But truth, cher ami, is a colossal bore.
- narrator, Camus' The Fall
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    dear reader/listener/viewer/enjoyer/co-conspirator:
    lest i be judged for it, i inform you now that this project continues to be a scratch pad, a space for experimentation

    in other words, enjoy what you find here, and feel free to participate, but try not to take anything personal, and don't believe that this project presents an accurate view of me or my life

    this is a window, certainly, but one that hasn't been cleaned in quite some time

    your view may be foggy, obscure...you may see things that aren't really there...

    --harold

    want some background music?
    please consider downloading my most recent music podcast.

    and yes, i love my mom and my dad;
    they've always been good to me, no matter what impression you may have received here

    they never locked me in a cellar or anything
     
    highlighted post from the archives: me rambling about a new job (from two years ago)
    i recently messed with the archives, so they may not work correctly, but you may take your chances:
    December 2002 January 2003 February 2003 April 2003 May 2003 June 2003 July 2003 August 2003 September 2003 October 2003 November 2003 December 2003 January 2004 February 2004 March 2004 April 2004 May 2004 June 2004 July 2004 August 2004 September 2004 October 2004 November 2004 December 2004 January 2005 February 2005 March 2005 April 2005 May 2005 June 2005 July 2005 August 2005 September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007 June 2007 July 2007 August 2007 September 2007 November 2007 February 2008 March 2008 May 2008

    i once was an active member of the

    association of music podcasting

    musicpodcasting.org

    along with these fine music podcasters:

    all florida indies - bing futch
    audio gumshoe - rich palmer
    audio popcorn - krash coarse
    aural icebergs music cast - tiffany rapplean
    capital rock show - bucket aka jason
    darkhorse radio - alan carr
    ears to hear - jill lawton
    eclectic mix - george l smyth
    homegrown podcast - nic treadwell
    indiefeed - chris macdonald
    le jazz affair - sal calfa
    rubyfruit radio - heather smith
    sober cafe podcast - gracie hollombe
    sundown lounge - larry winfield
    tempo of the down - harold (that's me!)
    the darkcompass podcast - rowland cutler
    the fabrications podcast - matt macfarlane
    the phill(er) - phill ramey
    the radiozoom podcast - john bollwitt
    thepillarcast.com - jon tucker
    uc radio podshow - michael yusi
    zaldor's world - les zaldor

    ¡the text on this blog wants to leap out of its borders!

    this is...

    something that happened

    somethingthathappened.com
    		stories by harold j. johnson, in various formats - including text, audio, video, and podcasts
     
     
    Friday, July 27, 2007  

    I didn't know what to write, so I began to simply type as much as I could. I typed and typed. I wrote what I could in the speed that I comfortably could -- that is, I wrote swiftly, though not as swiftly as I possibly could -- and I composed nothing of particular value, and nothing that required any measure of consideration. I just typed, in the hopes of getting something accomplished. What that was, I did not know.



    Did it work? Perhaps. Perhaps not. It certainly provided me with something to do as I sat there, too caffeinated and too self-conscious. I didn't produce any major works of art. I didn't write anything terribly inspiring. My short story, the first chapter of my novel, the central thesis of my prize-winning essay -- all that would have to come another day. I didn't write anything I could take home to my mother -- or at least, to mom's nursing home -- certainly nothing worthy of reading aloud, "Here ma, look at what I wrote! Listen to this..."



    Still, I felt I'd accomplished something, if only an insignificant item that wouldn't warrant even an entry on a weblog. I had erased myself for a few minutes, forgotten that I was sitting there, jittering from an overload of coffee and in full view of everyone walking through the doors of the cafe. I think that's all I really wanted, to forget myself for a few minutes. There were other ways of doing this, sure, but I wasn't any good at them. Some folks meditate, but I couldn't forget myself while meditating. I was always aware of my body -- its minor aches and itches, the sense of its mechanisms, the smell of my armpits. I've been told that some people, in order to induce the meditative state, focus exclusively on their breathing -- or simply the sound of their breathing -- in order to lose self-absorption. Yet I always grew anxious when attempting to do so. Whenever I performed any breathing exercises, I would become too aware of my lungs, my heart pumping, my breath exhaling. Rather than losing awareness of myself, I would become irritatingly aware of every mechanism involved in my act of breathing. Some might think this would be evidence that I was achieving my goal -- but I assure you, dear reader, that I was never able to lose myself when concentrating on anything bodily, as it would inevitably lead my mind to unsettling matters. In the case of my breathing, my mind would begin to grow anxious contemplating the effects of my renewed smoking habit, the genetic possibility of pulmonary disease, the potential ulcer being induced by these very concerns, et cetera...



