Somewhat obsessed with listening to Glaring this week. A Spotify Discover Weekly pick. It really knows me.

In January I wrote how I'm fully vested in the streaming lifestyle. While my focus in that post was Spotify and music, it also applies to movies too. I think the last Blu-Ray purchased was The Grand Budapest Hotel or something? We don't even own a Blu-Ray player nowadays.

I'm making a tradeoff here for convenience vs availability.

Chad Comello has a piece about why he's still flying the physical media flag. And he makes that very point about availability. What do you do if the rug is pulled out from under you? Streaming services could wither on the vine. Studios and record companies could change their licensing deals. Movies and albums can just disappear.

I already run into this from time to time with Spotify. If a band has had a lengthy career they're likely to have been on a few different record labels. Not all labels have licensed their work to streaming services. That gap in a body of work is a legit problem. I'm looking at you Killing Joke.

But the convenience of having almost everything at my fingertips keeps that lure of streaming services alive. At least for now.

I commented on Chad's piece about the other elephant in the room.

Reintroducing physical media would mean a complete rethink of our lifestyle. We downsized, and because we were over a decade into the digital lifestyle all those old CDs and DVDs were donated. There would need to be a rethink of where this new media would live. And the non-trivial outlay of acquiring all the equipment to play said media again.

Dear reader, before you keel over horrified, I do still have my vinyl in storage. I'm not some animal.

Also the irony of me saying all of the above when I've just started buying physical books again is not lost on me. What can I tell you, It's complicated.

On the one hand I thought it was great Blur were headlining Coachella. But on the other hand, it's a bit of an odd choice. Blur were never that big here in the US to begin with. A lot of Americans my age would know Song 2, but 1997 was a long time ago.

And lo, the crowd wasn't very receptive. Perhaps Blur's management should have known this festival in 2024 really wouldn't have their target audience 🤷🏻‍♂️

A few things that found their way in front of my eyeballs of late.

• Monarch: Legacy Of Monsters. Apple TV+. I'm as surprised as you are that this was actually rather good as Godzilla things go. Kurt Russell was great in it, Wyatt Russell was also great doing a pretty good impression of his Dad.

• Gravity. Yeah, the George Clooney Sandra Bullock movie. First re-watch since I saw it at the movie theater when it first came out. Made all the more entertaining because of a group of young kids shouting profanity down the front (I remember my first beer as well) who got kicked out to rapturous applause. Anyway, yeah this holds up extremely well. Fantastic movie. Perhaps the most George Clooney that ever George Clooney'd? That would probably be Oceans 13 mind.

• Life. Because why watch one sci-fi thing, when you could watch two? Hiroyuki Sanada is great, Rebecca Ferguson is great. Ryan Reynolds and Jake Whatshisface were also present. But this movie dear reader, while not getting great reviews, is excellent. I would watch it again right now.

• Constellation. Apple TV+. Because why watch two sci-fi things, when… well, you get the idea. Apple TV+, while not having the catalogue of Netflix, has had some fantastic tv shows of late. This one is no exception. An accident on the ISS forces (some/all) of the astronauts to return to Earth. Sort of. Great cinematography, this show looks like a million dollars. I'd love to live in their house in Hamburg. Noomi Rapace is great in this. And grumpy Jonathan Banks is grumpy. "Mamma"…"Alice" when you get to that episode you'll know what I'm talking about. Would like to see a second season.

• Stephen King – Billy Summers. This book was a delight. An assassin out for one last job. A coming of age story. And two novels in one cleverly handled. I've been a fan of King's since I was a teenager and always forget what a great story teller he can be.

• 3 Body Problem. Netflix. What happened was, I'd learned people who read the books weren't impressed by the TV adaptation? And yet the premise sounded great, and the trailer sucked me in. So I went in cold. And it was glorious. To the point where I've now bought the first book in the trilogy and I'm a quarter through it. Fantastic story.

• This Is Us. Netflix. My wife and I started watching this on live terrestrial TV when it first came out and kinda forgot about it somewhere around season two ish. So we watched it from the beginning to the end. It gets a lot of flack for being trauma porn & needing to teach a life lesson every episode. But I dunno, as guilty pleasures go, this was pretty good.

• Röyksopp – Profound Mysteries III. I've become somewhat obsessed with this album and have played it to death this week. It's playing right now in fact. Give it a listen if you haven't already.

Previously.

Who did I listen to most this week? #lastfm says: Ultravox (27), Iron Maiden (20), Placebo (18), Depeche Mode (17) & The Stranglers (17) [via lastweekly]

Went down a bit of a Meat Loaf rabbit hole, as you do. I didn't know he should have sang Bonnie Tyler's Total Eclipse of The Heart. Would have loved to have heard his take on that. Also, on Bat Of Of Hell II, the British singer Lorraine Crosby didn't receive any royalties for the vocals she sang at the end of I'd Do Anything For Love. Both the single and the album sold a gagillion copies, so that sucks.

Who did I listen to most this week? #lastfm says: Gary Numan (39), Suede (27), New Model Army (21), a-ha (20) & The Waterboys (14) [via lastweekly]

You know how there are artists from your youth that, for one reason or another, you just haven't seen live? Gary Numan is one such artist.

I played his records to death in my bedroom as a kid. He released a live box set called Living Ornaments '79 and '80 that I played over and over and over. I still listen to it, albeit on Spotify these days, in fact it's in my top five most listened to albums.

Because I live in a cave I didn't really pay attention to his 2024 tour schedule that closely. I think I saw he was playing with Ministry and there was some talk of separate break away solo shows? Or something.

Last week I REALLY paid attention because I saw he was playing at the Crescent Ballroom in Phoenix in April. That's next month, but really, how popular could he be in Phoenix eh? Could it be after all these years?

No. No it couldn't. For the show is completely sold out. Snooze you most certainly lose. I just have to hope that 2024 is not the year he retires. Boo.

I used to post these every week on the Tweeters but I don't really do that any more. So a new thing here every Friday. Who did I listen to most this week? #lastfm says: a-ha (58), Beastie Boys (29), The Stranglers (21), Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft (17) & Half Man Half Biscuit (17) [via lastweekly].

I love music videos that are just cool walkabouts, don't you? A few of my favorites then.

VNV Nation – When Is The Future?

Bruce Springsteen – Streets Of Philadelphia

The Verve – Bittersweet Symphony

And Of course. Massive Attack – Unfinished Sympathy