It's February, a month of cleansing, for health and fertility. January naturally, belonging to Janus, brought beginnings and transitions. I've made good on some of my resolutions already while having yet developed the skills and habits for others. Professionally, I've started learning more code and hope to earn my next level programmer certification in April of this year. An important part of being able to do this, I think, is deriving value from my every day work and using cross-functional skills to find opportunities to go beyond what is expected for a technician. I can learn a lot about system design through highly detailed maintenance of the functions. I could talk about such things at length, but that's not really why I blog.
Last Saturday, I went to the Library with my girlfriend Pia. We both studied different literature about the oil industry. I read a book by Kenneth S. Deffeyes, a former researcher for Shell Oil company, geologist, and was a professor at Princeton. He died in 2017 at the age of 85. 5 years prior to the peak of oil production in 2005, he predicted such a thing would occur. At the time of the book's publication, 2010, it remained true. The most important detail is that most oil reserves have already been discovered, some are too expensive to even extract, and further still, some oil is not of a given quality for production and sale. Kenneth S. Deffeyes also discussed our period in the glacial cycle and how it relates to the changes in climate we're seeing. Indeed, the climates have been more unstable in many ways. History tells us that glacial cycles are 100,000 years, meaning another ice age is seemingly predestined in our distant future. I'm not planning on being around but I won't have any choice in that.
Reading has been awesome. Talking with people about recorded material is just as awesome. Pia gifted me The Crying of Lot 47 by Thomas Pynchon last Christmas and we've been reading it and discussing it together. There is much within in that reminds me of Mishima. However, Mishima's comedy would blush in the presence of Pynchon's. The man of tragedy is far too serious to enjoy a comparison between them, but I think even Mishima's peers probably thought he could use some levity. I joined an online reading club reading Resisting AI: and Anti-Fascist approach by Dan McQuillan. It's been quite an insightful book and I enjoyed my first attendance last week. I've read through Chapter 2 and found Dan McQuillan's examples of collateral damage very illustrative of dramatic consequences of reliance on generative computing. I joined the club because a long-time online friend from the music scene shared it and for this particular reading club meeting, we also read their article Against AI: Critical Refusal in the Library. Kay's writing, especially on the subject of AI “literacy”, and examples had me thinking about how AI is being used in my profession and illuminated some serious refinements in what I could not previously articulate well about such technologies in my field and in the cultures where I participate most. These sort of writings are dense with references which I find very exciting. There is so much to learn.
I've felt a lot of revulsion from dance music because of where I was listening. There is so much that lacks, I think, anything of lasting interest. There is plenty of chewing gum flavoured music that quickly loses its novelty as I scrutinise it fairly. It's fine if you like chewing gum, I guess. Xylitol is good for your oral. Dancing is good for your cardiovascular and musculoskeletal health. With “dopamine cheap” music, I feel like a zombie quickly. With “more expensive” music, that engages more of my faculties and inspires deeper enjoyment, I feel rejuvenated. I have philosophical misgivings with aspects of aesthetically driven music for how erasive it is culturally in a cohesive sense -- not just of the artform itself, but of the language it speaks, the people it attracts, and the relationships between those people. It should be a default position to think that reducing styles of music to mere formats is fascistic in nature. But, unfortunately, it's accepted that dance music especially is formatted.
On the hunt for more engaging music, I returned to Mumdance. Mumdance's career is quite impressive and indicative of his motivations. His website is also quite cool and inspiring. Mumdance is a keystone producer for the weightless sound: a creative framework for music in which one avoids using the kick drum especially, but minimal and sometimes no drums at all, while finding a way to drive the motion of the track and develop its progression. To me, that is the fundamental appeal of new age and why I prefer it to ambient. Perhaps someday I'll find some ambient that I actually enjoy… but besides the point. Mumdance recently debuted an album on Different Circles called Ping Volume One. It features a variety of artists and styles working with this new framework called ping. Similar to weightless, it's a minimal method, and reasonably also a subtractive method, starting with a high-pitched pulse sound and developing a track from that rather than starting with drums. I quite love the ideas and alternative creative frameworks motivated my 2021 album, so I've taken quite an interest in it.
Pia and I wanted to get away from blockbuster theatres like AMC this year and so I got use a dual membership at the Siskel Film Center. We saw Les Amants du Pont-Neuf together, a beautiful film about an artist losing her vision and a street performer living on Pont-Neuf -- a bridge. It wastes no time chastising either for their homelessness and I think wonderfully depicted the joys and sorrows and strife of homelessness. It was beautifully filmed, staged, acted, et al. We left the theatre with such a buzz that we agreed to get a membership before leaving the film center. We talked about it the entire ride home and even in the following days. It's a good reminder there is much more humane art than the cotton candy sort of films making it to AMC. Marty Supreme was pretty good, but… we reckon we could have seen it elsewhere. We particularly enjoy the programming at Siskel.
On Sunday, I played Metal Gear Solid 1 at Pia's for the first time. We played a bit together, but then she let me play as I steadily drove progress. I accidentally gave up during the torture scene and wanted to restart from a previous save almost two hours prior. On a nearly six hour save, I ended up saving an hour and a quarter between Psycho Mantis and escaping torture with the help of Otacon. I could really see the ambition of Kojima held back by PlayStation hardware limitations. The number of cutscenes is staggering, but I always found myself captivated by the cinematography and story-telling and depth of the world. There were many moments of discovery driven by a curiosity for what Kojima could have possibly included in his world and much surprise came from it. Staring at Meryl really made me laugh. The depth of personality in Kojima's characters are also particularly enjoyable. The English voice acting for Raven missed the mark for me, but when I saw the tank and a buff guy appear, I had immediately figured it would be the shaman. Too funny… I also thought Psycho Mantis to be a great character.
February is Black History Month. Last month, bandcamp published a written exploration of the 2-step soul sound that inspired 2-step garage in the UK. I knew a track the author included from a rap song that sampled it and I love that track, love the original. For BHM, I try to learn more about black people in the cultures where I spend my time and about blackness in those cultures. It's a bit simple, but, the 2-step soul connection is especially valuable to me as it inspired the music I love so much. These days, I can handle broader and deeper studies, so I'll be searching for a bit more than tasty morsels. Social media is naturally a great place for this. Between my first draft of this bulletin and my time of posting, I already learned that Gosnell Duncan from Grenada invented the dildos that we know today. Thank you. I haven't sunk my teeth into it yet, but Kay reskeeted this post by Nicole the Librarian. I'm not particularly interested in podcasts, but this seems like an interesting subject.
Frequently I feel possessed by, one or many, thoughts and feelings, whether mine or not, until I am full. And yet I hunger. Unable to further feed my soul I can no longer be possessed even by that which heals or inspires. And so, unless I exorcise these possessions, I slowly rot. Some of these exorcisms are simple, were inspirations. I feel a spiritual stasis until I express these things. Some just need to be written. I hope you're doing the same. Thanks for taking the time to read.