Is there nothing more to talk about?

Go ahead. Talk about it.
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WIREMAN
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Re: Is there nothing more to talk about?

Post by WIREMAN » December 9th, 2017, 1:56 pm

...thanks Doreen.....it sure is something you can't force (writing that is)....ill get a poem to come out of me occasionally, but jam and Zuihitsu is more in tune with my mindless style these daze.....
me I feel like I'm becoming some kinda Kung fu t.v. Priest.....

saw
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Re: Is there nothing more to talk about?

Post by saw » December 11th, 2017, 10:44 am

personally writing saved me
and fortunately
the well still brings up water
I began writing in earnest during
some of my darker days
and that's what pulled me out
and it has constantly evolved
to a place that feels both necessary
in terms of healthy self reflection
as well as a place that feeds some of my creative needs
allows them to present themselves in ways unimagined
I keep expecting the well to dry up
but thus far I am still allowed to tap into
the creative consciousness swirling around
my head...I don't care if everything is brilliant
but i do care immensely about the process
and the effort to block out time as a discipline
and some sittings are still magical, I feel and see
my hand being pulled along the page without effort
and poetry has afforded me this
Place......(shout out there to Doreen)
where I have colleagues that know me
and I get the privilege of knowing them
dino and I met on line through poetry-in-baltimore
he was a expat baltimorean living in Dayton OH
and we bonded through our words and comments
eventually we talked on the phone and
after that he returned to B'mo and we began a friendship
in the world outside digital space
and it was all because we had this affection for words
and believing in the power of sharing them
and discussing them and nurturing them
and so I continue to plug away as it were
believing this isn't a waste of time
If you do not change your direction
you may end up where you are heading

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sasha
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Re: Is there nothing more to talk about?

Post by sasha » December 11th, 2017, 2:31 pm

I seem to cycle through my creative outlets, favoring one while the others lie fallow. For the last 10 years, it's primarily been photography - but adopting a high-energy dog who's half my weight kinda precludes hauling around a camera & tripod. So I've been writing more. I've always written, but 1995-96 was a tough period for me. Some of my best & darkest (& most intensely personal) writing happened then. I've since resurrected some early stories I wrote for my school literary magazine with the idea of reworking them into my present mindset, and have numerous false starts on new tales.

Audio is another former lover who's come back into my life. I received my 1st tape recorder as a gift during my 12th Christmas - a cheap little battery operated thing from the days when "made in Japan" = "crappy knock-off junk". Didn't even have capstan drive. Three-inch reels of 1/4" mag tape that ran for 15 minutes more or less, depending on how fresh the batteries were. Went through the usual pubescent horseshit of recording high-volume profanity and assorted body noises involving the expulsion of gases from either end of the GI tract... but also discovered the power of ambiences, of foley, of background music, and how it was possible to create sonic spaces that only existed in the magnetic domain of the tape. Russ K. & I spent one rainy afternoon solemnly recording H.P. Lovecraft's "Cool Air", with spooky music playing in the background; and Jonny M. and I started writing our own stories to record, mostly horror parodies that were a pastiche of DC Comics and Mad Magazine - but even these required us to come up with creative solutions for sound effects. (We got a reasonable facsimile of a Geiger counter by tearing a close-miked cotton sheet and slowing it down.) When my dad got into slide photography, I began assembling slide shows of his work set to music - hence my preference then for the likes of John Barry & Lalo Schifrin when my peers were discovering the Beatles & Stones.

By the time I went off to college, I'd gone from that chintzy Continental to a portable Channel Master (with capstan drive!!), and finally a table-top Craig. The loss of portability didn't bother me much at first - the cutout bins were full of sound effect LPs, and I had friends working at the local radio station who gave me bootlegged copies from their library. I designed & built my own mixer as a project for one of my physics classes. But the direct link to the sound sources had been broken, and before long I was only taping prerecorded music, and editing it down for slide shows.

The Craig turned into a Sony TC377, which begat an Akai GX-4000D which morphed into a pair of TEACs - one stereo, one 4-track - but I still longed for something I could take into the field. Real life, as always, got in the way - there were jobs to be secured, mortgages to be paid, automobiles to be repaired, and eventually a child and ex-wife to support. The drives on all these decks eventually froze up, and they now sit collecting dust in what was once my audio lab.

