Marc Weidenbaum's Blog, page 20

One, Two, Three

What’s not to love? The slapdash base board, the off-kilter placement of the three buttons (bonus points for same make and model), the makeshift adhesive-and-marker smudges, the “we dare you to steal them” vibe of the screwed-in metal straps, the anarchy-adjacent bit of graffiti on the left, the typography of the three numbers, and of course the helpful inclusion of hash/pound symbols.

Power Station

Whenever I walk by this, one or another Power Station song starts playing in my head.

Binaural

This is the 12th comic in the ongoing series I’m doing with Hannes Pasqualini. See a full index of Frame by Frame comics at disquiet.com/fxf. More from Hannes at horizontalpitch.com and papernoise.net. We aim to post a new installment the first and third Monday of each month.

Kara Walker’s Gears

One of my favorite things about Fortuna and the Immortality Garden (Machine), the art exhibit by Kara Walker currently at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, is paying attention to the sound of all the gears of the various moving figures. If the Roberts Family Gallery, on the first floor of the museum, is relatively empty, you can hear them clearly.

Scratch Pad: Harmonica, 700, Horns

At the end of each week, I usually collate a lightly edited collection of recent comments I’ve made on social media, which I think of as my public scratch pad. I find knowing I’ll revisit my posts to be a positive and mellowing influence on my social media activity. I mostly hang out on Mastodon (at post.lurk.org/@disquiet), and I’m also trying out a few others. And I generally take weekends off social media.

▰ Was not expecting someone to walk by outside playing harmonica as I worked, and now I’d like to hire this person to provide this as an occasional service

▰ RIP, legendary composer Sofia Gubaidulina (1931-2025), whose name always got me humming a certain Del the Funky Homosapien song.

▰ Just 11 weeks until the 700th consecutive weekly Disquiet Junto music community project. That’d be Thursday, May 29.

▰ The “horns” emoji is one I use all the time, pretty much daily. I only recently learned there is a distinct “metal” version, with the studded wrist band.

▰ Woke up, had breakfast, looked over yesterday’s notes, found this incomplete bit, a total head-scratcher. Feel free to complete it: “It’s funny, but when I left the note …”

▰ There’s something about ships in the distance on the water (Ocean Beach, San Francisco) that the lenses of my phone don’t quite do justice to, but I do, in the moment, get a serious Ralph McQuarrie vibe from them, like these are spaceships just returned from some other side of the universe, rather than what they are, which is flat large vessels carrying consumer goods from one coast to another.

▰ Latest “voice commands in the car” adventure, which I suppose makes this a “voice-to-text adventure”: The car recites aloud a text message from a friend. In reply, I say, “Rock and roll.” The car proceeds to tell me why it can’t access my music app.

▰ In case you’re wondering how AI tech support is going.

Full disclosure: the problem was eventually solved, but the process sure didn’t get off to a positive start, that’s for sure.

▰ You’re* definitely en route to cyborg if forgetting your** earbuds*** makes you**** feel unprepared, even incomplete.

* that is: I’m
** my
*** AirPods
**** me

▰ My favorite current backing track is that [vibrant clattery typing by countless humans in vast call center] sound on the various “Spam Likely” (for the record, I’ve never received a “Spam Likely” alert that turned out not to be spam) phone calls I get on a regular basis. And no, I never pick up; voicemail is my point of reference for this ongoing research project.

▰ Ton of reading underway, didn’t finish reading anything.

TWiS Listening Post (0029)

A new issue of This Week in Sound just went out to paid subscribers, with three contemplative (and contemporary) works for organ, featuring recent music from Maria W Horn and Mats Erlandsson (Sweden), Alyssa Aska (Austria), and Sarah Davachi (Canada / US).

These “Listening Post” issues of This Week in Sound are intended as thank yous to paid subscribers — a bonus round, supplementing free issues that feature a broader array of sound studies coverage. Each installment of the Listening Post is a mixtape of recommended ambient and adjacent audio.

