David Menestres
@abstracttruth.bsky.social
1.4K followers 480 following 12K posts
Destroy the original. Fax the images to Newark. davidmenestres.com
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Reposted by David Menestres
themountaingoats.bsky.social
I won't go on & on about it. But what Dr. Demento put out into the world was special. It connected who knows how many people to music they didn't know they needed. to weird music. to big laffs, which we need. his final show will cost you three bucks, but it's priceless. 3/3 drdemento.com/online.html
Dr. Demento - Streaming
drdemento.com
Reposted by David Menestres
abstracttruth.bsky.social
Selling a Korg Wavestate if anyone in RVA is interested. Sick machine I just don't really use it.

richmond.craigslist.org/msg/d/richmo...
Reposted by David Menestres
fucktheory.bsky.social
Also a lot of actions ACT UP undertook, like trespassing on government property, were misdemeanors in 1985 and are now felonies that can come with terrorism charges.
Reposted by David Menestres
fucktheory.bsky.social
ACT UP and its history are at the core of my political consciousness but I also think very often about the fact that many ACT UP actions were rooted in the premise “Cops won’t beat white men on camera” and I don’t think political action can assume that anymore.
rlmartstudio.bsky.social
This week in 1988: 1,000+ ACT UP demonstrators shut down the FDA headquarters, demanding (and eventually winning) action on developing HIV/AIDS treatments. ACT UP's militant and creative actions always included powerful visual artwork, and paved the way for movements in the decades to come.
A photograph from the 1988 ACT UP demonstration outside the FDA. Many people are participating in a die-in on the front steps, holding mock tombstones with messages like "RIP - killed by the FDA" and "Dead from lack of drugs." A line of police officers (some with classic 80s mustaches) wearing riot helmets stands between them and the building; one cop wearing white gloves is walking through the demonstrators. Affixed to the 2nd story windows of the building is a series of posters and a large blank banner reading Silence = Death.
abstracttruth.bsky.social
I got my tongue pierced in a double wide when I was 16. Simpler times.
abstracttruth.bsky.social
This feels a bit simplified but seems generally accurate as to how most bass amps are EQed. Hadn't really thought about it this specifically.

Makes me love my Acoustic Image amp even more.
Bass Guitar Frequency Chart - Every Important Frequency to Know - Music Guy Mixing
The open E to an octave up on the G string spans roughly 41Hz to 200Hz. I cover it all in this bass guitar frequency chart.
www.musicguymixing.com
Reposted by David Menestres
burningambulance.bsky.social
If you're an old person who says it "gives you hope" to see kids listening to music from your youth, please paddle away on an ice floe.
Reposted by David Menestres
peretsky.bsky.social
I am mentorship-pilled and I am social practice-pilled. I think it should be the responsibility of any artist who has “made it” in their respective fields/scenes to provide some sort of window into what makes them tick for the sake of benefitting those that are eager to learn.
Reposted by David Menestres
rachelhands.com
another lingering thought about the Raven Chacon performances yesterday: just about every aspect of conventional western classical performance is both present and up for rethinking in these works. the relationship between visual cues and sound, the relationships across composer-work-performer(s)…
rachelhands.com
today was my first time hearing any of Raven Chacon’s visual scores performed live and everybody delivered. so cool to get a whole day of chances to practice this kind of attentiveness.
visual score for Raven Chacon’s piece Compass, installed on a full gallery wall. four circles arranged as compass points and connected by arced arrows. each circle has three squares with icons representing different pitch relationships, duration, timbre, and sequence. the whole
thing is bracketed by angled lines. guide to the icons that appear in the score

text reads:

Pitch
Induce feedback, resolving and settling on a stable, constant tone
Pluck a 3-note unison
Pluck a 3-octave (same pitch class) chord

Progression
I - Any starting pitch class
III - Any pitch class between I and V
V - Any pitch appoximately a 5th interval from the starting pitch class

