Grant Sawatzky
@grantzky.bsky.social
humanities devotee; collecting books, records, and CDs; thinking about music, and thinking about thinking about music.
'free/composed' radio hour, hosted (as JCspins) monthly
'free/composed' radio hour, hosted (as JCspins) monthly
new episode of free/composed coming your way 5:30 to 7pm PST today!
tune in at bside.radio or twitch.tv/bsidedotradio
today's show: 'improvisations'
tune in at bside.radio or twitch.tv/bsidedotradio
today's show: 'improvisations'
November 27, 2025 at 12:54 AM
new episode of free/composed coming your way 5:30 to 7pm PST today!
tune in at bside.radio or twitch.tv/bsidedotradio
today's show: 'improvisations'
tune in at bside.radio or twitch.tv/bsidedotradio
today's show: 'improvisations'
has an intl. player ever made world series appearance within weeks of a sitting POTUS announcing planned military operation on their country? prior to 2025 (1 Venezuelan per side), Leo Cárdenas (🇨🇺) pinch hit in the Reds' 1961 game 5 loss 6mo after Bay of Pigs, just 1wk before Cuban missile crisis
November 2, 2025 at 7:23 AM
has an intl. player ever made world series appearance within weeks of a sitting POTUS announcing planned military operation on their country? prior to 2025 (1 Venezuelan per side), Leo Cárdenas (🇨🇺) pinch hit in the Reds' 1961 game 5 loss 6mo after Bay of Pigs, just 1wk before Cuban missile crisis
Reposted by Grant Sawatzky
The Good Samaritan, by Joseph Highmore, 1744, 📸 by @patricksmith04
November 2, 2025 at 4:49 AM
The Good Samaritan, by Joseph Highmore, 1744, 📸 by @patricksmith04
New episode of ‘free/composed’ going live today at 5:30-7pst (that’s 2.5 hours from time of this post).
Today’s theme: drumming it all up
An ecclectic mix of experimental, traditional, jazz, and morefeaturing the drumming and other percussion. Tune it at bside.radio or twitch.tv/bsidedotradio
Today’s theme: drumming it all up
An ecclectic mix of experimental, traditional, jazz, and morefeaturing the drumming and other percussion. Tune it at bside.radio or twitch.tv/bsidedotradio
October 22, 2025 at 9:56 PM
New episode of ‘free/composed’ going live today at 5:30-7pst (that’s 2.5 hours from time of this post).
Today’s theme: drumming it all up
An ecclectic mix of experimental, traditional, jazz, and morefeaturing the drumming and other percussion. Tune it at bside.radio or twitch.tv/bsidedotradio
Today’s theme: drumming it all up
An ecclectic mix of experimental, traditional, jazz, and morefeaturing the drumming and other percussion. Tune it at bside.radio or twitch.tv/bsidedotradio
Today! (3–5pm), an off-schedule ‘free-composed’ special:
‘Songstress Sunday’
Eclectic mix of women vocalists in early music, traditional, experimental, pop, classical, and more.
Tune in at bside.radio or twitch.tv/bsidedotradio
‘Songstress Sunday’
Eclectic mix of women vocalists in early music, traditional, experimental, pop, classical, and more.
Tune in at bside.radio or twitch.tv/bsidedotradio
September 28, 2025 at 9:32 PM
Today! (3–5pm), an off-schedule ‘free-composed’ special:
‘Songstress Sunday’
Eclectic mix of women vocalists in early music, traditional, experimental, pop, classical, and more.
Tune in at bside.radio or twitch.tv/bsidedotradio
‘Songstress Sunday’
Eclectic mix of women vocalists in early music, traditional, experimental, pop, classical, and more.
