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Showing posts with label anecdotes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label anecdotes. Show all posts

Friday, March 29

Pigeon-watching hotspots to see in town - # 1: The 7th at Metro Station Pigeon Family.

Here in Los Angeles, pigeons that frequent Metro rail stations are generally nothing new, but don't these novel and sometimes adventuresome pigeons make the stations something out of a storybook? They get to live in the stations, at all times, even in the off-hours. It's a trade off - of convenience, for being housed, so to speak, for security and warmth, essentially. 

2024's 7th at Metro baby pigeon, out at night, looking for a bite to eat. 
His parents roost nearby, overseeing his safety and progress in development. 


In this case, a (literal) small family of pigeons roosts at what could be considered some of the most illustrious of locales in Downtown Los Angeles, CA, with beautifully crafted skyscrapers and trendy malls, all within a block, or so. It's a great place to start out, as a Downtown visitor, and these pigeons serve as (sometimes) nightly ambassadors. Take, for example, baby pigeon, standing there, on his own, in the middle of the sidewalk. He's waiting to see some breadcrumbs tossed at him, or perhaps, some pieces of sweet pastries, or seeds. Baby pigeon is currently in the "sweet baby" stage, where the baby has not yet been abused, and hopefully that will last. 

The pigeon family, here at the 7th and Metro Station, has the tradition, and tourist attraction feature of being night owls. This feature about this small and peculiar family of birds makes for a great nighttime stop, to check and see if the birds are out on the sidewalk, or perching nearby the escalators, where they roost at night. A night owl showing of pigeons is always an exciting sort of bird to observe, since they'd become comfortable in socializing amongst their human caretakers, at odd hours. Being that this street intersection is such a well-known metropolitan foot traffic hotspot, this pigeon's roost serves as a testament to urban avian wildlife's potential; as ambassadors: for nature and for recreation, both. 

Tuesday, February 20

I think that I might have seen my former high school years' pastor

this evening. 

I suppose that perhaps I didn't recognize him, but, upon considering him, after I greeted the man who seemed to have overseen some local charity, in town. He had a surprised look about him; perhaps he recognized me, I figure, in hindsight. 

I partook in the night's offerings, a delicious and generous dinner, with dessert. It was just perfect. 

Monday, February 19

The iPigeon.institute "Journey Through Art History" Generative AI Online Art Exhibition (annotations coming soon).

 It's the year 2024. 

We'd had several months' lead up time, to this place in time (February, 2024), in which conversational AI, Search Assistance with AI, and AI featuring Large Language Models had been introduced to the general public, alongside various generative AI platforms, some of which promised to shake up many industries and professions, with users' minds being given a vastly new and competitive margin in creating content, whether it be audio, video / visual, or code-based, in nature.

Personally, I let a lot of the headlines come and go, as I'd been preoccupied with healing up, from my months in being homeless (I'm now housed), for the most part. That being said, I've now come across a neat platform for generative AI at labs.google (it's called ImageFX), in terms of image generation, via text prompt. I thought of some humorous and idiot concepts, pertaining to pigeon'ry, or, which would ostensibly include pigeons, in the rendered image. 

To my delight, some of the renders come out just fantastic, to be honest! I was truly impressed by some of the images that ImageFX returned. After a few go-rounds with the web-based platform, I decided that I could compile a "History of Art," of sorts, with all art works featuring pigeons, in place of humans, or that just have pigeons present in the image. 

This article begins as simply an uploading compilation of images, and I expect to update the art exhibition, intermittently (hopefully soon, maybe later today) with annotations and art historian insight and allegory, as though the reader is brought along, on a tour. Here are the images!

Wednesday, February 14

Lenten practices at iPigeon.institute - 2024

Some people, here and there, over the years since iPigeon.institute had initially been founded, out of my renewed interest in feeding the birds, in town, posed the question, or they had surmised, perhaps, whether, or that - I feed the birds out of some kind of particular connection or affiliation with Catholicism, being that they ostensibly draw a connection between the birds being taken care of, with the imagery of Saint Francis of Assisi, who is typically pictured, in art and in sculpture, as being surrounded by small animals and birds. In addition, a seedy side of suspicions, upon ulterior motives, assertedly at issue, is suggested about the practice of feeding the birds, as we, here, in Southern California, of this generation, have, as well, come to associate Catholicism with child exploitation, and other tawdry deeds, such as homosexuality. I'll address these issues, in the following paragraphs.

I had just received the notion, early in the morning, today, as to update my blog (finally - it's been since late June, 2023, that I'd last published, I believe, since I died early in July (it was encephalitis, or something like that, this time, that I had fallen dead). These days, dying could be, kinda... like that, I've come to discover. Nowadays, out here, Fentanyl is on the rise, and, in my first instance of dying, I'd snorted a bag of what I thought was cocaine - a foolish thrill to marginally indulge, since I'm immune to cocaine intoxication and euphoria, like it used to be. This last time that I died, I had no recollection or warning of that I was going to fall unconscious - I simply woke up, naked, with tubes in me, in a dormitory-like room setting, with young nurses, about my age, and somewhat my peer demographic, although I was very uncomfortable about the situation, since I had no idea, for some time, where my belongings were - being a materialistic guy, whereas I'd been keeping up with important bills to support owning my belongings, it was a dire blow to my identity, I could feel. I was feeble, to some degree, when I had woken up, with some numbness on a couple sections in my leg, and my good hand was weak, in the forearm. Nobody gave me any information as to what had happened, or how I had gotten there. 

All of this being the by and large underlying premise of how I could possibly compose myself, given the consideration of that today is Ash Wednesday, as well as Valentine's Day - two days in which Catholicism looms large, on the calendars. People who are Christian, such as myself, don't make much of Catholic traditions - and, in the case of Valentine's Day, largely being a popular point of reference to a holiday, perhaps, yet, on our calendar, most standard holidays fall on days next to the end or beginning of the week; around the weekends - I'd suppose that this practice of dating national and federal holidays, in the United States, is potentially a context developed from out of our American society's roots in labor and manifest destiny, in which, as I'd come to ascertain - of that it's difficult, over time, in particular, to sustain a laboring lifestyle and workplace practice that works, throughout every day. Compared to Valentine's Day, which is traditional, still, in American society, yet moreso an arbitrary distinction, of a specific date, rather than a planned and more generally described "day, out of some numbered weeks," given the various calendar months. 

This being the case, I find that it's somewhat too misfortunate - this aspect of how I'd unexpectedly died, of all things, and self-sacrifice had been a heavy burden upon me, since I used my iPad Pro for accessibility issues, and, since my passing away had been a tragic experience for me. I'm still being burdened and stalked, in the streets, even by activists, in addition to gang members, although I do expect better outcomes for myself, and, I'd suppose, I could fairly much, not speak for others, since nobody presents themselves to me. 

