So we’ve got a suggested reading thread, which is fantastic, but it would be nice to have a place where we can post our own writings (similar to the latest tracks/videos threads).
I have something for this!
Don’t worry baby, it’s just Justin…
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Lots of words in this thread 
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Cross posting from that thread:
my first attempt to translate a poem of mine (just wrote it while listening to the canto ostinato piece posted in the ‘what are you listening to’ thread). no doubt there will be strange sentences or words, but wanted to share it anyway.
canto spection
sadness at the intersection of beauty
the beauty of sadness
of the depth of life
water continues to flow_
rivers continue to meander through the landscape_
mountains continue to rest
stars continue to shine
the sun rises and sets
the seasons
cold and turned inwards
followed by new life and new openings
the interplay of light and dark
whatever__needs to be felt will arise
at its own rhythm and strength
with its own color and depth
sometimes sharp and sometimes blurred_
our perception of ourselves
the world around us
beauty sometimes gone
then again visible in something small
the light on a twig
moving
from moment to moment
from loving to receiving
51 percent giving to the world
49 getting back
the particular way in which each person
oneself is
completely oneself
and carries deep wisdom within
(off topic, but I remember being at a chamber concert and there was a piece called “It’s Britney bitch”, and I was so excited, and then so disappointed…)
But more on topic, here is my biggun piece of writing (PhD Thesis):
Composition, Performance, Improvisation, and Making Things, sitting in a tree : Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me
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Interesting! Some time ago, I had started a blog about modular music, together with two friends. It’s kind of in a standby situation right now, but some of the articles might still be relevant, since we have a focus on digging down beyond the surface and looking closer at some more fundamental aspects of making music with modulars (together with some more practical topics)
The plan is bring the blog back in the near future! But I won’t promise anything.
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Thank you for the listing about the poetry thread! I occasionally experiment with different poetry forms just to see how the language works, and I am notorious for my flippant haiku. It might be fun to post something there.
As for prose, well… I write for a living, so I usually just refer people to my magazine and leave it at that.
This is a great piece.
I’d never seen the video, but heard the song zillions of times. It always felt like this faux braggadocio, the man who is incapable of healing without taking the perpetrator down with him. Eye for an eye rather than turning an eye inward.
Your analysis really opens this right the fuck up. This hit hard:
What you’re watching is a video made by a person rendered powerless, desperately trying to claim that he is in control. Really you’re watching someone self-soothe, and this is the layer that is infinitely more interesting to me.
Wild.
The choreography is also indicative of this fantasy – it looks like he’s constantly fighting for control against a gravity he no longer understands. Even when he’s firmly planted on that ledge, he uses the ceiling to support himself. He’s using powers he doesn’t fully grasp yet, as a human and a burgeoning solo artist.
Thanks for sharing this, @Angela!
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Thanks man! Damn, I feel like I should have run it by you to get some of these choice lines in! ; ) Next time. I have some thoughts about the UFC, covfefe, and the prototype for the hero within it all…do you follow the UFC by any chance?
(I have possibly asked this before. Related: UFC 213 (the next one) should be good.)
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@Rodrigo I feel you ‘liked’ my post because I used nested parenthesis. (You’re always pushing that shit… ; )
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I’m in. I don’t, but I’m in.
I’m imagining a UFC thread will likely sprout…
I think @Rodrigo is too modest to post this, but I think this is one of the best things ever! Enjoy:
http://www.rodrigoconstanzo.com/2017/11/the-aesthetics-of-accidentally-listening-wrong-on-purpose/
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Finished a new blog post on a piece for skipping CD and drums:
http://www.rodrigoconstanzo.com/2019/01/rhythm-wish/
Goes in to lots of detail the background, thinking, and technical implementation (including a bunch of samples and patches/examples).
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i love your writing style and clarity
thanks for sharing this!
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I begin by knowing I really ought to work on writing that thing, and then avoiding it actively for a while, and then doing the textual equivalent of hemming and hawing in the first few sections that I know I’ll want to rewrite anyway and then somehow I end up past that stage and start to “just write”.
I write in neovim in my terminal, usually in LaTeX (I’m a mathematician) or Markdown (I’ve slowly started blogging). I almost can’t stand to write anything of any length outside of vim anymore, it’s bad.
Whenever I manage to feel able to write. Usually this works really well in cafés or my office if it’s quiet. I like to start in the morning, when I can really sink my teeth into doing something. In the evenings I’m usually a lot more task-oriented and distracted.
You know, I actually quite like it. I used to hate how if you go in knowing what you’re going to say, somehow it twists and dodges you and you have to really work hard to put anything sensible down on the page and then you look and realize it looks nothing like what it did in your head. But somehow the process of putting it down makes both you and it grow in ways that just thinking about it does not.