Tune in at bside.radio or twitch.tv/bsidedotradio
Hiring fair had lineup >100 people down the street waiting their turn to get inside where you get in another line to wait to hand a resume to middleman “placement company” who take a portion of the wage for any placements they make.
now THAT’s a gig (prerequisite: candidate is without a conscience)
now THAT’s a gig (prerequisite: candidate is without a conscience)
September 4, 2025 at 8:01 PM
Hiring fair had lineup >100 people down the street waiting their turn to get inside where you get in another line to wait to hand a resume to middleman “placement company” who take a portion of the wage for any placements they make.
now THAT’s a gig (prerequisite: candidate is without a conscience)
now THAT’s a gig (prerequisite: candidate is without a conscience)
If trickle down economics were real, then all those stores who replaced cashiers with self checkouts would have “free food for unemployed/former/would-be cashiers” discount programs—which they most certainly do not, since it most certainly isn’t.
August 28, 2025 at 8:14 PM
If trickle down economics were real, then all those stores who replaced cashiers with self checkouts would have “free food for unemployed/former/would-be cashiers” discount programs—which they most certainly do not, since it most certainly isn’t.
New 90 minute episode of my bside.radio show, ‘free/composed’ today: 5:30-7pm pst. Today’s all-vinyl set is a feature of traditional, pop, and “other” quality recordings from around the globe that have made their way to the bins of the Pacific Northwest. fun and eclectic mix.
August 27, 2025 at 11:32 PM
New 90 minute episode of my bside.radio show, ‘free/composed’ today: 5:30-7pm pst. Today’s all-vinyl set is a feature of traditional, pop, and “other” quality recordings from around the globe that have made their way to the bins of the Pacific Northwest. fun and eclectic mix.
I keep thinking about how mega-corps (amazon/abe, thrift-books, value-village/savers) brute force acquisition/distribution power makes thoughtful curation and contextual knowledge of materials the distinctive "product" for booksellers, but I fear is automation will squash the already thin margins.
I think of my bookshelves as "the people's humanities library" built entirely of materials rescued from discarded book piles/thrift shops. I'm wondering how to make the curation work I've done in collecting useful/publicly accessible. not sure where to go with it beyond digitizing the rarest items.
August 13, 2025 at 9:35 PM
I keep thinking about how mega-corps (amazon/abe, thrift-books, value-village/savers) brute force acquisition/distribution power makes thoughtful curation and contextual knowledge of materials the distinctive "product" for booksellers, but I fear is automation will squash the already thin margins.
I think of my bookshelves as "the people's humanities library" built entirely of materials rescued from discarded book piles/thrift shops. I'm wondering how to make the curation work I've done in collecting useful/publicly accessible. not sure where to go with it beyond digitizing the rarest items.
August 13, 2025 at 9:27 PM
I think of my bookshelves as "the people's humanities library" built entirely of materials rescued from discarded book piles/thrift shops. I'm wondering how to make the curation work I've done in collecting useful/publicly accessible. not sure where to go with it beyond digitizing the rarest items.
new episode of JC-spins' "free/composed" radio TODAY, 5:30-7pm PST streaming at bside.radio and via twitch.tv/bsidedotradio
Today: all vinyl summer special of eclectic pop and oddities rescued from thrift shop and bargain bins of the pacific northwest
Today: all vinyl summer special of eclectic pop and oddities rescued from thrift shop and bargain bins of the pacific northwest
July 23, 2025 at 10:07 PM
new episode of JC-spins' "free/composed" radio TODAY, 5:30-7pm PST streaming at bside.radio and via twitch.tv/bsidedotradio
Today: all vinyl summer special of eclectic pop and oddities rescued from thrift shop and bargain bins of the pacific northwest
Today: all vinyl summer special of eclectic pop and oddities rescued from thrift shop and bargain bins of the pacific northwest
On today's episode of 'free/composed' I'll be playing a diverse 90 minute program of music for flute—past present and future this afternoon streaming on B-side Radio, Vancouver. bside.radio and twitch.tv/bsidedotradio
5:30-7pm PST
5:30-7pm PST
June 25, 2025 at 8:21 PM
On today's episode of 'free/composed' I'll be playing a diverse 90 minute program of music for flute—past present and future this afternoon streaming on B-side Radio, Vancouver. bside.radio and twitch.tv/bsidedotradio
5:30-7pm PST
5:30-7pm PST
I see it as critical students are taught to replace the pervasive idea being sold to by tech-corps “what we know is a thanks to computers” with the infinitely more accurate “what computers appear to ‘know’ is thanks to you/us” but I fear a majority of young students are get stuck on the former.
