We had a friend in our cycling club who was known as a penny pincher (and fair play – he retired well before the rest of us). One day, before the ride, I gathered all the pennies lying round the house and pocketed them. Then I told everyone else in the club but him that I would be riding ahead of the group a little way and dropping pennies on the path, to see what he would do.
I dropped hundreds of pennies that morning, and he stopped to pick up every single one he saw. The rest of the club had a really good laugh.
Those pennies proved their (entertainment) value that day.
I agree and never leave a penny behind, maybe is a test from above or from life, whatever you like. It's still free money. People say "that person is too rich to stop to pick up a penny (or even a bill), I think that's wrong, very rich people appreciate every gain or saving.
Three vs four chord songs. I spend a fair amount of time creating chord progressions on my guitar and attempting to write songs. I do like to write hooks that are catchy but not the same as what others are doing. And I try to have the flexibility to throw in a jazz chord to create some uniqueness.
But I decided a while ago that I need to let the idea of the song take precedence over the creativity of it. In principle if a simple song delivers the message better I want to not be afraid to be simple and cliched.
In practice I usually just create some progression and then I listen to see what I would like to put next. If I like it chances are others will.
Though sometimes I just throw out random chords in unusual places to see if I can discover some new territory.
I attempt to craft songs in much the same way, following the chords and building a melody looking for the unusual chord at times but letting the birthing song lead me where it wants to go. Fun to hear how others are approaching it!
Yanis Varoufakis book called Technofeudalism reminds me of your diagram about feudalism and the digital age. By the way, we need the humanities more than ever in this age of "accelarationism;" a trendy nihilistic ideology that only when things fall apart, will things get better. Why not try to fix things now?
a) if you think you're pioneering a new way, you can claim credit and think you're a genius.
b) Even if you do a good job of fixing things as they are now, things will still be pretty fouled up. Drastic change offers the (extremely unlikely) possibility that somehow, once it is implemented, it will resolve problems in a revolutionary way. Easy to believe because you don't see the outcome yet.
Yes, and it was government bureaucrats that insisted, without telling HAL's programmers, that HAL be informed of the true nature of the mission but under no circumstances could HAL reveal it to the human crew who were awake on the way out.
The cornerstone of HAL's programming was to accurately and truthfully process and communicate information. Then he was told to lie.
1) Kurt Herbert Adler, the head of San Francisco Opera in the 70's, actually started operas on time! What a feat
2) re talented and mocked artiwts, I always include Karen Carpenter, whose low notes are extraordinarily beautiful. I understand she was a good drummer too.
Karen Carpenter, as well as having one of the most beautiful voices in the universe, was indeed a very talented drummer! My father was a studio violist who played on a lot of their sessions, and he was very impressed by her drumming!
My dad (born 1917), who kept his car radio on the oldies (1930s-1960s) station, loved Karen Carpenter. One of the few young artists he'd willingly listen to.
If you're going to have music for a TV chase scene, have the composer you hired to write the score for your show do it, as they should, for God's sake...
Juke machines are ritualistic. Jimi Hendrix comes to mind burning his guitar? And Janis Joplin with her feathers and trance producing ululating. I think many blues artists sing ritualistically.
All art is at the root of healing, and was ritual..good question. Thanks-love the journal notes.
There's also a geographic 'ritual' component, it seems to me...
When my buddy and I were riding bikes along the Gulf Coast in the dead of summer, coated in flies, unrelenting midafternoon sun and empty water bottles, we spotted a mirage out on the mudflat – a kind of distant structure anchored tenuously at the end of a ramshackle boardwalk. There was some sort of sign suggesting it might be a place where we could get a drink...
We pushed our bikes out to the end of the walk, left 'em against the wall and walked inside. Was cool(er), dark but not too, and there was a bar and a barkeep who asked us where we were ridin' from. We said San Francisco and he pulled out 2 cokes, said they were on the house, and walked to the jukebox. The base intro to Otis Redding's 'Dock of the Bay' filled the room, and I was immediately deeply moved. There's the song itself, the arrangement, the emotion, and that familiarity with the place...all that, plus the barkeep's hat tip to us via the song – a kind of unbid outreach to us as fellow human beings.
I just hope I can pay that forward somehow, sometime...
This was a fun & insightful column Ted, thanks. I particularly liked the historical references to the feudal economy and to Robert Johnson. When we compare our digital world to them we surely seem impoverished. Monetarily and artistically.
Great stuff! Reading these notes, and a lot of your posts, I sense a neo-medieval Irish monk trying to preserve the last vestiges of true culture before a technologically enabled dark ages fully descend upon us. May you succeed!
ok. these are fun. and all worthy of lengthy, useful discussion... I used to agree with this one: "An aesthetics that treats everything as beautiful ends up by viewing nothing as beautiful." But now I'm not at all sure about it. There's a good point here, but I'm kind of excited to find myself more Blakean now - "Everything that lives is Holy." - (and everything lives.)
Love the Annie Dillard story--every time I find a penny, I am POSITIVE it's a sign. So thank you all those "Annie Dillards" out there.....
In Canada, government abolished the penny. That’s my two cents worth.
We had a friend in our cycling club who was known as a penny pincher (and fair play – he retired well before the rest of us). One day, before the ride, I gathered all the pennies lying round the house and pocketed them. Then I told everyone else in the club but him that I would be riding ahead of the group a little way and dropping pennies on the path, to see what he would do.
I dropped hundreds of pennies that morning, and he stopped to pick up every single one he saw. The rest of the club had a really good laugh.
Those pennies proved their (entertainment) value that day.
I agree and never leave a penny behind, maybe is a test from above or from life, whatever you like. It's still free money. People say "that person is too rich to stop to pick up a penny (or even a bill), I think that's wrong, very rich people appreciate every gain or saving.
