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Andy Arthur - Threadinburgh @[email protected] · 2025-06-19 · 06:30 UTC

The thread about the Edinburgh Police Box; architectural Time Traveller but no TARDIS!
The year 2024 was celebrated as the 900th anniversary of the “foundation” of the city of Edinburgh and 2025 is also an important local commemoration; the centenary of the appointment of the wonderfully named Ebenezer James (“E.J.“) Macrae as City Architect. His twenty years of service was a time of great change in our built environment and his office was directly responsible for much of that, not without good cause has he been dubbed “the man who shaped modern Edinburgh“. His tenure is characterised by both the volume of public buildings and housing that was erected and also their distinctive style; at once both modern in form and function but also very sympathetic to tradition. A splendid example of that contrast is the Edinburgh Police Box; a mix of anachronistic classical styling and what was then the cutting edge of modern policing.
Former police box at corner of Waverley Bridge and Market Street. CC-by-NC-SA 2.0, Ian T. Edwards via Flickr.
The first police boxes with telephones were established in Chicago back in 1881, just 5 years after the unveiling of the telephone itself by a son of Edinburgh. In 1923, Chief Constable Frederick Crawley of Newcastle City Police instituted what would become known as the Police Box System to Sunderland and in doing so revolutionised British policing. He was looking to increase the efficiency of his his force and focused on trying to reduce time spent by officers walking to and from their beats; he estimated up to a quarter of each man’s time on shift was wasted in this manner. His solution was decentralisation. By placing many small, telephone-equipped police boxes at strategic points throughout the city, officers had shorter distances to walk and could devote more time to duty. Crawley recognised this would place the police more centrally within the communities they were expected to serve, creating a ready point of contact for the public – thus increasing the efficiency of reporting emergencies and also making it far easier for the police to contact and coordinate their own officers. Boxes could also be used as temporary lock ups for prisoners while transport was summoned, avoiding the long and often dangerous walks with them back to a police station. A final and significant attraction was that the increased efficiency also allowed the closure of most district police stations and therefore afforded a significant cost saving.
Wooden police box of the type instituted by Crawley for Newcastle City Police. Note the public-facing telephone and first aid boxes mounted to the left of the door. From The Police Journal, vol.1, No.1, January 1928
Police boxes soon spread across the country but Edinburgh, as is often the case, was rather slow to catch on. It was not until May 1928 that a deputation was sent by Chief Constable Roderick Ross from the Edinburgh City Police to inspect the system in Newcastle. This was at the insistence of the Scottish Office who refused to sanction an increase in headcount for Ross and instead wanted efficiencies. He submitted a strongly favourable report to the Town Council, which approved a box system for the city in 1929. Ross served as Chief Constable for the exceptional term of 34 years and it was towards the end of his long watch that his force would be wholly and rapidly modernised.
Roderick Ross, when Chief Constable of Ramsgate Borough Police c. 1898
The Edinburgh Evening News threw its editorial weight behind the scheme but also amplified significant local concerns that the appearance of boxes would have a detrimental effect on the city. As the system spread, there had been a plethora of different design styles before a utilitarian, standardised version was developed for the Metropolitan Police by the architect George Mackenzie Trench. Trench’s design is instantly familiar to generations of Dr. Who fans as the TARDIS. But “Cheapness has been obtained in England” wrote the News’ editor “by mass production, but Edinburgh has an architectural standard of its own, which the Cockburn Association endeavours to maintain.” The gauntlet was thus thrown down to the City Architect’s office that something altogether different and better was needed.
George Mackenzie Trench standard police box at the National Tramway Museum, Crich. Note the light on the roof, which would flash to indicate an officer was required to attend the box. CC-by-SA 3.0 Dan Sellers via Wikimedia
E.J. Macrae, along with his assistants Andrew Rollo and James A. Tweedie are credited with the design of the Edinburgh Box, with the signature of their colleague Robert Somerville Ellis on some of the drawings. The initial inspiration may have been taken from the barrel-topped box used in Sheffield which was used as an illustrative example by the Evening News. Two alternative designs were prepared and plans and models were put to the Lord Provost’s Committee in December 1929. The preferred option was then “submitted for the consideration of the Fine Art Commission“. After that a full-size wooden mock-up was erected on the corner of George Street and Frederick Street in October 1930 to test the practicalities of installing boxes and also to familiarise both the police and the public with the design.
Sheffield City Police box, as used as an illustrative example by the Evening News. September 13th 1938
The approved box was, dare I say it, an iconic piece of British street furniture design, unique to the city and instantly at home in its environment. It is described in architectural terms thusly:
Rectangular cast-iron police box with classical details, 6ft by 4ft on plan, 2-bay pilastered long elevations, one of which contains door bearing City Arms. Painted blue. Single bay short elevations surmounted by open pediments containing ribboned wreath paterae. Saltire patterned glazing to all elevations. Low-pitched roof.
Official description of the Edinburgh Police Box from Historic Scotland listing
Each box was constructed of prefabricated cast iron panels produced by the Carron Company in Stirlingshire and tipped the scales at over two tons. The understated classical styling was decorated only with a small cast iron castle motif from the city’s coat of arms on the door and on each gable a wreath; symbolising power or triumph. Inside they were equipped with a desk, flip-down seat, telephone, sink and a small wall-mounted electric heater. There was shelving, pigeon holes and notice boards on the walls to accommodate items such as logbooks and forms and hooks were provided for hanging coats, helmets and capes. Hooks were provided for “beat keys”, premises officers on duty were expected to visit and check, or need access to, during their duties. An unofficial but entirely necessary function of the sink was an ersatz urinal; 8 hours in a district with few or no public toilets was a long time for a beat officer to spend without spending any pennies! (This was apparently best achieved by balancing on the stool and taking careful aim. Each box was provisioned with a supply of bleach to keep things as sanitary as possible.) All of this came at a price however; £58 per box (before foundations and services were laid), far more than the wooden hut type which had cost £13 each in Newcastle or £43 for a reinforced concrete standard box as used by the Metropolitan Police.
Sketch design of the Edinburgh City Police Box, redrawn by self from a copy of the original in the Edinburgh City Archives. The original is signed RSE (Robert Somerville Ellis), 6th September 1928. From Dean of Guild Court of Edinburgh, Edinburgh Police Boxes, Lord Provost, Magistrates and Council of the City of Edinburgh, 26th August 1932.
On the outside of the box were small doors that gave members of the public access to a Speakerphone that would connect them to police headquarters and another containing a first aid kit. The Speakerphone was a hands-free system activated upon opening of its door. It was felt at the time that the general public were not familiar enough with the use of telephones to provide a handset, and it was also harder to accidentally damage or vandalise.
A police officer demonstrating the use of the Speakerphone unit. Opening the box door automatically connected the phone to the headquarters switchboard. Photo via Lothian & Borders Police WordPress.
Despite the best efforts of Macrae’s office to produce a design that was sympathetic to Edinburgh’s built environment, not everyone was pleased. “W.M.H.” wrote to the Evening News that the box at the foot of Drummond Street by the old City Wall was a “case of outrageous vandalism and should be prohibited.” They questioned who in the authorities was responsible for such “outrages” and challenged the city’s heritage watchdog – the Cockburn Association – to “get busy!“. In Portobello, the Communist party had a particularly niche objection; it charged that the boxes were “designed for use in a rebellion” and that “the master class knew that they were driving the workers to desperation, and they were preparing in advance to deal with rebellion“.
The police box at Drummond Street, immediately in front of the Flodden Wall. The photo dates from 1951 and the box still sports its white stripes applied during WW2 to make it more visible during blackout conditions. Records of RCAHMS, SC1164082. © Crown Copyright: HES
Boxes were installed throughout 1932 and a considerable public relations exercise was undertaken to get the public to understand how to use them. The Evening News maintained a regular stream of editorials on the subject, Chief Constable Ross gave numerous lectures, model boxes were taken around schools to show children how to use them and Boy Scouts were encouraged to learn the location of as many boxes as possible as part of their Pathfinding badge. In the final run-up to commissioning, public demonstrations of the boxes in use were staged and the press cameras invited.
Photograph showing a staged accident to demonstrate the use of the public call facility on the new police boxes, along with an operator of the switchboard at police headquarters on the High Street that received the calls. Scotsman, May 26th 1933.
The box system and “a new era in the history of Edinburgh City Police” was inaugurated in its entirety on Sunday May 28th 1933 at 6AM. This was a year later than intended, a delay that the Lord Provost blamed on the General Post Office which had been slow to install the necessary telephony infrastructure (500 miles of underground and 23 miles of overhead wire).
Bailie Rutherford Fortune places the first call on from a police box with Chief Constable Ross (dark coat and light hat, with moustache) and Mr F. J. Milne (light coat and dark hat, with umbrella) Secretary of the Post Office in Edinburgh.
The boxes were only one part of a greater overall system; policing of the city was entirely restructured at this time. The boxes were allocated to four divisions, each with its own headquarters – A at Braid Place, B at Gayfield Square, C at Torphicen Place and D at Leith – and were numbered sequentially and by division. A map of the all their locations as installed in 1933 can be seen here. Each division had a dedicated pool of motor vehicles for response and prisoner transport and was supported by a non-territorial traffic and mounted division (E) based in the Cowgate. At the same moment that the boxes were first unlocked for duty, the doors of nine district police stations (at the Pleasance, West Port, Abbeyhill, Piershill, Stockbridge, Waverley Market, Morningside, Gorgie and Newhaven) and eighteen smaller sub-stations closed for the last time. Most of these sites were disposed of, leaving only the four divisional stations, a sub-divisional station for Portobello plus city police HQ on the High Street.
The Leith Police. Relaxing on break time with tea and “pieces” at Leith Police station in 1930. Photograph by Photo Press Agency, CC-by-NC-SA via Thelma
The reduction in manpower required by the box system saw fifteen open vacancies for constables written off, three inspectors and five sergeants made redundant and a further five sergeants demoted to constables. Overall the changes reduced the running cost of the force by £5,800 annually.
Six or seven constables might be based out of a single box and would serve their entire 8-hour shift from it, returning after every half hour or hour long “turn ” of their beat to check in with base by phone, write up their logbook and take breaks. Check in calls were performed according to a strict timetable and if any officer missed one his absence would be noted and a colleague sent to investigate. Men on duty could expect a visit by a section sergeant once every shift. The boxes were accessed by a universal key, which each officer kept on his chain with his whistle. A blue light on the roof of the box would flash to let him know that there was a call waiting for him. Sometimes these lights had to be mounted on an extension pole to be better seen from a distance and in the case of the box outside the Tron Kirk on the High Street, it was a high-mounted “sky lantern” on the building on the corner with North Bridge.
The High Street “sky lantern” is still in place on the corner with North Bridge, appropriately mounted next to a symbol of modern police surveillance, the CCTV camera.
Commencing in 1938, air raid sirens began to be installed on top of the roofs of many of Edinburgh’s boxes as part of the city’s ARP (Air Raid Precautions) measures. By April 1939, thirty two sirens had been installed, all controlled from master switches at HQ on the High Street and tests of the system were under way, helping to familiarise the public with the sound. In May 1940, a writer to the Evening News’ letters page using the pseudonym Tenement Warden and Old Contemptible suggested that police boxes be used to store “machine guns, hand grenades, ammunition and rifles” to deal with enemy paratroopers and “Hitler’s Fifth Column and Fascists all over Britain“. I cannot see that this idea was ever taken seriously!
Photograph of the type of air raid siren installed on the roof of Edinburgh police boxes. Evening News, 30th November 1938
In 1939, the annual Estimates of Expenditure of the Town Council reported that there were now 143 police boxes in the city backed up by 40 telephone pillars. Running costs were £3,350, not including £250 for maintenance, £800 for electricity and £3,350 to the Post Office for telephony. The authorised strength of the force was reported as 871, comprising 688 constables, 91 sergeants, 30 inspectors and one each “woman sergeant” and “woman constable“.
In practice the boxes proved to be stiflingly hot in the summer and bitterly cold in the winter; the issued heater was much to small and badly located, so boxes often sourced their own additional heaters to make them more habitable. On account of the metal structure they “sweated considerably” in damp weather as a result of condensation. The roof interior would eventually be insulated in 1956 to try and tackle this particular issue. All boxes were to have been provided with both electricity and a water supply but in the end economies meant only 86 of the 140 boxes were plumbed in. It was some time before enamel mugs, at 6d per unit, were issued from which the water could be drunk and it took until 1947 for the Town Council to approve an expenditure of £781 to equip each box with an electric kettle for making tea.
“For Bobby’s Cup of Tea”, Evening News, 5th June 1947
Uncomfortable they may have been, but the boxes proved to be immensely strong. This was demonstrated in November 1945 when PC John Anderson – on what was his last day of service of a thirty years police career – escaped with a fractured leg when a fire engine crashed into his box at the foot of the Canongate. In 1954, PC Donald Budge walked away from his box at Balgreen with only cuts and bruises after a two ton lamp standard, being installed nearby fell onto the roof of the box he was sitting in. The damage to the box was restricted to a cracked roof, a broken window and cracked sink. Also that year, two constables in the box at Murrayfield Avenue survived it being struck by lightning, although the interior lights, radiator and telephones were put out of service and the air raid siren on the roof activated itself.
It took the public some time to get used to the new system. In 1936, three years after its institution, Chief Contable W. B. R. Morren lamented that there was a general ignorance, particularly on the part of grown ups, as to the location and facilities offered by boxes. Boxes were always subject to interference and vandalism throughout their working lives. The authorities were keen to make an example of anyone caught in such an act and the first prosecution came in November 1933 when 19 year old Colin Gosschalk was caught breaking into the first aid compartment of the box on Prestonfield Avenue. His defence that a friend had dared him to do it was not accepted and he was fined 10s (the maximum being £2).
The system was not without its critics as evidenced in the columns of and letters to the Evening News – a particular but unfounded complaint was that constables were either never in the boxes when needed, or spent too much time sheltering within them rather than “on the beat” – a classic of the Schrödinger’s box genre! In an interview with the ‘News in 1946, Chief Constable Morren said that boxes “fulfilled and continues to fulfil a very useful purpose, but… did not develop that contact between the police and the public which was so desirable, and it had been proved that the system had not been the success in that direction that was anticipated”. Brigadier-General Dudgeon, HM Inspector of Constabulary for Scotland said that the box system had “proved to be of value to both the police and the public” but “the beat constable is the eyes and ears of the police, and be careful that the police box system is not overdone.”
Post-war, policing would begin to change again, with smaller district police stations re-established for the new suburbs. As was the case after its 1920 expansion, it was found once again that the city had “more or less outgrown the numbered strength of the police force“. This was particularly felt in the extensive housing schemes been built since the boxes were introduced and where petty crime and antisocial behaviour were an increasing problem. After the initial roll-out of boxes, too few had been added. For instance, in 1946 just one was approved for the West Pilton housing scheme at the junction of Ferry Road Drive and West Pilton Avenue. The peripheral estates were harder to police on foot as they had a much lower housing density than the inner city, so officers had a far greater distance to cover.
New council housing at the Inch, 1955, Dinmont Drive. Photograph by A. G. Ingram, © Edinburgh City Libraries
These issues saw a move in the 1950s away from the “box and beat” approach to policing the suburbs to more mechanisation (cars) and technology (walkie talkies). They continued in use for the centre of the city however, but the last box installed in Edinburgh may have been that erected in Davidson’s Mains in 1958.
It is all very nice to see policemen going their rounds, but in these days of radio telegraphy the greatly increased use of telephones and the system of 999 calls it is quite reasonable to expect that there should be some saving in the actual pedestrian work
Bailie Matt A. Murray, Chairman of the Progressive Group of Edinburgh Town Council
The air raid warning system was renewed and expanded in 1952 with 56 sirens refurbished, ten additional ones installed and the remote control system replaced. The signalling was replaced again in the 1960s and the sirens were replaced in the early 1970s. Just before 1pm on Thursday 5th June 1969, the air raid sirens sounded across Edinburgh as an engineer working at the city Police headquarters on the High Street accidentally activated the system. A similar incident occurred on August 1st 1986 when all sirens in the Lothian & Borders Police areas were accidentally activated at 7:30 in the morning due to a fault in the telephone system.
Just as Edinburgh had been slow to catch on to adopting police boxes, it was also slow to let them go. While the Metropolitan police started removing boxes in 1969 and demolished its last in 1981, those in Edinburgh were still nominally in active service into the 1990s. After 1984 however the Chief Constable wanted all officers to have a daily briefing at a station before they came on duty and so after then they were more rarely used and many that were found themselves relegated to providing shelter and storage for traffic wardens. In 1993 the air raid sirens were deactivated by the Scottish Office and in 1995 the Lothian & Borders Police Board deemed thirty five of the eighty six remaining boxes were surplus to requirements and put them up for auction, seeking to save the £500 per annum per box maintenance costs of the increasingly dilapidated estate.
Newspaper advert, Scotsman, June 13th 1995, advertising the sale of 35 surplus police boxes
These were the first boxes maid available on the open market and generated much interest; a variety of proposals from public toilets to newspaper kiosks to air quality monitoring stations to removing the boxes entirely to install them as curios in pubs or people’s gardens were proposed. In 1990, the predecessor of Historic Environment Scotland listed thirteen boxes as Category B to protect them (there are now a total of seventeen) and the city’s Planning Convenor would issue guidelines requiring any changes to the boxes or their interiors needing planning permission.
Former lawyer Gordon Thomson purchased eight boxes and, as American-style coffee drinking swept across the nation, established a small chain of bijou “cappuccino kiosks” called the California Coffee Company. Thomson may not have realised it, but his innovation was very close to recreating a street scene once common in 18th century Edinburgh. A 2000 attempt by Feyzullah Marasli to emulate this success by converting a box on Princes Street into a coffee kiosk came to nothing when it was discovered that despite him refurbishing the box, changing the locks on it, paying £400 to have an electricity supply installed and applying for the necessary Street Trader’s Licence, he neither owned nor leased the box in question and it was still in operational use by the Police!
‘A street coffee house Edinburgh’. Paul Sandby, 1750s, Royal Collection Trust RCIN 914503
Lothian & Borders Police attempted to rehabilitate some boxes in the late 1990s by installing touch screen public information points with a video-link to a police station within them. The first such box was unveiled to the press on Princes Street in 1998 at a cost of £10,000. It had 61,000 “hits” during its first year of operation and was judged to have been a success, with two further such boxes converted, however funding never followed through and the innovation was allowed to lapse.
Eleven more boxes were auctioned in 2001, advertised as “an exciting and unique opportunity to obtain a distinctive piece of cast iron street furniture with potential for a wide range of uses“. In 2002, the BBC successfully trademarked the London-style Police Box in connection with Dr. Who and the TARDIS, despite the Metropolitan Police contesting the application with the Registrar of Trade Marks. This did not apply to Edinburgh’s unique boxes, which are categorically not TARDISes, despite what some may say! From 2012 to 2013, the police box at Braid Hills Approach was restored to exhibition standard as a small museum by Angus Self, a great grandson of Chief Constable Roderick Ross. In 2014, fourteen of the remaining boxes were sold off, leaving just one in Police ownership.
‘SwimEasy’ Police Box Museum, Braid Hills Road. CC-by-NC SA 2.0, M J Richardson
The boxes may now be entirely operationally defunct, but they remain throughout the city and many are in daily use. In fact I’m just back from visiting one this afternoon, It may not be a TARDIS but an architectural time traveller it was!
Late night Brazilian crepes anyone? A police box has you covered… CC-by-NC 2.0, Joe Gordon via Flickr
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Andy Arthur - Threadinburgh @[email protected] · 2025-06-19 · 06:30 UTC

The thread about the Edinburgh Police Box; architectural Time Traveller but no TARDIS!
The year 2024 was celebrated as the 900th anniversary of the “foundation” of the city of Edinburgh and 2025 is also an important local commemoration; the centenary of the appointment of the wonderfully named Ebenezer James (“E.J.“) Macrae as City Architect. His twenty years of service was a time of great change in our built environment and his office was directly responsible for much of that, not without good cause has he been dubbed “the man who shaped modern Edinburgh“. His tenure is characterised by both the volume of public buildings and housing that was erected and also their distinctive style; at once both modern in form and function but also very sympathetic to tradition. A splendid example of that contrast is the Edinburgh Police Box; a mix of anachronistic classical styling and what was then the cutting edge of modern policing.
Former police box at corner of Waverley Bridge and Market Street. CC-by-NC-SA 2.0, Ian T. Edwards via Flickr.
The first police boxes with telephones were established in Chicago back in 1881, just 5 years after the unveiling of the telephone itself by a son of Edinburgh. In 1923, Chief Constable Frederick Crawley of Newcastle City Police instituted what would become known as the Police Box System to Sunderland and in doing so revolutionised British policing. He was looking to increase the efficiency of his his force and focused on trying to reduce time spent by officers walking to and from their beats; he estimated up to a quarter of each man’s time on shift was wasted in this manner. His solution was decentralisation. By placing many small, telephone-equipped police boxes at strategic points throughout the city, officers had shorter distances to walk and could devote more time to duty. Crawley recognised this would place the police more centrally within the communities they were expected to serve, creating a ready point of contact for the public – thus increasing the efficiency of reporting emergencies and also making it far easier for the police to contact and coordinate their own officers. Boxes could also be used as temporary lock ups for prisoners while transport was summoned, avoiding the long and often dangerous walks with them back to a police station. A final and significant attraction was that the increased efficiency also allowed the closure of most district police stations and therefore afforded a significant cost saving.
Wooden police box of the type instituted by Crawley for Newcastle City Police. Note the public-facing telephone and first aid boxes mounted to the left of the door. From The Police Journal, vol.1, No.1, January 1928
Police boxes soon spread across the country but Edinburgh, as is often the case, was rather slow to catch on. It was not until May 1928 that a deputation was sent by Chief Constable Roderick Ross from the Edinburgh City Police to inspect the system in Newcastle. This was at the insistence of the Scottish Office who refused to sanction an increase in headcount for Ross and instead wanted efficiencies. He submitted a strongly favourable report to the Town Council, which approved a box system for the city in 1929. Ross served as Chief Constable for the exceptional term of 34 years and it was towards the end of his long watch that his force would be wholly and rapidly modernised.
Roderick Ross, when Chief Constable of Ramsgate Borough Police c. 1898
The Edinburgh Evening News threw its editorial weight behind the scheme but also amplified significant local concerns that the appearance of boxes would have a detrimental effect on the city. As the system spread, there had been a plethora of different design styles before a utilitarian, standardised version was developed for the Metropolitan Police by the architect George Mackenzie Trench. Trench’s design is instantly familiar to generations of Dr. Who fans as the TARDIS. But “Cheapness has been obtained in England” wrote the News’ editor “by mass production, but Edinburgh has an architectural standard of its own, which the Cockburn Association endeavours to maintain.” The gauntlet was thus thrown down to the City Architect’s office that something altogether different and better was needed.
George Mackenzie Trench standard police box at the National Tramway Museum, Crich. Note the light on the roof, which would flash to indicate an officer was required to attend the box. CC-by-SA 3.0 Dan Sellers via Wikimedia
E.J. Macrae, along with his assistants Andrew Rollo and James A. Tweedie are credited with the design of the Edinburgh Box, with the signature of their colleague Robert Somerville Ellis on some of the drawings. The initial inspiration may have been taken from the barrel-topped box used in Sheffield which was used as an illustrative example by the Evening News. Two alternative designs were prepared and plans and models were put to the Lord Provost’s Committee in December 1929. The preferred option was then “submitted for the consideration of the Fine Art Commission“. After that a full-size wooden mock-up was erected on the corner of George Street and Frederick Street in October 1930 to test the practicalities of installing boxes and also to familiarise both the police and the public with the design.
Sheffield City Police box, as used as an illustrative example by the Evening News. September 13th 1938
The approved box was, dare I say it, an iconic piece of British street furniture design, unique to the city and instantly at home in its environment. It is described in architectural terms thusly:
Rectangular cast-iron police box with classical details, 6ft by 4ft on plan, 2-bay pilastered long elevations, one of which contains door bearing City Arms. Painted blue. Single bay short elevations surmounted by open pediments containing ribboned wreath paterae. Saltire patterned glazing to all elevations. Low-pitched roof.
Official description of the Edinburgh Police Box from Historic Scotland listing
Each box was constructed of prefabricated cast iron panels produced by the Carron Company in Stirlingshire and tipped the scales at over two tons. The understated classical styling was decorated only with a small cast iron castle motif from the city’s coat of arms on the door and on each gable a wreath; symbolising power or triumph. Inside they were equipped with a desk, flip-down seat, telephone, sink and a small wall-mounted electric heater. There was shelving, pigeon holes and notice boards on the walls to accommodate items such as logbooks and forms and hooks were provided for hanging coats, helmets and capes. Hooks were provided for “beat keys”, premises officers on duty were expected to visit and check, or need access to, during their duties. An unofficial but entirely necessary function of the sink was an ersatz urinal; 8 hours in a district with few or no public toilets was a long time for a beat officer to spend without spending any pennies! (This was apparently best achieved by balancing on the stool and taking careful aim. Each box was provisioned with a supply of bleach to keep things as sanitary as possible.) All of this came at a price however; £58 per box (before foundations and services were laid), far more than the wooden hut type which had cost £13 each in Newcastle or £43 for a reinforced concrete standard box as used by the Metropolitan Police.
Sketch design of the Edinburgh City Police Box, redrawn by self from a copy of the original in the Edinburgh City Archives. The original is signed RSE (Robert Somerville Ellis), 6th September 1928. From Dean of Guild Court of Edinburgh, Edinburgh Police Boxes, Lord Provost, Magistrates and Council of the City of Edinburgh, 26th August 1932.
On the outside of the box were small doors that gave members of the public access to a Speakerphone that would connect them to police headquarters and another containing a first aid kit. The Speakerphone was a hands-free system activated upon opening of its door. It was felt at the time that the general public were not familiar enough with the use of telephones to provide a handset, and it was also harder to accidentally damage or vandalise.
A police officer demonstrating the use of the Speakerphone unit. Opening the box door automatically connected the phone to the headquarters switchboard. Photo via Lothian & Borders Police WordPress.
Despite the best efforts of Macrae’s office to produce a design that was sympathetic to Edinburgh’s built environment, not everyone was pleased. “W.M.H.” wrote to the Evening News that the box at the foot of Drummond Street by the old City Wall was a “case of outrageous vandalism and should be prohibited.” They questioned who in the authorities was responsible for such “outrages” and challenged the city’s heritage watchdog – the Cockburn Association – to “get busy!“. In Portobello, the Communist party had a particularly niche objection; it charged that the boxes were “designed for use in a rebellion” and that “the master class knew that they were driving the workers to desperation, and they were preparing in advance to deal with rebellion“.
The police box at Drummond Street, immediately in front of the Flodden Wall. The photo dates from 1951 and the box still sports its white stripes applied during WW2 to make it more visible during blackout conditions. Records of RCAHMS, SC1164082. © Crown Copyright: HES
Boxes were installed throughout 1932 and a considerable public relations exercise was undertaken to get the public to understand how to use them. The Evening News maintained a regular stream of editorials on the subject, Chief Constable Ross gave numerous lectures, model boxes were taken around schools to show children how to use them and Boy Scouts were encouraged to learn the location of as many boxes as possible as part of their Pathfinding badge. In the final run-up to commissioning, public demonstrations of the boxes in use were staged and the press cameras invited.
Photograph showing a staged accident to demonstrate the use of the public call facility on the new police boxes, along with an operator of the switchboard at police headquarters on the High Street that received the calls. Scotsman, May 26th 1933.
The box system and “a new era in the history of Edinburgh City Police” was inaugurated in its entirety on Sunday May 28th 1933 at 6AM. This was a year later than intended, a delay that the Lord Provost blamed on the General Post Office which had been slow to install the necessary telephony infrastructure (500 miles of underground and 23 miles of overhead wire).
Bailie Rutherford Fortune places the first call on from a police box with Chief Constable Ross (dark coat and light hat, with moustache) and Mr F. J. Milne (light coat and dark hat, with umbrella) Secretary of the Post Office in Edinburgh.
The boxes were only one part of a greater overall system; policing of the city was entirely restructured at this time. The boxes were allocated to four divisions, each with its own headquarters – A at Braid Place, B at Gayfield Square, C at Torphicen Place and D at Leith – and were numbered sequentially and by division. A map of the all their locations as installed in 1933 can be seen here. Each division had a dedicated pool of motor vehicles for response and prisoner transport and was supported by a non-territorial traffic and mounted division (E) based in the Cowgate. At the same moment that the boxes were first unlocked for duty, the doors of nine district police stations (at the Pleasance, West Port, Abbeyhill, Piershill, Stockbridge, Waverley Market, Morningside, Gorgie and Newhaven) and eighteen smaller sub-stations closed for the last time. Most of these sites were disposed of, leaving only the four divisional stations, a sub-divisional station for Portobello plus city police HQ on the High Street.
The Leith Police. Relaxing on break time with tea and “pieces” at Leith Police station in 1930. Photograph by Photo Press Agency, CC-by-NC-SA via Thelma
The reduction in manpower required by the box system saw fifteen open vacancies for constables written off, three inspectors and five sergeants made redundant and a further five sergeants demoted to constables. Overall the changes reduced the running cost of the force by £5,800 annually.
Six or seven constables might be based out of a single box and would serve their entire 8-hour shift from it, returning after every half hour or hour long “turn ” of their beat to check in with base by phone, write up their logbook and take breaks. Check in calls were performed according to a strict timetable and if any officer missed one his absence would be noted and a colleague sent to investigate. Men on duty could expect a visit by a section sergeant once every shift. The boxes were accessed by a universal key, which each officer kept on his chain with his whistle. A blue light on the roof of the box would flash to let him know that there was a call waiting for him. Sometimes these lights had to be mounted on an extension pole to be better seen from a distance and in the case of the box outside the Tron Kirk on the High Street, it was a high-mounted “sky lantern” on the building on the corner with North Bridge.
The High Street “sky lantern” is still in place on the corner with North Bridge, appropriately mounted next to a symbol of modern police surveillance, the CCTV camera.
Commencing in 1938, air raid sirens began to be installed on top of the roofs of many of Edinburgh’s boxes as part of the city’s ARP (Air Raid Precautions) measures. By April 1939, thirty two sirens had been installed, all controlled from master switches at HQ on the High Street and tests of the system were under way, helping to familiarise the public with the sound. In May 1940, a writer to the Evening News’ letters page using the pseudonym Tenement Warden and Old Contemptible suggested that police boxes be used to store “machine guns, hand grenades, ammunition and rifles” to deal with enemy paratroopers and “Hitler’s Fifth Column and Fascists all over Britain“. I cannot see that this idea was ever taken seriously!
Photograph of the type of air raid siren installed on the roof of Edinburgh police boxes. Evening News, 30th November 1938
In 1939, the annual Estimates of Expenditure of the Town Council reported that there were now 143 police boxes in the city backed up by 40 telephone pillars. Running costs were £3,350, not including £250 for maintenance, £800 for electricity and £3,350 to the Post Office for telephony. The authorised strength of the force was reported as 871, comprising 688 constables, 91 sergeants, 30 inspectors and one each “woman sergeant” and “woman constable“.
In practice the boxes proved to be stiflingly hot in the summer and bitterly cold in the winter; the issued heater was much to small and badly located, so boxes often sourced their own additional heaters to make them more habitable. On account of the metal structure they “sweated considerably” in damp weather as a result of condensation. The roof interior would eventually be insulated in 1956 to try and tackle this particular issue. All boxes were to have been provided with both electricity and a water supply but in the end economies meant only 86 of the 140 boxes were plumbed in. It was some time before enamel mugs, at 6d per unit, were issued from which the water could be drunk and it took until 1947 for the Town Council to approve an expenditure of £781 to equip each box with an electric kettle for making tea.
“For Bobby’s Cup of Tea”, Evening News, 5th June 1947
Uncomfortable they may have been, but the boxes proved to be immensely strong. This was demonstrated in November 1945 when PC John Anderson – on what was his last day of service of a thirty years police career – escaped with a fractured leg when a fire engine crashed into his box at the foot of the Canongate. In 1954, PC Donald Budge walked away from his box at Balgreen with only cuts and bruises after a two ton lamp standard, being installed nearby fell onto the roof of the box he was sitting in. The damage to the box was restricted to a cracked roof, a broken window and cracked sink. Also that year, two constables in the box at Murrayfield Avenue survived it being struck by lightning, although the interior lights, radiator and telephones were put out of service and the air raid siren on the roof activated itself.
It took the public some time to get used to the new system. In 1936, three years after its institution, Chief Contable W. B. R. Morren lamented that there was a general ignorance, particularly on the part of grown ups, as to the location and facilities offered by boxes. Boxes were always subject to interference and vandalism throughout their working lives. The authorities were keen to make an example of anyone caught in such an act and the first prosecution came in November 1933 when 19 year old Colin Gosschalk was caught breaking into the first aid compartment of the box on Prestonfield Avenue. His defence that a friend had dared him to do it was not accepted and he was fined 10s (the maximum being £2).
The system was not without its critics as evidenced in the columns of and letters to the Evening News – a particular but unfounded complaint was that constables were either never in the boxes when needed, or spent too much time sheltering within them rather than “on the beat” – a classic of the Schrödinger’s box genre! In an interview with the ‘News in 1946, Chief Constable Morren said that boxes “fulfilled and continues to fulfil a very useful purpose, but… did not develop that contact between the police and the public which was so desirable, and it had been proved that the system had not been the success in that direction that was anticipated”. Brigadier-General Dudgeon, HM Inspector of Constabulary for Scotland said that the box system had “proved to be of value to both the police and the public” but “the beat constable is the eyes and ears of the police, and be careful that the police box system is not overdone.”
Post-war, policing would begin to change again, with smaller district police stations re-established for the new suburbs. As was the case after its 1920 expansion, it was found once again that the city had “more or less outgrown the numbered strength of the police force“. This was particularly felt in the extensive housing schemes been built since the boxes were introduced and where petty crime and antisocial behaviour were an increasing problem. After the initial roll-out of boxes, too few had been added. For instance, in 1946 just one was approved for the West Pilton housing scheme at the junction of Ferry Road Drive and West Pilton Avenue. The peripheral estates were harder to police on foot as they had a much lower housing density than the inner city, so officers had a far greater distance to cover.
New council housing at the Inch, 1955, Dinmont Drive. Photograph by A. G. Ingram, © Edinburgh City Libraries
These issues saw a move in the 1950s away from the “box and beat” approach to policing the suburbs to more mechanisation (cars) and technology (walkie talkies). They continued in use for the centre of the city however, but the last box installed in Edinburgh may have been that erected in Davidson’s Mains in 1958.
It is all very nice to see policemen going their rounds, but in these days of radio telegraphy the greatly increased use of telephones and the system of 999 calls it is quite reasonable to expect that there should be some saving in the actual pedestrian work
Bailie Matt A. Murray, Chairman of the Progressive Group of Edinburgh Town Council
The air raid warning system was renewed and expanded in 1952 with 56 sirens refurbished, ten additional ones installed and the remote control system replaced. The signalling was replaced again in the 1960s and the sirens were replaced in the early 1970s. Just before 1pm on Thursday 5th June 1969, the air raid sirens sounded across Edinburgh as an engineer working at the city Police headquarters on the High Street accidentally activated the system. A similar incident occurred on August 1st 1986 when all sirens in the Lothian & Borders Police areas were accidentally activated at 7:30 in the morning due to a fault in the telephone system.
Just as Edinburgh had been slow to catch on to adopting police boxes, it was also slow to let them go. While the Metropolitan police started removing boxes in 1969 and demolished its last in 1981, those in Edinburgh were still nominally in active service into the 1990s. After 1984 however the Chief Constable wanted all officers to have a daily briefing at a station before they came on duty and so after then they were more rarely used and many that were found themselves relegated to providing shelter and storage for traffic wardens. In 1993 the air raid sirens were deactivated by the Scottish Office and in 1995 the Lothian & Borders Police Board deemed thirty five of the eighty six remaining boxes were surplus to requirements and put them up for auction, seeking to save the £500 per annum per box maintenance costs of the increasingly dilapidated estate.
Newspaper advert, Scotsman, June 13th 1995, advertising the sale of 35 surplus police boxes
These were the first boxes maid available on the open market and generated much interest; a variety of proposals from public toilets to newspaper kiosks to air quality monitoring stations to removing the boxes entirely to install them as curios in pubs or people’s gardens were proposed. In 1990, the predecessor of Historic Environment Scotland listed thirteen boxes as Category B to protect them (there are now a total of seventeen) and the city’s Planning Convenor would issue guidelines requiring any changes to the boxes or their interiors needing planning permission.
Former lawyer Gordon Thomson purchased eight boxes and, as American-style coffee drinking swept across the nation, established a small chain of bijou “cappuccino kiosks” called the California Coffee Company. Thomson may not have realised it, but his innovation was very close to recreating a street scene once common in 18th century Edinburgh. A 2000 attempt by Feyzullah Marasli to emulate this success by converting a box on Princes Street into a coffee kiosk came to nothing when it was discovered that despite him refurbishing the box, changing the locks on it, paying £400 to have an electricity supply installed and applying for the necessary Street Trader’s Licence, he neither owned nor leased the box in question and it was still in operational use by the Police!
‘A street coffee house Edinburgh’. Paul Sandby, 1750s, Royal Collection Trust RCIN 914503
Lothian & Borders Police attempted to rehabilitate some boxes in the late 1990s by installing touch screen public information points with a video-link to a police station within them. The first such box was unveiled to the press on Princes Street in 1998 at a cost of £10,000. It had 61,000 “hits” during its first year of operation and was judged to have been a success, with two further such boxes converted, however funding never followed through and the innovation was allowed to lapse.
Eleven more boxes were auctioned in 2001, advertised as “an exciting and unique opportunity to obtain a distinctive piece of cast iron street furniture with potential for a wide range of uses“. In 2002, the BBC successfully trademarked the London-style Police Box in connection with Dr. Who and the TARDIS, despite the Metropolitan Police contesting the application with the Registrar of Trade Marks. This did not apply to Edinburgh’s unique boxes, which are categorically not TARDISes, despite what some may say! From 2012 to 2013, the police box at Braid Hills Approach was restored to exhibition standard as a small museum by Angus Self, a great grandson of Chief Constable Roderick Ross. In 2014, fourteen of the remaining boxes were sold off, leaving just one in Police ownership.
‘SwimEasy’ Police Box Museum, Braid Hills Road. CC-by-NC SA 2.0, M J Richardson
The boxes may now be entirely operationally defunct, but they remain throughout the city and many are in daily use. In fact I’m just back from visiting one this afternoon, It may not be a TARDIS but an architectural time traveller it was!
Late night Brazilian crepes anyone? A police box has you covered… CC-by-NC 2.0, Joe Gordon via Flickr
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Andy Arthur - Threadinburgh @[email protected] · 2025-06-19 · 06:30 UTC

The thread about the Edinburgh Police Box; architectural Time Traveller but no TARDIS!
The year 2024 was celebrated as the 900th anniversary of the “foundation” of the city of Edinburgh and 2025 is also an important local commemoration; the centenary of the appointment of the wonderfully named Ebenezer James (“E.J.“) Macrae as City Architect. His twenty years of service was a time of great change in our built environment and his office was directly responsible for much of that, not without good cause has he been dubbed “the man who shaped modern Edinburgh“. His tenure is characterised by both the volume of public buildings and housing that was erected and also their distinctive style; at once both modern in form and function but also very sympathetic to tradition. A splendid example of that contrast is the Edinburgh Police Box; a mix of anachronistic classical styling and what was then the cutting edge of modern policing.
Former police box at corner of Waverley Bridge and Market Street. CC-by-NC-SA 2.0, Ian T. Edwards via Flickr.
The first police boxes with telephones were established in Chicago back in 1881, just 5 years after the unveiling of the telephone itself by a son of Edinburgh. In 1923, Chief Constable Frederick Crawley of Newcastle City Police instituted what would become known as the Police Box System to Sunderland and in doing so revolutionised British policing. He was looking to increase the efficiency of his his force and focused on trying to reduce time spent by officers walking to and from their beats; he estimated up to a quarter of each man’s time on shift was wasted in this manner. His solution was decentralisation. By placing many small, telephone-equipped police boxes at strategic points throughout the city, officers had shorter distances to walk and could devote more time to duty. Crawley recognised this would place the police more centrally within the communities they were expected to serve, creating a ready point of contact for the public – thus increasing the efficiency of reporting emergencies and also making it far easier for the police to contact and coordinate their own officers. Boxes could also be used as temporary lock ups for prisoners while transport was summoned, avoiding the long and often dangerous walks with them back to a police station. A final and significant attraction was that the increased efficiency also allowed the closure of most district police stations and therefore afforded a significant cost saving.
Wooden police box of the type instituted by Crawley for Newcastle City Police. Note the public-facing telephone and first aid boxes mounted to the left of the door. From The Police Journal, vol.1, No.1, January 1928
Police boxes soon spread across the country but Edinburgh, as is often the case, was rather slow to catch on. It was not until May 1928 that a deputation was sent by Chief Constable Roderick Ross from the Edinburgh City Police to inspect the system in Newcastle. This was at the insistence of the Scottish Office who refused to sanction an increase in headcount for Ross and instead wanted efficiencies. He submitted a strongly favourable report to the Town Council, which approved a box system for the city in 1929. Ross served as Chief Constable for the exceptional term of 34 years and it was towards the end of his long watch that his force would be wholly and rapidly modernised.
Roderick Ross, when Chief Constable of Ramsgate Borough Police c. 1898
The Edinburgh Evening News threw its editorial weight behind the scheme but also amplified significant local concerns that the appearance of boxes would have a detrimental effect on the city. As the system spread, there had been a plethora of different design styles before a utilitarian, standardised version was developed for the Metropolitan Police by the architect George Mackenzie Trench. Trench’s design is instantly familiar to generations of Dr. Who fans as the TARDIS. But “Cheapness has been obtained in England” wrote the News’ editor “by mass production, but Edinburgh has an architectural standard of its own, which the Cockburn Association endeavours to maintain.” The gauntlet was thus thrown down to the City Architect’s office that something altogether different and better was needed.
George Mackenzie Trench standard police box at the National Tramway Museum, Crich. Note the light on the roof, which would flash to indicate an officer was required to attend the box. CC-by-SA 3.0 Dan Sellers via Wikimedia
E.J. Macrae, along with his assistants Andrew Rollo and James A. Tweedie are credited with the design of the Edinburgh Box, with the signature of their colleague Robert Somerville Ellis on some of the drawings. The initial inspiration may have been taken from the barrel-topped box used in Sheffield which was used as an illustrative example by the Evening News. Two alternative designs were prepared and plans and models were put to the Lord Provost’s Committee in December 1929. The preferred option was then “submitted for the consideration of the Fine Art Commission“. After that a full-size wooden mock-up was erected on the corner of George Street and Frederick Street in October 1930 to test the practicalities of installing boxes and also to familiarise both the police and the public with the design.
Sheffield City Police box, as used as an illustrative example by the Evening News. September 13th 1938
The approved box was, dare I say it, an iconic piece of British street furniture design, unique to the city and instantly at home in its environment. It is described in architectural terms thusly:
Rectangular cast-iron police box with classical details, 6ft by 4ft on plan, 2-bay pilastered long elevations, one of which contains door bearing City Arms. Painted blue. Single bay short elevations surmounted by open pediments containing ribboned wreath paterae. Saltire patterned glazing to all elevations. Low-pitched roof.
Official description of the Edinburgh Police Box from Historic Scotland listing
Each box was constructed of prefabricated cast iron panels produced by the Carron Company in Stirlingshire and tipped the scales at over two tons. The understated classical styling was decorated only with a small cast iron castle motif from the city’s coat of arms on the door and on each gable a wreath; symbolising power or triumph. Inside they were equipped with a desk, flip-down seat, telephone, sink and a small wall-mounted electric heater. There was shelving, pigeon holes and notice boards on the walls to accommodate items such as logbooks and forms and hooks were provided for hanging coats, helmets and capes. Hooks were provided for “beat keys”, premises officers on duty were expected to visit and check, or need access to, during their duties. An unofficial but entirely necessary function of the sink was an ersatz urinal; 8 hours in a district with few or no public toilets was a long time for a beat officer to spend without spending any pennies! (This was apparently best achieved by balancing on the stool and taking careful aim. Each box was provisioned with a supply of bleach to keep things as sanitary as possible.) All of this came at a price however; £58 per box (before foundations and services were laid), far more than the wooden hut type which had cost £13 each in Newcastle or £43 for a reinforced concrete standard box as used by the Metropolitan Police.
Sketch design of the Edinburgh City Police Box, redrawn by self from a copy of the original in the Edinburgh City Archives. The original is signed RSE (Robert Somerville Ellis), 6th September 1928. From Dean of Guild Court of Edinburgh, Edinburgh Police Boxes, Lord Provost, Magistrates and Council of the City of Edinburgh, 26th August 1932.
On the outside of the box were small doors that gave members of the public access to a Speakerphone that would connect them to police headquarters and another containing a first aid kit. The Speakerphone was a hands-free system activated upon opening of its door. It was felt at the time that the general public were not familiar enough with the use of telephones to provide a handset, and it was also harder to accidentally damage or vandalise.
A police officer demonstrating the use of the Speakerphone unit. Opening the box door automatically connected the phone to the headquarters switchboard. Photo via Lothian & Borders Police WordPress.
Despite the best efforts of Macrae’s office to produce a design that was sympathetic to Edinburgh’s built environment, not everyone was pleased. “W.M.H.” wrote to the Evening News that the box at the foot of Drummond Street by the old City Wall was a “case of outrageous vandalism and should be prohibited.” They questioned who in the authorities was responsible for such “outrages” and challenged the city’s heritage watchdog – the Cockburn Association – to “get busy!“. In Portobello, the Communist party had a particularly niche objection; it charged that the boxes were “designed for use in a rebellion” and that “the master class knew that they were driving the workers to desperation, and they were preparing in advance to deal with rebellion“.
The police box at Drummond Street, immediately in front of the Flodden Wall. The photo dates from 1951 and the box still sports its white stripes applied during WW2 to make it more visible during blackout conditions. Records of RCAHMS, SC1164082. © Crown Copyright: HES
Boxes were installed throughout 1932 and a considerable public relations exercise was undertaken to get the public to understand how to use them. The Evening News maintained a regular stream of editorials on the subject, Chief Constable Ross gave numerous lectures, model boxes were taken around schools to show children how to use them and Boy Scouts were encouraged to learn the location of as many boxes as possible as part of their Pathfinding badge. In the final run-up to commissioning, public demonstrations of the boxes in use were staged and the press cameras invited.
Photograph showing a staged accident to demonstrate the use of the public call facility on the new police boxes, along with an operator of the switchboard at police headquarters on the High Street that received the calls. Scotsman, May 26th 1933.
The box system and “a new era in the history of Edinburgh City Police” was inaugurated in its entirety on Sunday May 28th 1933 at 6AM. This was a year later than intended, a delay that the Lord Provost blamed on the General Post Office which had been slow to install the necessary telephony infrastructure (500 miles of underground and 23 miles of overhead wire).
Bailie Rutherford Fortune places the first call on from a police box with Chief Constable Ross (dark coat and light hat, with moustache) and Mr F. J. Milne (light coat and dark hat, with umbrella) Secretary of the Post Office in Edinburgh.
The boxes were only one part of a greater overall system; policing of the city was entirely restructured at this time. The boxes were allocated to four divisions, each with its own headquarters – A at Braid Place, B at Gayfield Square, C at Torphicen Place and D at Leith – and were numbered sequentially and by division. A map of the all their locations as installed in 1933 can be seen here. Each division had a dedicated pool of motor vehicles for response and prisoner transport and was supported by a non-territorial traffic and mounted division (E) based in the Cowgate. At the same moment that the boxes were first unlocked for duty, the doors of nine district police stations (at the Pleasance, West Port, Abbeyhill, Piershill, Stockbridge, Waverley Market, Morningside, Gorgie and Newhaven) and eighteen smaller sub-stations closed for the last time. Most of these sites were disposed of, leaving only the four divisional stations, a sub-divisional station for Portobello plus city police HQ on the High Street.
The Leith Police. Relaxing on break time with tea and “pieces” at Leith Police station in 1930. Photograph by Photo Press Agency, CC-by-NC-SA via Thelma
The reduction in manpower required by the box system saw fifteen open vacancies for constables written off, three inspectors and five sergeants made redundant and a further five sergeants demoted to constables. Overall the changes reduced the running cost of the force by £5,800 annually.
Six or seven constables might be based out of a single box and would serve their entire 8-hour shift from it, returning after every half hour or hour long “turn ” of their beat to check in with base by phone, write up their logbook and take breaks. Check in calls were performed according to a strict timetable and if any officer missed one his absence would be noted and a colleague sent to investigate. Men on duty could expect a visit by a section sergeant once every shift. The boxes were accessed by a universal key, which each officer kept on his chain with his whistle. A blue light on the roof of the box would flash to let him know that there was a call waiting for him. Sometimes these lights had to be mounted on an extension pole to be better seen from a distance and in the case of the box outside the Tron Kirk on the High Street, it was a high-mounted “sky lantern” on the building on the corner with North Bridge.
The High Street “sky lantern” is still in place on the corner with North Bridge, appropriately mounted next to a symbol of modern police surveillance, the CCTV camera.
Commencing in 1938, air raid sirens began to be installed on top of the roofs of many of Edinburgh’s boxes as part of the city’s ARP (Air Raid Precautions) measures. By April 1939, thirty two sirens had been installed, all controlled from master switches at HQ on the High Street and tests of the system were under way, helping to familiarise the public with the sound. In May 1940, a writer to the Evening News’ letters page using the pseudonym Tenement Warden and Old Contemptible suggested that police boxes be used to store “machine guns, hand grenades, ammunition and rifles” to deal with enemy paratroopers and “Hitler’s Fifth Column and Fascists all over Britain“. I cannot see that this idea was ever taken seriously!
Photograph of the type of air raid siren installed on the roof of Edinburgh police boxes. Evening News, 30th November 1938
In 1939, the annual Estimates of Expenditure of the Town Council reported that there were now 143 police boxes in the city backed up by 40 telephone pillars. Running costs were £3,350, not including £250 for maintenance, £800 for electricity and £3,350 to the Post Office for telephony. The authorised strength of the force was reported as 871, comprising 688 constables, 91 sergeants, 30 inspectors and one each “woman sergeant” and “woman constable“.
In practice the boxes proved to be stiflingly hot in the summer and bitterly cold in the winter; the issued heater was much to small and badly located, so boxes often sourced their own additional heaters to make them more habitable. On account of the metal structure they “sweated considerably” in damp weather as a result of condensation. The roof interior would eventually be insulated in 1956 to try and tackle this particular issue. All boxes were to have been provided with both electricity and a water supply but in the end economies meant only 86 of the 140 boxes were plumbed in. It was some time before enamel mugs, at 6d per unit, were issued from which the water could be drunk and it took until 1947 for the Town Council to approve an expenditure of £781 to equip each box with an electric kettle for making tea.
“For Bobby’s Cup of Tea”, Evening News, 5th June 1947
Uncomfortable they may have been, but the boxes proved to be immensely strong. This was demonstrated in November 1945 when PC John Anderson – on what was his last day of service of a thirty years police career – escaped with a fractured leg when a fire engine crashed into his box at the foot of the Canongate. In 1954, PC Donald Budge walked away from his box at Balgreen with only cuts and bruises after a two ton lamp standard, being installed nearby fell onto the roof of the box he was sitting in. The damage to the box was restricted to a cracked roof, a broken window and cracked sink. Also that year, two constables in the box at Murrayfield Avenue survived it being struck by lightning, although the interior lights, radiator and telephones were put out of service and the air raid siren on the roof activated itself.
It took the public some time to get used to the new system. In 1936, three years after its institution, Chief Contable W. B. R. Morren lamented that there was a general ignorance, particularly on the part of grown ups, as to the location and facilities offered by boxes. Boxes were always subject to interference and vandalism throughout their working lives. The authorities were keen to make an example of anyone caught in such an act and the first prosecution came in November 1933 when 19 year old Colin Gosschalk was caught breaking into the first aid compartment of the box on Prestonfield Avenue. His defence that a friend had dared him to do it was not accepted and he was fined 10s (the maximum being £2).
The system was not without its critics as evidenced in the columns of and letters to the Evening News – a particular but unfounded complaint was that constables were either never in the boxes when needed, or spent too much time sheltering within them rather than “on the beat” – a classic of the Schrödinger’s box genre! In an interview with the ‘News in 1946, Chief Constable Morren said that boxes “fulfilled and continues to fulfil a very useful purpose, but… did not develop that contact between the police and the public which was so desirable, and it had been proved that the system had not been the success in that direction that was anticipated”. Brigadier-General Dudgeon, HM Inspector of Constabulary for Scotland said that the box system had “proved to be of value to both the police and the public” but “the beat constable is the eyes and ears of the police, and be careful that the police box system is not overdone.”
Post-war, policing would begin to change again, with smaller district police stations re-established for the new suburbs. As was the case after its 1920 expansion, it was found once again that the city had “more or less outgrown the numbered strength of the police force“. This was particularly felt in the extensive housing schemes been built since the boxes were introduced and where petty crime and antisocial behaviour were an increasing problem. After the initial roll-out of boxes, too few had been added. For instance, in 1946 just one was approved for the West Pilton housing scheme at the junction of Ferry Road Drive and West Pilton Avenue. The peripheral estates were harder to police on foot as they had a much lower housing density than the inner city, so officers had a far greater distance to cover.
New council housing at the Inch, 1955, Dinmont Drive. Photograph by A. G. Ingram, © Edinburgh City Libraries
These issues saw a move in the 1950s away from the “box and beat” approach to policing the suburbs to more mechanisation (cars) and technology (walkie talkies). They continued in use for the centre of the city however, but the last box installed in Edinburgh may have been that erected in Davidson’s Mains in 1958.
It is all very nice to see policemen going their rounds, but in these days of radio telegraphy the greatly increased use of telephones and the system of 999 calls it is quite reasonable to expect that there should be some saving in the actual pedestrian work
Bailie Matt A. Murray, Chairman of the Progressive Group of Edinburgh Town Council
The air raid warning system was renewed and expanded in 1952 with 56 sirens refurbished, ten additional ones installed and the remote control system replaced. The signalling was replaced again in the 1960s and the sirens were replaced in the early 1970s. Just before 1pm on Thursday 5th June 1969, the air raid sirens sounded across Edinburgh as an engineer working at the city Police headquarters on the High Street accidentally activated the system. A similar incident occurred on August 1st 1986 when all sirens in the Lothian & Borders Police areas were accidentally activated at 7:30 in the morning due to a fault in the telephone system.
Just as Edinburgh had been slow to catch on to adopting police boxes, it was also slow to let them go. While the Metropolitan police started removing boxes in 1969 and demolished its last in 1981, those in Edinburgh were still nominally in active service into the 1990s. After 1984 however the Chief Constable wanted all officers to have a daily briefing at a station before they came on duty and so after then they were more rarely used and many that were found themselves relegated to providing shelter and storage for traffic wardens. In 1993 the air raid sirens were deactivated by the Scottish Office and in 1995 the Lothian & Borders Police Board deemed thirty five of the eighty six remaining boxes were surplus to requirements and put them up for auction, seeking to save the £500 per annum per box maintenance costs of the increasingly dilapidated estate.
Newspaper advert, Scotsman, June 13th 1995, advertising the sale of 35 surplus police boxes
These were the first boxes maid available on the open market and generated much interest; a variety of proposals from public toilets to newspaper kiosks to air quality monitoring stations to removing the boxes entirely to install them as curios in pubs or people’s gardens were proposed. In 1990, the predecessor of Historic Environment Scotland listed thirteen boxes as Category B to protect them (there are now a total of seventeen) and the city’s Planning Convenor would issue guidelines requiring any changes to the boxes or their interiors needing planning permission.
Former lawyer Gordon Thomson purchased eight boxes and, as American-style coffee drinking swept across the nation, established a small chain of bijou “cappuccino kiosks” called the California Coffee Company. Thomson may not have realised it, but his innovation was very close to recreating a street scene once common in 18th century Edinburgh. A 2000 attempt by Feyzullah Marasli to emulate this success by converting a box on Princes Street into a coffee kiosk came to nothing when it was discovered that despite him refurbishing the box, changing the locks on it, paying £400 to have an electricity supply installed and applying for the necessary Street Trader’s Licence, he neither owned nor leased the box in question and it was still in operational use by the Police!
‘A street coffee house Edinburgh’. Paul Sandby, 1750s, Royal Collection Trust RCIN 914503
Lothian & Borders Police attempted to rehabilitate some boxes in the late 1990s by installing touch screen public information points with a video-link to a police station within them. The first such box was unveiled to the press on Princes Street in 1998 at a cost of £10,000. It had 61,000 “hits” during its first year of operation and was judged to have been a success, with two further such boxes converted, however funding never followed through and the innovation was allowed to lapse.
Eleven more boxes were auctioned in 2001, advertised as “an exciting and unique opportunity to obtain a distinctive piece of cast iron street furniture with potential for a wide range of uses“. In 2002, the BBC successfully trademarked the London-style Police Box in connection with Dr. Who and the TARDIS, despite the Metropolitan Police contesting the application with the Registrar of Trade Marks. This did not apply to Edinburgh’s unique boxes, which are categorically not TARDISes, despite what some may say! From 2012 to 2013, the police box at Braid Hills Approach was restored to exhibition standard as a small museum by Angus Self, a great grandson of Chief Constable Roderick Ross. In 2014, fourteen of the remaining boxes were sold off, leaving just one in Police ownership.
‘SwimEasy’ Police Box Museum, Braid Hills Road. CC-by-NC SA 2.0, M J Richardson
The boxes may now be entirely operationally defunct, but they remain throughout the city and many are in daily use. In fact I’m just back from visiting one this afternoon, It may not be a TARDIS but an architectural time traveller it was!
Late night Brazilian crepes anyone? A police box has you covered… CC-by-NC 2.0, Joe Gordon via Flickr
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#architecture #CityArchitect #EbenezerJamesMacrae #Police #PoliceBox #Policing #RoderickRoss #StreetFurniture #Written2025

#architecture #cityarchitect #ebenezerjamesmacrae #police #policebox #policing
Ink In My Coffee @[email protected] · 2026-02-17 · 13:08 UTC

Tues. Feb. 17, 2026: Welcoming the Fire Horse
image courtesy of Erkut2 from Pixabay
Tuesday, February 17, 2026
New Moon
Jupiter Retrograde
Fat Tuesday/Mardi Gras
Chinese Lunar New Year
Solar Eclipse
Cloudy and cold
All the things going on in the heavens today! Whew!
Happy Mardi Gras, and Year of the Fire Horse! Let’s hope we’re racing to some positive, collective change.
You can read the Community Tarot Reading for the Week here. Still on the Enchanted Tarot.
I put in the Instacart order first thing on Friday morning. It shouldn’t be as stressful as I find it. I’m making a list and trusting someone else to go down the list and get the stuff. There’s no reason for me to worry so much. It was fine last week.
The cats are starting to shed their winter coats. That means the worst of the cold is over, and that I need to vacuum multiple times a week.
I’ve been frustrated with the 45-day art journaling workshop for awhile now. The prompts have been too much psychobabble and not enough creative expansion. They also seem somewhat familiar in the wrong way, but I can’t put my finger on why. Plus, one never knows when they will show up, so it’s been difficult to plan time to do it. Nothing came through at all on Thursday, and then, on Friday, there was suddenly an email that the workshop leader decided to take a vacation for her son’s school break and “pause.” No idea if/when it starts up again. Maybe Monday, but who knows? So, you ask people to commit for 45 days, and then you haven’t planned everything out ahead of time? Why would you start it if you knew you were going on vacation? It’s not like one doesn’t know about school breaks ahead of time. Why not either schedule posts or wait to start the 45-day stretch until you get back? If it was impromptu, as she claimed, she could still schedule things to post. This is not someone who can be trusted. I planned to grit my teeth and stick it out, because I believe in honoring my commitments, but no. I am done. That’s not creating a safe and creative space for people. Safe space means one can count on it and trust it. This behavior does not do it. It wasn’t an unexpected emergency. It’s being untrustworthy and not being honest with people who committed time and energy toward your event when you asked them to do so, after weeks of intense promotion.
A new prompt came through on Monday morning, and I considered starting up again, but my instinct was not to. It’s not the right atmosphere for me. So I unsubscribed, and it was like a weight off.
Buh-bye.
And I will avoid this person and her work in the future.
There are still plenty of pages in that journal that can be dedicated to other things. I will find a different way to work on the art/text stuff.
I bundled up, packed up the books, and headed out mid-morning. The temperature was higher than it’s been and the sun was out, but the wind made it feel colder. I trudged up to the library, dropped off books and picked up the 12 that waited for me. Good thing I had the rolly cart! I rolled down the hill and mailed the cards and bills that needed to go out. The post office is only about a block from the library, and downhill. I ran another errand. I got everything home and up the stairs.
I managed it all in 45 minutes, which was pretty darn good.
I basked in the sun with the cats for a bit, and finished reading a literary novel that wanted to be AS Byatt’s POSSESSION, but was not. There were some good portions of it, but it added an additional POV in the last quarter of the book in a way that didn’t work for me, structurally.
I had to be available during the shopping, and had to change a couple of things, but it was no big deal. The order was there by 1:30 again, although it was a different shopper who was more interested in being on her phone than paying attention to the two minutes for customer drop-off, which annoyed me.
If the weather is at all amenable at the end of this week, I’m taking the cart and going my damn self. While I’m grateful the service exists, I’d rather be in the store myself seeing what looks good and adjusting as needed. I like to have a basic idea of what I want/need (and my list), but then see what looks good and is on sale and adjust. That means moving a bunch of ingredients around in a way that doesn’t really work if someone else uses a pre-written list. It’s totally a me problem, not at all anything wrong with the service itself.
I did some community-based work in the afternoon, and also read the February pick for the Agatha Christie book club, MRS. MCGINTY’S DEAD. It took me a bit to get into it, but once I was intrigued, it carried me along. I paged through the research books for the two different projects that came in, trying to decide which one to spend time with first.
I re-read what I have of the play LAUGHTER AND TURPENTINE (the Playland Painters one) so I can figure out what needs to happen next. I sorted through some possibilities in Saturday morning’s free write.
We had a late lunch of pizza, and then I didn’t feel like dinner. I made sure my mom ate something, but I wound up having a sandwich around 9:30 at night. I read the first book of a new-to-me series (it came out in 2011), that I liked on character and setting arcs. The plot was a little shaky, but interesting enough so I’ll read the second book in the series, at the very least, and see.
Slept well. It was supposed to snow overnight and be done by 7, but didn’t start until nearly 8 on Saturday morning. I had a good morning routine. I forgot to mention that Thursday was Day 175 of the free write sessions.
I tried making omlettes again for breakfast. I’m not good at them, but I keep trying. My favorite Elizabeth David book is AN OMLETTE AND A GLASS OF WINE. I went back and re-read her instructions on making an omlette and tried again. I still don’t have the foldy thing down, and the bottom is too brown, but the inside was fluffy with just a little runny for the cheese and herbs. It tasted good, even if the look of it wouldn’t win any awards. I keep trying. The pan I used was too small, probably, too.
After breakfast, I got the crockpot meal going. Instead of the usual Tuesday crockpot, we decided to do it on Saturday. Since Tuesday (today) is Chinese Lunar New Year, I’m making a special meal for the holiday, and moved the crockpot meal to the weekend.
Then some housework, because there is always housework.
I love following decorating and thrifting and cooking and sewing and gardening accounts on IG. (I mean, cats, too, but that’s something different). Even when something isn’t my style (like neutrals) or something that I would do, I enjoy seeing what other people are up to, and how happy it makes them. And I do learn stuff. But, I mean, sourcing at thrift stores has always been my first choice. It started way back when I was a teenager prop shopping for shows. Things with stories and histories have always been my preference. I love that more people are discovering the fun of it, although when I see a 20-something act like they are the first person to ever figure it out, I do roll my eyes. But that’s also part of being 20-something. I have no doubt I was just as annoying.
It snowed all morning, and I didn’t feel like trotting around in it, so I stayed home. I went through an exhibition catalogue built around May Morris’s work as background research for the play I want to write inspired by Mary Annie Sloane’s sketch of the women working in May’s embroidery workshop. I found names, so I can actually research them. One of the women who worked with May for years was Lily Yeats, the poet’s sister, although to hear tell, there was tension between Lily and May. Another embroidery worker was the actress Florence Farr. It took me a bit to figure out why the name was familiar. She was friendly with Annie Besant (who is mentioned in my play FALL FOREVER) and with Pamela Coleman Smith (who illustrated the Rider Waite tarot), and they were all involved in the occult society The Golden Dawn together. I hadn’t put together the concurrent timelines in my brain. The more I dig, the more interesting connections I find with other interests and projects. Quite the web!
So glad that May kept detailed records of the workroom. I’m hoping I can find a digitized version online, a little later in the research, and flip through it.
There isn’t a lot of material easily available on Mary Annie Sloane and her work, but I will keep digging. As much as May’s designs and exquisite work captured me, it was Mary Annie’s sketch that lit the fire under the idea.
I have at least six months’ to a year’s worth of research to do before I even start writing, but having names and women to research is a terrific starting point, much like with my Playland Painters. The grant proposal for this project is out. If I get the grant, the project moves into a priority position in the queue. If not, I can leisurely research until the project’s turn. Knowing something about the women who worked in the embroidery workshop and what a range of interests they all had changes the original character arcs I played with quite a bit. These are far richer and more interesting. May was known for paying her workers well, and encouraging financial literacy and independence.
Gabriel Dante Rosetti was Williams Morris’s business partner (he was May’s father, yes, that William Morris), and Rosetti had an affair with her mother, Jane. May and Jane often sat for Rosetti. The big Rosetti volume I have from my time working at Abbeville Press is in storage, but I’m eager to get my hands on it again.
May and George Bernard Shaw were in love, although they each married others, and remained good friends all their lives. So now I have to re-read that massive, multi-volume Shaw biography by Michael Holyrod. My copy of that is also in storage, but I will get them from the library at some point. I have other books coming in on that circle already ordered from the library that I will read first. I will head over to the college library in the next few days and see what they have, too. Once the car is fixed, I’ll do some digging in the Clark’s library, too.
It was a lovely way to spend a dreary, snowy morning, inspired by the beauty of the work these women created.
I started to do some research for the article, re-reading material I originally read in my twenties, but the contrast between May and her socialist, progressive circle and the self-involved material for the article was in too much conflict for me to deal with one right after the other.
I read the next book in the mystery series by the acquaintances from way back. The setting and background were great, but the character relationships were left so undeveloped, and the love interest didn’t even show up in the book until 7/8th of the way through it, so when they declared their love for each other at the end, it felt false. Over the three books in the series I’ve read, the relationship has been underwritten and underdeveloped (and they certainly haven’t spent much time with each other), so the declaration doesn’t land properly. I can’t source the final book in the series through the library even as an e-book, so I don’t know how it all played out. (The series has been out of print for a good long time). If the relationship had been more in balance with the plot (and it could have, without taking away from the plot), I think the series would have worked better (and probably lasted more than four books).
It didn’t live up to the promise of the premise, which is something I find a lot in script analysis work, but here it came up in a series of novels.
The crockpot dinner was good – potato, ham, cheese casserole-type thing. Sort of like a croque monsieur, but with potato rather than bread, and done in a crockpot.
Slept well, up at the normal time on Sunday, good morning routine. Switched out a bunch of winter/Valentine’s stuff with springier, Ostara/Easter stuff. And switched out the heart on the front door with shamrocks.
The neighbors have started decorating their doors, too, and using fun mats. Now that the building is painted, everyone is inspired.
Did the Community Tarot Reading for the Week, which you can read here. I wasn’t happy to see the Tower as central, but the other cards are very positive, so I’m intrigued by the week’s potential.
Sunday was day before the dark moon, always my least energetic day of the month.
Around noon, I wrapped up and went down to Brewster’s Thrift, the new thrift store that opened across from MASSMoCA a few months back. I’ve been hearing good things about it. The assortment is very eclectic and interesting. I found a lovely, silver-plated candleholder with intricate grapes and other summery/harvest raised detail. I posted a photo on Instagram.
Ran another errand on the way home. It was sunny and much warmer than I expected. I had too many layers on, which I guess is a good thing.
I had a quiet afternoon, and cooked a tuna/vegetable/pasta/pesto dish in the evening.
Read a charming and fun first book in a series that understood typical conventions and chose to break them in interesting ways that served the story, characters, and genre. I’m looking forward to reading the second book in the series.
Up at the normal time, the morning routine was fine. Did the rounds with the week’s intent and the tarot post. Got through some email. No matter how much email I slog through, there’s always more. I’m unsubscribing from a bunch of lists, including authors who do not support my work as a colleague, but are always marketing at me. Read the two scripts for the evening’s Read ‘n Rant and made notes for the evening’s discussion.
We had our monthly Honor Roll! Session from noon to two. It was a nice turnout, and we all got a lot done on our various projects. We felt so good by the end of the two hours!
I got the opening of I WILL BE DIFFERENT, and the next scene. I’ve been playing with ideas in the morning free write, and decided to start with Josephine in the midst of handling five children and her husband and everything, and Alice at age 10. The same actor can play Amanda as a child a few sections later. I’ve been debating whether the first mother should be named Josephine or Margaret. In the free write, I’ve been calling her Margaret, but in these pages, she came out as Josephine, with “Maggie” being Alice’s older sister. I’m pretty sure I will double cast Josephine and Milly. It’s pretty clear in the later sections that Josephine died before Milly was born.
I had planned to finish the Alice section first, but because I’m struggling to get the timeline right with years/historical events, I was stuck. I did set the Josephine section/Alice’s childhood in my hometown of Rye, before Playland was built. I have to figure out one or two more Josephine/Alice scenes, and that will give me a better idea of the when with Alice/Archie, and then I’ll know how to complete the Alice section. If I just cut where Alice and Archie talk about him going to war, I can fix a lot. Yes, that scene is good, but it doesn’t fit the timeline, unless it’s Word War I, and then it sets everything else out of whack. So I basically have somewhere between three and five more scenes to write, and then I’ll have a rough assembly of way too much material that I can then hone down.
Stage plays often have a much longer development process than other types of work, but this one is even longer. I’d hoped to have it ready for a particular submission call to which I’ve been invited at the end of this August, but I can’t see how it will be done, and through enough drafts to make it viable. I may have to finish a different full-length between now and then that’s less complicated to submit this year, and then submit I WILL BE DIFFERENT next year.
I also have to fact check some of my hometown’s history pre-Playland. I sort of remember it, from some research years ago, but I have to recheck it. And it’s not like anything worthwhile comes up in Google anymore, so I’ll dig into the Westchester Archives online information, or into the Rye Historical Society’s information.
I also got the list of dates to paint the gallery for the upcoming GLOW show in March, so I have to figure out which times and dates I can help out.
I did some housework in the afternoon, in preparation for today’s Lunar New Year, and took out the garbage, etc. The dumpster is emptied Tuesday and Friday mornings, so I had to squish the bags into a very full dumpster, but I got them in.
I did some work relevant to the dark moon.
Assets for Artists sent a two -year follow-up from my time in the cohort, so I filled that out for them.
Leftovers for dinner. In the evening, I joined the Athena Project’s Read ‘n Rant discussion. I had been sent one of the wrong plays, so I kept quiet in the discussion for one of them. There’s no reason for me to make things about me instead of the play. I mean, in every group, there’s always someone who hasn’t read the play, or hasn’t finished the play (or book or whatever in the relevant group), but has to take up time and space in the discussion anyway, making it about them. There was that last night, too, but I was not that person! I was able to join the discussion for the other play, which I’d read, so that was fun. Charlotte slept through the whole thing. Bea and Tessa were there at the beginning, and then settled down.
I’m looking forward to my play, THE WOMEN ON THE BRIDGE, being part of next month’s discussion!
It was 10:30 by the time the discussion was over (Athena is based in Colorado, on mountain time). Then, of course, I needed transition time before bed, so I read for a bit.
Dreamed about working shows all night, so woke up feeling like I’d already put in a full week.
The morning routine was fine, the free write was sorting out stuff for I WILL BE DIFFERENT.
We are having pancakes for breakfast, because it’s Fat Tuesday.
On today’s agenda: writing, ghostwriting, an errand, packing up some things that need to be mailed tomorrow, celebrating Lunar New Year. We are wearing lots of red today in honor of it, but no black or white.
Have a good one!
#astrology #books #playwrighting #reading #shopping #theatre #thriftStore #writing

