Ars Nihil

I'll be honest: I haven't been feeling it with either the journal entries or the blog overall lately, so I'm going to call a rough hiatus for the rest of 2025 for daily journal posts. On the plus side, doing those has helped remind me to tend to this blog regularly and not just let three months go by without a thing. Recently I tried to mix them up by adding "offerings" but that was only turning into more of a chore without adding much else of substance about what's actually

Started teaching myself Spanish, which seems to feel easier than expected (took German and Latin when I was younger, so that might be why). Otherwise relieved about this past Tuesday, which makes things feel less hopeless but still exercising caution about the future. - AB 11/7/25 Today's Offerings Album ...And Out Come the Wolves by Rancid (1995) Image/Video Zane Golia has some weird super-cut videos I've been binge-watching lately. They're funny if you can find the dark h

Today's pretty non-descript - enjoy the offerings. - AB 11/6/25 Today's Offerings Album Sun Goddess by Ramsey Lewis (1974) Image/Video Image by Mariola Grobelska ( Unsplash ) Wikipedia Entry Social Media Share Article of Interest Special Day of the Year

Today's pretty non-descript - enjoy the offerings. - AB 11/5/25 Today's Offerings Album Siren by Heather Nova (1998) Image/Video Image by Karsten Winegeart ( Unsplash ) Currently Reading Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture , edited by Roxane Gay Wikipedia Entry Social Media Share Article of Interest Special Day of the Year

Today's pretty non-descript - enjoy the offerings. - AB 11/4/25 Today's Offerings Album Heartbeat City by The Cars (1984) Image/Video Yes, this is an ad for a synthesizer (the Orchid ORC-1 from Telepathic Instruments) but getting both Matt Berry and Jermaine Clement to be part of an 11-minute piece of wry weirdness is quite a hat trick. Currently Reading Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture , edited by Roxane Gay Wikipedia Entry Social Media Share Article of Interes

Today's pretty non-descript - enjoy the offerings. - AB 11/3/25 Today's Offerings Album Quicksilver Messenger Service by Quicksilver Messenger Service (1968) Image Photo by Liana S. ( Unsplash ) Currently Reading Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture , edited by Roxane Gay Wikipedia Entry Social Media Share Article of Interest Special Day of the Year

Today's pretty non-descript - enjoy the offerings. - AB 11/1/25 Today's Offerings Albums The Story-Teller… A Session with Charles Laughton by Charles Laughton (1962) Video This weekend's video is the full performance of the Max Roach Double Quintet at Jazzgipfel Stuttgart 1990. Found it a couple weeks when, out of curiosity, I was looking for good examples of when string quartets met jazz quartets. It did not disappoint. Wikipedia Entry Social Media Share Article of Interest

Today's pretty non-descript - enjoy the offerings. - AB 10/30/25 Today's Offerings Album The Rocky Horror Picture Show Original Soundtrack (1975) Video I'm sure I've posted some version of this before (the "3-D House of Beef" part?) but in honor of both Halloween and being the late John Candy 's birthday, here's some compilations of the Monster Chiller Horror Theatre skits from SCTV . Currently Reading Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture , edited by Roxane Gay Wikipe

Today's pretty non-descript - enjoy the offerings. - AB 10/30/25 Today's Offerings Album Captain Fantastic and the Dirt-Brown Cowboy by Elton John (1975) Image Photo by Bobby ( Unsplash ) Currently Reading Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture , edited by Roxane Gay Wikipedia Entry Social Media Share Article of Interest

Today's pretty non-descript - enjoy the offerings. - AB 10/29/25 Today's Offerings Album Willow in the Wind by Kathy Mattea (1989) Image Photo by Sandie Clarke ( Unsplash ) Currently Reading Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture , edited by Roxane Gay Wikipedia Entry Social Media Share Article of Interest Special Day of the Year

Today's pretty non-descript - enjoy the offerings. - AB 10/28/25 Today's Offerings Album O by Damien Rice (2003) Video Wired hired musician and educator Larnell Lewis to provide a crash-course on how to drum. Currently Reading Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture , edited by Roxane Gay Wikipedia Entry Article of Interest Special Day of the Year

Today's pretty non-descript - enjoy the offerings. - AB 10/27/25 Today's Offerings Album Soon Over Babaluma by Can (1974) Video Extra Credits covers the mechanics that make escape rooms work. Currently Reading Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture , edited by Roxane Gay Wikipedia Entry Social Media Share Article of Interest

Today's pretty non-descript - enjoy the offerings. - AB 10/25/25 Today's Offerings Albums Still Crazy After All These Years (1975) and its live predecessor, Paul Simon In Concert: Live Rhymin' (1974), both by Paul Simon [selected since 10/25 is the 50th anniversary for one of my favorite albums] Video Up From The Depth , a channel dedicated to all things Godzilla, has a good video that works as a primer for anyone getting into giant monster movies and wants some recommendat

Today's pretty non-descript - enjoy the offerings. - AB 10/24/25 Today's Offerings Album Starfish by The Church (1988) Image Photo by Valeriia Neganova ( Unsplash ) Wikipedia Entry Social Media Share Article of Interest Special Day of the Year

Last night was a bit rough due to helping my spouse deal with a couple of crises, which unconveniently had to happen the day before a big trip so we only slept between 1am-5am. So I'm a bit groggy while also fighting a possible sinus infection. Mostly taking it easy today. - AB 10/23/25 Mood: Spouse is away, so just me and the dog in the house so just chilling right now, not fully sure what to do with myself... Weather: Chilly, sunny, wouldn't mind some rain. Today's Offerin

Today's pretty non-descript - enjoy the offerings. - AB 10/22/25 Mood: Frustrated but otherwise fine. Came up with an excellent idea for a possible book/set of stories that I'm excited about exploring further. Weather: Chilly, sunny, occasionally cloudy. Standard fall weather where I'm at. Today's Offerings Album The Turtles Present The Battle of the Bands by The Turtles (1968) Image Photo by Wolfgang Hasselmann ( Unsplash ) Currently Reading In the Time of the Butterflies

I woke up this morning obsessively thinking about anatomy for some reason and now want to buy a For Dummies book about it so I know more off the top of my head. This led to a rabbit hole about how there's so much out there I don't even know the basics for that I wish I hadn't dithered about for the last 20 years and just took advantage of learning more. (Spanish and playing guitar are always the other two that fall under this category.) Fortunately, youth is always wasted on

Since I've been complaining about not having much to say lately, I'm switching up the formula for these journal entries by providing clearly defined "offerings" every day (with longer things for the weekend posts). A lot of these are coming from back-logs and a gigantic OneNote file of shit I've been collecting for the last two years. Better to share than hoard, am I right? I'm hoping this freshens the blog a little bit more and allows me a chance to recalibrate how I want po

Like I mentioned yesterday, I'm finding myself in a rut with this blog and trying to figure out how to be more meaningful with it aside from just reposting things for whatever special day it is or because someone died. I almost decided that I'd stop doing these journals altogether but may instead switch focus to using writing prompts for days where I don't have anything personal to write about. Don't know, will figure it out. This weekend, otherwise, is packed with Halloween-

There's not been a whole lot going on with my life lately that I've been wanting to share here but I have been more focused on learning how to make zines and have been socializing a lot more lately than I normally would have. Also finding myself getting tired of making most of my recent posts revolve around "Days of the Year" things, so I want to dial back on that and start refocusing on what topics I base my blog around. Wouldn't feel right, though, if I didn't post somethin