Eros Hum

https://3panman.wordpress.com/2025/01/15/on-leaving-meta/

On leaving Meta Fair warning: giant wall of text incoming. I made a big deal on my Instagram and Facebook accounts the other day about dropping my use of Meta’s platforms. It’s a decision which has mos…

I’ve never particularly liked Facebook. I only made an account to get a friend - who interestingly enough ceased to be a friend years ago - to stop nagging me to make an account. Instagram was great, then Zuck bought it and it’s been downhill ever since.

Now that Meta is retiring their fact checker (what little good it actually did) and playing with AI accounts intended to trick users into thinking they’re actual humans, I can’t stick around. This dumpster fire is never going to get any better and I can’t in good conscience continue to help feed it.

I’m not actually deleting my accounts here - yet. I don’t want anyone squatting on my usernames. But I need to quit using Meta’s platforms. I might check in once in a while for a little bit, but probably not often enough to make it easy to communicate with me effectively.

I’ve got personal and music accounts set up on a platform not owned by a corrupt billionaire if you know how to find me. If you have a problem with “woke” then please don’t bother trying. You won’t enjoy the experience there.

F**K ZUCK.

Ready to make some noise tonight for the ‘s January concert. Heat is out in the building, so layer up!

The program:

Nabucco Overture
Chaminade Concertino for Flute and Orchestra
Peer Gynt Suite No. 1
Hooked On Classics
Hungarian Dance No. 5
Adagio for Strings (Barber)
Pines of Rome

Tired but ready to make some noise with the for the fifth graders of Cochise County. Always a fun day!

Today’s office. Camped out in Sierra Vista to kick off the year with double-header rehearsals for ’s January concert cycle.

Today’s adventure in instrument maintenance: finally swapping out these timp heads I bought in like… July.

So, that super cool all black MIDI controller I picked up at an estate sale a while back? Finally sat down to make some music a few days ago and discovered a bunch of the keys were super glitchy - not sounding, or sounding with unintended sustain, etc. (sound up in the video for example).

Did all the factory resets, no help. So today I opened it up to try cleaning all the key contacts and discovered evidence of… something… having been spilt on this keyboard at some point. Took a couple of hours, but it’s all cleaned up. Just gave it a test run and all the keys but the high F seem to be working now. That F is still intermittent as hell.

Fortunately I didn’t buy this as a performance axe, just recording and arranging. I can work around that one key most of the time and when I can’t, I can go back and edit the MIDI data. Might open it up again later to see if I can’t fix that key, but for now it’ll do. And of course any creative juice I had is gone now.

day. I lost my second triangle clip years ago. Probably loaned to an undergrad at Portland State and it just… became theirs. I’m kind of amazed in all the years since then I haven’t needed two triangles at once - or to mount a triangle for two-handed playing, as I find myself needing for ’s January concert.

My grandpa’s old drill, a bit of wood I’d been holding on to “just in case”, a cymbal stand, some fishing line, and a couple of 98 cent 1” spring clips from the hardware store, and I’m all set.

When the creative bug hits and you even have a specific project in mind but you need to be on the road for the holidays soon… you pack up the mobile studio for the trip.

Warning: strobing lights in the video at the end (11).
Last week I finally got to see perform. opened the night with a great set before Ride brought the noise. Whoever was running the lighting board was also on point. Hope these guys come through Tucson again the next time they’re in the states. Great show.

Wrapping up part assignments and instrument logistics for ’s January concerts. Always a fun cycle with the kids’ concerts for Cochise County 5th graders!

Tonight’s office. Been helping out the Foothills Philharmonic on timps and a little bit of other percussion for their winter concert. Concert (free!) is 2pm on 12/15 at Catalina Magnet High School in case you’re looking for something to do that Sunday afternoon.