CoinOpp!!1!

Beautiful Things:

[02.22.26]

• New interview with Robert Henke from Monolake here. (Cinemascope is one of my °˖✧favorite✧˖° electronic albums.) I'd love to use the same "Whisper" speech synthesis sound in some of my own music!
• In my efforts to listen to more diverse music, I've enjoyed this album from Azumah, Long Time Ago; I like a lot of Steve Reich's compositions, & I've heard he takes a lot of inspiration from traditional African polyrhythms, & I definitely hear similarities in compositional influence between his works & this Azumah record. Excellent, playful percussion start to finish, would reccomend.
• I got the My Neighbor Totoro Blu-Ray steelbook this past Friday, & I'm looking forward to watching it sometime soon. It makes for the third Ghibli steelbook in my collection, my favorite of which so far has been Kiki's Delivery Service <3
• Currently in the process of re-upholstering the ear cups on my Hifiman HE-4XX headphones with[*] a blue, floral fabric; will continue progress updates on that project.

[02.23.26]

• I actually very much enjoyed my math homework today; it was challenging, yet very rewarding, & In one of the word problem scenarios, the protagonist was named 'Fwam' which is a cool name I hadn't heard of before.[*]
• I had a small ramekin of Tillamook vanilla ice cream that absolutely hit the spot. I left it on my desk for a little while, & it melted a bit, giving it almost the consistency of soft serve ice cream, but with a much higher quality vanilla flavor than the powder mix often used to make soft serve. It was entirely immaculate.[*]

[02.27.26]

• Coffee shop employee wrote my name in real pretty lettering on my takeout container; it was very thoughtful & brightened my morning <3

[03.03.26]

• Started reading The Pleasures of Japanese Literature by Donald Keene (which I recieved as a present this past Christmas, but hadn't begun reading until late). I enjoyed the first chapter on Japanese Aesthetics, & it has given me some interesting insight as to the origins of a lot of design trends that I've seen lately; also some cool insight in the differing conventions of poems across cultures & languages. I'd be interested to read some of Keene's English translations of premodern Japanese works cited in The Pleasures of Japanese Literature.
• Today after school the weather was lovely, so I sat on the windowframe of the driver's side door holding on to the roof rails of my car & listened to Stay Down Two Lone Swordsmen on the stereo while enjoying the weather. It was a good temperature & smelled great!

[03.21.26]

• Just released two new tracks, 'New Car Stereo (Speaker Fuzz)' & 'now make it sound evil.mp3'. Click to listen!

[03.23.26]

• Today I finished reading The Pleasures of Japanese Literature; I found it quite compelling, & I'm definitely interested in reading Keene's translation of Kenkō's Essays in Idleness noted in the suggested reading for The Pleasures of Japanese Literature. I'm still learning to read books, so it feels good to have finished one! <3

[03.30.26]

• Yesterday I finished reading The Stranger by Albert Camus (thank you for lending it to me, Hayes!). There was spacious room for interpretation, which made discussion of it very engaging. Very insightful book, & a short read (only took about a week to finish at a mild reading pace). It's accessible in syntax, yet layered in its implications; would absolutely reccomend!

[04.06.26]

• Lately I've really enjoyed watching FL Studio tutorials for experimental digicore/ glitch pop that have some kind of eccentric alt twist; channels like bbeno & jjukai. esp. the ones with wild titles, always something like 'Rilakkuma neurodivergent cookup' or 'Domo-kun x Ecco2k x jaded x Xaviersobased type beat "cdspacedos"'. Useful production tips + cheesy analog horror elements.

