8Sided Blog

the scene celebrates itself

  • 8sided About
  • memora8ilia

tarkovsky’s cinema

03.06.2021 by M Donaldson // Leave a Comment

Andrei Tarkovsky on the set of Stalker

“Some sort of pressure must exist; the artist exists because the world is not perfect. Art would be useless if the world were perfect, as man wouldn’t look for harmony but would simply live in it. Art is born out of an ill-designed world.”

🔗 → Tarkovsky’s Cinema (BBC Arena documentary, 1987

Categories // MEMORA8ILIA Tags // Andrei Tarkovsky, Documentary, Film

every statement about the past is a powerful statement about the present

03.05.2021 by M Donaldson // Leave a Comment

Ancient Aliens Are Bullshit

The past is alive. It is political, it is ever-changing, and it influences our daily lives in meaningful ways … every statement about the past is a powerful statement about the present.

🔗 → You don’t need aliens to make history interesting

Categories // MEMORA8ILIA Tags // archaeology, history, racism, Ted Talk

the lounge lizards perform the voice of chunk

03.05.2021 by M Donaldson // Leave a Comment

Even knowing that there are eight men onstage in this clip, the densely textured sound they achieve seems to belong to a much larger band. There is a relentless quality to the song, as Lurie, Fowlkes, and Nathanson build phrases into a frenzy, pausing only to let Ribot wail on guitar like an atonal Chuck Berry.

🔗 → A Guide to the Music of John Lurie

Categories // MEMORA8ILIA Tags // Jazz, John Lurie, Lounge Lizards

brian eno’s thursday afternoon

02.25.2021 by M Donaldson // Leave a Comment

img-2

Brian Eno’s 1984 video + music installation Thursday Afternoon is currently on display in the window of London’s Paul Stolper Gallery. It’s also available to stream from the gallery’s site — and in the correct aspect ratio.

Categories // MEMORA8ILIA Tags // Art, Brian Eno, Video

intimate immensity

02.22.2021 by M Donaldson // Leave a Comment

This remix/reinterpretation of Tomaga’s “Intimate Immensity” by Floating Points is the loveliest thing I’ve heard in a long while.

Categories // MEMORA8ILIA Tags // Floating Points, Tomaga

edo funk explosion vol. 1

02.20.2021 by M Donaldson // Leave a Comment

I’m a big fan of the Analog Africa label and the upcoming compilation, Edo Funk Explosion Vol. 1, looks fantastic. Immediately added to the want list.

Unlike the rather polished 1980s Nigerian disco productions coming out of the international metropolis of Lagos ‘Edo Funk’ was raw and reduced to its bare minimum … What unites these diverse musicians is their ability to strip funk down to its primal essence and use it as the foundation for their own excursions inward to the heart of Edo culture and outward to the furthest limits of sonic alchemy.

Categories // MEMORA8ILIA Tags // African Music, Analog Africa

metallica vs. twitch

02.20.2021 by M Donaldson // Leave a Comment

There are problems with the DMCA, and big corporations do have too much power in the music industry. But Amazon alone is 20 times the size of the entire recorded music business. When people are encouraged to direct all their ire at the DMCA (not at Amazon’s failure to implement it correctly) or at the music biz, it improves Amazon’s bargaining position in licensing negotiations, and imperils Congress’s ability to achieve needed reforms.

— @future_of_music

the current state of Twitch: the official Twitch Gaming channel cut off the live Metallica concert to play 8bit folk music to avoid DMCA pic.twitter.com/sCn56So8Ee

— Rod Breslau (@Slasher) February 19, 2021
https://twitter.com/rickyftw/status/1362900300223246336?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1362900300223246336%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fboingboing.net%2F2021%2F02%2F20%2Ftwitch-mutes-live-metallica-concert-and-replaces-stream-with-generic-library-music.html

This whole thread is worth a read:

Much of the chatter about Twitch and Metallica and copyright is getting the facts and the history wrong. Quick thread.

— Future of Music Coalition (@future_of_music) February 20, 2021

Categories // MEMORA8ILIA Tags // Amazon, DMCA, Metallica, Twitch

angel tears in sunlight

02.19.2021 by M Donaldson // Leave a Comment

Angel Tears in Sunlight is the first album in over 30 years from Pauline Anna Strom. Sadly, it’s also her last. The album is lovely — ambient electronics with a healing intention.

Here’s a recent profile (and obituary) on Strom in The New York Times.

Categories // MEMORA8ILIA

craig mod’s new newsletter – huh

02.19.2021 by M Donaldson // Leave a Comment

Looking closely + deliberately is more difficult than it sounds. It’s a deceptive skill, but one that accrues huge dividends in small quantities. The closer you look, the more details you notice, and with each detail, a little: huh.

