The Tall Rob Report

2025/10/21

Neo Cab (Chance Agency / Fellow Traveler, 2019)

Maybe you’re like me in that you don’t enjoy the feeling of being marketed to. You don’t like feeling that you have been targeted by an ad campaign or that your behavior is susceptible to suggestion so easily. Or maybe that’s just my hang-up.

You want to feel that you are an individual with discernment and refined tastes. Your interests cannot be cataloged into a spreadsheet and compared with existing data to create a profile of your behavior. You are unpredictable and that makes you interesting, and human. You have a personality. You are not a number, you are a free person!

I hear you. Let me also tell you that I had a marketing situation that worked on me a few weeks back. See, I’d played both Citizen Sleeper games this year and last year, so I got myself on the publisher’s mailing list. Among the updates and announcements, I’d sometimes see info on other games they’d published. One of them was Neo Cab, which was coming to iOS for free. The promo blurb intrigued me enough that I decided to spend actual money on it for my Switch, not realizing it wasn’t a new game at all.

A few breezy hours of gameplay later, I was glad I made the purchase. Neo Cab is a visual novel where you play the role of the only human cab driver in Los Ojos, a fictional city that sure seems like it’s in California. As Lina, you drive only at night, which adds to the isolating atmosphere. (The alternately propulsive and chill soundtrack by OBFUSC was good enough that I bought it on Bandcamp shortly after finishing the game; it also helps set the mood of driving a cab through a big, empty city at night.) The only person she knows in the city is her old friend, Savy, who has agreed to let you move in with her. Gameplay occurs through conversations with your passengers, most of whom are surprised to learn that you are a human being. Each night, you are responsible for taking a few passengers around the city and keeping them occupied while in the car. Just like a gig worker in real life, you have to worry about your car’s fuel level, your passengers’ ratings of your driving, and your emotions’ impact on your ability to make conversation. Each of these elements plays a role in the type of passenger you can pick up and how far you can go to get them. You also need to find a spot to stay each night to rest and recharge. As the nights go on, you realize that the friend you had planned to move in with is a bit cagey. Even after she’s in your cab for a quick ride, you still feel that she’s hiding something and that she may even be in serious trouble.

In a simpler world, you could just connect with her again and rest at her place for the night before figuring out how to make the next steps in your move to the big city. That wouldn’t be much of a game, though, so the factor motivating your action as Lina is trying to solve a mystery of what is happening with Savy when she disappears suddenly one night. Now, the conversations you’ve had with passengers aren’t just in service of getting a better rating and more pay. Each person who rides with you has information that might be useful in helping locate Savy. You’ll also learn about the troubles and issues your passengers are facing, some of whom would despise each other if they ever met. You might even get so wrapped up in their needs that the idea of finding or helping Savy seems less interesting. The game will eventually push you toward a resolution, but you can play it out in a variety of ways.

The combination of autosaves and manual saves makes it possible to retry certain parts of the story in order to get a desired outcome. I got worried a few days into the game when I was low on money, far from charging stations, and unable to pick up passengers who only ride with drivers with high ratings. I was sure I’d get stuck and have to re-load a save from a few rides before. In a very clever twist, I had to use Lina’s phone to train an in-game AI program by solving puzzles and answering questions. I eventually got so annoyed at it that I was able to force quit the program by repeatedly giving it wrong answers. Still got paid, though. This was a really interesting way to emphasize the human hands behind all of the automation in the game (and in real life). Regarding artificial intelligence, it’s humans all the way down. Having to engaged in microwork to train AI to get a pittance that can be used to charge an electric car that is used for the gig economy is a dystopian level of labor exploitation. All of these exact conditions may not exist for a single person at the moment, but each part of the process is currently happening somewhere on the planet. By having players engage with microwork in this way, Neo Cab presents a critique of artificial intelligence and automation while reminding players of the importance of human labor and interpersonal skills.

To be fair, that critique is apparent early in the game. Picking up your first passenger yields a conversation that results in Lina commenting on Capra, the company that operates the fleet of autonomous cabs. She calls the cabs “soulless capsules of glass and plastic” then realizes “but hey, those things don’t need health insurance.” Too true. Companies will do anything to keep from having to pay workers a living wage. I enjoyed this anti-tech messaging throughout the game as much as I did trying to solve the mystery of where Savy went and what was going on with the gang of bike punks. (There are bike punks.) Turns out it was a good thing for me to be susceptible to marketing after all. Well, at least, the kind of marketing that results from an independent publisher asking me to opt in to a mailing list about games similar to ones I’ve already been enjoying. I’m human, which means I’m a little predictable, despite my desire to be seen as unique and interesting.

