Have you watched any movies recently you want to discuss? Any films you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.
Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.
So a recurring thing that's come up when discussing ideas for games with friends, or just thinking about ideas: what are the most absolutely essential graphical assets for building a world?
Obviously, the answer will vary heavily for each game, but for some types of settings, the basic "starter set" is pretty universal. For example, nearly all house interiors will have a bed, at least one type of table (almost always dining), and at least one type of chair that goes with the table. After those crucial basics usually they'll also have some sort of shelf, a dresser, and kitchen counters and a fridge. Outdoor tilesets in 2D pixel art games typically need grass or other ground tiles, path tiles, water tiles, at least one type of tree, and at least one type of rock. From that point, you can expand to include things like fences, buildings, benches, lampposts, etc.
Trying to figure out a full list of assets needed for any game can be daunting, so I figure I'd ask for input on what you consider the most vital for various types of settings. Starting with the absolute barest necessities for building a basic map (so you can at least plot basic layouts and try to get a sense of the art direction), followed by the most commonly featured items. Could be for individual rooms, specific buildings (like gas stations or restaurants), or specific types of areas (jungles, farms, beaches, etc.).
Side-note: yes, I know you can use placeholder assets. But it's also helpful to just have a general list of what basic items are needed for reference.
Tildes is a very serious site, where we discuss very serious matters like faa, menslib and linux. Tags culled from the highest voted topics from the last seven days, if anyone was taking notes.
But one of my favourite tags happens to be offbeat! Taking its original inspiration from Sir Nils Olav III, this thread is looking for any far-fetched offbeat stories lurking in the newspapers. It may not deserve its own post, but it deserves a wider audience!
I have been a frequent visitor of the various websites that are now under the Fandom.com umbrella, going back to when it was called Wikia. And if there's one thing that's been a consistent irritation with the platform, it's just how intrusive and annoying the advertising is. (For a sense of how long this has been a problem, see here.)
But worse than the intrusiveness of the sites' ads, their biggest problem is their performance. They can bring Firefox to a crawl.
For a while, it seemed like Fandom had been making some improvements. I could visit, say, Memory Alpha without the CPU on my computer spiking like crazy. But I just tried to look something up on the Forgotten Realms Wiki and, good god, it was terrible.
(And before anyone says anything, no, I have no intention of using an ad blocker to deal with it.)
Am I imagining it or is the platform actually getting worse again?
We begin the new year with a movie that takes place on new year's eve with Four Rooms from 1995. Written and directed by four direcors - Allison Anders, Alexandre Rockwell, Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino.
How was the movie as a whole? Were there any of the four segments that you particularly liked - or hated?
Rest of schedule for January is:
This is Album of the Week #15 ~ This week's album is Mew - Frengers
Year of Release: 2003
Genre(s): Dream Pop
Country: Denmark
Length: 48 minutes
RYM | Listen! (Album.Link)
Excerpt from Drowned In Sound:
On the cherub face of it this album is a soaring, triangle tapping, kitten cuddling, debut; Mew have playground innocence down - lunchbox in hand, toothpaste on tie and scabby knees, all set for a day of holding hands with the pigtailed girl. Mew could market this to my 6-year old cousin to dance around to whilst munching her Sugar Puffs, and they'd sell a billion. Pop is Universal... aaaaaaah, that's the cookie, that's what everyone has forgotten!
Discussion points:
Have you heard this artist/album before? Is this your first time hearing?
Do you enjoy this genre? Is this an album you would have chosen?
Does this album remind you of something you've heard before?
What were the album's strengths or weaknesses?
Was there a standout track for you?
How did you hear the album? Where were you? What was your setup?
--
I’ve noticed that when I’m not at work, I’m at the house and even when I think of going out, I can’t think of anything to do.
I enjoy going to the movies, but that’s pretty much the only getting out I do. When I hang out with friends, it’s typically to bars, but I’m feeling unfulfilled drinking to drink.
What is there to do?
Find yourself watching tons of great videos on [insert chosen video sharing platform], but also find yourself reluctant to flood the Tildes front page with them? Then this thread is for you.
It could be one quirky video that you feel deserves some eyeballs on it, or perhaps you've got a curated list of videos that you'd love to talk us through...
Share some of the best video content you've watched this past week/fortnight with us!
Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Houthi rebels in Yemen, and militias in Iraq and Syria.
Whenever western media outlets speak of these groups they seem to prefix the term Iranian-Backed.
I'm starting to raise my eyebrows a bit at how universally the term is being used. It feels almost mandated. My understanding is these are indeed supported financially and materially by Iran, but they also very much operate independently. So the extent of the relationship is unknown or at least debated.
