Noulakaz

The blog of Avinash, Christina, Anya and Kyan Meetoo.

One solution to old music killing new music

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There is more music is being released today in a single day than was released in the calendar year of 1989!

This is due to much more people, including myself, being able to create and release music thanks to technology. This is a very good thing even though quality is very variable.

An issue is discovery as most music being released today will only be listened by very few people as the algorithms used by YouTube and Spotify tend to favour the same artists, generally old ones, over and over again.

Old music is basically killing new music as explained by Ted Gioia in The Atlantic and on his website and this is a very bad thing for the new artists and the future of the industry, not to mention the art itself.

One solution which works for me

For those like me who think that (some of the) new music is as good as old music, it is essential to have a discovery mechanism. I use one based on various techniques such as following new music genres, new artists (and from them discover similar artists) and reading a lot about music. As a musician, I feel it is important to know what is happening in the world of music.

I have also been using Last.fm for twenty years and I am a fan of RateYourMusic too. These have good recommendation algorithms.

Finally, in general, I like what TIDAL and Roon suggest.

Letting The Orville go far and beyond

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Christina and I discovered The Orville a few years ago. While this TV show, created and written by Seth MacFarlane, could be seen as a funny parody of Star Trek, for us, it goes a bit further than that.

From IMDB: “Set 400 years in the future, the crew of the U.S.S. Orville continue their mission of exploration, navigating both the mysteries of the universe, and the complexities of their own interpersonal relationships.”

The interesting part is “navigating […] the complexities of their own interpersonal relationships”. The show explores tolerance between different species, gender relationships, love, authority, trust, etc. in a lighthearted way.

The main cast of Seth MacFarlane (as Capt. Ed Mercer), Adrianne Palicki (as Cmdr. Kelly Grayson), Penny Johnson Jerald (as Dr. Claire Finn), Scott Grimes (as Lt. Gordon Malloy), J. Lee (as Lt. Cmdr. John LaMarr) and Peter Macon (as Lt. Cmdr. Bortus) was a joy. I especially loved the dynamics between Seth MacFarlane and Adrianne Palicki.

Another important cast member during the early seasons was Halston Sage (as Lt. Alara Kitan), replaced by Jessica Szohr (as Lt. Talla Keyali) in later episodes. I also liked Chad L. Coleman (as Klyden) and Anne Winters (as Ensign Charly Burke).

Christina and I always felt that the show, while funny, was also very intelligent. And it also looked gorgeous.

The TV Show ran over three seasons from 2017 to 2022. Technically, it has not been cancelled yet so it is possible that we’ll have the pleasure to watch a fourth season one day.

Goodbye Kiki

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Our beautiful teckel dog, Kiki, passed away today at 15:20. She gave us eleven years of companionship, many beautiful souvenirs and a lot of fun.

She came to our house in 2013 as a gift for Anya who had succeeded in her primary school final exams. Kiki grew up, as an important member of our family, while Anya and Kyan were growing up too. After many years, Anya and Kyan left Mauritius for their higher studies and Christina and I have been taking care of Kiki since (or it is the other way around?).

Being a dachshund (teckel), Kiki was an energetic and very territorial small dog. When she was little, I had so many issues with her. She barked and barked and barked at everything: birds, lizards and, of course, her arch-nemesis, cats. Sometimes, I had to bring her in the house at midnight as we was keeping barking and people could not sleep.

I also was the one who bought her food, cooked it and gave it to her every day. I suppose that, for her, I was the giant thing, compared to her size, which magically could give her something good to eat and drink every day.

And, because of Kiki, I woke up at 6:00 in the morning every single Monday for eleven years to put her in our kitchen while the Municipality of Quatre-Bornes scavenging team came home to collect garbage. Kiki would have prevented them to enter the yard. For the past two years or so, I had to wake up at 5:00 because, well, the Municipality has changed its schedule.

I do have one regret too. Kiki did not socialise too much with other dogs. In hindsight, Christina and I agreed that we should have purchased two dogs and they would have grown up together…

Kiki will be missed a lot.