2025/10/14

The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World (Robin Wall Kimmerer, Scribner, 2024)

Sure do wish more people were talking about this book instead of the one focused solely on abundance that came out recently. Said differently: it’s the reciprocity, stupid! The existence of abundance is meaningless without reciprocity as a means of dealing with it. Kimmerer writes that “recognizing ‘enoughness’ is a radical act in an economy that is always encouraging us to consume more” (p. 27). This “enoughness” exists not just in terms of food, but also wealth and security. She helpfully calls those who hoard the excess Darren, after Darren Woods, who has been the CEO of ExxonMobil since 2017. One hopes that this name becomes genericized as shorthand for insatiably capitalistic white dudes.

The serviceberry is one of the models Kimmerer uses to explain how reciprocity operates. As a member of Potawatomi Nation, one of the Anishinaabe peoples of the Great Lakes region, she shares that the etymologies of gift and berry in Potawatomi are remarkably similar (pp. 19-20). So the berries are a gift from Earth to us, and they can be a gift from one person to another. She compares two exchanges that might result in her receiving berries. In one case, she can go to the market and buy them. She exchanges money for goods and that’s the end of the relationship. In another case, she goes to the field and picks the berries herself, then shares them with a neighbor or friend. The relationship doesn’t end there, as her friend might have a great recipe for berry pies that she can share with Kimmerer (or others). They can also have a conversation later on about the quality of the berries they shared or the deliciousness of the pie. Kimmerer contrasts this exchange with the hypothetical discussion of berry pie or jam recipes with the clerk at the store a week after completing the financial transaction. Although it wouldn’t be the most unusual thing to discuss, the clerk has a different relationship to the berries because money and labor are involved. What reciprocity means in this kind of relationship is unclear. A system that alienates workers from their labor also alienates the workers from each other.

Instead of reviewing ambitious technosolutions that support her position on the importance of reciprocity as a means of distributing abundance, Kimmerer looks to nature as a model for how we can get along better with each other and the world. An instructive story comes from an anthropologist seeking to understand how one member of a hunter-gatherer community dealt with excess meat from a recent kill. Given that such a great deal of food might be hard to come by again, the researcher is shocked that the hunter doesn’t save any for later. Instead of scarcity, the hunter turns to community and hosts a feast for the neighbors. The researcher still can’t help it and asks wouldn’t it be better to store the extra meat in a freezer or in salt for a later date. “I store the meat in the belly of my brother” is the bewildered reply (p. 56). Why, even when there is scarcity, should we keep our gains from everyone else? Sharing them means we will be likely to receive shared goods in the future. Seems so simple.

There’s not a grand proposal for how this gift economy might replace our mixed economy, but it does help us think about different ways of being. I appreciated imagining along with her the idea of an “Empathetic Mutualist Human” as a response to Adam Smith’s “Rational Economic Man” (p.73). There is plenty to critique about traditional economic models, and this reframing of one of the basic tenets of economics is a strong start. She continues this critique by explaining how a focus on scarcity (instead of abundance) means that the “rational economic man” wants to hoard wealth, food, security and opportunity. In a time of crisis, the hoarders “would not save themselves from the fate of extinction if their partners did not share in that abundance. Hoarding won’t save us either. It won’t even save Darren. All flourishing is mutual” (p. 111). Although we might be conditioned to think that hoarding abundance will protect us, the abundance is useless if we cannot share it with others. The implicit critique here is that there is no one to help you make use of or partake in the abundance. Because “all flourishing is mutual,” we need to give in order to grow. There’s no way to have accumulated abundance without having taken it in the first place. It’s not just a moral act to share; it is vital for our survival as a species.

2025/10/07

TAYLOR SWIFT The Life of a Showgirl (Republic Records, 2025)

Now that New Music Tuesday is New Music Friday, I need to discuss Friday Night Parts with you. These are parts of songs that hook into the brain and take on a disproportionate level of importance. They are Friday Night Parts because they exist to be anticipated all week and savored during a focused listening session on a Friday Night after a long week of work. No matter what happens, the music will be there for you. Specifically, these parts of these songs will be there. You can hold them in memory, sure, but nothing beats the real thing. One such Friday Night Part is the line “feel the deadly cold freeze you from inside” on SLAYER’s “At Dawn They Sleep.” Specifically, it’s the effect on Tom Araya’s vocals when he sings “freeze you from inside.” It’s sick. His voice sounds like it’s being frozen in the middle of the line. There’s no other such vocal treatment on the album, which makes it stand out even more. It’s not a detail that requires repeated listens to elicit—it’s right there in your face the first time you hear it. There are many cool parts in the rest of that song, but the key element of a Friday Night Part is that it is brief and not necessarily the “best” part of a song. It’s just a part that stands out for a possibly inarticulable reason. Mine may not be yours.

