June 2nds

6/2/1943

(Taliesen Diary)

Typed essay for box—now I have to work on plans. Fifth day of rain—and today after a beautiful orange sunrise that made me jump out of bed to see the way it gilded the valley, tho directly opposite were thick grey clouds & ominous thunder.) 

Choir and strings:

 6/2/1966

(Beatles Studio Diary) 

George Harrison brow-beat for having no titles for his songs, or dumb ones like “Granny Smith”. It eventually became “I Don’t Know” and “I Want To Tell You”. [The Short] 

6/2/2000: Jackie Chan and John Woo films—you see them only for the action—Films don’t always have narratives, just as good songs can have nonsense lyrics.

The seed on which the song is based on:

 

This video is a montage of chase scenes from various films, including the classic Bullet. The production is almost all synth for a 2000s vibe with a syrupy string arrangement.

Only For The Action (Strings) by meta4s

 Slomo Mix, same chord changes:

 

6/2/2006, Friday

You can hear music anywhere if you just notice it. Like in the Spa Cafe on Monroe Street in the Loop: the freezer makes a canorous humming sound. In the background faintly is the sound of a soda machine, clicking like an insect or bird of some kind. If I were to re-create it, it would be like this: 

 

6/2/2024           
  
Two Songdays: 1) Only For the Action. Possible meaning: Like disaster movies, there are geopolitical action films as a kind of genre B-film. The antagonist is the “American Psycho”—a narcissistic ruler. No one cares about what the critics say. We like them only for the action, 2) Gilding the Valley—something pastoral based on the Taliesin Diary entry.    

        
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Today is the Music For Places anniversary. The sounds of cicadas aren’t pitched, but the one I’m hearing outside my window is approximately an E-natural, which can be put into some kind of harmonic context, like an E diminished chord. I then listened to another field recording I had taken in June 2010 at Union Station and there was a fan there that had a drone also on an E-natural.    

6/2/2026

I listen to more 70s pop music now than I did in the 70s with AI music. I was out of early 70s pop by 1977,  out of late-70s rock by 1981, out of pop altogether in 1998,  back into it in 2022,  and into AI pop in 2024. There will be another transition at some point, but I don't know what it will be just yet. I think it might be classical or some hybrid. But the allure of generating pop from your own lyrics is too strong--especially 70s pop because it isn't "mirror" art. It's still "window" art. If you want to avoid making postmodernist art, generate faux 70s music. 

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 A "wordrum" based an "algorithm": 

Curio No. 94 by meta4s