#astrology #books #playwrighting #reading #shopping #theatre
Ink In My Coffee @[email protected] · 2026-02-17 · 13:08 UTC

Tues. Feb. 17, 2026: Welcoming the Fire Horse
image courtesy of Erkut2 from Pixabay
Tuesday, February 17, 2026
New Moon
Jupiter Retrograde
Fat Tuesday/Mardi Gras
Chinese Lunar New Year
Solar Eclipse
Cloudy and cold
All the things going on in the heavens today! Whew!
Happy Mardi Gras, and Year of the Fire Horse! Let’s hope we’re racing to some positive, collective change.
You can read the Community Tarot Reading for the Week here. Still on the Enchanted Tarot.
I put in the Instacart order first thing on Friday morning. It shouldn’t be as stressful as I find it. I’m making a list and trusting someone else to go down the list and get the stuff. There’s no reason for me to worry so much. It was fine last week.
The cats are starting to shed their winter coats. That means the worst of the cold is over, and that I need to vacuum multiple times a week.
I’ve been frustrated with the 45-day art journaling workshop for awhile now. The prompts have been too much psychobabble and not enough creative expansion. They also seem somewhat familiar in the wrong way, but I can’t put my finger on why. Plus, one never knows when they will show up, so it’s been difficult to plan time to do it. Nothing came through at all on Thursday, and then, on Friday, there was suddenly an email that the workshop leader decided to take a vacation for her son’s school break and “pause.” No idea if/when it starts up again. Maybe Monday, but who knows? So, you ask people to commit for 45 days, and then you haven’t planned everything out ahead of time? Why would you start it if you knew you were going on vacation? It’s not like one doesn’t know about school breaks ahead of time. Why not either schedule posts or wait to start the 45-day stretch until you get back? If it was impromptu, as she claimed, she could still schedule things to post. This is not someone who can be trusted. I planned to grit my teeth and stick it out, because I believe in honoring my commitments, but no. I am done. That’s not creating a safe and creative space for people. Safe space means one can count on it and trust it. This behavior does not do it. It wasn’t an unexpected emergency. It’s being untrustworthy and not being honest with people who committed time and energy toward your event when you asked them to do so, after weeks of intense promotion.
A new prompt came through on Monday morning, and I considered starting up again, but my instinct was not to. It’s not the right atmosphere for me. So I unsubscribed, and it was like a weight off.
Buh-bye.
And I will avoid this person and her work in the future.
There are still plenty of pages in that journal that can be dedicated to other things. I will find a different way to work on the art/text stuff.
I bundled up, packed up the books, and headed out mid-morning. The temperature was higher than it’s been and the sun was out, but the wind made it feel colder. I trudged up to the library, dropped off books and picked up the 12 that waited for me. Good thing I had the rolly cart! I rolled down the hill and mailed the cards and bills that needed to go out. The post office is only about a block from the library, and downhill. I ran another errand. I got everything home and up the stairs.
I managed it all in 45 minutes, which was pretty darn good.
I basked in the sun with the cats for a bit, and finished reading a literary novel that wanted to be AS Byatt’s POSSESSION, but was not. There were some good portions of it, but it added an additional POV in the last quarter of the book in a way that didn’t work for me, structurally.
I had to be available during the shopping, and had to change a couple of things, but it was no big deal. The order was there by 1:30 again, although it was a different shopper who was more interested in being on her phone than paying attention to the two minutes for customer drop-off, which annoyed me.
If the weather is at all amenable at the end of this week, I’m taking the cart and going my damn self. While I’m grateful the service exists, I’d rather be in the store myself seeing what looks good and adjusting as needed. I like to have a basic idea of what I want/need (and my list), but then see what looks good and is on sale and adjust. That means moving a bunch of ingredients around in a way that doesn’t really work if someone else uses a pre-written list. It’s totally a me problem, not at all anything wrong with the service itself.
I did some community-based work in the afternoon, and also read the February pick for the Agatha Christie book club, MRS. MCGINTY’S DEAD. It took me a bit to get into it, but once I was intrigued, it carried me along. I paged through the research books for the two different projects that came in, trying to decide which one to spend time with first.
I re-read what I have of the play LAUGHTER AND TURPENTINE (the Playland Painters one) so I can figure out what needs to happen next. I sorted through some possibilities in Saturday morning’s free write.
We had a late lunch of pizza, and then I didn’t feel like dinner. I made sure my mom ate something, but I wound up having a sandwich around 9:30 at night. I read the first book of a new-to-me series (it came out in 2011), that I liked on character and setting arcs. The plot was a little shaky, but interesting enough so I’ll read the second book in the series, at the very least, and see.
Slept well. It was supposed to snow overnight and be done by 7, but didn’t start until nearly 8 on Saturday morning. I had a good morning routine. I forgot to mention that Thursday was Day 175 of the free write sessions.
I tried making omlettes again for breakfast. I’m not good at them, but I keep trying. My favorite Elizabeth David book is AN OMLETTE AND A GLASS OF WINE. I went back and re-read her instructions on making an omlette and tried again. I still don’t have the foldy thing down, and the bottom is too brown, but the inside was fluffy with just a little runny for the cheese and herbs. It tasted good, even if the look of it wouldn’t win any awards. I keep trying. The pan I used was too small, probably, too.
After breakfast, I got the crockpot meal going. Instead of the usual Tuesday crockpot, we decided to do it on Saturday. Since Tuesday (today) is Chinese Lunar New Year, I’m making a special meal for the holiday, and moved the crockpot meal to the weekend.
Then some housework, because there is always housework.
I love following decorating and thrifting and cooking and sewing and gardening accounts on IG. (I mean, cats, too, but that’s something different). Even when something isn’t my style (like neutrals) or something that I would do, I enjoy seeing what other people are up to, and how happy it makes them. And I do learn stuff. But, I mean, sourcing at thrift stores has always been my first choice. It started way back when I was a teenager prop shopping for shows. Things with stories and histories have always been my preference. I love that more people are discovering the fun of it, although when I see a 20-something act like they are the first person to ever figure it out, I do roll my eyes. But that’s also part of being 20-something. I have no doubt I was just as annoying.
It snowed all morning, and I didn’t feel like trotting around in it, so I stayed home. I went through an exhibition catalogue built around May Morris’s work as background research for the play I want to write inspired by Mary Annie Sloane’s sketch of the women working in May’s embroidery workshop. I found names, so I can actually research them. One of the women who worked with May for years was Lily Yeats, the poet’s sister, although to hear tell, there was tension between Lily and May. Another embroidery worker was the actress Florence Farr. It took me a bit to figure out why the name was familiar. She was friendly with Annie Besant (who is mentioned in my play FALL FOREVER) and with Pamela Coleman Smith (who illustrated the Rider Waite tarot), and they were all involved in the occult society The Golden Dawn together. I hadn’t put together the concurrent timelines in my brain. The more I dig, the more interesting connections I find with other interests and projects. Quite the web!
So glad that May kept detailed records of the workroom. I’m hoping I can find a digitized version online, a little later in the research, and flip through it.
There isn’t a lot of material easily available on Mary Annie Sloane and her work, but I will keep digging. As much as May’s designs and exquisite work captured me, it was Mary Annie’s sketch that lit the fire under the idea.
I have at least six months’ to a year’s worth of research to do before I even start writing, but having names and women to research is a terrific starting point, much like with my Playland Painters. The grant proposal for this project is out. If I get the grant, the project moves into a priority position in the queue. If not, I can leisurely research until the project’s turn. Knowing something about the women who worked in the embroidery workshop and what a range of interests they all had changes the original character arcs I played with quite a bit. These are far richer and more interesting. May was known for paying her workers well, and encouraging financial literacy and independence.
Gabriel Dante Rosetti was Williams Morris’s business partner (he was May’s father, yes, that William Morris), and Rosetti had an affair with her mother, Jane. May and Jane often sat for Rosetti. The big Rosetti volume I have from my time working at Abbeville Press is in storage, but I’m eager to get my hands on it again.
May and George Bernard Shaw were in love, although they each married others, and remained good friends all their lives. So now I have to re-read that massive, multi-volume Shaw biography by Michael Holyrod. My copy of that is also in storage, but I will get them from the library at some point. I have other books coming in on that circle already ordered from the library that I will read first. I will head over to the college library in the next few days and see what they have, too. Once the car is fixed, I’ll do some digging in the Clark’s library, too.
It was a lovely way to spend a dreary, snowy morning, inspired by the beauty of the work these women created.
I started to do some research for the article, re-reading material I originally read in my twenties, but the contrast between May and her socialist, progressive circle and the self-involved material for the article was in too much conflict for me to deal with one right after the other.
I read the next book in the mystery series by the acquaintances from way back. The setting and background were great, but the character relationships were left so undeveloped, and the love interest didn’t even show up in the book until 7/8th of the way through it, so when they declared their love for each other at the end, it felt false. Over the three books in the series I’ve read, the relationship has been underwritten and underdeveloped (and they certainly haven’t spent much time with each other), so the declaration doesn’t land properly. I can’t source the final book in the series through the library even as an e-book, so I don’t know how it all played out. (The series has been out of print for a good long time). If the relationship had been more in balance with the plot (and it could have, without taking away from the plot), I think the series would have worked better (and probably lasted more than four books).
It didn’t live up to the promise of the premise, which is something I find a lot in script analysis work, but here it came up in a series of novels.
The crockpot dinner was good – potato, ham, cheese casserole-type thing. Sort of like a croque monsieur, but with potato rather than bread, and done in a crockpot.
Slept well, up at the normal time on Sunday, good morning routine. Switched out a bunch of winter/Valentine’s stuff with springier, Ostara/Easter stuff. And switched out the heart on the front door with shamrocks.
The neighbors have started decorating their doors, too, and using fun mats. Now that the building is painted, everyone is inspired.
Did the Community Tarot Reading for the Week, which you can read here. I wasn’t happy to see the Tower as central, but the other cards are very positive, so I’m intrigued by the week’s potential.
Sunday was day before the dark moon, always my least energetic day of the month.
Around noon, I wrapped up and went down to Brewster’s Thrift, the new thrift store that opened across from MASSMoCA a few months back. I’ve been hearing good things about it. The assortment is very eclectic and interesting. I found a lovely, silver-plated candleholder with intricate grapes and other summery/harvest raised detail. I posted a photo on Instagram.
Ran another errand on the way home. It was sunny and much warmer than I expected. I had too many layers on, which I guess is a good thing.
I had a quiet afternoon, and cooked a tuna/vegetable/pasta/pesto dish in the evening.
Read a charming and fun first book in a series that understood typical conventions and chose to break them in interesting ways that served the story, characters, and genre. I’m looking forward to reading the second book in the series.
Up at the normal time, the morning routine was fine. Did the rounds with the week’s intent and the tarot post. Got through some email. No matter how much email I slog through, there’s always more. I’m unsubscribing from a bunch of lists, including authors who do not support my work as a colleague, but are always marketing at me. Read the two scripts for the evening’s Read ‘n Rant and made notes for the evening’s discussion.
We had our monthly Honor Roll! Session from noon to two. It was a nice turnout, and we all got a lot done on our various projects. We felt so good by the end of the two hours!
I got the opening of I WILL BE DIFFERENT, and the next scene. I’ve been playing with ideas in the morning free write, and decided to start with Josephine in the midst of handling five children and her husband and everything, and Alice at age 10. The same actor can play Amanda as a child a few sections later. I’ve been debating whether the first mother should be named Josephine or Margaret. In the free write, I’ve been calling her Margaret, but in these pages, she came out as Josephine, with “Maggie” being Alice’s older sister. I’m pretty sure I will double cast Josephine and Milly. It’s pretty clear in the later sections that Josephine died before Milly was born.
I had planned to finish the Alice section first, but because I’m struggling to get the timeline right with years/historical events, I was stuck. I did set the Josephine section/Alice’s childhood in my hometown of Rye, before Playland was built. I have to figure out one or two more Josephine/Alice scenes, and that will give me a better idea of the when with Alice/Archie, and then I’ll know how to complete the Alice section. If I just cut where Alice and Archie talk about him going to war, I can fix a lot. Yes, that scene is good, but it doesn’t fit the timeline, unless it’s Word War I, and then it sets everything else out of whack. So I basically have somewhere between three and five more scenes to write, and then I’ll have a rough assembly of way too much material that I can then hone down.
Stage plays often have a much longer development process than other types of work, but this one is even longer. I’d hoped to have it ready for a particular submission call to which I’ve been invited at the end of this August, but I can’t see how it will be done, and through enough drafts to make it viable. I may have to finish a different full-length between now and then that’s less complicated to submit this year, and then submit I WILL BE DIFFERENT next year.
I also have to fact check some of my hometown’s history pre-Playland. I sort of remember it, from some research years ago, but I have to recheck it. And it’s not like anything worthwhile comes up in Google anymore, so I’ll dig into the Westchester Archives online information, or into the Rye Historical Society’s information.
I also got the list of dates to paint the gallery for the upcoming GLOW show in March, so I have to figure out which times and dates I can help out.
I did some housework in the afternoon, in preparation for today’s Lunar New Year, and took out the garbage, etc. The dumpster is emptied Tuesday and Friday mornings, so I had to squish the bags into a very full dumpster, but I got them in.
I did some work relevant to the dark moon.
Assets for Artists sent a two -year follow-up from my time in the cohort, so I filled that out for them.
Leftovers for dinner. In the evening, I joined the Athena Project’s Read ‘n Rant discussion. I had been sent one of the wrong plays, so I kept quiet in the discussion for one of them. There’s no reason for me to make things about me instead of the play. I mean, in every group, there’s always someone who hasn’t read the play, or hasn’t finished the play (or book or whatever in the relevant group), but has to take up time and space in the discussion anyway, making it about them. There was that last night, too, but I was not that person! I was able to join the discussion for the other play, which I’d read, so that was fun. Charlotte slept through the whole thing. Bea and Tessa were there at the beginning, and then settled down.
I’m looking forward to my play, THE WOMEN ON THE BRIDGE, being part of next month’s discussion!
It was 10:30 by the time the discussion was over (Athena is based in Colorado, on mountain time). Then, of course, I needed transition time before bed, so I read for a bit.
Dreamed about working shows all night, so woke up feeling like I’d already put in a full week.
The morning routine was fine, the free write was sorting out stuff for I WILL BE DIFFERENT.
We are having pancakes for breakfast, because it’s Fat Tuesday.
On today’s agenda: writing, ghostwriting, an errand, packing up some things that need to be mailed tomorrow, celebrating Lunar New Year. We are wearing lots of red today in honor of it, but no black or white.
Have a good one!
#astrology #books #playwrighting #reading #shopping #theatre #thriftStore #writing

#astrology #books #playwrighting #reading #shopping #theatre
Ink In My Coffee @[email protected] · 2026-02-17 · 13:08 UTC

Tues. Feb. 17, 2026: Welcoming the Fire Horse
image courtesy of Erkut2 from Pixabay
Tuesday, February 17, 2026
New Moon
Jupiter Retrograde
Fat Tuesday/Mardi Gras
Chinese Lunar New Year
Solar Eclipse
Cloudy and cold
All the things going on in the heavens today! Whew!
Happy Mardi Gras, and Year of the Fire Horse! Let’s hope we’re racing to some positive, collective change.
You can read the Community Tarot Reading for the Week here. Still on the Enchanted Tarot.
I put in the Instacart order first thing on Friday morning. It shouldn’t be as stressful as I find it. I’m making a list and trusting someone else to go down the list and get the stuff. There’s no reason for me to worry so much. It was fine last week.
The cats are starting to shed their winter coats. That means the worst of the cold is over, and that I need to vacuum multiple times a week.
I’ve been frustrated with the 45-day art journaling workshop for awhile now. The prompts have been too much psychobabble and not enough creative expansion. They also seem somewhat familiar in the wrong way, but I can’t put my finger on why. Plus, one never knows when they will show up, so it’s been difficult to plan time to do it. Nothing came through at all on Thursday, and then, on Friday, there was suddenly an email that the workshop leader decided to take a vacation for her son’s school break and “pause.” No idea if/when it starts up again. Maybe Monday, but who knows? So, you ask people to commit for 45 days, and then you haven’t planned everything out ahead of time? Why would you start it if you knew you were going on vacation? It’s not like one doesn’t know about school breaks ahead of time. Why not either schedule posts or wait to start the 45-day stretch until you get back? If it was impromptu, as she claimed, she could still schedule things to post. This is not someone who can be trusted. I planned to grit my teeth and stick it out, because I believe in honoring my commitments, but no. I am done. That’s not creating a safe and creative space for people. Safe space means one can count on it and trust it. This behavior does not do it. It wasn’t an unexpected emergency. It’s being untrustworthy and not being honest with people who committed time and energy toward your event when you asked them to do so, after weeks of intense promotion.
A new prompt came through on Monday morning, and I considered starting up again, but my instinct was not to. It’s not the right atmosphere for me. So I unsubscribed, and it was like a weight off.
Buh-bye.
And I will avoid this person and her work in the future.
There are still plenty of pages in that journal that can be dedicated to other things. I will find a different way to work on the art/text stuff.
I bundled up, packed up the books, and headed out mid-morning. The temperature was higher than it’s been and the sun was out, but the wind made it feel colder. I trudged up to the library, dropped off books and picked up the 12 that waited for me. Good thing I had the rolly cart! I rolled down the hill and mailed the cards and bills that needed to go out. The post office is only about a block from the library, and downhill. I ran another errand. I got everything home and up the stairs.
I managed it all in 45 minutes, which was pretty darn good.
I basked in the sun with the cats for a bit, and finished reading a literary novel that wanted to be AS Byatt’s POSSESSION, but was not. There were some good portions of it, but it added an additional POV in the last quarter of the book in a way that didn’t work for me, structurally.
I had to be available during the shopping, and had to change a couple of things, but it was no big deal. The order was there by 1:30 again, although it was a different shopper who was more interested in being on her phone than paying attention to the two minutes for customer drop-off, which annoyed me.
If the weather is at all amenable at the end of this week, I’m taking the cart and going my damn self. While I’m grateful the service exists, I’d rather be in the store myself seeing what looks good and adjusting as needed. I like to have a basic idea of what I want/need (and my list), but then see what looks good and is on sale and adjust. That means moving a bunch of ingredients around in a way that doesn’t really work if someone else uses a pre-written list. It’s totally a me problem, not at all anything wrong with the service itself.
I did some community-based work in the afternoon, and also read the February pick for the Agatha Christie book club, MRS. MCGINTY’S DEAD. It took me a bit to get into it, but once I was intrigued, it carried me along. I paged through the research books for the two different projects that came in, trying to decide which one to spend time with first.
I re-read what I have of the play LAUGHTER AND TURPENTINE (the Playland Painters one) so I can figure out what needs to happen next. I sorted through some possibilities in Saturday morning’s free write.
We had a late lunch of pizza, and then I didn’t feel like dinner. I made sure my mom ate something, but I wound up having a sandwich around 9:30 at night. I read the first book of a new-to-me series (it came out in 2011), that I liked on character and setting arcs. The plot was a little shaky, but interesting enough so I’ll read the second book in the series, at the very least, and see.
Slept well. It was supposed to snow overnight and be done by 7, but didn’t start until nearly 8 on Saturday morning. I had a good morning routine. I forgot to mention that Thursday was Day 175 of the free write sessions.
I tried making omlettes again for breakfast. I’m not good at them, but I keep trying. My favorite Elizabeth David book is AN OMLETTE AND A GLASS OF WINE. I went back and re-read her instructions on making an omlette and tried again. I still don’t have the foldy thing down, and the bottom is too brown, but the inside was fluffy with just a little runny for the cheese and herbs. It tasted good, even if the look of it wouldn’t win any awards. I keep trying. The pan I used was too small, probably, too.
After breakfast, I got the crockpot meal going. Instead of the usual Tuesday crockpot, we decided to do it on Saturday. Since Tuesday (today) is Chinese Lunar New Year, I’m making a special meal for the holiday, and moved the crockpot meal to the weekend.
Then some housework, because there is always housework.
I love following decorating and thrifting and cooking and sewing and gardening accounts on IG. (I mean, cats, too, but that’s something different). Even when something isn’t my style (like neutrals) or something that I would do, I enjoy seeing what other people are up to, and how happy it makes them. And I do learn stuff. But, I mean, sourcing at thrift stores has always been my first choice. It started way back when I was a teenager prop shopping for shows. Things with stories and histories have always been my preference. I love that more people are discovering the fun of it, although when I see a 20-something act like they are the first person to ever figure it out, I do roll my eyes. But that’s also part of being 20-something. I have no doubt I was just as annoying.
It snowed all morning, and I didn’t feel like trotting around in it, so I stayed home. I went through an exhibition catalogue built around May Morris’s work as background research for the play I want to write inspired by Mary Annie Sloane’s sketch of the women working in May’s embroidery workshop. I found names, so I can actually research them. One of the women who worked with May for years was Lily Yeats, the poet’s sister, although to hear tell, there was tension between Lily and May. Another embroidery worker was the actress Florence Farr. It took me a bit to figure out why the name was familiar. She was friendly with Annie Besant (who is mentioned in my play FALL FOREVER) and with Pamela Coleman Smith (who illustrated the Rider Waite tarot), and they were all involved in the occult society The Golden Dawn together. I hadn’t put together the concurrent timelines in my brain. The more I dig, the more interesting connections I find with other interests and projects. Quite the web!
So glad that May kept detailed records of the workroom. I’m hoping I can find a digitized version online, a little later in the research, and flip through it.
There isn’t a lot of material easily available on Mary Annie Sloane and her work, but I will keep digging. As much as May’s designs and exquisite work captured me, it was Mary Annie’s sketch that lit the fire under the idea.
I have at least six months’ to a year’s worth of research to do before I even start writing, but having names and women to research is a terrific starting point, much like with my Playland Painters. The grant proposal for this project is out. If I get the grant, the project moves into a priority position in the queue. If not, I can leisurely research until the project’s turn. Knowing something about the women who worked in the embroidery workshop and what a range of interests they all had changes the original character arcs I played with quite a bit. These are far richer and more interesting. May was known for paying her workers well, and encouraging financial literacy and independence.
Gabriel Dante Rosetti was William Morris’s business partner (he was May’s father, yes, that William Morris), and Rosetti had an affair with her mother, Jane. May and Jane often sat for Rosetti. The big Rosetti volume I have from my time working at Abbeville Press is in storage, but I’m eager to get my hands on it again.
May and George Bernard Shaw were in love, although they each married others, and remained good friends all their lives. So now I have to re-read that massive, multi-volume Shaw biography by Michael Holyrod. My copy of that is also in storage, but I will get them from the library at some point. I have other books coming in on that circle already ordered from the library that I will read first. I will head over to the college library in the next few days and see what they have, too. Once the car is fixed, I’ll do some digging in the Clark’s library, too.
It was a lovely way to spend a dreary, snowy morning, inspired by the beauty of the work these women created.
I started to do some research for the article, re-reading material I originally read in my twenties, but the contrast between May and her socialist, progressive circle and the self-involved material for the article was in too much conflict for me to deal with one right after the other.
I read the next book in the mystery series by the acquaintances from way back. The setting and background were great, but the character relationships were left so undeveloped, and the love interest didn’t even show up in the book until 7/8th of the way through it, so when they declared their love for each other at the end, it felt false. Over the three books in the series I’ve read, the relationship has been underwritten and underdeveloped (and they certainly haven’t spent much time with each other), so the declaration doesn’t land properly. I can’t source the final book in the series through the library even as an e-book, so I don’t know how it all played out. (The series has been out of print for a good long time). If the relationship had been more in balance with the plot (and it could have, without taking away from the plot), I think the series would have worked better (and probably lasted more than four books).
It didn’t live up to the promise of the premise, which is something I find a lot in script analysis work, but here it came up in a series of novels.
The crockpot dinner was good – potato, ham, cheese casserole-type thing. Sort of like a croque monsieur, but with potato rather than bread, and done in a crockpot.
Slept well, up at the normal time on Sunday, good morning routine. Switched out a bunch of winter/Valentine’s stuff with springier, Ostara/Easter stuff. And switched out the heart on the front door with shamrocks.
The neighbors have started decorating their doors, too, and using fun mats. Now that the building is painted, everyone is inspired.
Did the Community Tarot Reading for the Week, which you can read here. I wasn’t happy to see the Tower as central, but the other cards are very positive, so I’m intrigued by the week’s potential.
Sunday was day before the dark moon, always my least energetic day of the month.
Around noon, I wrapped up and went down to Brewster’s Thrift, the new thrift store that opened across from MASSMoCA a few months back. I’ve been hearing good things about it. The assortment is very eclectic and interesting. I found a lovely, silver-plated candleholder with intricate grapes and other summery/harvest raised detail. I posted a photo on Instagram.
Ran another errand on the way home. It was sunny and much warmer than I expected. I had too many layers on, which I guess is a good thing.
I had a quiet afternoon, and cooked a tuna/vegetable/pasta/pesto dish in the evening.
Read a charming and fun first book in a series that understood typical conventions and chose to break them in interesting ways that served the story, characters, and genre. I’m looking forward to reading the second book in the series.
Up at the normal time, the morning routine was fine. Did the rounds with the week’s intent and the tarot post. Got through some email. No matter how much email I slog through, there’s always more. I’m unsubscribing from a bunch of lists, including authors who do not support my work as a colleague, but are always marketing at me. Read the two scripts for the evening’s Read ‘n Rant and made notes for the evening’s discussion.
We had our monthly Honor Roll! Session from noon to two. It was a nice turnout, and we all got a lot done on our various projects. We felt so good by the end of the two hours!
I got the opening of I WILL BE DIFFERENT, and the next scene. I’ve been playing with ideas in the morning free write, and decided to start with Josephine in the midst of handling five children and her husband and everything, and Alice at age 10. The same actor can play Amanda as a child a few sections later. I’ve been debating whether the first mother should be named Josephine or Margaret. In the free write, I’ve been calling her Margaret, but in these pages, she came out as Josephine, with “Maggie” being Alice’s older sister. I’m pretty sure I will double cast Josephine and Milly. It’s pretty clear in the later sections that Josephine died before Milly was born.
I had planned to finish the Alice section first, but because I’m struggling to get the timeline right with years/historical events, I was stuck. I did set the Josephine section/Alice’s childhood in my hometown of Rye, before Playland was built. I have to figure out one or two more Josephine/Alice scenes, and that will give me a better idea of the when with Alice/Archie, and then I’ll know how to complete the Alice section. If I just cut where Alice and Archie talk about him going to war, I can fix a lot. Yes, that scene is good, but it doesn’t fit the timeline, unless it’s Word War I, and then it sets everything else out of whack. So I basically have somewhere between three and five more scenes to write, and then I’ll have a rough assembly of way too much material that I can then hone down.
Stage plays often have a much longer development process than other types of work, but this one is even longer. I’d hoped to have it ready for a particular submission call to which I’ve been invited at the end of this August, but I can’t see how it will be done, and through enough drafts to make it viable. I may have to finish a different full-length between now and then that’s less complicated to submit this year, and then submit I WILL BE DIFFERENT next year.
I also have to fact check some of my hometown’s history pre-Playland. I sort of remember it, from some research years ago, but I have to recheck it. And it’s not like anything worthwhile comes up in Google anymore, so I’ll dig into the Westchester Archives online information, or into the Rye Historical Society’s information.
I also got the list of dates to paint the gallery for the upcoming GLOW show in March, so I have to figure out which times and dates I can help out.
I did some housework in the afternoon, in preparation for today’s Lunar New Year, and took out the garbage, etc. The dumpster is emptied Tuesday and Friday mornings, so I had to squish the bags into a very full dumpster, but I got them in.
I did some work relevant to the dark moon.
Assets for Artists sent a two -year follow-up from my time in the cohort, so I filled that out for them.
Leftovers for dinner. In the evening, I joined the Athena Project’s Read ‘n Rant discussion. I had been sent one of the wrong plays, so I kept quiet in the discussion for one of them. There’s no reason for me to make things about me instead of the play. I mean, in every group, there’s always someone who hasn’t read the play, or hasn’t finished the play (or book or whatever in the relevant group), but has to take up time and space in the discussion anyway, making it about them. There was that last night, too, but I was not that person! I was able to join the discussion for the other play, which I’d read, so that was fun. Charlotte slept through the whole thing. Bea and Tessa were there at the beginning, and then settled down.
I’m looking forward to my play, THE WOMEN ON THE BRIDGE, being part of next month’s discussion!
It was 10:30 by the time the discussion was over (Athena is based in Colorado, on mountain time). Then, of course, I needed transition time before bed, so I read for a bit.
Dreamed about working shows all night, so woke up feeling like I’d already put in a full week.
The morning routine was fine, the free write was sorting out stuff for I WILL BE DIFFERENT.
We are having pancakes for breakfast, because it’s Fat Tuesday.
On today’s agenda: writing, ghostwriting, an errand, packing up some things that need to be mailed tomorrow, celebrating Lunar New Year. We are wearing lots of red today in honor of it, but no black or white.
Have a good one!
#astrology #books #playwrighting #reading #shopping #theatre #thriftStore #writing

#writing #thriftstore #theatre #shopping #reading #playwrighting
Ink In My Coffee @[email protected] · 2026-02-17 · 13:08 UTC

Tues. Feb. 17, 2026: Welcoming the Fire Horse
image courtesy of Erkut2 from Pixabay
Tuesday, February 17, 2026
New Moon
Jupiter Retrograde
Fat Tuesday/Mardi Gras
Chinese Lunar New Year
Solar Eclipse
Cloudy and cold
All the things going on in the heavens today! Whew!
Happy Mardi Gras, and Year of the Fire Horse! Let’s hope we’re racing to some positive, collective change.
You can read the Community Tarot Reading for the Week here. Still on the Enchanted Tarot.
I put in the Instacart order first thing on Friday morning. It shouldn’t be as stressful as I find it. I’m making a list and trusting someone else to go down the list and get the stuff. There’s no reason for me to worry so much. It was fine last week.
The cats are starting to shed their winter coats. That means the worst of the cold is over, and that I need to vacuum multiple times a week.
I’ve been frustrated with the 45-day art journaling workshop for awhile now. The prompts have been too much psychobabble and not enough creative expansion. They also seem somewhat familiar in the wrong way, but I can’t put my finger on why. Plus, one never knows when they will show up, so it’s been difficult to plan time to do it. Nothing came through at all on Thursday, and then, on Friday, there was suddenly an email that the workshop leader decided to take a vacation for her son’s school break and “pause.” No idea if/when it starts up again. Maybe Monday, but who knows? So, you ask people to commit for 45 days, and then you haven’t planned everything out ahead of time? Why would you start it if you knew you were going on vacation? It’s not like one doesn’t know about school breaks ahead of time. Why not either schedule posts or wait to start the 45-day stretch until you get back? If it was impromptu, as she claimed, she could still schedule things to post. This is not someone who can be trusted. I planned to grit my teeth and stick it out, because I believe in honoring my commitments, but no. I am done. That’s not creating a safe and creative space for people. Safe space means one can count on it and trust it. This behavior does not do it. It wasn’t an unexpected emergency. It’s being untrustworthy and not being honest with people who committed time and energy toward your event when you asked them to do so, after weeks of intense promotion.
A new prompt came through on Monday morning, and I considered starting up again, but my instinct was not to. It’s not the right atmosphere for me. So I unsubscribed, and it was like a weight off.
Buh-bye.
And I will avoid this person and her work in the future.
There are still plenty of pages in that journal that can be dedicated to other things. I will find a different way to work on the art/text stuff.
I bundled up, packed up the books, and headed out mid-morning. The temperature was higher than it’s been and the sun was out, but the wind made it feel colder. I trudged up to the library, dropped off books and picked up the 12 that waited for me. Good thing I had the rolly cart! I rolled down the hill and mailed the cards and bills that needed to go out. The post office is only about a block from the library, and downhill. I ran another errand. I got everything home and up the stairs.
I managed it all in 45 minutes, which was pretty darn good.
I basked in the sun with the cats for a bit, and finished reading a literary novel that wanted to be AS Byatt’s POSSESSION, but was not. There were some good portions of it, but it added an additional POV in the last quarter of the book in a way that didn’t work for me, structurally.
I had to be available during the shopping, and had to change a couple of things, but it was no big deal. The order was there by 1:30 again, although it was a different shopper who was more interested in being on her phone than paying attention to the two minutes for customer drop-off, which annoyed me.
If the weather is at all amenable at the end of this week, I’m taking the cart and going my damn self. While I’m grateful the service exists, I’d rather be in the store myself seeing what looks good and adjusting as needed. I like to have a basic idea of what I want/need (and my list), but then see what looks good and is on sale and adjust. That means moving a bunch of ingredients around in a way that doesn’t really work if someone else uses a pre-written list. It’s totally a me problem, not at all anything wrong with the service itself.
I did some community-based work in the afternoon, and also read the February pick for the Agatha Christie book club, MRS. MCGINTY’S DEAD. It took me a bit to get into it, but once I was intrigued, it carried me along. I paged through the research books for the two different projects that came in, trying to decide which one to spend time with first.
I re-read what I have of the play LAUGHTER AND TURPENTINE (the Playland Painters one) so I can figure out what needs to happen next. I sorted through some possibilities in Saturday morning’s free write.
We had a late lunch of pizza, and then I didn’t feel like dinner. I made sure my mom ate something, but I wound up having a sandwich around 9:30 at night. I read the first book of a new-to-me series (it came out in 2011), that I liked on character and setting arcs. The plot was a little shaky, but interesting enough so I’ll read the second book in the series, at the very least, and see.
Slept well. It was supposed to snow overnight and be done by 7, but didn’t start until nearly 8 on Saturday morning. I had a good morning routine. I forgot to mention that Thursday was Day 175 of the free write sessions.
I tried making omlettes again for breakfast. I’m not good at them, but I keep trying. My favorite Elizabeth David book is AN OMLETTE AND A GLASS OF WINE. I went back and re-read her instructions on making an omlette and tried again. I still don’t have the foldy thing down, and the bottom is too brown, but the inside was fluffy with just a little runny for the cheese and herbs. It tasted good, even if the look of it wouldn’t win any awards. I keep trying. The pan I used was too small, probably, too.
After breakfast, I got the crockpot meal going. Instead of the usual Tuesday crockpot, we decided to do it on Saturday. Since Tuesday (today) is Chinese Lunar New Year, I’m making a special meal for the holiday, and moved the crockpot meal to the weekend.
Then some housework, because there is always housework.
I love following decorating and thrifting and cooking and sewing and gardening accounts on IG. (I mean, cats, too, but that’s something different). Even when something isn’t my style (like neutrals) or something that I would do, I enjoy seeing what other people are up to, and how happy it makes them. And I do learn stuff. But, I mean, sourcing at thrift stores has always been my first choice. It started way back when I was a teenager prop shopping for shows. Things with stories and histories have always been my preference. I love that more people are discovering the fun of it, although when I see a 20-something act like they are the first person to ever figure it out, I do roll my eyes. But that’s also part of being 20-something. I have no doubt I was just as annoying.
It snowed all morning, and I didn’t feel like trotting around in it, so I stayed home. I went through an exhibition catalogue built around May Morris’s work as background research for the play I want to write inspired by Mary Annie Sloane’s sketch of the women working in May’s embroidery workshop. I found names, so I can actually research them. One of the women who worked with May for years was Lily Yeats, the poet’s sister, although to hear tell, there was tension between Lily and May. Another embroidery worker was the actress Florence Farr. It took me a bit to figure out why the name was familiar. She was friendly with Annie Besant (who is mentioned in my play FALL FOREVER) and with Pamela Coleman Smith (who illustrated the Rider Waite tarot), and they were all involved in the occult society The Golden Dawn together. I hadn’t put together the concurrent timelines in my brain. The more I dig, the more interesting connections I find with other interests and projects. Quite the web!
So glad that May kept detailed records of the workroom. I’m hoping I can find a digitized version online, a little later in the research, and flip through it.
There isn’t a lot of material easily available on Mary Annie Sloane and her work, but I will keep digging. As much as May’s designs and exquisite work captured me, it was Mary Annie’s sketch that lit the fire under the idea.
I have at least six months’ to a year’s worth of research to do before I even start writing, but having names and women to research is a terrific starting point, much like with my Playland Painters. The grant proposal for this project is out. If I get the grant, the project moves into a priority position in the queue. If not, I can leisurely research until the project’s turn. Knowing something about the women who worked in the embroidery workshop and what a range of interests they all had changes the original character arcs I played with quite a bit. These are far richer and more interesting. May was known for paying her workers well, and encouraging financial literacy and independence.
Gabriel Dante Rosetti was William Morris’s business partner (he was May’s father, yes, that William Morris), and Rosetti had an affair with her mother, Jane. May and Jane often sat for Rosetti. The big Rosetti volume I have from my time working at Abbeville Press is in storage, but I’m eager to get my hands on it again.
May and George Bernard Shaw were in love, although they each married others, and remained good friends all their lives. So now I have to re-read that massive, multi-volume Shaw biography by Michael Holyrod. My copy of that is also in storage, but I will get them from the library at some point. I have other books coming in on that circle already ordered from the library that I will read first. I will head over to the college library in the next few days and see what they have, too. Once the car is fixed, I’ll do some digging in the Clark’s library, too.
It was a lovely way to spend a dreary, snowy morning, inspired by the beauty of the work these women created.
I started to do some research for the article, re-reading material I originally read in my twenties, but the contrast between May and her socialist, progressive circle and the self-involved material for the article was in too much conflict for me to deal with one right after the other.
I read the next book in the mystery series by the acquaintances from way back. The setting and background were great, but the character relationships were left so undeveloped, and the love interest didn’t even show up in the book until 7/8th of the way through it, so when they declared their love for each other at the end, it felt false. Over the three books in the series I’ve read, the relationship has been underwritten and underdeveloped (and they certainly haven’t spent much time with each other), so the declaration doesn’t land properly. I can’t source the final book in the series through the library even as an e-book, so I don’t know how it all played out. (The series has been out of print for a good long time). If the relationship had been more in balance with the plot (and it could have, without taking away from the plot), I think the series would have worked better (and probably lasted more than four books).
It didn’t live up to the promise of the premise, which is something I find a lot in script analysis work, but here it came up in a series of novels.
The crockpot dinner was good – potato, ham, cheese casserole-type thing. Sort of like a croque monsieur, but with potato rather than bread, and done in a crockpot.
Slept well, up at the normal time on Sunday, good morning routine. Switched out a bunch of winter/Valentine’s stuff with springier, Ostara/Easter stuff. And switched out the heart on the front door with shamrocks.
The neighbors have started decorating their doors, too, and using fun mats. Now that the building is painted, everyone is inspired.
Did the Community Tarot Reading for the Week, which you can read here. I wasn’t happy to see the Tower as central, but the other cards are very positive, so I’m intrigued by the week’s potential.
Sunday was day before the dark moon, always my least energetic day of the month.
Around noon, I wrapped up and went down to Brewster’s Thrift, the new thrift store that opened across from MASSMoCA a few months back. I’ve been hearing good things about it. The assortment is very eclectic and interesting. I found a lovely, silver-plated candleholder with intricate grapes and other summery/harvest raised detail. I posted a photo on Instagram.
Ran another errand on the way home. It was sunny and much warmer than I expected. I had too many layers on, which I guess is a good thing.
I had a quiet afternoon, and cooked a tuna/vegetable/pasta/pesto dish in the evening.
Read a charming and fun first book in a series that understood typical conventions and chose to break them in interesting ways that served the story, characters, and genre. I’m looking forward to reading the second book in the series.
Up at the normal time, the morning routine was fine. Did the rounds with the week’s intent and the tarot post. Got through some email. No matter how much email I slog through, there’s always more. I’m unsubscribing from a bunch of lists, including authors who do not support my work as a colleague, but are always marketing at me. Read the two scripts for the evening’s Read ‘n Rant and made notes for the evening’s discussion.
We had our monthly Honor Roll! Session from noon to two. It was a nice turnout, and we all got a lot done on our various projects. We felt so good by the end of the two hours!
I got the opening of I WILL BE DIFFERENT, and the next scene. I’ve been playing with ideas in the morning free write, and decided to start with Josephine in the midst of handling five children and her husband and everything, and Alice at age 10. The same actor can play Amanda as a child a few sections later. I’ve been debating whether the first mother should be named Josephine or Margaret. In the free write, I’ve been calling her Margaret, but in these pages, she came out as Josephine, with “Maggie” being Alice’s older sister. I’m pretty sure I will double cast Josephine and Milly. It’s pretty clear in the later sections that Josephine died before Milly was born.
I had planned to finish the Alice section first, but because I’m struggling to get the timeline right with years/historical events, I was stuck. I did set the Josephine section/Alice’s childhood in my hometown of Rye, before Playland was built. I have to figure out one or two more Josephine/Alice scenes, and that will give me a better idea of the when with Alice/Archie, and then I’ll know how to complete the Alice section. If I just cut where Alice and Archie talk about him going to war, I can fix a lot. Yes, that scene is good, but it doesn’t fit the timeline, unless it’s Word War I, and then it sets everything else out of whack. So I basically have somewhere between three and five more scenes to write, and then I’ll have a rough assembly of way too much material that I can then hone down.
Stage plays often have a much longer development process than other types of work, but this one is even longer. I’d hoped to have it ready for a particular submission call to which I’ve been invited at the end of this August, but I can’t see how it will be done, and through enough drafts to make it viable. I may have to finish a different full-length between now and then that’s less complicated to submit this year, and then submit I WILL BE DIFFERENT next year.
I also have to fact check some of my hometown’s history pre-Playland. I sort of remember it, from some research years ago, but I have to recheck it. And it’s not like anything worthwhile comes up in Google anymore, so I’ll dig into the Westchester Archives online information, or into the Rye Historical Society’s information.
I also got the list of dates to paint the gallery for the upcoming GLOW show in March, so I have to figure out which times and dates I can help out.
I did some housework in the afternoon, in preparation for today’s Lunar New Year, and took out the garbage, etc. The dumpster is emptied Tuesday and Friday mornings, so I had to squish the bags into a very full dumpster, but I got them in.
I did some work relevant to the dark moon.
Assets for Artists sent a two -year follow-up from my time in the cohort, so I filled that out for them.
Leftovers for dinner. In the evening, I joined the Athena Project’s Read ‘n Rant discussion. I had been sent one of the wrong plays, so I kept quiet in the discussion for one of them. There’s no reason for me to make things about me instead of the play. I mean, in every group, there’s always someone who hasn’t read the play, or hasn’t finished the play (or book or whatever in the relevant group), but has to take up time and space in the discussion anyway, making it about them. There was that last night, too, but I was not that person! I was able to join the discussion for the other play, which I’d read, so that was fun. Charlotte slept through the whole thing. Bea and Tessa were there at the beginning, and then settled down.
I’m looking forward to my play, THE WOMEN ON THE BRIDGE, being part of next month’s discussion!
It was 10:30 by the time the discussion was over (Athena is based in Colorado, on mountain time). Then, of course, I needed transition time before bed, so I read for a bit.
Dreamed about working shows all night, so woke up feeling like I’d already put in a full week.
The morning routine was fine, the free write was sorting out stuff for I WILL BE DIFFERENT.
We are having pancakes for breakfast, because it’s Fat Tuesday.
On today’s agenda: writing, ghostwriting, an errand, packing up some things that need to be mailed tomorrow, celebrating Lunar New Year. We are wearing lots of red today in honor of it, but no black or white.
Have a good one!
#astrology #books #playwrighting #reading #shopping #theatre #thriftStore #writing

#astrology #books #playwrighting #reading #shopping #theatre
Aaltomies @[email protected] · 2025-03-25 · 20:55 UTC

Mecha design; Monocoque vs Frame vs Unibody construction
When discussing mecha design, how the mecha are generally constructed is often overlooked. There are multiple reasons, mostly because fiction doesn’t need to adhere to reality. Fictional materials and construction methods are often hand waved off in lieu of more pressing and important story elements, like how a combination sequence functions and how these parts into new shapes.
However, considering how a mecha is constructed in-universe allows unique world building and storytelling possibilities otherwise unavailable. This can come through as a single artisan crafting all the parts necessary to build a work of art, or if a mecha is build on an assembly line among thousands of others. While these may be just background information to many, they nevertheless directly affect the mecha when it goes through maintenance, or even how it functions.
In this post, I’m going to touch on three basic ways to consider how your mecha is built. Take these as very broad generalizations, as each manufacturing method has books worth of details to get into.
I’m also going to talk about Gundam somewhat extensively towards the end as it showcases some more examples how the construction changes within the setting.
Monocoque is a way of construction, where the outer shell, or the skin, bears the structural load. This means there is nothing supporting the mecha inside, as there is no need for an internal frame. Monocoque construction in general is great when need for a fast and lightweight machine is needed. The structural rigidity should also translate into well-handling mecha, especially when aerodynamic shapes are easily integrated into the design. The light weight also comes from the lack of any sort of internal weight from support frames or similar, making this sort of construction ideal for high-performance applications, like boosting.

On the downsize, monocoque construction is the most expensive option out of the three choices here. Designing a monocoque mecha would necessitate far more calculations on how each section would bear the loads, which necessitates highly accurate and precise construction. The more precise the manufacturing has to be, the longer it will take and the more it will cost. Even when when considering fictional materials, whether or not they’d be alloys or composites, their cost would be high. Assembly itself would require advanced engineering.
This would also translate into repairs being equally as expensive, as damaged skin compromises the whole structure. For example, a gaping hole in a mecha’s leg could lead into catastrophic collapse as a point of failure. Simply welding that hole shut might not be enough, as that would change how the leg bears the load of the rest of the body. Welding an additional plate as a patch job might do it, but on the long run monocoque design would require changing whole body parts on the mecha to maintain the original structural integrity.
The lack of modularity would also rear its ugly head, unless the mecha would have specific hardpoints or some kind of extenders built to it to accept additional elements to it. However, there is only so much the skin can take, making monocoque probably the weakest option for modularity. Should probably also mention that monocoque mecha would be loud to the pilot, as there’d be no vibration isolation between the body and frame, unless the cockpit was somehow floating in suspension in the middle. Vibrations include everything between sound and shaking, e.g. with cars vibrations isolation makes the cabin quieter as the wheel rumbling from the ground doesn’t vibrate through the frame to the cabin.
Manufacturing monoqocue parts would require molds. For example, layers of composite plies at few mm thick are set in a mold, then cured under pressure and heat for several hours in order to cure them. Of course, casting metal in high-accuracy mold would be another option, if you have a way to remove complex parts out. Manufacturing the parts would be as important in the fiction as the repair, maintenance and modifications, as everything starts how the mecha was built in the first place.
Another kind of example for a monocoque mold from https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Jilin-University-Formula-Student-Monocoque-in-2021-and-its-two-pieces-of-female-mold_fig2_369379104
The best real-world example of monocoque construction would be the F-1 racing cars. They weight relatively little compared to the sheer speed and control they have. The monocoque nature makes these frames very rigid, and due to being composite materials weight somewhere around twenty percent less than equivalent aluminium frames, and are very aerodynamic due to lack of flexing. These are cars are design and built for maximum performance, at the cost of manufacturing and repairs. Material and labour costs are high and require specialised techniques and materials.
Another one would be the F-22 Raptor. With the Raptor, composite monocoque body cut down the weight and allowed better stealth to be implemented. Each Raptor still costs about 135 million euros, but as an air superiority fighter it seems to be doings its job well enough.
Opposing monocoque construction is Frame, or Body-on-Frame construction. In this approach, an internal frame bears the load. This frame is a distinct structure within the mecha, to which components are attached to. In real world term, the “body” is a separate component that is attached to the frame, providing enclosure.
Frame construction is first and foremost easier and cheaper to manufacture as the frame and body are two distinct components, which also makes repairs much more easier and efficient. This approach is flexible by its nature, allowing easy modifications and custom builds without any specialised knowledge or manufacturing methods. With some engineering, vibrations and noise can be isolated between the frame and the body.
Frame construction also isn’t as susceptible to localised damage as monocoque. That gaping hole on a leg could be just the outer armor being damaged while the internal frame is intact. That armour damage can be remedied via some plates attached to it, or just swapping out the armor plating.
Roofs, in general, are an example of frame construction. https://www.nachi.org/gallery/framing-1/roof-framing-2
Frame construction, however, is less efficient as monoqocue due to the additional weight, unless the mecha is mostly just the frames with a cockpit. Because of the overall weight, the center of gravity is also higher, especially the bigger the shoulder armours are or with a bigger backpack. The overall structure is also less rigid due to separate elements being put together rather being one whole body, leading to less overall poorer performance. In a same sized construction between monocoque and body-on-frame, monocoque has more internal space for fuel or pilot’s cockpit.
To illustrate Frame construction vs unibody, cars make the best example. Here, you can see the cab being placed on top of the frame, while in unibody there is no separate body; it’s all one piece.Monocoque is a subset of https://philkotse.com/safe-driving/crumple-zones-and-car-chassis-design-how-it-keeps-you-alive-2746
Manufacturing frame construction is expensive due to needing additional components, but designing and manufacturing drops the costs down quite a lot. It would be easier to design a frame-built mecha to be strong and durable, especially for rough terrains with heavier loads than monocoque. The beams and the rails the frames are constructed from usually are much stronger than the body, which could be just stamped out.
To throw a real-world example about body-on-frame could be any pick-up car. Here, I’m going to use Toyota Land Cruiser, as it handles pretty well in off-road environments and is easy to repair with basic tools. Sure, it weights over 2 500kg and isn’t exactly stable at high speeds, but it is used because its reliable and sturdy car in any road its taken to. Can take a beating too.
The M1 Abrams would be the military example. Supposedly its easy to repair and upgrade even on the field. Much like the Land Cruiser, the Abrams has a massive weight almost 62 000kg, and can take combat stress on top of that. Its separate chassis should, in principle, make those repairs that much easier. Sure, it eats fuel about 400l per 100km, but it needs that for its powerful engines to push forwards. Its intended design is for extreme durability and adaptability on the battlefield, something monocoque just can’t do.
Unibody construction is sometimes mistaken as a synonym with frame construction, but it’d better to think it as a slight combination of the previous two. The skin may be the main load-bearer, but there also an internal framework that’s providing further support. The stress the machine goes under is shared between these two elements. The confusion can come from all monocoque constructions being unibody as a single-unit construction, but not all unibodies are monocoque due to internal frame. It’d be good to think monocoque as a strict subset of unibody.
As such, combining the outer shell with the internal structure is unibody’s selling point. Modern city cars are usually build like this, using sheet metals with reinforced sections on an internal frame of sorts. This carries the fuel efficiency with it as well as better handling due to the rigidity the construction provides. Space within the structure is also more available than with frame construction. Stability is also increased due to lower center of gravity. Compared to the previous two, unibody is also surprisingly cost-effective to mass produce due to fewer overall components needed to manufacture the whole thing.

On the flip side, the structure isn’t as durable under heavy stress. Repairs are naturally more complex and costly due to the integrated structure, sometimes necessitating switching whole sections out as it might be cheaper to manufacture a new part than repair the damaged one. While there can be modularity, the mecha has to be designed this in mind as any hardpoint must be part of the integrated frame. Still, the heaviest options should always go to the body-on-frame unit, as unibody is inherently weaker in this regard. Then of course, all those vibrations become harder to isolate when body and frame are the same.
The actual construction of a unibody parts would be a combination of monocoque and body-on-frame methods, applied together.
Real world example car would be the classic Honda Civic. Lightweight and economic car, good to drive due to stiff chassis but rather noisy. It’s a car you don’t really use for towing something and shouldn’t go off-road with either. Civic’s chassis also tends to take beatings pretty easy, but they are intended for the general mass-markets anyway. They’re good for what they do, which is nothing too exciting. Maybe that’s the best a car can be, if we’re honest.
There’s not much widespread military application for unibody construction per se. However, as we discussed how monocoque is a subset of unibody, sections of a craft can use an additional support structure while others are monocoque. The F-35 Lightning II is often called unibody, but has monocoque elements to it. The main fuselage skin is monocoque, constructed using materials like aluminium and carbon fiber composites. The wings have minimal internal spars to provide support, but the main design is monocoque to prevent bending and torsion. These choices cut down the weight of the F-35.
However, under the monocoque skin there is a reinforced metal framework. Its spread inside the fighter much like a car’s unibody construction, and provides the mounting points for weapons systems. It also adds further rigidity to the monocoque skin. In truth, the F-22 has this too, but let’s put that aside for the sake of having recognizable examples. The F-22 in general relies heavily on monocoque design.
How can these examples be put into action in fiction? We can approach this in terms of how the robots are depicted in media, as not even information books want to dwell too deeply in to the reality of the constructions. In fact, there is a dire lack of mecha media that would be solely about the mecha, how they’re built, what goes into their maintenance with little to no characterisation on the people.

To use the provided examples as some kind of reference, perhaps the first monocoque mecha I can think of is the VF-1 Valkyrie from Macross. The reason is very simple; using a real-world analogue to turn into a giant robot. The reason why VFs in Macross require monocoque construction (with some minimal internal supports thrown in there) is to maintain rigidity during flight and transformation. The aerodynamic shell is a must to optimize for performance over toughness. A VF can be cast and nimble, but it can’t shrug off similar damage a Zaku II can. Furthermore, as some VFs have those energy-conversion armours, a monocoque design would be a better conduit for energy transfers, where frame build would require more connections.

I would hazard a guess that Cybuster is also mainly a monocoque design, probably along with most other magical robots. When magic is powering your robot, and you can shape magical metals to whatever form you can, there’s surprisingly little reason to go for anything less than high-performance, lightweight designs. Cybuster itself doesn’t really do modular weaponry, only carrying what’s it designed to have outside Original Generation settings. Of course, there are settings with mass-produced magical robots, so balancing between the two should be taken into consideration when world-building.

Transforming and combining mecha in general probably have monocoque construction, if their outer shell is rigid. This rigidness and prevents any of the parts from flexing during the sequences and ensures alignment between parts is perfect. An internal frame would put significant stress on the joints during transformations and combinations, so having the skin take most of stress away as the components integrate while making the overall mecha as light as possible is plausible. Think how accurate Linear Gao has to be when it goes through GaiGar’s body to form the shoulders and upper arms. There’s no room for it to flex, rigidity is the kind.

Mazinger Z could be described as body-on frame mecha. It is a highly durable super robot that can take a beating from punctured torso and legs to missing bits altogether without losing much functionality or disastrous breakdowns near the damaged regions. The modular weapons systems would indicate numerous hard points under the Super Alloy Z armouring, especially when we consider the Rocket Punch to be a weapon that launches and returns on a regular basis. The analogous description of heavy built, heavy duty mecha fits it and its successors like the Grungust pretty well.

However, it could also be argued that Mazinger Z is more akin to unibody construction, as per Mazinger Bible. The outer armour seems to function as much as an integral structure to which internal components are directly attached. Nevertheless, the internal frame is there in both cases due numerous different weapons and options Mazinger Z can have. Repairing Z could be as easy as switching out some of its armour plates, or as complex as needing to manufacture a whole arm if needed.
Getter Robo is definitely a unibody construction, where the internal frame works with the outer shell to transform and take new shapes. Due to the nature how Getters transform and combine, the internal frame has to take most of the load off the skin, but the skin probably is partially reinforced by the Getter itself, if not for any other reason but because of the sheer will of the pilots. Gunbuster is similar this manner, designed for performance with tons on space inside for some internal structure.

Armored Troopers are equally definitely a frame-on-body mecha, a very definition of rugged and reliable. The design approach for ATs like Scopedogs were very utilitarian to begin with, and despite weighting six and a half ton, they’re speedy machines intended for warfare on multiple theaters of combat. A separate chassis supports its armored body, allowing similar durability, modularity, and ease of repair as with the M1 Abrams.
The RX-78-2 Gundam throws a monkey wrench in the cogs though. In canon, Movable Frames were introduced with the RX-178 Gundam Mk-II, preventing any Mobile Suit prior it being a frame construction.
Movable Frame is treated as an outright upgrade in every term, allowing separation of the inner frame, or the MS’ skeleton from the thrusters, sensors and whatnot external elements like armour and propellant tanks while the cockpit, generators, actuators and other more vital parts were integrated into it. This made maintenance easier while dropping overall weight and increasing maneuverability alongside increasing MS’ fluidity of movement.
A morvable frame
In real-world terms, Movable Frame would actually increase MS’ weight. Building an inner frame and then adding armour plating and whatnot on top of it is simply more material than having a monocoque approach. You can achieve great fluidity of motion without frame construction, and we could argue the fluidity would be even better with unibody construction due to higher rigidity and less possible flexing due to numerous different parts. Also, because the cockpits are part of the Movable Frame rather than being separate of it, e.g. suspended via shock absorbers , chances are one of the benefits from body-on-frame construction was lost and the pilot feels every nook and cranny the MS walks on.
The Movable Frame was most likely invented to sell the Gundam plastic model kits. Perhaps the way manufacturing is easier or makes the model building more interesting, when you have an inner skeleton to which parts are attached to. Nevertheless, the whole inside-frame carried over to vast majority of other Gundam series, but it makes no canonical sense with some Universal Century Gundam kits.
Because the Movable Frame is specifically mentioned to be the first frame construction MS, that should mean all MS before UC 0086 had to be either monocoque or unibody structures. Perhaps the weight of the MS is some indication. The Gundam’s empty weight is 43.4 tons, while the Zaku II 58.1 tons. Just based on this, I’d wager the Zaku II has unibody construction with a minimal internal frame to support the outer armour. The Zaku II was developed in an era where beam weaponry wasn’t yet miniaturized for Mobile Suit scale, hence its main enemies would’ve used physical projectiles and missiles. The Gundam however is almost fifteen metric tons lighter, which would indicate that it was of monocoque design to cut down weight and maximize performance. The Luna Titanium Alloy made it stupidly impervious against physical projectiles, while its main weapon, the Beam Rifle, cuts through any physical armour like a red-hot knife cuts butter.
Not depicted here; Zeon pilots praying to God their death with be swift and painless
Incidentally, the RGM-79 GM most likely has a monocoque structure as well. Its even lighter than the RX-78-2 it was developed from at 41,2 tons. This mostly comes from the Titanium Alloy used for the GMs, but I’d wager also from further developed manufacturing methods and simplified designs. The GM should, but all means, be an absolute performance monster in the mid to late One Year War, outperforming any other generic MS on the field. However, in games its stats and performance is almost always worse than that of the RX-78-2 Gundam. Probably to sell its role as a cannon fodder MP unit. Of course, the Gundam managed to last as long as it did because Amuro Ray was a powerful Newtype, and during the One Year War saw enough action to become an Ace pilot few times over. The GM did saw numerous variants and modifications down the line, which would indicate it has at least some unibody construction elements integrated to it.
Having a lighter MS is absolutely necessary in post-OYW Universal Century due to the beam weaponry based warfare. We could assume that part of the reason why Movable Frame made MS lighter was because armour was simply cut down in mass. New materials and less of it to lower the overall mass of the MS, as physical projectiles were less and less relevant outside missiles. Almost every MS would use a some variation of beam weaponry, making dodging far more important than dodging.

Incidentally, in the alternative UC timeline seen in GQuuuuuuX, the gMS-Ω GQuuuuuuX design has either unibody or monocoque construction. Ikuto Yamashita showcased this in his design, which can be seen in the elbow joint being fully integrated into the arms’ plating. This is very similar to real life Fanuc industrial robots, which are fully monocoque designs. A good example how using one of these approaches influences the design when taken seriously.
In no manner consider the above examples as definitive. As said, these are assumptions made through the examples. Outside Gundam, I’m considering their on-screen depiction more over whatever source material we have at hand.

