Life on the Wicked Stage: Act 3

The Wacky War On Woke Typefaces

The wingdings continue winging and dinging

I guess I feel safer. Those woke sans serif typefaces won’t be in my face any longer. At least in official communications from the State Department.

Trump professional suck up, currently serving as Secretary of State, Marco Rubio has declared that all official communications from the State Department ditch the woke typeface Calibri and return to using the more traditional Times New Roman. Apparently the Biden administration flipped on the woke switch in 2023. But no longer!

Rubio’s statement, while hiding behind the claim of clarity and formality, let the cat out the bag by castigating radical diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility programs in his statement. These wingdings just keep on winging and dinging with their distaste for anything they fear might smack any type of inclusion that doesn’t include bribery.

I guess if you’re on a binge to eradicate history you don’t like, ban books you’ve never read, and are afraid of anything and everything that doesn’t fit your warped world view, you might as well get rid of offending typography. Because, hey, there’s nothing else of import happening in the world that might need some attention.

Maybe we’ll find out just how far the big tech oligarchs are willing to follow the administration’s lead if they start removing the Calibri typeface from future software updates. Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if that actually happens.

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.

The Netflix Paramount Media Money Muddle

Stay tuned

It was quite comedic to watch the reaction to the news at the end of last week that Netflix had won the bidding to take over Warner Brothers. There was indeed much celebrating. There as also quite a bit of consternation. The celebration was primarily because there is an abundant school of thought that no one wanted Paramount, now essentially another tentacle of the Trump administration, to win.

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I didn’t bite on the news celebrations or the consternation being the final chapter then. Of course it wasn’t. The Netflix bid parlayed out to $72 billion. On Monday, Paramount Skydance launched a hostile all cash takeover bid of $77.9 billion.

There’s only a roughly $5-6 billion difference between the two bids, but the Paramount bid seeks to swallow up the pieces of Warner Brothers/Discovery that Netflix apparently wasn’t interested in, including media properties such as CNN, TNT Sports, and Discovery. Netflix’s bid was for Warner’s Studio and HBO’s streaming business only. Note that Warner Brothers had previously announced that it planned to split up the combined businesses in just that vein.

So, what does it all mean?

First, it means a lot of lawyers and lobbyists are going to make a lot of money. There are political, marketplace, and money pieces moving around the board in what looks to be quite a saga that I imagine Hulu will end up making a series about within a couple of years.

Netflix is after the content. And the control. Ben Thompson has an excellent run down on that, and why Netflix’s delivery system makes it make sense. Netflix has created quite a war chest for its bid (which is both cash and stock), by building a relatively slick distribution system to deliver its already abundant content, plus whatever it continues acquiring. (How many TV remotes are there without a Netflix button these days?)

Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison’s all cash bid includes quite a few players including his pop, Larry Ellison, both of whom are Trump supporters, as well as outlays from sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Qatar, and also Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners. Without those partners Paramount, valued at around $15 billion, would have a hard time competing with Netflix’s roughly $400 billion war chest. (The Wall Street Journal has a decent rundown on more of the money specifics.)

Second, it means what was already a muddle the way most of these kind of things are, will get muddled up even more due to the politics of the moment. I’ll disagree with Ben Thompson’s analysis that points out that the President doesn’t have final say on this. That may have indeed been true in a past we’re no longer living in. Those old rules no longer apply. As we’ve been learning everyday since January 20, 2025.

Third, Hollywood also has its concerns. The traditional studio power structure is not enamored of Netflix and its heretofore disdain for theatrical releases, which also brings movie theatre owners into play. I’m not sure if the Netflix bid means the death of Hollywood as some claim, but it certainly would shift the pieces, the game board, and the power structure as what began as a tech company could end up controlling much of what we see on our smaller silver screens.

Big money is at stake obviously. But when big egos get involved the costs for everyone increase. Including those flipping through content consumption choices with their remotes.

Stay tuned. I’m guessing that Hulu series will be quite a watch when all is said and done.

Who Knows What To Believe?

Believe it or not

Who knows what to believe these days. Pick a topic. Politics. Tech. AI. Sports. Culture. Doesn’t matter. There’s enough different opinions that want to be facts that you can pick any position on any topic and find others who will believe as you do. When you can manufacture enough belief in anything, is anything worth believing?

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The sad news is we’ve reached a point where facts don’t matter. What matters is how well whatever passes for facts can be sold. Attract enough buyers or investors and you’ve created a wave. Or perhaps a bubble.

The reason for this post is some interesting back and forth I had with former colleagues who’ve jumped all in on the AI bandwagon with what I’ve characterized as blind enthusiasm.

Of course they aren’t the only ones. Thus the bubble.

I’ve pointed them to some reading that I doubt they’ll read. And I’m going to point to one of those pieces here.

Cory Doctorow is working on his next book and has posted a preview of thinking that he delivered in a recent speech. HIs next book is called The Reverse Centaur’s Guide To Life After AI. I think you’ll find reading the text of his speech informative. I hope my colleagues do. I hope a lot of folks do.

