wjrii

I figure it will be a good thing to throw onto a wish list for whatever holiday is coming next. In a perfect world, it would run a Linux-based OS, be moddable, have decent ergonomics for an adult, and kinda just generally not suck. Is a hundred bucks a reasonable price point? One hundred fifty? I grew up in the 8-bit and 16-bit eras but never completely stopped gaming, so I'd be interested in emulating somewhat newer stuff too. I normally just plug in a controller and find a desktop emulator, but portable could be fun, especially if it had potential for general SBC computing.

Edit: I think I have a better idea what I'm looking for now. The Anbernic devices seem to more or less match up with what I am looking for, so I'll start there with a more informed search. Thanks! Happy to get more suggestions and tips, though.

So, let's close out this little arc before I head out on vacation, hopefully to be less online for a bit. Technically a little bit older but very much of the same Xennial bent as Justin Townes Earle, Jason Isbell has established himself as arguably the preeminent Americana singer/songwriter of his generation. Struggling with so many of the same demons, even at times with the conscious notion that it might be a right of passage, he and Earle became friends in Isbell's early days with the iconic roots rock band Drive By Truckers. If anything, DBT and early Isbell's sound hearken back to Steve Earle's early commercial albums, with a lot of hard charging electric guitar. In an arc that reminds outside observers of various "path not taken" alternate universe narratives, Isbell found what has seemed to be a fairly sustained sobriety and reoriented a phase of his career to unpacking what it has all meant, how to live with who he is, and has pulled remarkable creativity out of a type of stability that seems to frighten a certain type of young artist.

If We Were Vampires is a southern Gothic love song, though not really touching on the supernatural, more like what if an Anne Rice reader wrote a brilliant ballad. Listening to it was one of those "wow" moments, when I just perk up at a lyricist who absolutely nailed it on a song. I'm hardly alone in admiring his work, and a song or two only scratches the surface.

To stitch this thread back on itself, and close the loop, here's Isbell's rumination on his friend Justin Townes Earle, wistful but also with a decent amount of survivors' guilt and lingering resentment.

You want to talk about a legacy? Try being Steve Earle's kid, named after Townes Van Zandt, and inheriting every bit of talent and disfunction that implies. Always looking to push clear of their shadow, his voice (both as a singer and a writer) was decidedly less country, but still brilliant and deeply rooted in American roots music. Unfortunately, even if he found a place outside his father's legacy, he didn't escape his namesake's path, passing away from an accidental OD in 2020.

Bonus points for the willfully inane patter from Dave and Paul in the video, and especially on this one, pretending like they weren't listening to the lyrics (being suicidal in one and trying desperately not to be suicidal in the other) to keep the network suits at bay.

Steve Earle's entire career posits the question: What if that slightly cringey try-hard kid that kept coming around were actually a world-class talent in his own right?

Earle idolized Townes Van Zandt and his cohort of Austin/Denver/Nashville singer songwriters, and sort of insinuated himself into their circle, but they put up with him because he was actually a good songwriter, and brought a harder rock sensibility that was unique and interesting. I can't say I find his output as consistent as Van Zandt or Guy Clark, but the highs are high, he's a grand and earnest storyteller (if not exactly a wry or subtle one) and there's a thumping beat and a unique energy to a lot of his stuff that can be really refreshing in between my endless playlist of murder ballads.

If Townes Van Zandt is the Bob Dylan of highly literate country-adjacent songwriters, his buddy Guy Clark is the Springsteen. Maybe a little less transcendently brilliant, but more straightforward about the human condition, you might say "efficiently poetic" maybe, and with a better ear for what will sell and a less publicly dramatic personal story.

Dublin Blues is a personal favorite, just a brilliant example of communicating the universal by writing the specific.

Casual live performance from an old documentary. A few minor lyrical tweaks for those who know the song well, but a lovely performance from probably the iconic Texas troubadour.

"We've almost got some of their telecommunications cracked; the front end even runs on a laptop!" The Mac that sunk a thousand ships could have been merely clunky product placement, not a bafflingly stupid tech-on-film moment.

"Senator Amidala is in a coma. Even if she recovers, she will never be the same and may not live long." But no.... George had to have his god-damned funeral scene, even if it demanded Simone Biles levels of mental gymnastics to save Carrie Fisher's most emotionally resonant moment from ROTJ, as well as one of the more intriguing OT lore dumps.

Bonus points if a scene was scripted or filmed and got cut.

Donald Trump has already been president once, and has been outspoken about the policies he would support and enact if elected again in November.

He's promised mass deportations of millions of migrants and suggested the United States would not defend foreign allies from aggression in certain circumstances. He's vowed to eviscerate the federal bureaucracy and staff those career civil service roles with political loyalists, use law enforcement to target foes and painted a dire picture of America's future if he does not return to the White House.

In two wide-ranging interviews with TIME Magazine published Tuesday, Trump expanded upon that vision for a second term, which would buck traditional conservative viewpoints about the role of government and expand the powers of the presidency that he would then wield against a wide range of groups in America.

So I saw THIS Atlantic article linked on Bluesky and I found myself conflicted, nodding in agreement with almost everything the author wrote, yet simultaneously thinking he sounded exhausting and pretentious himself.

It made me think though, that while this absolutely jibes with everything I've thought after hearing from my acquaintances who have gone on them -- and from extrapolating based on my own understanding of their personalities -- I've never really asked "peers" what they think. Have you been? How was it? Why would you agree to be trapped inside a compacted hotel where you will literally die if you leave at the wrong time?

...also I didn't think I could post the link in [email protected]

EDIT:

After 44 comments, here's where we stand:

• 28 (including me) responding to the questions

• 21 have been, 7 (including me) have not.

• Of the 21, 15 liked it, and 6 didn't (some answers were a bit ambivalent, so I made a judgment call)

• Of the 7, 5 didn't think they'd like it and 2 implied they might in very specific circumstances. I guess technically I could make 3, but I don't really want to "camp" on a personal family history reenactment.

So, of those who have been, the vast majority saw value in it. The people who haven't been either know themselves or have some serious sour grapes; I choose to believe it's the former, for completely scientifically objective reasons.

Hail corporate and all that.

With a garage full of cheap-to-not-cheap tools, many made by Stanley-Black & Decker, and many of those dremeled to use the same batteries because I specifically researched their brands and market segmentation, I'm a bit nonplussed that I was today years old when I figured it out.