June 18ths

6/18/1997 

Interesting that linguists have reduced all the languages in the world to just three, plus the Basque language, which is totally unique. It’s also ironic that changes in language take one or two generations. But the roots of certain words have remained intact for thousands of years.
         
6/18/1998

 The reason that lyrics sometimes go unnoticed in a piece of music is that the music is so seductive but that doesn’t mean that the importance of the lyric together with the music is any less important.

[6/18/2025: Pop music has always been about the sound and the beat, but the lyrics have to be singable (important), even if you’re not sure of the meaning–if there was an intended meaning at all. Sometimes you tune into the lyrics years or decades later. A friend of mine never knew that the female voice in I’m Not In Love was saying “Big boys don’t cry”. He thought it was a foreign language. Post-internet it’s easy to get background on possible lyric meaning].    

6/18/2003            
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DVDs are interesting in that you can watch what you want (“Video 45s”) and skip the stupid plots altogether.

[6/18/2025: Essentially, shorts].   

6/18/2019

A piece based on the poem a precocious boy (“Jimmy”) writes in the film The Kindergarten Teacher. “Anna is beautiful, Beautiful enough for me, The sun hits her yellow house, It’s almost a sign from God.” 

6/18/2024            
           
If I were to construct a custom AI tool or algorithm it would simply be what I’m doing now: select words from a specific text (not the entire scraped internet) and map them to a rhythm, select a good key (including horn keys if I specify that it uses horns, or to automatically choose a jazz or R&B template—which means it will be a swing feel (but do computers do swing well?), choose a good tempo and set the meter. (Does AI know how to do 12/8 or “12/8 Feel”?). Put that all in a notation program using proper note values, not a bunch of tied 16th notes. I want to use it with minimal tweaking. Otherwise I can do all this manually without AI and more to my liking because I can skip the widgeting process altogether.