djcev.com

Done with my radio show, back to watching RPG Limit Break / #rpglb2018 / https://www.twitch.tv/rpglimitbreak .

I'll post the tracklist tomorrow, after I sleep.

"A Not So Brief History of Electro, Part One" by Steve Mizek

Found on reddit's r/electro. Covers 1980s #electro . Posting so I'll remember to look for part 2. '80s electro is well covered in the music press (I think). '90s and '00s receives much less attention, so hopefully part 2 will be good.

RPG Limit Break is two games into its "Silly Games" block. Gyre is speedrunning Virtual Hydlide right now and it's hilarious. Barkley Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden is up next...

#rpglb2018

RPG Limit Break 2018 just started.

It's an annual RPG speedrunning marathon benefiting NAMI. It's my favorite of these speedrunning marathons. It's where most of my time will be going this week...

#RPGLB2018

Music research (AKA shopping) part two.

I was reminded earlier today of Umek's #electro alias Zeta Reticula, and that led me to discover Umeks' label 1605 Music Therapy.

http://www.sixteenofive.com/

According to the website, all releases are CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Downloads from the website are free after registering.

I picked up three of the Zeta Reticula EPs, and then it started serving me empty files, so I must have hit a download limit. Will check it again tomorrow.

It's going to be a music research day. I'm feeling it.

Starting with "This Tool Has No Options" by XY0815

XY0815's previous release, on Brokntoys, is sick. "This Tool" is also excellent, but quite a bit more IDM-y. Really good album.

Making a note to dig through the rest of the Yuyay Records catalog.

Finished "Spook Country" by Gibson today. This time, it was as good as I remembered. Which is pretty good. I noticed it had very short chapters, and read a bit like a thriller. I suppose that's what it is, thinking back on the plot.

Not sure what I'll start next.

Finished a re-read of "The Man in the High Castle" by Philip K. Dick yesterday. Very good, much better than I remember. ("Better than I remember" seems to be a trend in my reading.)

Starting "Spook Country" by William Gibson today.

Another good book haul today.

Picked up "Zero History" by William Gibson and "Runtime" by S.B. Divya.

"Runtime" is short - a novella - so I read it on the way home. It's simply excellent. Smartly written, succinct, and full of cool near-future ideas. Really glad I purchased and read it. I'll be following Divya's work for sure.

I recently finished reading the novel "Infomocracy" by Malka Older.

It's full of pretty neat near-future ideas, big and small. The big one being world spanning micro-democracy.

There's a lot of plot and dialog, not a lot of description of the setting or development of the characters. Especially for the first half of the novel.

I liked it, particularly the second half, but I didn't love it. I've learned that I prefer highly descriptive (flowery, maybe even purple) prose.

Megaphysics and I are playing music at Ground Kontrol again tonight.

Grab bag night, I think. I'll play bits of what I've been doing on aNONradio. Megaphysics has said he'll play a bunch of electro he's been listening to.

CEV & Megaphysics @ Ground Kontrol Arcade in Portland, Oregon 2018/04/25 9:00 PM PST until close. Free play party (no quarters required), $5 cover.

I just finished reading "The Song Is You" by Megan Abbott.

Tough, nasty, cruel; proper hardboiled crime fiction. Very, very well written. Not much redemption to be found (especially in the protagonist...). I feel dirtier for having read it.

This is the second book by Abbott that I've read. The first was "Queenpin", which is just as good, if not better.

Will definitely be picking up more of her work.