Public discourse is too dependent on private platforms.
The online public square is a shopping mall. You don't fix that by moving to a sketchy plaza down the street.
We need to decentralize the internet, not look for "liberal or conservative" platforms.
Can't believe it's taken me a year to make this connection: Whereas September 1993 was the Eternal September ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_september ), March 2020 should be known as the Eternal March
I recorded an acoustic cover of San Holo's 'lift me from the ground' with a string quartet
https://blaise.ca/blog/2021/02/07/lift-me-from-the-ground-san-holo-cover/
Created using Rosegarden (string arrangements), Ardour (recording/mixing), and Kdenlive (video editing)
In which I rant against simplistic answers to social media censorship and resist the urge to pull out my open source violin:
https://blaise.ca/blog/2021/01/13/no-easy-answers-to-social-media-censorship/
Fascinating conversation with Mike Masnick about all things internet as all tech policy issues get sucked into the black hole of the current political moment:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwE7EhGJaHc
From thinking about Waco, I found this short doc on Ruby Ridge:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wncvHvUujX8
It tracks the law enforcement side to John Joe Gray, but if you track the armed government resistance side you get to Timothy McVeigh...
n the Spring, it was HBO's Chernobyl mini-series that I couldn't stop thinking about. Now, it's Waco.
Silent Night - vox/acoustic 2008, electric/bass/drums 2018, mix 2020
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jb3xQvz9YjA
One of the personal silver linings of 2020 is that I’m making music again.
In a way, I had never really stopped. But in a way, I had never really started.
https://blaise.ca/blog/2020/12/24/i-dreamed-i-saw-a-star-again/
A little 2020 recording project of mine involved completing a 2009 recording session that I had long since abandoned and left for dead - a cover of Weezer's The World Has Turned and Left Me Here
https://blaise.ca/blog/2020/12/23/the-world-has-turned-and-left-me-here/
Technologist, musician, writer/speaker, activist, etc