November 18ths (All About the Sound)

11/18/2001

Documentary about Quincy Jones on PBS. Found it very compelling, albeit perhaps too much of a "love fest" (Even Clinton was on it.) What I was struck by about Jones was his sensitivity and vulnerability, which are essential qualities for an artist.

11/18/2022

A realization I had years ago was that music had become all about the sound rather than music for music's sake. It was after I had seen a Japanese blues singer on TV: He said, "I didn't know what I was singing about, but I liked the sound." (A testament that American pop music is primarily about sound.) People are looking for an emotional connection with music and it's interesting how that's now done more electronically.

[11/18/2024: AI music is all about the sound. If the sounds weren’t good the bad lyrics would sound even worse. Pop music never really needed good words, or that they were intelligible]. 

 

11/18/2023, Saturday

Nice autumn day, clear, 55 degrees. To Maple Lake (one of the "pothole" lakes) and Teason's Trail. Used the telephoto for some selective-attention photos at the top of Swallow Cliff. Apparently people use the stairs as a form of fitness training.... What was also interesting were lines of small stones that people had made--perhaps also a form of counting device. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

11 months into Nostalgia Galaxy I realize I really like working on only one song per month. It allows me to experiment with the idea and let it reconfigure itself.

[11/18/2024: My recent use of AI to generate music troubles me because it’s a distraction away from more rigorous creative work, which makes me think about what the current definition of “meaningful” is. A popular political opinion is now vastly more meaningful to the masses because it taps the emotional jugular–what art has done historically. So the question for artists is where do they focus?]