sindrealmost

AI and art, there is a light-hearted subject for a blog post, right? No pitfalls or landmines as I forge ahead on this subject at all. So let’s dive right in, AI isn’t bad, using AI doesn’t make you a bad person. Are there contentious issues with AI, of course. Any emerging technology has issues. AI scraping for instance, what data is used for training the AI models. Big issue, and one that I…

There are days when art lands so perfectly it reorganises my head. A book grabs me, a song locks in, a photograph holds me, or a game captures me, and suddenly my brain runs like the Shinkansen. Precise, streamlined, everything on time. I speed away at 300km/h while the mental clutter and noise are still standing at the station debating which platform is the right one, and if it wouldn’t be best…

A story in multiple parts. How many? I don’t know. I’ve decided that while I’ll proof and polish, I won’t trim or streamline this post. I may shuffle things around to give it a vague sense of cohesion, though that’s hardly guaranteed. So you’re along for the ride. The prelude I got a new phone. I wasn’t supposed to. I had, in fact, decided not to. But a convenient excuse presented itself, and I…

It all began, as many disasters do, with something that seemed like a good idea at the time. In this case, the Nomos Ahoi Siren White. Lovely thing. Crisp, clean, perfectly restrained. The sort of watch that says, “I drink my espresso standing up and have very strong feelings about Helvetica.” I convinced myself I admired it. Possibly even loved it. But deep down, I knew—I was trying to love the…

A highly sensible, not-at-all emotionally biased argument for physical media Not entirely sure what a DAC is, or why I’m ranting about transports? [Click here for a glossary.] It won’t make you an audiophile, but it’ll help you follow along without resorting to Google every paragraph. Glossary for the Audiophile-Curious DAC (Digital-to-Analog Converter):A device that turns digital audio signals…

There’s a strange satisfaction in uncovering old gear. Especially the kind you didn’t realize you still had, tucked away somewhere between optimism and forgetfulness. Recently, I came across a Denon DCD-2560. Not something I bought myself. It was more of a family heirloom, in the loosest and most electrically grounded sense of the word. It had been sitting in quiet retirement, boxed away like a…