Thomas Brett
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Holding Out For Better
“Suddenly an experience of disinterested observation opens in its center and gives birth to a happiness which is instantly recognizable as your own.The field that you are standing before appears to have the same proportions as your own life.” John Berger, About Looking (1980), 204-205. There’s a type of being stuck that I quite like… Continue reading
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Database: Lia Kohls On Recording As Layering Time
“I’m responding to the recordings that I took and layering things on top, but I always started with the field recording. The recording is a collaborator. The world is a collaborator. I find it really difficult to sit down and make something out of the blue. I’m not someone who hears melodies in their head,… Continue reading
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Notes On Music and Humor: Flight of the Conchords
When I used to teach at a school on the Lower East Side, from 2007-2010, one day on my long walk on Houston Street from Avenue D to the 2nd Avenue subway stop I passed several actor trailers for the HBO show, Flight of the Conchords. The show, which ran for only two seasons, follows… Continue reading
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Resonant Thoughts: W. David Marx’s “Blank Space: A Cultural History of the Twenty-First Century” (2025)
“The term paradigm, despite rampant overuse in marketing copy and mocked as meaningless jargon by The Simpsons, describes a specific phenomenon in social science: the macro-values that set the logic of our choices and aesthetics. When a new paradigm emerges, the previous established styles lose all their value” (123). “The logic of ultrapoptimism ultimately blessed… Continue reading
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Database: Claire Rousay On Looking For Activity Within The Waveforms
“I’ll drag a file into Ableton to see it visually. I’m just looking for activity within the waveforms. Like, something happened here, because the signalling changed. There’s obviously a reason for that. I’m interested in that reason. Something is happening and I need to get it out. I guess that’s important to me.” Claire Rousay… Continue reading
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