Zenglop The Podcast

Messiaen considered birdsong a divine source of inspiration, one that happily coincided with his interests as a composer (tritone harmony, extended melodic reach, ametrical rhythmic patterns).Buy my book On Mortality and the Human ImaginationSubscribe to my newsletter for occasional updates on the podcast, videos and other writing. https://www.zenglop.net/zenglop/zenglop-the-newsletter.htmlAnd/or subscribe to youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoOlX6NXyQBABYljo1vAuHA?sub_confirmation=1

The mind produces an ongoing chatter - what my teacher calls the "undermutter".  Neither good nor bad, meditation practice puts this noise into perspective but also lets us question the content.  That's the hack.  Have a listen, let me know if you have any questions.more episodes on  meditation notes here: https://www.zenglop.net/zenglop/meditation/Buy my book On Mortality and the Human ImaginationSubscribe to my newsletter for occasional updates on the podcast, videos and other writing. https://www.zenglop.net/zenglop/zenglop-the-newsletter.htmlAnd/or subscribe to youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoOlX6NXyQBABYljo1vAuHA?sub_confirmation=1

Some thoughts on a project I'm starting....to create a map of  the Very Low Frequency (VLF) electromagnetic forms on Penn ave ( Pittsburgh).  My initial curiosity; the interesting challenges of archiving and organizing information; and some speculation on the final output.Buy my book On Mortality and the Human ImaginationSubscribe to my newsletter for occasional updates on the podcast, videos and other writing. https://www.zenglop.net/zenglop/zenglop-the-newsletter.htmlAnd/or subscribe to youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoOlX6NXyQBABYljo1vAuHA?sub_confirmation=1

One of the phrases I like to use is to call a 'Thing' an 'Aesthetic Object'.  The 'Aesthetic Object' compels a confrontation with the vectors of scale through the human imagination.  Buy my book On Mortality and the Human Imagination: https://www.amazon.com/mortality-human-imagination-Andrew-Kaiser/dp/168818676X/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=kaiser+mortality+and+the+human+imagination&qid=1605609759&sr=8-1Subscribe to my newsletter for occasional updates on the podcast, videos and other writing. https://www.zenglop.net/zenglop/zenglop-the-newsletter.htmlAnd/or subscribe to youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoOlX6NXyQBABYljo1vAuHA?sub_confirmation=1

"Required Writing" is a collection of journalism written by the poet Philip Larkin.  I picked up a copy because included in the book is a transcript of an interview he gave with The Observer newspaper...I'd seen the interview referenced elsewhere and wanted to read the whole thing.  some more thoughts on Larkin https://www.zenglop.net/zenglop/the-larkin-project/Subscribe to my newsletter for occasional updates on the podcast, videos and other writing. https://www.zenglop.net/zenglop/zenglop-the-newsletter.htmlAnd/or subscribe to youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoOlX6NXyQBABYljo1vAuHA?sub_confirmation=1

Welcome back.  I didn't intend to stop podcasting for the last month and I return with renewed inspiration.  The music, poetry and meditation that I talk about in this podcast helps me to examine my life.  I think it's really important to have things like that  as companions in the imagination - to frame experience, articulate experience perhaps seek out specific types of experience.  I hope  this podcast helps you identify similar connections.listen to the latest episode and subscribe: Apple iTunes or AndroidSubscribe to my newsletter for occasional updates on the podcast, videos and other writing. https://www.zenglop.net/zenglop/zenglop-the-newsletter.htmlAnd/or subscribe to youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoOlX6NXyQBABYljo1vAuHA?sub_confirmation=1

Renunciation is not denial.  It is the embrace of creativity.  the first step towards experiencing the nature of Mind.  Send me a note at zenglop@gmail.com.more notes on meditation here: https://www.zenglop.net/zenglop/meditation/I'm making a push to build up my youtube channel.  Here's an easy link to subscribe.  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoOlX6NXyQBABYljo1vAuHA?sub_confirmation=1

One way of describing modular synthesis is to look at the studio as oscillators,  filters and envelopes  modulated by control voltage. To paraphrase Marshal McLuhan we flip to the simultaneous and extend the ganglia of our nervous systems when we compose in the electronic studio.  Send me a note at zenglop@gmail.com.An earlier blog post I wrote about McLuhan: https://www.zenglop.net/zenglop/2013/03/mcluhan-auditory-space.htmlI'm making a push to build up my youtube channel.  Here's an easy link to subscribe.  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoOlX6NXyQBABYljo1vAuHA?sub_confirmation=1

I learned a new word over the weekend..'pataphysics.  The apostrophe is intentional and I presume silent when spoken.  Do you know anything about 'pataphysics?  If you do, please let me know what your study involves.Send me a note at zenglop@gmail.com.more notes on the related study of psychogeography here: https://www.zenglop.net/zenglop/psychogeography/I'm making a push to build up my youtube channel.  Here's an easy link to subscribe.  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoOlX6NXyQBABYljo1vAuHA?sub_confirmation=1

We all live in a landscape ( inner and outer) where negative emotions like anxiety, despair, anger reside right next to deep compassion, strength and understanding.  Positive thinking begins with simple affirmations and extends to transformational visions ( with a passing reference to Albert Camus, of course!)

