Kind: Notes

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At work, schools returned, so things have been a bit chaotic. Had an interesting conversation with a colleague who asked if schools were getting better at using the application. I explained that the processes and expectations keep on morphing, meaning that it is not a simple matter of ‘getting better’. With this said, I do think schools are getting better and appreciating the why to it all. The challenge, from a support point of view, are the processes that are in the hand, whether it be effectively triaging problems or trying to bypass the usual steps by ‘just asking a quick question’. Question, is there really ever a quick question?

On a side note, I called a school I had not spoken with for quite a while (probably over five years). I said it was ‘Aaron calling’ and the admin actually remembered me. It really helps having social capital sometimes.

On the personal front, a few things reminded me that I had got out of the loop with my plogging. I subsequently bounced back clocking up more than 50km this month. As we are in the office more now, I have also been doing more lunchtime wellbeing sessions with my colleague, which involves two flâneurs wondering the city.

I also bought a new phone, a Samsung S24, which was on sale, after the screen of my S20+ decided to sporadically start flickering like a strobe light. With it I got a ‘military’ proof case, lets see how that goes? I stuck with Android as Moon Reader has become an integral part of my reading workflow.

Here is a list of books that I read this month:

  • These Foolish Things – A Memoir by Dylan Jones: Jones’ personal memoir reflecting on his life in and out of publishing.
  • After the First Death by Robert Cormier: A novel exploring terrorism and hostage situations from different points of view.
  • Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig: A philosophical exploration of the balance between technology and spirituality, interwoven with a cross-country motorcycle trip.
  • Lord of the Flies by William Golding: A novel depicting a group of British boys stranded on a deserted island without any adults who descend into savagery and tribalism.
  • Zen and Now by Mark Richardson: A book exploring Robert M. Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, it serves multiple purposes, in part a travelogue, in part a reflection on Robert Pirsig the person, however it is also a reflection on Richardson’s own therapeutic effort to make sense of the world, including fatherhood.
  • Music and the Mind by Anthony Storr: An examination of the relationship between music and human psychology, exploring how music affects emotions and cognition.
  • The Porpoise by Mark Haddon: A story told through another story, the myth of Pericles, Prince of Tyre, as a means of exploring power, lose and connection.
  • The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank: Beyond serving as a document of life in hiding during the war, the Anne Frank’s diary provides the reader an insight into the mind of the author and explore various topics, such as adolescence and sexuality.
  • Night by Elie Wiesel: A memoir on the experience of being taken to and surviving Auschwitz and challenges to faith that this raised.
  • Rememberings by Sinéad O’Connor: A memoir offering a glimpse behind the curtain, reclaiming the narrative of O’Connor’s life in the process.
  • The Ways of Being by James Bridle: An exploration of technology, artificial intelligence, and the interconnectedness of all living things, challenging conventional understandings of intelligence and existence.

In relation to music, I have been spinning Twinkle Digitz’s record which was finally released. While listening, I have been thinking about Liz Pelly’s point in her book on Spotify:

If we keep giving too much power to corporations to shape our lives, and we don’t protect working musicians’ abilities to survive. We are foreclosing that possibility for music to evoke those ephemeral unknowns. We are losing a lot of music that will never be made. We are letting new expressions, emotional articulations, and points of connection slip away.

Source: Mood Machine by Liz Pelly

With regards to my long form writing, I punched out the following:

I am not exactly sure what I want from my ‘Now’ page, but this is a start …

I returned to work a few weeks ago. We have been reviewing the system after the recent upgrade and trying to tie up various loose ends before schools starts. All in all, it has been frustratingly slow as I feel some many things are waiting on others and are out of my control, sadly.

On the home front, other than a few days in San Remo, we stuck to doing various day trips and local activities during the holidays.

Personally, I have been reading quiet a few books on music:

  • Rip It Up and Start Again by Simon Reynolds
  • Heartbreak is the National Anthem by Rob Sheffield
  • Talking to Girls about Duran Duran by Rob Sheffield
  • Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen
  • How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read by Pierre Bayard
  • The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
  • Squat by John Safran
  • Love is a Mix Tape by Rob Sheffield

While in regards to my acquisitions, I added the following to the mix:

  • Moments Bend (Architecture in Helsinki)
  • Moon Safari (Air)
  • Dancing in my Dream (Twinkle Digitz)

With regards to my writing, I wrote the following:

I was lucky enough to get another addition to my keyboard collection. After selling my MS-1, I upgraded to an Arturia MiniFreak. After spending some time instore, I decided that it felt like it offered the most bang for buck, especially with regards to saving presets. Growing up, I always wanted a Nord and its ability to dial up presets that were not necessarily dependent on the dials (this was my problem with the MS-1), I felt that the MiniFreak sort of offered that. I also really like the ability to visualise things on the small screen. My thought was also that the audio in might allow me to use the synthesiser as an effects unit.

