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    1. What have you been listening to this week?

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as...

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

      Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

      You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

      http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

      Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

      8 votes
    2. What have you been listening to this week?

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as...

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

      Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

      You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

      http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

      Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

      4 votes
    3. What have you been listening to this week?

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as...

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

      Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

      You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

      http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

      Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

      7 votes
    4. What have you been listening to this week?

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as...

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

      Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

      You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

      http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

      Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

      6 votes
    5. What have you been listening to this week?

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as...

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

      Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

      You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

      http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

      Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

      10 votes
    6. What have you been listening to this week?

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as...

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

      Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

      You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

      http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

      Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

      7 votes
    7. My 2020 Book Challenge: "Reading the Alphabet"

      Here's a little setup I'm going to try out with my reading habits this year. I figured I'd share the idea, in case anyone else is interested in running it (or something similar) for themselves....

      Here's a little setup I'm going to try out with my reading habits this year. I figured I'd share the idea, in case anyone else is interested in running it (or something similar) for themselves.

      Rules

      • I must complete one book for each letter of the English alphabet (26 total).
      • A book fulfills a letter by having the title or any part of the author's name start with that letter.
      • I do not have to go in alphabetical order.
      • I CAN rearrange entries at will.

      Example

      I realize that's hard to visualize, so here's how the first few letters might look once completed (these books are placeholders):

      A: Jeff VanderMeer - Annihilation
      B: Tina Fey - Bossypants
      C: Arthur C. Clarke - Rendezvous with Rama
      D: Dava Sobel - Longitude

      Explanations/Clarifications

      Let's say the first book I read is Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five. I could have that count for K (Kurt), V (Vonnegut), or S (Slaughterhouse).

      I'm choosing to ignore articles in titles. The Martian would thus count for M (Martian) rather than T (The).

      If an author has a single name (e.g. Voltaire), I can only use that one letter (V). If an author commonly uses more than first and last names (e.g. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Hunter S. Thompson), I can use any parts (C N or A, and H S or T, respectively).

      If the book title is/begins with a number or symbol, I can count it under the letter that corresponds to the name/pronunciation of the number or symbol (e.g. 1984 would be N (Nineteen) while 1Q84 would be O (One)).

      As the process goes on and more letters get filled, my choices will get narrower. I am allowed to swap around books in order to accommodate new choices, but only within the parameters of the rules above. So if I initially had Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five down for S but then I decide to read Stanley Schmidt's The Sins of the Fathers, I can move Slaughterhouse-Five to V for Vonnegut since Sins can only work for S.

      Purpose

      I came up with this for a couple of reasons:

      • It's a semi-fun way to jazz up my regular reading habits.
      • It gives me a goal to work towards.
      • It will help me narrow down choices from my immense backlog and interest list, especially when I have only a few spots left to fill.
      • It's free-form enough that I don't feel boxed-in, but it's restrictive enough that it'll likely force me to read some stuff I wouldn't usually choose.
      • 26 books for 26 letters is coincidentally perfect for an average of one book every two weeks, which feels like the right pace for me.

      Process Note

      I'm only going to count books I read with my eyes rather than books I listen to. This isn't because I have anything against audiobooks (I love them!) but because I've actually gotten TOO dependent on them and am not sitting down to read books like I used to. I'm hoping this can restart my reading habit. I put this here rather than in the rules because I don't want to restrict anyone else should they choose to do this exercise.


      I plan to post updates on my "alphabet progress" in the scheduled "What are you reading these days?" threads.

      Anyway, feel free to share your thoughts on this process. This is entirely theory-based at the moment, as I've never actually attempted it, so if there's anything I've failed to account for or any potential hiccups you see, let me know.

      Also, if you're wanting to steal the idea, whether wholesale or in part, go for it! It is ripe for modding or tweaking. I'm considering doing a second, separate alphabet for myself that's limited only to graphic novels, for example. I also think it would be neat for people to do it in other alphabets, in languages other than English.

      Furthermore, it's a generic enough setup that you could do it for more than just reading too. You could use the ruleset as written with music (using artist and album names) or movies (using titles and directors). Games are a bit tougher since you really only have the title to work with (since there's often not an identifiable "author"), but with some tweaks I think it could still happen.

      10 votes
    8. What have you been listening to this week?

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as...

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

      Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

      You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

      http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

      Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

      13 votes
    9. What have you been listening to this week?

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as...

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

      Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

      You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

      http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

      Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

      9 votes
    10. What have you been listening to this week?

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as...

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

      Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

      You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

      http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

      Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

      7 votes
    11. What have you been listening to this week?

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as...

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

      Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

      You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

      http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

      Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

      5 votes
    12. What have you been listening to this week?

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as...

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

      Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

      You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

      http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

      Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

      7 votes
    13. What have you been listening to this week?

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as...

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

      Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

      You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

      http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

      Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

      9 votes
    14. Feature Idea: Tildes Playlist - Would it be useful to have some sort of automated, easy to use, media categorization?

      My use case: I watch videos (YouTube) and listen to audio (Podcasts) as a major part of my weekly media intake. I would love some sort of generated Tildes Playlist . IANADev, but it sure would be...

      My use case:
      I watch videos (YouTube) and listen to audio (Podcasts) as a major part of my weekly media intake. I would love some sort of generated Tildes Playlist . IANADev, but it sure would be nice if Tildes was able to parse, scrape, and categorize media posted as topics and in comments. Then present them to me with a date filter, and allow separating audio only and video media. Maybe something like tildes.net/?tag= but at tildes.net/playlist. I guess it would be nice to be able to sort media by tag as well.

      Possible other use case:
      Accessibility?

      I see that some videos are already being tagged "videos." So there already is some organic interest in this special category, right?

      What do you all think, is this useful?

      From a dev perspective, is getting that correct enough difficult? Does Embedly categorize audio only and video?

      edit: in the playlist view, there should of course be a link back to the topic or comment where the media was found. Also, @Deimos, I certainly don't want to take Tildes away from the text-first/only direction of the site, but sometimes I am doing stuff conducive to audio/video media intake like cooking, driving, etc. It would be cool to be able to easily consume it then, and come back to comment later.

      13 votes
    15. What have you been listening to this week?

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as...

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

      Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

      You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

      http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

      Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

      12 votes
    16. What have you been listening to this week?

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as...

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

      Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

      You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

      http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

      Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

      7 votes
    17. What have you been listening to this week?

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as...

