kevin spencer

If you've slept on the Apple TV show Dark Matter, you should watch it. Season one based on the book, and was good. Season two has surprised me. Without any further source material, it's better than season one. Highly highly recommended.

So hear me out: Pinot Noir on an oddly cool October desert evening, cheesecake, and Depeche Mode. Yes? I say yes.

This week's Rockonteurs podcast was great. Adam and the Ants were a huge part of my musical journey as a kid. Prince Charming was the first proper album I ever owned, on cassette! I could listen to Marco Pirroni talk about those years all day long and I'm looking forward to reading his book. Here is that seminal first appearance on Top of the Pops in 1980 they discuss in the episode.

I know, I says to myself, I'll have a quick peek at Mastodon for the first time in ages. I fire up phanpy.social and I'm greeted with "unable to load posts". Cool! Looks like the Mastodon instance I joined years ago is down. Nice! How long has it been down? Is it perma down? Does anyone still use Mastodon any longer? Who knows?

I've had this on repeat for most of the week. The lead single from their upcoming new album Dopamine Chamber. If you go back and listen to their first album, you'll see just how much their sound has evolved over the years. Could be divisive for hardcore fans, bu this strong lean into synths is just chef's kiss.

Travesty Pizzeria Bianco didn't make it onto the 100 best Pizzerias in the world list.

Hurricane Polo made me eat my words. So that's where I keep my socks. Front door open, the glorious smells of the storm. Wasn't sure if we'd get much of the residual moisture this far inland. The 4:15am window rattling thunder answered that one.

Hello from out here in sandland where it's Autumn (they say). It's going to get colder (it isn't), can get my jeans out (I won't), and dust off my Dr Martens (no chance). Hopefully I won't find any surprises in those boots, for if our felines have thrown up, I bloody guarantee it will be on something of mine.

Saturday evening in Bisutoro, the Bluefin Tuna Chili Sesame roll a delight. Get your head out of the clouds. I miss these guys. Mr big eyes. Love puttering around antique/vintage places, this is Sweet Salvage in Phoenix.

The …one likes to take a longer look Flickr group is pretty great.

Hello from out here in sandland. Thunderstorms for the last two days, the temperature has dropped by a good twenty degrees. There's something about the after storm air isn't there? Standing outside this morning, coffee, deep breaths.

At some point after the Achtung Baby album I kinda lost track of U2. I look at their last eight albums and don't really recognize much. Fixing that now, starting with Zooropa.

Sandland, 2026.

I have an iPhone 14 Pro Max. I love it. The battery life (was) incredible. The cameras are good enough that I leave my proper fancy lad camera at home more often than not. Pro Max users, it seems, are vastly in the minority. Certainly among friends and people I read online, the Pro Max, they say, is "too big". But come on, the screen. The screen is by far and away the best thing about a Pro Max. It's big. I just watched yesterdays Apple event. Like everyone else I skipped past all the crap…

Robert Smith reads his own foreword to Tim Pope's book. I could listen to Robert talk all day. Such a way with words, this man is a national treasure.

What things have been in my earholes and eyeballs since the last time I did one of these? Lots of movies, but some I must have really liked seeing as I gave them all the stars. Flash Gordon. This is so utterly utterly bonkers. Hammy dialogue, cheap costumes, Queen soundtrack, Brian Blessed yelling DIIIIVVVEEE. Quite possibly one of the greatest things I've ever seen. Once Upon a Time In…Hollywood. This movie was a masterpiece. Always rated a flamethrower. True Romance. What a cast! Seriously if…

Hello from out here in sandland. This is the world's worst photo, but I was so surprised I'll take what I could get. Meep meep. A roadrunner came into our backyard today. Sunsets make the heat worthwhile. No matter how you want to live your life, don't be this asshole.

As a little addendum to yesterday's mention of Nick Cave, I feel remiss that I offered no examples of said songs that stopped me in my tracks. Cinnamon Horses.

Hello from out here in sandland, where, in shocking news you won't believe, it's hot. Yesterday was 117° and today, well, I'm not even going to look. I saw someone running this afternoon. Quite what you have to prove, when you should be melting, remains a mystery. As did this chap's choice of running style which I can only describe as Steven Seagal but somehow funnier. I'm looking forward to a couple things when summer for us is eventually over. Having cold water actually coming out of the cold…

Damn. Tim Curry. Well this week can fuck right off.

And as a fitting tribute to Dolly, one of my favorite bands of all time cover Jolene.

Damn. Dolly Parton.

Who did I listen to most this week? #lastfm says: The Cure (36), Placebo (34), Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds (18), Tackhead (18), and Kate Bush (14) [via lastweekly]

Lookout Phoenix metro area, a severe thunderstorm warning in effect until 11:00pm, they say. I'm very much ready for summer in the desert to be over. I mean for one, I can never figure out if I'm over watering or under watering the flora on their last legs.

We have a few stray cats that venture into our back yard from time to time. One of them is a regular and he comes by most days. He was a big bushy chap when he first started paying us a visit and we called him Bushy La La and the name stuck. He was a little skittish at first. I'd leave food down but he wouldn't come near it until I backed away or went inside the house. Now he has his own bowl, let's me pet him, and is quite the chatty fella. Some days he'll just sit by the patio door and look…

Widow's Bay on Apple TV is excellent. Jaws meets Parks And Rec meets The X-Files.

I remember my first CD player having a shuffle feature. Being able to play the album in a random order was like some kind of sorcery. Since then, we've gone through the iTunes playlist years, and onto streaming, all with their own shuffle features. I'm here to tell you I don't think Spotify's shuffle is particularly good. One playlist I listen to most is my liked songs. Makes sense, I like them so I listen more often. But I do like the element of surprise so I always listen on shuffle. I have…

The Odyssey was just incredible. Just every bit as good as everyone said.

Would you look at that, I've been scrobbling songs to last.fm for 20 years. It's almost the perfect venn diagram of things I love: music, statistics, and music. I couldn't be happier paying them to keep the lights on and can't wait to hear what their independence will bring. Here's to another 20 years in which I'll be scrobbling when I'm 72. Ok, that can fuck right off.