feedbox is an embed for previewing RSS feeds. Here's what it looks like:

Here it's configured to fetch the one from this blog, but you can use any RSS feed and drop in on your website with a few lines of code. I've added it to all my project home pages, including Zero Data App and my homepage.

It uses an instance of cors-anywhere to get around CORS complaints; I hope someday it will be simpler to just fetch the raw contents of a page.

I used to help my father learn French via informal conversations. We would talk and pick words or phrases that might be useful to learn, then make flashcards in Kommit to review over time (one side French, the other in English). He learned a lot just by repeating phrases through regular meetings with me and reviewing cards with the app. I also did this while teaching languages to friends.

After a while, we took it to a new level to make it less one-sided and also to reconnect with our cultural heritage. If you aren’t aware, it’s common that people from India speak English at home, even amongst each other, despite having other mother tongues. This happens for various reasons, but the result is that parents don’t pass it on to their children, tending to favour more ‘useful’ languages like English, and the younger generation (like me) grows up without speaking it. As a way to push against this we changed from French-English cards to French-Hindi cards: this way we can both learn from each other while keeping alive an important link to our past.

Thanks to everyone who attended and made this such a great conversation.

Rosano took more extensive notes but unfortunately lost the data (!), and would encourage participants to summarize their thoughts in the comments.

Participants

• Alexander Cobleigh works on cabal peer-to-peer chat (like Slack but no account and no server).
• Geoffrey Litt works on Wildcard for customizing apps without programming, using an excel-like interface; and with Ink & Switch on Cambria for distributed schema evolution.
• Michiel de Jong has worked on protocols like Solid, and remoteStorage, as well as the closely related Unhosted movement. He could be the grandfather of Zero Data, but to feel less old he points to Tim Berners-Lee who wrote a prior post on separating data from apps in 2009.
• Rosano works on various Zero Data apps like Hyperdraft and Launchlet.
• Sebastian Kippe works with 5apps, which provides static hosting and remoteStorage accounts; and Kosmos, which develops decentralized collaboration patterns and software.

Discussion

Naming is important because it enables ideas to be meme-able.

---

Thanks to everyone who attended and made this such a great conversation.

Rosano took more extensive notes but unfortunately lost the data (!), and would encourage participants to summarize their thoughts in the comments.

---

Participants

• Alexander Cobleigh works on cabal peer-to-peer chat (like Slack but no account and no server).
• Geoffrey Litt works on Wildcard for customizing apps without programming, using an excel-like interface; and with Ink & Switch on Cambria for distributed schema evolution.
• Michiel de Jong has worked on protocols like Solid, and remoteStorage, as well as the closely related Unhosted movement. He could be the grandfather of Zero Data, but to feel less old he points to Tim Berners-Lee who wrote a prior post on separating data from apps in 2009.
• Rosano works on various Zero Data apps like Hyperdraft and Launchlet.
• Sebastian Kippe works with 5apps, which provides static hosting and remoteStorage accounts; and Kosmos, which develops decentralized collaboration patterns and software.

---

Discussion

Naming is important because it enables ideas to be meme-able.

We talked throughout about schemas and the challenges of defining and standardizing them. TLDR: start using Cambria.

How can we increase adoption? What is the selling point for developers? How much easier is it to build apps? Can I use a library to enable my app to become the next Figma for X? What’s the selling point for people using apps? What features does it enable? Rosano points to doorless apps that can be used with less friction, without creating accounts; collaborative features like being able to share access and collaborate in real time; using an email address as the storage identifier so that people can use pathways to enter a new world.

In the Solid world, Noel de Martin, Vincent Tunru, and Jackson Morgan are making some of the more popular apps, such as Media Kraken for tracking movies, Notepod for taking notes, Poddit for bookmarking, and Liqid Chat for discussion stored on pods. Some challenges include (“many people with opposing views trying to change the world together”) and (“linked data not being easily interoperable in practice”)—see Michiel’s comment below for more details.

Alexander asks about remoteStorage…

• How different is the remotestorage.js API from localStorage? More or less the same (“get”, “set”, “delete”), even though it uses IndexedDB. You can use it to add sync to browser-based and offline-capable apps and tools. (Zero Data can even be thought of as a way to separate data from localStorage apps so that people can see their data).
• Can you self-host the data? The more modern servers in Rust and Node.js might not be production-ready. php-remote-storage has more testing, production-use, and is easier to get started—although it is an older implementation, the spec hasn’t changed drastically.

Geoffrey might have access to research funding for people working on these kinds of issues.

---

Michiel emailed his thoughts on linked data to the group and asked to share it here:

The promise of linked data in the context of personal data

So the promise of linked data breaks down for public data when we use different URIs for the same concepts.

You asked how that relates to personal data, well,

The promise of linked data there would be that if one app stores a todo-list item on your personal data store, then that data would be both self-describing and machine-readable, and the leap of thought that semantic web enthusiasts are sometimes guilty of is to imply that this data would then also be machine-interpretable.

That would work if app todo-list apps use for instance the https://schema.org/ScheduleAction class to store todo-list items. But in practice, Solid-based todo-list apps all use their own predicates, from their own ontologies, to denote facts about the world, and the fact that it's serialized as RDF where all identifiers are URIs does not make it more interoperable than if you would only used URI identifiers for the data format, and then just use "normal JSON" for the rest of the data format.

A way in which this confusion is sometimes added to, is by using generative UIs that get generated on-the-fly based on the data at hand. If you "view" a piece of data, it renders in a certain way based on a semantic style sheet, and even action buttons appear based on the content of the data you're "viewing".

This goes as far as when you view the data of a chat conversation on Solid OS, it renders a fully functional chat app inside a div, with that data loaded in. This is nice, but this "data browser" approach is not enough to build actual software. Which is why everybody who looks at Solid for the first time, immediately notices how hard-to-use Solid OS is. It's a very nice conceptual approach to software development, but it's not a silver bullet.

And even for Solid chat, there are now not one but already 3 or 4 incompatible schemas! :(

I even used different schemas in different apps myself. So even for compatibility between apps of the same author, we need Cambria. :)

And self-describing data (in the sense of adding a file format version indicator inside the data) is important, but it doesn't magically make zero data apps interoperable. :)

Tagged: zero data, event.

---

09h39 from Brasilia / Brazil ]]> https://rosano.ca/log/2021-07-25-music-and-emotion-sharing-circle-july-31st/ Sun, 25 Jul 2021 18:05:08 -0300 https://rosano.ca/log/2021-07-25-music-and-emotion-sharing-circle-july-31st/ Let’s listen to music together and talk about how it affects us. Music and Emotion Sharing Circle Summary We did a few rounds of spontaneously selecting music to share based on where the conversation was. After listening collectively, we talked about how it makes us feel, why we feel connected to certain songs, other context related to the music itself. We heard a variety of genres in three languages and allowed ourselves to be surprised. Some people shared reaction music to other people's selections. Some of us brought instruments to play/sing.

Let’s listen to music together and talk about how it affects us.

