Profile banner
Profile picture

samuelwa.de

@samuelwa.de

Vancouver-based editor at @chinadigitaltimes.net, a Berkeley-based nonprofit publishing news and translation about human rights and censorship in China. Knows changes aren't permanent, but change is. Will stand on the ocean until I start sinking.

created May 21, 2023

2,711 followers 1,033 following 5,203 posts

view profile on Bluesky

Posts

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de) reply parent

Ah, the ancient Chinese curse.

4/9/2025, 7:11:17 AM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de) reply parent

Must be one of those spy drones I’ve read about in SCMP.

4/9/2025, 6:55:40 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de) reply parent

The Chinese word for “Glonzo“ is made up of the characters for “stranger” and “importunity.”

4/9/2025, 6:46:47 AM | 7 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Juliette Wade (@juliettewade.bsky.social) reposted

These are the absolute best. Especially if you have hand pain.

4/9/2025, 4:30:11 AM | 5 1 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de) reposted

Every time I use it, I am drawn back here to share my new faith.

11/7/2025, 1:26:12 AM | 9 2 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Dan Hon (@danhon.com) reposted

This is true, the Sunflowers stories are brilliant.

4/9/2025, 4:13:15 AM | 8 2 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Alex Colville (@colvap.bsky.social) reposted

CCTV has a montage of cute small children watching the military parade yesterday, netizens saying this is "the best patriotic education." There really isn't any national security topic state media hasn't tried levering cuteness into to make it more appealing. mbd.baidu.com/newspage/dat...

image
4/9/2025, 4:07:00 AM | 5 5 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de)

I should try this instead of Flight of the Conchords.

4/9/2025, 3:30:24 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Michael Pettis (@michaelpettis.bsky.social) reposted

For friends in Beijing who are interested in the music scene, beginning today we are starting a new weekly series at My Dramamine, featuring many of the best composers and experimental musicians in Beijing and China. The series kicks off with performances by Zhang Shouwang and Wang Xu.

image
4/9/2025, 3:18:29 AM | 10 4 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de) reply parent

If I’m wrong, I want to know! Someone convince me! DM, if you don’t want to get into it out here … please!

4/9/2025, 3:16:05 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de) reply parent

Never mind, the upgrade led to my sleep apnoea diagnosis. It was worth it for that alone.

4/9/2025, 3:14:57 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de) reply parent

Oh, man, they can’t add glucose now, I just finally upgraded this year. That means they definitely will, doesn’t it? 😑

4/9/2025, 3:13:55 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de) reply parent

Just feels more likely that they’re looking for insight on how to deal with Trump, rather than how to mimic him. No? I’m not always right, but I’m not usually too optimistic ….

4/9/2025, 3:09:21 AM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de) reply parent

OK, fine, today’s the day. What the hell are you talking about?!

4/9/2025, 3:00:51 AM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de)

Not a conflicts guy, but I think the most important reason is that there’s no real reason to. Even if they could be perfectly confident of success without serious repercussions (which they very much can’t), it’d still be safer and easier to wait. Best for everyone if that remains the case.

4/9/2025, 2:56:39 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Micah Muscolino (@mmuscolino.bsky.social) reposted

A few more parade images. It was hot and the tanks and missiles were a bit boring, but the use of historical memory to serve contemporary politics was fascinating.

image image image image
4/9/2025, 2:20:29 AM | 3 2 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de)

Can’t be too careful.

4/9/2025, 2:21:45 AM | 4 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de) reply parent

“The ‘DF-88’ tattoo is a nice touch, though.”

4/9/2025, 1:57:18 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de)

”When you offered to show us your ‘other missile,’ I didn’t think you meant *that.*”

4/9/2025, 1:56:42 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de) reply parent

On my world, it means ‘hope’.

4/9/2025, 1:52:51 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de)

The one that gets me is when they try to entice you to sign up for notifications with “Be the first to hear about ….” For the love of Lucifer, why would I care?! Are you going to run out?

4/9/2025, 1:52:02 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de)

Jet lag and wildfire smoke is not an awesome cocktail.

