Juli Amore

I went to the Women’s Synth Workshop at The Kitchen on Saturday. (Above: a modular synth designed by/belonging to my friend Abby, who presented; and my friend Albo playing around with a Moog Sub Phatty on display for open audience use.)

I’ve been curious about analog synths for awhile since the vast majority of my noise setup is digitally-based: I found Lori Napoleon’s presentation the most helpful as far as gaining basic knowledge about the science behind things. Was also pretty cool to watch Liz Wendelbo explaining the exact processes she went through while doing a live demo of a song from the new Xeno and Oaklander album. (Though I did experience a mental *record scratch* when she said that Arthur Rimbaud, one of her inspirations as well as mine, ”supposedly” wrote his poems “when he was 16, but that’s probably just a romantic myth”: wait, what? I’ve never heard anyone suggest that he didn’t actually write his poems in his late teens: I thought that was pretty well-documented. Is there some conspiracy theory stating that they were ghostwritten by Verlaine or something?)

I had quite a bit of fun messing around with the audience demo synths on display: a couple of times I was satisfied enough with something I’d made that I took a sample to loop at home. During that period, a couple of people took photos of me with professional-looking cameras. Is this the “Pretty White Lady” factor at play again?

A couple of dudes broke into some unnecessary mansplaining (is it ever necessary?) while I was observing a modular synth before experimenting with it. Just because I’m looking at it for a few seconds to see where everything is doesn’t mean I’m utterly clueless … especially about processes and functions that were literally just explained like half an hour before. Wait to give help until you’re asked, dudes.

(Especially the arm thing……..I haven’t worn a tank-top or a spaghetti strap since I was 5…and I still feel really self conscious when I even wear short sleeves…)

Oh yeah..and I haven’t worn a bathing suit since I was 7.

(That’s why I need body-positivity.)

Sending my love out to the other “apples”  out there! <3