May 19ths

5/19/2008 

Made small painting based on the Arnold Newman photograph of Stravinsky at the piano, replaced with a silhouette profile of a cowboy.

5/19/2005

Light Escape. Sort of a May “henge” moment, where the sun angle is such that it casts interesting shadows. All seasons have their shadow moments]. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5/19/2013

Masdar Strip, digital transparency in custom lightbox.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An abstract elevation of a quarter mile of illuminated buildings along a boulevard as if seeing it from a distance, suggesting a street view illuminated with signage. The title is drawn from the planned city, Masdar in the UAE. If the city had a Strip, this is how it might look from a mile away. The lightbox display is in itself a Sign and a “Strip” (as in the Las Vegas Strip) and the apposite frame for the content. 

[5/18/2025: Became a location in Reset 2046 and a piece of music. Total David Lynch influence where an idea is a “bulb” moment].

5/19/2022
  
My definition of evolution in music is that which uses the past to the point where core elements are used and are reconfigured in some way. That way the initial essences are present, although they might not be recognizable. It's a manifestation of the Ship of Theseus paradox where a reconstruction may or may not have the original essences and had completely evolved into a new entity, and if that gets rebuilt again it is another one, and so on.

5/19/2023

With songs, there’s really no way to force anything to be great. We can attempt it but it’s not up to artists to decide. That said, there are things to possibly avoid, such that you stay out of the way by being overly analytical and allow things to get into a flow state, where you can seize the moment. Also, shorten the incubation period if possible. There is some wisdom in allowing it to mature over a long period but that also creates endless tweaking. I sometimes make version after version, with each resolving some aspect, like a bad key or meter, but the song evolves rather than matures or resolves. A good idea can very easily get lost in production as well, such as focusing on a drum sound or guitar sound. Songs based on sounds can be good songs as well, which has been the case since the 1960s, or even the 50s when the raw sound of an electric guitar made the song. To me, it’s having the ability to perform it without electronics, and to reduce it to chords, melody and lyrics on a lead sheet. This doesn’t mean it’s great necessarily—only that it was resolved like an artwork can be resolved and finished. 

 5/19/2025

As an experiment, I ran all the May 19 entries through an LLM and had it do an analysis. Interesting and funny. I don’t agree with its dream analysis, as in the Titanic/Murphy Brown dream from 1998. I wouldn’t be dreaming about either of those things today. The “data set” that dreams draw from is usually things that are in the daily rotations of your life or are in the background. In 1998 the Titanic film and Murphy Brown were probably being talked about