MUSIC:
Fastball came out with an album last year titled ‘The Help Machine’. https://music.amazon.com/albums/B07V5QW878 and their previous album before that, Step Into Light, https://music.amazon.com/albums/B06WWH3DDZ was pretty good as well:
Incredible tribute to Neil Peart in the form of this new music video from Rush for The Spirit of the Radio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_QtO0Rhp0w
This recording of Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No 2, with Evgeny Kissin, piano child prodigy (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evgeny_Kissin)
Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France
Conductor: Myung-Whun Chung
Salle Pleyel, Paris, 19 September, 2014
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4zkc7KEvYM
LANGUAGE:
Praxis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Praxis_(process)
“the process by which a theory, lesson, or skill is enacted, embodied, or realized. “Praxis” may also refer to the act of engaging, applying, exercising, realizing, or practicing ideas.”
….
The philosopher Aristotle held that there were three basic activities of humans: theoria (thinking), poiesis (making), and praxis (doing). Corresponding to these activities were three types of knowledge: theoretical, the end goal being truth; poietical, the end goal being production; and practical, the end goal being action.[1] Aristotle further divided the knowledge derived from praxis into ethics, economics, and politics. He also distinguished between eupraxia (εὐπραξία, “good praxis”)[2] and dyspraxia (δυσπραξία, “bad praxis, misfortune”)
…
“ Matthew Fox explained it this way:
Wisdom is always taste—in both Latin and Hebrew, the word for wisdom comes from the word for taste—so it’s something to taste, not something to theorize about. “Taste and see that God is good“, the psalm says; and that’s wisdom: tasting life. No one can do it for us. The mystical tradition is very much a Sophia tradition. It is about tasting and trusting experience, before institution or dogma.
“
“According to Strong’s Hebrew dictionary, the Hebrew word, ta‛am, is; properly a taste, that is, (figuratively) perception; by implication intelligence; transitively a mandate: advice, behaviour, decree, discretion, judgment, reason, taste, understanding.”
Also on language: In this discussion thread about Riot.IM deciding to rename themselves: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23611863
“I hear a lot of “my email”, as in “I opened up my email” or “where’s my email?” Sure they could mean their email inbox, but they also mean the email client with that phrase, and don’t differentiate the two at all. Much like how a web browser is still, to many (most?) people, “the Internet” (or “my Internet”, as in “I clicked on my Internet”).”
ON ART:
Mina S of the inspiring SSSSComic.com fame speed paints here and talks about what she calls “the self-Fanart trap or eternal-worldbuilding-limbo that a lot of artists get stuck in when starting their first comic”. While her spoken message is important, you can learn a ton from watching her paint and translate that to methodology in creation of anything. Worth watching in many aspects.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KK2rVkLPhDw
GAMES:
Bungie’s Destiny 2: Here’s to year 4 will be more fun than year 3. I haven’t played Destiny 2 in a while because I’ve been playing Star Citizen.
STAR CITIZEN:
Lots of ink spilled about the company behind the most ambitious space simulator ever hitting the $300 Million mark in terms of funds raised directly as pledges, but the game is a ton of fun. Anxiously awaiting the next quarterly patch.