Music and Emotion Sharing Circle

---

Summary

We did a few rounds of spontaneously selecting music to share based on where the conversation was. After listening collectively, we talked about how it makes us feel, why we feel connected to certain songs, other context related to the music itself. We heard a variety of genres in three languages and allowed ourselves to be surprised. Some people shared reaction music to other people's selections. Some of us brought instruments to play/sing.

Some takeaways

• chords and music theory might seem mathematical, but they can become a language that affects us emotionally.
• there is hope in always having something new to discover, to hear the unexpected in something you're familiar with.
• music can offer a healthier way to connect with more primal emotions like anger and rage.

Playlist

Try the one-click playlist via Joybox without accounts or sign up—just open and play.

1. Vance Joy: Riptide (via Omar)
2. Lingua Ignota: PENNSYLVANIA FURNACE (via Zsolt)
3. The Turtles: Happy Together (via Jeeva)
4. Perpetuum Jazzile: Africa (via Tanya)
5. Gordon Lightfoot: The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald (via Omar)
6. The Corrs, Mick Fleetwood: Haste to the Wedding (via Tanya)
7. Joyce Moreno: Monsieur Binot (via Rosano)
8. Greg Puciato: Absence as a Presence (via Zsolt)
9. Lord Huron: Fool For Love (via Omar)
10. Lil Jon, LMFAO: Drink (via Jeeva)
11. J Anoop Seelin: Marete Hodenu (via Tanya)
12. Jacob Collier: Moon River a cappella (via Rosano)

---

(I heart music)

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

Every week, I share an eclectic playlist of my favourite musical finds in Ephemerata.

Tagged: Vibrations, event.

---

18h05 from Brasilia / Brazil ]]> https://rosano.ca/log/01fbd0mjf34yk24a7hnwkxb2yz/ Sun, 25 Jul 2021 12:00:00 -0300 https://rosano.ca/log/01fbd0mjf34yk24a7hnwkxb2yz/ Sparks Between Us: Step Into The Comfort Inn [Intimate when a performer is so absorbed in their own experience that they forget about their surroundings, the audience becomes observers.] [I adore you.] [I love everyone by default.]

Sparks Between Us: Step Into The Comfort Inn

[Intimate when a performer is so absorbed in their own experience that they forget about their surroundings, the audience becomes observers.]

[I adore you.]

[I love everyone by default.]

---

12h00 from Brasilia / Brazil, type:talk ]]> https://rosano.ca/log/01fbez6tfrqtgrzqqrckxnbwgn/ Sun, 25 Jul 2021 10:55:55 -0300 https://rosano.ca/log/01fbez6tfrqtgrzqqrckxnbwgn/ How Far Ahead Am I Thinking While Freestyling? Harry Mack slows down his freestyle process so that us mere mortals can understand how far in advance he plans.

How Far Ahead Am I Thinking While Freestyling?

Harry Mack slows down his freestyle process so that us mere mortals can understand how far in advance he plans.

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10h55 from Brasilia / Brazil, type:sound ]]> https://rosano.ca/log/01fbez6sggg9vzfxnr42hk4bg2/ Sun, 25 Jul 2021 10:55:54 -0300 https://rosano.ca/log/01fbez6sggg9vzfxnr42hk4bg2/ How to solo on a II V I... LIKE A PRO! Rich Brown (bassist extraordinaire) explains music theory of improvising on a fundamental chord progression and goes quickly from banal to outer space while describing both using the same framework. I have known the names of the Greek modes and their notes for a while, but only intellectually—I have hardly thought of them consciously while improvising. Here they are presented as composable parts and it seems approachable (using a ‘cheesy bossa nova’ backing track)—feels like I went from having one thing to do on each chord to 12 x 7 (= eighty-four…) possibilities.

How to solo on a II V I... LIKE A PRO!

Rich Brown (bassist extraordinaire) explains music theory of improvising on a fundamental chord progression and goes quickly from banal to outer space while describing both using the same framework. I have known the names of the Greek modes and their notes for a while, but only intellectually—I have hardly thought of them consciously while improvising. Here they are presented as composable parts and it seems approachable (using a ‘cheesy bossa nova’ backing track)—feels like I went from having one thing to do on each chord to 12 x 7 (= eighty-four…) possibilities.

---

10h55 from Brasilia / Brazil, type:sound ]]> https://rosano.ca/log/01fbez6qj0wbrh3evdftxyfh64/ Sun, 25 Jul 2021 10:55:52 -0300 https://rosano.ca/log/01fbez6qj0wbrh3evdftxyfh64/ Adrian Younge, Ali Shaheed Muhammad feat Gary Bartz: Distant Mode Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad have been recording a series since 2020 called Jazz is Dead with some renowned musicians. I have queued up all seven albums and am pretty sure at least one will end up here. One track called Distant Mode with saxophonist Gary Bartz caught my attention for its intricate drumming punctuated with sections of hyperspace warp speed that reminds me of Flying Lotus. They also collaborated with Method Man on Bulletproof Love from the LUKE CAGE soundtrack—the drum beat and rap lyrics feel like part of the same expression.

Adrian Younge, Ali Shaheed Muhammad feat Gary Bartz: Distant Mode

Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad have been recording a series since 2020 called Jazz is Dead with some renowned musicians. I have queued up all seven albums and am pretty sure at least one will end up here. One track called Distant Mode with saxophonist Gary Bartz caught my attention for its intricate drumming punctuated with sections of hyperspace warp speed that reminds me of Flying Lotus. They also collaborated with Method Man on Bulletproof Love from the LUKE CAGE soundtrack—the drum beat and rap lyrics feel like part of the same expression.

---

10h55 from Brasilia / Brazil, type:sound ]]> https://rosano.ca/log/01fbez6pjrv294tv5dfcvqn7sc/ Sun, 25 Jul 2021 10:55:51 -0300 https://rosano.ca/log/01fbez6pjrv294tv5dfcvqn7sc/ Jacob Collier: Time Alone With You I was waiting to set aside a year of my life to listen to Jacob Collier’s Djesse suite, but happened upon this track, with a harmonic complexity that results from someone starting with Moon River as their baseline. It sounds like being possessed by the opposite of the devil. I found it impossible to sit still while listening. Notice as well the fluid physicalizing of music in the video.

Jacob Collier: Time Alone With You

I was waiting to set aside a year of my life to listen to Jacob Collier’s Djesse suite, but happened upon this track, with a harmonic complexity that results from someone starting with Moon River as their baseline. It sounds like being possessed by the opposite of the devil. I found it impossible to sit still while listening. Notice as well the fluid physicalizing of music in the video.

---

10h55 from Brasilia / Brazil, type:sound ]]> https://rosano.ca/log/01fbez6nkgdd2eb87v8tnxj5a6/ Sun, 25 Jul 2021 10:55:50 -0300 https://rosano.ca/log/01fbez6nkgdd2eb87v8tnxj5a6/ Junior Braguinha Quinteto: Goonies From a set of live quintet recordings that could probably go together as an album, but seems impossible to assemble together without creating a YouTube account or relying on autoplay, so here’s just two tracks: Goonies (2017) mixes a high-octane bass solo with ambient noise (emphasis on noise) from the keyboardist—reminds me of Robert Glasper’s Black Radio. Brisa (2018) is hard-driving and odd-metered with harmonies that shift like mechanical gears.

