Human Endeavor
Can you tell me more?
This one began life as 4 tracks derived from a sample of a Leaky Faucet that was obtained off of a digital forum. It was an assignment of sorts, actually. It was posted and shared by the cat who captured the audio of Leaky Faucet. The assignment: Create something using only the Leaky Faucet.
The sound of the drips were compelling. We thought, “Why not? Why not create some loosely structured audio from this compelling Leaky Faucet?” It was low risk; It wouldn’t matter if it did not “work out” between us; Such exercises can help improve technical skills; There was a lack other commitments in that moment of time; etc.
All good in theory. And to be fair, we did complete a self contained piece using that sample. It wasn’t compelling enough to stand on its own legs. We felt we could not leave it alone, unattended, by itself, absent associates, lest it collapse like a sculpture made from dry sand. So we molded it with the addition of water and other sedimentation. Eventually it evolved into something less Leaky Faucet and more Cowbird 4/16 133 four-on-the-floor.
And up until the last 5% of the overall effort we placed into this track, Leaky Faucet remained part of the journey of what was ultimately named “Human Endeavor”.
But Leaky Faucet audio is not included in the track named “Human Endeavor”. Technically. We occasionally permit feedback to enter back through the open back headphones we use when we record audio. So, technically, somewhere back there, buried under the layered rubble of feedback, there maybe-perhaps-could-possibly-be sounds from what were once a Leaky Faucet. It’s hard to remove all of the sand after a day at the beach. We don’t know for certain that some small smidgeon grain of an artifact of sand from Leaky Faucet that leaked back into “Human Endeavor”. For all intents and purposes the Leaky Faucet audio is absent except in theory.
I am a shitty student in this “self directed learning” phase of my life. I never seem to really feel I need to precisely follow the rules to anything when I’m instructed to do so. I will sort of do so, but only as long as I can include gigantic side adventures that question whether or not I am following the spirit of the rules. I don’t know why I would do such a thing. Regardless, I don’t break the literal rules; I technically, if but marginally, deliver. There is no real penalty when I do so as I am creating no meaningful harm.
Arguably I have always been a bit wired this way. I once got a C minus-minus-minus-explanation-point on a term paper in an Urban Politics course I was forced to take to complete my graduation requirements in college forever ago. It was a dull, dry, class with a correspondingly dull, dry, professor. A long evening class of mostly boredom. I behaved, but confess to never appearing enthused to be there. The professor hated that my cap had a large cannabis leaf emblazoned upon it and equally hated my long and unwieldy sentences. She made comments such as “This grammar in this sentence is technically correct, but is overly complex and needless!!!” peppered in red ball point pen throughout it. I didn’t care. As long as it wasn’t a D so I wouldn’t have to retake the course. More importantly, we did not disagree that I understood the course content. Perhaps we disagreed upon my apparel choices and grammar preferences, but we both understood that I knew the very dry, boring, content she taught in the class. I couldn’t care less if she didn’t love reading my paper as I didn’t love the course content as provided; I loathed her dry deliver; and I was discontent that I was being forced to take that particular course to graduate as that also meant I couldn’t take a different course that I would find of interest. The only thing I got out of the course was the entertainment I derived from creating the unwieldy complex sentences about the otherwise entirely dry subject of Urban Transit Tax Policies.
To be clear, I am not making a declaration that Urban Transit Tax Policies or Urban Politics to unworthy topics to study. If these float your boat, please by all means sail away. I have a friend who has a Phd in the such and seems to enjoy it just fine. Who am I to rob him of the wonders of urban governance and the such? But, I seem to prefer to study other aspects of the political science field. At least most of the time. I reserve the right to change my mind.
Perhaps I am a competent student in that I no longer require formal structured guidance provided by others to carve out the educational path I wish to follow? Maybe it is to be expected that I go on random side quests and “pick my own adventure” journeys as I wander towards more remote destinations? I have reached a point where I can self critique, assess and self direct my learning towards the paths I wish to wander. If I get lost, or fail in doing so, that’s entirely on me.
On paper I‘m an adult. I can do what I want. Besides, I’m following a more or less extended humanities’ pathway in this educational journey. How much trouble could I be causing? It isn’t as if I am pursuing becoming a dental surgeon through my self directed learning adventures. It’s not like I’m an aspiring dental surgeon who refuses to consider biology and anatomy as valid fields of study as I undergo this endeavor. It’s not like I am an aspiring dental surgeon who has narrowed his field of study down to only a cursory examination and subsequently reckless removal of teeth from a singular small squirrel skull found in the forest and finding myself reconsidering the wisdom of such an approach just as I begin performing my very first tooth extraction on a patient, perhaps even wondering if I have insurance to do such?
I’m doing no such things I am merely demonstrating undisciplined intention as I further what are natural progressions in the deep Liberal Arts minded education I obtained decades prior, an education which I have continued to refine and enhance with further knowledge along the way and up through this current moment. I am simply going further and deeper in content that I was already quite familiar with for years. No teeth will be removed.
So a shitty and competent student begets “Human Endeavor”.
To wit, the end result of all of this is that we begat a completed track with Leaky Faucet. Which, yes, we then ultimately ejected from the final piece that we named “Human Endeavor”. Leaky Faucet now resides elsewhere. Consider Leaky Faucet somewhere in another dimension. Ultimately, the jettisoning of Leaky Faucet from its birthplace because management felt it no longer served a clear purpose.
Looking across the boardroom, no one understood why it should remain with creature that had been birthed once the birthing process was completed. Ironic, given that without Leaky Faucet there would be no “Human Endeavor”. The placenta, if you will, having served its purpose and no longer a functional requirement for the final creature that now lay before us.
Leaky Faucet did a lot of work up front. And we thank and honor Leaky Faucet. Leaky Faucet set the tone for the piece and nourished the creature up until its birth. It gave us the structure of a safe home upon which we could layer the bricks that ultimately makes up its facade, the portion everyone notices.
I hastily created Cowbird 4/16 133 four-on-the-floor that dominates this track about 2/5ths through this project. Like a Cowbird, it began to shove Leaky Faucet out of the nest as soon as it hatched. Leaky Faucet gallantly resisted up until the last 5% of the work that went into “Human Endeavor” was completed. It almost made it to adulthood. And then {SHOVE} Cowbird management sided with Cowbird 4/16 133 four-on-the-floor Leaky Faucet was dislodged from the piece it had originated and it plummeted to the ground where it did not survive in this dimension.
Ingloriously fired by management. The whole lot of them -
There is probably something allegorical in there.
