- Afternoon: sound-art installation at Berkeley Art Museum. Tonight, Mose Allison and Bob (Schoolhouse Rock) Dorough. #
- Morning sounds: shower, fridge, coughing (visiting Mom, in guest room). And (I'm happy to note) my old laptop's louder than my new desktop. #
- Saw Edward Albee's At Home at the Zoo at ACT SF. Really solid, especially how two one-act plays written so far apart fit together so well. #
- New desktop computer set up. New high-pitched electronic whine has entered my personal soundscape. #
- My dad (age 74) is wired for sound. His dual Bluetooth-enabled hearing aids pick up his cellphone and his MP3 player. My dad is a cyborg. #
- Looking forward to new Michael Mann film, Public Enemies, especially to hear how he maps his minimal-techno fixations onto the Depression. #
- Dang. The guy from awesometapesfromafrica.blogspot.com is in San Francisco tomorrow night, and … so are my parents. #
- It's been a day of dub, experiencing what entering "King Tubby" into Pandora and LastFM yield. #
- Previous post from final chapter of seventh Parker novel, which I just read. Scene takes place with no dialog, save anti-hero's thoughts. #
- "The silence after the crash and clatter seemed to hum with emptiness. Parker moved more slowly, listening, listening through the silence." #
- Having a glass of Laphroaig. As with most great whisky, its name could easily be mistaken for the title to an Autechre track. #
- Easily spent 45 minutes today working to a single synth vamp, a minimal line from a 15-track Tony Allen afrobeat song: http://is.gd/1jBI4 #
- Reportedly this mix — http://bit.ly/JbxSF — is by Beck. It's something: out jazz, Allen Ginsberg, beatcraft, 8bit madness RT @1000DIGIKI #
- Digging free @thegrassyknoll iPod app. Wondering/worrying if Apple's app success supports DRM. Would easily copied apps sell less or more? #
- Morning sounds: shower ahead, footsteps to right, fridge to left, speakers (playing Tony Allen) behind. All save the speakers through walls. #
- Listening at length to iPod Touch apps: Bloom, Buddha Machine (odd not to hear tinny speaker quality), TonePad (could use more variety). #
- Planting coyote mint, listening to airplanes and hummingbirds. #
- Not sure what sport is consuming patrons at 3 bars in listening vicinity of Rosamunde on Lower Haight, but the event-doppler is excellent. #
- Morning sounds: laptop fan, plane overhead, ice cracking in coffee, bus passing, phone's sonar ping quietly noting arrival of an email. #
Current Activities
Upcoming
• February 5, 2020: The first session of the 15-week course I teach at the Academy of Art about the role of sound in the media landscape.
• April 15, 2020: A chapter on the Disquiet Junto ("The Disquiet Junto as an Online Community of Practice," by Ethan Hein) appears in the forthcoming book The Oxford Handbook of Social Media and Music Learning (Oxford University Press), edited by Stephanie Horsley, Janice Waldron, and Kari Veblen. (Details at oup.com.)
• December 13, 2020: This day marks the 24th anniversary of Disquiet.com.
• January 7, 2021: This day marks the 9th anniversary of the start of the Disquiet Junto music community.Dates TBA
• There are entries on the Disquiet Junto in the forthcoming book The Music Production Cookbook: Ready-made Recipes for the Classroom (Oxford University Press), edited by Adam Patrick Bell. Ethan Hein wrote one, and I did, too.
• At least two live group concerts by Disquiet Junto members in the San Francisco Bay Area are in the works for 2020.
• I have liner notes for a musician's solo album and an essay in a book about an art event due out. I'll announce as the release dates come into focus.Ongoing
• The Disquiet Junto series of weekly communal music projects explore constraints as a springboard for creativity and productivity. There is a new project each Thursday afternoon (California time), and it is due the following Monday at 11:59pm: disquiet.com/junto.
• My book on Aphex Twin's landmark 1994 album, Selected Ambient Works Vol. II, was published as part of the 33 1/3 series, an imprint of Bloomsbury. It has been translated into Japanese (2019) and Spanish (2018).
disquiet junto
Background
Since January 2012, the Disquiet Junto has been an ongoing weekly collaborative music-making community that employs creative constraints as a springboard for creativity. Subscribe to the announcement list (each Thursday), listen to tracks by participants from around the world, read the FAQ, and join in.Recent Projects
• 0473 / Placebo Effect (2 or 3) / The Assignment: The Assignment: Record the second third of a trio that others will complete.
• 0472 / Jam Time (1 of 3) / The Assignment: Record the first third of a trio that others will complete.
• 0471 / Phase Transition / The Assignment: The Assignment: Record the sound of ice in a glass and make something with it.
• 0470 / Calendar View / The Assignment: Create a sonic diary of the past year with a dozen (or more) super-brief segments.
• 0469 / [Missing in Caption] / The Assignment: Make music that pushes the constraints of descriptive television captions.Full Index
And there is a complete list of past projects, 473 consecutive weeks to date.