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Everywhere Else is the South
I laughed out loud. As we watch some states sending National Guard troops into Washington DC bowing subserviently to the convicted felon’s desire to stop everyone but him and his followers from committing crime, a friend in frustration said “the South is sending all of these troops.” Well, not exactly.
But then again, maybe so.
Yes, South Carolina, Tennessee, Louisiana and Mississippi are sending troops and they are indeed Southern States geographically, socially, and historically in the context of the American Civil War. South Carolina makes perfect sense as it was the first state to secede from the Union. Some of the others with their secessionist histories do as well. But at first glance, Ohio certainly doesn’t, nor does West Virginia.
The American Civil War has been studied and written about so much, it’s amazing how much so many just don’t know. It’s actually a bit stupefying how many accept the mythologies about the sentiments and ideologies that underpinned that conflict. The maps in the history books make it easy with their North/South divide. But it was never easy. In an ironic twist in this latest reactionary resurgence of racist rewriting history, West Virginia actually split off from Virginia to join the Union after Virginia seceded from the Union.
Like I said, it’s enough to make me laugh at the ignorance of it all.
But then I remember a line from Lanford Wilson’s play Talley’s Folly. A lovely two-hander that features Jewish New Yorker Matt Friedman wooing Sally Talley in Missouri. As she demurs with objections about their different backgrounds and ways of life, in frustration he tells her:
…there is New York City, isolated neighborhoods in Boston, and believe me, the rest is all the South.
I’ve found Wilson and Matt’s observation to be extremely accurate in my travels through life, and certainly it resonates the same in today’s insanity as well.
Put it this way, in this Civil War we’re inching into there won’t be anything like a Mason and Dixon Line dividing the opposing sides. Actually there never was.
You can also find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above.
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National Potato Day
In honor of National Potato Day here in the U.S.
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Craig Hockenberry’s Take on the Why of Liquid Glass
There is a quote largely attributed to Robert F. Kennedy. No not the one rampaging through the U.S. healthcare system. It goes “some men see things as they are and ask why. I dream things that never were, and ask why not?” But, it actually came first from George Bernard Shaw in his play Back to Methuselah.
The text gets mangled often enough as does the attribution. Regardless, the point is made. In my experience as a theatre producer/director/designer/playwright the biggest part of the game is the “dreaming” part. The next hurdle is finding a way to turn that into reality. The dreams often come when least expected, occasionally after many attempts at finding a solution, and sometimes at random moments. They sometimes come into focus as almost impossible, or perhaps wrong-headed.
Typically, in something completely uncharacteristic for me, when I find I can’t articulate what I’m feeling or seeing, I know I’m on to something, and that’s the moment to ask “why not?” rather than “why?”
I’m also very familiar with the desire or temptation to do something new instead of doing again what I know works. Speaking from my experience that’s yielded both positive and negative results. There’s a reason some things are called “tried and true.” There’s also a reason to hold your breath, roll the dice and gamble it all on something new.
Honestly, either way is a risk. And that’s how it should be. But if you feel the need for change, go for it and don’t reverse course.
But what do I know? I’m just a theatre guy who’s produced hits and flops along the way and comfortable taking slings and arrows along with occasional accolades. I’m not sure what feels better, being admired for a courageous leap of faith, or feeling accomplished for sticking the landing. In the end, I’m not sure it matters.
Liquid Glass
A lot has already been said, good, bad, or indifferent about how Apple’s designers dreamed up its new Liquid Glass design approach. But that doesn’t answer the “why?” Was it a compulsion for something new? Time for a change? A diversion to distract? Or a romantic new vision spurred on by a heavy new headset?
App developer and designer Craig Hockenberry of the
, in an interesting post recently asked that question and provided what he thinks is a possible answer. It’s titled simply Liquid Glass. Why? I don’t want to spoil the post. You should go read it yourself. But his answer points to a possible future of devices “with screens that disappear seamlessly into the physical edge.”
A cautionary note here. For several years Apple trumpeted “edge-to-edge screens” that still had bezels. Marketing mavens often outrace product dreamers to the destination.
I joked with Craig on Mastodon that he should have subtitled the piece Liquid Glass is an Edge Case.
The joke may indeed prove to be true, but it’s a truth we’ll live with in some form or fashion for the next few years, edge case or not, regardless of the good, bad, or indifferent reactions.