Does this strike anyone else as odd or suspicious? Is this use fair and justified?
My mind can't help but wander to the laying of a propaganda foundation for direct conflict with Iran.
Next movie with a running time of less than 100 minutes is Planes, Trains, and Automobiles directed by John Hughes from 1987.
Is this movie a Thanksgiving tradition for you? How did you find the humor in this movie? Still funny or dated? How does it compare to other John Hughes movies? Feel free to add any thoughts, opinions, reflections, analysis or whatever comments related to this film.
Rest of the schedule for January is:
I've noticed this changing over the years from my options when interfacing with a website or app going from "yes" or "no", to "yes" or "maybe later". I've tipped over the point from being mildly annoyed by this trend to now being angry about it.
Navigate to my bank's web portal to pay bills, "did you want to try and qualify for this new Visa card?"
Launch and use an app, "leave a rating!"
It's even a part of Windows now. When running through update prompts, setting up a Microsoft account is "yes" or "remind me in 3 days". The answer is no thank you!
I want to be able say no! And don't ask me anymore, ever again! How often should a product be allowed to nag you into doing something you have absolutely no intention of doing? It feels like a situation where the dial on the nags could just keep getting turned up to try and force people into just submitting into whatever it is they're nagging us to do. They'll just keep prompting you over and over until you get fed up and just say yes.
Is this mindset actively being pushed by large companies to take away our ability to say no, and stop asking? Are there rules in place for this kind of thing?
Tildes is a very serious site, where we discuss very serious matters like fathers, ux and tom scott. Tags culled from the highest voted topics from the last seven days, if anyone was paying attention.
But one of my favourite tags happens to be offbeat! Taking its original inspiration from Sir Nils Olav III, this thread is looking for any far-fetched offbeat stories lurking in the newspapers. It may not deserve its own post, but it deserves a wider audience!
Background: I don't like choosing outfits in the morning for work. Due to whatever combination of mental issues/oddities I have, in the past I've gotten stuck at point for a very long time. After reading about how someone like Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg wears the same thing every day, I decided to try a version of that to reduce the number of decisions I had to make each morning. I didn't actually want to wear the same thing every day, because then I'd become "the guy who wears the same thing every day" at work. So I decided to have a number of predetermined outfits that I rotate through. I have some number of dress shirts of various colors/patterns and a matching number of pants of various colors to go with them. I have a few pairs of shoes in the typical colors that I just match with the pants. I've been doing this for years now, and it's great for simplifying my daily routine, but I occasionally wonder if people notice.
So my question is: How many outfits do you personally think is the right number such that no one would notice? Alternatively, what number do you think would be the best for whatever reason?
To be clear, this is just a fun discussion question. I'm not really looking for help or advice. I won't say how many outfits I have on rotation right now to avoid anchoring.
Have you watched any movies recently you want to discuss? Any films you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.
Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.
This is specifically about voting on comments, and not articles. I think voting for topics is clear and intuitive.
I've noticed that, while reading users' comments on topics, I have a tendency to think "This is right, so I will vote it up," or "I agree with this, so I will vote it up." I'm not sure I should be doing this, or rather, I'm not sure that's the best use of my ability to vote on comments. I always worry that sites I frequent will morph into echo chambers, and I want to avoid that for this site. I want to encourage expressing alternate viewpoints, because exposure to alternate views helps me grow a human. The vote button is a low-effort means of accomplishing that, and I intend to use it as such.
I think the vote button should be used on comments that enhance the discussion, and help engage people, and not necessarily only on comments that make me feel happy, good or righteous. So, lately, I've been trying to explicitly vote up comments which have replies, especially ones which have several replies, but aren't voted as highly as their children or peers. If someone's comment can engage several people to reply and contribute positively to a conversation, then that comment is worthy of being seen and so I vote it up. I do this regardless of whether or not I agree with the substance of the message.
I've noticed a trend where there will be a low-voted comment with many replies. These aren't trolling comments, because if they were, then they would be removed. These are comments which are engaging people and furthering the conversation, but it seems like the community doesn't value these comments due to their low vote count. This leads me to suspect that the number of votes on a comment might be merely a tally of the number of people who agreed with it.
So, I'm curious. Do you vote on comments?
How do you decide to vote on a comment?
How should we collectively be using the vote for comments?
(As an aside, I also wonder how the psychology of reading comments would change if vote tallies on comments were hidden.)
The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced of it.
