Danica Swanson

@danicaswanson

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5457 Followers

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Time for a re-intro. I'm a GenX writer, eldergoth, senior editor, and music journalist. I've lived solo in a studio in Portland, OR for 16 years. I was born in NW Illinois but grew up in Honolulu, Hawai'i. I'm long-divorced, feminist, queer-identified, and have no kids or pets. My life pretty much revolves around reading, writing, learning, music, home decorating, and religion. I'm basically a monastic without a monastery. The majority of my interests probably qualify as niche. Here are some interests I’ve rarely casted about, but would gladly do so more often in the right contexts + cozy corners. - gift economy and culture - dark ambient music - "shop talk" for professional editors - cottages and tiny homes - goth home decor - darkness retreats/meditation - car-free living - dance (especially bellydance) - subterranea (basements, caves, etc.) - right-to-die movements - my Swedish + German ancestry and family history - monasticism in modern polytheistic religion - philosophy of work and leisure

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Thanks for mentioning this. I've been considering starting my own "slow page" there for quite awhile, but I haven't seen many examples of how writers use it. I think this may be the little nudge I needed. Cool page, @naomiii!

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No rush to read anything. Much better to read at leisure anyway. I do have experiences with "the unseen," but other than my writings for /blxstonesnctuary I keep most of that stuff off the record.

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Hmmm... interesting, because The Anticareerist has been on my mind a lot today too. It's always been my most popular project, but aside from a short stint on Patreon about 10 yeas ago, I've never been able to earn a dime from it. So eventually I had to give it up to pursue a sustainable income elsewhere, which then left me with very little time to work on The Anticareerist. Which is, in microcosm, an example of the very same problems I've been critiquing with that project. Ugh. Today I've been doing some outlining and journal writings in relation to that piece I published on Monday for token holders only. Not sure if you've read it yet, but it touches on some of the "blind spots" of the Farconomy. People really liked it and the ensuing discussion in DCs kind of turned into a group chat of its own accord, so I gave the group chat a new name: Creative Labor + Value Flow. So something is stirring, anyway. No idea what's next. But we'll see.

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All that makes sense. I've always wanted to live in a European-style truly walkable city with good public transit too. But like you, I doubt I'll ever have the chance. I actually tried for many, many years to move to Europe (Sweden and Germany), and I have friends there who tried to help me on that end. I went to great lengths to pull it off. But it still didn't work. Now I'm past the age where I'd qualify anyway unless I were to marry a citizen, and it would be a reach even then. So I've been forced to rein in my ambitious relocation plans. Hope self-driving car services will become a widespread thing before I depart this mortal coil, but I agree that it won't happen soon.

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"Although today the field encompasses everything from ambient music to sound baths, drone composition first began attracting attention through the work of Pauline Oliveros, whose album, Deep Listening, and subsequent “deep listening” philosophy, became a touchstone for the genre. [...] "In what now feels like folklore, Oliveros descended into the Dan Harpole Cistern on the tip of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State, alongside trombonist and composer Stuart Dempster and musician Panaiotis, to record their revered album, Deep Listening, released in 1989." ~ Vanessa Ague in Bandcamp Daily The YT link is "Cistern Chapel Chance Chants" by the Deep Listening Band, a 20-minute ambient piece recorded in the Dan Harpole Cistern and released on their 1991 album "The Ready Made Boomerang." RIP, Pauline Oliveros. 💜 https://daily.bandcamp.com/lists/drone-composition-list https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34puXJdXEQA

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Today is the first time I've even looked at the site, yet the minute I signed up I have 650 followers there already. They obviously set it up so that my Farcaster followers automatically followed me on Rodeo too. I'll poke around a bit in the coming days and see what I think of Rodeo.

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Collected. I *love* it. Wish you'd seen my jaw drop the moment I saw this in my notifs. 💜 💜 💜 It got me to join Rodeo immediately so I could be the first collector for your "first rodeo."

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Happy Winter Solstice however you celebrate. Many blessings of good health, abundance, and peace to you and yours.