I've been to mass, before, however, so I somewhat know how it is - it's a bit more liturgical and formal, in setting and ritual, at least, on a more generalized basis, as far as how the service goes. As far as content, I'd say that it really depends - various cultures have their own flavor, at times, so to speak, on religious services. I find that I'm in too dark a mood, on account of that I am a stalking victim, to care much about religion, or of things that people say, or claim to care about. There's nobody that's actually speaking to me, there's just voices in my head. People that speak to me, as voices in my head, are being identified, regularly, as being developmentally disabled, and bordering on retarded. 

 Alright, 

so, that's my story, as for this year. My significantly primary goal is to feed the pigeons, and develop them in to fine birds and poultry, over the years and decades to come. I get the feeling, as such, as though some people read an account like that, and - as well, "so easily" attempt to mount and claim a stake upon what they ostensibly "fear," in fearing death, of some inevitable outcome, whereas they're sitting or standing around, or something - gathering, perhaps, for the sake of stalking me, in town; in turn, upon religious standards, general practices, and expectations that people who are rational, the throughout society - get by on; "live by," in other words. 

I'm not a large-scale influential individual - I have vast and rich facets of my personality that I'm not addressing, even, for much of the time, out of my days, most commonly. I could communicate some various things on many topics, quite well, yet, beyond what I face, as obstacles to my civil liberties and rights, as an American citizen. I "suppose" not that people are so limited in sociability traits, and decency, solely; I imagine that, rather, some of the other "people" in my head, speaking to me, have a grip on rational outcomes, for people who refuse to repent from sinful acts. Death was easy enough - once I'd passed out, and, as I'd said, I didn't even notice it coming, this last time. The first time, it was like a desperate nausea, overcoming me, and that portion of things lasted perhaps a half hour. While I was unconscious, I didn't know, or realize anything further. Once I woke up, it was about 6 nights' stay at the hospital, and I'd eventually recovered, and moved forward, from where I was at, in life. 

Tuesday, June 6

Exciting new things to do with Logic Pro for iPadOS 17. (scratch, updating)

Following up on my first article for the Logic Pro for iPad Users group, on Facebook, here, in this article, I’ll detail some notions I’ve come across, through years of maintaining interest in topics ranging from the obvious - music creation and audio recording, for example, to more recent developments and prospects for the future of our digital and mobile lives - topics such as IoT and edge technology, in incorporating musical creativity in new and largely unexplored reaches in to people’s lives. In doing so, we’ll examine some of the existing hardware devices and software platforms that exist, currently in the summer of 2023, and I’ll offer my best estimations, or experiences, in working with, or, for studying, these extended-use case scenarios, which offer the creative minds of music-making, on Logic Pro, exciting and stimulating new horizons to explore, all within hands’ reach, on our iPadOS devices.


First of all, I’m composing this article, as Apple’s annual WWDC (Worldwide Developer Conference) 2023 is taking place (June 5th-9th). Yesterday, at the outset of the conference, we got some exciting peeks at brand-new hardware technology (VisionOS and updates to existing laptop and desktop hardware), which I won’t get in to, at the time being; here, for our purposes, I’ll detail some of the highlights, features-wise, which make the new iPadOS 17 a rich environment to perform some distinct and unique purpose-fulfillments in the development workflow, and how these tablet-specialties, as I’ll call them, figure in to creativity and professionalism for us, as musicians, and for iPadOS - our chosen platform for concentrating on certain aspects of development. 


Keep in mind - 


This article will cover a lot of ground, for newcomers to the audio and MIDI world hosted on Apple’s mobile iOS and iPadOS platforms - both largely similar and comparable to one another, yet, given some extended use-case scenarios, for either one - some things become distinctly advantageous, when considering Apple’s tablet designs, for the sake of becoming reinvested in digital audio workstations (i.e.Logic Pro, for iPadOS). 


Aside from the obvious advantages of having a truly responsive multitouch display as the workspace, as well as the user interaction workflow environment, there are several advantages to starting off with a new, and updating app installation iPadOS audio environment, where the general third-party plugin and instrument apps are known as AUv3 (Audio Unit version 3) and IAA (Inter-App Audio) - these are the largest standards established, as far as iOS / iPadOS audio is concerned; although, given the boutique-ish (somewhat) form of app development, given years of having established a reputation and user base, amongst App Store audio buffs, as far as generalized audio files needs, per se - a few of these small-purposed apps bear the weight of acts taken for granted, in coming from a desktop pro audio workflow environment. Here they are (there’s only a few, or several, heh heh 🤯😳): 


AudioCopy


In fashioning an abstraction of a complete newcomer’s (to iPadOS pro audio, that is), standpoint, imaginably, people would approach the performance and session considerations, depending on the types of background and skill sets that the user has. Something that isn’t immediately considered, perhaps, is translating audio files over, from audio that’s already been recorded - this is, for example, well understood, as master tracks, taken from session recording microphones - one track, each, to every microphone. So, there would be a kick drum track, perhaps some more drum tracks, a vocal track, guitar and bass amp tracks, etc. So, if you’re able to get these tracks, per se, in to your iCloud account, and or download them in to the Files app, using your on-device (iPad built-in hard drive space) storage, there are still a huge amount of apps, completely aside from Logic Pro, or Files, or… anything else available, off hand, which a person could use to take these raw audio files (specifically audio, we’re dealing with, here - standard formats, such as .wav and .mp3 files) - in short, there’s no other app, amongst everything else out there, that will allow a user to copy an audio file, from one portion of on-device or iCloud storage, in to some of these other apps, for portability, duplication, workflow progression, within some other plugin or filter app, for example. You’ll need AudioCopy for this purpose.


AudioShare


This is the other, companion, and, otherwise, indispensable app, which allows you to fulfill the obvious “receiving” end of the audio file management process - the thing being, is that other apps, as well as the iPadOS built-in app environment, as far as the Files app goes - since everything, essentially, is done within an app, here, in iPadOS. If there is no app for it, then it might just be that the user “just clicked” on something, or perhaps the user is just swiping around, exploring. There’s no extended file management capability, or specialization, for working with audio files, except for these standard and necessary apps, such as AudioShare. This app allows users to share audio files both locally - on-device, and within the iPadOS Files environment, which includes access to cloud storage (iCloud, Google Drive, Adobe Creative Cloud, etc.), on-device storage, plugged-in storage, etc. AudioShare is the app that will let you complete the copy-and-paste functionality, so to speak, as well as that it is also built in, somewhat as a standard, for higher-level functionality considerations within many audio plugins, filters, and instruments, as far as your file “push” and “pull” drop-down pop-up menus would be concerned - comparable to “Save As” on desktop environments. In this case, in iPadOS, the user would encounter a pop-up window, with various options, as far as where to save the file to, yet, if it were an audio file, the user would be significantly limited, as far as choices, as to destination apps, if the user didn’t have this app. There’s no way around it.


That being the case, that’s it, as far as stuff like that goes.


