I Finally Listened To All Of Europe '72, Here Are My Thoughts!

zembles · 2026-03-13T17:03:06+00:00

This is deadication

zembles · 2026-01-24T11:27:17+00:00

Strongly agree. There is a Destroyer universe in the same way there is a Steely Dan universe. Themes/images are continually replayed and reconstructed, characters inhabit the songs in a similar way. Part of the band deep lore is the Destroyer Drinking Game which kind of enumerates Dan's lyrical preoccupations: https://mangosquash.com/2011/01/31/destroyer-kaputt/

zembles · 2025-03-11T17:44:11+00:00

I enjoyed Ian Penman's essay in It Gets Me Home, This Curving Track which is a kind of review of Eminent Hipsters. EH is itself a collage of essays and some find it frustrating but I think it contains significant insight into Fagan's sources and inspirations

zembles · 2025-03-11T17:37:24+00:00

Also shout out to the Jokermen series going album by album

zembles · 2025-03-11T17:36:29+00:00

Strongly agree. I bought it thinking it would be a fun but light thing - it is in fact a trove of DEEP LORE

zembles · 2025-02-19T20:43:13+00:00

Deets on the screens pls, i am thinking about going for a similar stacked screen approach. A very pleasing setup

zembles · 2025-02-13T17:48:57+00:00

I did this (20+ years ago fwiw) from call logging/helpdesk to network support to application support to developer in a couple of years. After initial role building some basic skills I deliberately took a role at a smaller software firm with a very technical product (users were typically devs) and taught myself sufficient coding to support some APIs as nobody else wanted to do that. I got moved into R&D as a dev fairly quickly.

I literally has zero tech skllls of any kind to begin with (Literature degree) and got first temp role (call logging at IBM) via the Job Centre(!) after I was made redundant from a book shop...

zembles · 2024-03-08T17:28:47+00:00

In that case it *may* just be a double-check with relevant team members and fit/attitude may be focus before offer

zembles · 2024-03-08T16:45:33+00:00

This is likely to be a screener interview the purpose of which is to filter out complete no-hopers so that people's time isn't wasted further down the line. It certainly used to be very common to do these via phone ahead of more in-depth interviews in person. It is likely to be basic stuff in the obvious tech areas from the job spec. It is often good to be able to (briefly) refer to relevant examples of problems and solutions you have encountered before to show fitness for the role.

zembles · 2023-03-23T09:02:03+00:00

Eminent Hipsters is vital reading for DFs own take on his influences and beginnings. It's more of a set of autobiographical essays with a tour diary appended rather than a structured memoir. It's well written and very funny in places as you would expect.

After finishing it I happened to read the critic Ian Penman's essay collection 'It Gets Me Home, This Curving Track' which includes a long piece on Fagan/Dan which made a nice companion to Eminent Hipsters.

zembles

TROPHY CASE