Hi, I'm Facundo 👋

You’re closer to being an artist than a creator, a personal brand, or a content generator.

Don’t lose sight of that.

Dances with ghosts

Japan left me with a handful of strange signs during our 2025 visit. And now, a year later, some of them feel even more mysterious than they did at the time.

I’ve spent much of this past year writing, researching, and documenting those experiences—moments that, I can now say, changed my life and reshaped the way I understand my connection with Kyoto.

From that journey comes Dances with Ghosts, my upcoming book. I’m currently in the final stage of revising the Spanish manuscript, and I hope to soon announce an English edition to share with the world.

Postcards is a curious phenomenon…

Every now and then, it experiences a resurgence in listeners around the world—amassing over 4 million streams since its release in 2018. What might explain this?

Algorithmic influence, surely. But it’s also possible to draw a parallel between difficult times—pandemics, wars, moments of global uncertainty—and a rise in its listening.

It’s only a hypothesis. Perhaps it’s nothing more than coincidence.

Either way, it brings me a quiet sense of joy to know that the album—and its music—is always there, available to anyone who might need a moment of calm within themselves.

Creativity as a portal to new timelines

Twenty years ago, I released *The First Voyage* — The Kyoto Connection’s first album under the Alternarama name.

Back then, it was just a hobby to me.

What I didn’t know was that this creative process was opening a new timeline in my universe, one filled with great moments, beautiful people, and unforgettable experiences.

Since then, every time I’m about to start creating something new, I can’t help but wonder:

**how far could this one take me?**

On AI music…

Those who say that “AI music is soulless” don’t understand that part of the soul of music comes from the listener, not the creator…

PS: I don’t use AI for my music, I don’t like AI-generated music but I can understand people enjoying it, either creating or listening.

No one is reading this…

But thats the beauty of the game. Since no ones reading, I can write with more freedom.

Still, the fact that this is public opens up the possibility that maybe someone, someday, somewhere in the world, will read these lines.

And thats what makes the game magical.

The same thing happens with my songs. I published some of them many, many years ago and no one listened to them at the time. But now, every so often, I see they get some plays.

And thats what makes playing magical.

If youre reading this, thank you for being part of the magic 🙂

They say the finger pointing at the moon is not the moon…

Everyone taking photos of the full moon only to discover that the photograph doesn’t look as beautiful as the real thing.

Take your picture, but don’t forget to enjoy what’s real…

Wells, anyway, here is mine:

Back to biking…

Picked up my foldable bike from storage today. It’s probably been sitting there for the last five years.

A little air in the tires, a bit of WD-40, and it was ready to ride.

How could I have forgotten the beautiful feeling of the air on my face?

Note to self: don’t put beautiful feelings into storage.

Daily Driving with System 7 on an iPad: My Perfect Classic Mac Setup

I’ve used many operating systems over the years, but for some strange reason, System 7 has always had a special place in my heart. It feels like home. And I say “for some strange reason” because I never owned a computer that could run it natively.

My first Macintosh was an iMac G3 “Flower Power,” running Mac OS 9 — even long after Steve Jobs had officially declared it dead. Before the iMac, I spent hours playing with Macintosh emulators for DOS like Fusion or Executor. And inside those emulators… I ran System 7.

For many years, I had dedicated hardware for the “true” Mac OS Classic experience: iMacs, a Mac mini G4, iBooks… but sooner or later, hardware always fails. Let’s be honest — we’re talking about machines that are 20+ years old. Emulation never felt attractive to me. I always preferred the real hardware… Until I installed Basilisk II on my iPad Mini 4.

Suddenly, I found the perfect system for me. In this article, I’ll tell you how it works, what I use it for, and why it turned out to be the ideal setup — at least for my kind of creative life.

But first things first.

How do you install it?

Step-by-step installation Guide

1. Install AltStore on your iPad

AltStore allows you to sideload apps (.ipa files) without needing to compile them yourself in Xcode.

