"if this were the only site on the internet, i'd be ted kaczynski!"

welcome to newark wilder (or "modemcat" as i'm sometimes known)'s website. i do a lot of random bullshit. old computers. compact discs. blogs. cats, even! and many many other projects. if you're into any of these things... this site COULD be for you!

now playing: "frontwards" by pavement

table of contents:

critters
blog

critters

malkmus / stella
monday, feb 16, 2026

blog

the part of the website where i write esoteric nonsense

2026 entries

friday, feb 20

i woke up today with my cat at my side. i had my blue sony discman next to him (the circular one from the mid-00s) and a big ol' set of audio technica ATH-M30x cans. popped in squeeze's "singles - 45's and under" compilation and hung out with my buddy while listening to "up the junction". got up, cleaned a little, listened to mazzy star's "she hangs brightly" for the first time (i liked it!) and played some sonic adventure. took my ex's stuff she gave me out to the garage finally. i would've burned it, but too much of it is cheap plastic shit. needless to say, not a soulmate. got some coffee though! that was cool!

back to the thrift!! i went to goodwill tonight to look for a cd player for my mom, and my god it was depressing. supposedly they sell everything good on ebay now. i found a really nice 1991 panasonic all in one but the disc tray wouldn't come out. i probably could fix it but i just don't feel like it, especially since it's not my player, and she's willing to look for a refurbished model.

but yeah, goodwill sucks now! if you want 4 broken dvd players, a keyboard with some mysterious goop on it, a few figure 8 cables, 5,000 christmas CDs, or 6 VHS tapes of titanic and a zumba dvd, it's the place for you. otherwise, support your local thrift stores and hit garage sales. seriously, you can find some good stuff at those. the trick is to hit the rich neighborhoods. they've got all the good shit, and you're practically robbing them! i've found stereo equipment for 25 bucks a piece! i mean nice stuff too, pioneer, sony, etc.

in fact going to goodwill now is almost a depressing experience. i went to half price books afterwards (yes, again. i mean they're minutes away from me! how could i NOT go?) and found a much better selection of discs. no cd players. well i mean, i guess they did have one, but it was one of those POS all in ones with a turntable and a tape player in it that looks somewhere between a grandpa's cabinet and a lazy susan. probably had a corn chip for a DAC. needless to say, i wasn't interested, neither was my mom. some cool CDs, mostly stuff i already have (R.E.M. "document", neil young "harvest", the beatles white album, prince's "love symbol" album, etc.), or stuff from artists i like but releases i don't really care about (post-SBS wilco, prince "chaos and disorder", the cure "mixed up", i think they had some more recent tori amos, which is just okay.) i really went there looking for dream pop. i've been listening to a lot of MBV, slowdive, early 00s flaming lips, and the big one, cocteau twins. i thought, after about 10 minutes of looking, i'd probably not find anything... but then i saw it.

under "c" in rock/pop, a copy of "heaven or las vegas"!

i couldn't believe it! i actually didn't own anything by cocteau twins until tonight. not on CD, not on vinyl, not on tape, not even digital downloads... well, i didn't have those legally, at least. i do have a 4AD comp with a song of theirs on it... "crushed". i think it's exclusive to that release. but now i've got one of their best! next is blue bell knoll & treasure... i'll be lucky to find those at half price books. even HoLV was a longshot. but i did find original 90s CDs of "lazer guided melodies" and "pure phase" by spiritualized there, so anything's possible.

anyways, after that, i got some food and went home, listened to some peter gabriel, and now i'm writing this. i need to get a job. - N.W.

lyric of the day:
"in 1984, i was hospitalized for approaching perfection"
from "random rules" by silver jews (1998)

wednesday, feb 18

i woke up today early in the afternoon today (unemployment... it's a beautiful thing, till i need money. ) a friend called me on the phone to discuss a dell optiplex gx 270 (total piece of junk... but he loves it!) he's installing windows 98 SE on. made a cup of coffee and went through some driver updates, sent him some for the cards and board he's got. discovered that my beautiful windows 98 machine only has one thing needed for its completion — a CD audio header cable doodad... that's a technical term, by the way.