The biggest selling point of Node folks has been the "single threaded, event driven" model, right? Unlike JavaScript, other languages work on a "blocking" basis i.e. you run a statement or command and the program "waits" until the I/O is complete. For example, you issue open('xyz.txt', 'rb').read() in python and the program waits or blocks until the underlying driver is able to read that whole text file (which could take arguably long time if said file is too large in size).
But with the Nodejs equivalent, you just issue the statement and then pass the "event handler" so that your program is never in the "waiting state". The whole premise of Node/JS event-callback is that "you don't call us, we will call you".
This is all nice in theory but if this were indeed true then Nodejs scripts should be blazing fast compared to Python and even Java considering that most programs we write are I/O heavy and 99% of time, they're just waiting for an input from a File/URI/User? If this event callback model indeed worked as effectively as claimed, Node would have been the numero one and only language being used today?
I think I'm starting to understand why that isn't the case. This whole "single threaded, event driven" thing is just a farce. You can also replicate the same thing that Node.js is doing in your Java or Python too by applying multi-threading (i.e. one thread just "waits" for the I/O in the background while the other keeps doing its job). All you've done here is just handed or delegated that complexity of multi-threading to Node.js?
Realistically, it's impossible to wait or block an I/O request while at the same time also letting the other part of the code engage in other tasks, that's the very definition of multi-threading. Doing "async" is impossible without multiple threads in that sense. Node must have a thread pool of sorts where one of them is engaged in the wait/block while another is running your JS code further. When the wait is over, the control is then passed to the "event handler" function it was bound to in that other thread.
What Node is selling as "single threaded" applies to application or business logic we are writing, node itself can't be single threaded. I feel it's better to just implement multi-threading in your own code (as needed) instead of using something convoluted and confusing like Node.js. What say you?
Of all the changes Elon Musk brought to Twitter, the one I'm quite skeptical and cringed about is the renaming of the platform itself to "X".
I don't know who advised him that this name could even work at all. X is so generic a name that it doesn't really mean anything because it already stands for a lot of things, how can one even think that a whole new brand can be built out of it? For example, one of the first picture that comes to my mind is "X-Men" movie series and the famous Professor X. But from what I gather, Elon is more of an Iron Man fan boy than Prof X, right?
The X-Men brand isn't some fluke, the Marvel folks have put some decent effort in creating that story line, plot, dialogs, sound and video effects, etc. to build the legend that it is. If me sitting here in India knows so much about X-Men series, I can only imagine the kind of cult it must have built in US, UK, etc.
And who can forget the "X" variable in mathematics? It is often used for equations like (X2 + Y2). X is also very commonly used in discussions to denote an unknown quantity or factor. For example, "Let us assume that X is the demand factor for this new product.".
I don't know about other parts of the world but at least here in India, almost every person I've talked to still calls the platform "Twitter" and not X! Indeed, as long as the domain twitter.com still works, one might be even correct or justified in calling it so. But who knows how long that domain is going to work.
However, one of the noblest things for Musk to do in 2024 is to just revert or rollback this decision and restore back the "Twitter" brand. This is not just a popular demand but if I recall, Elon himself had often said that they will experiment with twitter and roll back what doesn't work? At least his top advisors or generals must strongly advice Elon to consider reverting this. Maybe they can come up with a slightly modified version of the Twitter logo with a different color and a bit of what Elon has in mind with respect to X? I'm sure there is no dearth of creativity in either Silicon Valley or Elon's team!
This post inspired by a story I read in another thread, where a guy gave support to a small-time musician who had actually quit for a while before it sounded like passion was reignited.
Actually, let me give some context for this thought: I have an old friend who does a variety of arts, including acting and playing in a band. I'm pretty sure they're both side-gigs for him, but the stuff he posts on social media is all about "Support the small-time artists!"
So between that and the post I read here... it got me thinking. There are some very nice things about going and seeing smaller artists in smaller venues- it may not be as crowded, and it will probably be cheaper than anything Ticketmaster has its greedy hands in. In addition, there might even be a chance to talk to the artist/musician at some point, and making those connections can lead to a variety of possibilities.
So supporting these small-time artists can lead to a lot of great benefits... then what's the problem with it?
As I thought about it, the first issue is: you have no idea what you're getting into. I'll be the first to admit it: I'm very, very picky with my music tastes. About a year or so ago, I was invited to see some friends of friends perform. Again, small-time artists. I went to support them... and ended up VERY disappointed. Mostly because, the style of music they played was not to my liking at all.
