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tracking lost media
from 
blog//x2600.cc
In 1996, at North Jeff Junior High (I was there it's final year. 8th grade) a morning show would play on wall-mounted CRT TV's. A little segment of weather, sporting events, local news.
One morning, in October 1996, a video interrupted the broadcast – someone had filmed a fight between two popular/unpopular classmates, and was broadcasting it for the entire 3-grade junior high to see.
I was absent for this event. I was down the hall eluding a clever History teacher, who was snaking through the halls to try to bust me, my friend C, or anyone, for smoking marijuana in the bathrooms.
We avoided detection, but I was sore to have missed the televised brawl between two fairly amusing and notorious students
I knew who had the tape, and knew who would have copies, but I never see this media.
I am now looking for this VHS. I know how to contact a couple friends from that era, gonna see what I can dig up.
tiny report
from Nightjar
the little paper was white with my name, c is for confounding, it started. I sat at my desk, nestled my memory into the back of your soft lobes, hints of cocoa, the palm of my hand on the small of your back.
my name was the little paper, white with oh how small my world is without you, that it could fit on this tiny type of me. I lifted it up to my unkissed years, sung its praises, this tiny report.
was the little paper, white with my name, remnants of you? though light, it does not have the soft landing of your yellow gaze, or the day you pulled ‘tiel feathers from my hair. your bright laugh is fading now.
my white paper was with name, [a] little dark alphabet, an elegy for us, for love, immense. always.
#anaphora #poetry #love
Sunbathing
from Nightjar
- after Rachel Carson
The Greyhound lies on her outdoor bed, pawing her eye to rid an invisible bug.
Mabel, the little dog, lies down beside her, crushing Tania’s long legs with her tank-like body. Mabel then moves to the cement, thinking her shadow will keep her cool.
My right shoulder is against the house. The wind on the cape is doing its usual dance between bay and sea, and the sun is painting my arm in broad strokes.
It’s a spring without voices. No more euphonious songs. But it is noon, when birds nap in tall leafy towers, bobble on their skinny dashboards, and mingle worms and nasturtiums on their tongues.
My right shoulder is against the house, and the wind and the sun are playing with me. I huddle more closely to the wall.
A house finch calls over next door’s construction. Mabel rolls on her back, asks for a belly rub.
#poetry #extinction
Kauaʻi ʻōʻō (extinct 1987)
from Nightjar
The machine that captured your song could not capture hers, in a known duet. You sang to her above the crickets, like an organ in Morse code, (or was it the cicadas?), lines lighting up the tape.
Imagine as the hurricane shouted and roiled beneath her she flew higher. Her flying was frantic, her dark wings furiously lifting her body, like a child lifting its arms to its mother, pleading, someone please catch me. She was so tired she could not sing.
She should have made for higher trees, a few cavities left. Perhaps she did rise, singing back to you, an echo of yellow pantaloons, irises faded to a blue concern. But you could not hear her above the water.
On the tape, where she should have been, a space, like a blip in the heart,
like the valley between mountains.
Long rows of both of you now line boxes. Eyes closed, talons tied. They opened your hearts, and they were full of flowers brimming with nectar, calling honey, honey, honey, we are but inches, inches away.
#poetry #extinction
from 
Roscoe's Quick Notes
Kansas City Royals vs the Philadelphia Phillies.
My MLB Game of Choice today, the Royals vs. the Phillies, has been chosen because its early start time of 1:10 PM CDT fits so well into my other scheduled activities. As I usually do, I'll follow the game's score and stats in real time via MLB's Gameday Service where we can also find links to the radio-call of the game provided by announcers of either team we choose.
And the adventure continues.
Les six aveugles et l'éléphant
from Micro essais
Vous connaissez évidement la métaphore des six aveugles et de l’éléphant. Vous savez, celle où six aveugles palpent chacun une partie d’un éléphant, et débattent entre eux de ce dont il s’agit. Celui qui palpe une patte est convaincu qu’il s’agit d’un arbre, un autre est convaincu qu’il s’agit d’un serpent, etc. Chacun étant persuadé, comme nous tous, que la réalité qu’il perçoit est toute la réalité.
Autant le dire tout de suite, nous sommes tous des aveugles face à cet éléphant qu’est devenu le monde au XXIe siècle.
Moi aussi.
Mais tout de même. Il n’est pas interdit de se soigner.
J’ai longtemps pensé que l’observation patiente et attentive du vivant, dans toutes ses dimensions, était une voie royale vers la pensée systémique. J’entends par là une capacité à relier les choses, à regarder plus large et plus loin. Peut-être à « penser comme la montagne », comme l’écrivait Aldo Leopold.
Mais je constate que ce n’est plus si simple. Je suis amené, de part mon activité, à fréquenter de nombreux spécialistes de la biodiversité. Écologues et biologistes, naturalistes, taxonomistes, mais aussi agronomes, économistes, juristes, sociologues, experts en sciences de gestion, professionnels de la RSE et autres.
Et je constate que nous aussi, nous devenons aveugles. La biodiversité est un champ d’étude vaste, complexe, multi-facettes. Toutes les spécialités qui s’y intéressent ne se recouvrent pas complètement, et les personnes qui les exercent ne se comprennent pas toujours. Le risque, là aussi, serait que chacun se pense détenteur de la vérité alors qu’il n’en connaît qu’un aspect.
Plus les savoirs s’étendent et s’approfondissent, plus il est nécessaire de les relier.
