I agree. I feel ready to do t3rror against spotify, Even though I have a funny memory of being on the bus in middle school with my ipod, listening to some technology guy describing streaming, and thinking "whoa." I take it back.
Another problem I've been having is feeling like headphones are "only for podcasts." How fucked up is that????? Spoken word audio belongs on another shelf, and NOT a skeuomorphic Apple Books shelf!!!
Actually, yeah, there is a nice link between radio and streaming; radio waves "should" stream and "are" streaming around us; didn't Apple devices used to have built-in radios?!
since moving out of my parents theres been many times that I have tried to find songs online that I remember hearing from my dads vinyl collection, only to call my dad (who is a human version of Shazam for any rock song recorded from 1960-1980) and he can remember the artist, album, track listing and year it came out. I can barely remember the name of most of the songs that I really like because I just hear them on Spotify while I'm driving. I think physical copies really force you to pay attention to what you are listening to and make the experience more meaningful overall
support your local public library!! aka government subsidized dvds free for you to checkout. berkeley public library has a solid collection. come to north branch and say hello. we also have vinyl and cd.... did i mention interlibrary loans???? access to physical media from most public libraries in the state of california
also - just copped a blue ray dvd player at the goodwill in richmond
I'm quite surprised the "Crossroads" soundtrack isn't on ubuweb, but check out "You're No Good" while you're over there https://ubu.com/sound/riley_nogood.html
The surfing analogy is so on point. And yo, the infinite waves hypothetical is almost real…artificial wave pools are here! There are several in the US (Kelly Slater has one in Leemore, CA and there’s one in Waco, TX), and the number is growing worldwide. But it is a pay-to-play situation: you can buy individual sessions, reserve a time on a web portal etc, or, you guessed it, purchase a monthly membership.
With wave pools, it’s kinda like we went from radio straight to Spotify. Natural waves are a fully-gratis no-strings-attached gift from Gaia, but in wave pools you can assign a price to each one: if there are 20 sets for you in the hour, each shredder gets 1 wave per set, and it costs $160/surfer for that hour, you bailing on the takeoff burned up 8 bucks.
Now, surf trips (long-process-type experiences) are all the more special. Imagine camping out on a remote beach with your crew, having timed the trip just right to line up with a swell hitting at the perfect south-south west angle. Then you paddle out during ideal mid-tide, soft wind conditions. You, your friends, and the local surfers at the spot absolutely score!
That beach’s natural reef is something no cement pool and proprietary wave tech could replicate. We gotta protect it. Kinda like how we need to support the galleries that would show “Crossroads” and nurture the minds who will drop the next generation of mind-expanding art, ephemera or not.
I set up my own home server which feels like a decent middle ground between awful streaming services and physical media. It's not that hard to set up all things considered and works like a regular streaming service except it's your own media stored on your own server, all you really need is an old computer and a couple hard drives. Still not the same but it definitely feels better streaming a rip of a cd I bought than from Spotify.
I just love the title of this piece so much. It's absolutely perfect. Unlike when that damn DJ would start talking over the end of the song I had fiiinally managed to record from the beginning. That still hurts.
Really felt this one. We are all mourning those days. I see a future where a slow and disconnected life will be something to attain with lots of hard work and practice, like with meditation.
Another beautiful, heart-stirring piece. Been thinking a lot about the hollowing out of middle class artists, who are able to make a living plying their craft, and provide their communities with soulful sustenance through their work, but never "blow up." The Bay used to be full of these folks, it was when I was a kid. And agree it's not idle nostalgia to want to build an economy that sustains the people who make the art we love and need. (Especially as traditional media's reach continues to recede, which for all its faults, did a good job of getting out the word about great art to lots of people, so that artists didn't have to spend hours hyping ourselves on the socials).
