Saturday Sounds - Richard Thompson - Hippies, Thugs and Heroes

Richard Thompson is one of my favourite musicians, so a new album from him is always a cause for celebration. That's especially true when it's an electric band album, as is his new release, Hippies, Thugs and Heroes. 

The album just dropped yesterday, so I haven't had the time to give it the repeated listens it deserves, but on first listen I have to say that I like it. There's nothing here that jumps out like "Cooksferry Queen" or "Beeswing" but nothing that will put you to sleep either. "Sorcerers Apprentice" and "Stringer" are probably the strongest songs and should be stunning live. 

This is the description from the email I got announcing the album and tour. 

A spiritual inquiry disguised as a rock record — a meditation on the towers we build and the ruin that follows when we invest in them too completely. Thompson doesn't fully understand every song here, and that's exactly the point. Hippies, Thugs and Heroes is proof that after sixty years, the joy of not knowing where a song will take you hasn't faded one bit.

Speaking of live, he's just announced a tour and will be coming to Toronto in January, but unfortunately he's playing The Concert Hall, which is a general admission venue,. I might have taken a chance on it in the summer, but heading into Toronto at night by myself in the mid-winter with no guarantee of a decent seat is not happening. 

So here's the album. Play it loud.  

WordCraft: An Open Source Microsoft Word Clone

I posted a while ago about using Google Docs instead of Microsoft Word. At this point in my life, I don't need all of Word's features and Docs serves well for my reduced needs.

But that won't be the case for many others.

WordCraft, by ArtCraft, is an open source clone of Microsoft Word, completely rewritten in Rust. It looks very much like Word and has many (but not all) of Word's features. 

I haven't had time to dive into it so I'm just including a link to this article from XDA that offers a good first look at WordCraft. 

As you may or may not have read, a team of developers led by Brandon Thomas used AI and Rust to reverse-engineer Photoshop into an app called PhotoCraft, and it’s outstanding. However, they didn’t stop at Photoshop; they took their crafty approach to Illustrator, Premiere, Lightroom (not Classic), Acrobat, After Effects, and InDesign.

Also, they reverse-engineered Microsoft Word into, you guessed it, WordCraft, and it’s become my new default word processor.

Also: Linus Torvalds is using AI to develop Linux kernel code now

It’s not perfect, but it’s a brilliant start, and it works incredibly well for an alpha release.

My own first impression is that I could use it but that I still don't need it. If I have the time, I'll try to put together a more detailed review in a month or so. 

I've also downloaded their PhotoCraft and LightCraft programs, which are clones of Adobe's Photoshop and Lightroom. These seem somewhat more advanced and polished than WordCraft. Whether I need them is an open question at this point. 

Sometimes You Just have to Pull the Plug

 Sometimes you just have to pull the plug.

Yesterday afternoon I went downstairs to fold laundry, and as I usually do, watch a couple of videos on YouTube. Turned on the TV and receiver and got a "No video signal" screen.

After some fiddling (turn everything off and on, disconnect and reconnect the cable pod), I had the following:

•  Cable TV: audio but no video
•  Blu-ray player: worked with video and full surround sound
•  Chromecast: black screen, no audio
•  LG TV:  home screen worked and apps played with video and surround sound

Nancy checked cables and all appeared to be fine.

So we went nuclear and turned off the power bar, waited a bit, and turned everything back on.

Everything worked as it should. 

I have no idea what caused the problem in the first place. 

We had a similar problem with our new IONIQ 5 and its infotainment screen. Disconnecting it from the battery fixed it, though Nancy lost all her customizations, so hopefully that doesn't happen too often. 

My Windows 11 PC has been admirably stable for the last year or two. Fingers crossed it stays that way. But if it doesn't, I know where the plug is. 

Happy Thanksgiving, Eh!

It's Thanksgiving weekend up here in the Great Yelow and Red North, so I'll be taking the weekend off from blogging (not that I've been here a lot, sorry). It's time to plant the garlic and have a big meal with the family. I'll be back here on Tuesday. 

I think the swans have the right idea.

Swan feeding time

Carney's Building Canada Strong Policy is Building Canada Wrong

I'm becoming increasingly concerned and more than a little disturbed by the Liberal government's current emphasis on fossil fuel development. In the rush to disentangle the Canadian ecomony from its reliance on the United States, we're emphasizing fossil fuel production and sales instead of weaning ourselves off of greenhouse gas-producing industries.

I'm not the only person who's concerned about this.

Responding to the news, on the eve of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, that the LNG Canada Phase II project is going ahead, Ketty Nivyabandi, Secretary General of Amnesty International Canada’s English-speaking section, said:

“The science is clear: we cannot build more fossil-fuel projects if we want to have a livable planet. LNG Canada Phase II is a major setback for climate action and puts everyone’s right to clean air, water, land and the fragile ecosystems we all rely on to exist, at risk.

“Our world is in a state of climate emergency. Canada could be part of the solution; regrettably, it has chosen to be a major part of the problem.”

My own take on it is that, instead of giving fossil fuel developments priority, we shold be going all out on eliminating the use of fossil fuels as quickly as possible. We need a Manhattan Project-scale approach. 

In a recent article, Stephen Levy described the National Emergency Briefing held in the UK last November. I highly recommend  looking at the presentations that were given and areading the associated briefing material.  

“It’s not thousands, it’s not hundreds of thousands, or millions of lives that are at risk – it’s billions of lives that are at risk,” if we fail to tackle climate change and preserve nature.

That’s a statement from the first National Emergency Briefing held in London, UK, at the end of November 2025. Ten experts warned of the risks posed by climate change and biodiversity decline.

Starvation, economic collapse, civil unrest, and wars are just some of the risks we face, they warn.

“We risk sliding into a state of permanent crisis management.”

We know how to prevent this grim future; we’re simply not taking these risks seriously.

Photo of the Week - October 4, 2026

This week's photo is of a display of garden mums at a local supermarket. I was struck by the vibrant yellow colour. Taken with my Pixel 8 Pro. 

Mums for sale

 

Saturday Sounds - Kamasi Washington - Lazarus

Today's musical treat is a 2025 release from the great saxophonist, Kamasi Washington. Lazarus is the soundtrack album for the Adult Swim original series of that name. I haven't seen it so I don't know how well Washington's mix of jazz, blues, funk, and prog rock fits into the show, but I like it. I'd probably watch it just for the music, but it's on a service I don't subscribe to. Enjoy.