Category Archives: Show-and-Tell

The “other people’s stuff” section! When we didn’t make it, but we find it cool or important to us, it gets talked about here.

Ranking Spotify’s Top 50 Songs Named “Undone”

Song titles are funny. They’re usually hardly unique, and tons of bands from all across the music spectrum have songs with the exact same title. Spotify’s search is an absolutely useless landfill for this stuff; the song you want will invariably be so unpopular that 200 other identically-titled songs (and in some cases, artists and albums) will come before the one you want. Lovely.

The inspiration for this one came about when I realized I actually know three different songs with the title “Undone”: the Failure song, the Weezer song, and the Josh Joplin song. When I checked through Spotify search, it turned out to be a very popular song name indeed.

So in short, I got curious enough to add the 50 most popular ones to a playlist, listen through, and rank them. I originally wanted to do every single song on the platform named “Undone”, but that’s just not feasible. Even the top 50 was a solid three hours worth of music, and has been hell to put together.

Alas, the Joplin track didn’t make the top 50; if it did, it would’ve probably ranked at #2. Nonetheless, we’ve got a lovely mix of yeehaw music, white girl piano pop, boppy electronica, acoustic torment, Backstreet Boys, and even a few artists who might not even exist. We’re starting at the bottom here, so apologies for the rampant negativity at first. It does get better. Here we go… Continue reading

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Vaders and Venetian Blinds: A Review of “Racing the Beam”

I’ve said before that I don’t read a whole lot of books. Not to say I don’t have a few on my radar, it just takes me a while. Same goes for video games; I have plenty to play, but I’m usually too busy off in my own world to try them out. Given that it looks like the US will open back up some time after the heat death of the universe (read: plenty of time to myself), I’ve been trying to rectify that.

Today’s topic is one that combines both these worlds in a really curious way: meet Nick Montfort and Ian Bogost’s Racing the Beam. Continue reading

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More old Macs!

Old Macs. Also known as Old Macintoshes, Vintage Macintosh Computers, et cetera. Machines of which were made in simpler times, when Apple wasn’t as much of a shitshow of a company as they are today. Compact, distinctive from PCs of the time, maybe a tad yellowed – but that’s fine. Sometimes that’s what makes them beautiful.

Alright, here I am, at it again. I didn’t think I’d be able to make another one until after summer was over, but in surprising turn of events I got three new (old) machines up-and-running! Continue reading

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Somnolescent Radio: Spring 2020

With three months or so to update the ol’ playlists, it’s about time to bring you another edition of Somnolescent Radio. As the first one went, each Somnolian has chosen a song dear to them at the moment and written a bit about it. Have a listen. Continue reading

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Old Macs!

I still remember drooling over compact macs like the Macintosh Classic or the SE in my early years on the internet. When I rediscovered the hard drive from my first computer a little while back, I found (along with a shitton of malware) a good bit of pictures and MacOS “simulators” and multiple copies of Mini vMac.

…Which reminds me – if me from two years ago saw my collections now, he’d probably be pretty excited for the future. I forget to appreciate my belongings sometimes.

As promised, here’s my first update in a series of updates on my sizeable collection of vintage and not-so-vintage Macintosh computers. Feels good to finally get this out. Continue reading

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Life ‘n Weeb Shit

Y’all ready for my dick in your ass? Just kidding its borb ready to kick gum and chew ass 0w< Continue reading

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Somnolescent Radio: Winter 2020

We listen to a lot of music at Somnolescent, and we’ve been gradually sharing more and more of it with one another. It’s entertainment, inspiration, and something to pour over fansites and music sites hunting down. Indie rock, dad rock, things that aren’t rock, the lot.

Sometime towards the end of 2019, I got the idea to solicit a song from everyone in the group and compile them into something of a playlist for you to pick through. I asked each Somnolian to write a little bit about the song they picked to go along with their choice. With any luck, we’ll be making this a seasonal thing. Let’s get to the picks. Continue reading

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The mtlx Chronicle

“Is it even real?”

As real as you want it to be. Continue reading

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End it Someday: Looking Back on With the Lights Out

It’s been 25 years, 7 months, and 19 days since the death of Kurt Cobain. You might remember him as the singer and guitarist for Nirvana, who later ended up trying pellet-flavored Pez in his greenhouse. He’s pretty much been canonized as the last great rockstar, and eh—I don’t care. I love Nirvana, but I don’t care.

It’s also been 15 years since a little three-CD-one-DVD Nirvana treasure trove of B-sides, live tapes, and rehearsals came into the world. With the Lights Out was the first official look into the home demos and leftovers that went into producing Nirvana’s three proper records. It’s a fascinating little document with a lot of history—and a lot of flaws.

Join me as I ramble about my history with the boxset, its highs, its lows, and where I think it sits in the Greater Nirvana Canon as a Sacred Text or something. Continue reading

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Antigravity Freedom Machine

As of writing this I’m supposed to be asleep, but that’s not working out so I’m gonna write some nonsense instead. Sorry Cammy <:3c Continue reading

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