🖋️ LongForm
Is This How You Get 'Silenced'?
Over in a more ‘private’ group there was a side discussion on Music … specifically .. ‘Country’ and someone had brought up Beyonce .. and well, time to throw in a comment …
Beyoncé does ‘Country’ and not one word about ‘cultural appropriation’ 🤪 no comment from this section of the Peanut Gallery … even Tay Tay had to break out of that genre. I will look up Garth’s contribution to the Muppets Multiverse.
Feeling that my strategically placed emoji was sufficient to indicate that there was a certain amount of playful humor going on. (Or so I thought.)
It took a few days for this reply (my bold)
I understand you were just making a comment, but I feel it is important to check your facts before making claims about cultural appropriation that may just be fuel for a false fire. ….
… and the writer went on about the contribution of black musicians to the genre " who have been unheard and unacknowledged, and who have contributed so much in largely unrecognized ways." .. etc etc, stuff anybody with a pulse would know .. and then went on about what they have done in ‘Country’.
… and .. what facts?
I resisted responding how the Beatles at the beginning and the Stones - almost forever - did exactly the same thing, as did Led Zeppelin - oh and Elvis. I KNOW - well documented ….
I elected not to respond at all. And instead became decidedly less vocal in there at least 😵💫)
Curious that back in April 🖇️ I had cause to write this. I didn’t highlight it at the time - but I wrote it in response to a different thread in this exact same group where I was accused of using tired and well worj sterotypes and tropes.
My approach is not to respond and ignore. Easy.
But - is there something else going on?
Thoughts?
Prompted to write all this because - well this reminded me …
🎥 Lift, 2024 - ★★★
Not totally bad .. but confused .. and definitely below expectations. Vincent was great. The rest .. meh.
🎈168/366 Guestbooks, Blogrolls, Reciprocity and Paying It Forward
Trying to tie it all together for the occasional visitor.
It all started with Guestbooks. ( 🖇️ I have one ) and yesterday I caught up on reciprocating and getting ahead of the curve. ✅
I then created a new page that is connected to and referenced from my guest book page - so that there is a quick check for those I have visited. 🖇️ You can find that here. - and anyone signing mine can move on to the next …
And then I added a new blogroll. If I sign your guestbook, I add your feed to my NetNewsWire and from there it appears on my 🖇️ ’Guestbook Blogroll’
Enjoy.
Image courtesy of ChatGPT 4o - prompt - “Guestbooks, Blogrolls, Reciprocity and Paying It Forward”
🎥 Safe House, 2012 - ★★★½
Somehow missed this in 2012 .. good cast, good director, good film .. and what a YOUNG Ryan’s Reynolds … it was only 12 years ago.
Worth a watch - though a relatively predictable story arc.
🎈165/366 🎵 Memories Moving To The Future
A Musical Box - no, not 🔗 🎵 that one - though in itself well worth a watch - Gabriel at his theatrical finest in 1974.
I happened to drift around some music videos on YouTube last night - and well - some of them just needed to be shared …
Starting with a couple from Robert Plant with the Shape Shifters
🔗 🎵 1 - Robert Plant at Austin City Limits
🔗 🎵 2 - Robert Plant at Austin City Limits
And Then …
Moving on to why Music has a problem. 9 minutes from Rick Beato - listen.
🔗 🎵 Rick Beato on Music created by AI - All AI generated tracks come from 🔗 Udio
Lets see how long it takes AI to do this …
All is not lost - except it might be because we have seen time and time again how the extraordinary is not always understood and often ignored.
🔗 🎵 Guthrie playing .. in The Hans Zimmer Show … just watch Zimmer’s face during this 2 minute solo …
Who the hell is Guthrie (apart from the finest living exponent of the guitar you will ever hear.)
🎥 Hit Man, 2023 - ★★★½
Not bad, not bad at all. Knew nothing about it going in, but all added up to a nice delivery beyond my expectations.
🎈155/366 The First Vision Pro Concert Movie
I have touched on this before but after reading a Lefsetz post over the weekend, decided to expand a little and log the thinking for posterity.