4/9/2025, 1:49:39 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de) reply parent

Separately, I really like that coloured halo animation, and wish I could think of a single reason to ever actually invoke it.

4/9/2025, 1:39:52 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de) reply parent

Am I being too mellow about this?

4/9/2025, 1:27:01 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de)

BC people—can anyone recommend a good local cider that’s reasonably widely available in Vancouver?

4/9/2025, 1:26:24 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de)

Half-remembering something I read about AI image generators recognising the words in a prompt but not how they fit together, and that sounds a lot like a lot of people on this website.

4/9/2025, 12:44:51 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de) reply parent

Quite right, Mr Vice President, sir.

4/9/2025, 12:05:30 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de) reply parent

Sounds like a good time to me. I accidentally booked a hotel steps away from Arcteryx *and* Snow Peak stores in London recently. Fortunately didn’t have time to visit either.

4/9/2025, 12:04:04 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de)

Seems a bit less sinister when it’s put this way. Awkward to frame, really: you can’t come out and say “know your enemy,” but ….

4/9/2025, 12:01:43 AM | 4 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de) reply parent

Would you say you’ve amassed 10,000 hours of dedicated hatred?

3/9/2025, 11:46:44 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de) reply parent

3/9/2025, 11:41:11 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de)

3/9/2025, 11:41:11 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de) reply parent

(Not a pediatric oncologist, or they wouldn‘t be in economy.)

3/9/2025, 11:26:57 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de) reply parent

I actually don’t mind, it lets me sit there basking in the sauna of my own imagined moral superiority for the whole flight. YES, I think, I GIFT YOU THIS SPACE, FOR SURELY YOU NEED IT, AS A WRETCHED AND WOEFUL CREATURE LESS ELEVATED THAN I, though they could be a paediatric oncologist for all I know

3/9/2025, 11:25:58 PM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de) reply parent

Are fewer people reclining these days, or have I just been lucky? If they are, that would be at odds with the general erosion of things like Letting People Off The Train First and Not Stopping And Looking Around Right At The Top Of The Escalator since the Deep Pandemic.

3/9/2025, 11:16:06 PM | 1 1 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de)

”Whatever small degree of comfort you may achieve by being able to lean back a few inches is outweighed by the misery you inflict on the person behind you.“ YES.

3/9/2025, 11:13:32 PM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de) reply parent

Maybe it’s a trap.

3/9/2025, 10:35:40 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Roman Mars (@romanmars.bsky.social) reposted

Hey Beautiful Nerds! @99pi.org is fifteen years old tomorrow! Hard to believe. We used the occasion for me to talk about our editing process, my design hill to die on, and foot measurement devices podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/9...

3/9/2025, 12:46:04 AM | 174 12 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de)

physics, …

3/9/2025, 10:27:23 PM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Crawford Kilian (@crof.bsky.social) reposted

www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

3/9/2025, 10:20:13 PM | 4 2 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Five-Time Regional Kosho Championship Semi-Finalist (@unaha-closp.bsky.social) reposted

so much this

3/9/2025, 10:19:45 PM | 4 2 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de)

This is a pretty exquisite example of ……… lots of things I’d be able to articulate if my head wasn’t clogged with ash. You know what I mean. Increments, something better than nothing, perfect enemy of good etc etc.

3/9/2025, 10:18:35 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Andy Yan (@ayan604.bsky.social) reposted

Interesting factoid when Vancouver schools are starting this week: The population of school aged (5-18) children living in the City of #Vancouver in 2024 is about the same as 2001 while the total population of the CoV has grown by 32% in the same period #bcpoli #vanpoli #vanre

3/9/2025, 10:11:43 PM | 5 3 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de)

I really, really like that app. I wish it had panes, but everyone would like one more feature, and if they added them all, it would be Word.

3/9/2025, 10:13:23 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de) reply parent

At least you’re staring at iA Writer, though. It could be worse.

3/9/2025, 10:12:09 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de) reply parent

I would look so dashing with that *and* my CPAP setup, I almost feel a duty to do it on that basis alone.

