my sister brain-child from another life.

[gallery]

israelfacts:

Palestinian children stand to form Pablo Picasso’s Dove of Peace as part of a project by British aerial artist John Quigley and the United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA), at the foot of the Mount of Temptation in the West Bank city of Jericho November 25, 2011. It took some 1000 children from United Nations schools to create the project produced as part of the “Peace on Earth” project, a global musical prayer for peace which will be broadcast globally from Bethlehem’s Manger Square on Christmas day, a U.N. press release said. (Reuters/Getty Images)

A snippet

            The corridor led into a column of rooms: each resembling the quiet corner of a living room. There were bookshelves densely packed with not books but people, what remained of them—their ashes encased in bronze book-like containers with book-like spines inscribed with their names. Perhaps the room was not a living room at all but a private study of somebody with money. I saw in a glass case his reading glasses. Beside them sat his framed portrait.

            Some rooms led into smaller corridors, their archways slightly different from one another. Cool cement, patterned with perennials—cinquefoil—five leaves and sometimes seven. I stood on the middle step of one and looked up at the tunnel’s skeleton. The vaulted supports were so richly decorated so that their ornament concealed their function, their necessity. The spaces in the ribbed tunnels were sometimes filled with the same book-like containers filled with ashes. Memories of years past concealed in the concrete structure. This was a destination for old souls, a place of meditation.

Just saw pina bausch's ballet in berkeley. Therefore this is a must see:

Just saw pina bausch's ballet in berkeley. Therefore this is a must see:

"If equal affection cannot be, Let the more loving one be me."

Looking up at the stars, I know quite well
That, for all they care, I can go to hell, 
But on earth indifference is the least
We have to dread from man or beast.

How should we like it were stars to burn
With a passion for us we could not return? 
If equal affection cannot be, 
Let the more loving one be me.

Admirer as I think I am
Of stars that do not give a damn,
I cannot, now I see them, say
I missed one terribly all day.

Were all stars to disappear or die, 
I should learn to look at an empty sky
And feel its total darkness sublime, 
Though this might take me a little time.

W.H. Auden
1957

from Miki’s sister Miho.

Elegant. 

baboesjka:

‘Blue Window’ by Michael Carson

hello

evhan55:

Mark Manders!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ta9K22D0o5Q?wmode=transparent&autohide=1&egm=0&hd=1&iv_load_policy=3&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&showsearch=0&w=500&h=281]

also: there is an ipad app y’all….

walkoutofhermind:

the-dmo-show:

themattsmith:

Marcel The Shell With Shoes On, Two

yessssssss

 I love Marcel.

“Windy. That’s what the community calls you.”

(Source: http://www.youtube.com/)

[gallery]

ohhh good bird research for my gameeeee

dishranawaywithspoon:

090711 (by therawartist)

eveblume:

allcraftsconsidered:

LIGHTBULB AQUARIUM

WHOA

[gallery]

ummhello:

tori-tori restaurant, rojkind arquitectos

Save a Turkey, Eat some seitan

In third grade I wrote a story about a Turkey who escapes his thanksgiving fate by working out at Bally Total Fitness. His new slim physique distracted the farmer from picking him first to be slaughtered since he was less desirable thus giving him enough time to run away and hop fences (which he normally couldn’t do as his fatso turkey self). 

Most Turkey’s aren’t as lucky and there really aren’t that many Bally Total Fitnesses around these days. 

You can help. Eat Seitan. Fight the Empire. Be Different. Eat turkey next week for fun.

Rosemary- and Hazelnut-Encrusted Seitan

Created by our chef, this flavorful and beautiful dish is perfect for holiday gatherings. Marinate it in the Special Sauce, and serve it with Red Wine and Shallot Gravy and Green Beans With Fresh Cranberries

• 1 cup hazelnuts, toasted


• 3 Tbsp. fresh rosemary, minced


• 2 cups flour


• 3-5 Tbsp. olive oil


• 1 lb. seitan cut or shredded into large chunks and marinated overnight or


• 1 box chicken-style White Wave Wheat Meat, available at health food stores.


• Salt and pepper, to taste

• Place the hazelnuts and rosemary in a food processor and blend until fine. Transfer to a medium bowl, add the flour, and stir to combine.
• Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Dip the seitan chunks in the hazelnut mixture and coat completely (if the seitan does not come packaged in liquid, dip each piece in a little bit of water first). Put the seitan pieces in the oil and fry until lightly browned and crispy on both sides. Drain on paper towels.
• Serve hot with Red Wine and Shallot Gravy (see recipe). 

Makes 4 to 6 servings

Marinade for Seitan

Serve this easy-to-make marinade with fried, sautéed, or grilled and sliced seitan and your favorite veggies.

• 2 cups extra virgin olive oil


• 1 cup tamari or soy sauce


• 1/2 cup Dijon mustard


• 16 garlic cloves


• 1 Tbsp. ground black pepper

• Mix all ingredients in a blender.

Makes 3 1/2 cups

Red Wine and Shallot Gravy

Savory shallot gravy is perfect with our Rosemary- and Hazelnut-Encrusted Seitan.