Other Friday Night Parts of note include the final chorus to KELLY CLARKSON’s “Since U Been Gone,” specifically the descending vocalization on “want.” There’s many things happening at this part in the song. Fight to focus on this part and you will be rewarded with happiness. In a similar fashion, there’s a drum roll at the end of The RONETTES’ “Be My Baby” that seems like a throwaway moment but is actually really cool. When someone from the Wrecking Crew does a quick tom fill (at ~2:16), you’d better listen up. Finally, there is a funny Friday Night Part in ROXY MUSIC’s “Re-Make/Re-Model” where each instrument gets a chance to do a little improv measure. It’s a few silly noises right in a row, as if to introduce the band members via sonic signature, and it’s the kind of moment you look forward to hearing all week. Then you hear it and you can go on with living.

What do Friday Night Parts have to do with the new TAYLOR SWIFT album? Well, when the music industry decides to move album releases to Fridays, it is signaling that Friday is a great day for listening to music. You are off work or done with school and have the night or weekend to focus fully on your passions and interests. The industry is telling you to identify Friday Night Parts by releasing music on Fridays. It’s as simple as that. When I was at work on Friday, a few colleagues asked if I’d heard any of “The Life of a Showgirl.” Of course I hadn’t. I was waiting for Friday night! Sheesh.

The wait was not worth it. I even had the house to myself. I sprawled on the couch as the compact disc played on my home stereo. There’s a little drum fill at the start of “The Life of Ophelia” that got me excited. I was certain this was a winking nod to a variety of Friday Night Parts still to come. They never arrived. “Opalite” is the standout track, but that’s not saying much. The album was meant to be a no-frills affair compared to its predecessor. More fun, more straightforward, not overwrought. Only one of those things is true: a 42-minute pop album is quite straightforward. It fits easily on to one side of a 90-minute cassette, leaving you free to dub another album for your friend on the b-side. That sounds anachronistic because it is. Releasing an album on a major label in 2025 is anachronistic, too. I lean into it. For the fourth time since 2022, I bought the “new” TAYLOR SWIFT CD on my lunch break and picked up a Pumpkin Spice Latte along with it. (Well once it was just a flat white but I digress.)

As luck would have it, there’s another long-running country music solo artist who just released an album. Too bad AMANDA SHIRES’ “Nobody’s Girl” is too long to fit on the other side of that tape. It would deserve the a-side, anyway. Swift and Shires don’t need a forced comparison to establish their value; their records can stand on their own. That lesson came through to me in 1996 in the letters section of Hit Parader. A subscriber’s letter dismissed METALLICA’s “Load" by writing, “The new PANTERA is heavier than the new METALLICA” and the editor replied, “Yes, and the new INTERNAL BLEEDING is heavier than the new SOUNDGARDEN. So what?” The point of these temporal comparisons is just to stoke argument, not to validly claim that one album is better than another. Even if “Nobody’s Girl” hadn’t just come out, “The Life of a Showgirl” would still be mid.

Maybe I’m being too harsh in saying that. I know that I’m usually underwhelmed by new LADY GAGA (my modern pop North Star) singles at first. More often than not, they grow on me and I end up changing my opinion on them. I’ve listened to “The Life of a Showgirl” three times but I don’t think it will grow on me at all. The instrumentation is dull and the lyrics are trite. “You’re just now noticing this about TAYLOR SWIFT, Rob? Really?” Well, yeah. I was underwhelmed by “The Tortured Poets Department,” which I chalked up to being an attempt at some kind if literary sensibility or credibility. It feels silly of me to have thought a shorter, more accessible album would have led to a sea change in her approach. Quite the opposite! An album this brief needs to have powerful tracks and deadly hooks to pull in the listener. There’s hardly a memorable element to be found on these 12 songs. There’s not a lot of depth of sound or thought here. The timbre of the synths and keys, not to mention the bass and guitars, is thin as compared to something like “1989” or “Red.”

The lyrics are appalling. To claim the mantle of “English teacher” in a wedding announcement and then write these words is a little much. (Rhyming kitty with pretty with witty with city with legitly… come on now!) It dawned on me while listening to this album that Swift is still stuck in the same references she was making in high school. A lot has changed in the 18 years since she was a teenager; kids today are more easily in touch with a variety of musical and cultural traditions from around the globe. Swift has the acumen of an A student in an exurban school district who excels at multiple-choice tests but cannot generate an interesting thought when faced with an open-ended writing prompt. She has mastered writing to the test but stumbles into original thinking only by accident. Why else would Shakespeare’s Ophelia and Hollywood’s Elizabeth Taylor appear in the first two songs? These are hardly the most interesting or obscure references. They fit comfortably in the milieu of a suburban high school. Same goes for the ham-handed similes… “like a toy chihuahua barking at me from a tiny purse.” I’d wager Swift is also carrying around a set of Barron’s SAT Flashcards, given her use of protégé, discretion, exoneration, and kismet.

