Jon Hicks

I know everyone is going to be suggesting their favourite app, but I use Reeder (or Tapestry) and combine my RSS and BlueSky (and others) into one chronological timeline. Worth a look!

A happy book says: I'm so proud you chose me as your holiday read! I can't wait to start entertaining you! A smiling drink says: And I'm right here! Ready to keep you cool and refreshed while you read! A gleeful phone adds: Yay! So great! How about we kick things off with a load of the same old rubbish you always look at, plus some gloomy news and mavbe a few emails from work!! Hours later... The drink and book lie untouched. The phone is out of view but a bubble reads: Scroll Scroll Scroll Scroll Scroll The book says “I hate that guy.”

My cartoons for this week’s @theguardian.com books
#holiday #vacation #reading

MERYL STREEP

I can’t imagine there’s anyone who hasn’t bought this wonderful EP, but just in case, now would be a patricularly good day to do it

We’ve got tickets to see this later in the month, really looking forward to it! 😍

An illustrated map, with key, of Innsmouth - the Massachusetts harbour town that features in my Lovecraftian horror story.

A 3D render (work in progress) of Innsmouth - the Massachusetts harbour town that features in my Lovecraftian horror story.

Not sure if I ever posted this. WIP of a map for my Innsmouth project. And a little 3D visualisation of it in Blender.

The story so far here…

thisnorthernboy.blog/2024/12/22/t...

#Innsmouth @innsmouth-lights.bsky.social

Still Out, by KiF Productions 4 track album

This homage to the KLF's Chill Out is definitely worth your time: kifproductions.bandcamp.com/album/still-...

Yeah, I'd find no track skip a bit too authoritarian - some albums just have a track that's absolute stinker!

Longplay - Hicks.design In my search for the

In my search for the "perfect" music app, Adrian Schönig's Longplay (@longplay.rocks) is the closest match I've found yet. The MacOS app has been out of beta for a couple of weeks now, and I've been enjoying it, a lot!

Here's a post about it:

hicks.design/journal/long...

Just got unreasonably cross at the thought that stopping using, paying for, and being hosted on Spotify is going to be a pain in the arse for me, in about half a dozen ways, and no problem at all for Daniel Ek.

That’s how they get you. The fuckers.

I had to double check that this hadn’t been doctored in anyway, but it’s the real deal! Haunting

Demolition of Cockenzie Power Station, East Lothian in 2015.

So sudden! Dogs are so much more than pets, they really are companions, and their loss is felt deeply. Much love from Hicksville xxxx

Today sees the return of Bandcamp Friday, a day on which Bandcamp kindly waive their fees on all sales. We’ll be donating our share to the charity Choose Love for their important work in Palestine.

Discover our catalogue: erasedtapes.bandcamp.com

How’s that for a capture!

A panoramic illustration of a late 1970s detective office. There's a lot going on, so take a seat and I'll walk you through everything! On the left wall, is the door, with a trench coat hanging on a hook. To the left of the door is a string of garlic, and around the welcome mat is a line of salt, with a plastic tub of Saxa salt, a popular brand of salt in the 70s. At the centre back of the room is an evidence board and street map, to which a moustached detective with rolled up shirt sleeves pins a polaroid photo. Inset to the left of the back wall are shelves with books, jars of ghosts, a severed hand in a glass case, a copy of the Yellow Pages, Dowsing Rods, Electromagnetic Field Detector and a 1970s SLR camera. Inset to the right are some dark grey metal filing cabinets, with Bubbles the Clown emerging from one of the open drawers. Bubbles is meant to be locked away, but somehow has escaped, and has revenge on his mind. Above the cabinets are three posters. The first is a photo of a UFO above a line of trees with the phrase 'I don't know what to believe' (a parody of the X-Files). The second is a girl with hair in bunches, sticking her tongue out, with the headline 'Have you seen this demon? Do not approach!'. The third, and final, poster features a balding man about to be sprayed in green goo, with the headline 'Ectoplasm health & safety'. On the right wall is a window with Venetian blinds rolled up, and the ghost of a victorian lady can be seen on other side of the glass. In front of the window a male detective sits, taking notes while speaking on a red rotary telephone. In the foreground, a female detective in a blue jumper reads one of many sheets emerging from the haunted typewriter. Next to her are a pile of papers, held down by an eerie stone head, a plate of biscuits and a boiling kettle in which a generic ghostly spirit can be seen in the steam.

The original illustration from the Dectective's Handbook. The viewpoint is the same, but is focussed on 'catching crooks' and features tricks to measure visitor's height and secretly record them on tape.

As a homage to my favourite spread from the Detective's Handbook, the latest addition to the Supernatural Detective's Field Guide is 'The Detective's Office'.

When I was 8, this office setup was a life goal!

supernaturaldetectives.com/introduction...

Stars of the Lid Live - Hicks.design Going down an internet rabbit hole of hunting unreleased Stars of the Lid material

If you're need of a bit of live ambient, I've rounded up Stars of the Lid’s live recordings on the Internet Archive:

hicks.design/journal/star...

Jeez! I tend to keep my own/ripped stuff in Plex, because Apple Music made a hash of importing it. Even then, knowing that there’s a limit makes me uneasy.

I found out that Tidal has a library limit of “9,999 items”. If you try and add more, you just get a "Could not add to my collection” error message. It seems a low arbitrary limit, but it's kind of deal breaker.

(Apple Music has a 100,000 limit, and Spotify used to be 10,000 but now unlimited)

"Search all the parks in all your cities; you'll find no statues of committees."

David Ogilvy

Joking aside, King Gizzard leaving is taking A LOT of albums off Spotify

No cheating: post your Lock Screen.

That is superb! 👌

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard Remove Their Music From Spotify: "Fuck Spotify" It’s always been easy to hate Spotify. Björk once said it was probably the worst thing to happen to musicians. But since it was reported that Helsing, the other evil company that Spotify CEO Daniel Ek...

Deerhoof, Xiu Xiu and King Gizzard and Lizard Wizard remove their music from Spotify, over Daniel Ek’s funding of military AI. Hope more (and bigger) artists do this.

www.stereogum.com/2317141/king...

Left: “Games Workshop” pronounced by Brian Blessed
Right: “Games Workshop” pronounced by Stephen Fry

A kids ride in a van painted like the A Team van but they went with ‘B STAFF’ instead

When you are a bit worried that you might fall foul of copyright …

No problems with the Mac or iOS app. When playing via airplay from the browser, the start of tracks can stutter, but that's an edge case you'll only experience if you're a userstyles nerd!

Building wrap of Jabaliya camp in Gaza opposite Labour Party HQ reads "Protesting this isn't terrorism"

🚨 RIGHT NOW opposite Labour Party HQ in London.

We’ve turned their street into Jabaliya camp in Gaza. A genocide is happening, but the Labour government is supplying weapons, intelligence and diplomatic cover to the perpetrator. Protesting this is not terrorism.

My perfect Music app doesn’t exist - Hicks.design A long dive into the features that make my ideal music app, and why nothing currently fulfils the brief.

Revisiting Tidal after some months away (because Apple Music is doing my nut), it looks like some stuff off my wishlist has been added:

- Add your own artwork to playlists
- Pre-save upcoming albums
- Animated album art

(Updated my big music app post to reflect this: hicks.design/journal/my-p...)

Thank you! It’s near the London Stadium - nearest tube is Stratford. Their David Bowie collection opens in September, so worth waiting until then