• 1 Tbsp. olive oil


• 6 Tbsp. shallots, minced


• 1/2 cup yellow onions, minced


• 1/4 cup celery, diced


• 1/4 cup carrots, diced


• 1/3 cup red wine


• 1 sprig fresh thyme


• 3 peppercorns


• 31/2 cups roasted vegetable stock 


• 1 Tbsp. margarine


• 1 Tbsp. flour

• Preheat the oven to 350°F.
• Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the shallots, onions, celery, and carrots and cook until soft and browned. Stir in the wine, thyme, and peppercorns and cook, stirring frequently, until the wine is absorbed. Stir in the stock and cook for approximately 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the sauce is reduced by half.
• Meanwhile, melt the margarine in a small skillet. Add the flour and stir constantly until bubbly and lightly browned. Stir in some liquid to thin out, then stir the mixture into the stock mixture and cook for another 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Strain through a fine-mesh strainer and discard the vegetables. Serve over the Rosemary and Hazelnut-Encrusted Seitan.

Makes 4 servings

Why I plan to finally grow out my hair in my 80's.

empirewaist:

Renata Molho.

Credit : The Sartorialist

The Accident by Erica Funkhouser

She heard the nasty scraping of sole and heel
against the clipped turf of the doormat;
then their neighbor rushed in,
just back from the hospital,
where everything was fine, she said.
Fine. Her son had to spend the night
for observation, that was all.
He had been grazed by a delivery van
while crossing the street on his bike.
A few bruises, a superficial wound
above one knee. Incredible luck.
The neighbor was still wearing
her jogging clothes—pale blue
ripstop nylon, the same blue flame
along the instep of her running shoes.
She slid a chair from underneath
the kitchen table and sat down,
her long legs straight in front of her
like a ladder to a different world.
It was when the neighbor answered “yes”
to a question the woman’s husband
had not yet asked
that the woman finally understood.
Her husband had not even mentioned eggs,
but the neighbor knew he was going to cook for her.
How many times had they eaten together,
the woman watching wondered. Enough.
Her husband worked slowly,
strolling back and forth between the stove,
the coffee maker, and the table
where his wife and the still-flushed neighbor
leaned on their elbows discussing
the hazards of dusk.
On the counter, the eggs
developed little caps of moisture.
Her husband put lots of butter
in the pan and popped the toaster manually
before the toast could burn.
At long last he broke the eggs.
She had never seen him
do it like this before, two-handed.
He always liked to show off
by breaking the eggs with one hand.
This evening
his hands were trembling
as he cracked the eggs
on the skillet’s rim, hurrying to slide
the whole brimming mess into the pan
to quiet the sizzling fat.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOyEj2SKVCQ?wmode=transparent&autohide=1&egm=0&hd=1&iv_load_policy=3&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&showsearch=0&w=500&h=374]

Goddard explains some of his process behind Une Femme Est Une Femme and likens the actors’ improvisation style to that of classical Indian musicians. Ha!

(Source: http://www.youtube.com/)

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ik2CZqsAw28?wmode=transparent&autohide=1&egm=0&hd=1&iv_load_policy=3&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&showsearch=0&w=500&h=374]

"Maybe you’ll be cool like Hilbert who was like: Mathematics pffft, I’m going to invent meta-mathematics like a boss"

(Source: http://www.youtube.com/)

How lovely…even if it’s not usually my style……(from the selby)

sooo benjamin

thingsorganizedneatly:

Karsten Bott

By Scott Snibb, designer of Bjork’s Biophilia app. I really like music representations that get us back to circles. 

The hair is good.

Beautiful concept, but how the fish trigger any audio effects is unclear to me…had a similar idea for the sifteo cubes lately, minus the real fish.

evhan55:

Goldfish Orchestra http://thisiscolossal.com/2011/09/goldfish-orchestra/

Thinking About Grid Sequencers

Grid Sequencers are polarizing and I find it completely fascinating.

On the one hand, they are the interactive technologist’s dream. A novice user can immediately walk up to one, do something to create an effect instantly, and build on that experience in seconds to “make” a more complex sequence of sounds that magically sounds great. What could be better?

Classical musicians just don’t see the point. You can’t really repeat your performance very well, so what exactly makes it an instrument? You can create one short melodic motive, that lasts a few seconds and loops ad nauseaum. Music theorists see them as a cheap trick. Every combination of buttons sounds great because most grid sequencers use a pentatonic five-note scale (the black notes of a piano) as opposed to the seven-note scales of Western Major and Minor scales. 

In my own experience, I had always found Grid Sequencers fun to use and terrible to design for. I had worked on a project for Syzygryd for last year’s BurningMan in which part of the sculpture consisted of three grid sequencers each 16x16 tiles spread far apart from each other. The Syzygryd team was asking for music samples to fill their grids with. The piece could change over time, but the constraint that all buttons if pressed had to sound great together was just too much for me. In that way it didn’t feel like an instrument. It felt too much like making a drum machine, which is not what I had set out to do. 

From a music education perspective, I always disliked Grid Sequencers because I felt they didn’t help the user make a meaningful model that could be generalized and reused. Pitch maps vertically and time horizontally which is great, except that every next interval of the scale is represented as the next square up in the column, even though the actual distance between pitches might vary. It seemed to me that the user was too much at the will of the designer. Whatever pitch that was higher could be a half-step above or a whole octave! How could one make careful decisions about the melody they wanted to create if this was true? The Grid Sequencer while lowering the floor for the novice user and then quickly making more advanced experiences reachable, seemed to have very little to offer to a seasoned musician. It did not reward careful reflection of sounds. It pushed towards quick naive play. 

