Day 70: Mashnight

2026-04-17

Limited permission was granted to use photos taken for these events on this site.

Hello! I'm realizing that so many things I use are coded with artificial intelligence. Especially with Anthropic's Claude, which was caught destroying millions of books in the name of science, and which was defended as being legal, despite knowledge of other non-destructive techniques. Ay.

With my eyes heavy and the bed oh-so-tempting, I should recount the music all throughout the night.

I have experience playing music for shows and events, where I learn hours of music for public entertainment. This night was that and more; I learned thirteen new songs, played them at a gig, and then drove back to hear thirteen more at school.

This photo is from the latter half of that chaotic and music-filled night. I offered to be the photographer for the school's Fireside Recital, a small but formal performance of guitar, flute, piano, drums, string instruments, and lots of singing. It's the event where you hear Laufey's Dreamer and then also Bach's Invention No. 4 in D minor BWV 775 within a few minutes.

I always worry that my camera's snappy shutter sound disturbs the performers, particularly in a small room like this where the acoustics make my camera a lot louder than it would sound outside. But they would be more upset with me if I didn't get good photos, so I figure the tradeoff is worth it.

Before the Fireside Recital, I was at a senior living complex performing music of my own pickings, as part of my band class. Yes, I'm a band kid in high school. Should probably have mentioned that by now for those who didn't know...

There were complicated jazz pieces (where the school plays boatloads of money to Hal Leonard for sheet music) and well-known tunes from decades past (... also bought from Hal Leonard). People especially loved Beatles classic Can't Buy Me Love, and the staff were singing along to Neil Diamond's Sweet Caroline.

For those who care: I like Henry Mancini's Moon River best, and our arrangement was over-the-top weird. Not Jacob Collier weird, but weird.

Right, enough links to music. Put on headphones and have some fun.

Finally, a web game. Extremely simple concept, extremely simple execution. Michael Coorlim developed Head Gamez in a few days and I really enjoy it. Dodge the heads as they get faster. The subtle attention to detail (like walking animation and sound effects) are silly and fun.

Cheers,
David