🔗 Lefsetz Letter - Company At The Sphere - that’s the link to where 🖇️ this quote came from that I published this weekend. I said I’d be back…
Around 2016 - ‘the term ‘spatial’ was being coined’. - though I personally think Apple’s ‘spatial’ is a light year or two ahead of where Mr. Scoble was at the time (He’s very quiet these days, isn’t he?)
🖇️ But February this year I made some pretty logical predictions about the first Vision Pro Movie.
🖇️ And in October last year I was predicting that The Sphere was a pretty good place to start on a ‘Vision Pro Concert Series’ - and I think Apple will be the one to do it. Well, maybe not ‘doing’ it - but certainly financing it.
I still think that.
But who will be the director and/or subject matter for this groundbreaking event?
Who’s Out?
Despite Tay Tay’s global appeal, it won’t be her. The Swifties don’t have the money to buy the Pro.
Peter Jackson is deep into the latest tech to do great things, definitely a friend of Apple - and his foray into music with The Beatles is interesting - but no, no Sphere experience and besides 🔗 he is deep into his next Trilogy .. as Producer - not Director, but still ..
Original “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy filmmaker Peter Jackson and his partners Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens are producing the movie and “will be involved every step of the way,” Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav said during an earnings call Thursday.
Phish? I dunno - not seeing it.
So Who’s In?
Two very real possibilities …
U2 - deeply intertwined with Apple - remember the album? And then they were first up at the Sphere - and Zane Lowe hanging out with them, talking with them. We have seen some of the footage, but who knows what was taken off the ‘back stage’ for the first Vision Pro movie?
… but I am wondering - and well out of left field - but …
The Grateful Dead - who have always been at the bleeding edge of touring and spectacle
- The ‘Home’ band for Bay Area based Apple
- Sphere residency happening - even as I type
- Residency coincided with Earth Day 2024 (very ‘Appley’)
- Lots of San Francisco through time imagery featured in the show
- 🔗 and then there is this - Huff Post - so maybe a pinch of salt is needed, written eight years ago …but written by Bill Bradey, so not his usual subject matter - but certainly no slouch.
- Note that Mayer is also part of The Sphere residency.
It’s all fitting in for this bear.
The only hard thing to reconcile is that ‘Tay Tay’ problem. Is there an overlap?
I think there just might be.
What do you think?
🎈152/366 Politics - Again.
My reply to @ridwan got a little long, so I thought I might not reply and start a new thread.
🔗 This is Ridwan’s original post
This is my reply to his comment under that post …
We are in for a Labour government, which is a done deal. However, Is Keir Starmer’s the PM after 14 years of Tory squander? I see him as just another politician who will say anything to get elected and turn his back on the people who voted Labour. I guess, even if people do vote for Labour, how many really vote for Keir?
My Reply
Like all good British elections - very few people will get to vote for The PM .. 😀
The problem however is the same as ever it was - who the hell would want to get into politics anywhere these days - so you are left with those that do and when they do - you want to know what is wrong with them - and why - and …. I have a three thousand word introduction to the book about all of this - that I have in my head - but it will never reach paper or screen of any kind.
Here’s what I do know …
-
Vote or Don’t Vote - BUT if you don’t vote - you don’t get to complain later.
-
If you chose the first option - understand what principle(s) you are voting for - what problems you are wanting solved etc - and base your choice on the best of the candidates to do that. (There is no other choice.)
2.1) sometimes those calls are things like - ‘he’ll bring back school lunches - the other guy took them away
2.2) sometimes they are broader in nature - this candidate will ensure that billionaires pay the ‘same rate’ of tax as the rest of us, the other doesn’t get it
2.3) sometimes the choice is that there is a clear and present danger to me, society, my country and the world … with the other - not so much.
ALL ARE VALID
.1 , .2 and .3 will vary by voter - sometimes on the day but more importantly - because of their general inability to
a - conceive of, b - understand, c - see the impact on themselves should it come that, d - concern themselves with others - so long as ‘I’ am ok e - just grok …
The possible outcomes of the wrong solution to ‘2.3’ and/or don’t believe them.
