iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jesse Farrell @jfarrell.eurosky.social · 19h

Go to your camera roll and search "boat" and post one that you like. Overlook Walk in Seattle, I think. Featuring the Costco of seafaring vessels docked nearby.

A ginormous cruise ship docked near Overlook Walk in Seattle.

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Jesse Farrell @jfarrell.eurosky.social · 10/10/2026

[with alt text for Marius' message]

To me this is less an antitrust story than a textbook case of media capture (I know I am biased and probably see capture everywhere, but this is how I read this). I am following these debates closely as I am writing a book about geographies of capture by the way.

The federal government didn't capitulate, I would say that it was part of the mechanism. A buyer with close ties to the White House got an unconditional DOJ clearance and an FCC waiver, and now owns both CBS and CNN. Political closeness that smooths regulatory approval, followed by consolidation of news outlets, is the pattern we have seen in many media capture environments (Hungary or Turkey, etc.). What's new is seeing it at this scale in the US.

Part of the problem is that the states in the US had no better ground to stand on. In Europe, the European Media Freedom Act, valid for only two years, requires a media pluralism test for deals like this. Regulators must assess the impact on pluralism and editorial independence, not just on prices and output and competition rules. The US doesn't
have that (and I think it never will). In the US, deals where national media companies are bought by politically connected owners get reviewed as if they were mainly about movie tickets and cable fees.

Thanks and hope all is well with you.

Best regards,
Marius

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Jesse Farrell @jfarrell.eurosky.social · 06/10/2026

Also: a shout-out to nearby Tag Team Kitchen, whose owner sold me 200g of fresh pizza dough (not an official offering from them, to my knowledge) and care-and-feeding instructions, since it's going to sit in the freezer for a few days and hasn't yet fermented.

A pizza wheel, in the shape of the starship Enterprise, in the front area of Tag Team Kitchen, Kensington, MD.

A ball of fresh pizza dough, about to sit in the freezer for a few days.

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Jesse Farrell @jfarrell.eurosky.social · 06/10/2026

Note: not "if Hudgins takes office", but *when*.

Lawmakers are used to referring to each other as “Mr.,” “Mrs.” or “Miss,” per the rules. Although there are more formal options that could allow for a loophole, those are gendered too—members may identify each other by the district “he or she” represents or by the city of “his or her” residence. The bathroom is its own ordeal: If there is a gender-neutral bathroom, Hudgins has yet to find it. As a gender nonconforming person, if Hudgins takes office, they would be walking into a system designed to exclude them. And there are fines associated with breaking these rules.

They are still weighing how to respond to it. They want to be taken seriously as a legislator and build relationships that move bills, but if they don’t stand up for themselves, it sends a poor message, they say.

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Jesse Farrell @jfarrell.eurosky.social · 06/10/2026

Found on my walk today: a Peugeot 404, at some point in its restoration journey.

A powder-blue Peugeot 404, sitting outside a car restoration place.

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Jesse Farrell @jfarrell.eurosky.social · 04/10/2026

In honor of his feast day, a couple of depictions of St. Francis, old-school and new.

Old school: a mosaic that could have been done anytime in the last 2-3 centuries, depicting Francis in nature, surrounded by animals.

A view of Monika Kaden's Saint Francis monument, from the front.

The 2004 dedication plaque for the statue "Saint Francis of Assisi Dancing in Water", a sculpture by Monika Kaden.

A wider shot of Saint Francis, showing (uh) his outstretched wings, and a kicked-back leg.

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Jesse Farrell @jfarrell.eurosky.social · 01/10/2026

Seemingly untouched by the erasure-happy mobs of the current administration: some portraits in the Bandelier National Monument near Los Alamos, plus a Land Acknowledgement in the Visitor Center.

Two portraits from life in the area, maybe from New Deal-era photographers, part of an exhibit in the Visitor Center of Bandelier National Monument.

Two more portraits from life in the area, maybe from New Deal-era photographers, part of an exhibit in the Visitor Center of Bandelier National Monument.

Three more portraits from life in the area, maybe from New Deal-era photographers attached to the WPA or CCC, perhaps, part of an exhibit in the Visitor Center of Bandelier National Monument. Shame on me for not grabbing more details.

A land acknowledgement statement, still standing, at the Visitor Center of Bandelier National Monument, near Los Alamos.

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Jesse Farrell @jfarrell.eurosky.social · 30/09/2026

I don't officially go back to work until tomorrow, but have logged in to do some tasks these last two days. Before leaving town, I'd packed my luxury briefcase, one of the first things I bought when I moved to DC years ago, only to be reminded that one of the zippers is kaput. So now it's a cat bed.

