A Musical Fortnight (Weeknotes #25-06)

Here’s what happened during the two weeks of January 27 to February 9, 2025.

I missed last week’s update, so this is a double issue covering weeks 5 and 6. My works days have been pretty busy, and sadly there have been several deaths in my family and in the families of people close to me. I’ve been in the car a lot and rediscovering some old music. In fact, the last two weeks seem to have been punctuated more than usual by music, so I’ll start there.

The highlight of the last two weeks was getting to see Hans Zimmer Live at Nationwide Arena here in Columbus. I wasn’t sure quite what to expect but he put on an incredible show consisting of some of the best musical performance I’ve ever seen in person. I didn’t know who Guthrie Govan was before but I do now! And he’s just one of what must have been 30 or 40 talented musicians and singers who brought the house down. Oh and we had pretty good seats too.

I’ve also been rediscovering some old music that I’m really enjoying, starting with The Cure. I wasn’t a fan back when they were at the height of their popularity, but I keep wondering why?

I’ve been enjoying the new Hulu series, Paradise, which has been surprisingly compelling and includes some very interesting musical cues, including a dark 2016 cover of ”I think we’re alone now” by Hidden Citizens.

My mother stayed with us for a few days on her way back from her three-week Caribbean cruise. I hadn’t revealed to her that I had repainted her room at home while she was away. She was surprised and seems to like the new look.

I work in the world of cloud computing, mostly in Amazon Web Services. But I had an opportunity to participate in a Google Cloud Hero lab session, which included four introductory labs in the Google Cloud Services platform. It was fun an instructive, and I earned a badge.

I completed by Apple Fitness January Challenge. One down, eleven to go. I've never gotten all 12 in a year. Maybe this year?

Web Updates

I Launched my One Thousand Likes page, in which I recognize things I find online that have given me particular enjoyment or that I think are especially important.

I’ve been experiencing more and more difficulty with my /now page lately. The automation has always been a bit brittle anyway, and now that OMG.lol has to block AWS addresses launching cyber attacks and Trakt is making my life difficult, I’m going to take a different tack. Inspired by something Robb said...

... I’ve begun manually updating my /now page again. I’ll continue to pull content into these weekly updates for posterity, and I’ll continue to adapt and adjust as needed.

One of the things I’ve been struggling with since I launched my photography blog is how and where to host the image files. One of the things I don’t like about how I have been doing it up to now is that the EXIF metadata is not visible on the site. Rather than reinvent the wheel, I went in search of an alternate hosting strategy. I looked at SmugMug, Format, Photler, PhotoShelter, Pixpa, Zenfolio, and 500px—some of which have very interesting and tempting features. But at the end of the day, I came back to good ol’ Flickr. I started with a clean slate but creating all my albums from scratch. And now the /albums page on my site redirects over there. I feel a little silly for having spent so much effort just to come full circle.

And while we’re on the topic of photography, I posted my “Best of 2024” album, which contains what I think are my best photos of the year. That isn’t saying much, but I invite you to check ‘em out anyway.

Big Purchase

As much as it pains me, there’s not a good way for me to get to my office via public transportation. With a back-to-office mandate looming in my near future, we decided it was time to add another car to the stable. After a lot of research and some shopping around, we ended up with a {linktopic:text=black Mazda3 hatchback&name=mazda3.jpg}. And even though I fantasize about never having to drive a car again, I have to admit... it’s a lot of fun to drive!

Now Page Snapshot

Here are the highlights of my recent /now page activity.

Movies

Great lead actors, a solid supporting case, and a not-too-terrible plot aren’t enough to carry You’re Cordially Invited. Everything about this movie seems to have been half-assed, starting with the unreadable titles. Did they film the first draft of the script? This could have been a good movie, but was ultimately a disappointment.

Forever, Darling is not a great film, but has a few good jokes. Coming during the later I Love Lucy years, it seems to have been made to play on its popularity as a kind of extended episode.

The hatred of federal workers is part of the larger MAGA antagonism towards scientists, academics, artists, journalists, or anyone who has developed expertise in any field but con artistry. Many federal jobs, especially the bureaucratic offices most heavily targeted by the would-be purge, are filled by people who have spent years becoming experts at what they do. In contrast, Trump's political appointments are a celebration of the slacker and the intellectually incurious.

“Why McKinley makes an alarming Trump presidential role model” by Max Boot (The Washington Post)

In 1900, at the height of protectionism, U.S. GDP per capita was, in inflation adjusted terms, $11,519 — less than Kazakhstan’s today. By contrast, after decades of free trade policies, U.S. per capita GDP in 2023 was $82,769. The McKinley Tariff Act of 1890 — sponsored by McKinley when he was a House member — proved so unpopular that it led to the Democratic landslide of 1892, and it certainly did not set America on the path to limitless prosperity: The economic downturn from 1893 to 1898 was one of the worst in the nation’s history. Unemployment in 1894 spiked to 18.4 percent, the highest level until the Great Depression.

Photography

Fujifilm’s JPEGs Are Revolutionizing Photography by Ritchie Roesch (Fuji X Weekly)

Camera-made JPEGs are more than just a convenience; they represent a shift in how to think about photography. Fujifilm has created a system that celebrates the art of getting it right in-camera by leveraging their film heritage with creative customization, which allows users to focus on intentionality.

Hope y’all have a great week!