Another difficulty of going to see small-time artists? In my case, I've been lucky to have gone to a variety of concerts to see big-name bands (side note: my preferred style of music is rock and metal), and after being used to those... seeing a small-time artist just feels very, very lacking (for obvious reasons). Sure, it is possible for them to improve given time- my friend that i mentioned above has done exactly that over the years- but the first impressions are super-important, especially when it comes to deciding if you want to continue supporting them or not.
I enjoy music, and there are some cool things about supporting smaller artists... but at the same time, due to lack of advertising, you never know what you're going to get. It may be an awesome experience, or end up a complete flop. I want to know, for anyone who supports relatively unknown artists, what's your take on it?
I was reminded of that the first season (it's been greenlit for more) of the Netflix adaptation of One Piece came out, a good little while ago. How was it? Have you seen it? I've yet to see it - I've heard good things about it but never saw terribly much discussion about it online.
Have you watched any movies recently you want to discuss? Any films you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.
Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.
Tildes is a very serious site, where we discuss very serious matters like substack, amazon.prime and cannabis. Tags culled from the highest voted topics from the last seven days, if anyone was perplexed.
But one of my favourite tags happens to be offbeat! Taking its original inspiration from Sir Nils Olav III, this thread is looking for any far-fetched offbeat stories lurking in the newspapers. It may not deserve its own post, but it deserves a wider audience!
Find yourself watching tons of great videos on [insert chosen video sharing platform], but also find yourself reluctant to flood the Tildes front page with them? Then this thread is for you.
It could be one quirky video that you feel deserves some eyeballs on it, or perhaps you've got a curated list of videos that you'd love to talk us through...
Share some of the best video content you've watched this past week/fortnight with us!
This hit me while watching the latest Gamers Nexus video discussion with Wendell, and Steve recited the quote.
It's often brought up as the inevitability of modern product ownership as company executives push profit-first practices like subscriptions, licenses and anti-right-to-repair designs. However this neglects the fact that these systems don't come from nowhere - they have to be built by programmers, engineers and designers.
I don't know if those same people support right-to-repair and freedom to manipulate what you buy in their private lives (or if they have even thought about it), but it seems like every techie I speak to does support it, yet somehow these things keep getting made.
I want to try and escape my bubble about this. I don't believe the engineers are powerless against the executives - if the engineering community works together and don't backstab, I think these systems can be prevented at the technical level and never see the light of day.
What happens at these notorious companies (John Deere, Apple etc.) that I'm missing? Is the lure of money too great? Is the threat of being back stabbed too large?
The Holidays by the end of the year are a time for meeting a lot of family members that we may not have seen for a long time. For a lot of people, this a joyful moment of relaxation where they can enjoy the company of those they love. For others, this can also be a stressful period, when tensions, trauma, and insecurities related to family relationships emerge, often in unexpected ways. Different people experience those events in vastly different ways.
Are you more of an introvert or an extrovert?
What does Christmas (as well as other events with a component of "forced" social gathering) mean to you?
How did you manage it this year?
Is this usually a happy time for you? Why?
We end the month of 1990s movies with a Christmas classic. Home Alone from 1990.
Is this a stable Christmas movie in your household or is it perhaps the first time you see it?
Next months schedule for January is:
The next movie from the 1990s is The Talented Mr. Ripley from 1999 directed by Anthony Minghella with a 90s moviestar lineup of Matt Damon, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Cate Blanchett, Philip Seymour Hoffman and many others. Based on the novel of the same name by Patricia Highsmith from 1955.
Feel free to add any thoughts, opinions, reflections, analysis or whatever comments related to this film.
The rest of the schedule is:
Have you watched any movies recently you want to discuss? Any films you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.
Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.
Tildes is a very serious site, where we discuss very serious matters like ballots, policy.transport and uranus. Tags culled from the highest voted topics from the last seven days, if anyone was hankering to know.
But one of my favourite tags happens to be offbeat! Taking its original inspiration from Sir Nils Olav III, this thread is looking for any far-fetched offbeat stories lurking in the newspapers. It may not deserve its own post, but it deserves a wider audience!
Gaming has been a mostly stale experience for me over the last few years, even with friends. But this game is the one that stands out; it's addictive in the best ways.
The soundtrack?
Slaps.
The storyline(s)?
Slaps.
The fact that creativity is rewarded?
Slaps.
The weird micro style of storytelling?
Slaps.
Iguazu being a whiny bitch the whole time?
Hilarious.
Anyways let's talk about it.