3/9/2025, 10:08:06 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de) reply parent

link plz

3/9/2025, 10:03:13 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de)

Switching ⭐️s to ❤️s was a crucial wrong turn. I think I may actually believe this, but haven’t worked out why yet.

3/9/2025, 9:53:42 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture David Kaye (@davidakaye.bsky.social) reposted

👀 Jim Jordan held a House Judiciary Committee hearing on . . . how Europe censors Americans. Nigel Farage came along! Let's just say I have a slightly different view than them. My written and oral testimony are here: ijclinic.law.uci.edu/2025/09/03/h... Here are my concluding paras:

last paragraph of testimony:
3/9/2025, 9:43:43 PM | 188 55 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de) reply parent

Background from @pkirn.bsky.social:

3/9/2025, 9:09:45 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de)

!

3/9/2025, 9:07:43 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de) reply parent

OK, maybe not my dumbest, but it’s in the bottom ten.

3/9/2025, 7:30:23 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de)

My dumbest opinion is that our governments should switch to full-on, actual totalitarianism for 24 hours every February 29th so people actually remember what that means.

3/9/2025, 7:29:30 PM | 41 3 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Matthew Brooker (@mbrooker.bsky.social) reposted

Only people with no experience of *actual* authoritarian censorship regimes could believe this tripe. Ignorance is always the charlatan’s friend

image
3/9/2025, 7:26:02 PM | 32 5 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Jen St. Denis (@jenstden.bsky.social) reposted

Vancouver police are searching for missing 14 yo girl Sasha Ahenakew.

A 14 year old girl with dark curly brown hair Vancouver – Vancouver Police are asking for the public’s help to locate a missing 14-year-old girl last seen on Vancouver’s West Side. Sasha Ahenakew was last seen at her family home near West 16th Avenue and MacDonald at 1 a.m. on August 31. She has not been seen or heard from since. Sasha is 5 feet tall, 100 pounds, and has long, curly dark brown hair. At the time of her disappearance, she was believed to be wearing a black hooded sweater, black or blue baggy jeans, white Nike sneakers with a green Nike symbol, and she may be carrying a black “Fjallraven Kanken” backpack. This type of behaviour is out of character for Sasha. Her family is extremely worried for her well-being and her mother has travelled to Vancouver from Saskatchewan to assist VPD with the investigation. Sasha is familiar with Vancouver’s transit system and will frequent downtown Vancouver, Granville Island, and the Hillcrest Community Centre. Anyone who sees Sasha Ahenakew, or knows of her whereabouts, is asked to call 9-1-1 immediately.
3/9/2025, 7:18:11 PM | 22 33 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de)

I do not like it in my hair Or over here, or over there I do not like it anywhere! I do not like brown crusty air

3/9/2025, 7:18:47 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Eric Hundman (@ehundman.bsky.social) reposted

China has been trying to do this for years now, to little success

3/9/2025, 6:06:19 PM | 7 2 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de)

This should replace the original expression.

3/9/2025, 5:56:54 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de)

Grateful to whichever cluster of neurons caught the typo “I’m sure you’re very busty.” I would like to give them a special treat.

3/9/2025, 5:16:06 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de) reply parent

Also the fact that you can still smell.

3/9/2025, 5:14:08 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Suzanna Crage (@smcrage.bsky.social) reposted

Vancouver view, to the North. With and without wildfire smoke. (March 2024 and today.)

A park with trees in the foreground, then the buildings of Vancouver’s Chinatown (including a big construction crane) and a background of a few buildings on the far side of the bay (water hidden by buuldings), with a plane of green trees to the right and North Vancouver climbing foothills to the left, then layers of green mountains capped with snow in the background. The sky is filled with tall clouds and a bald eagle flies over the park. The same park backed by Chinatown in the foreground, except the crane is replaced by a building and everything is a little hazy. The rest is nearly completely replaced by a greyish taupe backdrop: blurry images of some buildings across the bay can be made out, and dark areas above them hint at the mountains. Weather reports say it is a sunny day, but smoke hides the sky more effectively than the clouds did last March.
3/9/2025, 4:56:42 PM | 18 3 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de)

Apple, where the buttered banana bread are you getting an AQI of *three* from today? And can I go there, please?

