Friday

On Wednesday my Flickr accounted reverted to the free non-pro version with 200 images. There was barely any life left in it and so I put it out of its misery with a kill-shot. While I was at it I also deleted the Yahoo account I was forced to open to sign into my Flickr account. Does Yahoo really matter anymore? Would anybody care if it disappeared altogether? I don’t think I would even notice.

Came across this quote:

Wake Up, Geek Culture. Time to Die | Magazine
The topsoil has been scraped away, forever, in 2010. In fact, it’s been dug up, thrown into the air, and allowed to rain down and coat everyone in a thin gray-brown mist called the Internet.

I may refer to the internet as gray-brown mist from now on.

Been spending a few hours in the studio every day and “Santa Fe”, formerly known as “The Santa Fe Sessions”, is coming together nicely. When I compare the sound to the old release, these new mixes sound so much nicer. Re-mixing NF for the year 2000 release was a big fail, because the source material just wasn’t recorded very well. We would crank the EQ and nothing would happen… there was nothing hidden, nothing else to be discovered or released. But TSFS was recorded very well, in fact the recording was done at 24/48kHz and so is quite a bit better than CD quality.

Friday Morning. Slept in. Almost 07:30 here, and apparently only 4.9º on the armpit scale. (Fahrenheit – only popular in the USA and Belize)

Looking west the mountains around Los Alamos are lit up in a most beautiful way, but there is no way I am walking outside in my pajamas to snap a photo, and by the time I am dressed for it, the light will be gone. You’ll have to take my word for it.

Is this the end of the first decade of the 21st Century, or was 2010 the beginning of the second decade… I always forget how that works. Is it 0-9 or 1-10?

Upon further reflection I have decided that the decade lasted from 2001 to 2010. It always starts with the first year, not with the year zero. One does not declare that this is the year zero, rather one announces that this is the first year of the new calendar. At least that’s probably what all the old Chinese emperors declared when they started their reign. Therefore a decade is year one through ten, or eleven through twenty, or 2001 through 2010.

And why can’t non-Christians use an absolute number for dating? Is it that writing the year 4,540,000,000 takes too long? Or, even better, 4.54e+9

I also like the ancient Chinese way of starting afresh with every new emperor. Maybe the UN should announce that we are making a fresh start, and tomorrow will be the start of year one. We will take Climate Change serious, we will make changes, we will ride more bicycle, we will be compassionate and so on. On second thought, maybe that list should start with being more compassionate… And if we fail during the first year, we could start over and do year one again, until we get it right. It would get mighty confusing though, because I bet we would be stuck in year one for a long time.

Brian Eno’s Keynote Speech from the Rolex Young Laureates Awards (Vimeo)
Look out for the banana!!!

The Salman Khan academy Eno mentioned in his speech can be found here.

From the Upaya newsletter:

Darkness is only driven out with light, not more darkness.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.

From Fripp’s website:

When we act as we like, we may get what we want.
But not what we need.

In other words, eat your kale.

Hm, on Christmas I served a risotto with peas (and parmeggiano and white wine) on a bed of steamed kale… delightful.

Happy New Year to all of you!

PS:
The March Euro tour is now threatening to hit a total of nine countries. I am looking forward to performing in new locations and seeing, I hope, something beside the venues (to see more I must sleep less), but I am not looking forward to the necessary travel. We are very excited about the tour and hope it is just the start of a regular journey. Hopefully everything will get nailed down next week and I can let you know the schedule.

Flicker Thoughts

Regarding this post:

Incandescent bulbs minimize flicker because of their inefficient design. The filament continues to glow when the current cycles off.

Similarly many audiophiles prefer tube amplifiers and say that they bring digital media to life. Tubes are slower than transistors and may naturally “connect” the individual digital snap-shots.

Perhaps the same is true for the old TV screen. It is slower than a modern LCD screens and therefore minimizes the flicker.

January in Florida

Luna Negra Quartet:
OL – Flamenco Guitar
Jon Gagan – Fretless Bass Guitar + Keyboard
Michael Chavez – Drumkit
Houman Orei – Percussion

January:
Jan 20 – Orlando FL – Plaza Thater – website
Jan 21 – Lake Worth FL – Duncan Theater – website
Jan 22 – Clearwater FL – Capitol Theater/Ruth Eckerd – website

Saturday


Screenshot from a cellphone video I received from friends yesterday. The new OL gang sign or mudra. That’s what I want to see at concerts next year! :-)

Fire gif on Marginal Revolution.

Friday

A minimal christmas tree and a maximal christmas tree.

When my brother and I lived in a loft in Boston in the early Eighties, money was very tight. We would create a christmas tree-shape by nailing together 2×4 scraps we would find on the street. After we put lots of tealight candles on it it was quite pretty.

For the remainder of this year I made all past Journal downloads available to you. You can easily find all of the music posts by clicking on the category “Music” in the sidebar.

Happy Holidays.