🔗 → Huh, A Cafe with a View of the Waterfall

Categories // MEMORA8ILIA Tags // Craig Mod, Email Newsletters, noticing, Photography

return of the silver records

02.18.2021 by M Donaldson // Leave a Comment

Status: 2021-02-18 22.47.58

The patterns etched in the covers are achieved by minute differences in the angles of the foil coating which then reflects the light and appears to animate when moved …

🔗 → Héliophoria! (return of the silver records)

Categories // MEMORA8ILIA Tags // Cover Art

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • Next Page »

8sided.blog

img-4 
 
 
 
 
 
8sided.blog is an online admiration of modernist sound and niche culture. We believe in the inherent optimism of creating art as a form of resistance and aim to broadcast those who experiment not just in name but also through action.

It's also the online home of Michael Donaldson, a curious fellow trying his best within the limits of his time. He once competed under the name Q-Burns Abstract Message and was the widely disputed king of sandcastles until his voluntary exile from the music industry.

"More than machinery, we need humanity."

Learn More →

featured

Reclaiming the Intention of Fandom

The erosion of intentionality is a disassembling of personality. This condition can deprive us of the agency of our thoughts.

Sweet Jesus: Steve Cobby’s One Man Cottage Industry

For fans of Fila Brazillia, the surprise release of Sweet Jesus was like unexpectedly finding an apparition burned onto the morning toast.

3+1: Johan Kull

I’m launching a new series here on 8sided.blog called 3+1. As I run across interesting people doing interesting things, I’ll get them to answer three questions, and then, as a +1, they’ll tell us about something they love.  First up in Johan Kull, an expressive musician and vocalist based in Stockholm. He’s self-releasing a personal brand of […]

Mastodon

Mastodon logo

Listening

If you dig 8sided.blog
you're gonna dig-dug the
Spotlight On Podcast

Check it out!

Exploring

Roll The Dice

For a random blog post

Click here

or for something cool to listen to
(refresh this page for another selection)

Linking

Blogroll
A Closer Listen
Austin Kleon
Atlas Minor
blissblog
Craig Mod
Disquiet
feuilleton
Headpone Commute
Jay Springett
Kottke
Metafilter
One Foot Tsunami
1000 Cuts
1001 Other Albums
Parenthetical Recluse
Robin Sloan
Seth Godin
The Creative Independent
The Red Hand Files
The Tonearm
Sonic Wasteland
Things Magazine
Warren Ellis LTD
 
TRANSLATE with img-6 x
English
Arabic Hebrew Polish
Bulgarian Hindi Portuguese
Catalan Hmong Daw Romanian
Chinese Simplified Hungarian Russian
Chinese Traditional Indonesian Slovak
Czech Italian Slovenian
Danish Japanese Spanish
Dutch Klingon Swedish
English Korean Thai
Estonian Latvian Turkish
Finnish Lithuanian Ukrainian
French Malay Urdu
German Maltese Vietnamese
Greek Norwegian Welsh
Haitian Creole Persian
img-7
img-8 img-9 img-10
TRANSLATE with img-11
COPY THE URL BELOW
img-12
img-13 Back
EMBED THE SNIPPET BELOW IN YOUR SITE img-14
Enable collaborative features and customize widget: Bing Webmaster Portal
Back
Newsroll
Dada Drummer
Deep Voices
Dense Discovery
Dirt
Erratic Aesthetic
First Floor
Flaming Hydra
Futurism Restated
Garbage Day
Herb Sundays
Kneeling Bus
Orbital Operations
Sasha Frere-Jones
The Browser
The Honest Broker
The Maven Game
The Voice of Energy
Today In Tabs
Tone Glow
Why Is This Interesting?
 
TRANSLATE with img-15 x
English
Arabic Hebrew Polish
Bulgarian Hindi Portuguese
Catalan Hmong Daw Romanian
Chinese Simplified Hungarian Russian
Chinese Traditional Indonesian Slovak
Czech Italian Slovenian
Danish Japanese Spanish
Dutch Klingon Swedish
English Korean Thai
Estonian Latvian Turkish
Finnish Lithuanian Ukrainian
French Malay Urdu
German Maltese Vietnamese
Greek Norwegian Welsh
Haitian Creole Persian
img-16
img-17 img-18 img-19
TRANSLATE with img-20
COPY THE URL BELOW
img-21
img-22 Back
EMBED THE SNIPPET BELOW IN YOUR SITE img-23
Enable collaborative features and customize widget: Bing Webmaster Portal
Back

ACT

Support Ukraine
+
Ideas for Taking Action
+
Climate Action Resources
+
Carbon Dots
+
LGBTQ+ Education Resources
+
National Network of Abortion Funds
+
Animal Save Movement
+
Plant Based Treaty
+
The Opt Out Project
+
Trustworthy Media
+
Union of Musicians and Allied Workers

Here's what I'm doing

/now

Copyright © 2025 · 8D Industries, LLC · Log in