I’ve had some problems with the plugin, but I’ve been really impressed with how aggressively the @wordpress.org team has been integrating the ATmosphere.
Love the ability to @-mention users and have those users notified.
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Poptimus Prime
Freddie deBoer writes about how poptimism has achieved so much success because of the cultural context in which it was born. A culture that considers it wrong to have standards that can identify one thing as better than another is fertile ground for the elevation of terrible art. That’s why we have record reviews that treat pay-for-play pabulum like Rebecca Black songs as if they were written by Neil Young. It’s a culture that feeds our desire for comfort rather than challenge.
(more…)Fediverse reactions
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Corporation Games
Will Gottsegen writes for The Atlantic about Sony’s decision to discontinue manufacturing physical discs for their games.
The convenience of downloads may be an upside, though there are certainly real downsides in the transition away from physical media. When you buy a disc, you own it and can resell it or lend it out the old fashioned way—without online mediation. No corporate middleman was watching me hand my copy of Red Dead Redemption to my friend when I was done with it. Although physical games can be damaged or even decay over long periods of time, I could still loan that same copy out today if I wanted. Digital purchases only grant you a license for use, and that license can be revoked. At around the same time that Sony announced the digital transition for PlayStation, it also alerted customers that more than 500 movies and shows would be pulled from its online marketplace, removing them from the libraries of users who had purchased them. (As an Arts Technica headline put it, “We’re Reminded We Don’t Own What We Buy.”).
The new rental culture comes with some sobering thoughts about our limited ability to retain access to some of our favorite entertainment, be it games, movies or music. Luke Plunkett has even gone as far as to suggest that, without ownership, we have lost the concept of media piracy.
Would you be willing to pay $60 for generous rental terms on a video game? Does the framing of the question shift the mindset of how your money is being spent?
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Orthodox Burnout
A new blog/newsletter to me as of today is Ghost Drive America, which belongs to Edwin Robinson.1 Robinson writes about burnout five years after becoming Orthodox as part of a ROCOR church.
I haven’t been Orthodox quite as long as Robinson, but nevertheless, I identified with almost all his points. One in particular that struck me was his belief that his conversion would eventually draw in his family.
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Eveningstar
Recently, a friend on Mastodon asked followers about their first cassette purchase. I had no trouble recollecting getting Starship’s Knee Deep In The Hoopla when I was in the fourth grade as my introduction to the world of music on tape. I wore that tape out playing the all-too radio friendly songs like “We Built This City” (some might say the song was pandering — the shoutout to all the cities hasn’t aged well). Following that popular anthem in the track sequencing was “Sara,” a ballad at a time when that was almost a separate genre within a genre. Rock bands used to touring arenas had their slower, more romantic songs interspersed with the more upbeat anthemic fare on their records.
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Brandon writes about having Reverse SAD — seasonal affective disorder that occurs during the summer instead of the winter.
Research also suggests that high temperatures might play a role in reverse SAD. Notable differences between summer and winter SAD are that summer SAD individuals may typically feel manic, whereas those with winter SAD lack energy. Georgetown University psychiatrist and professor Norman Rosenthal, who first described and coined the term Seasonal Affective Disorder, notes that the drop in temperature can be calming for those people, who might otherwise find the summer heat oppressive and agitating.
I am totally feeling this. When it’s 100 degrees actual temperature outside, like it was today, it’s easy to feel confined and isolated.
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The Flag by Georgia O’Keeffe via The Internet Archive Trying to get into the Semisequicentennial spirit.
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Bandcamp Downsizing
Details are scarce, but a Bluesky post has people once again wondering about the fate of Bandcamp.
Some are speculating that Bandcamp’s owner, Songtradr, has enough engineers to fill in the gaps and keep the service running. I would not be surprised if that were the case, and I don’t think this piece of news is necessarily an indicator that the service is shutting down, but nevertheless, it’s not a good thing.
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