The clouds are a different shape today!

Recently read a lot of @jenpkelly.bsky.social's music writing, so I was excited to see her write about someone I know for Aquarium Drunkard! Greg is very singular and was gracious to our band several times. Kelly's portrayal of his rural realism has me excited. aquariumdrunkard.com/2025/09/22/g...

"And as Godfrey-Smith notes, the thought that we’re 'responding to only a small sliver of what is going on—and other animals will respond to a different sliver and process it differently—is not an easy idea to take on board.'” www.nybooks.com/articles/202...

Toronto (Friday Sept 26) @subvert.fm 🤝 @newfeelingcoop.bsky.social This event brings together Subvert and New Feeling for a conversation about the future of worker and artist ownership in music. Join us. RSVP: luma.com/subvert

Headed in. This is a great label. Do not miss Nick Dunston's Colla Voce in particular. He's with Mary Halvorson in Portland, ME tomorrow @spacegallery.bsky.social, along with many other OOYH artists!

tour dates for my band Portals comin' up.

This is an incredibly mature piece of art. I found it by happenstance and I'm very excited. There's been some music journalism about it (@spinal-bap.bsky.social, @callinamagician.bsky.social, @paddyclarke.bsky.social), but I think it merits more. wormery.bandcamp.com/album/pantilde

I'm "reissuing" this two-part collection of draft recordings as Exactly and However in 34 tracks. I put it out very quietly but it's really my favorite. Come chat, give impressions, hear why I made it. Pay $5 and get a physical copy when I print them. alexsilver.bandcamp.com/merch/exactl...

Who's responsible right now? Who's aware of the tangible world in North America? It's probably not powers-that-be and it doesn't seem to be the task of public artists anymore... Poor people? Indigenous people? Road crews?

Anyone else going for a quiet, peaceful life with your limited time on earth? The weather's so good where I live and I was just thinking, "What a shame."

If everyone is listing books that changed the patterns and movement of their physical bodies in 2025 so far:

I'm writing a new book for @haymarketbooks.org, and I'm writing it fast, so help is most welcome. More here: johnwashington.substack.com/p/how-to-clo...

Thank goodness, someone in my community makes things that are more perceivable as sound than Idea. #portlandmaine anniedodson.bandcamp.com/album/corn-a...

The only reason I'm older than you is I was born at a different time.

And here is my favorite photo-and-painting combo of geraniums. Anton Gojmir Kos. #flowersky #centraleuropeanartists

Vaxholm, Sweden on August 17. I talked about the geraniums in the windows so much they suggested I take this picture. alexsilvertown.com/2025/08/30/p...

I admired the young man, in perfect congress with his phone, while the total miracle of Earth pleaded for his attention.

Happy Labor Day—I honor labor organization and its place in the US. Always love reading UMaine historian @querythepast.bsky.social's blog about Franco-American history. Here he says: "The farther removed we are from tangible fields and applied sciences, the more we seem to arrogate expertise."

I keep an eye on Multilingual Matters titles because I so loved their Foundations of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism by Wright and Baker. Issues of language equity feel quiet around me in the US, even in communities who support immigrants. But clearly there is a deep well of effort out there.

Wow, "Ghost Lullaby," what a gorgeous, peace-inducing improvisation.

I feel more at ease when I think of myself as a plant or animal.

I'm starting to notice that people can't read my mind.

One of the best parts of growing older is realizing I’m a living creature and I belong here with everything else.

Well I'll be damned if my impassioned reading of @alvanoe.bsky.social and enactivist philosophy didn't finally intersect with my career as a middle school teacher. Thank you @lovephilosophy.substack.com for creating the safe, curious spaces that inspire such clear speech. pca.st/jan8cc3f

I'm on Bluesky for the hot takes on embodied perception.

The frequency with which we use the word “we.”

Playing bass for Chico States tomorrow at Blue in Portland. w/ Lolabelle and El Malo, great jazz venue and nice for a Friday. www.blueportlandmaine.org/events/chico...