3/9/2025, 4:57:27 PM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Prof. Dr. Michael Hö (Sinologist) 何彌夏 🇹🇼🇪🇺🇭🇰 (@medievalchina.bsky.social) reposted

#DOTD: Fu Lei 傅雷 (1908–1966), translator of #French literature into #Chinese who, together with his wife Zhu Meifu 朱梅馥 (1913–1966), committed suicide in the #CulturalRevolution #文化大革命. Renowned for the letters to their son 傅雷家書, the pianist Fu Cong 傅聰 (1934–2020).

image image
3/9/2025, 5:51:34 AM | 8 2 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Brendan O’Kane (@bokane.org) reposted reply parent

I’m a broken record about this, but this is what happened to freelance translators a bit over a decade ago: fixing machine translations — usually redoing, or having to check so closely against the original that it came out to the same thing — for a fifth of the pittance we’d been making before.

3/9/2025, 12:23:05 PM | 33 12 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de) reply parent

I mean, this is flawless, and perhaps not even one of my favourite 100 Beatles songs on most days.

3/9/2025, 4:34:42 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de) reply parent

uuuugggggghhhhhhhhhhhh, and it hasn’t even got bad yet

3/9/2025, 4:21:17 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Pavel🐀 (@spavel.bsky.social) reposted

One easy way to tell seals apart from sealions is that the latter have a different number of electrons

27/8/2025, 3:27:14 AM | 371 81 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Michelle Gamage (@michellegamage.bsky.social) reposted reply parent

Smoke effects everyone's health in weird ways. My throat swells up and I have a headache like I forgot my glasses. It makes me irritable and I feel cagey and trapped. Check on your neighbours. If you can, help people get to clean air shelters. We're in this together (except the oligarchs fuck them)

3/9/2025, 3:49:13 PM | 12 2 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Leta Hong Fincher洪理达 (@letahongfincher.bsky.social) reposted

Read about how Xi Jinping’s autocratic rise (like that of other autocrats including Trump) has been powered by sexism.

3/9/2025, 3:49:26 PM | 20 8 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de)

Ohhhhhh, that’s why headache. Rats.

3/9/2025, 3:52:14 PM | 3 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Catherine Rampell (@crampell.bsky.social) reposted

So much dystopia crammed into one headline www.404media.co/shein-luigi-...

3/9/2025, 3:45:10 PM | 416 102 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de) reposted

This formation is so precise, it actually forms a Magic Eye image of a tank. Seriously, try it, I’m not even joking.

3/9/2025, 3:04:52 AM | 3 1 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de)

Oooof.

3/9/2025, 3:33:14 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Asia Society (@asiasociety.org) reposted

🔔Job alert! 📍Video Editor based in #NewYork at Asia Society's headquarters. Looking for an experienced video editor who can manage production related to the organization’s New York programming and global initiatives. Check out more details and apply here ▶️ asiasociety.org/new-york/vid...

image
3/9/2025, 3:28:52 PM | 2 4 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Loren Heinold (@lorenheinold.bsky.social) reposted

Objective for my 3yo’s preschool class in Beijing today, as shared by her teacher in the parents’ chat group: “To cultivate feelings of love and respect for the motherland and its military personnel, and to experience the sense of security and happiness that comes with living in the motherland.”

3/9/2025, 4:15:40 AM | 4 3 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de) reply parent

It annoys me quite deeply how susceptible I am to these.

Sparse Ableton setup: screen and big-ass monitor speakers all on freestanding floor stands, Ableton Push controller in front. Another Ableton setup Smaller Ableton setup on a desk, guitar on stand to one side, houseplants to either side, garment draped with artful nonchalance over back of chair More.
3/9/2025, 6:04:48 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de) reply parent

www.ableton.com

3/9/2025, 5:56:46 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de) reply parent

Computer keyboard in this one’s bugging me, though. Really?

