Joseph

I was walking my dog the other night listening to Metallica’s Master of Puppets album. I stopped after two songs because while the guitar riffs were killer, the sound was too thin. I figured it was due to Spotify’s compression, or maybe it was the limitation of the recording technology at the time. On a whim, I decided to listen to Slayer’s Reign in Blood album, which was released around the same time as Master of Puppets. Reign in Blood was heavy. I also revisited Anthrax’s Among the Living album, and it also has a much fuller sound than Master of Puppets.

For funnsies, I also listened to a couple of tracks from Godflesh’s Streetcleaner and Big Black’s Atomizer albums. Neither of those bands had the budget that Metallica had, and they used a drum machine rather than a drummer, and yet those albums are both far heavier than Master of Puppets.

What the hell was going on?

I’m not deep in Metallica lore, so I don’t know the story behind the recording of Master of Puppets. Still, I know that the band made a point of being sober during the recording sessions and that the album was produced by Flemming Rasmussen, who also produced Rainbow’s Difficult to Cure album. Possibly it was Metallica’s aesthetic? …And Justice for All is infamous for all but muting Jason Newsted’s bass playing.

I suppose I could hear if anything changed on their Metallica album, but I confess to being too thrashed out to care.

I’ve been implementing zettelkasten on Obsidian for a couple of days. It’s too soon to say that insightful correlations are made evident, and I’m writing concise essays and paradigm-shifting books.

I will say that I’ve been enjoying more making, as opposed to note-taking. If you’re unfamiliar with zettelkasten, one of its practices is jotting down in your own words the note you want to make. The exercise gets you into the routine of getting to your note’s point, which can spark other ideas. And other notes, of course.

I’m curious and a little excited to see where this leads. I also would like to leverage it for a webcomic I’d like to write.

While Obsidian is helpful, I wish a company like The Omni Group take a crack at zettelkasten. They excel at productivity apps, and I’m sure they’d do a great job of streaming the process.

How did Instapaper lead to learning about invasivorism, a possible solution to ethical eating?

Today on MB I came across a conversation regarding Instapaper, the read-it-later social bookmarking service. I was an Instapaper when it first launched but switched to Pocket because, for me, they provided an experience I found preferable to Instagram.

On a whim, I reinstalled Instagram. It’s a decent app, but it made me appreciate Pocket.

I jumped back to Pocket and came across a post from Longreads recommending five articles about food. I usually guiltily ignore Longreads because I don’t have the bandwidth to read the curated content they send my way. But today I’m home sick. Yep, I caught COVID. Nothing serious. I’m a little congested, and I’m tired. So today, I have time to indulge in reading about invasivorism.

It feels like a sci-fi concept: eat invasive species.

Garlic mustard is a quick-growing European weed pushing into the Vermont forest and lacing the soil with a chemical that prevents native plants from germinating. But it’s also delicious. Eat it.

European green crabs or periwinkle snails mucking up the ecosystem? Eat them.

We‘re on the very edge of when this idea takes off.

Joe Roman developed the concept of invasivorism 20 years ago and claims, “We‘re on the very edge of when this idea takes off.” He thoughtfully provides a website where he offers ways to serve up a dish of your local invasive species.

Nutria can devour Louisiana marshes and clear-cut them into mudflats. They also taste great with barbecue sauce.

I find the idea compelling. And maybe not just to keep an invasive e species at bay, but for our survival. Another idea floating around is the concept of the planet of weeds, developed by David Quammen. In short, we are in a mass extinction event that will be survived by the runtiest and weediest of flora and fauna. We may have no choice but to eat them.

Yeah, that’s where my mind went.

Can you blame me?

Many speculate that good coffee will become increasingly challenging to grow as temperatures rise. The same goes for wine. And salmon and other fish are plagued by fungus due to climate change. It’s been on my mind.

Is it so outrageous to think we might someday be industrial farming critters that are currently off the table?