I was clearing out my phone recently and came upon some fun animal videos that never made it to YouTube. So after some frantic genetic engineering editing, I slapped these puppies (well, only one puppy, and she’s eight) onto YouTube. My haste is your gain!
It’s been awhile since I wrote an update about our koi pond; the last time was mid-May of this year, when the pond was brimming with life. Temperatures were warm enough for the koi to come up regularly for feedings, and they were hungry—I was feeding them two or three times a day. The rosy red minnows also experienced a population boom, as dozens of the little guys and girls were hatching in the pond.
Fast forward to today (Dr. Wife’s birthday, by the way!), and the pond is in a bit of a doldrums. I suspect that the heat has driven the koi to the cooler, deeper waters, but even the minnows, which often stayed near the surface, have been more muted, even at feeding time. I’ve reduced feedings to once a day, and occasionally once every other day, but still have not seen much activity.
Dr. Wife was growing concerned, especially as I didn’t feed the fish for two days before her family paid a recent visit. I was hoping they’d be hankering for some Kaytee Koi’s Choice, but no dice—other than a brief splash from Sunny, the pond was quiet (the various water bugs and dragonflies, though, were quite active, enjoying sips of pond water). I proposed donning my swimming trunks and taking a dip in the green waters so I could feel around for the fish; she wisely countered that I should probably just get the net and skim through the pond.
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Koi Dance is out now on all streaming platforms and at https://tjcookmusic.bandcamp.com. It’s 90% off (!) with promo code koipond. That promo code is also good for everything on the site, so my full discography is under $10.
A couple of my blogger buddies very kind wrote little blurbs about Koi Dance, so I thought I’d share them today:
Legendary blogger Roman of Opium Tales has also graciously agreed to review the album, so stay tuned!
Happy Sunday!
—TPP
Koi Dance is out now on all streaming platforms and at https://tjcookmusic.bandcamp.com. It’s 90% off (!) with promo code koipond. That means it’s $1 for twelve tracks of great music (and that promo code is also good for everything on the site).
The intense summer heat has kept the fish deeper underwater, where they can escape the sun and enjoy cooler temperatures. Even the rosy red minnows, who usually swarm any food we toss into the pond, have been more taciturn of late. It had me a bit worried, but water testing indicates that everything looks good. I imagine we’ll see more activity once temperatures began to back off… in late November—ha!
That said, we’ve had a few fun sightings. One of our intrepid loaches has been making himself known, and it’s always fun seeing those weird, goofy-looking critters near the surface.
Loaches typically live at the bottom of the pond, and like to burrow into the dirty substrate. They eat food that’s fallen to the bottom and generally feed on detritus and what not. But they will surface in response to barometric changes, and we have at least one that loves to explore (I’m pretty sure he’s the same one I saw wriggling around in the filter basket one morning; my attempts to relocate him were marginally successful). It’s always super fun seeing them in the ivy, which our big yellow koi, Sunny, also seems to enjoy.
So it is that I have loach-related videos for you today, as well as one kind of boring update about the unsexy side of pond management.
Read More » It was a busy weekend for yours portly, so I’m putting off movie reviews for another week (don’t worry—they will return). In the meantime, I wanted to look at some feedback I’ve received from different folks about Koi Dance.
Koi Dance is still 90% off with promo code koipond. That means you can get the entire album for $1.
Here are some things listeners are saying:
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Koi Dance is out now on all streaming platforms and at https://tjcookmusic.bandcamp.com. It’s 90% off (!) with promo code koipond. That means it’s $1 for twelve tracks of great music (that promo code is also good for everything on the site).
As such, I’m featuring some posts related to Koi Dance (and the title track, “Koi Dance”):
Happy Sunday!
—TPP
Mogadish Matt, Somalia’s #1 Libertarian and a longtime friend of the blog, shared a bit about Koi Dance (out today on all streaming platforms and on Bandcamp; 90% off with promo code koipond) on his blog, Free Matt Podcast:
Thanks for the shout-out, my grizzled friend!
Also, I’ll be hosting a listening party tonight (Friday, 7 August 2026) at 8 PM EST; join here.
Thanks again, Matt!
—TPP
Thanks to Erin at Existential Ergonomics for this awesome write-up of my new album, Koi Dance (out today on all streaming platforms and on Bandcamp; 90% off with promo code koipond).
I’ll also be hosting a listening party tonight (Friday, 7 August 2026) at 8 PM EST; join here.
Thanks again, Erin!
—TPP
Koi Dance is out TODAY, Friday, 7 August 2026, on all streaming platforms and at https://tjcookmusic.bandcamp.com!
It’s 90% off (!) with promo code koipond. That means it’s $1 for twelve tracks of great music (or 8⅓ cents per track).
That promo code is also good for everything on the site, including a full discography purchase. That means you can get thirty-one (31) releases—almost all of which include tons of original artwork, scores, videos, essays, etc.—for $9.70 with promo code koipond.
To put that into perspective, if you purchased every release on my Bandcamp page individually, it would cost $194. Purchasing the full discography (just click on any release to see the option to purchase my full discography) comes with a built-in 50% discount, so that brings the cost down to $97.
Use promo code koipond, and the price plummets to $9.70. That’s less than any one of my albums at full freight. It’s less than a small pizza. It’s less than two cups of coffee.
But if you buy just one release—or even just stream one release—make it Koi Dance. It’s my best release in awhile.
Also, I’m hosting a free listening party to the entire album tonight, Friday, 7 August 2026, at 8 PM EST. You can join in on the fun and conversation here: https://tjcookmusic.bandcamp.com/live/koi-dance-listening-party
Finally, it’s Bandcamp Friday, which means Bandcamp waives their usual 15% cut of sales, making it the absolute best time to support your favorite pudgy composer—me!
I was going to slap together a review of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey for today, but yours portly and Dr. Wife have been pretty busy getting stuff done around the house. Instead, I wanted to share the press release I sent to the local paper for my upcoming release, Koi Dance.
As readers know, I’m never one to let content go to waste. Why not recycle/reduce/reuse content to save myself some trouble? Well, that’s what I’m doing here. But I also really, really want to get the word out about this release, because I sincerely believe it’s some of my best work.
The album releases this Friday, 7 August 2026, on all streaming platforms and at https://tjcookmusic.bandcamp.com. It’s 90% off (!) with promo code koipond. That means it’s basically $1 for twelve tracks of great music (that promo code is also good for everything on the site).
Now, on to my corporate-ese press release:
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