https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v45/n24/erin-maglaque/case-endings-and-calamity

Photographer Mark Ruwedel reveals the unexpected lives of the Los Angeles River

Stream Count

https://magazine.frontier.is/p/stream-count

Exploring the new landscape for online conversations

Anti–Social Media Social Media Club

https://magazine.frontier.is/p/anti-social-media-social-media-club

Listen now (27 mins) | Cofounders Andrew Khedoori and Mark Gowing on their egalitarian ethos, emotional sustainability, and the value of curatorial vision in an algorithmic world

Longform Editions on running a record label like an art gallery

https://magazine.frontier.is/p/longform-editions

Our sense of time is ever-changing. Shouldn’t our calendars be, too?

Breaking the Grid

https://magazine.frontier.is/p/breaking-the-grid

Cyberattacks on library systems are an equity issue

Out of Circulation

https://magazine.frontier.is/p/out-of-circulation

Explore DesignStudio's collaboration with Eurostar toi reshape their brand identity post-merger with Thalys.

Eurostar: Reshaping the Brand's Identity

Pictures of three boldly patterned sweatshirts and sweatpants, alongside a writeup describing the fashion line and the women who make it

On creative autonomy, acknowledging labor and laborers, and building relationships that will last decades.

The Frontier Interview—Terremoto

https://magazine.frontier.is/the-frontier-interview-terremoto/

The experimental harp, doom-organ, and power-electronics music I loved

My Favorite Music of 2022

https://www.sholis.com/blog/my-favorite-music-of-2022

https://harpers.org/archive/2023/10/learning-to-wait/

A new book reminds designers that all we have is each other and a world of possibilities

Are You Experienced?

https://magazine.frontier.is/p/are-you-experienced

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v45/n21/john-lanchester/he-said-they-said

Buy the album:  https://instant-classic.com https://instantclassic.bandcamp.com https://raphaelroginski.bandcamp.com  "Talán" is Raphael Rogiński’s solo album that comes out on September 7th 2023 via Instant Classic label. Rogiński – Polish guitarist, composer and musicologist, received recognition not only as a member of the Shofar trio where he performs with saxophonist Mikołaj Trzaska and percussionist Macio Moretti but also thanks to his astounding takes on John Coltrane’s music released in 2015 "Plays John Coltrane And Langston Hughes African Mystic Music".  "Talán" is a very old (probably Scythian) word that can be translated as "maybe" and that’s where my musical approach comes from – I take something in order to lose something else, Rogiński explains. It’s a constant process of achieving goals by getting rid of others and I’m fixated on this idea. It’s also a meditation upon a process, a calm observation, he adds.  "Talán" is also a result of Rogiński’s fascination with the Black Sea. All of the tracks are somehow connected to it and some were composed in Odessa – a city often thought of as a gateway to Asia. This is where my some of my ancestors arrived to Europe, says Raphael. When working on these tunes I came to know the Black Sea both physically and spiritually. What’s interesting, it’s been once called Inhospitable Sea only to later turn into Hospitable Sea. A myth was tamed and when the mystery disappeared and different civilizations met, a new myth came into life.   You may notice an unorthodox sound of this album and please be aware that this is intended. It came straight from my heart. I wanted this music to sound as if played right next to the listener and that’s why you may notice strange background noises recorded when I was playing – explains Raphael.   The album was composed over a couple of years and took many attempts at the recording. My patience is usually very limited so this has been a strange experience for me. But traveling the region of the Black Sea and discovering its nature within myself required time. Our world is full of wonders and awes and traveling (both physically as well as emotionally) remains one of the most important aspects of living, Rogiński admits.   Recorded at Teatr Pinokio and W Dobrym Tonie Studio by Paweł Maciak, Jacek Trzeszczyński. Mastered by Werner Dafeldecker. Graphic design by Agnieszka Zwara.

Raphael Rogiński - "Electron" (taken from the album "Talàn")

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qz3l2VsjiJs

https://www.are.na/brian-sholis/lists-2024-my-favorite-music

Loraine James standing at a folding table with drum pads and other electronic-music equipment on a low stage in a dark bar. She is bathed in pinkish-purplish light.

https://lorainejames.bandcamp.com/album/gentle-confrontation

Conference about the past, present, and future of building our own network infrastructures.

