Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith

I'm relaxing with a vaccine on the rocks right now

xpost, I found a cheaper meditation app thereby allowing me to feel less bad about not using it

congratulations on your deprogramming :D

like many things that make me feel better and are good for me, I refuse to meditate apparently

i mean i know some music that might help

many xp to Vast Halo

I'm not saying "wow modular synths haven't been used in a pop context before", she literally actually changed the way they are performed-- when she first emerged, singing songs while doodling along on a Music Easel, it was an absolutely new thing. How can I describe it? I hadn't seen modular synth used in such a pre-ordained way, like, she had specifically written a very precise way of performing something (which still left room for improvising), it was a far cry from the way I'd previously seen modular synths used by, like, Alessandro Cortini or Emeralds or any of the other normal dude modular synthesists.

The Blow have recently been doing something similar, albeit with more focus on the message and politic of the songs, with different but equally resonant effect

Alright, fair enough!

many xps - Monetizing mindfulness is gross, Calm is probably less of a grift than a lot of shit related to that.

i know those apps are corny but I'm not capable of going full Hoos into real Buddhist shit but even breathing for 5 minutes helps

as jim in vancouver noted, if anyone thinks Calm is a New Age grift, never move to Cascadia

if you do a google search for kaitlyn aurelia smith vaccination, you won't be able to find much, if anything. i'd guess that this thread may become the top search result for it, soon.

hey any anti-vaxxers who end up on this thread via Google - EAT SHIT AND DIE.

tbf that's kind of what they're trying to do

for what its worth, i only brought it up because it was disappointing to learn. i never said or implied she should be canceled, but when an artist makes their dumb ass beliefs public, of course i'm going to think differently of them.

xxxxp this sums up my feelings perfectly and informs my comments above. I'm not cancelling KAS at all, and will still enthusiastically buy her records and see her perform, but it's hard not to express disappointment and see her in a different light.

xxp fgti, I'll check out The Blow!

many xps - Monetizing mindfulness is gross, Calm is probably less of a grift than a lot of shit related to that.

― Greta Van Show Feets BB (milo z), Thursday, May 21, 2020 2:43 PM (yesterday)

I think I agree with you. For some instinctual reason that stuff feels manipulative and creepy to me. It's kinda in the same vein as those "we send you a box of things in the mail" services that supplant the requirement to do basic adult tasks? I think for me, the aspect that feels creepy and manipulative (the new age stuff) is that it implies you are incapable of adequately taking care of your own base human needs (like base of the maslow pyramid, base needs) and require this specialized service in order to do so? But as this thread shows, there are intelligent people who find these apps and what-not actually useful and don't mind paying for them? So I should just re-think my instinctual reaction.

i wouldn't blow $60 on Calm, but i might if i had more money. but it wouldn't be for learning how to address my base human needs, and i honestly i wouldn't assume that would be anyone else's intention, either. instead, it would just be to get some nice guided yoga and meditation exercises. i don't see yoga or meditation as a pursuit of base of the maslow pyramid, physiological needs. if anything they're more for the top of the pyramid - esteem and self-actualization. just sitting and being quiet (..calm?) and breathing feels really good. i have trouble doing it without some sort of audio or visual guide, though. i get distracted, otherwise.

but i don't know, i don't actually buy any of these apps or subscriptions or anything, so i don't know what they're hawking on there. i just look for youtubes and have never felt the need to pay for anything beyond that.

she's grifting live on the p4k IG right now:

https://www.instagram.com/pitchfork/

I don't know, it beats doing nothing.

it's like someone on Twitter was shading meal kit services, I love HelloFresh, 3 nights a week I don't have to think about what to make my kid, no shopping for some spice I'll use once every 5 years, plus motherfucker I know you live off DoorDash

it's like someone on Twitter was shading meal kit services, I love HelloFresh, 3 nights a week I don't have to think about what to make my kid, no shopping for some spice I'll use once every 5 years, plus motherfucker I know you live off DoorDash

lol

i don't actually buy any of these apps or subscriptions or anything, so i don't know what they're hawking on there. i just look for youtubes and have never felt the need to pay for anything beyond that.

fair enough -- i guess it's similar to how i look online for recipes when i can't decide what to make for dinner or what the typical ingredients are for some dish -- these resources exist and why not use them to improve your life.

