iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Brian Mansfield @brianmansfield.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

My life, told through the photos of celebrities friends have said I resemble.

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Brian Mansfield @brianmansfield.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

This is weird, because I mentioned that magazine not 5 minutes before this post.

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Brian Mansfield @brianmansfield.bsky.social · 30/08/2025

This was why I loved being at USA Today during its peak years: We avoided the worst of those power struggles. I recall with fondness a publicist threatening we’d never interview her artist again. I said, “That’s fine. We can always go talk to Lady Gaga instead.” Last time she tried that with us.

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Brian Mansfield @brianmansfield.bsky.social · 29/06/2025

I remember that book. Think I read it. Would've been right up my alley at the time.

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Brian Mansfield @brianmansfield.bsky.social · 28/06/2025

The thing about this new season of “The Bear” is how thoroughly the show has conditioned me to refuse to accept that any of the apparently good things might actually be good.

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Brian Mansfield @brianmansfield.bsky.social · 25/06/2025

One of my greatest collecting regrets is throwing away hundreds of copies of each title in a pretty significant catalog about 15-20 years ago because I didn't have a place to store them and couldn't imagine how I'd ever get rid of that many copies. I did keep one or two of everything, though.

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Brian Mansfield @brianmansfield.bsky.social · 25/06/2025

Nashville is a great city in which to be a vinyl collector.

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Brian Mansfield @brianmansfield.bsky.social · 13/06/2025

Tiffany at an Erasure concert in Nashville was so wild!

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Brian Mansfield @brianmansfield.bsky.social · 12/06/2025

One of the best. And such a great guy.

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Brian Mansfield @brianmansfield.bsky.social · 11/06/2025

I once spent two days in the studio with the Beach Boys. At one point, Brian Wilson was in the control room talking about why the group's records sounded the way they did. Because he was deaf in his right ear, he explained, he was trying to create the illusion of stereo for one ear.

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Brian Mansfield @brianmansfield.bsky.social · 10/06/2025

I should probably discontinue my "Write this in the style of Nina Melechen" prompt, then.

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Brian Mansfield @brianmansfield.bsky.social · 10/06/2025

I play with LLMs a lot, and I've started adding prompts along the lines of "Now doublecheck this and fix everything you got wrong" as a matter of routine.

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Brian Mansfield @brianmansfield.bsky.social · 10/06/2025

I got a press release today that contained the most obviously AI-generated quote I've ever seen. In related news, I have officially banned the "It's not just this—it's that" and "It doesn't just do this—it does that" sentence structures at the newsletter I edit.

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Brian Mansfield @brianmansfield.bsky.social · 09/06/2025

AI LLM tools don't do everything well, but they do come in handy when it comes to transcripts. If you know what you want them to do and can tell them, it might be worth giving one of them a shot.

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Brian Mansfield @brianmansfield.bsky.social · 24/05/2025

It occurs to me that when the couple from Rotterdam asked if it was OK to park on the side of the street on Music Square East that it might’ve freaked them out a bit when I replied, “Sure, now walk around with me to the back of this building and let me show you a little piece of a quonset hut.”

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Brian Mansfield @brianmansfield.bsky.social · 14/04/2025

The Lower Broadway of Earthly Delights.

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Brian Mansfield @brianmansfield.bsky.social · 25/03/2025

That's what makes this story interesting. They *weren't* planning on doing that for country (just arbitrary hoops for Top 40/Hot AC). They changed their tune when three stations played it 30+ times the first weekend, then four more added it after that. Now UMGN's working it because of radio play.

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Brian Mansfield @brianmansfield.bsky.social · 25/03/2025

Plausible deniability goes a long way when it comes to catchy songs.

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Brian Mansfield @brianmansfield.bsky.social · 25/03/2025

Oh, the people that could do that are the ones who already know the content. It's the people who listen to the radio who probably don't know and probably don't care. Only two things can hold the record back at radio: her lack of history at the format & probably unfounded concern about the lyrics.

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Brian Mansfield @brianmansfield.bsky.social · 25/03/2025

The interesting thing is that the only people who seem to know (or care) are media gatekeeper-types (be they in favor of opening or closing this particular gate) and Chappell's fans.

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Brian Mansfield @brianmansfield.bsky.social · 25/03/2025

www.countryinsider.com/news/could-c...

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Brian Mansfield @brianmansfield.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

If you think the weather in Nashville is crazy these days, you should’ve been here on St. Patrick’s Day in 1892.

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Brian Mansfield @brianmansfield.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

One of the most unnerving experiences I ever had was standing outside a school in Camden, Tennessee, on March 5, 2003, and seeing a guy come up the sidewalk with a rear wing from a Piper Comanche in his arms.

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Brian Mansfield @brianmansfield.bsky.social · 02/03/2025

The one time I got to see Badfinger's Joey Molland — who died Saturday night at 77 — was in 2019 at one of the weirdest bills I've ever witnessed: Mickey Dolenz, Todd Rundgren, Christopher Cross, Chicago's Jason Scheff and Molland performing songs from the Beatles' White Album in Danville, Kentucky.