Having just designed a game for Sifteo Cubes in which the user maps pitch to a block, and reaches others through different mechanics with other blocks, I now appreciate the simple and elegant design of the sequencer. I also see more possibility. Why do there need to be wrong notes for something to be an instrument? 

My freshman year at MIT I took a jazz seminar with the clarinetist/saxophonist/composer Don Byron. He was a student of George Russell and on the first day told use to improvise in C Major. We all avoided the F and B of the scale. Don wanted to introduce to us to Russell’s Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization. He explained that by transposing from the Western major or minor to the relavent Lydian Chromatic scale, as a musician you were able to “paint with all the colors in your palette” as opposed to also having to think about which ones would be too dissonant for that part of your solo in real time.

I think about Don’s metaphor often. That a painter selects which paints he wants to use. He’s not assaulted with all of the colors at once and then forced to keep in his mind the subset he wants to use for his painting. He instead uses the palette to off-load that mental energy. He prepares it ahead of time, so that in the moment of inspiration he can paint freely. 

To me, the problem with a Grid Sequencer is that the palette never changes and the looping cycle is too short. Long enough for a single phrase, but too short for an interesting work to be made. The constant looping, while useful for quick composition, does not reward thoughtful planning of a pattern. Being able to craft a melody that you yourself don’t have to be able to immediately perform is so useful. It is analogous to programming. However, just as programming can feel fairly random if there’s no distance from the code—if you never think about the step-by-step process that the compiler  has to do in order to run your code, if you never had a desired result and were just shooting aimlessly—programming wouldn’t be very compelling. But once the computer does something that you don’t expect, and you have to debug your project, that is where the learning begins. When you can read a piece of code, and guess the result before pressing to execute the code, then you are really honing a skill. In music, it’s so difficult to hold time still. We don’t have the concise language of a result to look forward to. But a sequencer does offer a snapshot of before and after, a way to hold in space what will happen when the next column gets played. Perhaps there is a way of delaying the instant gratification, of working up the ability to predict what will happen, to plan what will happen next and to create a lasting thing that is beautiful and that never existed before. 

Saturday Night With Igor

Igor: I found out that I had a dvr recently
so i started recording jeopardy
my new life goal is to get on celebrity jeopardy and just destroy the competition
me: lol
do normal people go on celebrity jeopardy?
Igor: no, I'd need to stop being a normal person

Yes, but is it science!? Excerpt from a study on creativity:

The larger story here is about the surprising benefits of negative moods. While sad subjects in this new study underperformed on the creative generation task, previous research has demonstrated that sadness increases creative persistence, allowing subjects to work harder for extended periods of time. (In other words, melancholy is bad in the short-term, but good for the long haul.) Consider a recent paper, “The Dark Side of Creativity,” led by Modupe Akinola. The setup was very clever: she asked subjects to give a short speech about their dream job. The students were randomly assigned to either a positive or negative feedback condition, in which their speech was greeted with smiles and vertical nods (positive) or frowns and horizontal shakes (negative). After the speech was over, the subjects were given glue, paper and colored felt and told to make a collage using the materials. Professional artists then evaluated each collage according to various metrics of creativity.

Not surprisingly, the feedback impacted the mood of the subjects: Those who received smiles during their speeches reported feeling better than before, while frowns had the opposite effect. What’s interesting is what happened next: Subjects in the negative feedback condition created much prettier collages. Their angst led to better art. As Akinola notes, this is largely because the sadness improved their focus, and made them more likely to persist with the creative challenge:

Previous research has shown that negative feedback can lead to increased subsequent effort, as long as the task is not perceived as too difficult to be mastered (Locke & Latham, 1990). This is consistent with research indicating that when individuals experience negative affect in a situation that requires creativity, this negative affect may be interpreted as a signal that additional effort must be exerted for a creative solution to be discovered. In contrast, positive mood coupled with a situation that requires creativity may be an indication that the creative goal has been met, reducing the amount of effort exerted on the task.

From Wired Article: The Creativity of Anger

Zizu is a cute name. She’s cooking up a Tune!

Interesting Melody making game for Ipad….

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXEuEUQIP3Q?wmode=transparent&autohide=1&egm=0&hd=1&iv_load_policy=3&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&showsearch=0&w=500&h=374]

What do you do with the mad that you feel,
when you feel so mad you could bite?
When the whole wide world seems oh so wrong
and nothing you do seems very right. 
What do you do?
Do you punch a bag?
Do you pound some clay or some dough?
Do you round up friends for a game of tag or see how fast you go?
It’s great to be able to stop 
when you’ve planned the thing that’s wrong 
and be able to do something else instead 
and think this song. 

i can stop when i want to 

can stop when i wish

can stop stop stop

anytime

and what a good feeling to feel like this

and know that the feeling is really mine

know that there’s something deep inside 

that helps us become what we can. 

For a girl can be someday a lady

and a boy can be someday a man.