Junior Braguinha Quinteto: Goonies

From a set of live quintet recordings that could probably go together as an album, but seems impossible to assemble together without creating a YouTube account or relying on autoplay, so here’s just two tracks: Goonies (2017) mixes a high-octane bass solo with ambient noise (emphasis on noise) from the keyboardist—reminds me of Robert Glasper’s Black Radio. Brisa (2018) is hard-driving and odd-metered with harmonies that shift like mechanical gears.

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10h55 from Brasilia / Brazil, via: Shedid, type:sound ]]> https://rosano.ca/log/01fbez6mm8ckyhjhsb6r48p7gf/ Sun, 25 Jul 2021 10:55:49 -0300 https://rosano.ca/log/01fbez6mm8ckyhjhsb6r48p7gf/ Mákina Kandela: CUMBIAKISTÁN (2014) Sometimes cumbia digital, sometimes afrobeat, sometimes reggae/dub. They use quite a few sudden metric changes throughout the album, which I find unusual for genres that are often more ‘steady’. There is also a peculiar sensation at around forty minutes where the groove always seems slower than you expect.

Mákina Kandela: CUMBIAKISTÁN (2014)

Sometimes cumbia digital, sometimes afrobeat, sometimes reggae/dub. They use quite a few sudden metric changes throughout the album, which I find unusual for genres that are often more ‘steady’. There is also a peculiar sensation at around forty minutes where the groove always seems slower than you expect.

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10h55 from Brasilia / Brazil, type:sound ]]> https://rosano.ca/log/2021-07-25-012-hard-bossa-cellular-communities-modal-improvisation/ Sun, 25 Jul 2021 10:55:48 -0300 https://rosano.ca/log/2021-07-25-012-hard-bossa-cellular-communities-modal-improvisation/ Welcome to the twelfth edition of Ephemerata, a weekly-ish digest of links, ideas, learnings, and sounds that I think are worth sharing. 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. HUMANITY Linus Lee’s cellular theory of communities uses biological metaphors to describe optimal community growth: [Communities grow less like linear software products and more like multi-cellular organisms. The conditions are as important as your contribution, and if they aren’t conducive, the entire structure can collapse.]

Welcome to the twelfth edition of Ephemerata, a weekly-ish digest of links, ideas, learnings, and sounds that I think are worth sharing.

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.

HUMANITY

Linus Lee’s cellular theory of communities uses biological metaphors to describe optimal community growth:

[Communities grow less like linear software products and more like multi-cellular organisms. The conditions are as important as your contribution, and if they aren’t conducive, the entire structure can collapse.]

[It’s easier for cells to stay alive when they are smaller. Multi-cellular organisms grow not by getting bigger, but by producing more cells.]

[Might be more strategic to build a large community by connecting many smaller, more intimate micro-communities. Enlarging small groups destroys the qualities that make it potent.]

To scale a community, build lots of special, one-of-a-kind places for a few people at a time, and then work with the most active members to build fast interconnects between them.

---

Joe Smith shares what helped Toastmasters become a thriving global community over the course of its hundred-year history:

[Newer people are helped by more seasoned people to create mentor relationships.]

[Making it fun is more important than the educational aspect.]

[Nobody gets paid, but they gain experience that creates real dividends in other aspects of their life.]

[People shy about lacking experience are prime candidates for growth by practicing leadership.]

---

Susan Collier shares about taking time to sit with ourselves.

[Why is it easy to reach for our phones for ten minutes but not stay silent for ten minutes?]

---

At the Sparks Between Us salon, the participant identities were secret, so I present the following ideas without credit:

[The word ‘love’ has societal connotations that may push us to conform to patterns that don’t reflect our true sentiments toward other people. What if we used the word ‘adore’ to break these pressures and define our relationships without external influence? ‘I love you’ comes with baggage that we need to clarify and justify. ‘I adore you’ is a blank canvas for us to express more purely.]

[I love everyone by default.]

---

TECHNOLOGY

A recording is now available for my discussion with Fission on Zero Data apps, entrepreneurship, funding, building software together—timestamps are available for the different sections.

---

Geoffrey Litt’s conversation on Metamuse goes into technological flexibility and implications of separating apps from their data:

[Despite having invented an infinitely flexible medium, we’ve all settled on small groups of people making something and throwing it over a wall for others to use.]

[The secondary market of module providers is often more important than end-user programming possibilities itself.]

---

While Dave Hakkens spoke at length about his sustainability projects, he pointed out something that I rarely hear in the discourse around ‘the sum of all human knowledge’:

[People with knowledge about certain domains are not in front of computers most of the day, so what is available online does not reflect what we know.]

---

❤️

If you’re enjoying this, consider contributing to my Open Collective. Virtually everything I create is public, accessible for free, and open-source. Your support helps me keep adding to the commons and making it available for everyone.

---

MUSIC

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

More Moreno (via Joyce aficionado @dokoissho)

I try to avoid saying here whether I think something is ‘good’ as it’s not a useful comment, but I can’t help stating that Hard Bossa (1999) by Joyce Moreno (featured in #005) is excellent. I was fooled by ‘the b word’, thinking that it would be easy-going music made by Brazilians catering to an international audience, and I was very wrong: traditional elements are unapologetically slathered throughout.

I’ll share my impressions of some songs, but the whole album is worth a listen:

• Zoeira starts the album with complex interlocking rhythms between instruments, yet it flows like air.
• Nome De Guerra’s rapid pandeiro beat and [that universal folk rhythm clapping pattern whose name escapes me] underpins a moment sung by Paulo Cesar Pinheiro, and it flows like air.
• London Samba sounds to me more like bossa nova than samba, but it feels like you’re dancing and someone is twirling you around. There is a trombone solo and it flows like air.
• Todos Os Santos features duet harmonies in a seven meter, and it flows like air.
• Hard Bossa’s scurrying onomatopoeic melody doubled rhythmically by flute flies right by, and it flows like air.

This falls under the #Under45Minutes classification that I disclosed last week.

I also thought it was neat that a legendary artist from the 1970s has a Bandcamp.

---

Albums

Mákina Kandela’s CUMBIAKISTÁN (2014) is sometimes cumbia digital, sometimes afrobeat, sometimes reggae/dub. They use quite a few sudden metric changes throughout the album, which I find unusual for genres that are often more ‘steady’. There is also a peculiar sensation at around forty minutes where the groove always seems slower than you expect.