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

      Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

      You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

      http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

      Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

      9 votes
    18. What are some interesting websites (tech related or not) that I can add to my endless rotation of Reddit, Tildes and Hacker News?

      My online habits are too limited by these three websites. What other aggregators, blogs or websites you suggest for me to open my horizons? Some of my interests: Long-form film criticism (not...

      My online habits are too limited by these three websites. What other aggregators, blogs or websites you suggest for me to open my horizons?

      Some of my interests:

      • Long-form film criticism (not movie news)
      • History of American cinema
      • Urban exploration (sewers, abandoned places, spooky stories)
      • Python
      • Learning techniques
      • Transportation (subways and trains, mostly)
      • True crime
      • Science fiction literature (both new and old)
      • Stand up comedy
      • War history

      I'm particularly uninterested by American or World News.

      I currently am not listening to podcasts because my headphones break every week and I don’t have enough money to buy headphones that will last more than that.

      40 votes
    19. What have you been listening to this week?

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as...

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

      Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

      You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

      http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

      Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

      10 votes
    20. What have you been listening to this week?

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as...

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

      Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

      You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

      http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

      Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

      12 votes
    21. What have you been listening to this week?

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as...

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

      Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

      You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

      http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

      Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

      7 votes
    22. More about scheduled topics, some group rearranging, and input needed on "content types"

      A few pretty quick things to talk about today, with some input wanted on each: Scheduled/recurring topics As announced last week, the site now has native scheduled topics (which need to be...

      A few pretty quick things to talk about today, with some input wanted on each:

      Scheduled/recurring topics

      As announced last week, the site now has native scheduled topics (which need to be configured by me). There have been a couple of these posted now, with the most recent one being today's "What are you reading these days?" topic in ~books.

      Here's the schedule that I have set up right now. Times are in UTC (Pacific time is UTC-7 and Eastern is UTC-4).

      Topic Timing (UTC)
      ~talk - What are you doing this week? Monday, 15:00
      ~games - What have you been playing? Monday, 16:00
      ~tv - What have you been watching? Tuesday, 16:00
      ~anime - What have you been watching/reading this week? (Anime/Manga) Wednesday, 16:00
      ~books - What have you been reading lately? Every second Thursday, 16:00
      ~creative - What creative projects have you been working on? Every second Thursday (alternating with ~books), 16:00
      ~talk - What are you doing this weekend? Friday, 15:00
      ~music - What have you been listening to this week? Friday, 16:00

      These were all pre-existing topics that had been getting posted consistently. The timings are a bit arbitrary, but somewhere around 16:00 is usually the time the site starts getting more active each day, and I went with every 2 weeks for ~creative and ~books since I think people don't change through those as quickly.

      There are a few other topics I think would be good too, let me know what you think or if this is starting to be too many:

      One other question I wanted to ask, since I'm doing some work related to it: Is there any reason for people to still be able to post new top-level comments in old recurring threads? I'll definitely still allow posting replies to existing comments so conversations can continue, but I can't really think of a reason why anyone would need to post a new top-level comment in any thread except the newest, and may just disallow that to keep people from inadvertently posting in the old ones.

      Group rearrangements

      I deleted the three ~science subgroups (~science.formal, ~science.natural, ~science.social) and moved all the topics back into ~science. These were confusing (I had to keep checking which branch certain subjects were in), and the activity level across the science groups really isn't high enough to need 4 groups.

      I also deleted ~hobbies.automotive and moved the (very few) topics from it back into ~hobbies with an automotive tag. The group was getting less than one topic posted a week, and doesn't seem necessary yet.

      One other change I want to make but haven't yet, because I want input first: I think I'd like to move ~creative into a sub-group of ~arts. What do you think of calling it ~arts.original? Any other possible names that would work better as "content created by the poster?"

      Content types

      Finally, I've also just deployed a change that starts showing a "content type" on each topic. Currently it doesn't do anything other than get displayed in the listings, but the plan is to be able to use this for searching, filtering, and similar purposes. This will be able to cover the common requests like "I'd like a way to see only videos", and will also make some other things easier to customize (for example, there's no need to show word count on Ask topics).

      Here's the list of content types that are shown right now, but I'm fairly sure that I'm forgetting about some others:

      1. Article
      2. Ask topic
      3. Image
      4. PDF
      5. Text topic
      6. Tweet
      7. Video

      Update on Oct 11: if a type for a link topic isn't detected, it will display "Link"

      What other types of content get posted to Tildes that aren't covered in there?

      33 votes
    23. So I went along

      Time for a story. Some of you might remember that I was planning on going abroad. I intended to visit New York City with one of my best friends, setting foot in the United States for the first...

      Time for a story.

      Some of you might remember that I was planning on going abroad. I intended to visit New York City with one of my best friends, setting foot in the United States for the first time in my life. I have had reservations about the actions and the state of politics of the US for a while, but I'm by no means an activist; I largely settle for small discussions regarding this topic, online or among friends. This means that I had not considered the current administration as a deterrent to my week-long trip.

      For the sake of what I'm about to talk in the rest of this post, some additional personal details are needed for context. I am a EU citizen and a second-generation immigrant, child of a parent born in North Africa. I was fortunate enough not to have to go through having to acquire a "real" visa as my country is part of the ESTA program. This program is a fast track of sorts that allows a non-citizen to get clearance to get into the US by providing information through an online form. As I went through that automated process, I arrived at one step that worried me: they asked about being a citizen of another country. Now, I have both an EU ID and passport but I have double-nationality from my parent and so I also have ID and (an expired) passport from that country.

      That country is not unstable or known to host terrorists or extremist organizations but I was wondering if I would be lumped in with immigrants from more troubled countries and so I hesitated to put that information at all. But then I figured that it would be a bad idea to lie and then have to explain why I lied if they figured out. And I didn't visit that country for a decade. So in the end I did input that info. This decision stayed with me and caused me anxiety until the end of the 72 hour waiting period. I thought about being denied while having already spent roughly a thousand bucks on the airplane ticket and the hotel. Fortunately in the end everything went through. That put my fears at ease.

      Let us fast forward to the day of the trip. My friend and I had the good idea to stay up really late the night before even though our flight was outrageously early. I think I slept for 3 hours if that. And during the 8 hour flight I absolutely could not sleep despite my best efforts. This is just me setting the stage for some heavy sleep deprivation.

