Deep in a post-ultramarathon malaise. It’s too cold for the road bike and too soon to start running again (cue my knees crackling in agreement), but I’ll plan some trails for the spring.

Listening

I listened to Unearth’s 201f1 Darkness in the Light roughly sixteen thousand times during training—I am burned out on deathcore and breakdowns.

This past (slow, sleepy) week I’ve been leaning deep into “sit and listen”-type albums: dolorous, wailing black metal and drone; lots of layered samples and instruments in long compositions. “Zwang,” off Tardigrada’s Vom Bruch bis zur Freiheit in particular has a subtle melodic arc that reveals more and more with repeated listens.

https://open.spotify.com/track/6sQAyCjKZyHSQMcyhgAIgD?si=4ca32e87772a48ff

“Cosmic” feels like a goofy adjective to apply to music, but every track on Arushi Jain’s Under the Lilac Sky has a feeling of vast distance & scale. Organ-esque thrumming ebbs and flows like a tide, underpinning twinkling analog synths, while vocal samples cast light and warmth across the deep, wide canvas she’s created.

https://open.spotify.com/track/5ASpGDcT6NMR5fxFFghgQy?si=c86608d259294ddc

…and a little sultry house via Loure to round things out.

https://open.spotify.com/track/4FIch2blnkhlCfnfSzrfxQ?si=e707c2826e9a4a59

Watching

No thoughts, just vibes

Cassie Kozyrkov has made AI/ML and all the associated data science intelligible to my brain—more than I could have hoped.

Reading

https://regenerating.substack.com/p/value-of-trash