May 18ths

5/18/1995 (Eno Diary) 

“Realized today I’ve spent three years gazing at computer screens and it has got me not very far. In my next studio, as an experiment, I’ll have no computer set-up. The thought of going in in the morning and not switching on is thrilling and daunting...."

[5/18/2025: Yesterday, I created a piece of art that didn’t involve the internet, social media, or AI. It’s important to gauge how we feel when we use, or not use, technology, and then do more of that. You’re not on a hamster wheel. We can delude ourselves that hamster wheels are fixtures of life. Sadly, the avant-garde has been dying. It’s not like anyone’s making ‘pataphysical YouTube videos or performing Schwitters’ Ursonate, whereas these kinds of things were interesting to people at one point].

5/18/2003

Idea: Loops that are played in traditional fashion, played by musicians, not just turned off and on a computer. (You could also give musicians a sheet of 1, 2, and 4-bar phrases and have them play loops however they want ).

[Became Broken Cello]    

5/18/2005

SNL skit ideas: “The Wrong Show”—where people compete to get the right wrong answer (no one ever wins and everyone’s score is 0). “The inappropriate show”—where guests act inappropriately, for example, acting happy when talking about depressing subjects and vice-versa.

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The band Coldplay is being touted as the next U2. While I like their songs, they lack the “spirituality” of U2. Most of the bands I see these days have a manufactured feel about them, almost a corporate identity, a type of pop music “fascism”.

Cell phone ringtones—the new 45s. In fact, a ring appeared to be set to top the British singles chart. (Crazy Frog Axel F).1 Malcolm McLaren said it was the death knell of the traditional music industry.   

Can we still use the term “music industry?” It should be something like “music informatics”

[5/18/2025: What’s this? Algorithms. I noticed around the time of the release of the first iPhone the world still was operating in the old paradigm, then changed abruptly. It was a new game–social media].

5/18/2006            
    
Kapoor’s “Cloud Gate” sculpture is finally done. Artist was there for dedication. He said he was being manipulative, creating a shape that would lead viewers to the vortex under the sculpture. But he never intended it to have a special message. “When you’ve got something to say, sometimes the voice doesn’t come through. When there’s nothing to say, then maybe it has a voice.” (Nice...) 

5/18/2012

Watched film: Patience (After Sebald). Excellent. Great “ambient” film. 

[Inspired Music For Places IV: Rings of Saturn to some degree].