Comme vous le faites probablement déjà, il est nécessaire de continuer à cultiver notre curiosité. Il est indispensable de lire, même si nous sommes experts en écologie, en économie, en droit ou en philosophie, les ouvrages des auteurs et auteures des autres disciplines, sans oublier la dimension sensible, à travers la fiction, la littérature et la poésie. Sans oublier non plus le contact direct, l’observation, l’émerveillement, le partage.
L’humanité, la biodiversité et les liens qui nous relient valent bien cet effort – que dis-je, cette joie – de continuer à apprendre et à découvrir chaque jour un peu plus cet « éléphant » dont nous sommes toutes et tous une partie.
Price Raises and Loyalty
from 
🌐 Justin's Blog
Why not raising prices on existing customers can be good for business.
The other day I was on X and I came across this post from my friend, Matt:
I think we can all relate on some level. Price increases have become an expected part of life. Matt mentioned how he raised prices at The Events Calendar during his time there, and it made me think about what I would do today if I were running a software company and wanted to raise pricing. Honestly, I'm on the fence.
On one hand, I get the reason for raising prices on legacy customers. Costs go up over time, especially if new functionality is implemented into the plans that are resource intensive. It only makes sense to cover those costs and there's nothing inherently wrong with creating more profit. The backlash on doing so today would be significantly less than in 2016. For better or worse, people are used to prices going up.
But that's precisely one reason why I would consider not doing it.
Standing By Your Customers
As consumers we are getting absolutely beaten down by the subscription economy. Every little thing is being used as justification to raise prices. Heck, sometimes there are no justifications given at all, just a higher price issued by the higher-ups because the boardroom wants to see bigger margins (I'm looking at you YouTube TV).
I'm a believer in doing well by doing good. If it's feasible, I think locking people into the rate that they buy in at (as long as they maintain an active account) falls into that category. Even more so now than 10 years ago. Brand loyalty is difficult to buy, but one way you can do it is by honoring the contracts you make.
If you do decide to raise prices, give people a long enough runway to prepare mentally for the shift – don't just throw it at them. For example, this could mean letting their current contract period end (one year from initial sign-up) before new pricing goes into effect. Also, give them an offramp should they decide they need to move on. If a few folks write into support saying they cannot afford it going forward, give them an extra year at legacy pricing.
In other words, just be human about it all. Nothing is worse than the heartless corporate decision-making that we have become accustomed to today.
#entrepreneurship
Je n'ai pas changé
from 
Turbulences
Il y a longtemps que suis né. Ça fait des milliards d’années. Avant moi rien ici n’existait. Mais moi je n’ai pas changé.
Vous m’avez longtemps vénéré, Faisant même de moi une divinité. Vos rites célébraient mes bienfaits, Et rien ne semblait devoir changer.
Pourtant, aujourd’hui, vous me redoutez, Chaque année, à l’approche de l’été, Vous devez désormais vous protéger. Mais moi, je n’ai pas changé.
Je ne suis ni plus fort, ni plus près, De la planète que vous habitez. C’est vous qui, négligeant mes bienfaits, De moi, vous êtes détournés.
Avec de douteux alliés, vous avez pactisé, Forant sans relâche, pour les libérer, Des profondeurs où ils étaient cachés, Ces dragons enfouis, surgis d’un lointain passé.
Non moi, je n’ai pas changé, Je brille comme avant, hiver comme été. Mais de ces forces telluriques que vous avez libéré, Vous avez désormais tout à redouter.
from Lastige Gevallen in de Rede
Over de verkregen Heilig verklaring Van Voorbijgaande Aard.
Oogwaardige bewoner van de planeet aarde Van Voorbijgaande Aard. Wij willen eerst onze excuses aanbieden over de vertraging in de levering van dit door u aangeschafte document. Helaas door diverse culturele omstandigheden als ook natuurlijke is het ons niet gelukt om deze verklaring ruim voor de door u gewenste dag te bezorgen om dit euvel goed te maken krijgt u bij de eerst volgende bestelling 25 procent korting. Zie daarvoor de bon bijgesloten in het oerdegelijke hard kartonnen rond omhulsel waarin u document zonder kreuken zit opgerold. Wij hebben meermaals gecontroleerd op kreukels en geen kunnen ontwaren mochten er toch dergelijke ongerijmdheden in de verklaring zitten dan is dat niet onze schuld maar van de transporteur of door u eigen ongelukkig uitpak handelingen. Gelieve dan ook handschoenen, veiligheidsbril en een helm te dragen bij het uitpakken, als eenmaal het plakzegel op dit aan u geleverde eerbetoon is verbroken vervalt per direct de garantie er op en is het niet meer mogelijk om dit document terug te sturen en daarna terugstorting van de door u betaalde 15000 Smægmåånse Døllår te verwachten, dat zal nooit gebeuren. Ook niet als er vlekken op zitten of als we uw naam verkeerd hebben geschreven, deze titel heeft u zelf aangeleverd en wij voeren slechts in wat ons letterlijk is opgedragen, eventuele vlekken zorgen zelfs voor documentaire authenticiteit. Heeft u eenmaal het zegel doorbroken dan mag u van ons en iedereen verwachten dat wij voor u knielen, uwer naam altijd vol ontzag uitspreken of mompelen en u met grote ogen aangapen omdat we nog nooit iemand zo hoog als u hebben mogen ontwaren in ons blikveld. Wij wensen u veel succes met dit prijzenswaardige document.
Hierbij verklaren wij van De Keizerlijke Lofrede BV in dienst van het Smægmåånse Rijkere deel, en daardoor dus ook in naam van het veel grotere arme deel u Van Voorbijgaande Aard officieel Heilig voor Altijd en Eeuwig ongeacht alles. Top!
Aah! Eindelijk. Na drie maanden en vijf dagen wachten ben ik ongeacht alles altijd officieel heilig dankzij de daarvoor verantwoordelijke lucratieve vertegenwoordiging in naam van de staat Smægmå voor de happy view en dankzij hun invloed voor iedereen. Ik ben zo benieuwd wat er zal gebeuren als ik straks voor een goed en kort gesprek fiets naar de geestelijke gezondheids sidekick van de hoger in rang (inkomen) staande dokter en of die assistent vanaf nu wel voor mij gaat knielen en niet meer zo raar blijft doen met zijn rechter elleboog voor en na het rollenspel voor twee. Het document gaat meteen de kluis in. Voor een dergelijk bedrag mag ik er van uit gaan dat de verandering in status aan de buitenkant te zien is. Jammer genoeg viel het bij dit document passende AI schijnsel, Het Aiureool net buiten mijn budget voor persoonsgebonden gratificatie en overige broodnodige verering.
Beating AI Using Public Domain Photos
from 
Ennui Vagaries
I've recently rediscovered something I had done a long time ago: modifying pictures from weather and traffic cameras.
Note: I am cautious about the cameras that I choose to use. They have to be cameras that are putting their photographs online, and specifically be in the public domain. Obviously, not all weather camera images are in the public domain. Privately owned cameras, especially the ones use for television broadcasts, are like nonpublic-domain. (Although, I have a doubt that any of them would really care about this as to them these photographs are ephemera with a rather limited usage.)
I go for the ones that I know are from government agencies, especially those owned by NOAA, precisely because the government does not own these images. They are, by definition in the public domain.
One of the easiest things to do with these photos is to use a gradient mask over them to come up with different effects. For example, here's an alternative version of the above photo:
It's obvious that these are the same photo, and yet the effect is quite different because of the details in the two them. The first one clearly shows some clouds along the horizon, and definite blooming coming from the lights. While this second photo makes everything look more isolated. None of the effects from the light bloom, you can't see the clouds along the horizon, and for that matter it's not even all that clear that the horizon is where the lights at the back are.
There's a ton of other things that can be done with these photographs that don't involve using gradients. Take this photo I used in a blog post the other day:
What I did here was to crop the portion I wanted out of a larger photo, rebalanced the colors, adjusted the color temperature, adjust the contrast and brightness, and then added a vignette. None of the changes were too drastic on this photo. My objective was to highlight the ripples in the water (which was appropriate to a portion of the article that had a surfer analogy in it).
These are only a few simple examples of the kinds of things that can be done with public domain photos like these. I've done stuff where I've taken two photos from one camera from different times / conditions, adjusted them a bit, then overlaid them like a double exposure. It can look really cool.
I've also done things where I've hand created multiple masks to go over a photograph, using different colors and different brush textures to make the photograph have an almost alien look to it. And in still other cases, I've made collages from a set of photographs that I hand modified. This allows you to compose something that is new and fits a vision that you have.
So, what's the point to this?
I see a lot of people go to sites like Unsplash, Pexels, Pixabay, etc. to find images that they can use for various purposes. There is no problem with this, except that these places often intermingle nonpublic-domain photos in with the public domain photos in an attempt to sell them to you. And there is nothing wrong with that ether.
However, there are a few issues (and ones that I have run into before): some photographers will upload the same photograph to multiple sites, and in some cases the licenses may not be the same. And, in at least one case, I had an issue with a platform because I was using a very popular public domain photo. They had issues with it because it turned up in a reverse image search. (I still don't understand that one… It was clearly a public domain image, so they shouldn't have cared… But anyway…)
But, that experience did bring up another thought: don't you want to have something unique representing your work? Maybe you don't have the skill to create a work on your own, but I'm fairly certain you can learn how to do a bunch of image manipulation tricks in whatever software you choose to use. (I use The Gimp, which I know is not everyone's cup of tea, but I've been using it for years at this point.) Isn't a bit more satisfying to say that you did something for yourself? At least you can say it wasn't generated by AI.
In these times when the choices tend to be: public domain photos, stock photos, or AI generated images, I find this to be quite satisfying. The only thing better is if I can use photographs of my own in this process (which I've also done). Above all else, I can say: I did this myself — there was no AI involved. And that means a lot to me.
And here's a final image for good measure:
Categories: #Photography Tags: #publicdomain, #derrivative, #antiai, #trafficcams, #weathercams License: Copyright Unattributed. Licensed under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0.
On Getting Older: I Never Wanted This
from 
Unattributed
Photo of a circular pill sorter box against a pale blue background. Photo by Unattributed. License: Copyright Unattributed. Licensed under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0.
Sure, I hear you saying: no one wants to get old. But it's a fact of life, we all eventually get old. And we all eventually have to face our mortality. One of my favorite sayings about this is: One Day We'll All Be Skeletons. A perfect thought that encapsulates the fears of mortality, and it was uttered by a six-year-old, in front of his dad, on video, available for the whole world to see. But the father got mileage from it as everyone that saw the video wanted it on a t-shirt. I've got four of them.
What I am actually referring to, quite literally, is the photograph at the top of this post. The dreaded weekly wheel pill sorter. But ironically, it's not because of the pills in the sorter (that is only a small part of it), but what it represents to me symbolically.
So, first, the pills. These are mostly an annoyance. A matter of compensating for a few small genetic defects that run through my family. I tried, really hard, to avoid taking medication for these defects. Alas, time caught up with me, and I had to start on medication for those defects a couple of years ago. But, given that I've known people that started taking these medications 10–20 years younger than me, I think I did okay to make it this far without them.
