July 10ths

7/10/1960

Inge Morath: “In the early morning, a straight road. Green enough country, small towns and villages string along like glass beads of different shapes and colors picked up carelessly by a little girl. Then, suddenly, at Adrian the country changes, spreads out endlessly, pale green flat, hemmed in by the clear cut blue shapes of rock formations: the desert begins....” [More]

[This entry used as an image prompt...meh…]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A soundtrack that gives context: Morath was the photographer for the film The Misfits with Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller. This was probably when she was traveling to the film set.        

7/10/2021

A few weeks ago, Shepard Fairey was interviewed on the Climate One podcast. I was questioning whether music or anything in the arts has anything to do with the climate system. It does in the sense that it energizes them with anodynes:

"It’s important that people understand the severity of the issue but it is also important that they don't feel paralyzed because it's too overwhelming."

Recently, from the School of Life on whether philosophy should be more like pop music:

 "Since the 1960s, philosophy has stalled, while pop has conquered the world. It is now the foremost medium for the articulation of ideas on a mass scale. This explains why, if it is to survive, philosophy must study pop; part of its salvation lies in understanding pop’s techniques so as to be able to become, in crucial ways, a little more like it."

But once you've calmed down, what's the next step? Simply having an awareness about it, or even reading about it does nothing to the dire climate situation that we are in. Apparently, most are still ignoring as much as they ever have. It's a popular way of resolving cognitive dissonance.      

7/10/2022

Rock ’n’ roll canonized The Riff as one of its cornerstones, and therefore is seen as elemental to the form. But “riffs”, or other repeating phrases are also called an ostinato. Repeating interlaced patterns is an inheritance from African music, where repetition is everything. 

7/10/2024            
          
It’s infrequent that I get musical ideas in dreams, but usually they are 2-4 bar loops, not unlike how we develop ear worms that are similarly short and repeat over and over.

Became Shortet No. 14:

 

I like the idea of “creative urgency”. Creative urgency is like having your camera on motor drive, then having to wade through all the images. If you always have your camera on motor drive, and are taking photos daily, you have to review and curate them (convergence). This all takes time and is a part of the creative process which takes time, over a long period of time. This is why I like to work in series and systems, because then everything is of a piece. 

[7/10/2025: Music AI is an example of this process where you capture a “roll” then “develop”, mat, and frame. There are many versions of Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Mother that are in various museum collections. It’s a similar process. Here I made 12 “prints” and put them in a “collection”, then an “installation”. It’s an interesting process].