Rhythm/Tone
Use the volume knob to effect feedback oscillation.
This may also affect pitch
Rhythmically switch the toggle switch between all possible settings
Very slowly press or depress the wah pedal over the course of the prompt

Transition
Right-hand or left-hand hammer-on any 3 notes, one at a time, letting each sustain before tapping the next
Left-hand prepare pre-bend and pluck string while prepering another pre-bend to be played next
Right-hand slide 3 fingers along 3 strings (over the fret board) to produce harmonic glissandos Wall text continues:

For overly amplified electric guitar, distortion options, and wah pedal or tone controls.
To be performed (or prepared) in an outdoors open space or field or desert.
Slowly turn up the volume of the amplifier.
Starting with the first prompt circle (Pitch), choose a note/chord type. Sound the tone(s) and sustain them, constantly shaking the guitar if necessary.
Next choose if this tone is to be I, Ill, or V of a harmonic progression.
Next choose a rhythmic/tone-altering technique and perform it while still sustaining the tone.
When the tone is no longer sustainable, choose a transitional gesture and
perform it to restart the cycle of prompts.
To choose the next note type and relative harmonic position where the note will occur, pay attention to the direction that the wind is blowing.
This will decide for you to choose the option that is clockwise or counterclockwise to the first choices. Perform the new pitch(es) in their appropriate positions.
To choose the next rhythmic/tone technique, look at the shadows of your surroundings. They will point to the next action. Activate this technique to alter the rhythm/tone.
To choose the next transitional gesture, look for other life, mobile or immobile, and witness how they move. They will teach you and you can use this technique to begin the cycle again.
Continue for as long as you desire, then slowly turn down the volume of the amplifier.
Then turn it off. more wall text:

Raven Chacon
Diné; born 1977 at Fort Defiance, Navajo Nation
Compass, 2021
Score
Courtesy the artist

Compass... explores this idea of reading the pulses and paces of the world around us. There are things happening in nature, and then there is music. And somehow, we can read these things, we can be a part of them and then respond, and the aligning of the musician with the rest of the world is what creates the music.
-Raven Chacon

Central to Raven Chacon's multivalent work is site and setting:
"I think of my compositions as a long-time study of... the dynamics of the musicians in a context: who they are, where they are geographically, the specific site in which they are performing, and the history of that site and its surrounding geography." These contextual dynamics, and their presence in his work as a composer and musician, are fundamental to how we see, hear, and read Chacon's works. Compass is a composition for a solo performer on an overly amplified guitar, to be played outdoors. As presented on the wall, Compass is a graphic picture that functions as a fixed position that grounds the artworks it hangs alongside.
Reposted by David Menestres
chanda.blacksky.app
antifascist and anti-capitalist organizers need to understand space as one site of struggle because our opposition definitely understand it as one
spectrum.ieee.org
Low Earth orbit is filling up. Not just with #satellites, but also with dangerous, tumbling debris. As they collide, they multiply. If we do nothing, satellites will crash, creating chaos on Earth below. Meet the people trying to prevent this disaster. spectrum.ieee.org/kessler-synd...
abstracttruth.bsky.social
Bass sound on this doesn't do Doug justice but it's a fine set of music regardless.
abstracttruth.bsky.social
Also, since I am bass player, you know the math was wrong in the original post. Next month makes 7 years since this performance.
abstracttruth.bsky.social
Two years later and I'm still thinking about needing to perform this piece again.
abstracttruth.bsky.social
I often think about this piece we did four years ago. The US premier of Magnus Granberg's How Vain Are All Our Frail Delights? Really need to do it again one of these days.
How Vain Are All Our Frail Delights?
Polyorchard/collapss performs Magnus Granberg's "How Vain Are All Our Frail Delights?" US PremiereNovember 10, 2018UNCG School of Music Recital HallEmily Aik...
www.youtube.com
abstracttruth.bsky.social
Way too much for the two minutes you have before a set.