Instead, the pill sorter represents is the growing need to rely on medications. Not just the type that compensate for small issues, but the types of medication that keep you alive. The kinds of medications that one should question taking. The question we will all face one day: am I going to be able to live well just by taking this medication? Or, is this medication just prolonging the inevitable? Leaving me to cling to life in a degraded state?
These are complicated questions to answer. And they are doubly complicated to answer if you've had to take care of any loved ones who were dependent on medications. I have, and I honestly questioned if it was worth it.
I am of the opinion that the pharmaceutical industry is too invasive in our lives. They have pushed hard for deregulation, and often bring medications to market for their profitability responsibilities. Look at how many medications come to market only to be pulled within five years because of unknown side effects. My bet is if we hadn't seen this level of deregulation over the last 20–30 years many of those medications wouldn't have been marketed. The harmful side effects would have been found. I'm of the opinion that we need to be extremely cautious when judging the balance between good and harm, especially when it comes to pharmaceuticals.
On the flip side, I have to look at a recently passed family member who was even more anti-pharmaceutical than me. They tried as many suitable homeopathic remedies as they could before seeing a doctor. Don't get me wrong: they weren't stupid about this. They did research, they knew the potential side effects, and risks for any homeopathic course they chose. And yet, they passed about 20 years earlier than I would have guessed. But, it's not clear this was related to their choices in homeopathic treatments as opposed to more established medical treatments.
The pill sorter is serving as a constant reminder of these issues for me. It's reminding me that eventually I will face those same issues, the same choices others I have loved have had to make. For now, though, this pill sorter is just a convenience, allowing me to store my medications in one place, while having a supply of them sitting here at my desk where I take them every morning before starting my work.
Categories: #Essays Tags: #aging, #medicine, #mortality, #lifequality, #homeopathic, #convenience License: Copyright Unattributed. Licensed under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0.
Voice as Instrument: A History of Imogen Heap's Experiments
from What Inspired Me
The Memory of Mistaking a Voice for a Machine
From her frou frou days, she already possessed an overwhelming vocal ability — pitch that never wavered, a voice that stretched straight and true, almost like a Vocaloid.
I want to start with an honest confession about the first time I heard her voice. It sounded so evenly sustained that I genuinely wondered whether it had been run through a pitch shifter or harmonizer. As one half of frou frou, she was still very much a vocalist standing at the front of a pop song, and Guy Sigsworth's production placed her voice squarely at the center. And yet, even at this stage, there was already something more than an “emotional vessel” in her voice. The fact that a raw, unprocessed voice could carry this kind of mechanical evenness now reads, in hindsight, as the seed of two decades of experimentation to come.
Speak For Yourself: The Compositional Foundation Behind the Vocal Experiments
After frou frou's major success, Heap didn't hand the reins to another producer — she started making music on her own. On 2005's Speak For Yourself, she handled everything herself: composing, producing, recording, arranging, mixing. The record was both a critical and commercial success. In other words, she wasn't just a vocalist with a gifted voice — she was also a composer and producer capable of completing a piece of music entirely on her own. Treating the voice as an instrument was one experiment that grew out of that broader practice of making music herself.
Hide and Seek: The Vocoder as a Stage
2005's “Hide and Seek” is known for using a vocoder alone to expand a single voice into harmony, percussion, and melody all at once. What matters here is that this effect holds up just as precisely in a live setting. A vocoder reproduces the pitch instability of the input signal directly in its output, so the fact that the vocal texture in this footage never breaks down isn't a product of studio editing — it's proof of a raw vocal control that holds even in real time.
Just For Now: Precision Without Processing
If you want to confirm her technical ability without the crutch of a vocoder, this live looping performance is the place to look. She builds up roughly six vocal loops on the spot, including unison doubling, and by the end every loop lines up in perfect time. With no processing to lean on, the precision here rests entirely on her own ear and vocal control.
The Mi.Mu Gloves: Building Her Own Instrument
In the 2010s, she moved into developing the Mi.Mu gloves, a gesture-controlled instrument for manipulating the voice. In the Dezeen interview, she makes clear that this wasn't built as a personal effects unit but as a general-purpose instrument designed to draw out different creative possibilities depending on who wears it. The music video for “Me The Machine” shows the gloves extended beyond voice alone into visual control as well, revealing a scope that reaches toward a unified controller for voice, song structure, and image together.
Sparks: One Culmination of the Vocal Experiments
Looking across Sparks, the 2014 album on which the gloves debuted, you can see the vocal experimentation she'd been building toward all along come together as sheer expressive range. “Entanglement,” for instance, is an electro track built on 808 percussion and synth bass, with a string section layered on top that adds a melancholic shading. Her voice never gets buried here despite the accompaniment of various acoustic instruments. And against the surging, Islamic- and Eastern-inflected choral swells found on some of the album's other tracks, her voice steps outside the frame of “singing a melody” altogether, weaving itself in unbothered, with the texture of a sustained drone from a traditional instrument. It holds enough presence to construct the track with the same force as the other instruments while standing as a lead vocal — and at the same time, it's reverbed, multi-tracked, and folded into the harmony as pure material. The fact that “singing” and “becoming material” coexist within the same song is what shows her vocal experimentation had already moved past mere technical novelty by this point. Sparks stands as one culmination of the vocal experiments she'd been building since her frou frou days.
But her journey didn't stop there.
