Today I took the D40X and the Five Dollar Footlong lens ($5 Vivitar 400mm) and took some pictures of stuff:
At 400mm, manual focus isn't always the easiest thing to nail down, but it worked out.
Sunday, July 26, 2026
Friday, July 24, 2026
Monday, July 20, 2026
Roll Over, Beethoven
Podify Wrapped
Week of July 13–19, 2026
608 Plays. 80+ Artists. Seven Devices. One Restored iPod That Immediately Demanded the Starting Job.
Subtitle: "The week Beatlemania was overtaken by The Floyd Extended Universe while an old iPod quietly became the MVP."
Introduction
Well...I owe The Beatles an apology.
Early in the week it looked like the BBC sessions were about to steamroll everything in sight. By midweek they had built what looked like an insurmountable lead, and I was already preparing to crown Beatlemania the unquestioned winner.
Then Pink Floyd showed up.
Not just Pink Floyd, but the entire Floyd Extended Universe, with enough plays to erase the Beatles' advantage and claim the top spot before the week was over. Add in Led Zeppelin lurking just behind them, and suddenly this became one of the closest heavyweight battles we've seen all summer.
But the real story isn't who won.
It's what won.
After weeks of talking about rebuilding JQ5167J1SAY, replacing parts, stealing organs from another 4th Generation iPod, charging it over FireWire, and hoping the battery would survive an honest day's work, the restored 4th Gen Photo didn't just return to service...
…it became your primary listening device almost immediately.
Apparently the best way to test a battery is to throw nearly two hundred songs at it and see if it complains.
It did not.
📊 By The Numbers
🎵 Total Plays: 608
🎤 Unique Artists: 80+
📀 Unique Songs: 400+
🥇 Most Played Artist: Pink Floyd — 82 plays (13.5%)
🥈 The Beatles — 68 plays (11.2%)
🥉 Led Zeppelin — 67 plays (11.0%)
🎙️ Estimated Live Recordings: ~40%
🎸 Classic Rock & Hard Rock: ~74%
🤠 Country & Americana: ~5%
🎮 Gaming Music: ~2%
🤣 Comedy / Spoken Word: ~2%
🎭 Everything Else: ~17%
📱 Devices Used: 7
📈 Recommendation Algorithm Confidence: 0.8%
📱 Device Breakdown
This was one of the most interesting hardware weeks you've had.
🥇 JQ5167J1SAY – 4th Gen iPod Photo
197 plays (32.4%)
Welcome back.
After its restoration, this wasn't treated like a museum piece. It was handed active duty immediately and responded by becoming the week's workhorse.
Mission accomplished.
🥈 JQ449U8MQKK – 1st Gen iPod Mini
105 plays (17.3%)
The little Mini quietly had one of its strongest weeks in recent memory.
Proof once again that tiny click-wheel iPods refuse to acknowledge retirement.
🥉 JQ506ECMSAZ – 4th Gen iPod Photo
81 plays (13.3%)
The veteran Photo remained in regular rotation, giving you two fully functional 4th Generation Photos carrying a substantial share of the week's listening.
🏅 6U949RC872L – 5th Gen Nano
70 plays
🏅 4U545BE7SZ9 – 5th Gen Video
68 plays
🏅 STKY164GNAKAUS – Innioasis Y1
67 plays
The Y1 continues to play music successfully while maintaining an... interpretive relationship with statistical accuracy.
🏅 2X4090BCPNT – 3rd Gen iPod
20 plays
A cameo appearance from one of the elder statesmen of the fleet.
🏆 Top Artists
🥇 Pink Floyd — 82 plays (13.5%)
The Floyd Extended Universe launched a textbook comeback. Early Beatle dominance gave way to long-form progressive rock, proving once again that Floyd never really leaves—sometimes it just waits patiently.
🥈 The Beatles — 68 plays (11.2%)
The BBC binge remained a defining part of the week. Had the week ended on Wednesday, they'd have won in a landslide.
🥉 Led Zeppelin — 67 plays (11.0%)
Classic Zeppelin behavior.
Never flashy.
Never absent.
Always somehow finishing near the top.
- Peter Frampton — 21
The live albums continue paying dividends.
- Cheap Trick — 17
Live recordings remain less of a preference and more of a lifestyle choice.
