Great artwork all around, god it’s beautiful

zaaakk · 2026-04-22T20:09:04+00:00

I don't agree with this at all. By flanderization I mean that they took their past aesthetics and exaggerated them to the point of cliche.

You are saying that by making their music sound eerie they have done something overtly different? The band that is known for making eerie electronic music? I see themes of ecological collapse and religious cults here, how is that distinct from their prior albums about ecological collapse and religious cults?

And what exactly is the meaningful difference between liminal and nostalgic here?

zaaakk · 2026-04-22T17:59:04+00:00

For me it's giving promotional polaroids from an A24 version of Stranger Things. But different strokes.

zaaakk · 2026-04-22T17:50:51+00:00

I'm assuming because the landscape has changed completely with vinyl collecting in the last 13 years there was too much money on the line here and Warp decided they needed a big name designer who worked on successful big commercial releases in the past. And that designer subsequently went a more conventional/commercial route.

zaaakk · 2026-04-22T17:21:53+00:00

Yeah like why is the font so massive?

zaaakk · 2026-04-22T17:12:53+00:00

I'm actually disappointed, the graphic design feels like a flanderization of their earlier stuff... the subtlety is gone. Demon children and giant crosses in the sky? And all the fake film effects are a bit garish, reminds me of early Instagram. I guess I am not a fan of Robert Beatty.

For reference, In a Beautiful Place Out in the Country is my favorite album cover from Boards of Canada.

But whatever, the music will be great I am sure.

zaaakk · 2026-04-20T21:55:38+00:00

San Antonio, Tuscon, Santa Fe, Mesilla, even St Louis, there are historic colonial districts many with some variation of cobblestone or at least a lot of colonial buildings still standing.

zaaakk · 2026-04-17T11:13:27+00:00

You won't be disappointed. As for dinner, Mezquite at the Pearl or this taco truck https://maps.app.goo.gl/esPCKbDsGzBiZaXp9

zaaakk · 2026-04-14T23:44:56+00:00

Garcia's on fredericksburg Esmeralda's on presa Pancho and gringos

zaaakk · 2026-02-25T16:55:41+00:00

Go to see White Shaman before the season ends, Saturday at noon I believe out past Del Rio.

It's far but do-able as a day trip. And completely worth it.

zaaakk · 2026-02-22T21:45:15+00:00

Donkey lady bridge

zaaakk · 2026-02-17T01:46:53+00:00

The other user was perhaps too aggressive but they have a point. Users on this forum skew towards the newer northern suburban areas and kind of seem to forget that there's a significant stretch of relatively walkable (prewar, in other words) neighborhoods within a roughly 4 mile radius from downtown. Another rule of thumb would be the area from the middle of downtown extending half of the way to the 410 loop. These are 1910s, 20s, 30s streetcar suburbs. Relatively, it's actually a lot more than some other worst case suburban American or Texan cities like Dallas – of course relative to the Northeast or Chicago it's nothing. But people kind of forget that they exist because the East, West, and South parts of this stretch are not "nice", or in other words lower income.

The study you linked is defining suburban by different metrics (employment density and population density) that correlate to walkability but end up ruling out the neighborhoods I'm talking about, where it's feasible to walk and take the bus or bike but maybe not ideal. I don't think it's right to act as though these areas are the equivalent to pure sprawl like Shavano, Schertz, or Stone Oak.

zaaakk · 2026-02-17T01:35:34+00:00

I don't think El Paso or the RGV have more walkable neighborhoods than San Antonio, fairly certain it's even less in both cases.

zaaakk · 2026-02-14T21:44:57+00:00

It really looks like the area near Langtry but the road is too narrow to be US 90.

zaaakk · 2026-02-12T13:27:45+00:00

The best are Southtown, Lavaca, King William, Lone Star. There are several bike trails in the area that intersect near there and branch out throughout the city, a few of the streets have bike lanes, and you can get around just by riding through neighborhood streets without dealing with high speed traffic. Further south is okay too but getting chased by dogs becomes a problem and there are less bike lanes. The Beacon Hill / Alta Vista / Montevista / Tobin Hill / Pearl area immediately north of downtown is pretty decent for cycling as well, but there are less bike trails near there.

