Greatest Opening Scene To Any TV Show Ever

McNulty: I got to ask you. If every time Snotboogie would grab the money and run away, why'd you even let him in the game?
Snotboogie's Friend: What?
McNulty: If Snotboogie always stole the money, why'd you let him play?
Snot Boogie's Friend: Got to. It's America, man.

Almost 15 years later and nothing comes close to The Wire. Nothing.

 

Link: Photos of London's Threatened Public Housing →

Compelling series of photos of different public housing complexes around London. I have a few similar photographs from my time in the UK, but none as stirring as these. One quote in the article stuck out:

“They’re the concrete residue of the now unfashionable idea that people should be able to afford somewhere to live”

This reminds me of what's going on in Nashville. Beautiful new buildings in the name of progress that push out the "undesirable" lower income families leaving them with nowhere to go. 

It's not an easy problem to solve, but sometimes it feels like a problem the powers that be aren't even trying to. 


Apple Music Recommendations

In theory the "For You" section of Apple Music is a great idea. Suggesting albums I might like and playlists of bands I haven't heard is a great way to discover new music. One way to adjust the algorithm is to hit the "Love" button on songs you do like so the automatic curation knows where your tastes lie.

The last 10 things I've hit "Love" on?

Neko Case
Sturgill Simpson
Nicki Bluhm
Big Star
The Replacements
Kurt Vile
The Jayhawks
Gillian Welch
Israel Nash
Shovels & Rope

That should provide a pretty good idea of what I'm interested in right now.

This morning Apple Music suggested this:

Yikes.

At no point in my life, even in my metal crazed youth, did I ever have a penchant for anything that could be described as "Battle Metal". Other than the occasional Dio record I've never owned an album that had a dragon on the cover.

Instead of hitting that apparently useless button to tell Apple Music what I'm listening to, I'm just gonna throw on a loincloth and roll with it.

March or Die!

Multiple Apple Accounts (or "My Own Personal Hell")

It's been an ongoing problem for years now for a lot of people, but it never affected me until tonight - Apple really, really, really needs to find a way to merge iCloud accounts.

I was attempting to watch a movie I bought on iTunes years ago when I got the "You Are Not Authorized To Play This File" warning. WTF? I did some digging and discovered this was bought with my old iTunes account. In the bygone era before iCloud, Apple offered a $99 a year service called .Mac. I subscribed all the way back in 2004. .Mac turned into MobileMe and eventually iCloud, when it became a free service. When it changed to iCloud I started a new account with my primary email address not realizing it would effectively cancel out the past 7 years of Apple purchases.

There are kludgy workarounds involving using separate accounts for iCloud services and iTunes purchases, but they're less than ideal. Especially when you're like me and you've spent hundreds of $'s with both accounts. Add in iTunes Match and Apple Music and it gets even more confusing.

It shouldn't be hard for a company with the resources of Apple to set up an easy way to combine multiple accounts. You get to pick which email address you want associated with it and all your purchased content, services and subscriptions are merged into a single sign on.

I've been working on an iOS 10 / OS X 10.12 wish list, but after tonight this has gone all the way to #1.

Link: Donald Trump On Apple's Encryption Battle →

As if there was still any question this man has no fucking business whatsoever being President I give you this Verge article.

Jesus. He's not only a complete moron, at this point he's dangerous. His rhetoric has already prompted violence and it's only going to get worse over the next 8 months. It started out as almost a comedic performance piece, now it's just scary.

The only thing scarier is the number of people who actually think he's a viable candidate to be the leader of the free world.

Lady Gaga's Bowie Tribute

I've read reviews the last 2 days that have ranged from "amazing" to "schmaltzy and overblown".

Yes.

It's both of those extremes and everything in between. It was a fitting tribute to a genius whose career took so many left turns I doubt very few managed to stay on board for all of them.

It was cheesy, classy, ridiculous and beautiful. David would've no doubt loved every minute of it.