Posted on // 0 Comments

Would You Like To Play A Game?

Play here.

This is Life, a simple computer game designed by John Conway in 1970. It has three rules:

– Birth rule: An empty, or “dead,” cell with precisely three “live” neighbors (full cells) becomes live.

-Death rule: A live cell with zero or one neighbors dies of isolation; a live cell with four or more neighbors dies of overcrowding.

– Survival rule: A live cell with two or three neighbors remains alive

It has fascinated people for years.

”I first encountered Life at the Exploratorium in San Francisco in 1978. I was hooked immediately by the thing that has always hooked me — watching complexity arise out of simplicity.

Life ought to be very predictable and boring; after all, there are just three simple rules that determine the position of some dots on a grid. That really doesn’t sound very interesting until you start tweaking those rules and watching what changes.

Life shows you two things. The first is sensitivity to initial conditions. A tiny change in the rules can produce a huge difference in the output, ranging from complete destruction (no dots) through stasis (a frozen pattern) to patterns that keep changing as they unfold.”

– Brian Eno

More here.

Posted on // 3 Comments

The Club Is Open

0:00 Cut-Out Witch
3:01 Wrong Turn On
4:52 I Am A Scientist
7:45 Rally Boys
9:33 Game of Pricks

I’m currently reading Closer You Are: The Story of Robert Pollard and Guided By Voices, so here’s a little GBV for you. I must say, His Bobness is looking rather healthy these days.

Posted on // 3 Comments

A Song About Wanting To Be Wherever You’re Not

Just now easing into Phoebe Bridgers’ new one, which came out in June. She’s the real deal. Sorry (not sorry) for all the lyrics lately.

Day off in Kyoto
Got bored at the temple
Looked around at the 7-Eleven
The band took the speed train
Went to the arcade
I wanted to go, but I didn’t
You called me from a payphone
They still got payphones
It cost a dollar a minute
To tell me you’re getting sober
And you wrote me a letter
But I don’t have to read it

I’m gonna kill you
If you don’t beat me to it
Dreaming through Tokyo skies
I wanted to see the world
Then I flew over the ocean
And I changed my mind

Sunset’s been a freak show
On the weekend, so
I’ve been driving out to the suburbs
To park at the Goodwill
And stare at the chem trails
With my little brother
He said you called on his birthday
You were off by like ten days
But you get a few points for tryin’
Remember getting the truck fixed
When you let us drive it
Twenty-five felt like flying

I don’t forgive you
But please don’t hold me to it
Born under Scorpio skies
I wanted to see the world
Through your eyes until it happened
Then I changed my mind

Guess I lied
I’m a liar
Who lies
‘Cause I’m a liar

Posted on // 1 Comment

Exploding Hearts Documentary In 2020?

I can only find an interview with the director and producer from about a year ago, but it looks like this is still happening.

For the unfamiliar bastards among us, these guys were just taking off back in 2003. From the Portland Mercury, dated July 24, 2003 …

Early last Sunday morning, around 6 am, Adam “Baby” Cox, 23; Jeremy “Kid Killer” Gage, 21; and Matthew “Matt Lock” Fitzgerald, 20, of local band the Exploding Hearts were killed in a car accident. After playing a show at San Francisco’s Bottom of the Hill, the band members were returning to Portland, along with their manager, Rachelle “Ratch Aronica” Ramos, 35.
Just outside of Eugene on Interstate 5, Fitzgerald, who was driving, apparently fell asleep at the wheel and lost control of the van as it veered onto the road’s gravel shoulder. The van flipped twice. Of the five passengers, Ramos was the only one wearing a seatbelt. Gage and Cox were both thrown from the vehicle and pronounced dead at the scene, and Fitzgerald died later in the hospital. Ramos and guitarist Terry Six, 21, both survived with minor injuries.