Steel Wagstaff

Trying to do good things for good reasons

  • 145 Songs [August 2016]

    145 Songs [August 2016]

    Brace yourself, because it’s a lot of music coming here: 145 songs I listened to and enjoyed in August 2016. So much good sound in my ears this month. We joined Spotify family premium, which meant that I listened to a lot more music (no more annoying advertisements! high quality streaming audio! hooray!) in August.…

  • Reading Recommendations from Friends [September 2016]

    Reading Recommendations from Friends [September 2016]

    I’ve been on a reading kick lately and I decided to crowdsource some recommendations to some friends on social media earlier this week. The question I posed was simple: “Knowing me as you do, what would you recommend I read next? One rule: no fiction, unless it’s life changing or the best thing you’ve ever…

  • 100 Songs [July 2016]

    100 Songs [July 2016]

    Here are 100 songs I listened to and enjoyed in July 2016. It was a very excellent month, sonically. Let these sounds wash over you, friends  

  • 100 Songs [June 2016]

    100 Songs [June 2016]

    Here are 100 songs I listened to and enjoyed in June of 2016. It was a good summer month, in life and in music for me. Favorite discoveries included: first peoples songwriter Willie Dunn, psychadelic weirdo Jib Kidder (Sean Schuster-Craig), Donnie Trumpet & the Social Experiment, legendary blueswoman Elizabeth Cotten, Ethiopian jazz master Mulatu Astatke,…

  • 50 Tracks [May 2016]

    50 Tracks [May 2016]

    Here are 50 songs that I listened to and enjoyed in May 2016. It was a pretty average month for me, musically, but with some fun discoveries. I really liked Cicada Rhythm (a southern folk duo who sound like The Tallest Man on Earth with cello added–beautiful combination), Connie Converse (an almost unknown 1950s singer-songwriter…

  • 55 Songs [April 2016]

    55 Songs [April 2016]

    Here’s 55 songs I listened to and enjoyed last month. It was a really good month for me, musically. Favorite discovery: AdriAnne Lenker & Buck Meek. Song I couldn’t get out of my head: “Blue Mountains” by Diamond Rugs. Featured image by Jennifer Bastian

  • I Can’t Drive … 55 (songs) [March 2016]

    I Can’t Drive … 55 (songs) [March 2016]

    55 songs I listened to and liked in March 2016. Lots of new music for me here, and fairly varied. It was a good month musically, I’d say. Enjoy! Featured image by Steel Wagstaff

  • Core Principles for an eText Authoring Tool

    Core Principles for an eText Authoring Tool

    eText Authoring at UW-Madison About a year ago, I began thinking seriously about an eText authoring platform that could be used to write and publish openly-licensed texts. I work at a large research university in the American midwest, which means that a large percentage of my colleagues are engaged directly in both high-level academic research…

  • Rowwwr [40 songs about animals]

    Rowwwr [40 songs about animals]

    Forty songs about animals. Enjoy! Featured image by Jennifer Bastian

  • 29 Songs for 29 Days [February 2016]

    29 Songs for 29 Days [February 2016]

    Despite having a extra 24 hours provided by a glorious leap day, this past February wasn’t the most musically adventurous of months for me. I didn’t listen a ton of new music, but did manage to scrape together 29 tracks I listened to and enjoyed in the month (one for each day, I suppose). Favorites…

  • [January 2016]

    [January 2016]

    Here’s a playlist of several songs I listened to and enjoyed in January 2016. Photo by Shamanic Shift

  • Five-0! [December 2015]

    Five-0! [December 2015]

    50 songs I listened to and liked in December 2015. Some stuff I got especially into this month was Timber Timbre (everything–love these guys), Cody Chesnutt’s Landing on a Hundred record, Elbow’s The Take Off and Landing of Everything, Moses Sumney, Ray Lamontange’s Supernova, and Thomas Dybdahl’s What’s Left is Forever album. Enjoy! Featured image by dawn_perry

  • On the 45 [November 2015]

    On the 45 [November 2015]

    45 songs I listened to and enjoyed in November 2015. I didn’t do much of my own adventuring, mostly let Spotify suggest stuff for me, but it was still a good musical month, even if more limited. Featured image by Steel Wagstaff.

  • 65 Songs [October 2015]

    65 Songs [October 2015]

    Here’s a playlist of 65 songs I listened to and liked in October 2015. Four and a quarter hours of good musics. Some new discoveries for me this month that I really enjoyed were Liz Vice, Max Frost, Mark McGuire, and Faux Jean (the old project of one of my neighbors–Matty Schindler–who knew!) Enjoy the sounds,…

  • 100 Tracks [September 2015]

    100 Tracks [September 2015]

    Here’s a playlist of 100 songs I listened to and enjoyed in September 2015. It was a good month for me musically, with a lot of artist variety (it was the first month I started using Spotify’s Discover Weekly feature–which I love!). The songs themselves are mostly low-key singer-songwriter types: pretty mellow, pretty lovely, pretty chill. Hope…

  • Seventy Five Songs [August 2015]

    Seventy Five Songs [August 2015]

    Here’s a playlist of 75 songs I listened to and liked way back in August of 2015 (the month I turned 33!) Lots of stuff here that was new to me, and which has stuck with me since. Mostly single tracks in this list, with a couple of exceptions, including some of my favorite new…

  • Twoscore Tracks [Summer 2015]

    Twoscore Tracks [Summer 2015]

    Here’s a playlist with 40 songs I listened to and liked in the summer of 2015 [March-July, basically]. Not a ton of variety, in hindsight, but I did really get into John Mark Nelson and Serengeti, and liked the new Brandi Carlile, Mirah, and Hamilton Leithauser records. I also listened to the Crookes a fair…

  • Laurel’s B-Day Mixes [Disc #29]

    Laurel’s B-Day Mixes [Disc #29]

    Number 29 in a series of 30 birthday mixtapes I made for Laurel’s birthday several years ago. Enjoy! Photo by ZeePack

  • Laurel’s B-Day Mixes [Disc #28]

    Laurel’s B-Day Mixes [Disc #28]

    Disc #28 in the birthday mixtape gift I put together for Laurel’s birthday a few years ago to give her some music to listen to in the car as she drove around the state for her job. Photo by qmnonic

  • Laurel’s B-Day Mixes [Disc #27]

    Laurel’s B-Day Mixes [Disc #27]

    The 27th in a series of birthday mixtapes I made for Laurel back in the day. Photo by erix!

About the Author

Hi, I’m Steel Wagstaff. I’m the product manager for Pressbooks, a Canadian company making open source book publishing software.

I live in Eugene, Oregon with my wife, Laurel Bastian, and our elementary-school aged son.

I love poetry, music, libraries, reading, playing pickup soccer, & eating vegetarian food.

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