frozen octopus

I pushed play on the first album of the day and then opened the app where I do my free writing. Found a good way to let the mind ramble about:

• Type the name of the album.
• Take the last word of the album title and use it to start a new phrase.
• Keep going until 200 words.

Seemed to add a lot more variety to the kinds of words that popped up. The repeating word thing “…[last word]. [first word]…” created a nice rhythm which was kind to my foggy, morning mind.

More on the writing exercise: 200 Words a Day for 4 Months

Went through the list from last week and was surprised by how much I could hear in my head. I got me wondering if knowing that I am going to look back to see what I can remember is making me try to remember albums more.

That album from Sly & The Family Stone had so many "whoa" moments on it. The Minutemen rule, but it's kind of a sad listen. Replace the name of the president they were singing about with the current one and check it out. The Hippy Boys got me thinking about how there used to be a lot more instrumental music a long time ago. The album by Cecil Taylor is amazing because it is music built on modules. I love when an album makes me want to go to a place, and the Sir Douglas Quintet did that. Grant Green reminded me how much I love when guitarists make a decision and go with it. Be super sharp and treble-y or take off all the treble.

• Sly & The Family Stone There's a Riot Goin' On #Soul
• Minutemen Introducing the Minutemen #Punk
• The Hippy Boys Reggae with the Hippy Boys #Reggae
• Cecil Taylor Unit Structures #Jazz   
• Sir Douglas Quintet The Mono Singles '68-'72 #Rock
• Grant Green Grant's First Stand #Jazz    

Took a second to update my morning writing workflow. Before, I was using a plug-in in Obsidian to see a word cloud of all my free-writing gibberish. I'd love to automate that step, so I found some JavaScript that I could drop into an Apple Shortcut. I'll add the script below.

So now my morning flow is to run the Morning shortcut. The shortcut:

• Creates a random linear drum pattern and puts it in my task list for Today
• Asks me what I did yesterday and appends it to a text file called Story
• Asks me what I learned yesterday and appends it to a text file called Wisdom
• Selects one random Japanese grammar for me to practice and puts it in my task list for Today
• Selects one thing to deep clean from a list and puts it in my task list for Today

Doing this seems to incrementally move the pieces forward.

Here is the Javascript for counting all the words in all the text files in a folder.

function run(input) {
    var app = Application.currentApplication();
    app.includeStandardAdditions = true;

    var folderPath = input; // Get selected folder
    var wordCount = {};

    // Get list of .txt files
    var files = app.doShellScript(`find "${folderPath}" -type f -name "*.txt"`).split("\r");

    files.forEach(function(file) {
        var content = app.doShellScript(`cat "${file}"`).toLowerCase();
        var words = content.match(/\b+\b/g); // Extract words

        if (words) {
            words.forEach(function(word) {
                if (word.length > 3) { // Ignore short words
                    wordCount = (wordCount || 0) + 1;
                }
            });
        }
    });

    // Sort words by frequency
    var sortedWords = Object.entries(wordCount).sort((a, b) => b - a).slice(0, 100);

    // Create output text
    var output = "# Top 100 Words Used:\n\n" + sortedWords.map(([word, count]) => `${count}: ${word}`).join("\n");

    return output; // Send to Drafts
}

After a big show the next thing after it feels a little flat (ex: rehearsal or show). If it is a rehearsal, it’s ok to do something easy.

Like our last rehearsal we practiced our set kinda slow.

We also dusted off an ancient song and tried it a new way.

We practiced a half hour less. We took a half hour walk after rehearsal instead. We talked business (ex: merch ordering schedules).

The important thing is we showed up and plugged in. At the same time we also respected that after an energy spike there is a trough. The higher the spike, the deeper the trough feels.

I just ran through the list of albums I listened to last week. So much good stuff but a few stuck out for me. The drums on the Cecil Taylor album was amazing. I went back to the song Air a few times. I was into the Tyla Gang album. One song had some marimba in the background that ruled. The Ex & Brass Unbound is an amazing album. They are one of the rare bands that get better with each album.

Hard to choose favorites. So much good music out there.