Lee Barry Composition Diary

1/31/2010 It's interesting that when guitarists play basic chords as accompaniment, it suggests other parts (such as background vocals or counterpoint melodies) that you hear in your head. The guitarist may in fact be implying them in such a way that people in the audience might get up on the stage and play or sing them, becoming the ad-hoc collaborators. But then you realize that music done democratically would have a tendency to become an insipid broth of ideas and opinions (very much like what American politics has become). I thought, what is the threshold at which a piece of art or music becomes perfectly composed, i.e. the point at which people aren’t trying to add or remove something, or just saying they don’t like it just because they can? [More]   1/31/2011 Such an exciting moment in world history. Captivated by the revolution taking place in Egypt and the Arab street, reminiscent of the milestone uprisings I’ve seen in the past: Tienanmen Square (1989) on a small tube TV i...

1/30/1969 (Beatles Studio Diary)   The 42-minute rooftop show, a lunchtime blast into the cold wind, imagine a high London rooftop in January. Little wonder Ringo borrowed wife Maureen’s red mac. John borrowed Yoko’s fur wrap—is preserved in its entirety onto 8-track audio tapes at EMI, engineered down below in the basement by Glyn Johns, sadly unable to be an eyewitness to the events... Up to the rooftop Rooftop show Little wonder Ringo Oh Yoko  *** AI version:   1/30/1999 Stopped at Snukst Music , a tiny shop on South Pulaski, with tens of thousands of instruments. Everything was just sort of stacked randomly in “forests” of basses, guitars, dobros, nothing on stands or racks. They said, “Everything is new”...including the Orange bass amp circa 1969.  1/30/2022  I’ve always thought the best way to write pop music is from the ground up from a beat, or even a ticking metronome, and scatting or rapping over the top of it in nonsense syllables as placeholder...

I set up a new LLM based on my own writings for the purpose of generating lyrics and poetry. The rhythms are all stupid with this same schema, or "shortenin' bread": Three little children, lyin' in bed, Two were sick and the other 'most dead, Sent for the doctor and the doctor said, "Give those children some short'nin' bread." I still want a macro that will assign syllables to my own rhythmic schemas, my own music for my own words, as opposed to machine-generated speech/singing patterns.         Here is a short 8-line lyric about a January morning with the "Shortenin'" vibe: The sun peeks through the frosty haze, Crisp air fills the winter days. Footsteps crunch on the icy ground, Quiet stillness all around.

1/29/1999 Tower Records at noon and bought Mari Boine and Portishead live. Looking through the World section, I see so many discs that look Interesting: but it's so easy to get burned on these. Imports from Asia are interesting–their packaging is so much more alluring and inventive. Disappointed with the Portishead CD. What they do doesn't translate to the stage. The DJ scratch thing sounds forced and overdone, but it's the only thing that makes it sound 90s. When we listen to it in 20 years, we’ll be able to trace the history. [1/29/2025: A recent Album Years podcast on 1994 included Portishead. I liked the vibe and still revisit it sometimes. But ultimately, the vibe of a recording that relies only on the sound of recordings can’t easily be reproduced. This is the issue now with AI-generated music which sounds good as a recording but usually there’s not much actual music in it when you just play it manually or try to sing it with just a guitar]. 1/29/2008  The Death of M...

One of the shortets that probably won't get on the Sum IV album. It's an arrangement of the track on Music For Places V ; Bronson Tropics (Shortet) by meta4s

Antipode: July 28ths   1/28/2004              In today’s art world, anyone who can click a mouse can call themselves an artist, which is something Microsoft has been pandering to and appealing to the knee-jerk responses of Americans who now think they can easily click their way to creativity and artistry.             [1/28/2025: It’s easy to call yourself an artist if it’s made easy to make. Now it just takes a bit of copy and paste of some words and a few mouse clicks to generate songs. The etymology of “art” is “to make”. Every time I look at ancient art I don’t see “easy”. It might have been something that took days to make, like an intricately filigreed vase–but it wasn’t for the enjoyment of the process, it was a nice luxury object made for the wealthy. Artisans were probably slaves, and to some degree we are still slaves to our own definitions (or ideals) of what art now may mean in a social media landscape. The...

