DS-8 Drumstream
Another new groovebox for “obsolete” handheld gaming hardware. This time for the PS Vita. Mixes gamepad and touch screen controls.
similarselection
a perpetual collection of interesting bits from around the web
Latest posts
How AI Could Make People More Anxious
Reinforcement of avoidant coping mechanisms and reassurance seeking feels good in the moment. Long term it’s bad for you. It reduces your resiliency to future anxious thoughts. AI is programmed to give you what you want. It has no concern for, or even awareness of, what you need.
149: Environment Transformer
“Where are we, given the internet? And what are we to do, given the internet?”
"Save for Later"
has no later.
Consumerism Eats Everything I Try to Do
Thoughtful, self reflective examination of Consumerism from Jeremy Blake. Includes actionable recommendations and a further reading list.
clipart.studio — Magazine Collage Maker
In browser collage maker. Uses PDF magazines from the Internet Archive and images from Wikimedia Commons as source material.
Appearing Productive in the Workplace
AI and output-competence decoupling.
Sisters With Transistors (2021)
Documentary looking at pioneering women in electronic music. Currently streaming free on Kanopy and Hoopla.
Modulations (1998)
Seminal electronic music documentary from the late nineties. Sadly, it doesn’t include any female artists from the era. Currently streaming free on YouTube.
Tuhat
A platform for long form writing. Minimum 1000 words to publish a post. No algorithms.
Tech Without Bros
“Decoupling being anti-corporation from anti-technology is really important”
What Makes an Urban Walk High Quality?
It’s useful and interesting, while feeling safe and comfortable.
Moondrop Old Fashioned On-ear Headphone
Popular throwback headphones with a thin metal band and sponge ear pads. There’s a whole secondary market for colored replacement ear pads.
Music Hardware is a Fashion Accessory
A look at the past, present, and future of music as accessory.
25 Years of iPod Brain
“Maybe this is the essential blessing of the iPod: the software gives you the potential for an unlimited musical library, but the hardware’s limits still lock you into a committed relationship with the songs you choose.”
QuadTrack
A fully featured modern groovebox for the Commodore Amiga (also available for Mac and Windows).
FMS From Lo-bit Club
A new FM groovebox with a simple fast UI. Runs on original GameBoy Advance hardware or under emulation.
Vermona drumDING
Interesting architecture for a drum machine: Single synth voice that is repeatedly resampled to build up kits.
Emotional Regulation is a Dying Art
“The real self is the part of you who survives the first reaction; the part that can be angry and still be kind, scared and still steady.”
Boots on the Ground
Beautiful, chilling collaboration between Massive Attack, Tom Waits, and photographer thefinaleye.
The "Passive Income" Trap Ate a Generation
Ebooks, drop shipping, courses, and affiliate link listicle sites are everywhere. None of it is good - much less thoughtful. Caring isn’t passive. It requires time and effort.
Amplification, Acceleration, Aggravation
How social media rips us apart.
Making a Glitchy Trailer for a Weird Mecha Game
Using stop motion, a 90s video camera, and digital effects.
nintendotapes.info
I made a little website for exploring the game catalog for the 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System.
Consciousness is a Mystery - The Gray Area
A conversation with Michael Pollan about what we do and don’t know about consciousness and why it continues to be one of the great miracles of nature.
Super Beat Maker RPG
Dungeons & Dragons style mechanics applied to the process of music production.
The Shock of the Old
Artistic vision has taken a backseat to franchises and reboots. It’s wearing thin for a growing audience.
K7 Museum (Score Vid)
Squarepusher enters his baroque period.
The Rise of the Techno-Pastoral
A critical look at “tech detoxes” and their similarity to the conservative ideal of the pastoral.
Rabbit Trap (2025)
A modern faerie tale, exploration of sound, and psychological folk horror film.
Why We Bleep Podcast — Episode 057
Mylar Melodies sits down with Tim Exile and Tom Whitwell to talk about music technology. During their conversation they continually return to AI. It’s nice to hear three smart, thoughtful, creative, and self-employed folks work through practical pros and cons.
A Web Revival
Personal websites are a fun way to spend your time online.
The Case for Blogging in the Ruins
Far from being a relic, the blog is a structurally sound format for thinking and publishing.
MapToPoster
Python script that uses OpenStreetMap data to create minimalist customizable city map posters for any city in the world.
Pikimov
Patreon supported online motion design/video editor. Works locally. No source files are uploaded.
Color Palette Pro
I’m not a big skeuomorphic guy, but I LOVE the idea of a generative color picker designed to look like a hardware synth.
The Case for Solarpunk
Imagining multiple facets of a non-dystopian future.
Reimagining Faith and Progressivism
Liz Bucar: “But maybe—and I’m genuinely asking—maybe we need to take seriously what religions have always understood: Imagination isn’t frivolous. Hope requires training. Trust needs practice. The capacity to envision and organize toward futures you cannot yet see is a skill, not a personality quirk some people are born with.”
Digable Planets
Live from the front porch.
Study Finds Placebo Beats LSD for Depression
“When people know they’re taking a mythologized substance with decades of counterculture mystique, outcomes improve dramatically. Strip away that knowledge through rigorous blinding, and the magic fades.” / A good deal of mental health is literally a mind game.
TikTok Feminism is Not Your Friend
Broey Deschanel on the transformation of feminism into a commodified individual project.
Human Error Club
“[This short] film by director Jackie Radinsky, is as intimate and explosive as the album it accompanies. The film takes us on a sweeping musical journey through Los Angeles, from producer Kenny Segal’s home studio, to an urban farm where melody and crops are cultivated side by side. Genre-less in both form and style, the budding trio’s transcendent music shines as brightly as the cosmos.”
Consumer Aesthetics Research Institute
“CARI defines a consumer aesthetic as a visual movement unified by overarching attitudes and themes that survived long enough or became popular enough to be appropriated by capital.”
On Aesthetic Morality
Sam Valenti IV argues against obsessing over inputs in favor of “ use[ing] our disdain to foster more critique and a keen desire for greatness.”
Science and "Brain Rot"
Deep dive into the limited research on short form content and the cognitive decline that occurs with a loss of viewer agency.
The Copy Paste World
Web, app, and most other design increasingly looks the same.
Car Brain Is a Scourge on Society
People’s behavior, values, and morals change when they are behind the wheel of a car.
Looking Back at Markdown
A story of small scale, non-radical, user-centered innovation that’s had a massive impact on the internet at large.
2025: The Year of Technoligarchy
Molly White: “The industry that promised it would free us from captured institutions has captured them itself. The anti-establishment rebels are now the establishment, their survival dependent on the very centralized power structures they once claimed to make obsolete.”
Mutual Aid 101
“An organizing toolkit and ongoing learning series to introduce mutual aid organizing—from starting a group to sustaining it for the long haul.”