My Favorite Music of 2022

After spending a couple hours writing my annual year-end blog post about my favorite music, I decided to throw in the towel and just point you at the page with all the "new to me" music this year with my favorites shown in bold font.

If you're curious, it's pretty easy to Google the band and album and find their Bandcamp page or a YouTube video for some streaming samples (as opposed to steaming samples which is an entirely different thing). And you should, because some of these albums are really really good.

Here is my music of 2022 including favorites.

So you can infer from my attitude about blogging that it's time for this one to end.

And so it will.

My Favorite Books of 2022

Just like 2021, work from home and lack of business travel has decimated my leisure reading this year. Before the pandemic, I had 90 minutes during my daily commute for audio books and plenty of business travel to read dead-tree books on flights. On top of that, my brain is so scrambled from work that I can barely remember what I did read let alone which ones were my favorites.

While that sounds rather sad, there weren't any stinkers or DNFs (did not finish). So at least there's that.

Why am I bothering to write this post? I don't know.

Here's my full 2022 reading list for the morbidly curious.

The End of Gibberish

This will be my last post of gibberish on this blog. It used to be a weekly thing but the frequency has really fallen off in the past year or two. I'll probably do my usual posts at year's end about favorite books and music and that will be that.

And now onward with the gibberish.

Adam Hillman's arrangements of everyday objects remind me why I loved my kids' I Spy books.

"What is Zen? Simple, simple, so simple. Infinite gratitude toward all things past; infinite service to all things present; infinite responsibility to all things future." ~Huston Smith

I just love the look of this Aglio E Olio with Peas and Prosciutto from everyone's favorite sexy chef, Giada.

If you are a Spotify user (I am not) and love the feeling of frisson then this playlist created by a neuroscientist is for you.

I'm getting ahead of myself, but the release earlier this year of the 2018 remix of Pink Floyd's seminal album Animals will be on my list of favorite music of 2022. Here's a teaser. I hear the remix as being a bit brighter and more spacious than the original, kinda how I hear Steely Dan's Aja.

Here's the trailer for Marcel The Shell With Shoes On. It makes me want to see the film.

Hard seltzer made with hot dog water.

Let's get caught up with Zefrank: Damselfly and Beetle, The Platypus Conspiracy, True Facts: The Mosquito, True Facts: The Hummingbird Warrior, True Facts: Carnivorous Plants, True Facts: The Self-Sacrificing Amoeba, True Facts: Parasitic Birds. True Facts: Sea Cucumbers.

You ever wonder where the James Webb Space Telescope is? Just ask "Where is Webb?"

When approaching a task, just get started.

"A clock is a flow meter for entropy." Thanks, physics.

A fan of Miles Davis and vintage video games should enjoy Kind of Bloop, an 8-bit tribute to Davis' Kind of Blue.

CBS Sunday Morning did a segment on The Geometric Art of Sean Scully.

I suppose weird is subjective which explains this list of the 10 weirdest Genesis songs. But I know the list is flawed because it omits More Fool Me.

Here's a teaser for the album a Sense of Destiny by David Kollar & Arve Henriksen.

In what I consider to be a net loss for the DFW area, the Univ. of North Texas radio station KNTU changed formats from jazz to "indie." The jazz programming has been relegated to streaming. Given that KNTU's jazz studies program is a state if not national treasure, loss of jazz on the airwaves is dismaying. I hope to continue my annual purchase of the One O'clock Lab Band's CD.

This list of the NFL's GOATS at each position - like all "top" list articles - is designed to spark debate. But I am OK with all their selections. Jim Brown as running back isn't even debatable.

Some F-15 aviation pr0n.

ICYMI, the Air Race World Championship (successor to the Red Bull Air Race) has delayed its return to the skies until 2023.

Eyvind Earle is one of my favorite Disney artists.

Here's a teaser for O.R.k.'s new album Screamnasium.

I purchased the exhibit catalog but maybe you can visit the Walt Disney Family Museum and see The Jungle Book: Making of a Masterpiece.

Mary Obering, Winter, 1992. source

Here's a version of Philip Glass' phenomenal soundtrack to Koyaanisqatsi performed on organ. Or how about a metal version?

As a former beer drinker, there are times when I miss the taste of a good IPA. When I saw this article in the WSJ about non-alcoholic hop waters, I had to give one a try. And the Lagunitas Hoppy Refresher is tasty.

One man's list of the best store-bought pickles. I actually like Vlasic pickles (his #8). Boar's Head is his #2 and I didn't even know they made pickles. 

For Travis: a restored XF-82 Twin Mustang.

