iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Alright, Billboard BREAKDOWN is live late but it's here - new Jhene Aiko album bomb, that rules! Enjoy! youtu.be/wUu69BcB5L8?...

Billboard BREAKDOWN - Hot 100 - September 26, 2026 (Westside Whimsy, So Good, onsra, Washed)

YouTube video by Billboard BREAKDOWN

0248

Mark Grondin @spectrum-pulse.ca · 28/09/2026

I hope I'm done with the Ella Langley conversation here. I'm so tired of this. www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxxw...

youtube.com

Ella Langley - Dandelion - Album Review

Todd in the Shadows @shadowtodd.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

0253

Reposted by Mark Grondin

"Choosin' Texas" sucks and I *like* country musi-- no you fucking don't, shut the fuck up

4044435

Mark Grondin @spectrum-pulse.ca · 27/09/2026

I'm going to add a few quick notes onto this: "Choosin Texas was a country radio thing, and I don't listen to that -" When I hear this, I know folks are just not tapped in and let me explain why: Ella Langley blew up first on streaming. Nashville radio was late to the punch in its success.

23810

Mark Grondin @spectrum-pulse.ca · 27/09/2026

I think there's a few sides to the "I never heard Choosin Texas" thing. Some of it is an increasingly segmented market (because it's HUGE on streaming, not just radio). Some of it is the collapse of monoculture. But some of it... y'all are pretty proud to not know nor care.

24210

For as much as Taylor Swift is getting backlash, I REALLY wish more was directed at Max Martin, because boy have the 2020s not been good for his legacy. Was chatting with @yawexperience.bsky.social and he highlighted how Martin has been chasing a sound in the 2020s than leading and... Well, yeah.

4306

Saw the list of the 'best TV shows of the 21st century so far', saw no 'You're the Worst', and immediately tuned out. Maybe it's just me, but a.) I'm no big fan of one season wonders, b.) your good seasons need to outweigh the bad, and c.) you need to stick the landing.

4181

Alright, Billboard BREAKDOWN is live late but it's here - new Jhene Aiko album bomb, that rules! Enjoy! youtu.be/wUu69BcB5L8?...

Billboard BREAKDOWN - Hot 100 - September 26, 2026 (Westside Whimsy, So Good, onsra, Washed)

YouTube video by Billboard BREAKDOWN

0248

Reposted by Mark Grondin

Mark Grondin @spectrum-pulse.ca · 19/09/2026

Oh look, an actual album review? Talking about how the new Jhene Aiko album 'Westside Whimsy' is one of the best of 2026? Plus comments on 'artistic accountability' and R&B? Yeah, that's the ticket. Enjoy! youtu.be/YSteL2XhSx4

Jhene Aiko with ‘Westside Whimsy’ just made the best R&B album of 2026... or maybe just best album

Mark Grondin @spectrum-pulse.ca · 24/09/2026

1259

I do appreciate that for once, Bluesky appears to have been more normal about the Massachusetts lesbian bar thing than a) I expected and b) than the other site expected. Mostly thanks to the most obvious Simpsons joke imaginable, but hey, a win's a win!

0201

Mark Grondin @spectrum-pulse.ca · 22/09/2026

I'm seeing multiple social media sites argue (for days) about whether it's okay to bring an iced coffee to a job interview. I'm assuming on some level this is bad algorithmic capture, because there's inane, there's asinine, and then there's this. Get a hobby or special interest, please.

2261

Mark Grondin @spectrum-pulse.ca · 19/09/2026

Jhene Aiko with ‘Westside Whimsy’ just made the best R&B album of 2026... or maybe just best album

Mark Grondin @spectrum-pulse.ca · 18/09/2026

1259

You know, whenever I see articles going off about hacking, especially within LLM shops, I look at my cybersecurity designations and wonder when some of these ACTUAL FUCKING CRIMES will be prosecuted. Then I sigh heavily.

0122

Reposted by Mark Grondin

Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

There have always been humans who thought: 1) The world will end soon 2) It will happen in a cool, exciting way 3) It’ll happen to me personally 4) I’ll be a martyred prophet, or a warlord, or otherwise special 5) People who don’t see this are lesser “Sexy apocalypse” is a great phrase for that

1012582515

Mark Grondin @spectrum-pulse.ca · 18/09/2026

20 y/o me was an asshole, I don't particularly value his opinion and neither should anyone else.

2270

Reposted by Mark Grondin

Mark Grondin @spectrum-pulse.ca · 17/09/2026

Live for everyone, because ooh man, this was a trip. Because This Is Not A Stella Lefty Review, it's a breakdown youtu.be/v4kZSyH9emQ

This Is Not A Stella Lefty Review, it's a breakdown

Mark Grondin @spectrum-pulse.ca · 18/09/2026

13113

Today might be one of the most overstuffed release days this year... So naturally I started the morning with a Duke Deuce album I didn't even know dropped lol. (and it slapped - God, this is everything I wanted The Scythe to be)

2161

Reposted by Mark Grondin

Glen, Lord of Pikmin @glennlovespikmin.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

phenomenal video, it's reawakening my urge to hide in a hole and do nothing but listen to indie country for several hours.

