I like writing retrospectives for things I'm involved in, especially if I'm likely to be involved in them in the future: it's a good place to set thoughts down so I can find them again, link materials I'm likely to want, and collect feedback from others (but also: fill out the feedback survey!). As a bonus, they can be useful to other people who are doing similar things.

I've written ones band tours, failed attempts to limit covid spread, and dance weekends; Saturday night I ran the music for the 2025 Boston Secular Solstice, so here's another one!

This was the tenth Boston Secular Solstice in the Ray Arnold tradition. These go back a bit over ten years, and have been an opportunity for the rationality / lesswrong community (with some effective altruism representation) to gather, sing, and consider hard truths.

We were in in Connexion for the second time, and I continue to be very glad to no longer be trying to squeeze this many people into our house! They didn't charge us, because this is the kind of event they'd like to encourage, but you could consider sending them some money to help them maintain the space.

Over time the singing at these has been trending in the direction of being mostly my family: this year Alex sang three (and was great!) but all of the others were me, Julia, and Lily. While it certainly is convenient for practicing to be working with people who live in my house (or, in my case, are myself) I'd love to have a wider range of singers here. Let me know if you'd like to be on the list of people I reach out to in ~October to ask if they might be interested in leading any songs this year.

Same goes for music: Max accompanied three of these on guitar, and I'd love to have more volunteers if this sounds like it might be fun! If we had enough people we could do things like play the melody of the tune, or add harmonies.

In past years I've had a somewhat elaborate setup, including footdrums and breath controller overlays. This year I decided to try doing at most two things at once: singing plus guitar or piano. This made the sound setup simpler, and the overall production a bit more folky. Anyone have preferences in either direction? By default I'll probably stick with the simpler thing.

We had some issues getting the people speaking amplified well: a lot of them just weren't close enough to the microphone. I think next time we should ask them to come early enough that we can spend a few minutes with each one on mic technique. I should also just plan to adjust mic positioning for each speaker instead of expecting them to handle it themselves.

Similar attendance to past years; I counted about 45 people.

As in past years, I used my VSL1818 8-channel audio interface to make a multitrack recording, and then mixed it down to stereo. I set up two hall mics, on opposite sides of the room, and panned them hard left and right in the mix, and these are the majority of what you're hearing.

Here are the songs and speeches we did this year:

• This Little Light of Mine, Traditional
  (mp3)

  Most likely not actually by Harry Dixon Loes. I think this worked well as an opener, because it's well known and easy to sing. Getting people feeling like what we're doing is singing together is very important in an opener.

• [words] Welcome to Bravery
  (mp3)

• I Ain't Afraid of Dark Lords, words by Eliezer Yudkowsky to music by Ray Parker Jr.
  (mp3)

  Lots of people know the Ghostbusters theme, and the Harry Potter parody of it is fun. The connection between Potter and the rest of the evening is a bit hard to contextualize for newer folks, though. Kazoos were fun, but this is one where we should have tried to all get in a room together first to run through.

• [words] You Can Just Care for People,
  (mp3)

• The Circle, Taylor Smith
  (mp3)

  I'd love someone to write a "Circle, shrink and shrink" song with a verse about ancestors, one about nature, etc.

• [words] The Present Crisis, James Russell Lowell
  (mp3)

• [words] Who Were the Chartists?,
  (mp3)

• The Chartist Anthem, by Ben Boucher
  (mp3)

• Somebody Will, Ada Palmer
  (mp3)

  When I was younger and more into traditional science fiction the idea of sending physical humans out into space seemed very clearly a thing humanity was building towards. This feels much less resonant to me now, though I do still really like how the song sells the idea of intense effort towards a goal you will not live to see achieved.

• [words] Tsuyoku Naritai!, Eliezer Yudkowsky
  (mp3)

• Level Up, Vienna Teng
  (mp3)

  The original song is in seven and has many aspects that make it tricky for group singing, so a few years ago I worked out a cross-genre cover, recasting it as more of a gospel song. The hardest part for me is not rushing it, since it sits best around 85bp and I have a very "contra dance speed" musical aesthetic.

• [words] You Can Just Do Things,
  (mp3)

• The Day It Fell Apart, Leslie Fish
  (mp3)

  This song has a lot of words very quickly, which makes for a bit of a chaotic group singing experience. Though perhaps apt given the topic of the song.

• [words] Dirge Without Music, Edna St. Vincent Millay
  (mp3)

• When I Die, by Glen Raphael
  (mp3)

  We cut the Zombies verse this time. With where it fell in the program it was a bit too silly.

• [words] Do not go gentle into that good night , by Dylan Thomas
  (mp3)

• Blowin' in the Wind, by Bob Dylan
  (mp3)

• [words] Failing Sometimes
  (mp3)

• Already So, by Ray Arnold
  (mp3)

  One of the approaches to group singing is to have melodies that are written to be really easy to pick up, which praise music uses extensively. Given how much Secular Solstice draws from religious traditions it makes sense that a praise-style song would work well in this context, though there's also just something that bugs me about it aesthetically. I think it's coming from how the religious traditions that use praise music are some of the ones that feel least resonant to me personally?

• [words] Learning Limits
  (mp3)

• Hymn of Breaking Strain, by Rudyard Kipling
  (mp3)

  A poem set to music, which we do most years. I think it would have been moderately better with subtle accompaniment, to help hold the group together.

• [words] Know Victory
  (mp3)

  Earlier Skyler had told us he would be inserting something false later in the program, and asked us to call him on it if we heard it. Several people tried, and Lily's was my favorite.

• The Next Right Thing, by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez
  (mp3)

  This is the version Julia and I put together for the 2023 solstice. The original has some parts that aren't sung, and has some very complex bits melodically; this one is easier for the group to follow.

• [words] Nihil Supernum, by Eliezer Yudkowsky
  (mp3)

• Brighter Than Today, by Ray Arnold
  (mp3)

  The only song we do every year, marking the transition back out of the dark part of the evening's arc. Boston version.

• Endless Lights,
  (mp3)

  Same mildly trimmed version as last year.

• Matches, by Sifu Hotman
  (mp3)
• Battle Hymn Of Truth, words by Scott Alexander, inspired by words by Julia Ward Howe, to music by William Steffe
  (mp3)

• Try Everything, by Sia, Tor Hermansen, and Mikkel Eriksen
  (mp3)

  The timing is a bit tricky, but it was helpful that this was our second time. It also helped that with Lily leading (and living in my house) we could practice it together more times.

• RMS Carpathia,
  (mp3)

  I like this one a lot, but I'd also be interested to hear something similar where a group in a similar position took positive expected value risks that didn't work out. It's much easier to give credit for success.

• The Mary Ellen Carter,
  (mp3)

  I like the mood of the song, though the advisibility of the amateur salvage operation depicted is seriously questionable. Even if it's worth $250k "floating at the dock" it will need major repairs to get to that point, and the risk to the participants is significant. Perhaps ships belong in "Circle, Shrink and Shrink"?

• [words] Invictus, by William Ernest Henley
  (mp3)

• Old Devil Time,
  (mp3)

  We've been singing this Pete Seger song to end the program for several years now, and I continue to like it.