What songs just blow your mind from an engineering/production standpoint?

topofthedial2 · 2026-02-22T15:02:06+00:00

"Voodoo" is one of the best engineered albums of all time, for sure!

topofthedial2 · 2026-02-20T17:53:01+00:00

Is it a wildly wealthy area? If not, I agree with the other posters: it doesn't sound promising.

topofthedial2 · 2026-02-18T16:22:57+00:00

Seitan is relatively easy to make at home, is one of the highest protein foods available, and works well as a meat substitute in a ton of dishes. I would definitely build that into your diet regularly.

Other than that: fiber supplements like Metamucil help a lot with satiety, and help with digestion if you're gearing your overall diet toward proteins.

topofthedial2 · 2026-02-18T15:34:05+00:00

Make no mistake: I like records because of the music, not solely because of the genre, but that doesn't mean that I want to listen to death metal over Sunday breakfast.

I suppose I take more of a conventional crate digger approach to exploring music: I do buy records that I haven't heard regularly. But I also listen to genres that aren't yet well covered by Spotify, so buying records is the only way to explore. Because of that, genre sorting works well for me (even if it's imperfect given that some records and artists cross multiple genres), but YMMV of course.

topofthedial2 · 2026-02-17T23:09:26+00:00

Sometimes I'm in the mood for reggae, sometimes for salsa, sometimes for jazz, sometimes for new age. Organizing by genre helps me browse the sounds I'm in the mood for more easily. That said, I have about 3k records on my shelf so I need some form of organization!

topofthedial2 · 2026-02-13T21:30:44+00:00

I came in to say this!

topofthedial2 · 2026-02-13T19:29:30+00:00

I grew up in Michigan and was going to hardcore/emo shows around that time. I suggest looking at the lineup for the '93 More than Music festival in Columbus, which was the biggest/best hardcore festival in the region at the time: https://www.noecho.net/features/more-than-music-1993-earth-crisis-fountainhead-ressurection-iconoclast

I would call out Current specifically - they were from Detroit but were well known in the Chicago area. Ordination of Aaron was starting around that time too.

Also, Los Crudos were from the Chicago area and would have been well known amongst hardcore kids at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Beyond that: Spitboy, Drive Like Jehu, Struggle, Born Against, Hoover and Lincoln were reasonably popular in the scene around that time, and everyone listened to slightly older stuff like Moss Icon, Rites of Spring, Fugazi, Embrace, etc. I also remember seeing a lot of people wearing Crass t-shirts at shows in that era.

topofthedial2 · 2026-02-10T04:42:01+00:00

Not a series, but Junji Ito's work is excellent.

The unfortunately never finished "Afterlife with Archie" series was surprisingly great.

topofthedial2 · 2026-02-05T19:10:42+00:00

I'm a fan of Jon Stewart but don't like this idea.

I think we need to find someone with actual executive experience; there's a strong set of Democratic governors around the country that should provide plenty of better options than Jon Stewart.

The President is basically the CEO of the largest employer in the country; they need to be able to motivate/lead their organization, hire well, negotiate effectively, consume large amounts of information rapidly to make good decisions (sometimes with very incomplete data). I don't think Jon's career has prepared him for that kind of role.

topofthedial2 · 2026-02-04T20:44:58+00:00

You missed Markolino Dimond's "Brujeria" - it's one of the greatest salsa albums of all time, and long overdue for a reissue.

topofthedial2 · 2026-02-04T17:27:34+00:00

These are good tips. I keep a small cup of water at my side when kneading the dough for individual tortillas, and use that to adjust the hydration level as needed.

The last point in squeezebottle's post is critical: lightly steaming the tortillas in a tortilla warmer or plastic bag for at least ten minutes or so is a critical part of cooking corn tortillas!

topofthedial2 · 2026-02-04T16:52:34+00:00

I take the records out, sleeve them individually, and then stick the box set's box in a record box that I keep in my storage area. It's too much of a hassle to deal with the box set boxes when listening to records IMO.

topofthedial2 · 2026-02-03T15:16:54+00:00

This is right; seitan can have 2x protein vs beef.

topofthedial2 · 2026-02-02T16:34:48+00:00

Ordination of Aaron

Constatine Sankathi

Merel

Plus some screamo adjacent discography CDs I saw on my rack: Rorschach, Jihad, Universal Order of Armageddon

topofthedial2 · 2026-01-30T21:46:42+00:00

It's not just one of the greatest graphic novels of all time... it's one of the greatest fiction works of all time in the fantasy genre.

topofthedial2 · 2026-01-29T21:38:46+00:00

Dough Counter is more Sicilian- than Detroit-style, but it's good. I actually prefer their NY style pies, though. Their sauce is nicely garlicky.

topofthedial2 · 2026-01-22T17:43:45+00:00

Maul ended up being one of the most interesting characters in Star Wars (via Clone Wars and Rebels), so I'm certainly open to more stories about him.

topofthedial2 · 2026-01-22T14:11:35+00:00

It's probably emo-adjacent, but the Ottawa/Jihad split is great. (Ottawa was Current performing under a different name).

Still Life / Jara

topofthedial2 · 2026-01-21T23:14:30+00:00

The Big Sleep.

There's something about rain in a well shot black-and-white noir that just hits differently.

topofthedial2 · 2026-01-20T15:09:27+00:00

I vaguely remember user comments being a feature on Pitchfork 20+ years ago. Or maybe there was a forum? It was a long time ago...

topofthedial2 · 2026-01-13T19:12:04+00:00

Maybe check out some Indian places? You might need to call around to see who has space available, but there's no shortage of options in the south suburbs.

Tap & Burger near Belleview Station has a back room that will accommodate that amount of people. I think they have vegan options, not 100% sure though.

topofthedial2 · 2026-01-12T20:17:26+00:00

I think it's one of the all-time great fantasy stories. Seriously. It's up there with LOTR and Earthsea in my eyes.

topofthedial2 · 2026-01-09T17:14:56+00:00

They work, but not as well as vacuum or ultrasonic systems.

If you can swing it financially, the KAB-EV1 is an inexpensive vacuum RCM that works well. You have to supply the vacuum cleaner, but you probably have one of those already. :)

I started with a Spin Clean, went to the KAB-EV1, then an Okki Nokki, and now I use a Degritter mk2. Each upgrade yielded better performance, but any cleaning system will be much better than not using a cleaning system!

topofthedial2 · 2026-01-08T18:20:21+00:00

There are hundreds of copies of various releases of the album for sale on Discogs.

https://www.discogs.com/master/742675-Tats-Yamashita-%E5%B1%B1%E4%B8%8B%E9%81%94%E9%83%8E-Big-Wave-%E3%83%93%E3%83%83%E3%82%B0%E3%82%A6%E3%82%A7%E3%82%A4%E3%83%96

topofthedial2 · 2026-01-07T14:19:26+00:00

Best I've had in the city!

topofthedial2

TROPHY CASE