6–10. Jimmy Buffett, Gary Moore, AC/DC, Blue Öyster Cult, The Warning
Exactly the sort of supporting cast that keeps your playlists delightfully unpredictable.
🎵 Top Songs
Rather than one runaway hit, this week rewarded album listening.
Entire stretches of Pink Floyd, Beatles BBC recordings, and Led Zeppelin kept appearing, making the week feel less like isolated tracks and more like a series of complete musical journeys.
🎸 Genre Breakdown
Classic rock once again dominated the landscape.
Between Floyd, Zeppelin, Beatles, Frampton, Cheap Trick, AC/DC, Blue Öyster Cult, Gary Moore, Queen and Jimmy Buffett, roughly three-quarters of your listening comfortably lived between the late 1960s and early 1980s.
Modern rock still checked in thanks to The Warning, while country remained the recurring musical cryptid that wanders into the playlist just often enough to remind everyone it exists.
🏆 Awards
🏆 Most Surprising Transition Award
🥇 Grand Champion
The Beatles → Pink Floyd
The musical equivalent of walking through a time portal.
🥈 Runner-Up
Cheap Trick → Jimmy Buffett
Arena rock immediately followed by tropical vacation.
🥉 Third Place
Blue Öyster Cult → The Warning
A surprisingly smooth handoff between generations of rock.
🎢 Emotional Whiplash Award
The Beatles → Comfortably Numb
From youthful optimism...
...to quietly questioning the human condition.
🎲 Shuffle Goblin Award
Awarded for repeatedly interrupting Beatles BBC sessions with extended Pink Floyd pieces.
Nobody requested this.
The Shuffle Goblin insisted.
🤔 Algorithm Therapist Award
The Floyd Extended Universe
Recommendation engines generally understand liking Pink Floyd.
They become concerned when Pink Floyd patiently waits until midweek before staging a statistical coup.
🚚 Unexpected Vehicle Award
Jimmy Buffett once again attempted to convince everyone that traveling somewhere warm is the solution to life's problems.
No objections were raised.
🎮 Save Point To Mosh Pit Award
Modern rock made just enough appearances to remind everyone that The Warning has earned permanent residency alongside the classic acts.
🏆 Podify Achievement Badges
🏆 Floydian Scholar
🏆 Live Album Addict
🏆 Shuffle Goblin Accomplice
🏆 Classic Rock Preservation Society
🏆 Audience Member of the Week
🏆 FireWire Resurrection Technician
🏆 Vintage Hardware Revival Society
🏆 Recommendation Algorithm Menace
Listener Personality Report
"This listener enjoys restoring twenty-year-old hardware so it can immediately be asked to play six hundred songs in a week."
Translated into plain English:
Most people rebuild an iPod to prove they can.
You rebuild one to prove it still belongs in the regular rotation.
And based on this week's numbers...
…it absolutely does.
Closing Thoughts
Was it coherent?
More than expected.
Was it entertaining?
Without question.
This week looked like it would become a Beatles retrospective before evolving into a three-way race between Pink Floyd, The Beatles, and Led Zeppelin. That alone would have made for an interesting week.
Instead, the real headline became the triumphant return of JQ5167J1SAY. The restoration wasn't merely successful—it immediately produced the most active device of the week, validating the rebuild with nearly 200 plays and what sounds like a very respectable battery endurance test.
Meanwhile, the rest of the museum fleet quietly kept pace: the Mini reminded everyone why it's still beloved, the veteran Photo continued pulling its weight, the Nano and Video remained reliable regulars, and the Y1 continued its charmingly inconsistent experiment in statistics.
As always, the Shuffle Goblin ensured nothing became too predictable, the recommendation algorithm filed yet another workplace incident report, and somewhere in the background, another vintage iPod is probably wondering whether it's next on the restoration bench. The season rolls on.
Monday, July 13, 2026
Black Magic Woman
Podify Wrapped
Week of July 6–12, 2026
345 Plays. Two iPods. One Floyd Extended Universe Establishing Colonial Rule.
This week, the Shuffle Goblin didn't disappear—it simply decided progressive rock was the only acceptable form of transportation.
Introduction
Welcome back to Podify Wrapped, where I spend another week trying to explain my listening habits and accidentally generate fresh evidence that recommendation algorithms should qualify for hazard pay.