As someone who makes live theater for a living that moves and opens up people in person and is impossible to capture in (the omnipotent god of our culture that is) short video clips, I appreciate this hugely. Also, my old radio dub cassettes from the '90s have been delighting my 8 year old lately. Thank you for continuing to inspire folks to experience the world and art with wonder, curiosity, and joy.
I always feel so dusty whenever I side-by-side the sense of emptiness I get from the current state of music consumption against the many ways I incubated and cultivated music fandom in my youth (rewinding cassettes to hear a song again, glossy magazines and weekly papers, college radio, recording radio on tape, usenet, record clubs, tape trading, bootlegs, cd-rs, soulseek, big box import sections, cd singles, trips to big cities with specialist record stores) but hot damn is it ever satisfying when someone else does it.
Instead I will take this opportunity to recommend Barbarian Nights, which is an obscenely boring book about a subject I care nothing about (surfing) and also one of the best things I've ever read.
i listened to the barbarian nights audiobook driving from the bay all the way down highway 1 through big sur to LA one time, extremely good pairing of route & book !
Love how you tied streaming malaise into discovering a Bruce Conner work at an art museum. Coming across video art in a gallery and trying to find it on the internet later can be such an eye-opener when it comes to experiencing streaming's limitations. You have to hope that someone was as profoundly affected by the work as you were (at least!) to go through the trouble of making it available online. It's a strange form of community bonding that feels reminiscent of "Old Internet," in the same way that browsing niche hobby forums can be.
I quit my Spotify subscription a few months ago because it was no longer worth it to pay for subpar audio quality, subpar recommendations, and terrible labor practices towards the artists I was enjoying. I still have Apple Music but these days I mostly listen to radio shows on my phone—it's just a better, more fulfilling experience for discovering new music. (And since you mentioned the Clairo interview, her NTS show really is great, especially if you're into classic soul and '70s singer-songwriter stuff.)
Damn. In 08 living in NYC a friend invited me to MOMA to see Michael Snow's "Wavelength," a film I'd seen in Annandale that I didn't quite "get" at the time. Not only did it click for me this time, but it was paired with another movie I'd never heard of. And sure enough, bomb explodes on the screen, and the movie was "Crossroads"! Like you I'd never heard of it, knew nothing about it, and it completely blew me away. My friend and I walked out completely stunned and couldn't even talk about it that night, had to pick up the convo the next day to discuss it. And like you I tried to track down the Terry Riley music and couldn't place it. Eventually by chance I did listen to the Riley album Les Yeux Fermes back when you could rip albums via Megafire links and when "Journey From the Death of a Friend" came on, I assumed that was the music until now. But you're saying that actually he composed a score exclusively for "Crossroads"?! Incredible. To this day I've only seen it that one time at MOMA, and in a way I almost don't want to see it again to treasure that experience, a top five moviegoing moment for me. And now you've added a new wrinkle to it. Thank you!
This is a such a thoughtful, incisive post, in particular for a 1980's kid who would call radio stations and ask for songs to be played.
What it gets at is the idea from cognitive science that pleasure is primarily found in the 'anticipation' of something rather than in the acquisition of that thing, and it's f'd up and counter-intuitive (could we live in a permanent-state of almost-having something?). But your mention of the sort of euphoric journey you went on to find the Riley song speaks to that directly: it was, as the old chestnut goes, the journey and not the destination that was so meaningful. I once got back from a trip to Jamaica in 1999, and after hearing so many of the same bangers over and over, came back and drove 30 minutes to a local record store, where I went through a print catalog and found the CD that had the Wayne Wonder song, and then I placed an order with the record store and the CD didn't arrive for 6 weeks. For one song. The anticipation was incredible.
I agree. I feel ready to do t3rror against spotify, Even though I have a funny memory of being on the bus in middle school with my ipod, listening to some technology guy describing streaming, and thinking "whoa." I take it back.
Another problem I've been having is feeling like headphones are "only for podcasts." How fucked up is that????? Spoken word audio belongs on another shelf, and NOT a skeuomorphic Apple Books shelf!!!