Ebbie, a grey/white shorthair, takes a nap inside of an old soft briefcase adjacent to both my work-from-home desk and an old picnic basket used for storage.

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Jesse Farrell @jfarrell.eurosky.social · 30/09/2026

From yesterday: a swan for Sukkot.

A squash, from the rabbi's own garden even, sitting on a picnic table alongside a boxed Moroccan etrog and a portion of the Lulav instructions.

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Jesse Farrell @jfarrell.eurosky.social · 30/09/2026

My first 24 hours in New Mexico: two days after having seen Coyote vs Acme back home, I saw an actual roadrunner in the parking lot of ABQ BioPark Botanic Garden; some soap featuring America's Favorite Short-Fingered Vulgarian (not an actual ingredient, unfortunately); sunrise on Ohkay Owingeh land.

Sunrise in back of the Ohkay casino/hotel, as seen from our hotel room. All my previous trips Out West have been to its metropolises, and the closest I'd been to nature was the outskirts of the Olympic facilities in Calgary. For my first couple of days on Ohkay Owingeh land, I'd look in this direction, and instinctively expect to see a stagecoach or maybe some train robbers on horseback.

But look in other directions, and you see a highway, a gas-station complex, or the casino/hotel/parking, and your John Ford visions fade.

A roadrunner walks through a parking lot, 99.99% slower than its cartoon counterpart.

From a section of hand soaps in a jewelry/novelties store in Old Town Albuquerque. The boxes of Trump's Small Hand Soap feature Der MAGAFührer, arms open wide, comically small hands. This may have been my first and last sighting of Anything Trump during my week in NM. Good.

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Jesse Farrell @jfarrell.eurosky.social · 30/09/2026

On our last full day in Santa Fe, we walked through the tourist-trappy places around Santa Fe Plaza and the capitol; I wasn't expecting to see much, but some Joëlle Blouin paintings at The Signature Gallery caught my eye.

Joëlle Blouin's painting Vivid Charisma, from The Signature Gallery's website.

Joëlle Blouin's painting The Next Chapter.

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Jesse Farrell @jfarrell.eurosky.social · 29/09/2026

Ornette Coleman on John Coltrane, student and bandleader. (I'm guessing the Coltrane + Don Cherry recordings Atlantic later released under the title The Avant-Garde were part of Ornette's "course".) [h/t Jim Macnie, via Matt Lavelle]

He called me up and asked if I would join his band. I was
very interested in trying to get the things I was playing
in the public's eye, but I was having too much trouble with
the business, so I hadn't been out in clubs for a long time. I.
thought I'd better go out and see what's going on. When I
went to the Vanguard, Max Gordon called me over and said,
'Somebody just cancelled-could you bring in a band?' And
that's the only thing that stopped me from joining Coltrane.

In the early 60s he was studying with me. He was
interested in non-chordal playing, and I had cut my teeth on
that stuff. He later sent me a letter which included thirty
dollars for each lesson, and thanked me. [That influence]
showed up very clearly because all of a sudden a guy who
had been playing very 'legitimately' started playing strictly
from his own spiritual and emotional state without worrying
about his past. Had he lived, Trane would probably have
legitimized that concept. I thought he had a beautiful tone. I
thought it was very humane.

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Jesse Farrell @jfarrell.eurosky.social · 24/09/2026

Might this make me trans, you lush?

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Jesse Farrell @jfarrell.eurosky.social · 17/09/2026

I stopped following the NFL and its fellow cartels about 20-25 years ago, so when the Macklemore story broke out, I was briefly left scratching my head....

The album cover and actual vinyl for Robert Kraft and the Ivory Coast's Moodswing LP (RSO Records, 1979).

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Jesse Farrell @jfarrell.eurosky.social · 13/09/2026

Found it on the RugbyPass phone app, but... it doesn't play. It also claims I have it saved to my watchlist (true), but it doesn't actually show up in my watchlist. Time to switch to the VPN and [some other streamer].

Error message in the RugbyPass phone app: "Error loading video. Tap to retry."

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Jesse Farrell @jfarrell.eurosky.social · 11/09/2026

When Mamdani does a video like this, I think of....

Ira Glass behind his anchor desk, with scenic surroundings, on the TV version of This American Life.

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Jesse Farrell @jfarrell.eurosky.social · 07/09/2026

I never would have thought that the opening weekend of Top 14 rugby would lead to thoughts of early-SNL icons.

A shot of some Stade Rochelais fans in the crowd of their season opener; many of them wearing matching black/yellow striped shirts, vaguely reminiscent off SNL's old killer bees.

