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.

It's been fun setting up the podcast for our band. Four episodes into it, and I'm learning a lot. Noting some observations now while it is in its infancy. Future me can come back to this and have a laugh or a think.

Length

Started the podcast with every intention of it being short. With each episode, I am noticing a temptation to make it longer and longer. An intro here...an ad there...and then the episode is long.

If future me is reading this and the show is now an hour long, you need to get it back to ten minutes or less.

Outside Influence

When I was searching for answers on how to get my podcast XML file to validate, a lot of "how to make a podcast" links popped up. I clicked around a few and was quickly bored. So much about how to make podcasting "pro". Not so much about how to have fun.

If future me is reading this and the show sounds like a talk show right now, you need to get it back to the first four episodes vibe.

Intention

We have listeners that speak Japanese, English, a little or a lot of both, and neither. I am fully aware of this and am keeping it in mind with each episode. I want there to be something to enjoy no matter what languages you speak. It is more of a challenge than just getting on the mic and yammering for a while. I think some people are going to think we are trying to be art-y, but for real, it's all about making things that can be enjoyed anywhere.

If future me is reading this, can everyone still find something in the show to enjoy?

Links

Podcast Feed: https://1000sofcats.band/public/feeds/podcast.xml

Website: https://1000sofcats.band

One of my favorite shortcuts I made is the Weather Icon. It is a simple four step shortcut but it is so reusable in other shortcuts.

For example, I have a shortcut I run for when I greet my colleagues in the morning. It chooses a random salutation and runs the Weather Icon shortcut to get the weather.

Steps

1. Get current weather at Current Location
2. Get Condition from Weather Conditions
3. Dictionary w/ the Keys being the weather conditions (list below). Value is the actual emoji.
4. Get Value for Condition in Dictionary

Weather Conditions ¹

• Clear
• Mostly Sunny
• Sunny
• Cloudy
• Partly Cloudy
• Mostly Cloudy
• Rain
• Showers
• Thunderstorms
• Snow
• Hail
• Sleet
• Blowing Snow
• Fog
• Haze
• Dust
• Smoke
• Windy
• Tornado
• Hurricane
• Drizzle
• Overcast
• Freezing Rain
• Freezing Drizzle
• Flurries
• Hot
• Cold
• Blizzard
• Ice Pellets
• Sandstorm

¹ Not sure if this list is complete or not. Seems to be working though.

I had friends in town so I couldn't review week eight last Monday. Looking back on two weeks of albums today. Here are the albums I can still hear in my head:

• Nahida Akhtar Best of Nahid Akhtar 87 #playbacksinging
• Walter Franco Revólver #MPB
• Johnny Preston Rock #rock
• Joe Pass For Django #jazz
• Super Heroines Souls That Save #punk
• Terry Riley Shri Camel #electronic

What are you listening to? Point me to your list. Don't have a list of music you are listening to? The best day to start one is  today.

There are two things I like to do to keep in shape for drumming and for me in general. One is using a pair of light dumbbells that we found in an old box. The other is jogging in place because I can do it at my desk during pomodoro breaks or while watching a tutorial.

During one jogging break I thought to myself, "If I could only combine the weights and jogging then I'd be done with them quicker".

So I started jogging with the dumbbells¹.

Sometimes I do the normal running motion. Sometimes I just hold them in a position until I get tired then switch positions.

This rules. Less counting. Less routines. My muscles feel the same as the past dumbbell lifting. Perhaps ever more of a workout. The app I use to track jogging is telling me "way to go".

Also the moving the legs while keeping my arms out with the weight feels a lot like drumming. Bonus!

¹ This is probably a well known exercise but I really don't want to go down that rabbit hole.

One thing I love lately is generating a word cloud in Obsidian from my morning writing sessions. There is a plugin for it called "Tag & Word Cloud" that generates a word cloud of my most commonly used words.

I run the plugin as a treat for getting a morning writing session done. For example, my list today is "show, tasks, things, let, words, need, time".

It's kind of like having a personal oracle.

I am four months into the daily writing exercise. It started out as 750 words a day. That quickly changed to 200 words a day. I am noticing brain changes for sure. It is easier to write in general. Thoughts and words are coming out quicker for sure. 

The free writing morphed into a sort of morning brain dump session. Each morning the mental bucket gets emptied and there is space to let the ideas drip into for the day. Tasks, thoughts, and other ephemera are in a spot so there is less "trying to remember stuff" being wasted. That energy can be used in other places.

I think two months into it, it went from a scheduled event into a daily habit. If there is no text file for the day in the folder, I get a little annoyed. Missing a day is totally ok because my "next note" is to keep writing . I also think it took my brain a couple months to trust that this free space was a real thing. At about month three, I started doing things like signing up for a class and planning a podcast. Don't know if there is any connection or if it is just coincidence.

Start writing for no reason .