Box of Tricks: Turning Voice Into Material as a Software Instrument
The interview about the making of “2-1” reveals just how meticulously, by hand, she finishes her vocals. She doesn't lean on automatic plugins like de-essers — she adjusts consonants one by one directly on the waveform. Rather than relying on a compressor to even out dynamics, she hand-draws volume automation in the DAW. She deliberately keeps breath sounds that most producers would cut, because — in her own words — they tell you something about the emotion in the line that follows. On chorus doubles, she nudges the timing of overlapping consonants down to the grid. The voice that sounds so effortless on record is, in practice, the product of an enormous amount of manual editing.
That same meticulousness leads directly to 2015's Box of Tricks. Developed with Soniccouture, this Kontakt instrument samples her own voice and turns it into a “Vocal Pad” — an instrument where a built-in Jammer (arpeggiator) and harmonizer automatically pick out notes from a programmed chord and generate evolving patterns. What she states outright here is a consistent instinct: she dislikes hearing her voice as a single line, and always wants it to sound like multiple voices singing around her.
That drive to split a single voice into many, and multiply it, is the same motive running through the vocoder on Hide and Seek, the looping on Just For Now, the Mi.Mu gloves, and ai.mogen. Slicing the voice up as material, layering it, multiplying it — through this whole line of work, she has treated her voice not just as a tool for singing, but as sonic material that can be endlessly recombined.
ai.mogen: The Stage of Replication
On the 2025 EP I AM ___, an AI vocal called ai.mogen — a replica of her own voice — appears with its own independent credit. “Aftercare” is structured as a duet between her and this replicated version. The switch between her natural voice and the AI voice can be told apart on close listening, but there are moments where separating the two by ear alone is genuinely difficult. That very difficulty of discernment is arguably what confirms how refined the replication technology has become. The fact that her son Scout's vocal solo appears on the same record also resonates with the EP's theme — that a voice is something that can be inherited and replicated.
Reckoning: Confronting a Powerful Beat for the First Time
Set against this quarter-century of vocal experimentation, “Reckoning,” released on June 30, 2026, can be heard as something of a culmination.
Jon Hopkins and Imogen Heap have been friends for more than thirty years — Hopkins toured in Heap's first live band — and yet the two had never actually written a song together. That changed after a joint interview on BBC Radio 6 Music, where they both realized, on air, that this had never happened. That same night, Hopkins returned to a track he'd been quietly working on for nearly a year without ever feeling it was quite right, and it struck him that Heap's voice was the missing piece.
The way the track was built is worth noting too. Rather than bringing in a finished lyric, the two spent several days of vocal sessions building the song organically through improvisation and editing, with Heap processing her vocals through her own Mi.Mu gloves along the way. HAAi added final touches. In April this year, Hopkins made a surprise appearance at Heap's show at London's Roundhouse, where a near-finished version of the track was debuted.
The first thing I noticed on this track was that her voice felt, for her, unusually restrained in volume.
From the frou frou era through I AM ___, the beats in the music she makes herself have largely stayed in a supporting role — rhythm filling in the spaces around and behind the voice, with the voice itself always in the foreground. So it would have been easy to write off that first impression of “not enough voice” as a simple sign of decline.
But the more I listened, the stronger the suspicion grew that this was a deliberate placement. The low end of this track — the thickness of the sub-bass, the force of the kick — is clearly different from anything in her own approach to beat-making. Hopkins has spent years pursuing a physical low-end design that shakes the floor, and that same vocabulary is carried straight into this track. What makes her voice drift here like texture isn't, before anything else, a decline in vocal power with age — it reads more as her confronting, for the first time, a wall of physical low end that belongs to Hopkins rather than to the beat-making habits she's built for herself.
In other words, this track is neither “voice commanding the accompaniment” nor “voice buried by the accompaniment.” For the first time in her career, it's an attempt at voice and beat colliding and coexisting as equals. There's a real paradox in the fact that a song born from thirty years of friendship ends up breaking her own compositional habits — and that paradox is exactly what makes this track worth reading as more than a feature or a collaboration: as a new chapter in her ongoing history of vocal experimentation.
Not a Story of Emotional Expression, But a Technical History of Turning Voice Into Instrument
From the “was that processed?” confusion of frou frou, through the vocoder, the looper, the gloves, AI replication, and now a first confrontation with someone else's physical beat — what she has consistently pursued isn't a story of deepening emotion. It's a technical history of continuing to manipulate the function and placement of voice as raw material. Her vocal power itself may not be what it was in her younger years, but that's better read not as “decline” but in the context of an ever-expanding set of choices for how to place a voice. “Reckoning” is one ongoing chapter in a technical history that's still being written.