---

Junior Braguinha has a set of live quintet recordings that could probably go together as an album, but seems impossible to assemble together without creating a YouTube account or relying on autoplay, so here’s just two tracks: Goonies (2017) mixes a high-octane bass solo with ambient noise (emphasis on noise) from the keyboardist—reminds me of Robert Glasper’s Black Radio. Brisa (2018) is hard-driving and odd-metered with harmonies that shift like mechanical gears. (via Shedid)

---

Tracks

I was waiting to set aside a year of my life to listen to Jacob Collier’s Djesse suite, but happened upon Time Alone With You, with a harmonic complexity that results from someone starting with Moon River as their baseline. It sounds like being possessed by the opposite of the devil. I found it impossible to sit still while listening. Notice as well the fluid physicalizing of music in the video.

---

Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad have been recording a series since 2020 called Jazz is Dead with some renowned musicians. I have queued up all seven albums and am pretty sure at least one will end up here. One track called Distant Mode with saxophonist Gary Bartz caught my attention for its intricate drumming punctuated with sections of hyperspace warp speed that reminds me of Flying Lotus. They also collaborated with Method Man on Bulletproof Love from the LUKE CAGE soundtrack—the drum beat and rap lyrics feel like part of the same expression.

---

I posted to my SoundCloud for the first time in a while: a guitar improvisation from Tiny concert for a friend.

---

Bites

Rich Brown (bassist extraordinaire) explains music theory of improvising on a fundamental chord progression and goes quickly from banal to outer space while describing both using the same framework. I have known the names of the Greek modes and their notes for a while, but only intellectually—I have hardly thought of them consciously while improvising. Here they are presented as composable parts and it seems approachable (using a ‘cheesy bossa nova’ backing track)—feels like I went from having one thing to do on each chord to 12 x 7 (= eighty-four…) possibilities.

---

Harry Mack slows down his freestyle process so that us mere mortals can understand how far in advance he plans.

---

@dokoissho documents his journey into multiple generations of Brazilian music. Wonderful to see this old school and beautifully human way of relating to music, a culture that may eventually be replaced by the current tendency toward algorithmic discovery.

---

(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.

If you enjoyed this, please consider sharing on Twitter or WhatsApp or Email.

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10h55 from Brasilia / Brazil ]]> https://rosano.ca/log/01fbez6kn0wz7xctfn0k1dgx7n/ Sun, 25 Jul 2021 10:55:48 -0300 https://rosano.ca/log/01fbez6kn0wz7xctfn0k1dgx7n/ Joyce Moreno: Hard Bossa (1999) I try to avoid saying here whether I think something is ‘good’ as it’s not a useful comment, but I can’t help stating that Hard Bossa (1999) by Joyce Moreno (featured in #005) is excellent. I was fooled by ‘the b word’, thinking that it would be easy-going music made by Brazilians catering to an international audience, and I was very wrong: traditional elements are unapologetically slathered throughout.

Joyce Moreno: Hard Bossa (1999)

I try to avoid saying here whether I think something is ‘good’ as it’s not a useful comment, but I can’t help stating that Hard Bossa (1999) by Joyce Moreno (featured in #005) is excellent. I was fooled by ‘the b word’, thinking that it would be easy-going music made by Brazilians catering to an international audience, and I was very wrong: traditional elements are unapologetically slathered throughout.

I’ll share my impressions of some songs, but the whole album is worth a listen:

• Zoeira starts the album with complex interlocking rhythms between instruments, yet it flows like air.
• Nome De Guerra’s rapid pandeiro beat and [that universal folk rhythm clapping pattern whose name escapes me] underpins a moment sung by Paulo Cesar Pinheiro, and it flows like air.
• London Samba sounds to me more like bossa nova than samba, but it feels like you’re dancing and someone is twirling you around. There is a trombone solo and it flows like air.
• Todos Os Santos features duet harmonies in a seven meter, and it flows like air.
• Hard Bossa’s scurrying onomatopoeic melody doubled rhythmically by flute flies right by, and it flows like air.

This falls under the #Under45Minutes classification that I disclosed last week.

I also thought it was neat that a legendary artist from the 1970s has a Bandcamp.

---

10h55 from Brasilia / Brazil, type:sound ]]> https://rosano.ca/log/01fbchwk6k4fhv0gn17085nqvm/ Sat, 24 Jul 2021 12:24:39 -0300 https://rosano.ca/log/01fbchwk6k4fhv0gn17085nqvm/ Toastmasters: Still thriving 100 years into its history [The first meeting is free.] [Newer people helped by more seasoned people to create mentir relationships.] [Toastmasters are interested in self-improvement while also carrying other people with them.] [It's popular in Asia because people want to practice their English.] [Making it fun is more important than the educational aspect.] [There's always room in the front row, most people avoid it and lurk from the back.]

Toastmasters: Still thriving 100 years into its history

[The first meeting is free.]

[Newer people helped by more seasoned people to create mentir relationships.]

[Toastmasters are interested in self-improvement while also carrying other people with them.]

[It's popular in Asia because people want to practice their English.]

[Making it fun is more important than the educational aspect.]

[There's always room in the front row, most people avoid it and lurk from the back.]

[Nobody gets paid, but they gain experience that creates dividends in other aspects.]

[People shy about lacking experience are prime candidates for growth by practicing leadership.]

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12h24 from Brasilia / Brazil, type:talk ]]> https://rosano.ca/log/01fb7rc4em3g70f4wadcr8ntvs/ Wed, 21 Jul 2021 20:00:00 -0300 https://rosano.ca/log/01fb7rc4em3g70f4wadcr8ntvs/ Bring your own client with Geoffrey Litt [Despite having invented an infinitely flexible medium, we've all settled on small groups of people making something and throwing it over a wall for the others to use.] [The secondary market of module providers is often more important than end-user programming possibilities itself.]

Bring your own client with Geoffrey Litt

[Despite having invented an infinitely flexible medium, we've all settled on small groups of people making something and throwing it over a wall for the others to use.]

[The secondary market of module providers is often more important than end-user programming possibilities itself.]

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20h00 from Brasilia / Brazil, type:talk ]]> https://rosano.ca/log/01fb592230ryp22rhqbctrxc8f/ Wed, 21 Jul 2021 16:35:40 -0300 https://rosano.ca/log/01fb592230ryp22rhqbctrxc8f/ How Toastmasters has survived—nay, thrived!—for 100 years [There is a counter at each meeting for both grammar mistakes and filler words like 'um', and a timer helps speakers fit into the allotted time. People keep coming back to improve their skills.]

How Toastmasters has survived—nay, thrived!—for 100 years

[There is a counter at each meeting for both grammar mistakes and filler words like 'um', and a timer helps speakers fit into the allotted time. People keep coming back to improve their skills.]

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16h35 from Brasilia / Brazil, type:article ]]> https://rosano.ca/log/01fb2j7v2mvjf1q57p0fhm10g2/ Tue, 20 Jul 2021 15:18:23 -0300 https://rosano.ca/log/01fb2j7v2mvjf1q57p0fhm10g2/ Designing our way out of this mess [People with this knowledge are not in front of computers most of the day, so what is available does not reflect the knowledge.]

Designing our way out of this mess

[People with this knowledge are not in front of computers most of the day, so what is available does not reflect the knowledge.]