Our Networks

On the distressing implications of Richard Florida’s “meta cities”

The Fault in Our Stars

https://magazine.frontier.is/p/the-fault-in-our-stars

Listen now (27 mins) | On how technology is reshaping urban public spaces

Drew Austin

https://magazine.frontier.is/p/drew-austin#details

⬜ Time-less Japanese notebooks

Text shot that reads: "To ask after the utility of works of art is not, as is generally thought, a legitimate form of philosophical skepticism; it is a form of cultural blackmail, and should probably be refused outright. In a healthy culture, the intrinsic value of works of art would be so obvious that it would never occur to anyone to need to justify their existence in terms of their usefulness. Ours, it goes without saying, is not a healthy culture"

https://libertiesjournal.com/articles/reading-and-time/

Photograph of a tree whose branches have divided around some power lines so that it looks like two trees emerging from one trunk

Listen to 'Hide (CS01 Version)' here:  https://dorianconcept.fanlink.to/Hide-CS01-Version  Formerly known as "Fooling around on Yamaha CS01".  Video by Oliver Johnson.  Music written/produced by Dorian Concept.  Mastered by Paul Movahedi.   ℗ 2023 Play Instinct  ----------------------------------------------------------------  Follow Dorian Concept here:   Spotify: https://found.ee/dorian-sp Apple Music: https://found.ee/dorian-am YouTube: https://found.ee/dorian-yt Bandcamp: https://found.ee/dorian-bc Soundcloud: https://found.ee/dorian-sc Instagram: https://found.ee/dorian-ig TikTok: https://found.ee/dorian-tt Twitter: https://found.ee/dorian-tw  #DorianConcept

Dorian Concept - 'Hide (CS01 Version)' (Official Video)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlFolRo1WiE

https://www.allcapstype.com/typefaces/visual

Simple and beautiful inventory management for artists and collectors.

Valise · Artwork inventory made easy

https://magazine.frontier.is/p/human-after-all

Fifty articles, videos, buildings, apps, podcasts, and more, curated for your enjoyment

A Frontier Miscellany

https://magazine.frontier.is/p/a-frontier-miscellany

Photograph of my hand holding up a pan of flourless zucchini brownies. Half of the batch is covered in frosting and sprinkles.

On RSS, NPR’s plain-text site, and Unwound

The [Tuesday Evening] Media Diet with Brian Sholis

https://whyisthisinteresting.substack.com/p/the-tuesday-evening-media-diet-with

https://4columns.org/kabat-jennifer/seeds-of-knowledge

https://magazine.frontier.is/p/sari-azout

Remind. Revisit. Rest. Simple bookmarks with a rhythm.

CycleMarks

https://djr.com/notes/daily-special-font-of-the-month

https://everythingchanges.us/blog/writers-and-talkers-and-leaders/

Long-term planning gives architects an opportunity to rethink ownership models

Succession or Finale?

https://magazine.frontier.is/succession-or-finale/

https://www.gallery44.org/exhibitions/you-start-dying-the-day-youre-born-excerpt

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/12/11/what-we-learn-from-the-lives-of-critics

The AI researcher on identity, sexuality, language, and paying close attention to the data

The Frontier Interview: Blaise Agüera y Arcas, “Who Are We Now?”

https://magazine.frontier.is/the-frontier-interview-blaise-aguera-y-arcas-who-are-we-now/

https://www.newyorker.com/science/annals-of-artificial-intelligence/how-will-ai-learn-next

Love that the slow week lets me catch up on essays like this review of a new biography of Aldus Manutius, arguably the first true publisher: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v45/n24/erin-maglaque/case-endings-and-calamity

Passed my online citizenship test. One step closer to being able to vote in Canada, where I’ve lived for seven years. 🎄🍁

Back to one of my first loves, photography: interviewed LA-based photographer Mark Ruwedel about the first in his ambitious four-volume photobook series about Los Angeles. 

https://magazine.frontier.is/p/stream-count

This week’s newsletter: find a new, better-for-you social media network (includes this place!!) and a fantastic tech-journalism site, then download an app that only lets you scroll them by walking: https://magazine.frontier.is/p/anti-social-media-social-media-club

I’ve spent 100+ hours listening to Longform Editions releases, which made my chat with the co-founders so gratifying. On their egalitarian ethos, emotional sustainability, & the value of curatorial vision in an algorithmic world.

https://magazine.frontier.is/p/longform-editions

In this week's newsletter, I wrote about new calendar apps and coordination & context problems. Plus a new UI paradigm—dynamic views—that might help us find time and find ourselves:

https://magazine.frontier.is/p/breaking-the-grid

I wrote about two recent cyberattacks on library systems. It’s not only about the stolen and encrypted files; it’s also an equity issue. These hacks make unfair societies more unjust. https://magazine.frontier.is/p/out-of-circulation

Looking over Under Consideration’s year-end roundup, checking what I’ve saved to Eagle, and I think the London office of Design Studio (yes, that’s its name) did my favorite rebrand of the year, for Eurostar: https://www.design.studio/work/eurostar

Last year, my wife started a fashion company with a good friend who is also an artist. They launched in October. First writeup? In the “T List” in the New York Times Style Magazine (!!). I’m a proud husband.