After last week's globe-trotting journey through William Shatner, Ray Stevens, Lyle Lovett, Jimmy Buffett, and whatever strange dimension the Shuffle Goblin was visiting, this week felt...focused. Not normal, mind you, but focused. If the previous report resembled a music festival with no stage manager, this one was more like spending an entire weekend at a progressive rock convention that occasionally wandered into an arena rock concert and stopped by a Santana show on the way home.
The headline belongs to Pink Floyd.
Actually, that's underselling it.
The Floyd Extended Universe didn't merely top the charts this week—it practically annexed them. Nearly twenty percent of everything I listened to bore the Pink Floyd name. Somewhere, Roger Waters is building a wall around my listening history while David Gilmour quietly plays an immaculate guitar solo over the construction.
Rush wasn't content to watch from the sidelines, either. Led Zeppelin continued its season-long campaign for musical world domination, while The Who, Santana, The Warning, Blue Öyster Cult, and Robert Plant ensured the supporting cast remained worthy of headliner status.
Even the hardware got in on the act.
After weeks of Zunes, phones, PCs, and assorted digital archaeology projects, this week's listening was refreshingly simple: two click-wheel iPods did all the work. The museum closed its experimental wing for a week and let the classics remind everyone why they're still here.
As always, the Shuffle Goblin remained employed despite overwhelming evidence suggesting otherwise.
By The Numbers
🎵 Total Plays: 345
🎤 Unique Artists: 80
📀 Unique Songs: Approximately 260
🥇 Most Played Artist: Pink Floyd — 68 plays (19.7%)
🥇 Most Played Song: Working Man — 3 plays
🎙️ Live Recordings: Approximately 42%
🎸 Classic Rock & Hard Rock: ~60%
🤘 Progressive Rock: ~18%
🤠 Country & Americana: ~5%
🎮 Gaming Soundtracks: ~3%
🤣 Comedy & Spoken Word: ~2%
🎭 Everything Else: ~12%
📱 Devices Used: 2
📈 Playlist Consistency: Suspiciously coherent until the Shuffle Goblin remembered it had a quota to meet.
🤖 Recommendation Algorithm Status: "Subject appears to be trapped in 1973. Monitoring continues."
Device Breakdown
🥇 5th Generation iPod Video — 233 plays (67.5%)
The undisputed workhorse of the week.
This iPod apparently woke up Monday morning and decided, "Today we are listening to Pink Floyd until morale improves."
Mission accomplished.
🥈 4th Generation iPod Photo — 112 plays (32.5%)
Quietly handled nearly a third of the week's listening without complaint.
The dependable veteran of the fleet continues proving that twenty-year-old hardware can still outperform modern streaming services in one very specific household.
For one glorious week, the click-wheel dynasty reclaimed complete control.
Historians rejoiced.
Microsoft declined to comment.
Top Artists of the Week
🥇 Pink Floyd
68 plays (19.7%)
Ladies and gentlemen...
The Floyd Extended Universe.
Nearly one out of every five songs this week came from Pink Floyd. This wasn't simply "listening to Floyd." This was an extended residency.
Recommendation algorithms are reportedly asking whether I require emotional support.
🥈 Rush
32 plays (9.3%)
Rush continues climbing.
Odd time signatures remain entirely acceptable household entertainment.
Neil Peart is probably responsible for several of this week's most satisfying drum fills.
🥉 Led Zeppelin
28 plays (8.1%)
A comparatively quiet week...
...which would be a career-defining week for almost any other artist.
Led Zeppelin has reached the point where finishing third somehow feels unusual.
🏅 The Who
19 plays (5.5%)
Still proving that maximum volume remains a perfectly respectable artistic philosophy.
🏅 The Warning
17 plays (4.9%)
Modern rock once again earned its invitation to the classic rock family reunion.
Every appearance from The Warning reinforces the idea that great rock music didn't stop being made in 1980.
Honorable Mentions
- Santana — 16 plays
- Blue Öyster Cult — 10 plays
- Robert Plant — 10 plays
- Poison — 10 plays
- Eagles — 8 plays
The supporting cast this week looked suspiciously like the lineup for the greatest classic rock festival that never happened.
