Note: The blogging continues at Pinboard. (The notes tag, to be precise.)
Oooh. Maciej got round to updating my Pinboard username. Sorely tempted to just linknlog and scribble in notes files over there again. (And 30 days of BoC will continue, by the divines! Busy!)
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Day 25: A song that makes me laugh—Aquarius
30 days of music, but—if you can believe it—only Boards of Canada songs. Day 25. Home stretch, now: Aquarius.
This one's overdue. Aquarius was a staple of early release-era BoC, and it's a perfectly respectable and representative slice of their MHTRTC-era material.
Why does it make me laugh, then? Because: oooooorange. The shibboleth of BoC fans everywhere. Lovely and weird; weird and lovely. Sampled from Sesame Street, of course.
Day 24: A song I want played at my funeral—In A Beautiful Place Out In The Country
30 days of music, but only Boards of Canada: day 24!
Ah, I should have known. I've already put Telephasic Workshop and Olson in this bucket.
But it's my party, and I'll passive-aggressively put my own preferences ahead of the needs of my loved ones, even from the other side, if I want to: In A Beautiful Place Out In The Country.
Nice and low-key. Beautiful in an understated way. And most importantly: a touch creepy.
A bit about The Traitors
I resurrected my Medium account and published a longish read about The Traitors, digging into the game mechanics and what they mean for the future of the format.
Subheadings include:
- The goodies vs baddies shtick is wafer-thin
- The game is rigged in favour of the traitors
- The game is low-stakes until the very end
- The casting is vital
You get the idea.
Day 23: A song I want played at my wedding—Open The Light
30 days of music except it's just Boards of Canada songs. Day 23! A song I want played at my wedding.
I'm not planning on having any more weddings. And I wouldn't impose my BoC fandom on such an event. I'll try not to cop out and make this a free hit, but instead let's go with something a bit reverential. And certainly not bleak. Let's say: Open The Light.
If you tilt your head it could be a slow march. It has a bit of pomp about it. The long synth chords sound almost like heraldic trumpets. Yes, this will do nicely.
The marketing-isation of support docs
I sometimes have cause to refer back to the Slack Help Centre to see how they do things, how we did them back in the day, and how things have changed since.
Today I looked at the Remove someone from a channel article at random.
I found what I was looking for: the styled note boxes that highlight useful but not strictly necessary content.
But I couldn't help noticing that two different stylings had been used for “Note” content.
That's not something we'd have done 8 or 9 years ago. A note is a note is a note. The box-out with pen icon feels right.
The yellow box with exclamation icon would have started with a ward like “Caution:” or something. In this case, I think “Note” is right for both boxes, and the yellow/exclamation styling isn't needed – it's not flagging a hard-to-fix action. We'd use red for something potentially permanently damaging, probably with the word “Warning”.
I wonder if brand people have gotten involved and struck off negative words and colours. Possible—but it's at least as possible I'm just misremembering.
Day 22: A song I listen to when I'm said—Farewell Fire
30 days of music, except only Boards of Canada: day 22.
Again, I don't tend to turn to music as either a salve or a force-multiplier for negative feelings. But let's roll with it and choose something sad-sounding, and yet excellent and perhaps even a touch optimistic. Hmmm. Let's go with Farewell Fire, the closing track of The Campfire Headphase.
Of this track, BoC's Mike Sandison once spake:
On Farewell Fire Marcus is on keyboards, nothing more. He did it in a night session. There are moments where it stutters and it really feels like someone no longer able to play well out of sadness. That is why you should never program music. Even if it is an electronic piece, it sounds very human, heartbreaking.
Haunting. Lingering. Fading. A touch sad, perhaps. But not entirely. Beautiful. Thank you, this Reddit thread, for the the inspo, and BoC Pages for the fact fodder.
Incidental question: is the abbreviation pronounced bee-oh-see or bock? Your American YouTubers tend to say bee-oh-see, but they're the same people that describe the BoC aesthetic so reductively (albeit enthusiastically) that they make it sound like the aural equivalent of an Instagram filter—and not even a good one. So yeah: it's bock.
Day 21: A song I listen to when I'm happy—Skyliner
30 days of music, but it's only Boards of Canada songs. A song I listen to when I'm happy: Skyliner.
Here's a peppy ditty and no mistake, and a reason to post something from the so-far overlooked 2006 EP Trans Canada Highway.
This is squarely in my BoC happy-place. Long enough to zone in (or out) to, hip hop-adjacent drums, shining BoCish melodies and flourishes. It's missing the distorted vocal samples you often find on such tracks, but is none the worse for that. Splendid.