Life on the Wicked Stage: Act 3
Musings on life, the theatre, technology, culture and the occasional emu sighting
Grand time with the grandkids.
What a grand weekend! My daughter dropped off the grandkids for a sleepover with Grandpa and Grandma on Friday as she came into town to support our son-in-law in his job producing content for the Professional Fighters League. We had a blast keeping up with the kids, discovering the wonders of Grandpa’s house, and hanging out with their Mom and Dad and my wife’s mother.
Good times watching these two little ones on their journeys into bigger ones.
Imaginations run wild when the grandkids come to visit grandpa’s house.
Dreams fill our imagination or sometimes vice versa. Especially when there are young kids around. This week’s edition of Sunday Morning Reading is a smaller list than most given that we’re on grandparent duty, but it should pique your imagination nonetheless.
As mentioned, we’re babysitting the grandkids this weekend. And so it’s only appropriate to kick off this edition of Sunday Morning Reading with The Dollhouse and it’s Discontents by NatashaMH.
With visiting grandkids comes a revist to the land of vivid imaginations. Watching the older one explore grandpa’s house and turn discoveries of the mundane into new found adventures may not approach hypherphantasia, but it’s enough to blow one’s mind. Speaking of, check out David Robinson’s ‘Like a Film in My Mind’: Hyperphantasia and the Quest To Understand Vivid Imaginations.
Speaking of dreams and imagination, Daniel Bessner has a great piece called The Life and Death of Hollywood. The dream factory might be going through some nightmares.
As our world seems both full of imagination and fraught with fear about Artificial Intelligence, Benedict Evans goes Looking For AI use-cases.
Ever wonder how the Internet keeps us connected around the globe? Check out Josh Dzieza’s report for The Verge about the folks who keep undersea cables maintained in The Cloud Under The Sea. Imagine that.
If you’re interested in just what the heck Sunday Morning Reading is all about you can read more about the origins of Sunday Morning Reading here. You can also find more of my writings on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.
The Dems need to help Mike Johnson hang onto his gavel
Politics has never been bean bag. But it’s also never been this stupid. Mike Johnson, the aw-shucks reluctant Speaker of the House is making a play for bills that should have passed the House of Representatives long ago. Because his predecessor caved to the crazies in his caucus and allowed any House member to file a motion to vacate the chair, Johnson is once again up against the wall, being threatened by some of his own members if he does.
This morning another Republcian vowed to support the Mouth from the South’s motion to vacate, upping the stakes a bit and certainly increasing the entertainment value, dubious as it is. Once you’ve watched The Three Stooges in reruns over and over again, the shtick more than fades.
Too many on the Democratic side of things lust to see Johnson toppled and the Republicans falter, hoping to regain the majority. while the former GOP continues swimming in a cesspool of their own making. Set aside that the bills in question are necessary for larger reasons. They are and need to pass.
The Democrats should have the votes with enough semi-sane Republicans to help pass the legislation and also allow Johnson to retain his Speakership, should he decide he’s got the moxie to move. I’m not sure which side will have to hold its nose more tightly to make that move, but take a deep breath, grab those nostrils, squeeze and do the smart thing.
Why should the Dems save Johnson’s skin? It’s simple. With this Congress and the ever narrowing and narrow-minded Republican majority in the House, not much is going to happen legislatively prior to the Labor Day recess. Moving legislation after that is practically an impossibility, even more so this year. Those who keep hoping for the Dem’s to quickly regain the gavel need to cool their jets and get smart.
Kindergarten political science calculations should tell anyone paying attention that going into the November elections with this House remaining under Republican control should make it easier for the Dems to regain the majoirty after the election by continuing to campaign against an easily recognizable ineffectual Republican majority full of looney tunes characters not legislators.
That’s not a sure thing, because it does indeed depend on the election. But it’s a better bet than if the Dem’s were suddenly placed in control in the run-up to the election, having to accept the responsibility for governing when there won’t be a chance in hell of getting anything done in the meantime. It also has a chance to diminish the power of the crazies a bit. It won’t stop the yelling and screaming, but it will continue to help magnify the stupidity which seems to know no bounds.
You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.
A splendid visual feast well worth your viewing.
Sometimes you just need to let your eyes swim in the visuals. That’s how I felt as we watched the Netflix series Ripley over the weekend. It’s luxurious to look at and linger on. But you can’t linger long. Every time different pixels reveal a different shot you’re treated to something equally magnificent.
