Kerby Lane sports a grue cut

Topics: psychology, music, change

2011-03-15

Having neglected this apparatus for a while, I shall try to write at length.

Most of last week was alloted to **recording**, and Tony and I performed relatively well in this respect. Beginning with a lost improv, Monday hooked us up by the armpits after drowning us in equipment failure. In specific, Tony's N-Track machine died. The details of its repair and eventual failure again (resulting in the loss of our improv) is not important.

The improv began with an oscillator droning along the lines of *Vegkoref* but with a steady rhythm. A mandolin joined on the second pass. Tone throbbed on bass. Incidental percussion littered the piece. An Emerson-like keys part dueted with bass and mandolin. I already miss it. Loss leaves only vestiges of memory which quickly decay into a skeleton of what actually was. What actually was no longer exists. It is only the bare bones now.

The other pieces recorded are perpetually alive for posterity.

Now for the PocketMod.

I'll go backwards. Whilst walking by the main building at the University of Texas below the sadly famous tower, I read these words on a plaque:

> **CORE GOAL**

> Transforming lives for the benefit of society.

I thought to myself, wouldn't the following be better?

> Transforming society for the benefit of lives.

The reason I think so is simple. Creating a structure and then attempting to force people to live in it and conform to it leaves a large swath of humanity out in the cold. A preferable alternative is to have a malleable infrastructure which bends to the quirks of its members. I believe that Acy, at least, would agree that the education system in the US of A suffers from the words on that plaque at UT. It aims to file off all of the rough edges of each individual until each fits snugly into place.

Malleability. Think of it.

tzifur (Martenblog home)

jenju (Thurk.Org home)

@flavigula@sonomu.club

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