Scratch Pad: RDJ, VOiP, Books

I do this manually at the end of each week: collating most of the recent little comments I’ve made on social media, which I think of as my public scratch pad. I also find knowing I will 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.

▰ The “RDJ RDJ” chanting at Comic-Con made it clear Michael Giacchino should bring in Aphex Twin for Doctor Doom’s theme

▰ That was quite crazy. I called a string instrument shop, and the sound on the call was bizarre, like a Cylon on Quaaludes. The best I can figure is that VoIP was mistaking the voice of the person who answered and the string in the background as one single sound and was blending them digitally.

▰ The internet changes quickly, but for this brief moment in time, articles I wrote are the leads at both JSTOR Daily (about R. Murray Schafer and the origins of the modern sense of the word “soundscape”) and at 48 Hills (about the novelist Robin Sloan and his new book, Moonbound). I was hopeful for a trifecta, but the third piece due out, at a different website, will likely go live next week.

▰ Overheard at the bookstore:

“How are you?”

“Happy. Because I’m looking at books.”

▰ Street music:

▰ Word for the anticipatory sensation regarding what the Algorithm will serve up the next day after you listen, over the course of a pre-dinner walk, to 10 different versions of the jazz standard* you’ve been practicing for guitar class (and failing to fully absorb its melody)?

*“Easy Living”