[04.28.26] I've been busy lately, but happily so. Here are some notable things since I last posted:

• I've been reading for pleasure a fair bit more than usual. Finished Dune Frank Herbert & Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck. Just recently begun Nineteen Eighty-Four George Orwell. Not esp. niche pulls, but enjoyable reads with cultural significance.
• Getting a made-to-measure dress shirt from Sid Mashburn. It's difficult to find shirts in my size, so I'm very excited to have a well-fitting dress shirt in my wardrobe.
• Today I picked up my first custom ring from the jeweler, a sterling silver band for my right index finger with some rough, wrought-oxidized texture. It's very pretty <3
• Worked a little more on the headphones, which is going slow but smooth.
• I got a plant in my room: a little conifer sapling my Dad found growing in the front yard.

[05.11.26]

• This past Saturday I got to meet Sid Mashburn in person at an event at his Nashville store. He was very nice to talk to. They had delicious breakfast tacos & donuts. While I was there, I picked up the aforementioned dress shirt & I got a green floral bowtie to wear with it. I feel so handsome wearing it! („> ᴗ <„)
• I've worked a little more on the floral Hifiman headphones, & they are coming along nice. Excited to start wearing them again after I finish.
• I recently found the album A New Chapter of Dub Aswad, & I really like it. I've begun to enjoy more dub recently. Gives me lots of inspiration for my own music.

[06.08.26]

• Lazy summer day. As of late I've been doing alot of sitting in my room & watching YouTube, occasionally making beats in FL. Trying to pick up game dev again atm, b/c I think making a jank little something would be a fun summer project.
• I finished reading 1984 Today. I only had the last couple pages left. If I knew I was that close, I probably would have finished it yesterday. I'm thinking I'll try & keep at least one fiction/ fantasy book & one nonfiction book going at a time, so I can have something to read no matter how I'm feeling. Rn I'm reading Thinking, Fast and Slow Daniel Kahneman as my nonfiction, but maybe I'll switch that up, b/c I'm loosing interest a little. I plan on starting Dune Messiah Frank Herbert next, b/c I want to read it before Dune: Part Three comes out in December so I can watch in theaters.
• I keep meaning to find a tailor to fix my favorite chinos. I love how they look & I wear them all the time, but they're far too big at the waist. My wardrobe still has quite a few gaps. I've been thinking about getting/ making a better belt, probably black with silver-color hardware.
• Couple days ago I bought a fullscreen DVD of Spider-Man 2 (2004) for $0.95. I already have the widescreen edit on DVD (& its available to me on streaming) but I didn't have the fullscreen version until now. I hear some people say the fullscreen versions of Spider-Man & Spider-Man 2 are really good, b/c the way they did the crop shows more vertical information than the widescreen edits. I'll have to find the first movie in fullscreen too!
• Got Cowboy Bebop the complete series on Blu-Ray recently, & I'm enjoying revisiting the series. Maybe one of my top favorite TV shows (but I don't watch much traditional television at all, tbh).

[06.12.26]

• Today I finished my first watchthrough of Serial Experiments Lain (by way of the English dub uploaded to Internet Archive here). Would recommend (its only 13 episodes, pretty quick watch). It was very interesting, & seemed to have a fair bit of overlap between its creators & people who worked on Cowboy Bebop. I'll give it some time to sit & think about it, maybe I'll post some of my thoughts on it later. I'll also make a note to look more into the Serial Experiments Lain game/ interactive program. Physical copies for PS1 are mad expensive, but I heard about this website where you can play an English translation of it.

[06.30.26] Here are some neat albums I've listened to in the past few weeks:

