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Directory of Moments

A Personal Bullet Point Journal

Week of Dec 28, 2020

Season Two of Joe Pera Talks With You delivers an emotional gut-punch.
Started reading How To Survive in the North by Luke Healy.
I did some playing with the synthesizers. Here are two experiments that I tried, which I had been thinking about for a long time. They both produced similarly lovely results.

1. Piano notes and chords with their sharp attack removed, so it's only a cluster of sustained piano tones, looped and layered on top of each other.

2. An eBow placed on my six string banjo. Individual notes are layered in a looper, to form a chord. Multiple separate chords are recorded into 'splices' on a module called the Make Noise Morphagene - a sort of virtual tape machine. You can move between splices, allowing you to select different chords/clusters of notes. (An eBow is a device that allows you to create sustained notes on stringed instruments like a guitar, banjo, or piano. It creates a physical, acoustic feedback loop! Sorta?)

Cool phenomenon while walking to the bus stop: the wind was carrying the sound of a train engine and its whistle right to me. The train tracks aren't super far away, but it did sound like I was right next to it. Like I had stepped out of the pub downtown as an engine slowly passed through town. Dense white noise and the dissonant tones of the whistle. Is there a word that describes when people really enjoy simple natural phenomena..? Cuz I love some good weather, some good shadows on my walls during sunset, the wailing of the freeway from a distance, bird calls. Y'know. Other stuff.
Had a quiet New Year's Eve alone, without virtual social obligations. Danced to LCD Soundsystem's 'This Is Happening' while I did some cooking.
Decided to do a livestream on Instagram where I played Solitaire with a physical deck of cards and listened to records on vinyl. Instagram's garbage horrible algorithm detected the music that I was listening to and shut down the stream. I had a lot of fun while it was going though, and talked with a few friends and acquaintances that showed up in chat. I think I'd enjoy more of this in the future, and I might set up a generative synthesizer patch as background music so that it doesn't get taken down.
Spent the final hours of New Year's Eve watching Joe Pera and the McElroy Family's 2020 Candlenights Special. Candlenights is their pan-religious, pan-sexual, personal pan holiday. It was very cheesy and homespun, awkward and charming because of that.
Ice storm on New Year's Day. Baby's first ice storm. The temperature hovered around freezing, and yet it rained all day rather than snow. The tree outside my window was coated in ice, highlighting each branch as if it was cel-shaded, capturing and refracting light.
Watched Joe Pera's latest special during New Year's Day breakfast: Relaxing Old Footage With Joe Pera. Please enjoy this absolutely fantastic quote that gave me a big chuckle, as Joe ponders fish in an aquarium:

It reminds me about a story I read that's called: Axolotl, and is about a man who becomes an axolotl.

I've only read a little bit of Kafka, but I think that would be considered Kafkaesque because that's what they say when a human turns into an animal. It's based on his story: The Bug.

Beauty and the Beast? Kafkaesque.

Began reading Whiteout Conditions by Tariq Shah during the ice storm; thought the weather was probably fitting. I'm enjoying the prose and tone so far, and I also appreciate that it's a pretty lean novel. More small stuff pls.
Virtual game night with the family on New Year's Day. Fun and then we all got sleepy.
Used my dutch oven for the first time and made a pot roast. The roast never seems exceptional to me, but I love the way the carrots and potatoes turn out. Used my cast iron skillet for the first time and tried making corn bread; was missing an ingredient from the recipe I was following, tried a substitution, didn't turn out right and had to toss the whole thing. It looked and smelled exceptional, but I think the eggs separated and scrambled. :((
I put season one of Game of Thrones on in the background while I made those? I haven't watched in years. Both in-universe and the show itself are fraught with problems, but I did find myself enjoying the character dynamics and some of the mystery elements. I never finished the show; I'd like to find a friendly summary that recaps the general arc. I imagine it's ultimately disappointing.
Heavy snowfall all of Saturday night; the most we've had this season so far I'd say. I listened to r beny's record 'eistla' twice. It's become a sort of winter tradition. My Favorite Ambient Album Which Evokes and Is About Glaciers. Also listened to the stunning and ahead-of-its-time White Night by Richard Lainhart, recorded in 1974 and released over thirty years later.
I love the visual phasing rhythms that I perceive when falling snow is illuminated by a street light. Rhythmic parallax. I'll either take a quiet walk in it tonight, or maybe even better: I'll finally grab a ratty piece of cardboard, go over to the snow hill, and do a sledding tomorrow.
Pretty melancholy about returning to work in a few days.

References

How To Survive in the North by Luke Healy and Whiteout Conditions by Tariq Shah are highlighted and linked in my previous winter reading post

gemini://gemlog.blue/users/jaron/1609036250.gmi

The McElroy Family's Candlenights 2020 Special is available here until Jan 8th I believe

https://houseseats.live/product/the-candlenights-2020-special/

Relaxing Old Footage With Joe Pera on YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wv-P2aN3-b4

r beny's album 'eistla' on Bandcamp: My Favorite Ambient Album Which Evokes and Is About Glaciers

https://rbeny.bandcamp.com/album/eistla

'White Night' by Richard Lainhart on Bandcamp

https://exovo.bandcamp.com/album/white-night

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