This is Album of the Week #14 ~ This week's album is Love - Forever Changes
Year of Release: 1967
Genre(s): Psychedelic Pop
Country: United States
Length: 42 minutes
RYM | Listen! (Album.Link)
Excerpt from AV Club:
Forever Changes, for all of its gorgeous balladry, layered acoustic guitars, and silky string arrangements, is filled with passion and angst. 1967 may have been The Summer Of Love, but Forever Changes dismantles any notions of free love and social change. Opening track “Alone Again Or” boasts the overtly hippie line “You know that I could be in love with almost everyone.” Love pulls off a bait-and-switch though, undercutting that line just moments later with, “and I will be alone again tonight, my dear,” a line that closes every verse and positions the album as one of isolation and disconnect.
Discussion points:
Have you heard this artist/album before? Is this your first time hearing?
Do you enjoy this genre? Is this an album you would have chosen?
Does this album remind you of something you've heard before?
What were the album's strengths or weaknesses?
Was there a standout track for you?
How did you hear the album? Where were you? What was your setup?
--
Find yourself watching tons of great videos on [insert chosen video sharing platform], but also find yourself reluctant to flood the Tildes front page with them? Then this thread is for you.
It could be one quirky video that you feel deserves some eyeballs on it, or perhaps you've got a curated list of videos that you'd love to talk us through...
Share some of the best video content you've watched this past week/fortnight with us!
Does anyone else completely disagree with that sentiment?
I see it a lot in these communities, and I definitely am not trying to yuck on someone else's yum, but I just don't relate to it. Maybe someone else can explain it better than me?
Like, I feel almost totally defined by borderline. I struggle so much with life because of this disorder. It takes so much time and energy away from being able to focus on normal people things, to the point that I feel unable to live a normal life without a ton of help and therapy.
So I just feel that I really am my BPD.
PS: not trying to stir a pot or anything, it's just a thought I had and wanted to talk about
The next movie from the 1990s is Edward Scissorhands from 1990 directed by Tim Burton
Are you familiar with other works by Tim Burton and how does this compare? Does it have a certain "90s feel" to it? Feel free to add any thoughts, opinions, reflections, analysis or whatever comments related to this film.
The rest of the schedule is:
Have you watched any movies recently you want to discuss? Any films you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.
Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.
I have been pretty consistently pro-Palestine and critical of injustices perpetrated by Israel, but the anti-Zionist stance has always seemed to me to be counterproductive.
On the issue of just the legitimacy of the state of Israel, here's my basic stance: All land controlled by all governments was taken at some point through conquest (this is not a whataboutist stance, it's a tautology), but in the post-colonial era we all decided that might isn't right and that a mixture of international law, norms, and democratic principles should dictate the legitimacy of territorial claims. So, the Ottoman empire fell. The British seized control of the land of Palestine and retained a moderately weak mandate over the land (moderately weak in the sense that they were the essentially undisputed administrators of the land and had a military presence, but the territory would likely try to break away if the British tried to exercise significant control over it). With this moderately weak mandate, they pushed for the creation of the state of Israel that, by extension, I would consider a moderately-weakly legitimate state under the pre-WWII paradigm. Israel fights a defensive war against the Arab states and succeeds, converting the state of Israel as defined by the original 1948 partition plan from a weakly legitimate state into a properly legitimate state. At this point, the post-WWII frameworks kick in, and all the developments in the conflict past this point should be a function of that lens (ie. Palestine wrongfully denied sovereignty, illegality of settlements, etc.).
Zionism, in the most basic sense, is the belief in the creation of a Jewish state of Israel. There are more extreme and moderate versions of it, but that's all that it is at its core. Anti-Zionism is opposition to the creation of a Jewish state of Israel (I would not consider opposition to settlements or, strictly speaking, even to the accession of new territory into Israel proper past the 1948 borders after the two wars to be anti-Zionist itself). The anti-Zionist stance before the establishment of Israel was reasonable, but past that point is primarily a claim of one nation over the land of another nation. It's perfectly understandable at the end of the day for the Arabs and, particularly the Palestinians, to be upset about the whole situation and even to feel that a great injustice was done unto them. But that should all be relegated to the world of international affairs between established states. Ultimately, in my eyes anti-Zionism is not anti-semitic, but it's definitely anti-peace.
Tildes is a very serious site, where we discuss very serious matters like enshittification, computing.cloud and checkouts.self. Tags culled from the highest voted topics from the last seven days, if anyone was perplexed.
But one of my favourite tags happens to be offbeat! Taking its original inspiration from Sir Nils Olav III, this thread is looking for any far-fetched offbeat stories lurking in the newspapers. It may not deserve its own post, but it deserves a wider audience!
My son shares a lot of my traits, including being Gifted. He's in kindergarten now, and we were looking into getting him a IEP (individual education plan) because he's Gifted.