: “If you hit a wrong note, it’s the next note that you play that determines if it’s good or bad.” — Miles Davis

: The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago, the second best time is now. (Chinese proverb)

You can add a token using the wysiwyg. That rules BUT watch out for one thing.

When you want to add your token, be sure you've clicked on the Source button.

If you don't click the Source button to add the token, the wysiwyg might add extra formatting code to the token. Which then makes the token broken. In my case, the wysiwyg adds a span tag to the token which breaks things.

Steps

1. Click Source.
2. Add your token.
3. Click Source again.
4. Click Save.
5. Stay rad.

Having a massive list of genres was impressive at the bottom of an album. It was also becoming visual clutter. How to make it less obnoxious?

Did a little think on it and decided to make the Genres list more of a self-challenge. So I set the numbers of genres to display at five.

If it is making me crazy that a certain genres isn't on the list then I'd better start listening to some music.

Example

Looking back at last weeks music I listened to, these were the one that I could hear in my head when I read through the list:

• Strange Translucent World
• Sonny Rollins Newk’s Time
• Alternative TV The Image Has Cracked/The ATV Collection
• Mary Hopkin Post Card

At first I thought that an artist being “recall” level is too low of a criteria to make a list about. You’d think it would be something like “check out cool drum part” level or something.

Actually an album that I hear once and can survive in my head for almost a week is very impressive.

What are you listening to? Where's the list?

The ¥100 store by our place has a party section. There are really small air pumps that people buy for filling balloons. They make perfect keyboard dust cleaners. Sure beats compressed air cans.

I have a free morning, some espresso, and the energy to start mapping out the 1000s of cats podcast. Very fun going through old folders of our stuff. We did a video podcast a long time ago before Youtube got huge. This podcast is going to be audio this time around.

So Far

• I keep typing "podcats" instead of podcast on accident.
• Mind mapping ideas is absolute fun. Am I into outlining?
• Lots of little things to decide.

Ten years ago macbooks were perfect for winter because they heated up. Summer was kinda rough. Tokyo apartments have no central heat.

Now this laptop is like resting my hands on an icey piece of metal in winter. Summer is nice.

Me vs. resisting the urge to search for writing prompts again today. It is so tempting to go to them. Searching online for "writing prompts" is the surest way to get so far away from actually getting any free writing done.

Took a moment to think about what I would do if I had to free write on drums. I'd start with a simple beat, loop it, and let it naturally morph into something.

So I tried that with the free writing and it worked so well. Took a simple phrase with a blank in it, repeated it, and filled in the blank. I looped...

"Let my mind _________"

I got 750 words of free writing done the quickest I have ever done it. It felt more like free writing too.

Sidenote

I venture to guess people have been doing this exercise forever. Getting to it myself is part of the mental training though.

I just got my music list filtering so music from this decade is popping up for me. I have date filters setup in the MusicBox app for each decade now.

The goal is to listen to at least one album from this decade more.  If I listen to an album from the past, there is an easy list to pull from.

Sidenote...I have no problem with current music per se. The way I find stuff to listen tends to surface stuff from before more than now.

Started back into writing 750 words a day when I wake up. The tasks I do after writing are noticably different. Better commenting, less on my mind, and hands are warmed up.

BUT I have used a writing prompt two days in a row and I've fallen into the same pattern both days.

1. A large chunk of junk that sounds like I am writing ad copy that doesn't sound like me.
2. A section of me complaining that I used a writing prompt.
3. A section of gibberish free writing that makes no sense.
4. Then out of  the gibberish some idea I like crawls out of the slime and I start getting stoked to keep writing.

I need to make a writing prompt that tells me to stop using a writing prompt and just write some noise.

A rough one yesterday. Found out right before our show our recording got cancelled because our friend who is engineering severely injured his back and can't travel. Which means he can't do the show we set up for him. Scrambling to find another band to fill the spot.

Then a fight broke out at our show. Couldn't enjoy the other bands dealing with the situation.

Just gotta bounce back.

Looking back on the week, the overarching theme seemed to be balancing discipline with joy and prioritization. There was a lot of focus on tweaking of the flows. Songs for 1000s of cats, to-do app/gtd, and even wiki for work all got smoothed out.

There was an undercurrent of appreciating control and structure to achieve goals.

Music

Listened to so many amazing albums this last week. There were a few that had some whoa-ments.

At the Five Spot Vol. 1 
Eric Dolphy feat. Booker Little, Mal Waldron, Richard Davis & Ed Blackwell 

Dissonance rules. This album has dissonance wonderfully blended with sweetness and sadness. I love live jazz album that make you feel like you are in a tiny club.

In the Land of Grey and Pink 
Caravan

Columbia Singles 
Susan Christie

These two albums came out decades before their times. From what I read about both is that people completely didn't get it when they were released. It's like two indie albums hatched way before the rest of the eggs.