Lee Barry Composition Diary

  Indiana Dunes. Conversations with several people there, a Bulgarian couple and guy my age that was a vociferous proponent of nuclear power. I found the environment to be bland, devoid of anything visually arresting. There was a strange absence of wildlife, or they were of the variety to be stealthily concealed in the brush, making no sound.

What I call the "C-Bass" is essentially a transposing instrument where the key is a major third above concert pitch. So D Dorian is played as in F# Dorian.

  At Thatcher Woods reading a book, and the line "In September, the summer leaves" came to me, which became Dynaxiom 2613. It was the notion that the summer had left yet the leaves had not yet changed color. They still looked like summer leaves). I thought, what if you were actually leaving on some journey in September, like a child that leaves for college in September? This essentially was the spark for the Nostalgia Galaxy album.

Weather gorgeous. Perfect day for taking photos. Richard Serra, Reading Cones. (Grant Park, by the Petrillo)

Shadow of Marina Tower at Marina Towers.

  Black Neon (This image was used for the cover of an EP released in 2019, Black Neon )

  Wright Angles . The Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio, looking northwest.

 Doppler

  Writing in diary 11/17/2001, still very post-9/11.

Photoshoot at Graceland Cemetery. Lots of interesting shots: Louis Sullivan grave, Ruth Page, great shot of statue covered in vines and looked like fur or hair.

Mind The Gap J.G. Ballard's line from the novel High-Rise came to mind as being in the "gap": "Looking up at the endless tiers of balconies, he felt uneasily like a visitor to a malevolent zoo where terraces of vertically mounted cages contained creatures of random and ferocious cruelty."

Shadow Stack Weather: Clear, 70 degrees

"Ray", not because I know this stranger, but his face was aglow with the reflected light of a skyscraper on LaSalle Street. During the late fall and early winter, the angle of the sun is such that it reflects off of windows and becomes a kind of heliostat. I always wondered why cities didn't take advantage of this to daylight dark city canyons. 

  "Sheeleresque" (a la Charles Sheeler) The Audio Snapshot:

A phrase you hear in every presidency could be a pop tune: 

 Marquee Poetry, Lake Theater, Oak Park

      Skating at Millennium Park

When I first saw the clip of Kamala Harris' phone call to Joe Biden congratulating him on their win, I thought it had a musical quality. I wrote it down and did a little ditty. 

  World War I Memorial, Scoville Park, Oak Park (during renovation)

  At SOFA Exhibition, Navy Pier.

 Anti-globalization protest down Dearborn to Daley Plaza. A laundry list of vague grievances. 

  At SOFA Exhibition, Navy Pier... Took photos, low-angle sun setting.

  Cubs victory parade—perfect weather. Selfie Shadow

  Weather: Summer-like warmth, 75 degrees. Went to Obama rally in Grant Park with S. A mass of well-behaved young exuberant people. We stayed on the periphery, but still exciting. Queue was almost 2 miles long—Congress south to Roosevelt and east to Lake Shore Drive.

  Weather continued summery. It makes the stinky ginkgo berries even more fetid. An odoriferous image: The stink of Ginkgo as a yellow miasma, Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio, Oak Park.

  Annual SOFA Exhibition, Navy Pier

  Weather: clear and warm, 70 degrees. Unity Temple, Oak Park, Golden Hour, ~5:50P

South promenade of the old Sun Times building looking southwest.

 

  "R" Is For Railing (Staircase, School of the Art Institute) Weather stunning, clear, 60 degrees 

 

  Available On Amazon NOVEMBER IMAGES  On November 1, 1941, the iconic photograph Moonrise, Hernandez was taken by Ansel Adams from the shoulder of a highway in New Mexico. 50 years later in November 1991, I wrote in my diary that, following the fall of the wall in 1989, “We may very well be in the grip of an economic depression which may last for some time. This time we might not have the luxury of a World War to bring us out of it.” Ansel Adams' photograph was taken about a month before the attack on Pearl Harbor. On November 1, 2020 I wrote “2020 is certainly the polar opposite of 1992 as it affects the life of someone in their 30s. For someone born in 1942, the Clinton presidency might be viewed as a complete travesty. Now imagine you are Ansel Adams, at the roadside taking a photograph, and someone born the following year would at some point become 30 years old, and that there would be a president in office at that point who would be responding to both the past and futur...

 

        Open House Chicago 2011, Chicago Motor Club.

 Went to peace rally in Federal Plaza at noon. Took lots of pics. Could be historical.