3/9/2025, 5:54:06 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de) reply parent

Don’t know what it is about the setup photos on their site that’s so damned compelling. I mean, nice, professionally shot studios, sure, but there’s a certain *Ich weiß nicht was* to the Ableton ones that’s rare elsewhere.

3/9/2025, 5:52:40 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de)

Babe, wake up, new Ableton Desk dropped

A sunlit music studio with a computer running Ableton Live surrounded by an esoteric array of synths, controllers, ornaments and mysterious objects
3/9/2025, 5:49:10 AM | 4 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de) reply parent

I do sympathise with the bewilderment, I always felt like the whole thing took place on frequencies I couldn’t detect. No idea how I ended up married.

3/9/2025, 4:04:05 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de)

“2sd+ intelligence” is such a second quintile way of putting it 🙄

3/9/2025, 3:57:49 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de) reply parent

“To be sure” is bad enough on its own.

3/9/2025, 3:51:30 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de) reply parent

3/9/2025, 3:49:36 AM | 1 1 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de)

This formation is so precise, it actually forms a Magic Eye image of a tank. Seriously, try it, I’m not even joking.

3/9/2025, 3:04:52 AM | 3 1 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Manya Koetse (@manyapan.bsky.social) reposted

"Can you sell?" "No those are not for sale. Those colorful balloons, however! You could take some with you" 😅 #militaryparade #meme

image
3/9/2025, 2:38:15 AM | 18 5 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de) reply parent

I’m not even suggesting you surgically adjust them, just customise their boot heels.

3/9/2025, 1:52:59 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de) reply parent

I’m just grateful any time it hasn’t logged me out.

3/9/2025, 1:50:50 AM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de) reply parent

Suggested soundtrack:

3/9/2025, 1:48:53 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de) reply parent

Too much height variation in those troops, though. Come on, guys.

3/9/2025, 1:45:05 AM | 4 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Mike Cormack (@bucketoftongues.bsky.social) reposted

All classes have stopped to watch the parade.

3/9/2025, 1:43:26 AM | 5 1 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de)

I mean, it’s not my thing *at all*, but if you’re going to do it, this is how to do it.

3/9/2025, 1:43:28 AM | 7 1 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de) reply parent

I’ll try to try again.

3/9/2025, 1:41:18 AM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de) reply parent

Help! steps it up again … by the time you get to Day Tripper/We Can Work It Out and Rubber Soul, it’s like being relentlessly pummelled with a giant frying pan cast from pure genius, in a good way. Just perfect song after perfect song after perfect song after perfect song after perfect song. Insane.

3/9/2025, 1:39:49 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de) reply parent

Another striking thing is how the real quality actually trailed their popularity. I love the early stuff, but it’s not till Hard Day’s Night that you get really sustained brilliance, and even then not all that much hint of what’s to follow. Beatles For Sale is the last time they sound human.

3/9/2025, 1:39:49 AM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de) reply parent

It’s been said many times before, but the breadth, volume, and quality would be impressive for a 30-year career, and incredible for 15. They did it all in less than seven. It’s absurd.

3/9/2025, 1:39:49 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de)

I’ve been trying something I’ve never done before: listening to The Beatles’ whole catalogue in chronological order over the course of a few days. I know all but the earliest albums inside out, but it’s been an illuminating experience to hear them like this. (Currently near end of Rubber Soul.)

3/9/2025, 1:39:49 AM | 8 1 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de) reply parent

Does it get better?

3/9/2025, 1:26:55 AM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture samuelwa.de (@samuelwa.de)

I give up, where is he?

3/9/2025, 1:26:03 AM | 5 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture 99% Invisible (@99pi.org) reposted

Happy 15th Anniversary to us and to you! Without your ears and your curiosity for design, we wouldn't be where we are today. 🎂🥳 Join the party: 99percentinvisible.org/episode/641-...

image image image image
2/9/2025, 8:54:18 PM | 84 8 | View on Bluesky | view