声を、楽器として——Imogen Heapの実験史
from What Inspired Me
加工じゃないか、と思わせた最初の記憶
彼女はfrou frouの頃から、ボーカロイドのようにピッチが揺らがず、まっすぐに声が伸びる圧倒的な歌唱力を持っていた。
最初に彼女の声を聴いた時の印象を、正直に書いておきたい。ピッチシフターかハーモナイザーで加工されているんじゃないか、と思うほど、音程の伸びが均一だった。frou frouとしての彼女はまだポップソングの前面に立つボーカリストで、Guy Sigsworthとのプロダクションはあくまで彼女の声を主役に据えた作りをしている。それでもすでにこの段階で、彼女の声には「感情の器」という以上の何かがあった。生の声がここまで機械的な均一性を持ちうるという事実が、この後20年にわたる実験の伏線になっていたと今になって思う。
Speak for Yourself:声の実験を支えた作曲家としての土台
frou frouの大きな成功の後、Heapは他のプロデューサーに音楽制作を委ねるのではなく、自ら音楽を作り始めた。2005年の『Speak for Yourself』では、作曲・プロデュース・レコーディング・アレンジ・ミックスまで全てを一人で手がけ、この作品は批評的にも商業的にも成功を収めている。つまり彼女は、優れた声を持つボーカリストであるだけでなく、楽曲そのものを自分の手で完成させられる作曲家・プロデューサーでもあった。声を楽器として扱うという試みは、こうした彼女自身の音楽制作の営みの中から生まれた、ひとつの実験だったのだ。
Hide and Seek:ボコーダーという舞台
2005年の”Hide and Seek”は、ボコーダーのみで声を和声・パーカッション・メロディにまで拡張した曲として知られる。重要なのは、この処理がライブでも同じ精度で再現されている点だ。ボコーダーは原音の音程の不安定さをそのまま出力に反映する仕組みだから、この映像で崩れずに保たれている声の質感は、スタジオ編集の産物ではなく、リアルタイムでも耐えうる生声の制御力そのものを証明している。
Just For Now:加工なしの精度
ボコーダーという他力を借りずに彼女の技術力を確認できるのが、サンプラーを使ったこのライブ映像だ。6層ほどのボーカルループを、ユニゾンのダブリングを含めてその場で積み上げていき、最後には全てのループが寸分違わぬタイミングで重なる。加工技術がない分、ここで聴ける精度は完全に本人の耳と喉の制御力に依存している。
Mi.Muグローブ:楽器を自作するという段階
2010年代、彼女はジェスチャーで声を操作するMi.Muグローブの開発に乗り出す。Dezeenのインタビューで彼女自身が語っているのは、これが自分専用のエフェクターではなく、誰が使っても違う創造性を引き出せる汎用的な楽器として設計されていたという点だ。”Me The Machine”のミュージックビデオでは、グローブが声だけでなく映像操作にまで拡張されていて、声・楽曲構造・映像を統合するコントローラーへと射程が広がっていることがわかる。
Sparks:声の実験のひとつの到達点
このグローブが投入された2014年のアルバム『Sparks』を見渡すと、それまで積み重ねてきた声の実験が、表現の多彩さとして結実しているのがわかる。たとえば”Entanglement”では、808パーカッションとシンセベースを基調にしたエレクトロなトラックの上に、憂鬱な陰影を添える弦楽セクションが加えられている。ここで彼女の声は、様々な生楽器の伴奏を伴いながらも決して埋もれない。さらに一部の楽曲で見られるイスラム的・東洋的な合唱のうねりに対しても、彼女の声はメロディを歌う枠組みを超え、伝統楽器の持続音(ドローン)のような質感で平然と編み込まれていく。様々の楽器と同じ強度で楽曲を構成するだけの声量を保ちつつボーカルとして対峙する一方で、リバーブをかけられたり、多重録音によってハーモニーの一部として扱われたりと、声そのものが完全に素材として扱われてもいる。「歌う」ことと「素材になる」ことが同じ曲の中で両立しているという事実こそ、彼女の声の実験がこの時点ですでに単なる技術的な思いつきを超えていたことを示している。Sparksは、frou frou以来積み重ねてきた声の実験のひとつの到達点だった。
だが、彼女の歩みはそこで止まらなかった。
Box of Tricks:声の素材化としてのソフトウェア音源の作成
“2-1”の制作過程を語ったインタビューでは、彼女がボーカルをどれだけ緻密に手作業で仕上げているかが明らかになる。ディエッサーのような自動プラグインには頼らず、波形上の子音を一つずつ手作業で調整し、ダイナミクスの均一化もコンプレッサーに頼るのではなく、DAWのボリューム・オートメーションを手描きで作り込む。多くのプロデューサーが削りがちなブレスの音もあえて残す——「その直後に続く歌の感情を物語る」という理由からだ。コーラスでのダブルトラックでは、重なる声同士の子音のタイミングまでグリッド上で微調整する。一見自然に聴こえる歌声は、実際にはこうした膨大な手作業の編集によって成立している。
この徹底した手作業の先に、2015年の『Box of Tricks』がある。Soniccoutureと共同開発したこのKontakt音源では、彼女自身の声がサンプリングされ、内蔵のJammer(アルペジエーター)とハーモナイザーを組み合わせることで、打ち込んだ和音の構成音を自動的に選び出しながらパターンを生成する「ボーカル・パッド」という楽器になっている。ここで彼女自身が語っているのは、「自分の声を一本だけで鳴らすのが嫌いで、常に複数の声が周囲で歌っている状態にしたい」という一貫した志向だ。
一本の声を常に複数の声へと分裂・増殖させたいというこの欲求は、Hide and Seekのボコーダー、Just For Nowのループ、Mi.Muグローブ、そしてai.mogenに至るまで、彼女の実験全体を貫く動機そのものだと言える。声を素材として切り分け、重ね、増やす——この一連の作業を通して、彼女は自分の声を単なる歌唱の道具ではなく、無限に組み替え可能な音響素材として扱ってきたのだ。
ai.mogen:複製という段階
2025年のEP『I AM ___』では、ai.mogenという彼女自身の声を複製したAIボーカルが、独立したクレジットを与えられて登場する。「Aftercare」では本人とこの複製版がデュエットする構成を取る。地声とAI声の切り替わりは注意深く聴けば判別できるが、聴いただけでは完全に切り分けるのが難しい瞬間もある。この判別の困難さそのものが、複製技術の完成度を裏付けていると言えるだろう。息子Scoutのボーカルソロが同じ作品に収録されていることも、声が継承・複製されうる何かであるというこの作品のテーマと呼応している。
Reckoning:強烈なビートと初めて対峙する
ここまでの四半世紀にわたる声の実験史を踏まえた上で、2026年6月30日にリリースされた”Reckoning”はひとつの到達点として聴くことができる。
Jon HopkinsとImogen Heapは30年来の友人同士で、HopkinsはHeapの最初のツアーバンドに参加していた間柄だ。それでも二人が実際に曲を共作したことは一度もなかった。きっかけはBBC Radio 6 Musicでの対談で、そこで初めて「一緒に曲を作ったことがない」という事実に気づいたという。Hopkinsはその夜、1年近く温めていながらどこか物足りなさを感じていた未完成のトラックに立ち返り、Heapの声こそが欠けていたピースだと直感した。
制作プロセスも興味深い。完成した歌詞を持ち込むのではなく、数日間のボーカルセッションで即興録音・実験を重ねながら曲を育てていく方法が取られ、Heapは持ち前のMi.Muグローブでボーカルを加工しながらセッションに臨んでいる。仕上げにはHAAiが手を加えた。今年4月、ロンドンのRoundhouseでのHeapのライブにHopkinsがサプライズ出演し、ほぼ完成形の曲を先行披露している。
