It’s a strange little online community out here in the digital, posting these melancholic collections of songs. I’m so grateful for them for bringing to my life what actually feels like my life, or at least how the inside of my head feels on most mornings.

But online communities… there’s been a lot of chatter this week about the METAVERSE. The term itself isn’t new but it was previously the domain of net nerdz, discussing what they see could ostensibly the merging of online and offline living through a vast, shared virtual experience. It’s really sort of an extension of what people discussed in terms of SIMS and SECOND LIFE. Each of those has their own blend of entertainment and commerce where the user can customize and curate their experience in an alternate, digital reality. You pay to optimize a world of your creation. The Metaverse is similar in concept but the idea now is that instead of switching on and off, people would lead their lives in a hybrid of live and virtual.

For the record, count me out. There was enough Simulation before the internet and certainly Facebook has warped how people interact. My answer is, just no thanks. The best part about being older, by the way, is knowing you’re going to die before you deal with bullshit that’s as of yet undeveloped.

So anyway, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook is changing their name to Meta, in anticipation of leading the charge into hybrid living. It seems greedy and cynical if you ask me, not that anyone is asking. But he owns a platform that already occupies a huge portion of the lives and conversations (and opinions) of a billion people. The only thing he doesn’t own is their freedom of choice, to decide ultimately that they don’t want to be a part of it anymore. What he’s looking for now is a captive audience, where people must be engaged to go about their day to day business. I’ll discuss this further in the future, I’m sure, but color me over these people.

But I just wanted to mention it now. We’ll be getting into it further in the near future. In the meantime, this is the playlist for the above:

00:00 – Микрорайон Юпитер – Белый шум 02:55 – Микрорайон Юпитер – Не будет снова 07:25 – Увула – Отражение 11:42 – Вещие Ослы – Друг-враг 17:12 – Егор Летов – Отряд не заметил потери бойца 19:28 – Индустрия – Вам 22:27 – CASTLEBEAT – I Follow 25:03 – CASTLEBEAT – Part 28:57 – Свидетельство О Смерти – Японская сказка 32:37 – Новое время – Солнце 35:25 – Поворотный момент – Ненайденный день 37:45 – Cны твоих мёртвых друзей -напрасно 41:51 – Конец Мая 96-го – Падать 43:54 – Конец Мая 96-го – Под подушкой 47:20 – Дурной вкус – Навсегда 50:46 – Дурной вкус – Висели вместе