14-D81839FF1D60_1_105_c.jpeg" data-mid="1366535" border="0" data-scale="70"/> As the band is launching into a bluesy jam, a new trick out of the hat as it is revealed there are more physical lights embedded behind the screen, now pulsing outwards from the center in flashing red. As we settle into the opening of Hell In A Bucket, the screen comes to life again, placing us in a graveyard at dusk. Rising from the grave is, again, Uncle Sam the skeleton, taking up almost the entirety of available vertical space dancing to the groove. As we pull back from the scene into a bed of roses, Uncle Sam is flanked by more, rainbow colored skeletons, taking their hats off and tap dancing along. Eventually we zoom back in, as Uncle Sam mounts a motorcycle and takes off through the back of the graveyard and starts down a more color drenched western landscape, through cowboy towns with zoetropic-like scenery animation as we zoom on by. <img width="768" height="1024" width_o="768" height_o="1024" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/6dcb4df77a36314622219bda146a55e13ad228040fa4d7dbc4edb6990378353a/91236BAB-7FDF-4387-A94D-5FAEEDF65A28_1_105_c.jpeg" data-mid="1366536" border="0" data-scale="70"/> We crossfade once again to the night sky as the band settles into Black Muddy River, Earth begins peeking up from behind the stage. With the blue marble settling back centered on the screen, we begin in reverse of the opening of the show, descending back down towards the Bay Area. The band really locks in here, with harmonies across Chimenti, Mayer, Weir, and Burbridge quite literally bringing some folks around me to tears. <img width="768" height="1024" width_o="768" height_o="1024" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/686e57d1b9402932c889738610f3ab93aec8722c4561ac019162e5586be1af31/4F2BE392-2F2A-4936-B6F4-2BA2A3501077_1_105_c.jpeg" data-mid="1366537" border="0" data-scale="70"/> As the song ends, we once again land in front of 710 Ashbury, but now in a rendered, 60’s era. Old cars out front, and a hippie couple walk out and sit on the front stoop. The stage lights go out as an old radio spot on the Grateful Dead plays over the PA, we zoom in to the second floor window and see a silhouette of the original band practicing. As the radio broadcast ends, the screen cuts to black, and with a loud wham, the words DEAD FOREVER stretch across the Sphere, filling with photos of the Grateful Dead, to thunderous applause. We push in, through the text, to find ourselves in a wall of archival photos, as the band rips into a jamming Casey Jones. The photos slowly move and shift, fading in and out to give us footage of the live band, walking us through a photo album of the band’s history. Towards the end of the song, we sit on a photo of Jerry Garcia, huge over the stage. For the final chorus, the screen is almost filled side to side with live shots of the band and blue lights from behind the screen illuminating the space. 11:42 PM As a standing ovation begins, footage from the foot of the stage as the band takes their bows has a silhouette of Bill Walton, hands outstretched above his head, overlaid. As the band exits, the screen fades to black again, before a tribute to Walton, his number 32 inlaid with tie-dye, upon a bed of roses, fills the screen. After a few minutes, the house lights begin to rise and we make our way towards the exit, spat out into the heat of desert night once again.<img width="768" height="1024" width_o="768" height_o="1024" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/b67d28388523821b3325bf1e067fa07998d58f2dff2a4158aa44b03f327cf922/CADFA714-3C9B-4E56-B04D-DF4C353CD11A_1_105_c.jpeg" data-mid="1366538" border="0" data-scale="70"/><img width="768" height="1024" width_o="768" height_o="1024" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/45746319b8f69d96b9e7253f1c1244ce135964006f2315766045028d647e5042/5EA22523-46D1-450C-99AA-CE60FD0A73A2_1_105_c.jpeg" data-mid="1366539" border="0" data-scale="70"/> Set 1: Shakedown Street Jack Straw New Speedway Boogie Row Jimmy Playing in the Band Don’t Ease Me In Set 2: Uncle John’s Band Chinacat Sunflower &gt; I Know You Rider Dark Star Drums (with Zakir Hussain) &gt; Space Stella Blue Terrapin Station Hell in a Bucket Black Muddy River Old News Broadcast of the Grateful Dead Casey Jones [Encore] TakeawayOverall, I went in unsure of what to expect. I had tried to avoid as much social media and news coverage of the opening weekends of the Dead and Co. residency, to go in both open minded and unspoiled. The little museum experience at the Venetian (featuring: mini Wall of Sound, participation row, a collection of David Lemieux’s tapes, a photo gallery of the history of the Dead, and a small gallery of Mickey Hart’s art) was, frankly, done on the cheap for the most part, and while it was good to have another place to grab merch, the rest of it felt all kinda “meh.” The show itself, I cannot speak highly enough about. If you are into the Dead at all, it is well worth the cost of entry (plus the cost of getting flights and hotel rooms in Vegas, no cheap feat I can attest). The band sounds great, the venue sounds great, and the visuals are top notch creating a one-of-a-kind concert going experience. You can find cheaper drinks pre- and post-show, but the concession stands are exactly what one would expect out of an MSG owned and operated venue in Vegas. Many people, including one of our group who’s flight got delayed and then canceled, bought tickets for another night as soon as they could. It really is that much fun to go see. Plenty of heads online have griped, given how prominently last summer’s tour was billed as “The Final Tour” about this extended run of shows. The band is kind of skating on a technicality, a residency is not a tour, they are staying in one place and you’ve got to make your way out to them. The dates have been extended twice so far, for a total of 30 Sphere shows. I would not be surprised if more visuals are added over the course of the run, and maybe a few more sit-in surprises as well. If you like wild audio/visual shows, go. If you like jam bands, go. If you like just pure Vegas show spectacle, go. I have been converted to a full believer that this is one of the best places to see your favorite band play. Half of our group had never been to a Dead show, none of us had been to the sphere. All of us left saying we’d gladly go again, with newly anointed Deadheads following up for guided listening and album purchasing recommendations. Photos and videos do not do the experience justice. Buy the ticket, take the ride, as they say…<img width="768" height="1024" width_o="768" height_o="1024" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/bd2ff7a7246fa7b4bebf7c91d652099e3a70f485f9e7ab7358732058760e45a0/F6F08732-E1E6-41F3-B7CC-67E951010436_1_105_c.jpeg" data-mid="1366540" border="0" data-scale="70"/> Music of the Sphere(s) The two men next to me, one dressed like he came straight from the golf course and the other as if he needed everyone to know he likes Phish... http://mgoldstein.nyc/OKMA Thu, 18 Jan 2024 00:13:20 +0000 Mitch Goldstein 451046 OK Mondays Index &amp; Archive2017 - 2024  OK Mondays was a near weekly playlist spanning genres and moods, published from January 2nd, 2017 through January 1st, 2024. This page serves as a searchable index and archive of all playlists in the project. How to use: Click a playlist name to open it in Spotify Click a tag or use the dropdown to filter by that genre/mood only Use the search box for artists or track titles Click the Clear button to remove any filters Enjoy, and thanks again for listening with us. - Your pals from OKM [oops, the old embed of this is broken now. you can see the raw spreadsheet here] Special thanks to Byron Hulcher OK Mondays Index &amp; Archive2017 - 2024  OK Mondays was a near weekly playlist spanning genres and moods, published from January 2nd, 2017 through... http://mgoldstein.nyc/Things-I-Liked-2023 Fri, 08 Dec 2023 16:01:50 +0000 Mitch Goldstein 450298 THINGS I LIKED: 2023Another annual entry of unsorted notable things from the year now coming to a close. Thanks for reading and wishing you and yours a better year ahead. Best, Mitch&nbsp; <img width="700" height="700" width_o="700" height_o="700" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/86c02346b26beecbc8859538e87ce206d54dd52d9d427ed6bb9df9c4b367e718/a1880961717_65.jpg" data-mid="1334917" border="0" data-scale="34"/> boygenius - the record In a not-so-surprising twist, emo indie went mainstream this year. boygenius went from indie darlings with their first EP to having near Taylor Swiftian levels of fandom. The album is very good! I do not think it is as good as the diehard fans make it out to be. C’est la vie. <img width="1600" height="1600" width_o="1600" height_o="1600" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/9235229bf50c2528b22c9d8365d0eaa921833efbc437411a0ffee4cd35688c25/nbs.jpg" data-mid="1334918" border="0" data-scale="34"/> Andre 3000 - New Blue Sun I have long been a strong advocate of letting creatives of all mediums grow and change over time. One of the most toxic traits of massive fandom is that many fans will want you to make the same output over and over. In a hard left turn, via an album that sounds like a mad libs idea (“Andre 3000 will return to making music by releasing a mainly ambient flute record”), Andre has made maybe one of the best new age jazz and ambient records of the year. Funny how that works. Really beautiful stuff and I’m just glad the discourse of “why didn’t he just make another rap album” came and went (basically summed up by his quote “what am I supposed to do? Rap about getting a colonoscopy?”) went by quickly as the tracklist came out ahead of the album (“I swear, I Really Wanted To Make A “Rap” Album But This Is Literally The Way The Wind Blew Me This Time”) “Even now people think, Oh, man, he’s just sitting on raps, or he’s just holding these raps hostage. I ain’t got no raps like that. It actually feels…sometimes it feels inauthentic for me to rap because I don’t have anything to talk about in that way. I’m 48 years old. And not to say that age is a thing that dictates what you rap about, but in a way it does. And things that happen in my life, like, what are you talking about? ‘I got to go get a colonoscopy.’ What are you rapping about? ‘My eyesight is going bad.’ You can find cool ways to say it, but….” [GQ] <img src="https://image.api.playstation.com/vulcan/ap/rnd/202304/2800/09d5b936da100fb0b96a2cdaa96a835e143b41b3e3ae0054.png" jsaction="VQAsE" class="sFlh5c pT0Scc iPVvYb" style="max-width: 1440px; height: 613px; margin: 0px; width: 409px;" alt="Armored Core VI Fires of Rubicon | PlayStation (US)" jsname="kn3ccd" aria-hidden="false"> Armored Core 6 It had been a long while since a trailer for a video game got me hype like the trailer for AC6 got me. (Shout out to Austin Walker for doing the dreams-and-nightmechs.mp4 edit) What can I say? I’m a sucker for big cool robots. That being said, I was wary given that I’d bounced pretty hard off most From Software games I’ve tried save for Elden Ring. I got stuck early on in Sekiro and the one time I tried a Dark Souls game at a friend's place it very quickly was clear it was not For Me. Thank goodness AC6 was not a “mecha souls” game (despite the plea for one from many fans.) Not to say you couldn’t see some classic From touches all over it (LOTS of shoulder button usage, skill check bosses, etc.) but it remains a far more approachable entry point to From games than any of the Souls games or even Elden Ring, I’m convinced. From design elements to story and lore to just pure kick ass gameplay, the game had me hooked. Allowing customization and flexibility to support different approaches and play styles (to an extent), painting and customizing different loadouts, and a story that requires you to beat the main campaign three separate times to see everything, I am kind of surprised I only spent about 35 hours in the game this year. It was and is one of the games I thought about most this year, still. <img src="https://preview.redd.it/recreated-counter-strike-2-cover-using-official-assets-from-v0-2aje85n5k0sa1.png?auto=webp&amp;s=5ad5480488e615d759cc3eacf04e87e64f12e02e" jsaction="VQAsE" class="sFlh5c pT0Scc iPVvYb" style="max-width: 600px; height: 613px; margin: 0px; width: 409px;" alt="Recreated Counter-Strike 2 cover using official assets from the site but I made the color behind the logo more readable : r/steamgrid" jsname="kn3ccd" aria-hidden="false"> Counter-Strike 2 There is a group of friends I play video games with that more or less only play competitive/tactical shooters (Valorant is what first brought us all into one Discord server), which means that at some point, basically every one of us had a Counter-Strike phase. When word began to leak that not only was CS2 coming, but it was coming soon, there were mainly positive but some mixed reactions. I hadn’t touched CS:GO in years and years, let alone even thought about booting it up, but as soon as I saw dust2 in modern graphics, I was in. The fact that my muscle memory for map layouts still remained surprised even me. As soon as I got an ace (single handedly taking out the entire opposing team) on release day, I was so back (even though we still lost that match.) <img width="2160" height="2700" width_o="2160" height_o="2700" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/283bc33c00012fd61c3681408e2371e3488ca00ba3f6f9045c5e3b3ceb6792f0/Forza_Motorsport_Key_Art_4x5_RGB_F02_2160x2700_7cb5ab86b5.png" data-mid="1334906" border="0" data-scale="34"/> Forza Motorsport While this season of Formula 1 was a great watch, this year's official video game release, F1 23 (now fully under the direction of EA), did not grab me as much as past releases. I am still nevertheless a sucker for racing games. Enter Forza Motorsport, the more sim-leaning cousin to the arcadey Forza Horizon series, Motorsport had not had a new entry since 2017 (which is to say, I had never played one), but with hundreds of licensed cars and real world tracks, plus being included with my existing Game Pass subscription, I gave it a go and it very much scratched the racing itch I had been having. There are some oddities (mainly both single player and online multiplayer racing series that only last for one to three weeks at a time, plus a grindy part unlock system), but on the whole Motorsport quickly turned into my “need something to turn my brain off working mode quickly” game this year. <img width="424" height="650" width_o="424" height_o="650" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/3a0304ac9c3ab08c63241ffd1bbaf3feb48c8cf294b8621cfcc969a92388ab2d/pipeline.jpg" data-mid="1334921" border="0" data-scale="34"/> How to Blow Up a Pipeline by Andreas Malm Never before has a book made me want to quit everything I’m doing and go become an ecoactivist. (Within the first 100 pages, no less.) I don’t think I can give the book more of an endorsement than that. <img width="3666" height="948" width_o="3666" height_o="948" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/7b0c7da6b51d9306409a974e398dc17c80da224eefa2676db5d3fa4c8c899f4e/Puzzmo-Capsule---Light-Backgrounds.png" data-mid="1334907" border="0" data-scale="34"/> Puzzmo Over Covid-19 lockdowns, I started getting more into doing the crossword more as a way to fill the time than anything else. As I started commuting more, my crossword usage started slipping. Puzzmo from Zach Gage and company filled that with not only a replacement crossword but other quick hitting word