What Now with Simo

Finnish Christmas song: “Varpunen jouluaamuna” (“Sparrow on Christmas Morning”)

“Winter Is Here” (@ 0:27) — My tribute joke to Norm Macdonald — A reason why many old poems no longer play — First world problems — Hundreds of poetry readings from 1923 to the 1950s — Listening to some during morning exercise (5 to 6 a.m.) — Wordsworth, John Donne — Donne’s “The Sun Rising” (1633) — Raging at the sun — Determines the comings and goings of lovers — Casts an imperious eye — How privileged? — A natural phenomenon an adult should be able to accept — Painstakingly, by hand, maybe with a quill and ink — “Saucy pedantic wretch” — Spinning creative wheels — Picture the scene — Waking up — How dare the sun shine when it pleases? — Guy ranting at the window — Undercutting everything I just said — Ponderous readings and readers — One early 20th century style of reading poetry — Quivery voice — This type of tone — “Wherefore must this orb of yellow” — Where did this style come from? — A product of a particular section of civilisation — Johan Huizinga — Play can very well include seriousness, whereas seriousness excludes play — Now there are all kinds of approaches — A short, immature vignette — Lost or not? — Right person or not? — Not difficult to tell — Do you end up letting go of your greatest aspirations? — Does your world get ever narrower? — Kick down the fence — Find life again — “Some thoughts from the Twilight Zone.” — The Twilight Zone largely grew out of the creations of Ray Bradbury — Discussed often in Blu-ray commentaries — Rod Serling — The Ray Bradbury Theater — Glad things worked out the way they did — The world is richer for it — Stephen Sondheim — An episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm — Officer Krupke — Krup you

So many of our problems come from misuse of language — “What is the meaning of life?” — Not possible without language — Like the memory of a wind that came and went — Questions of self-worth — At some point in the past — Need to be responsible with language — Any idea can potentially live forever — Self-defeating and other-defeating ideas — Ruthless — Mosquitoes — Getting rid of deeply seated thoughts — “A high standard” — Nonsense thinking about perfection — Emotional self-abuse — Physical effects — No difference — Another basic flaw — “Failure” and “success” can only apply to a process that has come to a conclusion — Aiming at the Moon — All part of the journey there — The only real failures — Our ways of abusing language are multiplying — An imaginative exercise — If you want to suffer more — Come up with new levels of gradation re: failure — A destructive type of thinking — Better ways — Pierre Estève: “Time is on our side.”

An illustration — Something I and Pierre talked about — Silence, negative space, and room — Tight vs. looser editing — Exact same background music (“Fresh Start”) — Postponing some topics — Great losses recently — An uncle, a friend, Dean Stockwell — The passing of Norm Macdonald — He was the first outside my personal circle to have an impact on this podcast — Early in season 1 — Norm’s encouraging tweet — Messaging — Sent him my books — The prospect of doing a podcast with him — Amazing amount of appearances on podcasts etc. — Kept his cancer secret — He’s hugely important — Free — A good soul — Feeling of freedom and space — Two different energies people can create — Dave Chappelle — His last Netflix special — Thoughts get stirred around — Not telling others what to think — Narrow path of only currently approved thoughts and opinions — Religious — Authentically what he was — His way of being — Relaxed — No rush — Pauses — Natural pacing — Unlike many other performers — Breathing naturally — Same kind of calm as with David Lynch — Patron saint of this podcast

“Season 4 Theme” (@ 0:00) — Welcome — “Fresh Start” (@ 0:33) — New cover art and theme tune — Looking back on season 3 — Discussions with David Lee Homb and Pierre Estève — Great feedback — All music in my own episodes is by me — No ready-made elements — Hardcover books — An Iceland Symphony — Short episodes — Introductory episode — Original idea and secret hope — Chris Stevens in Northern Exposure — Pierre’s music — His and David’s generosity — David’s first book of poetry Awake, I Dream — Future plans — Next steps with An Iceland Symphony — Book of short stories later this year — Catching up with transcriptions — Season 3 book of transcripts — Including full transcripts of the discussions with David and Pierre — A million other things — Welcome aboard — Good wishes