2. Download the Basilisk II .ipa

Get it from here: https://github.com/zydeco/macemu/releases/tag/ios-v1.0.1

3. Install Basilisk II via AltStore

Open AltStore and load the downloaded .ipa file to install Basilisk II on your device.

4. Download a ROM

You can get one here: https://www.redundantrobot.com/sheepshaver

I personally use the Quadra 900 ROM.

5. Download and install your favorite version of System 7

You can find different versions here: https://www.macintoshrepository.org/1185-mac-os-7-0-7-0-1

Why AltStore?

Because it allows me to install a precompiled .ipa without having to build it myself using Xcode. The downside? Once a week, you need to “refresh” the certificate so the app keeps running.

Alternatively, you can compile your own Basilisk II package. Here is a good tutorial by Matt Sephton.

Why the iPad Mini 4 Is the Perfect System (For Me)

I wasn’t looking for the “most powerful” setup. I was looking for the right one. And for my particular way of working, the iPad Mini 4 turned out to be strangely perfect.

1. The Screen Resolution

The iPad Mini 4 has a resolution of 2048×1536 pixels — which is exactly 4× the classic Macintosh resolution of 512×384. That means System 7 scales beautifully. When I run it at 512×384 inside Basilisk II, everything looks sharp. Clean. Balanced. The interface feels natural on the screen, almost as if it was meant to live there.

2. Battery Life = Portability

Old Macs are beautiful. But they are not portable in 2026 terms. The iPad Mini 4 gives me hours and hours of battery life. I can open it anywhere — a café, a park, an airport — and I instantly have my classic Mac environment ready. Just tap the screen, System 7 appears. That kind of portability changes the relationship you have with a machine. It becomes a notebook, not a museum piece.

3. Pencil + Bluetooth Keyboard

Using a generic pencil as a pointer is surprisingly natural. It feels more precise than a finger, more intimate than a mouse. Almost like using a stylus on an old Newton — but with a Mac interface. And when I pair it with a Bluetooth keyboard, the experience becomes complete.

4. The Hidden Superpower: iOS Interoperability

This is the part that changed everything for me. Classic Macs were isolated machines. That was part of their charm — and their limitation. But running System 7 inside iOS means I get the best of both worlds.

I can:

• Share files in and out of the emulator with ease
• Use iOS cloud storage
• Share internet connection seamlessly
• Move documents between modern apps and System 7 without friction

What Do I Use It For?

• Writing in AppleWorks
• IRC with Wallops
• Journaling with EZ Note
• Vibe coding in HyperCard
• ChatGPT via LegacyAI
• Usenet archaeology with MT-NewsWatcher
• Browsing the old web / indie web with iCab, Internet Explorer 4, and Protoweb
• Classic gaming in my spare time

And then… things got interesting.

With a bit of help from ChatGPT and Gemini, I was able to build:

1. HTML 3 RSS reader that runs on my webserver and works perfectly inside Internet Explorer 4 — allowing me to read my feeds from a 1990s browser without breaking layout or compatibility. It even supports images!

2. Terminal-style publishing tool that lets me post directly to my WordPress blog from inside System 7.

3. A homepage where I can see the latest posts from my feeds, search the web through FrogFind, and even watch a live webcam from Kyoto!

All of this was developed entirely in ChatGPT using a few simple prompts. It runs on my own web server thanks to PHP.

How? When?

At the end of the day, I shut down my work MacBook. I leave my phone charging in another room. And I open System 7. No Slack. No analytics. No dashboards. No feeds optimized to capture my attention.

Sometimes I write. Sometimes I read. Sometimes I tinker with a HyperCard stack. And sometimes… I just play a round of Shanghai 🙂

This setup is my “digital space,” for everyday life. In a world of infinite scroll I voluntarily chose a system with some “limits”.

All of this isn’t a matter of nostalgia for me, but rather a way of designing a healthy relationship with technology — in an environment that inspires me and helps me focus on what I want to do.

Happy Marchintosh, everybody.

The infinite loop

Finished writing the draft of my new book.

Now comes the editing part… or the infinite part.