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15h18 from Brasilia / Brazil, type:talk ]]> https://rosano.ca/log/01fazb7vecxm87ge5d19fywhc8/ Mon, 19 Jul 2021 09:18:20 -0300 https://rosano.ca/log/01fazb7vecxm87ge5d19fywhc8/ How I write [After grouping fragments of your idea, and before writing a draft, bring it up when talking to smart people and try to get their feedback or disagreements. This is part of allowing time to work in your favour and helps you find the right words or way to express in more permanent form.]

How I write

[After grouping fragments of your idea, and before writing a draft, bring it up when talking to smart people and try to get their feedback or disagreements. This is part of allowing time to work in your favour and helps you find the right words or way to express in more permanent form.]

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09h18 from Brasilia / Brazil, type:article ]]> https://rosano.ca/log/01faz9qpyx0bp3ra4krnjncp97/ Mon, 19 Jul 2021 08:52:03 -0300 https://rosano.ca/log/01faz9qpyx0bp3ra4krnjncp97/ A cellular theory of communities [Communities grow less like linear software products and more like multi-cellular organisms. If the conditions aren't conducive, the entire structure can collapse.] [It's easier for cells to stay alive when they are smaller. Multi-cellular organisms grow by producing more cells.] [Might be more strategic to build a large community by connecting many smaller, more intimate micro-communities. Enlarging small groups destroys the qualities that make it potent.]

A cellular theory of communities

[Communities grow less like linear software products and more like multi-cellular organisms. If the conditions aren't conducive, the entire structure can collapse.]

[It's easier for cells to stay alive when they are smaller. Multi-cellular organisms grow by producing more cells.]

[Might be more strategic to build a large community by connecting many smaller, more intimate micro-communities. Enlarging small groups destroys the qualities that make it potent.]

To scale a community, build lots of special, one-of-a-kind places for a few people at a time, and then work with the most active members to build fast interconnects between them.

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08h52 from Brasilia / Brazil, type:article ]]> https://rosano.ca/log/01fawzc740p30j02b6r5favzrc/ Sun, 18 Jul 2021 11:12:32 -0300 https://rosano.ca/log/01fawzc740p30j02b6r5favzrc/ Mulatu Astatke: Mulatu From Black Jesus Experience (2020). Ethiopian jazz with quartal harmonies and a screechy guitar solo.

Mulatu Astatke: Mulatu

From Black Jesus Experience (2020). Ethiopian jazz with quartal harmonies and a screechy guitar solo.

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11h12 from Brasilia / Brazil, type:sound ]]> https://rosano.ca/log/01fawzc64rvx4zsg9f37qq0k11/ Sun, 18 Jul 2021 11:12:31 -0300 https://rosano.ca/log/01fawzc64rvx4zsg9f37qq0k11/ Kiki Gyan: Disco Dancer From the Soundway Records compilation 24 Hours in A Disco 1978 – 82 (2018). Body-shaker that sounds like the 70s.

Kiki Gyan: Disco Dancer

From the Soundway Records compilation 24 Hours in A Disco 1978 – 82 (2018). Body-shaker that sounds like the 70s.

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11h12 from Brasilia / Brazil, type:sound ]]> https://rosano.ca/log/01fawzc55gst0bp21dfz8m0bpp/ Sun, 18 Jul 2021 11:12:30 -0300 https://rosano.ca/log/01fawzc55gst0bp21dfz8m0bpp/ Music from Africa Vol. 2 Shangaan Traditional / Sotho Chant (2015) Compilation album filled with South African music from the 1980s, mostly disco, except for these first two tracks: Crestina and Alexandra’s triadic pentatonic harmonies and vocal percussion combines moves you from side to side.

Music from Africa Vol. 2 Shangaan Traditional / Sotho Chant (2015)

Compilation album filled with South African music from the 1980s, mostly disco, except for these first two tracks: Crestina and Alexandra’s triadic pentatonic harmonies and vocal percussion combines moves you from side to side.

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11h12 from Brasilia / Brazil, type:sound ]]> https://rosano.ca/log/01fawzc468aqbdc4q0wm8b397v/ Sun, 18 Jul 2021 11:12:29 -0300 https://rosano.ca/log/01fawzc468aqbdc4q0wm8b397v/ Chiwoniso: Zvichapera (2015 single) Kind of polyrhythmic mbira with powerful vocal doubling in the melody—the lead singer floats on top of the sound as if it were a solid cloud.

Chiwoniso: Zvichapera (2015 single)

Kind of polyrhythmic mbira with powerful vocal doubling in the melody—the lead singer floats on top of the sound as if it were a solid cloud.

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11h12 from Brasilia / Brazil, via: Clara, type:sound ]]> https://rosano.ca/log/01fawzc3706z0n9624kmbxcx91/ Sun, 18 Jul 2021 11:12:28 -0300 https://rosano.ca/log/01fawzc3706z0n9624kmbxcx91/ Aeolians of Oakwood University: Sabbath Hymn When I heard Jacob Collier call this the “best choir on earth” last week, I went through some of their recordings. This one From Aeolianology Acappella, Vol. 2 (2015) is a good example of a sound that fills your insides with light, maybe raising your shoulders too. The church chorale and organ textures with jazz voice-leadings on an a cappella album is a testament to the power of the human voice. They also did a variation on Take 6’s classic arrangement of Get Away Jordan.

Aeolians of Oakwood University: Sabbath Hymn

When I heard Jacob Collier call this the “best choir on earth” last week, I went through some of their recordings. This one From Aeolianology Acappella, Vol. 2 (2015) is a good example of a sound that fills your insides with light, maybe raising your shoulders too. The church chorale and organ textures with jazz voice-leadings on an a cappella album is a testament to the power of the human voice. They also did a variation on Take 6’s classic arrangement of Get Away Jordan.

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11h12 from Brasilia / Brazil, type:sound ]]> https://rosano.ca/log/01fawzc27rhh47wwcffhfg1bek/ Sun, 18 Jul 2021 11:12:27 -0300 https://rosano.ca/log/01fawzc27rhh47wwcffhfg1bek/ Michel Freidenson: Notas no Ar (2011) Gave me a strong signal from the first few notes of the album. It features traditional Brazilian rhythms and instruments mixed with a fresher modern jazz sound. Roda mixes samba and speedy bossa nova with a rare combination of piano melody doubled by trombone; the forro inspired Cosmic For All I can describe as energetic and alive; Je Suis Desolé is a swingy and slightly disjunct blues featuring some stride piano in the intro.

Michel Freidenson: Notas no Ar (2011)

Gave me a strong signal from the first few notes of the album. It features traditional Brazilian rhythms and instruments mixed with a fresher modern jazz sound. Roda mixes samba and speedy bossa nova with a rare combination of piano melody doubled by trombone; the forro inspired Cosmic For All I can describe as energetic and alive; Je Suis Desolé is a swingy and slightly disjunct blues featuring some stride piano in the intro.