      Arriving at JFK, we eventually stumble upon the horribly long queue for customs. When we got to an officer, my friend went first, giving his passport and scanning his fingerprints. I went just after him, doing the same. However, the officer seems to have an issue. They close their booth and ask me to follow them. My friend's watching and is like "wtf is going on", the only thing I manage to say is "welp later I guess", maybe not realizing what is going on.

      My passport withheld, I'm led to a waiting room... and told to wait there, no reason given. The officer tells me that "it" should be quick. As I scan the room, I mostly see Arab or Asian people with an additional one or two white-passing people. I sit and get my phone out to message my friend where I am and what I was told, when an agent immediately tells me that no phone is allowed. I can only imagine how panicked my friend was getting at that point.

      An hour passes.

      With still no reason given for what I'm going to call an arrest, I then had had time enough time to see people go through, leave and for others to take their place all the while I listened to the officers talk to each other and interact with the visitors.

      The ratio of people stayed mostly the same, meaning the majority was comprised of Arab and Asian people, roughly half didn't speak English at all. There were two types of processing. The first one was people waiting 20 minutes and getting called to a counter in the same room, getting their passport back and being allowed to leave. The second one was people waiting at least half an hour and getting summoned to go with an officer to an ominous corridor, staying at least half an hour and then being allowed to leave.

      The officers at the counter chatted within themselves in a friendly manner, typing on their computer at the same time, a nice front immediately shattered by how they talked down to everyone. One elderly person went to get something in their luggage placed at the opposite end of the room when two officers yell at them to sit back down. An asian person was using their phone unaware of the restriction when an officer warns them: "Don't use your phone. Don't use your phone! Hey! Don't use your phone! Oh for the love of- DON'T. USE. YOUR. PHOOONE." Apparently talking slowly to a visitor in a foreign language means they can obviously understand what the office is saying and that they're just acting like they don't understand. And more variations of cliché American cop tropes.

      A half hour passes - still no reason given.

      My friend tries to approach the room to get information and I hear an officer asking firmly for him to go away. (Un)fortunately an officer finally summons me. They lead me into a room and I'm invited to sit down. The officer apologizes for the wait, and then begins an hour long interview. They are very friendly and ask what places I intend to visit, they ask me about my childhood, my parents, my relation to my other country, my education, my hobbies, my jobs. Then I'm asked to unlock my phone. They go through every app and ask me to explain what they all do. They capture my Facebook name, contact names, what is open in my browser, and more stuff that I can't see.

      I cannot describe how distressing it is to see an officer of the law go through your phone. I could not predict if they would stumble problematic material or if they would interpret things the wrong way. This is why I hate people that say "oh I don't care about privacy, I've got nothing to hide". You think I have anything at all to hide?! I am a law-abiding citizen of my country, I have never harbored any intention of committing a crime in my entire life, I can't harm a fly for heaven's sake!

      And finally after all of this I am allowed to go. I get to my friend and hug them and try to get out of this place as fast as possible.

      Maybe you're wondering if I tried to oppose any of this? Hell no. Not using my phone, waiting without reason, giving an ungodly amount of personal information and give access to my phone to a stranger, I did not fight through any of this. Why? I was afraid. I was an alien going through customs in the Patriot Act era. It was very clear to me that if I tried to block any of this process I would not go out of that airport to the US. I have my principles in privacy, but I did not want to waste a literal thousand bucks and more of my time.

      So I went along.

      50 votes
    24. Alec Holowka, one of the creators of Night in the Woods, has committed suicide after accusations of past abuse were made against him last week

      This was posted on Twitter by Alec's sister. She's protected her account now (probably because of how disgusting the replies to it were), but I've re-typed the statement here: Alec Holowka, my...

      This was posted on Twitter by Alec's sister. She's protected her account now (probably because of how disgusting the replies to it were), but I've re-typed the statement here:

      Alec Holowka, my brother and best friend, passed away this morning.

      Those who know me will know that I believe survivors and I have always done everything I can to support survivors, those suffering from mental illnesses, and those with chronic illnesses. Alec was a victim of abuse and he also spent a lifetime battling mood and personality disorders. I will not pretend that he was not also responsible for causing harm, but deep down he was a person who wanted only to offer people care and kindness. It took him a while to figure out how.

      Over the last few years, with therapy and medication, Alec became a new person—the same person he'd always been but without any of the darkness. He was calm and happy, positive and loving. Obviously, change is a slow process and it wasn't perfect, but he was working towards rehabilitation and a better life.

      In the last few days, he was supported by many Manitoba crisis services, and I want to thank everyone there for their support. I want to thank Adam Saltsman for staying up late talking with us and reminding Alec that there was a future.

      My family has and always will be the most important thing to me. Please give us time to heal. We tried our best to support Alec, but in the end he felt he had lost too much.

      I currently do not see a place for myself in games or on Twitter. I will not be looking at the responses to this post. I appreciate everyone who has reached out to me over the last few days. For anyone who is in a time of darkness, I encourage you to reach out for support. There are always people who will be there for you.

      As backstory, he was accused of abuse (and sexual abuse) last week by Zoe Quinn with several others corroborating past abusive behavior (a bit more detail in this article). As a result, the other Night in the Woods creators cut ties with him. I'm going to re-post their statements below inside a collapsed block since they're fairly long, but you can expand it if you want to read them:

      Statements from Scott Benson

      From Scott Benson's personal account:

      Allegations of past abuse have come to light this week regarding Alec Holowka, who we have worked with in the past. We take such allegations seriously, and applaud those speaking out about their experiences with abuse in the industry and elsewhere.

      As a result, we won't be working with Alec in the future. What this means for Night in the Woods going forward is something we will have to work out. These things take time, longer than a couple days at least.

      Night in the Woods is a very personal game for Bethany and I. Our parts of the game - the writing, world, characters, art, etc - are pulled from our own lives, sometimes very directly.

      We know it has connected with thousands of people in a very deep manner. And whatever your reaction is, that's valid. Know that we are just as heartbroken right now. We'll have more info in the future about how we're moving forward. Thanks.

      On a more personal note, this has all been devastating. And people will ask for details that we as collaborators on a project simply do not have. They’ll want essays and interviews as if we have some secret info. But we don’t. We’re just very sad right now.

      And on the Night in the Woods account

      This week, allegations of past abuse have come to light regarding Alec Holowka, who was coder, composer, and co-designer on Night In The Woods. We take such allegations seriously as a team. As a result and after some agonizing consideration, we are cutting ties with Alec.

      We are cancelling a current project and postponing the Limited Run physical release. The iOS port is being handled by an outside company and supervised by Finji and will remain in development.