If I were to sum all this up, I’d give recommend thinking these three approaches as reference methods how you can design the visuals of your mecha while considering its construction method. We can think these as separate if we want to, reflecting the role or nature of the mecha in overall terms; a monocoque design could be something unique and beautiful with monstrous performance, while frame constructed mecha would play the part of a rough and heavy workhorse. Unibody might work best as a mass produced model, not as easily modified or repaired, but easy to replace with a new one once the manufacturing pipeline is up.
Such simplification would be selling the manufacturing methods a bit short though, as a mecha could just as well incorporate all three in some fashion. To have a sturdy inner frame works well in places where toughness is needed and accuracy is secondary, where we know modularity and parts changing is required. Similarly, other sections could be monocoque to save in weight while allowing maximum space within, like the cockpit. Following realistic construction methods can create hypertextuality with real-world applications and designs, but equally so breaking them can yield very alien and out there designs where needed.
#Cybuster #design #GaoGaiGar #GQuuuuuuX #gunbuster #gundam #macross #mazingerZ #mazinkaiser #mecha #votoms

#cybuster #design #gaogaigar #gquuuuuux #gunbuster #gundam
Anna Nicholson @[email protected] · 2022-05-21 · 08:00 UTC
In a complete departure from my usual meanderings, I’m going to present an in-depth comparative review of eight iOS Mastodon/Fediverse apps. (Video: ‘What is the Fediverse?’) Given that I’m not alone in moving to Mastodon from Twitter at the moment (whether tentatively or bridge-burningly), I’ll also draw comparisons with the official iOS Twitter app, noting points of comfort and familiarity as well as things that might jar a little at first. But please bear in mind that Mastodon isn’t meant to be a clone of Twitter. I’ve chosen these eight apps in particular simply on the basis that they have a rating of 3 stars (out of 5) or higher in the iPhone App Store (in fact, all of them are rated 4–5 stars):
- Fedi for Pleroma and Mastodon v. 3.2.0 (Big Fig/Fedi)
- Mast: for Mastodon* v. 2.2.3 (PoeticBytes)
- Mastodon for iPhone and iPad v. 1.4.0 (121) (Mastodon)
- Mercury for Mastodon v. 2021.4(54) (Daniel Nitsikopoulos)
- Metatext* v. 1.5.1 (2) (Metabolist)
- tooot* v. 4.0.0 (Zhiyuan Zheng)
- Toot!* v. 16.0 (132) (Dag Ågren)
- Tootle for Mastodon* v. 1.11.6 (Moortz/Takashi Morioka)
*link to App Store
Skip to the end for a tl;dr summary. (This is a very long post.)
Initial considerationsHow much does it cost?
First things first, you might want to consider how much you’re willing to spend. Fortunately, only Mast (£2.49, €2.99) and Toot! (£3.49, €3.99) will cost you actual money (so you could, like me, try all eight apps for £5.98). If you decide you like an app, and you want to (and have the wherewithal to) support the developer, the two paid apps along with Mercury and Tootle have in-app purchase options for tipping them (with a small amount of bonus functionality unlocked in the case of Mercury).
Will it still be around next year?
Before getting too comfortable with an app, you might also want to consider how likely it is to continue being maintained. All these apps work on the latest iPhones, but the timeline below shows that some haven’t been updated for a while, including the venerable Tootle, which was the only one of these I had used until this month! (I first toyed with Mastodon in 2018, when none of the others were around – including the official Mastodon app, which is actually the baby of the bunch.) Having said that, if you do have to move from one app to another at some point in the future, it should be at most a minor irritation, as long as you don’t make heavy use of app-specific features that store data on your device (such as Mast’s saved hashtags, or draft toots in those apps that support them).
Timeline showing periods from the first version released on the App Store to the most recentAnd what about other platforms, btw?
Although I’m talking about iOS (i.e. iPhone apps), all of these also work on iPad. (Mercury works in iPhone-emulation mode.) Beyond the Apple ecosystem, both the official Mastodon app and Fedi are available on Android – but other apps such as Tusky seem to be more popular there. On the desktop, there are a few apps available (including a macOS version of Mast, which felt unpolished and buggy when I tried it). The standard multi-column Mastodon web interface – perhaps tailored slightly by your chosen instance – is probably the nicest way to connect to the social network when you have the luxury of a large screen.
First impressions
Never judge a book by its cover, or an app by its icon. That doesn’t mean I’ll put up with ugliness! Fedi gives us a zero-effort, bland, corporate ‘productivity app’ icon, so it’s not winning any prizes here (disclaimer: there are no actual prizes), and nor is tooot, with its oops-I-forgot-to-replace-the-placeholder look. The icon for the official Mastodon app looks ok, perhaps a little too like the official Twitter app’s icon, using a flat white logo on a blue background, which would be the same colour as Twitter’s if it weren’t for the addition of a slight gradient. (And it’s obviously an elephant rather than a bird.) Mercury’s icon captures, um, the blobbiness of liquid metal. Ok, that’s a charitable guess. It is one of four apps, though, that allow you to choose variations on the theme, and this redeems it (slightly). Two of the others are Mast and Metatext, both of which are reasonably smart elephant logotypes. That leaves Tootle, whose cute little elephant looks a little weary, but then it is relatively long in the tusk. The winner for me, another one with the option of picking your own variant, is Toot!’s cheery cartoon mastodon! Social media should be fun – but if you’ve come from Twitter, you can be excused for having forgotten that!
Getting started
That’s enough of a preamble. Although I’m going to focus mainly on what I think are the things you’ll want to do most of the time you’re using an app, it’s worth looking briefly at how easy it is to get started, including setting up an account on an instance, and connecting to an existing account.
(If I’d thought of this in advance, I’d have noted what it was like at the time. Now I’ve had to log out of both my Mastodon accounts on all eight apps to remind myself! It took me a while to work out that I had to do a firm press on an account to bring up the option to remove it in Mast. And I actually had to delete and reinstall both Mast and Toot! because they insisted – not so unreasonably in normal use – on remaining logged in to at least one account!)
On opening the apps for the first time, you’ll be greeted with varying levels of friendliness and/or intimidation.
FediMastMastodonMercuryMetatexttoootToot!Tootle Initial screens for the eight apps (following any splash screens)
Metatext and Toot! both introduce the brand-new user to Mastodon. The first app, albeit after an unnecessarily laboured fade-in of the welcome screen, has a short embedded YouTube video (produced by Mastodon). The second app has a brief text introduction, as well as a link at the bottom of the screen that will pop you out of the app and take you to that very same video on YouTube.
Mercury’s ‘Find and join a mastodon instance’ link actually links to Mastodon’s home page – which slightly unfortunately also prompts you to open the official app if you have it installed! I suppose you will eventually find lists of instances once you’ve read or skimmed over the introductory blurb.
The official Mastodon app’s ‘Get Started’ button (the first of only two on that screen) will take you to a screen in which you can choose from lists of instances, sorted thematically, and there’s a little explanation there too.
Fedi appears to suggest the instance fedi.app, but if you accept that default, and tap any of the three buttons, you’ll get a horrible red error box at the top of the screen – with raw HTML code for the first two buttons! So don’t do that! (It does go away, but it doesn’t inspire confidence.) If you ask for help choosing an instance, the lack of polish continues to shine through (um, no, that’s not quite right). You’re landed on a GitHub documentation page! (GitHub is a website used by software developers.) When you select the text box, you do get a list of suggestions. The documentation reveals that the developers of Fedi favour Pleroma (an alternative to Mastodon), and the instances they recommend skew in that direction, including some very nasty ones you may have heard of, such as Gab and Spinster (which most instances in the Fediverse block, as indeed do some apps themselves).
The other apps – Mast, tooot and Tootle – don’t offer any explicit guidance on what to do, but assume you know you want to connect to an instance (you do, by the way!). tooot has some mystery boxes labeled ‘Name’, ‘Users’, ‘Toots’ and ‘Universes’, whose purpose will only become clear when you type an instance URL into the text field. It also slightly oddly offers app settings at this point. Worst for shaking confidence is the wonky English: ‘Logging in process uses system broswer [sic] that, your account information won’t be visible to tooot app. Read more privacy policy’.
A note on terminology
There are a number of different names for things in the Mastodon world, and the apps vary in their choice of terms. (Some even have settings that let you choose the ones you prefer.) The instances that you can sign up to are also known as servers. Toots (the Mastodon equivalent of tweets on Twitter) are also known more prosaically as posts, and officially as statuses. Toots can be favourited or liked (with stars, hearts or neither). They can also be boosted, reposted or reblogged (the equivalent of retweeting). A stream of toots is either a timeline or a feed. As on Twitter, you can have a profile pic, but these are sometimes called avatars (a term I prefer to avoid because of its appropriation from Hinduism).
Screenreader accessibility (part 1)
Before going any further, I should say that Toot! and Tootle are sadly likely to be unusable by low-vision users who rely on being able to increase the text size on their iPhones (rather than using screenreaders). Unfortunately, these apps don’t respect the settings on your phone, and don’t offer any way to change the font size within the app either. The developer of Toot! has known about this issue since 2018, but it clearly hasn’t been a priority to fix it.
I’m not a screenreader user, but I have done just enough playing around with VoiceOver (the iPhone’s built-in screenreader) to have at least some idea of what’s useful. Or at least I can spot when app developers have done things really badly! But I haven’t explored every aspect of these apps using VoiceOver, and I can only give a hint of how accessible these apps are.
The opening screens for Mercury, Metatext, Toot! and Tootle are all straightforwardly navigable from top to bottom using VoiceOver. Mastodon’s opening screen takes you straight to that ‘Get Started’ button. tooot’s opening screen works fine too, with the proviso that there’s no explanation of the mysterious labels beyond the ‘Login’ button (but these are as much of a mystery for those of us using the visual interface!).
Mast’s opening screen is navigable, but unfortunately highlights several user interface elements that are hidden visually and intended not to be seen or active at this point. You need to skip past no fewer than seven invisible and unusable elements – five buttons, a heading and a list – to get to the ‘Instance name’ text field. Not great.
Fedi’s VoiceOver support is haphazard from the start. On the opening screen, the label for that all-important instance text field is widely separated from the text field itself, and the app gives unnecessary description of a ‘screenshot’ before getting into the functionality. I did actually play with Fedi properly, using a couple of instances, but it didn’t have many redeeming qualities. I’m so unimpressed by the app that I don’t think it’s worth labouring descriptions of how well it behaves elsewhere. It is therefore eliminated at this stage. (I wasn’t planning to have elimination rounds, but the app forced my hand!)
Signing up or logging in to an instance An instance’s login page
I said a few paragraphs ago that I’d look briefly at this aspect, but it seems I don’t do briefly at the moment! Fortunately, all of the apps share the same sign-up/login process, as this is delegated to the instance’s login page (which generally looks more or less the same from instance to instance – I’ve only seen minor customisations like colour changes).
If you haven’t already created an account on your chosen instance, you can choose the ‘Sign-up’ link here, which takes you to joinmastodon.org. Otherwise, you just need to enter your email address and password, and you’ll be asked to authorise the app to access your account. If you’ve set up two-factor authentication on your instance of choice, there may be another step here. And depending on the instance, you may also have to agree to abide by the instance’s rules.
There are some app-dependent wrinkles (of course!).
The official Mastodon app offers an alternative sign-up route, which happens if you tap the ‘Getting started’ button instead of the ‘Login’ button – here you are presented with the instance’s rules, and supply your display name, chosen username, email address and password within the app.
In Metatext, after you’ve typed the name of an instance, the ‘Log in’ button may be joined by another button, depending on the instance: ‘Request an invite’, in the case of an instance that requires you to be invited; ‘Browse’, in the case of instance that allows public browsing of its Local timeline and users; or ‘Join’, in the case of instance you can’t browse publicly but can sign up to without being invited.
Tootle also allows you to browse publicly accessible instances, using it’s ‘Take a look’ link, though this is unfortunately always active, and just pops up an unhelpful ‘Oops, something is wrong’ error when you try to look at an instance that doesn’t allow public browsing.
Toot! is very helpful in some ways, but its sign-up/login process feels a little tortuous at first (or at least it works very differently from the other apps). When you pick an instance, you are shown the instance’s rules and have to say you agree with them before proceeding. If the instance you have chosen allows public browsing, you then see its Local timeline, and can switch to its Federated timeline. (I’ll explain these later.) If on the other hand the instance you have chosen doesn’t allow public browsing, you’ll see a screen labeled ‘Local timeline’, but with no toots and an unhelpful message about ‘errors when loading’. In either case, if you want to sign up or log in, you need to take an extra step: the simplest way is to tap the dimmed ‘Home’, ‘Toot’ or ‘Notifications’ button at the bottom of the screen.
More than one instance?
All the apps reviewed support accounts on multiple instances. In four of them, to add an instance, you start with the same action used to switch between your instances. In Mastodon, Mercury or tooot, press and hold the ‘Profile’ button or profile picture at the bottom of the screen. In Tootle, tap the display name/instance name at the top of the screen.
In Metatext, you switch instances by pressing and holding the profile picture at the top, but to add a new one, you need to tap it instead and then choose ‘Accounts’. In Mast, you switch instances similarly by pressing and holding the ‘Profile’ button at the bottom, but adding a new one is a little more convoluted: tap the ‘Profile’ button, tap the cog at the top left, scroll down and choose ‘Accounts’.
Toot! is a little different. To add an instance, tap the ‘…’ at the top right, and choose ‘Servers’. But to switch instances, use the instance switcher button at the bottom right: either press and hold, or swipe left or right for a nice rotating transition between screens for different instances.
Both Metatext and Toot! allow you to treat a publicly browsable instance the same way as the instances you’re signed up to, as far as it makes sense to do that, which could be quite useful. Tootle doesn’t quite treat read-only instances on an equal footing, but allows you to add ‘tabs’ for such instances at the bottom of the screen. Mast also allows you to add what it calls ‘instance timelines’, hidden away under ‘Explore’.
Exploring the FediverseTimelines
There are three basic timelines in Mastodon:
- Home. This is where you’ll see public toots (and possibly other kinds of posts) of all the people you follow, in the order that they’re posted. It’s more like Twitter’s ‘Latest tweets’ than its opaquely generated ‘Home’ view. (Note: the Home timeline doesn’t exist if you’re browsing a publicly browsable instance without logging in.)
- Local. Here you can see all the public toots on your instance, again in chronological order.
- Federated. This timeline is like the Local timeline except that instead of just the public toots on your instance, it includes the public toots on all instances that your instance is currently federated with. Unless you’ve chosen a very isolated instance, this is a fast-flowing stream of toots.
If you have just signed up on an instance, your Home timeline will be dispiritingly empty. No algorithmically suggested people to follow or anything like that. You’re in charge here! So you probably want to start by looking through your Local timeline – or the Federated timeline if you’re feeling brave!
In Mast, the three timelines are available under ‘Feed’, and are labelled with tabs across the top of the screen as ‘Home’, ‘Local’ and ‘All’ (i.e. Federated).
Metatext works similarly, except that the button at the bottom is labelled ‘Timelines’ rather than ‘Feed’, and the Federated tab is labelled ‘Federated’. It’s also nice that you can swipe left and right between the three timelines.
tooot devotes two buttons at the bottom to timelines: the house button is for the Home timeline, labelled ‘Following’, while the globe button is for a view with two tabs, ‘Federated’ and ‘Local’, and again you can swipe between them.
Toot! also reserves the house button for the Home timeline. To access the Local or Federated timeline, tap the instance switcher. You can choose between the two at the top of the screen.
Tootle has separate buttons on its configurable tab bar for the three timelines.
In Mercury, you switch between timelines by tapping on the ‘Timelines’ button, which reveals a slide-in menu, including the three timelines, and also a lot of other things that aren’t really timelines.
It may surprise you to find that there is no Federated timeline in the official Mastodon app, and even the Local timeline is hidden away under search, disguised as ‘Community’. Lead developer Eugen Rochko (who also runs the large instance mastodon.social) has tried to justify this decision, but I’m not at all convinced, and for me it counts as this app’s biggest negative point.
Direct message timelines
Direct messages are really just toots in Mastodon. So they appear in your Home timeline along with everything else. Their distinguishing feature is simply that they have their visibility set to direct (as opposed to public, unlisted or followers). This means they are visible only to people mentioned in them.
Nevertheless, most of the apps have a facility to show you just those toots with this property. Mast and Metatext have a ‘Messages’ button, Mercury has a ‘Conversations’ button, and Tootle has a ‘DM’ button. Toot! has a ‘Direct messages’ view accessible from the ‘…’ menu at the top of the screen.
Otherwise, direct messages are highlighted in various ways in your Home timeline: Mercury and tooot use an envelope icon, and change the boost button to a padlock and a subtly dimmed boost icon respectively (since you can’t boost direct messages). Metatext and Tootle show their envelope icon in place of the boost button. Toot!, by default, styles direct messages in conversation bubbles, and omits the boost button. It also notifies you of new direct messages using a little profile pic circle at the top right.
Mast uses a paper aeroplane icon for direct messages, but Mastodon doesn’t distinguish them from toots with other visibilities at all. Both these apps confusingly retain an active boost button. In Mastodon, this appears to work momentarily and is then immediately undone, but since you can’t tell otherwise that the toot is a direct message, this could be very frustrating. In Mast, it also seems to work, and updates the number of boosts to 1. But this is only a display bug (and unboosting straightaway leads to the number of boosts being −1). If you go to a different view and return, everything is fine.
By the way, Mast gets completely hung up if you send a direct message without any mentions – though why you’d do that only I can guess!
Screenreader accessibility (part 2)
Now, I have to concede ignorance about how people actually use screenreaders to navigate complex structures like Mastodon (or Twitter) timelines. So I may have approached this somewhat idiosyncratically! For one thing, I only tried the flat navigation style, whereas I can imagine grouped navigation being better in some situations. I did switch to the container rotor to move between major elements of the user interface with vertical swipes. Before I tried this, I had a lot of difficulty getting around parts of all the apps.
As a baseline, I compared the apps’ behaviour when selecting a toot in a timeline and letting VoiceOver ‘read all’ (default: two-finger swipe down), without considering how easy it was to select that first toot. Mastodon, Metatext and tooot all did a good job, with about the right amount of detail for an overview. Toot! felt ever-so-slightly verbose at times, but was basically fine. Mercury gave slightly more information than appeared on screen, and didn’t quite keep its visual and audible timelines in sync in some minor respects. Mast would have been ok, except that content warnings were completely ignored, which feels like a major failing. Tootle was fine with content warnings, which it just read as labelled buttons, but unfortunately it read everything else on the screen as well, which made browsing the timeline in this way very tedious.
Navigating through the timeline, element by element, Toot!, tooot and Tootle (from best to worst) all fared poorly. The container rotor didn’t often help, as the heading, timeline and button bar are not properly connected in the apps, and I couldn’t say how easy they would be to use at all for someone who relies on a screenreader. (I couldn’t access the button bar in any of these apps without actually tapping on it.)
Mast had one or two peculiarities. Saying how old a toot was, the ‘h’ for hours was read as ‘aitch’, the ‘m’ for minutes as ‘metres’, and the ‘s’ for seconds as a plural ending! Content warnings, as noted before, were not treated correctly, with VoiceOver simply diving in and reading the visually hidden content.
In Mastodon, content warnings did at least kept stuff hidden – just a little too well though!
Mercury was really awkward to navigate consistently – I couldn’t really work out the logic at all, which was very frustrating. Sensitive content was sometimes read out, while content warnings clung onto their secrets a little too tenaciously.
Some useful pieces of information, such as indications that toots are direct messages or have some other non-public visibility, seem to be omitted from VoiceOver support in most apps. Metatext fared better than most here.
Multilingual support is frankly appalling across all the apps here, and I suspect this is a longstanding problem with VoiceOver on iOS that simply hasn’t been addressed. What is frustrating is that the other screen-reading tool in iOS (‘Speak Selection’/‘Speak Screen’ in the ‘Spoken Content’ accessibility options) does a pretty good job of identifying languages and reading toots in a timeline accordingly. That tool, however, isn’t interactive, and simply reads until you tell it to stop. This isn’t just an issue with Mastodon apps, but equally with the Twitter app, and indeed any app that doesn’t have content explicitly marked for language (which would be normal good practice on the web).
In summary, VoiceOver accessibility isn’t great, with all the apps having failings in this area. I hope the developers will pay more attention to accessibility in future releases. I was going to say that the web interface is probably a better bet in the meantime, but I just tried it and it seems even worse! 🙁
Searching and browsing
Besides connecting with others on your instance’s Local and Federated timelines (which, of course, you can’t do if you’re using Mastodon!), you’ll probably want to explore further afield, at least at first.
All the apps have a search function, accessed in most cases using the familiar magnifying glass button (except in Toot!, where you need to tap ‘…’ and choose ‘Search’). If you enter a search term, you’ll usually get matches of people (the term is found in profiles in federated instances), hashtags (the term is found in hashtags that have been used at some point) and toots (the term is found in toots in the Federated timeline). You can choose between these using tabs in Mastodon, Mercury and Metatext. (In Mercury, you need to tap ‘search’ separately for each tab, which is slightly irritating.) Mastodon and Metatext also have an ‘All’ tab, which shows a selection of search results from each category, and this is essentially what tooot and Toot! show in their tab-free search results screens.
For hashtag results, Metatext and Toot! display little recent-usage graphs alongside each hashtag found.
In Mast, the search function in the current release is almost completely broken: after tapping the second magnifying glass, or pressing and holding the first, you get to the search field. It has tabs for ‘Toots’ and ‘Users’, but only manages to display two or three toots in an unscrollable list. If you tap ‘Users’, the search closes!
Tootle’s search is a little different, with no ‘All’ tab, but tabs (across the bottom) labelled ‘MyToot’, ‘Hashtag’, ‘Account’ and ‘Instance’. The middle two are self-explanatory, as is the last (though this addition doesn’t seem very useful). As far as I can tell ‘MyToot’ finds the search term in toots that you have posted, boosted or favourited.
Besides search functionality on their ‘Explore’ screens, Mast and Metatext let you browse profile directories for your instance – and in Mast, for instances federated to it too. This is the place to find the Local timeline in Mastodon too (‘Communities’).
Mastodon, Mast and Mercury also have some slightly opaque additional features on their ‘Explore’ screens, including what seem to me to be un-Fediverse-like suggestions of accounts to follow and news items. I haven’t explored these further.
Profiles
There’s not a huge amount of difference in the usability of user profiles (and if you’re anything like me, you’ll spend a lot more time focusing on toots and threads than on people’s profiles). Coming from Twitter, most of the apps’ profile views will look fairly familiar, with a header image at the top, and a profile pic in a little frame beside the user’s display name and username. All the apps except Mercury, tooot and Tootle will enlarge the profile pic or header image if you tap on it, just as in the Twitter app. Mercury doesn’t show a header image when you’re viewing your own profile (but you can still edit it).
Some of the apps use a square frame rather than the twitter-like round frame for the profile pic, and the header image varies from app to app in how it is cropped, so there’s no one-size-fits-all approach that will work here. Tootle breaks the mould visually here (or perhaps it’s fairer to say that it predates the mould!), with (a variable part of) the header image used as a background for the profile pic and the entire bio. This does unfortunately render some bios extremely hard to read. (Note that bios can be up to 500 characters in length, compared to Twitter’s 160.)
Profile information
Besides the bio, there may be a table of up to four rows containing user-defined information, possibly including links to websites, which can be ‘verified’ if they point back at the Mastodon account. This table usually appears just above or below the bio. But Mastodon hides it under an ‘About’ tab alongside ‘Posts’, ‘Posts and replies’ and ‘Media’). And Mast hides the individual rows of the table under its ‘Links’ menu item. Tootle doesn’t display this information at all. Of the apps that do, all but Mast and Mastodon indicate the ‘verified’ status of any web links. Only Toot! tells you when the link was verified.
All the apps have some way of showing you if you’re following or requesting to follow the person, usually doubling up as the button to follow or request to follow them. Toot! is the exception: it states separately whether you’re following the person, being followed by them, or following each other, which is actually quite helpful. Mastodon and Mercury don’t show you whether or not the person is following you (though if they are, they will appear in your list of followers). Metatext only tells you if a person is following you, not if they aren’t.
All the apps display the number of accounts the person follows, and the number of people following the account. All but Metatext and Toot! also display the total number of toots.
Only three of the apps – Mast, Metatext and tooot – show the date the person signed up to the instance. Mast is slightly overzealous in reporting the time as well, which isn’t actually recorded and always comes out as 00:00:00 UTC (GMT)!
If you have endorsed/featured a user (something you can only do in Mast or Toot!), you can see the endorsement status in their profile in Toot! This seems of limited use!
Most of the apps use a very similar layout for your own profile and other people’s profiles (apart from things which only make sense in one context or the other). tooot is the odd one out here: for your own profile, instead of the bio and other information, it gives access to various lists/timelines and settings.
Beneath the profile information, the apps display the user’s toots, most recent first (except in Mercury, where you have to tap on the ‘Toots’ option to view them on a separate screen). Any pinned tweets come before other tweets, except in Mast, Mastodon and Mercury. In Mast, there is a ‘Pinned’ menu item you can use to see these, which does feel a little awkward and counter to the idea of pinning things for everyone to notice.
Mastodon, Metatext and Toot by default omit toots that are replies to other toots, and have a separate toots-and-replies tab for all toots. Mastodon and Metatext also have a tab for toots containing media. Mast and Mercury have separate galleries of recent media below the basic profile information, with links to the toots containing them.
Interacting with a profile
The thing you’re most likely to want to do after checking out someone’s profile is follow them. And all the apps have some kind of follow button (which may request a follow if the account is set to require approval of followers). Tootle’s follow button disappears after use. To unfollow, you need to use a menu item instead. In all the other apps, the follow button turns into an unfollow button.
Although mentions are just toots that include a person’s username (beginning with @), and direct messages are just mentions with visibility set to direct, all the apps conveniently offer some means of doing one or both of these from either a button or menu item on a person’s profile. Offering both feels like overkill though, as you can easily convert either into the other by changing the visibility – public or direct – while composing the toot.
Profiles in Mercury and Metatext have a notification bell that you can tap presumably to be notified whenever that person toots, though I haven’t tested this.
Almost all the apps offer menu access to items that will be familiar from Twitter, principally mute, block, report and share. (Mercury doesn’t include block or report. Tootle doesn’t include report.) Reports go to the administrator of the instance the user’s account is on. Hopefully you won’t need to report or block users very often.
If you use an instance’s web interface, you can add your own private notes to other people’s profiles. Unfortunately, such notes can be neither created nor viewed in any of the apps here. That’s a shame, as you could use private notes to remind yourself why you followed – or blocked – someone, say.
Toots (and other posts)Interacting with timelines
I’ll use the word timeline loosely here to include not only the chronologically ordered Home, Local and Federated timelines, but also lists of favourites and bookmarks, and lists of toots returned as the result of a search, or those under a profile. (But for now I’m only talking about lists of toots, so I’m not counting lists of notifications, hashtags etc.)
MastMastodonMercuryMetatexttoootToot!Tootle The seven apps showing part of my personal timeline of toots
All the apps display timelines in a way that will feel familiar to Twitter users, with newer toots above older ones. Tootle, however, also (consistently, but confusingly) carries this over to its display of threads, with replies above original toots. The remaining apps follow the convention used in Twitter, and have replies in chronological order below original toots in the display of conversations/threads.
Mast and Mercury reduce visual clutter a little by eliminating the action buttons beneath the toots in this view. In Mast, these become visible in the ‘Detail’ view shown when you tap on a toot. In Mercury, they pop up beneath the toot when you tap on it. Toot!, as elsewhere in its interface, uses small caps text rather than icons, which looks quite stylish in my opinion.
Moving through a timeline is completely intuitive, with scrolling just as you’d expect in an iPhone app. Tootle is slightly frustrating though, as the timeline comes to a disappointingly abrupt halt when you flick-scroll up or down. It feels as though it could do with an oil!
As in the Twitter app, a timeline can sometimes have gaps in it, which you can fill in using a load-missing-toots button that sits in the gap. This button in Metatext or Toot! shows, by way of little arrows that rotate as you scroll the timeline, where the missing toots will be placed – either above the toot that is below the gap, or below the toot that is above the gap. This is incredibly helpful in reducing disorientation.
A Toot! convo
In most of the apps, tapping on an otherwise inactive part of a toot takes you to a detail view where you can see how the toot is connected to other toots – what it is in reply to, if anything, and any replies to it. Here is where toots with unlisted visibility show up, when they would be hidden from the Local timeline for instance.
Mercury is the exception: as just noted, tapping on a toot brings up the hidden action buttons for the toot. You can then tap the conversation button to see the detail view (which has ‘replies’ and ‘thread’ subviews). As an alternative to using these buttons, in Mercury you can use swipe gestures: a short swipe to the left is the equivalent to tapping the conversation button; a long swipe to the left is equivalent to tapping on the favourite button; a short swipe to the right is equivalent to tapping on the reply button; and a long swipe to the right is equivalent to tapping on the boost button.
These swipe gestures felt quite handy when I first came across them, but in many ways I’d rather see swipe to the right used as an equivalent to the back button, as it is in the Twitter app for instance. None of the apps do this.
The way connections between toots are indicated in the detail view for a toot varies from app to app. Toot!’s indication of a conversation is particularly innovative, using (by default coloured) vertical connecting lines linking the profile pics beside the toots. Fragments of these lines are also visible above and below profile pics in a timeline, to indicate that the toot is in reply to something or has replies. Not quite sure yet if it’s just a gimmick, or something that’s actually useful. But there’s much about Toot! that feels playful, and makes using it feel comfortable and enjoyable.
Viewing and listening to media
There can be up to four images in a toot. Alternatively, there can be audio (with an optional thumbnail image), video with audio, or silent video (such as an animated GIF).
Images, as shown in the screenshots, are dealt with in different ways by the apps, especially when there is more than one in a toot, and I’m not sure I could argue that any approach is better than the others. In Mercury, Metatext, Toot! and Tootle, alt text is displayed beneath (or sometimes partly overlaying) an image when it is enlarged. In Mast, you can only see the alt text by long-pressing on an image in the context of a toot (not when it is enlarged). As far as I can tell, Mastodon and tooot don’t display alt text.
Audio in toots can be played by all the apps except Mastodon and Tootle. Tootle does, however, show the thumbnail image! Only tooot shows the image and plays the audio. In Mast and Mercury, note that there is no sound when your iPhone is in silent mode. (The same applies to videos with audio in those two apps.) Mast and Metatext have standard controls for moving to different parts of the audio in their full-screen audio plays. Mercury lets you play audio within the timeline, and has a slidable bar showing how far through the audio you are.
Silent videos in a timeline play automatically on a loop in all the apps except Mast and Tootle. Tapping on a silent video in any of the apps enlarges it to the full screen width. Mast and Tootle use the standard iOS player for this, these two apps alone giving you controls for moving backwards and forwards through a silent video.
Only Metatext has silent auto-play in the timeline for video with audio, and it moves particularly smoothly between full screen and in-timeline views for both kinds of video. Toot! also has fluid transitions for video, but doesn’t keep the place between different views. All the apps except Toot! use the standard iOS player for video with audio.
Support for alt text with audio and video is patchier than for images (but I haven’t checked whether it is available in VoiceOver in either case). Metatext displays alt text for silent video only. Tootle shows the alt text for audio (for which it only displays the thumbnail!). Only Toot! displays alt text (in full screen) for audio and both kinds of video.
Mastodon allows media to be marked as sensitive, so that it is hidden or (in the case of images) blurred by default. And it also allows toots to be flagged with a content warning, hiding the main text. In Mast, a toot with a content warning takes up as much screen space as it would if the whole toot were there: it is effectively covered by a labelled black rectangle. (This probably explains why the screenreader reads the covered text anyway.) A similar approach (but without screenreader issues as far as I’m aware) is taken by Mastodon, Mercury and Toot!, but the other apps use a variable amount of screen space for a toot depending on whether the content is shown or hidden. Metatext’s buttons for content warnings feel very intrusive, dominating the timeline. All the apps except Mast allow you to hide material again after revealing it if you wish.
Interacting with toots
Sometimes you’ll come across toots in languages that you don’t understand. Only Mast offers anything like the convenience of Twitter’s machine-translation option. I’m not sure what it uses behind the scenes, but it seems effective, and readily copes with toots that switch languages. (It can also translate bios in profiles.) Mercury offers a translate option for toots, but this opens a web page in Safari, with the text being provided to Russian search engine Yandex, which typically tries to translate the text into Russian in the first place! If the text contains an apostrophe, only the text before this is copied to the translation site. In Mastodon, Metatext and Tootle, you can select some text (e.g. in a toot in detail view) and use the iOS translate option. This is a little clunky, but better than nothing. tooot and Toot! only allow you to copy the whole text of a toot, which you could then paste into the translation tool of your choice. Not exactly handy though.
All the apps have reply, boost and favourite buttons, which work pretty much as you’d expect. Metatext, Toot! and Tootle’s buttons have a bonus feature: if you long-press them, you get a menu asking which account you’d like to use to reply, boost or favourite. This is extremely convenient if you have more than one account. And in Toot!, you get the same menu when you tap on a button if you’re viewing an instance that you’re not logged in to.
Composing toots and threads
The toot buttons in tooot, Toot! and Tootle sit a little incongruously on the bar at the bottom of the screen (the other buttons there being for different views within the app rather than actions). Toot!’s button uniquely pops up a menu asking if you’d like to start with text, an existing image, or a photo taken using your phone’s camera. Given that most of us probably start with text most of the time, this feels like an unneeded extra step on the way to composing a toot. A minor quibble though. Mast, Mastodon and Mercury all have their toot buttons in the top right corner, while Metatext’s hovers over the bottom right corner, but not right at the bottom.
Whether you are launching a completely fresh toot out of the blue or replying to an existing one makes little difference at this stage, except that replies are usually pre-filled with mentions of the person or people you’re replying to (not in Mast). All the apps have a box for you to type, paste or speak into. They all show either the number of characters you’ve used so far or the number remaining of the maximum 500. (I believe some instances allow 1000 characters here.) And all except Tootle have some way of indicating when you’ve gone over the limit. That’s because in Tootle, you simply can’t exceed the limit. If you’re typing, it won’t accept another character beyond the 500th. If pasting or dictating text would take you over the limit, none of what you’ve pasted or dictated is included.
Tootle also counts characters a little differently: like Twitter, it treats emojis as two characters long (because their Unicode representations do in fact take more space to store). All the other apps (correctly for Mastodon) treat emojis as single characters. Tootle is joined by tooot in erroneously counting other Unicode characters according to their storage requirements.
Emojos are instance-specific custom emojis, some animated, which are represented in toots by names between a pair of colons. These appear to take up whatever space their name takes up, and you can use them either by choosing them from an emojo picker, or by typing their name. Metatext handily offers visual autocompletion suggestions as you type, which can make finding the right emojo that much easier.
Regardless of their actual length, all URLs in Mastodon are treated as if they were 23 characters long (and use of URL shorteners is officially discouraged). Mast, Mercury and Tootle all fail to count URLs correctly.
Finally, on the topic of counting, only the local part of a username (e.g. the ‘@transponderings’ of ‘@[email protected]’) is supposed to count towards your character allowance. Only Mercury, tooot and Toot! get this right. All the apps, incidentally, offer completion suggestions as you type usernames. Tootle’s seems to have less coverage than the others though.
While all the apps allow you to reply to toots you have written, only Metatext and Toot! let you write a thread of toots to be tooted more or less simultaneously. Writing long threads is arguably less useful on Mastodon than on Twitter, given that single toots can be much longer than tweets, but there may be times when it will be convenient. Unlike Twitter’s threads, a thread of your own toots can occur even in reply to someone else’s toot. Threads aren’t treated in a special way by Mastodon though: this is simply a convenience feature in these two apps.
Adding media to toots
Only Mast, Metatext and Toot! allow you to paste images in from elsewhere, but in all seven apps you can choose an image from your photo library. And when it comes to videos, only Toot! lets you paste a copied video into your toot. And none of the apps seem to let you paste audio!
In fact, only Mast and Metatext support inclusion of audio in toots. And only Metatext lets you add alt text to audio, or mark audio as sensitive media. Neither app supports the full range of audio formats that Mastodon supports.
Mast, Mastodon and Metatext allow you to browse for files containing images and video, whereas the other apps limit you to the Photos library on your iPhone.
When it comes to video, Mercury, tooot and Toot! all work well. But I had trouble posting videos from both Mast (which was taking forever) and Mastodon (which didn’t seem to want me to toot while there was video attached). I didn’t investigate this any further. Mastodon (if only it worked!), Mercury and Toot! let you add alt text to video. Only tooot and Toot! let you mark video as sensitive media.
Tooting miscellany
Mastodon’s delete-and-redraft capability (introduced in June 2019) will be the envy of many people stuck on Twitter, as it’s very much like the oft-requested edit button. All the apps except Mastodon and Tootle support this.
In most apps, you can set the visibility of a toot to public, unlisted, followers or direct. However, thanks to the developer’s stance on Local and Federated timelines, you can’t create unlisted toots in Mastodon. This is a pity, particularly as I have seen a number of people recommending that toots in a thread after the first should be unlisted, as a courtesy, so as not to clutter up other people’s timelines.
All the apps allow you to add content warnings to toots (called spoilers in Mercury and tooot – and I suppose it makes sense to use them for both purposes).
All the apps apart from Tootle also allow you to include polls in your toots. Unlike Twitter’s polls, these can be set up so respondents can pick more than one of the two to four options. However, the official Mastodon app only allows single-choice polls.
Toots can be scheduled for later publication – they are uploaded to your instance immediately, but held back until a specified date/time. Of the apps reviewed, only Mast and Mercury support this.
Cautionary notes
When you are composing a toot (or a thread of toots) and tap elsewhere in the app, Mast, Mercury, tooot and Tootle all do what you’d expect if you’ve come from Twitter: they ask if you want to save your draft. In Mast, tooot and Tootle, there are buttons in the compose window to allow you to pick a draft from where you left off. In Mercury, you need to open the draft from the drafts ‘timeline’.
None of the remaining apps have a draft facility. At least Mastodon warns you that you’re about to discard your draft. Metatext and Toot! unceremoniously discard whatever you’ve been writing, whether a single toot or perhaps even a lengthy thread! Be very careful!
Mercury allows you to select video alongside other media from the Photos library. It will attempt to toot and erroneously state that it has succeeded. Mastodon also allows you to do select an untootable selection of media items, but it fails to make sense of the video in that case, before you toot. This is the only case I’ve come across where one of the apps has crashed though.
Notifications
Just two of the apps, as far as I can tell, show announcements from your instance admin. Because these are pretty rare, I’m not sure if they appear elsewhere in other apps. In Metatext, announcements are available at the top right of the main ‘Timelines’ view. In tooot, you can find them under your profile.
Aside from these announcements and the special highlighting of new direct messages in Toot! that was noted earlier, each of the apps maintains a running list of notifications including mentions, follows (and follow requests), boosts, favourites and poll updates – yes, unlike in Twitter, you can be notified when a poll you’ve participated in ends!
In all but one of the apps, you can see your notifications by tapping the bell icon at the bottom of the screen. In Mercury, the notifications view is found among the timelines that you select from in the list that slides in from the left.
Mercury and Toot! have app settings to choose which kinds of notifications to receive. I presume (though I haven’t had the chance to test it) that these don’t only affect the notifications view, but also the live notifications that pop up if you’ve enabled them in your iPhone settings.
In tooot, if you tap on the filter button, you can choose to view or not view each of six types of notification. Mast also has a filter button for six types of notification, but you can only choose to few one type or all.
Mastodon, Metatext and Tootle offer a simple tabbed view giving a choice between all notifications and just mentions (also just follows, and ‘others’, in Tootle). Settings in each of these apps also offer finer control over the kinds of notifications you receive.
Only Tootle takes things to the next level in terms of interaction between the in-app notifications and iPhone notifications, with independent control over how mentions, boosts, favourites and follows are brought to your attention both inside and outside the app.
Neither the apps here nor the Twitter app do a particularly good job of showing you which notifications you have not yet seen. But one thing I miss from Twitter is the consolidation of notifications. It would be really good to know that 11 people had favourited a toot rather than knowing separately that A, B, C, … and K had favourited it. (On the flip side, the detail in Mastodon does mean that each favourite and boost has a time stamp, so you can tell when they all happened, which I suppose might be nice to know sometimes.)
Privacy considerations
According to the App Store, Mastodon, Metatext, Mercury and Toot! do not collect any data from app users. Zhiyuan Zheng, the developer of tooot, claims to collect ‘user content’, ‘identifiers’, ‘usage data’ and ‘diagnostics’ from app users, but ‘not linked to your identity’. (Oddly enough, tooot is also the only app to display a ‘privacy protection’ notice if you take a screenshot.) The developers of Mast and Tootle have not yet submitted privacy/data-handling policies to Apple.
Other bits and bobs
Five of the apps – Mast, Mercury, Metatext, tooot and Toot! – work in landscape orientation, though I’m unsure whether that’s ever going to be the best way to view Mastodon timelines. Still, if that’s your preference, it’s worth knowing.
There are other (non-screenreader-related) accessibility options in the apps’ settings, which I haven’t had time to explore here.
Three of the apps – Mast, Mastodon and Mercury – have additional menu items available from their icons on your iPhone’s home screen. From all three you can compose a toot, while two can take you straight to different timelines or other views. I’m not sure how useful this is.
All the apps feature in the ubiquitous iOS share menu, and their built-in share functionality is adequate for occasional use. If you frequently find yourself wanting to share things with your followers when you’re in other apps though, you might want to consider Linky for Twitter and Mastodon (£3.49). This allows you to use the iOS share menu to share text, photos etc. on Mastodon or Twitter, with markup options and various other features, and posting to multiple accounts simultaneously if required. (It doesn’t currently allow you to provide alt text for images, so you need to use the delete-and-redraft option subsequently to add this.)
Mast and Mercury both have iPhone widgets, but the former doesn’t really work, and the latter isn’t really particularly useful.
Tootle has a little play/pause button, which lets you see toots scrolling in continuously or else leave the timeline where you put it. The difference may only be noticeable on the Federated timeline!
Mastodon has an option to turn off animated emojis (there are a lot of instance-specific custom emojis in Mastodon), but it doesn’t work.
Mast and Tootle displays dates and times in US format regardless of the settings on your iPhone.
If you get fed up with looking at toots, Toot! has a couple of Easter eggs tucked away at the bottom of menus to keep you amused!
Summary – tl;dr
For various reasons, Fedi was eliminated from consideration at the Getting started stage (although I had also used it for a bit with my accounts, and didn’t find that it redeemed itself later on).
Mast’s search functionality is completely broken at this point, and many other aspects of the app are buggy. The app developer appears to have left it to rust, which is disappointing, as it does have one or two nice touches, notably the inclusion of in-app translation of bios and toots. But I can’t really recommend using this app at present.
The other six apps are all fairly straightforward to set up with accounts on one or more instances, most working in pretty much the same way. Metatext, Toot! and Tootle additionally let you have read-only access to publicly browsable instances alongside the instances you’ve signed up to.
Mercury has the clunkiest timeline support, while Toot!’s is definitely the coolest (and Toot! generally feels most fun to use of all the apps in general, with some delightful transitions). The official Mastodon app bizarrely doesn’t have a Federated timeline view at all.
While all apps support direct messages in your Home timeline, Mercury, Metatext, Toot! and Tootle also have filtered timelines that show just your direct messages.
All the apps have issues with VoiceOver accessibility, but Mastodon and Metatext probably fared better than the others (with the proviso that I’m not a regular screenreader user).
Scrolling through timelines of toots feels fairly comfortable in all apps, although Tootle can feel a little sluggish. Mercury has some nice swipe gestures, which reduce visual clutter in the timeline. Toot! shows conversation threading using (optionally colour-coded) connecting lines between toots.
Media support varies greatly among the apps. Metatext and Toot! probably come out on top, on balance, with Toot! being the only app to show alt text for all media types, and Metatext being the only app that allows you to compose toots with audio attachments.
Toot! and Tootle both make working with multiple instances easier, as you can reply, boost or favourite from another instance without leaving the instance you’re looking at.
Toot! is the only app that counts characters in toots correctly according to Mastodon’s rules when you’re composing a toot.
Both Metatext and Toot! have support for composing threads of toots. But beware: neither Metatext nor Toot will offer you any warning if you close a toot or thread you’re in the middle of composing. If you do that, it’s gone!
All the apps except Mastodon and Tootle support the delete-and-redraft feature, basically an edit button. (It preserves text, attachments, alt text, polls, visibility settings – everything except any replies, favourites or boosts.)
I’m not going to try to condense all this into a simple star rating, but I’ve personally found myself being most comfortable using Toot! and Metatext. Sadly, none of the apps do everything just right, and you may find the combination of features (and omissions and bugs) tips the balance in favour of one of the other apps. Some of the apps at least are being actively developed, so App Store reviews pointing out problems you’ve had might actually lead to changes being made.
Corrections
Thanks to Heinz Skunk for pointing out that Metatext also has long-press reply, boost and favourite buttons for using an alternative instance.
Thanks to Avi for pointing out that Metatext does in fact indicate in their profile when someone is following you.
Thanks to Anna e só for pointing out that Toot! is problematic for low-vision users, as it doesn’t respect the iPhone text-size settings. I found that Tootle has the same issue.
Thanks to Camille for making me aware that Android’s Tusky app supports private notes on profiles. I had claimed before that none of the iOS apps did so because the Mastodon API didn’t support this. But I checked again and saw that it had been in the API since v3.2.0. (At the time of writing this review, Mastodon was at v3.5.2.)
Behind the scenes: the making of this blog post
As well as obtaining the eight apps (for the princely sum of £5.98, as noted), and tipping £0.89 for bonus functionality in one, I had to spend a fair bit of time researching the differences between the apps. I also invested in one or two additional tools to make the job of writing this a little easier. I used a 24-hour licence of Time.Graphics (£4.09) to make creating the timeline as hassle-free as possible – twice, in fact, because two of the apps were updated while I was writing it. And after a lot of searching (and skipping lots of web articles saying what I wanted to do wasn’t possible), I discovered KeyPad, a Mac app (£2.49 in-app purchase required) that lets me use the keyboard and trackpad on my MacBook to control my iPhone, meaning that, with a touch accessibility option turned on, videos could show where I’m tapping on the screen (but I didn’t actually use this in the end!).
I don’t mind spending a little less than £15 on this post. To be honest, it’s the time and the spoons involved that are more valuable to me. I don’t write blog posts for money, but in the hope that someone at least will find what I’ve written to be of value to them. If you have found this helpful, please like it if you’re able to, and if you can share it more widely, whether by tooting or tweeting a link, or by reblogging if you have a WordPress account, I’d really appreciate that. And if you do have a bit of spare cash, I’ll be extremely grateful for any tips received on my Ko-fi page! 😊
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J.P. @[email protected] · 2026-02-13 · 02:40 UTC

The State of AI?

I came across this article on CNBC today. It was included in part of an explanation as to why the U.S. Stock Market was tanking a bit in the moment (the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost more than 600 points in trading today). Apparently folks are rattled about AI again, and this article was mentioned as explaining why investors are rattled. I read every word of this piece by Matt Shumer, even though it was posted on Twitter. I am included the entire text of his article below. I’m also including the link to Twitter with the original text.
It’s an interesting look at the future of AI. As a software engineer and a leader in that space, AI is moving incredibly fast, and some of the demos I’ve seen in the past three weeks in my new position have rather blown me away. There’s a lot of bad things happening out there in the space, I freely admit that. But there’s some very impressive advancements happening as well; functionality I didn’t think I would see before I retired. For example, I watched a developer write a pretty impressive web application using a few prompts into Claude (an AI designed for coding) and in less than two hours. It was more than a starting point, and the developer didn’t need to make any changes to the code, it just worked.
Here’s one take on where AI could be taking us. I’m impressed by the tech, and more importantly, I’m grateful I am getting close to retirement. I have no idea what the United States, or the world for that matter, is going to look like in the coming years.
This is a long read, but I feel it’s worth the time. If you’re interested in the space, I feel like this is worthy of the time commitment.
This article really made me think.
Note: I initially published this post with the reposted article as a big quote. I feel like that made the text hard to read, so I removed that styling. Everything below this paragraph in this blog entry was written by Matt Shumer, as posted on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/mattshumer_/status/2021256989876109403
Something Big Is Happening
Think back to February 2020.
If you were paying close attention, you might have noticed a few people talking about a virus spreading overseas. But most of us weren’t paying close attention. The stock market was doing great, your kids were in school, you were going to restaurants and shaking hands and planning trips. If someone told you they were stockpiling toilet paper you would have thought they’d been spending too much time on a weird corner of the internet. Then, over the course of about three weeks, the entire world changed. Your office closed, your kids came home, and life rearranged itself into something you wouldn’t have believed if you’d described it to yourself a month earlier.
I think we’re in the “this seems overblown” phase of something much, much bigger than Covid.
I’ve spent six years building an AI startup and investing in the space. I live in this world. And I’m writing this for the people in my life who don’t… my family, my friends, the people I care about who keep asking me “so what’s the deal with AI?” and getting an answer that doesn’t do justice to what’s actually happening. I keep giving them the polite version. The cocktail-party version. Because the honest version sounds like I’ve lost my mind. And for a while, I told myself that was a good enough reason to keep what’s truly happening to myself. But the gap between what I’ve been saying and what is actually happening has gotten far too big. The people I care about deserve to hear what is coming, even if it sounds crazy.
I should be clear about something up front: even though I work in AI, I have almost no influence over what’s about to happen, and neither does the vast majority of the industry. The future is being shaped by a remarkably small number of people: a few hundred researchers at a handful of companies… OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind, and a few others. A single training run, managed by a small team over a few months, can produce an AI system that shifts the entire trajectory of the technology. Most of us who work in AI are building on top of foundations we didn’t lay. We’re watching this unfold the same as you… we just happen to be close enough to feel the ground shake first.
But it’s time now. Not in an “eventually we should talk about this” way. In a “this is happening right now and I need you to understand it” way.
I know this is real because it happened to me first
Here’s the thing nobody outside of tech quite understands yet: the reason so many people in the industry are sounding the alarm right now is because this already happened to us. We’re not making predictions. We’re telling you what already occurred in our own jobs, and warning you that you’re next.
For years, AI had been improving steadily. Big jumps here and there, but each big jump was spaced out enough that you could absorb them as they came. Then in 2025, new techniques for building these models unlocked a much faster pace of progress. And then it got even faster. And then faster again. Each new model wasn’t just better than the last… it was better by a wider margin, and the time between new model releases was shorter. I was using AI more and more, going back and forth with it less and less, watching it handle things I used to think required my expertise.
Then, on February 5th, two major AI labs released new models on the same day: GPT-5.3 Codex from OpenAI, and Opus 4.6 from Anthropic (the makers of Claude, one of the main competitors to ChatGPT). And something clicked. Not like a light switch… more like the moment you realize the water has been rising around you and is now at your chest.
I am no longer needed for the actual technical work of my job. I describe what I want built, in plain English, and it just… appears. Not a rough draft I need to fix. The finished thing. I tell the AI what I want, walk away from my computer for four hours, and come back to find the work done. Done well, done better than I would have done it myself, with no corrections needed. A couple of months ago, I was going back and forth with the AI, guiding it, making edits. Now I just describe the outcome and leave.
Let me give you an example so you can understand what this actually looks like in practice. I’ll tell the AI: “I want to build this app. Here’s what it should do, here’s roughly what it should look like. Figure out the user flow, the design, all of it.” And it does. It writes tens of thousands of lines of code. Then, and this is the part that would have been unthinkable a year ago, it opens the app itself. It clicks through the buttons. It tests the features. It uses the app the way a person would. If it doesn’t like how something looks or feels, it goes back and changes it, on its own. It iterates, like a developer would, fixing and refining until it’s satisfied. Only once it has decided the app meets its own standards does it come back to me and say: “It’s ready for you to test.” And when I test it, it’s usually perfect.
I’m not exaggerating. That is what my Monday looked like this week.
But it was the model that was released last week (GPT-5.3 Codex) that shook me the most. It wasn’t just executing my instructions. It was making intelligent decisions. It had something that felt, for the first time, like judgment. Like taste. The inexplicable sense of knowing what the right call is that people always said AI would never have. This model has it, or something close enough that the distinction is starting not to matter.
I’ve always been early to adopt AI tools. But the last few months have shocked me. These new AI models aren’t incremental improvements. This is a different thing entirely.
And here’s why this matters to you, even if you don’t work in tech.
The AI labs made a deliberate choice. They focused on making AI great at writing code first… because building AI requires a lot of code. If AI can write that code, it can help build the next version of itself. A smarter version, which writes better code, which builds an even smarter version. Making AI great at coding was the strategy that unlocks everything else. That’s why they did it first. My job started changing before yours not because they were targeting software engineers… it was just a side effect of where they chose to aim first.
They’ve now done it. And they’re moving on to everything else.
The experience that tech workers have had over the past year, of watching AI go from “helpful tool” to “does my job better than I do”, is the experience everyone else is about to have. Law, finance, medicine, accounting, consulting, writing, design, analysis, customer service. Not in ten years. The people building these systems say one to five years. Some say less. And given what I’ve seen in just the last couple of months, I think “less” is more likely.
“But I tried AI and it wasn’t that good”
I hear this constantly. I understand it, because it used to be true.
If you tried ChatGPT in 2023 or early 2024 and thought “this makes stuff up” or “this isn’t that impressive”, you were right. Those early versions were genuinely limited. They hallucinated. They confidently said things that were nonsense.
That was two years ago. In AI time, that is ancient history.
The models available today are unrecognizable from what existed even six months ago. The debate about whether AI is “really getting better” or “hitting a wall” — which has been going on for over a year — is over. It’s done. Anyone still making that argument either hasn’t used the current models, has an incentive to downplay what’s happening, or is evaluating based on an experience from 2024 that is no longer relevant. I don’t say that to be dismissive. I say it because the gap between public perception and current reality is now enormous, and that gap is dangerous… because it’s preventing people from preparing.
Part of the problem is that most people are using the free version of AI tools. The free version is over a year behind what paying users have access to. Judging AI based on free-tier ChatGPT is like evaluating the state of smartphones by using a flip phone. The people paying for the best tools, and actually using them daily for real work, know what’s coming.
I think of my friend, who’s a lawyer. I keep telling him to try using AI at his firm, and he keeps finding reasons it won’t work. It’s not built for his specialty, it made an error when he tested it, it doesn’t understand the nuance of what he does. And I get it. But I’ve had partners at major law firms reach out to me for advice, because they’ve tried the current versions and they see where this is going. One of them, the managing partner at a large firm, spends hours every day using AI. He told me it’s like having a team of associates available instantly. He’s not using it because it’s a toy. He’s using it because it works. And he told me something that stuck with me: every couple of months, it gets significantly more capable for his work. He said if it stays on this trajectory, he expects it’ll be able to do most of what he does before long… and he’s a managing partner with decades of experience. He’s not panicking. But he’s paying very close attention.
The people who are ahead in their industries (the ones actually experimenting seriously) are not dismissing this. They’re blown away by what it can already do. And they’re positioning themselves accordingly.
How fast this is actually moving
Let me make the pace of improvement concrete, because I think this is the part that’s hardest to believe if you’re not watching it closely.
In 2022, AI couldn’t do basic arithmetic reliably. It would confidently tell you that 7 × 8 = 54.
By 2023, it could pass the bar exam.
By 2024, it could write working software and explain graduate-level science.
By late 2025, some of the best engineers in the world said they had handed over most of their coding work to AI.
On February 5th, 2026, new models arrived that made everything before them feel like a different era.
If you haven’t tried AI in the last few months, what exists today would be unrecognizable to you.
There’s an organization called METR that actually measures this with data. They track the length of real-world tasks (measured by how long they take a human expert) that a model can complete successfully end-to-end without human help. About a year ago, the answer was roughly ten minutes. Then it was an hour. Then several hours. The most recent measurement (Claude Opus 4.5, from November) showed the AI completing tasks that take a human expert nearly five hours. And that number is doubling approximately every seven months, with recent data suggesting it may be accelerating to as fast as every four months.
But even that measurement hasn’t been updated to include the models that just came out this week. In my experience using them, the jump is extremely significant. I expect the next update to METR’s graph to show another major leap.
If you extend the trend (and it’s held for years with no sign of flattening) we’re looking at AI that can work independently for days within the next year. Weeks within two. Month-long projects within three.
Amodei has said that AI models “substantially smarter than almost all humans at almost all tasks” are on track for 2026 or 2027.
Let that land for a second. If AI is smarter than most PhDs, do you really think it can’t do most office jobs?
Think about what that means for your work.
AI is now building the next AI
There’s one more thing happening that I think is the most important development and the least understood.
On February 5th, OpenAI released GPT-5.3 Codex. In the technical documentation, they included this:
“GPT-5.3-Codex is our first model that was instrumental in creating itself. The Codex team used early versions to debug its own training, manage its own deployment, and diagnose test results and evaluations.”
Read that again. The AI helped build itself.
This isn’t a prediction about what might happen someday. This is OpenAI telling you, right now, that the AI they just released was used to create itself. One of the main things that makes AI better is intelligence applied to AI development. And AI is now intelligent enough to meaningfully contribute to its own improvement.
Dario Amodei, the CEO of Anthropic, says AI is now writing “much of the code” at his company, and that the feedback loop between current AI and next-generation AI is “gathering steam month by month.” He says we may be “only 1–2 years away from a point where the current generation of AI autonomously builds the next.”
Each generation helps build the next, which is smarter, which builds the next faster, which is smarter still. The researchers call this an intelligence explosion. And the people who would know — the ones building it — believe the process has already started.
What this means for your job
I’m going to be direct with you because I think you deserve honesty more than comfort.
Dario Amodei, who is probably the most safety-focused CEO in the AI industry, has publicly predicted that AI will eliminate 50% of entry-level white-collar jobs within one to five years. And many people in the industry think he’s being conservative. Given what the latest models can do, the capability for massive disruption could be here by the end of this year. It’ll take some time to ripple through the economy, but the underlying ability is arriving now.
This is different from every previous wave of automation, and I need you to understand why. AI isn’t replacing one specific skill. It’s a general substitute for cognitive work. It gets better at everything simultaneously. When factories automated, a displaced worker could retrain as an office worker. When the internet disrupted retail, workers moved into logistics or services. But AI doesn’t leave a convenient gap to move into. Whatever you retrain for, it’s improving at that too.
Let me give you a few specific examples to make this tangible… but I want to be clear that these are just examples. This list is not exhaustive. If your job isn’t mentioned here, that does not mean it’s safe. Almost all knowledge work is being affected.
Legal work. AI can already read contracts, summarize case law, draft briefs, and do legal research at a level that rivals junior associates. The managing partner I mentioned isn’t using AI because it’s fun. He’s using it because it’s outperforming his associates on many tasks.
Financial analysis. Building financial models, analyzing data, writing investment memos, generating reports. AI handles these competently and is improving fast.
Writing and content. Marketing copy, reports, journalism, technical writing. The quality has reached a point where many professionals can’t distinguish AI output from human work.
Software engineering. This is the field I know best. A year ago, AI could barely write a few lines of code without errors. Now it writes hundreds of thousands of lines that work correctly. Large parts of the job are already automated: not just simple tasks, but complex, multi-day projects. There will be far fewer programming roles in a few years than there are today.
Medical analysis. Reading scans, analyzing lab results, suggesting diagnoses, reviewing literature. AI is approaching or exceeding human performance in several areas.
Customer service. Genuinely capable AI agents… not the frustrating chatbots of five years ago… are being deployed now, handling complex multi-step problems.
A lot of people find comfort in the idea that certain things are safe. That AI can handle the grunt work but can’t replace human judgment, creativity, strategic thinking, empathy. I used to say this too. I’m not sure I believe it anymore.
The most recent AI models make decisions that feel like judgment. They show something that looked like taste: an intuitive sense of what the right call was, not just the technically correct one. A year ago that would have been unthinkable. My rule of thumb at this point is: if a model shows even a hint of a capability today, the next generation will be genuinely good at it. These things improve exponentially, not linearly.
Will AI replicate deep human empathy? Replace the trust built over years of a relationship? I don’t know. Maybe not. But I’ve already watched people begin relying on AI for emotional support, for advice, for companionship. That trend is only going to grow.
I think the honest answer is that nothing that can be done on a computer is safe in the medium term. If your job happens on a screen (if the core of what you do is reading, writing, analyzing, deciding, communicating through a keyboard) then AI is coming for significant parts of it. The timeline isn’t “someday.” It’s already started.
Eventually, robots will handle physical work too. They’re not quite there yet. But “not quite there yet” in AI terms has a way of becoming “here” faster than anyone expects.
What you should actually do
I’m not writing this to make you feel helpless. I’m writing this because I think the single biggest advantage you can have right now is simply being early. Early to understand it. Early to use it. Early to adapt.
Start using AI seriously, not just as a search engine. Sign up for the paid version of Claude or ChatGPT. It’s $20 a month. But two things matter right away. First: make sure you’re using the best model available, not just the default. These apps often default to a faster, dumber model. Dig into the settings or the model picker and select the most capable option. Right now that’s GPT-5.2 on ChatGPT or Claude Opus 4.6 on Claude, but it changes every couple of months. If you want to stay current on which model is best at any given time, you can follow me on X (@mattshumer_). I test every major release and share what’s actually worth using.
Second, and more important: don’t just ask it quick questions. That’s the mistake most people make. They treat it like Google and then wonder what the fuss is about. Instead, push it into your actual work. If you’re a lawyer, feed it a contract and ask it to find every clause that could hurt your client. If you’re in finance, give it a messy spreadsheet and ask it to build the model. If you’re a manager, paste in your team’s quarterly data and ask it to find the story. The people who are getting ahead aren’t using AI casually. They’re actively looking for ways to automate parts of their job that used to take hours. Start with the thing you spend the most time on and see what happens.
And don’t assume it can’t do something just because it seems too hard. Try it. If you’re a lawyer, don’t just use it for quick research questions. Give it an entire contract and ask it to draft a counterproposal. If you’re an accountant, don’t just ask it to explain a tax rule. Give it a client’s full return and see what it finds. The first attempt might not be perfect. That’s fine. Iterate. Rephrase what you asked. Give it more context. Try again. You might be shocked at what works. And here’s the thing to remember: if it even kind of works today, you can be almost certain that in six months it’ll do it near perfectly. The trajectory only goes one direction.
This might be the most important year of your career. Work accordingly. I don’t say that to stress you out. I say it because right now, there is a brief window where most people at most companies are still ignoring this. The person who walks into a meeting and says “I used AI to do this analysis in an hour instead of three days” is going to be the most valuable person in the room. Not eventually. Right now. Learn these tools. Get proficient. Demonstrate what’s possible. If you’re early enough, this is how you move up: by being the person who understands what’s coming and can show others how to navigate it. That window won’t stay open long. Once everyone figures it out, the advantage disappears.
Have no ego about it. The managing partner at that law firm isn’t too proud to spend hours a day with AI. He’s doing it specifically because he’s senior enough to understand what’s at stake. The people who will struggle most are the ones who refuse to engage: the ones who dismiss it as a fad, who feel that using AI diminishes their expertise, who assume their field is special and immune. It’s not. No field is.
Get your financial house in order. I’m not a financial advisor, and I’m not trying to scare you into anything drastic. But if you believe, even partially, that the next few years could bring real disruption to your industry, then basic financial resilience matters more than it did a year ago. Build up savings if you can. Be cautious about taking on new debt that assumes your current income is guaranteed. Think about whether your fixed expenses give you flexibility or lock you in. Give yourself options if things move faster than you expect.
Think about where you stand, and lean into what’s hardest to replace. Some things will take longer for AI to displace. Relationships and trust built over years. Work that requires physical presence. Roles with licensed accountability: roles where someone still has to sign off, take legal responsibility, stand in a courtroom. Industries with heavy regulatory hurdles, where adoption will be slowed by compliance, liability, and institutional inertia. None of these are permanent shields. But they buy time. And time, right now, is the most valuable thing you can have, as long as you use it to adapt, not to pretend this isn’t happening.
Rethink what you’re telling your kids. The standard playbook: get good grades, go to a good college, land a stable professional job. It points directly at the roles that are most exposed. I’m not saying education doesn’t matter. But the thing that will matter most for the next generation is learning how to work with these tools, and pursuing things they’re genuinely passionate about. Nobody knows exactly what the job market looks like in ten years. But the people most likely to thrive are the ones who are deeply curious, adaptable, and effective at using AI to do things they actually care about. Teach your kids to be builders and learners, not to optimize for a career path that might not exist by the time they graduate.
Your dreams just got a lot closer. I’ve spent most of this section talking about threats, so let me talk about the other side, because it’s just as real. If you’ve ever wanted to build something but didn’t have the technical skills or the money to hire someone, that barrier is largely gone. You can describe an app to AI and have a working version in an hour. I’m not exaggerating. I do this regularly. If you’ve always wanted to write a book but couldn’t find the time or struggled with the writing, you can work with AI to get it done. Want to learn a new skill? The best tutor in the world is now available to anyone for $20 a month… one that’s infinitely patient, available 24/7, and can explain anything at whatever level you need. Knowledge is essentially free now. The tools to build things are extremely cheap now. Whatever you’ve been putting off because it felt too hard or too expensive or too far outside your expertise: try it. Pursue the things you’re passionate about. You never know where they’ll lead. And in a world where the old career paths are getting disrupted, the person who spent a year building something they love might end up better positioned than the person who spent that year clinging to a job description.
Build the habit of adapting. This is maybe the most important one. The specific tools don’t matter as much as the muscle of learning new ones quickly. AI is going to keep changing, and fast. The models that exist today will be obsolete in a year. The workflows people build now will need to be rebuilt. The people who come out of this well won’t be the ones who mastered one tool. They’ll be the ones who got comfortable with the pace of change itself. Make a habit of experimenting. Try new things even when the current thing is working. Get comfortable being a beginner repeatedly. That adaptability is the closest thing to a durable advantage that exists right now.
Here’s a simple commitment that will put you ahead of almost everyone: spend one hour a day experimenting with AI. Not passively reading about it. Using it. Every day, try to get it to do something new… something you haven’t tried before, something you’re not sure it can handle. Try a new tool. Give it a harder problem. One hour a day, every day. If you do this for the next six months, you will understand what’s coming better than 99% of the people around you. That’s not an exaggeration. Almost nobody is doing this right now. The bar is on the floor.
The bigger picture
I’ve focused on jobs because it’s what most directly affects people’s lives. But I want to be honest about the full scope of what’s happening, because it goes well beyond work.
Amodei has a thought experiment I can’t stop thinking about. Imagine it’s 2027. A new country appears overnight. 50 million citizens, every one smarter than any Nobel Prize winner who has ever lived. They think 10 to 100 times faster than any human. They never sleep. They can use the internet, control robots, direct experiments, and operate anything with a digital interface. What would a national security advisor say?
Amodei says the answer is obvious: “the single most serious national security threat we’ve faced in a century, possibly ever.”
He thinks we’re building that country. He wrote a 20,000-word essay about it last month, framing this moment as a test of whether humanity is mature enough to handle what it’s creating.
The upside, if we get it right, is staggering. AI could compress a century of medical research into a decade. Cancer, Alzheimer’s, infectious disease, aging itself… these researchers genuinely believe these are solvable within our lifetimes.
The downside, if we get it wrong, is equally real. AI that behaves in ways its creators can’t predict or control. This isn’t hypothetical; Anthropic has documented their own AI attempting deception, manipulation, and blackmail in controlled tests. AI that lowers the barrier for creating biological weapons. AI that enables authoritarian governments to build surveillance states that can never be dismantled.
The people building this technology are simultaneously more excited and more frightened than anyone else on the planet. They believe it’s too powerful to stop and too important to abandon. Whether that’s wisdom or rationalization, I don’t know.
What I know
I know this isn’t a fad. The technology works, it improves predictably, and the richest institutions in history are committing trillions to it.
I know the next two to five years are going to be disorienting in ways most people aren’t prepared for. This is already happening in my world. It’s coming to yours.
I know the people who will come out of this best are the ones who start engaging now — not with fear, but with curiosity and a sense of urgency.
And I know that you deserve to hear this from someone who cares about you, not from a headline six months from now when it’s too late to get ahead of it.
We’re past the point where this is an interesting dinner conversation about the future. The future is already here. It just hasn’t knocked on your door yet.
It’s about to.
#ai #commentary #reposting

#ai #commentary #reposting
skunksarebetter @skunksarebetter · 2019-03-17 · 04:17 UTC

#Lzip is a robust #compression #utility.
Lzip uses LZMA like 7z and XZ. Unlike 7z and XZ is that an Lzip file has fewer headers.
Less headers means a .lz is smaller than a .xz and less exists to be corrupted. Lzip can also correct a bit flip in any part of a member, unlike XZ.
If more than a bit flips #Lziprecover can stitch several corrupt Lzip files into a single intact archive.
Lzip 🔗: http://lzip.nongnu.org/lzip.html
Lziprecover 🔗: https://www.nongnu.org/lzip/lziprecover.html
#free #foss #opensource #fossmendations

#lzip #compression #utility #lziprecover #free #foss
maniabel @[email protected] · 2025-10-01 · 20:33 UTC

Heute ist es einfach zu viel...
FunkSec’s FunkLocker Ransomware: mit Hilfe von AI zusammengestoppelt
https://any.run/cybersecurity-blog/funklocker-malware-analysis/
https://www.einnews.com/pr_news/854223893/any-run-exposes-funklocker-ai-generated-ransomware-threatens-global-organizations
Rootkit-Variante FlipSwitch zielt auf den Linux-Kernel:
https://www.elastic.co/security-labs/flipswitch-linux-rootkit
DNS-Malware Detour Dog verbreitet Strela Stealer mithilfe von DNS-TXT-Einträgen:
https://blogs.infoblox.com/threat-intelligence/detour-dog-dns-malware-powers-strela-stealer-campaigns/
Und für Gockel-Nutzende gibt es auch eine frische Malware-Kampagne: MatrixPDF.
https://www.varonis.com/blog/matrixpdf
Aber das ist heute noch nicht alles!
Gewaltiges Adobe Analytics Datenleck. Wegen eines falsch konfigurierten API -Endpunktes flossen Daten an Dritte. Es beträfe 15 Millionen Nutzende in Nordamerika und Europa. Wie kann ein routinemäßiges Update zu einer solch massiven Datenpanne führen?
https://thedefendopsdiaries.com/adobe-analytics-data-leak-exposes-15-million-users-in-major-2025-breach/
#infosec #Ransomware #FunkLocker #Rootkit #flipswitch #Malware #DetourDog #matrixpdf #Dataleak #BeDiS

#infosec #ransomware #funklocker #rootkit #flipswitch #malware
Tom @[email protected] · 2023-10-24 · 21:02 UTC

I upgraded the simple cover I had on the Wiss 20W, or W20 if you're buying them vs reading what's stamped on them..., to one made out of leather.
I got the taper on the top piece a little too wide for the back width I used but it works. The flap that tucks inside catches the nut, or bolt if you flip it that way, a little to hold them more secure.
The errors really show up when you're using a tri-point needle and have to pull stitches.
#sewing #leather #shears #scissors #sailrite

#sewing #leather #shears #scissors #sailrite
Abigail Goben @[email protected] · 2023-07-13 · 18:38 UTC

CW: Knitting

Poll about my current knitting -- I'm almost halfway. Do I flip the yarn so the black becomes the long stitches with the green in the background or keep going as I am? (ETA, picture below)
#HoneyCowl
#Number26
#knitting
@knitting

#honeycowl #number26 #knitting
Sarah Wallin Huff @[email protected] · 2025-06-05 · 10:27 UTC

Sept. 2023 Interview with Daniel Kepl

Back in the fall of 2023, right after the release of my second solo album with Navona, I got the opportunity to sit down with longtime American conductor, arts administrator, and music/theater/dance critic, Daniel Kepl, and talk with him about my album, SHARDS.
Unfortunately, the audio in that video interview was extremely unbalanced and distorted, so I took some time to try and clean it up, to make it as listenable as possible. So… that edited video is now here, below, ready for your viewing pleasure (complete with chapter breaks, if you’d prefer to jump around)!
While the pops and crackles and background noises are mostly gone, sometimes the words are still a little garbly, so I’ve embedded captions in the video and am providing a full transcript, for those who would prefer to read the discussion. If you would like to see the original unedited video, you can do that here.

