Week 4/2025

Happy Birthday Eddie Van Halen! He would have been 70 years old today. Ed has been one of my biggest guitar influences, and even after all these years, I’m still learning (and struggling) to play his music.

Tempted by a 50% off membership deal (1 year for $25), I recently revisited Sam’s Club after years away. Walking in, I was struck by how much the layout resembled Costco, though it also carried a distinct Walmart vibe. Compared to Costco, Sam’s Club appeared to have a broader selection of office supplies and business-oriented products. Their produce section also seemed fresher, but since this was my first visit, I’ll need more trips to confirm that impression.

A major change since I last had membership was the discontinuation of physical membership cards. Everything is now managed through their mobile app. While I received a temporary paper pass for the day, I was told that going forward, I need to use the app for everything - even scanning and paying for my items, which I didn’t try this time around. Overall, I’m still a Costco fan, but will check out Sam’s Club when I’m in the area.

On a whim, I decided to read the manga Cat Companions Maruru and Hachi Vol. 1 by Yuri Sonoda, and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it! The story follows Hachi, a tough streetwise cat, and Maruru, a pampered house cat who accidentally gets lost and tries to adjust to life on the outside. Their unlikely friendship forms the heart of this charming and funny manga.

I was struck by how Sonoda portrays the world through the eyes of these two cats. Hachi’s knowledge of the streets and Maruru’s naiveté create a dynamic that is both humorous and heartwarming. One scene that particularly resonated with me was when Hachi and Maruru struggled to stay alive during the cold winter season, highlighting the harsh realities of life as a stray.

Speaking of comics, DC comics has a ton of graphic novels on sale (1846 of them!) over at Comixology/Amazon. Most are between $1.99 and $3.99 which is crazy cheap. I picked up a few titles just to have them in digital format. Sale ends February 3, 2025. Note: Purchasing any comics using the link above will give a small percentage of the sale to my wife.

My exploration of Static Site Generators (SSGs) continues, and it’s been an interesting, and very nerdy journey. As a longtime blogger familiar with really old platforms like Movable Type and WordPress, SSGs were somewhat of a mystery to me. I’ve dabbled with Hugo in the past and recently took a deeper dive into 11ty, following Kevin Powell’s excellent tutorial on YouTube. Although the video is from three years ago, most of it still works (the biggest change was that Netlify CMS is now known as Decap.) While I appreciate the benefits of SSGs—lightning-fast speed, enhanced security, and greater control—it’s hard to deny the initial learning curve. For anyone coming from a traditional CMS like WordPress, the command-line interface stuff and configuration files will probably be intimidating. The one thing I’ve noticed with SSGs is the overwhelming variety—they offer so many options that it can feel paralyzing.

• With Star Trek: Section 31 premiering this week, Rolling Stone decided to rank every Star Trek movie (including Section 31). While I haven’t watched Section 31 yet, and I’m sad to see it so low on the list. Other than that, I mostly agree with this list and I wish there were more gems than stinkers.

• Bryce McLaughlin, Apple’s global head of music, recently addressed the issue of streaming fraud at the Music Ally Connect conference in London. He highlighted the tactics used to generate fake streams, such as bots and misleading metadata, which are employed to gain financial rewards or popularity. However, McLaughlin emphasized that Apple Music has a very low rate of stream manipulation, less than 1% of all streams. Thanks to their proactive measures against this fraudulent activity, it generally sits at about 0.3% of global streams.

• Speaking of streaming music services, Duetti recently released their Music Economics Report, which highlights some intriguing stats. For instance, YouTube is gaining ground on Spotify in certain genres, while Spotify continues to pay the lowest rates among the top streaming platforms.

• I stumbled upon another launcher app for macOS called Leader Key. It offers a unique navigation method where users can launch applications by simply pressing designated single keys, significantly speeding up the process compared to typing out commands. For instance, pressing ‘T’ launches the terminal.

• This week, the National Association of Music Merchants show (better known to the music community as NAMM) came and went. For me, the biggest surprise was Ernie Ball Music Man teaming up with Cory Wong to release the StingRay II guitar. What caught me off guard is that Cory already has a Fender Cory Wong signature Stratocaster. As Cory explains in this video, Fender was completely on board with him collaborating with Ernie Ball Music Man to create a different signature guitar featuring humbucker pickups.

• Speaking of Cory Wong, he just released Wong Air (Live in America), from last year’s tour. As a bonus, Mark Lettieri is featured on four tracks. Listen here.