      We’ve received a lot of emails and messages in the past few days, often very hurt and angry. That’s also how we feel. This has been very, very tough.

      I should say that I’m Scott. Hello. I run this account. I was the artist, lead animator, co-designer, co-writer, and the guy who wrote almost all of that dialogue in the game. Bethany’s here too, she was co-writer and researcher.

      Much of Night In The Woods is pulled pretty directly from our lives. Bethany is from a tiny valley in central PA. I’ve lived out here in Western PA for about 20 years. The characters are us, and people we’ve known. The places are ones we know.

      Thousands of people have connected with Night In The Woods in a very personal way. We can’t tell you how to feel about any of this. Whatever you’re feeling is valid. Your experience with art is yours. What it means to you is yours, regardless of anything else.

      Going forward, Night In The Woods will be handled by Bethany and I. We’re not sure what that all means yet. This stuff takes time.

      Thanks for your support over the years. We’re sorry to even have to say any of this. That’s all I can say at the moment. Thank you for your patience.

      (Edit: since Zoe Quinn has deleted her Twitter account now, I'm going to re-type her statement as well)

      Zoe Quinn's statement

      I want to say upfront that I'm not saying this for anyone but me and the other people that I know have been hurt by him, and might in the future be hurt. I read Nathalie Lawhead's post about her rapist being an industry legend who took advantage of her and poisoned her career and it shook me to my core. Her waning health, her fear, the way she described all of it feeling like drowning... and my heart broke for her. Beyond that, I felt *ashamed*. So many of the little details, down to the timing, had been things I've gone through too, just a few months into my time as an indie game developer. And it's haunted me ever since. It's why I don't go to GDC anymore. I'm drowning too.

      A few months into making games, I was sexually assaulted. My visa status was threatened if I told anyone, and he went out of his way to tell the community that I'd been falsely accusing him of rape when I hadn't said anything to anyone (but a third party who saw it happen firsthand confronted him about it the next day). This story isn't about him - after years of therapy and working on himself, he reached out and apologized for everything, and I've forgiven him. But that's the background to this story.

      One month after the assault, I wanted to leave Toronto. I was scared, I couldn't sleep, and I almost killed myself over it. I had a suicide note and everything ready to go but I just didn't want to do that to my roommate.

      Enter Alec Holowka. Yeah, the one from Aquaria and Night in the Woods. He was one person who I felt like, in my newly chosen field, had my back.

      He talked about how great and cheap Winnipeg was and we flirted and talked on skype for hours. He knew I was in an incredibly vulnerable place and he asked me to come visit him in Winnipeg to see if I'd want to start an indie house there with the 3 friends I'd been talking about the idea with, and to see if the thing between us was as cool as it seemed at a distance. Two weeks. I'd buy the plane ticket there, he'd buy my plane ticket back. He knew i couldn't afford it otherwise so that was the deal.

      I wouldn't get home for a month, and only then it was because my roommate used his miles to get me out of his apartment that he had physically confined me to.

      While I was in Winnipeg he slowly isolated me from everyone else in my life while absolutely degrading me whenever we were alone. He convinced me to talk the 3 friends out of getting a shared place with me there. He convinced me to let him program my game instead of the friend I had been working with, despite many protests. He screamed at me for over an hour once because of the tone in my voice when I said hello. He wouldn't let me leave the apartment without him and refused to give me the code to get in.

      About the sexual assault, he blamed me. He said he was jealous of me, to be wanted like that. He'd bring it up during sex, where he'd regularly be mean and violent. He told me he loved me, in a way no one else would, because he could see that I was terrible and he loved me anyway. And I bought it, because that's how you feel when you're recovering from being sexually assaulted.

      I spent a lot of that month hiding from him in the bathroom. His moods would shift and he'd throw things and hurt himself seemingly at random and blame me. He'd jam his fingers inside me and walk me around the house by them when I told him it hurt.

      I was scared to leave. I was scared to tell anyone. He'd act normal when other people were around and lay into me as soon as we were alone, then apologize and say how much he needed and loved me. I got even more scared when the two weeks had passed and he kept putting off the agreed plane ticket home. I spent a lot of that time hiding in the bathroom from him. My roommate started to get scared and asked me if I needed help getting out. I said yes, and Alec barely looked at me as I left.

      When I got home, I sent a cordial and friendly break up email. He lashed out and banned me from an indie games community he ran, banned himself, then went to other industry legends asking them to help him kill himself because I was such a bitch. He made sure to blacklist me at important industry events. He tried to ruin the career I'd barely started. To a degree it worked.

      The night GG started I vaguebooked about it without specifying which ex and two other women in games immediately messaged me to ask if it was Alec. He'd done similar things to them. They knew he'd been fixated on me and were also too afraid to speak up about an industry legend.

      It's been the better part of a decade and I'm still afraid of him. Too afraid to speak out, especially because I've gone through so much publicly, like people will just roll their eyes and ignore me as if there's some karmic limit on how much bad shit can happen to someone before people stop listening. I'm afraid that people will care more about their love of Night in the Woods than they will about the safety and truths of women and non-binary people in games.

      I'm still afraid of him. I'm afraid of telling anyone about him. I'm afraid of how many indies have seen this behavior and given him a pass. I'm afraid of being in the same room as him because I'm afraid he'll hurt me again. I'm afraid of all the developers who watched this happen, and watched him scream abuse at another woman out front of Moscone during GDC.

      But being silent for years has been worse than the fear. I skipped the last 2 GDCs because I couldn't risk being around him or seeing everyone clap for him on stage. Especially not people who know.

      I don't wish any ill will on anyone. I know Alec is likely not well and I will always believe in rehabilitation over punishment. I don't want anything bad to come of this to his collaborators who may not know any of this. But I've watched enough of the big names in the indie community know about him - so much so that the reaction to his first meltdown about me was "oh well that's Alec what can you do" - and I've seen enough to know nothings going to happen about this particular broken stair unless someone says something. But we're all scared. I'm scared. A big childish part of me has been hoping people would somehow start caring or figure it out on their own.

      But feeling like a coward in the face of Nathalie's strength, feeling like I have to hide from my own life because it's not safe and I can't tell anyone *why* I'm hiding, of knowing I wasn't the first or last, of drowning, that's too much for me to keep carrying with me. I just want the other boot to drop so I can breathe again. I don't want another new dev to get hurt and hear the same "oh that's just how he is" after the fact that I did. I want to breathe again.

