Package #1 consists of a cardboard sleeve which is in fact a LP Record Cardboard Jacket. It would have the cover image printed on one side and perhaps a few other images on the other side… or just credits and info. Looks like those jackets are actually 12 1/4” square which means the insert could be 12×12”. The cardboard insert would have a foam button in the center, which will hold the CD in place. The package can hide in a collector’s vinyl collection or can lean against the wall. In the drawing I called the Jacket a Sleeve. It’s a jacket.
Package #2 is super minimal and uses the least amount of material. It’s a CD mailer with a foam button in the center. The mailer becomes the package. A regular sheet of 8.5 x 11” paper would be folded. It can be added to the CD like that, in which case one side would show the cover image and the other side would display credits and other info. Or the two short sides of the folded paper could be cut and the center seam could be hand stitched together to create a simple booklet with 8 pages. This package can fit with a CD collection. It will be slightly larger than a regular CD case but not by much.
I am reading The Books of Jacob, by Olga Tokarczuk. Not loving it but it’s a big book and perhaps I need to persevere a little longer. Also reading Time of the Magicians, by Wolfram Eilenberger, with the subtitle The Decade that Reinvented Philosophy.
Uploaded a new hybrid mix to Backstage. I call it a hybrid mix because only a few of the tracks were encoded binaurally and the majority of the tracks were in stereo. I like the sound of it and will do more such hybrid mixes.
Uploaded the last entry I wrote during my cave retreat. I’m already contemplating my next visit. :-)
Founded in 2017, Boomforest is taking an approach to reforestation known as the Miyawaki method. Developed by the Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki in the 1970s, the concept is to plant tree species that are native to the area in a very dense and layered manner — three per square meter — in order to recreate the richly fertile conditions of the natural primitive forests that once covered the planet. It is in contrast to the slower, more orderly and homogeneous processes of traditional reforestation.
Ted Gioia wrote about a new study of music and well being:
So I was intrigued by a new study from the British Academy of Sound Therapy—which looked at how people use music to improve their mood and physical well being.
They studied 7,581 people and learned that:
89% of people believe music supports health and well-being.
Music creates an optimal state of relaxation in about 13 minutes.
The best music for relaxation has a “slow tempo, simple melody and no lyrics.”
Music can alleviate sadness, and 13 minutes is an optimum time for achieving this.
All these results converged on a time frame of 9-13 minutes before music demonstrates desired levels of efficacy.
My favorite way to work with music is, perhaps, akin to Sumi-e – painting with sumi ink on rice paper. The strokes have to flow quickly and the brush can’t linger anywhere or it might break through the rice paper. At least that’s the way I understand the process.
In this case, on Thursday evening I had played around with four chords that I could play in such a way that all of them had the open E as the top note. D maj 7, Bm, G, A9. Of those four chords only the last one would normally be played with an open E at the top. I have always liked a top note that connects several chord changes. Sounds great in string sections. While the violas and cellos define the chord change, some of the violins keep the connecting note going.
Yesterday morning I wanted to give this idea a go. Sometime last month, I had put together a rain rhythm, with a tempo of 65BPM, that also included the call of corvids on Jon’s street in Santa Fe (he let me use his recording) and that tempo worked for my idea. I played the chord changes as an arpeggio. Then I played the E as a harmonic, to fall exactly where the open string was played at the end of every chord. Next I improvised some melodies. Et voilá, two hours later I walked to a favorite cafe for lunch, listening to the piece on repeat.
What do you hear? I hear a late Summer’s afternoon. Perhaps one sits, happy and satisfied after a late lunch, under the awning of a cafe when a rain shower starts. While the drops are falling, sunlight is breaking through the clouds, filtering through the leaves of tall trees, which makes everything shimmer. Corvids are having a conversation. There is absolutely no need to get up and do anything. Just play the music again…
I think when creating something, anything, it’s important to mute the judgement section of one’s brain. You know, the part of us that says it’s not complicated enough, it’s not impressive enough, it just won’t do! Those are the thoughts that make the brush break through the rice paper and ruin the movement.
Or, as Nike says, Just Do It. You can always bin it later. :-)
This app would be enabled to connect to a number of messaging apps, like Signal, iMessage, Threema, Telegram, and WhatsApp, for example.
One would contact the person one wants to communicate with and let them know the order in which the apps will be engaged. Then one would type the message into the security aggregator and it would send one word to each messaging app in the prescribed order. The recipient would enter the code – the order in which the messaging apps need to be read – and then read the message on aggregator.
Writing and reading would be no different than when using any messaging app, but each service would only transport a single word, every fifth time.
I thought up a name for a wine. This kind of stuff buzzes through my head while we are driving to the next gig. Should I ever decide to make wine, which is not very likely at all, I shall call it “Field Recording”, because a wine reflects the dirt it grows on, the terroir, and as such IS a recording of the field. I think it might be a Pinot Noir named “Field Recording” and the label would be white and show a mound of dirt.
Woke up in the night, after dreaming of a dove perfuming a house, only it wasn’t a dove, it was a small drone. The drone had wings that fluttered like a bird’s and had a single purpose: to scent the air in a room. These scent-drones came in different sizes, for small rooms and for large spaces. One placed drops of perfume on a patch of absorbent material on the wings and then released the drone by lifting it up. It flew in a circle overhead… until I woke up.