and logic games. The light meta-game, largely in the form of both global and group leaderboards, allows for some friendly competition, but really the overall project feels like a fresh take for browser based games. To get into the early access period, I had to beat a high score at a random daily game in time to claim a key, and the key allowed me to get another puzzle sent to my home, the answers to which gave me my access code to create an account. A fun and engaging way to grow a beta audience, if I’ve seen one. <img width="1200" height="1698" width_o="1200" height_o="1698" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/4f60a0a450aaafd827b32deded4d64c6f32c7aeb5f15ed78839bee7d95ba9ae2/DeficitMyth_3d_frontView-1.png" data-mid="1334922" border="0" data-scale="34"/> The Deficit Myth by Stephanie Kelton I finally got around to reading the principal text of Modern Monetary Theory at the beginning of the year, which I know sounds extremely dry but truly the book does a great job of dismantling the narrative that government debt is bad. The shortest simplest version of the argument is this: in order for their to be a deficit on one side of the balance, there must be a surplus on the other side, therefore if the government (the book largely focuses on the US government but does point to other countries as well) has a deficit, the surplus should exist on the public benefit side. Reframing the “government debt” as “citizens’ surplus” is an extremely helpful lens to reframe how we look at both the US and global economy. Well worth a read if you’d like to expand your view on what's possible in our capitalist hellscape.&nbsp; <img width="3000" height="2293" width_o="3000" height_o="2293" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/0cda75b68ee544dad11efcaad005b72178caa46a7cda8ce60db46c2c4d66e0b4/LWL53P2BUNHBTPDB7WP3T54B3Q.jpg" data-mid="1334931" border="0" data-scale="34"/> Oppenheimer, Barbie, Barbenheimer I genuinely can’t recall the last movie event that took such a firm grasp of the zeitgeist. Merch, memes, t-shirts, SNL skits, and beyond. I really liked Oppenheimer, more so over time than right after I walked out of the theater. I don’t know if I’d consider it Nolan’s best work, but it is certainly up there. Originally, after seeing the trailers and reading early reviews, I thought Barbie was very much a movie not “for me” but nevertheless, smarter and funnier than I anticipated and approached its overall message from a new angle. <img src="https://www.movieposters.com/cdn/shop/products/scan003_70663bc2-b396-4858-84b9-eedbe2d4abfe_480x.progressive.jpg?v=1681920012" jsaction="VQAsE" class="sFlh5c pT0Scc iPVvYb" style="max-width: 480px; width: 421px; height: 613px; margin: 0px;" alt="Past Lives" jsname="kn3ccd" aria-hidden="false"> Past Lives It feels like more and more, romance stories try to remove themselves from our day and age. Past Lives is a uniquely 00’s story. Reconnecting with a childhood crush thanks to a chance social media post, a blossoming relationship from afar via Skype, lives separated by a world a part but connected through our devices. A beautiful story, beautifully told. <img src="https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0577757592_65" jsaction="VQAsE" class="sFlh5c pT0Scc iPVvYb" style="max-width: 700px; width: 557px; height: 557px; margin: 0px;" alt="My Back Was A Bridge For You To Cross | ANOHNI and the Johnsons | ANOHNI" jsname="kn3ccd" aria-hidden="false"> ANOHNI and the Johnsons - My Back Was a Bridge for You to Cross ANOHNI still has, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful singing voices in music today. Back with backing band the Johnsons, the latest album tackles grief, loss, love, hope, and existing in these times with songs ranging from slow dirge ballads to funk grooves. <img width="1440" height="1800" width_o="1440" height_o="1800" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/6556a16179bb05d112c71d215aa0131bf787b076a8cc2b17bfbfa6202b181eca/83D9FB8D-693C-434E-A706-9C870626D9A1.JPG" data-mid="1334908" border="0" data-scale="34"/><img width="1440" height="1796" width_o="1440" height_o="1796" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/8ea11698473741de2350d7945a20512599fcc53e9b42eba22734133b9045bec4/F8DFC688-9BCE-40C0-B418-CF3E8BB5000A.JPG" data-mid="1334909" border="0" data-scale="34"/> Sagrada Família, Dali Theatre Museum Our family vacation this year started in Barcelona. Our first full day in the city ended walking through Casa Batlló, one of the many Gaudi feats in the city, which felt more Disney-fied than I was hoping (rental iPads to experience AR “art” in each room, a rooftop bar, an “AI-powered” “digital art” video room,&nbsp; a gift shop bigger than the first floor of the home…) Our second day we had a tour guide for Sagrada Família followed by walk through the Gothic Quarter. The history of the church and its construction aside, it is an overwhelming piece of architecture to take in (especially from the outside.) That, without ever seeing it anywhere near completion, Gaudi had already understood and planned (over 140 years ago) what would be needed to capture the light in truly mesmerizing ways is unreal.&nbsp; Another day of our trip we rented a car and drove out to Figueres to go see the Dali Theatre Museum, which also serves as Dali’s resting place. A truly astonishing amount of work displayed, covering most of Dali’s life, in an old theatre in his hometown that has you criss-crossing up and down the place to follow the flow of the works displayed. The sheer volume of output the man had over his life is admirable but the willingness to push boundaries and explore new ideas is on clear display as you go from one phase of work to another. <img width="3024" height="4032" width_o="3024" height_o="4032" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/10a8e0ca2a04ce6c566a19b205011386d4da2e0147e21ad0f3c81b720cb4dfab/IMG_3998.JPG" data-mid="1334910" border="0" data-scale="34"/> Jazz is Dead Presents: Arthur Verocai Live As part of its free summer concert series, Lincoln Center hosted Arthur Verocai, backed by a small orchestra, to perform his 1972 self-titled album live. This was the first time Verocai toured the US, ever, despite the album being both a cult hit among Brazilian music fans and hip hop fans (samples appear on songs from MF DOOM, Common, Curren$y, Action Bronson, and many others.) Alternating between conducting, singing, and sometimes just silently dancing, it was a truly beautiful night of music. <img width="700" height="700" width_o="700" height_o="700" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/17119690197a1c7af047a42a28d3e50fca27264eb31a01ec0b66c07d0ad87fb4/a1320922551_65.jpg" data-mid="1334919" border="0" data-scale="34"/> Romy - Mid Air Some real cry in the club music from the former frontwoman of The XX. Among a few other releases, vocal dance music has had a weird slow resurgence this year which I’m all here for. I missed out on seeing the live tour for this album but from the videos I saw, it looked like a blast. <img width="1280" height="1280" width_o="1280" height_o="1280" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/686f8192e21af6a066a3d5ec1cca547537ed672fc3e14af142a1db04f7328666/ratsawgod.jpg" data-mid="1334920" border="0" data-scale="34"/> Wednesday - Rat Saw God Angry femme country twang infused guitar music also made a comeback this year (see also: Bully - Lucky For You), the latest release from Wednesday really seemed to capture a lot of the mood of the year. From trading trauma stories on first dates to self deprecating humor about everything, catchy hooks and witty wordplay helped put the album on heavy rotation for most of the spring and summer for me. <img