links, links, links galore!
Over the years, I've come across a whole bunch of things on the Internet, some of them great, some of them terrible. I've also made a mark on this vast ocean of clouds and scum. Here you'll find links to things I've made, as well as things my friends have made, as well as things I've liked. Check 'em out, why don't you!
things I have made:
- I'm the primary composer, guitarist, and singer in the project Rose with Teeth, but you probably knew that already
- I review movies sometimes on Letterboxd
- I have, and infrequently update, a blog
- And that's about it for now, really!
things my friends have made:
- My boyfriend and a couple of our friends have a podcast called Those Good Old-Fashioned Values that's ostensibly a Family Guy analysis podcast but is really just an excuse for them to make fun of each other's sexual orientations. Please give them money!
- A couple of my friends do some really fun streams, and you should check them out on Twitch and YouTube
- I have a couple shirts from Apologies Ltd. and they're some of the comfiest things I own. Please check them out!
- Andata Express is probably one of the most exciting literary collectives out there, so keep an eye out for what they're doing
- Snufkin is a pretty cool guy!
- Get some apparel at Official Shoppe
- Aria is great, and if you're bored with your current identity, you should consider becoming genderdruid.
- My friend Loni draws a lot of things, and they're all really cool. Please check them out!
- slipni
- Some of my friends are pretty famous for their podcasts:
- Israel's number one podcast, Podcast About List
- If you're gay, you might enjoy Seeking Derangements (hi Hesse!)
- and Chapo
- Wanderverse, a public domain collaborative fiction project commissioned by my friend Sonya. Check out my contribution!
- If you're interested in experimental literature please pick up a copy of No Tiger by Mika
- Charlie Looker is a fantastic composer and has made a lot of interesting things besides music as well. Definitely check out his YouTube channel too.
- One of the most interesting and exciting bands right now: Liturgy, whose frontwoman Hunter Hunt-Hendrix has made a style of metal all her own
- One of my favourite animators as a kid: Eclectech, who followed me on Twitter a year or two ago, so I figure it counts by now. Please do check out her stuff!
things I've liked:
- Go find something to read! I came across this page, the Luminist Archives, the other day and I immediately found it invaluable, especially for fans of science fiction and fringe literature. Books, stories, periodicals galore!
- Search the Web with Marginalia.nu! This is one of my favourite sites around now, in no small part because unlike Google and most of the other search engines, it prioritises personal pages, forums, noncommercial sites, and the like instead of corporate crap and procedurally-generated SEO crud.
- Sci-Hub: One of the coolest endeavours ever undertaken, by St. Alexandra Elbakyan (ok, maybe saint is a little too far...), to free up knowledge from and for every generation. I won't tell you how to use it, and I'm not saying it's something you should use, either. In fact, I should correct myself it is really a dastardly enterprise, a mischievous project of revenge along the lines of...
- Library Genesis, another fiendish plot, to corrupt the hearts and minds of young people everywhere, with access to books and articles old and new, completely unfettered by notions of decency or copyright! Good heavens, whatever you do: don't click that link!
- Creative Commons: information wants to be free, and these guys help you free it.
- Composing Programs, a version of Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (a.k.a. The Wizard Book), but modernised, compressed a bit, and rewritten to engage mostly with the world's most popular programming language, Python. The original book is invaluable; if you're new to programming, give this one a try!
- The classic Zompist.com, an absolutely excellent resource for conlangers, worldbuilders, and general linguistics enthusiasts to play with the ins and outs of language. If you've never tried making your own language, Mark's Kit can get you started!
- Omniglot: a website totally dedicated to writing systems and the languages they represent—most of them real, some fictional, some even pretending to be real. Good way to waste several hours when you have nothing else to do.
- The Xenharmonic Wiki, an indispensible resource for anyone interested in microtonal/xenharmonic music and tuning systems. Big fan of all the Scala tuning files they keep on this site.
- George Russell's Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organisation, which purports to explain all enharmonic music through the lens of the Lydian scale built from the circle of fifths. I do wonder how it could be expanded microtonally, but nevertheless, it even works when you apply it to old classical music, and it was good enough for John Coltrane and Miles!
- Cardiacs: the best band in the world, duh! RIP Tim Smith, Leader of the Starry Skies.
- Už jsme doma: some of the best avant-prog ever, coming to you from the Czech Republic, where they outlasted the Stalinist regime that banned their music. I recommend their 1999 album Uši very heartily. They also once served as the backing band for...
- The Residents. If you need an introduction to the Residents, then I wouldn't know where to start!
- The Fibonaccis: a woefully underappreciated avant-prog / new wave band from California in the '80s. They did the soundtrack for the wonderfully goofy '80s cheese-horror movie TerrorVision, and you should definitely check them out.
- Marxists Internet Archive, which despite its name is not solely devoted to Marx, Engels, and Lenin, although it features a lot of their stuff. Actually, lots of literature relating not only to Marxism, but to classical political economy, modern philosophy, etc. too, which is all very useful for anyone searching for frameworks for understanding society outside the prescribed mainstream.
- Sefaria: a great online archive of Jewish scripture and writings throughout history.
- If you've been online long enough, you've certainly encountered Erowid, which still counts as the best resource on drugs, pharmaceuticals, and even personal freedom out there.
- A mirror of Deoxy.org, a renowned insane labyrinthine archive of fringe, alternative, psychedelic, conspiratorial, cybernetic, and spiritual thoughts, ideas, and facts from across the counterculture.
- This exploration of deism, an understanding of God that doesn't require you to sacrifice reason. I cannot endorse everything on this website, though; a bunch of the other parts leave me with a bad taste in my mouth.
- For a bit of a contrasting view, the William Blake Archive, including his complete writings, most of which, despite how popular his early poems are, are tragically underappreciated. You owe it to yourself to read them.
- If you want to understand being online, you should probably read Homestuck. This link contains the real, original, full experience, plus a buttload of additional Hussnasty material. Can't endorse it enough, honestly!
- Achewood. Enough said.
- minus., perhaps the most masterful webcomic ever made. Please drop whatever you're doing and read this if you haven't already; it'll touch your heart in a strange but beautiful way for years to come.
- Bibliotheca Anonoma, probably the definitive treatment of *chan history. Includes an archive of Everything Shii Knows, which used to be one of the most valuable wikis on the entire Web.
- LessWrong, a pretty odd but wonderful website containing lots of discussion about rationality, AI, cognitive bias, transhumanism, and such subjects. Definitely worth checking out, at least, especially the Sequences, an essay series that's indispensible to understanding lots of online discussion.
- Empire Logistics: Interesting site containing maps and discussions of the supply chains that capitalism runs on.
- GiveWell: Donate to the most effective charities in the game! My favourite out of all of them is...
- The Against Malaria Foundation, a fantastic charity that converts your dollars to nets that save lives from mosquitoes.
- An archive of the Muggletonians, an endearingly weird little early modern English sect that shows us how religion worked before modern times