Disquiet – Page 502 – Listening to culture. Playing with audio. Sounding out technology. Composing in code.

Grace Notes

From last week

September 19, 2020September 19, 2020 / By Marc Weidenbaum

Some tweet observations I made over the course of the past week:

▰ “Host is not in the meeting yet”

▰ I frequently have the Monterey Bay Aquarium jellyfish live YouTube stream running at quarter speed on a spare screen (an old tablet) at my desk, and I recently noticed that if you click on the options menu, it reads “Captions – unavailable.” And I thought, but what if they were.

▰ Wonderful reminiscence by Eugene Holley, Jr., on the late Stanley Crouch, acknowledging his pugilism but focused warmly on the way Crouch “was supportive of young writers beginning their voyage into the literary dimensions of jazz”: [theundefeated.com](https://theundefeated.com/features/i-saw-a-different-side-of-stanley-crouch/).

▰ There will be a season 3 of Trapped! Burning question: will there be new music cues, or will the production reuse the preexisting material?

▰ AQI 0 (as in zero), and the fog horns are rejoicing.

▰ A beautiful Fantastic Voyage piece on Hilobrow by Matthew Daniel, for whom as a child the idea that “agents use shrinking technology to enter the body of a colleague and attempt to remedy the damage a clot in his brain has caused” was deeply personal: [hilobrow.com](https://www.hilobrow.com/2020/09/16/klaatu-enthusiasm-38/).

▰ I learned a lot from Stanley Crouch. He was also an early version of what I learned to call a hate read (cf., some of those Wynton Marsalis LP notes). RIP, deep thinker whose love of jazz was unquestionable (if at times a culture warrior in a less constructive sense of the term).

▰ Fog horns in full effect. Outdoor temperature at 61° and rising. Semi-hyper-local microclimate AQI at 48. I could get used to this, though I know better not to (Sunday forecast is looking ugly).

▰ Breaking news: it is possible currently to have the windows open.

▰ I believe I’m listening to the Tenet score backwards, if that’s what is meant here by “inverted”: [youtube.com](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQTrYDJ0Vr8&t=233s).

Today

These things are connected.

September 18, 2020 / By Marc Weidenbaum

Today

I added an unnecessary “that” to a sentence because blue underlines in my draft email were annoying.

I said hi to an old friend on social media because some algorithm decided I should be reminded of their existence.

I carried my phone at a particular angle while going for a walk because Bluetooth was faulty otherwise.

These things are connected.

The Mechanisms

A score cue by Michel Banabila

September 18, 2020 / By Marc Weidenbaum

<a href="https://banabila.bandcamp.com/track/cassette-loops">Cassette Loops by Michel Banabila</a>

This loop is three minutes and thirty three seconds during which time moves forward and backward. There is a clickety-clack to it that tells you the mechanisms are functioning, but also that they are old ones. There is no expectation on the listener’s part that those clicks and clacks are literal, that they are fully in sync with range of sounds we hear, that they are the sounds of what is transforming what we hear. They may be in part, but more than likely the technological processing of which the music is fully redolent is beyond that which mere gears can accomplish. The clicks and clacks are signals of the transformation that is underway throughout. The results of which include piano that composer Gavin Bryars would nod approvingly toward: underwater like a shipwreck, like a memory. The ground-level fog of a drone has a breathless quality, held in a manner no mere mortal could achieve without something plugged in or otherwise powered. The little crevices here and there are like the broken pottery equivalent of grace notes, fractures that lend texture, warmth, humanity. It’s a beautiful piece. Based on the track’s title, “Cassette Loops,” those bits of mechanical curiosity are, perhaps, the sounds of the loops playing back, little plastic wheels turning round, seams causing a slight tug and then the tape’s release, motor running on the most mundane of batteries: the fragile enterprise writ small, and magnified through our loudspeakers and headphones.

The music is from an NTR documentary, [*Kein Geloel*](https://www.ntr.nl/Andere-Tijden-Sport/230/detail/Kein-Geloel-Fussbal-Spielen-Ernst-Happel-in-zijn-eigen-woorden/VPWON_1311789), by Thomas Vroege and David Kleijwegt, about sports figure Ernst Happel. Track originally posted at [banabila.bandcamp.com](https://banabila.bandcamp.com/track/cassette-loops). More from Banabila at [banabila.com](https://www.banabila.com/).

Disquiet Junto Project 0455: Inner Invertebrate

The Assignment: What does a moment (or a day) in the life of a jellyfish sound like to a jellyfish?

September 17, 2020September 17, 2020 / By Marc Weidenbaum

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 Monday, September 21, 2020, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, September 17, 2020.

These are the instructions that went out to the group’s email list (at tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto):

Disquiet Junto Project 0455: Inner Invertebrate

The Assignment: What does a moment (or a day) in the life of a jellyfish sound like to a jellyfish?

There is just one step:

Step 1: Compose a piece of sound/music that summons up what a moment, or an instance, or a day in the life of a jellyfish is like to the jellyfish.

Seven More Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:

Step 1: Include “disquiet0455” (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 “disquiet0455” (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 tracks in the following discussion thread at llllllll.co:

https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0455-inner-invertebrate/

Step 5: Annotate your tracks 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.

Additional Details:

Deadline: This project’s deadline is Monday, September 21, 2020, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, September 17, 2020.

Length: The length is up to you. Consult your inner invertebrate.

Title/Tag: When posting your tracks, please include “disquiet0455” 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 455th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Inner Invertebrate (The Assignment: What does a moment (or a day) in the life of a jellyfish sound like to a jellyfish?), at:

https://disquiet.com/0455/

Expand the Virtual

An ongoing series cross-posted from instagram.com/dsqt

September 17, 2020 / By Marc Weidenbaum

Went for a walk after dark, first time since before the sky forgot to brighten. Windows filled with monitors on kitchen tables and in bedrooms, as if to expand the virtual world’s surface area in compensation for the narrowed real one. On the street: masked faces, silent nods.