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On Charles Duhigg’s “The Power Of Habit”: Exploring Music Listening Habit Loops
“Listening habits allow us to unconsciously separate important noises from those that can be ignored.” – Charles Duhigg In his best-selling self-help psychology book, The Power Of Habit: Why We Do What We Do In Life And Business, Charles Duhigg examines the structure of habits and the ways they shape everyday life for individuals, businesses… Continue reading
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In Praise Of Slowness: On Writing On Cellphones
It stuck me recently that I might say something about how the blog posts at bretttworks.com are written. So here goes: I write them on my phone. *** Most of the writing happens in those moments that could otherwise be wasted moments–while waiting for the subway, standing in line somewhere, sitting on the subway, sitting… Continue reading
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On Gary Marcus’s “Guitar Zero”
About five years ago I began playing acoustic guitar. I played off and on for a while, learning chord shapes, and trying (without success) to build callouses on my fingertips. I also experimented with alternate tunings and used a capo, recording a number of chord progressions I thought sounded interesting (hear the audio file at… Continue reading
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On Perception And Playing A Polyrhythm
A polyrhythm is the simultaneous sounding of more than one rhythm. I find polyrhythms endlessly interesting, mainly because they play with our perceptions, especially our sense of what is foreground and what is background. In this way, polyrhythms are the aural equivalent of those optical illusions you may remember from Psychology 101, such as the… Continue reading
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On Pop Music Production Geneologies: Ester Dean’s Compositional Process
In his recent New Yorker article “The Song Machine”, John Seabrook explores the songwriting process behind contemporary pop music. Today’s Top Forty hit, says Seabrook, “is almost always machine made: lush sonic landscapes of beats, loops, and synths in which all the sounds have square edges and shiny surfaces, the voices are Auto-tuned for pitch,… Continue reading
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Strange Mechanisms: On Entrainment And Running To Music
“…the music, the words of the mottoes, the steps of the dance, trigger the strange mechanism.” — Jean Rouch in Gilbert Rouget, Music and Trance (1985:181) Yesterday I ran the NYC Half Marathon (in a time that qualified me for the NYC Marathon–yes!). One of the things I noticed along the route was the presence… Continue reading
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Representing Time: On Christian Marclay’s “The Clock”
While I was in Ottawa last week, timing would have it that Christian Marclay’s epic video installation piece The Clock was showing at the National Gallery. I of course made a point of going to see it. The Clock is a 24-hour video collage composed of thousands of film clips (culled from the entire history… Continue reading
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Intangible Things: On Victor L. Wooten’s “The Music Lesson”
New Age : “an eclectic group of cultural attitudes arising in late 20th century Western society that are adapted from those of a variety of ancient and modern cultures, that emphasize beliefs (as reincarnation, holism, pantheism, and occultism) outside the mainstream, and that advance alternative approaches to spirituality, right living, and health” Victor L. Wooten’s… Continue reading
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“Where Are We?”: Situating Wonder Through Music In Apple Siri Commercials
wonder — (1): rapt attention or astonishment at something awesomely mysterious or new to one’s experience; (2) : a feeling of doubt or uncertainty Is there anything the Apple iPhone can’t do? And for that matter, is there anything Siri, the phone’s voice activated seer, doesn’t know? Recently I happened to be in Brooklyn early… Continue reading
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On Reading Online Consumer Reviews
I’m fascinated by consumer reviews and I read them regularly on Amazon.com. You could even say that review reading is a hobby of mine. What’s fascinating about reviews is how they illuminate people’s thinking by expressing their passion and enthusiasm, a high level of analytical detail, and a steadfast belief in themselves. No matter what… Continue reading
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