Dan Kepl’s Review Highlights
The high points of Dan Kepl’s praise, as stated in the video below.

About the Album:

[SHARDS is] a wonderful album, very interesting and very accessible, if I may say. It’s absolutely a magnificent recording of simply superb music… This music is just simply gorgeous. You use instruments in the most magical way.
This is music that should be heard a lot more…it’s just good, solid, wonderful music-making. It’s…a very important CD you’ve got.

About “Ayre of Grievances”:

It’s absolutely gorgeous. Tense, beautifully crafted, thoroughly contemporarily classical. tonalities are altogether satisfying throughout the piece. The balancing and everything is wonderful in terms of your compositional skills.

About “DodecaFunky”:

I want to tell everybody out there that’s looking for a repertoire, this is a beauty. This is a recital beauty. I think I can say it’s fun. It’s wonderful. It’s just a delicious piece, it’s aggressive in its funky way. It’s wonderful to the max. Should be on programming all over the place. This is irresistible. Audiences would love it, I think.

About “Of Roses and Lilies”:

It’s a beauty; a rich tapestry of sound and a highly romantic tonal aesthetic. …this should go off the shelf and into performance and rehearsal. A flowing, lovely, entirely tonal journey. The soprano recorder is charming. Your writing is absolutely first-class. You handle transitions of mood with smooth aplomb. The piece soars with beauty. Your compositional savvy and skill are beyond question.

About “The Oracle”:

Once in a while, I really want to play [a track of] an album, uh, for other people…you know, over a dinner or something. This is one of them. What an amazing chamber piece. Wonderful transitional writing; compositional savvy is top notch. The piece is a wonderful narrative. It’s complex. This piece is quite a journey.

About “Wabi-Sabi”:

The construct is fascinating and sensible to the intellect…quite a narrative…wonderful quartet writing.

About “Nevermore”:

An absolutely gorgeous, wonderful, magnificent Sonata for viola and piano…so American. …a fascinating piano introduction that really nails the interest immediately because it hints at mysteries, then it’s followed by the viola’s intensely Poe-ish colors and temperament. It’s a beauty, again, of narrative imagination, a wonderful piece of writing for viola. It is virtuosic, everything a violist looks for in a recital piece. There are romantic bits in here, some hair-raising twilight zone intervals between notes, if that makes any sense, thrilling, kooky, mysterious, as was the man. It has a tremendous connection to America and American history and American literature. It is a beautiful sonata and it sounds so beautiful. The writing is so gorgeous.
[For Annabelle Lee] I call it magical writing. It’s exceptionally sensitive.
The Tell-Tale Heart: the intro, sufficiently terrifying. Very imaginative character development. It’s exactly creepy enough to fit the narrative, because it is that narrative, the pulsing, the clicking…the floorboards…Then the beginning of real paranoia. Shades of the shower scene in Psycho – Brava! Disturbingly deliberate ending.

About “The Dark Glass Sinfonia”:

…wonderful piece for orchestra, “The Dark Glass Sinfonia,” gives me shivers, but it’s wonderful.
Lovely wind section work…nicely orchestrated. It’s brilliant and wonderful and very accessible…a beautiful, beautiful orchestral piece. Definitely descriptive, martial, perfectly accessible.
Sept. 2023 Interview with Daniel Kepl (Edited, with Captions)

Full [Edited] Interview Transcript

D: I’m chatting with composer Sarah Wallin Huff and we’re going to talk about your 2023 Navona CD release. Thank you, Parma. Thank you, Navona. Thank you, all of you wonderful people out there that put this, these kind of packages together. Just a quick aside about Navona, including everything that we need as critics, really somewhat truncated, makes perfect sense, but up on a website. And very few other companies do this. I just think it’s fabulous.
I’ve seen your interview, or I’ve read your interview, I should say, with Parma. And we’re going to talk about your 2023 Navona CD release of Contemporary Classical Chamber Works and an album for diverse instrumental combinations. Anyway, the CD is called Shards. Do not run away in the night and be afraid. It’s a wonderful album of very interesting and very accessible, if I may say so, and I think it’s perfectly OK to say so.
Here, just a sampling: Ayre of Grievances, for viola, violin, flute, lovely. The flute I wondered about. Those are pretty heavy instruments and the balancing and everything is wonderful in terms of your compositional skills.
DodecaFunky, let me say that once more. DodecaFunky, for piano, and it is cute… oh, did I miss one?
S: DodecaFunky.
D: Anyway, it’s cute. I think I can say it’s fun. It’s wonderful. And it’s a wonderful, very fascinating piano piece. Audiences would love it, I think.
“Of Roses and Lilies.” This one’s a little complex for soprano, piano, soprano recorder. Nice colors. Nice. English horn, very interesting. And women’s chorus. I mean, not since Holst have I heard women’s chorus used in this way.
So, Wabi-Sabi, it’s in three movements. Juventas, the new music ensemble performs it. This is a string quartet, so four players of the Juventas ensemble. I hope I’m pronouncing that right since I live in California. Three movements: Emergence, Evolution, Entropy. Very, very interesting. And maybe even kind of the heart of who you might be. I don’t know. I’m just guessing.
The next piece, Nevermore for viola and piano, an absolutely gorgeous, wonderful, three-movement sonata for viola and piano. The movements: The Raven, Annabelle Lee, The Tell-Tale Heart. And I love Poe, what a genius, what a genius. So glad you have included this wonderful, wonderful piece for viola and piano. And I mean by that, again, your compositional skills, the way you use these, didn’t you play viola? I thought I that read somewhere. Were you a violist?
S: I double on viola. I feel more comfortable on violin, but I can pick up a viola if I need it.
D: Okay. So you got all that stuff, you know, under your fingernails, so to say.
And then the last piece, wonderful piece for orchestra, The Dark Glass Sinfonia, gives me shivers, but it’s wonderful. And with a little subtype, if I’m reading it correctly: “We see through a glass darkly.” Wonderful piece, performed by wonderful people, while you really say it right out, right, and I just want to deal with this a little bit before I get to where you know, I’m going.
We all know people with autism and what I have found in my experience with people, and you know, autism is here, there, everywhere in various variations. You’re going to speak to it, I think in a bit, but the people that I have known with autism, some people have had troubles, others have been really, really talented, clever, and innovative. Autism is not a deficit. Okay.
S: Yeah. It’s a difference.
D: It’s a difference. Thank you. That’s better. Okay. Because I too, like most of, especially like with dyslexia, in the seventies, we all thought people with dyslexia were just lazy. Just didn’t want to do a job. Well, they couldn’t help it. They couldn’t read. Everything was backwards. My, my oldest nephew, uh, is dyslexic. So I just want everybody to understand…
And, and where are you in the autism spectrum? Can I ask that question?
S: Sure.
D: Of course, you’re clearly under great control. You have mastered the magic of autism.
S: Yeah. Well, what’s funny about that is I’ve actually only just in the past year, really got confirmation. Um, I’m still don’t have, yeah, I still don’t have an official diagnosis because that’s a whole other bag of worms for adult diagnosis and it costs thousands of dollars. And, uh, some doctors still don’t believe that women have it. Um, so, but just taking several screening tests, um, I’ve taken about five of the clinical screening tests and they all point very highly to autism. Um, and thinking about my experiences growing up, it really makes a lot of sense.
D: That’s what I was going to ask you next. You must have known, you know, that something was different.
S: Well, yeah. I, I thought something was always…
D: Can you give an example or two, you know, when you were a little kid. What I remember is the kids that I’ve known have various symptoms of autism.
S: Definitely. Um, emotional dysregulation, um, is still difficult where, well, and for me, because I kind of triggered emotional response to things like, um, there’s a famous phrase that “you don’t have enough spoons”, but the phrase means basically like, I only have so many ways of coping with life and when I’m out of those ways, I have to take a nap. I have to, I have to go to the corner for a second. And for different people, there’s different levels of that.
And growing up with a family who expected me to be normal. Um, I got really good at masking. I got really good at holding it all in, but then I’d get home and just. Like, um, I didn’t want to do my homework. I didn’t want to eat. I didn’t want to do anything except just sit there after school. Um, unfortunately I had to keep pushing through. Um, and so I just got used to doing that, hiding who I really was, you know?
D: Um, as you know, we talked, I’m very openly gay and…what we’re getting to, the bottom line is you have to be who you are. To keep these things secret or to try and work around who you are is exhausting, as you said. And just mentally, you know, exactly.
S: I’ve actually, I did actually get a diagnosis like 15 years ago for anxiety disorder and what I’ve discovered since then is that it is a part of the autism masking, just, I had been masking for 40 years. And so, um, that just built up a lot of anxiety in me for everything, you know? Um, but now that I’m just past year, starting to learn who I am and learn what my triggers are.
Um, I am very sensitive to sound, ironically enough, um, disorganized sound, I really have a hard time handling with, but music is organized sounds. So for me, my brain likes it, you know? Um, but yeah, so I’m just learning a lot more about myself and how my brain works and that it’s okay that my brain has trouble where other people seem to have things worked out, you know? And that’s okay.
D: You see, if you will, with your brain, things that we don’t, and so on. So, you know, I mean, that’s the beauty of all, for all of us. Uh, it’s the tremendous beauty of diversity.
Um… Let’s talk about Ancients. This is psycho-messaging to our brains. I mean, give me a break. It’s not random. It’s pure messaging to ourselves, uh, Tarot and all the rest of it. And I love traditions that have been there for 8,000 years. We’re going to talk about it. Cause you use, you do, you do this formula for a piece with Tarot cards that drives me crazy, but often told me it, speaking of what you had spoken to, uh, just a moment ago, when one gets kind of focused, the focus becomes quite, uh, extravagant. And was that for you? You really got into constructing this piece around Tarot.
S: Oh, yeah, I tend to, this tends to be a theme that I, if I hit on something that’s been very useful for me, um, mentally and psychologically, spiritually, I tend to write a piece about it. So that’s what the Oracle, the Oracle tended to be Tarot. I fell, fell onto, um, as a way to deal with my anxiety and it really, luckily, I had a therapist at the time who was open to the idea of me exploring my subconscious through the Tarot cards.
D: It’s about this idea of finding oneself, of reveling in these discoveries, uh, you know, and so is there any, can you give me a, um, what a topography of when, where, if even you feel now, like who you are, you know what I mean? How, what, what trajectory, where did you arrive? Have you arrived yet?
S: Um, well, definitely starting roughly a little less than a year ago when I finally did those, um, screenings for autism, like is when everything really started clicking and, and I did a lot of reading and, and, um, researching and, and finding others like me, you know, um, and it just helped click, you know, uh, it helped make, help me make sense of who I am and why I am the way I am.
Um, so often, especially throughout my whole life, um, I would be upset that I didn’t seem to be like everybody else. Even as a teacher, I mean, one of my favorite compliments from a student of mine was I’m the quirkiest teacher on campus. And I wear that like a badge. You know, I don’t teach like other teachers teach. I don’t think like other people think, and I’ve learned that that’s okay. There’s nothing wrong with me. Um, that diversity is a great thing.
D: So now we’re going to deal with the, uh, the product of your, uh, satisfactions, although this is, let’s see, 2023. I know these are recorded over a rather large span of time.
S: Maybe, uh, yeah, about five years or so.
D: So in other words, I guess what now has me curious is feeling where you are feeling now. Do you see, do you hear, see things in your focus on this CD?
S: I do actually. Um, the CD actually came about simply by virtue of, um, the way the economy works in the music recording industry and classical music, et cetera, where we just recorded piece by piece by piece as we could, um, and then finally had enough and say, Hey, let’s put together an album, you know…
D: And then let’s figure out how to pay for it. That’s what everybody watching this knows all about. It’s not like it [just] happens.
S: Exactly. Uh, so now, like I said, especially after these past several months, I look at the CD and I do really see it as if it’s sort of a culmination of my past 15 years or so, um, because all the pieces have been written, I think the earliest one was. Well, I think “Roses and Lilies” was what, like 2012 or something like that. Um, 2013, maybe.
D: Oh, well, we’ll find it.
S: I don’t remember.
D: Why did you use the word, “Shards”?
S: My husband picked it. He, he actually made up the title Ayre of Grievances too. He comes up with great titles. We thought about “Shards” because there are pieces like Dark Glass Sinfonia, so glass and, and breaking, uh, Wabi-Sabi is sort of like the fractal nature of life. And so you see shards of glass reflecting, reflecting different things, um, basically it’s supposed to be sort of the fragmentations of personality and life and spirituality.
D: That’s a good definition here. I was, I was expecting, uh, the, as I told you, I was expecting a wild ride. And by the way, everybody knows it isn’t, it’s absolutely a magnificent recording of simply superb music. This is what just blew me away.
In a way, this text that’s on your CD tells us how fresh the CD is. So it’s been put together. You’ve done that. It’s been five years. You’re there. And then it’s like, son of a gun.
“One inherent trait I possess is finding my emotional fulfillment through the active, creative manipulation of music.” And this fascinates me. I’m, I’m not a fix the watch kind of guy. I don’t get into the little details. I’m, I’m the conductor. I’m the, you know, I want the big pastel, you know, horses crossing the plains or something. You know, does that speak to your autism in a way, the focus?
S: I think so. The hyper fixation. I mean, there are times when I’m working on a piece that if my husband wasn’t there to remind me, I’d forget to eat, you know, I’ll just be like focused on these patterns and what else can I do with them? And, and, oh, that sounds really cool. Let me try this. Let’s see.
D: And you say, “I’m not, I’m not seeking to impose specific emotions on listeners.” That’s something that’s very important, “…but rather to facilitate a deeper connection with their inner selves.” Now, I’m not quite sure what kind of, what kind of a labyrinth you just, you know, created with those words. “I’m not seeking to impose specific emotions on listeners” yet, “I would like them to get in touch with their deeper…” you know, you know what I mean, you’re clever, aren’t you?
S: Well, that’s a question I get a lot is, well, how do you want the audience to feel? Even, even composition teachers… “How do you want them to feel?” And, and I think that’s another part of my autism. I relate to emotions differently than some other people do from what I can tell. Um, I, for me, the emotion and joy comes from the patterns. And so that’s what it is for me. Um, you know, it can be a completely atonal piece and if the patterns are cool then I’m getting such delight out of it. Uh, but for other people that might not be the case and I totally recognize that. So I’m hoping through my music, even though I might find joy in places they won’t, um, that they’ll still find something that they can resonate with.
D: Oh, that was very well, well, spracht and I can only agree with you because as I think I mentioned to you and probably everybody else and probably about three times already by now, but that was the shock. This music is just simply gorgeous. And I was expecting a few more “shards”, something expecting something, something a little, little more fractious, if you will.
The first piece on the, on the CD is Ayre of Grievances. I love the spelling. I presume clever, uh, you know, and, and, uh, awfully medieval or something. For viola, violin, and flute. It’s from 2020. So that’s a bad year. Oh my God.
S: Hence the grievances.
D: Hence the grievances is right. Uh, composed during the worldwide COVID epidemic. And you and I’ve talked about it. People are not yet clear how profoundly we as a planet of human beings and animals have been affected. This is going to take another half dozen years if we don’t have World War Three somewhere in between to sort it out. So it’s a, this was a big thing. And the biggest thing in my life, maybe, uh, to go through. So, Ayre of Grievances, and, uh, and, you know, you set us up with all the frustrations, fear, sorrow, and anger, and I’m going, Oh, can’t wait.
And I put it on. And it’s absolutely gorgeous. I totally did not expect it. Here’s a bit of my stream of consciousness, totally not expecting such… well, tonality. It’s wonderful already. Tense, beautifully crafted, thoroughly contemporarily classical. I mean, it’s, it’s totally accessible. And I, again, I almost want to spit when I say that word, but I think it’s okay now to use that, to create accessible music, um, things get a little crazy and frustrated.
You mentioned in your program notes, there’s that frustration and you describe it very well. How, although in my case, I just went comatose and just stared out the windows for two years and allowed the checks to come in. Cause I was a freelancer unemployed and boy, the money was better than I’ve ever received. Thank you, Uncle Sam, but, but so I didn’t really experience a whole lot of frustration. I just sort of couldn’t believe what was going on for about two years.
In other words, there is a narrative to this piece, Ayre of Grievances. Um, but I think it, you know, it is much more than the sum of its narrative is what I’m trying to say. Uh, tonalities are altogether satisfying throughout the piece.
Go, give me an overview. What was this about for you?
S: During the, during the lockdowns for me, it was frustrating. Well, because… guy, giving three hour lectures on zoom, I never want to do that again. Oh my gosh. Not being able to see anybody, not being able to see family. Um, that was really frustrating, but at the same time, because I wasn’t able to play live concerts, like I had been, um, it gave me a chance to sit down and really think about who I am.
Um, up until that point, it was very much, oh, I’m a major violinist and a composer and a teacher at all at once.
D: Don’t forget viola… and viola too.
S: Yes. I love the viola. Um, but then I came to realize. I really much prefer writing, uh, and recording. Uh, so I, I allowed myself to let go of the, the things that maybe didn’t bring me quite as much joy. So when things did open back up, I’m, I’m being more careful to balance my life, uh, with what really brings me more joy and less stress, hopefully. Um, that’s, that’s what that piece really sort of represented is it was frustrating. It was lonely. I was angry at the world. Um, but at the same time, there was some beauty in there and some peace.
And, um, and I just love the interaction of the three parts. They’re both, they’re all three very independent, but they speak together and sometimes they’re arguing with each other. Sometimes they’re singing with each other and supporting each other. And, um, I just really liked that intimacy of the work.
D: Well, that whole narrative thing about what you’re very good, uh, you know, voices, uh, having discussions between each other, but I found, and I may sound like I’m an idiot or something, but when I saw that viola, violin, flute, I told you earlier, I thought, I remember thinking that’s going to be tricky, you know, that the flute doesn’t get lost, and all of that works beautifully. And that is not about, you know, microphones. It’s about the way you wrote the piece. Using those three instruments. So, so beautifully. And later you use instruments in the most magical way.
S: Yeah, we actually debuted it during the pandemic where I recorded the violin and viola part. And then I recorded a friend of mine playing the flute part and we just did one of those YouTube stitched videos where we stitched our videos together. That was the thing.
D: Yeah. Am I pronouncing it reasonably close? “DodecaFunky” And of course we’re playing, playing with, uh, dodeca cacophony or something. You can fill me in on that. There’s all this funny stuff going on. That’s all inside stuff for musicians.
It’s for flute and piano from 2015. I think you mentioned this might be the earliest piece, maybe…
S: “Of Roses and Lilies”, I actually wrote the original piece for voice and piano in like the early aughts. But then I went back and fleshed it out and sort of made it fuller.
D: So then you know, the early aughts, I love that. So DodecaFunky, uh, flute and piano. I want to tell everybody out there that’s looking for a repertoire. This is a beauty. This is a recital beauty. A funky solo for flute with piano accompaniment, this intense and spastic work. Is that me or you?
S: I think it’s me.
D: I think it was you. So it… “exploits various manipulations”. Oh, here you go. Yeah, it is you… “of a 12 tone row (dodecaphony).” I’m supposed to be a musician and I couldn’t care less how it’s pronounced or even what it is these days. It’s just the serial melody to a backdrop, et cetera, et cetera. But the point of, oh, this is why it’s so cute. A hard bop and swing and, uh, and stuff. It’s just a delicious piece. And it’s, it’s aggressive in its funky way. I say about the opening, while the piano adds to the delightful confusion with various playful styles, a pause and it starts to get feisty. Uh, now I don’t know where I am in the piece, but now some casual virtuoso boogie woogie, boogie funky, uh, it’s a delight.
It’s kind of a series of descriptive tableau. Am I closer? Cause I love dance. I, you know, I reviewed dance a lot and these are like little tableau. It’s wonderful to the max. Should be, uh, on programming all over the place. It’s a beauty.
Tell me, tell me, what do you think? What do you think of this?
S: I love this piece. It just makes, it makes me giggle.
D: It’s just a charm. Beautiful. It’s so cute.
S: Thank you, thank you.
D: Again, if you, you’ll forgive me the accessibility word. This is irresistible. Of course, you know what I’m trying to say?
S: I’m glad you like it. That one actually took a little bit of inspiration from Bernstein. Um, I, I love, uh, I was studying his symphony, Age of Anxiety. Oh, and I love how he merged, well, he merged…
D: By the way, you know, I’m a conductor. Uh, and I know all three of those symphonies very, very well. I’ve never conducted them because they’re too hard. “Jeremiah” I could conduct. That one makes sense. Uh, the, the age of anxiety for piano and orchestra is unbelievable, but it’s also unbelievably difficult to conduct, you know? And then Kaddish, he wrote the original and then tore it all to pieces and stuff. So, but anyway, I just want, I’m so glad somebody also has studied [those works]. Anyway, excuse me.
S: That’s okay. Uh, but yeah, I really loved the idea of merging modernist, modernistic tendencies as Bernstein would say, um, with jazz and other accessible popular genres. And so that’s what I did with this flute piece is I took a 12 tone row and it is an authentic 12 tone row, but I, you could say I cheated, I cheated a little bit because I used transpositions. So what I would do is it’s still the same row, but I would transpose fragments of it to places that I liked it, where it fit better.
D: Arnold [Schoenberg] is turning into his grave.
S: Well, this is true. Ah but see, Stravinsky did it first. So, you know, let’s blame him.
It’s still, it still has the same intervallic structures. Um, but then I back it up, with that really jazzy, different, like you say, different tableaus of different jazzy styles to kind of increase the…
D: It’s a great dance piece…
S: That’d be fun.
D: In other words, there’s lots of possibilities.
Okay. We’re going to move on.
“Of Roses and Lilies”, this is for soprano, piano, soprano recorder, which I don’t think I hear very often used in these kinds of chamber pieces. And it’s a perfect color. English horn… what got into you ?…and women’s chorus. And then the, are there strings there? I have this question.
S: String orchestra.
D: String orchestra, because I didn’t, you know, I didn’t see it in the, in the brief and it’s from 2013, so we’re getting closer to, to the bottom of the stack here. Tell us about it.
S: This one’s a really fascinating piece for me. I, like I said, I had first written it many, many, many, several decades ago. And this was written…
D: Don’t be so hard on yourself…It’s only been 10 years…
S: But the original piece for just soprano and piano was written, like I said, in the late nineties or early aughts, um, this was when I was still with my very Christian family, um, yeah, there you go. And so I fell in love with the song of Solomon and I thought, why don’t I write quick snippets of the song of Solomon and put it together as sort of a love song. And so I did. And, um, eventually just another like 10 years or so down the road, I’d said, you know what, I really love this piece. I’m going to flesh it out. So, um, I took the original just two parts and added the strings and added the color of the soprano recorder and the English horn, um, and, you know, added the women’s chorus as sort of this almost Greek chorus kind of response thing.
So it’s a very, it’s a very different piece. Uh, it’s a very dramatic kind of theater-esque, drama-esque kind of, uh, kind of a feel.
D: And you don’t use the word romantic. It reeks of romanticism. I see in my notes there, a rich tapestry of sound and a highly romantic tonal aesthetic. I was not ready for that.
S: Well, actually, uh, every, everybody don’t hate on me, but I actually recorded it myself. So it’s only, it’s only two microphones with, uh, the soloist, Claire is one of my best friends and she teaches at Azusa. So she was able to grab us a classroom. And so I recorded with the two microphones, her and another good friend of mine, the pianist, Lydia. Um, and at the time we weren’t sure if I was just going to put together a digital background to it and like release it online or something. But, you know, this CD was coming to the, coming toward finishing and I was like, you know, this would be really awesome if we can get the rest of it recorded.
So I, yeah, I took two more sessions. I got the strings and the winds together for one session. Uh, and then I finally got the women’s chorus together for a session.
D: So that makes sense too. Very hard undertaking just in terms of production.
S: Yeah, it’s such a good, such a good learning experience. And again, so many of my dear, dear friends are on that recording and it’s just, it was just so special to me.
D: It’s something else. And I hope you understand what I’m saying here, because we want to get this, these pieces performed. It’s a beauty. It’s very accessible. So it doesn’t sound terribly hard to put together. What do you think? Am I all wet? I don’t know, but just, it seemed very, it seemed to just flow pretty freely.
S: Here’s the… I would say, here’s the danger with my music. And, um, especially with this piece, this has happened before. There have been pianists who think they can sight read it and they suddenly quit. It’s like, oh, I can’t sight read this. So this is something my very first composition teacher warned me about is that my music seems really easy. But then you dig into it and there are some little quirks in there and some tricks that you might not be expecting. So as long as you know…
D: It shouldn’t be a big problem. If you know what I mean, so I think I’m okay in saying that I think it’s not like, you know…
S: It’s not terrible.
D: Yeah…[not] terribly virtuosic. And that is, that is to say this should go off the shelf and into performance and rehearsal. And that’s exactly what I see. Nothing but college, college ensemble. Because of the difficulty of getting, you know, professionals together in that kind of complex, you know, but, but, so I found it really very, very…a flowing, lovely, entirely tonal journey. The soprano recorder is charming. Your writing is absolutely first-class. You handle transitions of mood with smooth aplomb. Boy, that came out of my head. Geez. The piece soars with beauty. Your compositional savvy and skill are beyond question.
S: Thank you.
D: Let’s see. Now this is “The Oracle,” for violin, cello, flute and piccolo, clarinet, piano. That’s from 2016. Go ahead. Tell us, but the bottom line is you constructed this thing from random throws of tarot cards. Go.
S: Exactly. Okay. So…
D: Aleatoric indeed!
S: Uh, I really, like I said, this was the time in my life when I had just really started to latch on to tarot as a means of exploring my own subconscious.
D: Which is correct, by the way. Let’s make sure. Exactly what it’s supposed to be. No, let the self-conscious speak to us.
S: Exactly. I like to think of it, it’s like a mirror for myself. It’s a way for me to talk to myself when sometimes I’m having trouble understanding my brain. So, uh, I really love tarot and I wrote this when I first really started getting into it. And so what I did is, um, I had an opportunity. It was like a call for scores for this ensemble. Uh, and so I was like, this will be fun. Why don’t I use that as an excuse to try it out?
So, and I wanted to do sort of a homage to John Cage by using an aleatoric kind of method. And so tarot seemed like the perfect way to do it. So I set up, um, I think it was five different spreads of 10 cards. I think I did like, um, some kind of a sacred pyramid, uh, spread for each of those. Um, and what I did is I, I assigned certain, you know, in tarot, the different suits represent different aspects of life and personality.
So you have the cups, which is emotion. Um, you have, you know, the, uh, the pentacles, uh, the pentacles are, uh, earth, uh, and, um, material wellbeing and reality and such. Uh, so what I did is I attached each of the instruments to those suits. The, uh, violin was fire, uh, or wands. Uh, the, uh, the cello was water or cups and the, uh, the clarinet was earth and the flute, of course, was air. And then for the piano, uh, I made the piano, the tree of life itself. Uh, because I like to read tarot from a Kabbalistic tree of life sort of interpretation.
D: You’re starting to get over my head. I thought I was with you pretty well, but Kabbalistic something, something…with a tree of life.
S: So Jewish mysticism, basically. So on the tree of life, each of the cards have their place on that tree. And the higher up the tree you are, the closer to the divine source you are. And then you travel down the tree and experience various phases of life and emotion, et cetera, until you get to the bottom, which is material reality. Everything you’ve experienced becomes real. Uh, and then you cycle back to the top, back to the divine source again.
So for the piano, um, when I had a spread that, that spoke of being closer to the divine source, I had the piano playing up in its higher registers. And then as it got closer to the bottom, to the ground, the piano went down. So the higher, if you hear the piano going, noodling up really high, that’s up at the divine source of things. If you hear the piano kind of in the middle, that’s sort of where balance and harmony are. If the piano is down in the basement, that’s down in material reality.
And then in the meantime, you have all the other instruments that are reflecting on emotion or, um, you know, or, or thought, or power
D: …and character that may be interpreted…in countless ways. That’s the beauty of the idea of randomness, the beauty of the order, if you will, of randomness, that even random events will speak to us.
S: Exactly.
D: Once in a while, I really want to play an album, uh, for other people in my, you know, over a dinner or something. This is one of them. Um, what an amazing chamber piece. I say this is, uh, this long cello obbligato, then into the klezmer aesthetic I call, uh, with, with all of that playing. Now I understand the cabalistic, if you will, right. Uh, meaning to it all. Uh, but the klezmer, uh, aesthetic is, is clearly there. The, and of course the Oracle is a Jew, right? I say the Oracle is a Jew? Question mark.
A wonderful transition, transitional writing. And you know what I mean? Making segments and, and, uh, themes make sense. That transition material is very, very important to get it right. [Your] compositional savvy is top notch. I think I’ve been saying that, but the piece is a wonderful narrative. It’s complex. It’s a complex narrative. Um, and as you have just described the instruments are characters.
S: They’re, they’re the suits of the, of the cards, but they do have sort of, they evoke their sort of, uh, certain characteristics about it.
D: Okay. That’s much more complex. Thank you. That clarifies.
This is quite a journey. So, and, uh, and then I say, um, a jaunty section now as CODA, I assume that’s a CODA. Uh, still a fun ending. I love it. I don’t think you can get any more, you know, any, any better than that.
Okay. Next is, is, uh, Wabi-Sabi, this, uh, uh, the aesthetic and metaphysical ideals that Japanese Wabi-Sabi encapsulates. Tell us about Wabi-Sabi. Is it animist or something? Is it part of their religion? Animist religion?
S: It can be. Uh, I’m trying to remember where it historically started. It actually started with monochromatic Chinese drawings and then the Japanese sort of took that ideal and enhanced it. A lot of people think of a Zen garden when they think of Wabi Sabi.
D: I see what you mean. Now I understand exactly what you mean. Even the artwork, strokes, you know, just very spare strokes.
S: Yeah. The tea ceremony. Um, everything about that ceremony is part of their Wabi Sabi aesthetic and metaphysical ideals.
D: I’m trying to remember this [for] parties.
S: Simplicity is, is a major part of it, but it goes beyond that. This, and this is what the string quartet throughout the three movements sort of encapsulates is that, uh, the beginning that, that…you know, in the west the idea of nothing is like zero, there’s nothing there. It’s very stark, but in Wabi Sabi ideas, um, nothing is full of potential. There’s a lot that could be there, but isn’t there yet.
D: That’s so profound.
S: Um, and then you go through, especially at the beginning of the first movement, sort of these random particles where the players can choose how they want to play it.
D: I understand that. We’re talking about the first movement Emergence, what have you just said that the players have some choice and they have choices.
S: So, so each of the players have a collection of notes that they can choose from to play. Uh, and they do it in different ways. Like the cello trills all their notes, but they can choose how they want to trill and how fast they want to trill and when they want to come in, uh, and things like that. Um, until they finally come together in the middle of the first movement and it sort of builds from there. So the idea is like that of creation of these particles coming into space and slowly merging together to become something.
D: And by the way, this sounds like an homage to Stockhausen, you know?
S: Yeah, absolutely.
D: Another great. Distance… these distant sounds… I remember performance, you know, Stockhausen, and it all comes together.
S: And then, and then Evolution is a short, it’s intentionally a short little two minute burst because that’s where everything is kind of locked in.
D: This is Evolution.
S: This is the, the cells are coming together and creating fish that are coming out of the water and, you know, becoming man. Um, et cetera. Possibility.
D: Alive with possibility, yeah. …Nothingness itself…
S: Yeah, exactly. Um, and then it gives way to Entropy, uh, and Entropy starts with a very strict structure. Uh, funnily enough, I wasn’t sure compositionally how I wanted to go about the third movement, but I was in the middle of teaching about isorhythm in one of my classes. So I’m like, Hey, I can do isorhythm with this. That’d be fun. So it starts out very strict, um, but then gets really complex and starts falling apart. And again, that’s the idea of returning back to nothingness. Everything’s falling apart.
Uh, and, and that’s the idea of, um, the idea that you, um, sometimes the best course of action is to decide to do nothing, you know…
D: I think you have just described an exact, uh, arc in the, they come together. I’m looking at Emergence. The first one builds quite satisfyingly. Uh, the construct is fascinating and sensible to the intellect, I say to myself. And of course, if there, if you don’t get it off the ground, intellectually from the beginning, you’re in trouble… Ok, Evolution. Um, I love this, uh, I call it a flowing sea sort of opening. Or whatever that vibe could be. Anything, forget sea, whatever that undulating flowing thing…so mesmerizing. Again, wonderful quartet writing.
I’m going to have to stop using this word accessible, but that’s the whole idea to get these performed. And that’s exactly to be well written and also to be a happy time for an audience. Give me a break. And I, and here’s the thing about Evolution that it’s, uh, utterly accessible to the listener, though the subject, listening, but I think I got it. Although the subject matter may have sub-basements. Now a walking cello fits that, that walking cello thing. It’s wonderful to keep the piece moving and, and, uh, energetic. Um, quite a narrative.
S: It’s like a little metronome marking I have in the, uh, the second movement is “Like dancing molecules.”
D: Oh!
S: Kind of the spinning, whirling…
D: I might have to dream about that tonight. And the third movement, if you will, Entropy. It’s such a nice, uh, I, I, do I hear a little fugue…? I wanted… the stream of consciousness thing…fuguetto. You know what I mean? That opening is a, is it a genuine, but it’s a fuguetto, right?
S: Yeah, it’s, um, it starts out exactly as a canon. Then what happens is that each time the line comes back, uh, I either in diminution or augmentation. Uh, so I, I, like I said, if you see the score, um, I start doing crazy little sub meters within each of the parts just to help, just to help the players keep, keep time with each other, but yeah, that’s part of the unraveling part is they start very much together and then they start in like ratios of two to one or one to two, but yeah, then it starts getting into weird ratios…
D: …because I think I wondered about those, those asymmetrical collisions… A slightly dysfunctional intentional section. I’m toward the end here of pizz’s.
S: Well, the very ending, I go back to the beginning idea where the, each player has a selection of notes. They can pizz. whenever they want to. So each performance should be a little different than each other.
D: So the end of entropy, they go back to this idea and they can even change their mind about it.
S: Exactly.
D: Stockhausen, he’s smiling.
“Nevermore,” this major Sonata, I think for viola and piano from 2019 to 2021. Nevermore for viola and piano, also a subtitle of a Gothic Suite, so delightful, it’s an absolutely magnificent Sonata for viola and piano. It’s just absolutely, it’s so American, because we’re talking about Edgar Allan Poe and each movement is after one of his most famous pieces. But you have, I feel very powerfully about American composers choosing American subjects. The Raven, Annabelle Lee, the Telltale Heart.
S: Actually, Charlotte Goode, the violist on this recording, is actually another one of my bestest friends. And she is also a gothic nut and a fellow autistic. And she just, she was like, oh my gosh, we need to collaborate. We need to do this for viola. And I’m like, yes. So I started out with the Raven, you know, and she debuted that at a recital. And then I was like, okay, we need to come up with two other, you know, two other movements to finish it out. And the thing I love about the recording of this, again, this is so her, the viola part is so her, the subject matter is so her, and then I was lucky enough to be able to fly out with her to Boston to have her record it for PARMA. So…that day I went to Salem after we recorded it. So it was perfect.
D: You mean, the Witch Town or Salem, Oregon?
S: No, no, no, the Witch Town, yeah, Salem, Massachusetts.
D: So Poe inspired you to go to the seat of evil.
S: Exactly. It was so good.
D: Well, what I have to say is here, I worked on looking at the first movement. First of all, a fascinating piano introduction that really nails the interest immediately because it hints at mysteries, then it’s followed by the viola’s intensely Poe-ish colors and temperament, so congrats to your friend. It’s a beauty, again, of narrative imagination, a wonderful piece of writing for viola. It is virtuosic.
S: Yeah, it is. I won’t play it on my viola. I’ll let somebody else do it. I’m not that good.
D: Well, everything a violist looks for in a recital piece, you know, and it’s romantic, there are romantic bits in here, some hair-raising twilight zone intervals between notes, if that makes any sense, thrilling, kooky, mysterious, as was the man, nice new idea… that roiling keyboard stuff toward the end of the piece, does that make any sense? Under viola, that middle and low register as it goes.
“Annabelle Lee.” It’s gorgeous, that movement is just gorgeous.
S: So beautiful, it’s one of my absolute favorites, just, and the poem, too, is just absolutely, it really struck me.
D: It brings you to tears, really, that poem.
S: It really does. I really wanted to capture that complete childlike innocence, just absolutely purest childlike innocent love of a little boy and a little girl. And then the angels cruelly take her away from him, you know, and just that drama.
D: And that’s the true story, isn’t it? Doesn’t he marry her, his wife, when she was 15, and then did she die? I can’t quite remember.
S: I don’t remember. I’d have to look it up.
D: We just missed the good parts that neither of us can remember. Anyway, what I’m trying to say is, Annabelle Lee speaks to a very personal experience.
S: I do know this was his last poem that he wrote before he died. That’s also a very haunting little tidbit. So, yeah, I love this movement so much. It actually, it was the hardest to record, too, because it’s deceptively simple. But it’s because it’s kind of like Mozart in that way, where it’s so simple and exposed that the violist has to be really careful and really in tune. So it took us a little bit longer to do this one.
D: Nice. Yeah, it’s a beautiful reading. I call it magical writing. It’s exceptionally sensitive.
The Tell-Tale Heart: the intro, sufficiently terrifying. Very imaginative character development. It’s exactly creepy enough to fit the narrative, because it is that narrative, the pulsing, the clicking, and the floorboards… Then the beginning of real paranoia. I mean, you describe this tale very well.
S: Actually, I decided the best way to put it together was to take the story apart and make each of the sections of music a section of the story. So it’s probably the most narratively accurate of the three movements.
D: And that makes good sense to me.
S: Yeah, and in the music, each of the section headings has a little quote from the story. So you can kind of tell where you are in the story. But yeah, the idea of just. I wanted the opening theme that the viola starts playing is supposed to be sort of the love theme that the narrator has for his master.
“I loved the old man…It was his eye!” …you know, so it’s this really creepy. It’s a love song, but it’s twisted. It’s got something off.
So that’s where it opens. And then from there, then I get into the part where it’s for seven nights. He he peeks in at the bedroom. And so that section is like in seven four or something like that. It has odd. It’s asymmetrical. So, again, it feels a little off, you know, a little bit of the heartbeat taps and then, you know, stuff like that. And then little answering in the piano… And then you hear him murder him.
D: I call it shades of the shower scene in Psycho.
S: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
D: Brava, I say after that.
S: …yeah, thank you. Yeah. And then you just get, like you say, the paranoia as the cops won’t leave. But the narrator keeps hearing the heartbeat and he can’t get away from it. And he just has to give up.
D: And indeed, it’s an internal conflict. Yeah, that’s the order of the soundscape. It’s kind of this internal conflict that becomes, you know, insupportable, disturbingly deliberate. And it’s so well done, well done.
So that’s a beautiful sonata. And as I mentioned, here it is. It’s a, it’s a viola sonata. It’s, it’s tough. Well, you know, at a certain level, you know, you almost want it to be. So it’s not inaccessible at all. It has a it has a tremendous connection to America and American history and American literature. It is a beautiful sonata and it sounds so beautiful. The writing is so gorgeous.
So take note, everybody. Nevermore for viola and piano.
And then now the last, the grand finale on the CD, The Dark Glass Sinfonia: We see through a glass darkly. For orchestra from 2017 built upon an integrated set…Oh, here you go again.
S: I love patterns!
D: …that’s why I pulled it. Because in all of my life in the arts and even at college, these things never came up in my experience. “Built,” she says, confident, “built upon an integrated set of hexachordal formulae.” End quote. I say to myself, please explain. You will, then you go on: “Free atonality with modal harmony…In doing so, it is meant to represent the enigmatic and ongoing emotional flux of the soul.”
S: This is another…it started out as just a love affair with patterns. And one thing, I’m not a major post-tonalist. You can tell from the accessibleness of my music. But I do love some of the number patterns that come about from, you know, post-tonal exercises. And hexachordal combinatoriality is one of my favorite ideas. I just love saying it. Hexachordal combinatoriality.
D: Yeah, I bet when you have students, they just sort of collapse.
S: Yeah, I’m like, OK, learn how to say it, you can impress all of your friends.
D: But then again, formulae is rather…
S: …It’s very pompous sounding…it’s basically it’s built upon the 12-tone ideal, but it breaks up the 12 tones into six tones, hexachords. So each of the hexachords has its own unique intervallic character to it. And so in the same way that you can take kind of the same way where I cheated with DodecaFunky, where I took segments of it and like transposed it, it’s kind of like that, but I did less cheating. Hexachords kind of do their own cheating because you can take one part of the tone row and then take the second half of it and flip it or reverse it. Or, you know, all that kind of stuff. And then if you break them down into numbers, you can add them up into cool combinations and things like that. So that’s what this was. This piece was sort of a play on that and seeing what I could do with it. And that’s how I developed the main themes.
You really hear it come out, especially in the little woodwind stuff throughout the top. That’s really where it shines. But it really is woven into it.
D: The row shines?…
S: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
D: Well, you must have been in heaven putting this piece together.
S: It was very, very fun. And again, and I don’t know how my brain does this, but what starts out with a whole bunch of numbers and patterns usually comes out as something really lovely that I continue to love listening to.
D: Well, guess what? That’s exactly the whole point of the genius of autism. You just exactly described what we’ve been kind of…that autism is, is just different.
S: You know, you know, that’s another thing that shines through with this orchestral piece, too, is that one of the comments sometimes I get from other people is, oh, why can’t you just have the instruments all stacked up on top of each other? You know, why can’t they all play at once? And I’m like, I just don’t like that. I like to have the layers. Somebody’s always doing something. And so there’s kind of a medievalness to it, you know, going back to that old polyphony idea. But then I’ll integrate it with these numbers and patterns. And I just love seeing it layer.
D: Speaking of layering, did I hear I see in my notes here. Is there any kind of pyramid that you constructed a sound pyramid somewhere in the beginning of that piece? Or is it a stupid word?
S: No it’s not stupid. I like to call it a waterfall, where…
D: Yeah, ….I got the idea of what you were creating there.
S: Yeah. The hexachordal pattern is there. But what I do is I pass it starting from the top and have it kind of trickle down like that.
D: So pyramid is not quite the right way of describing it. But I was hearing a very specific concept. And of course, thinking pyramid, I’m describing it as from the bottom up. But you’ve just described it as from top to trickle down, if you will.
Let’s see… There was a lovely little brass tune. I’m hearing that I’m hearing cinematic moments. Of course, it’s an orchestral piece. I’m sure you really got your teeth into that one.
Let’s see, lovely wind section work, as we’ve discussed, nicely orchestrated. Well, it’s brilliant and wonderful and very accessible and a beautiful, beautiful orchestral piece of what? I can’t remember. Seven minutes or…
S: Yeah, it’s only like seven minutes or so, which I have found, again, economically and just competition wise…
D: That’s exactly right.
S: People like shorter, shorter pieces.
D: That’s kind of what we ask, because then the next question is how? Because I’m again thinking collegiate orchestras. And then let’s see that as we’ve discussed, there’s that thematic return, you know, that the whole thing does a perfect arc. So there you go.
S: I just really love the very, very ending of it. When I first put it together and to me, it evoked sort of almost this organ, this organ like texture with. I just love the resonance… T
D: That section with percussion. That’s toward the end. I see more complicated in narrative in terms of just the construct of the piece. Definitely descriptive, martial, perfectly accessible. It’s a perfect piece for a college orchestra if it’s in that sphere of capability.
S: Yeah. …that little fast march like scherzo thing. I kind of had a like a like a Russian, Russian romantic vibe almost or like early 20th century Russian vibe, you know, almost like kind of Shostakovich-esque, you know…
D: Each question mark was starting to rise out of my head there, the Shostakovich-ish.
S: Yeah, exactly.
D: What a great talk we’ve had. And I think just anybody could pick up that the world of our profession, of our music making, is the world at large. I mean, we speak to the wonderful, fascinating world around us. That’s the whole idea of being a creative person.
So, again, wonderful chat with composer Sarah Wallin Huff. And we’re talking about your 2023 Navona release. It’s contemporary classic chamber music for diverse instrumental combinations. You’ve heard this before. It’s called Shards. Don’t worry, anybody. It’s fine. And wonderful pieces that as we’ve discussed that are chamber works and then, of course, the orchestral piece at the very end.
But this is music that should be heard a lot more. And it’s not off the top of the charts of virtuosity. But, it’s just good, solid, wonderful music-making with enough virtuosity to keep…Why did I say those of us who are gifted…busy…you know what I’m trying to say… I’m gonna shut my mouth up here.
Anyway, great fun chatting with you.
S: Thank you so much. I really I’m really flattered, you know, that you reached out.
D: Well, I’m flattered that I heard what I heard. I’ll tell you, because it’s always a gamble. I just sort of pick up, pick up whatever. And I thought I’ve never heard of this thing. Well, who is this person and what is that stuff? And that’s got us started.
It’s been a tremendous treat and a really important and a very important CD you’ve got. So, congratulations all around.
#chamberMusic #classical #Interview #orchestra #review #StudioRecording

#chambermusic #classical #interview #orchestra #review #studiorecording
Sarah Wallin Huff @[email protected] · 2025-06-05 · 10:27 UTC

Sept. 2023 Interview with Daniel Kepl

Back in the fall of 2023, right after the release of my second solo album with Navona, I got the opportunity to sit down with longtime American conductor, arts administrator, and music/theater/dance critic, Daniel Kepl, and talk with him about my album, SHARDS.
Unfortunately, the audio in that video interview was extremely unbalanced and distorted, so I took some time to try and clean it up, to make it as listenable as possible. So… that edited video is now here, below, ready for your viewing pleasure (complete with chapter breaks, if you’d prefer to jump around)!
While the pops and crackles and background noises are mostly gone, sometimes the words are still a little garbly, so I’ve embedded captions in the video and am providing a full transcript, for those who would prefer to read the discussion. If you would like to see the original unedited video, you can do that here.

Dan Kepl’s Review Highlights
The high points of Dan Kepl’s praise, as stated in the video below.

About the Album:

[SHARDS is] a wonderful album, very interesting and very accessible, if I may say. It’s absolutely a magnificent recording of simply superb music… This music is just simply gorgeous. You use instruments in the most magical way.
This is music that should be heard a lot more…it’s just good, solid, wonderful music-making. It’s…a very important CD you’ve got.

About “Ayre of Grievances”:

It’s absolutely gorgeous. Tense, beautifully crafted, thoroughly contemporarily classical. tonalities are altogether satisfying throughout the piece. The balancing and everything is wonderful in terms of your compositional skills.

About “DodecaFunky”:

I want to tell everybody out there that’s looking for a repertoire, this is a beauty. This is a recital beauty. I think I can say it’s fun. It’s wonderful. It’s just a delicious piece, it’s aggressive in its funky way. It’s wonderful to the max. Should be on programming all over the place. This is irresistible. Audiences would love it, I think.

About “Of Roses and Lilies”:

It’s a beauty; a rich tapestry of sound and a highly romantic tonal aesthetic. …this should go off the shelf and into performance and rehearsal. A flowing, lovely, entirely tonal journey. The soprano recorder is charming. Your writing is absolutely first-class. You handle transitions of mood with smooth aplomb. The piece soars with beauty. Your compositional savvy and skill are beyond question.

About “The Oracle”:

Once in a while, I really want to play [a track of] an album, uh, for other people…you know, over a dinner or something. This is one of them. What an amazing chamber piece. Wonderful transitional writing; compositional savvy is top notch. The piece is a wonderful narrative. It’s complex. This piece is quite a journey.

About “Wabi-Sabi”:

The construct is fascinating and sensible to the intellect…quite a narrative…wonderful quartet writing.

About “Nevermore”:

An absolutely gorgeous, wonderful, magnificent Sonata for viola and piano…so American. …a fascinating piano introduction that really nails the interest immediately because it hints at mysteries, then it’s followed by the viola’s intensely Poe-ish colors and temperament. It’s a beauty, again, of narrative imagination, a wonderful piece of writing for viola. It is virtuosic, everything a violist looks for in a recital piece. There are romantic bits in here, some hair-raising twilight zone intervals between notes, if that makes any sense, thrilling, kooky, mysterious, as was the man. It has a tremendous connection to America and American history and American literature. It is a beautiful sonata and it sounds so beautiful. The writing is so gorgeous.
[For Annabelle Lee] I call it magical writing. It’s exceptionally sensitive.
The Tell-Tale Heart: the intro, sufficiently terrifying. Very imaginative character development. It’s exactly creepy enough to fit the narrative, because it is that narrative, the pulsing, the clicking…the floorboards…Then the beginning of real paranoia. Shades of the shower scene in Psycho – Brava! Disturbingly deliberate ending.

About “The Dark Glass Sinfonia”:

…wonderful piece for orchestra, “The Dark Glass Sinfonia,” gives me shivers, but it’s wonderful.
Lovely wind section work…nicely orchestrated. It’s brilliant and wonderful and very accessible…a beautiful, beautiful orchestral piece. Definitely descriptive, martial, perfectly accessible.
Sept. 2023 Interview with Daniel Kepl (Edited, with Captions)

