Scratch Pad: LA, I Ching, Earthquake
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.
▰ I used to fly to LA a lot for work. I had a friend who’d often pick me up at LAX. We’d make that turn where DTLA comes into view and he’d tell me I’d gotten “that smile” on my face. He’d say, “You really do love this place,” and I was like, I sure do. My heart goes this week out to the people of LA.
▰ It’s a mumblecore James Taylor singalong at the barbershop
▰ Me: Nice to work in a cafe for the day.
Me soon after: Well, then there’s the guy humming to himself loudly across the room.
Me later still: I wish they’d turn off the music so I could record this.
▰ When Facebook loads in my phone’s browser, sometimes it takes a moment, and when that happens it looks like it’s casting a lot of I Ching throws simultaneously
▰ First time back at tai chi in almost half a year. That felt good. (Pro tip: Being incredibly clumsy makes it easy to maintain a beginner’s mind.)
▰ Just as a side note to my earlier note about The Conversation, I’ve been watching that The Lincoln Lawyer TV show, and while Manuel Garcia-Rulfo has a certain James Garner quality to him, he seems to be channeling Gene Hackman at times, notably his posture and facial expressions.
▰ This place serves iced ammonia. I’ll assume it’s iced ambrosia, but if this is my last post, you’ll have a good guess at what happened.
▰ Why set an alarm when there’s the option of the creaking of your cabinets during a 7am earthquake?
▰ I wanted to take piano lessons. I visited a teacher, who sat me at a piano and asked, “Which is more important, melody or harmony?” I sat there. The teacher waited, having asked me something ostensively rhetorical. I said, “I think you want me to say melody.” That was my first and last lesson. (This is years ago. I take guitar lessons now.)
▰ After two earthquakes this morning, I took a lie-down just to chill out, and was, of course, stirred by a third earthquake
▰ Statement: I can’t stand when electronic musicians list all the equipment they use.
Reply: You realize there’s a vast amount of classical music titled things like Concerto for Flute, Harp, and Orchestra, and Rondino for oboes, clarinets, horns and bassoons in E♭ major?
▰ I’ve (temporarily?) turned off “reposts” in my Bluesky feed. Too much was endless reposts without comment or context. “Quote” posts will still show and “replies” and, ya know, “post” posts. Too bad “Experimental” isn’t about more experimental music posts. :) And yes the word “feed” is still gross.
▰ Whew. I took over a month off social media at the end of 2024, and I dunno if the first 10 days of 2025 have been especially insane, or if life was just better when I was more offline. Maybe both. I’m just glad it’s nearly the weekend.