Now, we can explore common-use case scenario plugins, instruments, and apps.


Brusfri - noise-cancelling of an audio signal (microphone input, for example)


One of the most common pro audio use case scenarios is handling the signal-to-noise ratio of every recorded audio track. If you’re hot on microphones for your iPadOS device to connect to, you can jump to that section here (Title Link). There are somewhat limited, cheap-y, to moderately professional-grade quality mic’ing solutions available, depending on which model iPad device you’re working with, what connectivity, therefore, it uses - although, these days, … hmm… 🤔 actually- make sure to not try this out, for yourself - don’t go on a mean search and research binge dive, out in to the internet, to figure out as much, on your own - I’ll update folks when things change, but I really ought to make this clear - there’s not much of a really suitable Bluetooth microphone device hookup capability for iPadOS audio monitoring and recording - meaning, specifically, you cannot “be” the recording artist, “and” hear yourself, at the same time, with Bluetooth, specifically. Sure, there’s a lot of cool little bitsy hardware earbuds, and stuff, that are available, but keep in mind - Logic Pro for iPadOS was just released yesterday, and better solutions will arrive, over time, but a different authority manages the standards, development, and production of those hardware and communication / connectivity things. If you’re trying to get in to manufacturing hardware - let’s face it: some folks just can’t help but check out the scene, when it comes to that sort of thing 🤯😬🤷. I used to do that sort of thing, also.


Brusfri, the app, would easily cancel out so many considerations that a user would have, aside from obtaining any wired microphone that the user could get to rationally connect to their iPad, for their pro audio workspace environment to really have its basic, essential functionality - iPad and microphone, that is, connected by a wire. It’s not so old or useless an idea this point, to be sure. 


What Brusfri does, essentially, is exactly what, for example, a good Mastering / Channel Strip Compressor/Limiter would do, with a fairly simple layout, and premise - here, the basis is: run the audio input feed, or audio track, that’s already been recorded, and click the “ear” thing. It’ll cancel out an appreciable amount of background noise. In semi-pro audio, on mobile, at this point, obtaining a “modest” and “noisy” (crappy, even, or not “ideal”) recording is fairly standard. Brusfri largely makes that circumstance largely seem to fade away, and the audio input feed, or audio recording, will instantly sound much cleaner and much more usable. This is one of the indispensable, reliably developed and produced, audio plugin AUv3 apps out there, to include in your audio workflow signal chain.


Updating…



Attachment.png


June 21, 2023 - some inspiration to throw together some kits (or, you could wait for me to do it, and upload some patches) - a 1.99 GB library of Future Bass Samples, MIDI templates, and more, featuring great sounds to use as starting points in your signal chain, to create Chill Trap and Future Bass tracks. It’ll be our latest group project.


Here’s the Google Drive link:


https://drive.google.com/file/d/11ZDFTC544O1q9ybk2PUrnUfJdVPWHaAq/view?usp=drivesdk



Monday, May 29

Today, I have a friend.

 For people who see me around town, being that it’s the civic center metropolitan district, I’d suppose that I’m a sore sight, on various counts, for some people. On one hand, for example, I feel like I’m fairly pro-sociable, and that I’m good for “friend status,” and, although it plays out, in truth, in some sort of informal and disjunct fashion, I feel like, even though I’m present, in a cognizant sense - meaning, I could reliably answer questions accurately, in nearly all situations (which, I’d say, is one of the hallmarks of my reputation, nowadays, amongst people who know me), I have some chronic pain and inflammation issues that never seem to go away, being that I’m legitimately fully homeless, and, since town is fairly upscale, in many of the small locales which characterize the areas I frequent - this is Los Angeles, on one hand, and we’d been brought up, in this generation, to have fancy ideals and aspirations to live up to. 

Nowadays, I wonder how the rest of America views this fumbling facade - it’s become a stark contrast - this notion of poverty and the battle for inclusion, in to the American Dream, whereas so many people are mired in judgmental paradigms and sociability-defeatist attitudes of better aspirations (perhaps), whereas I constantly see groups of peers and colleagues, amongst us (youths), of this generation, berating each other, at the slightest notions of escapism, in to some sort of virtuous or fanciful deed, or gesture - essentially crippling the work day, work week, workplace morale, and, in doing so, it undermines so many foundational and essential functions of coworkers, affected demographics, and governmental institutions. My personal, fanciful belief, that I flout, sometimes, is one where I assert that people’s common belief of that we are constantly struggling against budgetary concerns (crises, that it were), is actually shortsighted, and, a more insightful perspective on things is that people would endear to fund us - from whatever means available (yet, only “somewhat,” on that last notion); yet, at the most distributed workforce entity-meets-consumer, as far as social services, public and mental health services, and other relevant institutions, I feel that a limited pool of selectivity in hiring, and extraneous influences upon workplace attitudes has become pervasive and characteristic of unaccountable organizations, where casual unprofessionalism is considered due process, and trite judgmental attitudes and quips, which characterized the abuses that we’d known, and, largely, as young society, back in our early school days, committed against each other. In recent memory, it seems that, over the course of new, and forthcoming presidential administrations, we “repeat” some of the hard-won, progressive policies, which had taken decades, at these points in time, various that they are - yet, it seems that they have to be repeated, for the sake of folks who’d been distracted, or who seclude themselves, as hermits, of some fearful respite over growing up, and facing adulthood, and it’s constituent features, vulnerabilities, responsibilities, accountability, and so forth. 

On one hand, this is an age where science and technology dominates life. I feel that, to deny the preeminence of this facet of society and global commerce, would someday work itself out, for individuals, to inevitably be torn asunder from this sort of privilege that we enjoy, whatever that might be. 

As for myself, I experience several, perhaps, disadvantages, as far as being homeless. I make accommodations for myself, in various forms, yet, all in all, I’m perhaps not all that much different from my “housed” (surreptitious, being that it’s within my memory, and I’d duly “housed” myself, rightly so, as an independent business owner, in previous years) self - on one hand, sure - maybe I was “playing house,” in some cases, yet, in some other cases, I fully supported myself, all on my own. Over time, I learned valuable lessons, over losses, and I take those things in stride, and I expect little, these days, that I’m not already offered, or taught, “had been” taught, already, or, on one hand, I’d been distracted from thinking, perhaps, due to this ongoing exhaustion, which I’d mentioned, earlier. 