Actually, yeah, there is a nice link between radio and streaming; radio waves "should" stream and "are" streaming around us; didn't Apple devices used to have built-in radios?!
since moving out of my parents theres been many times that I have tried to find songs online that I remember hearing from my dads vinyl collection, only to call my dad (who is a human version of Shazam for any rock song recorded from 1960-1980) and he can remember the artist, album, track listing and year it came out. I can barely remember the name of most of the songs that I really like because I just hear them on Spotify while I'm driving. I think physical copies really force you to pay attention to what you are listening to and make the experience more meaningful overall
we need to pine more in the modern age. nice read, thanks.
support your local public library!! aka government subsidized dvds free for you to checkout. berkeley public library has a solid collection. come to north branch and say hello. we also have vinyl and cd.... did i mention interlibrary loans???? access to physical media from most public libraries in the state of california
also - just copped a blue ray dvd player at the goodwill in richmond
The Oakland Public library dvd holdings have gotten me out of a tough spot more than once, good call 🫡
I'm quite surprised the "Crossroads" soundtrack isn't on ubuweb, but check out "You're No Good" while you're over there https://ubu.com/sound/riley_nogood.html
The surfing analogy is so on point. And yo, the infinite waves hypothetical is almost real…artificial wave pools are here! There are several in the US (Kelly Slater has one in Leemore, CA and there’s one in Waco, TX), and the number is growing worldwide. But it is a pay-to-play situation: you can buy individual sessions, reserve a time on a web portal etc, or, you guessed it, purchase a monthly membership.
With wave pools, it’s kinda like we went from radio straight to Spotify. Natural waves are a fully-gratis no-strings-attached gift from Gaia, but in wave pools you can assign a price to each one: if there are 20 sets for you in the hour, each shredder gets 1 wave per set, and it costs $160/surfer for that hour, you bailing on the takeoff burned up 8 bucks.
Now, surf trips (long-process-type experiences) are all the more special. Imagine camping out on a remote beach with your crew, having timed the trip just right to line up with a swell hitting at the perfect south-south west angle. Then you paddle out during ideal mid-tide, soft wind conditions. You, your friends, and the local surfers at the spot absolutely score!
That beach’s natural reef is something no cement pool and proprietary wave tech could replicate. We gotta protect it. Kinda like how we need to support the galleries that would show “Crossroads” and nurture the minds who will drop the next generation of mind-expanding art, ephemera or not.
We’ve been waiting for someone to bring up the Slater pools! Erin read the William Finnegan piece about them but I haven’t
I set up my own home server which feels like a decent middle ground between awful streaming services and physical media. It's not that hard to set up all things considered and works like a regular streaming service except it's your own media stored on your own server, all you really need is an old computer and a couple hard drives. Still not the same but it definitely feels better streaming a rip of a cd I bought than from Spotify.
whoa sounds pretty tight !
I just love the title of this piece so much. It's absolutely perfect. Unlike when that damn DJ would start talking over the end of the song I had fiiinally managed to record from the beginning. That still hurts.
Hahaha
Really felt this one. We are all mourning those days. I see a future where a slow and disconnected life will be something to attain with lots of hard work and practice, like with meditation.
Another beautiful, heart-stirring piece. Been thinking a lot about the hollowing out of middle class artists, who are able to make a living plying their craft, and provide their communities with soulful sustenance through their work, but never "blow up." The Bay used to be full of these folks, it was when I was a kid. And agree it's not idle nostalgia to want to build an economy that sustains the people who make the art we love and need. (Especially as traditional media's reach continues to recede, which for all its faults, did a good job of getting out the word about great art to lots of people, so that artists didn't have to spend hours hyping ourselves on the socials).