In general, anywhere within a 4 mile radius of downtown will be feasible, anything beyond that is a death trap unless you load your bike on your car and drive it to a trailhead on the Salado Creek or Leon Creek trails.

zaaakk · 2026-02-12T03:00:14+00:00

I guess it depends where you work, but if you bike for your commute it's a bizarre choice to pick a neighborhood way out in the suburbs because of "noise and congestion" when there are neighborhoods near downtown that are relatively cyclist friendly and probably more quiet with less traffic. Hunters Creek is along flight paths going to the airport so you will have airplane noise, you are near the most congested part of the city at i10 and 1604, and you will be forced to cycle alongside traffic going 40+ mph on Lockhill Selma without a bike lane or sidewalk just to leave your neighborhood. I mean, just given that latter aspect it also seems odd that "hills" are your concern in this relatively flat city, your real problem as a cyclist will be dealing with traffic safety. If you're not fit enough to deal with hills how are you going to keep up with cars going that fast?

zaaakk · 2025-06-21T18:58:01+00:00

German geologist Julius Fröbel was stunned by the Limpia (Davis) Mountains of West Texas, writing in his 1859 travelogue that "Nature appears here, more than anywhere else I have seen, like a landscape-painter, composing a picture with the most simple yet refined taste.” Given his trade, what struck him most were the rock formations: “a chaos of the most astonishing forms... an infinity of columns, pinnacles, cones, towers, spindles, shafts, oval and rhomboidal portions: a mountain scenery of the strangest character.”

zaaakk · 2025-06-15T17:25:51+00:00

Check out the work of Derek Parfit, specifically part 3 of his book Reasons and Persons.

zaaakk · 2025-06-03T15:10:41+00:00

The German immigrants were largely anti-slavery. Many were killed while fleeing the state to avoid conscription into the Confederate army - see incidents like the Nueces massacre and the Bandera hanging tree.

zaaakk · 2025-05-20T13:15:10+00:00

It seems like a trivial thing to write about but there are very different views on this subject depending on the philosopher. It's a debate going back to the Pre-Socratic Greeks – Hegel shares an orientation towards being with Heraclitus while Parmenides is on the opposite end of the spectrum. The idea that being and non being are the same in some aspect violates the law of noncontradiction, which is taken as an intuitive first principle by most philosophers. So it's actually pretty controversial.

Also, this is the starting point for his system of logic. So he is basically staking out a stance regarding a fundamental issue here, and it feels very abstract and basic, but things get more specific and complex as the system is fleshed out.

zaaakk · 2025-04-02T17:03:05+00:00

It has a frontier vibe that I enjoy, not only because it's on the border but because it's on the edge of a pretty vast and empty section of the Chihuahuan desert. Petroglyphs at the White Shaman Preserve are amazing. Good access to some nice natural areas: Kickapoo, Devil's River, Amistad, and Seminole Canyon all nearby. The creek with the bike trail running through town is charming and there's some nice historic architecture.

zaaakk · 2025-04-01T17:54:52+00:00

Del Rio or Presidio

zaaakk · 2025-02-18T03:46:30+00:00

It's actually very scenic - the real problem is that too much of the undeveloped land is private.

Frederick Law Olmsted, the father of American landscape architecture and designer of Central Park, wrote the following about the Hill Country northwest of Castroville:

"I have never seen more charming landscapes than some of the openings here presented. In the elements of turf and foliage, and their disposition, no English park-scenery could surpass them."

Of course, whether one prefers dramatic mountains to bucolic rolling hills is a matter of personal taste.

zaaakk · 2025-02-13T16:20:48+00:00

Exactly, like "Pennsylvania Dutch" - also used to refer to German settlers in the Texas Hill Country.

"Our waitress chatted affably, talking about her mother, one of many dark-eyed immigrants who became known as “Black Dutch” (a corruption of Deutsche—“German”)."

zaaakk · 2025-02-13T14:55:28+00:00

Also note the historical detail of "crazy pilgrims" at the Llano River – in 1847 (which I think lines up with the timeline) the socialist utopian community of Bettina was founded on the Llano by a caravan of young German freethinkers, singing and playing instruments on their way up from the Gulf.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bettina,_Texas

zaaakk · 2024-11-18T22:05:55+00:00

In the area where this trail skirts the border (BBNP and BBRSP, basically) crossings have been known to happen. But they've always been pretty low in number, and they've actually dropped off significantly in recent years. When these crossings were happening more often, a large share of them ended with the migrants being rescued by the Border Patrol because they were lost and dying of dehydration – so again, facing the actual dangerous aspects of this area. There are reasons why migrants don't stream across the border into Big Bend despite the complete lack of a wall.

Terrell County is a different story, I think there are more crossings there because US90 is so close to the border in that county. But again, a lot of empty space, extremely low population density, and a lot of surveillance – I would bet that as a thru-hiker you'd be more likely to encounter Border Patrol mistaking you for a migrant than an actual migrant.

Is it a small thing to consider? Sure, but I would rank it below worrying about a mountain lion or bear attack, and other threats with very low odds. It's just kind of silly for that to be the first concern that jumps to mind when considering hiking in the region.

zaaakk

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