So - if enough people at the 2.1 level voted for one person and enough people didn’t vote for the ‘other’ person because they are too old, trips on stairs, mumbles .. guess who wins?
(Apologies a US biased set of criteria that is very real at the moment - but you get the drift - e.g. - back in Blighty - compared to David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris (the THREE Prime Ministers that served when Jeremy was the Leader of the Opposition for just 4 1/2 years .. how much worse off would we be?
I do know that JC was and is on the side of PEOPLE - and has served in Govt fighting the fight for over 40 years. When he was ousted - he didn’t slink off like the last 4 Tory PMs did to reap their financial rewards, cashing in with the Corporations .. he’s still there , serving the people of Islington and still fighting the fight.
At a broad character level who would you rather have run the country for the past FOURTEEN YEARS? Seriously - FOURTEEN?
Heres the thing - the country is being ALLOWED to vote for a party that with one outcome would put Kier in charge. That’s not a bad thing … since Cameron - every single PM has actually been APPOINTED by a few people - it is a few in the Tory party ..
Cameron won in 2010 He won again (just) in 2015 - and I recall resigned over Brexit Theresa May was then appointed As the incumbent she then won the next election, but not very well, so was ousted and Boris moved in Who went on to win his election until Truss was appointed and then little Rishi.
Despite being in power for 14 years - Cameron was the last PM that actually won the election without first having a dry run as a PM because they had previously been appointed.
If Kier turns out to be no good - it is within the power of the Labour Party to remove him and put in someone else - it isn’t the first time - as the Tories continually demonstrate.
The UK isn’t the same as the US. Keep the prize in mind. 14 years of Tory Rule might be broken. Don’t not vote (for Labour) just because you think the leader is
just another politician who will say anything to get elected and turn his back on the people who voted Labour.
You vote for him to get Labour get in power. Don’t like Labour? Vote Tory … clearly they know exactly what they are doing. Just look around the UK - it is clear.
If anybody doesn’t like all of this? Then it is time for action and to do something about it. Get others to join your cause. Change things. Too hard?
That’s why we are where we are.
PS - I know you all know all this. Sometimes I just have to wave my cane!
You Just Can't Tell. Nobody Can.
I love listening to knowledgeable 🎵 people steeped in ‘the lore’, ‘the history’ .. I can swim in it forever. An inevitable question appears somewhere in the conversation .. “did you know it was going to be a hit?”
no clue mate
… is the usual and correct response.
Same with newsletters. You just can’t tell. I keep reading over and over different writers that are surprised when their ‘magnum opus’ falls flat and a ‘throwaway’ goes viral.
My throwaway newsletter from a couple of days ago gave me an equal numbers of unsubscribes and subscribes … no viral accelerator for me .. but after being flat for over a year - my ‘paid subscriptions’ increased by around 10%. Not only that, but the subscription broke a psychological barrier - paid for subscriptions hit ‘double figures’ 🥳
The point is that you just don’t know - right?
If you want to read it - 🔗 you can
🎈146/366 Today Is My Anniversary 🚧
It’s 🔗 Towel Day ( thank you @odd ) - but today also happens to be my 25th Anniversary
Yup - 25 years. Truth be told it had been going on a lot longer - but it was 25 years ago that we actually tied the knot .. and I have had my ‘personal space’ on the internet ever since May 25th, 1999 (Creation Date: 1999-05-25T20:14:36Z).
Now of course, we had known each other a lot longer than that - long before the web in fact, but you know when you first connect you don’t really note the dates do you? It’s like a permanent honeymoon. Hours merge into days into weeks into months … who really knows when ‘it’ really all started?
I can tell you that I first got ‘involved’ with the internet in 1985. I mean it wasn’t what we know today. My own internet experience in those days was email around our international offices .. but it was the internet (ok, ok - intranet - there’s a word you don’t hear much these days.)
Although Google Trends suggests I am wrong …
.. again!
Anyway, I do remember being annoyed that my messages wouldn’t go out to the people I wanted to talk to - you know customers, partners, vendors - all the people a business should be talking to. .. we could only talk amongst ourselves. I mean the Cerne account team could connect to their customer .. why did I have to use Compusurf (sic)? … but that’s a different story.