Steven Zaillian’s take on the Ripley series is almost too rich to watch in a binging fashion. But that’s what my wife and I did over the weekend and we felt richer for the experience. Typically in my viewing, visuals are just another story-telling element that need to meld well with the other elements to create a satisfactory whole. Not in this case. The visuals are enough.
The black and white cinematography by Robert Eslwit and the Production Design led by David Gropman and Art Direction by Karen Schulz Gropman are beyond exquisite. Almost to the point of being overwhelming. They must have had one helluva time scouting locations and picking camera locations. It doesn’t get more sumptuous than this and it makes this remake of a well told tale worth viewing and celebrating.
In fact, beyond Andrew Scott’s performance, which is excellent but not his best, the remake needed this level of visual panache to make it more than just another retelling of a story about a difficult and troubling man.
Scott’s fellow cast members also do excellent work adhering like glue to Zailllian’s spare emotionless approach to the text. That approach works surprisingly well, especially in the later episodes. There’s more mystery and mirth left unindicated than in most fare, revealing as much, but not too much, as the many shots of statues observing the tale as it unfolds. Marry that to the visual story telling artistry and one amazing cat, and the entire experience is thrillingly satisfying and entertainingly unsettling in the best possible sense.
Highly recommended.
You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.
Silver linings, taking stock, a revival of the Avant-Garde, and the future of chocolate all in this week’s Sunday Morning Reading to Share
Weekends used to be for taking a breath. That seems so long ago it’s tough to measure it conventionally as it somehow sadly just slipped away. Even so, there’s still time to share some Sunday Morning Reading.
Artificial Intelligence remains on the tip of all the digital tongues these days, though it’s yet to show any real promise that I’ve seen. Except for those who got in early on the cash grab. Steven Levy has an interesting piece, Tech Leaders Once Cried For AI Regulation. Now the Message is ‘Slow Down.’ Sounds like the cash isn’t as easy to grab as much as it used to be.
Speaking of AI, Chris Castle has an interesting piece on Music Technology Policy called Has The Ship Sailed On The Myth of “Responsible AI”? I’m not even sure it ever qualified for myth status, but whatever it is, that ship is out of the harbor. Hat Tip to Stan Stewart.
Kyle Chayka thinks The Dumbphone Is Real. This comes as so many blame smartphones for the decline of civilization among other smaller sins. Call me when every company in the world no longer begs you to pay your bills online, you can reach your doctor’s office via a phone, or tech companies (including those that make dumb phones don’t put you through hell trying to get techncial support from a person. I’ll take that call on my smartphone.
Most things get recycled. Including art movements. Helen Shaw takes a look at one such revival/remount in The Avant-Garfde Is Back On The Launchpad about the Wooster Group’s remounting of Richard Foreman’s Symphony of Rats.
Jamelle Bouie’s When Politicians Invoke the Founding Fathers, Remember This is interesting. First, because the title changed from when it first appeared in The New York Times. Originally it was The Founding Fathers Don’t Have the Answers To Every Question. I wrote about that here. My points remain, so does Bouie’s (which are excellent). The headline writing still suffers.
Richard Stengel suggests that 2024 election coverage should be free and out from behind paywalls. He makes a good argument in Democracy Dies Behind Paywalls.
One of my favorite writers, NatashaMH gets quite poignant and, protestations aside, quite brave in doing so, in The Distance Between a Breath And Sadness. I think we should all learn how to better measure that distance.
David Todd McCarty uncharacteristically goes Searching for Silver Linings.
And to close things out on a bitter sweet note, Isable Fattal takes a look at The Future of Chocolate. It’s a summary for articles about the future of chocolate as she tells us to savor our favorites whlle we can. Apparently, yet another in a long line of sweet life things where we need to measure the difference between a breath and sadness because there may not be a silver lining.
If you’re interested in just what the heck Sunday Morning Reading is all about you can read more about the origins of Sunday Morning Reading here. You can also find more of my writings on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.
Context like facts can be a stubborn thing.
Context like facts can be a stubborn thing. Headlines on the other hand often move beyond stubborn into stupid. Jamelle Bouie in the New York Times provides a very good piece of context on the Electoral College in The Founding Fathers Don’t Have the Answer to Every Question. It’s worth your time to give it a read. But please, skip the headline.
