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They’ve Gotten Cheaper

EV’s, that is.  Because not many people want one anymore.  But I did after driving this one.  You see, Renfield the Younger is beginning to learn to drive this summer.  The Renfield fleet consisted of two manuals and one automatic.  So we needed another automatic.  Mrs. Renfield led the vehicle search with my input, as she would likely be the main driver.  We looked at ICE cars in a designated price range; mostly hybrids due to her current vehicle (the main family car) being a thirsty guzzler.  The best vehicles were very good and reliable, but decidedly ho-hum and overpriced: everyone wants a hybrid right now.  Wait times are very common, and you don’t get much negotiation leverage when the car isn’t on the lot with the dealer eager to see it drive out.  So one day Mrs. Renfield checked out a Mustang Mach E, mostly because she thought it looked cool. She really liked it.  I wasn’t in favor at first, but when I drove it I was mightily impressed. My main concern was depreciation, but the price was good.

ICE manuals are still my four-wheeled drugs of choice, but I’ve never driven an ICE automatic that I enjoy as much as this EV.  Precise steering, agile handling, slightly bumpy ride like a sports car, but not jarring.  Plenty of power and great acceleration.  Smooth power delivery.  Was this purchase an error?  Ask me in a year or two.  Some kinks in the earlier generation seem to have been ironed out.  We shall see.

I swear I’m not trying to turn this blog into “look what I just bought” Facebook nonsense.  I just posted about it because we’ve discussed EV’s here before.  I’m still of the opinion that the attempted EV transition via government fiat was a lousy idea driven by politics, not reality.  The current infrastructure cannot support mass adoption.  Almost everyone owning one of these will also need an ICE car.  And I have no idea how a non-homeowner could get by with one due to charging access, or lack thereof.

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I Love Shit Like This

I’ve been a David Shrigley fan for a while. In fact, I’m drinking coffee out of this as I type. Anyway, a few years ago he embarked on a new project that I found both hilarious and brilliant.

In 2017, a charity bookshop in Swansea, UK made headline news as a result of exhibiting several hundred copies of Dan Brown’s 2003 novel ‘The Da Vinci Code’ in its window with a sign requesting that no more copies of the book be donated as they had more than they could sell.

‘Pulped Fiction’ is a project by visual artist David Shrigley, who has produced a limited run of 1,250 copies of George Orwell’s dystopian novel ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’ made entirely from the pulped remains of unwanted copies of ‘The Da Vinci Code’.

In 2023, Pulped Fiction was launched at the very charity shop in Swansea that started it all. 250 copies were available to buy at an exclusive price. After selling out within the first hour, and making headline news, the remaining copies are now available to buy.

Throughout the journey David and his studio team were documented by filmmaker Jay Bartlett. Telling the story of how the project came to be and the numerous hurdles faced along the way, the documentary can now be seen online for the first time here.

And if you’re interested in picking up one of the few copies left, it’ll set you back £1095. Cheap!

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Hey Now!

Somehow, I missed this upon release last October, but it’s available to rent on Amazon Prime.

Based on the novel written by Glen Matlock, I WAS A TEENAGE SEX PISTOL follows Glen Matlock’s journey as a founding member of the influential punk band the Sex Pistols. Having co-written ten of twelve songs on their only studio album, NEVER MIND THE BOLLOCKS, Matlock’s contribution was essential to the band’s success. Experience the Pistols’ rise to global infamy with an honest, insightful account of a group of malcontents, determined to change the music business and to attack hypocrisy and stale conventions in society at large.

I know what I’m doing tonight!

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I Said Goddamn

Phenomenal Kinks cover from 15 (!) years ago, bonus points for Andy Stack’s double duty on drums and keys. I think Wye Oak is still around but they haven’t released a studio album since 2018. Anyway, YouTube reminded me I really like this and now I’m telling you bastards. (Yes, I’ve probably posted this before.)

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Labels Down, Frank

From Ars Technica …

The robotics startup Figure AI has been livestreaming humanoid robots placing thousands of packages onto a conveyor belt for nearly a week—a spectacle that included a robot competing against a human intern at one point.

The promotional robot demo has become a viral sensation among tech enthusiasts, spurring YouTube commenters to name the robots and the company to rapidly roll out related robot merchandise in response. Users on X have described the livestream in glowing terms, such as “the greatest product demo since Steve Jobs’ ‘one more thing.’” But despite such sentiments, it’s worth bearing in mind that even the most impressive robot demos represent narrow windows for understanding real-world robot capabilities.

Truly, we are living in the future. Oh! And don’t forget to pick up some merch!

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Yes, I Ordered One

I’m usually not a fan of composer t-shirts, but I had to make an exception here: the fact that this image looks more like Clark Kent than Shostakovich makes some kind of demented sense to me.  Hardly matters anyway.  Only  0.000002% of Americans will know who it’s supposed to be.

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Another Beatles Book?

You’d think the Beatles and Dylan had been examined from every possible angle, but nope.  Here’s a chronological look at their careers in parallel, with plenty of commentary on their influence on each other, friendship, rivalry, etc. I’m about three fourths in, and I’ve enjoyed it.  Good mixture of things I know, things I’d known and forgotten, and things I’d never known.  It’s always interesting and moves along.  A few of the analogies seem a bit forced, but of course no two people will agree on everything.

As I’m biased towards music over lyrics, I might have preferred a book on the Beatles and Brian Wilson, but no doubt they had fewer interactions.

One minor peeve.  Like just about every other Beatles book, the quote about “Aeolian cadences” and Mahler’s Song of the Earth rears its ugly head like it’s evidence of the Beatles’ artistic viability.  I don’t get why these journalists who are obviously good at research never bother to examine that quote.  “Aeolian cadence “ has about as much meaning as “C major time signature” or “F minor drumstick.”  Or “the explosion left a 15 mph deep crater. “ It makes no sense.  And the song in question, “Not a Second Time,” absolutely does not end with the same chords or chord pattern as Song of the Earth.  There’s no room for debate on the matter, it’s factually wrong.

I can’t believe that quote is still getting recycled.  Just put it in the trash.