This Week in Sound: Silent Theft

These sound-studies highlights of the week originally appeared in the March 12, 2025, issue of the Disquiet.com weekly email newsletter, This Week in Sound. This Week in Sound is the best way I’ve found to process material I come across. Your support provides resources and encouragement. Most issues are free. A weekly annotated ambient-music mixtape is for paid subscribers. Thanks.

▰ NINJA STARS: Tokyo is home to a “silent theft” event — called “盗-TOH-” — “challenging participants to take home products without making a single sound.” Per coverage in Tokyo Weekender: “The rules are simple yet nerve-wracking: enter the venue, select items you want to take home, and leave without making any sound. The venue is equipped with over 200 highly sensitive microphones that catch even the slightest noise. Make a sound, and your ‘theft’ attempt is immediately terminated. Each participant or group has just 60 seconds to complete their silent mission. … What makes 盗-TOH- particularly fascinating is how it transforms the concept of ‘stealing’ into a legitimate, rule-bound challenge. The event’s disclaimer specifically notes that it ‘does not promote or condone criminal activities’ — rather, it creates a uniquely Japanese blend of tension, skill, and reward.”

▰ POSITIVE DEVELOPMENT: The noise of construction may be diminishing thanks to technological advances, per Feargus O’Sullivan of Bloomberg: “A wave of electrification is sweeping the construction industry, fueled not just by environmental concerns and tightening pollution mandates but also by demands for machinery that is less disruptive than the diesel-powered standard. The transition from fossil fuel to electricity is notably less discussed for backhoes, wheel loaders and forklifts than it is for passenger vehicles, but it is one that could make a real difference in creating cleaner, quieter cities and a healthier environment for workers and residents alike. That in turn stands to deliver other positive effects, easing public resistance to noisy construction projects and potentially paving the way for less costly development.”

▰ DULY NOTED: The New York Times pays attention to an underknown, and under appreciated, role in the classical music industry, that of the music editor: “Like a page-turner for a pianist or a sheet music librarian, music editor is the kind of job that only the idiosyncratic structures of classical music can produce. It requires an extremely high aptitude with all aspects of notated music, an understanding of the intricate layers of this literate, visual tradition — not just of notes on a page, but also of how minute cosmetic changes to their appearance might fundamentally alter how those notes sound — and a strong working knowledge of all the strands of music-making that have sought to expand, critique and dismantle notational systems over the past century.”

▰ GRACE NOTES: (1) Bed Time: “If a teen under 16 is still using the app after 10PM, TikTok will interrupt their feed with a full-screen ‘wind down’ reminder, which will play ‘calming music to help teens relax and be mindful of the time.’” ▰ (2) Beak Up: There’s an illustrated guide to identifying how birds chatter. It’s by Becca Rowland and due out June 24. … (3) Music of Changes: And the book may eventually need an update, as research shows “birds can change their tunes as their populations evolve.” ▰ (4) Screen Time: Apparently pets like Flow, the animated movie that won the Oscar: “Matiss Kaza, who produced and co-wrote the film, said in an email that he suspects that it’s the real animal sounds used in production that attract the attention of our domesticated friends.” (5) Ear Ring:New AirPod Pros are likely three months away, reportedly promising heart rate monitoring and better noise cancellation — with cameras, perhaps, down the road in a future version. ▰ (6) Welcome Home: And Apple may be developing its own doorbell. ▰ And the next Apple mouse may take dictation. ▰ (7) Water World:“Scientists have made a groundbreaking discovery about the origins of the human outer ear, revealing that this distinctive mammalian feature evolved from an unexpected source: fish gills.” ▰ (8) Like a Prayer: There’s discussion ongoing as to whether laws in India forbidding street preachers and loudspeakers are fighting noise pollution or religious activites.