      30 votes
    25. What have you been listening to this week?

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as...

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

      Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

      You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

      http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

      Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

      12 votes
    26. What have you been listening to this week?

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as...

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

      Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

      You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

      http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

      Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

      14 votes
    27. What have you been listening to this week?

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as...

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

      Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

      You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

      http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

      Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

      7 votes
    28. 12:08

      So what’s the deal with offices, amirite? What if we gave a building full of adults enough money to get by. Oh, and also they have to drive 30-60 minutes to get here. And that time they spend on...

      So what’s the deal with offices, amirite?

      What if we gave a building full of adults enough money to get by. Oh, and also they have to drive 30-60 minutes to get here. And that time they spend on the way here? Yeah what if they just gave us that for free, and we made them pay for parking!

      I know, I know, fantastic right? But listen, it’s not over yet. What if we also made the work pointlessly constrained to a particular 8-hour block in the day, five days a week so that they never have any personal time, even though this is all work they could get done in four hours a day and is fully capable of being completed on their own?

      Fabulous!

      ——

      So yeah, I don’t have free time. That means I’ve got a few half-ass pieces that I’ve been wanting to finish up for awhile.

      Apparently bars are open today, so I’m gonna get sauced and get to it. Prepare for a small dump today. (Also I got some dummy minor news imma share in another post. Stay tuned if you want. Or don’t ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ all’s well.

      Anyway here’s that piece now.

      ——-

      I remember that time I forgot your

      birthday

      And that time was today

      At 12:08 in the morning

      And for a moment

      I felt great.

      .

      My dear that was the first sign

      That you were

      Slipping on out of my mind

      Today I’m sober in the morning

      Feelin okay.

      .

      Well well-butrin what a surprise

      When it done

      Come on back to my mind

      Now it’s 12:09 in the morning

      And ain’t shit changed.

      .

      And in those 60 seconds

      Girl I swear

      I learned a lesson -

      Depression is a woman

      With your name.

      10 votes
    29. What have you been listening to this week?

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as...

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

      Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

      You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

      http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

      Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

      12 votes
    30. What have you been listening to this week?

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as...

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

      Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

      You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

      http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

      Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

      10 votes
    31. What have you been listening to this week?

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as...

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

      Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

      You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

      http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

      Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

      8 votes
    32. What have you been listening to this week?

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as...

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

      Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

      You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

      http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

      Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

      13 votes
    33. What have you been listening to this week?

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as...

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

      Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

      You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

      http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

      Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

      10 votes
    34. What have you been listening to this week?

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as...

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

      Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

      You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

      http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

      Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

      19 votes
    35. What have you been listening to this week?

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as...

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

      Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

      You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

      http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

      Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

      17 votes
    36. What have you been listening to this week?

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as...

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

      Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

      You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

      http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

      Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

      13 votes
    37. What have you been listening to this week?

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as...

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

      Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

      You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

      http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

      Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

      12 votes
    38. What have you been listening to this week?

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as...

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

      Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

      You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

      http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

      Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

      25 votes
    39. What have you been listening to this week?

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as...

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

      Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

      You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

      http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

      Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

      21 votes
    40. What have you been listening to this week?

      @Whom asked me to cover this post for today. What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just...

      @Whom asked me to cover this post for today.

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

      Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

      You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

      http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

      Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

      13 votes
    41. What have you been listening to this week?

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as...

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

      Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

      You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

      http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

      Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

      16 votes
    42. What have you been listening to this week?

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as...

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

      Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

      You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

      http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

      Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

      11 votes
    43. What have you been listening to this week?

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as...

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

      Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

      You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

      http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

      Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

      11 votes
    44. What have you been listening to this week?

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as...

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

      Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

      You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

      http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

      Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

      19 votes
    45. This week's album and EP releases

      Here's a list of a lot of things that came out in this past week, including many which are set to release on Friday. Of course, there's no way to be completely comprehensive with this and I...

      Here's a list of a lot of things that came out in this past week, including many which are set to release on Friday. Of course, there's no way to be completely comprehensive with this and I avoided including things where information was too lacking, so feel free to mention anything that isn't on here that you think is worth mentioning. Beyond that, if you have any thoughts of any of these albums, it would be great to hear them :)

      (oh and don't bully me for the genre tags, a lot of these things have very limited resources available and I couldn't individually listen to everything and determine what fits best, so I'm pulling from third parties and an artist's past work a lot of the time)

      Thanks to @Cleb for the help again and @cfabbro for grabbing the song.link urls!


      1THE9 - XIX (K-Pop) | Song.link

      After the Burial - Evergreen (Metalcore, Djent) | Song.link

      Allegaeon - Apoptosis (Technical Death Metal, Progressive Metal) | Song.link

      Angélique Kidjo - Celia (Fon Music) | Song.link

      Anna Tivel - The Question (Indie Folk, Singer/Songwriter) | Song.link

      Ann My Dice - Thorn EP (Metal) | Song.link

      Bananarama - In Stereo (Dance-Pop, Electropop) | Song.link

      Beauty Queen - Out Of Touch EP (Indie Pop) | Song.link

      Bells Atlas - The Mystic (Neo Soul) | Song.link

      Bernard Fowler (of Rolling Stones) - Inside Out (Rock) | Song.link

      Beyoncé - Homecoming: The Live Album (Contemporary R&B, Pop) | Song.link

      Cage The Elephant - Social Cues (Indie Rock, Alternative Rock, Indie Pop) | Song.link

      Cayucas - Real Life (Indie Pop, Sunshine Pop) | Song.link

      Countless Goodbyes - Cycles (Metal) | Song.link

      The Cringe - Everywhere You’ve Never Been (Rock) | Song.link

      Daniel Norgren - Wooh Dang (Contemporary Folk) | Song.link

      Diane Coffee - Internet Arms (Art Pop) | Song.link

      Dinah Jane - 1 (Contemporary R&B, Dance-Pop) | Song.link

      Drugdealer - Raw Honey (Psychedelic Rock) | Song.link

      Erick Sermon - Vernia (East Coast Hip Hop, Boom Bap) | Song.link

      Faith Eliott - Impossible Bodies (Indie Folk, Chamber Folk) | Song.link

      Fat White Family - Serfs Up! (Neo Psychedelia) | Song.link

      Field Medic - Fade Into the Dawn (Indie Folk, Singer-Songwriter) | Song.link

      Flaural - Postponement (Psychedelic Rock) | Bandcamp

      Foolio - Never Wanted Fame (Trap Rap, Pop Rap) | Song.link

      Fredo Bang - Big Ape (Trap Rap) | Song.link

      Grand Magus - Wolf God (Heavy Metal) | Song.link

      Gus Dapperton - Where Polly People Go to Read (Hypnagogic Pop, Indie Pop) | Song.link

