“The patterns are simple, but followed together, they make for a whole that is wiser than the sum of its parts. Go for a walk; cultivate hunches; write everything down, but keep your folders messy; embrace serendipity; make generative mistakes; take on multiple hobbies; frequent coffeehouses and other liquid networks; follow the links; let others… Continue reading

“Why are the Sun sessions Elvis’s best? It’s the spontaneity. That short echo. They’ve got a little Nebraska in them. Those records, they’re pretty closely connected in some strange metaphysical way. I suppose their relationship would be in the characters but also, without a doubt, in the sound. It’s a dissociative sound. It’s the sound… Continue reading

“Today everything is available at all times. All you have to do is have a subscription to Spotify…Nothing is special anymore. So one has to actually make some kind of pact with oneself to get back to that very very personal relationship with one work, or with just a group of very valuable pieces. Because… Continue reading

“But what makes music perhaps uniquely effective as ideology is what might be called its double nature. On the one hand it is, obviously, a human artefact, something that people make and that calls on a range of culture specific social practices and technologies. But at the same time we experience music as if it… Continue reading

“To create a dynamic, balanced composition in either 2D or 3D, make a strong initial design decision that is dynamic and unbalanced; then follow it with a secondary dynamic move that counterpoints the first move. Think of a counterpoint as a sort of aesthetic rebuttal: it is similar to but not quite the same as… Continue reading

“The hardest thing of all to see is what is really there.” “What is, is now, must have the quivering intensity of an arrow thudding into a tree. Yesterday is dim and monochrome. A week ago you were not born. Persist, endure, follow, watch.” “The peregrine sees and remembers patterns we do not know exist:… Continue reading

“Some of my favorite moments in musical life come when I can’t yet play an instrument. It’s in the fleeting period of playing without skill that you can hear sounds beyond imagination.” “In Western countries, the social institutions that kept classical music alive—conservatories, instrument builders, teachers, contests—were being sustained by an influx of stunning musicians… Continue reading

“Things rarely teach you what you imagine they will but that’s not to say that their lessons are without value. There is no seeing around or over or through. Things merely are.” (193) “The story of modern life is the slow but relentless spread of the all-devouring logic of capitalism. At first, only things were… Continue reading