(Source: http://www.youtube.com/)

A Continuation in the Series: Most Classical Music Education is Silly

This is what a yamaha site was actually Bragging about:

By the end of two years in JMC, students have built a substantial vocabulary of solfège, having sung 50 melodies and numerous chord progressions using the I, IV and V7 chords in the keys of C major, G major, F major, D minor and A minor. Aside from developing musicianship, these solfège experiences prepare children to play in these five keys. In fact, children experience singing in a key for approximately one semester prior to playing in that key.

WHAT!? In two years you only learn 5 keys, the subset of which translates to 3 black keys total, no more than 2 in any given scale. It probably takes them such a long time because they have to spend a Whole Semester singing in a key before they can play it. So crazy. Why do classical musicians so deeply believe that detaching music from the physical interface of an instrument is so necessary? 

Now every girl is expected to have: Caucasian blue eyes, full Spanish lips, a classic button nose, hairless Asian skin with a California tan, a Jamaican dance hall ass, long Swedish legs, small Japanese feet, the abs of a lesbian gym owner, the hips of a nine-year-old boy, the arms of Michelle Obama, and doll tits. The person closest to actually achieving this look is Kim Kardashian, who, as we know, was made by Russian scientists to sabotage our athletes

Tina Fey (via judithanastasiafunnie)

[gallery]

Last summer, my mom’s friend who works for USAid in Telaviv, was telling me about this on our drive to the airport. So great that it’s still happening!

walkoutofhermind:

Palestinian women and girls from the West Bank at the beach in Tel Aviv, after a group of Israeli women snuck them into the country for a daylong excursion. Most of the Palestinian women had never seen the ocean before, because they live in a part of the West Bank that is landlocked. Skittish at first, then wide-eyed with delight, they waded into the Mediterranean, smiling, splashing and then joining hands, getting knocked over by the waves, throwing back their heads and ultimately laughing with joy. Read more here.

The story is worth reading, made me smile. Favorite line:

“As the cars drove through an Israeli Army checkpoint, everyone just waved.”

walkoutofhermind:

mothernaturenetwork:

Spiders in Pakistan encase whole trees in webs
Eerie phenomenon may be a blessing in disguise, as the hungry spiders have significantly reduced the mosquito population.

woahhhhh

Really, are you serious.

Reclaimed bamboo.

I think this is what Ben must have been like as a kiddo.

Beatrix, age 2, carrying a cloth

Beatrix: Washed all the windows in the front rooms.
Me: Thanks.
Beatrix: They are REALLY clean. I'm going to go upstairs to do the rest of them.
Me: Bea, you're kind of a big girl now.
Beatrix: NO I'M NOT! I'm a baby Mom a LITTLE TINY BABY!!!
Me: Whoa, sorry. Okay, you're a baby.
Beatrix: I just need to find my stool so I can wash the windows that are really high up, those kids put lots of prints on them.

This "piano methods explained page" almost made me throw up a little inside of my mouth.

However, I bet it answers a lot of questions parents have. The answers are really frustrating, but it’s good to know about what kinds of resources parents are looking for.

This "piano methods explained page" almost made me throw up a little inside of my mouth.

units of description may come perilously close to (pretending to be) units of perception—we hear and see (only) what we can say.

Jeanne Bamberger on why multiple representations for music are useful in education.

David Lang's Wed.

I have a recording of the piece arranged for piano, but have not found the score yet.

David Lang's Wed.

when called by a panther...

When I was little my mom read Ogden Nash’s Zoo poems to me. I remember that the cover had two owl eyes for the o’s. She sent me a text message today with a line from The Panther. I called her back to ask why I shouldn’t anther. I’ve known this poem since I was four but never processed the punchline until now.

The Panther

The panther is like a leopard,
Except it hasn’t been peppered.
Should you behold a panther crouch,
Prepare to say Ouch.
Better yet, if called by a panther,
Don’t anther.

nicely written tutorial: how to add tab-completion to vim for hella languages

nicely written tutorial: how to add tab-completion to vim for hella languages

swagistani:

Kashmiri SWAG.

walkoutofhermind:

RIP Cy Twombly

 And, the always great Jerry Saltz’s piece for NY Magazine

oh man. my favorite since middle school. 

Thinking about using Khan Academy tools for teaching piano.

Perhaps silly, but perhaps also worth a shot!

Thinking about using Khan Academy tools for teaching piano.

an expanded definition of an exception:

"anything that is not the normal return value of a function."

an expanded definition of an exception:

Quick summary of python exception handling

verrry nice.

Quick summary of python exception handling

Sifteo in the News:

And also, the number of ads on the Forbes site is actually obscene.

Sifteo in the News:

1,062 words you should know

This guy is great, his list is awesome and his analysis and argument for why having a large vocabulary is pro. 

1,062 words you should know

Vimium: Vim-ify your chrome

Vimium: Vim-ify your chrome

East vs. West - Varying cultural perspective on how women are oppressed

Paul Lansky's Pattern's Pattern

While deciding to name my paper after this piece, I came across this awesome video. 

This piece is so amazing, discovered it in Evan’s intro to music composition class (21M.035 or something like that? You really shouldn’t miss it if you’re an MIT student). 