Atlantis II: “Rainbow Bridge” (@ 0:00) — Cahors — Avignon — Nature and wild places — Dragon Lore II: “Sanctuary” (@ 2:02) — Listening — Sound is a miracle — Field recordings — Studies — Learning — Your own voice — Confidence — The best way to learn — Pleasure in the doing — Teachers — David Lynch — Rules vs. principles — John Cage: Silence (1961) — Freedom — Atlantis: The Lost Tales: “Spitzberg” (@ 12:20) — The way Mr. Lynch learned screenwriting — Restrictive rules — Surprises — Changes in mood — Season 3 of Twin Peaks — Current reading and films — Many interests — Edward Bernays — Rules of propaganda — Short film Propaganda — Noam Chomsky — Poetry — Technical things — Janine Benyus and biomimicry — Ken Loach — Lars von Trier — Also some Hollywood movies — Dracula: “Flying Over the Mountains” (@ 20:50) — Koyaanisqatsi (1982) — Baraka (1992) — Story told without words — Director Godfrey Reggio and composer Philip Glass — Collaborations — Not an effort but a joy — Stéphane Picq — Early computer music — Cryo’s Dune (1992) — Atlantis: The Lost Tales: “Crystal Winds” (@ 27:30) — Instrument collection — Ireland, Turkey, Indonesia… — Male and female voices — Atlantis II: “The River” (@ 30:44) — Studies in singing, conducting, composing, and more — Alyssa Landry and Gaëlle Zydian — The end of Atlantis II — Two flutes — Atlantis II: “Child” (@ 34:12) — Invisible links that music can reveal — Utopias and new worlds — Architecture — A full ecosystem — The flying ships — Great musical challenge — Pythagore / Pythagoras — Atlantis: The Lost Tales: “Awakening” (@ 39:19) — Atlantis II: “Tepec” (@ 41:41) — Caves in Southern France — Stalactica — Isturitz and Oxocelhaya — Prehistoric — Concretions — MADe In series — Bamboo — Metal — Stone — Lithophones — Senses — Bamboo: “Flowering Mystery” (@ 47:39) — Longevity — Tuned stalactites — Perfect fifth — Cave paintings — Elegance — Essence — Engravings — Animating images — The impulse to do art — Bows — Communing — Spirits — Atlantis Evolution: “Worlds Beyond” (@ 55:19) — Relief paintings — Places chosen by sound — Echolocation — Resonance — Iégor Reznikoff — Reverberation — Fundamental — Resonant frequency — Atlantis Evolution: “Ancient Shells” (@ 1:03:05) — The spirit — World music — Earlier attitudes to music — Béla Bartók — Debussy and the Javanese gamelan at the World Fair in Paris — Tchaikovsky, the celeste, and “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” — Obscura: “Temptacium” (@ 1:09:57) — Will our music last? — Political problem — Atlantis II: “Highlands” (@ 1:12:26) — Gregorian chant — Songs like “Greensleeves” or “Scarborough Fair” — Cultural links — Prejudices — Clarity and elegance — Language that lasts — Negative space — Ray Bradbury: “The Lake” — Simplicity vs. complexity — Obscura: “Lux Perpetua part 2” (@ 1:18:13) — Silence and space — Atlantis II: “The Tower in the Well” (@ 1:20:26) — What does or can art do? — Art is both given and received — Positive and negative impact — Atlantis Evolution: “Memories of Atlantis” (@ 1:23:06) — New approach — When are you happiest? — Atlantis: The Lost Tales: “La Lune” (@ 1:25:51)

Atlantis: The Lost Tales: “Sunriders” special remix (@ 0:00) — Introduction — Welcome — Composer and artist — Sound experimentation — Recording company Shooting Star — Non-profit organisation Art Science 21 — Crossroads of art, science, and sustainability — Bandcamp page — Website — Something special coming — Vangelis — Music and friendship — Closer relationship — YouTube — Huge instrument collection — Flowers of Change — A special project — Collaborative — Forests of flowers — From recycled plastic bottles — Interactive — Light and sound — Like a video game — Evolving — Augmented reality — Grenoble, France — Flowers of Change, Flowers of the Anthropocene — Changes — Transhumanism — Science, nature, and biomimicry — Immersive experiences — Mix of music and sound effects — Generative music — More composed parts — The forest in Atlantis 4 and the Flowers of Change forest — Atlantis Evolution: “Quiet Stream” (@ 12:50) — Sound design — All part of the same thing — Tuning sound effects — Ron Jones and his music for Star Trek: The Next Generation — Atlantis Evolution soundtrack — Ambient sounds and music — Field recordings — Canarias (Canary Islands) — One of the possible locations for Atlantis — Greece — Atlantis Evolution: “Pillars of Heracles” (@ 19:03) — Atlantis: The Lost Tales: “Muria” (@ 20:51, featuring Alyssa Landry) — The water considered as an instrument — The rhythm of the waves — Catching the essence — Opera — Everything counts — Sergio Leone and Ennio Morricone — Once Upon a Time in the West — Fitting scene to music — With the music removed — Only the meaningful sounds — Freedom from realism — Field of Dreams example — When you’re an artist — Atlantis II: “Rhea’s Garden” (@ 27:05)