Top Songs of the Week
🥇 Working Man
3 plays (0.9%)
Rush takes the weekly crown.
Apparently I worked hard enough to require repeated motivational assistance from Geddy Lee.
🥈 Incident at Neshabur
3 plays
Santana quietly sneaks into the statistical spotlight with one of the week's strongest instrumental performances.
🥉 Closer to the Heart
2 plays
Rush wasn't satisfied winning one category.
Additional Heavy Rotation
- Tom Sawyer — 2
- YYZ — 2
- Six Days on the Road (Live) — 2
- Black Magic Woman / Gypsy Queen — 2
- Consume (Live) — 2
- Eclipse — 2
One moment I'm contemplating mortality with Pink Floyd.
The next I'm hauling freight.
Then Santana appears.
Business as usual.
Genre Breakdown
🎸 Classic Rock & Hard Rock — ~60%
Classic rock once again proved that it isn't simply a genre in my library—it's the ecosystem everything else evolves around.
Led Zeppelin, The Who, Blue Öyster Cult, Santana, Robert Plant, Poison, Eagles, and a healthy helping of Rush made this feel less like a playlist and more like someone accidentally left a classic rock station running for an entire week.
Frankly, there are worse problems to have.
🌈 Progressive Rock — ~18%
This category deserves special recognition because it wasn't merely represented.
It staged a coup.
Between Pink Floyd and Rush, progressive rock accounted for well over a quarter of the week's attention, if not quite that much of the total play count. Long songs, concept albums, philosophical lyrics, and musicians who apparently believe odd time signatures are a form of cardio dominated much of the week.
The Floyd Extended Universe once again reminded everyone that "just one more album" inevitably becomes three.
🤠 Country & Americana — ~5%
For once, the Country Cryptid remained relatively well behaved.
A few truck-driving anthems rolled through town, waved politely, and continued down the highway without completely hijacking the playlist.
Honestly, that's probably suspicious.
🎮 Gaming Soundtracks — ~3%
A lighter week for the Brotherhood of Nod.
The battlefield was relatively quiet, though Frank Klepacki continues to appear often enough that I now instinctively expect tanks to roll across the screen before Led Zeppelin starts playing.
🤣 Comedy & Spoken Word — ~2%
The recommendation algorithm briefly relaxed.
Then it remembered previous weeks.
The therapist remains on call.
🎭 Everything Else — ~12%
This category exists primarily because no software engineer has yet invented enough genre labels to accurately describe this music library.
🏆 Most Surprising Transition Award
🥇 Grand Champion
Pink Floyd → Poison
One minute we're contemplating mortality, time, greed, and the human condition.
The next we're applying enough hairspray to violate several environmental regulations.
Both somehow work.
🥈 Runner-Up
Rush → Santana
Progressive Canadian precision immediately giving way to Latin-infused guitar mastery.
Passport stamps were issued.
🥉 Third Place
The Warning → Eagles
Modern hard rock abruptly deciding to take the scenic route through Southern California.
The Shuffle Goblin apparently needed a vacation.
🎢 Emotional Whiplash Award
Eclipse → Six Days on the Road (Live)
Pink Floyd closes one of the most iconic albums in rock history with a meditation on life, death, and existence itself.
Immediately afterward...
...it's time to haul freight.
Emotionally speaking, that's less a transition and more a cliff.
Medical professionals remain concerned.
🎲 Shuffle Goblin Award
Santana → Pink Floyd → Poison
No human sat down and intentionally sequenced these three artists together.
No committee approved this.
The Shuffle Goblin simply emerged from the shadows, whispered "trust me," and pressed Next.
🤔 Algorithm Therapist Award
Pink Floyd
Recommendation engines generally understand someone enjoying Pink Floyd.
What they struggle with is listening to that much Pink Floyd before immediately pivoting into Rush, The Warning, Santana, trucking songs, and Poison without displaying the slightest hesitation.
Official therapist's note:
"Patient reports feeling perfectly balanced."
Patient is almost certainly lying.
🚚 Unexpected Vehicle Award
Six Days on the Road (Live)
Transportation songs continue appearing with alarming regularity.
Between Radar Love, Time for Me to Fly, and now another trucking anthem, Podify Wrapped may soon require a Commercial Driver's License endorsement.
