New recipe for dinner tonight. Pan seared gnocchi and spinach in brown butter and sage. Now off to play a gig…

First attempt at a new bread recipe.

The south: ZOMFG SNOW!!! Shut down all the things or we’re all gonna die!!! Buy two months of groceries and enough H2O for a golf course!!! The north: I’m going to wear pants to the protest today instead of shorts.

Denmark should be like 'we're not a fucking teen miss usa contestant so stop trying to fuck us donald'

Benefits of a day off? I can work on an Ambisonic mix for an installation all day with no students wanting to use the studio. Downside? I’m still working on it…

My university’s football team won the national championship and will be having a huge parade in town today. For totally unrelated news, I won’t be on campus for some strange reason…

Holy cow, I actually updated my website with info about an upcoming installation opening (Feb. 13) and TWO album releases (March 14 and 20). #busy #composer #newmusic benfuhrman.com/installation...

Heading back to Bozeman after visiting family for the holidays. At a restaurant in the Denver airport and the Bobcats are playing for the national championship. It’s pretty much like last year except I haven’t had multiple flight delays, changed airlines, and hopefully the Cats win.

The FIFA Peace Prize doesn't mean what it used to

Incredibly positive course evals form fall semester, even though I teach hard upper division courses and I’m an honest grader (no extra credit, no fluff, hard deadlines, strictly by the rubric). Best comment “I think you should give him a raise.” Most questionable comment “Great jokes!”

Happy #PublicDomainDay! Grab that stuff and remix the hell out of it! I’ll be working on a prog rock opera based on “As I Lay Dying” staring Betty Boop, Disney’s Rover (not yet Pluto), and shoehorning a psychedelic cover of “I Got Rhythm” somewhere in the score… blog.archive.org/2026/01/01/w...

Spent the last day of the year doing some sound design work for an installation that’s opening in February. The theme is on bioengineered organisms and water, so I’m basing this all on Krell patches, sequencers, and Brownian motion. loops.video/v/cYiaY3hXhR

And with that my courses for the next semester are prepped and on the LMS. Glad I’m doing multiple sections of Synthesis/Sound Design, so it’s only one prep. Can’t wait to start the new class: Performance with Electronics!

Saw a whopping eight deer while walking the dog this morning. Not impressive until I mention that this was in a park in the middle of the city.

Me to the dog: Sorry buddy, no walkies…it’s been nothing but freezing rain for the last couple of hours, so there’s ice everywhere. Dog: Chinga la migra… Me: Wait, what?

Yet another reason why AI is horrible. flip.it/U.LXPf

Colbert's Christmas Cartoon doesn't disappoint... youtu.be/XkEy_IttHKE?...

Well, one class(with two full sections) is prepped for next semester. So many date changes that the LMS never gets right…

Whelp, Montana State won last night. My condolences to our marching band director, who has to keep doing work stuff over break…

Wow, that hits a little too close to home… definitely do not want!

And with that, grades are done and submitted. Nothing was curved, no one failed, and no one got lower than a B. This is legitimately the highest performing group of students I’ve ever worked with, even in extremely hard courses in MaxMSP and composing for spatial audio. I’m an #ExtremelyHappyProf

Student waiting outside my office at 7:30am: “Why did you take points off of my score?” Me: “Because none of the instruments are in score order.” Student: “How am I supposed to know that?” Me: “You’re literally taking orchestration this semester. It’s been covered since day one…”

Caught up on finals grading. For the time being. More coming tomorrow…

Campus yesterday. All snow has since melted due to unseasonably warm weather.

Happy Finals Week to everyone celebrating! And my deepest condolences to all of the beloved grandparents who will suddenly pass away unexpectedly this week. Your sacrifices will not negate the fact that your students have had 8 weeks to work on the projects due in my classes… #academia #sarcasm

Some pics from the holiday convoy last night in Belgrade.

Graded a class’s worth of MaxMSP projects and got the diffusion matrix set up in Reaper for tomorrow’s concert.

Come on, #pantone is not "sucking up to Trump" by making white their color of the year. If they were sucking up to him, it wouldn't be "Cloud Dancer," but "Golden Showers."

And people ask why I banned AI in all my classes under penalty of immediate failure of the course and a possible expulsion hearing… www.currentaffairs.org/news/ai-is-d...

Just had a student insert “La vie en rose” in a solo, and it absolutely slapped. I’m honestly surprised an 18 year old from the middle of nowhere knows Edith Piaf.

Dinner party tonight and guests over tomorrow. Made bread for both.

Trying Honey Picks and I’m really loving them so far. We’ll see how they hold up over time compared to Blue Chip, but they really make my Gibson sing.

And finally had time to beat Silksong. Also, holy crap, that final duel is killer!

Doing Thanksgiving stuff this weekend, so left to my own devices today. Seared steak on a bed of rice in mushroom/wine gravy with broccoli sautéed in brown butter and cashews, and a 2022 Benjamin Darnault Côtes du Rhône.

Just got back from a run. Nearly lost it laughing as a dog walker was trying to keep control of their huskies, both of whom were jumping/rolling in every spot of snow.

Woo, week off of teaching! I can go running every morning! (Looks outside and everything is covered in ice) Or I can stay inside and not break an ankle…

And we’re getting thunderhail... #montana

Great start to the week: no teaching thanks to the full week Thanksgiving break; "Mountain Rise" gets it's premier at MUSLab in Quito, Ecuador this week; and "Languid and Liminal" was accepted to the MOXsonic festival. soundcloud.com/bfuhrman/mou... soundcloud.com/bfuhrman/lan...

FINALLY had time to finish recording/editing the sampling video for my Synthesis/Sound Design class next semester. It's been a work in progress since... May... www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbFc...

“What Suno is offering is a way to bypass the development of skill, the effort required to make art, and the development of creative instincts.” Yeah, that about sums it up. #noAI flipboard.com/@theverge/bu...

This hits very true. I’m a TT prof at an R1 university and see this all the time. Previous gig at a community college had prereqs of Math/English 101 for most classes, but had to make remedial courses mandatory for all students so they could read at a MS level. www.theargumentmag.com/p/when-grade...

Student: “We don’t have a final for this course, do we?” Me: “Monday of finals week, 2pm.” Student: “WHAT??? All of my finals are on Monday. How can you do this???” Me: “As are all of my finals. Blame the registrar!”

Prepping a video on chromatic sampling for next semester’s class. Last year, this was the hardest thing for most of the class, but in previous years, it’s been “yeah, Dr. B, we know how to sample. Finished the assignment yesterday…”

Doing bridge adjustments on the Gibson F4. Somehow it got slightly out of alignment, and was throwing my intonation off all night last night…

Last night’s aurora borealis. Not the best photo thanks to light pollution, but still visible.

Out on North Cottonwood for what is probably the last hike of the season.

It’s Veterans Day. A ton of my college students skipped class yesterday to have a four day weekend. Except for the only active duty military student in the department, who was busy working on a mix in the studio all day…

Sent an email to a jam session I run that concludes with “…and please send me some suggestions for holiday songs that don’t suck for the December session. Left to my own devices, you’ll get an all mandolin rendition of ‘The Messiah.’ All 2.5 hours of it…”

Love watching a student who’s been struggling the entire semester turn in a project that absolutely blows me away. And even better, they had to submit the full DAW session, so there’s no chance of AI use in a legitimately killer project.

My hometown has a “truck eating bridge,” and my current one has, well… www.krtv.com/news/montana...