    So meditation, or any form of Inactivity, wasn't for me. Then there were folks who could forget themselves in the act of performing the opposite: Extreme Activity. These folks ran. They hiked, or they mountain-climbed. They swam, they surfed. They sky-dived, they bungie-jumped. They raced cars, they chased cars. They crashed cars. They lost themselves completely in the extreme activities in which they were engaged. So absorbed in these acts, they were no longer "in their heads", their minds concentrated on accomplishing the outstanding feats in which they were engaged. All of these activities required either physical endurance or some amount of money, neither of which I was in possession of. I wasn't fit, physically or financially, for Extreme Activity. Besides, had I the ability to engage in these acts, it is more likely that my neuroticism would have compelled me to worry myself to a heart attack -- that is, through worrying about worrying myself into a heart attack. That's simply how my mind works.




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    7/27/2007 04:39:00 PM (0) comments





    Thursday, July 26, 2007  

    By the way, that rally I mentioned yesterday will be attended by Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Gospel Choir, who just happened to be a guest on the Live Test Show (on TalkRadioX) yesterday! Can you believe it?!? How amazing and coincidental is that?!?!?!?!! How absolutely unlikely can that possibly be???!!!? OMIGOD I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!



    Okay, so I went a bit overboard there. It was simply one of those serendipitous events or something -- not that big a deal unless you're superstitious or a little bit spooky. If you're into that kind of thing, though, here's another spooky (or serendipitous, or whatever) moment: Right now as I'm typing this post I'm listening to an archived episode of the Live Test Show, which I just discovered in podcast format, and my show The Audio Herald is being talked about by the show's hosts.



    OMIGOD!!! THIS IS AMAZING!!!!!! I CANNOT BELIEVE IT'S HAPPENING IT MUST BE THE WORLD ENDING AND CHRIST IS ON HIS WAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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    7/26/2007 05:54:00 PM (0) comments





    Wednesday, July 25, 2007  

    I have been informed that Friday there will be a rally in New York City, in Union Square, in defense of First Amendment rights:
    Please join the Filmmaker/Photographer contingent at this Friday’s First Amendment rally at Union Square. Recently proposed regulations seriously threaten the rights of photographers and filmmakers to operate in NYC, and they could go into effect as soon as this August. Other laws already restrict our rights to parade, dance, meet, bike, shout, and assemble.
    The Press Conference and Creative Rally will begin at 6:30pm, taking place in the north end of Union Square. More details are available on the website Picture New York.

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    7/25/2007 11:15:00 PM (0) comments





    Monday, July 23, 2007  

    Quick break for an historical fact that you are sure to be unaware of (and unlikely to care about). Today I received an email newsletter from the Santa Monica Pier Restoration Corporation, and in it was stated the following:

    July 23, 1924- The La Monica Ballroom first opened its doors. The first night's attendees included many of the area's most wealthy and famous people. A crowd of 25,000 people lined the Pier to watch the celebration.

    Happy Birthday, La Monica Ballroom! As I was posting this, I had no idea what the La Monica Ballroom is/was; a quick Google search turned up that it was "the site of some of the earliest national radio and television broadcasts". Cool.

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    7/23/2007 04:30:00 PM (0) comments





    Sunday, July 22, 2007  

    Remorse. What it for? Why do we feel remorse? I suspect the feeling is some sort of adaptation humans have developed -- but for what purpose? Why must we feel bad, or remorseful, for our behavior? The answer may seem obvious: We feel remorse so that we won't repeat those behaviors.We sense that our behavior is wrong, unhealthy, unhelpful -- or in a strictly Darwinian sense, harmful to our survival. We're remorseful so that we won't repeat the errors of our ways.