width="3024" height="4032" width_o="3024" height_o="4032" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/8a73a1f86776f7132b10256f36f12f68d71949521b0c0c7abb26fcb4675fdf71/IMG_3499.JPG" data-mid="1334912" border="0" data-scale="34"/><img width="3024" height="4032" width_o="3024" height_o="4032" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/ada1172c8dd5fa37dc29cca8aed75976519e86b49c61b9dc89c1627281ca2599/IMG_3514.JPG" data-mid="1334913" border="0" data-scale="34"/> <img width="3024" height="4032" width_o="3024" height_o="4032" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/e614b64467b0c7aaf6158069f47e346f75db9f488dfdce2fc846e63992420df3/IMG_3629.JPG" data-mid="1334914" border="0" data-scale="34"/><img width="3024" height="4032" width_o="3024" height_o="4032" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/1c3bd1cc7972d2e4f9a8eeb07720b56e61008f71a770f5d3a2fca36d450aa9e3/IMG_3658.JPG" data-mid="1334915" border="0" data-scale="34"/> Dead &amp; Company: The Final Tour When it was announced this would be the final big Dead &amp; Company tour, I (among many others) started doing the math to figure out how many shows I could reasonably cram in as someone who also has to hold down a full time job. The answer ended up being four shows in a span of six days. Both nights at SPAC, both nights at Citi Field. The irony was not lost on me (or many others; 1, 2, 3, 4) that after 200 shows and about eight years, the band had never sounded better. That a clip of Althea from one of the final nights at Oracle Park in San Francisco went viral beyond just deadhead Twitter was living proof. I know a few people who caught their first show on this tour and more than one expressed some sentiment of “why didn’t I start coming sooner?” There really is nothing quite like it. Sure, there will still be Dead-adjacent shows (I managed to catch Billy &amp; The Kids as well as Bob Weir &amp; Wolf Bros. later in the year), but there really probably won’t be anything quite like Dead and Company again. <img width="1440" height="2160" width_o="1440" height_o="2160" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/1849b0ad979db0111c502da7fcf18fe2c83931b2dc6ae71d56f18b1d0d63590b/Portrait_Horizontal_Logo_Placement_2_3b.jpg" data-mid="1334916" border="0" data-scale="34"/> Baldur’s Gate 3 I’ve never been a huge CRPG fan, at least playing them, but Baldur’s Gate 3 really deserves all the GOTY awards it is receiving. A truly well written and considered story with multiple different paths and endings, a gameplay system that feels as open as one would want a video game version of DND5e to be, and enough to keep one busy for hours and hours and multiple playthroughs. There has already been exhaustive discourse on the state of Games as an industry, so it shouldn’t be missed that Larian Studios sunk a lot of time, effort, and resources into making this masterpiece. The first act of the game (which is split into three acts, with a newly released epilogue that I’ve yet to get around to playing) served as an early access demo of the game that was iterated on and tweaked for three years before the full game shipped. The game was a best seller despite it mainly focusing on a single player experience. It is stuffed to the gills with menus, dialogue trees, and literal dice rolls. Yet, by the time I was at the final arc of my first runthrough, I was totally blown away. Friends who were at similar stages of the game had gone through radically different paths and were finding fairly different endings. Some of the scenarios I found myself in made me think I had maybe broken the game, until a fully voiced dialogue scene seemed totally prepared for what I had just done. The game is a new benchmark for fantasy nerdom experiences. <img width="1024" height="1024" width_o="1024" height_o="1024" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/4ec436feae26ad761c69484d6e36c101bfad8b471d977e15df2e0db674e39d6f/battlebit-1687299370490.jpg" data-mid="1334923" border="0" data-scale="34"/> BattleBit Remastered On the other end of the video gaming spectrum, we have BattleBit Remastered. Maybe one of my most played games of the year, BattleBit manages to capture the feeling, pace, and overall vibe of old Battlefield games all while looking like a Roblox mod. Proximity voice chat provides endless fodder for memes and bullshittery, the gunplay outclasses most other FPS games this year, and it is easy enough to boot up, squad up with some friends, and shoot the shit while running around trying to capture objectives (or, more often, not.) <img width="1600" height="1600" width_o="1600" height_o="1600" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/2bf43d5379cf6358f272b909ead8131d142b725d76cc99424b8a8bd462cb8a8a/tim.jpg" data-mid="1334924" border="0" data-scale="34"/> The Replacements - Tim (Let It Bleed Edition) Look, there are remasters and then there are just redoing an entire album from scratch. I was never huge on The Replacements, but understood Tim to be influential in its own right. The 2023 remaster by Ed Stasium is very clearly what this album could have been upon its original release. The vocals punch, the guitars sound great, the drums are… actually legible? It is an understated feat that one could take the raw tracks as they were from the 1985 release and squeeze a much much better album out of them. <img width="2560" height="1707" width_o="2560" height_o="1707" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/5c548566ab37ed10e9ae33d8b3d4fa410c63d255147158b0faa899662b621be8/sbf.jpg" data-mid="1334925" border="0" data-scale="34"/> The SBF/FTX Saga I don’t even know where to link to for this one. That the patron saint of crypto and effective altruism would flame out so badly and so publicly was maybe the business story of the year, Michael Lewis book aside. The golden child of crypto and his company that was going to fix everything turned out to be a massive fraud! They were taking customer money to buy penthouses and sports cars! Come on people!&nbsp; <img width="1200" height="1778" width_o="1200" height_o="1778" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/f4e132219ecef33e334afc1829aa49ec31f9bc0e6c9a43346bc32940d2fcfc35/succession.jpg" data-mid="1334926" border="0" data-scale="34"/> Succession Maybe the biggest TV show for coastal people working in and around media finally came to an end this year. A fantastically written season with some truly stand out episodes (namely the big swing of episode three which gave the biggest spoiler of the final season so early on), with an ending that felt fitting, even if it isn’t what most of the show’s fans thought they wanted. It felt like the rest of the year came and went without a prestige TV moment as big as the final few episodes of Succession and the buzz surrounding them. <img width="1920" height="1080" width_o="1920" height_o="1080" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/e892aab5cb337004d180fd78a4cd52ad86ef811e7092bc6c5abf521af2def21b/bsky.jpg" data-mid="1334928" border="0" data-scale="34"/> Bluesky The not-quite-Twitter-replacement platform is still finding its legs, but in a world where I scarcely even look at Twitter, Bluesky has become the best alternative in my opinion. A healthy mix of journalists, shitposters, weirdos, and normies provide fodder for whatever topic might be the internet’s focal point for the day. It looks and feels like one of the earlier peaks of Twitter (though maybe with a more visible and prominent community of furries), in so far that a post with any meaningful engagement at all gives some sense of dopamine rush that even tens of likes on Twitter no longer provide. As a professional internet person, it has been both annoying and entertaining to have to keep tabs on what was going on with Elon’s personal plaything of a platform, now home to more fascists, nazis, and white supremecists than before (and there were too many before…), so to have a place to go to at all that is easy enough to set up and use as well as have a healthy community of users across the spheres I populate feels… good doesn’t seem like the right word. My overall personal social media use continues to go down, but when I need a quick hit, Bluesky is now the first platform I’d pull up, so that's something I guess. THINGS I LIKED: 2023Another annual entry of unsorted notable things from the year now coming to a close. Thanks for reading and wishing you and yours a better year... http://mgoldstein.nyc/Blog-Format-Template Wed, 10 May 2023 02:31:57 +0000 Mitch Goldstein 442550 My Blog Post My Blog Post Date: May 9, 2023 Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Aliquam sit amet lacinia lorem. Fusce malesuada laoreet nisi, id mollis ante sollicitudin vel. Phasellus ut lacus augue. Duis suscipit, eros vitae rhoncus rutrum, augue tellus aliquet sapien, ut rhoncus ipsum odio a augue. Fusce vel tristique nibh. Fusce aliquam ante in sapien auctor, quis ultricies enim elementum. Donec tempor aliquet turpis, vitae iaculis odio suscipit eu. Ut scelerisque odio sit amet leo pretium, vel finibus mauris interdum. Curabitur a nunc mauris. Aenean eleifend, metus non posuere consectetur, metus ex tincidunt lacus, vel gravida massa sapien a mi. Sed auctor, sapien quis posuere pellentesque, est neque mattis leo, eget faucibus sapien justo eu ante. Duis sed semper velit, eu ullamcorper nisi. Nam lacinia, libero eu tristique luctus, justo lectus posuere velit, eget iaculis augue nulla quis lectus. Nulla tincidunt nisl sit amet mi hendrerit auctor. Fusce sed est quam. Aenean non odio ac nunc aliquam interdum. Pellentesque nec urna rhoncus, pellentesque est nec, efficitur justo. Sed placerat, metus sit amet feugiat pellentesque, sapien orci molestie sapien, eget dictum lorem sapien quis nibh. Integer interdum, orci a vestibulum venenatis, dolor sapien bibendum ante, eu molestie justo neque sit amet turpis. My Blog Post My Blog Post Date: May 9, 2023 Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Aliquam sit amet lacinia lorem.... http://mgoldstein.nyc/THINGS-I-LIKED-2022 Fri, 16 Dec 2022 02:59:24 +0000 Mitch Goldstein 435343 Things I Liked&nbsp; 2022 The below is an incomplete list of stuff, in no particular order, that caught my attention and/or I enjoyed this year. As always, my more general “what I’m reading online” content consumption feed is here. Happy holiday season and wishing you a better year ahead. -MJG, December 2022 MOTOMAMI by Rosalía Rosalia had caught my attention with her previous album El Mal Querer, but MOTOMAMI truly is a complete package. The music production goes all over the place (but in a good way.) The songs range from TikTok dance fuel on CHICKEN TERIYAKI to a 2020’s love ballad on HENTAI. The visuals that then started coming out ahead of and following the album cemented it for me though. The music videos have a cohesive attitude and mood, the TikTok live performance then set the pace for what would become Rosalia’s live show. Throughout it all, Rosalia treats each element of the album with craft, utilizing vertical screens along with the catchy hooks and whiplash production techniques that make the album feel like a true forward looking moment for pop music. Un Verano Sin Ti by Bad Bunny I can’t say I was like, a huge Bad Bunny fan before. I knew a few songs and had probably played a handful while DJing or hanging out at the beach. As soon as this album came out, it felt like it was everywhere. At the beach, coming from passing by cars throughout the city, at a bar or restaurant. Bad Bunny is the biggest star in the world for a reason. The album makes you want to dance around, even if you (like me) have a limited spanish vocabulary. Preacher’s Daughter by Ethel Cain Sad girl rock is back (again?) Mostly self produced and recorded at home, Preacher’s Daughter at times feels like you’re reading Cain’s diary entries. The content of the songs feel deeply personal and true. You can hear the Lana Del Rey influence throughout Cain’s album, with heavy cavernous reverb drenching most of the tracks and soft melodic vocals. The whole project (13 songs) just carries a beautiful weight to it. Andor Truly the best Star Wars show. So so so dang good. Impeccably written, beautifully directed, and finally filming back on real sets again. Impeccable performances from Diego Luna, and Stellan Skarsgard, but man give Andy Serkis his flowers for this one. If you haven’t watched yet, and even if you have, I can not recommend the listen-along series from the A More Civilized Age podcast to accompany the show enough. They really manage to capture the themes, dialogue, and politics that make this show so great and pick apart all the tiny details you may have missed. Station Eleven Ok so get this: in the middle of a global pandemic, one of my favorite, most mind blowing things to watch is a TV show about the aftermath of a global pandemic. Station Eleven is a one-and-done miniseries that weaves together such a truly beautiful and inspiring story. A special shoutout to the costumes from Helen Huang that add an immense depth of storytelling and weight. IMMORTALITY I know this isn’t a ranked list, but if I was picking a Game of the Year it's probably IMMORTALITY. It is by far the game I have thought about and discussed with friends the most this year. I haven’t played any of Sam Barlow’s FMV games before but there was enough critical reception to this one (plus it being day one on Game Pass) that I decided to check it out. The game immediately draws you in without much direction or introduction. When you start getting into the mechanics of the game, you start watching every clip in a new light. It's very hard to talk about this game without spoiling it but truly, go in as blind as possible if you can, and even if you don’t think you “like video games” this one is worth playing through. God Save the Animals by Alex G The latest from the twangy guitar rock guy is real good. Runner especially is so dang catchy. Fantastically produced to sound warm and fuzzy in the best way. <img width="2016" height="1512" width_o="2016" height_o="1512" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/f1a7f1e4d5d903ee10a5410d0358eb33e92ab2743f4f5443885c7d3f4bac7e43/IMG_0619.jpg" data-mid="1248305" border="0" data-scale="50"/> Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You by Big Thief It feels like Big Thief have been teetering on the edge of mainstream success for years, and this year's long-titled release may have finally pushed them that last bit over the edge. I managed to catch the band live at Kings Theater on the tour for this album and it translates to live performance exceptionally well, kicking up the energy and even had people dancing in the aisles at times. The band’s sound continues to evolve, from soft dreamy indie rock to the range seen here, ranging from experimental looping to alt-Americana jams. HYPER DEMON Look, I don’t think HYPER DEMON is a game for everyone. It is basically like a bad DMT trip as an FPS game. The premise sounds simple enough. You and enemies will spawn in the same spot every time, you start with ten seconds on a clock, every time you defeat an enemy it grants you an additional amount of seconds, the goal is to finish with the highest time/score possible. Ok now that you’ve read that go click the link and watch the trailer. This game looks insane. The default FOV is 100 degrees. Enemies are iridescent skull spiders that shoot purple gems at you. The soundtrack is like an industrial rave with the aux cord half plugged in. And yet for weeks I kept going back to this game, first to beat a friend's high score, and then to keep trying to top my own. It is a uniquely satisfying