Iterations

I know I’m a little late on this Iteration and I apologize for that. As you can hear, my voice doesn’t sound the way it normally does and maybe that’s a good thing. Maybe it sounds better.

In the Iteration I was going to do, I was going to talk about finding that thing you live for, that thing that you love, that thing that lights you up. But I have to postpone it because I’m just having a hell of a time stringing two thoughts together. Even going through this right now, I’m live without a net, as it were. I don’t have a script or any outline like I normally would have when I record one of these. For this one, all I have is COVID and apparently have had it since sometime over the weekend—and let me tell you, it is not fun. Don’t listen to all of those stories telling you how great it is and how all the cool kids are getting it. It’s a lie. I’ve been vaxxed and vaxxed again boosted and, you know, while all of that probably means that it’s much less severe and means that the odds of me needing to go the hospital are much less, it still sucks.

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MUSIC

Music For Workplaces by Jeffery Saddoris

This Iteration was going to be about some of my recent musical explorations into things like VCV Rack and the Arturia MiniFreak (which I may actually end up selling), but instead I’d like to share a recent story with you that sort of blew my mind.

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MUSIC

Music For Workplaces by Jeffery Saddoris

When I was a kid, one of the things I would look forward to every year was going to the fair. The LA County Fair was massive and in elementary school we always got free tickets—I think they were stapled to our report cards, but I could be wrong. Although I moved around a lot as a kid, it seemed like we never lived very far from the fairgrounds, which are right next to the Pomona Raceway. My dad would take us there to watch the NHRA Winternationals every year and see people like “Big Daddy” Don Garlits and Don “The Snake” Prudhomme drive like bats out of hell down the 1/4 mile. I remember reading that at one point the LA County Fair was the largest county fair in the nation, but I don’t know if that’s still true. That said, to a 10-year-old, it was huge.

QUESTIONS

What’s your favorite part of your creative process?

Do you give that part of your process the time it deserves?

Email me at [email protected]

LINKS

Santa Anita

Montgomery County Agricultural Fair

Maryland State Fair

Olympus EM1 MkII

12-40mm f/2.8 Pro lens

Jerry Uelsmann

Bob Burridge

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MUSIC

Music For Workplaces by Jeffery Saddoris

Over the weekend, Adrianne and I watched a fantastic new documentary by Anton Corbijn called Squaring the Circle. It’s about Hipgnosis, the legendary design agency in London formed in the late 1960s by Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell, or “Po” to his friends. I knew I was going to love it before I even saw the trailer because so much of their work has been etched into my brain over the past four decades of my life. The work they did for Pink Floyd alone would have made them industry icons, but they also worked with Led Zeppelin, Paul McCartney, T Rex, Yes, Genesis, 10cc, and a ton of other bands over the course of their 15-year run.

LINKS

Squaring the Circle (The Story of Hipgnosis) | Official Red Band Trailer | Utopia

Anton Corbijn on Squaring the Circle, Hipgnosis, Album Covers & Kurt Cobain

Category:Album covers by Hipgnosis

Storm Thorgerson | Designing The Impossible

Storm Thorgerson, Pt. 1

Storm Thorgerson, Pt. 2

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MUSIC

Music For Workplaces by Jeffery Saddoris

I’ve come to the conclusion that I can no longer care what you think about my work. And it’s not that I don’t care about you as an audience, but if I’m worried about you liking what I make while I’m still making it or even in deciding what to make, I’m not putting 100% of myself into it. By not caring what you think, I get to put 100% of my ideas, my skills, and my experience—not to mention effort—into what I’m doing, and ultimately that’s better for everyone.