In doing so though, someone brought up that it might result in an ASD diagnosis essentially - and they were right. Haven't had the formal test yet, but a lot of what I considered "idiosyncrises" in my son are also found in autistic individuals. Some of which I share. I have little doubt in the ultimate conclusion, which is that he's 2e (twice exceptional).
And it seems quite likely I am as well. It's gonna be a niche audience, but anyone in a similar boat? It feels weird looking back and (at 34) retroactively realizing why I do certain things the way I do.
Edit: I should add - it didn't really 'matter' to my development because I was Gifted. I can learn whatever, pretty darn fast. So I just taught myself social stuff, on purpose, when I was in high school and college. It takes a lot of effort on my part, but I can be "charasmatic". I ascribed the effort to my general tendency toward introversion, but it may have been, essentially, the mental cost of masking.
Edit2: oh man I even went out of my way to try and alter my personality towards more extroversion in college because it seemed more normal.
Edit3: and I taught myself to understand body language in high school, particularly to understand and help with reading girls I liked, and how they were reacting to various levels of flirtation.
Edit4:
My spatial sense is god level. My wife doesn't bother remembering where the car is, because I just know.
My audition is similarly unrivaled, I hear things others don't, and my phonological loop is amazing - I can hold audio in my head for a time if I'm truly concentrating on something else.
My imagination is virtually non-existent, I'm nearly a complete aphantasia case - the best I can ever manage is a pulse of a 2d image, kinda.
I'm incredibly good at math, computer science, etc. I know more about science than... anyone else I've met.
I've never really felt like I didn't belong, though. I just learned how to be an effective communicator from books and videos. I almost feel like I have weaponized ASD.
Have you watched any movies recently you want to discuss? Any films you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.
Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.
This is Album of the Week #13 ~ This week's album is Don Cherry - Don Cherry/Brown Rice
Note that this album has been released under two names/artworks: self titled (Don Cherry) and 'Brown Rice'.
Year of Release: 1977
Genre(s): Spiritual Jazz
Country: United States
Length: 39 minutes
RYM | Listen! (Album.Link)
Excerpt from The Quietus:
Cherry transformed the rigorous improvisational ethos he developed and deployed alongside Ornette Coleman in the creation of free jazz as a crucial tool to communicate and collaborate with musicians far outside of his original milieu. Few before or since have demonstrated comparable ease in connecting with other musicians, regardless of background or ethos, like Cherry. His ability to locate the deepest, most humanistic, and spiritual links in disparate traditions remains sublime. Lots of musicians profess that they don’t recognise genre, but it’s hard to think of an artist who lived it as much as he did.
Discussion points:
Have you heard this artist/album before? Is this your first time hearing?
Do you enjoy this genre? Is this an album you would have chosen?
Does this album remind you of something you've heard before?
What were the album's strengths or weaknesses?
Was there a standout track for you?
How did you hear the album? Where were you? What was your setup?
--
Good morning ~ This is a thread to discuss new album releases that have arrived on our doorstep this week. Feel free to share albums and EPs that have caught your eye and interest.
Discussion Points
What are you looking forward to listen to?
Have you listened to any of these releases?
What are your thoughts?
What have you enjoyed from these artists in the past?
Why Friday?
Most (but not all) new LPs/EPs release on a Friday, as labels want to give the release a full week of sales before entering the charts.
~~ Feedback on the format welcome
Tildes is a very serious site, where we discuss very serious matters like plagiarism, greedflation and grand theft auto.6. Tags culled from the highest voted topics from the last seven days, if anyone was half interested.
But one of my favourite tags happens to be offbeat! Taking its original inspiration from Sir Nils Olav III, this thread is looking for any far-fetched offbeat stories lurking in the newspapers. It may not deserve its own post, but it deserves a wider audience!
So we have a month with movies from the 1990s and we are starting off with Lost Highway directed by David Lynch from 1997.
Are you familiar with other works by David Lynch and how does this compare? Does it have a certain "90s feel" to it? Feel free to add any thoughts, opinions, reflections, analysis or whatever comments related to this film.
The rest of the schedule is:
This is Album of the Week #12 ~ This week's album is Ka - Honor Killed the Samurai
Year of Release: 2016
Genre(s): Abstract Hip Hop
Country: United States
Length: 36 minutes
RYM | Listen! (Album.Link)
Excerpt from Stereogum:
Ka raps in a desiccated mutter. His production, which seems to draw on half-forgotten film scores and haunted ’60s instrumentals, is pure headphone haze. Throughout history, most of the great rappers have brought an outsized, extroverted flair to what they’ve done, and Ka has none of that. Instead, his presence is a murky, monastic intensity. He does not make social music. He makes music for getting trapped in your own mind.