loop, figuring out little moves and tricks to get from one fight to another even faster and faster. <img width="1228" height="1842" width_o="1228" height_o="1842" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/b123d1b6a7f36c1e575dc30a3c4ba386995eb0bf2497fe311ba7d22bd76cc075/IMG_2804-web.jpg" data-mid="1248302" border="0" data-scale="50"/> The 2022 United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas This year I finally managed to get to an F1 race live in person down in Austin. It is a radically different experience going through a race weekend on the ground to say the least. We managed to catch practice sessions and qualifying from a few different spots on track, and showed up basically as soon as the gates were open to stake out a spot to watch the GP from the top of the hill at turn one. I may not be super interested in going to COTA again but would probably make a trip out of going somewhere else to catch a race if the timing works out right. <img width="1512" height="2016" width_o="1512" height_o="2016" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/2df44f438160f790c162e10bbaaed30991c7ad1bc4815f1dda6eb48947494d32/9C522430-D310-4869-AD31-EDBE32C5FA77.JPG" data-mid="1248303" border="0" data-scale="50"/> Birdie’s While down in Austin for the race we managed to eat and drink quite well but for me the highlight was Birdie’s by far. Out of the way, next to a church, the restaurant has a great wine list which we took advantage of while waiting for a table. The menu is effectively simple, simple dishes using fresh ingredients done very, very well. The service was excellent, the food tasted great, the atmosphere was extremely relaxed for as slammed as they seemed to be. Would go back and will recommend to anyone else passing through Austin. Elden Ring I think when describing Elden Ring to my brother, who does not really play video games, I said it was “the most video game-ass video game ever made” because “you’re just a little guy, with a sword and a shield, running around fighting big monsters.” All of that is true but Elden Ring might be the peak of this era of video games. I still never beat the final bosses, but some of the setting, enemy designs, environments, and mechanics left my jaw on the floor multiple times. It is a steep uphill battle to “git gud” as with most Fromsoft games, but well worth the experience. Everything Everywhere All At Once A beautiful movie about mother-daughter relationships, bagels, rocks, the multiverse, and kung fu. Fortnite: Zero Build Fortnite, one of the most popular PC games and mainstay in the battle royale genre, somehow found a new surge in popularity by removing its most differentiating feature: building. Until earlier this year, in every match you played you’d spend time hitting things to gather materials and then using those materials to build ramps, walls, and staircases both to get yourself around the map as well as to provide cover during a fight. Basically no matter how good you were at shooting, if you couldn’t build you’d get your ass kicked. By removing the ability to build, Fortnite opened the doors for a lot of other gamers who never quite got the hang of it or could never react fast enough (I’d like to think I fell into the latter camp.) Multiple groups of friends who had either fallen off the game or put off trying it now were playing it on a regular basis. Combine this with, later in the year, adding Goku to Fortnite and Epic found themselves reaching new peak numbers of players. RRR Ok, if Elden Ring is the most “video game-ass video game” of the year, then RRR might be the most movie-ass movie this year. Truly an epic saga of friendship, love, revenge, and justice… and dancing. If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend taking a night this holiday season to take it all in. Otway Bakery Otway, a nearby restaurant, started selling their house bread out of their coffee window during the pandemic and it became such a thing that they eventually managed to snag some real estate up the block and open a full bakery. Still not as great as the pastries at Lodi, but very very nice to have fresh bread and both sweet and savory treats within walking distance of me. <img width="1512" height="2016" width_o="1512" height_o="2016" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/e8f1c7d01dcf9b8b82ec570c3dc9511b28e31dc3a7a18c872002fdf071a85ce1/IMG_1882.JPG" data-mid="1248304" border="0" data-scale="50"/> Turnstile (Live)Managed to see Turnstile twice this year, once at Knockdown Center, a venue I still don’t love, and another at Brooklyn Mirage, which was truly an awful experience getting into but an unbelievable show. It felt great to be in a throng of people, in the cold rain, jumping together to very loud music. Severance Who would’ve guessed that one of the best commentaries on labor and work in today’s society would come from Apple TV+? The premise sounds simple on paper: what if you could fully disassociate your work life from your personal life? Like, the second you enter the office you black out and then you come back to when you’re walking to your car. Would you opt in to that kind of life? Would others? Neon White The creator of Neon White self-described it as “a game for sickos” which feels apt. The game is a first person shooter, with a card based system, designed for speed running. You play an anime assassin, equipped with a katana, trying to get from the start of each level to the end while clearing every enemy in sight as fast as possible. The genius of the game is that it shows you your place on both the global leaderboards and against your friends list. When you beat a level and feel like you did it in a great time, and then see that a buddy of yours somehow did a full six seconds faster, you begin to look at the game differently. Is there a jump you can skip over? A faster way to get through a pack of enemies? You start trying to deconstruct levels in your mind and jumping through hoops to skip entire parts of stages trying to beat your own time or others. A Light for Attracting Attention by The Smile Look, it's not technically a new Radiohead album, but it's as close as you can get. Things I Liked&nbsp; 2022 The below is an incomplete list of stuff, in no particular order, that caught my attention and/or I enjoyed this year. As always, my... http://mgoldstein.nyc/USGP Mon, 24 Oct 2022 17:59:03 +0000 Mitch Goldstein 432475 The 2022 Formula 1 Aramco United States Grand Prix <img width="3463" height="5195" width_o="3463" height_o="5195" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/d70517dceaafd702fe4ce715f07c67e0b879247e3707f959aa6f4b019c451ad0/IMG_2804.jpg" data-mid="1234216" border="0" data-scale="75"/> <img width="3359" height="5038" width_o="3359" height_o="5038" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/7a13fd6c147df00b323980a47884fa4c49c615058a04a969d19e738d3002f34d/IMG_2984.jpg" data-mid="1234225" border="0" data-scale="75"/> <img width="5472" height="3648" width_o="5472" height_o="3648" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/2a96a0c2c86c9343bd7e1a2260ca1af77074bf571651cdec4c0fe8c6d9126df1/IMG_3026.jpg" data-mid="1234226" border="0" data-scale="75"/> <img width="5472" height="3648" width_o="5472" height_o="3648" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/9180bba33a59439f8aa98eb4d25835830a468ab8aa4c6e6cd296821fb33ccc79/IMG_3029.jpg" data-mid="1234227" border="0" data-scale="75"/> <img width="2585" height="3878" width_o="2585" height_o="3878" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/316a278b3cf879c59296be9b3b662305e8fd89fdd38c94c6a05bbb3d0e4decb4/IMG_3047.jpg" data-mid="1234228" border="0" data-scale="75"/> <img