What I read
- I caught up on Nathan Ho’s excellent blog on sound design, synthesis, and generative music techniques. Check his site out here. The entire blog is excellent, but these two pieces especially got my mind going:
- On making Sound Dumplings, layering/stretching/re-tuning lots of separate recordings into one big dumpling.
- Using networks of feedback in what he calls Matrix Modular Synthesis.
What I watched
It’s clear I need to make more effort to watch films and TV that nourishes and excites and thinks and asks. I’m not sure Disney is interested in making films and shows that enable that.
- ANDOR: I watched the first 3 episodes, then stopped. I was very excited about this show because of how un-Star Wars it was supposed to be, and how specifically about revolution it claimed to be. I thought it was dull and vague.
- Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness: I think I’m done bothering with Marvel movies. I was beyond excited to see this film from Sam Raimi, who is one of my favourite directors. The last 20-30 minutes was the most interesting to me as it seemed as if Raimi was allowed to be a little weirder and messier and there was more of his very particular visual and comedic style. As a whole though, this was convoluted and uninteresting.
What I listened to
- Everything by Sparklehorse, especially “Good Morning, Spider”
- “Eccsame the Photon Band”, by Lilys
- This was the month I got into the work of Egisto Macchi, mostly listening to “Il Deserto” and “Biologia animale e vegetale”
- Also discovered Dragging an Ox Through Water this month, listening alot to “The Tropics of Phenomenon” and “Panic Sentry”
What I did
- Launched this website
What I made
- An album of “wintersynth” music, made as part of a challenge to make such an album in a short period of time (a couple weeks) with some constraints on instrumentation and length. You can listen to it here.
- Sean McCoy, the creator of the Mothership RPG, proposed a “challenge” for 2023 dubbed “Dungeon 23.” I’m not an RPG designer or writer, and I have no intention of becoming one, but I thought doing this project would be a fun, low-stakes, and entertaining way to practice a little daily writing/thinking/imagining/playing. So I worked on some dungeons, drew some maps, and sketched out some NPCs and factions every day in January. You can read more about Dungeon 23 here.