Martin Langfield's Blog, page 2

Slowing the Infodemic

Useful tips and tools here:

How to Spot COVID-19 Misinformation | National Association for Media Literacy Education

In response to the significant amount of misinformation surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, Thomson Reuters and the National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE) are teaming up to provide educators with classroom resources that will inspire relevant and rich discussion about media literacy. As part of these efforts, we are offering a podcast titled Slowing the
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Fact vs. fiction

This is a time when facts save lives and misinformation can kill. Here are some useful resources Ive consulted in recent weeks:

[image error] A detail from my fathers paramedic uniform insignia. Photo by Martin Langfield.

Newsguard: Who are the misinformation super-spreaders?

Smithsonian Magazine: How to Avoid Misinformation About COVID-19

Ethical Journalism Network

News Literacy Project

Chartbeat

Stat

Reuters Fact Checking 

Soldier’s Heart (original version)

This is the original clean version of my soundscape Soldiers Heart, recorded April 27, 2019.

Soldiers heart is a 19th-century term, used during the American Civil War, for what was later called shell shock or combat fatigue, nowadays known as post-traumatic stress syndrome.

I have been focusing on creating soundscapes based on time distortions of  improvised drum patterns. I am interested in possible connections between soundscapes, which I believe can slow the mind into contemplative...

If we can’t be saints, let’s be healers

In this time of virus lockdown, social distancing and polarization, these lines from the final pages of “The Plague” by Albert Camus (1947) seem useful:

“(He) decided then to write the account which ends here, in order not to be among those who stay silent, in order to leave at least a memory of the injustice and violence done to them, and to state simply what we learn in the midst of plagues, that in humankind there are more things to admire than things to despise. But he knew nevertheless that...

If we can’t be saints, let’s try to be healers

In this time of virus lockdown, social distancing and polarization, these lines from the final pages of The Plague by Albert Camus (1947) seem useful:

(He) decided then to write the account which ends here, in order not to be among those who stay silent, in order to leave at least a memory of the injustice and violence done to them, and to state simply what we learn in the midst of plagues, that in humankind there are more things to admire than things to despise. But he knew nevertheless that...

If we can’t be saints, let’s try at least to be healers

In this time of virus lockdown, social distancing and polarization, these lines from the final pages of The Plague by Albert Camus (1947) seem useful:

(He) decided then to write the account which ends here, in order not to be among those who stay silent, in order to leave at least a memory of the injustice and violence done to them, and to state simply what we learn in the midst of plagues, that in humankind there are more things to admire than things to despise. But he knew nevertheless that...

Fact vs. fiction

This is a time when facts save lives and misinformation can kill.  Fact boxes like this one from Reuters help make a difference.

[image error] A detail from my fathers paramedic uniform insignia. Photo by Martin Langfield.

 

The future is now

Finished “Agency,” William Gibson’s latest, 10 days or so ago and the ending still resonates in my imagination. Well worth the meticulous and fascinating buildup. A worthy sequel to “The Peripheral,” and like that novel very much about the present day, however richly the future/alternative worlds are imagined. I reviewed “The Peripheral” back in the day. Pleased to see much of it holds up for “Agency” too.

[image error] William Gibson and Martin Langfield at the New York Public Library, November 12, 2014....

Why protests in Latin America matter

I recently had the honor of writing a piece on Latin America’s protests in late 2019, and why they matter, for my good friends at News-Decoder. Here’s a link!

[image error] Photo by Martin Langfield, Chihuahua, Mexico, 1986.

“Three Letters” now on SoundCloud!

I made another soundscape, this one more ethereal, cleaner, less ragged. “Three Letters” is a reference to my current fiction project of the same name. It’s the last composition of one of the characters. for whom the three letters are USA, though each listener can imagine their own.
I’ve published it elsewhere under the old title “Bell and Sword.”

I’ve been experimenting with improvised, time-altered patterns on drums and other percussion to build evocative soundscapes, taking advantage of a...