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Bruce
@ohchristwhatnow@4bear.com
mastodon 4.7.2[self-aggrandizing text goes here]
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21 Posts
Joined July 03, 2023
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@octothorpe@mastodon.online IIRC the ephemera was included in the original editions but was dropped soon after because costs.
“Trump’s ’Board of Peace’ explores stablecoin for Gaza”
Sacred feces, how is it even possible to cram so much high-intensity fuckery into a single headline? The mind boggles!
The only new "music" I've made for the past year is also the most difficult listening I've ever created. No melodies, lyrics, rhythms, harmonies, just.. sound.
Part of me wants to explain it all, but part of me thinks any art which requires explanation has already failed.
Boosted by @octothorpe@mastodon.online
I don’t want millions of followers, or likes, or parasocial relationships, or sponsorship deals, or to be a darling of the algorithm… and I don’t care to be on the other side of those things either.
What I seek is the basic human need for a sense of connection, and it’s clear that the current state of the online world is built around the promise of providing that… but in reality it provides the exact opposite, because it’s much easier to manipulate and profit from people when they’re unhappy.
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@octothorpe@mastodon.online LLMs: autocomplete on steroids. For when you just don’t care if anyone ever reads it.
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As I have no chance of commercial success, I never have to accommodate commercial interests in anything I do. I can make music which disregards the demands of the market, something which becomes difficult for any artist who does achieve “success”. Such “success” immediately leads to demands from both the industry and much of the audience to repeat the exact same thing, but somehow make it new — a task which is usually impossible. But it used to be necessary just to keep going. It’s not anymore.
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On one hand, I will never be anywhere near the creative brilliance of Vangelis. But on the other hand, I can do whatever I want within my much lesser capabilities.
While the ongoing devaluation of music means it gets increasingly difficult to earn a living from it, the ever-decreasing costs to produce it open up so many more creative possibilities. What I do now, using little more than a home computer, cost a lot more to do 30 years ago, and would’ve been enormously expensive 40 years ago.
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https://thebrunorepublic.bandcamp.com/album/diminishing
So this is one of the things I've been working on for the past five years. It's a bit dark. Musically, it's a mix of styles ranging from ambient to EDM tracks.
The cover image is based on one of the most incredible sights I've ever seen: an airplane view of setting sun which has passed beneath the clouds. The effect of being on the opposite side of the sky was an eerie distant blue horizon which I will never forget.
The world order is collapsing, we’re in a deep freeze and my city is paralyzed by heavy snowfall, and I’ve been relentlessly earwormed with Technotronic’s “Pump Up The Jam” all day. Somehow that last one feels worst of all.
One shouldn’t be surprised by things like terrible fan-art, misguided rants, tacky GIFs, and shitty AI animation when joining an online community for any prominent artist that has a young fan base.
But a semi-obscure instrumental group that hit their commercial and cultural peak 50 years ago? Yeah, I was surprised. Should I have not been?
In the end, it was not the decreasing battery life or the annoying scratch on the screen which pushed me to finally move on from my 4 year old phone. It was that a routine system update warned me there wasn’t enough space and some apps would need to be offloaded to install the update.
This is where I really feel out of step, because I can easily recall a time when 128 GB was an incomprehensibly large amount, a “you’d never use that much in your whole life” amount.
But here we are.
I don’t know if it’s a sign of changing times or a big nothing, but my local audio/video shop’s promotional emails now lists prices for McIntosh gear. That’s something I’ve never seen before, not even shown in-store. It’s been that way ever since I can remember.
It’s a textbook example of “if you need to ask how much they cost, they’re clearly not for you”. What I wonder is if making the prices clear makes them less exclusive, or even more so.
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@SidFudd@4bear.com this is the song that made me a fan. I practically ran out and bought the album when I first heard it. I was surprised it didn’t do better; I think it’s a masterpiece.
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@octothorpe@mastodon.online one of my favourite Behind The Bastards episodes is titled “Dr Phil is even worse than you think and you probably already think he sucks”
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@octothorpe@mastodon.online nothing left to buy; we can only subscribe now.
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@octothorpe@mastodon.online I got the vaccine last year. A friend of mine came down with shingles a few years ago and yeah, it’s nasty. Hope you’re all better soon.
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@octothorpe@mastodon.online “There are antivirals you can take but you need to get them super early or they won’t work.
Either way it’s going to SUCK.”