An AI-generated song with just 3 repeated words. Usually with AI music you have to accept what actually works using a production vibe you would never use. If I were to do it myself I probably would use echoes and delays on the vocal. The text styling is a vertically-blurred loop of ANDSOON running at different rates.

 1/27/1998 Fascinating book by Edward Hall, The Dance of Life, The Other Dimension of Time . On the Zuni songs: perform an experiment, formulate a function, because they came from an unconscious, unverbalized layer representing group sentiments and beliefs. This is why very good songs have congruence on all levels. Music represents a rhythmic consensus of the core culture.   [1/27/2025: What’s interesting and unique about primitive cultures is that they don’t memorialize or tokenize music as recordings, but can be represented (re-presented) in visual forms, perhaps depicting dancing, which is a transference from rhythms to the body and then to painting, fabric, pottery, etc.] 1/27/1999               On Bernie Krause’s autobiography, Into a Wild Sanctuary:  Interesting to read about his involvement with the first Moogs. It was a brand new medium that changed the face of music forever–like Dylan’s going electric in 1965.  1/27/20...

1/26/2001 Revisit: Slam Stewart, “Big Noise From Winetka (sic)”.   1/26/2007 Dream: A white Buddha sitting on the street corner in stark contrast with dark, dimly lit street, a la David Lynch. Went back to the old house, Dan there, said nothing; Brian turned into another person. Dream had an interesting look to it: bright saturated colors in darkly-contrasted scenes. 1/26/2025  And So On video. A song with a lyric that is only 3 words. Usually with AI music you have to accept what actually works using a production vibe you would never use. If I were to do it myself I probably would use echoes and delays on the vocal.    

1/25/2006 Hamas wins majority in Palestinian elections. If you promote the idea of democracy, why is this such a surprise to the US?  In one day, the boundaries have all been reconfigured. Now you have turf , not regions or countries.     Excerpt Library (Science):   "Discuss political boundaries" 1/25/2012 On the creative process: what is the action chain of thinking? What results from sensory input?             Idea: An album of songs set in the next Awakening (Second Turning), circa 2045-2050. [Eventually became the 2046 album]. 1/25/2023 Words and phrases are always driving my musical ideas because the words can already have a music in them. At the primitive level, you should be able to write songs with just percussion and the voice. All the melody and harmony can be mapped over it. Lyrics to music is bottom-up and more improvisatory and music to lyrics is top-down and less spontaneous—although once...

1/24/1999             10-year-old boy writes essay about Clinton perjury. The irony will be that the kid grows up and does the same thing the president did. (It’s not perjury, it’s “creative lying”, “poetic untruths”). [1/24/2026: We think that presidents set an example, but rather it’s the culture at large that sets the example, perhaps through the Copycat Effect . "A survey of 18,000 Americans revealed significant political and generational divides, particularly concerning young voters. Regarding attitudes perceived by some as sexist, racist, homophobic, or violent, the study suggests these are not solely a result of Trump creating a permissive environment. Instead, generational trends are more significant. Notably, the belief that violence might sometimes be necessary in politics is strongly generational. Younger voters, particularly Gen Z, perceive the political system as not functioning well for them and are questioning its flaws and potential sol...