As a bonus, the synthesiser comes an identical virtual instrument modeled on the MicroFreak.

Stephen, thank you for the reminder of what I have missed this year after taking a step back from things. I felt that so much of my online life had become stale, repeatable and templated, I wondered if it ‘sparked joy‘ anymore. I had wondered if I was doing things out of habit, rather than with purpose. Sporadically, diving back into my feed, I added a few posts to my site, one on the AI bubble and the other on educational communities, only to discover your responses:

Let’s allow that AI is a bubble (this saves us an exercise in semantics). Is it true that all bubbles pop? Yes, we can name many bubbles that have popped, but let’s consider some other technologies that experienced rapid growth, so much so that any ‘pop’ of the bubble was merely a rounding error. Like, say, the telephone. Cars. Aircraft. Microwave ovens. Computers. I could go on, but you get the idea. We tend to forget the bubbles that didn’t pop, because they became fixtures of everyday life.

Source: Pluralistic: What kind of bubble is AI? by Stephen Downes

And …

Twitter was only ever a subset of the larger educational community, and it always felt to me a bit like a high school clique. It was pretty easy to find yourself on the outside or the subject of Twitter disapprobation; I experienced it a few times (but to nowhere near the extent of some others). If Twitter was the best we could hope for, we weren’t hoping for much.

Source: Communities and Conversations of the Past by Stephen Downes

They were like seeds sprouting in the garden. As always, you added perspective that spurred me to think more, a reminder of the interactions I had missed diving into the world of books.

I had no intent of buying anothersynthesiser, but I changed my mind when listening Mark Ronson, in an interview with Jamie Lidell. He explained how he likes to start off sessions with a few toys, including an MPC, a Moog and a Juno. My latest addition is the Roland JX-08, a Boutique combination of the JX-8P and the PG-800. I really like my MC-101 and know that there is still a lot that I am yet to master. However, I really wanted something I could manipulate.

I once borrowed a PG-200 that was attached to a GR-700. I would play a note on the guitar, click hold on the foot pedal and spend time just looking for sounds. Although the JX-08 does not have the same solid feel as the PG-200, it has so much more functionality, including an arpeggiator, two channels and a sequencer. In addition to this, the sequencer has a random generator and random playback function. Together with built-in speaker, I like just sitting with it and poking it every now and then.

In Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions, Taylor Swift talks about how Aaron Dessner gave her Silvertone guitar with a rubber bridge and how playing some instruments write their own songs. I had a similar experience with the JX-8P. I am yet to properly dig into the various pattern, but for me it provides a piece of randomness that was missing with the groovebox.

For a few years I have been exploring various software solutions associated with music. A part of my interest was about access, it is a lot cheaper to by a Model D from the app store, than it is to buy an actual Model D. However, this was also about space. The problem though with the iPad was that it was always somewhat temperamental in regards to connect up a keyboard and having an iPad mini made the screen finicky.

Of late, I have come upon the realisation that sometimes there is power in the contraint of working with what you have at hand. Although this can be limiting in regards to options, it can also provide freedom from seemingly unlimited choice of apps and application. In some ways I was inspired by James Blake who shared his preference for physical synthesisers and samplers, rather than trusting a laptop. Therefore, in addition to our Roland F140R and my Korg Volca Modular, I recently got a Roland MC-101 and a Behringer MS-1-RD. I liked the idea that the Roland can do a lot of things and provides a rich set of sounds not available with the F140R. While in regards to the MS, having tried out a few different synths last year, I am glad that I did not get the slim keys that comes with the Korg Minilogue XD.

The next purchase will probably be a small mixer and speakers now that there are so many audio channels.

Lately, I have been balancing my time between the piano and the guitar. I have come a decision, that the guitar can be a lonely instrument. Growing up, I often played with others. However, these days I thrash about with headphones on. I accept that there are some styles which are more conducive to playing alone, but more often than not, strumming a few chords feels a bit bare.
I sometimes wonder if my strength of just diving in and getting it done is sometimes a weakness. Today I was given a spreadsheet with roughly 40000 rows to review. I started out adding in a few conditional formulas to use colour to break up the data. However, I soon realised what 40000 rows actually meant. I therefore decided to take a step back and think about how I could clean up the data. I spent sometime trying a number of approaches. After a few hours, I managed to hone the data down to roughly 4000 rows. This was a lot easier to review. It was all a reminder that time spent in reconnaissance is well spent.
I was asked to call a school today who explained we had made a mistake. It was an honest mistake, a case of misinterpretation, but a mistake none the less. I negotiated with the person that I would put together a list of errors I found and fix them. I think they were a little taken aback, they were fearing that they would have to do the laborious task of clearing things up. It made me think that although you cannot always prevent issues and errors, you can appease anxiety by being humble and saying sorry.
I was listening to someone reflect upon the perils of outsourcing compared to just doing something yourself. I had a similar experience today. As a part of my work in improving processes, I had created a spreadsheet template, which provided feedback as you went. I had someone email to say how useful it was, except it seemed to be broken. On further investigation, I realised that I had not implemented a recent update throughout the whole spreadsheet. I managed to put together a fix quickly. However, the issue was that the template had been copied 150 times and to apply the fix, I had to open upon each spreadsheet and past in the updated set of formulas. I thought for a minute whether I needed to rope somebody else in to help me. But I decided that it was my problem and best to make sure it is fixed properly, so I put my head down and hammered it out.
Reflecting on the practice of archaeology, Gabriel D. Wrobel and Stacey Camp talk about staring at a site and you will start noticing things:

I brought my father to a site where workers had removed the thick foliage so archaeologists could thoroughly map the site. Another archaeologist and I excitedly discussed the visible architectural features – patios, terraces, the stubs of walls. Finally, my dad threw his hands up in the air and said “All I see are rocks!”
But our trained eyes recognized that the piles of stones or earthen mounds we saw were suspiciously aligned. Stare at archaeological sites long enough and you’ll notice them too.

Mark Binelli talks about the way in which Frederick Wiseman makes documentaries from found objects.

He sees himself, he told me, like an artist who makes work from found objects, except in his case, the art is assembled from found events.

Sometimes such a practice involves instilling constraints as Matthew Herbert outlines in his ‘found sounds’ manifesto.

This reminds me of what Alan Levine calls a noticing pattern and being open to the space you are in

Continuing on from my discussion of space and music, I am always apprehensive about playing new music out loud. I feel there is a strange assumption that when you play something out loud you know what is coming. For example, I recently played The Avalanches’ We Will Always Love You and I was asked about the bleeps at the end:

The last song, “Weightless”, contains the sound of morse code, the original 1974 broadcasted message beamed into space, written by Frank Drake with assistance from Carl Sagan among others. It included encoded information about human DNA and other indications of intelligent life to anyone in the cosmic vastness who might be listening.

Although I had an inkling what it was, I was a little lost for words.

I often have the same issue when putting on playlists too.

Today I spent some time in the backyard. A part of this was listening to music. I somehow ended up down a rabbit starting with Empress Of, I then listened to BANKS and, after realising the BJ Burton connection, then moved onto Sylvan Esso. Before jumping ship, going back to Matthew Herbert. Although I did all this in my own physical space, one thing that I often forget about is the shared space of sound.

This reminded me of my next door neighbour growing up. He and his band were in some sort of band and they would play I Shot the Sheriff again and again. (I am going to assume that it was just their song or maybe my poor memory.) This would often be late at night, with little consideration for world around.

In the end, a fence may designate where my property may stop and start, however there is very little to separate sounds, even more so when living in an apartment. As my father once quipped, bass is not designed to be heard in the room you are in, but in the next room over.

I have been reading Fiona Hardy’s How to Write the Soundtrack to Your Life with Ms 9 and am really intrigued by the space created. There is a part of me which keeps on questioning various actions and activities, wondering if they would really happen. Would kids write songs so quick? Would they really have access to a video camera … at lunchtime? However, I also wonder if the problem is me? Maybe, I am not the intended audience? Maybe such books are not about being true, but instead about dreaming in an alternative universe?
I went into Global2 today and cleared out my data before it closes down at the end of this month. I exported the various sites and deleted them. I can understand the decision to move on from Edublogs, however I think that this is (still) a very under-utilised platform. A Google Site is not a blog and it has many limitations.

As we talk about Social Networking 2.0, I wonder what safe spaces we are providing students to experiment and explore?

Kevin Parker reflected on his choice to cover A Girl Like You for Triple J’s Like a Version. He explained the restrictions currently place with the fact that half of the band are not in Perth. These constraints have forced the band to rethink how he performs. It is for this reason that he has started tinkering with a 90s house music setup, built upon programmed loops.

In some ways, this reminds me of the Moog series where artists use the just Moog equipment to reproduce their songs:

I have been watching the Seal Team. One of the key phrases used by the team leader, Jason Hayes, is ‘work the problem’. This relates to going beyond intuition to focus on the situation at hand.

Leaders must “work the problem” through proper and thorough procedures. Specifically, they should:

  1. Define the problem
  2. Determine goals/objectives
  3. Generate an array of alternative solutions
  4. Evaluate the possible consequences of each solution
  5. Use this analysis to choose one or more courses of action
  6. Plan the implementation
  7. Implement with full commitment
  8. Adapt as needed based on incoming data

It is interesting to watch the show and think about the problems that can be broken down and those outside of the sphere of control. Makes me wonder about whether working the problem relates to the space at hand or the space created.

I ate out at a restaurant for the first time today since the start of COVID. It was strange knowing what was appropriate practices in the new normal. There was the line for in and out, the sanitising stations (one of which was empty) and the pre-booking to balance numbers. At the end of it all though, it was easy to look around and find examples of humans and average practices. More than confidence, it felt about faith.