Lee Barry Composition (And Photo) Diary

Juxtaposed lines: 8/23/1963, Friday  Single release, “She Loves You”.  8/23/1995  (Eno Diary)  New Oblique Strategy: “When is it for? Who is it for?” *** It's interesting that when I uploaded the riff Suno flagged it because "She loves you" was in it. Now with LLMs in the loop of music, a band can own words. I used "she loves you" in a riff and Suno flagged it. The Beatles now own those words such that you could be pulled over for using it in a conversation.  So why make anything, especially it it involves days or weeks of work? Why not just copyright a color ?   

 Reading Cones--Richard Serra  

  There was a photo exhibition at the Art Institute about 10 years ago that primarily featured Polaroids. In one of the works, the photos were flipped so that it showed just the backs of the photos with writing on them. As you read them, an image would appear in your imagination. The backs The backs  The backs of the photographs Turn around the phrase Turn around the beat The shifting of your gaze Your eyes are on the street Frame the caption card The only thing you see  You think you're seeing art It isn't what it means The backs The backs The fax/facts of the photographs 

 Thanksgiving   

9/23/2001 In music, what we need now are challenges, not cultural fluff. [9/23/2025: Immediately after 9/11 people were re-thinking their lives, as we did post-COVID. It’s as if they were clues to the next move. But we can go wrong if we change direction just because everyone is doing the wave. In 2001, I personally didn’t change direction as if turning over a new leaf. Metamodernism was just beginning to be discussed]. 9/23/2017 Jimi Hendrix didn’t operate at the level of skill. His contribution to the instrument was more driven by the time in which he lived, and the extra-musical sounds that the instrument could make. Perhaps if he had lived, future albums may have focused more on musicianship, but given his popularity, would he have pursued it for the sake of the art form? Perhaps.             [9/23/2025: Knowing when to use skill is a skill] 9/23/2019             Chicago-henge:         ...

 

 

Deconstructivist   

8/21/2018 "Blue" Sky:                      8/23/2025 Oliver Sacks: "As one's mind becomes preoccupied with theoretical or scientific issues, one may have less attention, time or emotion available for other things. But there are lots of highest-power intellectuals who stay interested in music, like Einstein. Darwin may have been as absorbed in thinking about evolution as Freud was absorbed in thinking about psychoanalysis when he went to operas. All of us are apt to get a little desiccated if we don't make a point of holding on to the delights of art and music and landscape. It's very easy to become preoccupied with theorizing and the activities of daily living and stop noticing the beauties of the world."

December 23rds  6/23/1998  “Soul” is defined by that which is controlled by the muscles, the breath, the way the mind works, which observe these processes and make adjustments accordingly, all the while being consumed by the spirit of the moment. [6/23/2025: A pretty good definition. (See: Do LLMs Have Soul? ]  Classical music is hard to position in culture because it’s so hard to match with other pieces of culture. It’s like furniture: you have an armoire in the rococo style that was built by the finest craftsmen, took two years to make, but it is difficult to fit with the exercise equipment and the green Naugahyde chair that your mother gave you when you left home at 21. [6/23/2025: The solution to the stresses of The New is to adapt. In art, this adaptation can come in the form of juxtaposing the old and new. In the 90s and 00s retro design was popular–in car design for example, where a new Thunderbird borrowed elements from older models. AI might be a way to do this]....

Meaning: About hidden meanings or ambiguities The backs The backs The backs of the photographs The backs The backs The backs of the photographs  Turn around the phrase Turn around the beat The shifting of your gaze Your eyes are on the street The backs The backs The backs of the photographs Frame the caption card The only thing you see You think it's what it means You think you're seeing art It isn't what it means Original blog post: 3/23/2024 There was a photo exhibition at the Art Institute about 10 years ago that primarily featured Polaroids. In one of the works, the photos were flipped so that it showed just the backs of the photos with writing on them. As you read them, an image would appear in your imagination. In many ways, this is how we are generating images (and songs) now using natural language and AI. But it's not us doing the imagining. The original sketch before the AI treatment:

 Hemingway Birthplace Artifacts    

 Rules  

2/23/1944             (Diary of Anne Frank) “The best remedy for those who are frightened, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere they can be alone, alone with the sky, nature and God. For then and only then can you feel that everything is as it should be and that God wants people to be happy amid nature’s beauty and simplicity. As long as this exists, and that should be forever, I know that there will be solace for every sorrow, whatever the circumstances. I firmly believe that nature can bring comfort to all who suffer. Oh, who knows, perhaps it won’t be long before I can share this overwhelming feeling of happiness with someone who feels the same as I do.” Black-out poetry:           For those who are frightened,  lonely or unhappy, go outside alone with the sky, nature and God.  for then and only then– can you feel nature’s beauty  as long as this exists (and that should be forever) know that there wil...

1/23/1998 Unabomber pleads guilty—life in prison without parole. What will they do with his little cabin?  [The cabin was made into an installation/conceptual piece by artist Richard Barnes ].    1/23/1999 Spilled a glass of water on this diary, disaster!! Diagram: the strata of human thought. The strata of human thought or its stratigraphy from the Cyberworld (hegemony) at the top layer (Detachment, "at one" with the crowd, no individuality, no critical thinking, groupthink, part of the machine, the individual is completely dissolved in the group) interpolated with reality (self-actualization, individuation, humanism0             [1/23/2025: At the dawn of the web I was seeing how it could change our collective psyche, and that we would live in the slippage between human and machine]. 1/23/2001 Watched another episode of Ken Burns “Jazz “series. You wonder how accurate it is. Interesting: Bebop was seen as this brilliant invention ...

12/23/1998              The irony about the success of Miles From Mars is that I never took it that seriously. I created it for solely artistic purposes, but never had my ego wrapped up in it. [12/23/2025: Wu wei essentially. The act of trying might be a function of ego–that we feel we are in control].   12/23/1999             Last minute shopping at Marshall Fields with mobs of people buying things for the sake of buying them–perhaps because they feel it’s the “last Christmas”. Left early and met A. at MCA.  12/23/2002               Went to Michelangelo exhibit Art Institute. Interesting: his work was done primarily as a study, a way of experimenting and working things out, solving problems. 12/23/2003 Prediction:  The selling of music will get like the selling of appliances with extended warranties, rebates, and so on. It will no longer be as free as it was in...

 

10/23/2002 Idea: Story about people that have everything except that “one thing.”   10/23/2024 What I love about being both a musician and visual artist is that I can alternate between the two and they inform one another. For the Human In The Loop album, I was going for a “metamodern” vibe—a mix of modernism and postmodernism, placing traditional Old Master paintings against what is essentially “modernist” music. I call it modernist because I’m incorporating orchestral elements, scored by me. It’s my “representational painting”. I am not a traditional artist. My art is all postmodern (and minimalist), and is based on ideas. I grew up in the 60s and 70s so it’s in my bones. It’s also postmodernist in the sense that I’m juxtaposing the sacred and profane. I had seen some of this type of work at art shows over the years that pulled no punches, and I liked it. But I’ve had a change of heart over the years and have become somewhat of a Stuckist. I like that I have the necessary skills o...

Chicagohenge  

 Blue Sky Black