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11h12 from Brasilia / Brazil, type:sound ]]> https://rosano.ca/log/01fawzc18ghdvj3kwtkghyr56t/ Sun, 18 Jul 2021 11:12:26 -0300 https://rosano.ca/log/01fawzc18ghdvj3kwtkghyr56t/ Cartagena! Curro Fuentes & The Big Band Cumbia and Descarga Sound Of Colombia (1962–72) Compilation from Soundway Records has cowbell, very Latin American brass and reed doubled melodies, shuk-shuk-a-shuk, cumbia, salsa, and maybe some other genres that I don’t know the name of. I should have noted the names of the songs, but instead just decided to let it wash all over me. When I visited in 2018, Colombians told me their country was the land of over a thousand musical styles.

Cartagena! Curro Fuentes & The Big Band Cumbia and Descarga Sound Of Colombia (1962–72)

Compilation from Soundway Records has cowbell, very Latin American brass and reed doubled melodies, shuk-shuk-a-shuk, cumbia, salsa, and maybe some other genres that I don’t know the name of. I should have noted the names of the songs, but instead just decided to let it wash all over me. When I visited in 2018, Colombians told me their country was the land of over a thousand musical styles.

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11h12 from Brasilia / Brazil, type:sound ]]> https://rosano.ca/log/2021-07-18-011-inner-feedback-loops-family-language-exchange-visual-calculators/ Sun, 18 Jul 2021 11:12:25 -0300 https://rosano.ca/log/2021-07-18-011-inner-feedback-loops-family-language-exchange-visual-calculators/ Welcome to the eleventh edition of Ephemerata, a weekly-ish digest of links, ideas, learnings, and sounds that I think are worth sharing. 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. Thanks to Andy for contributing to my Open Collective this week. INNER FEEDBACK LOOPS In preparing to give a tiny concert for a friend this week, I audio recorded myself playing guitar while singing and listened back to it immediately after. I tried to do this at least once per day and ended up with four or five sessions repeating this process with the same set of songs. I wrote about the transformational experience that resulted.

Welcome to the eleventh edition of Ephemerata, a weekly-ish digest of links, ideas, learnings, and sounds that I think are worth sharing.

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.

Thanks to Andy for contributing to my Open Collective this week.

INNER FEEDBACK LOOPS

In preparing to give a tiny concert for a friend this week, I audio recorded myself playing guitar while singing and listened back to it immediately after. I tried to do this at least once per day and ended up with four or five sessions repeating this process with the same set of songs. I wrote about the transformational experience that resulted.

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MUSIC SALON JULY 31ST

I will be hosting my Music and Emotion Sharing Circle on July 31st as part of the Interintellect community; if you don’t know them, it’s a friendly network of strangers that like to have deep conversations on all kinds of topics. Music lovers welcome.

Participants are encouraged to bring music to share during the event. We will listen collectively to your music, and then discuss what it provokes in us. The objective is to encourage understanding of how music makes others feel, not really whether someone ‘likes’ it.

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VISUAL CALCULATORS

I spend a while playing with the toys at Math Easel, which proposes ‘new ways to calculate’ and asks ‘What if numbers were more like art?’.

The site features a bunch of interactive visual calculators that are fun to tinker with and make the space malleable, very much in the spirit of Explorable Explanations and some of Bret Victor’s work. If I only worked on data visualization projects, I would do this kind of thing.

The calculators for inflation, tips, and compound interest demonstrate how variables can be set and manipulated in multiple ways—this allows you to think about it from different points of view simultaneously, in contrast to ‘simple elegant apps’ where the way of thinking about the calculations has been designed into the interface.

I appreciate the consistent visual language between calculators. They also have a cool new weather app which I believe is available only in the United States at the moment.

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❤️

If you’re enjoying this, consider contributing to my Open Collective. Virtually everything I create is public, accessible for free, and open-source. Your support helps me keep adding to the commons and making it available for everyone.

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LANGUAGE

Family language exchange

I used to help my father learn French via informal conversations. We would talk and pick words or phrases that might be useful to learn, then make flashcards in Kommit to review over time (one side French, the other in English). He learned a lot just by repeating phrases through regular meetings with me and reviewing cards with the app.

This week we took it to a new level to make it less one-sided and also to reconnect with our cultural heritage. If you aren’t aware, it’s common that people from India speak English at home, even amongst each other, despite having other mother tongues. This happens for various reasons, but the result is that parents don’t pass it on to their children, tending to favour more ‘useful’ languages like English, and the younger generation (like me) grows up without speaking it. As a way to push against this we changed from French-English cards to French-Hindi cards: this way we can both learn from each other while keeping alive an important link to our past.

For our first session, I invited my whole family and recorded the video call for anyone who couldn’t make it. The result was a pretty fruitful experience, with a sense that all participants (including myself) are equally students—this feels potent, powerful, and productive. It’s also just fun, like playing a game together, and works even during a pandemic.

I would encourage other people to try this. I was overwhelmed sometimes figuring out how to organize everything, but maybe as the process becomes more clear, and if those present approve, I might share a video in the future to help show how this all works.

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Linus Lee shares a visual reflection on multi-meaning language:

The Korean phrase “지켜줄게” is one such untranslatable phrase. It means something in between “I’ll protect you” and “I got your back” and “I’ll be here for you”, but not quite any one of those.

It promises trust and companionship and love and commitment.

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HUMANITY

Some wisdom from @visakanv in pay it forward and being smart vs being kind

[The coolest thing to say when receiving gratitude is not “you’re welcome” but “pass it on”.]

[Nourishment leads to more growth than coddling.]

[Like babies, challenge ideas not when they are fragile but when they have grown legs.]

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A conversation about my experience with dating apps, resulted in a contemplation on the difference between two approaches: (via @flying_fisher)

[The difference between thinking ‘How does this person fit my ideal?’ versus ‘Here is a unique person. How can perceive them as they are?’]

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Sometimes we need to help ourselves when our desires are realized:

[We might find ourselves in shock to get what we want. This can impede us from enjoying the experience. We can recognize this and adjust ourselves to gradually bring ourselves out of shock and more into balance.]

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One of those things, supremely human and beyond description, that teachers can do for/with their students to start the day with radiance. So much to learn from Brazil—ensina pra gente, Brasil. (via Judy)

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TECHNOLOGY

Linus Lee writes about the implications of ownership without necessarily focusing on the technical aspects:

Future ownership – ownership over something’s destiny – means that we don’t have to prepare against the possibility of losing access to what we own. When we own the future of something, we can make deep, long-term investments into it with the expectation that we’ll continue to own them and reap the benefits of our investments. In owning something’s destiny, we are absolved from searching for alternatives, and granted the freedom to think and plan for long time horizons.

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Beeper is an app with a waitlist, because it combines 15 chat networks in one place (spanning WhatsApp, Twitter direct messages, Slack, Skype, Facebook Messenger, Apple iMessage, amongst other mainstream options). Not sure how this is possible, but I can’t wait to unify all these message sources into one list. I’m in the queue. (via @boris)

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Gordon Brander’s Search reveals useful dimensions in latent idea space has a lovely metaphor for search with paper, needle, and string:

Imagine your notes as a stack of papers. Next to that stack of papers, you have a long red string, with a needle at one end. To perform a search, you leaf through each of the pages. Whenever you find a match for your query, you poke the needle through, right where the match exists on the page, and you thread the page onto the string. You’re methodical, so you order the pages on the string by relevance, taking into account how close the match is, and where it appears on the page. Now, stretch out the red string. You’ve arranged your ideas along one dimension of latent idea space. Imagine doing this for all possible dimensions at once.