Enter digital recording. The prices dropped far enough to justify picking up a hand-held Tascam recorder, only slightly bigger than a TV remote with a 32GB card capable of holding 16 hrs of WAV format audio, and 30 hrs of MP3. The built-in mikes are quite respectable, and the absence of any moving parts eliminates the problem of picking up motor noise. (They do seem sensitive to wind, though.) With this bad boy I'm rediscovering the joy of field recording, and the incredible open-source audio editor Audacity lets me layer and sculpt the sound in ways that, back in the day, would have required a fully-appointed studio. And there's no UnDo when physically cutting mag tape!

Slowing sounds down can be as revealing as high-speed video. I've put a few examples in the attached audio clip. They're beyond description - they must be heard. They inhabit a world usually inaudible to us. The bird calls were were recorded years ago on mag tape with a pair of dodgy Radio Shack cardiod mikes stuck out the living room window. I've removed most of the low-frequency noise, but you can still hear artifacts if you listen closely. The cricket was recorded live with the Tascam a few months ago. All post processing was done with Audacity.
 
Zounds.mp3
(2.8 MiB) Not downloaded yet
.
"Falsehood flies, the Truth comes limping after it." - Jonathan Swift, ca. 1710

saw
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Re: Is there nothing more to talk about?

Post by saw » December 13th, 2017, 11:42 am

nice words...nice sounds...thanx for taking the time to share...it's all worth it....record your memories....record the sounds....it's all quite valuable ....as I see it....be in the moment brothers and sisters....block out the time before it's all gone....find peace
If you do not change your direction
you may end up where you are heading

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mnaz
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Re: Is there nothing more to talk about?

Post by mnaz » December 16th, 2017, 8:41 pm

How did I miss this thread? There is more to talk about than ever before!

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WIREMAN
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Re: Is there nothing more to talk about?

Post by WIREMAN » December 17th, 2017, 2:35 pm

...yeah, so much to talk about...same old riddle only starting from the middle, to quote the band.....gotta go beyond poetry or maybe there's just too many threads.....yet the discussion threads been rather dead of late😎
me I feel like I'm becoming some kinda Kung fu t.v. Priest.....

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sasha
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Re: Is there nothing more to talk about?

Post by sasha » December 17th, 2017, 5:31 pm

It seems to this relative newcomer that there's less diversity of political opinion here at S8 than there was at Arcanum. AC had a significant number of subscribers well to the right of center, as well as a significant number to the left. Perhaps that's why the Open Discussion forum there was as volatile as it was. Frankly, I was very cautious about posting there because of that. The folks I've seen posting here at S8 seem by & large to be in agreement with one another, less likely to debate issues. As a nonconfrontational sort of guy, I'm ok with that, and am more comfortable in a quieter, more consonant community.
.
"Falsehood flies, the Truth comes limping after it." - Jonathan Swift, ca. 1710

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judih
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Re: Is there nothing more to talk about?

Post by judih » December 17th, 2017, 11:55 pm

I've had enough of that stuff. - Non-listening. Assumptions. Pointing fingers. Don't need more of it online. Wish people could tear off their defence mechanisms and just be with another's thought pattern, for a few minutes, without blind reaction.

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still.trucking
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Re: Is there nothing more to talk about?

Post by still.trucking » December 21st, 2017, 12:36 am

may just because the the days are getting short or maybe in a dark time maybe the eye begins to see.

even so it seems too late to talk about it.
Lets act, a time for action, oh yes just grab them by the pussy President Tweet.

my :(

Winter is the best time of the year for talk, don't mind me. Just my S.A.D
Seasonal affective disorder

I need a over the hump solstice jam.
"Natural selection, as it has operated in human history, favors not only the clever but the murderous." Barbara Ehrenreich

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Free Rice

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Doreen Peri
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Re: Is there nothing more to talk about?

Post by Doreen Peri » December 21st, 2017, 6:51 pm

I need a over the hump solstice jam.
I created it for you ... in the poetry forum. Sorry but I have SAD, too, so my jam posts might not be too upbeat. I can't even write poetry any more but I'll add a few thoughts, for what it's worth.

Happy Chanukah.

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still.trucking
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Re: Is there nothing more to talk about?

Post by still.trucking » December 21st, 2017, 7:55 pm

Thank you for the jam and I hope you have a good holiday.
According to USA Today™ the astrologers say it is going to be a bad day.
A good day to stay home
ibid
The word “solstice” comes from the Latin words sol sistere, which means “sun standing still.”
"Natural selection, as it has operated in human history, favors not only the clever but the murderous." Barbara Ehrenreich

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still.trucking
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Re: Is there nothing more to talk about?