June 19, 2025 at 6:29 PM
I see it as critical students are taught to replace the pervasive idea being sold to by tech-corps “what we know is a thanks to computers” with the infinitely more accurate “what computers appear to ‘know’ is thanks to you/us” but I fear a majority of young students are get stuck on the former.
there is a good article in the 1997 book "Hamlet on the Holodeck" that reports on people who thought they'd fallen in love with "ELIZA" and her offspring, which were "early natural language processing computer program[s] [first] developed from 1964 to 1967[1] at MIT by Joseph Weizenbaum.
June 18, 2025 at 2:11 AM
there is a good article in the 1997 book "Hamlet on the Holodeck" that reports on people who thought they'd fallen in love with "ELIZA" and her offspring, which were "early natural language processing computer program[s] [first] developed from 1964 to 1967[1] at MIT by Joseph Weizenbaum.
I propose a new rule: whenever the sitting US president is talking seriously about annexing Canada via gradual economic takeover; Canadians who are renting housing from US-residing absentee landlords are allowed—nay, encouraged—to pause rent payments indefinitely.
June 18, 2025 at 2:07 AM
I propose a new rule: whenever the sitting US president is talking seriously about annexing Canada via gradual economic takeover; Canadians who are renting housing from US-residing absentee landlords are allowed—nay, encouraged—to pause rent payments indefinitely.
our brains: a lot like cuneiform
no, they're just like written scrolls
no, it's that they're typeset books
no, most like card catalogue
no, reeling thoughts are cinema
no, computer hard-drives describe it best
no—dim resemblance, these and the rest
no, they're just like written scrolls
no, it's that they're typeset books
no, most like card catalogue
no, reeling thoughts are cinema
no, computer hard-drives describe it best
no—dim resemblance, these and the rest
June 18, 2025 at 2:02 AM
our brains: a lot like cuneiform
no, they're just like written scrolls
no, it's that they're typeset books
no, most like card catalogue
no, reeling thoughts are cinema
no, computer hard-drives describe it best
no—dim resemblance, these and the rest
no, they're just like written scrolls
no, it's that they're typeset books
no, most like card catalogue
no, reeling thoughts are cinema
no, computer hard-drives describe it best
no—dim resemblance, these and the rest
F. M. Anayet Hossain: "empiricism is not to be totally accepted because it presumes that the world falls apart into two classes of entities. Firstly, “subjects” whose principal task is to perceive and secondly, “objects” which are only to be
perceived. But this whole idea is defective."
perceived. But this whole idea is defective."
www.scirp.org
June 9, 2025 at 5:28 AM
F. M. Anayet Hossain: "empiricism is not to be totally accepted because it presumes that the world falls apart into two classes of entities. Firstly, “subjects” whose principal task is to perceive and secondly, “objects” which are only to be
perceived. But this whole idea is defective."
perceived. But this whole idea is defective."
Varun Chandrasekhar and I are co-chairing the Society for Music Theory Interest Group 2025-27. Here is the call for papers on we sent out for our upcoming meeting (AMS/SMT Nov. 2025) on the topic: “ontologies of music theory’s analytical objects”
DM if you’d like proposal submission details
DM if you’d like proposal submission details
June 3, 2025 at 6:18 PM
Varun Chandrasekhar and I are co-chairing the Society for Music Theory Interest Group 2025-27. Here is the call for papers on we sent out for our upcoming meeting (AMS/SMT Nov. 2025) on the topic: “ontologies of music theory’s analytical objects”
DM if you’d like proposal submission details
DM if you’d like proposal submission details
by default the modern University frames humanities subjects as past oriented, and sciences as future oriented:“History of Science” like “Humanistic Futures” is a niche in broader field. But “why (re)consider old science?” and “why (re)imagine new humanities?” shouldn’t require extra justification.