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I haven't had kids or pets at *any* time in my life. Never wanted to be a parent. (Here's where I must pause to thank my feminist foremothers for fighting for birth control options). I can't have any pets in my home ever, because I have fairly severe allergies to animal dander. You make a good point about hauling things though. When I need that I do have to arrange for pickup or get a friend to help. But I live a simple monastic life in a tiny live/work studio, so fortunately I don't have to do those things too often.

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Me, too. For most of my time here (almost 2 years), I've never had the sense that FC would be the right place to tackle these topics in depth. As recently as a few months ago I considered starting a new channel to revive my project The Anticareerist, and I decided against it. But it's so refreshing to see these convos happening here. Looking forward to more.

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It's been about 20 years of car-free life for me. I love being a non-driver, and I'm glad I live in a place (Portland, OR) where I don't need to own a car. No need to deal with licensing, registration, insurance, repairs, maintenance, or parking. Saves me a lot of hassle and a lot of money too. It helps to have errand friends I can occasionally carpool with for grocery shopping, though.

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Great to hear. If you'd like to say more, I'm curious: what is it that changed for you that helped you find your stride?

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Just placed my bid for the Base Economy Fan Token 24-hr presale. 🤞 This thread and the slick new Moxie website made it easy for me to get up to speed after falling behind on Moxie news for awhile. I'm definitely eyeing that referral program and thinking about who I might invite (see cast #8 in the thread for deets). Ⓜ️ 3.5x cc @betashop.eth

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Publishing the interview with Ulf Söderberg today was so exhilarating. Reflections on the process: Irrespective of how much engagement it gets on FC, it's among the most satisfying things I've ever written — not only because he's my fav musician ever and he was a joy to work with, but also because the whole creative process was magical in unexpected ways. Old-school music journalism may be dying out, which breaks my heart... but I cut my teeth on music writing, damn it. I got started writing record reviews for my high school newspaper. Music journalism means a great deal to me and always will. As long as I still hadn't actually published the interview onchain, there was a smidgen of worry hovering in the back of my mind that I might fall ill or something and become unable to finish the rest of the process. I did not want to die or fall ill before that interview made it into the world. It might sound strange, but I knew it was one of the things that was meant for me to do while I'm on this earth.

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Thank you! 🙏

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Sorry to hear it took something so drastic to bring about a change in that direction for you. Thanks for writing about this stuff on FC, and thanks for the kind words too. We need alternatives to hustle culture. Was there a turning point for me? Hmmm... I'll think on it. My memory of the events of those years is not quite as sharp as it used to be... lol. But my conscientious objection to the Puritan work ethic is just as strong as it's ever been, if not even more so.

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"...we must free people from having to earn the right to exist" "tech will help, but it will take more than that—it will take a release of the belief that a human’s worth is tied to work" I've been banging on this drum since the 1990s when I started writing about being a conscientious objector to the Puritan work ethic. Most recently I wrote about it in my former Substack newsletter The Anticareerist. Maybe I'll have a chance to revive it someday. Love to see it discussed this way on FC.

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Thanks! About the work involved... if you'll indulge me for a moment: I'm putting together some bonus behind-the-scenes material for the future release of the Leanpub version with the cover art you did. As part of that process I'm reviewing the copious notes I made about the creative process for this interview in 2018 and again in 2024. At one point I actually wrote out every single step in the interview process for future reference, because... well, I don't know why. Masochism? 😄 Even without estimating the time I put in at each stage, the list of steps is remarkable. Here's a brief snippet: * Collect background research and links * Find artist's contact info * Contact artist; request interview * If they agree, respond to first correspondence; set expectations + due dates * Draft questions ...etc. I count 30 steps in the process. Think I'm still missing a few. If I'd thought through all this before I started interviewing musicians, I'm not sure I ever would've become a music journalist. Haha.

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Glad to hear you were able to collect. I was able to collect first, fortunately, so at least there won't be an issue with the attribution error on Opensea. (Though I do wish writers didn't have to do that with their own work just to avoid the error that wrongly names the first collector as the creator).

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