      Heart Attack Man - Fake Blood (Pop Punk, Power Pop) | Song.link

      Heather Woods Broderick - Invitation (Singer/Songwriter, Art Pop) | Song.link

      Heavy As Texas - Heavy As Texas (Heavy Metal) | Song.link

      Hit-Boy & SOB X RBE - Family Not A Group (West Coast Hip Hop) | Song.link

      The Hot Sardines - Welcome Home, Bon Voyage (Jazz) | Song.link

      Izzy Bizu - Glita EP (Pop Soul) | Official site

      Jade Bird - Jade Bird (Singer/Songwriter, Contemporary Folk, Country Pop) | Song.link

      Jahkoy - 404 (Contemporary R&B) | Song.link

      JOHNNYSWIM - Moonlight (Folk Pop) | Song.link

      Jonatha Brooke - Imposter EP (Singer/Songwriter) | Song.link

      Jung Seung Hwan - Dear My Universe (K-Pop) | Song.link

      Kelsey Lu - Blood (Art Pop) | Song.link

      Kinbrae - Landforms (Ambient, Progressive Electronic) | Song.link

      Lizzo - Cuz I Love You (Pop Rap, Contemporary R&B) | Song.link

      Loyle Carner - Not Waving, But Drowning (UK Hip Hop, Jazz Rap) | Song.link

      Maren Celest - I Saw The Sun (Lofi Indie) | Official site

      Mark Peters - New Routes Out Of Innerland (Progressive Electronic) | Song.link

      Menoh Beats - MENOH! (Instrumental Hip Hop) | Song.link - Soundcloud

      Mitch Woods - A Tip Of The Hat To Fats (Blues) | Song.link

      NCT 127 - Awaken (K-Pop, Dance-Pop) | Song.link

      The O’Jays - The Last Word (Pop Soul) | Song.link

      Pamplemousse - High Strung (Garage Rock) | Song.link

      Peggy Gou - Moment EP (Nu-Disco) | Song.link

      Pi'erre Bourne - The Life of Pi'erre 4 (Trap Rap, Cloud Rap) | Song.link

      Pivot Gang - You Can't Sit With Us (Trap Rap, Pop Rap) | Song.link

      Pressa - Prestige (Trap Rap) | Song.link

      Raffi - Motivational Songs (Children’s Music) | Song.link

      Russ Tolman - Goodbye El Dorado (Roots Rock) | Song.link

      Sabbath Assembly - A Letter Of Red (Psychedelic Rock, Hard Rock) | Official site - Bandcamp

      Sad Planets (Patrick Carney and John Petkovic) - Akron, Ohio (Alt Rock) | Song.link

      Sarah Mary Chadwick - The Queen Who Stole The Sky (Art Pop) | Song.link

      Seaway - Fresh Produce (Pop Punk) | Song.link

      Shotgun Sawyer - Bury The Hatchet (Blues) | Song.link

      Shy Glizzy - COVERED N’ BLOOD (Trap Rap) | Song.link

      Smokepurpp - Lost Planet (Trap Rap) | Song.link

      Starbomb - The Tryforce (Comedy Rap, Nerdcore) | Song.link

      Stealing Sheep - Big Wows (Psychedelic Pop) | Song.link

      Super Junior-D&E - Danger (K-Pop) | Song.link

      The Tallest Man on Earth - I Love You. It's a Fever Dream (Singer/Songwriter, Contemporary Folk) | Song.link

      Tech N9ne - N9NA (Hardcore Hip Hop) | Song.link

      TR/ST - The Destroyer - 1 (Synthpop) | Song.link

      Tripsitter - The Other Side Of Sadness (Soft Rock) | Song.link

      The Vamps - Missing You EP (Electropop) | Song.link

      Various Artists - MOOMINVALLEY (Official Soundtrack) - (TV Soundtrack) | Song.link

      Wand - Laughing Matter (Psychedelic Rock) | Song.link

      Wargirl - Wargirl (Indie Pop) | Song.link

      Your Heart Breaks - Drone Butch Blues (Indie Pop) | Song.link

      Notes from cfabbro:
      I will check again tomorrow and update below links as required.

      Flaural - Postponement | no song.link yet, bandcamp linked
      Izzy Bizu - Glita EP | not released yet? no song.link yet, official site linked
      Maren Celest - I Saw The Sun | book+album art project? no song.link, official site linked
      Menoh Beats - MENOH! | not released yet? song.link is single, soundcloud is single, no official site?
      Sabbath Assembly - A Letter Of Red | not released yet? no song.link yet, official site and bandcamp linked

      7 votes
    46. What have you been listening to this week?

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as...

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

      Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

      You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

      http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

      Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

      14 votes
    47. This week's album and EP releases

      Here's a list of a lot of things that came out in this past week, including many which are set to release on Friday. Of course, there's no way to be completely comprehensive with this and I...

      Here's a list of a lot of things that came out in this past week, including many which are set to release on Friday. Of course, there's no way to be completely comprehensive with this and I avoided including things where information was too lacking, so feel free to mention anything that isn't on here that you think is worth mentioning. Beyond that, if you have any thoughts of any of these albums, it would be great to hear them :)

      (oh and don't bully me for the genre tags, a lot of these things have very limited resources available and I couldn't individually listen to everything and determine what fits best, so I'm pulling from third parties and an artist's past work a lot of the time)

      Thanks for the help this week, @Cleb!


