November 3rds

 

Riff based on the 11/3/1914 Wittgenstein diary entry, an interesting juxtaposition of Steely Dan and WWI. "Russians making advances. Hears cannon thunder and sees the lightning flash."

[50 years later, there’s a popular musical group that plays electric instruments, emerging on the heels of the next World War, making effete music].

11/3/1965 (Beatles Recording Sessions—"Michelle") A day spent recording this beautiful new Paul McCartney ballad….George asked me what I thought of the Beatles singing a song with French lyrics and I got the impression that with me being a young chap he was sounding me out, perhaps because they weren't too sure themselves. I said it sounded very pleasant, which it certainly did!" 

Russians (11-3-1914) by meta4s

11/3/2012

Autumn Sky (NW Indiana from Navy Pier--South Shore) 

 11/3/2021

One of the more interesting aspects of working on the Music For Photographs album was doing the research for the photographs. For Still 21 there are so many variations and parodies. It’s interesting when you try to replicate something that exists in the moment, it’s very difficult to do and they never look right. Another one that people like to do is Andy Warhol’s pose with his hand on his chin which is also never done well. It’s like tribute bands where everything sounds like the album and the players look exactly like the band members. It’s kind of a wax museum thing. (It’s still creepy to me in a way). 
            
Several years ago, I went to an exhibition of Magnum photos taken during the Depression. They had three or four different variations of Migrant Mother with different exposures—some with very high contrast some were low contrast. It’s also interesting to compare them on a Google search result, where you can see her other photographs, which also seemed to suggest audio or music, which I’ve done with audio snapshots, where I took images and added my binaural field recordings.
            
I prefer looking at photographs in books and in frames but it’s the best we can do sometimes and in a lot of ways it’s just so much quicker than having to go and do research at a library. It’s still more satisfying to look at the actual photographs. They hit your eyes (and ears for me) in a different way. #riff

11/3/2022

Is the ability to play music genetic? It is probably more epigenetic. Music relies on imitation to a large degree (as does language), but basic language ability isn’t genetic; It’s something we absorb.            

Playing music became more popular once people thought they could get popular in the process, and certainly rock ‘n’ roll stoked the desire. Prior to that, playing music had a certain prestige, especially if there was a high skill level. There could be some genetic component to learning music quickly and having a good memory.

I think almost everyone has the capacity to play music because of its intimate connection with language. People learn languages because they are spoken in the home as a child grows up, and music always playing in the home has the same effect.