That, uhh, and “publish or perish” something something
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Beginning is never a problem for me, but beginning again and continuing a thread I’ve already started is really tough sometimes. Whenever I’m really making progress on something, I try to leave some fairly mundane or known next step for myself to do next time I pick things up again so I have some way in when I’m coming back to it. Sometimes that works great and sometimes not!
What do you use to write?
I’m a scribble-garbage-on-paper writer. Once I sit down in front of a text editor to make a first pass on something I usually have a sketch of some idea already in front of me.
When do you write?
I like to work in the mornings, and daydream tomorrow’s work in the evenings.
Where do you write?
At home, at my desk. It’s nice to take things outside and work at a coffeeshop sometimes, but for me that works best when I’ve got something pretty well planned out and I just need to put my head down and implement. I’m not great at brainstorming or sketching in public.
I used to work at the library all the time when I was in school, I really need to try that out again!
Why do you write?
No comment
Edit: this all applies to when I write words (like blogging or documentation) but I was responding mostly to how I write music, which for me revolves mostly around writing a program or a series of little programs.
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I write 750 words every day. Roughly based on but not using 750words. I usually write every morning before I do anything else. It’s part of a whole ritualized thing with making coffee and starting my day. I try to do the whole chunk in about 30 minutes. The writing is without any intention of development or future goal (if one comes up I might follow it through). I’ve done this every day without a break in my streak for 3 months now. It’s more of a meditation process than anything. My preferred word processor is Wordgrinder. The point is sometimes just the consistency, other times I do a lot of processing of ideas. It’s an externalized thinking I guess?
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How do you begin to write?
I let ideas percolate until they just feel ready, this can take weeks, years even (but I write fiction for fun so I’m in no hurry) - then, like @alanza mentioned, I actively avoid writing for sometime, gradually pecking away at the first few sections until I get over that initial hump - and then just let it happen.
What do you use to write?
A plethora of notebooks. Which I try to keep organised into topics/categories/whatever. And always fail at. When it comes to decanting ideas into the computer I used WriteMonkey for a long while but now I use Ulysses.
When do you write?
First thing in the morning. Preferably starting just before dawn. I get out of bed, move to the desk and start. If I do anything else other than sit down and write then it tends not to happen. Other parts of my brain turn on and I get distracted.
Where do you write?
At home, in the living room, facing the window, with the sun rising through the trees bordering the garden and the dog asleep at my feet.
Why do you write?
Because I enjoy it but it’s always a challenge. Because I feel the need. Writing for me is both intuitive and… systematic. It’s something I can do regularly, and with little equipment, but that (often) satisfies many of my creative itches.
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i tend to write in my head, against my will (without having consciously thought about the subject that comes up), while falling asleep. When i have an idea articulated in a full paragraph i have to “wake up” and put it on paper without second thoughts. If i don’t do it i know it’s lost, and i don’t have nicely elaborate ideas every evening, so i just write those that come. Then i just have more research to do to back them up. (that’s for the MA thesis writing part). Using LaTeX in Sublime Text for the bulk of it and a notebook for the small, defining bricks.
I also write a bit of self conscious journal in my weekly planner, mostly when i lost track of time for more than a week.
I write in this box at the bottom-left of this screen.
Years ago i loved to write fiction, but i lacked the dedication for the long form. I wrote a lot of poetic prose in pseudo-narrative fragments.
I still prefer a pen and paper to a keyboard. The paper gives better clues on the process that lead you there when you come back to it the next day. A paper sheet does not feature a web browser. It’s easier to move forward than on a screen that affords “free”, invisible, constant editing.
But i believe i prefer to read actually. Reading sets me free from myself, while writing often is an overthinking fest.
(totally unrelated., apart that i noticed it while searching stuff on writing this post:
google search finally serves me the url-on-top-of-page-title “update” and the results have become absolutely bad. Like as bad as using any of the other search engines, those that are not tailored by years of requests. That might cure me from using it as a derive place. (while also making me feel a bit weird as it has been to me an important gateway to the world after yahoo directory felt small)).
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How: Same as music, the urge overpowers doing other things. I find that it’s better not to write unless I have something to say.
What: A laptop and WriteRoom. I find that distraction-free software is the way to go. The fewer icons on the screen, the less of the taskbar/folders/etc. that are visible, the better.
When: Depends on my schedule, but morning usually leads to the best work.
Where: At home, in coffee shops, in airports, and anywhere else that has low- or evenly-distributed- noise.
Why: Because I have something to say, and because it’s fun!