BoX

if you want it then take it

It's all about precision and technique and you can't make it up. Everything has to be perfect.

suffer more, in order to arrive at the essential

some things, you play with them and they come out
and other things, they play with you

work very very hard for very very little

It is no good getting furious if you get stuck. What I do is keep thinking about the problem but work on something else. Sometimes it is years before I see the way forward. In the case of information loss and black holes, it was 29 years.
Stephen Hawking

You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait, be quiet still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.
Franz Kafka

if you want to be a person of action, become a person of forethought

If we allow, as historians do, that great men lead mankind to the achievement of certain purposes, which consist either in the greatness of Russia or France, or in the balance of Europe, or in spreading the ideas of the revolution, or in general progress, or in whatever else, then it is impossible to explain the phenomena of history without the notions of chance and genius.

If the purpose of the European wars at the beginning of the present century was the greatness of Russia, that purpose could have been achieved without any of the preceding wars and without the invasion. If the purpose was the greatness of France, it could have been achieved without the revolution and without the empire. If the purpose was the spreading of ideas, printing would have carried it out far better than soldiers. If the purpose was the progress of civilization, it is quite easy to suppose that, besides the destruction of people and their wealth, there are other more expedient ways to spread civilization.

Why did it happen this way and not otherwise?

Because this is how it happened. "Chance made the situation; genius profited from it," says history.

But what is chance? What is genius? The word chance and genius do not designate anything that actually exists and therefore cannot be defined. These words designate only a certain degree of understanding of phenomenon. I do not know why such-and-such a phenomenon occurs; I think that I cannot know it; therefore I do not want to know it, and I say: chance. I see a power that produces effects incommensurate with common human qualities; I do not know why that happens, and I say: genius.

For a flock of sheep, the sheep that the shepherd takes into a separate pen to be fed, and that grows twice as fat as the others, must seem a genius. And the circumstance that every evening precisely this same sheep ends up, not in the general fold, but in a separate pen to have oats, and that this, precisely this same sheep, spilling over with fat, is killed for meat, must appear as an astonishing conjunction of genius with a whole series of extraordinary chances.

But the sheep need only stop thinking that everything that happens to them occurs only to achieve their sheep purposes; they need only allow that what happens to them may have purposes incomprehensible to them--and they will immediately see the unity, the consistency in what happens to a fattened-up sheep. Even if they do not know the purpose for which he is being fattened up, they will at least know that all that happened to the sheep did not happen by chance, and they will no longer need the notions of chance or of genius.

Only by renouncing the knowledge of an immediate, comprehensible purpose and admitting that the final purpose is inaccessible to us, will we see the consistency and expediency in the life of historical figures; the cause will be revealed to us of that effect incommensurate with common human qualities which they produce, and we will not need the words chance and genius.

We need only admit that the purpose of the upheavals of the European peoples is unknown to us, while we know the facts, which consist in murders, first in France, then in Italy, in Africa, in Prussia, in Austria, in Spain, in Russia, and that the movements from west to east and from east to west constitute the essence and purpose of these events, and not only will we not need to see anything exceptional and marked by genius in the characters of Napoleon and Alexander, but it will be impossible for us to picture these figures otherwise than as the same people as all the rest; and not only will we no longer need to explain by chance those small events that made these men what they were, but it will be clear that all those small events were necessary.

In renouncing knowledge of the final purpose, we will clearly understand that, just as it is impossible to invent for any plant a flower and seed that correspond to it more than those it produces, so it is impossible to invent two other persons, with all their past, who would correspond to such a degree, in such minute detail, to the purpose they were meant to fulfill.

you listen, but do you hear?

how much do you want it?

“For me, covering conflict and war is the essence of journalism... The legacy of any photographer is her or his ability to capture the moment, to record history. For me it is about showing the struggle and survival of the individual.”

“I don’t believe conflicts have changed since 9/11 other than to become more frequent and protracted,” she told the New York Times in a 2011 e-mail exchange. “But the essence of the conflict is the same — two sides fighting for territory, for power, for ideologies. And in the middle is the population who is suffering.”

where bluebirds sing and there's a whiskey spring

a scholar knows many books; a well-educated person has knowledge and skills; an enlightened person understands the meaning and purpose of his life.

I work very slowly, and things always take longer than I expect them to.

I spend a lot of time doing and re-doing. Recording is pretty straightforward. If it's not good enough, redo it, nothing to say.

But mixing is different. First of all, a lot of it is subject to your current emotional state. Are you well-rested? What time of day is it? Is something bugging you? Etc.

There are different approaches to mixing. A common one is to make sure you can hear everything that you want to hear, balancing levels and "carving" a space for everything important (using equalization for instance). Max Martin says "if you can't hear it, get rid of it."

But our musical background and personal views inform us this is not enough. In life there is depth and background too. Subliminal parts shape what is perceivable. There are parallels in all art, cooking, etc.

A second approach is to create a realistic space with your parts. The drums should be farther from the listener, strings should be spread out, etc. Picturing all the instruments in your head is a good way to check if relative volume levels are where they should be.

When I am stuck, I bounce between the two methods and this often works. But other times I am unsatisfied. I spend days moving things around without any real progress.

And here I begin to ponder. I start to ask, "what is the purpose of this instrument, this melody? what is its raison d'etre?" why is it there, why is it important?

do nothing, get nothing; do something, get something.

in mixing, I find I often get stuck for long periods of time, going in circles. I'll push something up, only to push it back down, and all over again, etc. A big reason for this is the subjective nature of loudness, and varying, but equally valid, listening levels.

I think the solution is to pick a starting point, select something as the backbone which will not move, and use it as the cornerstone from which other decisions are made.

going to resume my picture blog



they transport me to a different place, if but for a moment

The higher the opinion a person has of himself, the more unstable is his position; the lower he moves in his self-esteem, the firmer he stands.

it must be right, and you must be the best

in 2014

you should always ask yourself, when confronted with a person or situation, "what is the nature of this?" if you always remind yourself to think about the nature of a thing, you will free yourself from disappointment. you will realize it is not that you were let down, but that you expected the wrong thing.

secondly,

if you can do, but don't, you are also guilty. if you are able, but do not, you also sin.

men take care not to take wrong turns

on the road, or in life

why do we not take equal care with our minds

sunny,

happy rhythm music no money,

i'm taking you on holiday..

Death is no more than passing from one room into another. But there's a difference for me, you know. Because in that other room I shall be able to see.

helen keller

It's wonderful to climb the liquid mountains of the sky. Behind me and before me is God and I have no fears.