Sometimes you take a photo and the result looks precisely as you saw the subject in question, precisely as you saw it with your mind’s eye, precisely as you might have hoped to describe it to, or show it to, someone else. No edit, no filter, one take.
Each Thursday in the Disquiet Junto music community, a new compositional challenge is set before the group’s members, who then have five days to record and upload a track in response to the project instructions.
Membership in the Junto is open: just join and participate. (A SoundCloud account is helpful but not required.) There’s no pressure to do every project. The Junto is weekly so that you know it’s there, every Thursday through Monday, when your time and interest align.
Tracks are added to the SoundCloud playlist for the duration of the project. Additional (non-SoundCloud) tracks also generally appear in the llllllll.co discussion thread.
Disquiet Junto Project 0743: Make It Happen
The Assignment: Do something you’ve been meaning to do.
There is just one step this week. The year is still young. Think of something musical you’ve been meaning to drive, and do it.
Tasks Upon Completion:
Label: Include “disquiet0743” (no spaces/quotes) in the name of your track.
Upload: A person participating in the Disquiet Junto should post only one track per weekly project (SoundCloud account preferred but not required). If on occasion you feel inspired to post more than one track (whether to a single account or across multiple accounts), you should clarify which is the “main” rendition for consideration by fellow members and (if on SoundCloud) for inclusion in the SoundCloud playlist.
Share: Post your track and a description/explanation at https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0743-make-it-happen/
Discuss: Listen to and comment on the other tracks.
Additional Details:
Length: The length is up to you. Maybe shorter is better?
Deadline: Monday, March 30, 2026, 11:59pm (that is: just before midnight) wherever you are.
About: https://disquiet.com/junto/
Newsletter: https://juntoletter.disquiet.com/
License: It’s preferred (but not required) to set your track as downloadable and allowing for attributed remixing (i.e., an attribution Creative Commons license).
Please Include When Posting Your Track:
More on the 743rd weekly Disquiet Junto project, Make It Happen — The Assignment: Do something you’ve been meaning to do: disquiet.com/0743.
Not bad, San Francisco, not bad
I don’t think I have the correct cable to connect this library branch with my home stereo system.
I write on occasion for hilobrow.com, and it’s always a treat, in part because the topics are something to really spend time pondering, and in part because my little essays end up in good company. The latest Hilobrow series, edited by Josh Glenn, is about “analyzing and celebrating our favorite… anti-fascist art.” Contributors include Heather Kapplow, Mandy Keifetz, Tom Nealon, Lucy Sante, Nikhil Singh, and Mike Watt, among others.
When Josh first invited me to participate, I had various thoughts about things I might focus on: any one from a number of works by Gerhard Richter or Anselm Kiefer, or entries in the long-running World War 3 Illustrated, or a Billy Bragg song. By the time I weighed in, Matthew Battles had already claimed Woody Guthrie’s guitar.
Tons of examples came to mind, but throughout my consideration, I kept humming the same tune: Nick Lowe’s (What’s So Funny ’Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding.” It just so happens I saw both Lowe and Elvis Costello, who helped make the song famous, in concert separately last year, so it was especially fresh on my mind.
As I continued to nudge ideas forward with little snippets of exploratory writing, I happened to have lunch with a college friend, one I’d bonded with over Nick Lowe all those years ago. I mentioned this endeavor to him, and how it felt odd to worry a bit about a song as well-intentioned as this one. My friend, who is wise, said that feeling is what I should lead with. And so I did.
The essay begins:
Just imagine for a moment having second thoughts about praising a song as pure as Nick Lowe’s 1974 pop classic, “(What’s So Funny ’Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding,” a jukebox favorite all the more famous thanks to Elvis Costello having popularized it.
Read the full piece, and all the other entries, at hilobrow.com.