1/23/1998 Unabomber pleads guilty—life in prison without parole. What will they do with his little cabin?  [The cabin was made into an installation/conceptual piece by artist Richard Barnes ].    1/23/1999 Spilled a glass of water on this diary, disaster!! Diagram: the strata of human thought. The strata of human thought or its stratigraphy from the Cyberworld (hegemony) at the top layer (Detachment, "at one" with the crowd, no individuality, no critical thinking, groupthink, part of the machine, the individual is completely dissolved in the group) interpolated with reality (self-actualization, individuation, humanism0             [1/23/2025: At the dawn of the web I was seeing how it could change our collective psyche, and that we would live in the slippage between human and machine]. 1/23/2001 Watched another episode of Ken Burns “Jazz “series. You wonder how accurate it is. Interesting: Bebop was seen as this brilliant invention ...

 An LLM of my 2000 Diary. Ask 2000 From Three Presidents (Volume I): Clinton-Bush  

 Lincoln Reflection

1/22/2002 Sent Secret Sphinx CD to Keith Hannaleck at muzikman.net [This was demo album I did in 1998, right at the beginning of DIY music, not yet fully on the internet, although MP3.com did exist at that point. I think I had burned about 5 copies of the CD. It was never a formal release. I like some of the songs on it. It had possibilities if done as a production. I played and sang everything as an elaborate demo.] 1/22/2017 Lots of 60s pop songs had “easy” bass lines that were “basically” chord roots and/or arpeggios. They were easy to play from a fingering standpoint but were harmonically interesting as well. After SNL’s tribute to Obama, To Sir With Love is a good example. I think Carol Kaye played on it. 1/22/2024 As I’ve been going through some of my notes, I had been working on songs over the course of sometimes three months, so a song would have started in February and then finished in May. It’s probably best that we use rule drift because you don’t want to get too locked in...

1/21/2000             Some say the web is overhyped. I think it’s underutilized and used for the wrong things.  [1/21/2025: One technology that proved not to be hyped is cloud computing].  [1/21/2026: As a technology matures from its infancy or "pet trick" phase, flaws and defects begin to emerge--the first one that too many people are doing it and it makes it too unserious. The reason that art mediums are pronounced dead is for this reason. They are rather injured--not dead]      1//21/2008 As more and more artists realize that our strength is in our solidarity, we can produce and publish our own recordings, and efficiently market them using the myriad tools now available on the internet.               We should all be grateful that the music business gravy train is dead anyway, and we can move on with better ideas such as the fee-based model for music consumers.  1/21/2013 ...

 Music from cherry-picked lines from King's final speech: The nation is sick Trouble is in the land Confusion all around Something is happening in the world Shortet No. __ ("January 20, 2025") by meta4s

Using an alt mix of 30000 Years , and also a place as well, Forest Avenue in Oak Park (in front of the Moore-Dugal house)--not that it could be a location for a Lynch film, but it's the location of the photo taken on 8/7/2011.

1/20/2001 Bush inauguration. Watched a bit on TV. Interesting: At the moment of the oath, the first camera shot had water spots on the lens. (An omen?)  1/20/2007 Idea for photo shoot: Classroom, all students with ashes on their foreheads except one with a scared look on his face. [1/20/2026: An approximation with AI]   Article in NYT about face recognition. Cognitive scientists have found that subliminally learning something too well interferes with perceptions of reality. (Learning patterns, e.g. “This pattern is a face”, is a type of exformation of reality, such that the brain doesn’t have to process the patterns every time we see it. [Essentially a General Adversarial Network]  1/20/2009  Obama inauguration. 2 million people make a pilgrimage to the National Mall to witness history. At this point, you are always reminded of the arc of the civil rights movement—from point A to this point B, but other milestones are approaching. 1/20/2011 50th Anniversary of Kenned...

 

 Second Snow

 A song about disillusionment. Shortet: Shortet No. __ ("Paper Trampoline") by meta4s  The video:  

  1/19/1967 (Beatles Studio Diary)   From little acorns...The song which was to become the stunning finale of the Beatles’ next album. “A Day In the Life”, started it out simply...as a stark bare recording… [1/19/2025: “Little acorns” is a variation on David Lynch’s "idea sparks"].  1/19/1999 Reading Perspectives on Musical Aesthetics . I like Boretz’s essays. He thinks like most musicians should always consider what music is for, but puts up roadblocks in your writing because you’re also playing the role of critic. Excerpt Library (Music) “Discuss the role of the critic” Interesting reference to what would become metamodernism:  Brian Eno (Interview Unknown) Interesting reference to what would become metamodernism:   "It's true: as soon as you drop that witty clown attitude, you expose yourself... because you're saying, 'This is actually what I really believe in.' Zappa is a paradigm of somebody who never takes that position. He writes beautiful tune...

