12/26/1997, Friday
Film: Mother with Albert Brooks. Very accurate depiction of boomers' relationships with their parents, especially the preoccupation with food. Also, an interesting scene where the son finds old manuscripts that his mother wrote, discovering that she had a talent that she ignored because she was under pressure from the father to be a housewife.
Began archiving my music. Went to Kinko's and saw people doing the same thing.
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12/26/1999
What about all the people that will die immediately before 2000?
The year 2000 will make synchronistic events even more interesting.
Curtis Mayfield died at 57.
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12/26/2004, Sunday
Massive tsunami hits Indonesia and other countries bordering the Indian Ocean, after largest earthquake in 40 years, Richter 9.5. Thousands dead and counting following 30 foot surge of water traveling at 500 miles per hour.
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12/26/2006
Gerald Ford dies at 93. ( The only President not elected by the people). He was also the first president to be lampooned on Saturday Night Live, specifically the clutzy pratfalls and assassination attempts. But the biggest part of the legacy is the Nixon pardon and the fact that it turned impeachment proceedings into mere censure.
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12/26/2021
What draws me to music most strongly is the tactile: I simply like the feel of vibrating strings across a slab of wood, and is so much more satisfying than a computer keyboard or a piece of glass. I have my instruments all out of their cases and make a point to play them and incorporate them as much as possible into my songs. (That's why I think country music sometimes gets folded in to my music because a lap steel will definitely suggest it). Also, we don't really need that many instruments: Musical instrument collections might have their own Dunbar number. An instrument only used once becomes more of a passing acquaintance.
Podcast: On the tactile in music
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12/26/2015
It's always interesting to think about embedded objects in photography or film as a chronicle of technology. Here Cindy's lonely character waits for the phone to ring to resolve her emotional dilemma. It's a prop, but the only one that existed in 1980. Loneliness now inhabits the world of the smartphone, and I must admit would be less interesting in this tableau. Imagine that in another 20 or 30 years, there would be no visible device to cling to for that same emotional connection: She'd be staring into space.