I understand that the biggest objection people come up against re. Detroit is the ‘opera’ voice. We’ve all done it in the shower.

Figaro! Figaro!

…and so on. I mocked that whole deal in my song ‘Time’ from

I’ve been scanning all kinds of old music of mine… exercises… articles. Getting rid of pounds of old sheets. And I have mixed feelings about it. Although it’s great to be, as Travis Bickle would say, ‘organisized’, there’s a lot to be said for being surrounded by books and papers—literally stumbling across things to read as you try to find what you’re really looking for. But again, it’s important to have a clean desk.

Now there’s a lot of talk these days about a ‘filter bubble’ and an ‘echo chamber’. For example:

The Filter Bubble.

And I know what this guy is talking about. I see this all the time now with friends, fans, co-workers. It’s getting easier and easier to not only be isolated from what’s really going on, but also to be exploited by this insularity; to be a tool of ‘the man’ in a very Huxley kinda way.

And the more one goes paperless; the more one relies on the computer as a single portal for information, the […]

In our last riveting post, we were talking about ‘leverage’ in the context of getting as much production work done with as few resources as possible. In this exciting conclusion, the reverse is discussed; ie. squeezing the most much reward from that output as can be got.

In the most coarse manner, I want to get as much mileage out of this material as I can. Think of this like food companies. They start with a $10 of raw corn, and then somehow, turn that into $100 worth of ‘corn products. Like most things in life, this can be good (corn meal) or very, very bad (high fructose corn syrup.) But they’re quite efficient at the concept. My goal is similar. Hopefully the by-products of somewhat higher overall quality.

What I’m trying to do is get as much stuff out of Detroit as possible. One thing is to be able to re-purpose materials

The Opera (well duh!… I wonder how Verdi said ‘Duh’?)
JCH Music: I always envisioned this material as being at least […]

What’s The Delay This Time?

I know. I know!

Look, I haven’t posted for a while because (beside the fact that the dog ate my homework and the sun was in my eyes), the usual delays of health and wealth and computers. But Detroit does proceed afoot. Or ahead. Whatever. What is holding up progress now are dongles and fingers.

The Finger

Yeah, that finger. This refers to a silly infection I got after cutting my middle finger doing some sort of repair. Remember how your mother used to nag all the time to wash a cut immediately after an injury. Good advice for grown ups. Something about being ‘old’ that makes one less skinned in Teflon. 😉 So now I’ve been fighting this painful blister with antibiotics going on two months. Not enough to kill me. But it sure makes playing difficult.

Dongles

It is a fairly unique practice in the music software biz to use a form of copy protection known as a ‘dongle’. Feel free to titter. Basically a dongle […]

To me, this is America. Both the building and the image. Some may say it’s ‘the wild open west’ or some vista of water or mountains, plains and horses. But to me, America is a building that juts out with that ‘determined chin’ and says to the world, ‘I can make anything that I need to make in order to accomplish any task and at whatever cost. And I do it because we are here to grow.’ It is a look that is at once expansionist and grounded.

The Penobscot Building is not particularly elegant in the broad strokes. Its proportions speak of power and strength and production during a period when those things mattered more than just about anything else. (Elegance? That was for a worn out effeminate Europe that was wasting its energy arguing over petty anachronisms—they got the World War they deserved for being so wasteful!)

So you’d be forgiven for missing the buildings thousands of and even humorous details;—even if you’ve lived in Detroit […]