🔗 The NTS Guide To - Czech Shoegaze 8th November 2020 | Listen on NTS

Following the Velvet Revolution and collapse of communism in the Eastern Bloc, a group of bands introduced to the likes of My Bloody Valentine, The Boo Radleys and Ride by John Peel on BBC World Service began to make their own blissful noise. Listen back to an hour of shoegaze jams from the Czech Republic.

🔗 ‘Racism is normal in La Liga’: Vinícius Júnior | The Guardian

A year ago when I moved to Poland my grandfather warned me about the racism I could experience here or “anywhere in Eastern Europe” he said, but apart from the one drunk guy that shouted terrible things to me in the street I haven’t had to deal with that.

I can’t say the same for my time in Spain where in just ONE DAY there were more “incidents.” So when I see Vinicius Jr., a black Brazilian player that’s subject of racism everywhere he goes in the country, calling the Football League racist, I have to agree.

Unfortunately in Europe it’s like racism and Football go hand in hand and for that reason I’ve stayed away from stadiums here. I can’t help but wonder how can the Spanish people allow for one of the top athletes in the world to be called a “monkey” week in week out and do nothing about it?

And to think that as a kid I proudly wore my Pablito Aimar Valencia shirt… 😥

🔗 Ryuichi Sakamoto’s Management Shares Musician’s “Last Playlist,” Which He Prepared for His Own Funeral | Pitchfork

The playlist that Ryuichi had been privately compiling to be played at his own funeral to accompany his own passing. He truly was with music until the very end.

🔗 A note on Substack

At what point does Substack also become a “traditional” social network?

Only a few years ago every social website/app wanted to be considered “traditional social media” nowadays every newly-spun silo poses as everything but… 👀

🔗 Spotify’s AI DJ Will Let the Recommendation Engine Explain Itself

Avoided all them cool AIs so far. Call it the “denial phase” that’s reaching an acceptance point because the new Spotify DJ is something I will check. AIs have won.

🔗 What makes RSS better than social timelines?

Tracy raises important questions about the possible end of the timeline era:

Does RSS still feel better if you use it to follow people on Mastodon, for instance? How does the experience of reading social posts change when it’s delivered by RSS rather than a social media timeline?

I tried reading my social feed (Mastodon) via RSS and it became noisy, at one point I felt it was getting in the way of the longer form posts I’m used to enjoy on my Feed reader so I went back to the Mastodon Timeline. I’d say it’s the mindset but also the Reader itself. Together made the “scrolling process” more natural but it’s too technical to use or mass adoption.