▰ Credit Due: Thanks, Michael Rhode, for the music editor piece and the birdsong book, and Rich Pettus for the bird song research piece and the gill piece.

The Daredevil’s Ear

At the 5:53 mark in the first episode of Marvel’s new Daredevil TV series, Daredevil: Born Again, Foggy Nelson has stepped outside a bar to take a phone call. 

Foggy is a business associate of both Matt Murdoch, aka Daredevil, and Karen Page, who both remain inside the bar. Moments earlier, Foggy was flirting with a district attorney. Murdoch listened in on their conversation and relayed what he heard to Page, whose concern for Foggy resembles that of a teasing older sister. The DA is, we’re informed by Page, out of Foggy’s league. 

Murdoch could hear what Foggy and the DA, named Kirsten McDuffie, said, while Page could not, thanks to his superpowers. This is a Marvel TV show; exceptional hearing balances out Murdoch’s complete blindness. That hearing, after Foggy exits the bar, extends through the wall. As Murdoch continues to eavesdrop, the ambient noise drops away and a circle, like a reflection on the camera lens, appears right atop his ear. The circle carries clear meaning: Murdoch is listening even more intently. Things have gotten serious. The camera plays with depth of field, and we follow it, which is to say we follow Murdoch’s ear, from inside the bar to outside, where Foggy is taking his call. 

A cut then takes us somewhere else. We’re inside now, at the door of an apartment, where someone named Benny, whom Foggy was talking to on the phone, is in hiding. The camera focuses on a fly circling a bare bulb, and the microphone does, as well. The show’s audio emphasizes the sound of the fly, which might suggest that Murdoch or his superhero alter ego, Daredevil, has entered the apartment, except we already know it’s someone else. If you’ve seen the early Daredevil show and noticed the circular pattern on the individual’s glove, you known who it is: the villain who goes by Bullseye. Bullseye has used a bent paperclip to pick the door’s lock. With a whir, the fly is stuck to the wall, pinned by the paperclip. 

As all this happens, both Foggy and Murdoch listen in — Foggy, helpless on the sidewalk, interpreting the sounds for Page; Murdoch, who has put on his Daredevil costume, thanks to that specialized hearing.

The first episode of Daredevil: Born Again does an enormous amount with the hero’s hearing, highlighting what a Marvel is capable of when it elects to focus on the details. I won’t be recapping all the episodes, but I did want to annotate some of the wealth of sonic signatures in this first one — and if other key moments arise as the series unfolds in the coming weeks, I may summarize them. As I type this, a third episode is waiting for me to finish this newsletter (and dinner).

▰ The position of Bullseye’s circular scope parallels the location of the “lens circle” earlier around Murdoch’s ear.

▰ The loudness of Foggy’s heartbeat is exaggerated after he’s shot by Bullseye, and the heartbeat slows over the course of a welcomingly long fight, until finally Foggy is dead.

▰ During the fight between Daredevil and Bullseye, the camera moves forward out of the bar and then back, as if the fight has stopped, except it hasn’t; we’re merely seeing what Daredevil’s ear is focused on.

▰ As Daredevil proceeds up a staircase after Bullseye, we hear still Karen talking to Foggy out front. This is a traditional combination of simultaneous scenes, a standard filmmaking technique, switched up, because what we’re hearing is what Daredevil is hearing.

▰ When Foggy’s heart stops, Daredevil casually pushes the subdued Bullseye off the roof where they had been fighting. The body lands a few feet behind Karen, who is still on the sidewalk, leaning over Foggy’s body. She responds with shock to the thud, something she has heard but hasn’t seen, putting her in a situation not unlike Murdoch’s. She initially thinks she has lost two friends this evening — until she checks, she fears it may be Murdoch bleeding out on the ground, not Bullseye. 