Here’s their site: https://www.signspointtoyes.biz

“We want new ways of understanding beauty, and we’re increasingly rooting them in our ethics. We want to encourage the beauty found in the aliveness or the gentleness of what we do.” 

https://magazine.frontier.is/the-frontier-interview-terremoto/

Here’s 1,800 words on my favorite new music of ... 2022. “My kids don’t want me to play experimental harp music or doom-organ or power electronics on the way to a play date. Yet this is increasingly the music I identify with.” https://www.sholis.com/blog/my-favorite-music-of-2022

Re-reading Rachel Kushner’s beautiful short essay on time, attention, and art-making …

https://harpers.org/archive/2023/10/learning-to-wait/

Y’all might be interested in the new book “Experience Design,” which taught me, among other things, that I screwed up my wife’s recent birthday 🤦🏻‍♂️

https://magazine.frontier.is/p/are-you-experienced

Are people still interested in reading about SBF and effective altruism? I finally got to this essay by John Lanchester, one of my favorite writers on money and econ, and it's great.

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v45/n21/john-lanchester/he-said-they-said

Loving Polish guitarist and composer Raphael Rogiński’s “Electron,” a single off his new record Talàn, which is described as resulting from his fascination with the Black Sea. Listen here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qz3l2VsjiJs

While everyone’s posting their Spotify wrapped, Last.fm is over here offering me brutal truths about living with a four-year-old: experimental piano music and ... the Cars soundtrack

Appreciate you, highlights selectors. A little humor never hurts!

Does anyone have recommendations of new/recently released ambient or experimental electronic music? I prefer “dark ambient,” “power ambient,” etc. My ongoing list of 2024 releases: https://www.are.na/brian-sholis/lists-2024-my-favorite-music

Just had my mind scoured by Loraine James on the first night of her first (I think?) North American tour. So good. The rest of her dates & her new album: 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CxnZulLMOyL/

https://lorainejames.bandcamp.com/album/gentle-confrontation

This year’s Our Networks! “Does not (cloud) compute”— think, local first, permacomputing, solar servers, and exploring collectively what collaborations and online presence looks like when a network is optional.

https://ournetworks.ca/

Do you live in (or regularly visit) NYC or London? Richard Florida’s got a new theory for you: “meta cities.” I wrote a bit about it, and about the trend’s distressing implications for city life: https://magazine.frontier.is/p/the-fault-in-our-stars

This week’s podcast interview is with Drew Austin, one of my favorite urban critics. He’s great on how digital platforms reshape not only our social lives but also our public spaces. Listen or read the transcript:

https://magazine.frontier.is/p/drew-austin#details

Celine Nguyen praises my favorite planner: “Psychologically, the notebooks get at the intent of a planner, without the terror. […] You can date your entries by circling January, Wednesday, & 10. Or don’t date them. Let time pass without observation or ceremony.” What’s yours?

So many great one-ff observations in this Ryan Ruby essay about reading Marcel Proust: https://libertiesjournal.com/articles/reading-and-time/

I found this metaphor for persistence and adaptability in Cambridge, MA, this morning.

Lovely new track from Dorian Concept. Apparently it's an old unreleased thing that’s gone viral on TikTok?

If you like this, check out “Friends” on his 2022 album “What We Do for Others,” one of my favorite tracks last year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlFolRo1WiE

Instant fan of Visual, a new semi-pixelated font designed by Jan Novák for All Caps Type: 

https://www.allcapstype.com/typefaces/visual

For nearly a year, @ross and I have been building Valise (valise.works), a fast, simple artwork-inventory system that gives artists peace of mind. We’re now in open beta and adding new users as quickly as we can onboard them. Please share the news!