later on today i went thrifting! warmer weather, felt like getting out... oh yeah, what the hell was up with that? nearly 70 degrees! think it's gonna be cold again soon... midwestern weather. we get a false spring every year. anyways, yeah, first store i went to is this little secondhand place i pop into periodically, but rarely buy anything. saw some ugly wine glasses. saw a dell monitor in a box mysteriously marked "hp monitor". saw some worthless vhs tapes. (i love vhs, but really, who needs 6 copies of beethoven 2? or really, any copies for that matter...) lots of pier one home decor from back when it was "chic". about 13 copies of the same faith hill album no one wants, and 3 copies of r.e.m.'s "monster" album, an album which i already somehow own 2 copies of, despite not enjoying it whatsoever. that just seems to happen to me... i somehow ended up with a goo goo dolls album. i hate the goo goo dolls! and it doesn't even have iris on it! i don't like that song, but it's the closest to something resembling decent. yeah, i'm a snob.

anyways, afterwards i went over to half price books. this place usually has some better stuff, and today was no exception. jeff AND tim buckley, the smithereens, the cure, public enemy, nick drake, dinosaur jr., neil young/crazy horse, tom waits, silverchair, and what i ended up walking out with, "loveless" by my bloody valentine (score!) and "she hangs brightly" by mazzy star. they also had "love deluxe" by sade, which is excellent, but i see it more often than the mazzy record. and mbv is a must! classic shoegaze... i know it's cliche or "rym core" or whatever the 14 year olds on tiktok are calling it this week, but i got into it through my mom. this pretention was purely genetic.

grabbed a sub at my favorite pizza/sandwich shop across the street, headed home. today was a success! - N.W.

lyric of the day:
"i knew a man, big and fat, born without arms or legs, born to jump in the air and clap"
from "long island city here i come" by geese (2025)

tuesday, feb 17

hello! i started my new website. the OLD one (which you can see here... if you hate yourself, or something) is now defunct. STOP visiting it! unless i specifically tell you to. hey, i just ended that sentence with a preposition... is that allowed? who cares! i say it's fair game.

let's see... what have i been up to? well, since the last time i updated by website, i've bought some new albums (most recent of which were the new geese album, souvlaki by slowdive... the replacements "let it be" album, skylarking by xtc, and the portishead roseland nyc ballroom live CD). i used to buy more vinyl, i do enjoy it still but yknow, only for specialty stuff, anything that really sounds BETTER on vinyl... or if i just wanna support the artist. there's this rad group from my city called "WISHY". i buy their stuff on vinyl and CD as much as i can. i really like those guys.

anyone else getting real tired of those stupid AI ads? it's like watching the downfall of humanity in real time. i mean, did NONE of you see terminator? skynet all over again! that stupid ai overview function on google is totally unneeded, too. why couldn't we just keep it the old way? wow, i sound old.

i learned a new word a few days ago... "defenestration". merriam-webster describes it as "a throwing of a person or thing out of a window"... hey, can i do that with sam altman? anyways, i think i'm gonna start using it in every situation i can. "defenestration" does sound like something dirty, though. some kind of innuendo.

have you guys seen spacehey? of course you have, that's probably how you found this website. i've got one, if that's not how you found this website. find it here! oh yeah, i've been getting real into PAVEMENT these days. one of my favorite bands out there. i've got tickets to see 'em... but i've got another opportunity to hang out with some friends i don't see very much. i know i'd regret either decision, so i guess it's sort of a "which fuck up can i live with?" that's a question i have to ask depressingly often these days. yuck. but anyway, yes. what a great band! if you haven't heard them... well, if you have autoplay on, you're hearing them right now. start with the "watery domestic" EP. great lo-fi 90s indie rock.

anywho, i've rambled too long already. i'll be back... soon enough. now, i'm gonna spend more time working on the site. - N.W.

lyric of the day:
"my future is static, it's already had it"
from "schizophrenia" by sonic youth (1987)

music talk

i talk about records!

recent favorites:

pavement - wowee zowee
death grips - bottomless pit
spacemen 3 - recurring
my bloody valentine - isn't anything
sonic youth - sister
stereolab - transient random-noise bursts with announcements

recent listens

"blegh!" means it sucked (0-3/10). "eh.." means it was mediocre (4-6/10). "neat" means it was decent (7/10). "rad!" means it was good (8/10). "most excellent!" means it was REALLY good. (9-10/10)

mazzy star - she hangs brightly (rad!)
machine girl - wlfgrl (rad!)
david bowie [1967] (blegh!)
femtanyl - man bites dog (rad!)
project pat - ghetty green (neat)
cameron winter - heavy metal (rad!)
dinosaur jr. - where you been (neat)
spiritualized - pure phase (eh)
vanilla ice - platinum underground (blegh!)
dead kennedys - in god we trust inc. (rad!)
hella! - hold your horse is (neat)