- Plane passing close to midnight. Very glad to be on the ground. #
- Do all the great Neptunes productions follow the cadence of Sean Combs/Hitmen/LL Cool's "Phenomenon"? #
- RIP, Tony Peluso (b. ca. 1950) who went from Carpenters guitarist to Motown producer to Gustavo Santaolalla collaborator: http://is.gd/cUNmd #
- Once again astounded by how loud vacuum cleaner is. Easily the loudest object in this house, aside from potential inherent in stereo system. #
- Is there a web site that estimates how long before a device is released and Levenger needlessly wraps it in leather? #
- Enough helicopters circling in downtown SF to qualify as a flock. #
- Feel bad that when the From address in an email is in Cyrillic, I immediately assume it's spam. #
- As midnight approaches, nothing but a couple of hard drives — so much more quiet than morning. #
- The @dropbox iOS app, as of version 1.2, "Exports doc[s]…into third-party iPad apps." Sounds promising. #
- Realizing I still get MJ Cole and BJ Cole mixed up. #
- Thanks to Minty Lewis / @mintylewis for drawing my new Twitter background. More info at http://is.gd/cQeEl #
- Automatic Robert Ryman: construction-site tagging "removed" with large white painted-over rectangle. #
- Automatic Nam June Paik: two massive old RCA televisions stacked high, screens facing in against the street-corner garbage bin. #
- Automatic John Cage: rings of coffee cup stains on the back of my notebook. #
- Switching (temporarily) from ear-canal buds to standard, loose-fitting earbuds is (literally) an ear-opening experience. The bus is loud. #
- Fire up your boomboxes, San Franciscans. Unsilent Night”“style group soundscape event today at 7pm at Yerba Buena Gardens: http://is.gd/cNNA2 #
- It really isn't a meme until there's a dance remix. #
- Sad to learn the label Highpoint Lowlife is closing but excited for new graphic novel project by its founder, @sideb0ard — via @earslend #
- One of those mornings when the passing bus, rattling along singlemindedly, sounds like something from 100 or so years ago. #
- RIP, Norwegian composer Arne Nordheim (b, 1931): arnenordheim.com #
- Haul from @issuesshop in Oakland: new issues of Neural, Shook, & Music Works, plus How to Wreck a Nice Beach. #
- One nice thing about interviewing musicians is they generally know how to speak into a microphone properly. #
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
• 0456 / Line Up / The Assignment: Interpret a painting by Agnes Martin as if it were a graphic score.
• 0455 / Inner Invertebrate / The Assignment: What does a moment (or a day) in the life of a jellyfish sound like to a jellyfish?
• 0454 / Lsoo Vneg / The Assignment: Encode the name of someone you love into a piece of music.
• 0453 / Dial Up / The Assignment: Imagine the technologically mediated First Contact through sound.
• 0452 / Let's Scream / The Assignment: Get cathartic. Be resilient. Turn your scream into music.Full Index
And there is a complete list of past projects, 456 consecutive weeks to date.