Anyways, getting back to my vision, of the rest of America - essentially, “hoping” for a beautiful generation of us, coming from out of this California Dream, so to speak, and, rightfully, as well, I’m sure that they expect it. We read half-hearted news, out here, nowadays. We get untimely late updates about rainy weather, lately, that I experience, for example, and, for me, that’s one thing that really affects me, at least, for a day, but I do a lot of reading, and I encounter, just tangentially, subjects such as weather engineering, which irks me, when the weather is, year over year, uncharacteristic, and seemingly, cruel, at that, and arbitrary. I feel that a proud and foolish man (or woman) would claim superiority over nature, whereas natural sciences are, on one hand, significantly vast, and numerous, in nature; and, as well, for the sake of the fact that a self-made attitude, in part, plays in to this sort of narcissism, and, on another topic at issue, sometimes, people gather together, in the various forms that we gather, nowadays, or are influenced, collectively, perhaps - we may be apt to have been led by suggestion, at a point in time in which we were prone to seek peers, and support, for ourselves, which is natural, and standard, in psychology, whereas cruelty sometimes simply seems, or feels like it’s appropriate, when our emotions and patience are tried. The best of the self-made pool of successful people, as far as articles have reported for us - would (surreptitiously) have a second-hand, non-arbitrary “serving” of their foes’ consequences, for defiance - it’s part of corporate governance structures, I’d come to discern, in far fetched lessons that I glean intelligence and insight from, which seem to rightfully characterize the man or woman whose face seems to be duly their own, and with recognition to boot, for having become the rare public figure who had flouted a poor reputation, notably so, of some sort, which regularly peppers our news feeds, of a Scientology sort of twinge to a story of life 😏. It’s tough, but we all like to laugh, on one hand. 

Wait. While I arrived at this thought, I’d like to dote on a recollection of its significance - of the fact that we all like to laugh, raucous and foul-natured that the humor may be, and despite expectations at maturity and composure, yet, writers have to have a job, and “everyone’s got to matter,” (perhaps, here, inappropriately, that I’d put this last assertion in quotes), and humor is one way to soften the insults that more well-composed, patient, and reserved folks might otherwise duly characterize these sorts of qualms, of occurrences, that get served to us, on our intellectual meal plates. 

Some sort of similar notion got flouted my way, for observation, and for ire, for example, when I’d checked on a selfie porn video that I got talked in to filming, and I looked fwacked and bwammo’d, most surely, facially, which - on one hand, I’d refrained, initially, from posting it, yet, I got talked in to reconsidering it, and, even though - fwacked and bwammo’d, in appearance, to be sure, I relented, and I went ahead and posted the video. It made me consider contingencies of classical virtue, in a philosophical sense, of stuff like, “well, what if it’s just fwacked and bwammo’d on my end, for ethical and moral purposes, like self-restraint, and public relations considerations, et al - considerations?” I’m not all that cognizantly a pornographic narcissistic exhibitionist, via search, so outright and simple. Who is? - I figure. 

Okay. Some people are…, or, uh, I dunno. I don’t really know anybody. Who really knows the real somebody, anymore, these days, enough to truly get to know somebody, for real friends, types of purposes? Some guy gets me, like that, and we’re hanging out, right now. Some notes, I encounter, are that he makes me desire drugs, none whatsoever, while he’s with me, and, by and large, I’d refrained from re-dosing myself, whereas, I’d probably, most surely, have had chosen otherwise, had I been by myself, which is characteristic. I’m always by myself, as a homeless person. I’m always fraught with the presence of others (okay, sometimes, perhaps. I do like people-watching, a bit - but not, like, I’m super-in to it, or by any means, inappropriate) - I’d used pornography, in my personal time, to satisfy that sort of personal aspiration at intrigue. I guess that some people find it creepy, since the reality of creating pornography is sometimes a matter of abuse, from an objective, societal perspective - in common sense, in other words. I know that, well enough, yet the pursuit of capturing the essence of beauty pervades our young minds, regardless of religious underpinnings, reeling against that sort of impulse. But what could possibly be left of childhood, for one thing, if these types of freedoms and expressions of ourselves were so truthful, accessible, and… simple, on one hand? It would easily cheapen the structure of authority, itself, if our nude and sexually vulnerably prone selves were our easily accessible identities, in common encounters. 

One thing that I imagined, in this moment - fleeting that it seems, for me, since I’d gone off, on contextual and corollary subjects, yet - here, I envisioned that I; within this context of this new friend that I have, for the time being - he’s still somewhat anonymous and new, for me, and a bit lofty, which is fine - my take on things is that reoccurrences, of casual encounters, is a rightful duty that true locals have to bear, for the namesake of being a local. Out here, that could get pretty rough, for a well-traveled person, yet intelligence, in many cases, rises to the task - independently supporting what’s duly right - simply right, as our higher power, as individuals, in a sense. Anyways, I showed the guy some of my old photos, and they were blurry - jittery, so to speak. I considered various things, such as - had “such and such” headquarters got rattled, of their data centers? On one hand, I’m a bit of a sore subject, in big tech c-space circles, imaginably, yet, I’ve encountered, in some instances, old dogs of men just don’t want to look bad, in front of people, if they can help it - something like that. Another thing that I’d been imagining is this “live forever” thing, and the consequences of equitability, and personal responsibility in the matter, sort of thing. It’s a hugely flouted topic, amongst people of my peer group, age-wise, I imagine, or figure. I mean, they see me, and, based on my past, they constantly seek retributions, actively, whereas, as I’d detailed, previously, here, the well-mannered and austere, or even “anonymous” (for not… well, I dunno, I guess, what makes a person anonymous, off-hand, except… well, maybe it’s the adults-only contextuals, or something - so much sexual abuse goes on) amongst the big tech corporate figures - they maintain (forgive the cheap grammar, please; it’s just for ease of usage) composure by long-gone-on standards of ethics, which are enforced, and admired, throughout the millennia, for the inherent, fundamental, and structuralized sustainability within those forms. These types of restraints and restrictions upon our expectations, and our selves - forms some of the suffering and burdens that some people are commonly fond of, or some cultures, for example - as an off handed quip, but I figure that people know what I’m talking about. 

Anyways, ugh. A huge array of annotations and subject and author citations to wrangle out - while I’m shallow-means deep, in this Sticker Time concept, perhaps, which I’d used a one-step (mostly) app, lately, to vectorize and “cute-if-y” my photo images (mostly mine, but I hadn’t foreseen some of these consequences) - such as my old photos becoming jittery, which I can withhold from doting and musing upon - for one thing. I can, as well, get around to these image annotations, T & C’s checkings-on, and making-sure, kinds of stuff, but some of these Sticker Time images, I feel that I couldn’t just do without, as far as handing them out, anonymously, and scarcely - because, on one hand, who could possibly truly be “God,” whatsoever, with absolute expectations and breadth of reach, reliably? Some people just aren’t reached. 

I figure - I’ll Sticker Time some folks, when I can, at random, mostly, and equitably - Sticker Time them.

Now my old photos are jittery. 

🙄

Original photo shared by @a_london_pigeon, on Twitter. Cartoony-look (plain vector) by Vector Q app.


Friday, May 26

Getting started with Logic Pro for iPadOS - a hands-on starter’s guide, for beginners. (Updating)

Discovering that Logic Pro for iPadOS (was|is) [going to be] available was big news, amongst a generation of music enthusiasts and audio professionals. 