0142

Mark Grondin @spectrum-pulse.ca · 17/09/2026

Live for everyone, because ooh man, this was a trip. Because This Is Not A Stella Lefty Review, it's a breakdown youtu.be/v4kZSyH9emQ

This Is Not A Stella Lefty Review, it's a breakdown

13113

...gotta be honest, I'm not as surprised as I think I'm supposed to be? First, Spotify monthly listeners are based off of how many people within a specific month are listening to an act, not all time, and there's a LOT of acts here that pre-date streaming and have fanbases predominantly stateside.

3340

Just resurfacing this again :)

0181

Let's make this abundantly clear, this was true of Yudkowsky over fifteen fucking years ago, when he got gentle criticism about the science in Harry Potter & Methods of Rationality, specifically that he didn't understand Bayesian probability (critique from an actual physicist), he threw a tantrum.

1191

Gwen Snyder is uncivil @gwensnyder.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

I think everyone online WAY over-estimates how many folks are tapped into pop music discourse the way they are, and how much influence they have. (the poster child in 2026 is Ella Langley, which for the offline folks is easily the biggest star of this year, but how folks are saying '...who?')

1252

Reposted by Mark Grondin

My freshman year in college I got assigned to the dorm that had long been the opt-in favorite of some very annoying libertarianish LARPers who really had no interest in showers or social skills and sometimes liked to performatively do group sex stuff in common spaces. This is the same vibe

5839

Vaquera Elisa @boxelderdust.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Could probably give him advice about dealing with deflated balls too.

0241

Reposted by Mark Grondin

Aella is the Olivia Nuzzi of TPOT rationalists in that if you understand this you should go climb a very tall mountain and bury your phone at its peak

2859266

New Sentences From The Dollhouse @doll-discourse.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

I think my issue with 'Rein Me In' is that I think Olivia Dean is just way more convincing at selling the Springsteen imitation than Sam Fender is. Yeah, I don't feel like explaining this one.

0210

Reposted by Mark Grondin

the rationalists aren’t crazy because they do weird drugs, they’re crazy because they like harry potter.

015722

Reposted by Mark Grondin

Faine Greenwood @faineg.com · 15/09/2026

Speaking of the Harry Potter Fanfic The Weird Sex Cult that Controls the US AI Industry Regards as a Bible:

27610

He also - can't stress this enough - falsified medical records, collected blood outside of official trials for 'research' from a child's birthday party, and PERFORMED COLONOSCOPIES ON AUTISTIC CHILDREN to try and find evidence he knew he didn't have. Callous disregard is too kind for this monster.

04713

I'm just going to copy these images in sequence on the other site because holy SHIT 'Girls' used to get wild.

Screenshot from HBO's 'Girls', as Hannah confronts Jessa saying "And it made me remember what it was like in college..."

Screenshot from HBO's 'Girls', as Hannah confronts Jessa saying "when you'd say, 'Oh, meet me at the Free Palestine party'..."

Screenshot from HBO's 'Girls', as Hannah confronts Jessa saying "Then I'd find out you're at the Israel house!'

1111

Mark Grondin @spectrum-pulse.ca · 14/09/2026

Hot take, I'm not remotely surprised that Ed Sheeran made the statement he did ('I am not complicit', what sort of 2017-ass statement is that, how do you not have public relations better than this)... But I am disappointed. Money has spoken loud and clear with him many a time, no exception here.

2459

Reposted by Mark Grondin

About three weeks ago, I went under surgery and while in recovery, I came up with a plan to try and make a video essay about how to get people into country music. I failed, and this is the result. Live early for Patrons and YouTube members, This Is Not A Stella Lefty Review, it's a breakdown.

YouTube thumbnail with a slew of country albums, black flames, and the tagline, 'This is not a review, it's a breakdown'

1378

Reposted by Mark Grondin

Ed Zitron @edzitron.com · 14/09/2026

Free newsletter: The idea that we're nearing the creation of AI systems that we can't control and that pose an existential threat to humanity is a lie and a distraction from the tangible harms and problems caused by LLMs and AI labs' near-unlimited resources. www.wheresyoured.at/ai-is-alread...

wheresyoured.at

https://www.wheresyoured.at/ai-is-already-in-dangerous-hands/

If you liked this piece, you should subscribe to my premium newsletter, and you can subscribe on the following links: $70 a year, $18 a quarter, or $7 a month. In return you get a weekly newsletter…

381529493