Sink or Swim

It's 2023.06.01 on the lunar calendar today.

Hi everyone! I'm happily sinking into the couch after a non-stop sequence of days, coming on the heels of a couple weeks of no motivation and a different, a sort of dreadful kind of sinking. I was in Santa Barbara today, coaching fellows and giving a workshop at the Music Academy, which always puts me in a good mood, and I'm starting to feel more energized. And because I said that I would start writing my album book by this time in my last email, I finally got started this morning so that I could keep my word. By my next email, I *will* finally have filed my taxes.

Twitter is imploding, Instagram is over, Facebook is tumbleweeds, and while I dutifully attend to each once a month, or every few months, I'm wondering for what. I haven't enough interest to be an old on TikTok and I finally deleted Clubhouse, which I forgot I had and never got around to using. Tumblr still has my social media heart (though I've used it mostly as a diary in the past). I opened a Threads account just in case I use it. Platforms may come and go but I plan to be on email here until we enter a holographic future so thanks for following along!

Before and After

For those of you who read the hair update last month: I was able to find a stylist in time for the shoot. I thought about Shirley Temple for the first time in a long time, wearing the curls. I'm glad to be rid of long hair! 

JR_Idea7

These dashes you see are a plotting of the syllables of the melody for a song I'm working on with Jens and Ross. Once I made this illustration, the lyrical content became clear—it should be something that is both abstract and obvious. Then I went to the percussion showcase at the Music Academy, which gave me inspiration for the vocal arrangement to go with the melody. I saw that Steve Reich's "Six Marimbas" was on the program 😍 (not that I was familiar with "Six Marimbas" but I know his "Four Organs" and figured it'd be like that but with six marimbas instead of four organs) and it was wonderful. I love the immersiveness of Reich—like being underwater but I can breathe. I look forward to tracking the song with that inspiration once I've finished a draft of my book!

Currently listening to Six Marimbas 🔉 Also, did you know I wrote a solo marimba piece that premiered a decade ago? A real deep cut.

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