Conceivably, for those amongst this demographic, work had become stale, given that our musical imaginations had disappointed us, for the sake of the number of physical steps that digital music creation would require of us, during the creative process, itself. Thinking back, and comparatively, perhaps some of the cutting-edge and elite music producers and studios had, for a long time, now, employed touchscreen formats, which allowed for similar types of control over the workflow and user interface formats, along with software and hardware plugins, instruments, and effects, perhaps - all suited to accommodate music creation and capture, and, also, unique, to some degree, perhaps. 

 For me, I happen to recall that I intently set aside the creation of music tracks and songs, at some point, back when I was trying to juggle so many acts, in between work, walking the dog, home life, and various other attempts at juggling lifestyle concerns. 

Nowadays, 

the late model iPad Pros make things easy, and so many pursuits in life, that had been accommodated by ostensibly larger, clunkier, hardware, are much more well-suited and accommodated by this handheld device, control surface, and screen, all in one. 

For one thing, the sheer speed and power of the late model iPad Pros (I have the 2022 11-inch version) are a challenge to beat, in terms of some senses, of “doing things,” so to speak - in particular, music-wise, in graphic design, in an illustrative sense, and for the sense of user experience and interactivity. The possibilities are, by far, much more on the creative enthusiast’s side, with the iPadOS format; for example, I am a classical pianist, since age 5, which is the recommended age at which a child is recommended to begin piano lessons, in general. I ended up attending university and grad school for music and for music composition, as my concentrations, and majors. 

That being said, 

perhaps that sense of belonging, and, of… 🤔 perhaps, longing, as well - for a familiar platform, in music creation, which accommodates the user at the point at which familiarity brings relief, rather than discontent, for the fact of that it feels like little has changed, in some regards, from the desktop / laptop macOS (and prior) versions of Logic Pro - I’d been a Logic user since version 5, I believe, somewhere back, around 2002-2003, or so - that’s how far this particular platform dates back, historically, for me: it was my preferred platform for creating music, for as long as I’d worked with digital music, on a computer.

Landscape view of the workspace layout, in a new project session I had tinkered around in, in the new Logic Pro for iPadOS app. Here, I had learned where the patches, control panels, session features, such as creating new tracks, instrument patch selection, mixer, and various options, for instruments, for example, are located. 

Now, granted,

I’d long ago ditched such things as jailbreaking my device(s), and I’d set out on the comparatively much brighter outlook of purchasing my software from the App Store. To be sure, it’s a golden age, somewhat, of affordable software, on a top-tier platform, and format - it’s been this way, for a very long time, and for performance, over newness and novelty considerations, it’s truly an illustrious time to be an avid App Store browser and searcher, with the degree, versatility, depth, and features of the third party apps - instruments (inter-app audio) and plugins (Audio Units) that have already been developed, going on, for a good run and a show of things - all of these things, considered, for over a handful of years, and then some (I got on to the latest-model iPhone and iPad Pro formats beginning around 2017, or so. That being said, I’d personally accumulated a fair number of handy and nifty plugins, instruments, and apps - for that matter, apps of all sorts.

Getting fairly personal, here - a peek at my first-page Home Screen, on my current 11-inch 2022 iPad Pro. Here, I had tried to include as broad-reaching, yet contextually succinct, in most cases - the nested folders, which describe the apps I placed in to them. In some cases, the context is largely generalized. For example, I included Logic Pro in my “Apple” nested folder.

All of this being the case,

a newcomer / enthusiast, to the iPadOS format might be wondering where, and or how, they could fit themselves in to this vast ecosystem of new opportunities and grand possibilities in music and audio, with Logic Pro, now being offered, for iPad. I’ll be quick, since other sites cover this sort of specification requirements - essentially, at this point, a Logic Pro user would have to be on a late 2020, or later (release) standard iPad, such as the 8th generation standard iPad, which came out, in late 2020, the iPad Air 3, iPad Mini 5, or any more-recent device. The prospects are not so dim - devices dating back to this time, in development and production, hardware-wise, given iPads - this is an iPad thing, to be certain, and I feel that some users might begin obsessing and searching, madly, for some sort of “other” platform hack, or crack, or otherwise, some sort of solution, which would allow for Logic Pro to work on an iPhone, or something - it won’t work out; that’s my advice (at least not to a person’s overall satisfaction with such an arrangement, if it does become possible to do so). 

So, people will need a late 2020 or later model iPad, of (any|some) sort.

What to do? - if a person doesn’t already own an iPad?

A conundrum, and a frustrating situation, of all things, but, trust me, it’s worth it to switch to iPad, if you’re a music and audio enthusiast. First of all, the display (screen) real estate is at it’s best, with the iPad, and it’s Retina display features, at this stage of starting out with iPads, as a standard feature. All things considered, it’s about (or, at least) as much display and screen space as people had become accustomed to, with iPhones, or other mobile devices, and I consider it a must, for doing work in digital formats, for any kind of digital multimedia arts enthusiast. Trust me, it’s a bargain, in many ways. For one thing, people can employ Google Voice, to field their phone calls, on mobile, and be done with paying for cellular service, and, instead, switch to an unlimited data Tablet Plan, such as AT&T offers, for only $20 a month

Hmm… the information detailed in that link suggests that this plan is only for business users, but it’s the plan that I’m on. I’m wondering what the particulars are, on this topic. Perhaps you’ll have to fashion your own business premise, out of this iPad procurement issue - not beyond reach, for the otherwise standard user, who’s aspiring to create music. AT&T has some obscure, behind-the-scenes marketing distribution efforts, I’d estimate, directing customers to one or another offer, to suit, and these types of distinctions and exclusivity could be somewhat incremental, and progressive, in a sense - you might have to come back to the AT&T website, over several days, perhaps, and contingent on that you’d worked out your budget for a device and for this plan, yet I find it the most suitable accommodation in Apple iPad financing and data plans - this AT&T package. For one thing, it greatly reduces the cost of monthly payment commitments, making owning an iPad vastly within reach - for example, I’m mostly outfitted with a welfare-benefits budget, yet I still qualified for this program; that being said, I do run this blog, and associated activities, as a business, for example. I imagine that my readers might encounter different offers, from AT&T, yet, as I’d said, previously, try back at it (AT&T’s website, or app), over the course of several days, perhaps, and see if you get a progressively better deal, once you’ve worked out your finances and budget, for allowing for this sort of thing, with leasing-to-own an iPad, if you can’t purchase one outright.

The next thing to consider is storage.

Here, you could potentially have several choices, depending on where and how you buy in, to the iPad format. Perhaps you already own an iOS device, with some storage used up. On one hand, you’d be fairly hard-put to allow for a fully-featured, free-roaming Logic Pro installation, which, in and of itself, at this point, of the outset of its release, on iPadOS, amounts to about 16 GB of space, if you install all of the content, included in Logic Pro. Recent macOS users of the Logic Pro app would find many of these offerings in the iPadOS version to be very familiar. I chose to download everything, since I have 512 GB storage on my iPad Pro, with plenty of space, at this point. 

The Logic Pro Sound Library dashboard, on iPadOS.

Some of the add-on Sound Packs included, standard, with iPadOS.

A page describing one of the sound packs and instruments included with Logic Pro.

As I’d said, the total installation size, for the complete offerings included with Logic Pro, as well as the app, itself, amounts to about 16 GB. That being the case, if your device only has 64 GB storage, you could, conceivably, already not have enough space, considering other apps, music, photo, document, video, and system data storage content that.s already been filled. On one hand, I wouldn’t much recommend trying to fit Logic Pro in to your iPadOS system, to the exclusion of other stuff you have going on, in your digital iDevice life, since it’s probably also necessary, and it feels good to have options available, as well as an appropriately situated outlook for storage expansion, given legacies of apps, content, and storage committed to our iCloud+ backups, which you’ll also have to figure in monthly fees, to store your backup iPadOS system images, as well as store content, which will be accessible on your iCloud+ subscription plan, which is a good, well-integrated, cloud storage system, in my opinion. 

So, for example, if your current installation is nearing, at, or over - 100 GB, then you’ll definitely be much more comfortable with a 256 GB device, over 64 GB options, that might typically be available. You can find deals on iPads, locally, at any time, on craigslist - one of my old favorites, and a long-time tech-buyers’ and sellers’ haven, for Apple device transactions to go down, locally, and, most commonly, without a hitch. Be sure that the seller is willing to let you demo the device, as far as setting things up, if you go this route. The other well-established platform for local deals would be Facebook Marketplace, which, locally, is very comparable, and, perhaps, even more well-populated, with deals on Apple devices, for local, in-person transactions. Here, you will have various options, and, at times, more options, perhaps, as far as payment, with regards to completing your side of the transaction. I’ve not yet had a poor experience using Facebook Marketplace. There’s also eBay, which is another well-trusted platform for e-commerce transactions to take place; here, with buyer and seller standards, of ratings, and reviews, at the forefront. Amazon is also a suitable marketplace for online transactions, in searching for a new iPadOS device. 

Some things to consider are that, ideally - in my opinion, you’d want to go with a “carrier unlocked” device, which means that it’s been paid for, in full, most likely, by the seller, or, by another previous user, and you can check out any carrier’s plans, as far as getting your device hooked up with data service - iPads can, and do, have their own “phone numbers” provisioned to them, but you can’t make “phone” calls from iPadOS devices, although you can use the phone number for Apple device messaging and FaceTime only - you can’t make calls from your iPad, per se, although you can use Google Voice, for free calling, and it works just as well as a real cellular phone number, in many cases. Only occasionally, a person would run in to a problem with verifying their accounts, from various websites, for example, for needing to use a Google Voice number - it isn’t allowed, in some cases, or, you’d have to contact customer service to notify them of the difficulties in using a VoIP number, such as a Google Voice number.

You’d definitely have to avoid an “iCloud locked” device, since those devices are ones that the current owner of the iPad cannot unlock, themselves, which is questionable. It’s practically junk, in other words. At the time of the transaction, make sure to meet in a comfortable, public or private setting, where it would be reasonable to “go over” your personalization and booting up of your new iPad device, if you’re buying from a local buyer. Make sure that your purchasing platform, or payment medium, has buyer protection, in case something strange happens. 

That being said, remember to try to go with a reasonable amount of storage. If your iOS device backup is already at 100+ GB, or so, you could reasonably, in short order, max out 256 GB, but maxing out 512 GB would be far more off, in the future, perhaps years from this point. Keep in mind some general rules of solid state storage, such as that performance starts to decrease, when the storage drive becomes filled at over 50%. Beyond that, there is about a 10% decrease in performance, with every increase of 10% beyond 50% of storage space filled. Remember, an iPad is a versatile device, and you’d probably explore many different interests, in the App Store - some of which will require a fair amount of storage, themselves, for the app, and for content you create. Set aside a vast amount of data storage for yourself, and don’t worry about it, all that much, for the time being. Just stay intent on expanding, over years, with newer devices. By that time, storage performance and read/write access times will greatly increase, over newer generations of device busses, RAM, VRAM, and storage.

Updating…

Wednesday, March 22

Catching up with neat-o fancy apps of web | app UI design, with universal or hybrid platform code bas

For first-time web | app (website-derived apps, or even in-page call stack coding “miniatures,” if you will) - somebody (like, myself), who is a “basically” amateur open-book sort of web app developer | aspirational type of approach to coding (except for Linux stuff, which has only limited-scope usefulness and portability, in this consideration of a use case scenario):

  • Many people, I imagine, simply draw a blank, as to what to do, in a case like this, since it was all just some imaginable “great” internet-borne experience.
  • Consequently, the urge to come up with something ingenious and worthwhile (worth talking about, perhaps) comes to mind.
  • The mind comes to consider that somebody else had already come up with this great idea.
  • A search on the Google Play Store or Apple’s App Store commences / newbies might, alternately, opt to try to break in to / subvert their devices security measures, and pursue some sort of disassembly of their device and or it’s operating system, for the sake of coming upon something “better.”


  • Ugh.
  • Personally, I stopped doing the self-hacking of the device and the disassembly thing, several years ago, since I was always at odds with coming up with something innovative, or productive. 

     To be certain, 

    most decent development ideas have already been derived and established, of an organic nature, independently - just as an offhand fleeting assertion; the notion could extend to as much as that we are always, it may seem, and from here on out - aside from the expectation of that novelty, as a general premise in development, and in discovery; perhaps, innovation, per se, we now have some recent seminal works on the limitations of novelty, given some development task. For example, in the recent years, leading up to this point in time, we have some of the formative rhetoric and ideological and logistical backdrop established, as to what can be attained and wrought, from out of an intersection between novelty and the influence of creative works, from the study:

    Park, D., Nam, J. & Park, J. Novelty and influence of creative works, and quantifying patterns of advances based on probabilistic references networks. EPJ Data Sci. 9, 2 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1140/epjds/s13688-019-0214-8

    “Also, there are implications for the psychological study of novelty as well. It has been known in optimal theory of novelty that the positive acceptance (also called the “hedonic value”) of novelty follows the so-called Wundt curve that increases initially but decreases after a peak, indicating that too much novelty can be off-putting to humans…”

    which includes references to information derived from yet other works:

    Berlyne, D. E. (1969). Arousal, reward and learning. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences159(3), 1059-1070.
    and 

    Berlyne, D. E. (1970). Novelty, complexity, and hedonic value. Perception & psychophysics8(5), 279-286.

    Both, simply for a quick flash of the context’s potential subject areas, which could, or ought to be considered, in this case. 

    Essentially, the topic, in and of itself, supposes that novel ideas are limited, in their usefulness and in their longevity, yet, as we may observe, from the initially-cited article, 

Tuesday, March 21

Checking in: What’s happening, and what’s there to look forward to, at iPigeon.institute.