It’s not clear what she has to say with this album. What is the point of “Father Figure” or “Eldest Daughter”? (Is everybody “so punk on the Internet,” and why does that matter?) We get that she’s bragging about her fiancé on “Wood” and “Wi$h Li$t” and “Honey.” Good for her but it doesn’t even sound like an interesting relationship. I think it was on Twitter because I can’t find it now, but Tressie McMillan Cottom once advanced the argument that Swift is different from BEYONCÉ and ADELE because she is not a wife or a mom but she is past the age of 30. McMillan Cottom maintained that that combination of factors breaks people’s brains. Swift is engaged now. Maybe there’s something to settling down that has made her less interesting as an artist. The picture she paints in “Wi$h Li$t” sounds a lot like suburban midwestern anonymity. It could also be a version of Erich Fromm’s “égoïsme à deux” (a concept that I learned about in my suburban high school, lol) that she’s describing in that song. If so, a further inward retreat may reveal that the corners of her character have been rounded off and nothing else interesting remains.

2025/09/30

Al Llorens (1952-2025)

The last email many teachers in Illinois may have received from Illinois Education Association President Al Llorens arrived on Monday, September 15th. The subject line read “Exercise caution on social media.” In it, he referred to “an aggressive effort underway - nationwide and in Illinois - to target individual educators based on their speech. This targeting has included calls for discipline or termination, and even violent threats to school campuses. We are aware of protests being planned at some school board meetings, schools and district administrative offices.” It is understandable, but also somehow beyond belief that this email existed. It’s a sign of just how frayed the social fabric is that a public union’s leader needs to urge restraint on protected speech from members of that union. That fabric tore a little bit more on Friday afternoon with the news that Al Llorens had died on Thursday in Springfield.

Rest in Peace, Al.

Just about a year ago, I met Al for the first time. In the middle of September 2024, IEA emailed its members to announce that it had “partnered with a group called Operation Swing State to help connect our members with Harris/Walz election efforts in Wisconsin and Michigan. On Friday, the IEA Board of Directors voted to concur with the NEA’s decision to recommend Kamala Harris and Tim Walz for president and vice president in the upcoming election. As you probably know, most believe the decision on who succeeds President Joe Biden in the oval office will come down to seven swing states – Wisconsin and Michigan are two of the seven. If you’d like to help in the effort, IEA and Operation Swing State will be providing buses to bring volunteers to Wisconsin and Michigan to knock on the doors of fellow likely voters and encourage them to vote for the Harris/Walz ticket.” A few weeks later, I was with teachers and IEA leaders, including Al, on a bus to Kalamazoo, Michigan. Local organizers re-routed us to Battle Creek due to a large number of volunteers in and around Kalamazoo (a.k.a. Kamalazoo) that day. We got our assignment and spent the afternoon canvassing a residential area in twos and threes. When we’d finished, the group enlisted my long arms for a group photo before boarding the bus for the trip back to Illinois. Al and I bracket the group, who were all worn from walking for a few hours on an unseasonably warm October day. By the time we were back in Matteson, Al had taken the time to thank each of us on the bus for our time, effort, and energy that day. Only after getting back to my car did I realize that the card he’d given me showed that his title was “IEA President.” It felt cool and special to have it, even if I’d never need to use it.

I spent the next few weekends on buses or in cars with like-minded folks knocking on doors in Wisconsin and Michigan. It broke my fucking heart when Harris and Walz lost.

Coincidentally, there was an effort underway to fix public pensions in Illinois and IEA was once again chartering buses from all over the state for a rally in Springfield during a special session about the pension reform. Al was one of the first people I saw when I got off the bus. He recognized me immediately from canvassing efforts in Michigan and welcomed me to Springfield for the rally. I realize it had only been a few weeks and that I was one of the tallest people on the bus each time. Still, it felt good to be remembered and seen.

As with the presidential election, the pension reform effort fell short of expectations. Al continued to send encouraging emails and to remind educators of the stakes of the reform. In all cases, it was clear that educators have a voice as part of a collective bargaining unit and that we should be unafraid to use it. His final email is not an indictment of his judgment or a cowardly change of heart. It is a reflection of how much the United States has changed in the past 12 months. I can think of no better way to honor his memory than to use your voice to speak back against the creeping and creepy fascism we are facing in this country. If you’re not already protected by a labor union, what can you do to organize one near you?