I've mentioned my problem with sleep. It's not that I can't fall asleep. I'm usually so tired that I'm completely gone before my head meets pillow. I could go to bed at 7pm and fall asleep, no problem. I'm half-asleep right now.
When John Atkinson and I were driving from Kansas to New Mexico after recording Rendezvous, we spotted a crop duster spraying a roadside field. I was stunned by his precision at high speed—and by the exuberant loops with which he terminated each run. It looked incredibly difficult, and also like he was having a ball.
Somehow, the November issue of Technology Review made it to the top of my Empire State Building pile of unread magazines and I happened upon this fascinating recollection by Freeman Dyson about working for the Operational Research Section during WWII.
Philip K. Dick, far from being too paranoid to be prophetic, might not have been paranoid enough. After all, even my comments section makes you prove you're not a robot (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?) and there really are cameras everywhere for our protection (Through a Scanner Darkly). Oh yes, and legislation aimed at protecting us from terror may have invaded our privacy (Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said).
It's funny, but one of the topics Jeff Wong and I have been discussing, seemingly on a daily basis, has been the endless barrage of negative reviews of 300. I have my misgivings—principally the film's depiction of Hoplite warfare that completely ignores the existence of hoplon armor or Hoplite tactics.
If, when listening to the music of John Coltrane, you've been asking yourself what am I missing?, Traneumentary will give you answers. It's a podcast series that interleaves commentary and Coltrane's music with interviews with collaborators like McCoy Tyner and Jimmy Cobb, contemporary musicians like Terence Blanchard and Jason Moran, and legendary producers Michael Cuscuna and Joel Dorn—not to mention the great man himself.