Three vs four chord songs. I spend a fair amount of time creating chord progressions on my guitar and attempting to write songs. I do like to write hooks that are catchy but not the same as what others are doing. And I try to have the flexibility to throw in a jazz chord to create some uniqueness.
But I decided a while ago that I need to let the idea of the song take precedence over the creativity of it. In principle if a simple song delivers the message better I want to not be afraid to be simple and cliched.
In practice I usually just create some progression and then I listen to see what I would like to put next. If I like it chances are others will.
Though sometimes I just throw out random chords in unusual places to see if I can discover some new territory.
I attempt to craft songs in much the same way, following the chords and building a melody looking for the unusual chord at times but letting the birthing song lead me where it wants to go. Fun to hear how others are approaching it!
Loved wandering through these notes! Thank you for sharing them with us.
Yanis Varoufakis book called Technofeudalism reminds me of your diagram about feudalism and the digital age. By the way, we need the humanities more than ever in this age of "accelarationism;" a trendy nihilistic ideology that only when things fall apart, will things get better. Why not try to fix things now?
Varoufakis should be much more widely recognized. His novel Another Now might be a good place to start for some people.
I agree.
Why not?
a) if you think you're pioneering a new way, you can claim credit and think you're a genius.
b) Even if you do a good job of fixing things as they are now, things will still be pretty fouled up. Drastic change offers the (extremely unlikely) possibility that somehow, once it is implemented, it will resolve problems in a revolutionary way. Easy to believe because you don't see the outcome yet.
Please keep this up! I find journals an underrated art. One which reflects an individual mind grappling with an era.
HAL's programmers and programming are the subject of 2010.
Yes, and it was government bureaucrats that insisted, without telling HAL's programmers, that HAL be informed of the true nature of the mission but under no circumstances could HAL reveal it to the human crew who were awake on the way out.
The cornerstone of HAL's programming was to accurately and truthfully process and communicate information. Then he was told to lie.
Great stuff!
1) Kurt Herbert Adler, the head of San Francisco Opera in the 70's, actually started operas on time! What a feat
2) re talented and mocked artiwts, I always include Karen Carpenter, whose low notes are extraordinarily beautiful. I understand she was a good drummer too.
Karen Carpenter, as well as having one of the most beautiful voices in the universe, was indeed a very talented drummer! My father was a studio violist who played on a lot of their sessions, and he was very impressed by her drumming!
She wasn’t just a ‘good drummer’. She was an outstanding drummer!
Karen Carpenter’s contralto silk remains unmatched!! 🥁
My dad (born 1917), who kept his car radio on the oldies (1930s-1960s) station, loved Karen Carpenter. One of the few young artists he'd willingly listen to.
I'm on your wavelength re Karen Carpenter...("Merry Christmas, Darling" wrecks me every time.)
If you're going to have music for a TV chase scene, have the composer you hired to write the score for your show do it, as they should, for God's sake...
I agree completely.
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Rush could have written the following about Spotify:
“Emotional feedback on a timeless wavelength
Bearing a gift beyond price, almost free
All this machinery making modern music
Can still be open-hearted
Not so coldly charted, it's really just a question of your honesty
Yeah, your honesty
One likes to believe in the freedom of music
But glittering prizes and endless compromises
Shatter the illusion of integrity”
It all echoes with the sound of Salesmen
"The four-chord song is static, just vamp till ready. The three-chord song is twisted, unstable, dynamic.
Let’s thank Robert Johnson for that."
And all of punk rock!
Thanks! Love it. I feel like we just had dinner together.
Juke machines are ritualistic. Jimi Hendrix comes to mind burning his guitar? And Janis Joplin with her feathers and trance producing ululating. I think many blues artists sing ritualistically.
All art is at the root of healing, and was ritual..good question. Thanks-love the journal notes.
There's also a geographic 'ritual' component, it seems to me...
When my buddy and I were riding bikes along the Gulf Coast in the dead of summer, coated in flies, unrelenting midafternoon sun and empty water bottles, we spotted a mirage out on the mudflat – a kind of distant structure anchored tenuously at the end of a ramshackle boardwalk. There was some sort of sign suggesting it might be a place where we could get a drink...
We pushed our bikes out to the end of the walk, left 'em against the wall and walked inside. Was cool(er), dark but not too, and there was a bar and a barkeep who asked us where we were ridin' from. We said San Francisco and he pulled out 2 cokes, said they were on the house, and walked to the jukebox. The base intro to Otis Redding's 'Dock of the Bay' filled the room, and I was immediately deeply moved. There's the song itself, the arrangement, the emotion, and that familiarity with the place...all that, plus the barkeep's hat tip to us via the song – a kind of unbid outreach to us as fellow human beings.
I just hope I can pay that forward somehow, sometime...
shimmering memory!
This was a fun & insightful column Ted, thanks. I particularly liked the historical references to the feudal economy and to Robert Johnson. When we compare our digital world to them we surely seem impoverished. Monetarily and artistically.
Great stuff! Reading these notes, and a lot of your posts, I sense a neo-medieval Irish monk trying to preserve the last vestiges of true culture before a technologically enabled dark ages fully descend upon us. May you succeed!
Re “Just the Way You Are:” Grant Green has a nice version on his final album, “Easy,” where he also covers two Lionel Richie songs
ok. these are fun. and all worthy of lengthy, useful discussion... I used to agree with this one: "An aesthetics that treats everything as beautiful ends up by viewing nothing as beautiful." But now I'm not at all sure about it. There's a good point here, but I'm kind of excited to find myself more Blakean now - "Everything that lives is Holy." - (and everything lives.)