At the end of each week, I usually collate a lightly edited collection of recent comments I’ve made on social media, which I think of as my public scratch pad. I tag on what books I may have finished reading. Knowing I’ll revisit my social media posts serves, I’ve found, as a positive and mellowing influence on my online activity. Some items show up on disquiet.com before this post, in which case I don’t repeat them. I mostly hang out on Mastodon (at post.lurk.org/@disquiet), and I’m also trying out a few others. And I generally take weekends off social media.
▰ Parent quietly to two young children at public library as they enter together: “What volume do we use here?”
Younger child, authoritatively: “Two.”
Parent: “Or even one.”
▰ When recently discussing video game sound design, a friend thought I said “Armoury” (as in the ASUS gaming software Armoury Crate) when I’d said “R. Murray” (as in acoustic ecologist and sound theorist R. Murray Schafer) and now I wanna start a dedicated game-sound channel called @armouryshaeffer
▰ Current Preoccupations: trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire + guitarist Eivind Aarset + no-vocals early CSN(&Y) tracks on YouTube + footfall sounds in video games + synthesizer player Amma Ateria + organist LJ Holoman + attending live jazz concerts
▰ Los Lobos will be playing the Hardly Strictly festival in San Francisco this October, first time I believe since 2018 (not counting a virtual performance in 2020). (I thought it was 2013, but someone informed me it was 2018, and they also played 2015.)
▰ Pardon me for momentarily feeling kinda tough, but I apparently crashed my laptop’s built-in dictionary app. Now that’s writing.
▰ I like that this menu bar weather app’s popup has a UI that suggests you get a god-mode slider to adjust the outdoor temperature
▰ Just a reminder that Listen to Wikipedia still exists, and is still fantastic, turning various public actions from the website into sound and, in turn, into an ongoing ever-changing piece of music. Listen at listen.hatnote.com.
▰ It occurs to me that the three words (pickleball, audiobook, soundwalk) central to the On the Line section of my August 19th This Week in Sound newsletter are all paired-noun yokings (contemporary neologisms) that would have, with the possible exception of audiobook, felt odd to me when I was young.
▰ Belated barbershop report, a day late: no music, as other barber had left for the day
▰ Afternoon trio for distant car alarm, bathroom fan, and refrigerator drone
▰ Finished reading one novel last week, Kate Wilhelm’s Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang, from 1976. Very much enjoyed it.
