Apple Newsroom:

In addition to being nominated for seven more GRAMMY Awards this year — including Record of the Year, Album of the Year, and Song of the Year — Billie has also become the first person to earn Apple Music Artist of the Year honors twice, having won the inaugural award in 2019.

At first glance, it seems a bit rich to award her twice in five years, but she’s got the stats.

Following a historic second Academy Award win and two additional GRAMMY Awards for her contribution to Greta Gerwig’s feature-length film Barbie, “What Was I Made For?,” Billie released her third full-length album, HIT ME HARD AND SOFT. At once vulnerable and bold, it’s the sound of a generational artist taking a massive leap forward — and the best music of her career. Upon release, the album soared to No. 1 on Apple Music’s all-genre albums chart in 138 countries worldwide.

Billie continues to make her presence felt across culture. She performed her hit “BIRDS OF A FEATHER” while representing her hometown of Los Angeles at the closing ceremony of the summer games this August — and drove her biggest day ever for Shazam volume in the process. Billie also linked up with Charli xcx for “Guess,” one of the songs of the summer, and is currently headlining the sold-out HIT ME HARD AND SOFT tour, which will extend her triumphant year well into 2025.

Their editorial team knew this year’s award would cause a stir, so they’ve made a compelling case. I’ll have to give her latest album another listen today.

Oh, and don’t forget, Billie was featured as one of Apple Music’s first Up Next artists back in 2017, very early in her career.

Really, more like Day 1 since today was the first day of actual climbing.

Willow Springs Area

• Peaches, 5.7 — Decidedly tricky. Followed the thinning crack up (too far?) until I felt forced to escape on a blank traverse. Then cruiser to the top.
• Tonto, 5.5 — Mike’s second-ever trad lead. More wet than we would have liked, but fun and interesting climbing. He did awesome.
• Coronary Bypass, 5.5, 2 pitches — Spent an hour or so trying to get to the Mossy Ledges Crag from two different directions, only to find that without a guidebook or pictures from Mountain Project, we couldn’t be sure what we would be climbing. Ended up evaluating the wrong climb for almost an hour, then finally found what we thought might have been the actual route on our way down. Pictures later confirmed. Still a cool hike despite not getting on the route.
• Motorcycle Mama, 5.6 — Wanted to get in one more climb while we could. Heinous approach (we took the wrong path again) to an excellent climb. Felt super solid and flew up with only three pieces in 90 feet. Practiced a double-rope rappel on the way down with my new rap cord. Feeling ready for a big 7-pitch climb tomorrow.

Post Climb

Made it off the Scenic Drive just in time. Back at hotel and showered within an hour. Walked down the strip to a taco joint filled with people. Quite the ordering experience, but resulted in excellent food.

Stopped at Walgreens on the way back for snacks and beer. Saw a quick circus act when we got back to our hotel/casino, and spent the rest of the night showing Mike the Vision Pro and watching Dodgeball.

Good day.

Here are the books I finished reading in 2023. I really thought I had only read Narrow Roads (certainly my favorite new one of this list) but I guess I got a few in earlier in the year! There’s so much great stuff out there, I’ve gotta start allocating some time away from blogs and back into books.

🔗 iOS 17.3 Beta Adds New Stolen Device Protection Feature to iPhone - MacRumors // Joe Rossignol

For especially sensitive actions, including changing the password of the Apple ID account associated with the iPhone, the feature adds a security delay on top of biometric authentication. In these cases, the user must authenticate with Face ID or Touch ID, wait one hour, and authenticate with Face ID or Touch ID again. However, Apple said there will be no delay when the iPhone is in familiar locations, such as at home or work.

My first thought regarding this bit is that it’s sure going to slow things down at the Apple Store, where password resets are very common support issues. I’m guessing that Apple has thought this through, though, and has a solution. The online self-service tool, for example, might not require a time delay or biometrics, which might be damaged.

And if not, well, that’s why this will be an opt-in feature.

Here are the books I finished reading in 2022. A little learning. A little heartfelt. A lot of nostalgia. Piranesi was so good that I think of it weekly and is one of my all-time favorites.