We live in this ecstatic wash of sound!  Field recording - going out in to the world with a tape recorder - lets me capture specific sounds that end up in my music.  Sometimes those references are apparent in the finished music.  Other times, the source provides a hidden richness of harmony and timbre often far beyond what I could create independently in the synthesizer.   Send me a note at zenglop@gmail.com.Here's another recent episode about field recording:https://www.zenglop.net/zenglop/2020/09/118-bleepy-bleepies-sounds-in-everyday.htmlHere's my bandcamp site: https://zenglop.bandcamp.comI'm making a push to build up my youtube channel.  Here's an easy link to subscribe.  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoOlX6NXyQBABYljo1vAuHA?sub_confirmation=1

The composer Claude Debussy is quoted as saying "I would like to see, and I will succeed self in producing, music which is entirely free from 'motifs', or rather consisting of one continuous 'motif' which nothing interrupts and which never turns back on itself".  Why would he say such a thing?  What does it mean?  And what can we as listeners expect when confronted wit music that is never interrupted?  (Yes, there will be an obligatory reference to Heraclitus).Send me a note at zenglop@gmail.com.I'm making a push to build up my youtube channel.  Here's an easy link to subscribe.  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoOlX6NXyQBABYljo1vAuHA?sub_confirmation=1

What to do when the body struggles with the meditation posture?  Give it the support it needs, the props you need.  The body itself is a prop, after all....being manifest in the body is what allows us to practice sitting meditation!  Ends with a reading of a poem by Emily Dickinson ( The Props assist the House...)Send me a note at zenglop@gmail.com.more notes on meditation here: https://www.zenglop.net/zenglop/meditation/I'm making a push to build up my youtube channel.  Here's an easy link to subscribe.  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoOlX6NXyQBABYljo1vAuHA?sub_confirmation=1

The kinora was an early form of home entertainment.  If you've ever marked the corners of a book, then flipped through the pages to watch your doodles come to life - that's essentially how a kinora worked. There's a film of George Butterworth ( British composer, folk song collector) where he dances a Morris dance recorded in the silence of Kinora.  There's a distinct feeling to the adumbrated object.  Absence evokes a wierd kind of presence. It is the absolute most precise distillation of the object

There's a deliberately ambiguous comma ( or missing comma) towards the end of 'Faith Healing', a poem which captures so much of Larkin's obsessions...including magisterial punctuation.  Send me a note at zenglop@gmail.com.I'm making a push to build up my youtube channel.  Here's an easy link to subscribe.  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoOlX6NXyQBABYljo1vAuHA?sub_confirmation=1subscribe to podcast on Apple iTunessubscribe to podcast on Android

At the end of a meditation session I often feel a sense of comfort, familiarity and insight.  I'd like to be able to package that up and send it back to the 'me' that started the session.  The pattern in a 30 minute meditation session recapitulates ( and anticipates) the pattern of a lifespan.  May this also be useful to you.Send me a note at zenglop@gmail.com.more notes on meditation here: https://www.zenglop.net/zenglop/meditation/I'm making a push to build up my youtube channel.  Here's an easy link to subscribe.  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoOlX6NXyQBABYljo1vAuHA?sub_confirmation=1

As I stumble over piles of debris to get to my desk, and then frantically rummage for a necessary piece of paper --- I surprise myself with the dichotomy between how I think my desk/studio should look, and the reality of how it really is.  Send me a note at zenglop@gmail.com.I'm making a push to build up my youtube channel.  Here's an easy link to subscribe.  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoOlX6NXyQBABYljo1vAuHA?sub_confirmation=1

Plans for a 'sound-map' of Pittsburgh recording concentration of unique crosswalk signs..those things that bleep and bloop when it's safe to cross.  In this episode I found a couple of old recordings of crosswalk signals from Delaware (US) and Rotterdam ( Netherlands).Send me a note at zenglop@gmail.com.more notes on field recording here: https://www.zenglop.net/zenglop/field-recordings/I'm making a push to build up my youtube channel.  Here's an easy link to subscribe.  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoOlX6NXyQBABYljo1vAuHA?sub_confirmation=1

What would sound 'sound' like if it was entirely a product of the imagination?Send me a note at zenglop@gmail.com.more notes on meditation here: https://www.zenglop.net/zenglop/meditation/I'm making a push to build up my youtube channel.  Here's an easy link to subscribe.  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoOlX6NXyQBABYljo1vAuHA?sub_confirmation=1

I just published a new video on my youtube channel, a recording of music from my modular synthesis studio (https://youtu.be/PcZ6vnbXA8M).  I've started to use language that comes from meditation practice to describe these kinds of pieces.  Do you think that kind of language is a useful way to talk about music ( this music, or any music?)  Send me a note at zenglop@gmail.com.more notes on meditation here: https://www.zenglop.net/zenglop/meditation/I'm making a push to build up my youtube channel.  Here's an easy link to subscribe.  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoOlX6NXyQBABYljo1vAuHA?sub_confirmation=1