scruffian

WordPress 7.1 was released last week. One of contributions to this release was the new playlist block. Here it is in action:

1. Half The World AwayScruffianDuration: 2:12

This was a really fun project. I enjoyed working with my friend Jerry on the first version of the block, and we have a lot more updates coming in the next version.

It was also really satisfying to with David who built the Waveform player library we used. David has been helpful and responsive to us thoughout this process and it’s great that this open source library is now available to anyone using WordPress.

The song in the playlist above is a new one, written for anyone who has family a long way away.

Over the last few years we’ve been working on a pump track in the garden. This was how it looked in April 2026. It’s already changed quite a bit since then!

Music

Books

Intermezzo -Sally Rooney
Ayoade on Ayoade – Richard Ayoade
The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas – John Boyne

Screen

The Other Bennet Sister

Music

Books

The Traitors Circle – Jonathan Freedland
438 Days – Jonathan Franklin
Mountains Of The Mind – Robert Macfarlane
Trouble With Lichen – John Wyndham

Screen

Small Prophets Season 1
Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere
Salem’s Lot
Rental Family
Black Mirror Season 3

Music

Books

• Haven – Emma Donoghue
• The Day of the Triffids – John Wyndham
• The Midwich Cuckoos – John Wyndham
• The Chrysalids – John Wyndham
• Danny The Champion Of The World – Roald Dahl
• Beastie Boys Book

Screen

• 2 Broke Girls

I’ve been seeing a lot of adverts for Suno recently to the point where I was temped to give it a go. I agree that the results are very impressive. It’s incredible how quickly you can go from an idea to a fully finished song.

Suno is definitely quicker than I am. I could use this tool to churn out a song every day very quickly. (If you weren’t aware I have been writing a song every day for 784 days). It probably makes better songs with more interesting parts and at a higher quality than I can. It might be true that right now the music is generic and derivative, but this could soon change.

So why won’t I be using it? Simply this – I enjoy the process of making music. I don’t want to give that joy and pleasure to a machine, I want to agnonize over songs that are carefully constructed and enjoy all the details.