Love Is a Beautiful Thing by Theo Katzman

There are actually three versions of this song that I wholeheartedly recommend:

• Version 1 - the original
• Version 2 - a capella
• Version 3 - with Vulpeck and Monica Martin - my favorite by far

If by Kat Edmonson from “Old Fashioned Gal”

This is is a beautiful track that should’ve made it in last last week’s list. I discovered it while watching Russian Doll, and what struck me right off the bat is The Ink Spots‘s leitmotif. I’ve been a huge Ink Spots fan ever since my introduction to Address Unknown through Better Call Saul, and hearing that opening gave me goosebumps.

Kat Edmonson has her patented style of music that she calls “vintage pop”, and it’s esentially exactly what it sounds like. What’s amusing is that the first time I heard this song (and when Shazam brought up the covert art), I actually googled to see whether The Ink...

Finally starting this, it’s been long overdue.

• All Your Love - Single by Jakob Ogawa
• City of Stars / May Finally Come True (feat. Ryan Gosling & Emma Stone) by Justin Hurwitz
• Feels by Snoh Aalegra
• Vienna by Billy Joel

“Vienna”, in particular, struck a chord (pun intended). It’s going down under the list of songs that ‘capture me’.

Take the following code:

func foo() {
    let bar = NSObject()

    let f: (@convention(c) () -> ()) = {
        print(bar)
    }
}

This will not compile. You will instead be presented with the following error:

error: a C function pointer cannot be formed from a closure that captures context

While you are unlikely to ever encounter this error in typical iOS development, it may arise as the result of, say, an attempt to interface with a low-level C library/framework. In my case, I was trying to construct a parameter for a low-level POSIX function (pthread_create), which only accepted a C function pointer.

There is a (dirty) workaround:

import ObjectiveC
import Swift

func cFunction(_ block: (@escaping @convention(block) () -> ()))
    -> (@convention(c) () -> ()) {
    return unsafeBitCast(
        imp_implementationWithBlock(block),
        to: (@convention(c) () -> ()).self

When you’re sad
And feeling blue
Just remember
That I love you.

When you’re happy, well..
Tell me about you,
Tell me how happy you are,
I’m happy too.

I’d hate to think that I’m losing my touch,
With reality, with thoughts—it’s just too much.
The dynamics, to me, are quite unclear
Who, or what, am I supposed to be here?

I hate these emotions that I suddenly feel
I’m aware of it now, I’m not made out of steel.
More oft than naught I’ve this particular fear
I no longer enthrall, I’m no longer dear.

Tears don’t flow, I feel like a fool
I just load the memories and rewind the spool.
Here is your mission, here is your deal
When in doubt, just play back the reel.

I hate this feeling of being stuck in a rut,
Life’s just a miserable punch to the gut,
I’m consumed as such, by this thought of a wall,
The view is opaque, the puzzle’s a scrawl.

Things aren’t happening. Things are stuck.
I’m just flailing my arms, I’m running amuck.
I’m tightroping a thread, I’m stuck in a tyre;

My head’s in a bag
The bag is on fire.