(Image from MediaMag on Shutterstock)

Sunday Morning Reading

Hands on with playwrights, movies, smart toilets, and a discomforting rooster

Another Sunday. More snow overnight. More shoveling later. The holidays creep closer or perhaps they’re already here, given that grandpa mode has kicked into high gear. Started writing a new play out of the blue yesterday. I have no idea why, but it just tumbled out of my brain on to the screen via the keyboard. Time to share some Sunday Morning Reading. Read as you will, even if it’s on a smart toilet.

I often save the softer pieces for later in this column, but I’ll lead today with David Todd McCarty’s Christmas Means Comfort. Tell that to the rooster.

The world lost a treasure this week with the passing of architect Frank Gehry. Lee Bray writes a nice obituary and tribute. Check out Architect Frank Gehry Who Designed Millennium Park’s Pritzker Pavillion and Foot Bridge Dies at 96.

Samuel Beckett’s Hands is a terrific piece by Rob Tomlinson about, well it’s about Samuel Beckett’s hands and how Dupuytren’s contracture may have influenced not just how, but what he wrote, given that Beckett always begin his writing with pen and paper.

While I’m sharing stories about playwrights, the movie Hamnet is garnering lots of attention and accolades. (I haven’t seen it yet.) Based on Maggie O’Farrell’s excellent novel of the same name, Hamnet mostly follows accepted scholarship that William Shakespeare wrote Hamlet while grieving the death of his son, Hamnet. (At the time, the two names were practically interchangeable.) As with most things Shakespeare, there’s generally accepted knowledge and there are always those who challenge it. James Shapiro takes a look at The Long History of the Hamnet Myth.

And while I’m sharing stories about movies, take a look at Susan Morrison’s piece on How Noah Baumbach Fell (Back) In Love With The Movies.

I linked earlier this week to a piece by Phillip Bump called There Are Limits to the Hitler-Trump Comparison. Just Ask These Historians. I don’t disagree with the thesis. I just think it stops short in the way most history usually does.

Rory Rowan and Tristan Sturm write that Peter Thiel’s Apocalyptic Worldview Is A Dangerous Fantasy. Here’s hoping this first draft of our current history proves lasting.

There’s been much talk about all things military recently given how the current administration is tossing away most of what we believe the military stands for as easy as my grandson tosses away toy soldiers. Carrie Lee says The Soldier In The Illiberal State Is A Professional Dead End. I concur. Sadly.

In the wake of the cataclysm that was Twitter, social media is essentially a messy muddle these days with users continuing to migrate from one platform to another seeking some sort of place that feels comfortable enough to share and often discomfort others. Ian Dunt writes what he calls a love letter to one platform with Thank God for Bluesky.

Smart toilets were in the news this week. I actually got to see and use one at a Christmas party last night. All I could think about while doing my business was this piece by Victoria Song called Welcome To The Wellness Surveillance State.

And to conclude this week, Amogh Dimri informs us that the Oxford University Press has chosen Rage Bait as 2025’s Word of the Year. Dimiri thinks it’s a brilliant choice. I guess it begs the question, if we’re angry enough to rage, is it really baiting?

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.

The Colors of Bears Packers Weekend

Mother Nature and football rivalries

Chicago is a football crazy town at the moment getting ready for the first meeting this season of the Chicago Bears and the enemy to the north, the Green Bay Packers. Typically that first meeting comes along earlier in the season, but not this year.

Chicago football fans and teams are used to games played in snow, ice and frigid temperatures in December. Quite frankly, I find memories of some of those games to be some of my most cherished. That’s the scene for this year, with everything still covered under blankets of the white stuff. Apparently more is on the way over night.

That said, I’ve often found it a sort of odd, cruel joke of nature that the colors of the Chicago Bears’ biggest rivals, green and gold, are the most prominent colors we see in our streetscapes once the leaves begin turning in the fall. When the Bears play the Packers earlier in a football season under canopies of green and gold something just doesn’t quite feel right watching two teams from the Black and Blue division fight it out. It almost feels like Mother Nature has chosen sides.

That’s not the case this year. Perhaps it heralds a change in the football forecast as Green Bay has had the Bears’ number for quite sometime in this rivalry, regardless of the season’s colors.

Phillip Bump and Clumsy Nazi Comparisons

Not the time for historical nuance

Phillip Bump, a thinker and writer I greatly admire has an intriguing, yet troubling piece titled There Are Limits To The Hitler-Trump Comparison. Just Ask These Historians. I say troubling, not because I disagree with his points, but because I think it misses the larger one everyone is too afraid to acknowledge.

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It is intriguing on an intellectual level, and nuanced on several levels. But I hasten to say that we’re living in a moment without much room for nuance, and as for the intellectual part? I’m afraid we’re suffering losses there as well.

Looking to explore further whether or not the Trump administration’s use of anti-immigrant rhetoric could be compared to the Nazi movement, Bump reached out to several historians who “generally agree that while the comparison was imperfect, it was not completely unfair.” I urge you to read Bump’s column before continuing here.

I won’t argue with the callbacks to the history of America’s own xenophobia. Let’s remember where the Nazis claimed to get some of their ideas from. As a species we seem to be entirely incapable of finding news ways to diminish and dehumanize those we don’t like or want to scapegoat on the path to power. Nor will I argue that it depends on what part of the Nazi timeline you drop into when making comparisons.