Bouie provides very good context on the evolution of the Electoral College, tracing many of the changes it has undergone. That evolution is the key to understanding how much we rely and avoid relying on what the Framers intended. Depending on context.
I don’t take any of Bouie’s history or his opinions on the subject into question. As I understand history he’s pretty accurate and on point. What I take issue with is how the headline, and how summaries or attention getters like it, diminish and impede our understanding of issues both simple and complex. It’s pretty easy to toss the blame onto a bunch of wig-wearing old white men sweating it out in Philadelphia. But it’s ultimately reductive and insulting.
The Founding Fathers did indeed have an answer to every question. It’s called the amendment process they enshrined in Article 5 of the U.S. Constitution. It’s not an easy answer because it requires moving political Heaven and Earth to amend the Constitution and it’s become an increasingly heavy lift over the years.
I’m reasonably sure the Framers made the process cumbersome for the purposes of trying to avoid moments like we’re in now. They had a pretty good understanding of human nature, our strengths and our weaknesses. I believe they knew we would struggle with great change as evidenced by our original sin of slavery that resulted in compromise in order to bring the document into being.
What they missed, and missed badly, are two things:
1. Our growing capacity for avarice and that we’d turn all of this into a money making machine instead of poltical debate over differing opinions.
2. Our seemingly endless capacity for embracing and extending stupidity.
You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.
Missing the point and missing the story.
The folks at Axios raised a few eyebrows this week with a report, follwed up with a behind the scenes look at the report, essentially telling us to calm down about what’s happening in U.S. politics. Those of us alarmed are living in a reality distortion bubble according to Axios. The country isn’t as divided as we’ve been decieved into thinking it is.
If you ask me the only bubble is the one in the Axios editorial suite.
Look, I get it. Yes, there are millions of Americans too busy to be anywhere close to up to speed on what’s going on in this country politically, legally, and socially. But that misses the point and also gives lie to what passes for current day media’s business model. Also the historical one. If it bleeds it has always led and the country could use a tourniquet about now. Missing that story misses all points entirely.
There are millions who are paying attention, landing on either side of whatever passes for fences these days. If there weren’t, the media bubble (of which Axios is a part of) wouldn’t have much of an audience, or at least wouldn’t have enough worth advertisting on.
Those pushing to turn the clock back and those pushing to keep it moving forward both count on those millions too busy with the everyday to pay attention everyday. Assigning those paying attention to “a fringe view,” side swipes at what’s been happening and what’s going to happen in the next seven months and beyond. It’s also at odds with broad concepts like political science, history, and just plain old math.
I’m not disagreeing with some of the facts and data laid out in these articles. I’m disagreeing with the head in the sand conclusions.
You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.
A Modest Proposal
There’s a part of me that thinks we should dispense with voting and just award the presidency to the candidate who raises the most money. Certainly that would be unfair to those with less money under our current system, but there might be ways to make it more transparent.
Big bucks donors have always felt this way. At least that’s what they have told themselves after stroking large checks to this or that PAC. It used to be for a chance to grab a government contract or two and that’s still the case. But after the 2016 election many got their quid-pro-quo with the Trump tax cuts. Some of which will expire at the end of 2025. Bettting on an extension or making those tax cuts permanent more aptly explains the current willingness to toss out good money after bad character.
That’s the point. As long as there’s a buck to be made, make the bet. Trump’s an edges-bent, easy to read wildcard, but big donors, like some criminals posing as world leaders, are counting on the chaos to save some tax scratch while also allowing them to do whatever the heck they want to do to keep the cash spigots open. They know what they’re betting on.
Regardless of party, politics has always been about who gets to ride the gravy train. With the Democrats some of it is actually about policy. With what used to be called the Republican Party it has always been about grift and graft. Mix in a little God and you can even roll the suckers when you pass the collection plates.
All of this gets dressed up in political debates about regulation, campaign financing, laws, and ethics. But those duds are as see through as the new Major League Baseball uniforms.
So here’s a modest proposal. Let folks donate as much as they want. But each donation only counts as one dollar towards the outcome regardless of the size of the donation. Do away with PACs and other three-card monte schemes that reward political operatives and lobbyists. Donate the money directly to the candidate. Only individuals can donate. None of this “corporations are people” bullshit. Tie the donations to social security numbers. It would still be about turnout, but you could only turn out your pockets once and make it count. Say goodbye to the Electoral College and Make Accounting Great Again.
