Back_In_The_Saddle_Final_FINAL
Phil's Newsletter Volume 3 Issue 2 arrives late, surprising no-one
Last time on Phil’s Newsletter: It’s a new day, yes it is. It was almost my birthday. I recorded some 3 1/4” disk noises for you.
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Hello Hooray
[EDITORIAL NOTE: I wrote and had this newsletter ready for you last night, Sunday eve, and was so sure I’d scheduled it to send that I didn’t even check up on it. I guess that didn’t happen! Anyway, here it is now. Let us continue.]
It’s Sunday Night, unfortunately, so it’s time for Phil’s Newsletter. Thanks to all of you who came back for Volume 3, and hello to your new subscribers. I’ll try to refrain from calling you “subs.” In this ish you’ll get The Music Section, Phil’s Good Links, info about a new podcast I’m producing, and so on and so forth.
Last week was my 40th birthday! I feel weird about it, but then again I feel weird about pretty much everything at all times these days, so we’ll call it a push. Thanks so much to those of you who got me presents, a big shout out to Jessy, Julie, David, Chuck, Mom, and the drunk guy who gave me a preroll. I rewarded myself for not dying by spending $300 on a LaserDisc player and some LaserDiscs and eating from my favorite ramen joint 3 times in 2 days.
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The Music Section
Tonight I am listening to the Clash track Straight To Hell, which in September 1982 was released as a double A-side single along with “Should I Stay or Should I Go,” a contender for the band’s most famous song. If you’re under 40 you probably know it best from being heavily sampled fro the M.I.A. hit “Paper Planes.”
Straight To Hell is one of those songs that puts The Clash on another level than their peers. They could punk rock with the messiest street punks, but also produced some smooth, almost meditative, stuff like Straight To Hell or Lost in The Supermarket.
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Join My Online Movie Night Feb 18th
RetroStrange Movie Night, the sometimes-monthly movie night I host, is coming up on February 18th. The gimmick with RetroStrange Movie Night is we use it as a sort of feeder system for RetroStrange TV, our community-supported 24/7 streaming channel. The Curator picks a couple of new feature films and shorts and we debut them on Movie Night, then we add them to the channel as part of the regular schedule.
This time we’re going to watch some 1950s Hot Rod movies, so expect some fake 50s greaser slang and even faker races. Drop by the audio chat on our Discord server if you’d like top crack wise at the movie with a few of us.
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Hank Radio is Now On Apple Podcasts
I was playing Nintendo 64 with my nephew Henry and he idly mused that it would be cool to do a radio show playing old public domain tracks. I take everything everyone says extremely seriously at all times, and so we decided then and there that he would host this show and I would produce it for RetroStrange, and Hank Radio was born.
Once a month Hank and his dad Chuck will play 30 (or so) minutes of classic music from the public domain (in the US), all sourced from The Internet Archive’s amazing 78rpm recordings catalog. They stream & record the show live on our radio server. You’ll always be able to find the show on RetroStrange.com but it’s also available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts.
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Phil’s Good Links
I wish these were made out of sausage.
My friend Kat and I are co-hosting the Open Source Robotics Meetup every month at Noisebridge in San Francisco. The last one was on Feb 2nd
Twitter is shutting off free API access. End of an era. The scouring of the shire, etc.
Behold, the vastness of… a cello. Photography is magic.
The GameBoy Camera and Printer can now hook up to Wifi. YES. YES.
There’s a new Tape Looper app for the Playdate console that… makes it into a tape looper. Lots of nifty Playdate stuff lately, glad to see it.
This is what a 100% analog polyphonic synthesizer looks and sounds like
That’s all for today. Have a great week, meet back here next Sunday night. Good luck with that thing you’re worried about.
Yours,
Phil Nelson
Wizard Tower Gamma, South of Market, San Francisco, California, United States of America, Earth, Hell
2023.02.05
Which is your favorite ramen spot?