November 13ths

11/13/1998

I’m on my architecture kick again. I really want to find a way to apply the metaphor to music without using its structural aspect, i.e. foundation, reinforce, build, but rather the space aspect—something that surrounds you and that you can walk through. Also watched documentary on Pei and P. Johnson again. I like the way architects visualize their work and articulate their methods. They’re not consumed by their emotions like musicians are. (Interesting thought: electronica artists actually being more intelligent because the emotional element is not an option.)            

[11/13/2024: I still think architecturally in all the things I do. Perhaps I’m naturally a left-hemispheric person. Architects/engineers can’t be “emotional”, but when they think about the space it is emotional because the people in it are.] See Hemispherics 

11/13/2003

Paul McCartney releases the remix of Let It Be (or rather the pre-mix) This is the revisionist approach to recorded music, which I think is interesting. But at some point, once the sound of a record becomes established in the musical oeuvre, it’s difficult to get used to the new version. What McCartney is doing is stripping away the sound ambience (or artifice) to reveal the core of the song, but sometimes (most of the time) a stripped song sounds crappy on a recording, and you want to stack “frosting” on it. The listener won’t always want to understand why, it just has to be “cake.” The Long and Winding Road sounds more cinematic with the Spector touch. Paul’s new version sounds sappy without the sap. 
            
[11/13/2024: Pop music has to rely on production because sometimes there isn’t much musical “nutrition” in it. In retrospect, this seems odd because Winding is “nutritious”. It isn’t just empty calories. You can determine whether pop music has nutritional value by playing a song acoustically, and whether it can be reduced to notation. My big “dream” for AI music is to be able to start with notation, then make a production built on that as a set of instructions–which is what a score is essentially.] 

11/13/2009, Friday

Equivalent of 24 gallons of frozen water found on the Moon. It is far from the science fiction fantasy of an underground lake, but still pretty impressive for a satellite long dismissed as arid and dull.

11/13/2022

Idea: Courtesy Notices for musical instruments as you would get a Notice from the library about an overdue book. If you haven't touched an instrument for weeks or months, perhaps it's time to return it. Instruments are containers for possible music, so if you're not going to fill it, someone else can.

11/13/2024