- RIP, Jimmy Savile (b. 1926), original Top of the Pops host and Britain's "first pop disk jockey" http://t.co/lKen0kYy #
- Nice if @goodreads made API babies with movie/food/app services. Got enough books. Like to know what DeLillo fans are drinking. #
- RT gregdavismusic: @disquiet my eventide harmonizer is broken and I can't fix it #fourthworldproblems #
- Fans of Jon Hassell should reclaim the #fourthworldproblems hashtag from the science-fiction gags. #
- Thought passing siren was part of this drone I was listening to. #fourthworldproblems #noiselife #
- Pro tip: to increase volume of barber shop, close eyes. #
- Remix contests are great because it's great to focus on the individual stems that are provided. Sometimes the submissions are good, too. #
- Thanks to SFNTF (San Francisco Neighborhood Theater Foundation) for securing support for (my local) Balboa Movie Theater (dates from 1926). #
- When Safari causes hassles in iOS 5, I think back to the Pleistocene-era "Microsoft is embedding IE in Windows!" debacle. #
- It's not just a metronome. It's a nanotech Steve Reich generator. #
- Unintentional aficionado of x.0.1 software updates. #
- "Your tracks are inspiring me to do some field recording I've been meaning to do." A good day. #
- Buying a new laptop isn't as fun as it used to be. Built-in obsolescence feels more institutionalized, cynical. OS culture wars, uglier. #
- The account of the fine artist, Scott Gilbert, who drew my Twitter background is @scottapeshot. It's the 19th in my Sketches of Sound series #
- Wondering if @cakemusic will commission a remix of its song "Arco Arena" and title it "Power Balance Pavilion." #
- Morning ambience: anxious, pulsing drone of "You've Got Less Time Than You Think" by @markrushtoncom http://t.co/wE6PtMK0 via @soundcloud #
- I know my iPad is charging because it says "Not Charging" #experience #
- The new, iPad-adapted update of the @soundcloud iOS app is splendid. I don't see a volume control or download option, but otherwise great. #
- Sonic armistice. #
- RIP, Charles Hamm (b. 1925), scholar of popular music ("traced pop’s history … [to] colonial-era compositions") http://t.co/hb8RYT4J #
- Sonic weapons. RT @sfmnemonic: copters make it hard for people to talk. … Helicopter drone raises tensions, doesn't quell or disperse. #
- Many thanks to Scott Faulkner, aka @vinylsaurus, for my Twitter background this past month. My new image is by Scott Gilbert. #
- Midway through Neal Stephenson's Reamde, standing in comic-book store, laughing at apostrophes. #
- Disappointed that Shazam failed to recognize string quartet that was serving as phone hold music. #
- Mournful foghorns clearly in sympathy with #occupyoakland #
- Nearby high school's drum corps practice (all stop and start, restart, solos, pauses, pattern repetition) is like martial broken beat music. #
- I love getting mail addressed to the "resident" at my POB. It is like a Fluxus script for a Quay Brothers film. #
- The overall impression is that time doesn't pass; it accrues. #
- From an Oct 12 blog post at 33 1/3: "Talking Heads' Fear of Music by Jonathan Lethem – this will publish in March/April 2012." #
- Doorbell rings. No one is there. Just a package with the new book of finger paintings by @thejorgecolombo. There should be more such rings. #
- Apparently there is a life-size model of Moondog at the Children’s Museum of the Arts in Manhattan. We live in excellent times. #
- RIP, Walter Müller (b. 1927), inventor of "futuristic harmonica," the MIDI wind controller Millioniser http://t.co/uriwqfGu via @cdmblogs #
- Tags that start with hyphens now appear to be functioning in @delicious. Whew. #
- If my @goodreads were accurate it would evidence that I read Zoomer Builds a Racing Car 17 times today and One Little Puppy 19. #
- Gap between quitting majoring in comp-sci freshman year & discovering Alan Moore during junior were my "non-recursive years." #
- RIP, John McCarthy (b. 1927), creator of the Lisp programming language, which always looked like an e.e. cummings poem (via @defjaf) #
- Note to self: that music you were listening to didn't descend into nearly subaudial psychedelic quiet. It ended. That was your laptop fan. #
- Pro tip: if you think your laptop's speaker isn't powerful enough, just work next to a sleeping baby. #
- Spent time confirming siren I was heard was in background of recent @io9 interview with Neal Stephenson (at 21:15) http://t.co/jcgpHtkJ #
- As always, listening in slow motion over weeks and months as my one-year-old's babbles become recognizable words ("apple," for example). #
- Ice cream store score: squeaking of stools spun by kids, milk shake machine rumble, refrigeration drone, straws rubbing on plastic tops. #
- People dialing rotary phones had additional time to mentally prepare what to say. #
- "Picture books are a form, not a genre." A children's-books manifesto: http://t.co/Ngf6aawy #
- Weird disconnect that MIT Technology Review's sci fi issue may not be readily available digitally. #
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.