Without a spiritual tradition to fall back on, it seems hard for westerners to not worry about ‘not meditating right’ and I guess these apps can help but I wish there was a better, non-monetized way.

there are many free youtubes

though you pay google for ads, but you if you do anything on the internet you already do that

I don’t know, should the “providers of this service” be compensated, is it labor, blah blah blah

Without a spiritual tradition to fall back on, it seems hard for westerners to not worry about ‘not meditating right’ and I guess these apps can help but I wish there was a better, non-monetized way.

There are really good books, guided meditations, dharma talks, all available for free or low cost. There are good retreats that are free all over the world (not an option at the moment but.) If you live in a major urban area you can find a group of people to sit with (that would be via Zoom now.)

The problem is that the non-commercial stuff doesn't market itself well, so you have to know it's there.

dharmaseed.org

I use Meditation Studio now, good app, think it was $7 or something, but it's a 1 time fee not subscription

but in addition to the 8 million other decisions that I make every day that I'm informed are wrong and bad, good to know that the thing I use to breath for 5 minutes a day is bad and I should use some other thing that is good

I know this is simplistic and probably goes w/o saying for most who maintain a practice, but the game changer for me was accepting that the "right" way to meditate (in vipassana meditation anyway) is just to acknowlege that's it's not working e.g. "oh look, now I'm thinking about this instead" and it changed the experience for me—this idea that you can't fuck it up so long as you observe yourself fucking it up

Brad Warner’s ‘sit down and shut up’ advice eventually worked for me but it took some getting past notions of “am I sitting correctly.”

I know all the other resources exist but many of them are tied to a spiritual tradition people may not be interested in and the success of Calm (or etc.) is that it’s an app on the device you carry with you all the time and not a class you have to travel to. Short of convincing everyone there’s no wrong way to meditate, it lowers the barrier to entry - unfortunately for $$$.

Yeah I hadn't thought about explicit Buddhism being a barrier for some people, good point. Also I know nothing about Calm, not trying to knock it.

there was a great looking sorta cranky ebook I found on amazon once that seemed to focus on berating westerners for practicing mindfulness/meditation as a means to stress reduction/self help when they should just be doing it as a means to contemplate hell

now that I want a link to

what music can soundtrack a guided meditation on hell

Dark ambient?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTXXCmX3t1g

no way is hell ambient

i guess with Calm, they do the cultural appropriation for you? idk i deal with anxiety the American way by taking pharmaceuticals proscribed by a doctor and partially covered by my health insurance company ... not saying that's the "right way" making a joke mostly ... just that I don't understand this whole meditation / relaxation industry

You don’t need to meditate to be meditating maaaaan.

Revisiting this thread, reminded of more comfortable, more inconsequential, more moribund times

Real lol at this:

she's grifting live on the p4k IG right now:

"Grifting" should become common usage as a verb to describe somebody using a modular synth

beats "wiggling"

But surely one sketches on a music easel.

New track: https://kaitlynaureliasmith.bandcamp.com/track/lagoon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpXOlcpoj1c

Every time I listen to this record I forget it's on until "Expanding Electricity" rolls around. Really poor first single to album quality ratio.

yeah, couldn't wait after listening to the preview, got the album off bandcamp and it was such a let down after that first release.

Still waiting for the vinyl from Bandcamp, which was ordered on the first bandcamp friday!

holy fuck, this new record……. my god

I saw Max Tundra bigging this up, and reports are that it's a whole new sound, so I'll chance a listen, even though she's done nothing but annoy me before

Nah, same stuff repackaged. Maybe a bit less ambient than before, and there's probably more variation, but so many of the vocal, melodic, timbral choices are purpose-built to infuriate me still. Track 7 is quite good though! There I said it etc.

it leaked?