#782

Just finished Ursula Le Guin’s collection of short stories The Wind’s Twelve Quarters, which has stories that extend pretty much every mention of her novels in this thread so far.

It’s really good imo. There’s always a risk with old SF that events have kinda overtaken the way things are written, and although she has future people running around with tape decks alongside cloning tech, she’s so much more interested in “psychomyths” than the science that I never found it a big deal.

The story that extends Left Hand of Darkness is much more readable than that novel imo.

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#783

I finally got around to making my way through Eric Foner’s Reconstruction. I think there are few historical periods in American periods as important to understand the evolution of cultural and racial struggle from outright state terrorism to the sub rosa efforts of disenfranchisement and dog whistling language to motivate turn-out in current politics than 1863-1877. Foner’s erudite deep dive into the constantly undermined and quickly aborted attempt at the founding of a new nation more closely aligned with the Enlightenment informed ideals that form America’s creation myth reads as a compelling world-building narrative; one whose ending you, sadly, already know. That Reconstruction, through the intentionally mishandled Johnsonian Presidential efforts and the chaotic Legislative Radicalism, ultimately failed and Southern Redemption won out is of course devastating in a measure unfathomable, but that there was sufficient agitation for and popular support behind such a wide-ranging Utopian project in the first place does inspire some hope that deep within the core of America beats a heart yearning to be a “good society” free from wage-bondage economics and built upon the just realisation of the universal rights of all of humankind.

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#784

Ahh, books…

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#785

Hi everyone. First post here. Joined the forum not too long ago and have been a reader until now. Love the atmosphere here.

I just started reading Musimathics volume 1 . I love the way it’s written. Everything is about the science behind Music in a way that is easy to understand, yet not too basic and long winded. It’s structured and there’s a lot of information given in not too many words. So far I already knew most of the information, but it’s still useful as Gareth Loy has a really interesting and compact way of explaining everything. Curious te see how it develops. Will leave a review after I finish the book :slight_smile:

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#786

I just started In The Field: The Art of Field Recording after reading a recommendation in the field recording thread. So far I’m really enjoying it. While not something thats going to necessarily help you figure out what angle you need your mics(I don’t think that was the intention), so far it really has given great insight into peoples thought processes and motives. Will check back when its finished.

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#787

My desire to continue reading “The Three-Body Problem” is currently at odds with my desire to learn & experiment with Lua in norns, and both are odds with my desire to spend time with my family during our vacation.

As norns’s rechargeable battery doesn’t last all day, this gives a bit of structure to our days here… :wink:

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#788


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#789

Wrapping this up this morning. Super interesting book. Much more academic of a style, but the author gets into larger themes of gentrification and the complexities of DIY venue culture. As a result, I saw a lot of parallels with Louisville’s evolution even in the 20 years I’ve been making music publicly.

Hopefully there’ll be more to come covering this era, perhaps with less academic of a tone and more of a story because I’m sure there are plenty of fantastic stories that could be shared. This was still a great window into a scene that is undercovered and supremely fascinating.
https://smile.amazon.com/Loft-Jazz-Improvising-York-1970s/dp/0520285417/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1533211665&sr=8-2&keywords=loft+jazz+new+york

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#790

New here, too. That looks like a really interesting book. I teach math and physics and am always looking for ways to bring music into topics.

Thanks for that!

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#791

just finished, beyond excellent:

histories, ecosystems, cultures, economies. ways of seeing. thank you @objectgroup for the gift. @jasonw22 i think you’d love this— fascinating parallel to one straw.

now:

capitalist realism (thanks @ht73)

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#792

Thanks @tehn! I’m going to recommend it to my father, who recently got engaged to a woman whose family is cultivating mushrooms commercially in the Philippines. Filipino economics are a tough situation right now. Any assistance that can be lent tends to be appreciated.

#793

Just finished Pale Fire. Similarly… unsettling to Lolita, and a fun puzzle of a novel. You can always count on a murderer for a fancy prose style :wink:

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#794

@ht73 how is the gnostic new age? (spotted in your photo of book pile)

#795

read a two-star goodreads review that caught my eye and it made me MORE interested in reading it. complaints about Latour and postmodern anthropology writing make good selling points imo :joy:

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#796

Speaking of loft jazz, a very nice article in NYT the other day:

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#797

Oh, cool. That Mushroom one has been on my short list for next non-fiction read. Thanks for reaffirming it. I’m working my way through a history of San Francisco now (Imperial San Francisco), and I’m either gonna read another (Season of the Witch) or that next.

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#798

Deep dive jazz zones. This is my non-fiction pile right now. Recently read on the right, to be read on the left. I lost all momentum on Gravity’s Rainbow on my trip. My fiction pile is probably as big - Pynchon, Yukio Mishima, DeLillo, and want to re-read Blood Meridian with some sort of ‘notes on…’ companion I stumbled on.

Thanks for the link to that loft article. Jammed out that Braufman on the listening side of things about a week or so ago. It’s nice to soundtrack the reading with appropriate jams :slight_smile:

Not sure what to read next, but leaning towards the Art Ensemble title since the George Lewis/AACM book looks like a more demanding read. The Can book will be a breeze, but hopefully have some good nuggets of knowledge in there. I just read a little chapter of tai chi wisdom each night before I finish the history lessons…

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#799

currently:

concurrently:

also: thinking of digging into the derek jarman gardening book. . .

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#800

As I have read too much of technical books recently I decided to read something lighter and decided to reread:
Sławomir Mrożek - Krótkie, ale całe historie (short but complete stories). As far as I know it hasn’t been published in english but other short stories collections from this author has been for example The elephant (https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/177673/the-elephant/).
I recommend them wholeheartedly as a fun and short reading (most of the stories are few pages long) especially if someone likes Theatre of the Absurd (Mrożek makes mockery of PRL absurdities).

#801

Not a book, but a rather nice column:
“Resonant Frequency — Mark Richardson’s column focuses on sound and technology and how the listener creates meaning.”

It’s his final entry for the column, which started running on Pitchfork in 2001.