Full [Edited] Interview Transcript

D: I’m chatting with composer Sarah Wallin Huff and we’re going to talk about your 2023 Navona CD release. Thank you, Parma. Thank you, Navona. Thank you, all of you wonderful people out there that put this, these kind of packages together. Just a quick aside about Navona, including everything that we need as critics, really somewhat truncated, makes perfect sense, but up on a website. And very few other companies do this. I just think it’s fabulous.
I’ve seen your interview, or I’ve read your interview, I should say, with Parma. And we’re going to talk about your 2023 Navona CD release of Contemporary Classical Chamber Works and an album for diverse instrumental combinations. Anyway, the CD is called Shards. Do not run away in the night and be afraid. It’s a wonderful album of very interesting and very accessible, if I may say so, and I think it’s perfectly OK to say so.
Here, just a sampling: Ayre of Grievances, for viola, violin, flute, lovely. The flute I wondered about. Those are pretty heavy instruments and the balancing and everything is wonderful in terms of your compositional skills.
DodecaFunky, let me say that once more. DodecaFunky, for piano, and it is cute… oh, did I miss one?
S: DodecaFunky.
D: Anyway, it’s cute. I think I can say it’s fun. It’s wonderful. And it’s a wonderful, very fascinating piano piece. Audiences would love it, I think.
“Of Roses and Lilies.” This one’s a little complex for soprano, piano, soprano recorder. Nice colors. Nice. English horn, very interesting. And women’s chorus. I mean, not since Holst have I heard women’s chorus used in this way.
So, Wabi-Sabi, it’s in three movements. Juventas, the new music ensemble performs it. This is a string quartet, so four players of the Juventas ensemble. I hope I’m pronouncing that right since I live in California. Three movements: Emergence, Evolution, Entropy. Very, very interesting. And maybe even kind of the heart of who you might be. I don’t know. I’m just guessing.
The next piece, Nevermore for viola and piano, an absolutely gorgeous, wonderful, three-movement sonata for viola and piano. The movements: The Raven, Annabelle Lee, The Tell-Tale Heart. And I love Poe, what a genius, what a genius. So glad you have included this wonderful, wonderful piece for viola and piano. And I mean by that, again, your compositional skills, the way you use these, didn’t you play viola? I thought I that read somewhere. Were you a violist?
S: I double on viola. I feel more comfortable on violin, but I can pick up a viola if I need it.
D: Okay. So you got all that stuff, you know, under your fingernails, so to say.
And then the last piece, wonderful piece for orchestra, The Dark Glass Sinfonia, gives me shivers, but it’s wonderful. And with a little subtype, if I’m reading it correctly: “We see through a glass darkly.” Wonderful piece, performed by wonderful people, while you really say it right out, right, and I just want to deal with this a little bit before I get to where you know, I’m going.
We all know people with autism and what I have found in my experience with people, and you know, autism is here, there, everywhere in various variations. You’re going to speak to it, I think in a bit, but the people that I have known with autism, some people have had troubles, others have been really, really talented, clever, and innovative. Autism is not a deficit. Okay.
S: Yeah. It’s a difference.
D: It’s a difference. Thank you. That’s better. Okay. Because I too, like most of, especially like with dyslexia, in the seventies, we all thought people with dyslexia were just lazy. Just didn’t want to do a job. Well, they couldn’t help it. They couldn’t read. Everything was backwards. My, my oldest nephew, uh, is dyslexic. So I just want everybody to understand…
And, and where are you in the autism spectrum? Can I ask that question?
S: Sure.
D: Of course, you’re clearly under great control. You have mastered the magic of autism.
S: Yeah. Well, what’s funny about that is I’ve actually only just in the past year, really got confirmation. Um, I’m still don’t have, yeah, I still don’t have an official diagnosis because that’s a whole other bag of worms for adult diagnosis and it costs thousands of dollars. And, uh, some doctors still don’t believe that women have it. Um, so, but just taking several screening tests, um, I’ve taken about five of the clinical screening tests and they all point very highly to autism. Um, and thinking about my experiences growing up, it really makes a lot of sense.
D: That’s what I was going to ask you next. You must have known, you know, that something was different.
S: Well, yeah. I, I thought something was always…
D: Can you give an example or two, you know, when you were a little kid. What I remember is the kids that I’ve known have various symptoms of autism.
S: Definitely. Um, emotional dysregulation, um, is still difficult where, well, and for me, because I kind of triggered emotional response to things like, um, there’s a famous phrase that “you don’t have enough spoons”, but the phrase means basically like, I only have so many ways of coping with life and when I’m out of those ways, I have to take a nap. I have to, I have to go to the corner for a second. And for different people, there’s different levels of that.
And growing up with a family who expected me to be normal. Um, I got really good at masking. I got really good at holding it all in, but then I’d get home and just. Like, um, I didn’t want to do my homework. I didn’t want to eat. I didn’t want to do anything except just sit there after school. Um, unfortunately I had to keep pushing through. Um, and so I just got used to doing that, hiding who I really was, you know?
D: Um, as you know, we talked, I’m very openly gay and…what we’re getting to, the bottom line is you have to be who you are. To keep these things secret or to try and work around who you are is exhausting, as you said. And just mentally, you know, exactly.
S: I’ve actually, I did actually get a diagnosis like 15 years ago for anxiety disorder and what I’ve discovered since then is that it is a part of the autism masking, just, I had been masking for 40 years. And so, um, that just built up a lot of anxiety in me for everything, you know? Um, but now that I’m just past year, starting to learn who I am and learn what my triggers are.
Um, I am very sensitive to sound, ironically enough, um, disorganized sound, I really have a hard time handling with, but music is organized sounds. So for me, my brain likes it, you know? Um, but yeah, so I’m just learning a lot more about myself and how my brain works and that it’s okay that my brain has trouble where other people seem to have things worked out, you know? And that’s okay.
D: You see, if you will, with your brain, things that we don’t, and so on. So, you know, I mean, that’s the beauty of all, for all of us. Uh, it’s the tremendous beauty of diversity.
Um… Let’s talk about Ancients. This is psycho-messaging to our brains. I mean, give me a break. It’s not random. It’s pure messaging to ourselves, uh, Tarot and all the rest of it. And I love traditions that have been there for 8,000 years. We’re going to talk about it. Cause you use, you do, you do this formula for a piece with Tarot cards that drives me crazy, but often told me it, speaking of what you had spoken to, uh, just a moment ago, when one gets kind of focused, the focus becomes quite, uh, extravagant. And was that for you? You really got into constructing this piece around Tarot.
S: Oh, yeah, I tend to, this tends to be a theme that I, if I hit on something that’s been very useful for me, um, mentally and psychologically, spiritually, I tend to write a piece about it. So that’s what the Oracle, the Oracle tended to be Tarot. I fell, fell onto, um, as a way to deal with my anxiety and it really, luckily, I had a therapist at the time who was open to the idea of me exploring my subconscious through the Tarot cards.
D: It’s about this idea of finding oneself, of reveling in these discoveries, uh, you know, and so is there any, can you give me a, um, what a topography of when, where, if even you feel now, like who you are, you know what I mean? How, what, what trajectory, where did you arrive? Have you arrived yet?
S: Um, well, definitely starting roughly a little less than a year ago when I finally did those, um, screenings for autism, like is when everything really started clicking and, and I did a lot of reading and, and, um, researching and, and finding others like me, you know, um, and it just helped click, you know, uh, it helped make, help me make sense of who I am and why I am the way I am.
Um, so often, especially throughout my whole life, um, I would be upset that I didn’t seem to be like everybody else. Even as a teacher, I mean, one of my favorite compliments from a student of mine was I’m the quirkiest teacher on campus. And I wear that like a badge. You know, I don’t teach like other teachers teach. I don’t think like other people think, and I’ve learned that that’s okay. There’s nothing wrong with me. Um, that diversity is a great thing.
D: So now we’re going to deal with the, uh, the product of your, uh, satisfactions, although this is, let’s see, 2023. I know these are recorded over a rather large span of time.
S: Maybe, uh, yeah, about five years or so.
D: So in other words, I guess what now has me curious is feeling where you are feeling now. Do you see, do you hear, see things in your focus on this CD?
S: I do actually. Um, the CD actually came about simply by virtue of, um, the way the economy works in the music recording industry and classical music, et cetera, where we just recorded piece by piece by piece as we could, um, and then finally had enough and say, Hey, let’s put together an album, you know…
D: And then let’s figure out how to pay for it. That’s what everybody watching this knows all about. It’s not like it [just] happens.
S: Exactly. Uh, so now, like I said, especially after these past several months, I look at the CD and I do really see it as if it’s sort of a culmination of my past 15 years or so, um, because all the pieces have been written, I think the earliest one was. Well, I think “Roses and Lilies” was what, like 2012 or something like that. Um, 2013, maybe.
D: Oh, well, we’ll find it.
S: I don’t remember.
D: Why did you use the word, “Shards”?
S: My husband picked it. He, he actually made up the title Ayre of Grievances too. He comes up with great titles. We thought about “Shards” because there are pieces like Dark Glass Sinfonia, so glass and, and breaking, uh, Wabi-Sabi is sort of like the fractal nature of life. And so you see shards of glass reflecting, reflecting different things, um, basically it’s supposed to be sort of the fragmentations of personality and life and spirituality.
D: That’s a good definition here. I was, I was expecting, uh, the, as I told you, I was expecting a wild ride. And by the way, everybody knows it isn’t, it’s absolutely a magnificent recording of simply superb music. This is what just blew me away.
In a way, this text that’s on your CD tells us how fresh the CD is. So it’s been put together. You’ve done that. It’s been five years. You’re there. And then it’s like, son of a gun.
“One inherent trait I possess is finding my emotional fulfillment through the active, creative manipulation of music.” And this fascinates me. I’m, I’m not a fix the watch kind of guy. I don’t get into the little details. I’m, I’m the conductor. I’m the, you know, I want the big pastel, you know, horses crossing the plains or something. You know, does that speak to your autism in a way, the focus?
S: I think so. The hyper fixation. I mean, there are times when I’m working on a piece that if my husband wasn’t there to remind me, I’d forget to eat, you know, I’ll just be like focused on these patterns and what else can I do with them? And, and, oh, that sounds really cool. Let me try this. Let’s see.
D: And you say, “I’m not, I’m not seeking to impose specific emotions on listeners.” That’s something that’s very important, “…but rather to facilitate a deeper connection with their inner selves.” Now, I’m not quite sure what kind of, what kind of a labyrinth you just, you know, created with those words. “I’m not seeking to impose specific emotions on listeners” yet, “I would like them to get in touch with their deeper…” you know, you know what I mean, you’re clever, aren’t you?
S: Well, that’s a question I get a lot is, well, how do you want the audience to feel? Even, even composition teachers… “How do you want them to feel?” And, and I think that’s another part of my autism. I relate to emotions differently than some other people do from what I can tell. Um, I, for me, the emotion and joy comes from the patterns. And so that’s what it is for me. Um, you know, it can be a completely atonal piece and if the patterns are cool then I’m getting such delight out of it. Uh, but for other people that might not be the case and I totally recognize that. So I’m hoping through my music, even though I might find joy in places they won’t, um, that they’ll still find something that they can resonate with.
D: Oh, that was very well, well, spracht and I can only agree with you because as I think I mentioned to you and probably everybody else and probably about three times already by now, but that was the shock. This music is just simply gorgeous. And I was expecting a few more “shards”, something expecting something, something a little, little more fractious, if you will.
The first piece on the, on the CD is Ayre of Grievances. I love the spelling. I presume clever, uh, you know, and, and, uh, awfully medieval or something. For viola, violin, and flute. It’s from 2020. So that’s a bad year. Oh my God.
S: Hence the grievances.
D: Hence the grievances is right. Uh, composed during the worldwide COVID epidemic. And you and I’ve talked about it. People are not yet clear how profoundly we as a planet of human beings and animals have been affected. This is going to take another half dozen years if we don’t have World War Three somewhere in between to sort it out. So it’s a, this was a big thing. And the biggest thing in my life, maybe, uh, to go through. So, Ayre of Grievances, and, uh, and, you know, you set us up with all the frustrations, fear, sorrow, and anger, and I’m going, Oh, can’t wait.
And I put it on. And it’s absolutely gorgeous. I totally did not expect it. Here’s a bit of my stream of consciousness, totally not expecting such… well, tonality. It’s wonderful already. Tense, beautifully crafted, thoroughly contemporarily classical. I mean, it’s, it’s totally accessible. And I, again, I almost want to spit when I say that word, but I think it’s okay now to use that, to create accessible music, um, things get a little crazy and frustrated.
You mentioned in your program notes, there’s that frustration and you describe it very well. How, although in my case, I just went comatose and just stared out the windows for two years and allowed the checks to come in. Cause I was a freelancer unemployed and boy, the money was better than I’ve ever received. Thank you, Uncle Sam, but, but so I didn’t really experience a whole lot of frustration. I just sort of couldn’t believe what was going on for about two years.
In other words, there is a narrative to this piece, Ayre of Grievances. Um, but I think it, you know, it is much more than the sum of its narrative is what I’m trying to say. Uh, tonalities are altogether satisfying throughout the piece.
Go, give me an overview. What was this about for you?
S: During the, during the lockdowns for me, it was frustrating. Well, because… guy, giving three hour lectures on zoom, I never want to do that again. Oh my gosh. Not being able to see anybody, not being able to see family. Um, that was really frustrating, but at the same time, because I wasn’t able to play live concerts, like I had been, um, it gave me a chance to sit down and really think about who I am.
Um, up until that point, it was very much, oh, I’m a major violinist and a composer and a teacher at all at once.
D: Don’t forget viola… and viola too.
S: Yes. I love the viola. Um, but then I came to realize. I really much prefer writing, uh, and recording. Uh, so I, I allowed myself to let go of the, the things that maybe didn’t bring me quite as much joy. So when things did open back up, I’m, I’m being more careful to balance my life, uh, with what really brings me more joy and less stress, hopefully. Um, that’s, that’s what that piece really sort of represented is it was frustrating. It was lonely. I was angry at the world. Um, but at the same time, there was some beauty in there and some peace.
And, um, and I just love the interaction of the three parts. They’re both, they’re all three very independent, but they speak together and sometimes they’re arguing with each other. Sometimes they’re singing with each other and supporting each other. And, um, I just really liked that intimacy of the work.
D: Well, that whole narrative thing about what you’re very good, uh, you know, voices, uh, having discussions between each other, but I found, and I may sound like I’m an idiot or something, but when I saw that viola, violin, flute, I told you earlier, I thought, I remember thinking that’s going to be tricky, you know, that the flute doesn’t get lost, and all of that works beautifully. And that is not about, you know, microphones. It’s about the way you wrote the piece. Using those three instruments. So, so beautifully. And later you use instruments in the most magical way.
S: Yeah, we actually debuted it during the pandemic where I recorded the violin and viola part. And then I recorded a friend of mine playing the flute part and we just did one of those YouTube stitched videos where we stitched our videos together. That was the thing.
D: Yeah. Am I pronouncing it reasonably close? “DodecaFunky” And of course we’re playing, playing with, uh, dodeca cacophony or something. You can fill me in on that. There’s all this funny stuff going on. That’s all inside stuff for musicians.
It’s for flute and piano from 2015. I think you mentioned this might be the earliest piece, maybe…
S: “Of Roses and Lilies”, I actually wrote the original piece for voice and piano in like the early aughts. But then I went back and fleshed it out and sort of made it fuller.
D: So then you know, the early aughts, I love that. So DodecaFunky, uh, flute and piano. I want to tell everybody out there that’s looking for a repertoire. This is a beauty. This is a recital beauty. A funky solo for flute with piano accompaniment, this intense and spastic work. Is that me or you?
S: I think it’s me.
D: I think it was you. So it… “exploits various manipulations”. Oh, here you go. Yeah, it is you… “of a 12 tone row (dodecaphony).” I’m supposed to be a musician and I couldn’t care less how it’s pronounced or even what it is these days. It’s just the serial melody to a backdrop, et cetera, et cetera. But the point of, oh, this is why it’s so cute. A hard bop and swing and, uh, and stuff. It’s just a delicious piece. And it’s, it’s aggressive in its funky way. I say about the opening, while the piano adds to the delightful confusion with various playful styles, a pause and it starts to get feisty. Uh, now I don’t know where I am in the piece, but now some casual virtuoso boogie woogie, boogie funky, uh, it’s a delight.
It’s kind of a series of descriptive tableau. Am I closer? Cause I love dance. I, you know, I reviewed dance a lot and these are like little tableau. It’s wonderful to the max. Should be, uh, on programming all over the place. It’s a beauty.
Tell me, tell me, what do you think? What do you think of this?
S: I love this piece. It just makes, it makes me giggle.
D: It’s just a charm. Beautiful. It’s so cute.
S: Thank you, thank you.
D: Again, if you, you’ll forgive me the accessibility word. This is irresistible. Of course, you know what I’m trying to say?
S: I’m glad you like it. That one actually took a little bit of inspiration from Bernstein. Um, I, I love, uh, I was studying his symphony, Age of Anxiety. Oh, and I love how he merged, well, he merged…
D: By the way, you know, I’m a conductor. Uh, and I know all three of those symphonies very, very well. I’ve never conducted them because they’re too hard. “Jeremiah” I could conduct. That one makes sense. Uh, the, the age of anxiety for piano and orchestra is unbelievable, but it’s also unbelievably difficult to conduct, you know? And then Kaddish, he wrote the original and then tore it all to pieces and stuff. So, but anyway, I just want, I’m so glad somebody also has studied [those works]. Anyway, excuse me.
S: That’s okay. Uh, but yeah, I really loved the idea of merging modernist, modernistic tendencies as Bernstein would say, um, with jazz and other accessible popular genres. And so that’s what I did with this flute piece is I took a 12 tone row and it is an authentic 12 tone row, but I, you could say I cheated, I cheated a little bit because I used transpositions. So what I would do is it’s still the same row, but I would transpose fragments of it to places that I liked it, where it fit better.
D: Arnold [Schoenberg] is turning into his grave.
S: Well, this is true. Ah but see, Stravinsky did it first. So, you know, let’s blame him.
It’s still, it still has the same intervallic structures. Um, but then I back it up, with that really jazzy, different, like you say, different tableaus of different jazzy styles to kind of increase the…
D: It’s a great dance piece…
S: That’d be fun.
D: In other words, there’s lots of possibilities.
Okay. We’re going to move on.
“Of Roses and Lilies”, this is for soprano, piano, soprano recorder, which I don’t think I hear very often used in these kinds of chamber pieces. And it’s a perfect color. English horn… what got into you ?…and women’s chorus. And then the, are there strings there? I have this question.
S: String orchestra.
D: String orchestra, because I didn’t, you know, I didn’t see it in the, in the brief and it’s from 2013, so we’re getting closer to, to the bottom of the stack here. Tell us about it.
S: This one’s a really fascinating piece for me. I, like I said, I had first written it many, many, many, several decades ago. And this was written…
D: Don’t be so hard on yourself…It’s only been 10 years…
S: But the original piece for just soprano and piano was written, like I said, in the late nineties or early aughts, um, this was when I was still with my very Christian family, um, yeah, there you go. And so I fell in love with the song of Solomon and I thought, why don’t I write quick snippets of the song of Solomon and put it together as sort of a love song. And so I did. And, um, eventually just another like 10 years or so down the road, I’d said, you know what, I really love this piece. I’m going to flesh it out. So, um, I took the original just two parts and added the strings and added the color of the soprano recorder and the English horn, um, and, you know, added the women’s chorus as sort of this almost Greek chorus kind of response thing.
So it’s a very, it’s a very different piece. Uh, it’s a very dramatic kind of theater-esque, drama-esque kind of, uh, kind of a feel.
D: And you don’t use the word romantic. It reeks of romanticism. I see in my notes there, a rich tapestry of sound and a highly romantic tonal aesthetic. I was not ready for that.
S: Well, actually, uh, every, everybody don’t hate on me, but I actually recorded it myself. So it’s only, it’s only two microphones with, uh, the soloist, Claire is one of my best friends and she teaches at Azusa. So she was able to grab us a classroom. And so I recorded with the two microphones, her and another good friend of mine, the pianist, Lydia. Um, and at the time we weren’t sure if I was just going to put together a digital background to it and like release it online or something. But, you know, this CD was coming to the, coming toward finishing and I was like, you know, this would be really awesome if we can get the rest of it recorded.
So I, yeah, I took two more sessions. I got the strings and the winds together for one session. Uh, and then I finally got the women’s chorus together for a session.
D: So that makes sense too. Very hard undertaking just in terms of production.
S: Yeah, it’s such a good, such a good learning experience. And again, so many of my dear, dear friends are on that recording and it’s just, it was just so special to me.
D: It’s something else. And I hope you understand what I’m saying here, because we want to get this, these pieces performed. It’s a beauty. It’s very accessible. So it doesn’t sound terribly hard to put together. What do you think? Am I all wet? I don’t know, but just, it seemed very, it seemed to just flow pretty freely.
S: Here’s the… I would say, here’s the danger with my music. And, um, especially with this piece, this has happened before. There have been pianists who think they can sight read it and they suddenly quit. It’s like, oh, I can’t sight read this. So this is something my very first composition teacher warned me about is that my music seems really easy. But then you dig into it and there are some little quirks in there and some tricks that you might not be expecting. So as long as you know…
D: It shouldn’t be a big problem. If you know what I mean, so I think I’m okay in saying that I think it’s not like, you know…
S: It’s not terrible.
D: Yeah…[not] terribly virtuosic. And that is, that is to say this should go off the shelf and into performance and rehearsal. And that’s exactly what I see. Nothing but college, college ensemble. Because of the difficulty of getting, you know, professionals together in that kind of complex, you know, but, but, so I found it really very, very…a flowing, lovely, entirely tonal journey. The soprano recorder is charming. Your writing is absolutely first-class. You handle transitions of mood with smooth aplomb. Boy, that came out of my head. Geez. The piece soars with beauty. Your compositional savvy and skill are beyond question.
S: Thank you.
D: Let’s see. Now this is “The Oracle,” for violin, cello, flute and piccolo, clarinet, piano. That’s from 2016. Go ahead. Tell us, but the bottom line is you constructed this thing from random throws of tarot cards. Go.
S: Exactly. Okay. So…
D: Aleatoric indeed!
S: Uh, I really, like I said, this was the time in my life when I had just really started to latch on to tarot as a means of exploring my own subconscious.
D: Which is correct, by the way. Let’s make sure. Exactly what it’s supposed to be. No, let the self-conscious speak to us.
S: Exactly. I like to think of it, it’s like a mirror for myself. It’s a way for me to talk to myself when sometimes I’m having trouble understanding my brain. So, uh, I really love tarot and I wrote this when I first really started getting into it. And so what I did is, um, I had an opportunity. It was like a call for scores for this ensemble. Uh, and so I was like, this will be fun. Why don’t I use that as an excuse to try it out?
So, and I wanted to do sort of a homage to John Cage by using an aleatoric kind of method. And so tarot seemed like the perfect way to do it. So I set up, um, I think it was five different spreads of 10 cards. I think I did like, um, some kind of a sacred pyramid, uh, spread for each of those. Um, and what I did is I, I assigned certain, you know, in tarot, the different suits represent different aspects of life and personality.
So you have the cups, which is emotion. Um, you have, you know, the, uh, the pentacles, uh, the pentacles are, uh, earth, uh, and, um, material wellbeing and reality and such. Uh, so what I did is I attached each of the instruments to those suits. The, uh, violin was fire, uh, or wands. Uh, the, uh, the cello was water or cups and the, uh, the clarinet was earth and the flute, of course, was air. And then for the piano, uh, I made the piano, the tree of life itself. Uh, because I like to read tarot from a Kabbalistic tree of life sort of interpretation.
D: You’re starting to get over my head. I thought I was with you pretty well, but Kabbalistic something, something…with a tree of life.
S: So Jewish mysticism, basically. So on the tree of life, each of the cards have their place on that tree. And the higher up the tree you are, the closer to the divine source you are. And then you travel down the tree and experience various phases of life and emotion, et cetera, until you get to the bottom, which is material reality. Everything you’ve experienced becomes real. Uh, and then you cycle back to the top, back to the divine source again.
So for the piano, um, when I had a spread that, that spoke of being closer to the divine source, I had the piano playing up in its higher registers. And then as it got closer to the bottom, to the ground, the piano went down. So the higher, if you hear the piano going, noodling up really high, that’s up at the divine source of things. If you hear the piano kind of in the middle, that’s sort of where balance and harmony are. If the piano is down in the basement, that’s down in material reality.
And then in the meantime, you have all the other instruments that are reflecting on emotion or, um, you know, or, or thought, or power
D: …and character that may be interpreted…in countless ways. That’s the beauty of the idea of randomness, the beauty of the order, if you will, of randomness, that even random events will speak to us.
S: Exactly.
D: Once in a while, I really want to play an album, uh, for other people in my, you know, over a dinner or something. This is one of them. Um, what an amazing chamber piece. I say this is, uh, this long cello obbligato, then into the klezmer aesthetic I call, uh, with, with all of that playing. Now I understand the cabalistic, if you will, right. Uh, meaning to it all. Uh, but the klezmer, uh, aesthetic is, is clearly there. The, and of course the Oracle is a Jew, right? I say the Oracle is a Jew? Question mark.
A wonderful transition, transitional writing. And you know what I mean? Making segments and, and, uh, themes make sense. That transition material is very, very important to get it right. [Your] compositional savvy is top notch. I think I’ve been saying that, but the piece is a wonderful narrative. It’s complex. It’s a complex narrative. Um, and as you have just described the instruments are characters.
S: They’re, they’re the suits of the, of the cards, but they do have sort of, they evoke their sort of, uh, certain characteristics about it.
D: Okay. That’s much more complex. Thank you. That clarifies.
This is quite a journey. So, and, uh, and then I say, um, a jaunty section now as CODA, I assume that’s a CODA. Uh, still a fun ending. I love it. I don’t think you can get any more, you know, any, any better than that.
Okay. Next is, is, uh, Wabi-Sabi, this, uh, uh, the aesthetic and metaphysical ideals that Japanese Wabi-Sabi encapsulates. Tell us about Wabi-Sabi. Is it animist or something? Is it part of their religion? Animist religion?
S: It can be. Uh, I’m trying to remember where it historically started. It actually started with monochromatic Chinese drawings and then the Japanese sort of took that ideal and enhanced it. A lot of people think of a Zen garden when they think of Wabi Sabi.
D: I see what you mean. Now I understand exactly what you mean. Even the artwork, strokes, you know, just very spare strokes.
S: Yeah. The tea ceremony. Um, everything about that ceremony is part of their Wabi Sabi aesthetic and metaphysical ideals.
D: I’m trying to remember this [for] parties.
S: Simplicity is, is a major part of it, but it goes beyond that. This, and this is what the string quartet throughout the three movements sort of encapsulates is that, uh, the beginning that, that…you know, in the west the idea of nothing is like zero, there’s nothing there. It’s very stark, but in Wabi Sabi ideas, um, nothing is full of potential. There’s a lot that could be there, but isn’t there yet.
D: That’s so profound.
S: Um, and then you go through, especially at the beginning of the first movement, sort of these random particles where the players can choose how they want to play it.
D: I understand that. We’re talking about the first movement Emergence, what have you just said that the players have some choice and they have choices.
S: So, so each of the players have a collection of notes that they can choose from to play. Uh, and they do it in different ways. Like the cello trills all their notes, but they can choose how they want to trill and how fast they want to trill and when they want to come in, uh, and things like that. Um, until they finally come together in the middle of the first movement and it sort of builds from there. So the idea is like that of creation of these particles coming into space and slowly merging together to become something.
D: And by the way, this sounds like an homage to Stockhausen, you know?
S: Yeah, absolutely.
D: Another great. Distance… these distant sounds… I remember performance, you know, Stockhausen, and it all comes together.
S: And then, and then Evolution is a short, it’s intentionally a short little two minute burst because that’s where everything is kind of locked in.
D: This is Evolution.
S: This is the, the cells are coming together and creating fish that are coming out of the water and, you know, becoming man. Um, et cetera. Possibility.
D: Alive with possibility, yeah. …Nothingness itself…
S: Yeah, exactly. Um, and then it gives way to Entropy, uh, and Entropy starts with a very strict structure. Uh, funnily enough, I wasn’t sure compositionally how I wanted to go about the third movement, but I was in the middle of teaching about isorhythm in one of my classes. So I’m like, Hey, I can do isorhythm with this. That’d be fun. So it starts out very strict, um, but then gets really complex and starts falling apart. And again, that’s the idea of returning back to nothingness. Everything’s falling apart.
Uh, and, and that’s the idea of, um, the idea that you, um, sometimes the best course of action is to decide to do nothing, you know…
D: I think you have just described an exact, uh, arc in the, they come together. I’m looking at Emergence. The first one builds quite satisfyingly. Uh, the construct is fascinating and sensible to the intellect, I say to myself. And of course, if there, if you don’t get it off the ground, intellectually from the beginning, you’re in trouble… Ok, Evolution. Um, I love this, uh, I call it a flowing sea sort of opening. Or whatever that vibe could be. Anything, forget sea, whatever that undulating flowing thing…so mesmerizing. Again, wonderful quartet writing.
I’m going to have to stop using this word accessible, but that’s the whole idea to get these performed. And that’s exactly to be well written and also to be a happy time for an audience. Give me a break. And I, and here’s the thing about Evolution that it’s, uh, utterly accessible to the listener, though the subject, listening, but I think I got it. Although the subject matter may have sub-basements. Now a walking cello fits that, that walking cello thing. It’s wonderful to keep the piece moving and, and, uh, energetic. Um, quite a narrative.
S: It’s like a little metronome marking I have in the, uh, the second movement is “Like dancing molecules.”
D: Oh!
S: Kind of the spinning, whirling…
D: I might have to dream about that tonight. And the third movement, if you will, Entropy. It’s such a nice, uh, I, I, do I hear a little fugue…? I wanted… the stream of consciousness thing…fuguetto. You know what I mean? That opening is a, is it a genuine, but it’s a fuguetto, right?
S: Yeah, it’s, um, it starts out exactly as a canon. Then what happens is that each time the line comes back, uh, I either in diminution or augmentation. Uh, so I, I, like I said, if you see the score, um, I start doing crazy little sub meters within each of the parts just to help, just to help the players keep, keep time with each other, but yeah, that’s part of the unraveling part is they start very much together and then they start in like ratios of two to one or one to two, but yeah, then it starts getting into weird ratios…
D: …because I think I wondered about those, those asymmetrical collisions… A slightly dysfunctional intentional section. I’m toward the end here of pizz’s.
S: Well, the very ending, I go back to the beginning idea where the, each player has a selection of notes. They can pizz. whenever they want to. So each performance should be a little different than each other.
D: So the end of entropy, they go back to this idea and they can even change their mind about it.
S: Exactly.
D: Stockhausen, he’s smiling.
“Nevermore,” this major Sonata, I think for viola and piano from 2019 to 2021. Nevermore for viola and piano, also a subtitle of a Gothic Suite, so delightful, it’s an absolutely magnificent Sonata for viola and piano. It’s just absolutely, it’s so American, because we’re talking about Edgar Allan Poe and each movement is after one of his most famous pieces. But you have, I feel very powerfully about American composers choosing American subjects. The Raven, Annabelle Lee, the Telltale Heart.
S: Actually, Charlotte Goode, the violist on this recording, is actually another one of my bestest friends. And she is also a gothic nut and a fellow autistic. And she just, she was like, oh my gosh, we need to collaborate. We need to do this for viola. And I’m like, yes. So I started out with the Raven, you know, and she debuted that at a recital. And then I was like, okay, we need to come up with two other, you know, two other movements to finish it out. And the thing I love about the recording of this, again, this is so her, the viola part is so her, the subject matter is so her, and then I was lucky enough to be able to fly out with her to Boston to have her record it for PARMA. So…that day I went to Salem after we recorded it. So it was perfect.
D: You mean, the Witch Town or Salem, Oregon?
S: No, no, no, the Witch Town, yeah, Salem, Massachusetts.
D: So Poe inspired you to go to the seat of evil.
S: Exactly. It was so good.
D: Well, what I have to say is here, I worked on looking at the first movement. First of all, a fascinating piano introduction that really nails the interest immediately because it hints at mysteries, then it’s followed by the viola’s intensely Poe-ish colors and temperament, so congrats to your friend. It’s a beauty, again, of narrative imagination, a wonderful piece of writing for viola. It is virtuosic.
S: Yeah, it is. I won’t play it on my viola. I’ll let somebody else do it. I’m not that good.
D: Well, everything a violist looks for in a recital piece, you know, and it’s romantic, there are romantic bits in here, some hair-raising twilight zone intervals between notes, if that makes any sense, thrilling, kooky, mysterious, as was the man, nice new idea… that roiling keyboard stuff toward the end of the piece, does that make any sense? Under viola, that middle and low register as it goes.
“Annabelle Lee.” It’s gorgeous, that movement is just gorgeous.
S: So beautiful, it’s one of my absolute favorites, just, and the poem, too, is just absolutely, it really struck me.
D: It brings you to tears, really, that poem.
S: It really does. I really wanted to capture that complete childlike innocence, just absolutely purest childlike innocent love of a little boy and a little girl. And then the angels cruelly take her away from him, you know, and just that drama.
D: And that’s the true story, isn’t it? Doesn’t he marry her, his wife, when she was 15, and then did she die? I can’t quite remember.
S: I don’t remember. I’d have to look it up.
D: We just missed the good parts that neither of us can remember. Anyway, what I’m trying to say is, Annabelle Lee speaks to a very personal experience.
S: I do know this was his last poem that he wrote before he died. That’s also a very haunting little tidbit. So, yeah, I love this movement so much. It actually, it was the hardest to record, too, because it’s deceptively simple. But it’s because it’s kind of like Mozart in that way, where it’s so simple and exposed that the violist has to be really careful and really in tune. So it took us a little bit longer to do this one.
D: Nice. Yeah, it’s a beautiful reading. I call it magical writing. It’s exceptionally sensitive.
The Tell-Tale Heart: the intro, sufficiently terrifying. Very imaginative character development. It’s exactly creepy enough to fit the narrative, because it is that narrative, the pulsing, the clicking, and the floorboards… Then the beginning of real paranoia. I mean, you describe this tale very well.
S: Actually, I decided the best way to put it together was to take the story apart and make each of the sections of music a section of the story. So it’s probably the most narratively accurate of the three movements.
D: And that makes good sense to me.
S: Yeah, and in the music, each of the section headings has a little quote from the story. So you can kind of tell where you are in the story. But yeah, the idea of just. I wanted the opening theme that the viola starts playing is supposed to be sort of the love theme that the narrator has for his master.
“I loved the old man…It was his eye!” …you know, so it’s this really creepy. It’s a love song, but it’s twisted. It’s got something off.
So that’s where it opens. And then from there, then I get into the part where it’s for seven nights. He he peeks in at the bedroom. And so that section is like in seven four or something like that. It has odd. It’s asymmetrical. So, again, it feels a little off, you know, a little bit of the heartbeat taps and then, you know, stuff like that. And then little answering in the piano… And then you hear him murder him.
D: I call it shades of the shower scene in Psycho.
S: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
D: Brava, I say after that.
S: …yeah, thank you. Yeah. And then you just get, like you say, the paranoia as the cops won’t leave. But the narrator keeps hearing the heartbeat and he can’t get away from it. And he just has to give up.
D: And indeed, it’s an internal conflict. Yeah, that’s the order of the soundscape. It’s kind of this internal conflict that becomes, you know, insupportable, disturbingly deliberate. And it’s so well done, well done.
So that’s a beautiful sonata. And as I mentioned, here it is. It’s a, it’s a viola sonata. It’s, it’s tough. Well, you know, at a certain level, you know, you almost want it to be. So it’s not inaccessible at all. It has a it has a tremendous connection to America and American history and American literature. It is a beautiful sonata and it sounds so beautiful. The writing is so gorgeous.
So take note, everybody. Nevermore for viola and piano.
And then now the last, the grand finale on the CD, The Dark Glass Sinfonia: We see through a glass darkly. For orchestra from 2017 built upon an integrated set…Oh, here you go again.
S: I love patterns!
D: …that’s why I pulled it. Because in all of my life in the arts and even at college, these things never came up in my experience. “Built,” she says, confident, “built upon an integrated set of hexachordal formulae.” End quote. I say to myself, please explain. You will, then you go on: “Free atonality with modal harmony…In doing so, it is meant to represent the enigmatic and ongoing emotional flux of the soul.”
S: This is another…it started out as just a love affair with patterns. And one thing, I’m not a major post-tonalist. You can tell from the accessibleness of my music. But I do love some of the number patterns that come about from, you know, post-tonal exercises. And hexachordal combinatoriality is one of my favorite ideas. I just love saying it. Hexachordal combinatoriality.
D: Yeah, I bet when you have students, they just sort of collapse.
S: Yeah, I’m like, OK, learn how to say it, you can impress all of your friends.
D: But then again, formulae is rather…
S: …It’s very pompous sounding…it’s basically it’s built upon the 12-tone ideal, but it breaks up the 12 tones into six tones, hexachords. So each of the hexachords has its own unique intervallic character to it. And so in the same way that you can take kind of the same way where I cheated with DodecaFunky, where I took segments of it and like transposed it, it’s kind of like that, but I did less cheating. Hexachords kind of do their own cheating because you can take one part of the tone row and then take the second half of it and flip it or reverse it. Or, you know, all that kind of stuff. And then if you break them down into numbers, you can add them up into cool combinations and things like that. So that’s what this was. This piece was sort of a play on that and seeing what I could do with it. And that’s how I developed the main themes.
You really hear it come out, especially in the little woodwind stuff throughout the top. That’s really where it shines. But it really is woven into it.
D: The row shines?…
S: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
D: Well, you must have been in heaven putting this piece together.
S: It was very, very fun. And again, and I don’t know how my brain does this, but what starts out with a whole bunch of numbers and patterns usually comes out as something really lovely that I continue to love listening to.
D: Well, guess what? That’s exactly the whole point of the genius of autism. You just exactly described what we’ve been kind of…that autism is, is just different.
S: You know, you know, that’s another thing that shines through with this orchestral piece, too, is that one of the comments sometimes I get from other people is, oh, why can’t you just have the instruments all stacked up on top of each other? You know, why can’t they all play at once? And I’m like, I just don’t like that. I like to have the layers. Somebody’s always doing something. And so there’s kind of a medievalness to it, you know, going back to that old polyphony idea. But then I’ll integrate it with these numbers and patterns. And I just love seeing it layer.
D: Speaking of layering, did I hear I see in my notes here. Is there any kind of pyramid that you constructed a sound pyramid somewhere in the beginning of that piece? Or is it a stupid word?
S: No it’s not stupid. I like to call it a waterfall, where…
D: Yeah, ….I got the idea of what you were creating there.
S: Yeah. The hexachordal pattern is there. But what I do is I pass it starting from the top and have it kind of trickle down like that.
D: So pyramid is not quite the right way of describing it. But I was hearing a very specific concept. And of course, thinking pyramid, I’m describing it as from the bottom up. But you’ve just described it as from top to trickle down, if you will.
Let’s see… There was a lovely little brass tune. I’m hearing that I’m hearing cinematic moments. Of course, it’s an orchestral piece. I’m sure you really got your teeth into that one.
Let’s see, lovely wind section work, as we’ve discussed, nicely orchestrated. Well, it’s brilliant and wonderful and very accessible and a beautiful, beautiful orchestral piece of what? I can’t remember. Seven minutes or…
S: Yeah, it’s only like seven minutes or so, which I have found, again, economically and just competition wise…
D: That’s exactly right.
S: People like shorter, shorter pieces.
D: That’s kind of what we ask, because then the next question is how? Because I’m again thinking collegiate orchestras. And then let’s see that as we’ve discussed, there’s that thematic return, you know, that the whole thing does a perfect arc. So there you go.
S: I just really love the very, very ending of it. When I first put it together and to me, it evoked sort of almost this organ, this organ like texture with. I just love the resonance… T
D: That section with percussion. That’s toward the end. I see more complicated in narrative in terms of just the construct of the piece. Definitely descriptive, martial, perfectly accessible. It’s a perfect piece for a college orchestra if it’s in that sphere of capability.
S: Yeah. …that little fast march like scherzo thing. I kind of had a like a like a Russian, Russian romantic vibe almost or like early 20th century Russian vibe, you know, almost like kind of Shostakovich-esque, you know…
D: Each question mark was starting to rise out of my head there, the Shostakovich-ish.
S: Yeah, exactly.
D: What a great talk we’ve had. And I think just anybody could pick up that the world of our profession, of our music making, is the world at large. I mean, we speak to the wonderful, fascinating world around us. That’s the whole idea of being a creative person.
So, again, wonderful chat with composer Sarah Wallin Huff. And we’re talking about your 2023 Navona release. It’s contemporary classic chamber music for diverse instrumental combinations. You’ve heard this before. It’s called Shards. Don’t worry, anybody. It’s fine. And wonderful pieces that as we’ve discussed that are chamber works and then, of course, the orchestral piece at the very end.
But this is music that should be heard a lot more. And it’s not off the top of the charts of virtuosity. But, it’s just good, solid, wonderful music-making with enough virtuosity to keep…Why did I say those of us who are gifted…busy…you know what I’m trying to say… I’m gonna shut my mouth up here.
Anyway, great fun chatting with you.
S: Thank you so much. I really I’m really flattered, you know, that you reached out.
D: Well, I’m flattered that I heard what I heard. I’ll tell you, because it’s always a gamble. I just sort of pick up, pick up whatever. And I thought I’ve never heard of this thing. Well, who is this person and what is that stuff? And that’s got us started.
It’s been a tremendous treat and a really important and a very important CD you’ve got. So, congratulations all around.
#chamberMusic #classical #Interview #orchestra #review #StudioRecording

#chambermusic #classical #interview #orchestra #review #studiorecording
Sarah Wallin Huff @[email protected] · 2025-06-05 · 10:27 UTC

Sept. 2023 Interview with Daniel Kepl

Back in the fall of 2023, right after the release of my second solo album with Navona, I got the opportunity to sit down with longtime American conductor, arts administrator, and music/theater/dance critic, Daniel Kepl, and talk with him about my album, SHARDS.
Unfortunately, the audio in that video interview was extremely unbalanced and distorted, so I took some time to try and clean it up, to make it as listenable as possible. So… that edited video is now here, below, ready for your viewing pleasure (complete with chapter breaks, if you’d prefer to jump around)!
While the pops and crackles and background noises are mostly gone, sometimes the words are still a little garbly, so I’ve embedded captions in the video and am providing a full transcript, for those who would prefer to read the discussion. If you would like to see the original unedited video, you can do that here.

Dan Kepl’s Review Highlights
The high points of Dan Kepl’s praise, as stated in the video below.

About the Album:

[SHARDS is] a wonderful album, very interesting and very accessible, if I may say. It’s absolutely a magnificent recording of simply superb music… This music is just simply gorgeous. You use instruments in the most magical way.
This is music that should be heard a lot more…it’s just good, solid, wonderful music-making. It’s…a very important CD you’ve got.

About “Ayre of Grievances”:

It’s absolutely gorgeous. Tense, beautifully crafted, thoroughly contemporarily classical. tonalities are altogether satisfying throughout the piece. The balancing and everything is wonderful in terms of your compositional skills.

About “DodecaFunky”:

I want to tell everybody out there that’s looking for a repertoire, this is a beauty. This is a recital beauty. I think I can say it’s fun. It’s wonderful. It’s just a delicious piece, it’s aggressive in its funky way. It’s wonderful to the max. Should be on programming all over the place. This is irresistible. Audiences would love it, I think.

About “Of Roses and Lilies”:

It’s a beauty; a rich tapestry of sound and a highly romantic tonal aesthetic. …this should go off the shelf and into performance and rehearsal. A flowing, lovely, entirely tonal journey. The soprano recorder is charming. Your writing is absolutely first-class. You handle transitions of mood with smooth aplomb. The piece soars with beauty. Your compositional savvy and skill are beyond question.

About “The Oracle”:

Once in a while, I really want to play [a track of] an album, uh, for other people…you know, over a dinner or something. This is one of them. What an amazing chamber piece. Wonderful transitional writing; compositional savvy is top notch. The piece is a wonderful narrative. It’s complex. This piece is quite a journey.

About “Wabi-Sabi”:

The construct is fascinating and sensible to the intellect…quite a narrative…wonderful quartet writing.

About “Nevermore”:

An absolutely gorgeous, wonderful, magnificent Sonata for viola and piano…so American. …a fascinating piano introduction that really nails the interest immediately because it hints at mysteries, then it’s followed by the viola’s intensely Poe-ish colors and temperament. It’s a beauty, again, of narrative imagination, a wonderful piece of writing for viola. It is virtuosic, everything a violist looks for in a recital piece. There are romantic bits in here, some hair-raising twilight zone intervals between notes, if that makes any sense, thrilling, kooky, mysterious, as was the man. It has a tremendous connection to America and American history and American literature. It is a beautiful sonata and it sounds so beautiful. The writing is so gorgeous.
[For Annabelle Lee] I call it magical writing. It’s exceptionally sensitive.
The Tell-Tale Heart: the intro, sufficiently terrifying. Very imaginative character development. It’s exactly creepy enough to fit the narrative, because it is that narrative, the pulsing, the clicking…the floorboards…Then the beginning of real paranoia. Shades of the shower scene in Psycho – Brava! Disturbingly deliberate ending.

About “The Dark Glass Sinfonia”:

…wonderful piece for orchestra, “The Dark Glass Sinfonia,” gives me shivers, but it’s wonderful.
Lovely wind section work…nicely orchestrated. It’s brilliant and wonderful and very accessible…a beautiful, beautiful orchestral piece. Definitely descriptive, martial, perfectly accessible.
Sept. 2023 Interview with Daniel Kepl (Edited, with Captions)

Full [Edited] Interview Transcript

D: I’m chatting with composer Sarah Wallin Huff and we’re going to talk about your 2023 Navona CD release. Thank you, Parma. Thank you, Navona. Thank you, all of you wonderful people out there that put this, these kind of packages together. Just a quick aside about Navona, including everything that we need as critics, really somewhat truncated, makes perfect sense, but up on a website. And very few other companies do this. I just think it’s fabulous.
I’ve seen your interview, or I’ve read your interview, I should say, with Parma. And we’re going to talk about your 2023 Navona CD release of Contemporary Classical Chamber Works and an album for diverse instrumental combinations. Anyway, the CD is called Shards. Do not run away in the night and be afraid. It’s a wonderful album of very interesting and very accessible, if I may say so, and I think it’s perfectly OK to say so.
Here, just a sampling: Ayre of Grievances, for viola, violin, flute, lovely. The flute I wondered about. Those are pretty heavy instruments and the balancing and everything is wonderful in terms of your compositional skills.
DodecaFunky, let me say that once more. DodecaFunky, for piano, and it is cute… oh, did I miss one?
S: DodecaFunky.
D: Anyway, it’s cute. I think I can say it’s fun. It’s wonderful. And it’s a wonderful, very fascinating piano piece. Audiences would love it, I think.
“Of Roses and Lilies.” This one’s a little complex for soprano, piano, soprano recorder. Nice colors. Nice. English horn, very interesting. And women’s chorus. I mean, not since Holst have I heard women’s chorus used in this way.
So, Wabi-Sabi, it’s in three movements. Juventas, the new music ensemble performs it. This is a string quartet, so four players of the Juventas ensemble. I hope I’m pronouncing that right since I live in California. Three movements: Emergence, Evolution, Entropy. Very, very interesting. And maybe even kind of the heart of who you might be. I don’t know. I’m just guessing.
The next piece, Nevermore for viola and piano, an absolutely gorgeous, wonderful, three-movement sonata for viola and piano. The movements: The Raven, Annabelle Lee, The Tell-Tale Heart. And I love Poe, what a genius, what a genius. So glad you have included this wonderful, wonderful piece for viola and piano. And I mean by that, again, your compositional skills, the way you use these, didn’t you play viola? I thought I that read somewhere. Were you a violist?
S: I double on viola. I feel more comfortable on violin, but I can pick up a viola if I need it.
D: Okay. So you got all that stuff, you know, under your fingernails, so to say.
And then the last piece, wonderful piece for orchestra, The Dark Glass Sinfonia, gives me shivers, but it’s wonderful. And with a little subtype, if I’m reading it correctly: “We see through a glass darkly.” Wonderful piece, performed by wonderful people, while you really say it right out, right, and I just want to deal with this a little bit before I get to where you know, I’m going.
We all know people with autism and what I have found in my experience with people, and you know, autism is here, there, everywhere in various variations. You’re going to speak to it, I think in a bit, but the people that I have known with autism, some people have had troubles, others have been really, really talented, clever, and innovative. Autism is not a deficit. Okay.
S: Yeah. It’s a difference.
D: It’s a difference. Thank you. That’s better. Okay. Because I too, like most of, especially like with dyslexia, in the seventies, we all thought people with dyslexia were just lazy. Just didn’t want to do a job. Well, they couldn’t help it. They couldn’t read. Everything was backwards. My, my oldest nephew, uh, is dyslexic. So I just want everybody to understand…
And, and where are you in the autism spectrum? Can I ask that question?
S: Sure.
D: Of course, you’re clearly under great control. You have mastered the magic of autism.
S: Yeah. Well, what’s funny about that is I’ve actually only just in the past year, really got confirmation. Um, I’m still don’t have, yeah, I still don’t have an official diagnosis because that’s a whole other bag of worms for adult diagnosis and it costs thousands of dollars. And, uh, some doctors still don’t believe that women have it. Um, so, but just taking several screening tests, um, I’ve taken about five of the clinical screening tests and they all point very highly to autism. Um, and thinking about my experiences growing up, it really makes a lot of sense.
D: That’s what I was going to ask you next. You must have known, you know, that something was different.
S: Well, yeah. I, I thought something was always…
D: Can you give an example or two, you know, when you were a little kid. What I remember is the kids that I’ve known have various symptoms of autism.
S: Definitely. Um, emotional dysregulation, um, is still difficult where, well, and for me, because I kind of triggered emotional response to things like, um, there’s a famous phrase that “you don’t have enough spoons”, but the phrase means basically like, I only have so many ways of coping with life and when I’m out of those ways, I have to take a nap. I have to, I have to go to the corner for a second. And for different people, there’s different levels of that.
And growing up with a family who expected me to be normal. Um, I got really good at masking. I got really good at holding it all in, but then I’d get home and just. Like, um, I didn’t want to do my homework. I didn’t want to eat. I didn’t want to do anything except just sit there after school. Um, unfortunately I had to keep pushing through. Um, and so I just got used to doing that, hiding who I really was, you know?
D: Um, as you know, we talked, I’m very openly gay and…what we’re getting to, the bottom line is you have to be who you are. To keep these things secret or to try and work around who you are is exhausting, as you said. And just mentally, you know, exactly.
S: I’ve actually, I did actually get a diagnosis like 15 years ago for anxiety disorder and what I’ve discovered since then is that it is a part of the autism masking, just, I had been masking for 40 years. And so, um, that just built up a lot of anxiety in me for everything, you know? Um, but now that I’m just past year, starting to learn who I am and learn what my triggers are.
Um, I am very sensitive to sound, ironically enough, um, disorganized sound, I really have a hard time handling with, but music is organized sounds. So for me, my brain likes it, you know? Um, but yeah, so I’m just learning a lot more about myself and how my brain works and that it’s okay that my brain has trouble where other people seem to have things worked out, you know? And that’s okay.
D: You see, if you will, with your brain, things that we don’t, and so on. So, you know, I mean, that’s the beauty of all, for all of us. Uh, it’s the tremendous beauty of diversity.
Um… Let’s talk about Ancients. This is psycho-messaging to our brains. I mean, give me a break. It’s not random. It’s pure messaging to ourselves, uh, Tarot and all the rest of it. And I love traditions that have been there for 8,000 years. We’re going to talk about it. Cause you use, you do, you do this formula for a piece with Tarot cards that drives me crazy, but often told me it, speaking of what you had spoken to, uh, just a moment ago, when one gets kind of focused, the focus becomes quite, uh, extravagant. And was that for you? You really got into constructing this piece around Tarot.
S: Oh, yeah, I tend to, this tends to be a theme that I, if I hit on something that’s been very useful for me, um, mentally and psychologically, spiritually, I tend to write a piece about it. So that’s what the Oracle, the Oracle tended to be Tarot. I fell, fell onto, um, as a way to deal with my anxiety and it really, luckily, I had a therapist at the time who was open to the idea of me exploring my subconscious through the Tarot cards.
D: It’s about this idea of finding oneself, of reveling in these discoveries, uh, you know, and so is there any, can you give me a, um, what a topography of when, where, if even you feel now, like who you are, you know what I mean? How, what, what trajectory, where did you arrive? Have you arrived yet?
S: Um, well, definitely starting roughly a little less than a year ago when I finally did those, um, screenings for autism, like is when everything really started clicking and, and I did a lot of reading and, and, um, researching and, and finding others like me, you know, um, and it just helped click, you know, uh, it helped make, help me make sense of who I am and why I am the way I am.
Um, so often, especially throughout my whole life, um, I would be upset that I didn’t seem to be like everybody else. Even as a teacher, I mean, one of my favorite compliments from a student of mine was I’m the quirkiest teacher on campus. And I wear that like a badge. You know, I don’t teach like other teachers teach. I don’t think like other people think, and I’ve learned that that’s okay. There’s nothing wrong with me. Um, that diversity is a great thing.
D: So now we’re going to deal with the, uh, the product of your, uh, satisfactions, although this is, let’s see, 2023. I know these are recorded over a rather large span of time.
S: Maybe, uh, yeah, about five years or so.
D: So in other words, I guess what now has me curious is feeling where you are feeling now. Do you see, do you hear, see things in your focus on this CD?
S: I do actually. Um, the CD actually came about simply by virtue of, um, the way the economy works in the music recording industry and classical music, et cetera, where we just recorded piece by piece by piece as we could, um, and then finally had enough and say, Hey, let’s put together an album, you know…
D: And then let’s figure out how to pay for it. That’s what everybody watching this knows all about. It’s not like it [just] happens.
S: Exactly. Uh, so now, like I said, especially after these past several months, I look at the CD and I do really see it as if it’s sort of a culmination of my past 15 years or so, um, because all the pieces have been written, I think the earliest one was. Well, I think “Roses and Lilies” was what, like 2012 or something like that. Um, 2013, maybe.
D: Oh, well, we’ll find it.
S: I don’t remember.
D: Why did you use the word, “Shards”?
S: My husband picked it. He, he actually made up the title Ayre of Grievances too. He comes up with great titles. We thought about “Shards” because there are pieces like Dark Glass Sinfonia, so glass and, and breaking, uh, Wabi-Sabi is sort of like the fractal nature of life. And so you see shards of glass reflecting, reflecting different things, um, basically it’s supposed to be sort of the fragmentations of personality and life and spirituality.
D: That’s a good definition here. I was, I was expecting, uh, the, as I told you, I was expecting a wild ride. And by the way, everybody knows it isn’t, it’s absolutely a magnificent recording of simply superb music. This is what just blew me away.
In a way, this text that’s on your CD tells us how fresh the CD is. So it’s been put together. You’ve done that. It’s been five years. You’re there. And then it’s like, son of a gun.
“One inherent trait I possess is finding my emotional fulfillment through the active, creative manipulation of music.” And this fascinates me. I’m, I’m not a fix the watch kind of guy. I don’t get into the little details. I’m, I’m the conductor. I’m the, you know, I want the big pastel, you know, horses crossing the plains or something. You know, does that speak to your autism in a way, the focus?
S: I think so. The hyper fixation. I mean, there are times when I’m working on a piece that if my husband wasn’t there to remind me, I’d forget to eat, you know, I’ll just be like focused on these patterns and what else can I do with them? And, and, oh, that sounds really cool. Let me try this. Let’s see.
D: And you say, “I’m not, I’m not seeking to impose specific emotions on listeners.” That’s something that’s very important, “…but rather to facilitate a deeper connection with their inner selves.” Now, I’m not quite sure what kind of, what kind of a labyrinth you just, you know, created with those words. “I’m not seeking to impose specific emotions on listeners” yet, “I would like them to get in touch with their deeper…” you know, you know what I mean, you’re clever, aren’t you?
S: Well, that’s a question I get a lot is, well, how do you want the audience to feel? Even, even composition teachers… “How do you want them to feel?” And, and I think that’s another part of my autism. I relate to emotions differently than some other people do from what I can tell. Um, I, for me, the emotion and joy comes from the patterns. And so that’s what it is for me. Um, you know, it can be a completely atonal piece and if the patterns are cool then I’m getting such delight out of it. Uh, but for other people that might not be the case and I totally recognize that. So I’m hoping through my music, even though I might find joy in places they won’t, um, that they’ll still find something that they can resonate with.
D: Oh, that was very well, well, spracht and I can only agree with you because as I think I mentioned to you and probably everybody else and probably about three times already by now, but that was the shock. This music is just simply gorgeous. And I was expecting a few more “shards”, something expecting something, something a little, little more fractious, if you will.
The first piece on the, on the CD is Ayre of Grievances. I love the spelling. I presume clever, uh, you know, and, and, uh, awfully medieval or something. For viola, violin, and flute. It’s from 2020. So that’s a bad year. Oh my God.
S: Hence the grievances.
D: Hence the grievances is right. Uh, composed during the worldwide COVID epidemic. And you and I’ve talked about it. People are not yet clear how profoundly we as a planet of human beings and animals have been affected. This is going to take another half dozen years if we don’t have World War Three somewhere in between to sort it out. So it’s a, this was a big thing. And the biggest thing in my life, maybe, uh, to go through. So, Ayre of Grievances, and, uh, and, you know, you set us up with all the frustrations, fear, sorrow, and anger, and I’m going, Oh, can’t wait.
And I put it on. And it’s absolutely gorgeous. I totally did not expect it. Here’s a bit of my stream of consciousness, totally not expecting such… well, tonality. It’s wonderful already. Tense, beautifully crafted, thoroughly contemporarily classical. I mean, it’s, it’s totally accessible. And I, again, I almost want to spit when I say that word, but I think it’s okay now to use that, to create accessible music, um, things get a little crazy and frustrated.
You mentioned in your program notes, there’s that frustration and you describe it very well. How, although in my case, I just went comatose and just stared out the windows for two years and allowed the checks to come in. Cause I was a freelancer unemployed and boy, the money was better than I’ve ever received. Thank you, Uncle Sam, but, but so I didn’t really experience a whole lot of frustration. I just sort of couldn’t believe what was going on for about two years.
In other words, there is a narrative to this piece, Ayre of Grievances. Um, but I think it, you know, it is much more than the sum of its narrative is what I’m trying to say. Uh, tonalities are altogether satisfying throughout the piece.
Go, give me an overview. What was this about for you?
S: During the, during the lockdowns for me, it was frustrating. Well, because… guy, giving three hour lectures on zoom, I never want to do that again. Oh my gosh. Not being able to see anybody, not being able to see family. Um, that was really frustrating, but at the same time, because I wasn’t able to play live concerts, like I had been, um, it gave me a chance to sit down and really think about who I am.
Um, up until that point, it was very much, oh, I’m a major violinist and a composer and a teacher at all at once.
D: Don’t forget viola… and viola too.
S: Yes. I love the viola. Um, but then I came to realize. I really much prefer writing, uh, and recording. Uh, so I, I allowed myself to let go of the, the things that maybe didn’t bring me quite as much joy. So when things did open back up, I’m, I’m being more careful to balance my life, uh, with what really brings me more joy and less stress, hopefully. Um, that’s, that’s what that piece really sort of represented is it was frustrating. It was lonely. I was angry at the world. Um, but at the same time, there was some beauty in there and some peace.
And, um, and I just love the interaction of the three parts. They’re both, they’re all three very independent, but they speak together and sometimes they’re arguing with each other. Sometimes they’re singing with each other and supporting each other. And, um, I just really liked that intimacy of the work.
D: Well, that whole narrative thing about what you’re very good, uh, you know, voices, uh, having discussions between each other, but I found, and I may sound like I’m an idiot or something, but when I saw that viola, violin, flute, I told you earlier, I thought, I remember thinking that’s going to be tricky, you know, that the flute doesn’t get lost, and all of that works beautifully. And that is not about, you know, microphones. It’s about the way you wrote the piece. Using those three instruments. So, so beautifully. And later you use instruments in the most magical way.
S: Yeah, we actually debuted it during the pandemic where I recorded the violin and viola part. And then I recorded a friend of mine playing the flute part and we just did one of those YouTube stitched videos where we stitched our videos together. That was the thing.
D: Yeah. Am I pronouncing it reasonably close? “DodecaFunky” And of course we’re playing, playing with, uh, dodeca cacophony or something. You can fill me in on that. There’s all this funny stuff going on. That’s all inside stuff for musicians.
It’s for flute and piano from 2015. I think you mentioned this might be the earliest piece, maybe…
S: “Of Roses and Lilies”, I actually wrote the original piece for voice and piano in like the early aughts. But then I went back and fleshed it out and sort of made it fuller.
D: So then you know, the early aughts, I love that. So DodecaFunky, uh, flute and piano. I want to tell everybody out there that’s looking for a repertoire. This is a beauty. This is a recital beauty. A funky solo for flute with piano accompaniment, this intense and spastic work. Is that me or you?
S: I think it’s me.
D: I think it was you. So it… “exploits various manipulations”. Oh, here you go. Yeah, it is you… “of a 12 tone row (dodecaphony).” I’m supposed to be a musician and I couldn’t care less how it’s pronounced or even what it is these days. It’s just the serial melody to a backdrop, et cetera, et cetera. But the point of, oh, this is why it’s so cute. A hard bop and swing and, uh, and stuff. It’s just a delicious piece. And it’s, it’s aggressive in its funky way. I say about the opening, while the piano adds to the delightful confusion with various playful styles, a pause and it starts to get feisty. Uh, now I don’t know where I am in the piece, but now some casual virtuoso boogie woogie, boogie funky, uh, it’s a delight.
It’s kind of a series of descriptive tableau. Am I closer? Cause I love dance. I, you know, I reviewed dance a lot and these are like little tableau. It’s wonderful to the max. Should be, uh, on programming all over the place. It’s a beauty.
Tell me, tell me, what do you think? What do you think of this?
S: I love this piece. It just makes, it makes me giggle.
D: It’s just a charm. Beautiful. It’s so cute.
S: Thank you, thank you.
D: Again, if you, you’ll forgive me the accessibility word. This is irresistible. Of course, you know what I’m trying to say?
S: I’m glad you like it. That one actually took a little bit of inspiration from Bernstein. Um, I, I love, uh, I was studying his symphony, Age of Anxiety. Oh, and I love how he merged, well, he merged…
D: By the way, you know, I’m a conductor. Uh, and I know all three of those symphonies very, very well. I’ve never conducted them because they’re too hard. “Jeremiah” I could conduct. That one makes sense. Uh, the, the age of anxiety for piano and orchestra is unbelievable, but it’s also unbelievably difficult to conduct, you know? And then Kaddish, he wrote the original and then tore it all to pieces and stuff. So, but anyway, I just want, I’m so glad somebody also has studied [those works]. Anyway, excuse me.
S: That’s okay. Uh, but yeah, I really loved the idea of merging modernist, modernistic tendencies as Bernstein would say, um, with jazz and other accessible popular genres. And so that’s what I did with this flute piece is I took a 12 tone row and it is an authentic 12 tone row, but I, you could say I cheated, I cheated a little bit because I used transpositions. So what I would do is it’s still the same row, but I would transpose fragments of it to places that I liked it, where it fit better.
D: Arnold [Schoenberg] is turning into his grave.
S: Well, this is true. Ah but see, Stravinsky did it first. So, you know, let’s blame him.
It’s still, it still has the same intervallic structures. Um, but then I back it up, with that really jazzy, different, like you say, different tableaus of different jazzy styles to kind of increase the…
D: It’s a great dance piece…
S: That’d be fun.
D: In other words, there’s lots of possibilities.
Okay. We’re going to move on.
“Of Roses and Lilies”, this is for soprano, piano, soprano recorder, which I don’t think I hear very often used in these kinds of chamber pieces. And it’s a perfect color. English horn… what got into you ?…and women’s chorus. And then the, are there strings there? I have this question.
S: String orchestra.
D: String orchestra, because I didn’t, you know, I didn’t see it in the, in the brief and it’s from 2013, so we’re getting closer to, to the bottom of the stack here. Tell us about it.
S: This one’s a really fascinating piece for me. I, like I said, I had first written it many, many, many, several decades ago. And this was written…
D: Don’t be so hard on yourself…It’s only been 10 years…
S: But the original piece for just soprano and piano was written, like I said, in the late nineties or early aughts, um, this was when I was still with my very Christian family, um, yeah, there you go. And so I fell in love with the song of Solomon and I thought, why don’t I write quick snippets of the song of Solomon and put it together as sort of a love song. And so I did. And, um, eventually just another like 10 years or so down the road, I’d said, you know what, I really love this piece. I’m going to flesh it out. So, um, I took the original just two parts and added the strings and added the color of the soprano recorder and the English horn, um, and, you know, added the women’s chorus as sort of this almost Greek chorus kind of response thing.
So it’s a very, it’s a very different piece. Uh, it’s a very dramatic kind of theater-esque, drama-esque kind of, uh, kind of a feel.
D: And you don’t use the word romantic. It reeks of romanticism. I see in my notes there, a rich tapestry of sound and a highly romantic tonal aesthetic. I was not ready for that.
S: Well, actually, uh, every, everybody don’t hate on me, but I actually recorded it myself. So it’s only, it’s only two microphones with, uh, the soloist, Claire is one of my best friends and she teaches at Azusa. So she was able to grab us a classroom. And so I recorded with the two microphones, her and another good friend of mine, the pianist, Lydia. Um, and at the time we weren’t sure if I was just going to put together a digital background to it and like release it online or something. But, you know, this CD was coming to the, coming toward finishing and I was like, you know, this would be really awesome if we can get the rest of it recorded.
So I, yeah, I took two more sessions. I got the strings and the winds together for one session. Uh, and then I finally got the women’s chorus together for a session.
D: So that makes sense too. Very hard undertaking just in terms of production.
S: Yeah, it’s such a good, such a good learning experience. And again, so many of my dear, dear friends are on that recording and it’s just, it was just so special to me.
D: It’s something else. And I hope you understand what I’m saying here, because we want to get this, these pieces performed. It’s a beauty. It’s very accessible. So it doesn’t sound terribly hard to put together. What do you think? Am I all wet? I don’t know, but just, it seemed very, it seemed to just flow pretty freely.
S: Here’s the… I would say, here’s the danger with my music. And, um, especially with this piece, this has happened before. There have been pianists who think they can sight read it and they suddenly quit. It’s like, oh, I can’t sight read this. So this is something my very first composition teacher warned me about is that my music seems really easy. But then you dig into it and there are some little quirks in there and some tricks that you might not be expecting. So as long as you know…
D: It shouldn’t be a big problem. If you know what I mean, so I think I’m okay in saying that I think it’s not like, you know…
S: It’s not terrible.
D: Yeah…[not] terribly virtuosic. And that is, that is to say this should go off the shelf and into performance and rehearsal. And that’s exactly what I see. Nothing but college, college ensemble. Because of the difficulty of getting, you know, professionals together in that kind of complex, you know, but, but, so I found it really very, very…a flowing, lovely, entirely tonal journey. The soprano recorder is charming. Your writing is absolutely first-class. You handle transitions of mood with smooth aplomb. Boy, that came out of my head. Geez. The piece soars with beauty. Your compositional savvy and skill are beyond question.
S: Thank you.
D: Let’s see. Now this is “The Oracle,” for violin, cello, flute and piccolo, clarinet, piano. That’s from 2016. Go ahead. Tell us, but the bottom line is you constructed this thing from random throws of tarot cards. Go.
S: Exactly. Okay. So…
D: Aleatoric indeed!
S: Uh, I really, like I said, this was the time in my life when I had just really started to latch on to tarot as a means of exploring my own subconscious.
D: Which is correct, by the way. Let’s make sure. Exactly what it’s supposed to be. No, let the self-conscious speak to us.
S: Exactly. I like to think of it, it’s like a mirror for myself. It’s a way for me to talk to myself when sometimes I’m having trouble understanding my brain. So, uh, I really love tarot and I wrote this when I first really started getting into it. And so what I did is, um, I had an opportunity. It was like a call for scores for this ensemble. Uh, and so I was like, this will be fun. Why don’t I use that as an excuse to try it out?
So, and I wanted to do sort of a homage to John Cage by using an aleatoric kind of method. And so tarot seemed like the perfect way to do it. So I set up, um, I think it was five different spreads of 10 cards. I think I did like, um, some kind of a sacred pyramid, uh, spread for each of those. Um, and what I did is I, I assigned certain, you know, in tarot, the different suits represent different aspects of life and personality.
So you have the cups, which is emotion. Um, you have, you know, the, uh, the pentacles, uh, the pentacles are, uh, earth, uh, and, um, material wellbeing and reality and such. Uh, so what I did is I attached each of the instruments to those suits. The, uh, violin was fire, uh, or wands. Uh, the, uh, the cello was water or cups and the, uh, the clarinet was earth and the flute, of course, was air. And then for the piano, uh, I made the piano, the tree of life itself. Uh, because I like to read tarot from a Kabbalistic tree of life sort of interpretation.
D: You’re starting to get over my head. I thought I was with you pretty well, but Kabbalistic something, something…with a tree of life.
S: So Jewish mysticism, basically. So on the tree of life, each of the cards have their place on that tree. And the higher up the tree you are, the closer to the divine source you are. And then you travel down the tree and experience various phases of life and emotion, et cetera, until you get to the bottom, which is material reality. Everything you’ve experienced becomes real. Uh, and then you cycle back to the top, back to the divine source again.
So for the piano, um, when I had a spread that, that spoke of being closer to the divine source, I had the piano playing up in its higher registers. And then as it got closer to the bottom, to the ground, the piano went down. So the higher, if you hear the piano going, noodling up really high, that’s up at the divine source of things. If you hear the piano kind of in the middle, that’s sort of where balance and harmony are. If the piano is down in the basement, that’s down in material reality.
And then in the meantime, you have all the other instruments that are reflecting on emotion or, um, you know, or, or thought, or power
D: …and character that may be interpreted…in countless ways. That’s the beauty of the idea of randomness, the beauty of the order, if you will, of randomness, that even random events will speak to us.
S: Exactly.
D: Once in a while, I really want to play an album, uh, for other people in my, you know, over a dinner or something. This is one of them. Um, what an amazing chamber piece. I say this is, uh, this long cello obbligato, then into the klezmer aesthetic I call, uh, with, with all of that playing. Now I understand the cabalistic, if you will, right. Uh, meaning to it all. Uh, but the klezmer, uh, aesthetic is, is clearly there. The, and of course the Oracle is a Jew, right? I say the Oracle is a Jew? Question mark.
A wonderful transition, transitional writing. And you know what I mean? Making segments and, and, uh, themes make sense. That transition material is very, very important to get it right. [Your] compositional savvy is top notch. I think I’ve been saying that, but the piece is a wonderful narrative. It’s complex. It’s a complex narrative. Um, and as you have just described the instruments are characters.
S: They’re, they’re the suits of the, of the cards, but they do have sort of, they evoke their sort of, uh, certain characteristics about it.
D: Okay. That’s much more complex. Thank you. That clarifies.
This is quite a journey. So, and, uh, and then I say, um, a jaunty section now as CODA, I assume that’s a CODA. Uh, still a fun ending. I love it. I don’t think you can get any more, you know, any, any better than that.
Okay. Next is, is, uh, Wabi-Sabi, this, uh, uh, the aesthetic and metaphysical ideals that Japanese Wabi-Sabi encapsulates. Tell us about Wabi-Sabi. Is it animist or something? Is it part of their religion? Animist religion?
S: It can be. Uh, I’m trying to remember where it historically started. It actually started with monochromatic Chinese drawings and then the Japanese sort of took that ideal and enhanced it. A lot of people think of a Zen garden when they think of Wabi Sabi.
D: I see what you mean. Now I understand exactly what you mean. Even the artwork, strokes, you know, just very spare strokes.
S: Yeah. The tea ceremony. Um, everything about that ceremony is part of their Wabi Sabi aesthetic and metaphysical ideals.
D: I’m trying to remember this [for] parties.
S: Simplicity is, is a major part of it, but it goes beyond that. This, and this is what the string quartet throughout the three movements sort of encapsulates is that, uh, the beginning that, that…you know, in the west the idea of nothing is like zero, there’s nothing there. It’s very stark, but in Wabi Sabi ideas, um, nothing is full of potential. There’s a lot that could be there, but isn’t there yet.
D: That’s so profound.
S: Um, and then you go through, especially at the beginning of the first movement, sort of these random particles where the players can choose how they want to play it.
D: I understand that. We’re talking about the first movement Emergence, what have you just said that the players have some choice and they have choices.
S: So, so each of the players have a collection of notes that they can choose from to play. Uh, and they do it in different ways. Like the cello trills all their notes, but they can choose how they want to trill and how fast they want to trill and when they want to come in, uh, and things like that. Um, until they finally come together in the middle of the first movement and it sort of builds from there. So the idea is like that of creation of these particles coming into space and slowly merging together to become something.
D: And by the way, this sounds like an homage to Stockhausen, you know?
S: Yeah, absolutely.
D: Another great. Distance… these distant sounds… I remember performance, you know, Stockhausen, and it all comes together.
S: And then, and then Evolution is a short, it’s intentionally a short little two minute burst because that’s where everything is kind of locked in.
D: This is Evolution.
S: This is the, the cells are coming together and creating fish that are coming out of the water and, you know, becoming man. Um, et cetera. Possibility.
D: Alive with possibility, yeah. …Nothingness itself…
S: Yeah, exactly. Um, and then it gives way to Entropy, uh, and Entropy starts with a very strict structure. Uh, funnily enough, I wasn’t sure compositionally how I wanted to go about the third movement, but I was in the middle of teaching about isorhythm in one of my classes. So I’m like, Hey, I can do isorhythm with this. That’d be fun. So it starts out very strict, um, but then gets really complex and starts falling apart. And again, that’s the idea of returning back to nothingness. Everything’s falling apart.
Uh, and, and that’s the idea of, um, the idea that you, um, sometimes the best course of action is to decide to do nothing, you know…
D: I think you have just described an exact, uh, arc in the, they come together. I’m looking at Emergence. The first one builds quite satisfyingly. Uh, the construct is fascinating and sensible to the intellect, I say to myself. And of course, if there, if you don’t get it off the ground, intellectually from the beginning, you’re in trouble… Ok, Evolution. Um, I love this, uh, I call it a flowing sea sort of opening. Or whatever that vibe could be. Anything, forget sea, whatever that undulating flowing thing…so mesmerizing. Again, wonderful quartet writing.
I’m going to have to stop using this word accessible, but that’s the whole idea to get these performed. And that’s exactly to be well written and also to be a happy time for an audience. Give me a break. And I, and here’s the thing about Evolution that it’s, uh, utterly accessible to the listener, though the subject, listening, but I think I got it. Although the subject matter may have sub-basements. Now a walking cello fits that, that walking cello thing. It’s wonderful to keep the piece moving and, and, uh, energetic. Um, quite a narrative.
S: It’s like a little metronome marking I have in the, uh, the second movement is “Like dancing molecules.”
D: Oh!
S: Kind of the spinning, whirling…
D: I might have to dream about that tonight. And the third movement, if you will, Entropy. It’s such a nice, uh, I, I, do I hear a little fugue…? I wanted… the stream of consciousness thing…fuguetto. You know what I mean? That opening is a, is it a genuine, but it’s a fuguetto, right?
S: Yeah, it’s, um, it starts out exactly as a canon. Then what happens is that each time the line comes back, uh, I either in diminution or augmentation. Uh, so I, I, like I said, if you see the score, um, I start doing crazy little sub meters within each of the parts just to help, just to help the players keep, keep time with each other, but yeah, that’s part of the unraveling part is they start very much together and then they start in like ratios of two to one or one to two, but yeah, then it starts getting into weird ratios…
D: …because I think I wondered about those, those asymmetrical collisions… A slightly dysfunctional intentional section. I’m toward the end here of pizz’s.
S: Well, the very ending, I go back to the beginning idea where the, each player has a selection of notes. They can pizz. whenever they want to. So each performance should be a little different than each other.
D: So the end of entropy, they go back to this idea and they can even change their mind about it.
S: Exactly.
D: Stockhausen, he’s smiling.
“Nevermore,” this major Sonata, I think for viola and piano from 2019 to 2021. Nevermore for viola and piano, also a subtitle of a Gothic Suite, so delightful, it’s an absolutely magnificent Sonata for viola and piano. It’s just absolutely, it’s so American, because we’re talking about Edgar Allan Poe and each movement is after one of his most famous pieces. But you have, I feel very powerfully about American composers choosing American subjects. The Raven, Annabelle Lee, the Telltale Heart.
S: Actually, Charlotte Goode, the violist on this recording, is actually another one of my bestest friends. And she is also a gothic nut and a fellow autistic. And she just, she was like, oh my gosh, we need to collaborate. We need to do this for viola. And I’m like, yes. So I started out with the Raven, you know, and she debuted that at a recital. And then I was like, okay, we need to come up with two other, you know, two other movements to finish it out. And the thing I love about the recording of this, again, this is so her, the viola part is so her, the subject matter is so her, and then I was lucky enough to be able to fly out with her to Boston to have her record it for PARMA. So…that day I went to Salem after we recorded it. So it was perfect.
D: You mean, the Witch Town or Salem, Oregon?
S: No, no, no, the Witch Town, yeah, Salem, Massachusetts.
D: So Poe inspired you to go to the seat of evil.
S: Exactly. It was so good.
D: Well, what I have to say is here, I worked on looking at the first movement. First of all, a fascinating piano introduction that really nails the interest immediately because it hints at mysteries, then it’s followed by the viola’s intensely Poe-ish colors and temperament, so congrats to your friend. It’s a beauty, again, of narrative imagination, a wonderful piece of writing for viola. It is virtuosic.
S: Yeah, it is. I won’t play it on my viola. I’ll let somebody else do it. I’m not that good.
D: Well, everything a violist looks for in a recital piece, you know, and it’s romantic, there are romantic bits in here, some hair-raising twilight zone intervals between notes, if that makes any sense, thrilling, kooky, mysterious, as was the man, nice new idea… that roiling keyboard stuff toward the end of the piece, does that make any sense? Under viola, that middle and low register as it goes.
“Annabelle Lee.” It’s gorgeous, that movement is just gorgeous.
S: So beautiful, it’s one of my absolute favorites, just, and the poem, too, is just absolutely, it really struck me.
D: It brings you to tears, really, that poem.
S: It really does. I really wanted to capture that complete childlike innocence, just absolutely purest childlike innocent love of a little boy and a little girl. And then the angels cruelly take her away from him, you know, and just that drama.
D: And that’s the true story, isn’t it? Doesn’t he marry her, his wife, when she was 15, and then did she die? I can’t quite remember.
S: I don’t remember. I’d have to look it up.
D: We just missed the good parts that neither of us can remember. Anyway, what I’m trying to say is, Annabelle Lee speaks to a very personal experience.
S: I do know this was his last poem that he wrote before he died. That’s also a very haunting little tidbit. So, yeah, I love this movement so much. It actually, it was the hardest to record, too, because it’s deceptively simple. But it’s because it’s kind of like Mozart in that way, where it’s so simple and exposed that the violist has to be really careful and really in tune. So it took us a little bit longer to do this one.
D: Nice. Yeah, it’s a beautiful reading. I call it magical writing. It’s exceptionally sensitive.
The Tell-Tale Heart: the intro, sufficiently terrifying. Very imaginative character development. It’s exactly creepy enough to fit the narrative, because it is that narrative, the pulsing, the clicking, and the floorboards… Then the beginning of real paranoia. I mean, you describe this tale very well.
S: Actually, I decided the best way to put it together was to take the story apart and make each of the sections of music a section of the story. So it’s probably the most narratively accurate of the three movements.
D: And that makes good sense to me.
S: Yeah, and in the music, each of the section headings has a little quote from the story. So you can kind of tell where you are in the story. But yeah, the idea of just. I wanted the opening theme that the viola starts playing is supposed to be sort of the love theme that the narrator has for his master.
“I loved the old man…It was his eye!” …you know, so it’s this really creepy. It’s a love song, but it’s twisted. It’s got something off.
So that’s where it opens. And then from there, then I get into the part where it’s for seven nights. He he peeks in at the bedroom. And so that section is like in seven four or something like that. It has odd. It’s asymmetrical. So, again, it feels a little off, you know, a little bit of the heartbeat taps and then, you know, stuff like that. And then little answering in the piano… And then you hear him murder him.
D: I call it shades of the shower scene in Psycho.
S: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
D: Brava, I say after that.
S: …yeah, thank you. Yeah. And then you just get, like you say, the paranoia as the cops won’t leave. But the narrator keeps hearing the heartbeat and he can’t get away from it. And he just has to give up.
D: And indeed, it’s an internal conflict. Yeah, that’s the order of the soundscape. It’s kind of this internal conflict that becomes, you know, insupportable, disturbingly deliberate. And it’s so well done, well done.
So that’s a beautiful sonata. And as I mentioned, here it is. It’s a, it’s a viola sonata. It’s, it’s tough. Well, you know, at a certain level, you know, you almost want it to be. So it’s not inaccessible at all. It has a it has a tremendous connection to America and American history and American literature. It is a beautiful sonata and it sounds so beautiful. The writing is so gorgeous.
So take note, everybody. Nevermore for viola and piano.
And then now the last, the grand finale on the CD, The Dark Glass Sinfonia: We see through a glass darkly. For orchestra from 2017 built upon an integrated set…Oh, here you go again.
S: I love patterns!
D: …that’s why I pulled it. Because in all of my life in the arts and even at college, these things never came up in my experience. “Built,” she says, confident, “built upon an integrated set of hexachordal formulae.” End quote. I say to myself, please explain. You will, then you go on: “Free atonality with modal harmony…In doing so, it is meant to represent the enigmatic and ongoing emotional flux of the soul.”
S: This is another…it started out as just a love affair with patterns. And one thing, I’m not a major post-tonalist. You can tell from the accessibleness of my music. But I do love some of the number patterns that come about from, you know, post-tonal exercises. And hexachordal combinatoriality is one of my favorite ideas. I just love saying it. Hexachordal combinatoriality.
D: Yeah, I bet when you have students, they just sort of collapse.
S: Yeah, I’m like, OK, learn how to say it, you can impress all of your friends.
D: But then again, formulae is rather…
S: …It’s very pompous sounding…it’s basically it’s built upon the 12-tone ideal, but it breaks up the 12 tones into six tones, hexachords. So each of the hexachords has its own unique intervallic character to it. And so in the same way that you can take kind of the same way where I cheated with DodecaFunky, where I took segments of it and like transposed it, it’s kind of like that, but I did less cheating. Hexachords kind of do their own cheating because you can take one part of the tone row and then take the second half of it and flip it or reverse it. Or, you know, all that kind of stuff. And then if you break them down into numbers, you can add them up into cool combinations and things like that. So that’s what this was. This piece was sort of a play on that and seeing what I could do with it. And that’s how I developed the main themes.
You really hear it come out, especially in the little woodwind stuff throughout the top. That’s really where it shines. But it really is woven into it.
D: The row shines?…
S: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
D: Well, you must have been in heaven putting this piece together.
S: It was very, very fun. And again, and I don’t know how my brain does this, but what starts out with a whole bunch of numbers and patterns usually comes out as something really lovely that I continue to love listening to.
D: Well, guess what? That’s exactly the whole point of the genius of autism. You just exactly described what we’ve been kind of…that autism is, is just different.
S: You know, you know, that’s another thing that shines through with this orchestral piece, too, is that one of the comments sometimes I get from other people is, oh, why can’t you just have the instruments all stacked up on top of each other? You know, why can’t they all play at once? And I’m like, I just don’t like that. I like to have the layers. Somebody’s always doing something. And so there’s kind of a medievalness to it, you know, going back to that old polyphony idea. But then I’ll integrate it with these numbers and patterns. And I just love seeing it layer.
D: Speaking of layering, did I hear I see in my notes here. Is there any kind of pyramid that you constructed a sound pyramid somewhere in the beginning of that piece? Or is it a stupid word?
S: No it’s not stupid. I like to call it a waterfall, where…
D: Yeah, ….I got the idea of what you were creating there.
S: Yeah. The hexachordal pattern is there. But what I do is I pass it starting from the top and have it kind of trickle down like that.
D: So pyramid is not quite the right way of describing it. But I was hearing a very specific concept. And of course, thinking pyramid, I’m describing it as from the bottom up. But you’ve just described it as from top to trickle down, if you will.
Let’s see… There was a lovely little brass tune. I’m hearing that I’m hearing cinematic moments. Of course, it’s an orchestral piece. I’m sure you really got your teeth into that one.
Let’s see, lovely wind section work, as we’ve discussed, nicely orchestrated. Well, it’s brilliant and wonderful and very accessible and a beautiful, beautiful orchestral piece of what? I can’t remember. Seven minutes or…
S: Yeah, it’s only like seven minutes or so, which I have found, again, economically and just competition wise…
D: That’s exactly right.
S: People like shorter, shorter pieces.
D: That’s kind of what we ask, because then the next question is how? Because I’m again thinking collegiate orchestras. And then let’s see that as we’ve discussed, there’s that thematic return, you know, that the whole thing does a perfect arc. So there you go.
S: I just really love the very, very ending of it. When I first put it together and to me, it evoked sort of almost this organ, this organ like texture with. I just love the resonance… T
D: That section with percussion. That’s toward the end. I see more complicated in narrative in terms of just the construct of the piece. Definitely descriptive, martial, perfectly accessible. It’s a perfect piece for a college orchestra if it’s in that sphere of capability.
S: Yeah. …that little fast march like scherzo thing. I kind of had a like a like a Russian, Russian romantic vibe almost or like early 20th century Russian vibe, you know, almost like kind of Shostakovich-esque, you know…
D: Each question mark was starting to rise out of my head there, the Shostakovich-ish.
S: Yeah, exactly.
D: What a great talk we’ve had. And I think just anybody could pick up that the world of our profession, of our music making, is the world at large. I mean, we speak to the wonderful, fascinating world around us. That’s the whole idea of being a creative person.
So, again, wonderful chat with composer Sarah Wallin Huff. And we’re talking about your 2023 Navona release. It’s contemporary classic chamber music for diverse instrumental combinations. You’ve heard this before. It’s called Shards. Don’t worry, anybody. It’s fine. And wonderful pieces that as we’ve discussed that are chamber works and then, of course, the orchestral piece at the very end.
But this is music that should be heard a lot more. And it’s not off the top of the charts of virtuosity. But, it’s just good, solid, wonderful music-making with enough virtuosity to keep…Why did I say those of us who are gifted…busy…you know what I’m trying to say… I’m gonna shut my mouth up here.
Anyway, great fun chatting with you.
S: Thank you so much. I really I’m really flattered, you know, that you reached out.
D: Well, I’m flattered that I heard what I heard. I’ll tell you, because it’s always a gamble. I just sort of pick up, pick up whatever. And I thought I’ve never heard of this thing. Well, who is this person and what is that stuff? And that’s got us started.
It’s been a tremendous treat and a really important and a very important CD you’ve got. So, congratulations all around.
#chamberMusic #classical #Interview #orchestra #review #StudioRecording

#chambermusic #classical #interview #orchestra #review #studiorecording
Sarah Wallin Huff @[email protected] · 2025-06-05 · 10:27 UTC

Sept. 2023 Interview with Daniel Kepl

Back in the fall of 2023, right after the release of my second solo album with Navona, I got the opportunity to sit down with longtime American conductor, arts administrator, and music/theater/dance critic, Daniel Kepl, and talk with him about my album, SHARDS.
Unfortunately, the audio in that video interview was extremely unbalanced and distorted, so I took some time to try and clean it up, to make it as listenable as possible. So… that edited video is now here, below, ready for your viewing pleasure (complete with chapter breaks, if you’d prefer to jump around)!
While the pops and crackles and background noises are mostly gone, sometimes the words are still a little garbly, so I’ve embedded captions in the video and am providing a full transcript, for those who would prefer to read the discussion. If you would like to see the original unedited video, you can do that here.