🎮 Save Point to Mosh Pit Award
Frank Klepacki → Led Zeppelin
Once again, the Brotherhood of Nod successfully hands control directly to Jimmy Page.
This transition should not make sense.
It continues making perfect sense.
🏆 Podify Achievement Badges
🏆 Floydian Scholar II
Successfully completed another semester at the University of Progressive Rock.
🏆 Live Album Addict
Nearly half the week still happened in front of imaginary audiences.
🏆 Classic Rock Preservation Society
Single-handedly keeping FM radio culturally relevant.
🏆 Shuffle Goblin Accomplice
The evidence is no longer circumstantial.
🏆 Audience Member of the Week
Attended approximately eleven concerts without purchasing a single ticket.
🏆 Canadian Time Signature Survivor
Rush once again challenged conventional mathematics.
🏆 Brotherhood of Nod Field Operative
Peace through power... and excellent guitar solos.
🏆 Click-Wheel Loyalist
Two iPods carried the entire week without requiring assistance from modern technology.
🏆 Truck Stop Philosopher
Successfully transitioned from existential dread to highway logistics in under four minutes.
Listener Personality Report
"This listener enjoys progressive rock, classic rock, arena rock, guitar virtuosos, occasional trucking songs, vintage MP3 players, and enough live recordings to convince neighbors they secretly own a concert venue."
Translated into plain English:
"This user approaches music libraries the same way other people approach all-you-can-eat buffets: sample everything, go back for seconds on the favorites, and somehow leave with an entirely different dessert than anyone expected."
Recommendation Algorithm Diagnosis
Advanced Floyd Exposure
Secondary symptoms include:
- Chronic Live Album Syndrome
- Recurring Shuffle Goblin Contact
- Click-Wheel Dependency
- Progressive Rock Residency
Further treatment has been deemed unlikely to succeed.
Closing Thoughts
Was it coherent?
By Podify standards... surprisingly.
Was it entertaining?
Three hundred and forty-five plays suggest it absolutely was.
Unlike the previous few weeks, which felt like the musical equivalent of a shopping cart with one bad wheel careening through every aisle in the record store, this week had a distinct identity. Progressive rock took center stage, classic rock formed the backbone, and the supporting cast filled in the edges with just enough surprises to keep things interesting.
The biggest story wasn't simply that Pink Floyd finished first.
It was how decisively they finished first. The Floyd Extended Universe didn't merely make an appearance—it established residency, planted a flag, and politely informed everyone else they'd be sharing the stage for the foreseeable future.
Meanwhile, the click-wheel museum returned to basics. No Zune experiments. No reluctant phone usage. Just two veteran iPods quietly doing exactly what they were built to do.
Perhaps that's the real theme of this week's report.
Sometimes the Shuffle Goblin doesn't need to create complete chaos.
Sometimes it simply looks at an entire Pink Floyd catalog, smiles knowingly, and says:
"Yeah... let's just stay here for a while."
Sunday, July 5, 2026
They Call Me The Working Man
I took my Sony A6000 and threw the Carl Zeiss Jenner Biotar 58mm, f=2 Exakta lens on it today. You know, for science.
Here are some of the pictures I came up with:
Yeah, I'm good with this.
Saturday, July 4, 2026
My Hometown Is Coming In Sight
Went to the 4th of July parade in the town I am from.
Have some pictures, yo!
Friday, July 3, 2026
Closer To The Heart
So the $20 lens bins at the camera store are...Entertaining to me.
Also problematic.
So I picked up a Nikkor-Q 20cm f/4 manual lens from the early '70s and a Nikon 70-300 AF lens from probably the mid '90s.
After using them both pretty extensively yesterday, I'm pretty happy with them.
Here are a few from the 70-300:
For these, I mostly left the auto exposure on and, since it is a screw drive focus, I had to do that part manually.
As for the Nikkor, the guy at the store was convinced that it wouldn't work on my D40X. I explained to him that he was, in fact, incorrect. He tried to argue the point, so I grabbed a D40 off the shelf and showed him. His response was "Huh. Learn something new every day." Here are a few of the Nikkor Q:
These are all manual everything. Exposure, focus, shutter speed, everything.
I'm very happy with both of these. The 70-300 will probably go with the D70 or the N# 35mms that I have.
