Scratch Pad: Hyperviolent, MP3s, Morgantown

I do this manually at the end of each week: collating most of the recent little comments I’ve made on social media, which I think of as my public scratch pad. I also find knowing I will revisit my posts to be a positive and mellowing influence on my social media activity. I mostly hang out on Mastodon (at post.lurk.org/@disquiet), and I’m also trying out a few others. And I generally take weekends off social media.

▰ The cashier turns up the music at the restaurant and my first thought is: this is usually when a movie’s wordless, hyperviolent scene kicks in

▰ There’s a misleading rhetorical meme that floats around about how you don’t remember your first MP3. Whenever I rip an old CD to my hard drive, I clearly remember the first time I witnessed someone burn a CD (a mixtape they were making for a friend). I remember the first audio file I force-downloaded. I remember the first track I ripped (and then layered on top of itself).

▰ My main experience of that Richard Powers profile in The New Yorker is I want him to publish a vegan cookbook

▰ Me: Yow, it’s getting dark early.

Me a moment later: Oh, the shades are drawn.

▰ Finally made it to the new location of Kayo Books in the Tenderloin today. Fantastic selection, as had been the case at their previous spot. I picked up this 1953 paperback treat.

▰ End of day:

▰ After a spell focused on the Beatles’ “Golden Slumbers,” guitar class has moved on to Joni Mitchell’s “Morning Morgantown.” I’m probably, at best, the second worst guitarist on the full length of my street (not block, street), but I’m having fun and learning a lot. “Buy your dreams, a dollar down.”