Discussion points:
Have you heard this artist/album before? Is this your first time hearing?
Do you enjoy this genre? Is this an album you would have chosen?
Does this album remind you of something you've heard before?
What were the album's strengths or weaknesses?
Was there a standout track for you?
How did you hear the album? Where were you? What was your setup?
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Tildes is a very serious site, where we discuss very serious matters like judiciary, henry kissinger and popcorn. Tags culled from the highest voted topics from the last seven days, if anyone was taking notes.
But one of my favourite tags happens to be offbeat! Taking its original inspiration from Sir Nils Olav III, this thread is looking for any far-fetched offbeat stories lurking in the newspapers. It may not deserve its own post, but it deserves a wider audience!
Good morning ~ This is a thread to discuss new album releases that have arrived on our doorstep this week. Feel free to share albums and EPs that have caught your eye and interest.
Discussion Points
What are you looking forward to listen to?
Have you listened to any of these releases?
What are your thoughts?
What have you enjoyed from these artists in the past?
Why Friday?
Most (but not all) new LPs/EPs release on a Friday, as labels want to give the release a full week of sales before entering the charts.
~~ Feedback on the format welcome
Prime has the documentary "Desperately Seeking Soulmate: Escaping Twin Flames Universe" while Netflix is running "Escaping Twin Flames" which were produced by different investigative reporters but take a similar approach to exposing this new group. Both rely on the testimony of ex members of the group to expose the founders power and control and how things changed when the group wasn't working out as they planned.
Apparently the group has a strong presence on facebook and there is also an entire reddit sub for its adherents.
I watched both of these multi part documentaries and was fascinated by the origin and rise of this group. The founders, Jeff and Megan (who now goes by Shaleia) are preying on the desperation of mostly female followers who are desperately seeking their 'one and only true love', their "twin flame". Using a technique of turning all hurts and pains inward the pair asserts they will help heal people who will practice their 'mirroring' technique.
But it starts to get really strange. Shaleia appears to be the one who started with the 'spiritual' aspect of the enterprise and Jeff appears to be the one with a fervent entrepreneurial bent who has turned it into a money making proposition.
They were living in a run down apartment when they began, but now a few years later, have bought a large home with a lake view in Michigan, with Jeff boasting about his Corvette and Porsche in the driveway. Even stranger, they have people living and working in their house to keep their enterprise running. There are shades of other religious communities with a strong 'messianic' leader that have started this way with Waco being mentioned in the documentary. Jeff even suggests, very strongly, that he may be the Christ.
The adherents pay for private or group facetime sessions with Jeff and Shaleia and are encouraged to take their video courses, which can be anywhere from $100 to $8,888. And those who have taken on the role of being life coaches under them are also encouraged to find more life coaches - it seems to be a combination of multi level marketing, religion and some kind of mass delusional 'teaching' to desperate and gullible people.
Jeff and Shaleia encourage people in their group to cut off relationships with anyone who is not supportive of Twin Flames, a sure sign of a cult, and there are several testimonials from hurting parents who are desperate to be back in touch with their children.
And in probably the strangest twist, when very few people were finding their "twin flame" to be responding, Jeff proclaimed that their twin flame already was part of the group - but since most of the group were women, he insisted that several of the women pair up and that one of them was now a "divine male", to the point of asking some to change their clothes, hair and go by a new male name.
It's all quite fascinating, and I couldn't believe that in an age where information on cults and cult activity is so easy to find, that so many people would be sucked into Twin Flames Universe and not see the control and manipulation going on in their lives.
Both are well worth watching but if you only have time for one, I'd recommend Prime's documentary - seems to be a bit more professionally produced.
Have you watched any movies recently you want to discuss? Any films you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.
Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.
And the 2023 Formula 1 Season has ended!
This isn't a spolier this "late" in the game, so congratulations to Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT for winning the 2023 World Constructors' Championship, and their driver Max Verstappen for the winning the 2023 World Drivers' Championship. Plus all the other records Max has smashed this year—talk about domination!
The 2024 schedule is out and the first GP is February 29 - March 2 in Bahrain.
Pre-season testing will also be in Bahrain, Feb. 21-23 (the week prior). We usually get a little bit of sneakpeak, I think.