この曲で最初に気になったのは、彼女にしては声量が控えめに感じられたことだった。
frou frou期からI AM ___期まで、彼女自身が手がける楽曲の中でビートは基本的に声を支える役割に徹してきた。リズムは声の合間や裏側を埋める骨格であり、声そのものが常に前景にあった。だからこそ、Reckoningで最初に感じた「声量が足りない」という印象は、単純な衰えの兆候として片付けてしまうこともできる。
だが聴き込むほどに、これは意図的な配置だったのではないかという疑いが強くなる。この曲の低域——サブベースの厚みとキックの打点の強さ——は、彼女自身がこれまで手がけてきたビートの作法とは明らかに異質だ。Hopkinsは長年、床を揺らすような物理的な低域の設計を追求してきた作家で、この曲でもその文法がそのまま持ち込まれている。彼女の声がここでテクスチャのように漂って聞こえるのは、加齢による声量の減退である以前に、彼女自身が慣れ親しんできたビートとは異なる、Hopkins固有の物理的な低域の壁と初めて対峙しているからだと考えられる。
つまりこの曲は、「声が伴奏を従える」でも「声が伴奏に埋もれる」でもない。彼女のキャリアの中で初めて、声とビートが対等な力関係で衝突し、共存するという試みなのだ。30年来の友情の結果として生まれたこの曲が、彼女自身の作曲的な習慣を裏切る形で成立しているという逆説は、この曲が単なる客演やコラボレーションの域を超えて、彼女の声の実験史における新章として読む価値を持つことを示している。
感情表現ではなく、楽器化の技術史として
frou frouの「加工じゃないか」という誤解から、ボコーダー、ルーパー、グローブ、AI複製、そして他者の物理的なビートとの対峙まで――彼女が一貫して追い続けてきたのは、感情の深化という物語ではない。声という素材の機能と配置そのものを操作し続ける技術史だ。声量そのものは若い頃と同じではないかもしれないが、その事実は「衰え」としてよりも、「声をどう配置するかという選択肢が増え続けている」という文脈で読むべきだろう。Reckoningは、その技術史がまだ更新され続けていることを示す、現在進行形の一章だ。
from Faucet Repair
7 July 2026
When a young hitting prospect is called up to the major leagues for the first time, it is usually expected that he will struggle for at least a few hundred at-bats as he adjusts to Major League pitching. In a game where power is coveted (and handsomely compensated), it can be tempting for him to swing his hardest at almost everything, relying on raw talent and luck without fully realizing that that's what he's doing.
This mindset is easy for pitchers to exploit; they simply throw him less strikes and let him be his own undoing. But, if he's level-headed and motivated, over time he will start to recognize his own weaknesses and work to refine his approach. He will learn that discipline begets results, and discipline comes from honing his eye.
There are many ways he can train this skill, but on a daily basis it often comes down to studying his opponents' tendencies—the unique speed, spin, vertical and horizontal movement, arm angles, and sequencing of their pitches—so that he can lay off of more pitches out of the strike zone and only swing at those in the zone, thereby increasing the likelihood of both quality contact and bases on balls.
This leads to a higher on-base percentage, which is a good indicator that front office executives can project his future value with confidence. Because ultimately baseball is about returning home safely as much and as consistently as possible, and getting on base means you've left but you're on your way back.
Play little girl
from 
Talk to Fa
The first time I met her, I asked if she missed her husband. After a brief pause, she said “no.” That surprised me, but it was a very reassuring no. She said she loved him and did all she could to care for him while he was alive and healing from his illness.
A few nights ago, she and I were talking in the kitchen. She’d just finished packing for her trip and was leaving the next day. We are both healers, so our conversations usually revolve around healing. She asked me how I learned the healing method I offer. I told her it just came to me. It felt more like remembering how to do it again in this lifetime. That I never learned or studied. She grew curious. I offered her a quick demo of my work. She was delighted.
We cleared some floor space and made it cozy with soft lighting. I brought my speaker and, intuitively, chose a heart chakra frequency track from the many songs on my session playlist. I had her lie down on a yoga mat and sprayed natural jasmine-scented water onto her, knowing she liked the scent.
