boredop's recent activity

  1. Comment on Nom nom nom. What’s the deal with Cookie Monster’s cookies? (gifted link) in ~tv

    boredop
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    gifted link - no paywall! NOM NOM NOM

    gifted link - no paywall! NOM NOM NOM

    8 votes

  3. Comment on What minor or inane decisions have had the biggest butterfly effect on your life? in ~talk

    boredop
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    In August of 1993 (thirty years ago!), on the last day of my freshman orientation weekend as we were preparing to go home, I wandered away from my parents for a few minutes. I found my way to a...

    In August of 1993 (thirty years ago!), on the last day of my freshman orientation weekend as we were preparing to go home, I wandered away from my parents for a few minutes. I found my way to a staircase at the back of the university union building where a lot of the student organizations were located, and sat down for a few minutes. There was some music coming from upstairs - first And Justice For All by Metallica (one of my favorite bands at the time), and then Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles. I thought that was a pretty odd combination of songs, so I got up and followed the sound to see where it was coming from. I found myself standing in the lobby of the campus radio station, and it was the coolest thing I had ever seen in my life. I made a mental note to come back there after I got moved into my dorm room a couple of weeks later.

    And little did I know, that was the moment my career in radio started. Thirty years in and still going strong.

    11 votes

  4. Comment on Need gift ideas for a seven year old girl in ~life

  5. Comment on Warner Bros. shelves John Cena’s ‘Coyote Vs. Acme’ movie a year after it completed filming in ~movies

    boredop
    Link
    This movie sounds awesome and is one of the only ones I have heard about this year that would have got me into a theater to see it.

    This movie sounds awesome and is one of the only ones I have heard about this year that would have got me into a theater to see it.

    2 votes

  6. Comment on Curbside trash is a problem in NYC. Officials have a not-so-novel fix: plastic bins in ~enviro

    boredop
    Link
    This can't happen soon enough. I'm so tired off walking past mountains of trash bags on the sidewalks and seeing rats scurrying across my path at all hours of the day and night. It's one of the...

    This can't happen soon enough. I'm so tired off walking past mountains of trash bags on the sidewalks and seeing rats scurrying across my path at all hours of the day and night. It's one of the most disgusting parts of our city. Unfortunately I haven't seen too many of the containers yet, but I'll be looking forward to them now.

    Too bad about losing the parking spaces, I guess, but we will be regaining quite a bit of pedestrian space on the sidewalks once the trash mountains are gone, so from my non-driver perspective it's a win-win.

    11 votes

  8. Comment on 'Louie Louie': The story behind the song everyone knows but no one understands in ~music

    boredop
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    I'm surprised the article never mentions the Louie Louie book by Dave Marsh, which is pretty much the definitive work on the song's history. It's a great read....

    I'm surprised the article never mentions the Louie Louie book by Dave Marsh, which is pretty much the definitive work on the song's history. It's a great read. https://press.umich.edu/Books/L/Louie-Louie2

    5 votes

  9. Comment on Why the US never saves money on health care in ~finance

    boredop
    Link
    I think the writer is unaware of her privilege, because this is already happening to many of us in the US.

    Tell everyone else that they can’t have the fancy new drug they just read about, or that they have to wait half a year to see a specialist, and they will freak out, too.

    I think the writer is unaware of her privilege, because this is already happening to many of us in the US.

    42 votes

  10. Comment on "My dad painted the iconic cover for Jethro Tull’s ‘Aqualung,’ and it’s haunted him ever since" in ~music

    boredop
    Link
    This is an interesting read about the artist of an iconic album cover, who accepted the assignment with a handshake deal and expected it to be a throwaway job. Instead the album sold 7 million...

    This is an interesting read about the artist of an iconic album cover, who accepted the assignment with a handshake deal and expected it to be a throwaway job. Instead the album sold 7 million copies, becoming his most famous work by far, and the artist received a total of $1,500, with no hope of recovering any royalties or the original artwork. Kind of a sad story.

    12 votes

  12. Comment on Discogs’ vibrant vinyl community is shattering in ~music

    boredop
    Link
    The enshittification of Discogs is underway. I never did any buying or selling on the site, but I was a big contributor to the database for a while and still use it frequently for research. It...

    The enshittification of Discogs is underway. I never did any buying or selling on the site, but I was a big contributor to the database for a while and still use it frequently for research. It would be a major problem if Discogs fails and that resource is lost.

    BTW, the article is mostly focused on the marketplace aspect of the site, but the database has its own problems which have lingered for years - toxic community, outdated submission guidelines and rules, broken voting system which discourages many from correcting bad data, and the site admins basically tossed up their hands and gave up on trying to manage any of it several years ago.

    11 votes

  14. Comment on Remembering the Philadelphia ‘Pathetics’, the worst baseball team in history in ~sports.baseball

    boredop
    Link
    Alexa, show me a headline writer who has never heard of the Cleveland Spiders.

    Alexa, show me a headline writer who has never heard of the Cleveland Spiders.

    4 votes

  15. Comment on Your favorite band that no one has heard of? in ~music

    boredop
    Link Parent
    I have seen them live three times since they became active again. What a killer band!

    I have seen them live three times since they became active again. What a killer band!

    1 vote

  16. Comment on New survey shows that many in the US lack knowledge of basic facts about government in ~misc

    boredop
    Link
    We have a survey like that every year; it's called Election Day.

    We have a survey like that every year; it's called Election Day.

    4 votes

  17. Comment on It's not just you. LinkedIn has gotten really weird. in ~tech

    boredop
    Link
    I rarely check in on my LinkedIn account and never post anything there, and this article makes me feel pretty good about that.

    I rarely check in on my LinkedIn account and never post anything there, and this article makes me feel pretty good about that.

    21 votes

  19. Comment on Spotify (with OpenAI) is going to clone podcasters’ voices — and translate them to other languages in ~tech

    boredop
    Link Parent
    My company (WNYC) did one called La Brega, with versions in English and Spanish released simultaneously.

    My company (WNYC) did one called La Brega, with versions in English and Spanish released simultaneously.

    1 vote

  20. Comment on Chad Smith hears Thirty Seconds To Mars for the first time in ~music

    boredop
    Link
    Pro drummer here. I have to do this kind of thing on stage often. It's not a magic trick. Being able to play a new song on the fly or with minimal prep time is an important skill for a working...

    Pro drummer here. I have to do this kind of thing on stage often. It's not a magic trick. Being able to play a new song on the fly or with minimal prep time is an important skill for a working drummer.

    On Saturday I did a gig with an organ trio. On a three hour gig, we did five songs I had played before (two jazz standards, a jazz/funk jam, and a couple of old soul hits). There were a few more that I listened to once the night before (bandleader sent me a playlist but I didn't have time to dig in) and a few more that I had never heard. But if you're watching and listening to what's going on, and you have a good command of the instrument and a deep vocabulary of grooves and feels and song forms, you can get through almost any gig and make it sound like you know what's up.

    I don't have it in me to type a longer response at the moment, but I'm happy to answer questions about my process on this kind of thing.

    7 votes