April 3rds

4/3/1998, Friday

Reading Internet Dreams. Are brain structures and neural networks actually shaped by the environment? The fact that we have fast communication and access to lots of information is a product of how brains have developed, which sets the stage for how they will continue to develop. The brains of the ancient Egyptians evolved to allow them to do what they did, and then lost when the civilization perished. That’s why we can’t completely solve the mystery of that culture.    

[4/3/2025: I recall making a comment recently about ironically not being able to find things on the internet, when we think we can have access to anything. There’s an electronic version online, which is very hard to read and isn’t downloadable. An interesting idea would be to have AI go through my diaries and gather all the old books. I’ll bet lots of these 90s books are already inaccessible. I think the better way in a digital age is to just digest the information that you have in front of you and record it in some way, rather than going back to the past (even finding things that are very interesting) and focusing only on those things. But there’s a danger in that as well because in every era that’s slipped away something was lost that we would need today. The 4/2/2002 entry also relates to the even greater impermanence (and quality) of digitized materials.]         

A possible riff just on the book title, sounding like 90s Peter Gabriel:

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4/3/2012

Four Balls 

 

4/3/2016

Film: Seymour: I cringed when Bernstein browbeat his students in front of an audience about the proper playing of a slur. It was interesting to note at the end of the film he commented on a Schubert piece that had no markings. This was poetic. This is how music should be composed: just enough to allow interpretation. To Bernstein, Remix must seem stupid, and generally, it is compared to what composers have done historically. Gould probably would have embraced remix culture. (Technology obviates performance, and puts the focus on creativity. This is what the Beatles did, this is how Bowie wanted to operate, and this is how the recording studio became an instrument, and so on.)

[4/3/2026: My current position on AI in music is that writers should definitely use it because it shortens the time between idea and an actual song you can listen to. Since postmodernism isn't going away you're going to have to juggle the old and new ways as bookends, and then play in that space without being jealous or envious that AI can produce better recordings than you. AI music is a dumb process of ordering from a menu, but you start to like the ordering].

4/3/2021

There is something to a really good guitar solo but from a musical standpoint they can’t go on for too long. With solos, coherent musical ideas are difficult to sustain over even 16 bars. What I like is the 8 bar solo—the solo in the middle-eight or some other section that serves as connective tissue to the “denouement”. The simple song form naturally sets up expectations and so you’re ready for the solo when it happens, especially if you’ve heard it before.

4/3/2024

I realize that I’ve partially given up music my entire life. That’s why I’m always finding ways to decamp to things that are equally as fascinating. 

4/3/2025