 I’d been a bit absent, lately, 

in recent months. This has been due to personal difficulties, on account of various things:
  • Back and neck pain
  • Budgeting challenges
  • Poor weather
  • Perceived, or actual threats, to my personal security
  • Persona developments
  • Remote sensing acquisitions of my time
The truth is, I’d become a bit apathetic, and worry-worn, due to constant challenges and negativity surrounding me, essentially drawing a dark cloud over previous years, in which I’d had eccentric bursts of creativity and prolific resource of novelty and humor. These days, I find it difficult to drum up the same personal rapport and morale, being that the situations suppose, even more than I’d experienced, previously, since I began suffering from bouts of hearing persecutors voices, and from then until now - largely, now, have a distinctive dark taint of familiarity, amongst the characters whom present themselves to me, as harassers, which envelops my subconscious mood and fears of ever establishing yet another dysfunctional relationship, that I bring myself in to.

To be sure, it’s mostly guys that do this to me. With women, I’m much more optimistic, of that they could be “fixed,” perhaps, if necessary, or set aright, in some manner, if it came to that - it’s just sort of a feeling, more than that anything’s materialized; encounters with females are scarce, and not much of anything, although I have been feeling sparks of inspiration, in romance, in recent days and weeks, I’d suppose, and I guess that I’ve been working myself up to dipping my toes in the water, once again, so to speak. It’s a raw deal, that I run, being that I’m fraught with such a defensive and secluded personality framework spectrum of “possible” me’s, which I could make available, and secure some kind of workable sociability profile, for a lady, being that I’m picky, I’ve got formative standards and boundaries set for myself - I don’t tolerate much of any kind of conflict, or distaste, or aversion, to something that’s “not right,” or worse, in a relationship setting, being that I’m a very high 99th percentile degree of honest, and forthcoming, in life, I “don’t smoke (any drugs),” I’m very much present, in the moment, when it comes to opportunities to judge people, and on top of that, my neurotic spectrum of tendencies is still of that I’m generally shy, not much really capable of coming up with a right way to casually wedge my way in to some young lady’s life, and circumstances, and, furthermore, I’m somewhat expected to not even try to date, while on the job, for various reasons and rationale:
  • I’m a bum
  • My clothes are oftentimes messy
  • Sometimes I sweat a lot
  • I have a bunch of baggage - literal, bum and pigeon-feeding bum sorts of carry-along baggage
  • My nose leaks and drips, endlessly
  • I feel like crap, as far as limber qualities - I carry a lot of bags, as I’d mentioned
  • A lot of people (women) could run circles around me, in socialization standards
  • I’m there for the pigeons, and I can’t afford to look like a creep
  • It’s a better trade-off, to be silent, keep to myself, and persist, in feeding pigeons
  • I run a strictly fairly conservative Christian Protestant profile, of not much talk, or socializing
  • I just keep to myself
  • I have to protect my iPad Pro
  • Sometimes, I feel like people are following me
  • I have people making appearances in my mind, all the time
  • I feel like some people definitely don’t like me, categorically, and sometimes, they show up, in town
  • I feel like it would look funny, or scandalous, if I somehow materialized some kind of idealized female counterpart, at my side
  • People put my personal private time at issue, and they criticize ostensible things that I do (or not)
  • I have to do a sit-in job, while out and about, of performing licensed talk and behavioral therapist, marriage and family therapist, some sort of amalgamated public and mental health capacity type of fill-in, sort of work profile, lumped in
  • Maybe these are just the “toilet can years” of this pigeon-feeding gig’s enterprise

Monday, March 13

The importance of classical music education.

Oftentimes, 

I’m issued an obscure, yet demanding task - to contend against invisible adversaries who speak down towards me, in my mind. Far be it from me to feign the belief of that everyone can understand my plight, and dilemma, yet I feel that there is a strong subset demographic operating amongst us, who secretly, and intently, contribute to this obfuscation of the facts (plus more), as singular, or collective, remote sensing interlopers. 

On one hand, some contingent factors must be kept in mind, at all times - one of them, is the understanding, and expectation of that not “everyone,” per se, would reasonably be included within any off-hand remote sensing event, or experience. In other words, it’s important that observants, subjects (of focus), and or participants in remote sensing occurrences keep the potential for grandiosity to flourish in check. Similarly, I commonly observe that some participants, in remote sensing events, at times, brazenly disregard the genera public, and the potential for their communications and participation to fall upon unintended audiences’ “ears,” or, more rightly, their “minds,” since these are aural experiences, perceptually, yet they can not be recorded, via conventional technology means, at least, at the consumer level, at this point in time (March, 2023). 

Other considerations aside, what a tragedy it is, that many people are wrongfully wrought up, in to cult-like sects of sadistic ritual abusers. It’s an unimaginable travesty. 

Rather than focus on this type of occurrence, as a phenomenon, I’d rather maintain objectivity, and rationality, yet the aforementioned dilemma largely prefaces my current underlying circumstances in life, as I find writing to be a self- and identity-affirming practice, through the process of composition, in and of itself, and I largely only get around to writing, textually, these days, although I do make some small gains, here and there, for upcoming and developing musical projects and works to be derived, later on, from future practice and learning, within a musical context. 

Music is truly one of the fundamental intelligences; to be certain (although, this is a time in which shoddy journalistic and publishing practices dominate former standards in intelligence; therefore, valid information of our youth’s learning and education becomes much more of a challenge to discover, for reference, on the internet). Recent seminal works had documented musical intelligence as one of the 9 primary areas of intelligence, for example. We must not diverge our resources available to us, and cast them to the wind, so to speak, by allowing inferior intelligence streams, whether it be our own search patterns, on the internet, or through our news feeds. Yet, this being the case, it’s somewhat all a fluke, given that musical intelligence is something of various forms of virtue - hand-eye coordination, memory and recall plays a significant role in performing and in thinking about music, fine motor muscle skills are developed, through musical training, and musical practice assumes a disciplined lifestyle and household, to at least some degree, in order for musical learning to take place, and take hold, in the mind. 

Much of many people’s discontent and “acting out,” which I find to be prevalent, in my most near-to-me proximity (or, for that matter, as commonplace, in my remote sensing event occurrences, lately) border upon suggestions of modeling of society, itself, now, as an anarchistic domain, to become developed. Are we in our end times, for the sake of a lack of trying to do better? There’s very much a large helping of apathy, amidst discontent, whereas music, whether it be experiencing live or recorded musical pieces, or through practicing and playing music, oneself, both in solitude, and amongst others of a musical inclination. There seems to be so much detrimental, in attitudes about society at large, as a suitable “victim” for one’s own inequities and shortcomings, in life, whereas, I feel that music would fulfill that gap, and need, in life, which we all have, and that being said, it is a blessed offering to ourselves, our wellbeing, and for others. 