( .. and no I didn’t do AOL, Prodigy, Compuserve .. they were never for me - maybe even back then I had the innate desire to avoid being locked into a silo.)
Anyway, that’s it … 25 Years with my 🔗 own domain ✅
Onwards.
How will I celebrate? Why - taking my towel down to the beach of course.
Category Culls and Categorization
If you have been keeping track - you have haven’t you? … You will know that I am around about a year into a ‘category culling’ on my site. I’m there. Except I am not.
As of 5 minutes ago - the last category died - number 5 below.
The objective was always to reduce the number to something more manageable. Believe it or not - this lot is around a 1/3 to 1/2 of what it used to be.
But am I really there? Could I go further? .. and really, it has to be recognized that this is mainly for me.
The Key
1 - The post a day category for 2024 (flagged because it is in a straight of reorganizational flux).
2 - Experimental category o next couple of weeks it will either be dead or committed.
3 - 15 years ago I had a site of jokes which got imported as part of my web site consolidation program. Seperately I do flag humorous things. I should merge the two.
4 - It was never an ‘Instagram import’ - 18 images that came from Insta - shouldn’t they just be ‘photos’.
5 - Gone.
6 - I want to move all ‘titled-posts’ to ‘long form’ - if indeed they are long form - a long arduous (who cares) job.
7 - my’xxxx' was a way to keep the categories organized for past year as I organized - do I still need the ‘my’.
8 - hangover from the People First site - they don’t need a category - so long as I can search and pull them up - thinking.
9 - people first is the preferred - so need to move peoplefirst across.
10 - do I need quote and quote wise? Quote is a quote - quote wise are the images that Readwise can deliver.
11 - another WIP - that will eventually become the ‘top 10 of each category.
🎈142/366 A Bucket Of Slop
I am well aware that despite my years long campaign to stop people from describing their words, articles, photographs, thinking … beliefs, soul … Intellectual Property even … ‘content’ … they continue to… unabated.
But I am not giving up …
That said - there are people that ‘get it’. (Though I will freely admit that we are also in the minority there!)
Meanwhile the ‘bot farms that have been delivering the real content (sic) to our uncurated feeds and inboxes have been gearing up for the AI revolution - and indeed as reported in many places are already shaping our ‘thinking’. (I use the word loosely.)
Imagine then my delight to read that ‘Slop is the new name for unwanted AI-generated content’.
Sidebar - if you don’t know what a ‘bucket of slop’ is - ‘Slop is the new name for unwanted AI-generated content’.
Perfect.
Slop is also a name given to what is left at the bottom after any of the remotely useful homogenized content that has been stored in a silo has been removed.
The trick now is going to be how readers will be able to spot the slop - given that they already have difficulties separating content from any kind of value.
Read the whole piece …
🔗 Slop is the new name for unwanted AI-generated content
… and hat tip to John Gruber who referenced this post on Daring Fireball.
If I don’t say those words when I work with some AI model - I feel rude.
I opened Chat4o and my first words (audio input) after ‘hello’ were something like write me a quick post about Markdown. What is it. Why should I use it.
Response back - as written. No formatting. No editing.
Introduction
In the world of technology and software development, it is crucial to have proper documentation to ensure that information is organized and easily accessible. Markdown is lightweight markup language with plain-text formatting syntax, designed to be easily converted into HTML and other formats. It provides a simple way to structure content without the need for complex coding.
Why Use Markdown?
Markdown is widely used by developers, writers, and content creators for various reasons:
- Simplicity: Markdown uses plain text and a simple formatting syntax that is easy to learn.
- Portability: Markdown files can be opened on any text editor and easily converted to different formats.
- Flexibility: It supports various elements such as headers, lists, images, and links, making it versatile for different types of content.
- Readability: Markdown files are clean and easy to read in their raw form.
- Compatibility: It can be used on different platforms and is supported by many applications websites.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Markdown is a powerful tool for creating well-structured documents quickly and efficiently. Whether you are writing a blog post, documenting code, or creating content for the web, Markdown offers a simple and effective way to format your text. By incorporating Markdown into your workflow, you can streamline the documentation process and focus on creating great content.