It seems like the world is constantly exploding with looping music, but somehow it’s never as cool as this. Perhaps that’s because people are getting lazier about it, just letting the software do the work, and not crafting the exact syllables carefully throughout—letting them collide any which way. Like Radiohead’s last album for instance. Sigh.

Paul Lansky's Pattern's Pattern

post mit reading

 Paul Lansky, “Pitch-Class Consciousness,” Perspectives of New Music 13, no. 2: 37.

Loft living. 

not so hot on the stainless steel countertops…too trendy.

But if I were to live here, I would jump from my bed, onto that counter everyday. Then make some toast. Or set up a timer to make toast for me for pickup when I made my morning leap. Now that is something worth waking up for!

from igor 

If we liken the advancement of music to a genetic evolution, then contained in the ‘musical DNA’ of each composer would be found ‘genetic’ links to the past.

I think I Just threw up inside my mouth.

Post paper/project/final/pre-thesis/moving activity:

It’s time to convert to a new text-editor pre-job.

Post paper/project/final/pre-thesis/moving activity:

loved the animation. right to left!

walkoutofhermind:

The Martha Graham google thing is really cool today.

Change one letter and you get Ben.

Bea, 2, at the Mall ruining everyone's day.

Bea: Whoa that lady right here is fat. Fat.
James: Bea
Bea: FAT. She is so fat.
James: Bea, stop, you can't say that it's....
Bea: Dad. Dad. Dad. This lady is so fat!
James: *covers her mouth* Let's go.
Bea: FAT FAT LADY!! FAT LADY!!

(from kelly oxford: kellyoxford.tumblr.com)

I found another crappy poem on my computer

which I won’t share with you but the first stanza is quite good. 

Juxtaposed People

once, while i was sleeping 

I saw other versions of you superimposed, 

rising up in the same way we imagine people’s souls

drifting up from their bodies once, their bodies go cold 

One day I’m going to shave it all off like this. Maybe it won’t be a regular thing, but I want to try it at least once.

tldr; my Euro. Lit professor is a baller.

In my attempts to pull it together in these last remaining weeks, it’s good to be reminded of just who my audience is for this impending 20 pg. paper (in this case, translator of the one and only Walter B.). 

I was just casually going to express order this book for that paper. And after the fact, in receiving the follow-up email, noticed my prof’s name, Howard Eiland, in the item description. Crazy.

tldr; my Euro. Lit professor is a baller.

ok ok pretty cool. But may I just say that shortly after the next Delicious Top 50 or what have you was “Urgent Sexting.”

I cannot remember what this was in reference to

written end of 2009!? Shit thank god I’ve become a better writer since then (not a better pianist though :.(

Still, I might do something with this later and this blog or what have you is for me and you :.)

p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px}

you are living in this life of yours and I am in the corner 
I am in the corner watching this new life of yours begin
every few months I take a snapshot and I always destroy the film
afterwards, thinking having no record will make this new present less real. 
but it doesn’t. 
I take pictures because I’m not doing anything
you are acting you are doing
I am watching, I am washed over by your life
enveloped in it. 
You handle the entire conversation at dinner
and I am watching still. 
I talk and mumble and I cannot even hear what I am saying. 
no one is listening and everyone is talking at each other
like in a movie. but less polished
no one knows their lines, it’s amazing whole words are even making z
it out and aren’t swallows by my esophagus. 
I don’t want this, I want to go back to 
pine breakfronts. back when tv’s were big, when there had to be Something 
there to support them, something substantial. 
Because in that life there is me, and you are upstairs, you are doing 
whatever you were doing, maybe washing the dishes, or watching 
Charlie rose or something like this. 
in this life I am Doing, and Dad is watching, he is loving every moment of it. 

every pirouette. cascading silhouettes

but at the dinner table i am doing nothing. 
at the movies I am doing nothing
you two are watching intently, ferociously. 

I want to gag. 

But I give up, indifferent. let the whole scene wash over me
like a piano falling from the sky.

more writing lost then found

post-it for future essay, so glad that I found this and am wondering if it counts as found if you never remember losing it (or writing it). 

THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING
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My mom collected books. But unlike most book enthusiasts she didn’t believe in bookshelves, in exhibiting the bounty of her obsession, instead she hid books in closets and under tables. She stacked them under beds, stacked them even under precarious furniture creations (her other obsession being interior design). And while so many went unread, occasionally they would creep out from their stowed away places, or I would form an image of them pieced together stowed in my subconscious, pieced from grabbing my coat from the closet so many times. Or I would find them while unpacking winter sweaters (exchanging them for summer shorts and tank tops). Their contents remain unknown, but the titles run across my memory as if etched there in secret. This one especially.

 

poems poems and no place to put them

Found this and the next few by accident in my harddrive. Not polished enough for https://yotinthepot.wordpress.com/ (I’m trying to at least keep my online virtual world somewhat organized)

This one isn’t great, but seems like a good start given the warmer weather we’ve beeng having…

my feet are cold

through socks and shoes

underneath covers and pillows

underneath is the coldest cold 

underneath are my feet.

Cover Me

I have 4 Covers of pop songs that I’ve started. 

I get into it, transpose it maybe, start to write it down. 