• Tread Ross From Friends : Everything from the warbling synths of Boards of Canada, vocal chops of Burial, & raw soul chops of Madlib. Very impressive range demonstrated in this project, definitely one to revisit. Favorite tracks "Brand New Start" "Spatter/Splatter".
• Theft World Lip Critic : Fun album, sounds a bit like how I'd imagine a Mandy, Indiana X Geordie Greep collab album to sound. Favorite tracks "Jackpot" & "Legs In A Snare".
• Puberty 2 Mitski : I think this album is a great example of how the mix can change up how an entire album feels. The stereo placement of all the instrumentation makes it so much more potent than it might otherwise be. Gold star for all my indie artists that can both write good songs & mix ☆ Favorite tracks "Fireworks" & "Crack Baby".
• E2-E4 (Mixed Tracks) Manuel Göttsching : Lately I've been looking for some more pre-1990s electronic albums, & this one did not disappoint. Sometimes 80s electronic is a little dry & trashy, but this project's barely aged a day (unsuprisingly, this coincides with it being a German release). The continuous, unending mix gives it a sense of scope reminiscent of Music for 18 Musicans, & the guitar coming in about halfway through makes for a charming progression. It's an album very fit for vinyl, with its clean grid artwork, freeflowing jam-session arrangement, & mellow attitude that invite you drop the needle & hang out for a little while, & maybe flip to side B when you feel like it. No real standout favorites, works better as a whole.
• GIRL I LOVE YOU Guinneissik : Zoo wee mama, this one's a lot. Bitcrushed hardcore techno. I found it most reminiscent of You Like Music death's dynamic shroud & Galen Tipton & Soul Kiss - EP Frost Children & HARU NEMURI. A lot to unpack but I find it very favorable, definitely one to revisit. Favorite tracks "Under the Four Letter Word" & "Lampposting (Sada Spouse Mix)".

[07.03.26]

• Lately I've been captivated by the works of clothing designer John Alexander Skelton. He makes very interesting Charles Dickens-type English heritage clothing, & I like a number of the looks I've seen from his more recent lookbooks (his spring '27 collection was just recently unveiled). They seem to be very small-batch, & it's pretty difficult to find any information on pricing or availability unless you're a serious customer. I haven't found a single price for a new John Alexander Skelton garment, & they are seemingly available only through physical retail at one of the locations noted on the website stocklist or direct contact through e-mail (his offical website is literally just the stocklist & his e-mail). A particular grailed for me would be this brick-red waxed cotton wainwright coat. Obvisously, I see his house style as pairing quite well with European heritage brands like Guidi & Inis Meáin, but I think it may also integrate very well with more traditional menswear brands like Filson, RRL, Buck Mason (it would come down to each individual piece, as it always does, but as long as it matches that certain sort of quality, rugged sensibility. Maybe JAS outerwear with cordouroy trousers, slub linen top, woolen neckwear? Anything that will hold texture & patina).

[07.18.26]

• Lately I've finished reading both A Short History of Nearly Everything, 2.0 Bill Bryson & Quiet Susan Cain. Both were lovely reads, the former a nostalgic & reassuring overview of history & the sciences, & the latter a helpful guide to the science & research of interpersonal relations, child development, & cultural perception of differing personality types. I found both reassuring & compassionate works that I would highly reccomend.
• I found a Windows CD-ROM for an interactive point-&-click tour of Pipe Spring National Monument for a 30% off discount in a Zion National Park gift shop this past trip to Utah. The load times for the FMV & scene-changes were really long, but that was solved by ripping the files from the disc & running directly from my hard drive (which was a breeze to do; best I can tell, it had no DRM protection). It was precisely the kind of charming archaic edutainment I had hoped it would be. If you're interested in trying for yourself, I put the ISO file & artwork/packaging scans on Internet Archive, all available for download here. (Additionally, I uploaded high-quality scans of a petroglyph guide booklet that I also got while in Utah.)
• I had been looking at a particular piece from the aforementioned Inis Meáin Knitting Company for a while, but the price was a bit high for my budget, so I kept putting it aside. Yesterday I checked the listing for it, & it had been marked down by 40%, & it was still available in the size & color I wanted!◝(ᵔᗜᵔ)◜I stacked a coupon code for an additional 10% off & ordered it for a good markdown. Geeked for it to arrive. It's a longsleeve black knit linen tunic, with gorgeous rolled hems at the bottom/cuffs/neckline. I plan on usig it as a light layering piece for the fall/winter season; it will do a good job of adding some minimalist vim & rugged nautical elegance to my existing wardrobe.
• I made homemade ice cream for this past week for the first time. I did basil flavor, according to the recipe by Gaz Oakley linked here. It turned out pretty well, very strong basil flavor, & I will definitely have to try making more flavors in the future!

