Author: Arend
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Do a Field Recording Meditation
When I meditate, I like to have something keep me accountable to the time I’m setting aside, be that a timer, beads, a walk. But I’ve grown a bit annoyed with timers actually, waiting for them to go off, dealing with cheesy alarm sounds. Then it occurred to me, why not use my field recorder…
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How to delete your music from Spotify if you used CD Baby
In case you hadn’t heard, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek is investing the millions of dollars he has leeched from artists into weapons manufacturing. For myself and many other musicians, this is the last straw with Spotify, who has continually devalued our work. Boss makes a dollar, we make literal fractions of a cent. I’ve previously…
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Disidentification and Christianity in Queer Art
I learned a new word recently: disidentification. The word comes from José Esteban Muñoz’s foundational work Disidentifications: Queers of Color and the Performance of Politics. I learned this from a book on James Baldwin by Christoper Hunt called Jimmy’s Faith. Disidentification, in Muñoz’s theory, according to Hunt, is a way of repurposing cultural texts that…
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When Everybody’s Needs are Met
Trump has recently pushed a bill to criminalize homelessness. The news reminded me of this poem I had written last year, imagining such a future.
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My Wish for Pride this Year is Solidarity with Immigrants
In this Pride blog, I’m speaking primarily to a queer audience, an audience that is, unfortunately, as is normative, mostly white, calling us in to greater solidarity and away from white supremacy. My wish for Pride is: I wish every white, US trans person who was crying “trans genocide” several months ago were just as…
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Use a Spring Reverb on an Organ
I always had such a hard time getting electric organs like B3s to sit right in a mix. Then I recently learned spring reverbs were first designed for use in electric organs. Armed with this knowledge, I put a spring reverb plug-in directly on the organ track, and wow. Problem solved. I had tried other…
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How I Celebrated Easter This Year
In which I do some liberation theology and critique American Christianity
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One Way to Fear Others Less
Traveling as a gender-nonconforming person is disquieting. But, and this may sound hokey, one thing that legitimately helps me fear strangers less is remembering that everyone is beloved. When I imagine someone deeply loves this stranger before me (who triggers something in me), so long as I know I’m deeply loved too, I relax a…