Thinking through the kinds of interactions I want to have with AI _outside_ of work …

https://magazine.frontier.is/p/human-after-all

“It’s been a challenging year, but it has had its rewards, chief among them the remarkable growth and maturity that my older son is exhibiting. I’ve learned this year that while parenting is still hard, I can make progress.” Updated my /now page:  https://www.sholis.com/now

I have a simple criteria for judging new “mood board” platforms: do more than half the saved images depicting women feature nudity/sultry looks? If so, it’s not for me. That’s why I choose Arena over Cosmos, Savee, etc. I want whole people & ideas, not boys’ fantasies.

I appreciate getting the Wrapped experience without having to subscribe to Spotify. I’m a big fan of Last.fm (and these artists/albums/tracks)

Also, let me just say: it’s really hard to write a weekly newsletter _and_ run a weekly podcast (that are not the same thing) while also doing other work projects, starting a SaaS business, parenting, having friends, keeping your house stocked and clean, and walking the dog

Got sick, couldn’t write a newsletter issue, ended up sharing 50 (!) links instead. Articles, apps, videos, audio, buildings, fonts, etc. Maybe the ultimate Frontier Mag vibe check. Like wha you find? Subscribe for more!

https://magazine.frontier.is/p/a-frontier-miscellany

Coming for @cindywu ’s Posts Foodfluencer champions’ belt …

Pleased to be featured in a holiday-week edition of Why Is This Interesting? Of course I use the questionnaire as an excuse to share tons of links: https://whyisthisinteresting.substack.com/p/the-tuesday-evening-media-diet-with

From a lovely review-essay by Jennifer Kabat in 4Columns, all about an exhibition of sixteenth-century herbariums … 🌿🌿

https://4columns.org/kabat-jennifer/seeds-of-knowledge

This community has the best aggregate taste of any I’m involved in, so please help me with my Christmas shopping: best travel mug? Merci!

Hey 🇨🇦 tech people: What is the Stripe Atlas of Canada? (Ideally registration AND credits.) About to register a company for a SaaS project in development and not sure where to turn. Will also take Toronto lawyer/accountant recs … 🙏🏻

“It’s no surprise that so many of us feel like we have so much information, but that’s not making us wiser, more knowledgeable, or increasing our ability to make sense or make meaning.” –Sari Azout

Listen or read the transcript: https://magazine.frontier.is/p/sari-azout

Jon-Kyle Mohr (@jondashkyle) just released the beta for Cycle Marks, "simple bookmarks with rhythm." As he says, "With CycleMarks, you set the drip-rate for content you want to check in on.”

Been using for a few months & highly recommend:

https://www.cyclemarks.com

David Jonathan Ross is a treasure—love his creativity and his generosity. The newest entry in his Font of the Month club is fun:

https://djr.com/notes/daily-special-font-of-the-month

Do ya’ll know about Mandy Brown? A writer/editor who has worked in media tech, she’s now a consultant and one of my favorite writers. Here’s an excerpt from her new essay on modes of thinking within companies … 

https://everythingchanges.us/blog/writers-and-talkers-and-leaders/

I wrote about how succession planning at architecture firms is a chance to think broadly about ownership & management.

But it’s secretly for anyone at a creative business. These issues are so important to keep top of mind 

https://magazine.frontier.is/succession-or-finale/

OK posts team. Two app questions:

1) For Safari: 1Blocker (my longtime go-to) or Magic Lasso (advertising everywhere these days)?

2) For backups: Arq Backup or Backblaze?

Leaning Magic Lasso/Arq but would love insight!

Toronto! Brendan George Ko is a really talented photographer. And he's got a show on right now, at Gallery 44, in the 401 W. Richmond building. Consider this your recommendation.

https://www.gallery44.org/exhibitions/you-start-dying-the-day-youre-born-excerpt

For years (a decade?), I’ve read everything the amazing literary critic Parul Sehgal has published. This week she writes about critics’ lives: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/12/11/what-we-learn-from-the-lives-of-critics

About once every 18–24 months I do this to my home screen: buy someone’s icon pack, set up a bunch of app-launching shortcuts, and confuse my wife and kids when they go to look up music or maps on my phone. It usually lasts a month or so. 2024 edition:

I interviewed an AI researcher at Google who spent his own $ anonymously surveying 1000s of people about gender, identity, & sexuality and then made a humane & thought-provoking book: https://magazine.frontier.is/the-frontier-interview-blaise-aguera-y-arcas-who-are-we-now/

Mildly creeped out by writer & programmer James Somers’s vision of solicitous chatbots trying to coax knowledge out of us because they’ve gobbled up everything we’ve already put on line … https://www.newyorker.com/science/annals-of-artificial-intelligence/how-will-ai-learn-next