- Wasn't sure if I should shave my post-flu beard or update my avatar(s). Decided to shave the beard. #
- I wish when I bought physical books they all included access to an ebook version. #
- Magical post office box offers up books from Japan and CDs from Russia. Good start to the day. #
- Saturday morning sounds: heater (rumble), hard drives (laptop, dvr: whine), refrigerator (rattle), distant cars (whir), birds (cackle). #
- ♫ Noon tune: downtempo, ringing percussion, tweaked moans = Nanaqui's "5:24 (Ligeti's Donkey)" http://j.mp/9mUYB7 @soundcloud #
- Last night's Fringe: Yes (Chris Squire's bass still sounds good on my cheap TV) + The Singing Detective + turntable-as-memory/hypnosis-aid. #
- Sound in the dusk: is that a water feature or a drain? #
- More hospital sounds: elevators, HVAC, enough beeping to fill a chiptune compilation, monotone announcements, rattling wheel-based tables. #
- Day starts with surprise Mille Plateaux PR & ends @sfmoma with Tony Cokes' 2004 video 1! layering Deleuze-ian ideas + military training film #
- C'est La Morton Feldman Records #
- Morton Feldmantronix #
- What year is it? First a new Autechre album, then a new Oval, and now I wake to news of Mille Plateaux Clicks & Cuts 5? #
- Visited friend in hospital. Not a quiet place. (Was there recently myself, with the flu.) The IV machine sounded like it was from the 1800s. #
- Jelly Roll Morton Feldman #
- Only just now realizing that "Fourteen Black Paintings" by Peter Gabriel was about Rothko Chapel. Where's the Morton Feldman mash-up? #
- If I thought about color the way I think about sound, each month the two new shades on the SF MUNI pass would be my focal point. #
- Céleste Boursier-Mougenot doesn't play on new Oval LP but he OK'd use of his art on its cover: http://j.mp/bHmdEg (& scroll to postscript). #
- Morning sounds: wind, rain, hard drives. #
- It's Monday night, so my brain is automatically playing the theme song from Damages, even though the season ended last Monday. #
- All that signage outside the Popeyes on Divisadero, and not a single shout out to JazzFest. #
- Morning sounds: heater expanding metal, hard drive spinning, cars passing, dryer rotating. #
- Sent out first Disquiet.com email newsletter in a year last night. As a heavy RSS user, have to remind myself that email still is important. #
- PHP & WordPress-type folk: Anyone know how to give a pretty face to the otherwise excellent Mailman software? i.e., http://j.mp/178Eb #
- The "copyleft sonic activism" mentioned y'day is going well. If you make music from existing sounds, reply or get me at [email protected]. #
- Got membership invites via mail to museums where I'm a member. How do I direct my financial support so that it improves their databases? #
- RIP, Alan Rich (b. 1924), music critic best known for long residency in L.A. Here he is, late last year, on Arvo Pärt: http://j.mp/9Qi7hv #
- Personally, favorite part of Kick-Ass was the tandem shout-out to Shojo Beat / Scott Pilgrim @radiomaru #
- Sunday morning sounds: hair dryer, hard drives, dish washer, various netlabel MP3s, typing, birdsong, cars, planes. Yow. #
- Prop plane circling overhead. I know how a crop feels. #
- Sounds of Richmond District: Russian anti-Obama protesters on corner: "[Garble garble] 'bailout' [garble garble] 'Hitler' [garble garble]." #
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
• 0465 / You Thank / The Assignment: Make a piece of music for someone or something for which you feel thankful.
• 0464 / Blanket Song / The Assignment: Play over a song, and then remove the original.
• 0463 / Making the Gradient / The Assignment: Make a piece of music inspired by the concept of a gradient.
• 0462 / Vade in Pace / The Assignment: Write a short piece of music that gets slower and slower as it proceeds.
• 0461 / Goldilocks Zone / The Assignment: Navigate a sonic space between the hospitable and the inhospitable.Full Index
And there is a complete list of past projects, 465 consecutive weeks to date.