Pino Palladino + Blake Mills: Chris Dave

From Notes With Attachments (2021). Grooooooovy, jazzy, funky, with intricate clicking and clacking, and water glasses played with a violin bow.

Steve Lacy: Raps (1977)

Beautiful chaos from one of the free jazz greats: plenty of clashing notes, disjunct rhythms—everything’s broken as it should be.

Kasai Allstars: In The 7th Moon, The Chief Turned Into A Swimming Fish And Ate The Head Of His Enemy By Magic

Spectacular album title. Features traditional sounds and singing by Congo-based musicians mixed with modern production techniques. If you dig this, check out the Nihiloxica from #014. Lots of groovy, funky bits where I found myself practicing Rich Brown’s modal improvisation tips from #012.

Fikret Kızılok: Zaman Zaman (1993)

Chills me out, quiets me down—music to sway. This Turkish rock singer creates an old sentimental sound using acoustic instruments. My favourite is Oysa Ben with looping chord progressions, sounds of the shore, vinyl scratching, seagulls. Nice also to hear the warm piano on İki Parça Can.

Blood and Dust: Rites of Blood and Dust (2020)

So far away from what I normally listen to that I needed to look up the genre in Bandcamp (it says ‘ambient ritual ambient atmospheric horror dark ambient drone horror drone melodic dark ambient queer Montreal’). I often struggle when listening to music that calls itself ambient because I tend to find it sort of ‘empty’, but this was very clearly not the case here. Many tracks have this tasteful way of shifting the meter from a ‘three’ to ‘four’ feel, or gradually building intensity, or contrasting between arhythmic and groove, textural and instrumental. In the Hollow of a Hill somehow works in a flute and maybe a cello… This is not passive listening but a sound experience that’s well put-together: I recommend hearing from start to finish.

[Is there a kernel of truth. How is it being spun?]

[Information is a verb, something that happens to you.]

[Inform-ation as reception.]

[Information is reaction.]

[We see not the world but our model of the world, periodically updated.]

[Hot I'll tell you. Cool you'll tell you.]

James Baldwin - The Struggle of The Artist (1969)

[If artists struggle while also having their work, it must be impossible for those who do not have the outlet.]

Astral Flowers: Força da Cura

From New Paradigm (2018). Salutation to healing forces, introduced by the sound of breath, life, and spirit.

Chris Potter: Follow The Red Line (live, 2007)

Going through a reflective moment in the last few weeks, I found myself listening back to one of my favourite modern jazz albums. After dozens of listens, I continue to be inspired by the improvisational capacity of these musicians. It’s inspiring, comforting, centering.

Nihiloxica: Kaloli (2020)

Shiny little gem mixing traditional Ugandan drumming with elements of electronic music and techno. Supuki’s dark beats and groove drumming, combines the electronic with an earthy sound—intense; Tewali Sukali’s body-shaking rhythms are accompanied by grungy noise; Gunjula has fast-driving multi-layered polyrhythms; Busoga’s the lead synths are dripping light all over the percussion; Kaloli surprised me with its thrashing metal.

[With a mature parent, the child simply goes to the parent for affectionate connection. If the parent is afraid of deep connection, the child might feel uneasy or shameful.]

[Emotional intimacy exists when the other person seeks to know you moreso than to judge you.]

Building real bonds amongst diverse groups of strangers

[Get everyone to send a fun fact about themselves. Give everyone someone else's fact. Ask them to find their person.]

Adumbrations Of Aducanumab

This is Yagmuk. He lives in Ipmulaakiituk with his wife and children and eighteen moose. Since 2004, every single bill in the American health care system has gone to Yagmuk. He cannot read English, so he tears them into little shreds and burns them in the winter to keep warm. One day providers will realize he’s not paying, and the whole medical system will collapse.

[Q&A #02] Bombs vs. Bugs

[Banning code exploits itself can hurt efforts to counter DRM for autonomy.]

[Software exploits can be more dangerous than bombs because they are more likely to be used.]

[When exploits are used, we don't find out immediately; sometimes only years later, wheras bombs will be reported on the evening news.]

[Like viruses, exploits can be spread: using it is a risk of losing it.]

Infinite Loops

[Create a world that people want to come into and explore without you being there.]

[Worlds provide challenges for people and communicate what the next step is.]

[Challenges that you embrace and overcome can help create an identity.]