As someone who makes live theater for a living that moves and opens up people in person and is impossible to capture in (the omnipotent god of our culture that is) short video clips, I appreciate this hugely. Also, my old radio dub cassettes from the '90s have been delighting my 8 year old lately. Thank you for continuing to inspire folks to experience the world and art with wonder, curiosity, and joy.
well put -- and so cool that you held on to the tapes so that you can share them with (inflict them on?? haha) your kid
I always feel so dusty whenever I side-by-side the sense of emptiness I get from the current state of music consumption against the many ways I incubated and cultivated music fandom in my youth (rewinding cassettes to hear a song again, glossy magazines and weekly papers, college radio, recording radio on tape, usenet, record clubs, tape trading, bootlegs, cd-rs, soulseek, big box import sections, cd singles, trips to big cities with specialist record stores) but hot damn is it ever satisfying when someone else does it.
Instead I will take this opportunity to recommend Barbarian Nights, which is an obscenely boring book about a subject I care nothing about (surfing) and also one of the best things I've ever read.
i listened to the barbarian nights audiobook driving from the bay all the way down highway 1 through big sur to LA one time, extremely good pairing of route & book !
Surfing, recording radio songs, and I'll add: watching a meteor shower. ✨ All cosmic waiting.
Love how you tied streaming malaise into discovering a Bruce Conner work at an art museum. Coming across video art in a gallery and trying to find it on the internet later can be such an eye-opener when it comes to experiencing streaming's limitations. You have to hope that someone was as profoundly affected by the work as you were (at least!) to go through the trouble of making it available online. It's a strange form of community bonding that feels reminiscent of "Old Internet," in the same way that browsing niche hobby forums can be.
I quit my Spotify subscription a few months ago because it was no longer worth it to pay for subpar audio quality, subpar recommendations, and terrible labor practices towards the artists I was enjoying. I still have Apple Music but these days I mostly listen to radio shows on my phone—it's just a better, more fulfilling experience for discovering new music. (And since you mentioned the Clairo interview, her NTS show really is great, especially if you're into classic soul and '70s singer-songwriter stuff.)
Her nts show is really good !
Damn. In 08 living in NYC a friend invited me to MOMA to see Michael Snow's "Wavelength," a film I'd seen in Annandale that I didn't quite "get" at the time. Not only did it click for me this time, but it was paired with another movie I'd never heard of. And sure enough, bomb explodes on the screen, and the movie was "Crossroads"! Like you I'd never heard of it, knew nothing about it, and it completely blew me away. My friend and I walked out completely stunned and couldn't even talk about it that night, had to pick up the convo the next day to discuss it. And like you I tried to track down the Terry Riley music and couldn't place it. Eventually by chance I did listen to the Riley album Les Yeux Fermes back when you could rip albums via Megafire links and when "Journey From the Death of a Friend" came on, I assumed that was the music until now. But you're saying that actually he composed a score exclusively for "Crossroads"?! Incredible. To this day I've only seen it that one time at MOMA, and in a way I almost don't want to see it again to treasure that experience, a top five moviegoing moment for me. And now you've added a new wrinkle to it. Thank you!
I gotta listen to his les yeux fermes score again! And never seen the Snow, hope I do some time
This is a such a thoughtful, incisive post, in particular for a 1980's kid who would call radio stations and ask for songs to be played.
What it gets at is the idea from cognitive science that pleasure is primarily found in the 'anticipation' of something rather than in the acquisition of that thing, and it's f'd up and counter-intuitive (could we live in a permanent-state of almost-having something?). But your mention of the sort of euphoric journey you went on to find the Riley song speaks to that directly: it was, as the old chestnut goes, the journey and not the destination that was so meaningful. I once got back from a trip to Jamaica in 1999, and after hearing so many of the same bangers over and over, came back and drove 30 minutes to a local record store, where I went through a print catalog and found the CD that had the Wayne Wonder song, and then I placed an order with the record store and the CD didn't arrive for 6 weeks. For one song. The anticipation was incredible.
So appreciate your writing Jonah.
that's a great tale -- thanks AJ
I love this thinking and writing. Thank you!