Scratch Pad: AFX, Bandcamp, Airwaves

From the past week

At the end of each week, I usually collate a lightly edited collection of recent comments I’ve made on social media, which I think of as my public scratch pad. I find knowing I’ll revisit my posts to be a positive and mellowing influence on my social media activity. I mostly hang out on Mastodon (at post.lurk.org/@disquiet), and I’m also trying out a few others. And I generally take weekends off social media.

▰ The Polygon Window (aka Aphex Twin) album Surfing on Sine Waves, now coming out in an “expanded edition,” was the first thing I ever bought on Amazon. I was working for Tower Records at the time, and figured I should check out the budding retail competition.

▰ When did the Bandcamp collection icon change from a “heart” to a “stack”? Makes sense. I own music I don’t love. This is my browser on my laptop. The iOS app still has the heart.

▰ Fairly intense emotional response when you’re alerted that the email address of someone you’re aware has very recently died is removed from a mailing list you moderate. Means someone out there is doing some difficult digital tidying.

▰ Overheard on the street:

One dude: “The airwaves are everywhere — when you think about it.”

Other dude, after a pause: “Even when you don’t.”

▰ Reading: I read a lot, but I didn’t finish anything, which after a couple weeks of heavy duty reading is a sign that (1) I’m feeling better and (2) I’ve been getting back into photography after several years without a proper (non-phone) camera.

Geo-Curious

A beautiful day in the neighborhood

I went for a walk at the end of the day, down to the Bay at China Beach, here in San Francisco, and I encountered two microphone installations toward the end of the road. There’s a lot of construction going on, both domestic and municipal, and these boxes appear to be either seismic or noise monitoring setups. Maybe both. The company employed to do the monitoring is Integrated Geotechnical Solutions, Inc. (more at igs-inc.com). I stood at both sites, contemplating aloud what they might be, fully aware I was doing so with microphones in plain sight, but also wondering if the mics were even concerned with signals audible to human ears. One of the boxes employs solar power. The power source of the other was unclear. I have a tiny little noise monitor, called the AudioMoth, and these seem to be sort of like large, industrial versions of that. I hope to learn more.