But then I can’t ever keep myself from keeping to the song. There’s something about pop songs that’s so disappointing. 

For instance, today I listened to the opening track to the new TV On The Radio. 

The lyrics are great the thought is great, his tone is rich, honest. 

But then they need the trendy chorus, and it’s like the commercial break broke into my deep moment. I can’t work with this!!!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVHpBCjUu8M?wmode=transparent&autohide=1&egm=0&hd=1&iv_load_policy=3&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&showsearch=0&w=500&h=375]

I’ve been listening to this song on repeat. I think I like it so much because I recall her expression in the video while she’s singing it. Still my favorite Bjork video. A close second is Alexander Mcqueen’s version of Alarm Call that uses the remix.

(Source: http://www.youtube.com/)

Girls and Their Rooms

and that’s why I voted for Colbert. Like, a long time ago.

walkoutofhermind:

Apparently Sen. John Kyl said that abortions constitute “well over 90 percent of what Planned Parenthood does.” Which is not true, the real figure is around 3 percent…in response, Kyl’s office said that his remark was “not intended to be a factual statement.”

And so, because he is awesome, Stephen Colbert has been tweeting non factual statements about John Kyl all day. And they are amazing. Long Live Colbert Nation. 

New Music

I feel kind of sad that I put so little effort into discovering new music to listen to. It used to be something that I did, but these days I really just have no interest. Perhaps it’s super nihilist of me or something, but it just doesn’t seem worth the effort, especially when I already have so much that I love. 

I realize this is a terrible attitude. I mean were I to suddenly appear making music in some version of reality where I did not know myself, I would not discover myself. ! 

[audio https://www.tumblr.com/audio_file/berglar/4409420023/tumblr_lj9mfnH1T11qex889?plead=please-dont-download-this-or-our-lawyers-wont-let-us-host-audio]

Iva Bittova + Dunaj: V Bilem

I think I’m going to learn this one if I can make a cool piano accompaniment for it. 
The vocal range is exactly what I want to work on.  

Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorem: explained in words of one syllable

First of all, when I say “proved”, what I will mean is “proved with the aid of the whole of math”. Now then: two plus two is four, 

as you well know. And, of course, it can be proved that two plus two is four (proved, that is, with the aid of the whole of 

math, as I said, though in the case of two plus two, of course we do not need the whole of math to prove that it is 

four). And, as may not be quite so clear, it can be proved that it can be proved that two plus two is four, as well. And it 

can be proved that it can be proved that it can be proved that two plus two is four. And so on. In fact, if a claim can be 

proved, then it can be proved that the claim can be proved. And that too can be proved. 

Now: two plus two is not five. And it can be proved that two plus two is not five. And it can be proved that it can be proved 

that two plus two is not five, and so on. 

Thus: it can be proved that two plus two is not five. Can it be proved as well that two plus two is five? It would be a real blow 

to math, to say the least, if it could. If it could be proved that two plus two is five, then it could be proved that five is 

not five, and then there would be no claim that could not be proved, and math would be a lot of bunk. 

So, we now want to ask, can it be proved that it can’t be proved that two plus two is five? Here’s the shock: no, it can’t. Or 

to hedge a bit: if it can be proved that it can’t be proved that two plus two is five, then it can be proved as well that 

two plus two is five, and math is a lot of bunk. In fact, if math is not a lot of bunk, then no claim of the form “claim X 

can’t be proved” can be proved. 

So, if math is not a lot of bunk, then, though it can’t be proved that two plus two is five, it can’t be proved that it can’t be 

proved that two plus two is five. 

By the way, in case you’d like to know: yes, it can be proved that if it can be proved that it can’t be proved that two plus two 

is five, then it can be proved that two plus two is five. 

George Boolos, 199

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jzf2T2q4h-Q?wmode=transparent&autohide=1&egm=0&hd=1&iv_load_policy=3&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&showsearch=0&w=500&h=375]

Amaranth Borsuk’s “Between Page and Screen” is mesmerizing. 

The concept, the technology, the writing. 

http://www.betweenpageandscreen.com/

She gave a talk last week at MIT. The book’s images are tagged to specific poems/graphics available on the site only through the tagged images. The poems start as epistles and evolve into shorter couplets and are love letters between P and S. 

Page and Screen cannot live without each other, you can only access the text if you have both. 

(Source: http://www.youtube.com/)

RFID with Arduino

So awesome. Will come in useful for my upcoming Interactive Fiction masterpiece. boohahaha!

RFID with Arduino

Cool! We read Borghes in my Interactive and Nonlinear Narrative class. 
Loved it as well. Perhaps I’ll check out this as well pre-final project, thanks for the tip. 

evhan55:

I need to buy the New Media Reader and do some readings in it.  I really enjoyed the essays we read for seminar:  The Garden of Forking Paths, in particular.  I have a feeling there are essays in this book that I should be reading.  They speak to the technology in ways I can appreciate.

http://www.newmediareader.com/about.html

kitchen/chicken dreaming

I’ve been without a kitchen for so long, that once I have one I might actually foray into beyond-fish meat dishes. crazy I know. but this looks delicious!

kitchen/chicken dreaming

Thinking about doing this in my free time this summer.

free time, as if that will actually be a thing.

Still, seems pretty awesome.