Rumi is quoted as having said or written many wonderful things but this may be one of my favorites. "Goodbyes are only for those who love with their eyes. Because those who love with their heart and soul there is no such thing as separation."

Agnes Martin, Untitled, 1977. Her works "are light, lightness, about merging, about formlessness, breaking down forms.” source

Science predicts the shape of nearly every protein - using AI.

Another good quote, this one from the Tao Te Ching. "When the Tao is lost, there is goodness. When goodness is lost, there is morality. When morality is lost, there is ritual. Ritual is the husk of true faith, the beginning of chaos." [emphasis mine]

The Power of Story shares 6 storytelling tips from the former chief creative at Dreamworks. They are worth reading. #3 Stories are about enabling change. The latter resonates because it's similar to another writing tip (for fiction) that says each character must want something.

Move over Top Gun, the most realistic portrayal of air combat in film is...

I grew up in Cleveland and never heard of a Polish Boy before. But now that I have, I really want to eat "This mouth-watering mashup of juicy kielbasa, mounds of coleslaw and fries, slathered with barbecue sauce — all in a bun!"

Gary Husband share his deep thoughts about Allan Holdsworth.

You know me and black & white animation.

"We have art in order to not die of the truth." ~Nietzsche 

Daniel Green teaches physics at U.C. San Diego but on his list of resources the advice for applying for a job you might find most useful.

If you like to see things rot, watch the trailer for Wrought.

Thanks for reading.

On Politics and Tweets

In this post I will rant about myself.

During this 5-day holiday weekend (thank you, Cadence) I looked at my recent tweets and was disappointed to say the least. The vast majority were political. This distressed me because for most of my life I had claimed to be apolitical. 

To be clear:

• I think Donald Trump is a compulsive habitual liar (easily proven, not debatable), a narcissist of the most extreme variety, and dumb as a bag of rocks.
• The Big Lie is just that: a lie.
• A lot of republicans in office or running for office (e.g. Marge, Lauren) also demonstrate stupidity, tell blatant lies, and spend more time claiming to believe the "right" things rather than acting upon them.
• The so-called "religious right" represents the gristle of Christian faith and are rapidly heading to a form of christofacism.
• Abortion is a medical procedure that shouldn't be demonized. Anyone who spends an hour reading and understanding medical ethics will realize that the concept of gradualism should be applied.
• Guns have been turned into a fetish object and need to be controlled. Other constitutional rights are limited (e.g. libel and slander laws).

Now that I've written this post I'll do my best to return my tweeting and facebooking to the things I really enjoy like music, art, literature, food, Disney, running, gardening, family, friends, mesh generation, computational fluid dynamics, and all things engineering software.

That doesn't mean I won't still share political stuff but that will be a smaller percentage of everything. 

This is the very perfection of a man...

The music...

• Documentary on the making of Genesis' landmark album The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
• A Pink Floyd / Art of Noise mashup - Another Brick In the Wall + Legs
• Porcupine Tree on the break-up and reconciliation
• If you can get this in-browser Rhythm Controller iO-808 to work, you're better than me.
• Same for this Roland 50.
• Robert Fripp interviewed about the King Crimson documentary
• The TCU Percussion Ensemble playing Bill Bruford's Beelzebub
• The Aristocrats get the orchestral treatment courtesy of the Primuz Chamber Orchestra
• Listen to radio stations around the globe
• The Light Inside, the Dark Outside by ILUITEQ
• Vanishing Lands by Netherworld

Not music but sounds - in particular, endangered sounds.

This list is a couple of month's past peak but, Wordle variants.

• Worldle (geography)
• Nerdle (numbers)
• Heardle (music)
• Semantle (semantics)

A couple of Mark Rothko's from an overview of Ab Ex. 

Given that work now takes me to the Bay area often, I might be able to visit the Walt Disney Family Museum to see the current exhibit on The Jungle Book: Making a Masterpiece.

A bibliography for a history of animation.

How about a game that's Almost Pong?

On creativity:

• How Pixar does it.
• How pianist Bill Evans does it.

Joan Mitchell, Hemlock, 1956. source

And the art.

• Joan Mitchell, Hyperallergic's review of her retrospective. 
• Fields of Abstraction at the Israel Museum.

Gallery view of Fields of Abstraction. See link above.

And now for some science.

• A fossilized dinosaur hypothesized to have been killed by the Chicxulub asteroid.
• W Bosons need to go on a diet or they'll break the standard model of particle physics.
• Funny science in the form of True Facts about Sea Stars and The Hummingbird Warrior.
• Engineering the Commodore 64.
• Tonga volcano shock wave animation
• Time might not actually exist.

Medieval Meme (Memieval?) generator.