Monday, February 13

Product Review - Maison Margiela “Replica:” Jazz Club - Eau de Toilette.

This time, I tried out an unexpected “newcomer” fragrance. 

I hadn’t heard of Maison Margiela, prior to showing up at Nordstrom, out at the Del Amo Fashion Center, where I’d intended to show up to purchase Jo Malone’s Myrrh and Tonka - Cologne Intense (currently $160-$220 USD), as a departure from men’s fragrances I’d already tried, and loved, such as Dior Homme ($95-$175 USD - 1.7-6.7 oz.) or Viktor and Rolf Spicebomb ($134, 3.04 oz.). Prior to showing up, I’d tried to pore over exactly what I was trying to get at, here and there, in maintaining a fragranced personal profile, for people (not really) - the thought had come up, in my mind, as a suggestion, after all. Sure, Myrrh and Tonka smells great, but was it beyond something I could reasonably mix up, myself, somewhat, if I’d just purchased various component ingredients, myself? On one hand, Tonka bean is a bit of a contentious ingredient, being that it is potentially toxic. After the fact (of my purchase), I got some feedback on things. Supposedly, the toxins had been painstakingly researched and studied, as far as the end product fragrance composition, in question, and they’d duly been removed, from the consumer fragrance product - not all that far-fetched, to suppose. 

Then, at the men’s fragrance rack, at Nordstrom, the merchandising display winds up being a different story. I chose to do retail, at a department store, for one thing, for the sake of the fact that they have an on-site testing and auditioning space and capability, as far as product offerings, in fragrance - it’s something that e-commerce solutions, as far as branching out, in to something new, can - at times, be lacking in, resulting in purchases that lead to buyer’s remorse, perhaps, or a lack of diversification, which can wear down on things; concepts such as innovation. On the bottom of the fragrance rack, there were these products, named Replica, as a brand, which I had never heard of, before. I figured - “hmm… Replica? As though they might, somewhat, be fairly high-end aiming, (somewhat) bargain alternatives (at $150 USD, for 3.4 fl. oz.) to the more high-end and more well-established luxury lines, such as Jo Malone - in this case, I’d say that this brand is a bit of a newcomer, at Nordstrom, out here, whereas Creed products, far more expensive, which were placed at the top of the same section, on the same part of the fragrance rack, Jo Malone, right below, and some other brand, next one down, with Replica products seated at the bottom of the rack. My analytical mind had me supposing that perhaps these ones were a viable knock-off sort of thing, or otherwise cheaper alternative product, leading me astray from fulfilling my initial intention, in procuring a new fragrance for myself - so I don’t smell, while I’m out and about, in public, feeding the birds, and such. I do routinely become sweaty, and oh - what a travesty, if I end up smelling bad, as a known pigeon-feeding bum.

This is the product, similarly, as I’d encountered it, as a sample bottle, in-store, at Nordstrom. Maison Margiela’s Replica fragrance line touts itself as a rendition, if you would, upon a notable theme, or experience, per se. I found “Jazz Club” to be a suitable attention-grabbing alternative, given my initial intention to purchase Jo Malone’s Myrrh and Tonka cologne, for a fair sum of money more, on this instance of purchasing a bottle of cologne.

As it turns out, the general field of relevance, contextually - in a sensory sort of consideration, given the two top competitors, here - Myrrh and Tonka versus Jazz Club, I found my choice to wind up being reasonably within a similar olfactory ballpark, with Myrrh and Tonka’s lavender top notes becoming a citrusy and floral theme, with primofiore lemon and neroli, in Jazz Club. In addition, I’d also recently - by turn of fate, been interested in Rum, as a fragrance ingredient - quite expensive, as it turns out, and I feel that it’s a sophisticated ode to myrrh, on one hand, with its complexity and breadth, in a fragrance composition. The unifying features, between either one of them, were the sweet base notes of either one - Tonka bean versus vanilla bean: similar, in an olfactory sense, yet, upon sampling both fragrances in the store, I found Myrrh and Tonka to have a bit, perhaps, too much richness, in the bottom notes, and I felt that I would, at some point, measuring out a use-case scenario, of me being out and about, and sweating, and stuff - of that I’d develop a viciously rich musk about myself - easily offensive, if I ever got lazy, and I’d wind up “not realizing,” so to speak, how I smell, to other people, whereas I found Jazz Club’s features to accommodate the same general aesthetic, while remaining a bit bright, I’d say, as far as the overall effect, of the fragrance, whereas I could layer it with some still-there citrus and woodsy fragrances I have, in small amounts - Eau d’orange verte, by Hermes, and Dior Homme. Together, the trio of the three fragrances is deliciously elegant, like a luxuriantly-enveloped citrus rind, upon close examination, with the middle and base notes becoming more evident, with diffusion, starting at a slight distance, perhaps, with a slighter sniff of the nose. In my fragrance-wearing oeuvre and repertoire, of purchases-past, I’d enjoyed having what I’d say, would amount to a similar citrus-led layering of colognes, such as that the Hermes botanicals line of products would be most suitable - for instance: Eau de Citron Noir had been a recent favorite, with Dior Homme and Spicebomb as my layering choices - quite complex, in that instance. 

After purchasing, I tried on some of my choice, in purchasing, and I found it to have a delightful olfactory sense of that the fragrance imparted a notion of having taken a shower - ostensibly due to an addition of C-12 (I’d sensed - both Lauric Alcohol, as well as Aldehyde C-12; fairly bitter), with Alcohol C-12 (Lauric Alcohol) being the characteristic “just-showered” scent, of all scents, I’d say, and C-12 Aldehyde being a bit controversial for me, since I’m allergic to drinking alcohol, and overall, I found that this fragrance easily affects me with a notable depressive and sedated effect. It was my choice, though, in trying this one out, and perhaps it’s not all that much, to my detriment, overall. I’m trying to do life as representatively (as much as possible) not overly, or obviously, stimulated - it’s simply too cheaply and easily a topic of controversy, and I strive to be an honest role model of sustainability in my enterprise model, so I don’t get thrown out of town - quite literally, that, which could wind up, being the case, for me. I figure - if I take the bottle out, with me, on a walk, and with my ionic mineral carry-along profile, and with my travels equating to some form of milling, further, of the product, the fragrance would, ostensibly, mill out the aldehyde, or I could throw some other stuff in there, since the bottle actually allows for the entire spray top, and “cap” of the bottle, to be removed - allowing for additions, or refills, for example, another ingredient, or entire fragrance, could be put in to this bottle of Jazz Club, thus transforming the presence of this contentious (for me, being allergic to “drinking” alcohol) Aldehyde C-12 ingredient in to something altogether unexpected, and far-removed, sensory-wise, in the fragrance composition, in my experience with aldehyde C-12.

A nice touch, that the bottle’s top is removable, allowing for refills. 

I’ll leave this review, at that, for the time being. Thanks for reading :)

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