Thinking about doing this in my free time this summer.

Reminded me of Nebraska wild flowers that we used to pick in the hills next to old car parts and groundhog holes. There were those pods too, whose black seeds when stacked would make interesting necklaces for the aunts, alma, some uncles too. 

If my life flashes before my eyes from my point of view, and I don’t get to see myself, I’m going to die angry.

Perhaps this is why Madame Bovary looks at herself in a mirror at the very end. A hot debate topic in my lit class. lol

(via kellyoxford)

imagine it with an oscilloscope right there on the left. 

z-bra:

nickelcobalt:

(via WO AND WÉ)

someday, when I have a (space age) bachelor pad…

This should be our first rap/hip-hop album cover. 

(Found while cleaning my virtual spaces instead of the real ones)

Just Think About Charlie Rose, and Wishbone, and Lamb Chop wouldn’t even exist without PBS. ok it’s 3am I’m done.

kellyoxford:

bishopia:

(Click image to enlarge)

On Saturday, February 19th, the House of Representatives voted 235-189 to pass a continuing resolution that eliminates funding for public broadcasting. I put together this handy chart on why PBS is worth saving. Find out how you can fight back at 170 Million Americans.

FULL DISCLOSURE: I am Creative Director for PBS KIDS but a life-long supporter/watcher of PBS ;

As much as we try not to be like our Mothers, I grew up watching PBS and seeing my Mom donate to PBS and now I do the same thing.
The quality of the programming on PBS is superior and beyond the scope of what the rest of American Television offers. No one craps out quality like PBS. You can quote me on that crap thing.
Sign me up for pledge week. I’ll go on TV and drive the money out of alllllll the sons o’ guns.

I read that the vast majority of the donations to our American PBS station were from Canadians.
So remember:
For every 1 US dollar in federal funding, PBS gets 6 dollars from Canadians!!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCAssCuOGls?wmode=transparent&autohide=1&egm=0&hd=1&iv_load_policy=3&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&showsearch=0&w=500&h=375]

Amazing. 

I had seen Shirin Neshat on Charlie Rose a long while ago and they showed a clip of this video. This was back way before youtube.

Thanks to Michelle for the Heads Up!

(Source: http://www.youtube.com/)

Cindy Gallop Talked at MIT:

former ad exec and ceo, she read English Lit at Oxford and now has two startups: 

if I ran the world

make love not porn

She was great. Buy her book from amazon. It’s <3 bucks. Amazon didn’t originally plug her book with the rest of the TED books because they thought it wasn’t as revalent. pfft!

Cindy Gallop Talked at MIT:

makeshift recording studio go!

Sometimes you just have to get some music down to get through the week. 

I worked on the Two Doves cover last night :.)

Today I built an ALU and started on the multiplier. 

"you're young you're supposed to be uncomfortable

that’s how you’ll learn the most at any job”

honey badger don’t care, look he’s getting stung like a thousand times…but he’s…he’s hungry!

[audio https://www.tumblr.com/audio_file/berglar/3560854507/tumblr_lhbhgyhwIh1qex889?plead=please-dont-download-this-or-our-lawyers-wont-let-us-host-audio]

I want to cover this song. I think it would sound nice on piano. Plus I want to work more on this vocal range. 

from the Cambridge Introduction to Narrative

"It is hard to look at the novel as if it were a kind of music, orchestrated simply for our enjoyment."

Shit. Narratives are all business. Can’t wait to get back to music.

Untitled: Why the Suzuki Method is incorrect.

The goal in mind for music education should be music literacy. I think the main problem with music education is the problem that is faced by music more generally. Music as an art compared with reading or writing a language, has not become prevalent in society for one reason or another. The result of this fact is that more extreme positions either demonizing or deifying music notation come to the surface more easily. For instance, if reading and writing were not basic skills taught in most education systems, intransigent pedagogical philosophies would be more prevalent. Similarly we are stuck, in music education, with well-respected pedagogies and teachers that hail or deride music notation.

In reality, both point-of-views are problematic because students that are taught either point-of-view are ill-equipped because they will only know one or the other: to play and not to read, to read and not to create. We cannot imagine a world where there were people that were exclusively readers or exclusively writers, therefore how has music fallen behind?

In response to your comment, we similarly cannot imagine a world where there were students equipped to read and not to write, to speak and not to read, to write and not to speak. And while students might find one to come at first more naturally, we wouldn’t base an entire pedagogy around this occurrence, or think that because of this “talent” they would be ill-equipped to learn that in which they weren’t as seemingly talented for. Doing so would seem negligent and would be the fault of the teacher, not the student for not having the natural ability. Similarly, I don’t think that we should treat music education this way.

 Additionally, all our past experiences and learning styles affect those subjects and skills that we can come to more easily. What makes learning hard is overcoming that arbitrary disposition— creating new experiences and expanding our learning styles and ost importantly: finding the teachers that can enable us to do so.

allofthismusic:

Interesting thoughts.  I think that we have to balance reading skills with aural skills.  The ultimate goal is to be able to turn symbols on a page into sounds both in our minds and through our instruments.  Also, which method is most effective also depends on the student and their learning styles and previous experiences.

berglar:

It’s true that this very sentence has been ingrained in me by my Pace Piano teacher, Yoko Jimbo since I was a wee young one. But yesterday I realized that the idea that Suzuki is the wrong way and that Pace is the right way was never logically bridged in all that time.