These were all taken with my D40X. In case there was any confusion about it.
Thursday, July 2, 2026
Monday, June 29, 2026
Don't Look, Ethel!
Podify Wrapped
Week of June 22–28, 2026
478 Plays. One Shuffle Goblin. One Squirrel Revival. One Recommendation Algorithm Quietly Updating Its Résumé.
📖 Podify Timeline
June 22–28, 2026: The week Ray Stevens wandered into the playlist, found the Shuffle Goblin, and immediately agreed to be an accomplice.
Welcome Back to Podify Wrapped
Every week I sit down to write one of these hoping the statistics will reveal some kind of coherent listening pattern.
Every week the statistics instead produce evidence that my shuffle button has developed free will.
This week featured 478 plays from an astonishing variety of artists, but unlike recent weeks, there was a surprisingly clear hierarchy at the top. Pink Floyd reclaimed the throne with authority, Led Zeppelin reminded everyone why they're permanently exempt from criticism, The Warning continued proving they're no longer "the new band," and somewhere in the middle of all that, Ray Stevens suddenly decided that squirrels and streaking deserved equal representation alongside progressive rock masterpieces.
Because apparently they do.
The bigger surprise wasn't just the artists—it was how often they returned. This wasn't a week of endless one-off curiosities. Several albums stayed in rotation long enough to suggest I had actual intentions before the Shuffle Goblin inevitably intervened.
As always, live recordings continued to dominate. At this point I'm less of a music listener and more of a frequent concert attendee who somehow never has to leave the couch.
Meanwhile, recommendation algorithms across the internet have reportedly begun exchanging concerned emails.
By the Numbers
🎵 Total Plays: 478
🎤 Unique Artists: 100+ (estimated)
📀 Unique Songs: 330+ (estimated)
🎙️ Live Recordings: ~225 plays (47%)
🎸 Classic Rock & Hard Rock: 55%
🤠 Country & Americana: 12%
🎮 Gaming Soundtracks: 5%
🤘 Alternative & Modern Rock: 12%
🤣 Comedy / Novelty: 7%
🎭 Everything Else: 9%
📈 Playlist Consistency: Improving briefly before immediately wandering off again.
🤖 Recommendation Algorithm Confidence: 3%.
Top Artists of the Week
🥇 Pink Floyd
51 plays (10.7%)
The Floyd Extended Universe took last week's absence personally.
Apparently nearly eleven percent of my listening was dedicated to proving that existential dread sounds best accompanied by David Gilmour's guitar.
Mission accomplished.
🥈 Led Zeppelin
35 plays (7.3%)
Some people have comfort food.
I have comfort Zeppelin.
Whether it was Whole Lotta Love or Dancing Days, the answer to "Should I play another Led Zeppelin song?" remained a consistent and enthusiastic "Yes."
🥉 The Warning
34 plays (7.1%)
At this point they're no longer "the modern band I occasionally listen to."
They've become regular residents of Podify Wrapped.
The recommendation algorithm appreciates finally seeing an artist whose average album release date doesn't begin with "19."
🏅 Little Feat
27 plays (5.6%)
The week's stealth MVP.
Without much fanfare, Little Feat quietly climbed into fourth place, proving once again that groove always finds a way.
🏅 Eric Clapton
22 plays (4.6%)
Just enough blues to remind everyone that guitar solos remain one of life's essential nutrients.
Honorable Mentions
Jimmy Buffett — 18 plays (3.8%)
The Alan Parsons Project — 17 plays (3.6%)
The Beatles — 10 plays
Blue Öyster Cult — 9 plays
Queen + Paul Rodgers — 9 plays
Top Songs of the Week
For the first time, the Song of the Week podium resembles a committee meeting that ended in a tie.
🥇 Hair of the Dog (Live) — 4 plays
🥇 Dancing Days (Live 1972) — 4 plays
🥇 Whole Lotta Love — 4 plays
🥇 The Mississippi Squirrel Revival — 4 plays
🥇 The Streak — 4 plays
Five completely different songs.
Five completely different moods.
One completely confused listener.
Additional heavy rotation included:
I've Been to Memphis (Live) — 3 plays
Find the Princess — 3 plays
Money (2019 Remix Live) — 3 plays
All Right Now — 3 plays
Take It on the Run — 3 plays
Apparently no genre was willing to concede defeat this week.
