Getting my “dumb speaker” system in order
twitter.com/disquiet: Tangles, X-Ray, Thelonious
From the past week
I do this manually each Saturday, collating most of the tweets I made the past week at twitter.com/disquiet, which I think of as my public notebook. Some tweets pop up in [expanded form](https://disquiet.com/2022/01/12/sunset-before-the-sunset/) or otherwise on Disquiet.com sooner. It’s personally informative to revisit the previous week of thinking out loud. This isn’t a full accounting. Often there are, for example, conversations on Twitter that don’t really make as much sense out of the context of Twitter itself.
▰ “The two of you, like headphone wires tangling, caught up in this *something*.”
Very much enjoying Caleb Azumah Nelsons novel *Open Water*.
▰ Maybe it’s just me, but I’m having situations where to log onto Bandcamp (through Safari, on a current MacBook Pro), I have to click through as many as a dozen different captcha screen things. What is up?
▰ Each time I start learning a new song in guitar class, the first thing I do after the session (well, after I record myself playing the difficult bits before I forget them) is to search for the song at [ethanhein.com](http://ethanhein.com).
▰ And sometimes you just need to put on Souled American’s 1988 album, *Fe*, marvel at the sheer personality of Joe Adducci’s bass, and listen to what Scott Tuma is up to (and extrapolate from there to what’s ahead for his own music). Such an incredible record.
▰ The X-Ray shorts tucked into the final season of *The Expanse* are enjoyable glimpses of the private lives of many characters. Also, observing Avasarala catnap and Peaches mourn in solitude provides ample opportunity to get immersed in the ambient sound of the spaceships they call home.
▰ I’ve learned of Elliot Harmon’s death, via Niki Korth. Elliot, while at Creative Commons (before EFF), was supportive of her exploration of Disquiet Junto activities, leading to a lengthy 2014 conversation ([creativecommons.org](https://creativecommons.org/2014/03/19/cc-talks-with-marc-weidenbaum/)). My thoughts go out to Harmon’s family and friends.
▰ The year is 2022. It’s inexcusable for spellcheck to not recognize “Thelonious.”
▰ Caleb Azumah Nelson’s *Open Water* and Neal Stephenson’s *Termination Shock* are two very different novels, and I like how both books wait until just about the midway point for the title phrase to appear in the story.
▰ There will be another edition of the This Week in Sound email newsletter on Monday. Topics include:
– hold music tyranny
– Beethoven synesthesia
– military noise pollution compensation
– European cases of Havana syndrome
– more
Subscribe (free) at [tinyletter.com/disquiet](http://tinyletter.com/disquiet).
▰ And on that note, have a great weekend.
– Pick a favorite novel and re-experience it as an audiobook
– Rank your home appliances in terms of relative melodiousness
– Watch a favorite TV show episode with an esoteric (to you) voice-over language
OCP’s Apéritifs
Exercises in interstitial sound
OCP is Operador de Cabine Polivalente, or Multipurpose Cab Operator, or João Ricardo, of Porto, Portugal. *Half Baked Ideas* is 17 tracks of steady-going broken beats, dub tangents, and ambient jitter. Described in a brief liner note as “experimental locked grooves,” it’s a collection of (mostly) brief tracks in which interstitial compositions are made from downtempo detritus. They range in length, generally, from 54 seconds to a little under four minutes, most in hovering around or below two. There’s beats that sound like the drum machine is falling down a staircase (“Pierrot”), what could be a bicycle wheel aspiring to drone status (the opening track, “Anel”), and whirligig stop’n’start buzziness (“Trumpa”), just to name a few flavors. The one exception, the one nod toward longer form, is “Duckie,” which clocks in at over seven and a half minutes, manifesting noir-flavored ambient techno, as serene as it is devoid of color. None of the work here is half-baked, despite the album’s title. It’s simply left as ingredient, as sketch, as the bit of a larger, more “complete” work that you’d have on loop in your head anyway. So, it bypasses the concept of a song, and just goes straight to the groove that’s predetermined to hook into your consciousness.
Album originally posted at [blackholetimewarp.bandcamp.com](https://blackholetimewarp.bandcamp.com/album/half-baked-ideas). More from OCP/Ricardo at [operadordecabine.blogspot.com](https://operadordecabine.blogspot.com).
Disquiet Junto Project 0524: Sunset Waveform
The Assignment: Read a photo like a graphic score.
Each Thursday in the Disquiet Junto group, a new compositional challenge is set before the group’s members, who then have just over four days to upload a track in response to the assignment. 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. It’s weekly so that you know it’s there, every Thursday through Monday, when you have the time.
Deadline: This project’s deadline is the end of the day Monday, January 17, 2022, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, January 13, 2022.
These are the instructions that went out to the group’s email list (at tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto):
**Disquiet Junto Project 0524: Sunset Waveform**
The Assignment: Read a photo like a graphic score.
Background: This photo was taken at 5:34pm at Spreckels Lake in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. The temperature was roughly 54º. The untouched image eerily resembles the sort of mirror-effect waveform ones sees representing sound visually online.
There is one step to this project: Interpret the above photo as if it were a waveform.
Eight Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:
Step 1: Include “disquiet0524” (no spaces or quotation marks) in the name of your tracks.
Step 2: If your audio-hosting platform allows for tags, be sure to also include the project tag “disquiet0524” (no spaces or quotation marks). If you’re posting on SoundCloud in particular, this is essential to subsequent location of tracks for the creation of a project playlist.
Step 3: Upload your tracks. It is helpful but not essential that you use SoundCloud to host your tracks.
Step 4: Post your track in the following discussion thread at llllllll.co:
[https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0524-sunset-waveform/](https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0524-sunset-waveform/)
Step 5: Annotate your track with a brief explanation of your approach and process.
Step 6: If posting on social media, please consider using the hashtag #DisquietJunto so fellow participants are more likely to locate your communication.
Step 7: Then listen to and comment on tracks uploaded by your fellow Disquiet Junto participants.
Step 8: Also join in the discussion on the Disquiet Junto Slack. Send your email address to [email protected] for Slack inclusion.
Note: Please post one track for this weekly Junto project. If you choose to post more than one, and do so on SoundCloud, please let me know which you’d like added to the playlist. Thanks.
Additional Details:
Deadline: This project’s deadline is the end of the day Monday, January 17, 2022, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, January 13, 2022.
Length: The length of your finished track is up to you.
Title/Tag: When posting your tracks, please include “disquiet0524” in the title of the tracks, and where applicable (on SoundCloud, for example) as a tag.
Upload: When participating in this project, be sure to include a description of your process in planning, composing, and recording it. This description is an essential element of the communicative process inherent in the Disquiet Junto. Photos, video, and lists of equipment are always appreciated.
Download: It is always best to set your track as downloadable and allowing for attributed remixing (i.e., a Creative Commons license permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution, allowing for derivatives).
For context, when posting the track online, please be sure to include this following information:
More on this 524th weekly Disquiet Junto project — Sunset Waveform (The Assignment: Read a photo like a graphic score) — at: https://disquiet.com/0524/
More on the Disquiet Junto at: https://disquiet.com/junto/
Subscribe to project announcements here: https://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/
Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: [https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0524-sunset-waveform/](https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0524-sunset-waveform/)
Sunset Before the Sunset
In advance of the 524th Disquiet Junto project
The neighborhood went full on Ralph McQuarrie mode this evening. I’m not usually one to post sunset photos, but this one is quite appealing to me, and it seemed fitting, since tomorrow’s Disquiet Junto project will also involve a sunset.