HiWire

da fuq? Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit II is quite good on the PS2. It doesn't have that floaty steering of the other versions and it has more tracks and cars, too. Good ole' Uncle Cracker keeps it coming... 🏎️ Looks like those furries need cooling vests and proper ventilation for their, uh, extracurricular activities.

I don't think he's wrong. Linkbaity title and thumbnail, obviously, and it's a broad generalization - there is real indie music out there - we post it here all the time, but discussing it as a commercial phenomenon, yes, the music industry sold "indie sound" as a category for decades.

The death of indie rock:

Happy Birthday!

Great version! I've never heard of Sally Shapiro... turns out it is the name of a Swedish duo, Johan Agebjörn and a reclusive unnamed vocalist. They announced the end of their group in 2016, then secretly worked on more music. I'm going back to check on their synthpop italo-disco albums. Disco Romance

Sally Shapiro - Rent (Pet Shop Boys cover) From Italians Do It Better, Johnny Jewel of the Chromatics' label

Totally not a tank:

Anthony Garcia - Live in Zug, Switzerland: Seagraves Serenade:

Microsoft didn't get rich by writing checks. Yes, I hope Audeze is able to continue without interference. Sennheiser is doing fine right now under new ownership, right?

True Detective

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Cool It Down

The Kinks - (Wish I Could Fly Like) Superman Sniff 'n' the Tears - Driver's Seat Ronnie Augeri on Roland Juno 106 Gunship - Taste Like Venom Pat Benatar - Heartbreaker

And now for something newer - Non Stop Pop (100.7 FM from GTA V):

Television - Marquee Moon (1977)

Talk Talk - It's My Life (40th anniversary)

The Darkness – The Last of Our Kind (2015) Back story on the album cover art: https://www.thecurrent.org/feature/2015/10/17/golden-valley-baby-stars-on-the-cover-of-new-album-by-the-darkness

Happy Birthday!

Thanks, everyone!

Happy Birthday!

Ontario Knife Company is closing... Founded in 1889, Ontario Knife Company is closing its factory in Franklinville, New York and selling the brand to Blue Ridge Knives (a knife distributor). 56 employees are out of work and this was one of the last knife factories in the US. Of their designs, some of the most famous were the RAT (Randall's Adventure and Training) series of survival knives and the M7 / M9 bayonets for the US military. Sadly, Ontario was struggling financially in the past few years and they downgraded their steel from 1095 to 1075 in some of their mainstay designs to cut costs.

I just checked reviews of the Beatles Stereo box set from 2009... some reviewers were complaining about the stereo mixing, and there was the new Giles Martin mix in 2022. Maybe I'm glad I waited this long to get the Beatles albums. I can see from searching online that the other albums haven't received this special remastering treatment yet, either. It's a little crazy looking at the various way this album is packaged and priced in 2023. You can also get the Japanese SHM release from Universal Japan.

Dream Weaver

It's so gross when plastics and other materials degrade when you keep something for a long time. I still have an old, cheap APS camera with film rolls I need to finish. Have fun shooting! 📸

I think Pan Am desperately wanted to be a female Mad Men in the skies in 2011... with a bit of Catch Me If You Can. They threw a lot of money at the show, but one of the reviewers mentioned it might have done better with the streaming services than network TV, due to the potentially adult nature of the storylines. I haven't seen the whole season... wasn't sure if this episode was available to help promote Barbie or for something else.

Pan Am