In this list of 103 bits of advice is this gem. "You can be whatever you want, so be the person who ends meetings early."

Let's dial back the "definitive guide" bit but here's advice for healthy eating when you're over 50. For ex, minimize processed foods, veggies with each meal, drink water.

...to find out his own imperfections. ~St. Augustine

Circumstances do not make the man...

Is this really my first blog post of 2022? 

Just a reminder that the Air Race World Championship is coming back this year. Smoke on.

The website of musician Gary Husband.

Mark Rothko, Untitled, 1969. This work on paper is one of several featured in the exhibition Mark Rothko 1968: Clearing Away. "It also shows the power of white and its tremendous impact in his painting.”

What can your farts tell you about your health? "Scientists have recently found a connection between mental health and gas production." Then I must be a psychopath.

Why is poo brown?

Concept art of the Navy's Next-Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) Fighter, the F/A-XX.

The music:

• Broken Masses by Gary Mundy and Eraldo Bernocchi
• Deconstructing Brian Eno's Music for Airports
• Saturday Night in San Francisco by Di Meola, McLaughlin, and De Lucia.
• The Turning Year by Roger Eno
• Charged by Kondo, Bernocchi, and Laswell
• Brilliant Trees by David Sylvian, filming inside the studio during recording
• Outland by Ian Boddy and Markus Reuter
• The Allan Holdsworth Quartet in Montreal in 1993
• Smallcreep's Day by Mike Rutherford (reissue)
• Claudio Scolari 
• Violet Light by Eraldo Bernocchi
• A memorial concert for Jon Hassell.

Did you know you can donate your old LEGOs and they'll be cleaned-up and gifted to another child?

What is the coolest museum in each state? I first validated by ensuring that the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame was the coolest in Ohio. Then I checked Texas to find the Bullock Texas State Museum.

Generate some alien planet landscapes.

The Pantone color of the year for 2022 is Very Peri.

Wayne Thiebaud, Boulder Ridge, 2013. Not a cake.

Dali + Disney = Destino, set to the music of Pink Floyd. I feel like a little wacky weed would allow me to fully enjoy this.

Best website this week: crouton.net.

Followed closely by Doughnut Kitten.

Yes, it has been a long time since I posted. source

If you have kids, you can animate their drawings.

Lights at Sea is a really cool interactive map of the world's lighthouses.

Norman Lewis, Exodus, 1972. From The Transcendent Power of Black in Norman Lewis' Paintings. I'm fairly certain this is one of Lewis' paintings I saw a few years back in a retrospective of his work and my friends and I were happily stunned by his work that none of us prior to that time had been familiar with.  

Tom Peters is never at a loss for words, or in this case quotes. In particular, one quote for each of the 43 years that have passed since In Search of Excellence was published. "Culture eats strategy for breakfast."

In case you haven't been keeping track, in 2020 the mass of all man-made stuff exceeded the planet's total biomass for the first time.

Most good management concepts can be illustrated in a 4-quadrant chart and Seth Godin's control/responsibility matrix is no different. Are you a victim, martyr, whiner, or leader?

Another quad chart: the productivity matrix. (I'm definitely most productive on the "calm" left side of that chart.)

Five of the greatest physics lectures of all time.

Always funny - Ze Frank's True Facts: Proboscis Monkey.

You don't even have to read the article, but the best sugar cereal is Lucky Charms.

The TV show Ghosts has a fan wiki.

Of these 25 best sci-fi movies of the last 15 years I've seen... eight.

The story of The Yes Album and Fragile.

...they reveal him. ~James Allen

My Favorite Music of 2021

It's time for the annual blog post no one asks for: my favorites of all the new (to me) music I bought this year.

But I'm exhausted and lack the energy to spend a lot of time on this - despite the fact that I really enjoy and appreciate virtually all of the sixty-six albums I got.

In no particular order...

Fractal Guitar 2 and Fractal Guitar 2 Remixes by Stephan Thelen.

In the Electric Universe by Mahogany Frog.

Naurora by Dewa Budjana.

Mutual Isolation by Burnt Belief

Apophenian Bliss by Red Kite

Music is Our Friend by King Crimson

But this list omits a lot of really enjoyable music.

• Fish's farewell album Weltschmerz
• FREEZE! Live in Europe 2020 by The Aristocrats
• Adam Holzman's live album Brave New World
• Anchor and Burden, the lead-in to a five album arc by Markus Reuter
• Saturday Night in San Francisco (pre-order)

And of course I need to credit the two record labels that create and share some of my favorite music.

• RareNoise Records
• Moonjune Records

Looking forward to 2022.

P.S. In hindsight, this blog post is horribly written. I blame fatigue.