June 2, 2025 at 6:18 PM
by default the modern University frames humanities subjects as past oriented, and sciences as future oriented:“History of Science” like “Humanistic Futures” is a niche in broader field. But “why (re)consider old science?” and “why (re)imagine new humanities?” shouldn’t require extra justification.
The company whose commercial monopoly was so effective that for 200 years the corporation was the de facto government of the geographic area presently known as Canada—governing for a period almost twice as long as ‘Canada’ has existed—is shutting down for good today.
June 1, 2025 at 5:02 PM
The company whose commercial monopoly was so effective that for 200 years the corporation was the de facto government of the geographic area presently known as Canada—governing for a period almost twice as long as ‘Canada’ has existed—is shutting down for good today.
I forgot I remember it all
I remember that I forgot it entirety
I forgot I forgot it so completely
I remember I remember it so well
I remember that I forgot it entirety
I forgot I forgot it so completely
I remember I remember it so well
May 31, 2025 at 8:58 PM
I forgot I remember it all
I remember that I forgot it entirety
I forgot I forgot it so completely
I remember I remember it so well
I remember that I forgot it entirety
I forgot I forgot it so completely
I remember I remember it so well
streaming old Pee-Wee's Playhouse episodes, interrupted by targeted advertising that is trying to sell me funeral planning services 🤡💀
May 31, 2025 at 8:57 PM
streaming old Pee-Wee's Playhouse episodes, interrupted by targeted advertising that is trying to sell me funeral planning services 🤡💀
a) space is in stasis while time flows
b) space is in flow and so is time
c) space is in flow while time is static
d) space is in stasis and so is time
e) paradoxically, options a–d are all right
f) options a–d are all wrong
g) experience is flow, apparent "objects" are in fact snapshots of process
b) space is in flow and so is time
c) space is in flow while time is static
d) space is in stasis and so is time
e) paradoxically, options a–d are all right
f) options a–d are all wrong
g) experience is flow, apparent "objects" are in fact snapshots of process
May 22, 2025 at 8:11 PM
a) space is in stasis while time flows
b) space is in flow and so is time
c) space is in flow while time is static
d) space is in stasis and so is time
e) paradoxically, options a–d are all right
f) options a–d are all wrong
g) experience is flow, apparent "objects" are in fact snapshots of process
b) space is in flow and so is time
c) space is in flow while time is static
d) space is in stasis and so is time
e) paradoxically, options a–d are all right
f) options a–d are all wrong
g) experience is flow, apparent "objects" are in fact snapshots of process
on the (un)intuitive idea of "true randomness":
suppose the code/mechanism for a random number generator is concealed inside a black box.
we observe <1, 1, 1, 1,…> on the output display.
at no point could an observer know for absolute certain whether the machine is in fact producing random numbers.
suppose the code/mechanism for a random number generator is concealed inside a black box.
we observe <1, 1, 1, 1,…> on the output display.
at no point could an observer know for absolute certain whether the machine is in fact producing random numbers.
May 14, 2025 at 3:53 PM
on the (un)intuitive idea of "true randomness":
suppose the code/mechanism for a random number generator is concealed inside a black box.
we observe <1, 1, 1, 1,…> on the output display.
at no point could an observer know for absolute certain whether the machine is in fact producing random numbers.
suppose the code/mechanism for a random number generator is concealed inside a black box.
we observe <1, 1, 1, 1,…> on the output display.
at no point could an observer know for absolute certain whether the machine is in fact producing random numbers.
I'd like to revisit Carolyn Abbate's keynote, "Lightness, Improvisation, and What Is Knowable” which was delivered at the joint American Musicological Society/Society for Music Theory (San Antonio, 2018). The SMT website links to the archived livestream, but the YouTube video is private. any leads?
May 7, 2025 at 5:50 PM
I'd like to revisit Carolyn Abbate's keynote, "Lightness, Improvisation, and What Is Knowable” which was delivered at the joint American Musicological Society/Society for Music Theory (San Antonio, 2018). The SMT website links to the archived livestream, but the YouTube video is private. any leads?