Stupid? Probably. Candidates used to buy votes with a beer and a sandwich, now corporations and other governments buy candidates. I doubt this would change our genetic code that builds liars and cheaters, but it would at least be a stab at more honesty.
You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.
The world seems a bit crazier each week when the calendar flips to Sunday. In the lead up to a ‘sun eating’ total solar eclipse perhaps a bit more so. Don’t gamble on things settling down after it passes. Regardless, here’s some Sunday Morning Reading to share.
According to Bertrand Russell “fear is the main source of superstition.” That may well be true. David Todd McCarty takes a look at The Disparity Between Fear and Progress.
Kyle Orland in Ars Technica tells us that Google Might Make Users Pay for AI Features in Search Results. I can’t imagine anything less intelligent.
Speaking of AI, NatashaMH wonders Will We Ever Be Ready for the Future? Have we ever?
Getting back to creativity in the real world, textile artist Minga Opazo explores being confident, finding solutions, and balancing research with your artistic practice in Engaging With The World In Your Work. Hat tip to Stan Stewart.
On the politics beat, Robert Faturechi, Justin Elliott and Alex Mierjeski of ProPublica take a look at what appears to be another in a long line of Trump scams, this time with his last minute bond bailout. Ethical concerns abound in Trump’s Lawyers Told The Court No One Wold Give Him a Bond. Then He Got A Lifeline, But They Didn’t Tell The Judges. Too bad ethics don’t matter much anymore.
One thing about the political beat is that most of what we see and read is re-packaging things most of us already know. Details do matter, but not after the orange bull has wrecked the China shop. Lachlan Cartwright tells us What I Saw At The National Enquirer During Trump’s Rise. A too late, but good read.
Our Entire Society Is Becoming Addicted to Sports Gambling says Alex Shephard. I’m sure everyone saw this coming once the Supreme Court gave gambling the go ahead. Don’t forget, someone paid off Justice Kavanaugh’s gambling debts as he was being groomed for the bench.
To close things out, here’s a bit of history about solar eclipses from Leah Sarnoff in ‘The Sun Has Been Eaten’: Inside The History and Mystery of Total Solar Eclipses.
If you’re interested in just what the heck Sunday Morning Reading is all about you can read more about the origins of Sunday Morning Reading here. You can also find more of my writings on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.
Putin. Trump. Netanyahu. The Axis of Chaos. Absent chaos none of these men would be terrorizing their countries, their citizens, and the world. They’ve more than proven that the best way to stay in power is to sow chaos. They may one day reap the whirlwind, but currently they survive by tossing the world into a toilet bowel of turbulence.
They each need each other to continue churning the chaos mill so that they can continue creating and profiting from their own, simultaneously mocking any attempts at accountability.
Both Putin and Netanyahu despise Trump as much as they need him to keep the United States, and thus the rest of the world spinning off kilter. The Russians call tools of Trump’s ilk “useful idiots” and if you ask me he’s exhausted the cliché. That famous photo of Trump in the Oval Office laughing as if he’s in on the joke is one of the funniest and most iconic displays of his ignorance of his own impotence.
Putin doesn’t need Trump because he’s a clever ally with mutually aligned goals, beyond their desires for self-enrichment. He needs Trump because he’s a bumbling behemoth of bombast he can reliably count on to stir things up and keep all eyes unable to focus. It’s the old magician’s distraction trick. The same with Netanyahu. Both he and Putin recognize that they have an easy mark, easy to pay, easy to play.
Trump thinks he needs each of them for the same reasons. But being the awareness-deficient clod that he is, he doesn’t realize he’s being played for a fool. It’s easy for him to think he’s in the gang given the seemingly endless supply of his own useful and idiotic lickspittles leeching off him. None of them, regardless of whom they serve, seem to notice when others get tossed aside or unceremoniously fall out of windows.
That’s what chaos agents and charlatans have always thrived on: wanna-be hangers-on thinking they also have a chance at grabbing the brass ring.
If the three disappeared in a poof of dust overnight, the world would still turn on its somewhat more predictable axis. Certainly part of it would turn in on itself trying to sort out a way forward, perhaps creating a wobble or two. But it would still turn. Spinning in such circles has become so disgustingly normal that it has numbed most of us into inaction as we try to find an always illusive balance.
You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.
Life on the Wicked Stage: Act 3 