saysynth at the Jennifer Vanilla Release Show

Kate Sweeney kindly took this video of my saysynth performance at the Jennifer Vanilla Album Release Show last week. This is showing the transition between the sequences 1-monks.yml and 2-beep-blue-sea.yml The visuals in the background were generated by Aaron Tripp controlling the Eyesy.


Priest Lake Animals 2022

Here’s the list of animals we saw in Priest Lake this year:

  • Skunk
  • Bat
  • Chipmunk
  • Bunny
  • Lake Trout
  • Deer
  • Otter
  • Bald eagle
  • Osprey
  • Pups
  • Crow
  • Ducks
  • Geese
  • Hummingbird
  • Sparrow
  • Horse

Pitchfork Review

It’s weird to have Castle in the Sky reviewed in Pitchfork. As someone who was interested in music and came of age in the mid-to-late aughts, it was so influential on my tastes and my aspirations, not always for the better. I’m not sure what it means to be in Pitchfork now, but a small perhaps vain side of me felt validated by it – though that was fleeting. Here’s to keeping your head down and making good work.

Pitchfork review

A Pelican's Hunt

On a beach in the Yucatan, I quietly watched as Pelicans fished. Floating serenely in the waves, they suddenly took off, seemingly abandoning their prey, only to loop back around, ride an updraft into the sky, and nose dive into the water.

The Alley Pond Giant

Today I walked to the Alley Pond Giant: A 350-400 year old Tulip Tree which is supposedly “the oldest living organism in New York City.”

The Alley Pond Giant

Nestled on a steep slope near the intersection of the Long Island and Cross Island Expressways, the tree has survived because the land it sprouted from was of no use to the city that sprawled around it.

The Alley Pond Giant - Map


Izumi Suzuki - Terminal Boredom

An inventive, irreverent collection of speculative sci-fi in which emphasis is placed on the emotional lives of the depressed, often addicted (sometimes alien) characters, rather than the technological specifics of their dystopian societies.

“There was no way anyone could live in a world like this with a fully functioning mind. You only found yourself feeling angry from morning until night. If she ended up joining some kind of political movement as a result, her mother and father would be upset. Using drugs, she told herself, was her way of being a good daughter.”

Heavy Downpour In Old San Juan

Walking through Old San Juan on Thanksgiving Day, Amanda and I got stuck in a tropical downpour. Hiding under the awning of a hotel, we watched as large drops of rain turned the road into a river.

The words of birds

I recently purchased a copy of A Guide To The Birds of Puerto Rico And The Virgin Islands at Rodgers Book Barn.

A Guide To The Birds of Puerto Rico And The Virgin Islands

I particularly enjoyed its onomatopoetic descriptions of bird noises. Here’s a random list of my favorites:

  • A raspy crick-et (White-tailed Tropicbird)
  • A hoarse kak (Brown Booby)
  • A guttural ga-ga-ga-ga (Red-Footed Booby)
  • A peculiar oong-ka-chunk! (American Bittern)
  • A raspy, insect-like kay-ti-dad (Gull-Billed Tern)
  • Plaintive, liquid, twittering notes (Audobon’s Shearwater)
  • A raspy ke-aaar that fades away (Red-tail hawk)
  • A high-pitched killi-killi-killi (American Kestrel)
  • A short, emphatic bow-wow (Short-eared Owl)
  • A throaty ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-kaw-kow, kow, kow, kow (Yellow-billed Cuckoo)
  • A very loud and conspicuous squawky whistle a-leep (Smooth-billed Ani)
  • A varied assortment of gentle cooing notes (Rock Dove)
  • A deep, deliberate whoo (Plain Pigeon)
  • A raucous squawk (Brown-throated Parakeet)