Anyway, go read Craig’s piece. However Liquid Glass is received in a few weeks, I’m looking forward to discovering it myself.
I mean, why not?
You can also find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above.
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Mainstream Media Continues to Dismantle Itself
It’s been an accepted part of conventional wisdom for quite some time that what we consider mainstream media is gradually fading away in the face of newer generations turning to other sources available on the Internet for news and entertainment. Heck, even some older generations are turning what used to be the dial.
The business models have suffered for a while now whether it’s print, broadcast or cable. The fading away has gained new and seemingly panicked momentum thanks to the depredations of the Trump administration, aided by the greedy cowardice of the corporations worried more about avoiding the wrath of the beast they helped create, than the standards they all proudly trumpeted for years. Those trumpets have largely fallen silent or just ring hollow.
The end of late night comedy shows captured a lot of attention recently, but eventually most broadcast scripted news and entertainment will also give way. Which is ironic given that the convicted felon largely responsible for this quickening pace came to prominence via Reality TV, which let me tell you is anything but reality and is very scripted.
Now NBC Universal, owned by Comcast, is making a move away from MSNBC, attempting to distance the Peacock from controversy by rebranding as MS Now. That little branding acronym stands for My Source | News | Opinion | World.
Yeesh. I guess the marketing department was the first place they made changes. As a social media friend Judgment Dave says, “it sounds like a translation of something in Japanese that doesn’t translate well into English.”
It’s weird, yet it isn’t to hang onto the ‘MS’, given that MSNBC was birthed as partnership with Microsoft and NBC, long since dissolved. Somewhere Bill Gates is laughing because it also sounds like a software program delivered on a CD-ROM.
Whatever sturm and drang comes from this news of the moment, (news of the Now?) the bigger picture is that these troubled corporations, in what feels like desperate efforts to try and save themselves, are essentially hastening their eventual final curtains in the wake of current trends already overtaking them.
Some may lay blame on the rise of the Internet and mobile devices in every hand, but the fact of the matter is the smart folks at the top of these corporations missed the moment. Some eventually tried to make changes. Remember CNN Plus? But in my opinion their failures were less about the delivery mechanisms and more about the decline of the news and entertainment products that they delivered as the cost cutters held sway.
NBCUniversal isn’t done trimming the sails yet. Plans are in place to spinoff other properties as well (CNBC, USA, Oxygen, and E!).
Some will blame it on advertisers seeking the best way to reach customers. That’s mostly true, but ask podcasters how that’s going for them these days. Chasing advertising revenue is always a cyclical game for just about everything except sports.
It’s no wonder then that it feels like we see our politics more and more resembling blood sports. Of course the irony is audiences claim they want less, not more in that realm. What will be interesting to see in the next decade or so is how political advertising, which fills so many corporate media coffers sorts itself out, once the usual outlets fade away as they continue to play to ever diminishing audiences that keep spreading themselves wider and wider, attempting to flee the same old, same old.
Certainly ads will continue to be designed to run on social media and circulate that way. But the only folks making real money off of that trend are the political consultants and ad-makers.
I hope I’m around to see how my grandkids eventually consume what we once revered and respected as the news. I’ll regale them with what I imagine they will view as fairy tales and myths.
You can also find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above.
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Sunday Morning Reading
We’re technically out of the Dog Days of Summer, but it doesn’t feel much like it. It’s the kind of hot Summer I remember as a kid when the dogs would spend the hot part of the day lazing under the porch. I’m spending mine traveling (too much traveling) and sharing what I can here and there. Find some shade and check out this week’s Sunday Morning Reading.
Peter Wehner thinks the only way out of the wreckage we’re in is to rewrite the cultural script. Tall task. He spells it out in The Virtue of Integrity.
Knowing is half the battle. What you do with knowledge is an altogether different story as knowing and knowledge are two different things. Check out Jim Stewartson’s piece The War on Knowing.
Somehow in all of the wreckage we’re sorting through, empathy became a bad thing for those doing the wrecking. NatashaMH thinks this crazy Artificial Intelligence race we’re in is taking the human out of being human. If you ask me it’s all a bit too human as we look to foist off responsibility for the choices we make. The Risks of Synthetic Empathy is a great piece. Give it a read.