A shot of the Not Ready for Prime Time Players in their iconic Killer Bee costumes, surrounding conventionally-attired host Paul Simon.

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Jesse Farrell @jfarrell.eurosky.social · 27/08/2026

I had to mute the audio to join a meeting. He was not pleased.

Lambchop, stretched out on a makeshift table, in front of a vintage stereo, jolted out of his reverie by the sudden silence.

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Jesse Farrell @jfarrell.eurosky.social · 27/08/2026

Everything grinds to a halt when Lester solos. Lambchop's three favorite tenors are Prez, Paul Quinichette, and Zoot Sims. He's one cool cat, even if we disagree. There goes my workday.

Lambchop tilts his head toward the speaker playing Lester Young on WKCR, coming between me and my work keyboard.

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Jesse Farrell @jfarrell.eurosky.social · 18/08/2026

Satch had already come back for one relief appearance, three years earlier: sabr.org/gamesproj/ga...

Satchel Paige, during his three innings of relief work for the Kansas City A's, in September 1965, age 59 (or so).

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Jesse Farrell @jfarrell.eurosky.social · 09/08/2026

Part Two: sent just now by my partner.

Similar to the first photo, Ebbie is lying down, as best she can, in a shoe box.

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Jesse Farrell @jfarrell.eurosky.social · 09/08/2026

Before recycling a cardboard box, I give Ebbie a chance to occupy it. The size of the box generally doesn't matter, but I think she has at least a slight preference for the ones that take a little more effort to occupy.

Ebbie, a grey and white shorthair, seated in a cardboard box just big enough to fit her.

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Jesse Farrell @jfarrell.eurosky.social · 07/08/2026

While I'm waiting to get some software-release issues resolved, there's also this...

A TV wide-shot of Cape Town's DHL Stadium on opening night of the All Blacks tour of South Africa.

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Jesse Farrell @jfarrell.eurosky.social · 07/08/2026

In a small Microsoft Teams meeting this week, our CEO caught a tiny glimpse of my $50 touch guitar, and proceeded to whip out the Strat copy by his own WFH desk, so we're both outed, re the musical portion of our workdays. Spooner's post-Afro-Punk books arrived, part of the Kickstarter campaign.

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Jesse Farrell @jfarrell.eurosky.social · 04/08/2026

www.instagram.com/p/DboMEtYicae/

The USAPL Women's Committee is aware of the incident involving IPF
spotter Ernestas Kusinas intentionally endangering athlete Sonita Muluh's safety during a world record attempt at Worlds, and his subsequent public admission that he did so because of
racism.

We condemn this in the strongest possible terms....

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Jesse Farrell @jfarrell.eurosky.social · 21/07/2026

The Robert MacNeil Report (now PBS NewsHour), broadcast of July 2, 1976, nicely restored: americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-...

Jim Lehrer hosts a discussion about the upcoming United States Bicentennial celebrations for The Robert MacNeil Report. The guests each have their own opinions about the state of the country 200 years after it was founded; one calls for radical changes, one believes the country needs to refocus on how it is perceived, and one believes that the reaction to the Bicentennial shows that the nation has its priorities in order. Topic include the celebrations being held all over the country, the current economic state of the nation, historic traditions of the US, and understanding ourselves as a nation.

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Jesse Farrell @jfarrell.eurosky.social · 16/07/2026

Scipio Subwoofer. Not to be confused with...

A 1972 Topps Scipio Spinks baseball card, when he pitched for the Astros.

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Jesse Farrell @jfarrell.eurosky.social · 01/07/2026

TIL: Willis was married to Phylicia Rashad (Phylicia Ayers-Allen), pre-Cosby, pre-Ahmad, and they wrote a disco Josephine Baker concept album, featuring Village People, their band, and their production team. On Casablanca Records.

The LP cover for Josephine Superstar (1978), Phylicia Rashad's only album. She is wearing an outfit inspired by Miss Baker's skimpy banana-themed stage outfit.

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Jesse Farrell @jfarrell.eurosky.social · 04/06/2026

Started work today, coffee in hand, and was greeted by the sounds of a freebop line from Montreux/Berlin. Happy birthday to the maestro, and thank you to the person at Arista who made it possible for teenage Me to amass the Braxton oeuvre via cutouts in the record stores around UNC/VCU. WKCR.org

A WKCR promo image for the Anthony Braxton Birthday Broadcast: a '70s-vintage B&W photo of the maestro, resting the bell of a sopranino saxophone on his thigh; the photo is tinted purple, to match the odd lime-green and purple color scheme of the background and text.

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