- UPS delivers box. It rattles. Deliverer expresses resignation: contents broken. Deliverer is informed it is Duplo blocks. Deliverer smiles. ->
- Super-minimal techno made from the sounds of three analog switches. A track from the 101st weekly Disquiet Jun”¦ ♫ http://t.co/LbkP5bTAD2 ->
- Spoiler anxiety is so high, I eagerly await people complaining that waveform visualization spoils the good parts of new songs. ->
- Confused that Metallica didn't play "Trapped Under Ice" at its Antarctica gig. #sadbuttrue ->
- RT @SoundCloud: There are 5 days left in the competition to find the Most Beautiful Sound in the World. Enter a captured sound today: http:”¦ ->
- Tuesday noon siren in San Francisco: http://t.co/FrVmKgO1Mx ->
- Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works Vol II disappeared from US iTunes for several months. Now back with track #s replacing makeshift titles. ->
- "On" and "Ventolin," the two Aphex Twin EPs/singles that bookended Selected Ambient Works Vol II, now on Rdio. ->
- San Francisco Tape Music Fest has been announced: http://t.co/yNJVfOPznZ Features: Hafler, Reich, Payne, Xenakis, Caruthers, Westerkamp … ->
- Nice. If you use Nova Launcher on Android, the KitKat-UX update just went live. Full bleed on wallpaper (under navigation) is nice. ->
- Tomorrow in sound class: soundwalk in downtown San Francisco, discussion of Southland (TV), selling of audio equipment (e.g., headphones). ->
- Leave it to me to schedule a soundwalk during one of San Francisco's most bitter cold snaps in recent memory. We'll start indoors, for sure. ->
- Playing browser-tab Jenga again. ->
- "It’s very unfair voting. It’s who you know.”That's Woody Allen in Take the Money and Run on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted List. #time ->
- RIP, jazz guitarist Jim Hall (83): http://t.co/6ZOul2SqRy ->
- RIP, former Napster executive Milton Olin, Jr. (65): http://t.co/WvceeWZFUN ->
- mid-mid-season penultimate, post-mid-season denouement, off-season easter egg, alternate-reality reality tv, canonical spin-off ->
- Misread something about midseason finales on the CW and thought it meant the cast needed to take a break to study for finals. ->
- Morning downtown soundwalk plans: Nordstrom merchandising, Yerba Buena MLK waterfall, Salvation Army bells, Market St listening sculpture. ->
- Last student presentation today: mantra (om, aum). Things came full circle to our discussion of Gordon Hempton's idea of "American mantra." ->
- Took class on soundwalk of downtown San Francisco. We were confronted by evangelical with battery-powered megaphone. A kind of serendipity. ->
- RIP, Joe Bihari (88), early r&b record label founder: http://t.co/GrZjC11gpG ->
- Cibo Matto and Luscious Jackson both have new records. Who would make that a trifecta? ->
- President of your college sends alumni holiday card. Photo is credited to member of class of '15. You're not sure if it's 2015 or 1915. ->
- That not-so-distant future when all bricks'n'mortar businesses are food, medicine, or tech support — and the lines between those blur. ->
- Not a speaker: http://t.co/3kSam3SriE ->
- RIP, New Orleans music advocate George Buck (84): http://t.co/hTlfp4WDvo. Been 10+ years since I left NOLA. I gotta get back for a visit. ->
- Writing about sound in art. Which of course means writing about the Parker novel Deadly Edge. ->
- Man, only two more Disquiet Junto projects for 2013. Bunch of cool stuff planned for 2014, including getting back into live concert events. ->
- By the way, the plan for the 102nd weekly @DJunto project will be: sonic tinsel. It goes live shortly. ->
- There's word that Polish noise musician Zbigniew Karkowski (b. 1958) passed away. I interviewed him back in 2000: http://t.co/MkTe1sITto ->
- The 102nd Disquiet Junto project is live. Make secular holiday music: http://t.co/PTgLYsNweA + http://t.co/FlT55RXosD ->
- Man, the new WordPress admin dashboard looks good. ->
- Disappointed. Was expecting Beyoncé's next project to be an Andy Goldsworthy collaboration. ->
- Every time I re-read Rashomon it's like it's a different story. ->
- 17 years ago this afternoon I purchased the Disquiet .com URL. Here are 17 sentences reflecting on that time: http://t.co/RaIwoWW1Z1 ->
- WordPress 3.8 is named Parker in honor of Charlie Parker, but I'm just going to lie to myself and say it's the Westlake/Stark character. ->
- Pretty much going on a social-network break until Jan 6, 2014. See you on the other side. ->
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
• 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.
• 0468 / Mirror Rorrim / The Assignment: Create a new persona for yourself, and record a duet together.Full Index
And there is a complete list of past projects, 472 consecutive weeks to date.