Anyway, enjoy the break, everyone. I know I'll enjoy not waking up at odd hours or not sleeping for F1 sessions for a few months! See you all -- according to David Coulthard -- in 97 days for testing!
| POS | NO | DRIVER | CAR | LAPS | TIME/RETIRED | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Max Verstappen | RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT | 58 | 1:27:02.624 | 26 |
| 2 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | FERRARI | 58 | +17.993s | 18 |
| 3 | 63 | George Russell | MERCEDES | 58 | +20.328s | 15 |
| 4 | 11 | Sergio Perez | RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT | 58 | +21.453s | 12 |
| 5 | 4 | Lando Norris | MCLAREN MERCEDES | 58 | +24.284s | 10 |
| 6 | 81 | Oscar Piastri | MCLAREN MERCEDES | 58 | +31.487s | 8 |
| 7 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES | 58 | +39.512s | 6 |
| 8 | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | ALPHATAURI HONDA RBPT | 58 | +43.088s | 4 |
| 9 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | MERCEDES | 58 | +44.424s | 2 |
| 10 | 18 | Lance Stroll | ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES | 58 | +55.632s | 1 |
| 11 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | ALPHATAURI HONDA RBPT | 58 | +56.229s | 0 |
| 12 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | ALPINE RENAULT | 58 | +66.373s | 0 |
| 13 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | ALPINE RENAULT | 58 | +70.360s | 0 |
| 14 | 23 | Alexander Albon | WILLIAMS MERCEDES | 58 | +73.184s | 0 |
| 15 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | HAAS FERRARI | 58 | +83.696s | 0 |
| 16 | 2 | Logan Sargeant | WILLIAMS MERCEDES | 58 | +87.791s | 0 |
| 17 | 24 | Zhou Guanyu | ALFA ROMEO FERRARI | 58 | +89.422s | 0 |
| 18 | 55 | Carlos Sainz | FERRARI | 57 | DNF | 0 |
| 19 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | ALFA ROMEO FERRARI | 57 | +1 lap | 0 |
| 20 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | HAAS FERRARI | 57 | +1 lap | 0 |
Fastest Lap: Max Verstappen
Source: F1.com
| POS | DRIVER | NATIONALITY | CAR | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Max Verstappen | NED | RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT | 575 |
| 2 | Sergio Perez | MEX | RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT | 285 |
| 3 | Lewis Hamilton | GBR | MERCEDES | 234 |
| 4 | Fernando Alonso | ESP | ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES | 206 |
| 5 | Charles Leclerc | MON | FERRARI | 206 |
| 6 | Lando Norris | GBR | MCLAREN MERCEDES | 205 |
| 7 | Carlos Sainz | ESP | FERRARI | 200 |
| 8 | George Russell | GBR | MERCEDES | 175 |
| 9 | Oscar Piastri | AUS | MCLAREN MERCEDES | 97 |
| 10 | Lance Stroll | CAN | ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES | 74 |
| 11 | Pierre Gasly | FRA | ALPINE RENAULT | 62 |
| 12 | Esteban Ocon | FRA | ALPINE RENAULT | 58 |
| 13 | Alexander Albon | THA | WILLIAMS MERCEDES | 27 |
| 14 | Yuki Tsunoda | JPN | ALPHATAURI HONDA RBPT | 17 |
| 15 | Valtteri Bottas | FIN | ALFA ROMEO FERRARI | 10 |
| 16 | Nico Hulkenberg | GER | HAAS FERRARI | 9 |
| 17 | Daniel Ricciardo | AUS | ALPHATAURI HONDA RBPT | 6 |
| 18 | Zhou Guanyu | CHN | ALFA ROMEO FERRARI | 6 |
| 19 | Kevin Magnussen | DEN | HAAS FERRARI | 3 |
| 20 | Liam Lawson | NZL | ALPHATAURI HONDA RBPT | 2 |
| 21 | Logan Sargeant | USA | WILLIAMS MERCEDES | 1 |
| 22 | Nyck De Vries | NED | ALPHATAURI HONDA RBPT | 0 |
Source: F1.com
| POS | TEAM | PTS |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT | 860 |
| 2 | MERCEDES | 409 |
| 3 | FERRARI | 406 |
| 4 | MCLAREN MERCEDES | 302 |
| 5 | ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES | 280 |
| 6 | ALPINE RENAULT | 120 |
| 7 | WILLIAMS MERCEDES | 28 |
| 8 | ALPHATAURI HONDA RBPT | 25 |
| 9 | ALFA ROMEO FERRARI | 16 |
| 10 | HAAS FERRARI | 12 |
Source: F1.com
I've just started reading The Culture novels by Iain M. Banks, and am currently reading A Player of Games. This might be a controversial thing to say, but I'm getting some Douglas Adams vibes, especially in his depiction of the drones. Am I the only one who feels a certain connection there?