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Interesting anecdote about American poet and internet activist John Perry Barlow who may have been single-handedly responsible for bringing the Orkut social network to Brazil: (via @liaizon@social.wake.st)

Barlow was among the first users of the invitation-only social network Orkut at its inception. He decided to send all of his 100 invitations to friends in Brazil; two years later, some 11 million internet users in that country (out of 14 million total) were on the social network.

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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.

Albums

Guinga’s Canção da Impermanência (2017) is part of a genre of Brazilian music that I would describe as ‘beyond genre’. Dripping guitar tones and mostly language-less, this sonic voyage uses traditional voice-leading to create unnameable harmonies. Why are most of my deepest connections with albums under 45 minutes?

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The compilation Cartagena! Curro Fuentes & The Big Band Cumbia and Descarga Sound Of Colombia 1962 - 72 (2011) from Soundway Records has cowbell, very Latin American brass and reed doubled melodies, shuk-shuk-a-shuk, cumbia, salsa, and maybe some other genres that I don’t know the name of. I should have noted the names of the songs, but instead just decided to let it wash all over me. When I visited in 2018, Colombians told me their country was the land of over a thousand musical styles.

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Michel Freidenson’s Notas no Ar (2011) gave me a strong signal from the first few notes of the album. It features traditional Brazilian rhythms and instruments mixed with a fresher modern jazz sound. Roda mixes samba and speedy bossa nova with a rare combination of piano melody doubled by trombone; the forro inspired Cosmic For All I can describe as energetic and alive; Je Suis Desolé is a swingy and slightly disjunct blues featuring some stride piano in the intro.

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Tracks

When I heard Jacob Collier call Aeolians of Oakwood University the “best choir on earth” last week, I went through some of their recordings. This Sabbath Hymn from Aeolianology Acappella, Vol. 2 (2015) is a good example of a sound that fills your insides with light, maybe raising your shoulders too. The church chorale and organ textures with jazz voice-leadings on an a cappella album is a testament to the power of the human voice. They also did a variation on Take 6’s classic arrangement of Get Away Jordan.

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African music rabbit hole

(This first recommendation set me off rummaging through a bunch of stuff, and I don’t regret it)

Chiwoniso’s 2015 single Zvichapera features a kind of polyrhythmic mbira with powerful vocal doubling in the melody—the lead singer floats on top of the sound as if it were a solid cloud. (via Clara)

The compilation album Music from Africa Vol. 2 Shangaan Traditional / Sotho Chant (2015) is filled with South African music from the 1980s, mostly disco, except for these first two tracks: Crestina and Alexandra’s triadic pentatonic harmonies and vocal percussion combines moves you from side to side.

Kiki Gyan’s Disco Dancer from the Soundway Records compilation 24 Hours in A Disco 1978 – 82 (2018) is a body-shaker that sounds like the 70s.

Mulatu Astatke’s Mulatu from Black Jesus Experience (2020) is Ethiopian jazz with quartal harmonies and a screechy guitar solo.

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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.

If you enjoyed this, please consider sharing on Twitter or WhatsApp or Email.

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11h12 from Brasilia / Brazil ]]> https://rosano.ca/log/01fawzc098f6w4amvkkrf7415k/ Sun, 18 Jul 2021 11:12:25 -0300 https://rosano.ca/log/01fawzc098f6w4amvkkrf7415k/ Guinga: Canção da Impermanência (2017) Part of a genre of Brazilian music that I would describe as ‘beyond genre’. Dripping guitar tones and mostly language-less, this sonic voyage uses traditional voice-leading to create unnameable harmonies. Why are most of my deepest connections with albums under 45 minutes?

Guinga: Canção da Impermanência (2017)

Part of a genre of Brazilian music that I would describe as ‘beyond genre’. Dripping guitar tones and mostly language-less, this sonic voyage uses traditional voice-leading to create unnameable harmonies. Why are most of my deepest connections with albums under 45 minutes?

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11h12 from Brasilia / Brazil, type:sound ]]> https://rosano.ca/log/2021-07-18-tiny-concert-for-a-friend/ Sun, 18 Jul 2021 10:44:53 -0300 https://rosano.ca/log/2021-07-18-tiny-concert-for-a-friend/ I often say that formally studying music "broke my soul into a thousand pieces which I'm slowly putting back together again". It has been a process for me to make more music, feel comfortable with performing and improvising as well as thinking about composition. This performance of some improvisation and a few songs from Joyce Moreno's album Revendo Amigos (1994) symbolizes for me an evolution to a more holistic relationship with music, less affected by my own dogmas and that of the institutions I participated in, more marked by a desire to share and an acknowledgement of my own abilities and how I relate to the world.

I often say that formally studying music "broke my soul into a thousand pieces which I'm slowly putting back together again". It has been a process for me to make more music, feel comfortable with performing and improvising as well as thinking about composition.

This performance of some improvisation and a few songs from Joyce Moreno's album Revendo Amigos (1994) symbolizes for me an evolution to a more holistic relationship with music, less affected by my own dogmas and that of the institutions I participated in, more marked by a desire to share and an acknowledgement of my own abilities and how I relate to the world.

In preparation, I used some inner feedback loops that helped me developed a comfort with mistakes, with the sound of my voice, with my inchoate abilities on a new instrument. There is still a part of me that wants to professionalize everything, but it's more under control. I can enjoy this for what it is, I can own this, I can be proud of this. It's an expansive space: I have more to do here.

The music below is not completely refined and presented with imperfections, but it's a very strong message to myself that I hope to remember beyond the moment of its creation.

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Tagged: Garden, Vibrations.

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10h44 from Brasilia / Brazil ]]> https://rosano.ca/log/2021-07-18-inner-feedback-loops/ Sun, 18 Jul 2021 10:44:49 -0300 https://rosano.ca/log/2021-07-18-inner-feedback-loops/ In preparing Tiny concert for a friend, I audio recorded myself playing guitar while singing and listened back to it immediately after. I tried to do this at least once per day and ended up with four or five sessions repeating this process with the same set of songs. I was surprised by my noticeable progress in just a few days, and that the process felt productive, self-affirming, and contributing to a healthy relationship with music and the instrument—I actually enjoyed the feedback loop. I noted how my own preferences emerge more clearly: I'm definitely modelling my performance off of the recordings from which I learned the repertoire, but hearing myself makes my inclinations more malleable—music starts to feel more like a moldable material rather than something abstract or 'from someone else'. I thought I would feel overly critical, but it actually trained me to accept and even enjoy my own sound. For a few days I also had a nice routine going of breakfast, reading, stretching, recording, listening back—it felt like a thorough wake-up, leaving me ready to experience the day.

