someone who's doing some things
Stuff I’m thinking about.
You might have heard of multi-tasking or even mono-tasking, but you may not have heard of zero-tasking. Zero-tasking is the art of being able to do nothing simultaneously. That is, at the same time as doing nothing at all.
I’m working very hard at becoming a grand master of zero-tasking, but it is a lot harder than you think. It’s so easy just to break off and do something. But you must resist!
During a two hour drive I put my iPod on shuffle, which always results in a wonderfully random mix of horror and delight at what’s collected in there over the years. I love finding things that I haven’t listened to in far too long, and other tracks that I have no recollection of whatsoever.
I think I should try this on a more regular basis, except that perhaps only going into shuffle mode on a random basis seems more appropriate.
I’ve been continuing to read Nicollas Collins book ‘Handmade Electronic Music’, and I’ve started to think that there are no new ideas to be had. There were so unique and creative ideas musically that I started to wonder if I would ever find a way to do anything unique.
Then I started to realise that I don’t need to do anything unique, just something that sounds good, at least to me. Because that’s what music is about.
I’ve been a fan of John Foxx for a long time now, but listening to his latest album I started to realise that there is a real signature to his songs, to the progressions and sequencing of them. You could probably recognise them in other people’s music quite easily.
Not that it is a bad thing you understand. I like his music a lot and I think that the last two albums he’s done as John Foxx and the Maths have been excellent. In fact I’ve been playing tracks from them quite obsessively for a while now.
It just occurred to me when I was listening to Evergreen.
It’s kind of fun getting ready for Christmas. All the things that you expect to happen. The last minute shopping, the getting together with people for no apparent reason except ‘it’s Christmas’.
It’s like a kind of ritual preparation. A habit that gives comfort in some ways. Getting ready for the break at the end of the year.
I’m just looking forward to some time off.
I realised today that I haven’t seen a single kid asking for a ‘penny for the guy’ this year. It seems to have become a lost tradition. Years ago I remember loads of kids by bus stops and stations all asking for a penny for the guy. Of course inflation had an impact and I’m sure I once heard a ‘pound for the guy’!
But now it seems to be no more. That’s a shame.
Living quite near to a Church means the wonderful sound of the organist practicing on a Saturday morning. Waking up to the sound reminds me of Under Milk Wood and makes me want to listen to it again as I don’t think I’ve heard it this year and that’s an oversight in my book.
Organ practice, bird song and the occasional car going by. The aural landscape of Saturday morning is a very good start to the weekend.
If you’re on the internet and interested in music then it’s difficult to miss things like turntable.fm and the other group listening services that have sprung up.
When I’ve looked at these I keep getting the feeling that they’re missing something. That in some ways the service has been designed to approximate the act of physical group listening into a digital environment, but something is missing. Perhaps what is missing from these attempts is the not possible to re-create in a digital world, or perhaps it isn’t possible to re-create the experience I remember as group listening.
The last point is important to me. Any form of digital group listening experience coloured by our own memory of what that experience means. For me it is rooted in teenage experiences of listening to vinyl and cassettes with friends. For someone growing up now the act of group listening may be first experienced in a digital environment and therefore we come at it from two very different perspectives.
So for me whilst things like turntable.fm may not work, for others they may be the ideal. I have to live with that.
I posted about this book when I bought it. I started reading it yesterday and it has really grabbed me. I think it is going to be a really excellent read and has already challenged a few assumptions of mine.
I took this from the beer festival last Thursday. I could really use a few of those today.
I am Ashley Elsdon 