Curious about how those center frequencies on the eq were chosen. I wonder what it would sound like if those frequencies were matched to the open strings or multiples of those frequencies. Like if that low one was 41hz to match the E string.
abstracttruth.bsky.social
I should have taken a picture of the trees sticking out the back windows of my car on the way home.
abstracttruth.bsky.social
Thank you to Virginia Community Voice for the two gala apples trees now planted out front. s/o to all the groups planting trees all over Southside RVA. Stoked for pie next year.
Reposted by David Menestres
rachelhands.com
today was my first time hearing any of Raven Chacon’s visual scores performed live and everybody delivered. so cool to get a whole day of chances to practice this kind of attentiveness.
visual score for Raven Chacon’s piece Compass, installed on a full gallery wall. four circles arranged as compass points and connected by arced arrows. each circle has three squares with icons representing different pitch relationships, duration, timbre, and sequence. the whole
thing is bracketed by angled lines. guide to the icons that appear in the score

text reads:

Pitch
Induce feedback, resolving and settling on a stable, constant tone
Pluck a 3-note unison
Pluck a 3-octave (same pitch class) chord

Progression
I - Any starting pitch class
III - Any pitch class between I and V
V - Any pitch appoximately a 5th interval from the starting pitch class

Rhythm/Tone
Use the volume knob to effect feedback oscillation.
This may also affect pitch
Rhythmically switch the toggle switch between all possible settings
Very slowly press or depress the wah pedal over the course of the prompt

Transition
Right-hand or left-hand hammer-on any 3 notes, one at a time, letting each sustain before tapping the next
Left-hand prepare pre-bend and pluck string while prepering another pre-bend to be played next
Right-hand slide 3 fingers along 3 strings (over the fret board) to produce harmonic glissandos Wall text continues:

For overly amplified electric guitar, distortion options, and wah pedal or tone controls.
To be performed (or prepared) in an outdoors open space or field or desert.
Slowly turn up the volume of the amplifier.
Starting with the first prompt circle (Pitch), choose a note/chord type. Sound the tone(s) and sustain them, constantly shaking the guitar if necessary.
Next choose if this tone is to be I, Ill, or V of a harmonic progression.
Next choose a rhythmic/tone-altering technique and perform it while still sustaining the tone.
When the tone is no longer sustainable, choose a transitional gesture and
perform it to restart the cycle of prompts.
To choose the next note type and relative harmonic position where the note will occur, pay attention to the direction that the wind is blowing.
This will decide for you to choose the option that is clockwise or counterclockwise to the first choices. Perform the new pitch(es) in their appropriate positions.
To choose the next rhythmic/tone technique, look at the shadows of your surroundings. They will point to the next action. Activate this technique to alter the rhythm/tone.
To choose the next transitional gesture, look for other life, mobile or immobile, and witness how they move. They will teach you and you can use this technique to begin the cycle again.
Continue for as long as you desire, then slowly turn down the volume of the amplifier.
Then turn it off. more wall text:

Raven Chacon
Diné; born 1977 at Fort Defiance, Navajo Nation
Compass, 2021
Score
Courtesy the artist

Compass... explores this idea of reading the pulses and paces of the world around us. There are things happening in nature, and then there is music. And somehow, we can read these things, we can be a part of them and then respond, and the aligning of the musician with the rest of the world is what creates the music.
-Raven Chacon

Central to Raven Chacon's multivalent work is site and setting:
"I think of my compositions as a long-time study of... the dynamics of the musicians in a context: who they are, where they are geographically, the specific site in which they are performing, and the history of that site and its surrounding geography." These contextual dynamics, and their presence in his work as a composer and musician, are fundamental to how we see, hear, and read Chacon's works. Compass is a composition for a solo performer on an overly amplified guitar, to be played outdoors. As presented on the wall, Compass is a graphic picture that functions as a fixed position that grounds the artworks it hangs alongside.
abstracttruth.bsky.social
There's a setting to help you to remember to add it. Was very helpful for me in building the alt text habit.
abstracttruth.bsky.social
Go-Go Museum! Haven't had the chance to go yet but I really want to.
Reposted by David Menestres