      88GLAM - 88GLAM2.5 (Trap Rap)

      Aaron Lewis - State I’m In (Contemporary Country)

      ALL TVVINS - Just To Exist (Alternative Dance, Indie Rock)

      All Your Sisters - Trust Ruins (Industrial Rock, Post-Punk)

      Anderson .Paak - Ventura (Neo-Soul, Contemporary R&B)

      Andy Black - The Ghost of Ohio (Pop Rock)

      Astrid - Fall, Stand, Dance (Indie Pop, Pop Rock)

      Band of Skulls - Love Is All You Love (Garage Rock Revival, Alternative Rock)

      Bars Of Gold - Shelters (New Wave, Indie Rock, Post-Hardcore)

      Beat Music - Beat Music! Beat Music! Beat Music! (Jazz-Rock, Electronic)

      Bibio - Ribbons (Folktronica, Hypnagogic Pop)

      Big Business - The Beast You Are (Hard Rock, Heavy Metal)

      Big Search - Slow Fascination (Indie Pop)

      Black Flower - Future Flora (Afro-Jazz, Jazz-Funk)

      Broken Social Scene - Let's Try the After - Vol. 2 (Indie Pop, Indie Rock)

      Bruce Hornsby - Absolute Zero (Art Pop, Singer/Songwriter)

      BTS - Map of the Soul: Persona (K-Pop)

      The Budos Band - V (Jazz-Funk, Heavy Psych, Afrobeat)

      Caskey - Black Sheep 4 (Trap Rap)

      The Chemical Brothers - No Geography (Big Beat, Acid House)

      The Cradle - The Glare of Success (Indie Folk)

      Cris Jacobs - Color Where You Are (Singer/Songwriter, Acoustic Blues)

      Damien Jurado - In the Shape of a Storm (Indie Folk, Singer/Songwriter)

      Eli "Paperboy" Reed - 99 Cent Dreams (Soul, Rhythm & Blues)

      Emily Reo - Only You Can See It (Indie Pop)

      Emma Bunton - My Happy Place (Pop Soul)

      Eric Reed - Everybody Gets The Blues (Jazz)

      Fontaines D.C. - Dogrel (Post Punk Revival)

      Glen Hansard - The Wild Willing (Singer/Songwriter, Electronic)

      Gone Cosmic - Sideways In Time (Psychedelic Rock)

      ​iann dior - nothings ever good enough (Emo Rap)

      Intellexual (Nico Segal & Nate Fox of The Social Experiment) - Intellexual (Indie Pop)

      Inter Arma - Sulphur English (Post Metal)

      Jesse Rutherford - GARAGEB& (Alternative R&B, Electropop)

      Jess Ribeiro - Love Hate (Singer/Songwriter)

      John Paul White - The Hurting Kind (Singer/Songwriter, Folk Rock)

      Junodream - Terrible Things That Could Happen EP (Indie Rock)

      Khalid - Free Spirit (Contemporary R&B, Neo-Soul)

      KSI & Randolph - New Age (UK Hip Hop)

      The Leisure Society - Arrivals & Departures (Chamber pop, Indie pop)

      Lloyd - Black Haze (Pop Rock)

      Lowly - Hifalutin (Indie Pop)

      LSD - Labrinth, Sia & Diplo Present… LSD (Psychedelic Pop, Electronic)

      Marshmello & SOB X RBE - Roll the Dice - EP (Pop Rap)

      Melby - VCR (Psychedelic Pop, Indie Pop)

      Melissa Etheridge - The Medicine Show (Pop Rock, Singer/Songwriter)

      M Huncho - Utopia (Trap Rap)

      MISSIO - The Darker the Weather // The Better the Man (Electropop)

      MONKEY3 - Sphere (Stoner Rock, Space Rock)

      Mystery Skulls - Back to Life (Electropop)

      Native Harrow - Happier Now (Indie Folk, Folk Pop)

      Norah Jones - Begin Again (Jazz Pop)

      NUMENOREAN - Adore (Atmospheric black metal)

      Odonis Odonis - Reaction EP (Electro-Industrial, Industrial Rock)

      Pixel Grip - Heavy Handed (Synthpop)

      Reese McHenry - No Dados (Garage Rock)

      RiFF RAFF - PiNK PYTHōN (Trap Rap)

      Rory Fresco - True Story (Pop Rap)

      Sara Evans - The Barker Family Band (Country Pop)

      Sebastián Yatra - FANTASÍA (Reggaeton)

      Shovels & Rope - By Blood (Alt. Country)

      Sophie Auster - Next Time (Singer/Songwriter)

      Tellavision - Add Land (Electronic, Pop)

      Theories - Vessel (Grindcore)

      Thomas Henley - Epoque EP (Electronic)

      Through The Noise - Dualism (Nu Metal, Post Hardcore)

      Tom Speight - Collide (Singer Songwriter)

      Walking On Cars - Colours (Pop Rock)

      Yours Truly - Afterglow EP (Progressive Pop)

      Zvi - Deer Pink (Drone Metal, Experimental Rock)

      16 votes
    48. What have you been listening to this week?

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as...

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

      Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

      You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

      http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

      Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

      13 votes
    49. My current favourite song: 'Rhapsody in Blue' arranged by Walter Murphy

      I discovered (or "discocovered") this song after reading a comment in the April Fool's thread about Spotify changing its "discover weekly" feature into "discocover weekly". The commenter mentioned...

      I discovered (or "discocovered") this song after reading a comment in the April Fool's thread about Spotify changing its "discover weekly" feature into "discocover weekly". The commenter mentioned "a disco cover of 'Rhapsody In Blue'", which checks two of my boxes:

      • 'Rhapsody in Blue' is in my all-time Top Three instrumental/orchestral pieces of music.

      • Disco (real disco, from back in the '70s) is one of my favourite genres.

      Mashing these two things together just has to be good. And, sure enough, it is! This track is, in equal parts, inspired and cheesy. I can't listen to it without finding myself bopping along. It makes me happy.

      I bought the track within 15 minutes of reading that comment, have added it to my "Orchestral" and my "Disco" playlists, and am making excuses to listen to it as often as I can.

      Actually, there were a few disco versions of classical songs made in the 1970s. It seems to have been a minor fad back then - and I realised, when buying this track, that I also have Murphy's track 'A Fifth of Beethoven', plus 'Night on Disco Mountain' by David Shire. I really enjoy this combination of funky disco and classical music.

      And I love this song! :)

      9 votes
    50. This week's album and EP releases

      Here's a list of a lot of things that came out in this past week, including many which are set to release on Friday. Of course, there's no way to be completely comprehensive with this and I...