Editing is making the text better. And any text could always be better.

Better than what? You may be asking…

Just better. You know what I’m talking about.

So, for the next few weeks I’ll inmerse myself in the infinite loop of editing… until the idea of “better” stops making sense to me.

That’s when I’ll know it’s finished.

Vibe-coding

Vibe-coded a simple TO-DO app in PHP and HTML3 so I can manage my tasks from any of my retro computers.

Will I use it regularly? We’ll see…

I’ll tell you a secret

For many years it was hard for me to accept the role of art in my life. It was hard to believe that I, too, am an artist. That had a huge impact on my projects: the lack of confidence, the low self-esteem, and the place I gave them in my life’s schedule.

As I grew older, that changed and I started to believe more; that allowed me to dare to try new things.

A couple of weeks ago I applied for a one-month artist residency in Yokohama. A few years ago I wouldn’t even have dreamed of the possibility—today I’m a different person.

I don’t know whether they’ll choose me or not. Regardless of the result, I feel like I’ve already won.

(On March 15 we’ll see.)

I don’t

Vacation is coming to an end.

Today I told my daughter: I don’t want the holidays to be over. I don’t want you to grow up. I wish we could stay here, just the two of us, forever.

Hello from System 7!

Today I achieved the unimaginable: posting to Bluesky from my System 7 modern setup (iPad 4 + Basilisk II). This is my first post.

How do I do it? I managed to ChatGPT-code an HTML 3 interface for my blog at thekyotoconnection.com so I can write from Internet Explorer 3 on my old Mac.

A simple autopublish plugin to Bluesky on my WordPress setup and voila!

Hello, Bluesky

Today I’ve been putting some love to my Bluesky Account.

After more than 10 years on Twitter (and +1400 followers), it stopped making sense to me to publish in a platform that doesn’t want to show my content to my own followers and also is full of politics/shitty/slop content.

So here am I, starting from zero again… feels good, though.

Modern skills

A guy in the swimming pool, fully submerged, had his phone resting on the edge… and was scrolling through videos with his nose.

I found it creative… and strange at the same time.

The Engineering of Opportunism

We’re on vacation.

Everything here is meticulously engineered to make you reach into your pocket more often than ever.

And everything is a bit more expensive than back home because… simply put, you’re in a situation of greater need.

Do you need fuel?

Water?

A bit of shade?

A place to park?

Pay a little more. Your need is our opportunity.

If you did this in my neighborhood, I would never buy from you again.

But here I am, far from home — and chances are, I’ll never buy from you again anyway.

And that is also your opportunity.

99 Honda CR-V appreciation post ❤️

I need to journal more…

Hi, this is my attemp on getting back to journaling. I used to do it everyday, then forgot about it, but here I go again.

In this blog I’ll share my everyday life as a father, musician, writer and producer of The Kyoto Connection.

Feel free to come back here in the future for more updates.

Regarding updates, big news: I’m on the last miles writing my new book “Dances with ghosts” a selection of stories based on mysterious events I’ve experienced during my first trip to Japan.

More to come…

Finally achieved my dream System 7 setup

The title says it all: after years of fiddling with original hardware, I’ve finally found my perfect System 7 setup: an iPad mini 4 running Basilisk II.

The system feels fast and smooth. A generic Bluetooth keyboard and Pencil work great, and the integration with iOS (file sharing, networking, etc.) is seamless. The iPad mini’s screen resolution also happens to be a perfect 2x of the original Mac 512×384, which makes for a beautifully sharp image.

Purists will say this is not the real thing, but it works for me. Having a practical, portable environment for my favorite classic apps is a dream come true.

What do I use it for?

• Writing in AppleWorks
• IRC with Wallops
• Journaling with EZ Note
• Vibe coding in HyperCard
• ChatGPT via LegacyAI
• Usenet archaeology with MT-NewsWatcher
• Browsing the old web / indie web with iCab, IE4, and Protoweb
• Classic gaming in my spare time

Hope this post inspires you to find your own dream setup too 🙂