Good morning — Back at the lake — Some basic truths about healing and human life — Speaking from experience — Bad advice and good advice — Getting out of the house — Active outdoors — Nutrition — Health and happiness — Depressed, down in spirits, in despair — What will never help — When summer got here — Daily activity — You can’t get to a better place by only thinking — Choosing activities you enjoy — Moping around — Not making light of difficulties — The bottom line — Dwelling on past events — To do so for some time may be healthy — But only for some time — The first step — Admitting there is a problem — Endless things to choose from — We must use our bodies and full physique — Staying truthful — Things nearly all adults carry around with them every day and night — This shared human experience — You become part of the club — Incredible beauty — Incredible pain — Breaking the cycle — Rowing and swimming — Lakes — Blue-green algae — Some creative work every day — Towards a better, solid, happy future — Lake all to myself — “Mirror-calm” / “Peilityyni” — Art evening with filmmaker cousin Matti Harju and composer Jarmo Kämäräinen — Untangling knots — Art totally necessary for human existence — Exhibition (Ars 108) — Dance performance — Composition “Autuaita ovat autuaat” (“Blessed/Blissful Are the Blissful/Blessed”) on the accordion by composer, performing musician, visual artist, and organic farmer Kusti Vuorinen — Took me somewhere else — On Spotify and YouTube — An old factory converted into a performance and exhibition space — Old plushy chairs — Lovely-feeling place — Coming episodes — Empathy for anyone struggling with difficult emotions — The right balance — Positive but truthful — Destructive false positivity — Looking in the mirror — Never just others, never just you — Both — Floating on a pineapple

Welcome back to the lake — Windy but warm — Bradbury land — Many of them — Years looking for it — Lakes — Carnivals — Some good futuristic things — Summer mornings, days, evenings, and nights — Green grass — Freshly mown lawn — Learned rowing from my father — Principles of responsible boating — Centre of gravity — Orientation and direction — Oars in water — Genius inventor of rowing — Saving a little bug — Cheering encounter — Traffic lights — Headphones — Audio books, poetry, etc. — Thanks for riding the city scooter on the road — More irresponsible scooters — How life should be — Unhappy people who have it all — Happiness comes with moments — Finishing the thought on Bradbury land — First visit to Tampere in 1990 — Field trip to the amusement park here — Unhappy times much later — Simply the wrong parts of town — Right in my backyard — Heaven and hell next door to each other

Early morning on the lake — An Iceland Symphony: A Theatrical Symphony for All Ages — First large-scale composition — Book of sheet music — 21 sections — Calls for performers of all ages — Started writing in early 2019 in Iceland — All of Iceland and all Icelanders — Children and teenagers and adults — A land where childhood is still possible — Grocery store anecdote — “Pabbi” (“Father”) — The voice of a child who had had a genuinely happy, safe childhood — Good families and bad families — Good conditions and bad conditions — Children are the future — People of more advanced years — General respect for elders in Iceland — Works created to last — Philip Glass on how you have to write for the future — Musical languages — Guided only by own taste, feeling, and intuition — On the form of this symphony — Theatrical — Stage actions, staging, and lighting — These elements may not be omitted in a full live performance of the work — A full theatrical experience — Performance instructions included in the sheet music book — Concert suite — Ideal performance spaces — Stage, curtains, dynamic lighting — Publishing the sheet music only the first step — Further work on audio renderings — Intended to be performed by living musicians — Access to the early rough “demo” renderings — Book on Amazon as paperback and ebook — The secret to being a bore is to tell everything (Voltaire) — A work I believe in — Morning and good night