October 16ths

10/16/1937            

Grete de Francesco of Milan sends a 12-page handwritten letter to the “esteemed Mr. Thomas Mann,” along with a copy of her recently published book Die Macht des Charlatans (The Power of the Charlatan). Though unknown to the world-famous author, de Francesco insisted that Mann was the “intellectual patron saint” behind her own work: “This book would never have been written,” she explained, “were it not for the wake-up call” provided in 1930 by his novella Mario and the Magician.” [Power of the Charlatan]

10/16/2000

[A diagram re: what was essentially an algorithm. I wasn’t thinking about AI back then, but it’s essentially an idea for shuffling sounds in real-time, a few years before “shuffle play” entered the lexicon].

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

10/16/2003            

Interesting: Boxer Gene Tunney was an intellectual and everyone thought he was pretentious–also an example of the Fundamental Attribution Error. 

[So was James Dean]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

10/16/2010

Handwriting of any kind is the quickest way to resolve these discrepancies.            
       
Sometimes I make up shorthand for jotting down musical ideas when I don’t want to take the trouble to notate it or record it.

 Here is a semaphore that I devised to remember a musical idea. It means nothing to no one but myself, but captures the idea. In fact, sometimes they become pictorial in themselves and be used as art. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

10/16/2022, Sunday

Just the red channel makes fall into winter. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

10/16/2024

What is tremendously useful about keeping a diary is that it becomes a running list of things to revisit, and creates Threads, which can get tangled into “nasty little knots–a reminder of the prospect of the danger we forgot”, if I can quote my own lyric.

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Watched interview with bassist Billy Sheehan, now 71, still noodling on a bass like he’s 17. That was me at one point, and still is to some degree. It’s amazing how some bassists exist in the world completely below middle C. 

A ditty...

This Land Is Your Brand (10-16-2010) by meta4s