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November 10ths

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11/10/2015               I have boxes of music sketches, scores, correspondence, and other incunabula, most done before I had a computer. I am amazed at how productive I was with paper and pencil. When I read letters by artists and scientists pre-computers, I wonder who writes, speaks, or even thinks like that anymore? To wit, (the only known) love letter written by Cezanne:  11/10/2024 What people want are good inputs so that they can perform well. But in the US, or just generally, most people are set up to fail. Probably because a minority is succeeding at the expense of a majority wanting to succeed. Whatever the leadership is, it’s always plastic forks and knives. You can get the best kitchenware, but it really won’t empower you like you might think, and could be counterproductive and paralyzing. People have to be excited by something truly meaning something at the individual level.  For outro, bass and celeste:

30000 Years

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A remix of diary entries from my 11/10 diary 1998-current transformed into a lyric using a text randomizer. This isn't AI, but it's like AI in the sense that you are using an algorithm. But instead of using a pre-made one you make one of your own, which is ultimately more fun and interesting. You can use the constraints but you can change them as well. This is essentially a cut-up technique. Using the natural rhythms in the words, "get the thing" created the main motif.       The main chorus riff is 30000 Year s, with this rhythmic motif:        Get the thing Everything Rapidly Love the thing Started abandoning Hoping it was the thing 

On Speech Rhythms

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  In terms of the connection between language and music, there is a finite number of rhythms that can be extracted from poetry and prose—probably in any language. If you read a passage in a book out loud, sometimes you will come upon phrases that are inherently musical.  The musicality of language (prosody) arises from the stresses on syllables, which have to be either on an upbeat or a downbeat in order for them to be coherent. In musical contexts, you can shape language however you want, and make things wrong for the sake of making them wrong for artistic effect, or emphasizing particular vowels when singing them. Ignoring strict meter and using a roving bar line is a cool way of approaching language in different ways in a musical context. Rhythmic displacement is one of the main tools for improvisation. For example, starting a phrase on an upbeat sounds less square than starting on a downbeat. Bass players are known to do this as well leaving the first eighth or quarter not...

2120

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 November is C Lydian month. (Music For Paintings-- Course of Empire )   

Yuthe (Peripherique)

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A 70s-ish funk groove in C Dorian with two bass parts, one "bass bass" and another "guitar bass" with echo and reverb on it. The part I'm playing live is another "guitar part".     

Conundra

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Every so often I'll compose etudes for myself based on repeating cycles. It can be practiced on any instrument and consists playing over a pair of chord changes a tritone apart, then proceeding up in fourths (or down in fifths). Each chord has a set of chord scales that can be played over them, and you can play one type across then all, e.g. the Phrygian mode going down in major thirds, or simply playing arpeggios, or mixing it up in different ways. 

10/25/2026

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0256. Be careful that a planned trajectory does not circle back to where you started. Without bold acts of will, things will naturally default to the basic shapes and characteristics of the universe, circular shapes, orbits, and routines. 

Curio No. 66

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  Based on a field recording (Smartphone audio) *** AI Treatment: Listen on Suno

A Dogs World

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  Nosound Release Cover of Pink Floyd’s ‘Dogs’ Featuring Tim Bowness It's interesting to think about the evolution of Pink Floyd since the 70s, and what they meant to boomer musicians. They were a seminal band for me, and they are almost sacred in that regard. But will anyone be able to fully drink in that moment, continually distracted by the election results coming in? Lyrics can be very emotionally triggering: Many lines in Dogs could be triggering because they strike so close to the moment, and describe Trump's take-no-prisoners style in Waters' take-no-prisoners style. ("You got to strike when the moment is right without thinking") Not that it's on Gilmour's set list, but when you revisit 1977 and compare it today, it's pretty chilling. Looking at old family photos also gives you that same cognitive dissonance. Jimmy Carter was in office when I first got into Pink Floyd, one year after the bicentennial. Today's world would have been inconceiva...

Pictures of the TV: Dissolves

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  Stills from Patience: After Sebald

Disaster Movies (AI Versions)

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    AI is a cliche machine for film music. Nothing like this could never be performed without the old machinery of film scores with full orchestras. No one would want to do the score and parts.    *** Song Versions: