John van Rijn

What is Argent-ina?

It'd be cool if ads were replaced by cool local factoids. Something like, "this train passes several oak trees in which local owls roost and local mushroom networks share nutrients. Squirrels and twelve different spider species share this habitat."

FFS, the 1976 live record of Jean-Luc Ponty and His Band (1978 published by Wounded Bird Records)

Absolute Masterclass of musicianship. No metronome, no in-ears, just trust in fellow musicians. That's what it's about.

What is "Investor ROI?"

The CEO was a tunnel-rat in Vietnam and none of those guys *really* came back. I think he just loved cool-ass machinery and honest manufacturing more than being "business-savvy."

He passed away in 2018, IIRC. The shop went with him. Wish I could find and purchase that Soviet router.

We had to contract an oil/gas machining company to custom-make the chucks for this thing for the modern router bits. I remarked to the CEO that this thing should be in a museum but he said, "this is machinery meant to build things. It's where it needs to be."

My favorite machine was a Soviet sled-router manufactured in 1951. Fucker was made of some serious steel. Still had Cyrillic embossing on the outside. "CONSULT OPERATOR STANDARDS"

I don't know how that thing ended up in Tulsa, OK but it was BADASS. Never failed.

Oh, I got written-up for doing precision CNC programming to make things precise with a capricious wood/hardware combo and it worked like a fuckin' charm?

Yeah, I'll sign the shit out of that. (I did.)

It worked beautifully for a few days until the foreman found it and asked with rage, "WHO THE FUCK PUT AN ODD NUMBER IN THE DENOMINATOR? WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS AVANT-GARDE SHIT?!"

I was proud to raise my hand. I'm still proud (and a bit bewildered) of the disciplinary action.

Anyway, it turns out that to properly install soft-close hinges into a face frame of oak per our spec, the Imperial measures weren't precise enough. The foreman HATED metric. I walked my ditzy-ass down to the CNC planer and made a 7.055 centimeter jig and labeled it "2 7/9 inch."

Long ago, I worked in a cabinet shop in their "Precision Handmade" section. No CNC but exacting nonetheless. Apparently there's a lucrative market for weirdly-placed alder-knots and "avant-garde" grain-matching. White Oak still pisses me off unless it's an actual, intact tree.

As the series went on, "The Blacklist" got kinda "they're running out of ideas," but that show has James Spader's most incredible performance in the Federal Court scenes when he's representing himself against the death penalty.

I know the guy from "Stargate," but DAMN.

Hey, @tacobell.bsky.social, have y'all lost your damn minds?

"Darkness Within" by Machine Head ft. Brandon Urie

I CAN'T BE THE ONLY ONE WHO HEARS THIS

What is Star Trek: The Animated Series?

The stupefying piece, "Lingus" by Snarky Puppy is in 5/4 time but has the primary count alternating between 3 and 2 per measure.

This gives the illusion of 4/4.

Absolute cinema. Badass musicianship.

MYSTERIES OF HEAVY METAL #1

On Dimmu Borgir's 2007 album, "In Sorte Diaboli," why is the kick drum tone like... that?

I'm loading the dishwasher unlike a former roommate professed.

Turns out, the dishes are fine.

While I'm talking about recent listens, if you haven't heard Buckethead's "Invisable Forest," (that's how he spelled it), you absolutely should.

It's a simple jam setup but the drums and guitar are sending bluesy love letters to each other the whole time.

100/100 Musicianship.

"Crush your corporations with a mild touch / Trash your whole computer system and revert you to papyrus"

I'm revisiting the "Deltron 3030" album; it was the first album that got me thinking about software audio production as an art and a craft.

Such an excellent album. #thirtythirty #hiphop #del

What is, "L'Homme de Nous avons Besoin d'Argent"?

An image of a beetle known as an ivory-marked borer. Four white spots on its brown thorax.

I returned from work earlier this evening to find this lovely guest at my front door. Seems to do more scanning than moving; I learned that it's an ivory-marked borer that mainly eats wood and leaves. They're common in my area but I've never seen one before!

#entomology #bugs #beatles #insects

What is "Scales" by Renault Automotive?

Being a "real man" is all about loud exhausts and 1200W external speakers playing *MY* music.

I'll be Catholic as FUCK on Sunday when my lifted Dualie is blocking traffic so hard that the church gets free traffic control by city police. En nomine Chevy. ✝️

#Jesus

I'm gonna get a Hellcat and make the exhaust as loud as possible. After that, I'm going to do hard accelerations in a residential area at 2AM.

#TRUEMANHOOD #NEEEDATTENTION #PICKME #WHATISRESPECT

What is SCP-3088?

I went on a work-trip up north a few months back. Past the Oklahoma-Kansas border, they say "acidity" is "spicy."

Up north, they have this "Taco John's" chain restaurant and this Taco John had weak-ass taste buds. "Spicy Quesadilla" was cheddar, flatbread, and RANCH DRESSING.

What is, "THAT IBEX ISN'T CHILL"?

I'm not sure how a "mathematic horror" would play out without being a psych-horror.

One reason of many that I contend math is a language and that's all.

But linguistics is a philosophical math. Or VV. Same thing.