▰ Murdoch in his apartment, a year after Foggy’s death, hears the voice of his nemesis, the Kingpin, aka Wilson Fisk. Amid the noise of city life, he has, by instinct, homed in on someone else’s radio or television. Only then does he turn off his own stereo system and tune into Fisk’s announcement: a run for mayor of New York City.

▰ As Murdoch absorbs the gravitas of Fisk’s announcement, we hear the smoke alarm that goes off due to his dinner now burning on the stove. Of course, he is attentive to the more dire alarm of Fisk’s mayoral run.

▰ Finally, for now, there is the moment when Murdoch appears outside an event Fisk has attended. At first, we just see Fisk and hear the noise of his loud fanbase cheering him. Then Fisk is directed, by a political aide, to Murdoch, still off-screen. The street goes quiet, not because the crowd has shut up, but because Murdoch has so focused Fisk’s attention. It’s an especially powerful moment, given how it attributes to Fisk’s focus on Murdoch a clear parallel of how Murdoch experienced Foggy’s death earlier.

▰ And one critique: A later face-to-face meet-up over coffee between Murdoch and Fisk at a diner earns its nod to the great scene between Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro in Michael Mann’s 1995 film, Heat. The only thing I didn’t get about it — as in a scene earlier between Page and Murdoch after Bullseye is sentenced to life in prison — is how such conversations can take place within earshot of other people. The depiction of the bubble of silence that exists when people are focusing is great, in terms of a given character’s point of view. However, that near-silence is entirely psychological, not physical. People nearby would be privy to what is discussed.

This first episode of Daredevil: Born Again is titled “Heaven’s Half Hour.” The second episode, signaling that it will focus on Fisk, is titled “Optics,” referring both to both a switch from sound to vision, and to the political sense of how current events are framed.

Disquiet Junto Project 0689: Supporting Players

Each Thursday in the Disquiet Junto music community, a new compositional challenge is set before the group’s members, who then have five days to record and upload a track in response to the project instructions.

Membership in the Junto is open: just join and participate. (A SoundCloud account is helpful but not required.) There’s no pressure to do every project. The Junto is weekly so that you know it’s there, every Thursday through Monday, when your time and interest align.

Tracks are added to the SoundCloud playlist for the duration of the project. Additional (non-SoundCloud) tracks also generally appear in the lllllll.co discussion thread.

Disquiet Junto Project 0689: Supporting Players
The Assignment: Elevate the presence of your non-instrument equipment.

Step 1: However you make music, some of that involves material that doesn’t constitute the idea of an instrument, like a music stand, or a cable, or a tuner. Make a list of them.

Step 2: Consider the sonic potential of the items you listed in Step 1.

Step 3: Select one or more items from Step 2 and make music that somehow highlights their presence.

Tasks Upon Completion:

Label: Include “disquiet0689” (no spaces/quotes) in the name of your track.

Upload: Post your track to a public account (SoundCloud preferred but by no means required). It’s best to focus on one track, but if you post more than one, clarify which is the “main” rendition.

Share: Post your track and a description/explanation at https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0689-supporting-players/

Discuss: Listen to and comment on the other tracks.

Additional Details:

Length: The length is up to you.

Deadline: Monday, March 17, 2024, 11:59pm (that is: just before midnight) wherever you are.

About: https://disquiet.com/junto/

Newsletter: https://juntoletter.disquiet.com/

License: It’s preferred (but not required) to set your track as downloadable and allowing for attributed remixing (i.e., an attribution Creative Commons license).

Please Include When Posting Your Track:

More on the 689th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Supporting Players — The Assignment: Elevate the presence of your non-instrument equipment — at https://disquiet.com/0689/

Sound Ledger: Bird Song, Misophonia

100,000: Number of songs in a study of bird song evolution.

21,000: Number of hours of audio in the bird song study. 

18: Percent of the (human) population that may suffer from misophonia (a significant adverse reaction to certain sounds), 

Sources: bird song (npr.org), misophonia (nautil.us — thanks, Rich Pettus!).