(To be spoken)
When I first read from this text a few months ago at a shop in Portland, Oregon, I paused every two or three paragraphs to play an example from the stack of vinyl on the shelf. By the end I’d realized this was a bad idea, but had no idea why until I happened to attend an exhibition of the work of the American composer Robert Ashley shortly afterwards. on display was a transcription of a talk, “The Future of Music” given in 2000 at the University of California in San Diego. its opening paragraphs explained the problem so precisely that I’ve stuck them wholesale onto the front end here:
When I first read from this text a few months ago at a shop in Portland, Oregon, I paused every two or three paragraphs to play an example from the stack of vinyl on the shelf. By the end I’d realized this was a bad idea, but had no idea why until I happened to attend an exhibition of the work of the American composer Robert Ashley shortly afterwards. on display was a transcription of a talk, “The Future of Music” given in 2000 at the University of California in San Diego. its opening paragraphs explained the problem so precisely that I’ve stuck them wholesale onto the front end here:
