What have you been watching and reading this week? You don't need to give us a whole essay if you don't want to, but please write something! Feel free to talk about something you saw that was cool, something that was bad, ask for recommendations, or anything else you can think of.

If you want to, feel free to find the thing you're talking about and link to its pages on Anilist, MAL, or any other database you use!

Denmark

Commentary: A rock heavy selection coming out of Denmark for this month. So in typical fashion, I'm gonna skip over the generic guitar riffs and angsty lyrics this May and focus instead on the crisp pop voice of Sonic Girl. The track “hackerboy” is worth a listen just for the shoehorning in of antivirus and IP addresses!

Finland

Commentary: Where Denmark failed with rock, Finland might just have delighted this month. The country is synonymous with death metal, so imagine my surprise to find a source of surf rock in the band Mary Ann Hawkins. Their track “Hawkinsmania” is an espresso shot of frenetiscism.

Iceland

Commentary: Iceland is a small place, with 366,000 people and counting, so sometimes pickings are low. But they do say quality over quantity, and that's what we have here. The names behind NEVERNEVER have some real pedigree in the music industry and are led by the strong vocals of Klara Elias.

Norway

Commentary: In April Norway took the crown for the month's biggest and best release with Röyksopp's newest. They've done it again! Sigrid's follow-up to her debut album, “How To Let Go” is a real banger, with stand-out track “Mirror” destined for summer playlists all across the Nordics.

Sweden

Commentary: Four years since the previous album, it's great to have Lykke Li back. “EYEYE” is a brutally melancholic album, with heart-felt lyrics taking centre stage. Margaret Farrell at Pitchfork had this to say: ‘Her music is a companion to sorrow in the same way the sun is a companion to the morning.’

Previous months: March | April

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As part of a weekly series, these topics are a place for users to casually discuss the things they did — or didn't do — during their weekend. Did you make any plans? Take a trip? Do nothing at all? Tell us about it!

I'm really struck with the references in this show. As an aside, it's a really enjoyable show. And this time, unlike Lost, I expect to be let down at the end, and am just appreciating the ride as long as I can til it goes dumb. It's also awfully familiar to some other recent shows, like Homecoming and Loki. I've only just finished ep 2. Thank you, red letter media for the introduction.

Interesting references:

Mark Scout looks a lot like original macintosh era Steve Jobs.
Lumon -> Lemon -> Apple
using a logo without text. Also, the teardrop, if you squint and abstract a little, is like an inverted apple with the bite gone
corporate aesthetic is like evil Jony Ive Apple (I've heard tell it's not unlike 60's IBM), not counting the old testament painting.
founder's cult
I feel like I'm forgetting a couple.

Non Apple references:
Portal (and portal 2): opening animation, instruction books

The Matrix: scary codes on a screen, black goo

The Cube Series: general plotline (I am only on ep 2, mind you).

2020. That's when I met her.

To some of my close friends it sounds silly to them when I tell them we loved each other. It's hard for some people to grasp the intensity that a long distance relationship can have. But I don't have anything to prove to anyone - I truly did love her.

Being with an ace, I thought, would make things more complicated as I am not asexual myself. But if anything it made things simpler. It made the long distance easier to deal with. It made it easier to be patient. Easier to deal with her not being in my life all the time, because when push came to shove, she was in my life when I needed her to be. In fact, she was the main reason I labeled myself as polyamorous this year. I realised that I didn't want to pretend we were just friends anymore. I cared for her too much for that.

In so little time, she changed me into a better person. She taught me subtleties about love, sex, relationships but also about life in general. She helped me through mental struggles. She was my first call when we got my SO’s sister out of Kyiv this year. In fact, the day of the war, we talked for over six hours in a row.

She was always, always positive no matter the challenge. A true constant. Saw the flip side nobody else could see. No matter how ill she would get, she'd always brush it off and get back on her feet. In the two years I knew her, she had never made me cry, and her messages would always put a smile on my face.
Difficulty tends to make people stronger. She's had an incredibly difficult life, and was the toughest person I knew.

None of those challenges defined her. She was not defined by her gender, illness, sexuality. She was defined by her constant, absolute positivity. And her unending love for Korea.

She believed, as I do, that we're all one entity - the universe experiencing itself. That her role here had been to spread love and positivity. I hope everyone here will be lucky enough to meet someone like her, at some point in their life.

She was 30. The world is worse without her in it.

This thread is posted Monday/Wednesday/Friday - please try to post relevant content in here, such as news, updates, opinion articles, etc. Especially significant updates may warrant a separate topic, but most should be posted here.

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This is a recurring post to discuss programming or other technical projects that we've been working on. Tell us about one of your recent projects, either at work or personal projects. What's interesting about it? Are you having trouble with anything?

This thread is posted Monday/Wednesday/Friday - please try to post relevant content in here, such as news, updates, opinion articles, etc. Especially significant updates may warrant a separate topic, but most should be posted here.

If you'd like to help support Ukraine, please visit the official site at https://help.gov.ua/ - an official portal for those who want to provide humanitarian or financial assistance to people of Ukraine, businesses or the government at the times of resistance against the Russian aggression.

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• nettime - net art and media crit
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