Genre Breakdown
🎸 Classic Rock & Hard Rock — 55%
Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Clapton, Little Feat, Queen, Blue Öyster Cult, The Beatles, Free, and friends completely dominated.
This playlist spent so much time in the 1970s it may qualify for historical preservation.
🤘 Alternative & Modern Rock — 12%
The Warning once again carried the modern era almost single-handedly.
🤠 Country & Americana — 12%
Jimmy Buffett returned for beach duty while Ray Stevens officially joined the roster.
Country music continues appearing like Bigfoot—unexpectedly, briefly, and somehow leaving behind undeniable evidence.
🎮 Gaming Soundtracks — 5%
A few strategic save points prevented the playlist from becoming entirely guitar-driven.
🤣 Comedy & Novelty — 7%
Ray Stevens has entered the chat.
Nobody is safe.
🏆 Most Surprising Transition Award
Grand Champion
The Mississippi Squirrel Revival → Comfortably Numb
One song describes squirrels taking over a church.
The next contemplates alienation, trauma, and emotional isolation.
The emotional distance between these songs should require a passport.
Runner-Up
The Warning → Ray Stevens
Arena-sized modern hard rock immediately yielding to comedic storytelling about streaking.
Perfectly logical...
...inside this playlist.
Third Place
Final Fantasy soundtrack → Whole Lotta Love
Saving kingdoms apparently leads directly to Jimmy Page riffs.
Honestly, that's efficient.
🎢 Emotional Whiplash Award
The Mississippi Squirrel Revival → Comfortably Numb
The medical community advises against experiencing these two emotional states within five minutes of each other.
The Shuffle Goblin disagrees.
🎲 Shuffle Goblin Award
Ray Stevens → Pink Floyd → The Warning
The Goblin has begun writing screenplays.
🤔 Algorithm Therapist Award
Ray Stevens
Spotify:
"Novelty?"
Shuffle Goblin:
"Legend."
Spotify:
"...both?"
🚚 Unexpected Vehicle Award
I've Been to Memphis (Live)
The transportation category remains undefeated.
🎮 Save Point to Mosh Pit Award
Find the Princess → Whole Lotta Love
Princess rescued.
Amplifiers activated.
🏆 Podify Achievement Badges
🏆 Floydian Scholar
🏆 Live Album Addict
🏆 Guitar Solo of the Week — Whole Lotta Love
🏆 Shuffle Goblin Accomplice
🏆 Classic Rock Preservation Society
🏆 Audience Member of the Week
🏆 Hero of Gaia
🏆 Squirrel Whisperer — Awarded for unexpectedly making Ray Stevens one of the week's defining artists.
🏆 Recommendation Algorithm Speedrun — Confused three separate recommendation engines before Wednesday.
🏆 Museum Curator of Portable Audio — Continued proving that obsolete hardware remains a perfectly valid lifestyle.
Listener Personality Report
"This listener enjoys progressive rock, classic rock, live albums, blues, modern hard rock, comedy songs, portable music players, and making recommendation algorithms question their career choices."
Translated into plain English:
"This user treats the shuffle button like recreational gambling and somehow keeps winning."
Closing Thoughts
Was it coherent?
Only in the sense that every detour somehow led back to another outstanding guitar solo.
Was it entertaining?
Four hundred and seventy-eight plays strongly suggest the answer is yes.
The defining theme of the week wasn't Pink Floyd's triumphant return, Led Zeppelin's continued dominance, or even The Warning cementing their place among the regulars.
It was the arrival of Ray Stevens.
Not quietly, either.
He marched into a playlist already occupied by progressive rock epics, blues legends, and arena rock giants, then casually tied for Song of the Week with The Mississippi Squirrel Revival and The Streak. Somewhere, a recommendation algorithm stared at those statistics, sighed deeply, and quietly submitted a request for extended leave.
The music changed.
The genres collided.
The squirrels escaped containment.
And, as always, the Shuffle Goblin found a way.
Thursday, June 25, 2026
Purple Rain
Last.fm generates my weel;y listening reports on Thursday, I tend to throw my stuff early Monday morning. Here is what Last.fm came up with for me:
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