[07.25.26]

• My Inis Meáin tunic arrived in the mail a few days ago! Still getting used to the fit, it has shorter sleeves & larger neckline than most longsleeve shirts I've worn, & the drape of knit linen is not something I'm very experienced with. In my tests so far, it doesn't work particularly well as a layering piece over other shirts, my guess because it's a bit lightweight to function as a typical piece of outerwear/ sweater. However, the looser knit & lighter weight will probably make it a suprisingly breatheable piece for spring/summer. "Go maire tú go gcaithe tú é."

[09.04.26]

• Just completed my first playthrough of Paradise Chateau, the browser game Lucy Bedroque released today for his C album rollout. Fun little indie point-&-click, reminds me of the Gameboy Color game Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare, & the House (1977) references are a very welcome direction for the story, continuing the trend from the "SPEED DEMON" video (which I also very much like). The blend of gothic Americana & Japanese horror is such a fun combination. Pretty lace/ pearls/ old rural southern architecture/ vampire slayer/ westernwear influences look great together. That leather vest over button-up w/ silver jewelry from the video looks excellent. All this will likely make for future style inspiration in my own wardrobe & designs. Fun little experience, took me js shy of two hours to complete on my first try. Excited for another full project from Lucy after the enjoyable Unmusique <3

[09.11.26]

• I'm running out of pages in my journal; I'll have to get another one soon. I've been thinking about trying to make my own, but not I doubt I'll go through with that.
• Reading Everything is Tuberculosis John Green. Quite good, as expected. Also started reading Stranger In a Strange Land Robert A. Heinlein, going well so far. More to follow.
• I may have found the most heinous DJ set to date. Listening to GorillaT Live at Bass Canyon 2025 (DJ Mix) at the time of writing. Only time will tell if I will reflect on this moment as a spiritual experience. This feels like divine inspiration. It has been a while since my jaw has dropped uncontrollably for four consecutive tracks. Argueably the most cacophonous, Dionysian, horseshoe theory bruger Dubstep I've heard from a full-length set, & from a pull so niche I can't find it on rym, no less. Up there with the greats like Skrillex (Worth noting the mix of "Rumble" by Skrillex/Flowdan/Fred again.. is substantially less pleasureable than the original, on first impression. Aside from that, I am chuffed.) The lines for the DJ Drops are very awkward, paired with sickening Dubstep edits of reputable tracks. Would recommend.

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CoinOpp: Private Rager!

edit [02.09.26] : alongside the scope of this project increasing,[*] so has it's development time:

• the setlist is largely fixed, but subject to minor revision
• final take of the set has not yet been recorded
• progress of the surrounding media/ artwork is still in it's infancy, & by extension, the production of physical copies
• a total of six test prints of the 5th & 6th recordings of the set have been made, each having issues with displaying CD text/ track information

edit [02.17.26] : The issues mentioned on my post from Feb. 9th are still unresolved & I haven't worked on it much in the past few weeks; Icl I've largely lost steam for finishing the DJ set, but I will do my best to finish it & put it out <3

edit [02.22.26] : Today I'm working on the visual material for the DJ Set (artwork/ cover), primarily making an animated gif version of the cover art pictured ↑above↑. Oftentimes animated versions of album covers can be really corny, but I think in this case, where the goal is to be trashy old web tchotchke, it will work quite well. Still no clue how to burn track metadata to CD :/

edit [03.23.26] : Just completed the first sucessful burn of CoinOpp: Private Rager! with functional track information (special thanks to Abigail!). Track info was the primary issue with furthering the release, so I anticipate that I'll have some form of release complete by the end of April. Excited to resume this project! <3