How to actively listen on the Internet

Upcoming Chico States :) Band stoic, bassist squirrelly. 8/1 @ Blue w/ Lolabelle, El Malo—Portland, Maine 8/9 @ Prism Analog w/ Whip Appeal, Ruby Lou—Portland, Maine 9/26 @ Club Moss—Nobleboro, Maine 10/10 @ House Show w/ Lolabelle, Stephen—Bath, Maine 11/8 @ Hi-Fidelity w/ Vega—Portland, Maine

Sure, thank a teacher. But thank a journalist! Thanks @reubenschafir.bsky.social for the work you're doing on the tribal beat. www.pressherald.com/2025/07/21/p...

Yesterday I noticed there’s more information along a “nature trail” than I find on the internet. I’m only able to use my senses to get things from a screen, and I found the flow out there was a lot stronger.

Went to a diner this morning with an issue of @thewiremagazine.bsky.social and no internet. An observation: in terms of my mental movement, there seems to be more content in The Wire than I've ever noticed scrolling my phone. www.thewire.co.uk/in-writing/c...

Imagine people migrating freely and negotiating a niche in their new communities. This 34-min. podcast is an excellent summary of ideas from @jwashing.bsky.social’s humane book. 99percentinvisible.org/episode/633-...

The Internet early in its meditation practice.

All you can write is what you see

As the ol’ existential philosophers have pointed out, when something breaks you notice it again. In some ways I’m grateful to live in a time when many are asking: “Where is music?”

This was a really nice thing to say. I’ll extend this wish: that you can commune with people on an even quieter plane—your music like a dear book in someone’s hand, inviting them to a wider world of perception.

Currently not seeking content. “For You combines two of the most addictive technologies of the 20th century: the fruit machine (which plays with our anticipation as to what will pop up next) and television.” www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Walking toward the house this morning, I noticed the aged wooden siding and a painted-over cable above the door. It looked more textured than anything I'd seen in a while. "Ten years ago, more or less, I realized that I had forgotten how to read." www.northsouthnotes.org/p/learning-t...

Episode "0" started things off great. I think this will be a dense resource for those of us re-imagining the habitual relationships between listeners, labels and artists. I'm thinking especially of people at @subvert.fm co-op. pocketcasts.com/discover/pod...

Storytelling's importance—grateful to be tied to this narrative. “'I remember going when I was younger, going there and speaking conversational French, and the pride,' she recalled. 'We’re trying to impart that to the younger generation.' New acts for 2025..." sacobaynews.com/cest-le-temp...

Happy #Juneteenth holiday! Slavery is one of humans' many disgusting and tragic forms of social organization. I celebrate this relatively recent achievement in the United States. It is profound 🌱 May it be a step toward social organization that minimizes all forms of violence.

Everyone deserves to have their gig printed with the grocery coupons.

I often return to this: "Oh, I've got 5,000 streams" is just like saying, "I peed in a river and 5,000 fish swam in my urine." Will Oldham in The Telegraph in 2017.

I'm thrilled when we zoom out from ideas and see the world. 175 years of this magazine! "How could I have been living under the illusion that I was the one in touch with nature, with human nature, when in fact I was just messing around with signs and abstractions?" harpers.org/archive/2025...

Around 2.5% of Maine's 1.4 million people were out protesting yesterday, according to Suit Up Maine.

"The computer was not charged with anything, neither meaning nor the future; it was just a box in a basement den in a house in a river landscape at the edge of the world on a black and wet autumn evening in 1984." Karl Ove Knausgaard for the 175th anniversary edition of @harpers.bsky.social.

La Kermesse Festival in Biddeford is coming up next weekend! I'm playing Saturday afternoon outside. This is the 42nd festival and I'm there to pitch in to preserve and respect Franco-American heritage in Maine. Neil Young, Dylan, Cohen, George Harrison, my light-hearted stuff, and some en français.

In my map-of-mental-analogues, I’ve called Galen Richmond (@repeatingcloud.com) the “Fred Thomas of Portland” since I briefly met him and got a sense of his indie commitments in Maine. I often play at his dad’s grange hall open mic. So it’s cool to see them beside each other on this list.

I'm also the bassist in Chico States, an alt-country band behind the songs of Americana madman and erudite traveler Joe Barresi. This is an exciting show for us. Seward is in the Burlington scene of Florry/Greg Freeman/Dear Life Records and we did a fav. show at the Trash Mountain of her new album.