December 11ths

12/11/1999

Interesting article in the Tribune about colors used in films. Before filming ever begins many tests are run to see how the colors will work against costumes, etc. I think this is how music should be done as well, where the stage is carefully set before the actual work even begins. In film, you have a visual narrative, in music and the sound narrative. (I want to do sound narratives that imply images).

[12/11/2024: What I’m doing with the Music For Photographs series. Working on visuals (or just thinking visually) while working on music actually makes the music better--and probably vice-versa].

[12/11/2025: The visual vibe for David Byrne's "Who's is the Sky" tour is based on this where the costume colors are a kind of "interaction of color" (re: Albers)]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

12/11/2001

To Milwaukee to photograph Milwaukee Art Museum. It is an absolutely stunning piece of architecture that fits so perfectly on the shore of Lake Michigan. The three main metaphors are bird, bridge, and ship, but none of them exclusively. It is a solid heavy structure made out of concrete but looks so airy and lightweight. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

12/11/2014 
            
Article in NYT: “The Vanishing Male Worker: How America Fell Behind”. I have been hearing this kind of thing for some time now. This is perhaps one of the reasons the US has been in decline in general. Most boomers got their first jobs under Reagan, and were usually a cubicle job of some kind. Now the cubicle jobs are disappearing. 

12/11/2016

Musical Slang: 12-bar blues is a perfect example of slang in music. That chord progression has existed in some form for 400 years. In the 17th century, tonic-subdominant-dominant progressions were the apex of codified musical grammar. Another “slang” or metaphor of blues is that it is “open source”, meaning you have the code freely available, from which you can make variations, and remix it with other material. The process evolves new forms, up until it runs out of energy. Blues ran out of slang energy decades ago after the British invasion. After that, it was Prog (Classical fusion), and Jazz (Jazz fusion).

The AI Podcast: 

 

12/11/2019

Low-angle winter sun/steam: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

12/11/2021 
            
Idea: Collaborative Christmas (Spend several days in the month of December making gifts together. This way everyone gets to be involved in what gets “given” to them. It will be exactly what they want because they were able to change what they didn’t want or like. If they decide it needs to be changed, that will be next year’s wish list. This way you enjoy it all year long knowing it was made around Christmas. I know this sounds totally pagan... 

12/11/2023

On way back from grocery shopping, a church nearby was playing Christmas music on the church bells. “First Noel” (twice) in different keys, then other less identifiable pieces. It was quite nice but probably on the edge of annoying for lots of people. It was probably a modern chromatic bell system. The problem with that is that the seconds are muddy.

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At some point in the near future people are going to consider whether AI has a sense of spirituality. Anywhere where there’s mystery—and we don’t completely understand what’s happening—we can say that those things are “spiritual” and just leave it at that. We don’t have any one definition. We can presume that people will start instilling that kind of vibe within AI. So if AI creates a happy accident that’s very meaningful, you can say that it’s inherently “spiritual”, and interpret it as we always have as a manifestation of synchronicity. We’ll then start putting more faith in AI. But we might be jumping the gun on its power. As a result, we’re not doing the things we used to do because we think that AI is more supremely valuable than what humans have done historically going back to the Enlightenment—or even 20 years ago. 

12/11/2024

AI is actually a good way to explore music because you have to learn the songs at some point if they’re going to be performed. What key, tempo, chord changes, transcribe the melody, and so on. It’s also interesting when you play it for other people: they say, “This should be like this”, “It’s too short”, etc., which are things you can’t change, and you have to make excuses for its flaws—as if you did anything other than use some text and select a few options. 
            
Finally installed Dorico. Painful and dreadful--like working in CAD. I’m a guy that once copied music with a quill, and I’m still scribbling with a pen on a score—the ultimate in speed at the speed of creativity.