I have worked with Macs for nearly (more than?) 20 years - and never once said hello to it - or please - or thank you ….
If I don’t say those words when I work with some AI model - I feel rude.
What Will The Cathedrals Of The Future Be ... Let Alone Look Like.
Cathedrals are places designed to show their creator’s opulence and power, but they’re also designed to alter our senses, to throw us into alternate worlds, so that they can open us our minds to change. If that’s the case, what will these places be in the 21st century?
Good question that was running through my mind when I stumble across this quote …
“In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship.”
💬 David Foster Wallace
Worlds Colliding. The piece I was reading was 🔗 Cathedrals of the 21st Century from Unchartered Territories, that ends …
You can see similar processes at play today in places like courtrooms or parliaments, albeit more subdued: They are big, solemn, sound is controlled and there are ceremonies, serious uniforms…
… and then immediately …
But you can also apply the same principles and end up with a completely different setting and experience: nightclubs.
If that observation makes you sit up you should go read the whole thing. Also, some great images throughout as you read Tomas Pueyo’s observations across geography and time.
🎈136/366 Translating A Transcript
German Language Podcast.
In 🍎 Podcasts - you can see the German language transcription.
BUT - you can’t copy the whole thing.
Looks like you can.
But you can’t.
I use software to record meetings.
Ooh I thought.
Play the podcast - and record - at end of podcast one german transcription. Run that through a translator and voila … or so I thought.
I did an experiment - thankfully.
What the software actually seems to have done is taken the german audio and decided as best it could as to what the german audio was saying - as if it was English.
This was the transcription ..
00:00 Here That’s an idea. 02:05 Like the fruits for real the presidential Here for learn have much of the jobs about completed here in the middle is also provided, you know. 02:50 Silicon Valley can manage to our design I am gonna Valley There are not only isn’t as operating system for startups on invert one in a ropa want to talk about he knows it happens startups of middle stunt or of course team. 03:15 What are all in this one entertain? 03:18 I was eating product on his product and from about yeah. 03:23 I know what linear ball over with design what is supply? 03:28 Put on my mobile phones and Seed talk follow-up disabled and antonym of familial torch and lived in solution in California and Silicon Valley and San Francisco on her off my shoulder and startup boat about under startups of cardboard and get a normal about Cosmopolis this year noises Venture on Cosmopolis is some Lisa has been a community have another Community developers and against Trump his own and hell for some spring on this fits here on this is another Simple so that’s called.
Back to the drawing board.
🚧 Shame
I have deleted what should have been this post since it wasn’t doing what it should. No time to debug now .. will come back and flag when I have fixed or got a workaround.
The Furor and How One Creative Thinker Changed Everything
To catch you up, you might have missed 🔗 📼 this video .. you can see it at the bottom of the page.
When I first saw it, I liked the visual effect - but really - not the message. As I wrote over on 🔗 John’s blog
I saw that vid .. kinda like it .. BUT .. I dunno … destroy everything physical, crush it to nothing ?
Unbeknownst to this bear - a lot of people were of the same opinion. A ‘furor’ indeed.
Anyway, in the comments thread on John’s blog he highlighted 🔗this ’twitter post’ from Reza Sixo Safai. This is the 🔗 tweet
Now on occasions I do pop out from under my rock and have noticed that these days Twitter isn’t a very nice place to go anymore. So - on behalf of you dear reader, I donned my protective suit, sprayed myself from top to bottom, grabbed the video and behold …. With all and every credit to Reza. ’Twitter’ is the only reason I pulled it to be here - because Twitter, so now all can view it - and those with protective clothing can pop over and see for themselves.
My comment cannot be better than this one …
This is unironically one of the cleverest creative feats I have ever seen. To take a widely-publicized, universally panned ad and then turning it into the exact ad that it should have been, communicating the desired message 10000x better.
💬 Amal Dorai
If you are reading this post on my site, the inline video gives an error. Click on the link above. The 'error' is only because the creator wants you to got to YouTube to watch it.