• Charlottesville rally white nationalist James Fields convicted of murder for driving into counter demonstrator - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation): A white nationalist who drove his car into a crowd protesting against a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, last year, killing one of the demonstrators, has been found guilty of first-degree murder and nine other counts.
• 50 years ago, Douglas Engelbart's ‘Mother of All Demos’ changed personal technology forever But the presentation was more than seemingly disparate demonstrations of experimental computer operations. What Engelbart and his team had created from scratch was a holistic system designed to extend human communications capabilities, tools to augment human intellect — hence the presentation's official prosaic academic title, "A Research Center for Augmenting Human Intellect." Engelbart's presentation would later be more appropriately dubbed "The Mother of All Demos."
• European Union court rules UK can change its mind and pull out of Brexit - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation): The European Union's top court has ruled Britain can change its mind over Brexit, boosting the hopes of people who want to stay in the EU that the process can be reversed. The EU stopping just short of sending someone around to Number 10 with a placard 'have another vote you fucking pillocks'.

• Next level bucket drumming.

• Isaac Asimov Asks, “How Do People Get New Ideas?” - MIT Technology Review: First and foremost, there must be ease, relaxation, and a general sense of permissiveness. The world in general disapproves of creativity, and to be creative in public is particularly bad. Even to speculate in public is rather worrisome. The individuals must, therefore, have the feeling that the others won't object.
• Sydney Opal Tower apartment building evacuated after reports of cracking noises - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation). Literal einstürzende neubauten..!
• German train-delay scarf sells for %u20AC7,550 on eBay | World news | The Guardian

(Direct link to YouTube in case this doesn't load)

See also: Spotify top 100 for 2018 (generated playlist). Spotify's wrap claims I am 'adventurous' as I listen to non-mainstream artists 105% more than the average Spotify listener. Err, go me?

Backstory if you care. Entirely optional:

1. A Tribe Called Quest - Luck of Lucien. Early in the year, chilling out at Thirty Coffee waiting for take-aways, just the perfect track that got stuck in my head for... well half of January. Thirty Coffee's playlist was always awesome (as was the coffee and food of course), pity the cafe's changed hands.
2. deadmau5 feat. Chris James - The Veldt. I realised that although I'd quite liked for lack of a better name I'd somehow never looked up another deadmau5 album since. So I dug into the extensive back catalogue. This track also has an interesting back story, with the random way the vocals came into it; and the fact it's based on a Ray Bradbury story.
3. Leftfield - Space Shanty. Saw Leftfield play Leftism start to end; which was basically a religious experience for me. While this was never my favourite track listening to the album, it absolutely came to life played live. So while the recording isn't great, it goes some way to how it felt.
4. Prophets of Rage - Unfuck The World. It's been years since I've reacted so strongly to a video clip. Sums up how fucked the world is at the moment.
5. Serj Tankian - Empty Walls. Having thrashed on System of a Down I moved on to Serj Tankian's solo stuff. Also ties in politically with the Prophets of Rage.
6. The Muppet Show Theme (metal cover by Leo Moracchioli). Leo's covers remain a source of joy. I mean, headbanging muppets - what more do you want?
7. Killing Joke - New Jerusalem. Reminded of the track after a discussion at work (we have a metalhead channel on Slack). Album subsequently went on high rotation.
8. Butterfingers - Big Night Out. Digging into Aussie hip hop while expanding a playlist. Tour promo blurb claims it's based on a true story, haven't seen it confirmed anywhere though.
9. Evil Eddie - Queensland. Probably a bit obvious why I find this one amusing.
10. James Gang - Ashes the Rain and I. Another playlist dig - this time listening to songs sampled by later hits (3:30 if you're impatient, the later hit if you're baffled).
11. Underworld - Between Stars. More back-catalogue digging, love Barking and this track seems to capture the vibe of it.
12. DJ Shadow - Fixed Income. Listened to a ton of DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist mixes on YouTube. Also after a long time digging trying to get myself my own copy of DJ Shadow's Live In Tune and On Time, I realised the solution was obvious and bought it off eBay. This is the track that opens the set. Also played the set while driving out to the Hunter Valley for a work event, adding nice associations of a drive in the country.
13. VNV Nation - When is the Future? New VNV, and love the clip.

Labels: mix tape