      Here's a list of a lot of things that came out in this past week, including many which are set to release on Friday. Of course, there's no way to be completely comprehensive with this and I avoided including things where information was too lacking, so feel free to mention anything that isn't on here that you think is worth mentioning. Beyond that, if you have any thoughts of any of these albums, it would be great to hear them :)

      (oh and don't bully me for the genre tags, a lot of these things have very limited resources available and I couldn't individually listen to everything and determine what fits best, so I'm pulling from third parties and an artist's past work a lot of the time)


      &More - Ethel Bobcat (Hip Hop)

      Ady Suleiman - Thoughts & Moments Vol. 1 Mixtape (Neo Soul)

      Ages and Ages - Me You They We (Indie Pop, Indie Folk)

      Alma - Have You Seen Her? (Dance-Pop, Electropop)

      BAND-MAID - BAND-MAIKO (Hard Rock)

      Big Eyes - Streets Of The Lost (Power Pop, Garage Rock)

      BLACKPINK - Kill This Love (K-Pop)

      Bogdan Raczynski - Rave 'Till You Cry (Drum and Bass, IDM)

      Brass Box - The Cathedral (Shoegaze)

      Brooks & Dunn - Reboot (Country)

      Bryce Dessner (of The National) - El Chan (Modern Classical)

      bülow - Crystalline (Electropop, Alternative R&B)

      Callum Easter - Here or Nowhere (Alternative R&B, Indie Pop)

      Cassia - Replica (Indie Pop)

      CHEN (EXO) - April, and a flower (K Pop)

      Cherry Pickles - Cherry Pickles Will Harden Your Nipples (Pop Punk, Surf Rock)

      Christian Löffler - Graal (Ambient, Techno)

      Circa Waves - What's It Like Over There? (Indie Rock)

      Cities of Mars - The Horologist (Post-Metal, Doom Metal)

      COCAINE PISS - Passionate and Tragic (Crust Punk, Noise)

      Conjurer - Sigils (Doom Metal, Stoner Metal)

      Crown of Autumn - Byzantine Horizons (Black Metal, Doom Metal)

      Datura4 - Blessed is the Boogie (Blues Rock, Hard Rock)

      DJ DB405 - Trillden United (Christian Hip Hop, Trap)

      Don Felder - American Rock 'N' Roll (AOR)

      The Drums - Brutalism (Indie Pop, Synthpop)

      Eluveitie - Ategnatos (Celtic Metal, Melodic Death Metal)

      Evan Greer - She/Her/They/Them (Folk Punk, Riot Grrrl)

      Flying Fish Cove - At Moonset (Indie Rock)

      Foie Gras - Holy Hell (Drone)

      Girli - Odd One Out (Electropop, Dance-Punk)

      Good Morning - The Option (Indie Pop)

      GRiZ - Ride Waves (Glitch Hop, EDM)

      Gurr - She Says EP (Jangle Pop, Indie Rock)

      Hannah Grace - The Bed You Made EP (Singer-Songwriter)

      Idlewild - Interview Muisc (Indie Rock, Alternative Rock)

      I Know Leopard - Love Is A Landmine (Indie Pop, Dream Pop)

      The Infamous Stringdusters — Rise Sun (Bluegrass)

      IZ*ONE - HEART*IZ (K Pop)

      Jackie Venson - JOY (Contemporary R&B, Indie Pop, Neo-Soul)

      Jai Wolf - The Cure to Loneliness (Synthpop, Synthwave)

      Jasmine Thompson - Colour EP (Teen Pop)

      JAWS - The Ceiling (Indie Pop)

      Jelly Boy - Everybody is a Universe (Indie Rock)

      Jimbo Mathus - Incinerator (Country, Americana)

      John Vanderslice - The Cedars (Electronic, Indie Pop, Indie Rock)

      Jonathan Larson - The Jonathan Larson Project (Film Score, Show Tunes)

      Kendrick Scott Oracle — A Wall Becomes A Bridge (Jazz)

      Khalid - Free Spirit (Alternative R&B)

      Kiefer — Bridges (Electronic, Jazz)

      Kings Kaleidoscope - Zeal (Indie Rock)

      Lady Lamb - Even in the Tremor (Singer/Songwriter, Indie Rock)

      Larry “Ratso” Sloman — Stubborn Heart (Indie Folk)

      Lee Fields & The Expressions - It Rains Love (Soul)

      Lena - Only Love, L (Pop)

      Lissie - When I'm Alone: The Piano Retrospective (Pop Country)

      Luke Sital-Singh - A Golden State (Singer/Songwriter)

      Mana — Seven Steps Behind (Electronic)

      MARINA - LOVE (Electropop, Dance-Pop)

      Matt Maeson - Bank On The Funeral (Singer/Songwriter)

      Matt Simons - After The LandsIide (Pop)

      Mike Mains & The Branches — When We Were In Love (Indie Rock)

      Molly Tuttle — When You’re Ready (Progressive Bluegrass)

      Night School — Disappear Here (Indie Pop, Dream Pop)

      Partner — Saturday The 14th EP (Power Pop)

      Periphery - Periphery IV: HAIL STAN (Progressive Metal)

      The Prescriptions — Hollywood Gold (Alternative Country, Folk Rock)

      Priests — The Seduction Of Kansas (Post-Punk, Noise Rock)

      PUP - Morbid Stuff (Pop Punk, Power Pop)

      Ramriddlz - RamReaper (Alternative R&B)

      Reba McEntire — Stronger Than The Truth (Contemporary Country)

      Rescue Rangers — Divisive (Stoner Rock)

      Rod Melancon — Pinkville (Country, Blues)

      Rose Elinor Dougall — A New Illusion (Indie Pop, Dream Pop)

      Rozi Plain — What A Boost (Indie Folk)

      Sara Bareilles - Amidst the Chaos (Singer/Songwriter, Pop)

      Savoir Adore — Full Bloom (Indie Pop)

      Sego - Sego Sucks (Indie Pop)

      Shana Cleveland — Night Of The Worm Moon (Folk)

      Sharkmuffin — Gamma Gardening EP (Garage Punk, Riot Grrrl)

      Social Club Misfits - MOOD. (Christian Hip Hop)

      Spoony Bard — Old Friends (Hip-Hop, Electronic, Jazz)

      Tayla Parx — We Need To Talk (Contemporary R&B)

      Ten Tonnes - Ten Tonnes (Singer/Songwriter)

      Tory Lanez - International Fargo (Pop Rap)

      Tyler Ramsey — For The Morning (Contemporary Folk)

      Uncle Meg — Butterfly EP (Emo Rap)

      Weyes Blood - Titanic Rising (Art Pop, Baroque Pop)

      Yarrow - A Mild Circus EP (Post-Punk)

      Yung Garzi - Nothing To Something (Pop Rap)

      Yung Van - Blackwater (Emo Rap)

      Zaytoven - Make America Trap Again (Trap)

      12 votes