J.W. Ricci

J.W. Ricci

@resonance.tools

Guitar boy: lnkfi.re/through-a-frame-pollen-drop Tuesdays 8-9am ET on wxdu.org mastodon.green/@jwillemricci resonance.tools

91 followers303 following106 posts

J.W. Ricci reposted

Ok I hate posting on the internet, especially when so heady, half baked and idea-guy-like, but this one’s been mulling about for a while and just needs to come out. One of the most beguiling trends I’ve been noticing lately is that it seems like the type of people who claim to be the most anti ai

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But recommendations algorithms are generative AI for culture. Sure, it’s easy to hate ai generated art. But when real, human made art and artefacts are essentially next token predicted into someone’s awareness, and transmitted through them into our culture, we have… AI generated culture baby

Ok I hate posting on the internet, especially when so heady, half baked and idea-guy-like, but this one’s been mulling about for a while and just needs to come out. One of the most beguiling trends I’ve been noticing lately is that it seems like the type of people who claim to be the most anti ai

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friends that are artists, craftspeople, farmers, musicians, etc. etc. are on and seem to be using instagram (a lot!). (This seems to be a uniquely American situation. It might not have been a lasting movement, but half of the Danish indie music scene joined Pixelfed in early 2025.)

The other day, a new DJ at the radio station said how much they loved discovering new music there — outside of an algorithm. I realized this was the first time I’d heard this sentiment in a very long time! Five years ago though, I remember that this was like THE thing. Now…we are converts.

Ok I hate posting on the internet, especially when so heady, half baked and idea-guy-like, but this one’s been mulling about for a while and just needs to come out. One of the most beguiling trends I’ve been noticing lately is that it seems like the type of people who claim to be the most anti ai

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A musician friend relayed the most (only?) positive account of his experience with TikTok that I’d ever heard. “If you keep positing it shows your stuff to so many people!” (He’s blowing up…)

A long time radio DJ I know was telling me about his friend who runs a successful record label that only does runs of re-releases. I asked how they find such obscure, amazing music. “Oh, he said he just rides the YouTube algorithm.” And even though it’s not as explicit, all of my

Ok I hate posting on the internet, especially when so heady, half baked and idea-guy-like, but this one’s been mulling about for a while and just needs to come out. One of the most beguiling trends I’ve been noticing lately is that it seems like the type of people who claim to be the most anti ai

(for me, my farmer & musician friends) are also where I hear the most enthusiastic praise for recommendation algorithms. One farmer friend is an evangelist for algorithmic online clothes shopping. “If you just like things you think look cool, eventually it starts showing you SUCH cool stuff!”

Imagine you spend 7 years writing a book and now it’s out! You’re invited onto a podcast hosted by a “master of the art of conversation”. Wow! It’s going well, then halfway through, for no apparent reason, they start reading verbatim from an LLM — a summary of your work, questions about you, etc…

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The host makes you answer questions the LLM generated. Then they abruptly pivot again and claim to be in touch with something called “pure awareness”. Then the interview ends. You pack up and head home — “that was weird!”, you think. Some time later, the podcast is published and you listen back…

Imagine you spend 7 years writing a book and now it’s out! You’re invited onto a podcast hosted by a “master of the art of conversation”. Wow! It’s going well, then halfway through, for no apparent reason, they start reading verbatim from an LLM — a summary of your work, questions about you, etc…

This LLM company happens to be the one you received a $3000 per book settlement from, for training illegally on your previous books. You try to mention that the LLM company stole your work, but the host talks over you dismissively, and continues to read her conversation with the LLM…

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, with pushes and pulls, calls and responses, and dynamic movement, all spawned from one source.

Listen at the link in my bio, and thank you for listening <3 🙏

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There are sounds from electric guitars that Eli and I layed on top of a turned-up amp, re-amping my acoustic guitar, resonating the electric guitars, and recording them through effects and pedals.

We put acoustic guitars, tuned to resonate with my guitar, next to each of the four mics. I played without headphones hoping to catch some interplay with the various resonations, re-amps and effects — a true ensemble...

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but I feel a sense of spaciousness, ease and openness in these pieces, as if it has taken a decade for my musical expression to soften, ripen, settle in. And it has.

“Through a Frame” is the second take, and “Pollen Drop” the first. Everything you hear is live, no overdubs, and sourced in different ways from the live acoustic guitar mics. There is live re-amped and re-recorded guitar into the big church room of the Unknown studio.

In 2014, I moved from North Carolina to Copenhagen, Denmark to learn how to build windmills. I dropped out of school in 2016, convinced that the most important thing I could do was to play guitar all day every day.

Now it is 2026. Ten years after I quit school to pursue music. I’m living back in North Carolina. I pick up my guitar a couple times a week or month. I’ve written a humble handful instrumental guitar pieces... all much less than I used to...

On Friday May 8, I'll be releasing "Through a Frame / Pollen Drop", my first new music in 6 years. Around the release, I'll be performing Through a Frame, Pollen Drop, and a couple other instrumental guitar pieces at some of Durham/Hillsborough's natural/artificial areas.

Come for ~20 minutes of music. Stay for a walk. Hope to see you there :) Thu May 7, West Point on the Eno Dam (6p) 36°04'16.1"N 78°54'38.5"W Fri May 8, Brumley North Labyrinth (6p) 36°02'05.2"N 79°02'30.8"W Sat May 9, Occoneechee Speedway Grandstand (6p) 36°04'26.7"N 79°04'54.6"W

J.W. Ricci reposted

One thing that's worth repeating: There is *zero* evidence that "substack helps you get readers". The only thing that we've ever seen that helps grow an audience is other authors mentioning your blog or newsletter, which is not the platform's doing. Substack just takes credit for that!

Jonathan M. Katz@katz.theracket.news

FWIW I didn’t leave Substack because of the Nazis, though they didn’t help. I left because the management of that company is fundamentally duplicitous, it’s become a toxic social network, and there is no reason to give them 10% of your profits when there are better and less expensive options.

J.W. Ricci reposted

A form which calculates an individual’s “income tax body count”, or the total number of conflict-related deaths they have caused through their income tax contributions to the U.S. government. income-tax-body-count.lav.io

Wondering how many more nazi salutes, how many more changes to platform policy to allow for harassment of marginalized folks, how many more hitherto unthinkable horrors will need to happen before my otherwise ultra lefty, arty, compassionate, community oriented friends join me on Mastodon.