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Brian Mansfield @brianmansfield.bsky.social · 01/03/2025

Two straight Fridays seeing Zach Top. Yeah, that’s a good thing.

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Brian Mansfield @brianmansfield.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

Today in my personal concertgoing history: I sold my baseball card collection to raise the money to buy tickets for this concert. A friend had floor seats, so I snuck down to hang with her. Bruce jumped into the audience right in front of us. He raised his hand into the air, and I grabbed it.

A Bruce Springsteen pinback and a torn ticket stub from a Feb. 26, 1981, Springsteen concert at Nashville's Municipal Auditorium.

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Brian Mansfield @brianmansfield.bsky.social · 22/02/2025

Twice in the past week, I've heard a prominent country act sing a song positioning his Christianity as self-satisfied rebelliousness against cultural enemies. Today, I have Andrew Duhon's "Shotgun Religion" on repeat to drive the first song's memory out of my head. www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWtr...

youtube.com

Andrew Duhon - Shotgun Religion [Official Video]

YouTube video by Andrew Duhon

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Brian Mansfield @brianmansfield.bsky.social · 21/02/2025

No, I was all over downtown! Ryman to Pinnacle to Omni to Jelly Roll’s Goodnight Nashville. (I’m tired and a little sore today.)

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Brian Mansfield @brianmansfield.bsky.social · 21/02/2025

Started the day with a surprise Beatles sighting, ended it watching Jelly Roll play the grand opening of his new Nashville club. In between somewhere, I got a look at a new Nashville venue and saw Lainey Wilson sing "Livin' on a Prayer." It was a busy day.

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Brian Mansfield @brianmansfield.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

23 years ago tonight, I had just finished writing Waylon Jennings' obituary when I heard my wife scream upstairs. Our infant daughter, who had undiagnosed whooping cough, had stopped breathing and was turning gray. Here’s the 911 call. on.soundcloud.com/FqP2viZjrSb2...

on.soundcloud.com

Mansfield 911

On Feb. 13, 2002, my 6-week-old daughter stopped breathing as my wife was putting her to bed. This is what happened next.

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Brian Mansfield @brianmansfield.bsky.social · 10/02/2025

The people who licensed the song may not get "Personal Jesus," but I guarantee you Johnny Cash did.

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Brian Mansfield @brianmansfield.bsky.social · 10/02/2025

“What am I missing here?” has saved me a lot of professional embarrassment over the years.

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Brian Mansfield @brianmansfield.bsky.social · 08/02/2025

I think Michigander's "I'll Be OK" is going to be my theme song for 2025. www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFCi...

youtube.com

Michigander - I'll Be OK (Official Music Video)

YouTube video by MichiganderVEVO

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Brian Mansfield @brianmansfield.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

Oh my goodness, just reading about this book unlocked every sensory memory I have of the sports-story section of the library I went to as a kid. I can practically smell it.

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Brian Mansfield @brianmansfield.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

My daughter’s snake, which mysteriously disappeared two months ago, has mysteriously reappeared. Alive. We have so many questions.

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Brian Mansfield @brianmansfield.bsky.social · 03/02/2025

Sixty-six years ago, the plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper was front-page news in these papers.

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Brian Mansfield @brianmansfield.bsky.social · 03/02/2025

After Janelle threw the coat, I noticed Taylor in the background of a shot, definitely sans coat, and I went, "What the heck is she doing?" A few seconds later, they cut to her with a black coat on. That's exactly the sort of thing she'd do, too.

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Brian Mansfield @brianmansfield.bsky.social · 03/02/2025

Did Taylor Swift just grab Janelle Monae's coat and put it on during "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" at the GRAMMYs?

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Brian Mansfield @brianmansfield.bsky.social · 02/02/2025

I’m a 61yo old cis white male music fan from the South. Without knowing anything else about me, Black music fans, recommend the music you want to set the tone for my listening during Black History Month

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Brian Mansfield @brianmansfield.bsky.social · 02/02/2025

Re-watched a few episodes of “Parks and Recreation” over the weekend, and I can’t help but wonder what Ron Swanson’s thinking right about now.

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Brian Mansfield @brianmansfield.bsky.social · 01/02/2025

Somebody took Dr. Johnny Fever's breaks from "WKRP in Cincinnati," inserted the songs he introduces and back-announces, and got a full three-hour aircheck out of it. It's the best thing you'll hear all day. www.awphooey.com/wkrp

awphooey.com

wkrp | Aw Phooey

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Brian Mansfield @brianmansfield.bsky.social · 01/02/2025

My wife and I have decided we need to plan a Chocolate Gravy Brunch some Saturday morning and have all our friends over.

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Brian Mansfield @brianmansfield.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

Happy 80th birthday to my wife's teenage crush, Tom Selleck.

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Brian Mansfield @brianmansfield.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

You want to know why I take pictures at every event I go to? Because Mojo Nixon interviewed Kris Kristofferson at SiriusXM's Nashville studio on January 29, 2013. We lost both Mojo and Kris last year. And SiriusXM moved its studio.

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Brian Mansfield @brianmansfield.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

Communion at Riverbend. Finally wound up in a conversation at church with someone who was doing that, and he put me in contact with the right people there.

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