As the books move into their second and third editions, I'm continuing to add images and diary excerpts into the accompanying blog. The print editions have some of the images, but they are black and white and are all quite small. (Similarly with all other graphics, such as musical notation). The blog is also better for entries that have audio links in them. The plan is to discontinue all the ebooks. Ebooks have lots of formatting issues--much more than print (ironically). I may in the future convert the print editions to ebooks (or EPUB).
Here are the May blog entries, some of which have excerpts from the diaries. https://insumseries.blogspot.com/search/label/May
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The precursor to the In Sum series was a series of 3 books titled 3 Presidents, where the diary was segmented into I. Clinton Bush (entries 1997-2000); II. Bush-Obama (2000-2008); and III. Obama. The cover theme/metaphor was tricolore with the metaphor of Neapolitan ice cream. I don't know if I should revive it as it is strictly chronological and perhaps more logical for a diary. Instead of getting a feel for a month or a day, you get a feel for a presidency.
Leave a comment if you would be interested in this series. The third edition of Some November is now available with entries through 2023.
Ultimately, it doesn't really matter how you were raised. I think people are going to go their individual ways regardless of what's in their DNA or what's in the environment, which tends to make me want to place more emphasis on the idea that there is some kind of preordained Self in the universe that we're connected to. So it doesn't matter what your tribe is or what your family is--you're just going to go your own way anyway. I find it in spades in my family because none of us followed what my father did. My father was an ironworker and none of the sons followed in his footsteps--although I got a lot of my creative skills or proclivities from my father's side. My mother was creative in some ways, but I think I got more of the industrious creativity from my father as a kind of builder. I became a builder early on by playing with blocks and Legos and then having an interest in architecture as a result. For the most part, I'm sort of following my own nose. I like the idea that you're connected to the universe in some way so you have to capitulate to that option and hopefully, it will work either way. If you capitulate to the family business or family traditions that might not necessarily work either so it has to be a mix of everything.
Riff: 6/7/2021 From Photos taken on the 8th of a month.
From Some January 1/8/2001 Impression: Chicago story documentary on Studs Terkel. Passion for life, passion for "common" people, and a zest for things interesting. Will subsequent generations produce a rival?) He called himself a "gold prospector" while sifting through all his recorded interviews. This is what I try to do with music ideas, lyric ideas, and this diary. 1/8/2010 People criticize people that are addicted to their iPhones. But there's nothing more profound than the addiction to the automobile, and the result is ultimately on the stresses it puts on resources and the environment. *** Re: The interactive installation "I Want You To Want Me" at MoMA: This is interesting vis-a-vis what I'm thinking about re the 'Window Art/Mirror Art' axis. The exhibit seems to be overly obsessed with gazing deeply into the mirror, rather than looking outwardly for transcendence. By only using what people type into websites we only see a 'stylized' version of behaviors. It is merely feedback, although it may be useful in seeing the undercurrent of our emotions, similar to seeing what the Big Bang looked like as opposed to seeing only through imagination. While this may seem transformative, it might actually diminish imagination. And once people are aware of themselves being tracked, may artificially load the system with inaccurate data as people dissimulate reality. *** Dynaxiom: Photographs are artifacts of experience. 1/8/2011 Arizona Dem congresswoman Giffords shot at Tucson rally. Six others killed, including one nine-year-old girl, born on 9/11 (apparently with a precocious interest in politics). Now politics has reached the 'postal' level and is conflated with gun rights and extreme righteousness. Ironically, she is a supporter of gun rights. 1/8/2013 Two-year anniversary of the shooting of Gabby Giffords. She and her husband were interviewed by Diane Sawyer. One can imagine their empathy for all gun violence victims in the last 2 years. She is a supporter of gun rights and one would think she carries, but some people probably would never be brave enough to use it. 1/8/2022 Bowie's 75th. Revisited some interview greatest hits. Podcast Episode: On Tactility In Music Watched old 1980s doc on Frank Lloyd Wright, just because it was there in my YT feed. One thing I'm sure of is he must have become somewhat of a misanthrope and rather championed things interesting and beautiful in architecture, which have withstood the test of time. *** Question on Quora: If you could change anything about the music industry, what would it be and why? I always wonder why I answer these questions, but then I realize that it's a reason to think about things, then use the writing somewhere else. This is also why I wonder if people are just texting now how will that add up to anything in the future? Zero historical value? In a practical sense, we can become involved in exploring how artists can monetize intellectual property. This is partly the idea of using the Blockchain, and in some ways has the same revolutionary spirit of Napster as a form of restoring ideas of democracy and equality. But I wonder if it's simply a paradox in which compromise is the only viable solution. *** 1/8/2048 From Reset 2046 (Anthony Townes) Jon sent me a story about the future of music being more microtonal and raga-based and wants to start using it as an AJ. We've never thought that ethnological history going back centuries could be "algorithmic", but it is in fact, as it has existed in cryptoculture since the 2020s. I started a new series derived from the diary photos where I overlay them based on the day of the month, e.g. 12/8/2018 Over 11/8/2015. (I'm actually using the Overlay mode in Photoshop). It makes history "transparent" and you can get interesting juxtapositions.
A good term for this would be "metaphotography", art made with the use of metadata. Photos taken on the 8th of a month. 1/6/1934
Bucky Fuller's Dymaxion Car #2 is finished. 1/6/1966, Friday From The Complete Beatles: Yet more overdubbing onto the tape of "Penny Lane"...none of the instruments was taped pure...recorded at 47-1/2 cycles to speed up on replay. 1/6/1995 From the Brian Eno Diary: "I've never kept a diary past about 6 January (so I know a lot about the early Januaries of my life)." What a difference 55 years makes...from bouncy Beatles pop to the end of democracy in the US: 1/6/2022 Sunny and cold, 10 degrees 1/6@1. A very strange day. 9/11@1 felt much different. Half the country is celebrating and half wants to avoid it. A few years after 9/11 I wrote: "Forget September". I want to write one for January. What we didn't have in the first few years after 9/11 was social media. Jimmy Carter chilling op-ed in NYT with a stark warning about "losing democracy". I've read a few books on coups in history and it never crossed my mind that it could happen here. In fact, the idea that it could happen here has always been floated, but always dismissed as not being possible given the trillions of dollars the US has spent on nation building and protecting the American way of life since the 1940s. Carter is now 97, born in 1925. He was 16 when Pearl Harbor was attacked. By the time he was an adult, the US was well on its way to the present moment in terms of the fear and paranoia that drove geopolitics, and in which he was also involved in while he was president, including going along with the idea of arming the Mujahideen as a continuation of the militating against communism. Biden gives a commemoration speech, pulling no punches. Very risky in my view, but like Carter was averse to bold risks, or simply playing the game he never liked but felt forced to in extremis. |
AuthorLee Barry, Musician/Content Producer Archives
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