mendel (he/him)
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mendel.mendellee.com
mendel (he/him)
@mendel.mendellee.com
NOLA-based composer
former collegiate music educator (prim marching band)
versipel.org ED - rhythmx.org Board VP
hobbyist of video/tabletop games, poker, data, and cooking
-- while not all new music is for everyone, there exists new music for everyone --
Pinned
For those that don't know about me or my creative practice, a good way to do so is through the sound pudding interview I did with @adamscottneal.bsky.social

soundpudding.com/career-pivot...

Hi there, it's nice to meet you.
Career pivots and perseverance in new music: Interview with Mendel Lee
Mendel Lee (he/him) (b. 1975) is a New Orleans-based composer whose music explores both the evolution of singular ideas over a long period of time and layered syncopated rhythmic patterns and hemio…
soundpudding.com
I've heard AI-evangelists talk about how AI has made their work more efficient

When I first started searching for recipes online to expand my rep, the top hits emphasized quick/easy

efficient/quick does not always equal BETTER. There's nothing wrong with something taking longer

Anyway. /soapbox
January 8, 2026 at 4:43 PM
tbh, i'm glad the holidays are over so i can get back to work.

Today's work has been 100% grant writing for an application window of one 24h period (tomorrow) for NOTCF. Not my favorite, but it still feels good.

Goal for 2d from now: actually write some effing music. Imagine that
January 5, 2026 at 10:40 PM
Excited for next season with a more experienced Kellen Moore and Tyler Shough #WhoDat
January 4, 2026 at 9:10 PM
pretty much anything that Michel Gondry did back in the day, e.g.:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=63vq...
December 31, 2025 at 3:48 PM
watching Silo (currently in S2). Mostly like it, but it's glaring how much character motivation is driven by fridge variant:

- mad bc wife died
- mad bc bf died
- killed rom interest, turmoil
- betraying bc wife is hostage
- taking dumb risk bc love interest

etc
December 30, 2025 at 4:59 PM
Reposted by mendel (he/him)
This is true and I was the only one on set excited about it (and playing the song on my phone to blank stares)
Just watched the new Knives Out and I think it's really important you know that the scene in the Seminary's Gym is filmed in the same place Rick Astley filmed the music video for Never Gonna Give You Up.

I saw the window tracery and immediately made my friends pause the film so I could tell them.
December 30, 2025 at 4:21 AM
Reposted by mendel (he/him)
I laughed
December 27, 2025 at 9:18 PM
Reposted by mendel (he/him)
My niece made this Tik Tok of me unbeknownst to yours truly. When she finally showed me, she would only send it to me in a text presumably so I don’t find her account lol so basically I nailed Christmas
December 26, 2025 at 12:43 AM
HBCU drumline with white rock guitarist and Asian electric violinist playing Christmas music is not the halftime show I thought I wanted, but yeah okay it was pretty good #WhoDat #Saints
December 21, 2025 at 7:34 PM
what if Paul Hollywood judged Taskmaster and Greg Davies judged Bake Off
December 21, 2025 at 5:54 AM
I hereby declare that the plural for "cucumber" is "cucumbi"
December 18, 2025 at 7:32 AM
tonight i went to a show featuring my two good friends Megan and Alan who played a rave-based show with live saxophone and mezzo-soprano vocals.

it was outstanding, and they're outstanding people
December 18, 2025 at 5:06 AM
The dome was buzzing that entire fourth quarter. #WhoDat
December 15, 2025 at 1:24 AM
I'm drafting my next personal newsletter, and I just used the term "eyesight gymnastics".
December 12, 2025 at 2:42 PM
Reposted by mendel (he/him)
New Orleans culture bearers may be forced out of Musicians’ Village after property sale

www.nola.com/gambit/news/...
New Orleans culture bearers may be forced out of Musicians’ Village after property sale
New Orleans culture bearers living in Musicians’ Village will have to pay at least triple the rent they currently do or face being evicted after Habitat for Humanity sold their
www.nola.com
December 11, 2025 at 3:05 AM
The ASCAP+ award I get isn't much, but I'm always glad to get something. #composition
December 9, 2025 at 9:15 PM
Reposted by mendel (he/him)
while we were out on our walk this morning, there was a sign that said:

ART AND PLANT
*address*

it's such a curious sign. either it's a noun and a verb, or it's two nouns but there's only one plant? Or maybe they're making "art" a verb? I really want to know what's going on
December 8, 2025 at 2:55 PM
Reposted by mendel (he/him)
WASHINGTON AND OREGON CARTOONISTS: Seattle's bus service is commissioning 6 artists for public art pieces, 2 each, of local stories, 16-32 pages, over 2026, for $54k per artist, to be freely distributed over their ridership.

details here: www.4culture.org/grants/movin...
Moving Stories: Short-Form Graphic Novels for King County Metro Transit RapidRide
King County Metro and 4Culture seek six artists to create short-form graphic novels that illuminate community stories along new and existing RapidRide lines.
www.4culture.org
December 8, 2025 at 1:47 AM
great game #Saints and awesome job Shough
December 7, 2025 at 9:13 PM
I've been catching up on "The Floor" as a popcorn game show, and i'm annoyed at the mentality shift being pushed by the show itself favoring -EV aggression.

As an amateur poker player who hates "results-based" thinking over +EV, there's an incident that happened in S04E02 that really bothers me 🧵/5
December 7, 2025 at 8:41 PM
what team is this that got a TD in the first 2.5m of the game? #WhoDat
December 7, 2025 at 6:07 PM
we could have probably gone to this #Saints game in Tampa if we had delayed the trip to see my parents. My partner is "meh" about it given how our season has gone, but i'd be into it. Especially with this aggressive start #WhoDat
December 7, 2025 at 6:06 PM
I watched "Lost In Starlight" the other night.

Early on, it struck me that no US film distributor would back an animated sci-fi set-in-the-future *romance*.

Not that it's a genre I'm versed in, but fwiw it was outstanding, def one of my favs.

Visually stunning. Intelligent and sweet.

Go watch.
December 6, 2025 at 3:10 PM
Reposted by mendel (he/him)
Immigrants and Latinos have been so essential to disaster recovery that a statue in New Orleans honored the workers who helped rebuild after Katrina: www.wwltv.com/article/news...
December 3, 2025 at 8:45 PM