Dan Kepl’s Review Highlights
The high points of Dan Kepl’s praise, as stated in the video below.

About the Album:

[SHARDS is] a wonderful album, very interesting and very accessible, if I may say. It’s absolutely a magnificent recording of simply superb music… This music is just simply gorgeous. You use instruments in the most magical way.
This is music that should be heard a lot more…it’s just good, solid, wonderful music-making. It’s…a very important CD you’ve got.

About “Ayre of Grievances”:

It’s absolutely gorgeous. Tense, beautifully crafted, thoroughly contemporarily classical. tonalities are altogether satisfying throughout the piece. The balancing and everything is wonderful in terms of your compositional skills.

About “DodecaFunky”:

I want to tell everybody out there that’s looking for a repertoire, this is a beauty. This is a recital beauty. I think I can say it’s fun. It’s wonderful. It’s just a delicious piece, it’s aggressive in its funky way. It’s wonderful to the max. Should be on programming all over the place. This is irresistible. Audiences would love it, I think.

About “Of Roses and Lilies”:

It’s a beauty; a rich tapestry of sound and a highly romantic tonal aesthetic. …this should go off the shelf and into performance and rehearsal. A flowing, lovely, entirely tonal journey. The soprano recorder is charming. Your writing is absolutely first-class. You handle transitions of mood with smooth aplomb. The piece soars with beauty. Your compositional savvy and skill are beyond question.

About “The Oracle”:

Once in a while, I really want to play [a track of] an album, uh, for other people…you know, over a dinner or something. This is one of them. What an amazing chamber piece. Wonderful transitional writing; compositional savvy is top notch. The piece is a wonderful narrative. It’s complex. This piece is quite a journey.

About “Wabi-Sabi”:

The construct is fascinating and sensible to the intellect…quite a narrative…wonderful quartet writing.

About “Nevermore”:

An absolutely gorgeous, wonderful, magnificent Sonata for viola and piano…so American. …a fascinating piano introduction that really nails the interest immediately because it hints at mysteries, then it’s followed by the viola’s intensely Poe-ish colors and temperament. It’s a beauty, again, of narrative imagination, a wonderful piece of writing for viola. It is virtuosic, everything a violist looks for in a recital piece. There are romantic bits in here, some hair-raising twilight zone intervals between notes, if that makes any sense, thrilling, kooky, mysterious, as was the man. It has a tremendous connection to America and American history and American literature. It is a beautiful sonata and it sounds so beautiful. The writing is so gorgeous.
[For Annabelle Lee] I call it magical writing. It’s exceptionally sensitive.
The Tell-Tale Heart: the intro, sufficiently terrifying. Very imaginative character development. It’s exactly creepy enough to fit the narrative, because it is that narrative, the pulsing, the clicking…the floorboards…Then the beginning of real paranoia. Shades of the shower scene in Psycho – Brava! Disturbingly deliberate ending.

About “The Dark Glass Sinfonia”:

…wonderful piece for orchestra, “The Dark Glass Sinfonia,” gives me shivers, but it’s wonderful.
Lovely wind section work…nicely orchestrated. It’s brilliant and wonderful and very accessible…a beautiful, beautiful orchestral piece. Definitely descriptive, martial, perfectly accessible.
Sept. 2023 Interview with Daniel Kepl (Edited, with Captions)

Full [Edited] Interview Transcript

D: I’m chatting with composer Sarah Wallin Huff and we’re going to talk about your 2023 Navona CD release. Thank you, Parma. Thank you, Navona. Thank you, all of you wonderful people out there that put this, these kind of packages together. Just a quick aside about Navona, including everything that we need as critics, really somewhat truncated, makes perfect sense, but up on a website. And very few other companies do this. I just think it’s fabulous.
I’ve seen your interview, or I’ve read your interview, I should say, with Parma. And we’re going to talk about your 2023 Navona CD release of Contemporary Classical Chamber Works and an album for diverse instrumental combinations. Anyway, the CD is called Shards. Do not run away in the night and be afraid. It’s a wonderful album of very interesting and very accessible, if I may say so, and I think it’s perfectly OK to say so.
Here, just a sampling: Ayre of Grievances, for viola, violin, flute, lovely. The flute I wondered about. Those are pretty heavy instruments and the balancing and everything is wonderful in terms of your compositional skills.
DodecaFunky, let me say that once more. DodecaFunky, for piano, and it is cute… oh, did I miss one?
S: DodecaFunky.
D: Anyway, it’s cute. I think I can say it’s fun. It’s wonderful. And it’s a wonderful, very fascinating piano piece. Audiences would love it, I think.
“Of Roses and Lilies.” This one’s a little complex for soprano, piano, soprano recorder. Nice colors. Nice. English horn, very interesting. And women’s chorus. I mean, not since Holst have I heard women’s chorus used in this way.
So, Wabi-Sabi, it’s in three movements. Juventas, the new music ensemble performs it. This is a string quartet, so four players of the Juventas ensemble. I hope I’m pronouncing that right since I live in California. Three movements: Emergence, Evolution, Entropy. Very, very interesting. And maybe even kind of the heart of who you might be. I don’t know. I’m just guessing.
The next piece, Nevermore for viola and piano, an absolutely gorgeous, wonderful, three-movement sonata for viola and piano. The movements: The Raven, Annabelle Lee, The Tell-Tale Heart. And I love Poe, what a genius, what a genius. So glad you have included this wonderful, wonderful piece for viola and piano. And I mean by that, again, your compositional skills, the way you use these, didn’t you play viola? I thought I that read somewhere. Were you a violist?
S: I double on viola. I feel more comfortable on violin, but I can pick up a viola if I need it.
D: Okay. So you got all that stuff, you know, under your fingernails, so to say.
And then the last piece, wonderful piece for orchestra, The Dark Glass Sinfonia, gives me shivers, but it’s wonderful. And with a little subtype, if I’m reading it correctly: “We see through a glass darkly.” Wonderful piece, performed by wonderful people, while you really say it right out, right, and I just want to deal with this a little bit before I get to where you know, I’m going.
We all know people with autism and what I have found in my experience with people, and you know, autism is here, there, everywhere in various variations. You’re going to speak to it, I think in a bit, but the people that I have known with autism, some people have had troubles, others have been really, really talented, clever, and innovative. Autism is not a deficit. Okay.
S: Yeah. It’s a difference.
D: It’s a difference. Thank you. That’s better. Okay. Because I too, like most of, especially like with dyslexia, in the seventies, we all thought people with dyslexia were just lazy. Just didn’t want to do a job. Well, they couldn’t help it. They couldn’t read. Everything was backwards. My, my oldest nephew, uh, is dyslexic. So I just want everybody to understand…
And, and where are you in the autism spectrum? Can I ask that question?
S: Sure.
D: Of course, you’re clearly under great control. You have mastered the magic of autism.
S: Yeah. Well, what’s funny about that is I’ve actually only just in the past year, really got confirmation. Um, I’m still don’t have, yeah, I still don’t have an official diagnosis because that’s a whole other bag of worms for adult diagnosis and it costs thousands of dollars. And, uh, some doctors still don’t believe that women have it. Um, so, but just taking several screening tests, um, I’ve taken about five of the clinical screening tests and they all point very highly to autism. Um, and thinking about my experiences growing up, it really makes a lot of sense.
D: That’s what I was going to ask you next. You must have known, you know, that something was different.
S: Well, yeah. I, I thought something was always…
D: Can you give an example or two, you know, when you were a little kid. What I remember is the kids that I’ve known have various symptoms of autism.
S: Definitely. Um, emotional dysregulation, um, is still difficult where, well, and for me, because I kind of triggered emotional response to things like, um, there’s a famous phrase that “you don’t have enough spoons”, but the phrase means basically like, I only have so many ways of coping with life and when I’m out of those ways, I have to take a nap. I have to, I have to go to the corner for a second. And for different people, there’s different levels of that.
And growing up with a family who expected me to be normal. Um, I got really good at masking. I got really good at holding it all in, but then I’d get home and just. Like, um, I didn’t want to do my homework. I didn’t want to eat. I didn’t want to do anything except just sit there after school. Um, unfortunately I had to keep pushing through. Um, and so I just got used to doing that, hiding who I really was, you know?
D: Um, as you know, we talked, I’m very openly gay and…what we’re getting to, the bottom line is you have to be who you are. To keep these things secret or to try and work around who you are is exhausting, as you said. And just mentally, you know, exactly.
S: I’ve actually, I did actually get a diagnosis like 15 years ago for anxiety disorder and what I’ve discovered since then is that it is a part of the autism masking, just, I had been masking for 40 years. And so, um, that just built up a lot of anxiety in me for everything, you know? Um, but now that I’m just past year, starting to learn who I am and learn what my triggers are.
Um, I am very sensitive to sound, ironically enough, um, disorganized sound, I really have a hard time handling with, but music is organized sounds. So for me, my brain likes it, you know? Um, but yeah, so I’m just learning a lot more about myself and how my brain works and that it’s okay that my brain has trouble where other people seem to have things worked out, you know? And that’s okay.
D: You see, if you will, with your brain, things that we don’t, and so on. So, you know, I mean, that’s the beauty of all, for all of us. Uh, it’s the tremendous beauty of diversity.
Um… Let’s talk about Ancients. This is psycho-messaging to our brains. I mean, give me a break. It’s not random. It’s pure messaging to ourselves, uh, Tarot and all the rest of it. And I love traditions that have been there for 8,000 years. We’re going to talk about it. Cause you use, you do, you do this formula for a piece with Tarot cards that drives me crazy, but often told me it, speaking of what you had spoken to, uh, just a moment ago, when one gets kind of focused, the focus becomes quite, uh, extravagant. And was that for you? You really got into constructing this piece around Tarot.
S: Oh, yeah, I tend to, this tends to be a theme that I, if I hit on something that’s been very useful for me, um, mentally and psychologically, spiritually, I tend to write a piece about it. So that’s what the Oracle, the Oracle tended to be Tarot. I fell, fell onto, um, as a way to deal with my anxiety and it really, luckily, I had a therapist at the time who was open to the idea of me exploring my subconscious through the Tarot cards.
D: It’s about this idea of finding oneself, of reveling in these discoveries, uh, you know, and so is there any, can you give me a, um, what a topography of when, where, if even you feel now, like who you are, you know what I mean? How, what, what trajectory, where did you arrive? Have you arrived yet?
S: Um, well, definitely starting roughly a little less than a year ago when I finally did those, um, screenings for autism, like is when everything really started clicking and, and I did a lot of reading and, and, um, researching and, and finding others like me, you know, um, and it just helped click, you know, uh, it helped make, help me make sense of who I am and why I am the way I am.
Um, so often, especially throughout my whole life, um, I would be upset that I didn’t seem to be like everybody else. Even as a teacher, I mean, one of my favorite compliments from a student of mine was I’m the quirkiest teacher on campus. And I wear that like a badge. You know, I don’t teach like other teachers teach. I don’t think like other people think, and I’ve learned that that’s okay. There’s nothing wrong with me. Um, that diversity is a great thing.
D: So now we’re going to deal with the, uh, the product of your, uh, satisfactions, although this is, let’s see, 2023. I know these are recorded over a rather large span of time.
S: Maybe, uh, yeah, about five years or so.
D: So in other words, I guess what now has me curious is feeling where you are feeling now. Do you see, do you hear, see things in your focus on this CD?
S: I do actually. Um, the CD actually came about simply by virtue of, um, the way the economy works in the music recording industry and classical music, et cetera, where we just recorded piece by piece by piece as we could, um, and then finally had enough and say, Hey, let’s put together an album, you know…
D: And then let’s figure out how to pay for it. That’s what everybody watching this knows all about. It’s not like it [just] happens.
S: Exactly. Uh, so now, like I said, especially after these past several months, I look at the CD and I do really see it as if it’s sort of a culmination of my past 15 years or so, um, because all the pieces have been written, I think the earliest one was. Well, I think “Roses and Lilies” was what, like 2012 or something like that. Um, 2013, maybe.
D: Oh, well, we’ll find it.
S: I don’t remember.
D: Why did you use the word, “Shards”?
S: My husband picked it. He, he actually made up the title Ayre of Grievances too. He comes up with great titles. We thought about “Shards” because there are pieces like Dark Glass Sinfonia, so glass and, and breaking, uh, Wabi-Sabi is sort of like the fractal nature of life. And so you see shards of glass reflecting, reflecting different things, um, basically it’s supposed to be sort of the fragmentations of personality and life and spirituality.
D: That’s a good definition here. I was, I was expecting, uh, the, as I told you, I was expecting a wild ride. And by the way, everybody knows it isn’t, it’s absolutely a magnificent recording of simply superb music. This is what just blew me away.
In a way, this text that’s on your CD tells us how fresh the CD is. So it’s been put together. You’ve done that. It’s been five years. You’re there. And then it’s like, son of a gun.
“One inherent trait I possess is finding my emotional fulfillment through the active, creative manipulation of music.” And this fascinates me. I’m, I’m not a fix the watch kind of guy. I don’t get into the little details. I’m, I’m the conductor. I’m the, you know, I want the big pastel, you know, horses crossing the plains or something. You know, does that speak to your autism in a way, the focus?
S: I think so. The hyper fixation. I mean, there are times when I’m working on a piece that if my husband wasn’t there to remind me, I’d forget to eat, you know, I’ll just be like focused on these patterns and what else can I do with them? And, and, oh, that sounds really cool. Let me try this. Let’s see.
D: And you say, “I’m not, I’m not seeking to impose specific emotions on listeners.” That’s something that’s very important, “…but rather to facilitate a deeper connection with their inner selves.” Now, I’m not quite sure what kind of, what kind of a labyrinth you just, you know, created with those words. “I’m not seeking to impose specific emotions on listeners” yet, “I would like them to get in touch with their deeper…” you know, you know what I mean, you’re clever, aren’t you?
S: Well, that’s a question I get a lot is, well, how do you want the audience to feel? Even, even composition teachers… “How do you want them to feel?” And, and I think that’s another part of my autism. I relate to emotions differently than some other people do from what I can tell. Um, I, for me, the emotion and joy comes from the patterns. And so that’s what it is for me. Um, you know, it can be a completely atonal piece and if the patterns are cool then I’m getting such delight out of it. Uh, but for other people that might not be the case and I totally recognize that. So I’m hoping through my music, even though I might find joy in places they won’t, um, that they’ll still find something that they can resonate with.
D: Oh, that was very well, well, spracht and I can only agree with you because as I think I mentioned to you and probably everybody else and probably about three times already by now, but that was the shock. This music is just simply gorgeous. And I was expecting a few more “shards”, something expecting something, something a little, little more fractious, if you will.
The first piece on the, on the CD is Ayre of Grievances. I love the spelling. I presume clever, uh, you know, and, and, uh, awfully medieval or something. For viola, violin, and flute. It’s from 2020. So that’s a bad year. Oh my God.
S: Hence the grievances.
D: Hence the grievances is right. Uh, composed during the worldwide COVID epidemic. And you and I’ve talked about it. People are not yet clear how profoundly we as a planet of human beings and animals have been affected. This is going to take another half dozen years if we don’t have World War Three somewhere in between to sort it out. So it’s a, this was a big thing. And the biggest thing in my life, maybe, uh, to go through. So, Ayre of Grievances, and, uh, and, you know, you set us up with all the frustrations, fear, sorrow, and anger, and I’m going, Oh, can’t wait.
And I put it on. And it’s absolutely gorgeous. I totally did not expect it. Here’s a bit of my stream of consciousness, totally not expecting such… well, tonality. It’s wonderful already. Tense, beautifully crafted, thoroughly contemporarily classical. I mean, it’s, it’s totally accessible. And I, again, I almost want to spit when I say that word, but I think it’s okay now to use that, to create accessible music, um, things get a little crazy and frustrated.
You mentioned in your program notes, there’s that frustration and you describe it very well. How, although in my case, I just went comatose and just stared out the windows for two years and allowed the checks to come in. Cause I was a freelancer unemployed and boy, the money was better than I’ve ever received. Thank you, Uncle Sam, but, but so I didn’t really experience a whole lot of frustration. I just sort of couldn’t believe what was going on for about two years.
In other words, there is a narrative to this piece, Ayre of Grievances. Um, but I think it, you know, it is much more than the sum of its narrative is what I’m trying to say. Uh, tonalities are altogether satisfying throughout the piece.
Go, give me an overview. What was this about for you?
S: During the, during the lockdowns for me, it was frustrating. Well, because… guy, giving three hour lectures on zoom, I never want to do that again. Oh my gosh. Not being able to see anybody, not being able to see family. Um, that was really frustrating, but at the same time, because I wasn’t able to play live concerts, like I had been, um, it gave me a chance to sit down and really think about who I am.
Um, up until that point, it was very much, oh, I’m a major violinist and a composer and a teacher at all at once.
D: Don’t forget viola… and viola too.
S: Yes. I love the viola. Um, but then I came to realize. I really much prefer writing, uh, and recording. Uh, so I, I allowed myself to let go of the, the things that maybe didn’t bring me quite as much joy. So when things did open back up, I’m, I’m being more careful to balance my life, uh, with what really brings me more joy and less stress, hopefully. Um, that’s, that’s what that piece really sort of represented is it was frustrating. It was lonely. I was angry at the world. Um, but at the same time, there was some beauty in there and some peace.
And, um, and I just love the interaction of the three parts. They’re both, they’re all three very independent, but they speak together and sometimes they’re arguing with each other. Sometimes they’re singing with each other and supporting each other. And, um, I just really liked that intimacy of the work.
D: Well, that whole narrative thing about what you’re very good, uh, you know, voices, uh, having discussions between each other, but I found, and I may sound like I’m an idiot or something, but when I saw that viola, violin, flute, I told you earlier, I thought, I remember thinking that’s going to be tricky, you know, that the flute doesn’t get lost, and all of that works beautifully. And that is not about, you know, microphones. It’s about the way you wrote the piece. Using those three instruments. So, so beautifully. And later you use instruments in the most magical way.
S: Yeah, we actually debuted it during the pandemic where I recorded the violin and viola part. And then I recorded a friend of mine playing the flute part and we just did one of those YouTube stitched videos where we stitched our videos together. That was the thing.
D: Yeah. Am I pronouncing it reasonably close? “DodecaFunky” And of course we’re playing, playing with, uh, dodeca cacophony or something. You can fill me in on that. There’s all this funny stuff going on. That’s all inside stuff for musicians.
It’s for flute and piano from 2015. I think you mentioned this might be the earliest piece, maybe…
S: “Of Roses and Lilies”, I actually wrote the original piece for voice and piano in like the early aughts. But then I went back and fleshed it out and sort of made it fuller.
D: So then you know, the early aughts, I love that. So DodecaFunky, uh, flute and piano. I want to tell everybody out there that’s looking for a repertoire. This is a beauty. This is a recital beauty. A funky solo for flute with piano accompaniment, this intense and spastic work. Is that me or you?
S: I think it’s me.
D: I think it was you. So it… “exploits various manipulations”. Oh, here you go. Yeah, it is you… “of a 12 tone row (dodecaphony).” I’m supposed to be a musician and I couldn’t care less how it’s pronounced or even what it is these days. It’s just the serial melody to a backdrop, et cetera, et cetera. But the point of, oh, this is why it’s so cute. A hard bop and swing and, uh, and stuff. It’s just a delicious piece. And it’s, it’s aggressive in its funky way. I say about the opening, while the piano adds to the delightful confusion with various playful styles, a pause and it starts to get feisty. Uh, now I don’t know where I am in the piece, but now some casual virtuoso boogie woogie, boogie funky, uh, it’s a delight.
It’s kind of a series of descriptive tableau. Am I closer? Cause I love dance. I, you know, I reviewed dance a lot and these are like little tableau. It’s wonderful to the max. Should be, uh, on programming all over the place. It’s a beauty.
Tell me, tell me, what do you think? What do you think of this?
S: I love this piece. It just makes, it makes me giggle.
D: It’s just a charm. Beautiful. It’s so cute.
S: Thank you, thank you.
D: Again, if you, you’ll forgive me the accessibility word. This is irresistible. Of course, you know what I’m trying to say?
S: I’m glad you like it. That one actually took a little bit of inspiration from Bernstein. Um, I, I love, uh, I was studying his symphony, Age of Anxiety. Oh, and I love how he merged, well, he merged…
D: By the way, you know, I’m a conductor. Uh, and I know all three of those symphonies very, very well. I’ve never conducted them because they’re too hard. “Jeremiah” I could conduct. That one makes sense. Uh, the, the age of anxiety for piano and orchestra is unbelievable, but it’s also unbelievably difficult to conduct, you know? And then Kaddish, he wrote the original and then tore it all to pieces and stuff. So, but anyway, I just want, I’m so glad somebody also has studied [those works]. Anyway, excuse me.
S: That’s okay. Uh, but yeah, I really loved the idea of merging modernist, modernistic tendencies as Bernstein would say, um, with jazz and other accessible popular genres. And so that’s what I did with this flute piece is I took a 12 tone row and it is an authentic 12 tone row, but I, you could say I cheated, I cheated a little bit because I used transpositions. So what I would do is it’s still the same row, but I would transpose fragments of it to places that I liked it, where it fit better.
D: Arnold [Schoenberg] is turning into his grave.
S: Well, this is true. Ah but see, Stravinsky did it first. So, you know, let’s blame him.
It’s still, it still has the same intervallic structures. Um, but then I back it up, with that really jazzy, different, like you say, different tableaus of different jazzy styles to kind of increase the…
D: It’s a great dance piece…
S: That’d be fun.
D: In other words, there’s lots of possibilities.
Okay. We’re going to move on.
“Of Roses and Lilies”, this is for soprano, piano, soprano recorder, which I don’t think I hear very often used in these kinds of chamber pieces. And it’s a perfect color. English horn… what got into you ?…and women’s chorus. And then the, are there strings there? I have this question.
S: String orchestra.
D: String orchestra, because I didn’t, you know, I didn’t see it in the, in the brief and it’s from 2013, so we’re getting closer to, to the bottom of the stack here. Tell us about it.
S: This one’s a really fascinating piece for me. I, like I said, I had first written it many, many, many, several decades ago. And this was written…
D: Don’t be so hard on yourself…It’s only been 10 years…
S: But the original piece for just soprano and piano was written, like I said, in the late nineties or early aughts, um, this was when I was still with my very Christian family, um, yeah, there you go. And so I fell in love with the song of Solomon and I thought, why don’t I write quick snippets of the song of Solomon and put it together as sort of a love song. And so I did. And, um, eventually just another like 10 years or so down the road, I’d said, you know what, I really love this piece. I’m going to flesh it out. So, um, I took the original just two parts and added the strings and added the color of the soprano recorder and the English horn, um, and, you know, added the women’s chorus as sort of this almost Greek chorus kind of response thing.
So it’s a very, it’s a very different piece. Uh, it’s a very dramatic kind of theater-esque, drama-esque kind of, uh, kind of a feel.
D: And you don’t use the word romantic. It reeks of romanticism. I see in my notes there, a rich tapestry of sound and a highly romantic tonal aesthetic. I was not ready for that.
S: Well, actually, uh, every, everybody don’t hate on me, but I actually recorded it myself. So it’s only, it’s only two microphones with, uh, the soloist, Claire is one of my best friends and she teaches at Azusa. So she was able to grab us a classroom. And so I recorded with the two microphones, her and another good friend of mine, the pianist, Lydia. Um, and at the time we weren’t sure if I was just going to put together a digital background to it and like release it online or something. But, you know, this CD was coming to the, coming toward finishing and I was like, you know, this would be really awesome if we can get the rest of it recorded.
So I, yeah, I took two more sessions. I got the strings and the winds together for one session. Uh, and then I finally got the women’s chorus together for a session.
D: So that makes sense too. Very hard undertaking just in terms of production.
S: Yeah, it’s such a good, such a good learning experience. And again, so many of my dear, dear friends are on that recording and it’s just, it was just so special to me.
D: It’s something else. And I hope you understand what I’m saying here, because we want to get this, these pieces performed. It’s a beauty. It’s very accessible. So it doesn’t sound terribly hard to put together. What do you think? Am I all wet? I don’t know, but just, it seemed very, it seemed to just flow pretty freely.
S: Here’s the… I would say, here’s the danger with my music. And, um, especially with this piece, this has happened before. There have been pianists who think they can sight read it and they suddenly quit. It’s like, oh, I can’t sight read this. So this is something my very first composition teacher warned me about is that my music seems really easy. But then you dig into it and there are some little quirks in there and some tricks that you might not be expecting. So as long as you know…
D: It shouldn’t be a big problem. If you know what I mean, so I think I’m okay in saying that I think it’s not like, you know…
S: It’s not terrible.
D: Yeah…[not] terribly virtuosic. And that is, that is to say this should go off the shelf and into performance and rehearsal. And that’s exactly what I see. Nothing but college, college ensemble. Because of the difficulty of getting, you know, professionals together in that kind of complex, you know, but, but, so I found it really very, very…a flowing, lovely, entirely tonal journey. The soprano recorder is charming. Your writing is absolutely first-class. You handle transitions of mood with smooth aplomb. Boy, that came out of my head. Geez. The piece soars with beauty. Your compositional savvy and skill are beyond question.
S: Thank you.
D: Let’s see. Now this is “The Oracle,” for violin, cello, flute and piccolo, clarinet, piano. That’s from 2016. Go ahead. Tell us, but the bottom line is you constructed this thing from random throws of tarot cards. Go.
S: Exactly. Okay. So…
D: Aleatoric indeed!
S: Uh, I really, like I said, this was the time in my life when I had just really started to latch on to tarot as a means of exploring my own subconscious.
D: Which is correct, by the way. Let’s make sure. Exactly what it’s supposed to be. No, let the self-conscious speak to us.
S: Exactly. I like to think of it, it’s like a mirror for myself. It’s a way for me to talk to myself when sometimes I’m having trouble understanding my brain. So, uh, I really love tarot and I wrote this when I first really started getting into it. And so what I did is, um, I had an opportunity. It was like a call for scores for this ensemble. Uh, and so I was like, this will be fun. Why don’t I use that as an excuse to try it out?
So, and I wanted to do sort of a homage to John Cage by using an aleatoric kind of method. And so tarot seemed like the perfect way to do it. So I set up, um, I think it was five different spreads of 10 cards. I think I did like, um, some kind of a sacred pyramid, uh, spread for each of those. Um, and what I did is I, I assigned certain, you know, in tarot, the different suits represent different aspects of life and personality.
So you have the cups, which is emotion. Um, you have, you know, the, uh, the pentacles, uh, the pentacles are, uh, earth, uh, and, um, material wellbeing and reality and such. Uh, so what I did is I attached each of the instruments to those suits. The, uh, violin was fire, uh, or wands. Uh, the, uh, the cello was water or cups and the, uh, the clarinet was earth and the flute, of course, was air. And then for the piano, uh, I made the piano, the tree of life itself. Uh, because I like to read tarot from a Kabbalistic tree of life sort of interpretation.
D: You’re starting to get over my head. I thought I was with you pretty well, but Kabbalistic something, something…with a tree of life.
S: So Jewish mysticism, basically. So on the tree of life, each of the cards have their place on that tree. And the higher up the tree you are, the closer to the divine source you are. And then you travel down the tree and experience various phases of life and emotion, et cetera, until you get to the bottom, which is material reality. Everything you’ve experienced becomes real. Uh, and then you cycle back to the top, back to the divine source again.
So for the piano, um, when I had a spread that, that spoke of being closer to the divine source, I had the piano playing up in its higher registers. And then as it got closer to the bottom, to the ground, the piano went down. So the higher, if you hear the piano going, noodling up really high, that’s up at the divine source of things. If you hear the piano kind of in the middle, that’s sort of where balance and harmony are. If the piano is down in the basement, that’s down in material reality.
And then in the meantime, you have all the other instruments that are reflecting on emotion or, um, you know, or, or thought, or power
D: …and character that may be interpreted…in countless ways. That’s the beauty of the idea of randomness, the beauty of the order, if you will, of randomness, that even random events will speak to us.
S: Exactly.
D: Once in a while, I really want to play an album, uh, for other people in my, you know, over a dinner or something. This is one of them. Um, what an amazing chamber piece. I say this is, uh, this long cello obbligato, then into the klezmer aesthetic I call, uh, with, with all of that playing. Now I understand the cabalistic, if you will, right. Uh, meaning to it all. Uh, but the klezmer, uh, aesthetic is, is clearly there. The, and of course the Oracle is a Jew, right? I say the Oracle is a Jew? Question mark.
A wonderful transition, transitional writing. And you know what I mean? Making segments and, and, uh, themes make sense. That transition material is very, very important to get it right. [Your] compositional savvy is top notch. I think I’ve been saying that, but the piece is a wonderful narrative. It’s complex. It’s a complex narrative. Um, and as you have just described the instruments are characters.
S: They’re, they’re the suits of the, of the cards, but they do have sort of, they evoke their sort of, uh, certain characteristics about it.
D: Okay. That’s much more complex. Thank you. That clarifies.
This is quite a journey. So, and, uh, and then I say, um, a jaunty section now as CODA, I assume that’s a CODA. Uh, still a fun ending. I love it. I don’t think you can get any more, you know, any, any better than that.
Okay. Next is, is, uh, Wabi-Sabi, this, uh, uh, the aesthetic and metaphysical ideals that Japanese Wabi-Sabi encapsulates. Tell us about Wabi-Sabi. Is it animist or something? Is it part of their religion? Animist religion?
S: It can be. Uh, I’m trying to remember where it historically started. It actually started with monochromatic Chinese drawings and then the Japanese sort of took that ideal and enhanced it. A lot of people think of a Zen garden when they think of Wabi Sabi.
D: I see what you mean. Now I understand exactly what you mean. Even the artwork, strokes, you know, just very spare strokes.
S: Yeah. The tea ceremony. Um, everything about that ceremony is part of their Wabi Sabi aesthetic and metaphysical ideals.
D: I’m trying to remember this [for] parties.
S: Simplicity is, is a major part of it, but it goes beyond that. This, and this is what the string quartet throughout the three movements sort of encapsulates is that, uh, the beginning that, that…you know, in the west the idea of nothing is like zero, there’s nothing there. It’s very stark, but in Wabi Sabi ideas, um, nothing is full of potential. There’s a lot that could be there, but isn’t there yet.
D: That’s so profound.
S: Um, and then you go through, especially at the beginning of the first movement, sort of these random particles where the players can choose how they want to play it.
D: I understand that. We’re talking about the first movement Emergence, what have you just said that the players have some choice and they have choices.
S: So, so each of the players have a collection of notes that they can choose from to play. Uh, and they do it in different ways. Like the cello trills all their notes, but they can choose how they want to trill and how fast they want to trill and when they want to come in, uh, and things like that. Um, until they finally come together in the middle of the first movement and it sort of builds from there. So the idea is like that of creation of these particles coming into space and slowly merging together to become something.
D: And by the way, this sounds like an homage to Stockhausen, you know?
S: Yeah, absolutely.
D: Another great. Distance… these distant sounds… I remember performance, you know, Stockhausen, and it all comes together.
S: And then, and then Evolution is a short, it’s intentionally a short little two minute burst because that’s where everything is kind of locked in.
D: This is Evolution.
S: This is the, the cells are coming together and creating fish that are coming out of the water and, you know, becoming man. Um, et cetera. Possibility.
D: Alive with possibility, yeah. …Nothingness itself…
S: Yeah, exactly. Um, and then it gives way to Entropy, uh, and Entropy starts with a very strict structure. Uh, funnily enough, I wasn’t sure compositionally how I wanted to go about the third movement, but I was in the middle of teaching about isorhythm in one of my classes. So I’m like, Hey, I can do isorhythm with this. That’d be fun. So it starts out very strict, um, but then gets really complex and starts falling apart. And again, that’s the idea of returning back to nothingness. Everything’s falling apart.
Uh, and, and that’s the idea of, um, the idea that you, um, sometimes the best course of action is to decide to do nothing, you know…
D: I think you have just described an exact, uh, arc in the, they come together. I’m looking at Emergence. The first one builds quite satisfyingly. Uh, the construct is fascinating and sensible to the intellect, I say to myself. And of course, if there, if you don’t get it off the ground, intellectually from the beginning, you’re in trouble… Ok, Evolution. Um, I love this, uh, I call it a flowing sea sort of opening. Or whatever that vibe could be. Anything, forget sea, whatever that undulating flowing thing…so mesmerizing. Again, wonderful quartet writing.
I’m going to have to stop using this word accessible, but that’s the whole idea to get these performed. And that’s exactly to be well written and also to be a happy time for an audience. Give me a break. And I, and here’s the thing about Evolution that it’s, uh, utterly accessible to the listener, though the subject, listening, but I think I got it. Although the subject matter may have sub-basements. Now a walking cello fits that, that walking cello thing. It’s wonderful to keep the piece moving and, and, uh, energetic. Um, quite a narrative.
S: It’s like a little metronome marking I have in the, uh, the second movement is “Like dancing molecules.”
D: Oh!
S: Kind of the spinning, whirling…
D: I might have to dream about that tonight. And the third movement, if you will, Entropy. It’s such a nice, uh, I, I, do I hear a little fugue…? I wanted… the stream of consciousness thing…fuguetto. You know what I mean? That opening is a, is it a genuine, but it’s a fuguetto, right?
S: Yeah, it’s, um, it starts out exactly as a canon. Then what happens is that each time the line comes back, uh, I either in diminution or augmentation. Uh, so I, I, like I said, if you see the score, um, I start doing crazy little sub meters within each of the parts just to help, just to help the players keep, keep time with each other, but yeah, that’s part of the unraveling part is they start very much together and then they start in like ratios of two to one or one to two, but yeah, then it starts getting into weird ratios…
D: …because I think I wondered about those, those asymmetrical collisions… A slightly dysfunctional intentional section. I’m toward the end here of pizz’s.
S: Well, the very ending, I go back to the beginning idea where the, each player has a selection of notes. They can pizz. whenever they want to. So each performance should be a little different than each other.
D: So the end of entropy, they go back to this idea and they can even change their mind about it.
S: Exactly.
D: Stockhausen, he’s smiling.
“Nevermore,” this major Sonata, I think for viola and piano from 2019 to 2021. Nevermore for viola and piano, also a subtitle of a Gothic Suite, so delightful, it’s an absolutely magnificent Sonata for viola and piano. It’s just absolutely, it’s so American, because we’re talking about Edgar Allan Poe and each movement is after one of his most famous pieces. But you have, I feel very powerfully about American composers choosing American subjects. The Raven, Annabelle Lee, the Telltale Heart.
S: Actually, Charlotte Goode, the violist on this recording, is actually another one of my bestest friends. And she is also a gothic nut and a fellow autistic. And she just, she was like, oh my gosh, we need to collaborate. We need to do this for viola. And I’m like, yes. So I started out with the Raven, you know, and she debuted that at a recital. And then I was like, okay, we need to come up with two other, you know, two other movements to finish it out. And the thing I love about the recording of this, again, this is so her, the viola part is so her, the subject matter is so her, and then I was lucky enough to be able to fly out with her to Boston to have her record it for PARMA. So…that day I went to Salem after we recorded it. So it was perfect.
D: You mean, the Witch Town or Salem, Oregon?
S: No, no, no, the Witch Town, yeah, Salem, Massachusetts.
D: So Poe inspired you to go to the seat of evil.
S: Exactly. It was so good.
D: Well, what I have to say is here, I worked on looking at the first movement. First of all, a fascinating piano introduction that really nails the interest immediately because it hints at mysteries, then it’s followed by the viola’s intensely Poe-ish colors and temperament, so congrats to your friend. It’s a beauty, again, of narrative imagination, a wonderful piece of writing for viola. It is virtuosic.
S: Yeah, it is. I won’t play it on my viola. I’ll let somebody else do it. I’m not that good.
D: Well, everything a violist looks for in a recital piece, you know, and it’s romantic, there are romantic bits in here, some hair-raising twilight zone intervals between notes, if that makes any sense, thrilling, kooky, mysterious, as was the man, nice new idea… that roiling keyboard stuff toward the end of the piece, does that make any sense? Under viola, that middle and low register as it goes.
“Annabelle Lee.” It’s gorgeous, that movement is just gorgeous.
S: So beautiful, it’s one of my absolute favorites, just, and the poem, too, is just absolutely, it really struck me.
D: It brings you to tears, really, that poem.
S: It really does. I really wanted to capture that complete childlike innocence, just absolutely purest childlike innocent love of a little boy and a little girl. And then the angels cruelly take her away from him, you know, and just that drama.
D: And that’s the true story, isn’t it? Doesn’t he marry her, his wife, when she was 15, and then did she die? I can’t quite remember.
S: I don’t remember. I’d have to look it up.
D: We just missed the good parts that neither of us can remember. Anyway, what I’m trying to say is, Annabelle Lee speaks to a very personal experience.
S: I do know this was his last poem that he wrote before he died. That’s also a very haunting little tidbit. So, yeah, I love this movement so much. It actually, it was the hardest to record, too, because it’s deceptively simple. But it’s because it’s kind of like Mozart in that way, where it’s so simple and exposed that the violist has to be really careful and really in tune. So it took us a little bit longer to do this one.
D: Nice. Yeah, it’s a beautiful reading. I call it magical writing. It’s exceptionally sensitive.
The Tell-Tale Heart: the intro, sufficiently terrifying. Very imaginative character development. It’s exactly creepy enough to fit the narrative, because it is that narrative, the pulsing, the clicking, and the floorboards… Then the beginning of real paranoia. I mean, you describe this tale very well.
S: Actually, I decided the best way to put it together was to take the story apart and make each of the sections of music a section of the story. So it’s probably the most narratively accurate of the three movements.
D: And that makes good sense to me.
S: Yeah, and in the music, each of the section headings has a little quote from the story. So you can kind of tell where you are in the story. But yeah, the idea of just. I wanted the opening theme that the viola starts playing is supposed to be sort of the love theme that the narrator has for his master.
“I loved the old man…It was his eye!” …you know, so it’s this really creepy. It’s a love song, but it’s twisted. It’s got something off.
So that’s where it opens. And then from there, then I get into the part where it’s for seven nights. He he peeks in at the bedroom. And so that section is like in seven four or something like that. It has odd. It’s asymmetrical. So, again, it feels a little off, you know, a little bit of the heartbeat taps and then, you know, stuff like that. And then little answering in the piano… And then you hear him murder him.
D: I call it shades of the shower scene in Psycho.
S: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
D: Brava, I say after that.
S: …yeah, thank you. Yeah. And then you just get, like you say, the paranoia as the cops won’t leave. But the narrator keeps hearing the heartbeat and he can’t get away from it. And he just has to give up.
D: And indeed, it’s an internal conflict. Yeah, that’s the order of the soundscape. It’s kind of this internal conflict that becomes, you know, insupportable, disturbingly deliberate. And it’s so well done, well done.
So that’s a beautiful sonata. And as I mentioned, here it is. It’s a, it’s a viola sonata. It’s, it’s tough. Well, you know, at a certain level, you know, you almost want it to be. So it’s not inaccessible at all. It has a it has a tremendous connection to America and American history and American literature. It is a beautiful sonata and it sounds so beautiful. The writing is so gorgeous.
So take note, everybody. Nevermore for viola and piano.
And then now the last, the grand finale on the CD, The Dark Glass Sinfonia: We see through a glass darkly. For orchestra from 2017 built upon an integrated set…Oh, here you go again.
S: I love patterns!
D: …that’s why I pulled it. Because in all of my life in the arts and even at college, these things never came up in my experience. “Built,” she says, confident, “built upon an integrated set of hexachordal formulae.” End quote. I say to myself, please explain. You will, then you go on: “Free atonality with modal harmony…In doing so, it is meant to represent the enigmatic and ongoing emotional flux of the soul.”
S: This is another…it started out as just a love affair with patterns. And one thing, I’m not a major post-tonalist. You can tell from the accessibleness of my music. But I do love some of the number patterns that come about from, you know, post-tonal exercises. And hexachordal combinatoriality is one of my favorite ideas. I just love saying it. Hexachordal combinatoriality.
D: Yeah, I bet when you have students, they just sort of collapse.
S: Yeah, I’m like, OK, learn how to say it, you can impress all of your friends.
D: But then again, formulae is rather…
S: …It’s very pompous sounding…it’s basically it’s built upon the 12-tone ideal, but it breaks up the 12 tones into six tones, hexachords. So each of the hexachords has its own unique intervallic character to it. And so in the same way that you can take kind of the same way where I cheated with DodecaFunky, where I took segments of it and like transposed it, it’s kind of like that, but I did less cheating. Hexachords kind of do their own cheating because you can take one part of the tone row and then take the second half of it and flip it or reverse it. Or, you know, all that kind of stuff. And then if you break them down into numbers, you can add them up into cool combinations and things like that. So that’s what this was. This piece was sort of a play on that and seeing what I could do with it. And that’s how I developed the main themes.
You really hear it come out, especially in the little woodwind stuff throughout the top. That’s really where it shines. But it really is woven into it.
D: The row shines?…
S: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
D: Well, you must have been in heaven putting this piece together.
S: It was very, very fun. And again, and I don’t know how my brain does this, but what starts out with a whole bunch of numbers and patterns usually comes out as something really lovely that I continue to love listening to.
D: Well, guess what? That’s exactly the whole point of the genius of autism. You just exactly described what we’ve been kind of…that autism is, is just different.
S: You know, you know, that’s another thing that shines through with this orchestral piece, too, is that one of the comments sometimes I get from other people is, oh, why can’t you just have the instruments all stacked up on top of each other? You know, why can’t they all play at once? And I’m like, I just don’t like that. I like to have the layers. Somebody’s always doing something. And so there’s kind of a medievalness to it, you know, going back to that old polyphony idea. But then I’ll integrate it with these numbers and patterns. And I just love seeing it layer.
D: Speaking of layering, did I hear I see in my notes here. Is there any kind of pyramid that you constructed a sound pyramid somewhere in the beginning of that piece? Or is it a stupid word?
S: No it’s not stupid. I like to call it a waterfall, where…
D: Yeah, ….I got the idea of what you were creating there.
S: Yeah. The hexachordal pattern is there. But what I do is I pass it starting from the top and have it kind of trickle down like that.
D: So pyramid is not quite the right way of describing it. But I was hearing a very specific concept. And of course, thinking pyramid, I’m describing it as from the bottom up. But you’ve just described it as from top to trickle down, if you will.
Let’s see… There was a lovely little brass tune. I’m hearing that I’m hearing cinematic moments. Of course, it’s an orchestral piece. I’m sure you really got your teeth into that one.
Let’s see, lovely wind section work, as we’ve discussed, nicely orchestrated. Well, it’s brilliant and wonderful and very accessible and a beautiful, beautiful orchestral piece of what? I can’t remember. Seven minutes or…
S: Yeah, it’s only like seven minutes or so, which I have found, again, economically and just competition wise…
D: That’s exactly right.
S: People like shorter, shorter pieces.
D: That’s kind of what we ask, because then the next question is how? Because I’m again thinking collegiate orchestras. And then let’s see that as we’ve discussed, there’s that thematic return, you know, that the whole thing does a perfect arc. So there you go.
S: I just really love the very, very ending of it. When I first put it together and to me, it evoked sort of almost this organ, this organ like texture with. I just love the resonance… T
D: That section with percussion. That’s toward the end. I see more complicated in narrative in terms of just the construct of the piece. Definitely descriptive, martial, perfectly accessible. It’s a perfect piece for a college orchestra if it’s in that sphere of capability.
S: Yeah. …that little fast march like scherzo thing. I kind of had a like a like a Russian, Russian romantic vibe almost or like early 20th century Russian vibe, you know, almost like kind of Shostakovich-esque, you know…
D: Each question mark was starting to rise out of my head there, the Shostakovich-ish.
S: Yeah, exactly.
D: What a great talk we’ve had. And I think just anybody could pick up that the world of our profession, of our music making, is the world at large. I mean, we speak to the wonderful, fascinating world around us. That’s the whole idea of being a creative person.
So, again, wonderful chat with composer Sarah Wallin Huff. And we’re talking about your 2023 Navona release. It’s contemporary classic chamber music for diverse instrumental combinations. You’ve heard this before. It’s called Shards. Don’t worry, anybody. It’s fine. And wonderful pieces that as we’ve discussed that are chamber works and then, of course, the orchestral piece at the very end.
But this is music that should be heard a lot more. And it’s not off the top of the charts of virtuosity. But, it’s just good, solid, wonderful music-making with enough virtuosity to keep…Why did I say those of us who are gifted…busy…you know what I’m trying to say… I’m gonna shut my mouth up here.
Anyway, great fun chatting with you.
S: Thank you so much. I really I’m really flattered, you know, that you reached out.
D: Well, I’m flattered that I heard what I heard. I’ll tell you, because it’s always a gamble. I just sort of pick up, pick up whatever. And I thought I’ve never heard of this thing. Well, who is this person and what is that stuff? And that’s got us started.
It’s been a tremendous treat and a really important and a very important CD you’ve got. So, congratulations all around.
#chamberMusic #classical #Interview #orchestra #review #StudioRecording

#studiorecording #review #orchestra #interview #classical #chambermusic
Sarah Wallin Huff @[email protected] · 2025-06-05 · 10:27 UTC

Sept. 2023 Interview with Daniel Kepl

Back in the fall of 2023, right after the release of my second solo album with Navona, I got the opportunity to sit down with longtime American conductor, arts administrator, and music/theater/dance critic, Daniel Kepl, and talk with him about my album, SHARDS.
Unfortunately, the audio in that video interview was extremely unbalanced and distorted, so I took some time to try and clean it up, to make it as listenable as possible. So… that edited video is now here, below, ready for your viewing pleasure (complete with chapter breaks, if you’d prefer to jump around)!
While the pops and crackles and background noises are mostly gone, sometimes the words are still a little garbly, so I’ve embedded captions in the video and am providing a full transcript, for those who would prefer to read the discussion. If you would like to see the original unedited video, you can do that here.

Dan Kepl’s Review Highlights
The high points of Dan Kepl’s praise, as stated in the video below.

About the Album:

[SHARDS is] a wonderful album, very interesting and very accessible, if I may say. It’s absolutely a magnificent recording of simply superb music… This music is just simply gorgeous. You use instruments in the most magical way.
This is music that should be heard a lot more…it’s just good, solid, wonderful music-making. It’s…a very important CD you’ve got.

About “Ayre of Grievances”:

It’s absolutely gorgeous. Tense, beautifully crafted, thoroughly contemporarily classical. tonalities are altogether satisfying throughout the piece. The balancing and everything is wonderful in terms of your compositional skills.

About “DodecaFunky”:

I want to tell everybody out there that’s looking for a repertoire, this is a beauty. This is a recital beauty. I think I can say it’s fun. It’s wonderful. It’s just a delicious piece, it’s aggressive in its funky way. It’s wonderful to the max. Should be on programming all over the place. This is irresistible. Audiences would love it, I think.

About “Of Roses and Lilies”:

It’s a beauty; a rich tapestry of sound and a highly romantic tonal aesthetic. …this should go off the shelf and into performance and rehearsal. A flowing, lovely, entirely tonal journey. The soprano recorder is charming. Your writing is absolutely first-class. You handle transitions of mood with smooth aplomb. The piece soars with beauty. Your compositional savvy and skill are beyond question.

About “The Oracle”:

Once in a while, I really want to play [a track of] an album, uh, for other people…you know, over a dinner or something. This is one of them. What an amazing chamber piece. Wonderful transitional writing; compositional savvy is top notch. The piece is a wonderful narrative. It’s complex. This piece is quite a journey.

About “Wabi-Sabi”:

The construct is fascinating and sensible to the intellect…quite a narrative…wonderful quartet writing.

About “Nevermore”:

An absolutely gorgeous, wonderful, magnificent Sonata for viola and piano…so American. …a fascinating piano introduction that really nails the interest immediately because it hints at mysteries, then it’s followed by the viola’s intensely Poe-ish colors and temperament. It’s a beauty, again, of narrative imagination, a wonderful piece of writing for viola. It is virtuosic, everything a violist looks for in a recital piece. There are romantic bits in here, some hair-raising twilight zone intervals between notes, if that makes any sense, thrilling, kooky, mysterious, as was the man. It has a tremendous connection to America and American history and American literature. It is a beautiful sonata and it sounds so beautiful. The writing is so gorgeous.
[For Annabelle Lee] I call it magical writing. It’s exceptionally sensitive.
The Tell-Tale Heart: the intro, sufficiently terrifying. Very imaginative character development. It’s exactly creepy enough to fit the narrative, because it is that narrative, the pulsing, the clicking…the floorboards…Then the beginning of real paranoia. Shades of the shower scene in Psycho – Brava! Disturbingly deliberate ending.

About “The Dark Glass Sinfonia”:

…wonderful piece for orchestra, “The Dark Glass Sinfonia,” gives me shivers, but it’s wonderful.
Lovely wind section work…nicely orchestrated. It’s brilliant and wonderful and very accessible…a beautiful, beautiful orchestral piece. Definitely descriptive, martial, perfectly accessible.
Sept. 2023 Interview with Daniel Kepl (Edited, with Captions)