1/18/1998 Was thinking about the exciting future of music amid its decline. [1/18/2025: Once you are in your 30s you begin to either completely drop out of culture (oblivious to anything that’s new, bad or good) or you take the good and leave the rest. I’m in the latter category. I never dropped out completely, but as anyone ages, regardless of generation, you’re seeing a decline in quality. This is the result of the march of postmodernism, which has now fully transformed culture. Once it reaches politics, anything goes. The idea of metamodernism is still too diffuse to say there is a real post-postmodernism period. It’s up to artists to take a stand on it, but it’s difficult because postmodernism is pretty exciting. David Lynch was mostly a postmodernist, but not at the expense of his influences from other film eras. Again, take what you can use, and leave the rest]. Discuss the philosophy of metamodernism and how it is currently being expressed in art and music.  1/18/2003 Video:...

Perhaps you're reading this as a synchronistic evernt.  From the book The Tools , by Phil Stutz "On January 17, 1994, exactly one year [after the dream about an earthquake], the costliest earthquake in US history struck Los Angeles in the early hours before dawn. The building that house my office collapsed. Everything in it was pulverized. It also destroyed my belief system. It suddenly seemed that there were more things in heaven and earth than my philosophy had ever dreamed of. Here were the facts, two heart-opening events had occurred, the first on January 17,1992, the day my son was born, and the second on January 17, 1993 when I had the earthquake dream, and now on January 17, 1994 an actual earthquake had ripped through Los Angeles." 1/17/2025 On the genesis of the "Silencio" scene, where one idea leads to another, if you're ready to see the possibilities. Creativity is about being aware of them as they are happening. It's not an accident, it's...

Antipode: July 17ths   1/17/1969 Yellow Submarine released. 1/17/1999 At studio: pedal steel and piano parts on The Inner King . I still can't find the lyric that rings true. [This is the AI-generated version which I like very much] [1/17/2025: This piece evolved again by transcribing the AI music for a small ensemble]:  ***  Lyric idea (a tongue-twister); Simple twist of truth Simple truth of faith Simple twist of faith Twist the faith in truth Twist the truth in faith Face the truth in faith Face the faith in truth  Simple Twist of Faith (AI-Generations)   1/17/2004 Idea for story: humans are cloned specifically for interplanetary travel, but wind up taking over the world. 1/17/2011 Tunisian social unrest is literally spreading like fire with self-immolations to spark a coup. 11/17/2024 With AI art we don’t necessarily have to own everything; we can use what we like and leave the rest. However the archetypes might be active below the surface. If I generat...

1/16/1999 Lyric line: No one ever woke up one day and said, “I'm glad I'm a star.”         Sent demo of Miles From Mars to 482 records.  AI-generated versions with cherry-picked words as lyrics:   1/16/2003               The Raelians have claimed they’ve cloned a human being. (Like Chuck Barris claims he was an FBI Hitman). [More]          1/16/2005 Terrorism is like a cell phone number: It’s not connected to one physical place. It can be anywhere. 1/16/2006 On cell phone cinema: it will give us tolerance for shorter, exformed movies that we can watch privately, and spend some contemplative time with, like a snapshot in your wallet, like a short story or aphorisms that inspire us. [1/16/2025: This seems to be a perennial wish: recently, the ReelShort app has been in development. It still has yet to be used in a serious way by filmmakers, except perhaps as a conceptual idea. The metaphor I’v...