I got to work. I normally start with the lowest chakra, the root, and slowly move up to the crown, connecting with each energy point and having a silent conversation with it. Unlike most people I’ve worked with, her lower chakras were stable. When I moved up to her heart, I felt warmth in my heart and tears began to flow from my eyes. She was still grieving. Of course she is. Her heart was crying and feeling so many things. Then I moved up to her head. I always make little circles between the brows with my fingers. That’s where babies like to be massaged. When I did that, I felt her inner child yearning to play. It was as if the broken heart and the playful inner child were working together to create healing.
Her daughter had just moved out shortly before I arrived at the house. For the first time, she is enjoying her life as a single woman living on her own. After the session, we reflected. She told me she could cry at any moment from grief. She told me she’s cared for others all her life. I could feel her desire to have fun and to pour into herself.
#stories
EpicMonday 27: Kognitive Neuordnung – eine einfache Methode für besseren Schlaf
from 
EpicMind
Freundinnen & Freunde der Weisheit! „Cognitive Shuffling“ (kognitive Neuordnung) ist eine Technik, die helfen kann, schneller einzuschlafen, indem sie das Gehirn gezielt ablenkt. Die Methode wurde von dem kanadischen Kognitionswissenschaftler Luc P. Beaudoin entwickelt und basiert auf der Idee, das Gehirn mit zusammenhangslosen Gedanken zu beschäftigen, um Grübelschleifen zu durchbrechen.
Dabei wird ein zufälliges Wort gewählt und anschliessend eine Liste von weiteren Wörtern erstellt, die mit demselben Anfangsbuchstaben beginnen. Wenn keine passenden Wörter mehr einfallen, geht man zum nächsten Buchstaben des Ausgangswortes über. Das Ziel ist, das Gehirn zu beschäftigen, ohne es zu stark zu aktivieren – ähnlich den wirren Gedankenbildern, die kurz vor dem Einschlafen natürlich auftreten.
Beaudoin entwickelte die Methode ursprünglich, um seine eigene Schlaflosigkeit zu bekämpfen. In einer Studie aus dem Jahr 2016 mit rund 150 Teilnehmern wurde die Methode mit anderen Techniken wie dem Aufschreiben von Sorgen verglichen. Die Ergebnisse zeigten, dass alle Methoden die Schlafqualität verbesserten, doch viele Teilnehmer bewerteten die kognitive Neuordnung als besonders hilfreich und leicht anwendbar. Die Technik wurde durch einen Artikel in Forbes bekannt und fand schnell Verbreitung in sozialen Medien. Schlafexperten wie Dr. Joe Whittington und die Psychologin Shelby Harris bestätigen, dass die Methode für viele Menschen wirksam sein kann, insbesondere als Ergänzung zu etablierten Behandlungsmethoden wie der kognitiven Verhaltenstherapie für Schlafstörungen (CBT-I).
Obwohl die wissenschaftliche Evidenz noch begrenzt ist, sehen Experten keinen Nachteil darin, die Methode auszuprobieren. Falls die Technik nach 20 Minuten keine Wirkung zeigt, wird empfohlen, aufzustehen und einer ruhigen Tätigkeit wie Lesen, Puzzeln oder Dehnen nachzugehen, bevor man es erneut versucht. Harris empfiehlt sogar, kreative Variationen der Methode auszuprobieren, etwa die Vorstellung von Cupcake-Kombinationen. Kognitive Neuordnung könnte somit ein einfacher und effektiver Weg sein, um Grübelgedanken zu unterbrechen und besser zur Ruhe zu kommen.
Denkanstoss zum Wochenbeginn
„Die modernen Sklaven werden nicht mit der Peitsche, sondern mit Terminkalendern angetrieben.“ – Telly Savalas (1922–1994)
ProductivityPorn-Tipp der Woche: Positiv bleiben
Deine Stimmung beeinflusst Deine Produktivität. Positives Denken macht es leichter, sich auf Aufgaben zu konzentrieren und motiviert zu bleiben.
Aus dem Archiv: Besser lernen mit Seneca
Viele von uns haben das Lernen auf eine Weise verinnerlicht, die auf Wiederholung, Auswendiglernen und kurzfristige Leistung abzielt. Wir bereiten uns auf Prüfungen vor, bestehen sie – und vergessen danach vieles wieder. Das Erkennen von Inhalten wird oft mit Verstehen verwechselt, das Reproduzieren mit Wissen. Doch was bedeutet es wirklich, „etwas zu wissen“? Diese Frage beschäftigt mich seit Langem – und besonders eindrücklich beantwortet sie ein römischer Philosoph, der vor rund 2'000 Jahren lebte: Seneca. In seinem 33. Brief an Lucilius formuliert er eine Kritik am oberflächlichen Lernen, die heute aktueller denn je ist.
Vielen Dank, dass Du Dir die Zeit genommen hast, diesen Newsletter zu lesen. Ich hoffe, die Inhalte konnten Dich inspirieren und Dir wertvolle Impulse für Dein (digitales) Leben geben. Bleib neugierig und hinterfrage, was Dir begegnet!
EpicMind – Weisheiten für das digitale Leben „EpicMind“ (kurz für „Epicurean Mindset“) ist mein Blog und Newsletter, der sich den Themen Lernen, Produktivität, Selbstmanagement und Technologie widmet – alles gewürzt mit einer Prise Philosophie.
Disclaimer Teile dieses Texts wurden mit Deepl Write (Korrektorat und Lektorat) überarbeitet. Für die Recherche in den erwähnten Werken/Quellen und in meinen Notizen wurde NotebookLM von Google verwendet. Das Artikel-Bild wurde mit ChatGPT erstellt und anschliessend nachbearbeitet.
Topic #Newsletter