width="2987" height="4480" width_o="2987" height_o="4480" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/dd3a69b5a53b53b8d4574af33b86d6c35b3f747c485068aaa83f837ff70e8a5a/IMG_3067.jpg" data-mid="1234229" border="0" data-scale="75"/> <img width="3648" height="5472" width_o="3648" height_o="5472" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/cfc15ce6b61879692360e79ea7b044318e6b7a66bb594fd95adfc153e97f07d1/IMG_3133.jpg" data-mid="1234231" border="0" data-scale="75"/> <img width="3359" height="5038" width_o="3359" height_o="5038" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/1c43035eda07d2753a18029771d0214f8f37df15316081768712c206b54d83a5/IMG_3251.jpg" data-mid="1234230" border="0" data-scale="75"/> The 2022 Formula 1 Aramco United States Grand Prix http://mgoldstein.nyc/THINGS-I-LIKED-2021 Sun, 12 Dec 2021 22:56:38 +0000 Mitch Goldstein 416233 THINGS I LIKED  2021 The below is an incomprehensive list of things/content/stuff/etc. that left an impression on me in the last year. Notably, a large archive of most articles/stuff online that I read can be found here instead of the list below. Beyond that, I don’t keep a record of everything I do/see/read/eat/and so on but there is enough of my own personal data floating around that I’ve tried to piece together what has stuck with me the most.So, in no particular order, probably plenty of stuff I’m forgetting in the moment, and linked out where I can, here’s my year. Health to you and yours for the year ahead -MG, December 2021 GLOW ON by Turnstile Spotify said this was my second most listened to artist and album this year. Quite possible, though dwarfed by an amount of live Grateful Dead I’d prefer not to put a public number to. Just unbelievable energy from this record front to back. The kind of hardcore I wish existed back when I thought I was into hardcore as a teenager. The live videos are also unbelievable. Looking forward to seeing them next year. The Beatles ‘Get Back’ I don’t think there is more about this documentary I could say that hasn’t been better phrased by smarter people. I was Beatles obsessed as a kid and this is by far the most human I’ve ever seen them. Smokin’ cigs, making dick jokes, goofing around, and then suddenly McCartney is pulling the chorus of Let It Be out of thin air. Doesn’t matter how many times it gets caught on video, watching the process of a legendarily good song come together is magic still. The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins by Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing One of only a few books I actually managed to finish this year. Dense as hell at times but an incredible perspective of how it’s all connected. From climate change to rampant capitalism to immigration crises to class war. Food is history is culture is commerce, exceptionally told. Cocaine and Rhinestones: Season Two by Tyler Mahan Coe Season one of this podcast was fantastic, then Coe went dark for a while. He came back with an exceptionally researched, wonderfully rambling, in-depth biography of country music legend George Jones. A story of heartbreak, excess, the birth of the Nashville Sound, but also bullfighters, ancient Rome, and Hemingway. I can not recommend this podcast enough if you have any interest in American music as a cultural artifact and/or business. This Is Pop: Season 1 Most notable here are the episodes on Auto-Tune, Swedish songwriters, and Britpop. Stories of the seismic shifts in pop music from those who were there. Watch The Sound with Mark Ronson Well, its basically the same show as above, but with Mark Ronson as host and produced by Apple TV. Episodes on Auto-Tune, reverb, and drum machines are good though! The 2021 Formula 1 Season I got into watching F1 around the time the first season of Drive to Survive came out. For a myriad or reasons, this season caught a lot more peoples’ attention. I’m writing this the night of the final race of the season. What a bizarre and kinda dumb note for things to end on. Anyway, it took some arm twisting but I got most of one of my group chats into the sport, and a Discord server I’m in mainly for gaming ended up watching most races together in voice chat. I did not grow up watching sports at all, really. So, having a sport to follow with friends and have favorites in now is a nice change. VALORANT I think, by hours, my most played game of 2021. Flashbacks to middle school days of late-into-the-night CS1.6/CS:GO sessions. High highs, very low lows, but also a way to keep in touch with a few old friends and made a few new ones. Followed along with a fair amount of the esports scene around the game too, it really does help when you actually know how the game works. Doing well in this game feels really good, and the feeling that you’re getting better at it is also very good. Star Trek: The Next Generation Technically I started watching this right before 2021, but the final three seasons lasted me through the end of winter so I’m counting it here. I was never a Trekkie, I still don’t think I am, but once I got over some gripes with the aesthetics of the show, it really is just a good office drama set in space Money Stuff by Matt LevineThe world of capital-F Finance makes less sense than ever. I hope to never be asked to explain cryptocurrencies, NFTs, or anything like that ever again but I know it’ll continue to happen. With meme stocks and inflation and government spending and Elon Musk continuing to exist, Levine approaches the whole shebang with a healthy dose of skepticism (and a tinge of cynacism sometimes) that helps make sense of it all.&nbsp; Discord I don’t know. How do I even write about this? Discord is a chat app originally designed for use by gamers to talk to each other while playing video games. It has since become a company now valued somewhere in the ballpark of $15 billion. It has easily become my most used app on my computer this year and is likely in the top three on my phone (behind Twitter and iMessage.) Group chats, chatrooms, forums, newsfeeds, and a few other digital social spaces have all been replaced by Discord. I’m logged in to something like 16+ servers right now but I’m probably only regularly active in two of them. One of my group chats started and only exists on Discord. Earlier this year I had started writing a thing about how Discord has helped me maintain a healthier relationship with the internet and avoid doomscrolling but I never got around to finishing it. The gist is that when something is going on, I go to Discord before I go to Twitter. Better? I don’t know, but it feels it for right now… Yellowstone National Park Specifically, probably, Artist Point. We took a family vacation to Yellowstone, Grand Teton, and Jackson Hole in August. We drove, a lot, in a minivan (SLC to Idaho Falls, Idaho Falls to Yellowstone, a few days around the park, through the park to Grand Teton, through Grand Teton to Jackson, from Jackson back to SLC.) Seeing hundreds of bison was cool, Ol’ Faithful was a bit of a letdown, but Artist Point was truly the picturesque view of the park that made it worth going, in my opinion. Apparently, the national parks have had a huge surge in visitors over the pandemic (can’t travel internationally so we may as well go see the natural splendors of our own country, so the thinking goes.) Which, great! I can only hope this increase of hikers, sightseers, campers, and the like will spur an increase in concerns over natural preservation and climate change as well. We’ve taken family trips to a handful of national parks at this point and I can say with certainty that the size, variety, and accessibility of Yellowstone sets it apart from any of the others so far. Summer of Soul Another incredible music documentary that it feels like a lot less people saw than then ones I talked about earlier. Just insane footage and a wild story of a huge festival that we just… never heard about. CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST by Tyler, The Creator Tyler is just truly on top form here. Bombastic production, DJ Drama(!), catchy hooks, smart as all hell verses. The works. Again, the live show, he really manages to tie it all together and carry a whole festival set on his shoulders. Bright Green Field by Squid Brutalist and harsh, like Talking Heads and Joy Division thrown in a blender, but it works. Produced some really cool music videos too. Notes With Attachments by Pino Palladino and Blake Mills Beautiful stuff here. I Know I’m Funny haha by Faye Webster Your indie darlings’ favorite indie darling. DEATHLOOP This was maybe the first new big single player game I was excited to play, and my first dive into the work of Arcane Studios. Not quite the most immersive of immersive sims that the developers are known for, but some excellently done art direction and game design, fun to play, a good mystery to unravel, thought about it for like two weeks after I finished it. Hell Let Loose On another hand, Steam says I’ve played roughly 100 hours of this game which I only started playing over the summer. It’s one of those things that gamers have been talking about for, I don’t know, since online games became a Big Thing? 50 versus 50 First Person Shooter, except the teams also have a commander who get to see the entire battle as if it was a Real Time Strategy game. It only recently hit 1.0 and had some rough spots during the early access period but it is a game with a definitive look&nbsp;and incredible sound design and grit to it. Intricately balanced systems, real teamwork, for whatever reason it was the right game at the right time to really get its teeth into me. I also wrote a whole thing about this but never finished the last few paragraphs. TL;DR: It’s a visceral experience that is, with a fair amount of rarity, interrupted by white supremacists and Nazi fanboys. Online gaming! What’re you gonna do, right? Garbage Day by Ryan Broderick Ryan’s newsletter is probably the single source of internet culture reporting I recommend to people the most. Ryan has a singular and unique relationship and perspective on how the web is shaping our lives and vice versa, plus he looks at all the gross/weird/neo-Nazi stuff so his readers don’t have to. Memes to crypto to internet radicalism. Good stuff. Must subscribe if your work directly involves the internet, in my opinion. Today in Tabs by Rusty Foster My second “read every time” newsletter is Tabs. Just a full rundown (and often dressing down) of the media discourse that day. Great for the days where I’m too busy to look at Twitter too often, and even better for surfacing the origin of the discourse or the most relevant reaction I probably missed. The Daily Solve: New York Times Crossword with Chris RemoNiche, nerdy, but truly excellent Content. Chris Remo is a composer and designer working mostly in video games. He also has an absurd record of solving the New York Times crossword puzzle, every day, without any assists and at some point began recording himself talking through how he solves them. This in turn helps you learn the “language” of crosswords (some things specific to how the Times does its clueing) and got me trying some of the easier ones when I find the time and wanting to do so. Wholesome stuff, feelgood energy, very low stress, highly recommend if you like trivia, wordplay, and general knowledge party facts. Dune (2021) I still don’t get how people didn’t like this one. True (in the right ways) to the book, beautifully shot and directed, looking forward to part two. Four Hours at the Capitol It’s pretty fucked that we started the year with a literal insurrection, right? I think it was hard to grasp the scale of what was happening on the day of, or at least it was for me. It was scary but unsurprising, radical but predictable, a grand gesture of just how warped and broken our political system has become. This documentary gives a tic-toc of the day, with some eerie on the ground footage. Worth watching and digesting. Lunch Sandwiches from Hart’sA lot of restaurants in New York City, prior to the 2nd? 3rd? Great Reopening (real George W. “Mission Accomplished” vibes) did the thing where they convert into a fancy market with some prepared foods and bottles of wine and stuff. Hart’s is one of my neighborhood restaurants (admittedly on the spendier side than sister restaurant The Fly which is/was just a good spot to be a regular at) did this model extremely well! Luxurious Italian groceries, good fresh affordable bread, booze, snacks, whole chickens, and during the spring and summer, prepared sandwiches for lunch. They were so dang good. I miss those sandwiches. 100 Foot Wave Deeply personal look at the literally extreme sport of big wave surfing, centering around legend of the sport Garret McNamara. Reality show meets sport doc meets freak-of-nature big waves in Portugal. NTS RadioI make a LOT of playlists. Like a lot a lot. On top of the weekly one I put out with Liam for OK Mondays, I also have big never ending playlists as well as a bunch of other ones. So I’m in Spotify a lot, clicking and exploring related artists and tracks. The last year I moved away a bit from the algo driven Spotify-core music and got back into some good old fashioned internet radio. I’d say NTS specalizes in electronic and dance music but also has shows with psych, rock, jazz, classical, ambient, and more. The “endless mixtapes” (blends of genre specific-ish shows) have been a go to whenever what is live on either of the two channels isn’t matching my mood. Truly just a wonderful independant and unique radio station to support if you can. Honorable mention to the local heroes at The Lot Radio, too. Logitech MX Master 3 wireless mouse Look, yeah, I know, its a computer mouse, okay? But it’s like the computer mouse. I, probably like you, ended up working from home for a vast majority of this year (roughly 76.35% of the year to date, according to my work calendar.) And so, like many of us, I invested in my WFH setup. Sit/stand desk, new mechanical keyboard (Ducky Shine 7 Blackout with MX Silvers), the works. This mouse is by far my favorite thing I’ve purchased for working and every other computer task. Ergonomic, good scroll wheel, a fun squishy little macro button under your thumb. Trust me, if you’re starting to get wrist strain or just want the better mouse, it is this one. The Facebook FilesBy cruel twist of fate perhaps, I am professionally tied to the whims of the major social media platforms. This kinda felt like a big splash with small ripples. The Facebook Files maybe will not turn out to be the big reckoning that whistleblower Frances Hougan or the Journal had initially hoped for (though, as time goes on, it has become more clear that it isn’t really clear what Hougan wanted out of all of this anyway.) Still, to have all the stuff that has been whispered about or semi murky secrets that the industry has known about for what feels like forever now be verified, reported on, and become the subject of congressional hearings? That was something, I think? Props to the team over at Gizmodo for working to publish source files, too. A Lot of Natural Wine Not really exclusive to this year but a carryover from last year, too. Not going out and spending money at bars and restaurants for longer than I can remember since moving to New York City meant I had some extra dollars to spend at my nearby wine shops. Too many standout bottles to list here but do support your local wine weirdos. Mine happen to be Thirst, Leon &amp; Son, and Radicle. Getting Vaccinated (and a Booster Shot)Duh. THINGS I LIKED  2021 The below is an incomprehensive list of things/content/stuff/etc. that left an impression on me in the last year. Notably, a large archive...