Mine In Mono

A personal weblog by Robert — mere Christian, aspiring minimalist, inveterate notetaker, budget audiophile and paper airplane mechanic. Self-publishing since 1994.

  • The Shape of Paris

    This week’s Saturday Night Video is a bit different than the usual fare. It’s technically more of a skate video than a music video (but it does feature music). Powell Peralta-sponsored skateboard pro Andy Anderson and I have very different styles, but I enjoy his skating and his good nature. He’s as unconventional a skateboarder as they come, fitting decidedly old-school tricks alongside new ones, finding endless creativity with whatever objects he comes across.

    The Shape of Paris is as much an intimate look at the streets of Paris as a skate video. Its videographer, Brett Novak, is one of the best in the skateboarding films business and brings a variety of shots that showcase the city’s charms. I’ve only been to Paris once, but I wish my memories of it looked the way it appears in this video.

    via Neatorama

  • Soaking In It

    If you live in a first-world country with a sizable knowledge work sector, you might find it hard to escape the subject of AI. That’s probably an understatement. We are saturated with talk of artificial intelligence and, in particular, large language models. The economist Edgar R. Fiedler is quoted as saying, “He who lives by the crystal ball soon learns to eat ground glass,” but that hasn’t stopped the proliferation of prognostication on the subject of AI.

    Matt Shumar posts his take as an insider working with AI on the Xitter site. He issues a clarion call to those who may not be as close as he is to what is happening in the industry.

    I should be clear about something up front: even though I work in AI, I have almost no influence over what’s about to happen, and neither does the vast majority of the industry. The future is being shaped by a remarkably small number of people: a few hundred researchers at a handful of companies… OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind, and a few others. A single training run, managed by a small team over a few months, can produce an AI system that shifts the entire trajectory of the technology. Most of us who work in AI are building on top of foundations we didn’t lay. We’re watching this unfold the same as you… we just happen to be close enough to feel the ground shake first.

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  • Elderberry Wine

    Though I have to admit that I haven’t listened yet, Asheville NC outfit Wednesday’s latest album Bleeds just dropped yesterday. In support of that, I wanted to offer the video for the first single from album, released several months ago to critical acclaim.

    “Elderberry Wine” leans into the more accessible elements of the Wednesday shoegaze alt-country formula. You could even see someone weaned on the thin gruel of contemporary country music developing an appreciation for the reverence of Americana in the song and video. With more hooks than a tacklebox, the song gets stuck in your head for days.

    Wednesday – Elderberry Wine (YouTube)

  • Locked Down Media

    Bandcamp sent an email this week on the impact of tariffs to bands that sell physical media via the site.

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    Fediverse reactions

  • Omarchy

    Okay, I’ll admit it: I love the ambitiousness of 37Signals rolling their own Arch-based Linux distro (called Omarchy) and the obvious enthusiasm CTO David Heinemeier Hansson has for the project. The minimalist distro has now reached what they are calling 2.0 and DHH made another demo video of himself geeking out over the capabilities.

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  • Tangled Up In Chaos

    A few days ago, I received a plea in my normal email from the media outlet Tangle.

    The last six months have been a difficult time for media outlets. Overwhelmed by the news, many readers and listeners are tuning out. Those who are staying up to date are increasingly relying on artificial intelligence round-ups to get their news, which has caused website traffic to fall.

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    Fediverse reactions

  • Falling On My Sword

    In honor of Tops’ new album Bury The Key being released yesterday, I’m featuring one of the tracks, “Falling On My Sword,” as the Saturday Night Video this week. 

    “Falling On My Sword” is my favorite among the early singles from this LP and probably the one that most closely matches the 70’s prog rock-inspired cover art. It’s a bit of a left turn for Tops. Based on their previous work, you would think anything born of a seventies influence would be more in line with late-decade disco (and the remainder of the album features some of that).

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  • Of Human Bondage

    The third edition of John Brady’s This & That. zine reached my mailbox this week. As I read through it, I thought about the slower pace of communication from the past. In the book Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham, the residents of a small British town at the turn of the 20th century share a newspaper, each taking shifts throughout the day.

    Soon after breakfast Mary Ann brought in the Times. Mr. Carey shared it with two neighbours. He had it from ten till one, when the gardener took it over to Mr. Ellis at the Limes, with whom it remained till seven; then it was taken to Miss Brooks at the Manor House, who, since she got it late, had the advantage of keeping it.

    There’s something quaint and romantic about having such little and proscribed access to information. It’s almost the exact opposite of what we have today, with the glut of news and entertainment that we can barely hold off.

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  • Perfect Days

    I finally got around to watching Wim Wenders Perfect Days, in which it must be said that the city of Tokyo is as much a character as any of the actors. The beautiful, future-forward and unusual toilets which protagonist Hirayama has to clean for his meager living make many appearances. They set the stage for Hirayama to live his days, which illustrate an ordinary life and the events which conspire to disrupt the pleasant monotony. Hirayama conveys a wide range of emotions without saying much of anything.

    I was happy that I was able to correctly guess almost all the songs in the soundtrack. I also loved the minimalist sensibilities and the “a place for everything and everything in its place” angle.

    Perfect Days (2023) is currently streaming on Hulu.

  • No Respect

    I was skimming through this Discogs article on comedy records the other day and came across the 1980 Rodney Dangerfield album No Respect. The a-side is a monologue called “No Respect” and the b-side is a monologue called “Son of No Respect.”

    Rodney Dangerfield – No Respect (1980)

    A colleague of mine, who grew up in Mumbai, India, went to see Back To School, starring Dangerfield, on the first date with her now husband. Their marriage, like many in India still, was arranged. Going to a movie with him at that point was kind of scandalous. She stopped at a bodega on the way to the theater to let her mother know of this indiscretion.

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