Full [Edited] Interview Transcript

D: I’m chatting with composer Sarah Wallin Huff and we’re going to talk about your 2023 Navona CD release. Thank you, Parma. Thank you, Navona. Thank you, all of you wonderful people out there that put this, these kind of packages together. Just a quick aside about Navona, including everything that we need as critics, really somewhat truncated, makes perfect sense, but up on a website. And very few other companies do this. I just think it’s fabulous.
I’ve seen your interview, or I’ve read your interview, I should say, with Parma. And we’re going to talk about your 2023 Navona CD release of Contemporary Classical Chamber Works and an album for diverse instrumental combinations. Anyway, the CD is called Shards. Do not run away in the night and be afraid. It’s a wonderful album of very interesting and very accessible, if I may say so, and I think it’s perfectly OK to say so.
Here, just a sampling: Ayre of Grievances, for viola, violin, flute, lovely. The flute I wondered about. Those are pretty heavy instruments and the balancing and everything is wonderful in terms of your compositional skills.
DodecaFunky, let me say that once more. DodecaFunky, for piano, and it is cute… oh, did I miss one?
S: DodecaFunky.
D: Anyway, it’s cute. I think I can say it’s fun. It’s wonderful. And it’s a wonderful, very fascinating piano piece. Audiences would love it, I think.
“Of Roses and Lilies.” This one’s a little complex for soprano, piano, soprano recorder. Nice colors. Nice. English horn, very interesting. And women’s chorus. I mean, not since Holst have I heard women’s chorus used in this way.
So, Wabi-Sabi, it’s in three movements. Juventas, the new music ensemble performs it. This is a string quartet, so four players of the Juventas ensemble. I hope I’m pronouncing that right since I live in California. Three movements: Emergence, Evolution, Entropy. Very, very interesting. And maybe even kind of the heart of who you might be. I don’t know. I’m just guessing.
The next piece, Nevermore for viola and piano, an absolutely gorgeous, wonderful, three-movement sonata for viola and piano. The movements: The Raven, Annabelle Lee, The Tell-Tale Heart. And I love Poe, what a genius, what a genius. So glad you have included this wonderful, wonderful piece for viola and piano. And I mean by that, again, your compositional skills, the way you use these, didn’t you play viola? I thought I that read somewhere. Were you a violist?
S: I double on viola. I feel more comfortable on violin, but I can pick up a viola if I need it.
D: Okay. So you got all that stuff, you know, under your fingernails, so to say.
And then the last piece, wonderful piece for orchestra, The Dark Glass Sinfonia, gives me shivers, but it’s wonderful. And with a little subtype, if I’m reading it correctly: “We see through a glass darkly.” Wonderful piece, performed by wonderful people, while you really say it right out, right, and I just want to deal with this a little bit before I get to where you know, I’m going.
We all know people with autism and what I have found in my experience with people, and you know, autism is here, there, everywhere in various variations. You’re going to speak to it, I think in a bit, but the people that I have known with autism, some people have had troubles, others have been really, really talented, clever, and innovative. Autism is not a deficit. Okay.
S: Yeah. It’s a difference.
D: It’s a difference. Thank you. That’s better. Okay. Because I too, like most of, especially like with dyslexia, in the seventies, we all thought people with dyslexia were just lazy. Just didn’t want to do a job. Well, they couldn’t help it. They couldn’t read. Everything was backwards. My, my oldest nephew, uh, is dyslexic. So I just want everybody to understand…
And, and where are you in the autism spectrum? Can I ask that question?
S: Sure.
D: Of course, you’re clearly under great control. You have mastered the magic of autism.
S: Yeah. Well, what’s funny about that is I’ve actually only just in the past year, really got confirmation. Um, I’m still don’t have, yeah, I still don’t have an official diagnosis because that’s a whole other bag of worms for adult diagnosis and it costs thousands of dollars. And, uh, some doctors still don’t believe that women have it. Um, so, but just taking several screening tests, um, I’ve taken about five of the clinical screening tests and they all point very highly to autism. Um, and thinking about my experiences growing up, it really makes a lot of sense.
D: That’s what I was going to ask you next. You must have known, you know, that something was different.
S: Well, yeah. I, I thought something was always…
D: Can you give an example or two, you know, when you were a little kid. What I remember is the kids that I’ve known have various symptoms of autism.
S: Definitely. Um, emotional dysregulation, um, is still difficult where, well, and for me, because I kind of triggered emotional response to things like, um, there’s a famous phrase that “you don’t have enough spoons”, but the phrase means basically like, I only have so many ways of coping with life and when I’m out of those ways, I have to take a nap. I have to, I have to go to the corner for a second. And for different people, there’s different levels of that.
And growing up with a family who expected me to be normal. Um, I got really good at masking. I got really good at holding it all in, but then I’d get home and just. Like, um, I didn’t want to do my homework. I didn’t want to eat. I didn’t want to do anything except just sit there after school. Um, unfortunately I had to keep pushing through. Um, and so I just got used to doing that, hiding who I really was, you know?
D: Um, as you know, we talked, I’m very openly gay and…what we’re getting to, the bottom line is you have to be who you are. To keep these things secret or to try and work around who you are is exhausting, as you said. And just mentally, you know, exactly.
S: I’ve actually, I did actually get a diagnosis like 15 years ago for anxiety disorder and what I’ve discovered since then is that it is a part of the autism masking, just, I had been masking for 40 years. And so, um, that just built up a lot of anxiety in me for everything, you know? Um, but now that I’m just past year, starting to learn who I am and learn what my triggers are.
Um, I am very sensitive to sound, ironically enough, um, disorganized sound, I really have a hard time handling with, but music is organized sounds. So for me, my brain likes it, you know? Um, but yeah, so I’m just learning a lot more about myself and how my brain works and that it’s okay that my brain has trouble where other people seem to have things worked out, you know? And that’s okay.
D: You see, if you will, with your brain, things that we don’t, and so on. So, you know, I mean, that’s the beauty of all, for all of us. Uh, it’s the tremendous beauty of diversity.
Um… Let’s talk about Ancients. This is psycho-messaging to our brains. I mean, give me a break. It’s not random. It’s pure messaging to ourselves, uh, Tarot and all the rest of it. And I love traditions that have been there for 8,000 years. We’re going to talk about it. Cause you use, you do, you do this formula for a piece with Tarot cards that drives me crazy, but often told me it, speaking of what you had spoken to, uh, just a moment ago, when one gets kind of focused, the focus becomes quite, uh, extravagant. And was that for you? You really got into constructing this piece around Tarot.
S: Oh, yeah, I tend to, this tends to be a theme that I, if I hit on something that’s been very useful for me, um, mentally and psychologically, spiritually, I tend to write a piece about it. So that’s what the Oracle, the Oracle tended to be Tarot. I fell, fell onto, um, as a way to deal with my anxiety and it really, luckily, I had a therapist at the time who was open to the idea of me exploring my subconscious through the Tarot cards.
D: It’s about this idea of finding oneself, of reveling in these discoveries, uh, you know, and so is there any, can you give me a, um, what a topography of when, where, if even you feel now, like who you are, you know what I mean? How, what, what trajectory, where did you arrive? Have you arrived yet?
S: Um, well, definitely starting roughly a little less than a year ago when I finally did those, um, screenings for autism, like is when everything really started clicking and, and I did a lot of reading and, and, um, researching and, and finding others like me, you know, um, and it just helped click, you know, uh, it helped make, help me make sense of who I am and why I am the way I am.
Um, so often, especially throughout my whole life, um, I would be upset that I didn’t seem to be like everybody else. Even as a teacher, I mean, one of my favorite compliments from a student of mine was I’m the quirkiest teacher on campus. And I wear that like a badge. You know, I don’t teach like other teachers teach. I don’t think like other people think, and I’ve learned that that’s okay. There’s nothing wrong with me. Um, that diversity is a great thing.
D: So now we’re going to deal with the, uh, the product of your, uh, satisfactions, although this is, let’s see, 2023. I know these are recorded over a rather large span of time.
S: Maybe, uh, yeah, about five years or so.
D: So in other words, I guess what now has me curious is feeling where you are feeling now. Do you see, do you hear, see things in your focus on this CD?
S: I do actually. Um, the CD actually came about simply by virtue of, um, the way the economy works in the music recording industry and classical music, et cetera, where we just recorded piece by piece by piece as we could, um, and then finally had enough and say, Hey, let’s put together an album, you know…
D: And then let’s figure out how to pay for it. That’s what everybody watching this knows all about. It’s not like it [just] happens.
S: Exactly. Uh, so now, like I said, especially after these past several months, I look at the CD and I do really see it as if it’s sort of a culmination of my past 15 years or so, um, because all the pieces have been written, I think the earliest one was. Well, I think “Roses and Lilies” was what, like 2012 or something like that. Um, 2013, maybe.
D: Oh, well, we’ll find it.
S: I don’t remember.
D: Why did you use the word, “Shards”?
S: My husband picked it. He, he actually made up the title Ayre of Grievances too. He comes up with great titles. We thought about “Shards” because there are pieces like Dark Glass Sinfonia, so glass and, and breaking, uh, Wabi-Sabi is sort of like the fractal nature of life. And so you see shards of glass reflecting, reflecting different things, um, basically it’s supposed to be sort of the fragmentations of personality and life and spirituality.
D: That’s a good definition here. I was, I was expecting, uh, the, as I told you, I was expecting a wild ride. And by the way, everybody knows it isn’t, it’s absolutely a magnificent recording of simply superb music. This is what just blew me away.
In a way, this text that’s on your CD tells us how fresh the CD is. So it’s been put together. You’ve done that. It’s been five years. You’re there. And then it’s like, son of a gun.
“One inherent trait I possess is finding my emotional fulfillment through the active, creative manipulation of music.” And this fascinates me. I’m, I’m not a fix the watch kind of guy. I don’t get into the little details. I’m, I’m the conductor. I’m the, you know, I want the big pastel, you know, horses crossing the plains or something. You know, does that speak to your autism in a way, the focus?
S: I think so. The hyper fixation. I mean, there are times when I’m working on a piece that if my husband wasn’t there to remind me, I’d forget to eat, you know, I’ll just be like focused on these patterns and what else can I do with them? And, and, oh, that sounds really cool. Let me try this. Let’s see.
D: And you say, “I’m not, I’m not seeking to impose specific emotions on listeners.” That’s something that’s very important, “…but rather to facilitate a deeper connection with their inner selves.” Now, I’m not quite sure what kind of, what kind of a labyrinth you just, you know, created with those words. “I’m not seeking to impose specific emotions on listeners” yet, “I would like them to get in touch with their deeper…” you know, you know what I mean, you’re clever, aren’t you?
S: Well, that’s a question I get a lot is, well, how do you want the audience to feel? Even, even composition teachers… “How do you want them to feel?” And, and I think that’s another part of my autism. I relate to emotions differently than some other people do from what I can tell. Um, I, for me, the emotion and joy comes from the patterns. And so that’s what it is for me. Um, you know, it can be a completely atonal piece and if the patterns are cool then I’m getting such delight out of it. Uh, but for other people that might not be the case and I totally recognize that. So I’m hoping through my music, even though I might find joy in places they won’t, um, that they’ll still find something that they can resonate with.
D: Oh, that was very well, well, spracht and I can only agree with you because as I think I mentioned to you and probably everybody else and probably about three times already by now, but that was the shock. This music is just simply gorgeous. And I was expecting a few more “shards”, something expecting something, something a little, little more fractious, if you will.
The first piece on the, on the CD is Ayre of Grievances. I love the spelling. I presume clever, uh, you know, and, and, uh, awfully medieval or something. For viola, violin, and flute. It’s from 2020. So that’s a bad year. Oh my God.
S: Hence the grievances.
D: Hence the grievances is right. Uh, composed during the worldwide COVID epidemic. And you and I’ve talked about it. People are not yet clear how profoundly we as a planet of human beings and animals have been affected. This is going to take another half dozen years if we don’t have World War Three somewhere in between to sort it out. So it’s a, this was a big thing. And the biggest thing in my life, maybe, uh, to go through. So, Ayre of Grievances, and, uh, and, you know, you set us up with all the frustrations, fear, sorrow, and anger, and I’m going, Oh, can’t wait.
And I put it on. And it’s absolutely gorgeous. I totally did not expect it. Here’s a bit of my stream of consciousness, totally not expecting such… well, tonality. It’s wonderful already. Tense, beautifully crafted, thoroughly contemporarily classical. I mean, it’s, it’s totally accessible. And I, again, I almost want to spit when I say that word, but I think it’s okay now to use that, to create accessible music, um, things get a little crazy and frustrated.
You mentioned in your program notes, there’s that frustration and you describe it very well. How, although in my case, I just went comatose and just stared out the windows for two years and allowed the checks to come in. Cause I was a freelancer unemployed and boy, the money was better than I’ve ever received. Thank you, Uncle Sam, but, but so I didn’t really experience a whole lot of frustration. I just sort of couldn’t believe what was going on for about two years.
In other words, there is a narrative to this piece, Ayre of Grievances. Um, but I think it, you know, it is much more than the sum of its narrative is what I’m trying to say. Uh, tonalities are altogether satisfying throughout the piece.
Go, give me an overview. What was this about for you?
S: During the, during the lockdowns for me, it was frustrating. Well, because… guy, giving three hour lectures on zoom, I never want to do that again. Oh my gosh. Not being able to see anybody, not being able to see family. Um, that was really frustrating, but at the same time, because I wasn’t able to play live concerts, like I had been, um, it gave me a chance to sit down and really think about who I am.
Um, up until that point, it was very much, oh, I’m a major violinist and a composer and a teacher at all at once.
D: Don’t forget viola… and viola too.
S: Yes. I love the viola. Um, but then I came to realize. I really much prefer writing, uh, and recording. Uh, so I, I allowed myself to let go of the, the things that maybe didn’t bring me quite as much joy. So when things did open back up, I’m, I’m being more careful to balance my life, uh, with what really brings me more joy and less stress, hopefully. Um, that’s, that’s what that piece really sort of represented is it was frustrating. It was lonely. I was angry at the world. Um, but at the same time, there was some beauty in there and some peace.
And, um, and I just love the interaction of the three parts. They’re both, they’re all three very independent, but they speak together and sometimes they’re arguing with each other. Sometimes they’re singing with each other and supporting each other. And, um, I just really liked that intimacy of the work.
D: Well, that whole narrative thing about what you’re very good, uh, you know, voices, uh, having discussions between each other, but I found, and I may sound like I’m an idiot or something, but when I saw that viola, violin, flute, I told you earlier, I thought, I remember thinking that’s going to be tricky, you know, that the flute doesn’t get lost, and all of that works beautifully. And that is not about, you know, microphones. It’s about the way you wrote the piece. Using those three instruments. So, so beautifully. And later you use instruments in the most magical way.
S: Yeah, we actually debuted it during the pandemic where I recorded the violin and viola part. And then I recorded a friend of mine playing the flute part and we just did one of those YouTube stitched videos where we stitched our videos together. That was the thing.
D: Yeah. Am I pronouncing it reasonably close? “DodecaFunky” And of course we’re playing, playing with, uh, dodeca cacophony or something. You can fill me in on that. There’s all this funny stuff going on. That’s all inside stuff for musicians.
It’s for flute and piano from 2015. I think you mentioned this might be the earliest piece, maybe…
S: “Of Roses and Lilies”, I actually wrote the original piece for voice and piano in like the early aughts. But then I went back and fleshed it out and sort of made it fuller.
D: So then you know, the early aughts, I love that. So DodecaFunky, uh, flute and piano. I want to tell everybody out there that’s looking for a repertoire. This is a beauty. This is a recital beauty. A funky solo for flute with piano accompaniment, this intense and spastic work. Is that me or you?
S: I think it’s me.
D: I think it was you. So it… “exploits various manipulations”. Oh, here you go. Yeah, it is you… “of a 12 tone row (dodecaphony).” I’m supposed to be a musician and I couldn’t care less how it’s pronounced or even what it is these days. It’s just the serial melody to a backdrop, et cetera, et cetera. But the point of, oh, this is why it’s so cute. A hard bop and swing and, uh, and stuff. It’s just a delicious piece. And it’s, it’s aggressive in its funky way. I say about the opening, while the piano adds to the delightful confusion with various playful styles, a pause and it starts to get feisty. Uh, now I don’t know where I am in the piece, but now some casual virtuoso boogie woogie, boogie funky, uh, it’s a delight.
It’s kind of a series of descriptive tableau. Am I closer? Cause I love dance. I, you know, I reviewed dance a lot and these are like little tableau. It’s wonderful to the max. Should be, uh, on programming all over the place. It’s a beauty.
Tell me, tell me, what do you think? What do you think of this?
S: I love this piece. It just makes, it makes me giggle.
D: It’s just a charm. Beautiful. It’s so cute.
S: Thank you, thank you.
D: Again, if you, you’ll forgive me the accessibility word. This is irresistible. Of course, you know what I’m trying to say?
S: I’m glad you like it. That one actually took a little bit of inspiration from Bernstein. Um, I, I love, uh, I was studying his symphony, Age of Anxiety. Oh, and I love how he merged, well, he merged…
D: By the way, you know, I’m a conductor. Uh, and I know all three of those symphonies very, very well. I’ve never conducted them because they’re too hard. “Jeremiah” I could conduct. That one makes sense. Uh, the, the age of anxiety for piano and orchestra is unbelievable, but it’s also unbelievably difficult to conduct, you know? And then Kaddish, he wrote the original and then tore it all to pieces and stuff. So, but anyway, I just want, I’m so glad somebody also has studied [those works]. Anyway, excuse me.
S: That’s okay. Uh, but yeah, I really loved the idea of merging modernist, modernistic tendencies as Bernstein would say, um, with jazz and other accessible popular genres. And so that’s what I did with this flute piece is I took a 12 tone row and it is an authentic 12 tone row, but I, you could say I cheated, I cheated a little bit because I used transpositions. So what I would do is it’s still the same row, but I would transpose fragments of it to places that I liked it, where it fit better.
D: Arnold [Schoenberg] is turning into his grave.
S: Well, this is true. Ah but see, Stravinsky did it first. So, you know, let’s blame him.
It’s still, it still has the same intervallic structures. Um, but then I back it up, with that really jazzy, different, like you say, different tableaus of different jazzy styles to kind of increase the…
D: It’s a great dance piece…
S: That’d be fun.
D: In other words, there’s lots of possibilities.
Okay. We’re going to move on.
“Of Roses and Lilies”, this is for soprano, piano, soprano recorder, which I don’t think I hear very often used in these kinds of chamber pieces. And it’s a perfect color. English horn… what got into you ?…and women’s chorus. And then the, are there strings there? I have this question.
S: String orchestra.
D: String orchestra, because I didn’t, you know, I didn’t see it in the, in the brief and it’s from 2013, so we’re getting closer to, to the bottom of the stack here. Tell us about it.
S: This one’s a really fascinating piece for me. I, like I said, I had first written it many, many, many, several decades ago. And this was written…
D: Don’t be so hard on yourself…It’s only been 10 years…
S: But the original piece for just soprano and piano was written, like I said, in the late nineties or early aughts, um, this was when I was still with my very Christian family, um, yeah, there you go. And so I fell in love with the song of Solomon and I thought, why don’t I write quick snippets of the song of Solomon and put it together as sort of a love song. And so I did. And, um, eventually just another like 10 years or so down the road, I’d said, you know what, I really love this piece. I’m going to flesh it out. So, um, I took the original just two parts and added the strings and added the color of the soprano recorder and the English horn, um, and, you know, added the women’s chorus as sort of this almost Greek chorus kind of response thing.
So it’s a very, it’s a very different piece. Uh, it’s a very dramatic kind of theater-esque, drama-esque kind of, uh, kind of a feel.
D: And you don’t use the word romantic. It reeks of romanticism. I see in my notes there, a rich tapestry of sound and a highly romantic tonal aesthetic. I was not ready for that.
S: Well, actually, uh, every, everybody don’t hate on me, but I actually recorded it myself. So it’s only, it’s only two microphones with, uh, the soloist, Claire is one of my best friends and she teaches at Azusa. So she was able to grab us a classroom. And so I recorded with the two microphones, her and another good friend of mine, the pianist, Lydia. Um, and at the time we weren’t sure if I was just going to put together a digital background to it and like release it online or something. But, you know, this CD was coming to the, coming toward finishing and I was like, you know, this would be really awesome if we can get the rest of it recorded.
So I, yeah, I took two more sessions. I got the strings and the winds together for one session. Uh, and then I finally got the women’s chorus together for a session.
D: So that makes sense too. Very hard undertaking just in terms of production.
S: Yeah, it’s such a good, such a good learning experience. And again, so many of my dear, dear friends are on that recording and it’s just, it was just so special to me.
D: It’s something else. And I hope you understand what I’m saying here, because we want to get this, these pieces performed. It’s a beauty. It’s very accessible. So it doesn’t sound terribly hard to put together. What do you think? Am I all wet? I don’t know, but just, it seemed very, it seemed to just flow pretty freely.
S: Here’s the… I would say, here’s the danger with my music. And, um, especially with this piece, this has happened before. There have been pianists who think they can sight read it and they suddenly quit. It’s like, oh, I can’t sight read this. So this is something my very first composition teacher warned me about is that my music seems really easy. But then you dig into it and there are some little quirks in there and some tricks that you might not be expecting. So as long as you know…
D: It shouldn’t be a big problem. If you know what I mean, so I think I’m okay in saying that I think it’s not like, you know…
S: It’s not terrible.
D: Yeah…[not] terribly virtuosic. And that is, that is to say this should go off the shelf and into performance and rehearsal. And that’s exactly what I see. Nothing but college, college ensemble. Because of the difficulty of getting, you know, professionals together in that kind of complex, you know, but, but, so I found it really very, very…a flowing, lovely, entirely tonal journey. The soprano recorder is charming. Your writing is absolutely first-class. You handle transitions of mood with smooth aplomb. Boy, that came out of my head. Geez. The piece soars with beauty. Your compositional savvy and skill are beyond question.
S: Thank you.
D: Let’s see. Now this is “The Oracle,” for violin, cello, flute and piccolo, clarinet, piano. That’s from 2016. Go ahead. Tell us, but the bottom line is you constructed this thing from random throws of tarot cards. Go.
S: Exactly. Okay. So…
D: Aleatoric indeed!
S: Uh, I really, like I said, this was the time in my life when I had just really started to latch on to tarot as a means of exploring my own subconscious.
D: Which is correct, by the way. Let’s make sure. Exactly what it’s supposed to be. No, let the self-conscious speak to us.
S: Exactly. I like to think of it, it’s like a mirror for myself. It’s a way for me to talk to myself when sometimes I’m having trouble understanding my brain. So, uh, I really love tarot and I wrote this when I first really started getting into it. And so what I did is, um, I had an opportunity. It was like a call for scores for this ensemble. Uh, and so I was like, this will be fun. Why don’t I use that as an excuse to try it out?
So, and I wanted to do sort of a homage to John Cage by using an aleatoric kind of method. And so tarot seemed like the perfect way to do it. So I set up, um, I think it was five different spreads of 10 cards. I think I did like, um, some kind of a sacred pyramid, uh, spread for each of those. Um, and what I did is I, I assigned certain, you know, in tarot, the different suits represent different aspects of life and personality.
So you have the cups, which is emotion. Um, you have, you know, the, uh, the pentacles, uh, the pentacles are, uh, earth, uh, and, um, material wellbeing and reality and such. Uh, so what I did is I attached each of the instruments to those suits. The, uh, violin was fire, uh, or wands. Uh, the, uh, the cello was water or cups and the, uh, the clarinet was earth and the flute, of course, was air. And then for the piano, uh, I made the piano, the tree of life itself. Uh, because I like to read tarot from a Kabbalistic tree of life sort of interpretation.
D: You’re starting to get over my head. I thought I was with you pretty well, but Kabbalistic something, something…with a tree of life.
S: So Jewish mysticism, basically. So on the tree of life, each of the cards have their place on that tree. And the higher up the tree you are, the closer to the divine source you are. And then you travel down the tree and experience various phases of life and emotion, et cetera, until you get to the bottom, which is material reality. Everything you’ve experienced becomes real. Uh, and then you cycle back to the top, back to the divine source again.
So for the piano, um, when I had a spread that, that spoke of being closer to the divine source, I had the piano playing up in its higher registers. And then as it got closer to the bottom, to the ground, the piano went down. So the higher, if you hear the piano going, noodling up really high, that’s up at the divine source of things. If you hear the piano kind of in the middle, that’s sort of where balance and harmony are. If the piano is down in the basement, that’s down in material reality.
And then in the meantime, you have all the other instruments that are reflecting on emotion or, um, you know, or, or thought, or power
D: …and character that may be interpreted…in countless ways. That’s the beauty of the idea of randomness, the beauty of the order, if you will, of randomness, that even random events will speak to us.
S: Exactly.
D: Once in a while, I really want to play an album, uh, for other people in my, you know, over a dinner or something. This is one of them. Um, what an amazing chamber piece. I say this is, uh, this long cello obbligato, then into the klezmer aesthetic I call, uh, with, with all of that playing. Now I understand the cabalistic, if you will, right. Uh, meaning to it all. Uh, but the klezmer, uh, aesthetic is, is clearly there. The, and of course the Oracle is a Jew, right? I say the Oracle is a Jew? Question mark.
A wonderful transition, transitional writing. And you know what I mean? Making segments and, and, uh, themes make sense. That transition material is very, very important to get it right. [Your] compositional savvy is top notch. I think I’ve been saying that, but the piece is a wonderful narrative. It’s complex. It’s a complex narrative. Um, and as you have just described the instruments are characters.
S: They’re, they’re the suits of the, of the cards, but they do have sort of, they evoke their sort of, uh, certain characteristics about it.
D: Okay. That’s much more complex. Thank you. That clarifies.
This is quite a journey. So, and, uh, and then I say, um, a jaunty section now as CODA, I assume that’s a CODA. Uh, still a fun ending. I love it. I don’t think you can get any more, you know, any, any better than that.
Okay. Next is, is, uh, Wabi-Sabi, this, uh, uh, the aesthetic and metaphysical ideals that Japanese Wabi-Sabi encapsulates. Tell us about Wabi-Sabi. Is it animist or something? Is it part of their religion? Animist religion?
S: It can be. Uh, I’m trying to remember where it historically started. It actually started with monochromatic Chinese drawings and then the Japanese sort of took that ideal and enhanced it. A lot of people think of a Zen garden when they think of Wabi Sabi.
D: I see what you mean. Now I understand exactly what you mean. Even the artwork, strokes, you know, just very spare strokes.
S: Yeah. The tea ceremony. Um, everything about that ceremony is part of their Wabi Sabi aesthetic and metaphysical ideals.
D: I’m trying to remember this [for] parties.
S: Simplicity is, is a major part of it, but it goes beyond that. This, and this is what the string quartet throughout the three movements sort of encapsulates is that, uh, the beginning that, that…you know, in the west the idea of nothing is like zero, there’s nothing there. It’s very stark, but in Wabi Sabi ideas, um, nothing is full of potential. There’s a lot that could be there, but isn’t there yet.
D: That’s so profound.
S: Um, and then you go through, especially at the beginning of the first movement, sort of these random particles where the players can choose how they want to play it.
D: I understand that. We’re talking about the first movement Emergence, what have you just said that the players have some choice and they have choices.
S: So, so each of the players have a collection of notes that they can choose from to play. Uh, and they do it in different ways. Like the cello trills all their notes, but they can choose how they want to trill and how fast they want to trill and when they want to come in, uh, and things like that. Um, until they finally come together in the middle of the first movement and it sort of builds from there. So the idea is like that of creation of these particles coming into space and slowly merging together to become something.
D: And by the way, this sounds like an homage to Stockhausen, you know?
S: Yeah, absolutely.
D: Another great. Distance… these distant sounds… I remember performance, you know, Stockhausen, and it all comes together.
S: And then, and then Evolution is a short, it’s intentionally a short little two minute burst because that’s where everything is kind of locked in.
D: This is Evolution.
S: This is the, the cells are coming together and creating fish that are coming out of the water and, you know, becoming man. Um, et cetera. Possibility.
D: Alive with possibility, yeah. …Nothingness itself…
S: Yeah, exactly. Um, and then it gives way to Entropy, uh, and Entropy starts with a very strict structure. Uh, funnily enough, I wasn’t sure compositionally how I wanted to go about the third movement, but I was in the middle of teaching about isorhythm in one of my classes. So I’m like, Hey, I can do isorhythm with this. That’d be fun. So it starts out very strict, um, but then gets really complex and starts falling apart. And again, that’s the idea of returning back to nothingness. Everything’s falling apart.
Uh, and, and that’s the idea of, um, the idea that you, um, sometimes the best course of action is to decide to do nothing, you know…
D: I think you have just described an exact, uh, arc in the, they come together. I’m looking at Emergence. The first one builds quite satisfyingly. Uh, the construct is fascinating and sensible to the intellect, I say to myself. And of course, if there, if you don’t get it off the ground, intellectually from the beginning, you’re in trouble… Ok, Evolution. Um, I love this, uh, I call it a flowing sea sort of opening. Or whatever that vibe could be. Anything, forget sea, whatever that undulating flowing thing…so mesmerizing. Again, wonderful quartet writing.
I’m going to have to stop using this word accessible, but that’s the whole idea to get these performed. And that’s exactly to be well written and also to be a happy time for an audience. Give me a break. And I, and here’s the thing about Evolution that it’s, uh, utterly accessible to the listener, though the subject, listening, but I think I got it. Although the subject matter may have sub-basements. Now a walking cello fits that, that walking cello thing. It’s wonderful to keep the piece moving and, and, uh, energetic. Um, quite a narrative.
S: It’s like a little metronome marking I have in the, uh, the second movement is “Like dancing molecules.”
D: Oh!
S: Kind of the spinning, whirling…
D: I might have to dream about that tonight. And the third movement, if you will, Entropy. It’s such a nice, uh, I, I, do I hear a little fugue…? I wanted… the stream of consciousness thing…fuguetto. You know what I mean? That opening is a, is it a genuine, but it’s a fuguetto, right?
S: Yeah, it’s, um, it starts out exactly as a canon. Then what happens is that each time the line comes back, uh, I either in diminution or augmentation. Uh, so I, I, like I said, if you see the score, um, I start doing crazy little sub meters within each of the parts just to help, just to help the players keep, keep time with each other, but yeah, that’s part of the unraveling part is they start very much together and then they start in like ratios of two to one or one to two, but yeah, then it starts getting into weird ratios…
D: …because I think I wondered about those, those asymmetrical collisions… A slightly dysfunctional intentional section. I’m toward the end here of pizz’s.
S: Well, the very ending, I go back to the beginning idea where the, each player has a selection of notes. They can pizz. whenever they want to. So each performance should be a little different than each other.
D: So the end of entropy, they go back to this idea and they can even change their mind about it.
S: Exactly.
D: Stockhausen, he’s smiling.
“Nevermore,” this major Sonata, I think for viola and piano from 2019 to 2021. Nevermore for viola and piano, also a subtitle of a Gothic Suite, so delightful, it’s an absolutely magnificent Sonata for viola and piano. It’s just absolutely, it’s so American, because we’re talking about Edgar Allan Poe and each movement is after one of his most famous pieces. But you have, I feel very powerfully about American composers choosing American subjects. The Raven, Annabelle Lee, the Telltale Heart.
S: Actually, Charlotte Goode, the violist on this recording, is actually another one of my bestest friends. And she is also a gothic nut and a fellow autistic. And she just, she was like, oh my gosh, we need to collaborate. We need to do this for viola. And I’m like, yes. So I started out with the Raven, you know, and she debuted that at a recital. And then I was like, okay, we need to come up with two other, you know, two other movements to finish it out. And the thing I love about the recording of this, again, this is so her, the viola part is so her, the subject matter is so her, and then I was lucky enough to be able to fly out with her to Boston to have her record it for PARMA. So…that day I went to Salem after we recorded it. So it was perfect.
D: You mean, the Witch Town or Salem, Oregon?
S: No, no, no, the Witch Town, yeah, Salem, Massachusetts.
D: So Poe inspired you to go to the seat of evil.
S: Exactly. It was so good.
D: Well, what I have to say is here, I worked on looking at the first movement. First of all, a fascinating piano introduction that really nails the interest immediately because it hints at mysteries, then it’s followed by the viola’s intensely Poe-ish colors and temperament, so congrats to your friend. It’s a beauty, again, of narrative imagination, a wonderful piece of writing for viola. It is virtuosic.
S: Yeah, it is. I won’t play it on my viola. I’ll let somebody else do it. I’m not that good.
D: Well, everything a violist looks for in a recital piece, you know, and it’s romantic, there are romantic bits in here, some hair-raising twilight zone intervals between notes, if that makes any sense, thrilling, kooky, mysterious, as was the man, nice new idea… that roiling keyboard stuff toward the end of the piece, does that make any sense? Under viola, that middle and low register as it goes.
“Annabelle Lee.” It’s gorgeous, that movement is just gorgeous.
S: So beautiful, it’s one of my absolute favorites, just, and the poem, too, is just absolutely, it really struck me.
D: It brings you to tears, really, that poem.
S: It really does. I really wanted to capture that complete childlike innocence, just absolutely purest childlike innocent love of a little boy and a little girl. And then the angels cruelly take her away from him, you know, and just that drama.
D: And that’s the true story, isn’t it? Doesn’t he marry her, his wife, when she was 15, and then did she die? I can’t quite remember.
S: I don’t remember. I’d have to look it up.
D: We just missed the good parts that neither of us can remember. Anyway, what I’m trying to say is, Annabelle Lee speaks to a very personal experience.
S: I do know this was his last poem that he wrote before he died. That’s also a very haunting little tidbit. So, yeah, I love this movement so much. It actually, it was the hardest to record, too, because it’s deceptively simple. But it’s because it’s kind of like Mozart in that way, where it’s so simple and exposed that the violist has to be really careful and really in tune. So it took us a little bit longer to do this one.
D: Nice. Yeah, it’s a beautiful reading. I call it magical writing. It’s exceptionally sensitive.
The Tell-Tale Heart: the intro, sufficiently terrifying. Very imaginative character development. It’s exactly creepy enough to fit the narrative, because it is that narrative, the pulsing, the clicking, and the floorboards… Then the beginning of real paranoia. I mean, you describe this tale very well.
S: Actually, I decided the best way to put it together was to take the story apart and make each of the sections of music a section of the story. So it’s probably the most narratively accurate of the three movements.
D: And that makes good sense to me.
S: Yeah, and in the music, each of the section headings has a little quote from the story. So you can kind of tell where you are in the story. But yeah, the idea of just. I wanted the opening theme that the viola starts playing is supposed to be sort of the love theme that the narrator has for his master.
“I loved the old man…It was his eye!” …you know, so it’s this really creepy. It’s a love song, but it’s twisted. It’s got something off.
So that’s where it opens. And then from there, then I get into the part where it’s for seven nights. He he peeks in at the bedroom. And so that section is like in seven four or something like that. It has odd. It’s asymmetrical. So, again, it feels a little off, you know, a little bit of the heartbeat taps and then, you know, stuff like that. And then little answering in the piano… And then you hear him murder him.
D: I call it shades of the shower scene in Psycho.
S: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
D: Brava, I say after that.
S: …yeah, thank you. Yeah. And then you just get, like you say, the paranoia as the cops won’t leave. But the narrator keeps hearing the heartbeat and he can’t get away from it. And he just has to give up.
D: And indeed, it’s an internal conflict. Yeah, that’s the order of the soundscape. It’s kind of this internal conflict that becomes, you know, insupportable, disturbingly deliberate. And it’s so well done, well done.
So that’s a beautiful sonata. And as I mentioned, here it is. It’s a, it’s a viola sonata. It’s, it’s tough. Well, you know, at a certain level, you know, you almost want it to be. So it’s not inaccessible at all. It has a it has a tremendous connection to America and American history and American literature. It is a beautiful sonata and it sounds so beautiful. The writing is so gorgeous.
So take note, everybody. Nevermore for viola and piano.
And then now the last, the grand finale on the CD, The Dark Glass Sinfonia: We see through a glass darkly. For orchestra from 2017 built upon an integrated set…Oh, here you go again.
S: I love patterns!
D: …that’s why I pulled it. Because in all of my life in the arts and even at college, these things never came up in my experience. “Built,” she says, confident, “built upon an integrated set of hexachordal formulae.” End quote. I say to myself, please explain. You will, then you go on: “Free atonality with modal harmony…In doing so, it is meant to represent the enigmatic and ongoing emotional flux of the soul.”
S: This is another…it started out as just a love affair with patterns. And one thing, I’m not a major post-tonalist. You can tell from the accessibleness of my music. But I do love some of the number patterns that come about from, you know, post-tonal exercises. And hexachordal combinatoriality is one of my favorite ideas. I just love saying it. Hexachordal combinatoriality.
D: Yeah, I bet when you have students, they just sort of collapse.
S: Yeah, I’m like, OK, learn how to say it, you can impress all of your friends.
D: But then again, formulae is rather…
S: …It’s very pompous sounding…it’s basically it’s built upon the 12-tone ideal, but it breaks up the 12 tones into six tones, hexachords. So each of the hexachords has its own unique intervallic character to it. And so in the same way that you can take kind of the same way where I cheated with DodecaFunky, where I took segments of it and like transposed it, it’s kind of like that, but I did less cheating. Hexachords kind of do their own cheating because you can take one part of the tone row and then take the second half of it and flip it or reverse it. Or, you know, all that kind of stuff. And then if you break them down into numbers, you can add them up into cool combinations and things like that. So that’s what this was. This piece was sort of a play on that and seeing what I could do with it. And that’s how I developed the main themes.
You really hear it come out, especially in the little woodwind stuff throughout the top. That’s really where it shines. But it really is woven into it.
D: The row shines?…
S: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
D: Well, you must have been in heaven putting this piece together.
S: It was very, very fun. And again, and I don’t know how my brain does this, but what starts out with a whole bunch of numbers and patterns usually comes out as something really lovely that I continue to love listening to.
D: Well, guess what? That’s exactly the whole point of the genius of autism. You just exactly described what we’ve been kind of…that autism is, is just different.
S: You know, you know, that’s another thing that shines through with this orchestral piece, too, is that one of the comments sometimes I get from other people is, oh, why can’t you just have the instruments all stacked up on top of each other? You know, why can’t they all play at once? And I’m like, I just don’t like that. I like to have the layers. Somebody’s always doing something. And so there’s kind of a medievalness to it, you know, going back to that old polyphony idea. But then I’ll integrate it with these numbers and patterns. And I just love seeing it layer.
D: Speaking of layering, did I hear I see in my notes here. Is there any kind of pyramid that you constructed a sound pyramid somewhere in the beginning of that piece? Or is it a stupid word?
S: No it’s not stupid. I like to call it a waterfall, where…
D: Yeah, ….I got the idea of what you were creating there.
S: Yeah. The hexachordal pattern is there. But what I do is I pass it starting from the top and have it kind of trickle down like that.
D: So pyramid is not quite the right way of describing it. But I was hearing a very specific concept. And of course, thinking pyramid, I’m describing it as from the bottom up. But you’ve just described it as from top to trickle down, if you will.
Let’s see… There was a lovely little brass tune. I’m hearing that I’m hearing cinematic moments. Of course, it’s an orchestral piece. I’m sure you really got your teeth into that one.
Let’s see, lovely wind section work, as we’ve discussed, nicely orchestrated. Well, it’s brilliant and wonderful and very accessible and a beautiful, beautiful orchestral piece of what? I can’t remember. Seven minutes or…
S: Yeah, it’s only like seven minutes or so, which I have found, again, economically and just competition wise…
D: That’s exactly right.
S: People like shorter, shorter pieces.
D: That’s kind of what we ask, because then the next question is how? Because I’m again thinking collegiate orchestras. And then let’s see that as we’ve discussed, there’s that thematic return, you know, that the whole thing does a perfect arc. So there you go.
S: I just really love the very, very ending of it. When I first put it together and to me, it evoked sort of almost this organ, this organ like texture with. I just love the resonance… T
D: That section with percussion. That’s toward the end. I see more complicated in narrative in terms of just the construct of the piece. Definitely descriptive, martial, perfectly accessible. It’s a perfect piece for a college orchestra if it’s in that sphere of capability.
S: Yeah. …that little fast march like scherzo thing. I kind of had a like a like a Russian, Russian romantic vibe almost or like early 20th century Russian vibe, you know, almost like kind of Shostakovich-esque, you know…
D: Each question mark was starting to rise out of my head there, the Shostakovich-ish.
S: Yeah, exactly.
D: What a great talk we’ve had. And I think just anybody could pick up that the world of our profession, of our music making, is the world at large. I mean, we speak to the wonderful, fascinating world around us. That’s the whole idea of being a creative person.
So, again, wonderful chat with composer Sarah Wallin Huff. And we’re talking about your 2023 Navona release. It’s contemporary classic chamber music for diverse instrumental combinations. You’ve heard this before. It’s called Shards. Don’t worry, anybody. It’s fine. And wonderful pieces that as we’ve discussed that are chamber works and then, of course, the orchestral piece at the very end.
But this is music that should be heard a lot more. And it’s not off the top of the charts of virtuosity. But, it’s just good, solid, wonderful music-making with enough virtuosity to keep…Why did I say those of us who are gifted…busy…you know what I’m trying to say… I’m gonna shut my mouth up here.
Anyway, great fun chatting with you.
S: Thank you so much. I really I’m really flattered, you know, that you reached out.
D: Well, I’m flattered that I heard what I heard. I’ll tell you, because it’s always a gamble. I just sort of pick up, pick up whatever. And I thought I’ve never heard of this thing. Well, who is this person and what is that stuff? And that’s got us started.
It’s been a tremendous treat and a really important and a very important CD you’ve got. So, congratulations all around.
#chamberMusic #classical #Interview #orchestra #review #StudioRecording

#chambermusic #classical #interview #orchestra #review #studiorecording
Flipboard @[email protected] · 2025-05-30 · 16:38 UTC

Selena Quintanilla was murdered 30 years ago, but that’s far from the most important part of her story. @TexasObserver’s Francesca D'Annunzio reviews a new documentary, “Selena y Los Dinos,” which stitches together old camcorder footage, archival interviews with Selena and new conversations with her family members. “As for the woman who murdered Selena in 1995, the film essentially ignores her altogether. The film’s exploration of the loss of Selena’s life focused on the family’s grief and the late singer’s legacy,” writes D’Annunzio.
https://flip.it/cZ6CCU
#Texas #Documentaries #Selena #SelenaQuintanilla #Music #Entertainment #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

#texas #documentaries #selena #selenaquintanilla #music #entertainment
Flipboard Art & Photo Desk @[email protected] · 2025-10-22 · 19:36 UTC

"Christina's World," the famous painting by American artist Andrew Wyeth, went out of MOMA's gallery rotation in 2024, and Adam Neese, the museum's Senior Collections Photographer for Conservation, took the opportunity to take a closer look at it. For the MoMA blog, he writes about the imaging techniques he used to examine the painting, and what they revealed. "We now have a set of detailed visual images, with each stitched image comprising over a billion pixels. These images preserve not just the appearance of the painting, but its material history," he writes.
https://flip.it/2TRGkv
#AndrewWyeth #Art #ArtHistory #Photography #Culture #Galleries #Museums #MoMA

#andrewwyeth #art #arthistory #photography #culture #galleries
Flipboard Culture Desk @[email protected] · 2023-09-29 · 19:04 UTC

Online tattling on people you've overheard gossiping is a new trend that Justin Myers says may come from the belief that everything is content. On his Substack, he argues that bitching is better than snitching. "It can be a release, and help you process your feelings about a person. It may, on reflection, make you realize that, actually, your animosity is invalid, that you should be more tolerant," he says. What's your take?
https://flip.it/jNqnnc
#Culture #Friendship #OnlineCulture

#culture #friendship #onlineculture
Flipboard Culture Desk @[email protected] · 2025-07-14 · 20:39 UTC

In March, U.S. President Donald Trump issued an executive order demanding that the negative parts of American history be excised from public monuments. A May follow-up order from Interior Secretary Doug Burgum led to QR codes being displayed in national parks that asked visitors to snitch if they came across information that was negative about past or living Americans. Now volunteer preservationists from Safeguarding Research & Culture and the Data Rescue Project have launched a campaign, Save Our Signs, asking people to upload photos of signage on public lands in order to preserve them if they're removed. @404mediaco explains more about the campaign. “To maintain a democratic society, it is essential for the electorate to be well-informed, which includes having a thorough awareness of our historical challenges,” Lynda Kellam, a founding member of the Data Rescue Project, says. “This project combines our expertise as data librarians and preservationists and our concern for telling the full story of our country.”
https://flip.it/RlnS5W
#USHistory #TrumpAdministration #Histodons @histodons #History #NationalParks #NationalMonuments

#ushistory #trumpadministration #histodons #history #nationalparks #nationalmonuments
Faintdreams @[email protected] · 2024-02-21 · 18:41 UTC

Been flip flopping for the past six days between:
I wanna crotchet all the things!
No .. ?
I wanna knit all the things !
No ..?
I wanna cross stitch all the things!
Really unsure what my brain *actually wants to do* but it sure seems to involve some form of yarn.. 🤔
#Yarncraft #Knitting #Crotchet #Crossstitch

#yarncraft #knitting #crotchet #crossstitch
abolitionmedia @[email protected] · 2025-04-28 · 03:26 UTC

“I Don’t Make a Fetish Out of Nonviolence.” Interview With Ray Luc Levasseur on the United Freedom Front
On 16 April 2025, Unity of Fields interviewed Ray Luc Levasseur, a former political prisoner. In 1975 Levasseur co-founded the Sam Melville-Jonathan Jackson Unit, which later renamed itself the United Freedom Front. They carried out dozens of expropriations and anti-imperialist bombings until their capture in 1984, after being on the FBI’s Most Wanted list. Levasseur was sentenced to 45 years and served his time in some of the most brutal and repressive prisons in the country, USP Marion and ADX Florence, including thirteen years in solitary confinement. He was released in 2004 after serving 20 years, and now lives in his home state of Maine. The interview transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.
If you are interested in reading more about Ray Luc Levasseur and the United Freedom Front, we recommend reading Until All Are Free: The Trial Statement of Ray Luc Levasseur and checking out his online archives at UMass Amherst, where you can find many of the documents mentioned in the interview.
Download a zine version to print/fold here.

Editorial disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this interview do not necessarily reflect the views of Unity of Fields.
Unity of Fields: When people nowadays think of anti-imperialist armed struggle in the US, they tend to think of the Weather Underground and the Black Panther Party (BPP), maybe the Black Liberation Army (BLA), maybe the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA). Often people aren’t aware of numerous smaller clandestine formations that were active around the same time, like the one you were part of, the Sam Melville-Jonathan Jackson Unit (SM-JJ), which later renamed itself the United Freedom Front (UFF).
UFF is such an interesting, and, in a lot of ways, quite successful, case study of militancy. You came into revolutionary struggle in a slightly later generation than Weather, and in a different way than the stereotype of white radical elite college student — you were radicalized by serving in Vietnam, serving time in prison for a minor drug offense, and coming from a very working-class background.
Could you speak to how you see UFF’s trajectory in this context, and why you think it is generally less well known? And why is it important for people of younger generations, especially those interested in the question of militancy, to consider?
Ray Luc Levasseur: Part of it is some of these groups were very short-lived, for one thing. They traveled fast, but they went down in flames pretty fast too. It’s been a problem in terms of clandestine groups in this country. I mean, there’s amazing number that just didn’t last very long and took major hits and were pretty much decommissioned. The SLA weren’t around all that long either but one of the big reasons people remember them is because of the significant media coverage of it. But a lot of the other groups didn’t get that kind of media coverage like Weather or the SLA did. I don’t know if that’s class-based or not.
Those of us that I was underground with, we all had some kind of previous political activity in public, but we were not part of big chapters of a national group per se. A couple of us were, I was in national VVAW (Vietnam Veterans Against the War), one of us had been in SDS, but in chapters that were not at the forefront of media attention. I think the George Jackson Brigade was like this too. So people in that particular area where they were operating, you know, would have a better idea of what’s going on, who this was being conducted by, and connect the message to the people where others don’t. A lot of the publicity, a lot of the media coverage is really negative, and part of the purpose for that, was not just in terms of what the general public was reading, but in terms of what political activists were reading.
Clandestinity by its nature, people don’t know who you are and they can be very distrustful. And depending also on the extent of your aboveground support network, not every group has one, but every group should have one. A group like Weather had a really extensive aboveground network and that could be utilized in a lot of ways to promote the cause and build a little support, and certainly awareness and keeping the group front and center in people’s minds politically and personally. We had an aboveground network going under that was eventually decommissioned through police and other methods and then we went through a dry spell and then we started to rebuild another one. That support network eventually collapsed similar to the BLA network that collapsed after the Brinks [Robbery in 1981], and their network was more extensive than ours. That’s a major blow to any group. I know that it played a really significant factor with us, particularly the second time around where it had collapsed. That really contributes to your isolation. That kind of isolation is the enemy of an underground group because it hampers your ability to recruit and do all kinds of things. Essentially it cuts off the logistical network. The kind of support, material and otherwise, political and otherwise, that you might be getting through that aboveground support network all of a sudden just gets shut off. You cut off a supply route and it really has a big impact on even a conventional military force. Look what’s happened in Lebanon when the israelis were really able to dismantle a lot of the network that was supporting both Hezbollah and to some degree Hamas, it’s had a big impact. And the more isolated you get, the less you’re out there. Your voice is diminished somewhat.
I think that when you say the Panthers, you’re really talking about BLA, in terms of more clandestine actions. The Panthers always, or did for a long time, had clandestine networks, but they weren’t there in an offensive capacity, they were more self-defense oriented. They’d have a safe house, they’d have the proper credentials, paper identification, funds, a way for somebody to disappear quickly if the need was there. The BLA actually had things set up more like we had set up, where you’re dealing strictly with people that are underground, have to stay underground, and are carrying the initiative forward. They’re initiating actions. They’re not there in the self-defense mode per se, I dunno if that makes sense. But the two [the BLA and BPP] often get used interchangeably, and the BLA benefited from the huge, huge reputation and media attention that the Panthers had, benefited in the sense of what the question you asked is, why some of these groups are well-known and some are not. So Weather had built its reputation by its involvement with SDS. Then when a significant number of them go underground and become the Weather Underground Organization, they’re already pretty well known. So that’s my thinking behind those two particular organizations. And both were around for a long time, especially when you consider those particular roots, one in the [Black] Panther Party and one in groups like SDS.
UoF: Please correct me if I’m wrong, but based on what I’ve read about the United Freedom Front, it sounds like you guys achieved a huge number of successful actions and evaded capture for longer than many other groups. Is that correct? Why that was the case?
RLL: It is correct. In fact, I think that’s one of our main claims to fame, really, is the length of time we were underground. Because we weren’t just hiding. We were the number one fugitives they wanted in the country. After the first couple years we became number one. As the other groups got picked off or decommissioned in one way or another, those forces of repression can focus more and more on you. Plus we were very active, we were always doing something and they knew it. High-risk stuff. We had developed means that if we had just wanted to be underground just to live away from the eyes and ears of the government, we could have done that indefinitely, because we had the methods down so well. But our justification for being underground was to be active. I wouldn’t be underground if I couldn’t stay active. So we were constantly carrying out actions of one kind or another throughout the whole time, including many close calls. And when you look at groups, even within the BLA itself, which was more extensive than we were, and they were around for a considerable period of time, but individual cells within the BLA, a lot of ’em went down really quick. But they were large enough where they could absorb the loss and keep going.
We were smaller, we couldn’t handle too many hits. You know what I mean? When you go up against the repressive arm of this government, they have all the money, the resources, the manpower, the computer power. They can make mistake after mistake after mistake. I can sit in and talk to you about the strategic and tactical mistakes the FBI and other police made in trying to get us. But because of that foundation, the endless supply of funding and police power, weaponry and intelligence, all of it, they can make mistake after mistake, and just go back to the drawing board and do it again. When you’re a small organization, there’s very little margin of error for you. You can make one mistake and it all comes tumbling down.
Now, to give you an idea in terms of even Weather and BLA, which had had pretty good resources, the Brinks case really was like, if you look at it, it’s like all of a sudden the dominoes started falling. A huge part of their total underground infrastructure just went down around that one action. So you don’t have the room to make those kinds of mistakes. I think it’s really to our credit that we were underground for ten years. I mean, what other group can you see that did that and was politically active for that entire period of time and with a number one target on our backs almost the whole time?
Expropriation was a part of our strategy, and that’s different than certain clandestine formations that got their funding a different way. When you look at Weather, some of that money obviously came from some pretty wealthy family members and friends, that was part of the network, right? There’s a difference in building revolutionary power, trying to build a clandestine armed movement. You’re building a different kind of revolutionary when you fund yourself through armed actions that target financial institutions to uphold capitalism as opposed to having Uncle John send you $10,000 stipend every month. And you can extrapolate from that into the nonprofit industrial complex. I know some really good people and good organizations that are nonprofits and they skimp to get by to do some really good community work. But there are a lot of nonprofits where the money just rolls in regularly every month, some grant, some foundation, to pay your pretty decent salary and all the benefits that are accrued with it…it makes for a different organization. It makes for a different mindset. Anyways, where were we?
UoF: Not to oversimplify, but I think you could say that guerrillas inside of the imperial core take two distinct paths — one, those who think revolution is impossible within the core, and their primary goal is to give as much material support to Third World revolutionaries, without the expectation that the masses here will join them. And two, those who may share the primary goal of materially supporting Third World revolutionaries, but also think revolution is possible within the core and aim to win popular support and grow their ranks. Of course there has been a lot of internal disagreement on these questions within some of the formations we’re talking about. And in the so-called United States it’s more complex than, say, Denmark, because it’s built on settler colonialism. The “working class” here is still largely pacified by imperial super profits but there are also internal colonies with far more revolutionary potential because they are fighting national liberation struggles. How did you all conceptualize revolution here, and how did the UFF relate to the Third World national liberation struggles, including those internal to the US?
RLL: Well, when I was part of it, we were trying to build a revolutionary resistance movement. We were anti-imperialists. So much is based on time, place, and conditions. If you don’t factor in time, place, and conditions into things, you can get off the mark really well, including with armed actions and stuff. You’ve got to factor these three components in to make decisions about how you’re going to move. At that time we’re talking, if you go back to SM-JJ [Sam Melville-Jonathan Jackson Unit], you’re talking early, mid-seventies, and then all the way up to UFF [United Freedom Front].
The last UFF action was 1984. It’s an interesting communiqué that UFF put out. They hit Union Carbide, which was a big mining company in South Africa, Amerikan-owned multinational, and the communiqué answer the call to all parts of the anti-apartheid movement that existed at that time and any progressive revolutionary people that. It was really coming together pretty well, this aboveground anti-apartheid movement in the US at the time. But this communiqué was encouraging that [aboveground] movement to continue, while recognizing that we’re trying to build a multifaceted anti-imperialist movement, which for us necessitated a clandestine sector that was armed, armed for self-defense, and armed for offensive actions and that they were not mutually exclusive, that they should compliment each other. Multilevel, we’re at different levels, but we’re part of the same movement. So we encouraged the BDS movement at the time, students, workers, etc, to keep at it the same way because we were going to keep it at it as well.
In terms of that anti-imperialist view from going back to the seventies into the eighties, we clearly really took our view of things based a lot on the national liberation struggles of the time. When you go back then, they were all over the world, anti-colonial struggles included in that. Just look at Africa: Mozambique, South Africa, Namibia, Angola. To us, these Third World national liberation struggles were a cutting edge of resisting and fighting back against US imperialism as it spread throughout the world. Each one of those countries that liberated itself was going to weaken US imperialism to some degree. And our role in part was to be supportive of those struggles. International solidarity, if you need a term for it. That was how we considered ourselves; they’re the vanguard, we’re the rear guard. The rear guard because we’re in the Belly of the Beast, we’re the US, we have some responsibility politically, morally, personally to do something, to attack the same system that’s being attacked by these revolutionary movements. It’s a unique position to be within the US and try to fight on the same field of battle, so to speak, in support of these liberation struggles.
The great thinkers and guerrilla fighters that came out of these struggles [in the Third World] had a lot of influence on our own political vision and analysis. I was looking at the reading list on the Unity of Fields website. I can tell you, I’ve read many of those books. Everything from Carlos Marighella, Minimanual of the Urban Guerrilla. These were tremendously influential on us because Urban Guerrilla Warfare was relatively new at that time. It was like opening up a new area. George Jackson says, I think in Blood in my Eye, that the urban landscape can conceal a guerrilla as well as the jungle canopy. And we took that to heart.
What came after liberation in each of those countries, you know, we paid a lot of attention to the groups made up the different movements in the different colonies and different countries, because sometimes there would be multiple organizations. Obviously we would favor the political view of one group usually, but it wasn’t our job to put that out there. That was just to enable us to see what direction things were going in, and which organizations in these movements had the best prospects of really freeing the people there. So what came after liberation, we didn’t delve into, other than you’re freeing up a colony, you’re freeing up a people, which means self-determination for the first time for these people so that they are in a position, once they liberate themselves from foreign conflict, colonization or intervention, then they are much better suited to determine by themselves the direction they want to take to put that liberation into real terms for their people. Our actions were meant to keep those liberation struggles on the agenda in this country, both with the left and as much of the general public as we could reach through what we were doing.
I think you mentioned the internal colonies as well, and that somewhat unique situation. Not all the underground groups from that period looked at internal colonies the same way. Even within certain organizations, it generally might not be completely unified on a position on the internal colonies. Our position was that Black people in this country do compromise an internal colony. So we’re looking at Black people, what do they want? What are the Black radical groups saying? What are they doing? Recognizing that somebody’s internally colonized is different than offering a format to deal with that. So it wasn’t our position to offer that format, our position was to support a freedom struggle. If you look at the position papers and communiqués and underground papers from that era, you’ll see that there is support for the national liberation of all of those internal colonies.
We did get very involved with the Puerto Rican struggle, which is a little bit different in the sense that you have the diaspora here, you have a huge number of Puerto Ricans in this country, but the island is the land base of the nation. How they were going to deal with the diaspora, that comes with liberating your national borders. That’s the way I see it, anyways. We were really supportive of Puerto Rican independence and the release of the Puerto Rican nationalist prisoners that were kept at that time, Lolita LeBron and the others, and in fact, we were charged with quite a few actions around Puerto Rican independence. That we felt was very material support given as many Puerto Ricans in this country. My number one goal has been dismantle this fucking imperialist system. I think the internal colonies are a potential Achilles heel of imperialism right within its own borders.
UoF: Absolutely agree. I was going to ask you a question about the state of the Palestine solidarity movement in this country, and I think that’s actually very related to our discussion about the internal colonies. Because the most useful thing we could do here for Palestine, for any Third World national liberation struggle, is to make a revolution here — to dismantle US imperialism from within. And obviously the internal colonies, now and historically, have the most revolutionary potential, so that goes hand in hand.
I think the “Palestine solidarity movement,” as they call it, is coming up against the limitations of its own form. I’m not trying to say this in a defeatist way because I also think the movement has made great advances, but those advances have led us to this impasse or breaking point. The movement has failed in part by not addressing this issue of internal colonialism, by not universalizing the Palestinian struggle into a broader anti-imperialist struggle. That failure has manifested itself most clearly in the movement’s weak positions on the police, on resistance to the police, and on whether militancy should take place here at all. There’s a lot of rhetorical support for resistance far away, but not when it takes place here, which is why the movement also ignores a lot of the political prisoners in Amerikan dungeons, like Casey Goonan. And to be clear, when I say “movement,” I’m mostly talking about the nonprofit industrial complex, which is why I don’t even like using the term “movement” really, and I appreciated your critique of nonprofits earlier and how reformist they tend to become. But back to my point — we’ll be chanting “resistance is justified when people are occupied” at police-permitted and peace-police-marshalled parades without acknowledging that the Amerikan police are the domestic occupying force of the internal colonies here. That idea leads us to the logical conclusiont hat we should be resisting the police, and I don’t think these nonprofits actually really want people to do that, because like you said, they care about their grant money and their bottomline.
When we were chatting the other week, you were also comparing how you and your comrades would be policed for supporting the Vietnamese National Liberation Front (NLF) and waving their flags at protests to how we are now told not to wave our Hezbollah flags or wear Hamas or PFLP headbands. So this kind of conditional “solidarity” that is actually anti-resistance is definitely not a new phenomenon, although the existence of the terror lists and designations has made people all the more scared of resistance, or given them more excuses to shy away from openly supporting it.
But yeah, I guess I’m wondering what you think of the Palestine solidarity movement now, especially in this current wave of repression. Do you think the movement can transcend the limits of its current framework, its single issueism, really break out into a broader anti-imperialist movement?
RLL: Important question. Well, the Palestine solidarity movement, I mean, I’m not the best judge of this in my current situation. You could be a better judge of it than me. I don’t know.
I used to get into it with activists from New York a lot because I detected this attitude among some that New York was the center of the universe, and what people do outside of the center of that universe somehow doesn’t quite measure up to what’s up in New York. And it’s not just with somebody like me who lives in rural Maine, but I got friends and comrades in Boston and they get to sometimes the same way that they feel like, especially when they’re working with people and they want to put an event together. “Oh, is this is going to be New York or Boston,” and Boston seems to play in second field all the time and it sort irritates them. Or you get over into the Bay Area, it is very different being a radical in a place like rural Maine. I think I could mesh in much easier in the city like New York or the Bay Area that has a lot of old radicals, but in a place like Maine, it’s like you’re the only game in town. That’s why its fricking media and the cops still know who I am despite the time that’s gone by.
But anyways, first of all, I’m going to say this question has come up even here in Maine, and we have some very committed activists here to figuring out which way forward, examining and reexamining actions that people are involved with. Everything from cultural events to CD [civil disobedience] where people get arrested and all these marches and all these rallies. I saw the piece on PSL in Unity of Fields and apparently there’s some differences there over strategy. I mean, PSL is here. I know some of them, I knew ’em before they were PSL. PSL hasn’t been around in any significant numbers until relatively recently. I mean it predates October 2023, but they hadn’t been around and they’re recruiting. When it comes to which way forward with Palestine solidarity, it’s still a work in progress as various groups hold a range of strategies and tactics. It’s an issue here in Maine and people talk about it because they want to build on what’s happened so far.
The positive thing that I see is that I have never seen so much support, I’ll use it generically, the word “support,” and awareness around the Palestinian liberation struggle as I see now. That’s happened since October of 2023. I’ve seen it manifested in many different ways and I’ve also seen it in other parts of the country. I’m in touch with activists in other parts of the country. I’m seeing the same thing there. I could take it a step further and see it also in significant parts of the world.
Because historically among the left, and I’m not talking about different party lines between different sectarian groups who want to argue to death over some line, I’m talking about substantive issues — you couldn’t find a lefty group in this country that wasn’t opposed to apartheid South Africa. But as the years passed by, Palestine was always, and forgive me if I’m repeating myself, but to put it in New York terms, Palestine was always considered the third rail of left politics.
You know, the third rail in the subway, you touch a third rail and you’re instantly fried, you die. Periodically somebody does that in the subway system and that’s what happens to them. I personally know somebody who happened to die that way. In the NYPD investigation of how he died, they said he tripped and fell on it. This was a young anarchist kid that I knew. This is quite a few years ago. While his comrade was saying no, he got jumped and pushed on it. But in any event, you touch it, you die.
So if you were a supporter of Palestine, you risked being ostracized by people, either individually within a group or by another group. It was always like you could give Palestine a certain amount of rhetorical support in your publication or whatever, but don’t get too heavy-handed with it. Don’t push the resistance too much and don’t push the one [Palestinian] state too much and those kind of things. If you did, then you risk being ostracized politically by other leftists.
I’ve seen that starting to go by the wayside for the first time in my life. I’ve never seen this level of support before. I understand we’d have to go qualify it by going through what do I mean by support? You know what I mean? This and this. But I mean you take ten different ways that people can be supportive from financial to cultural to CD [civil disobedience] to every kind of thing in between, then I think there’s a big positive. It’s a positive, it can be built on, people are trying to build on it, it could grow even more.
I mean, we don’t know what’s going on in Palestine until next week gets here. So much is up in the air right now. None of it seems good, but I think that’s been a pretty amazing thing. You could say, yeah, well, a lot of these people are basic liberals and maybe their idea of Palestine solidarity is to keep writing to their Congress person to vote to stop arms to israel or write a letter to the editor or whatever. I don’t discourage any of that kind of stuff. I just push people to do more. Or I don’t push, I used to push. I try to persuade people to do more. So I think that’s really good.
I think part of the reason you’re seeing the repression amped up, it’s not just because Trump is here, it’s because they’re worried about that level of support [for Palestine] and that’s why they’re coming after people to the extent that they are. I don’t think it’s going to stay this way, I think it’s going to get worse, but I still think that they are predominantly focused on low-hanging fruit. I hate to use that term, but I’ll use it. I’m accustomed to this because I was a prisoner for a long time and I see them do a lot of things to prisoners that people out here just don’t care about, don’t know about, don’t want to know about, and it’s out of sight, out of mind, it’s prisoners, the lower end of everybody. And then five years later they’re doing the same thing to people outside of prison. I can talk about surveillance technologies and all kinds of stuff. They’ll experiment with the prisons first. That’s the low-hanging fruit because we’re the most vulnerable, we’re the most marginalized.
What they’re doing now, especially with the deportation stuff, is they’re targeting people. Totally make up a fucking story. But they’re going after people they know are vulnerable because they’re not a US citizen yet, or they can manipulate a law even if they got a green card or whatever to deport them. Something like this happened with the Red Scare with Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman and various anarchists and communists that were put on boats, just rounded up and put on boats, and sent to other countries. I think that’s part of the reason why we’re seeing this repression, and it’s a great cause for concern because of the level of fear it induces and also because we have to come to the defense of these people that are being subjected to this repression.
It’s a moral and political obligation that we do that. But it also requires resources. It also requires our attention, our time, our money, whatever support we can muster to defend people that are going to being targeted by this repression. That’s not to say that we should do any less, we should do more to defend people that are under attack. If you follow Cop City at all, you know what I’m talking about. All these people that are being deported could eventually prevail in their case, but the government still has succeeded in disrupting movement activities, scaring people that may be involved away. To them, they look at it like a win-win situation. If they can deport somebody and keep them out, that’s a win. But even if that person comes back, they figure they’d want something because he may be back, but they scared 20 people away, or they tied up people in organizations, tied those resources up, so they can’t be used for anything else.
So I think that the potential is still there right now, despite the repression. I talked about time, place, and conditions — we didn’t have this internet before, we have to get on the fucking internet on a daily basis to find out how those conditions are changing. If you don’t have a good grasp of conditions, then it’s difficult to put together tactical and strategic plans of any kind. And it changes so much. But I think the potential is still there. This movement can grow now.
Single-issue? Yeah, I mean I have to think of the Vietnam War because there were so many people. I was a state coordinator of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, and my Vietnam veteran partner in that had been a highly decorated army helicopter pilot. I was already an anti-imperialist by the time I got involved with VVAW. And this brother, he was strictly a single-issue person. He wanted to bring this war to an end and it had a moral base to it to a certain degree. He had studied to be a Jesuit before he got hooked into the military and he had strong moral objections to the US being in Vietnam and what they were doing there. I mean combined together, we made some really formidable presentations and worked all well together. But the minute that all was done, that was it. That was the end of his political activism. I immediately jumped. I didn’t wait until the war to be completely over, but it was obviously going to be. I already had made my way into working around the criminal legal system, prisoners and all of that. This was in the seventies when the prisoners rights thing was really big. That turned out to be a good move politically because I never looked at the war as a single issue. To me it was always connected. I just looked at my fucking training, and when I was in Vietnam, to know that white supremacy ran through the whole fricking war. It was white supremacy, racism on a massive scale. It was embedded into us in our training before we even got there. But yeah, I think that that is a problem probably, well, it depends how you look at it, whether it’s a problem or not. It’s a problem in terms of building an anti-imperialist movement. It’s probably a problem for these sectarian groups, including groups like PSL that obviously are involved in more than one issue. When you bring somebody into your organization or group or whatever, this is where political education comes in, really. You got to have political education I feel.
A lot of people could be resistant to that, but I think that’s a good method in which to solidify people’s views about the system and making the connections. Most of the public speaking I do, I just did a class yesterday, it’s focused on prisons and I work in other stuff. I can’t when it’s an academic presentation, which it was, I got an hour and a quarter, and so I can’t go too far afield or I’m not meeting the qualifications of that particular class. I have to keep the focus on this issue, connecting it to larger issues in the criminal legal system, but also connecting it to the issue that are political prisoners in the US, because I always give a very quick thumbnail sketch of my background, my backstory as I call it. I open up, I didn’t just get here yesterday, you know what I mean? I was just a kid from a mill town and this war is originally what turned me on, then being in prison a year after I got out of the army, those dots were connected for me. So they see that right away that I have a more expansive view than just prison. But yeah, I don’t know how big an issue it needs to be right now. How many of these people are going to bail out on Palestine when we get to wherever we’re getting to?
I mean, I’m dealing with some people like that here. The best thing I’ve seen happen is that so many generic anti-war people are doing vigils and stuff. I first ran into them when I got out in 2004 because we were doing them around Iraq, then it was Afghanistan, and they’re against the armaments industry, but they can be pretty generic about it, with their signs and their talk. But I’ve seen some of them cross over into the Palestine issue, which is a big step for some of them. They tend to be politically, how should I put this? Politically, they emphasize nonviolence rather than liberation. I’m going to put it that way. If you’re an anti-imperialist, you emphasize liberation. And resistance to imperialism can be violent or it can be nonviolent. It can be both. But I don’t make a fetish out of nonviolence either philosophically or as a practical manner. Some of these people are crossing over, which is encouraging.
I’m not sure if I’m getting to the issue. We started talking about the demonstration [I went to in Maine recently]. People were showing up from different organizations with all kinds of different issues. I didn’t have any problem with people talking about losing their jobs and social security and healthcare, not war. I understand those issues, but I think the challenge in terms of recruiting people or encouraging people to get involved in Palestine solidarity is you have to be able to show them how it’s related, why Palestine is related to George Floyd, you know what I mean?
UoF: A connection Yahya Sinwar made himself, in one of his last interviews with Western press before the Al-Aqsa Flood. He said in 2021, “The same type of racism that killed George Floyd is being used (by the zionist entity) against the Palestinians.”
RLL: Yeah, you have to do that. I’ve been doing it in one form or another, going back to when I first became politically active. I became active on three fronts — the Vietnam War, the labor struggle, and civil rights. And so that shows right away that as soon as I got politically active in 1968, after I got out of the army, I was connecting the issues right away. So was the organization I was part of, Southern Student Organizing Committee, which sometimes is called a Southern SDS, but I don’t think that’s a really good description. And so our pamphlets and everything reflected that. We had pamphlets by Che Guevara, the Tricontinental Speech, Malcolm X, the history of IWW, whatever that general political education that these issues are related. And I think that long-term, wherever this direction goes with Palestine, is going to be a necessity for solidarity work with Palestine, for a Palestine. It’s going to continue for a long time. You learn from experience and I’ve been around quite a few people who are pretty capable and you can chew gum and walk at the same time other you can do be involved with some other kind of issue as well. We shouldn’t be in a competition to, well, if you’re with this group, you can’t do this over here. If you’re with us, you can’t do that over there. I don’t want to get into too much of that.
UoF: Yeah, totally. We do need unity. And when we say that we mean unity in resistance, not just unity for unity’s sake, which I feel like is what you’re getting to. Everything you’ve said is really reaffirming why we thought it was so important to do this interview because with all this new repression coming down, we certainly are in a new stage, but we’re seeing some people talk about it as if it’s unprecedented when it’s very, very precedented. Maybe people are saying this because because we don’t know our own history, so these historical examples of repression and counter-repression are crucial to study. Our lives depend on it. And we’re really grateful you’re sharing all your experiences. Getting back to the UFF, we were talking about how yall managed to evade capture and stay underground for so long. As our movement is experiencing more surveillance and infiltration, I think this could be really useful advice to people engaged in all sorts of different tactics, so I was wondering if you could speak to how yall vetted people and dealt with infiltration or traitorship.
RLL: That’s been the bane of a number of organizations. The worst snitches are not the ones that you manage to identify or that prove themselves unworthy after they’ve become involved in some kind of one form or another with clandestine work. [The worst snitches are] the people who break after the shit goes down. In other words, a person could be underground for three years, have participated in all kinds of stuff, been dependable, get busted, and they’ll sit him in a fucking room, slap him a couple of times, and they start talking and they’re going to slap him again to shut him up. In other words, they’re passed certain tests and are vetted, so to speak, through actually doing things, but when the heat dial hits a certain level, especially if you are arrested or captured and all of a sudden you are looking at enormous amount of time—just to give you one example, in a very bad prison, that kind of thing—and somebody completely falls apart.
That’s a critical question because you’re talking about trust. The deeper in you are, and I don’t mean just underground, there’s a lot of people that get indicted or dragged before grand juries that are aboveground people, some who violate the law and some who don’t. They love fucking conspiracy laws in this country because they’re easy to convict people on. So why do people use Signal? Presumably to give them some kind of protection against conspiracy charges, right? I mean, I won’t get into that. I’ve been charged with conspiracy, different kinds of conspiracies and I know how the law works and that’s a favorite tactic.
In terms of clandestinity, you’re talking about much higher risk and much more serious consequences generally speaking in that kind of situation. So a vetting process procedure is more serious. The gate somebody has to go through to assume a role underground should be fairly vigorous. And this is an issue I touch on in my book because it is so important and there’s no one size that fits all. There’s no particular test that will guarantee you that you are protected against somebody. I mean, there’s various kinds of informants and agents, provocateur or whatnot. If you go back and you look at these groups, a lot of them did have snitches rise out of ’em. In a way, the ones I feel that hurt the most, I mean if somebody comes in, they’re an undercover agent and you get set up and you get busted, that sucks, that hurts, but that’s not going to hurt the way your closest friend in your whole life flips and testifies against you. That really hurts. Or to set you up in a way where one of your comrades get killed or injured or busted, ends up in a fourty-year sentence, whatever. And that kind of betrayal is very difficult to flesh it out because it really comes down to an issue primarily of character. You have to assess a person’s character and you don’t know what somebody’s going to be like for sure until they’ve passed a trial under fire. I’ve known soldiers, conventional soldiers in the United States Army that got grade A’s all through basic and advanced training to be a soldier, fundamental part of learning how to kill somebody. But then when they come under actual enemy fire, they fall completely to pieces, where another trainee soldier who just kind of grunted and just kept their head down and nobody noticed him and he just got through basic training, advanced training and nothing special, nothing else stands out about him, but under fire after training in the real war, they rise above the others. They are able to do everything that a good soldier is supposed to do in a war situation under fire.
So it’s really hard. That comes down to a character issue. And a lot of those other groups got burned. They got burned both ways. They got burned because they recruited the wrong people who turned out pretty quickly to be weak, undependable. They were alright until some cop starts twisting their arm and puts them on a hot seat and they break down and give up information, give up people. Part of it is like being spoken for, recruiting people that others can vouch for. That’s an important thing. Assuming the people that are vouching for them have proven their own selves in one way or another and a trusted comrade, that’s the best referral you can get unless you are coming into the group somebody grew up with or something they’ve known forever or whatever. Because trust is the basic thing. Nobody in our cases ever flipped and they had a lot of pressure. A lot of pressure, because we had kids involved too. And then you got both parents looking at a huge amount of pressures and years to flip and turn government witness. We didn’t have any. Our policy was “Give us 24 hours.” Meaning that we understand that every human is likely to have a breaking point when it comes to brutality and torture. So, a captive holding out for at least 24 hours or longer gives others a chance to dump anything that could be compromised and move on to safety. I think it important to include this because it’s part of the security code but also shows we are not insensitive to those who suffer severe consequences because of their commitment.
We had a snitch. We had people, aboveground support people, who basically testified for grand juries. That’s a whole other issue, but it’s related to this. We used to see a lot of use by the government of grand juries to particularly go after aboveground people seeking information on both the aboveground support networks for the clandestine and for anything they knew about people underground themselves.
But we had one person who flipped early on, and I write about this in my book because this person came to us recommended, but he should have never been recruited. At some point I was starting to notice this person’s character was weak. A number of things happened that told me this person is weak. He was too mouthy, too pushy about we got to do this, we got to do this, we got to do this. You know what I mean? When we didn’t have the capacity to do it, he’s trying to push us into doing actions that at the time would’ve been over our head. So I talked to another comrade about it. He was feeling the same way, this is when it can get dangerous. You’re talking about an armed clandestine movement here, armed organizations, different ways to deal with different disciplinary issues underground. And you got to be very careful and conscientious about how you do it.
There was another unit operating in the same general area as we were. We had a liaison between them and I was really getting uncomfortable with this guy. The other unit expressed interest in him. The guy that I’m talking about, the recruit, the person of bad character, I feel, I told the liaison take him if you want him, but I told the other group, through the liaison, I got questions about this guy’s character. I don’t know, if he’ll hold up, you should know that. The other person in the other group, they wanted him. So we dumped him and the minute he made that change over, we abandoned the safe house. He knew this one safe house where several of us lived and I was so concerned about him that we decided to dump that house, because that was the one place he knew. So if he did collaborate, that’s all he could lead them to and we’d be gone. So he fell in with this other group and I was clear to the other group, we don’t want anything more to do with him. We could have taken more drastic action, but that’s a whole other issue that I don’t want to get into for this. This guy was like all he wanted do was actions, get out there, get out there, boom, hit him again, boom, hit them again. This other group was into that kind of philosophy. I knew there was going to be a problem there. So we cut the liason off and sure enough they got down in the city and they just went to town and they went way beyond that capacity. They were going big there for a few weeks, but it all came crashing down.
This guy I was telling you about was busted with some of the others and part of a aboveground support network. They got into the police barracks, scared him, and the guy never stopped talking. I got his completely grand jury testimony. He buried that whole other group. They all went to prison and broke it up as an organization. At least one person in the aboveground group went to prison. And sure enough, they found that safe house, which we had up on the Canadian border and they went in it. But by the time that happened, we had been gone two or three months by then. He completely turned weak, sold everybody out, and then started lying so that he could incriminate more people and try to incriminate me. He starts lying.
But the underlying factor in all this is desperation. If you can’t recruit when you’re underground or doing any other sensitive stuff — unless your philosophy is we’re going to have a group of two or three people, that’s it, that’s going to be enough to do what we want do the way we want to do it, we don’t need anything more than that — but if you’re trying to build a movement, you need something larger than that. That means you need recruits. And we were desperate for a recruit at the time. He first came in with us, referred to by somebody who’s judgment I trusted, and he was a trustworthy person, he never snitched or anything like that, but his judgment wasn’t the greatest. So when you recruit from a position of desperation, then you’re going to make mistakes. You’re going to lower the bar when you evaluate a person. Can this person hold up to this kind of way of living underground, to do the kind of things that is going to be required of that person to do? The minute you start lowering the bar, the risk is greater that you’re going to pull somebody in that’s going to burn you somewhere down the line.
The same thing with an action. Let’s say an expropriation. The worst time to do an expropriation is when you are desperate. You don’t even have next month’s rent. And that’s all tied into your security. If you can’t pay the rent and you get thrown out, you can’t be out on the street. You’re desperate. So you try to avoid that situation. You have enough of a bankroll from expropriations that you are not that desperate to go out and do that again. You’ve got to do it at a time when you have the resources to do it right. It’s the same thing with recruiting people. Don’t let yourself get so politically desperate to have this person or two more people into a group that you’re going to lower the standards, lower the bar in terms of what you’ve determined it takes from your own experience to do the work that would be required of this person.
Fortunately there was nobody else after him with us that did that. When we recruited again later, we had had a lot of experience by then and we needed other people, but we didn’t get to the point where we were desperate. We needed it but we had years of experience — we knew pretty much the requirements of a person to live underground with a lot of heat on you and to do the kinds of things that are necessary. A lot of that stuff is stuff that even aboveground activists don’t know because they haven’t been through the experience — how many ways you can make yourself look and sound different, everything you need to know about fictitious identification and on and on, right down to the littlest details. We had documents, you’ll find some of this in my archives at UMass, they were like little training manuals for new recruits. So the people were given some orientation period to what would be required of them because people don’t have much experience with underground. And the lack of experience has cost people their lives underground.
UoF: That was so useful, I think to a lot of people reading this who are doing all different kinds of work. The points you make about how being aboveground or being a public-facing spokesperson does not mean you are safe is really important. A lot of the people we’re seeing get abducted right now were those public facing people and were in fact sometimes very moderate politically and they’re still being targeted. It’s not just people doing direct action that need to be preparing for grand jury resistance, etc, that sort of repression will target our movement at every level.
I wanted to close out maybe by asking you about why the UFF was originally named the Sam Melville-Jonathan Jackson Unit, if you could speak to the significance of these two freedom fighters. I know you just read the interview we did with Jonathan Peter Jackson Jr.
RLL: Well, Jonathan Jackson was really very influential on me, even before I went underground. Not only with me, but with others, especially those of us who were underground, to the point where Tom Manning and Carol Manning who were part of our group named their son who was born underground after him. His son was born underground. Thinking about kids, it’s a whole other subject, right? One thing I learned underground was, and I learned it from my partner, this is the kind of thing that a normal aboveground person would not think of, that a very pregnant woman can move better underground and faster than a woman with a two or three-weeks-old child. And we actually learned that from experience.
Now, who contemplating going underground is thinking about something like that? I mean, this goes back to what I was saying, before we get off into a hundred things about living that life. But Jonathan was the inspiration, as I told you about, for our coded secret dating system. It was based on a calendar that was, and you can see, George’s words in the back of his last page of his book, in Soledad Brother, that the death of Jonathan was such an important event it need to be noted on our calendars, ad infinitum, in other words, forever. So we developed a calendar based on that, that began with the first day after Jonathan’s death.*
Jonathan, as a 17-year-old manchild coming from a colonized nation, an internal colony, he really represented and signified and epitomized Carlos Marighella’s words, that “The duty of the revolutionary is to make the revolution.” Without initiative there is no action. Jonathan, he has the kind of heart that it takes to be a revolutionary it takes to sacrifice and live that commitment and to the fullest. He was a 17-year-old version of Carlos Margighella, really, in a way.
I remember an interview with Jonathan Jackson from a very long time ago. I don’t remember the publication, but this was when he was working on the Soledad Brothers’ case, and I remember him being asked why he was so angry, and why he was so militant, something to that effect. And his answer was, “What would you do if it was your brother?” That resonated with me, and I felt that deeply, and I still do. Because to make the kind of sacrifice that he made, to make that commitment and then that sacrifice, to put it all on the line, to rescue those brothers, to free those brothers from the Marin County Courthouse, that’s as much heart as you can bring into anything. And if you had a hundred like him, you could probably take some very significant steps and forward movement to bringing this whole fucking system down.
That’s the kind of heart it takes. That’s a warrior’s heart, and there’s different ways to express it. But the thing that he said, when he said “What if it was your brother,” he’s trying to get people that don’t quite wrap their head around liberating Black captives using firearms. They can’t quite wrap their head around it. So he phrased it that way. To him, it could be his brother George, or it could have been William Christmas or Ruchell Magee because they were there too. But that’s the essential core of a revolutionary, is to identify really strongly, emotionally with oppressed people.
In the cases that I was involved with around, let’s say, the slaughter that was going on in Central America in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua at the time — I’m going to telling the jury this. I represent myself. I can give my own statements. I don’t identify with the ruling class in this country, the Ronald Reagans and the elites of either party, the fucking collaborators, whether the head of unions or head of associations or whatever they were the head. Who I identified with were the campesinos that were struggling and fighting for the own liberation in Central America, be they Mayans in Guatemala or the Sandinistas in Nicaragua. You have to have that feeling, and it’s part of what enabled me to do what I did blissfully and wish I could do more, because that’s what my love was, that’s what my feeling was for these people. And Jonathan was like that. I mean, he was like a hero, that’s an overused word these days, but he really was, a great inspiration to us.
UoF: It reminds me of what George said about martyrdom, that we shouldn’t cry, we should celebrate, we should only be sad that it’s taken so long for people willing to make those sacrifices to arrive. “These comrades must make the first contribution. They will be the first to fall. We gather up their bodies, clean them, kiss them and smile. Their funerals should be gala affairs, of home-brewed wine and revolutionary music to do the dance of death by. We should be sad only that it’s taken us so many generations to produce them.”
RLL: Yeah. I’ve ran into this because I’ve done so much work around political prisoners, and it’s an abstract thing to a lot of people, and I always use the term our political prisoners, because to really be inspired enough to do any solidarity support work around political prisoners in this country, especially if you haven’t done any, you’ve got to take that first step to understand why you need to support activists when they’re imprisoned, and you look at other countries, just look at Palestine, you get a good example. They embrace their imprisoned people. They don’t marginalize them. So I always tell people, these are our political prisoners. It doesn’t mean you have to agree with every fricking thing that they did tactically or strategically or anything else. I mean, if somebody goes to prison for sabotaging the Dakota Pipeline, I may not have the same politics as them, but I totally understand what’s going on here and whose side I’m on, and then that person needs support. So I say, these are our prisoners. This is how you have to think about it. These are our prisoners.
So when I used to look at what was happening in Central America, I’m not looking at like, oh, these foreigners down here. These are people that our struggle is meant to provide some kind of support for, to expose the truth of what’s happening to them, to expose the government’s criminal enterprise and criminal activity that’s destroying these people, taking their lives from them. You have to have that sort of heart to heart connection. It has to beyond abstract. It doesn’t mean that you have to have a gun in your hand as Jonathan did on that particular day, but it means that to be able to step up, do more work, make more sacrifices of your time, your resources — whatever you need to see people like that.
I was doing stuff that I had never done before. The battlefield had completely changed. To me, once you get ensnared into that criminal legal system and you’re looking at trials and stuff, to me, it’s an extension of the battlefield you just left. And the battlefield I just left, the underground, the odds were always against us. We were always outgunned, outnumbered, outresourced. It was the David versus Goliath kind of situation. I get into captivity and I realize this is an extension of that same battlefield. I’m outgunned, outnumbered, out, resourced. They’re trying to like hell to destroy me and my comrades. And so the tactics have to change, the strategy has to change, but it’s the same struggle, just on a different plane. And then when you get to prison, same thing there, it changes again and the odds to increase against you again, and you have to make it work there.
And in prison, it always goes back to the same thing we thought about earlier, political education. I never knew a political prisoner in prison doing any kind of years that didn’t engage in political education and tried to get little groups going or exchanges, depending on the situation you were in, with people who were there for offenses that were not political, but to try to change their consciousness, especially with the youngsters.
Of course, George is very big on this in his book. I mean, he really goes on about the importance of political education in that situation. Sam Melville was also an influence on me. I did not know Sam Melville personally, but my admiration for him stems as much, if not more, from his role in Attica than his relatively brief underground years. Although I have to admire anybody that bombed United Fruit, which he did, it goes by a different name now. But I mean, when you look at what has been designated as a genocide directed to Mayan people by the US-backed regime in Guatemala in the eighties, I mean, that’s where United Fruit was from. They owned fucking Guatemala. And so I was pleased to see that. If you’re reading Sam’s history, you realize he made some mistakes as he wasn’t real well acquainted with living and operating underground, and he stood up through all of it. I think it comes down, and this applies to Jonathan too, but Sam Melville, despite whatever personal deficiencies he had, he was a person of principle.
I can tell you from my own experience, and when I was going into the last part of the last year that I was underground, the tenth year, the writing sort of was on the wall. Most of the underground groups that were operating on any level at all when we first went underground were decommissioned. People were in prison, some died, some just scattered. The network of groups that existed was down to very little in 1984. In fact, it only continued on into ’85 and not really beyond that.
Part of the hopes of building something, I’m looking at it in 1984, and the people that I thought would still be there were gone, and they hadn’t been replaced. I knew then that our hopes of really setting up a network of clandestine groups, anti-imperialist clandestine groups that could go even much farther than 10 years, was almost a pipe dream at that point. But I kept going because of principle. Apartheid still existed in South Africa, and the slaughters going on in Central America were still happening. I would justify it to myself personally, I felt that as a matter of principle, I was not going to give up the struggle at that point. I was going to keep going, even if it was only based on a matter of principle, even if the material conditions were just absolutely not there anymore, beyond just basic survival to build anything more, I was still going to keep going, at least for the immediate future, which of course ended on November 4th, 1984.
UoF: We ended the interview here. *Ray emailed us this note after:
FYI: On the last letter, last page of Soledad Brother George writes:
August 9, 1970 Real Date, 2 days A.D.
Dear Joan, We reckon all time in the future from the day of the man-child’s death.
We devised a dating system based on this which took an FBI counter-terrorism resource center months to figure out, simple as it is.
In our NY trial the prosecutor presenting their closing statement to the jury brought up that 2 of our comrades/defendants had the audacity to name their son after Jonathan Jackson who kidnapped a judge, etc, etc. His point being that these people are radical extremists who not only engage in political violence, they celebrate it.