    So let's hope the remorse I'm feeling right now is enough to prevent me from becoming a Gossip.



    You see, this evening I had a lengthy conversation with someone -- a conversation I was somewhat reluctant to engage in, at first, but proceeded with anyway. A conversation with a person I hardly know, having encountered him exclusively through the Internet, and only through a forum thread, a couple of Skype conversations, and perhaps one email. The phone rang this evening, and I answered it to find this person's voice on the other end. My gut instinct told me to tell this person I was busy, that I couldn't take the call right then, that I had some pressing business to attend to. I ignored my gut, though -- I suppose I had felt that I'd been avoiding this person long enough, and I didn't want to seem rude or off-putting. So I took the call. It's also possible I was somewhat intrigued with what the person might have to say. Then again, perhaps I was just practicing at overcoming my Phonecall Anxiety, or simply trying to use up those extra minutes my mobile phone provider grants me on the weekends. Perhaps this evening I was playing the part of The Nice Guy, anticipating that my inner Snape would turn out to be good.



    Turns out, Snape was bad. (My Snape, anyway -- I haven't read the book yet, so don't think this is a spoiler or anything.) This evening I became the gossip I often pride myself on not being. This evening, after the Skype call ended, I proceeded to Skypecall some fellows who "know" this fellow a little better than I do and I gossiped with them about this person. I repeated some of the nonsense I believe the fellow had related to me; I questioned his sanity. I chuckled about his ideas, his perceptions, his ambitions. I may have even called him a name or two.



    On the one hand, I have to admit that I enjoyed engaging in the gossip, to some extent. At the time, I felt I was forging a bond with the fellows I was gossiping with; I was One Of The Guys for once. I was Proving My Loyalty to my boys; I was Helping Out The Cause. I was The Man Of The Hour, the



    Whatever. I was simply gossiping, and it felt kind of good. Until it didn't.



    Before you think I'm being too hard on myself, let me assure you that I'll be over it by sunrise. Unless, of course, I'm not. Still, to better assure you that I will be -- or to distract you, anyway -- here's a link to a Talkchat recording -- that is, a TalkShoe conversation that I engaged in earlier today with a fellow AMP member and recording artist, Samantha Murphy. Sam is tentatively scheduled to host a Talkchat every Saturday at 5pm EDT; here's her TalkShoe page.



    I must go; there's a rat in my room. Literally.

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    7/22/2007 11:15:00 PM (5) comments





    Saturday, July 21, 2007  

    Returning to the astronomy topic, a project called GalaxyZoo "harnesses the power of the internet - and your brain - to classify a million galaxies." I've just now signed up for the service and run through its tutorial, and am already "analyzing" potential galaxies! It's kind of fun, actually...

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    7/21/2007 05:35:00 PM (0) comments





    Friday, July 20, 2007  

    I see the following news item as a win for the artists among us; it's certainly a win for the Creative Commons (and, arguably, a promotional "win" for PodTech). A 'Net entertainment network called PodTech (ultimately) responded appropriately to a videoblogger's request for proper attribution for his work:

    PodTech Pays Lan Bui for CC Licensed Photograph

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    7/20/2007 12:00:00 PM (0) comments





    Thursday, July 19, 2007  

    In my view, a love for astronomy is complemented by a passion for space exploration. Most folks watch space or simulate space, some folks collect space, and other folks discover space. There are a few who are even attempting to commercialize space.



    I'm not quite sure what my point is, other than pointing out to you some interesting links I've discovered (in the paragraph above)...

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    7/19/2007 03:57:00 PM (0) comments





    Sunday, July 15, 2007  

    I believe that lately I've been posting some well-considered, well-constructed and worthy-to-be-read compositions here on something that happened. Well, no more, reader -- it's time to get back to business as usual! It's time to begin posting the regular drivel I became (in)famous for...



    Otherwise, there will be nothing to read (or listen to, or to view) here, ever...



    So let's say we begin with this personal note to myself, which should be of no interest to you: I must remember to re-read this article regarding the disappearance of Venus, and our Evening (sometime Morning, and oft my Mourning) Star. It's time to whet my astronomical appetite; my stomach has long been fed with the mundane.

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    7/15/2007 05:23:00 PM (0) comments





     
     

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