In preparing Tiny concert for a friend, I audio recorded myself playing guitar while singing and listened back to it immediately after. I tried to do this at least once per day and ended up with four or five sessions repeating this process with the same set of songs.

I was surprised by my noticeable progress in just a few days, and that the process felt productive, self-affirming, and contributing to a healthy relationship with music and the instrument—I actually enjoyed the feedback loop. I noted how my own preferences emerge more clearly: I'm definitely modelling my performance off of the recordings from which I learned the repertoire, but hearing myself makes my inclinations more malleable—music starts to feel more like a moldable material rather than something abstract or 'from someone else'. I thought I would feel overly critical, but it actually trained me to accept and even enjoy my own sound. For a few days I also had a nice routine going of breakfast, reading, stretching, recording, listening back—it felt like a thorough wake-up, leaving me ready to experience the day.

I frequently wondered, "Why have I never done this?". I always knew that people do this, and that I could too, but somehow never gave it a try. I've known about this for a while, since studying music professionally and having been around musicians and their culture for a while. Perhaps it's due to dogmas around perfection that made me feel too intimidated to listen to myself: in one context, music being more about execution than improvisation; in another music being professionalized to the point where sounding 'good' takes precedence over emotional expression. I haven't figured out my answer yet, but I find it useful to ask "What stopped me from doing this and what else is it preventing me from experiencing?"

There were obviously various challenges, but I felt uplifted knowing that one grows by learning to deal with situations. One long-time difficulty of mine is to play music at an unfavourable moment (such as in the morning, before my day starts, in sort of chilly temperature). I found myself working through feelings of clammy fingers and lousy tone, using what I have to construct something (the recursive process of using your own resources to validate your own resources), and building ways to deal with what's at hand. Another difficulty is various hesitations and mental disturbances (thinking too much and other things that impede your flow). I found multiple aspects of performance to help hook myself into the music when feeling distracted: pronunciation, enunciation, helping the body embody the music, voice projection, breathing, etc… It was a relief when I reminded myself that it's okay for me to be somewhat shoddy with my guitar playing because in this context the words are more important. I was able to overcome this binary around "now we're playing the song, now we're not" by constructing mini-routines like tuning the guitar before each performance, allowing myself to revise any ambiguities directly or through improvising, not worrying about how the audience perceives it, and generally opening myself up to be more fluid with music and sound.

To me, the ideals of 'gradual incremental progress' (so common in the world of technology) always seemed at odds with the non-linear nature of music, but I now feel like having arrived at some semblance of it that nurtures more than compromises the practice.

I'm excited to try this more in the future, not only as a way to 'rehearse' but as a way to 'compose'. I also see the approach as part of my broader idea about documenting moments:

For most of life it's possible to look back and observe your own progress. This is encouraging at times when you feel less positive about yourself. All it takes is making a note of where you are with words, sounds, or images.

Tagged: reflection, Vibrations, process, meta.

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10h44 from Brasilia / Brazil ]]> https://rosano.ca/log/2021-07-15-outro-guitar-improvisation/ Thu, 15 Jul 2021 09:00:05 -0300 https://rosano.ca/log/2021-07-15-outro-guitar-improvisation/ from Tiny concert for a friend https://utopia.rosano.ca/tiny-concert-for-a-friend

from Tiny concert for a friend https://utopia.rosano.ca/tiny-concert-for-a-friend

Part of Tiny Concert for a Friend.

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09h00 from Brasilia / Brazil

]]> https://rosano.ca/log/2021-07-15-capitao/ Thu, 15 Jul 2021 09:00:04 -0300 https://rosano.ca/log/2021-07-15-capitao/ from Tiny concert for a friend https://utopia.rosano.ca/tiny-concert-for-a-friend

from Tiny concert for a friend https://utopia.rosano.ca/tiny-concert-for-a-friend

Part of Tiny Concert for a Friend.

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09h00 from Brasilia / Brazil

]]> https://rosano.ca/log/2021-07-15-monsieur-binot/ Thu, 15 Jul 2021 09:00:03 -0300 https://rosano.ca/log/2021-07-15-monsieur-binot/ from Tiny concert for a friend https://utopia.rosano.ca/tiny-concert-for-a-friend

from Tiny concert for a friend https://utopia.rosano.ca/tiny-concert-for-a-friend

Part of Tiny Concert for a Friend.

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09h00 from Brasilia / Brazil

]]> https://rosano.ca/log/2021-07-15-misterios/ Thu, 15 Jul 2021 09:00:02 -0300 https://rosano.ca/log/2021-07-15-misterios/ from Tiny concert for a friend https://utopia.rosano.ca/tiny-concert-for-a-friend

from Tiny concert for a friend https://utopia.rosano.ca/tiny-concert-for-a-friend

Part of Tiny Concert for a Friend.

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09h00 from Brasilia / Brazil

]]> https://rosano.ca/log/2021-07-15-intro-guitar-improvisation/ Thu, 15 Jul 2021 09:00:01 -0300 https://rosano.ca/log/2021-07-15-intro-guitar-improvisation/ from Tiny concert for a friend https://utopia.rosano.ca/tiny-concert-for-a-friend

from Tiny concert for a friend https://utopia.rosano.ca/tiny-concert-for-a-friend

Part of Tiny Concert for a Friend.

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09h00 from Brasilia / Brazil

]]> https://rosano.ca/log/01faknwzaaxdsvkjqw65gbhqnf/ Wed, 14 Jul 2021 20:33:45 -0300 https://rosano.ca/log/01faknwzaaxdsvkjqw65gbhqnf/ Let's talk about baby bonds and generational wealth.... [Americans always do the right thing, after they've tried everything else.] [When the moral argument fails, appeal to economics: it's generally cheaper to be a good person.]

Let's talk about baby bonds and generational wealth....

[Americans always do the right thing, after they've tried everything else.]

[When the moral argument fails, appeal to economics: it's generally cheaper to be a good person.]

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20h33 from Brasilia / Brazil, type:talk ]]> https://rosano.ca/log/01fajd1tt2mhvqycnsrt790vvs/ Wed, 14 Jul 2021 08:39:53 -0300 https://rosano.ca/log/01fajd1tt2mhvqycnsrt790vvs/ Positive Sum Worlds: Remaking Public Goods Greater scale should mean greater good as valued by an increasingly wider set of people: the creation of positive externalities.

Positive Sum Worlds: Remaking Public Goods

Greater scale should mean greater good as valued by an increasingly wider set of people: the creation of positive externalities.

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08h39 from Brasilia / Brazil, type:article ]]> https://rosano.ca/log/01fagkax69v4kwvr3pxbz7c1gz/ Tue, 13 Jul 2021 15:51:12 -0300 https://rosano.ca/log/01fagkax69v4kwvr3pxbz7c1gz/ [Poor countries are not underdeveloped but overexploited.]

[Poor countries are not underdeveloped but overexploited.]

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15h51 from Brasilia / Brazil, via: m.facebook.com, type:thought ]]>