Then take a look at Mathew Ingram’s piece, People Fall In Love With All Kinds of Things Including AI Chatbots. When chatbots start filing for divorce I think we might have created Artificial Generative Intelligence.
Kyle Chayka is exploring The Revenge of Millennial Cringe. Home may be where the heart is, but it was a terrible song.
Stephen Marche is talking about Profound and Abiding Rage: Canada’s Answer to America’s Abandonment. Abandonment is a good way to describe what we’re all feeling these days.
Apple’s about to unleash new operating systems for its devices in a few weeks and the one that has my interest is for iPads. From what I’ve seen (I don’t run the betas) the changes to the multi-tasking capabilities will be a positive step forward. Craig Grannell takes a look at how long it took for Apple to finally make these changes in Apple Finally Destroyed Steve Jobs’ Vision of the iPad. Good.
Chicago’s Uptown Theatre celebrated 100 years this week. Robert Loerzel takes a look in Uptown Theatre: 100 Years of Glory and Decay.
When you think you’re the center of the universe it can rock your world when you find out you’re not. Kids learn this. Republicans in the current administration have not. Eric Berger writes about NASA’s Acting Chief Calls For the End of Earth Science at the Space Agency.
(Image from Machekhin Evgenii on Shutterstock.)
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. If you’d like more click on the Sunday Morning Reading link in the category column to check out what’s been shared on Sunday’s past. You can also find more of my writings on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.
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Swallowtail-ing
Another lucky catch with the camera.
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More Monarch-ing Around
Just another shot of a Monarch butterfly toiling in the neighborhood.
These moments give me joy.
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Apple Brings Back Blood Oxygen Feature to the Apple Watch
Apple Watch users can breathe easier again. Or at least measure their blood oxygen levels with their Apple Watches.
Apple today announced that an update to Apple Watches and iPhones (16.1) to be released today will bring a redesigned Blood Oxygen feature for those with the Series 9, Series 10, and Apple Watch Ultra 2 users.
This comes after a long legal fight with Masimo, a health technology company, over a patent dispute that required Apple to deactivate the feature on Apple Watches in the U.S. that included the feature. Apple had to stop selling Apple Watches without the feature intact, but got a pause on that import ban for the Christmas season in 2023.
The patent case is still under appeal by Apple, but Apple is saying that the move comes after a U.S. Customs ruling that allows Apple to once again import Apple Watches with the Blood Oxygen feature.
I may be speculating, (I doubt it) but it sounds like a friends in high places who like gifts moment to me.
You can also find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above.
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Change Is Hard
Change may be inevitable but change is hard. Change becomes harder when those making the change, for whatever reasons, don’t remember change is hard. The only thing that doesn’t change is how easily we forget that change is hard.
OpenAI met with some real friction after announcing its big changes last week. Apple is going to meet some when it doles out its new operating systems with Liquid Glass next month. HBO changes its name so often it can’t even get it right in press releases. The list is as long as history. Every company faces this. Some do it well. Others not so.
As M.G. Siegler points out in this column if you’ve been around long enough you learn to recognize the patterns. You have to be willfully blind or consumed by ego not to. In fact, the problems with instituting change are so predictable it makes one wonder why these AI engines, endlessly regurgitating whatever human wisdom they can scrape and scrounge, don’t caution against it. I’m sure somewhere in all the words and wisdom created by humans “change is hard” has been said before.
If we’re marching towards an advanced AGI with PhD level knowledge that can reason better than humans, I think the masters of the AI universe need to solve that problem before anyone can make a claim that we might someday get there.
Call me when that happens.
It’s like watching a new edition to the Alien franchise hoping one actually turns out to be more than a repeat. Or watching an American football team with a bad offensive line try to run the ball up the middle over and over again. Or thinking that once inflation retreats that prices will come down. Or thinking humans will one day be smart enough not to fall for obvious con games.
The unsolvable riddle about change involves the variables and vagaries of human nature. That’s a constant that will never change.
You can also find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above.
(Image from Linus Nylund on Unsplash)
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Monarch-ing Around
Just a quick share of a shot I caught of a Monarch butterfly yesterday.
Amazed I was able to catch this full wing spread. FWIW I’ve seen fewer Monarchs and Swallowtails this year than in the last two.
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Life on the Wicked Stage: Act 3
Musings on life, the theatre, technology, culture and the occasional emu sighting
Life on the Wicked Stage: Act 3 