my friends call me 5 @sj5@witches.live

I've yet to see a Unified Theory Of Rock&Roll
that meaningfully addresses
queerness, otherness, & magic—
which may all be names for the same thing—
& without that,
there can imo BE no unified theory of rock&roll.

#Music #RockAndRoll #Queer #Magic

...

each stage of recording/production affords various opportunities for magic—

for the infusing of Intent into recorded sound & later perhaps into physical media.

in digital mastering,

one could call energy into the bounce.

idk tho—

vinyl cutting, magnetic tape—

they're wild physical processes!

#Music #Magic #musicproduction #Recording

...
maybe shd add,

I *definitely* think music,
live or recorded,
is powerful magic no matter what format brings it to you?

thinking about
'distilling into physicality'
as an extra step tho.

espesh vinyl mastering.

like Owsley focusing on good vibes during acid manufacture.

#music #magic

...
I *DO* tend to think of the thumb drives
I fill with mp3s for listening in the car,
as magical objects of a sort...

w/ the specific albums on each
as ingredients in a spell?

(& I actually need to re-organize them all w/ that in mind,
it's been a while & they're chaos rn)

#Magic #Music

this has got me thinking about physical media—

records, cassettes, wax cylinders, whatever—

as talisman.

many people's energy went into the music—

then it's distilled down into a Thing.

(MANY COPIES even... does that dilute or amplify?)

does a digital file lack in this way?

#Music #Media #Magic #Records #CDs #Talismans

at some point my article on 'setlist magic'
will be coming out on Tarpaulin Sky
(barring unforeseen editorial decisions I suppose)

& I just wanna say,
it's totally applicable to

~ PLAYLIST MAGIC ~

as well
🔮🪄

#Magic #Music #Writing #Playlist #Setlist

ding — 

just realized the article i was trying to write on musical pentagrams

(while interesting!)

may just want to be an article on

musical geometry.

#Music #Magic

...

Professor Graves had a projection of African runes on the wall, which he didn't mention til asked.

He 'drew' them on the drum w/ his drumstick as he played, to conduct energy (I use Futhark cos my lane?)

specifically he told me to read Helmholtz' SENSATIONS OF TONE.

I did.

#Music #Magic

near the end of Henry Threadgill's book
& he's got a way of working intervallically
so if his starting notes include a major 3rd,
all major 3rds are fair game.

I arrived somewhere similar in 2003
playing chess moves on the fretboard. (also Go)

Later, Milford Graves suggested I use runes,
which starts to bring overt magical content into the practice.

#Music #Magic #Composition #Improvisation #Guitar

one thing about BEYOND CAPTAIN ORCA!

(see #bandcamp link in previous post)

is that since our inception, guitarist/non-leader Jack Endino has insisted that "we aim to cast a spell!"

when pressed as to what KIND of spell (he doesn't know there's a witch in the band, but also he is something of a wizard himself)

Jack usually says, "Oh, you know." Or implies a healing spell of some sort, or refers to Tolkien's essay on faerie stories.

suffice to say I've tried a LOT of different spells via Orca! performances over the years! 🤘 😂 🐳

#Music #Magic

... been stumped as to what a Trash Panda Go Kart video might look like... not really a visual person tho I have some fluency with visual media... finally realized I should be thinking of it as a spell (the way we do with the music) ie, what ingredients ought this magical artifact to include?

so at least I know what direction to think in now...

#Magic #Music #Video #TrashPandaGoKart

(this is tangential to my theory that John Coltrane, possibly Alice Coltrane, & possibly Bob Dylan tho that's a different story, are deliberately casting literal spells with their compositional techniques)

#Music #Jazz #Magic #JohnColtrane #BobDylan #Songwriting

** magical musical side note—

I've had less energy since covid, but even before that it seems like the shows & sessions where I do some serious circle-casting & invocation before we play leave me exhausted for days. Wondering if that's par for the course or if I'm doing something wrong/omitting some step..? Thoughts are welcome 💕

#Magic #Music

Can't decide if I wish I'd been practicing music magic back when we lived in L.A.—the effect it could have had on & with all those crazy bands I was in;—or if it's best as it was;—or if at some future point I'll be sending spells back retroactively & this will explain all.

#Music #Magic #Time

While Beefheart lacks the spooky occult trappings (with whatever level of sincerity) of Zep, Sabbath, Bowie at times, let alone any amount of latter-day metal, there was clearly plenty of magic in his life. It seems more to be something that happened to him rather than something he controlled, more like the water he swam in (after jumping out of the school). He lived in the desert, talked to the critters, 'retired' to somewhere he could watch the whales swim by.

Happy Birthday, Don!
Thanks for everything.

2/2

#DonVanVliet #CaptainBeefheart #HappyBirthday #Music #Magic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuSX4i2OI5Y

For those unaware, there's a low-key thread running through Don Van Vliet aka Captain Beefheart's history regarding his magical prowess. He has referred to his songs as 'spells'—I have no idea how literally to take this, but he said it on the interview I'm listening to just thirty seconds after I typed it (!)—& stories of apparent psychic phenomena & inexplicable coincidences surround him, as well as stories like the time he & a friend saw a giant being walking through the desert.

1/2

#DonVanVliet #CaptainBeefheart #HappyBirthday #Music #Magic

How would I use an AI for divination...

Given the nature of the ABeast, I suspect my best course would be to gather together a variety of AI outputs and select from them at random after asking a question—revert to good ol bibliomancy, in short.

That's just me.

The distinction between algorithmically-derived *appearance* of chaos vs *actual* chaos is, for me, important. The presence of what @rudytheelder has called "gnarl" is essential.

#Divination #AI #Magic #Bibliomancy

Pearl Cat left a whisker on one of my tarot decks during the night

#Cats #Magic

re: Echols, we attended this conversation between Damien & #EddieVedder back in 2018 in the beforetimes.

Bought Damien's book HIGH MAGICK that night & loved it. The follow-ups ANGELS & ARCHANGELS is terrific as well. The more recent volume RITUAL is very good & builds on the previous two—how much sense each book makes without the previous ones/s may vary from reader to reader.

DE focuses on what I guess could be called a post-Crowleyan approach [would Crowley-Anna be a good name for someone?] & that's not my main focus but it is an influence & I prefer DE (or Lon DuQuette) to AC any day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jB0mEciwNSU

#Magic #Magick #PearlJam #Books #Bookstodon

I don't talk about my magical practice a lot (& it is all practice!). I figure it out as I go, I have the influences I have. Others know much more than I do.

But it was supercool last night that my bohemian-but-nominally-unmagical friends (who ALWAYS listen but usually only politely) were curious about Echols' writing on Angels & Archangels & asked if I would summon some while we played scrabble lol. Which I did. I could feel the result, idk if they could. I gave them the names of 2 of his books (which oddly our local rural library has) & they'll follow up or not.

Always makes me so happy to pass this stuff on to folks who are new to it all.

#Magic