First, a quick intro:

As…

Untitled: Why the Suzuki Method is incorrect.

Musical Morning

sunday morning
slow beats seething
through the screens and 
the open windows
eggs frying
legs shaking
after we stayed lying
so long in bed

sunday morning
both of us reading
and looking up
occasionally
looking up
occasionally

sunday morning
you’re doing your thing
and I am doing mine
speaking words more
a formality
cause we get the feeling
of one mind

sunday morning
sheets still warm and
kitties swarming
round our feet
life comes easy
your sweet company
making it so complete

of all the monday through fridays we join the crusade
of all the saturday nights in which we were made
of all the exorcisms I’ve done with your ghost
still it’s sunday morning and I miss you the most

sunday morning
slow beats seething
through the screens and
the open windows
eggs frying
legs shaking
after we stayed lying
so long in bed

sunday morning
both of us reading
and looking up
occasionally
looking up
occasionally

~Ani Difranco

This mouse just saved my hand. i can't believe microsoft made it.

This mouse just saved my hand. i can't believe microsoft made it.

scarf as skirt. 

every now and then she has some great surprises. 

fiction versus lies

The author constructs a fictional world and we as readers reconstruct that world. 

Environments that stretch in space, exist in time and are habitats for animate agents that play out the story. 

But what if you pick up the newspaper and read that an article that you had read the previous morning was in fact incorrect. Was lying. Intentionally even? Is this fiction too?

I imagine that reading fiction is like traveling. You arrest your expectations about the new world that you are entering into. Entering it with a clean state of mind that is slowly populated as you find out more about this new place you’re visiting. 

When we read a newspaper, we’re assuming it has something to say about the actual reality that we inhabit. This is a completely different set of expectations. 

A newspaper might supply us information that is false but that does not mean that it is fiction because ultimately it’s building upon the world that is our version of reality. 

In the end it is about expectations. 

Why the Suzuki Method is incorrect.

It’s true that this very sentence has been ingrained in me by my Pace Piano teacher, Yoko Jimbo since I was a wee young one. But yesterday I realized that the idea that Suzuki is the wrong way and that Pace is the right way was never logically bridged in all that time.

First, a quick intro: 

As it’s been explained to me by the anti-suzukists—the suzuki method was born out of an attempt to understand the process by which musical prodigies learn music. It was observed that they didn’t rely on music notation but instead had a more intuitive understanding. Suzuki imagined a world where we learn music like we learn language, immersed in the experience of it which in music he believed the hearing of it. He thought knowing music notation too young diluted this experience. 

In the pace method, you begin learning notation systems as soon as possible. Starting with piano-roll notation at about age 3 and 4, you slowly transition to traditional western notation. Dr. Pace prioritized music literacy above music virtuosity. 

For years I was told this narrative. Music literacy above all else. Yesterday over brunch I came upon the following analogy:

We would never design an education system around any other kind of savant. If it was suddenly discovered that the most eloquent poets could not actually write, and instead just spouted poetry from their lips, we wouldn’t discourage people from learning how to read and write. Similarly, it makes no sense to eliminate the potential for greater musical understanding that can be achieved by becoming literate in its notation system. Statistically, not every one of Ms. Jimbo’s piano students are going to become the next great pianist. What she hopes for her students instead is that they will always love music and have deeper insight into its nuances and complexities to enrich their lives. And really, what more could you ask for?

this website looks fake but these gloves just saved my life.

this website looks fake but these gloves just saved my life.

Disassemble

Making art that expresses the intangible does not mean all smoke and mirrors. 

How can we make music that can disassemble, so that you can see the moving parts and be completely present?

If only we could communicate as well as the canadians. 

where we = new jersey or massachusetts.

I think I'm beginning to figure out the sleep thing.

I woke up this morning, feeling like I had just gone to sleep. Not remembering at all the process of how it happened, or the difficulty of getting there and then the frustration in having it already be over. Usually my sleep is light and then heaviest in the morning. 

I think part of the secret to this thing for me is sleeping in a small dark room. Perhaps when I get home I will try to construct a tent, or clear out my closet. 

However this isn’t completely science because I was also pretty sleep deprived. But generally when I’m sleep deprived it’s often even harder to go to sleep like a normal human being and eventually I have to just wait until my body decides to finally give up. 

"they've gone to sleep"

"oh yeah? that’s because the Sifteo Cubes are smarter than we are"

Jon Klassen is awesome. check out his art:

Eugene had told me about him this summer. Finally remembered to go back and check him out. Thinking about buying some prints…

Jon Klassen is awesome. check out his art:

The Dinner Party

“What would make you happy?” she asked.

“A blow job.”

“Let’s wait until they get here for that,” she said.

She slid her finger along the blade to free the clinging onion. He handed her her glass. “Drink your wine,” he said. She took a sip. He left the kitchen.

-Joshua Ferris’ “The Dinner Party”

svn >> git. the future is now.

svn >> git. the future is now.

"self.neighbors = neighbors.Neighbors() !?!?!? ...

this is why people hate programmers”

-ben