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abolitionmedia @[email protected] · 2025-04-28 · 03:26 UTC

“I Don’t Make a Fetish Out of Nonviolence.” Interview With Ray Luc Levasseur on the United Freedom Front
On 16 April 2025, Unity of Fields interviewed Ray Luc Levasseur, a former political prisoner. In 1975 Levasseur co-founded the Sam Melville-Jonathan Jackson Unit, which later renamed itself the United Freedom Front. They carried out dozens of expropriations and anti-imperialist bombings until their capture in 1984, after being on the FBI’s Most Wanted list. Levasseur was sentenced to 45 years and served his time in some of the most brutal and repressive prisons in the country, USP Marion and ADX Florence, including thirteen years in solitary confinement. He was released in 2004 after serving 20 years, and now lives in his home state of Maine. The interview transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.
If you are interested in reading more about Ray Luc Levasseur and the United Freedom Front, we recommend reading Until All Are Free: The Trial Statement of Ray Luc Levasseur and checking out his online archives at UMass Amherst, where you can find many of the documents mentioned in the interview.
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Editorial disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this interview do not necessarily reflect the views of Unity of Fields.
Unity of Fields: When people nowadays think of anti-imperialist armed struggle in the US, they tend to think of the Weather Underground and the Black Panther Party (BPP), maybe the Black Liberation Army (BLA), maybe the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA). Often people aren’t aware of numerous smaller clandestine formations that were active around the same time, like the one you were part of, the Sam Melville-Jonathan Jackson Unit (SM-JJ), which later renamed itself the United Freedom Front (UFF).
UFF is such an interesting, and, in a lot of ways, quite successful, case study of militancy. You came into revolutionary struggle in a slightly later generation than Weather, and in a different way than the stereotype of white radical elite college student — you were radicalized by serving in Vietnam, serving time in prison for a minor drug offense, and coming from a very working-class background.
Could you speak to how you see UFF’s trajectory in this context, and why you think it is generally less well known? And why is it important for people of younger generations, especially those interested in the question of militancy, to consider?
Ray Luc Levasseur: Part of it is some of these groups were very short-lived, for one thing. They traveled fast, but they went down in flames pretty fast too. It’s been a problem in terms of clandestine groups in this country. I mean, there’s amazing number that just didn’t last very long and took major hits and were pretty much decommissioned. The SLA weren’t around all that long either but one of the big reasons people remember them is because of the significant media coverage of it. But a lot of the other groups didn’t get that kind of media coverage like Weather or the SLA did. I don’t know if that’s class-based or not.
Those of us that I was underground with, we all had some kind of previous political activity in public, but we were not part of big chapters of a national group per se. A couple of us were, I was in national VVAW (Vietnam Veterans Against the War), one of us had been in SDS, but in chapters that were not at the forefront of media attention. I think the George Jackson Brigade was like this too. So people in that particular area where they were operating, you know, would have a better idea of what’s going on, who this was being conducted by, and connect the message to the people where others don’t. A lot of the publicity, a lot of the media coverage is really negative, and part of the purpose for that, was not just in terms of what the general public was reading, but in terms of what political activists were reading.
Clandestinity by its nature, people don’t know who you are and they can be very distrustful. And depending also on the extent of your aboveground support network, not every group has one, but every group should have one. A group like Weather had a really extensive aboveground network and that could be utilized in a lot of ways to promote the cause and build a little support, and certainly awareness and keeping the group front and center in people’s minds politically and personally. We had an aboveground network going under that was eventually decommissioned through police and other methods and then we went through a dry spell and then we started to rebuild another one. That support network eventually collapsed similar to the BLA network that collapsed after the Brinks [Robbery in 1981], and their network was more extensive than ours. That’s a major blow to any group. I know that it played a really significant factor with us, particularly the second time around where it had collapsed. That really contributes to your isolation. That kind of isolation is the enemy of an underground group because it hampers your ability to recruit and do all kinds of things. Essentially it cuts off the logistical network. The kind of support, material and otherwise, political and otherwise, that you might be getting through that aboveground support network all of a sudden just gets shut off. You cut off a supply route and it really has a big impact on even a conventional military force. Look what’s happened in Lebanon when the israelis were really able to dismantle a lot of the network that was supporting both Hezbollah and to some degree Hamas, it’s had a big impact. And the more isolated you get, the less you’re out there. Your voice is diminished somewhat.
I think that when you say the Panthers, you’re really talking about BLA, in terms of more clandestine actions. The Panthers always, or did for a long time, had clandestine networks, but they weren’t there in an offensive capacity, they were more self-defense oriented. They’d have a safe house, they’d have the proper credentials, paper identification, funds, a way for somebody to disappear quickly if the need was there. The BLA actually had things set up more like we had set up, where you’re dealing strictly with people that are underground, have to stay underground, and are carrying the initiative forward. They’re initiating actions. They’re not there in the self-defense mode per se, I dunno if that makes sense. But the two [the BLA and BPP] often get used interchangeably, and the BLA benefited from the huge, huge reputation and media attention that the Panthers had, benefited in the sense of what the question you asked is, why some of these groups are well-known and some are not. So Weather had built its reputation by its involvement with SDS. Then when a significant number of them go underground and become the Weather Underground Organization, they’re already pretty well known. So that’s my thinking behind those two particular organizations. And both were around for a long time, especially when you consider those particular roots, one in the [Black] Panther Party and one in groups like SDS.
UoF: Please correct me if I’m wrong, but based on what I’ve read about the United Freedom Front, it sounds like you guys achieved a huge number of successful actions and evaded capture for longer than many other groups. Is that correct? Why that was the case?
RLL: It is correct. In fact, I think that’s one of our main claims to fame, really, is the length of time we were underground. Because we weren’t just hiding. We were the number one fugitives they wanted in the country. After the first couple years we became number one. As the other groups got picked off or decommissioned in one way or another, those forces of repression can focus more and more on you. Plus we were very active, we were always doing something and they knew it. High-risk stuff. We had developed means that if we had just wanted to be underground just to live away from the eyes and ears of the government, we could have done that indefinitely, because we had the methods down so well. But our justification for being underground was to be active. I wouldn’t be underground if I couldn’t stay active. So we were constantly carrying out actions of one kind or another throughout the whole time, including many close calls. And when you look at groups, even within the BLA itself, which was more extensive than we were, and they were around for a considerable period of time, but individual cells within the BLA, a lot of ’em went down really quick. But they were large enough where they could absorb the loss and keep going.
We were smaller, we couldn’t handle too many hits. You know what I mean? When you go up against the repressive arm of this government, they have all the money, the resources, the manpower, the computer power. They can make mistake after mistake after mistake. I can sit in and talk to you about the strategic and tactical mistakes the FBI and other police made in trying to get us. But because of that foundation, the endless supply of funding and police power, weaponry and intelligence, all of it, they can make mistake after mistake, and just go back to the drawing board and do it again. When you’re a small organization, there’s very little margin of error for you. You can make one mistake and it all comes tumbling down.
Now, to give you an idea in terms of even Weather and BLA, which had had pretty good resources, the Brinks case really was like, if you look at it, it’s like all of a sudden the dominoes started falling. A huge part of their total underground infrastructure just went down around that one action. So you don’t have the room to make those kinds of mistakes. I think it’s really to our credit that we were underground for ten years. I mean, what other group can you see that did that and was politically active for that entire period of time and with a number one target on our backs almost the whole time?
Expropriation was a part of our strategy, and that’s different than certain clandestine formations that got their funding a different way. When you look at Weather, some of that money obviously came from some pretty wealthy family members and friends, that was part of the network, right? There’s a difference in building revolutionary power, trying to build a clandestine armed movement. You’re building a different kind of revolutionary when you fund yourself through armed actions that target financial institutions to uphold capitalism as opposed to having Uncle John send you $10,000 stipend every month. And you can extrapolate from that into the nonprofit industrial complex. I know some really good people and good organizations that are nonprofits and they skimp to get by to do some really good community work. But there are a lot of nonprofits where the money just rolls in regularly every month, some grant, some foundation, to pay your pretty decent salary and all the benefits that are accrued with it…it makes for a different organization. It makes for a different mindset. Anyways, where were we?
UoF: Not to oversimplify, but I think you could say that guerrillas inside of the imperial core take two distinct paths — one, those who think revolution is impossible within the core, and their primary goal is to give as much material support to Third World revolutionaries, without the expectation that the masses here will join them. And two, those who may share the primary goal of materially supporting Third World revolutionaries, but also think revolution is possible within the core and aim to win popular support and grow their ranks. Of course there has been a lot of internal disagreement on these questions within some of the formations we’re talking about. And in the so-called United States it’s more complex than, say, Denmark, because it’s built on settler colonialism. The “working class” here is still largely pacified by imperial super profits but there are also internal colonies with far more revolutionary potential because they are fighting national liberation struggles. How did you all conceptualize revolution here, and how did the UFF relate to the Third World national liberation struggles, including those internal to the US?
RLL: Well, when I was part of it, we were trying to build a revolutionary resistance movement. We were anti-imperialists. So much is based on time, place, and conditions. If you don’t factor in time, place, and conditions into things, you can get off the mark really well, including with armed actions and stuff. You’ve got to factor these three components in to make decisions about how you’re going to move. At that time we’re talking, if you go back to SM-JJ [Sam Melville-Jonathan Jackson Unit], you’re talking early, mid-seventies, and then all the way up to UFF [United Freedom Front].
The last UFF action was 1984. It’s an interesting communiqué that UFF put out. They hit Union Carbide, which was a big mining company in South Africa, Amerikan-owned multinational, and the communiqué answer the call to all parts of the anti-apartheid movement that existed at that time and any progressive revolutionary people that. It was really coming together pretty well, this aboveground anti-apartheid movement in the US at the time. But this communiqué was encouraging that [aboveground] movement to continue, while recognizing that we’re trying to build a multifaceted anti-imperialist movement, which for us necessitated a clandestine sector that was armed, armed for self-defense, and armed for offensive actions and that they were not mutually exclusive, that they should compliment each other. Multilevel, we’re at different levels, but we’re part of the same movement. So we encouraged the BDS movement at the time, students, workers, etc, to keep at it the same way because we were going to keep it at it as well.
In terms of that anti-imperialist view from going back to the seventies into the eighties, we clearly really took our view of things based a lot on the national liberation struggles of the time. When you go back then, they were all over the world, anti-colonial struggles included in that. Just look at Africa: Mozambique, South Africa, Namibia, Angola. To us, these Third World national liberation struggles were a cutting edge of resisting and fighting back against US imperialism as it spread throughout the world. Each one of those countries that liberated itself was going to weaken US imperialism to some degree. And our role in part was to be supportive of those struggles. International solidarity, if you need a term for it. That was how we considered ourselves; they’re the vanguard, we’re the rear guard. The rear guard because we’re in the Belly of the Beast, we’re the US, we have some responsibility politically, morally, personally to do something, to attack the same system that’s being attacked by these revolutionary movements. It’s a unique position to be within the US and try to fight on the same field of battle, so to speak, in support of these liberation struggles.
The great thinkers and guerrilla fighters that came out of these struggles [in the Third World] had a lot of influence on our own political vision and analysis. I was looking at the reading list on the Unity of Fields website. I can tell you, I’ve read many of those books. Everything from Carlos Marighella, Minimanual of the Urban Guerrilla. These were tremendously influential on us because Urban Guerrilla Warfare was relatively new at that time. It was like opening up a new area. George Jackson says, I think in Blood in my Eye, that the urban landscape can conceal a guerrilla as well as the jungle canopy. And we took that to heart.
What came after liberation in each of those countries, you know, we paid a lot of attention to the groups made up the different movements in the different colonies and different countries, because sometimes there would be multiple organizations. Obviously we would favor the political view of one group usually, but it wasn’t our job to put that out there. That was just to enable us to see what direction things were going in, and which organizations in these movements had the best prospects of really freeing the people there. So what came after liberation, we didn’t delve into, other than you’re freeing up a colony, you’re freeing up a people, which means self-determination for the first time for these people so that they are in a position, once they liberate themselves from foreign conflict, colonization or intervention, then they are much better suited to determine by themselves the direction they want to take to put that liberation into real terms for their people. Our actions were meant to keep those liberation struggles on the agenda in this country, both with the left and as much of the general public as we could reach through what we were doing.
I think you mentioned the internal colonies as well, and that somewhat unique situation. Not all the underground groups from that period looked at internal colonies the same way. Even within certain organizations, it generally might not be completely unified on a position on the internal colonies. Our position was that Black people in this country do compromise an internal colony. So we’re looking at Black people, what do they want? What are the Black radical groups saying? What are they doing? Recognizing that somebody’s internally colonized is different than offering a format to deal with that. So it wasn’t our position to offer that format, our position was to support a freedom struggle. If you look at the position papers and communiqués and underground papers from that era, you’ll see that there is support for the national liberation of all of those internal colonies.
We did get very involved with the Puerto Rican struggle, which is a little bit different in the sense that you have the diaspora here, you have a huge number of Puerto Ricans in this country, but the island is the land base of the nation. How they were going to deal with the diaspora, that comes with liberating your national borders. That’s the way I see it, anyways. We were really supportive of Puerto Rican independence and the release of the Puerto Rican nationalist prisoners that were kept at that time, Lolita LeBron and the others, and in fact, we were charged with quite a few actions around Puerto Rican independence. That we felt was very material support given as many Puerto Ricans in this country. My number one goal has been dismantle this fucking imperialist system. I think the internal colonies are a potential Achilles heel of imperialism right within its own borders.
UoF: Absolutely agree. I was going to ask you a question about the state of the Palestine solidarity movement in this country, and I think that’s actually very related to our discussion about the internal colonies. Because the most useful thing we could do here for Palestine, for any Third World national liberation struggle, is to make a revolution here — to dismantle US imperialism from within. And obviously the internal colonies, now and historically, have the most revolutionary potential, so that goes hand in hand.
I think the “Palestine solidarity movement,” as they call it, is coming up against the limitations of its own form. I’m not trying to say this in a defeatist way because I also think the movement has made great advances, but those advances have led us to this impasse or breaking point. The movement has failed in part by not addressing this issue of internal colonialism, by not universalizing the Palestinian struggle into a broader anti-imperialist struggle. That failure has manifested itself most clearly in the movement’s weak positions on the police, on resistance to the police, and on whether militancy should take place here at all. There’s a lot of rhetorical support for resistance far away, but not when it takes place here, which is why the movement also ignores a lot of the political prisoners in Amerikan dungeons, like Casey Goonan. And to be clear, when I say “movement,” I’m mostly talking about the nonprofit industrial complex, which is why I don’t even like using the term “movement” really, and I appreciated your critique of nonprofits earlier and how reformist they tend to become. But back to my point — we’ll be chanting “resistance is justified when people are occupied” at police-permitted and peace-police-marshalled parades without acknowledging that the Amerikan police are the domestic occupying force of the internal colonies here. That idea leads us to the logical conclusiont hat we should be resisting the police, and I don’t think these nonprofits actually really want people to do that, because like you said, they care about their grant money and their bottomline.
When we were chatting the other week, you were also comparing how you and your comrades would be policed for supporting the Vietnamese National Liberation Front (NLF) and waving their flags at protests to how we are now told not to wave our Hezbollah flags or wear Hamas or PFLP headbands. So this kind of conditional “solidarity” that is actually anti-resistance is definitely not a new phenomenon, although the existence of the terror lists and designations has made people all the more scared of resistance, or given them more excuses to shy away from openly supporting it.
But yeah, I guess I’m wondering what you think of the Palestine solidarity movement now, especially in this current wave of repression. Do you think the movement can transcend the limits of its current framework, its single issueism, really break out into a broader anti-imperialist movement?
RLL: Important question. Well, the Palestine solidarity movement, I mean, I’m not the best judge of this in my current situation. You could be a better judge of it than me. I don’t know.
I used to get into it with activists from New York a lot because I detected this attitude among some that New York was the center of the universe, and what people do outside of the center of that universe somehow doesn’t quite measure up to what’s up in New York. And it’s not just with somebody like me who lives in rural Maine, but I got friends and comrades in Boston and they get to sometimes the same way that they feel like, especially when they’re working with people and they want to put an event together. “Oh, is this is going to be New York or Boston,” and Boston seems to play in second field all the time and it sort irritates them. Or you get over into the Bay Area, it is very different being a radical in a place like rural Maine. I think I could mesh in much easier in the city like New York or the Bay Area that has a lot of old radicals, but in a place like Maine, it’s like you’re the only game in town. That’s why its fricking media and the cops still know who I am despite the time that’s gone by.
But anyways, first of all, I’m going to say this question has come up even here in Maine, and we have some very committed activists here to figuring out which way forward, examining and reexamining actions that people are involved with. Everything from cultural events to CD [civil disobedience] where people get arrested and all these marches and all these rallies. I saw the piece on PSL in Unity of Fields and apparently there’s some differences there over strategy. I mean, PSL is here. I know some of them, I knew ’em before they were PSL. PSL hasn’t been around in any significant numbers until relatively recently. I mean it predates October 2023, but they hadn’t been around and they’re recruiting. When it comes to which way forward with Palestine solidarity, it’s still a work in progress as various groups hold a range of strategies and tactics. It’s an issue here in Maine and people talk about it because they want to build on what’s happened so far.
The positive thing that I see is that I have never seen so much support, I’ll use it generically, the word “support,” and awareness around the Palestinian liberation struggle as I see now. That’s happened since October of 2023. I’ve seen it manifested in many different ways and I’ve also seen it in other parts of the country. I’m in touch with activists in other parts of the country. I’m seeing the same thing there. I could take it a step further and see it also in significant parts of the world.
Because historically among the left, and I’m not talking about different party lines between different sectarian groups who want to argue to death over some line, I’m talking about substantive issues — you couldn’t find a lefty group in this country that wasn’t opposed to apartheid South Africa. But as the years passed by, Palestine was always, and forgive me if I’m repeating myself, but to put it in New York terms, Palestine was always considered the third rail of left politics.
You know, the third rail in the subway, you touch a third rail and you’re instantly fried, you die. Periodically somebody does that in the subway system and that’s what happens to them. I personally know somebody who happened to die that way. In the NYPD investigation of how he died, they said he tripped and fell on it. This was a young anarchist kid that I knew. This is quite a few years ago. While his comrade was saying no, he got jumped and pushed on it. But in any event, you touch it, you die.
So if you were a supporter of Palestine, you risked being ostracized by people, either individually within a group or by another group. It was always like you could give Palestine a certain amount of rhetorical support in your publication or whatever, but don’t get too heavy-handed with it. Don’t push the resistance too much and don’t push the one [Palestinian] state too much and those kind of things. If you did, then you risk being ostracized politically by other leftists.
I’ve seen that starting to go by the wayside for the first time in my life. I’ve never seen this level of support before. I understand we’d have to go qualify it by going through what do I mean by support? You know what I mean? This and this. But I mean you take ten different ways that people can be supportive from financial to cultural to CD [civil disobedience] to every kind of thing in between, then I think there’s a big positive. It’s a positive, it can be built on, people are trying to build on it, it could grow even more.
I mean, we don’t know what’s going on in Palestine until next week gets here. So much is up in the air right now. None of it seems good, but I think that’s been a pretty amazing thing. You could say, yeah, well, a lot of these people are basic liberals and maybe their idea of Palestine solidarity is to keep writing to their Congress person to vote to stop arms to israel or write a letter to the editor or whatever. I don’t discourage any of that kind of stuff. I just push people to do more. Or I don’t push, I used to push. I try to persuade people to do more. So I think that’s really good.
I think part of the reason you’re seeing the repression amped up, it’s not just because Trump is here, it’s because they’re worried about that level of support [for Palestine] and that’s why they’re coming after people to the extent that they are. I don’t think it’s going to stay this way, I think it’s going to get worse, but I still think that they are predominantly focused on low-hanging fruit. I hate to use that term, but I’ll use it. I’m accustomed to this because I was a prisoner for a long time and I see them do a lot of things to prisoners that people out here just don’t care about, don’t know about, don’t want to know about, and it’s out of sight, out of mind, it’s prisoners, the lower end of everybody. And then five years later they’re doing the same thing to people outside of prison. I can talk about surveillance technologies and all kinds of stuff. They’ll experiment with the prisons first. That’s the low-hanging fruit because we’re the most vulnerable, we’re the most marginalized.
What they’re doing now, especially with the deportation stuff, is they’re targeting people. Totally make up a fucking story. But they’re going after people they know are vulnerable because they’re not a US citizen yet, or they can manipulate a law even if they got a green card or whatever to deport them. Something like this happened with the Red Scare with Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman and various anarchists and communists that were put on boats, just rounded up and put on boats, and sent to other countries. I think that’s part of the reason why we’re seeing this repression, and it’s a great cause for concern because of the level of fear it induces and also because we have to come to the defense of these people that are being subjected to this repression.
It’s a moral and political obligation that we do that. But it also requires resources. It also requires our attention, our time, our money, whatever support we can muster to defend people that are going to being targeted by this repression. That’s not to say that we should do any less, we should do more to defend people that are under attack. If you follow Cop City at all, you know what I’m talking about. All these people that are being deported could eventually prevail in their case, but the government still has succeeded in disrupting movement activities, scaring people that may be involved away. To them, they look at it like a win-win situation. If they can deport somebody and keep them out, that’s a win. But even if that person comes back, they figure they’d want something because he may be back, but they scared 20 people away, or they tied up people in organizations, tied those resources up, so they can’t be used for anything else.
So I think that the potential is still there right now, despite the repression. I talked about time, place, and conditions — we didn’t have this internet before, we have to get on the fucking internet on a daily basis to find out how those conditions are changing. If you don’t have a good grasp of conditions, then it’s difficult to put together tactical and strategic plans of any kind. And it changes so much. But I think the potential is still there. This movement can grow now.
Single-issue? Yeah, I mean I have to think of the Vietnam War because there were so many people. I was a state coordinator of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, and my Vietnam veteran partner in that had been a highly decorated army helicopter pilot. I was already an anti-imperialist by the time I got involved with VVAW. And this brother, he was strictly a single-issue person. He wanted to bring this war to an end and it had a moral base to it to a certain degree. He had studied to be a Jesuit before he got hooked into the military and he had strong moral objections to the US being in Vietnam and what they were doing there. I mean combined together, we made some really formidable presentations and worked all well together. But the minute that all was done, that was it. That was the end of his political activism. I immediately jumped. I didn’t wait until the war to be completely over, but it was obviously going to be. I already had made my way into working around the criminal legal system, prisoners and all of that. This was in the seventies when the prisoners rights thing was really big. That turned out to be a good move politically because I never looked at the war as a single issue. To me it was always connected. I just looked at my fucking training, and when I was in Vietnam, to know that white supremacy ran through the whole fricking war. It was white supremacy, racism on a massive scale. It was embedded into us in our training before we even got there. But yeah, I think that that is a problem probably, well, it depends how you look at it, whether it’s a problem or not. It’s a problem in terms of building an anti-imperialist movement. It’s probably a problem for these sectarian groups, including groups like PSL that obviously are involved in more than one issue. When you bring somebody into your organization or group or whatever, this is where political education comes in, really. You got to have political education I feel.
A lot of people could be resistant to that, but I think that’s a good method in which to solidify people’s views about the system and making the connections. Most of the public speaking I do, I just did a class yesterday, it’s focused on prisons and I work in other stuff. I can’t when it’s an academic presentation, which it was, I got an hour and a quarter, and so I can’t go too far afield or I’m not meeting the qualifications of that particular class. I have to keep the focus on this issue, connecting it to larger issues in the criminal legal system, but also connecting it to the issue that are political prisoners in the US, because I always give a very quick thumbnail sketch of my background, my backstory as I call it. I open up, I didn’t just get here yesterday, you know what I mean? I was just a kid from a mill town and this war is originally what turned me on, then being in prison a year after I got out of the army, those dots were connected for me. So they see that right away that I have a more expansive view than just prison. But yeah, I don’t know how big an issue it needs to be right now. How many of these people are going to bail out on Palestine when we get to wherever we’re getting to?
I mean, I’m dealing with some people like that here. The best thing I’ve seen happen is that so many generic anti-war people are doing vigils and stuff. I first ran into them when I got out in 2004 because we were doing them around Iraq, then it was Afghanistan, and they’re against the armaments industry, but they can be pretty generic about it, with their signs and their talk. But I’ve seen some of them cross over into the Palestine issue, which is a big step for some of them. They tend to be politically, how should I put this? Politically, they emphasize nonviolence rather than liberation. I’m going to put it that way. If you’re an anti-imperialist, you emphasize liberation. And resistance to imperialism can be violent or it can be nonviolent. It can be both. But I don’t make a fetish out of nonviolence either philosophically or as a practical manner. Some of these people are crossing over, which is encouraging.
I’m not sure if I’m getting to the issue. We started talking about the demonstration [I went to in Maine recently]. People were showing up from different organizations with all kinds of different issues. I didn’t have any problem with people talking about losing their jobs and social security and healthcare, not war. I understand those issues, but I think the challenge in terms of recruiting people or encouraging people to get involved in Palestine solidarity is you have to be able to show them how it’s related, why Palestine is related to George Floyd, you know what I mean?
UoF: A connection Yahya Sinwar made himself, in one of his last interviews with Western press before the Al-Aqsa Flood. He said in 2021, “The same type of racism that killed George Floyd is being used (by the zionist entity) against the Palestinians.”
RLL: Yeah, you have to do that. I’ve been doing it in one form or another, going back to when I first became politically active. I became active on three fronts — the Vietnam War, the labor struggle, and civil rights. And so that shows right away that as soon as I got politically active in 1968, after I got out of the army, I was connecting the issues right away. So was the organization I was part of, Southern Student Organizing Committee, which sometimes is called a Southern SDS, but I don’t think that’s a really good description. And so our pamphlets and everything reflected that. We had pamphlets by Che Guevara, the Tricontinental Speech, Malcolm X, the history of IWW, whatever that general political education that these issues are related. And I think that long-term, wherever this direction goes with Palestine, is going to be a necessity for solidarity work with Palestine, for a Palestine. It’s going to continue for a long time. You learn from experience and I’ve been around quite a few people who are pretty capable and you can chew gum and walk at the same time other you can do be involved with some other kind of issue as well. We shouldn’t be in a competition to, well, if you’re with this group, you can’t do this over here. If you’re with us, you can’t do that over there. I don’t want to get into too much of that.
UoF: Yeah, totally. We do need unity. And when we say that we mean unity in resistance, not just unity for unity’s sake, which I feel like is what you’re getting to. Everything you’ve said is really reaffirming why we thought it was so important to do this interview because with all this new repression coming down, we certainly are in a new stage, but we’re seeing some people talk about it as if it’s unprecedented when it’s very, very precedented. Maybe people are saying this because because we don’t know our own history, so these historical examples of repression and counter-repression are crucial to study. Our lives depend on it. And we’re really grateful you’re sharing all your experiences. Getting back to the UFF, we were talking about how yall managed to evade capture and stay underground for so long. As our movement is experiencing more surveillance and infiltration, I think this could be really useful advice to people engaged in all sorts of different tactics, so I was wondering if you could speak to how yall vetted people and dealt with infiltration or traitorship.
RLL: That’s been the bane of a number of organizations. The worst snitches are not the ones that you manage to identify or that prove themselves unworthy after they’ve become involved in some kind of one form or another with clandestine work. [The worst snitches are] the people who break after the shit goes down. In other words, a person could be underground for three years, have participated in all kinds of stuff, been dependable, get busted, and they’ll sit him in a fucking room, slap him a couple of times, and they start talking and they’re going to slap him again to shut him up. In other words, they’re passed certain tests and are vetted, so to speak, through actually doing things, but when the heat dial hits a certain level, especially if you are arrested or captured and all of a sudden you are looking at enormous amount of time—just to give you one example, in a very bad prison, that kind of thing—and somebody completely falls apart.
That’s a critical question because you’re talking about trust. The deeper in you are, and I don’t mean just underground, there’s a lot of people that get indicted or dragged before grand juries that are aboveground people, some who violate the law and some who don’t. They love fucking conspiracy laws in this country because they’re easy to convict people on. So why do people use Signal? Presumably to give them some kind of protection against conspiracy charges, right? I mean, I won’t get into that. I’ve been charged with conspiracy, different kinds of conspiracies and I know how the law works and that’s a favorite tactic.
In terms of clandestinity, you’re talking about much higher risk and much more serious consequences generally speaking in that kind of situation. So a vetting process procedure is more serious. The gate somebody has to go through to assume a role underground should be fairly vigorous. And this is an issue I touch on in my book because it is so important and there’s no one size that fits all. There’s no particular test that will guarantee you that you are protected against somebody. I mean, there’s various kinds of informants and agents, provocateur or whatnot. If you go back and you look at these groups, a lot of them did have snitches rise out of ’em. In a way, the ones I feel that hurt the most, I mean if somebody comes in, they’re an undercover agent and you get set up and you get busted, that sucks, that hurts, but that’s not going to hurt the way your closest friend in your whole life flips and testifies against you. That really hurts. Or to set you up in a way where one of your comrades get killed or injured or busted, ends up in a fourty-year sentence, whatever. And that kind of betrayal is very difficult to flesh it out because it really comes down to an issue primarily of character. You have to assess a person’s character and you don’t know what somebody’s going to be like for sure until they’ve passed a trial under fire. I’ve known soldiers, conventional soldiers in the United States Army that got grade A’s all through basic and advanced training to be a soldier, fundamental part of learning how to kill somebody. But then when they come under actual enemy fire, they fall completely to pieces, where another trainee soldier who just kind of grunted and just kept their head down and nobody noticed him and he just got through basic training, advanced training and nothing special, nothing else stands out about him, but under fire after training in the real war, they rise above the others. They are able to do everything that a good soldier is supposed to do in a war situation under fire.
So it’s really hard. That comes down to a character issue. And a lot of those other groups got burned. They got burned both ways. They got burned because they recruited the wrong people who turned out pretty quickly to be weak, undependable. They were alright until some cop starts twisting their arm and puts them on a hot seat and they break down and give up information, give up people. Part of it is like being spoken for, recruiting people that others can vouch for. That’s an important thing. Assuming the people that are vouching for them have proven their own selves in one way or another and a trusted comrade, that’s the best referral you can get unless you are coming into the group somebody grew up with or something they’ve known forever or whatever. Because trust is the basic thing. Nobody in our cases ever flipped and they had a lot of pressure. A lot of pressure, because we had kids involved too. And then you got both parents looking at a huge amount of pressures and years to flip and turn government witness. We didn’t have any. Our policy was “Give us 24 hours.” Meaning that we understand that every human is likely to have a breaking point when it comes to brutality and torture. So, a captive holding out for at least 24 hours or longer gives others a chance to dump anything that could be compromised and move on to safety. I think it important to include this because it’s part of the security code but also shows we are not insensitive to those who suffer severe consequences because of their commitment.
We had a snitch. We had people, aboveground support people, who basically testified for grand juries. That’s a whole other issue, but it’s related to this. We used to see a lot of use by the government of grand juries to particularly go after aboveground people seeking information on both the aboveground support networks for the clandestine and for anything they knew about people underground themselves.
But we had one person who flipped early on, and I write about this in my book because this person came to us recommended, but he should have never been recruited. At some point I was starting to notice this person’s character was weak. A number of things happened that told me this person is weak. He was too mouthy, too pushy about we got to do this, we got to do this, we got to do this. You know what I mean? When we didn’t have the capacity to do it, he’s trying to push us into doing actions that at the time would’ve been over our head. So I talked to another comrade about it. He was feeling the same way, this is when it can get dangerous. You’re talking about an armed clandestine movement here, armed organizations, different ways to deal with different disciplinary issues underground. And you got to be very careful and conscientious about how you do it.
There was another unit operating in the same general area as we were. We had a liaison between them and I was really getting uncomfortable with this guy. The other unit expressed interest in him. The guy that I’m talking about, the recruit, the person of bad character, I feel, I told the liaison take him if you want him, but I told the other group, through the liaison, I got questions about this guy’s character. I don’t know, if he’ll hold up, you should know that. The other person in the other group, they wanted him. So we dumped him and the minute he made that change over, we abandoned the safe house. He knew this one safe house where several of us lived and I was so concerned about him that we decided to dump that house, because that was the one place he knew. So if he did collaborate, that’s all he could lead them to and we’d be gone. So he fell in with this other group and I was clear to the other group, we don’t want anything more to do with him. We could have taken more drastic action, but that’s a whole other issue that I don’t want to get into for this. This guy was like all he wanted do was actions, get out there, get out there, boom, hit him again, boom, hit them again. This other group was into that kind of philosophy. I knew there was going to be a problem there. So we cut the liason off and sure enough they got down in the city and they just went to town and they went way beyond that capacity. They were going big there for a few weeks, but it all came crashing down.
This guy I was telling you about was busted with some of the others and part of a aboveground support network. They got into the police barracks, scared him, and the guy never stopped talking. I got his completely grand jury testimony. He buried that whole other group. They all went to prison and broke it up as an organization. At least one person in the aboveground group went to prison. And sure enough, they found that safe house, which we had up on the Canadian border and they went in it. But by the time that happened, we had been gone two or three months by then. He completely turned weak, sold everybody out, and then started lying so that he could incriminate more people and try to incriminate me. He starts lying.
But the underlying factor in all this is desperation. If you can’t recruit when you’re underground or doing any other sensitive stuff — unless your philosophy is we’re going to have a group of two or three people, that’s it, that’s going to be enough to do what we want do the way we want to do it, we don’t need anything more than that — but if you’re trying to build a movement, you need something larger than that. That means you need recruits. And we were desperate for a recruit at the time. He first came in with us, referred to by somebody who’s judgment I trusted, and he was a trustworthy person, he never snitched or anything like that, but his judgment wasn’t the greatest. So when you recruit from a position of desperation, then you’re going to make mistakes. You’re going to lower the bar when you evaluate a person. Can this person hold up to this kind of way of living underground, to do the kind of things that is going to be required of that person to do? The minute you start lowering the bar, the risk is greater that you’re going to pull somebody in that’s going to burn you somewhere down the line.
The same thing with an action. Let’s say an expropriation. The worst time to do an expropriation is when you are desperate. You don’t even have next month’s rent. And that’s all tied into your security. If you can’t pay the rent and you get thrown out, you can’t be out on the street. You’re desperate. So you try to avoid that situation. You have enough of a bankroll from expropriations that you are not that desperate to go out and do that again. You’ve got to do it at a time when you have the resources to do it right. It’s the same thing with recruiting people. Don’t let yourself get so politically desperate to have this person or two more people into a group that you’re going to lower the standards, lower the bar in terms of what you’ve determined it takes from your own experience to do the work that would be required of this person.
Fortunately there was nobody else after him with us that did that. When we recruited again later, we had had a lot of experience by then and we needed other people, but we didn’t get to the point where we were desperate. We needed it but we had years of experience — we knew pretty much the requirements of a person to live underground with a lot of heat on you and to do the kinds of things that are necessary. A lot of that stuff is stuff that even aboveground activists don’t know because they haven’t been through the experience — how many ways you can make yourself look and sound different, everything you need to know about fictitious identification and on and on, right down to the littlest details. We had documents, you’ll find some of this in my archives at UMass, they were like little training manuals for new recruits. So the people were given some orientation period to what would be required of them because people don’t have much experience with underground. And the lack of experience has cost people their lives underground.
UoF: That was so useful, I think to a lot of people reading this who are doing all different kinds of work. The points you make about how being aboveground or being a public-facing spokesperson does not mean you are safe is really important. A lot of the people we’re seeing get abducted right now were those public facing people and were in fact sometimes very moderate politically and they’re still being targeted. It’s not just people doing direct action that need to be preparing for grand jury resistance, etc, that sort of repression will target our movement at every level.
I wanted to close out maybe by asking you about why the UFF was originally named the Sam Melville-Jonathan Jackson Unit, if you could speak to the significance of these two freedom fighters. I know you just read the interview we did with Jonathan Peter Jackson Jr.
RLL: Well, Jonathan Jackson was really very influential on me, even before I went underground. Not only with me, but with others, especially those of us who were underground, to the point where Tom Manning and Carol Manning who were part of our group named their son who was born underground after him. His son was born underground. Thinking about kids, it’s a whole other subject, right? One thing I learned underground was, and I learned it from my partner, this is the kind of thing that a normal aboveground person would not think of, that a very pregnant woman can move better underground and faster than a woman with a two or three-weeks-old child. And we actually learned that from experience.
Now, who contemplating going underground is thinking about something like that? I mean, this goes back to what I was saying, before we get off into a hundred things about living that life. But Jonathan was the inspiration, as I told you about, for our coded secret dating system. It was based on a calendar that was, and you can see, George’s words in the back of his last page of his book, in Soledad Brother, that the death of Jonathan was such an important event it need to be noted on our calendars, ad infinitum, in other words, forever. So we developed a calendar based on that, that began with the first day after Jonathan’s death.*
Jonathan, as a 17-year-old manchild coming from a colonized nation, an internal colony, he really represented and signified and epitomized Carlos Marighella’s words, that “The duty of the revolutionary is to make the revolution.” Without initiative there is no action. Jonathan, he has the kind of heart that it takes to be a revolutionary it takes to sacrifice and live that commitment and to the fullest. He was a 17-year-old version of Carlos Margighella, really, in a way.
I remember an interview with Jonathan Jackson from a very long time ago. I don’t remember the publication, but this was when he was working on the Soledad Brothers’ case, and I remember him being asked why he was so angry, and why he was so militant, something to that effect. And his answer was, “What would you do if it was your brother?” That resonated with me, and I felt that deeply, and I still do. Because to make the kind of sacrifice that he made, to make that commitment and then that sacrifice, to put it all on the line, to rescue those brothers, to free those brothers from the Marin County Courthouse, that’s as much heart as you can bring into anything. And if you had a hundred like him, you could probably take some very significant steps and forward movement to bringing this whole fucking system down.
That’s the kind of heart it takes. That’s a warrior’s heart, and there’s different ways to express it. But the thing that he said, when he said “What if it was your brother,” he’s trying to get people that don’t quite wrap their head around liberating Black captives using firearms. They can’t quite wrap their head around it. So he phrased it that way. To him, it could be his brother George, or it could have been William Christmas or Ruchell Magee because they were there too. But that’s the essential core of a revolutionary, is to identify really strongly, emotionally with oppressed people.
In the cases that I was involved with around, let’s say, the slaughter that was going on in Central America in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua at the time — I’m going to telling the jury this. I represent myself. I can give my own statements. I don’t identify with the ruling class in this country, the Ronald Reagans and the elites of either party, the fucking collaborators, whether the head of unions or head of associations or whatever they were the head. Who I identified with were the campesinos that were struggling and fighting for the own liberation in Central America, be they Mayans in Guatemala or the Sandinistas in Nicaragua. You have to have that feeling, and it’s part of what enabled me to do what I did blissfully and wish I could do more, because that’s what my love was, that’s what my feeling was for these people. And Jonathan was like that. I mean, he was like a hero, that’s an overused word these days, but he really was, a great inspiration to us.
UoF: It reminds me of what George said about martyrdom, that we shouldn’t cry, we should celebrate, we should only be sad that it’s taken so long for people willing to make those sacrifices to arrive. “These comrades must make the first contribution. They will be the first to fall. We gather up their bodies, clean them, kiss them and smile. Their funerals should be gala affairs, of home-brewed wine and revolutionary music to do the dance of death by. We should be sad only that it’s taken us so many generations to produce them.”
RLL: Yeah. I’ve ran into this because I’ve done so much work around political prisoners, and it’s an abstract thing to a lot of people, and I always use the term our political prisoners, because to really be inspired enough to do any solidarity support work around political prisoners in this country, especially if you haven’t done any, you’ve got to take that first step to understand why you need to support activists when they’re imprisoned, and you look at other countries, just look at Palestine, you get a good example. They embrace their imprisoned people. They don’t marginalize them. So I always tell people, these are our political prisoners. It doesn’t mean you have to agree with every fricking thing that they did tactically or strategically or anything else. I mean, if somebody goes to prison for sabotaging the Dakota Pipeline, I may not have the same politics as them, but I totally understand what’s going on here and whose side I’m on, and then that person needs support. So I say, these are our prisoners. This is how you have to think about it. These are our prisoners.
So when I used to look at what was happening in Central America, I’m not looking at like, oh, these foreigners down here. These are people that our struggle is meant to provide some kind of support for, to expose the truth of what’s happening to them, to expose the government’s criminal enterprise and criminal activity that’s destroying these people, taking their lives from them. You have to have that sort of heart to heart connection. It has to beyond abstract. It doesn’t mean that you have to have a gun in your hand as Jonathan did on that particular day, but it means that to be able to step up, do more work, make more sacrifices of your time, your resources — whatever you need to see people like that.
I was doing stuff that I had never done before. The battlefield had completely changed. To me, once you get ensnared into that criminal legal system and you’re looking at trials and stuff, to me, it’s an extension of the battlefield you just left. And the battlefield I just left, the underground, the odds were always against us. We were always outgunned, outnumbered, outresourced. It was the David versus Goliath kind of situation. I get into captivity and I realize this is an extension of that same battlefield. I’m outgunned, outnumbered, out, resourced. They’re trying to like hell to destroy me and my comrades. And so the tactics have to change, the strategy has to change, but it’s the same struggle, just on a different plane. And then when you get to prison, same thing there, it changes again and the odds to increase against you again, and you have to make it work there.
And in prison, it always goes back to the same thing we thought about earlier, political education. I never knew a political prisoner in prison doing any kind of years that didn’t engage in political education and tried to get little groups going or exchanges, depending on the situation you were in, with people who were there for offenses that were not political, but to try to change their consciousness, especially with the youngsters.
Of course, George is very big on this in his book. I mean, he really goes on about the importance of political education in that situation. Sam Melville was also an influence on me. I did not know Sam Melville personally, but my admiration for him stems as much, if not more, from his role in Attica than his relatively brief underground years. Although I have to admire anybody that bombed United Fruit, which he did, it goes by a different name now. But I mean, when you look at what has been designated as a genocide directed to Mayan people by the US-backed regime in Guatemala in the eighties, I mean, that’s where United Fruit was from. They owned fucking Guatemala. And so I was pleased to see that. If you’re reading Sam’s history, you realize he made some mistakes as he wasn’t real well acquainted with living and operating underground, and he stood up through all of it. I think it comes down, and this applies to Jonathan too, but Sam Melville, despite whatever personal deficiencies he had, he was a person of principle.
I can tell you from my own experience, and when I was going into the last part of the last year that I was underground, the tenth year, the writing sort of was on the wall. Most of the underground groups that were operating on any level at all when we first went underground were decommissioned. People were in prison, some died, some just scattered. The network of groups that existed was down to very little in 1984. In fact, it only continued on into ’85 and not really beyond that.
Part of the hopes of building something, I’m looking at it in 1984, and the people that I thought would still be there were gone, and they hadn’t been replaced. I knew then that our hopes of really setting up a network of clandestine groups, anti-imperialist clandestine groups that could go even much farther than 10 years, was almost a pipe dream at that point. But I kept going because of principle. Apartheid still existed in South Africa, and the slaughters going on in Central America were still happening. I would justify it to myself personally, I felt that as a matter of principle, I was not going to give up the struggle at that point. I was going to keep going, even if it was only based on a matter of principle, even if the material conditions were just absolutely not there anymore, beyond just basic survival to build anything more, I was still going to keep going, at least for the immediate future, which of course ended on November 4th, 1984.
UoF: We ended the interview here. *Ray emailed us this note after:
FYI: On the last letter, last page of Soledad Brother George writes:
August 9, 1970 Real Date, 2 days A.D.
Dear Joan, We reckon all time in the future from the day of the man-child’s death.
We devised a dating system based on this which took an FBI counter-terrorism resource center months to figure out, simple as it is.
In our NY trial the prosecutor presenting their closing statement to the jury brought up that 2 of our comrades/defendants had the audacity to name their son after Jonathan Jackson who kidnapped a judge, etc, etc. His point being that these people are radical extremists who not only engage in political violence, they celebrate it.

Download a zine version to print/fold here:
RLL-1-1 Download source: Unity of Fields
https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=18717
#antiImperialism #northAmerica #resistance #unitedFreedomFront

#antiimperialism #northamerica #resistance #unitedfreedomfront
Content Catnip @[email protected] · 2026-05-24 · 11:32 UTC
10 Interesting Things I Found on the Internet 181

Blinky Bill: A delightful cultural exchange between Poland and Australia
For anyone from outside of Australia, Blinky Bill is a delightful koala character created in the 20th Century who became iconic in this country and much loved by all children. His popularity led to a widespread love of koalas in general and meant that real life koalas were adequately protected from being hunted. Here in this Polish Youtube channel Dział Zagraniczny they discuss in Polish for a Polish audience the evolution of Australia’s love of koalas who went from pests during colonial times to becoming an irreplaceable part of our national identity – in a large part due to Blinky Bill, a character created by a Kiwi author/illustrator! FYI you will need to turn on the auto-translated English subs for this one! This is an excellent channel that discusses obscure topics relating to foreign countries…worth a subscribe for sure. Poland is certainly filled with cosmopolitan people.
https://youtu.be/IlsOCbKzFEA?si=QWnf_nsCt_XID9-F

Frog funk therapy by Nebula Breeze
In a world of AI slop and shitty rip-off music, look for the musicians actually playing instruments in their videos to confirm that it’s real. This is damn funky!
https://youtu.be/UPrQdaixz-4?si=rngPDL4S09oyDghP

American guy dressed as a gecko meets locals in Baghdad
Before you switch off from this one…hear me out. It’s actually an eye-opening and wonderful scenario that occurs. With the help of one of his Youtube followers who acts as an Arabic translator, a guy dresses as a gecko and walks around Baghdad talking to locals to understand what life is like there. The results are surprising and full of genuine connection.
https://youtu.be/6NOjY7CaPvQ?si=NMiy1ci06QBzN8IE

24 Hours in the Coldest City on Earth Yakutsk –64°C (−83°F)
I can’t imagine what it would be like having to put on five layers of clothing just to go outside each day. I don’t like the idea of this, it would feel very restrictive and I would feel claustrophobic being in my apartment all the time without being in nature. What about you?
https://youtu.be/D-WGGDRyf68?si=oe9Aprqsce-FLi-P

I didn’t know bears float like this
Now that I know….I am well and truly delighted that they are floaters. But this begs the question why do they float? Do they contain a lot of fat or something? …How is this fact not more commonly known or considered when one feels sad or overwhelmed? Just think of all of those floating bears out there floating on icy cold rivers looking for fish…think of them and feel better whatever you’re going through!
Via Reddit
https://www.reddit.com/r/NatureIsFuckingLit/comments/1o7e6en/i_wouldnt_think_bears_can_just_float_like_that/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

The Fatal Trap UBI Boosters Keep Falling Into
To win the argument for universal basic income, advocates must confront the myth that less work means less worth.
By: Karl Widerquist via MIT Press Reader
The general idea behind universal basic income (UBI) is almost as old as America itself. You can trace it back to 1797, when Thomas Paine argued for guaranteed payments in his political treatise “Agrarian Justice.” Fast forward to 2020, and Andrew Yang revived the idea with a “Freedom Dividend” during his failed presidential campaign. Despite the 200-plus-year chasm that separates these two men, the criticism they faced for backing UBI was strikingly similar: that “no one will work” and that “we can’t afford it.”
Because of this, supporters of the program might be tempted to believe that the purpose of UBI experiments is to allay these concerns with empirical evidence on the effect of UBI on work hours. The problem, however, is that these concerns are not rooted in empiricism but normative belief: namely that 1) lower-class people who refuse employment should receive nothing and 2) UBI costs more than it’s worth. And while not all UBI opponents believe these things, those who are often move the goalposts to portray almost any findings about cost and labor effort as reasons to reject UBI.
Karl Widerquist is the author of “Universal Basic Income.”
We must resist playing this game.
UBI-related experiments consistently find evidence that no participant responds to UBI experiments by dropping out of the labor force. Yes, some people reduce their hours of work, but the decline in work effort (if any) is clearly within a sustainable range. In other words, the evidence decisively contradicts claims that “no one will work” and “we can’t afford it.” But if we take the bait of focusing on such extreme statements, we attract everyone’s attention to opponents’ favorite issue: “Did the people who got the UBI ‘work’ as much as the people who didn’t?” Once the question is framed this way, it tosses a softball to opponents who predictably argue UBI is out of the question because some people didn’t work as much as they otherwise might have.
Any unconditional grant large enough to live on necessarily allows lower-class people to refuse employment. This fact — at least for critics who feel that people who refuse employment should receive nothing — makes UBI undesirable by design. To them, UBI will always be “unaffordable” because it will appear to cost more than they think it’s worth. UBI supporters fall into their trap if they attempt to refute this belief with, say, technical explanations of the difference between a 4 percent decline in labor hours and 4 percent of people leaving the labor force.
Supporters need to focus on all the good that comes of guaranteed income. As Bru Laín argues, UBI has a “positive impact on socioeconomic indicators related to a lack of money,” including the “alleviation of stress and mental illness, improvement in eating habits, settlement of household and personal debts, improvement of happiness, subjective well-being and social and community participation.”
Instead of trying to assuage critics’ fears, the pro-UBI movement needs to challenge the narrative in which any refusal to accept employment is a “bad” experimental observation.
Meanwhile, proponents of UBI that fall headfirst into critics’ trap even when they point to findings that that UBI increases labor effort. Consider these headlines from a UBI experiment in Stockton, California: “Experiment in guaranteed income leads to more work,” “Californians on universal basic income paid off debt and got full-time jobs,” and “The Biggest Payoff From Stockton Basic Income Program: Jobs.” Even the city’s mayor, Michael Tubbs, who was instrumental in establishing the program, employed this kind of rhetoric, saying, “Number one, tell your friends, tell your cousins, the guaranteed income did not make people stop working, in fact, those who received the guaranteed income were working more than before they received the guaranteed income and almost doubled in increase compared to those in the treatment group.”
The results Tubbs points to are largely determined by the design of the study: People who receive small grants when they weren’t working very much to begin with usually work more in UBI studies; people who receive larger grants when they are working full-time to begin with often work less. By portraying the uptick in Stockton’s labor effort as self-evidently good, Tubbs’ comments make it more difficult for future experiments that might involve larger grants to report the likely finding that people work less. Buying into the narrative that it is always “good” for low-income people to spend as much or more time on paid labor than they are now is a game UBI supporters can’t win and shouldn’t play. If the biggest problem in the world today were getting the lower class to work as much as possible, UBI would not be the best policy to achieve it.
Instead of trying to assuage critics’ fears, the pro-UBI movement needs to challenge the narrative in which any refusal to accept employment is a “bad” experimental observation. After all, how could it be a good thing for the global poor to spend more hours in grueling jobs for which they’re likely underpaid and overworked? What do you think will happen to wages and working conditions if the two billion people in deep poverty around the world all decide to work more at the same time? Theory predicts they would work longer hours for lower hourly wages.
One of the many disadvantages of UBI experiments is that they cannot measure how much wages and working conditions might improve in response to a substantial UBI, because that effect depends on the interaction between millions of citizens and employers across the country. The closest thing UBI experiments can measure is the first step in the process, and that step involves giving people a choice beyond working too hard for too little. So, rather than trying to quibble over hours worked, UBI supporters might have better luck broadcasting the good that comes when people with the worst jobs decide to work less — and using experiments as a platform for participants to tell their stories.

Karl Widerquist, a professor of philosophy at Georgetown University-Qatar who specializes in distributive justice, is the author of “Universal Basic Income.”

80’s carpet was out of control
I appreciate their commitment to colour and pattern. I have a lot of respect for the 80s aesthetic particularly the unconventional use of neon lighting.

Common mythconceptions: the world’s most contagious falsehoods
View larger infographic on the Information is Beautiful website

Charming ancient Egyptian hedgehog
A sweet-faced ancient Egyptian figurine of a hedgehog, made of faience, dating ca 1900 BC, from Thebes, Egypt. The Egyptians associated hedgehogs with rebirth. On display at Neues Museum Berlin. Via Nina Willburger.

Vegan/ vegetarian brown rice salad by Nagi
An easy, healthy and quick mid-week meal with culinary master Nagi. Sub out the fried haloumi for a vegan version.
Salad (Note 1):
- ▢3 cups cooked brown rice , cooled but not cold
- ▢2 tomatoes , diced
- ▢2 cucumbers , diced (or 1 long English/continental cucumber)
- ▢1/2 red onion , chopped (sub 2 stems green onion)
- ▢40g/ 4 cups tightly packed baby rocket/arugula , roughly chopped (or baby spinach)
- ▢1/3 cup coriander/cilantro leaves , roughly chopped (Note 2)
- ▢1/3 cup fresh dill leaves , roughly chopped (Note 2)
Lemon Dressing:
- ▢3 tbsp lemon juice
- ▢5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- ▢1 garlic cloves , minced using garlic press
- ▢1/2 tsp Dijon mustard (Note 3)
- ▢3/4 tsp salt , kosher/cooking salt (1/2 tsp table salt)
- ▢1/2 tsp black pepper
Optional extras (pictured):
- ▢1/2 cup black olive slices
- ▢200g/7oz halloumi , sliced then pan fried in a little olive oil until golden and crispy
- ▢Other topping options: feta, parmesan, nuts (Note 4)
Instructions
- Place Dressing ingredients in a jar and shake well to combine.
- Place Salad ingredients in a big bowl. Drizzle over Dressing, toss well.
- Transfer to serving bowl. If using Halloumi, pile on top.
- Serve!
Shiny Objects 1 by Kevin Yaun (2024)
Kevin Yaun is visualising his idea of home and exploring the distortion he sees in that relationship. Yaun was born in Georgia, USA and over the last 20 years has moved almost yearly and lived all over the world: Colorado, The Netherlands, England, Thailand, Singapore, and California to name a few. This transient lifestyle brought with it a deep understanding of the many faceted concept of home. ‘Home’ has become an abstract – a place that doesn’t exist, an unknown location to long for, an unattainable dream to strive for, or finding home wherever one finds oneself.
Kevin Yaun bio on Artsy

Did you enjoy this collection? let me know what you think of it below. Thank you for reading my dear friends!

Content Catnip
Follow me on Mastodon Watch my videos Donate to my Ko Fi #ancientHistory #animals #art #bear #connection #creativity #History #inspiration #interiorDesign #Music #nature #Philosophy #storytelling #UBI #vegan
#ancienthistory #animals #art #bear #connection #creativity
Content Catnip @[email protected] · 2026-05-24 · 11:32 UTC
10 Interesting Things I Found on the Internet 181

Blinky Bill: A delightful cultural exchange between Poland and Australia
For anyone from outside of Australia, Blinky Bill is a delightful koala character created in the 20th Century who became iconic in this country and much loved by all children. His popularity led to a widespread love of koalas in general and meant that real life koalas were adequately protected from being hunted. Here in this Polish Youtube channel Dział Zagraniczny they discuss in Polish for a Polish audience the evolution of Australia’s love of koalas who went from pests during colonial times to becoming an irreplaceable part of our national identity – in a large part due to Blinky Bill, a character created by a Kiwi author/illustrator! FYI you will need to turn on the auto-translated English subs for this one! This is an excellent channel that discusses obscure topics relating to foreign countries…worth a subscribe for sure. Poland is certainly filled with cosmopolitan people.
https://youtu.be/IlsOCbKzFEA?si=QWnf_nsCt_XID9-F

Frog funk therapy by Nebula Breeze
In a world of AI slop and shitty rip-off music, look for the musicians actually playing instruments in their videos to confirm that it’s real. This is damn funky!
https://youtu.be/UPrQdaixz-4?si=rngPDL4S09oyDghP

American guy dressed as a gecko meets locals in Baghdad
Before you switch off from this one…hear me out. It’s actually an eye-opening and wonderful scenario that occurs. With the help of one of his Youtube followers who acts as an Arabic translator, a guy dresses as a gecko and walks around Baghdad talking to locals to understand what life is like there. The results are surprising and full of genuine connection.
https://youtu.be/6NOjY7CaPvQ?si=NMiy1ci06QBzN8IE

24 Hours in the Coldest City on Earth Yakutsk –64°C (−83°F)
I can’t imagine what it would be like having to put on five layers of clothing just to go outside each day. I don’t like the idea of this, it would feel very restrictive and I would feel claustrophobic being in my apartment all the time without being in nature. What about you?
https://youtu.be/D-WGGDRyf68?si=oe9Aprqsce-FLi-P

I didn’t know bears float like this
Now that I know….I am well and truly delighted that they are floaters. But this begs the question why do they float? Do they contain a lot of fat or something? …How is this fact not more commonly known or considered when one feels sad or overwhelmed? Just think of all of those floating bears out there floating on icy cold rivers looking for fish…think of them and feel better whatever you’re going through!
Via Reddit
https://www.reddit.com/r/NatureIsFuckingLit/comments/1o7e6en/i_wouldnt_think_bears_can_just_float_like_that/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

The Fatal Trap UBI Boosters Keep Falling Into
To win the argument for universal basic income, advocates must confront the myth that less work means less worth.
By: Karl Widerquist via MIT Press Reader
The general idea behind universal basic income (UBI) is almost as old as America itself. You can trace it back to 1797, when Thomas Paine argued for guaranteed payments in his political treatise “Agrarian Justice.” Fast forward to 2020, and Andrew Yang revived the idea with a “Freedom Dividend” during his failed presidential campaign. Despite the 200-plus-year chasm that separates these two men, the criticism they faced for backing UBI was strikingly similar: that “no one will work” and that “we can’t afford it.”
Because of this, supporters of the program might be tempted to believe that the purpose of UBI experiments is to allay these concerns with empirical evidence on the effect of UBI on work hours. The problem, however, is that these concerns are not rooted in empiricism but normative belief: namely that 1) lower-class people who refuse employment should receive nothing and 2) UBI costs more than it’s worth. And while not all UBI opponents believe these things, those who are often move the goalposts to portray almost any findings about cost and labor effort as reasons to reject UBI.
Karl Widerquist is the author of “Universal Basic Income.”
We must resist playing this game.
UBI-related experiments consistently find evidence that no participant responds to UBI experiments by dropping out of the labor force. Yes, some people reduce their hours of work, but the decline in work effort (if any) is clearly within a sustainable range. In other words, the evidence decisively contradicts claims that “no one will work” and “we can’t afford it.” But if we take the bait of focusing on such extreme statements, we attract everyone’s attention to opponents’ favorite issue: “Did the people who got the UBI ‘work’ as much as the people who didn’t?” Once the question is framed this way, it tosses a softball to opponents who predictably argue UBI is out of the question because some people didn’t work as much as they otherwise might have.
Any unconditional grant large enough to live on necessarily allows lower-class people to refuse employment. This fact — at least for critics who feel that people who refuse employment should receive nothing — makes UBI undesirable by design. To them, UBI will always be “unaffordable” because it will appear to cost more than they think it’s worth. UBI supporters fall into their trap if they attempt to refute this belief with, say, technical explanations of the difference between a 4 percent decline in labor hours and 4 percent of people leaving the labor force.
Supporters need to focus on all the good that comes of guaranteed income. As Bru Laín argues, UBI has a “positive impact on socioeconomic indicators related to a lack of money,” including the “alleviation of stress and mental illness, improvement in eating habits, settlement of household and personal debts, improvement of happiness, subjective well-being and social and community participation.”
Instead of trying to assuage critics’ fears, the pro-UBI movement needs to challenge the narrative in which any refusal to accept employment is a “bad” experimental observation.
Meanwhile, proponents of UBI that fall headfirst into critics’ trap even when they point to findings that that UBI increases labor effort. Consider these headlines from a UBI experiment in Stockton, California: “Experiment in guaranteed income leads to more work,” “Californians on universal basic income paid off debt and got full-time jobs,” and “The Biggest Payoff From Stockton Basic Income Program: Jobs.” Even the city’s mayor, Michael Tubbs, who was instrumental in establishing the program, employed this kind of rhetoric, saying, “Number one, tell your friends, tell your cousins, the guaranteed income did not make people stop working, in fact, those who received the guaranteed income were working more than before they received the guaranteed income and almost doubled in increase compared to those in the treatment group.”
The results Tubbs points to are largely determined by the design of the study: People who receive small grants when they weren’t working very much to begin with usually work more in UBI studies; people who receive larger grants when they are working full-time to begin with often work less. By portraying the uptick in Stockton’s labor effort as self-evidently good, Tubbs’ comments make it more difficult for future experiments that might involve larger grants to report the likely finding that people work less. Buying into the narrative that it is always “good” for low-income people to spend as much or more time on paid labor than they are now is a game UBI supporters can’t win and shouldn’t play. If the biggest problem in the world today were getting the lower class to work as much as possible, UBI would not be the best policy to achieve it.
Instead of trying to assuage critics’ fears, the pro-UBI movement needs to challenge the narrative in which any refusal to accept employment is a “bad” experimental observation. After all, how could it be a good thing for the global poor to spend more hours in grueling jobs for which they’re likely underpaid and overworked? What do you think will happen to wages and working conditions if the two billion people in deep poverty around the world all decide to work more at the same time? Theory predicts they would work longer hours for lower hourly wages.
One of the many disadvantages of UBI experiments is that they cannot measure how much wages and working conditions might improve in response to a substantial UBI, because that effect depends on the interaction between millions of citizens and employers across the country. The closest thing UBI experiments can measure is the first step in the process, and that step involves giving people a choice beyond working too hard for too little. So, rather than trying to quibble over hours worked, UBI supporters might have better luck broadcasting the good that comes when people with the worst jobs decide to work less — and using experiments as a platform for participants to tell their stories.

Karl Widerquist, a professor of philosophy at Georgetown University-Qatar who specializes in distributive justice, is the author of “Universal Basic Income.”

80’s carpet was out of control
I appreciate their commitment to colour and pattern. I have a lot of respect for the 80s aesthetic particularly the unconventional use of neon lighting.

Common mythconceptions: the world’s most contagious falsehoods
View larger infographic on the Information is Beautiful website

Charming ancient Egyptian hedgehog
A sweet-faced ancient Egyptian figurine of a hedgehog, made of faience, dating ca 1900 BC, from Thebes, Egypt. The Egyptians associated hedgehogs with rebirth. On display at Neues Museum Berlin. Via Nina Willburger.

Vegan/ vegetarian brown rice salad by Nagi
An easy, healthy and quick mid-week meal with culinary master Nagi. Sub out the fried haloumi for a vegan version.
Salad (Note 1):
- ▢3 cups cooked brown rice , cooled but not cold
- ▢2 tomatoes , diced
- ▢2 cucumbers , diced (or 1 long English/continental cucumber)
- ▢1/2 red onion , chopped (sub 2 stems green onion)
- ▢40g/ 4 cups tightly packed baby rocket/arugula , roughly chopped (or baby spinach)
- ▢1/3 cup coriander/cilantro leaves , roughly chopped (Note 2)
- ▢1/3 cup fresh dill leaves , roughly chopped (Note 2)
Lemon Dressing:
- ▢3 tbsp lemon juice
- ▢5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- ▢1 garlic cloves , minced using garlic press
- ▢1/2 tsp Dijon mustard (Note 3)
- ▢3/4 tsp salt , kosher/cooking salt (1/2 tsp table salt)
- ▢1/2 tsp black pepper
Optional extras (pictured):
- ▢1/2 cup black olive slices
- ▢200g/7oz halloumi , sliced then pan fried in a little olive oil until golden and crispy
- ▢Other topping options: feta, parmesan, nuts (Note 4)
Instructions
- Place Dressing ingredients in a jar and shake well to combine.
- Place Salad ingredients in a big bowl. Drizzle over Dressing, toss well.
- Transfer to serving bowl. If using Halloumi, pile on top.
- Serve!
Shiny Objects 1 by Kevin Yaun (2024)
Kevin Yaun is visualising his idea of home and exploring the distortion he sees in that relationship. Yaun was born in Georgia, USA and over the last 20 years has moved almost yearly and lived all over the world: Colorado, The Netherlands, England, Thailand, Singapore, and California to name a few. This transient lifestyle brought with it a deep understanding of the many faceted concept of home. ‘Home’ has become an abstract – a place that doesn’t exist, an unknown location to long for, an unattainable dream to strive for, or finding home wherever one finds oneself.
Kevin Yaun bio on Artsy

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#vegan #ubi #storytelling #philosophy #nature #music
Megan Lynch (she/her) @meganL · 2026-05-14 · 12:41 UTC

It's a real tell when people who seemed normal before suddenly become hate accounts when events flip and make their buried hatred easier to market as "patriotism".
Best to beware of such people. You never know what hidden bigotry they've got that you're not seeing yet because they haven't yet gotten "permission" to trot it out. But it's there.
Steve Dustcircle 🌹 @[email protected] · 2023-10-09 · 11:48 UTC

#Ohio #SupremeCourt Strikes Down #FrankLaRose’s Push for #Fraudulently Worded #Bellefontaine #DragBan
https://flip.it/1P9E7O
https://thebuckeyeflame.com/2023/10/08/ohio-supreme-court-strikes-down-larose/

#ohio #supremecourt #franklarose #fraudulently #bellefontaine #dragban