LINKS

Kate Bush

The Kick Inside

22 consecutive dates at the Hammersmith Apollo

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MUSIC

Music For Workplaces by Jeffery Saddoris

I’ve hesitated to really talk much about AI, mostly because I’ve been on the fence about whether I think it’s got the potential to save us or destroy us, and depending on who and what you read, it seems like it’s 50/50 either way. It’s just too soon to tell and I think these technologies are being adopted so quickly that we haven’t given ourselves enough time to think about the ramifications or the potential. Instead, everyone is rushing to become an armchair expert so they can monetize it into oblivion before they even understand it. Honestly, a lot of the talk around AI feels like a YouTube short that promises to teach you how to make thousands of dollars a month from affiliate marketing and drop shipping. Still, some of the image generation tools are interesting and I’ve been wondering whether or not there’s a place for AI in my creative workflow. I know there are a ton of legal and even moral and ethical questions that I still need to sort out for myself, but for the purposes of this Iteration, I’m going to put those aside and just focus on the tools themselves.

LINKS

Stable Diffusion

MidJourney

MidJourney Timeline

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MUSIC

Music For Workplaces by Jeffery Saddoris

I know we’re only a little over the halfway mark, but if I could recommend one book as my “must read” of 2023, it would be Rick Rubin’s The Creative Act: A Way of Seeing, despite the fact that I haven’t actually read it from cover to cover. Let me explain. I started to read it from the beginning but within just a few sentences, I knew it was going to be more of a reference book than a “read it once and move on” kind of book. So I just leave it on my desk and whenever I need a creative boost or a little blast of existential insight, I’ll pick it up and flip to a random page and read for a bit. Sometimes I flip to something new, while other times I end up reading something I’ve read before, which I think is a perfectly reasonable solution given the often-esoteric tone of the wisdom contained within it. My mom used to say, “you’re not ready to hear until you’re ready to hear it,” which is really a variation on the adage “when the student is ready, the teacher will appear.” That’s exactly what makes this a book that begs a second (or third or even fourth) reading.

LINKS

I Almost Quit, Then I Read Rick Rubin’s Book

The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin

Rick Rubin in conversation with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee

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MUSIC

Music For Workplaces by Jeffery Saddoris

This is my eighth summer living on the East Coast and aside from the heat, I am still not used to the humidity. Actually, I don’t think I ever will be. I spent the first 48 years of my life living in Southern California and starting when I was about 4 until probably my freshman year in college, I spent most of my summers in Arizona, which was hot but not humid. The landscape and the people left an indelible impression on me and though I can’t see myself ever going back—at least to live—I’ll always be more drawn to and more at home in the desolate beauty of Arizona and the American West.

LINKS

152° at Persian Gulf International Airport

Buckskin Mountain State Park

Parker Dam

Parker, Arizona

Lake Havasu

London Bridge

The Spy Who Loved Me

Wetbike

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MUSIC

Music For Workplaces by Jeffery Saddoris

I’m going to try something different, so I really don’t know exactly where this Iteration is going to go. I thought I’d just put on some music and write whatever came to mind. At the moment, Dark Star by Crosby, Stills, and Nashis playing in the background, which I love despite not really being a CSN fan. Adrianne found the album at this little record store in DC a few weeks ago that’s across the street from our favorite ice cream shop.

LINKS

My Mixcast 4 long-term update

My Mixcast 4 initial review

David Carson nucollage, vol. 1 review

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MUSIC

Music For Workplaces by Jeffery Saddoris

This has been sort of a weird week for me. Friday would have been my mom’s 79th birthday and for the past 14 years, not a day has gone by that I don’t think about her. Sometimes only a little, other times, I think about her a lot. I miss our Sunday brunches at Molly’s, though Molly sold the place years ago. I miss her smile, which I can no longer remember without looking at a photograph. Mostly, I miss her optimism and her goodness. I miss her advice and her belief in me and her unwavering faith in something greater than all of us that allowed her to see that people were basically good if we could just get out of our own ways and accept one another for the brilliant beings that she believed us to be. I need that right now.

LINKS

Grand Theft Auto: https://www.rockstargames.com/gta-v

Skyrim: https://elderscrolls.bethesda.net/en/skyrim/

Zelda: https://www.zelda.com/

Red Dead Redemption 2: https://www.rockstargames.com/games/reddeadredemption2

On Taking Pictures: http://www.ontakingpictures.com/

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Website: https://jefferysaddoris.com

Twitter: @jefferysaddoris

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MUSIC

Music For Workplaces by Jeffery Saddoris