Post by still.trucking » December 21st, 2017, 8:01 pm

Sorry i posted wrong link to USA Today™ article about a bad day

it is here
Dec. 21 will be the worst day of 2017, astrologers say
"Natural selection, as it has operated in human history, favors not only the clever but the murderous." Barbara Ehrenreich

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saw
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Re: Is there nothing more to talk about?

Post by saw » December 22nd, 2017, 10:44 am

it's easy to get swallowed up in the swirl of negativity
that spews from those that seek to divide us up...But
if we keep in mind ( front and center ) that this is a ploy
it will help us weather what we may come to see as the end of civilization
Divide and Conquer is at work here...born in the think tanks of moneyed reactionaries
and their quest to have it all.....after all the president of the U.S. ( still can't believe it )
is in love with autocrats, dictators, fascists.....he admires them
they appeal to his slimy bully nature where it's ok to grab women by their pussies
So we need to step back from this reality at times and embrace all the good in our lives
revel in the love that is out there, and unite as people, as poets, artists, as citizens
because in the end, we really have all the power...we don't have to go along with any of this
I see all this as temporary and believe in the power of unity
through jamming up the works, because as I see we all have more in common than not
we all want safe neighborhoods and good schools and good jobs and decency
but the clever forces that want it all for themselves have us believing
that democrats and republicans are mortal enemies....remember, once again
It's a ploy....Woodward and Bernstein would have a tough time today
going up against the likes of Fox News, Steve Bannon, Rush Limbaugh, Brietbart
because now the plutocrats, the kleptocracy, has so many options,
ways to spread their vile ideology....the way this gets better is when both sides wake up
and the curtain of Oz gets pulled back to reveal the 1% without any clothes
and it will happen ultimately....because it has to.....we can't survive with all our rights
being systematically stripped away.....all the safety nets are currently on the chopping block
the only question is when do we as the majority say ...No More

I never thought I'd ever see a time when the partisan split is absolute...a time when republican leaders
would lavish praise on a degenerate head of state so despicable he may as well have been created
in a dystopian novel...but this is real folks....there is unity in their agenda to destroy the country
we know and love....the dark money, the dark secrets....the puppets line up like toy soldiers
to do the bidding of their arcane backers.....whatever they are told to do....they do it...how is it possible
that not one republican voted against this tax bill scam that will hurt americans for generations
think about that.....not one man or woman had the guts to tell the truth.....this wasn't tax reform
this was a massive giveaway to those that need it the least....the masters of the universe spoke
and the marionettes danced in unison....and this bill is laden with so much more...this is just the beginning
they plan to come after medicare, social security, the childrens health plan, the whole emchilada
they are already breaking up families that are undocumented.....the Dreamers are a target
the environment is a target....the national parks, the hopes and dreams of us all
I am not a doom and gloom kind of guy....but I can still see pretty well....even without my glasses
I don't say all this to infer the end is near, but to give hope a voice.....to give solidarity a voice
to rally....in my mind at least....as I type here....the troops....even my ragged ass
is ready to to join the picket line...

When opposing party members can stand shoulder to shoulder....we will have our day....until then we are all simply following their script
Their plan is simple....if you can keep two majority groups bickering you have made both sides impotent .....and ineffectual
If you do not change your direction
you may end up where you are heading

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mnaz
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Re: Is there nothing more to talk about?

Post by mnaz » December 23rd, 2017, 2:54 am

Steve Saw, this is required reading. I'll have to come back to it. There does at least SEEM to be some sort of bum-rush Ultimate Corporate Takeover in progress, tho I don't want to protest too loudly, lest I get PUT DOWN and told I have no real right to protest if assembled in large enough numbers, dispersed by various rubber bullets real or rhetorical.

But I could be wrong about that!

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stilltrucking
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Re: Is there nothing more to talk about?

Post by stilltrucking » December 23rd, 2017, 5:34 pm

So we need to step back from this reality at times and embrace all the good in our lives
revel in the love that is out there, and unite as people, as poets, artists, as citizens
because in the end, we really have all the power...

In a nut shell 8) 8)

I would like to step back about thousand miles from this computer, my tv set, my smartwatch and phone. Sometimes I think I need an Alexa too. :oops:

Put down let down so long it looks like up to me(RF)
Nothing wrong with being paranoid if you are paranoid
we used to say on litkicks™.

I don't have a bumper sticker on my car I am so paranoid.
In the mean time it is all in the code
here in the asylum of the good HTML

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