Things lost in translation

In Western contexts, "martyr" carries a heavy political or theological weight—the idea that someone made a conscious choice to die for a cause. But that isn't how shaheed functions for Palestinians.

Calling a child playing in a yard, a sleeping family, or an elderly patient in a hospital bed a shaheed isn't claiming agency or choice. None of them chose to be targeted. Instead, shaheed is an act of love, sanctity, and honor. It is a communal refusal to let a life stolen by Israeli military violence be reduced to a cold, clinical statistic.

This creates a constant struggle in translation: In English, saying someone was "killed" feels completely inadequate—it strips away the honor owed to the victim and flattens the active, systematic violence taking their life.

What you get, the cobbling together of hundreds of thousands of prior conversations, is a kind of conversational purée. Made of human parts, but less than a human sum. Users are, in effect, chatting with a kind of purée of real people-the ghosts of real people, at any rate: the echoes of conversations past.

We once thought humans were unique for having a language with syntactical rules, but this isn't so; we once thought humans were unique for using tools, but this isn't so; we once thought humans were unique for being able to do mathematics, and now we can barely imagine being able to do what our calculators can.

each new step towards AI, rather than producing something which everyone agrees is real intelligence, merely reveals what real intelligence is not.

A Quirky Introduction To Number Systems

[Math is software for your brain: each concept is an app or approach with uses and limitations. Getting stuck on a problem often has more to do with our method than reality itself.]

How we grade presentation night

[I often explain informal series of 5-minute talks as "open mic" with slides.]

[We can grade them as "learned something new", "knew this but enjoyed it", or "unknown"; "unknown" is not bad and not a property of your talk: it has to do with the relationship between your talk and the receiver."]

Welcome to the thirtieth ceremony of Ephemerata: reflections, observations, and life at the edge.

I’m doing this to stimulate discussion around what I find interesting, and also to share things before they disappear into the void of my journal.

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CONTENTS

1. Strolling pace
2. Berlin
3. Transcendence of twerking
4. Music

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STROLLING PACE

I ended up getting slightly burned out from trying to keep a certain pace with episodes of Strolling—grossly underestimated how much editing and production is involved. I’m pretty happy with the finished products, but I need to go slower to avoid making the project a source of stress. Might also help to do more spontaneous or short single-take “record and publish” episodes.

It’s hard for me to overstate how restorative it is for me to explore music composition in the episodes: there’s still something there after all these years of neglect and I’m excited to reconnect with that part of myself.

Looking forward to doing fifty more, just need to go a bit slower.

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BERLIN

Hoping to arrive in Berlin later today to do a month-long artist residency with moos.garden. Can’t wait to meet this collective of funky people who are generally exploring alternative ways to do things. I will also likely travel in Germany and maybe Europe after, so say hello if you’re around 👋🏼.

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TRANSCENDENCE OF TWERKING

In the third episode of Strolling, I spoke with Elena Stoodley, who shared about her profound relationship with twerking; in the extended version, she goes deeper to talk about its connection to ancestral traditions.

I also love the story of a speech she gave to her mother as a child.

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❤️

Help me continue creating projects that are public, accessible for free, and open-source, consider becoming one of my financial backers.

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MUSIC

All the following items can be accessed as a one-click playlist via Joybox without accounts or sign up—just open and play.

Short

DUCKWRTH: I’M DEAD from I’M UUGLY (2016). Time feel for instant body shaking, decorated and supported with seventh chords, bass patterns that repeat with variation, and effects to create contrast between sections. Lyrics slot into the drumming like Lego. (via Elena Stoodley)

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Zventa Sventana: Мужа дома нету from Мужа дома нету (2019). Combines electronic sounds with folk singing. Lots of cool percussion and odd production details throughout to keep things dynamic (several only occurring once in the whole song). Touches elements of techno music without being too formulaic, might be the combination with various vocal timbres that keeps it feeling alive. (via Alexei)

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Hundred Waters: Particle from Currency (2017). Starts with delicate acoustic piano tones and chords. I usually find it interesting when to use blocky (predictable) patterns from techno music without the music feeling too repetitive; the constant contrast here makes it always dynamic and alive. Lots of triplets and dotted rhythms throughout, twice used in the melody to create this feeling of continuously moving, dropping (for example, around 57s). The lyrics and melody help evoke a sense of flying, soaring, falling.

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Bites

Vulfpeck: Back Pocket from Live at Madison Square Garden (2019). Inspiring to hear a thousand-strong audience sing a complex line in three part harmony. Lots of beatboxing, music via voice and the body. Guitar shredding partially mirrored on voice. Surprising to clarinets at the end in this context. Good vibes, happy times, saudades for live music. (via Russel Ramos)

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Pongo: Bruxos at COLORSxSTUDIOS (2021). Massive sound in this body-shaker, both in the powerful voice and in the beat. The synthy flute about halfway in is a timbre I don’t hear often. (via April)

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Nostalgia

Carpenters: Top of the World from A Song for You (1972). Caught me by surprise to hear this while looking for something in a local Asian supermarket—my mom used to sing it as a kind of showpiece and even recorded it once in a studio. Listening more closely, I hear for the first time that there’s electric piano everywhere, orchestral strings, and these cool IV-I cadences before the verses start.

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More

Check out Fleeting Arrivals for more music.

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(I heart music)

I always love receiving music. Send me recommendations anytime, anywhere!

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That’s all folks!

Feel free to reply and share any reflections you might have, or just say hello. Have a great week 🙂.

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(I also have a more sporadic private mailing list if you’d like to hear only when new projects are released.)

Pongo: Bruxos

At COLORSxSTUDIOS (2021). Massive sound in this body-shaker, both in the powerful voice and in the beat. The synthy flute about halfway in is a timbre I don’t hear often.