Wombat

? http://dtrwiz.home.netcom.com/dtrfaq.html http://zinser.no-ip.info/www/vms/fun/fun_dtr.htmlx

More games. An audio palindrome. (Do a web search...) This one is exactly the same if you play it backwards. Had fun with the snare drum and guitar part. What was that Moody Blues song with the backwards gong in it?

Mostly driven by experimenting with the guitar sliding note effect in the garageband software synth for acoustic guitar. Also took apart the built-in ambient guitar loop, played it on piano, split it up into stereo, etc., etc. Picture wombats dancing. Like those hamsters.

Lyrics are from e. e. cummings "anyone lived in a pretty how town." Sound processing of my voice via GarageBand effects to achieve the alternating male/female voices. The recent death of a friend was a contributing factor to this one. This just happened somehow. Unsure how. Muses?

lyrics:

anyone lived in a pretty how town (with up so floating many bells down) spring summer autumn winter he sang his didn't he danced his did Women and men (both little and small) cared for anyone not at all they sowed their isn't they reaped their same sun moon stars rain children guessed (but only a few and down they forgot as up they grew autumn winter spring summer) that noone loved him more by more when by now and tree by leaf she laughed his joy she cried his grief bird by snow and stir by still anyone's any was all to her someones married their everyones laughed their cryings and did their dance (sleep wake hope and then) they said their nevers they slept their dream stars rain sun moon (and only the snow can begin to explain how children are apt to forget to remember with up so floating many bells down) one day anyone died i guess (and noone stooped to kiss his face) busy folk buried them side by side little by little and was by was all by all and deep by deep and more by more they dream their sleep noone and anyone earth by april wish by spirit and if by yes. Women and men (both dong and ding) summer autumn winter spring reaped their sowing and went their came sun moon stars rain e. e. cummings

Mathematics. Five bells from a pentatonic scale (Gb, Ab, Bb, Db, Eb). Each bell repeats at a different rate. The longest repeat rate is 3 3/4 beats. The others are progressively shorter: 3 1/2, 3 1/4, 3, and 2 3/4. I set the phase angle of the bells so that they nearly coincide at the end, forming a sweeping chord effect. The bells are faded in one at a time. And an attempt to make it sound like an ambient recording of church bells.

Just for fun. A game on the drum track: the cymbals say "kitty cat." Maybe it's a Siamese?

For Matthew: ask him how old he is and he'll say "three in January."

Sampled vocals processed way too much. It needs "More Cowbell" at the end. Do you have some of your favorite old data on 8 inch floppies stuffed in the basement? Any chance you could ever actually read that again? Something about the fragility of memory. Not sure quite what this is, but I find it rather disturbing in a way...

lyrics:

Shattered Glass ya think? put your thoughts in a cardboard box so you know that they're gonna last print your neural networks on silicon and glass hey hey, where you going? what did you say today? ... drop the box: shattered glass a tape-out

Perhaps she's channeling Seth. She says Seth says you are aware of very little of your larger, more extensive environment. She says Seth says short naps are more effective than a full night's sleep. She says Seth says consciousness creates form. She says Seth says tomorrow, you will become another person. But what will happen to me? Do I have to die to become this other self? I don't want to change. How can I face tomorrow's me, when it's not who I am now? Must the "me" I am now die? On second thought I guess I actually do want to change. She says Seth says our souls are like most web pages: always Under Construction. Hmmm... she speaks, or Seth speaks?

How can a society go so wrong so fast? Do men make history, or does history make men?

Built entirely out of apple loops. But that's OK. Really. Bipolar transistors. Mountain View. Ideas flow like a cool mountain stream. Innovation is in my blood. Circuits oscillate between full on and full off. Silicon Valley. Cyclomatic complexity. The old tried and true ASICs. Handheld devices. Cyclotronic particles invading brains. Transient analysis. Can we care again? New ideas take the field. And on it goes. (mountain / valley) saturday late afternoon we're high on the mountain again and we ponder it's so easy up here to look down upon the world and talk about the big picture what it all means until the sun goes down and of course we too get down when the sky has gone dark and the stars nearly blind us swerving down that curving road to the valley and we revel in our village in our pub in our friends then we muddle through our weeks and do it again 'til next saturday late afternoon

Perhaps written about a character from a popular tv series. Perhaps it's about a cat.

There is a lyric in there somewhere. Can't you just hear it? I always did like Alan Parson's Project, with Santana doing a bit of guitar.

More processing of sampled live audio. I rediscovered the effect of playing of two different simple chords simultaneously to form a single, more complex chord.

What is our identity? Over a fairly short time every atom in our bodies is replaced. Yet we feel we are the same person. But of course, we know we are not really the same person, since every day we become a slightly new person, a little bit at a time. What does that mean for a life-long couple? Are they now who they were before? The cerebral cortex probably provides us with the ability to perceive what another person is thinking, and the added knowledge that they are probably thinking the same thing about us. And that they know that we know they know. It's a strange recursive loop. How can anyone ever truly know they love someone? That they are loved? How, ultimately, can they even know their own thoughts?

lyrics:

Cerebral Core Test every time i think i know you -- you have changed every way i think i know that i am the same every way you think you know me -- i have changed every time you think you know that you are the same so you think you know i know you know i know what you're thinkin' but it's only a mirage, an illusion and you dream a dream, i dream it too you know, that we're dreamin' it's just your cerebral cortex in recursion every atom in our bodies has a certain place every atom in our bodies will be replaced ... so you think you know i know you know i know what you're thinkin' but it's only a mirage, an illusion every body on our planet has a certain place every body on our planet will be replaced ... every time i think i know you -- you have changed every way i think i know that i am the same every way you think you know me -- i have changed every time you think you know that you are the same .... so you think you know i know you know i know what you're thinkin' but it's only a mirage, an illusion and you dream a dream, i dream it too you know, that we're dreamin' it's just your cerebral cortex in recursion (do it again)

(reprise)