I will say this.

While no one knows how any of this will turn out, the fact that we’re living through any resemblance, no matter how clumsy or incoherent it may be in comparison to past political movements here or abroad, should be more than enough to call us up short and put a stop to it.

Bump states:

So Trump’s allies have a point: Comparisons to Nazism, particularly the late-stage Nazism with which we are all familiar, are imperfect. The president’s administration mirrors that party’s ascent a century ago in other ways — its bullying, the collapse of opposition from the existing establishment — that sharpen the criticism. If it is on the same path forward, though, there is still a long way to go, and a lot of time to change direction.

The comparisons may indeed be imperfect. However, every time civilization has beaten back these ill winds it has had to do so imperfectly as well, having to stoop below many of the values we rallied to save in the name of those values.

There may indeed still be time for a change in direction. That said, I would argue that the longer the weak-kneed and cowardly capitulators let this go on, not only does that window of time close, but it makes it harder to pry back open even after all of the glass has been broken.

(Image from Claudio Divizia on Shutterstock)

Living in the Past with Apple Music Replay

Musical time warps

I listen to music but I’m not a voracious listener like some are. Fact is, I spend most of my listening time with podcasts and audio books. Nevertheless, it is interesting to see what music I did spend my time listening to. Apple Music, like other music services, offers a feature to summarize what tunes you’ve tuned into over the year called Apple Music Replay.

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Given all that’s going on in the U.S currently I shouldn’t find it surprising that I spent most of my time reliving parts of my youth that were just as tumultuous as our present, revisiting a lot of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young and The Grateful Dead as well as the musical Girl From the North Country that features the music of Bob Dylan. (I spent considerably more time with that selection last year.)

It’s also interesting to me that when I do listen to music I do so through a couple of very eclectic playlists that range over quite a few genres. I never see that reflected in these generated mixes, only artists or albums I’ve selected specifically, which tells me these lists are mostly made up from selections you’re searching for. Perhaps that explains why when I ask Siri to cue up a playlist it fails as much as it succeeds. But then again, most of those playlists contain mostly music from my past, more than contemporary selections.

Seems to me, we could all do with a little more music these days that is speaking directly to these days.

Alan Dye Leaving Apple For Meta

Ch..ch…changes…

Changes keep happening in the circular halls of Cupertino. The latest, as reported by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, is that Alan Dye, the vice president of Human Interface Design who gave us Liquid Glass and the Vision Pro interface, is leaving Apple to head up Meta’s design team responsible for hardware and software for all of Meta’s offerings.

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Longtime designer at Apple, Steve Lemay will take over Dye’s responsibility at Apple.

According to Bloomberg:

With the Dye hire, Meta is creating a new design studio and putting him in charge of design for hardware, software and AI integration for its interfaces.

He will be reporting to Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth, who oversees Reality Labs. That group is tasked with developing wearable devices, such as smart glasses and virtual reality headsets.

Dye’s major focus will be revamping Meta’s consumer devices with artificial intelligence features. He will serve as chief design officer for the group starting Dec. 31.

Dye follows other recent Apple departures including Jeff Williams and John Giannandrea amid speculation about Tim Cook’s possible departure as CEO. Apple has also seen other departures of some of its design talent over the last few years.

You don’t need a looking glass, liquid or otherwise, to know that these personnel changes perhaps presage different thinking on the horizon for Apple’s product lines.

Frankly, I think we’re all looking forward to some change ahead.

Addendum: John Gruber’s after the news broke post on this provides some interesting Gruber-esque context. I’m certainly no where close to being connected to anyone on anything I write about Apple and how I use its products, but there’s quite a bit in Gruber’s post that strikes me as how I’ve felt about Apple design recently.

Apple’s I’m Not Remarkable Ad Is More Than Remarkable

More of this please

Every now and then a company gets it right and this is one of those times. Apple got it right this time, releasing a new ad, I’m Not Remarkable. It’s REMARKABLE.

Highlighting Apple’s accessibility features for its product the ad features an astounding number of challenged young folks singing, dancing, and of course using Apple products, demonstrating how this young people live and work their daily lives through college. The message is bang on. The production is astoundingly good. Watching the ad is thrilling, and I also suggest you visit Apple’s website that contains the transcript of the ad.

More of this please.

I’m hoping Apple releases a “making of” video of this ad. If they do I’ll update this post accordingly. Meanwhile you can watch the ad below.

The Stillness of A Snowy Night

Last night, after a day of shoveling snow, we headed out to a friend’s house for a Christmas tree decorating party we attend most years. Given that most of Chicago was still digging out and our friend lives on a very narrow street, we decided we’d bundle up to walk there and take an Uber home rather than fighting icy streets and trying to park if our friend’s street hadn’t been plowed yet.

Our path took us through Portage Park. We were largely alone through that part of the 45 minute hike, save for one man and his dog. Given the snowfall and the absence of others there was a quiet eerie, yet comforting stillness. Always fascinating that the park was plowed, yet several of the streets we walked along were not, but that’s Chicago.