As the picture says, I’m on lake time this Sunday morning. So the list of suggested Sunday Morning Reading topics is a shorter one. Here’s hoping you find a little weekend time to chill as well.
Theatre and opera director Adele Thomas talks about her beginnings, her art and her career and how artists and the challenges (financial and otherwise) that directors face trying to get a career going. Good interview by Fiona Maddocks.
Fantastic time last night (and this past weekend) working on a new play in development. The play in question is Fouad Teymour’s Egyptian Bride. It’s been in development for several years and this year The International Voices Project picked it up to present its current iteration in a staged reading. I was asked by Fouad to direct and immediately jumped at the chance.
We put together a stellar cast featuring Catherine Dildilian, Tina El Gamal, Annalise Raziq, Bassam Abedlfattah, Donaldson Cardenas and Anelga Hajjar. We spent a few rehearsals over the weekend working through the piece and the story. Fouad managed to take advantage of the short period of time and slip in a few re-writes. Last night we presented the reading to a very enthusiastic audience. (The photo above is from the talk back after the reading.)
Based on that response the play has legs. Here’s hoping we can keep those legs moving forward for the next iteration.
Congratulations to all invovled and thanks to Patrizia Acerra, the driving force behind the International Voices Project. Fantastic work, proving once again if you put talented artists in a room with a great story you can create a bit of magic.
Some Sunday Morning Reading for Father’s Day. There’s no real theme to this week’s edition. Which is fitting. We used to joke that my Dad had a new hobby every six months. He did. But that just demonstrated his endless curiosity about the world around us. I think I got some of that tossed into my mix. So here’s a pot-pourri of topics to share.
What came first the chicken or the egg? Well that age-old riddle leaves the rest of the egg-laying species out of the question. Intriguing piece by Nisha Zahid.
And while we’re talking about the riddles that plague humans about the non-humans sharing our planet, Ari Daniel highlights an article in Cell that says an Octopuses can tweak the RNA in their brains to adjust to warmer and cooler waters.
This is a scary and sad tale. Gina Dimuro tells us about Blanche Monnier. Her parents locked her in her room for 25 years after she fell in love with the wrong kind of guy.
If you’re interseted in just what the heck Sunday Morning Reading is all about you can read more about the origins of Sunday Morning Reading here.
Everybody’s happy. Everybody got their wish. The decaying orange turd that is Donald Trump has been indicted. Again. This time in Federal court on charges of…well if you don’t know you’re living in a cave and perhaps better off. But the bottom line is everybody is happy. And I mean everybody.
Those who want to see him held accountable and get his legal commeuppance will inhale any whiff of hope and chant hallelujahs in helium-like voices. Take your victories when and when you can.
Those deep in the cult or just in thrall to this miserable excuse of a cult leader are thrilled that their leader keeps muddling along on his road to martyrdom.
The Grifters get to keep on grifting like the lickspittle lampreys they are. If their shark ever stops swimming they’ll wash up on shore like fish on a Texas beach or an algae bloom in Florida.
The traditional media is also counting their windfall. They’re thrilled to death that this circus is going to continue so they can continue their clowning.
Social media companies are doing the same kind of accounting knowing users will provide the grist for its mills.
The Dems are thrilled because they know this will be the distraction they need as their counterparts continue to fall over backwards to see who can be the biggest idiot. The ruckus will keep the Dems from having to go on the attack. Which is a blessing and a curse since that they don’t seem to know how to do that.
The Republicans are also thrilled. See Grifters above as a start. But more to the point it keeps them from having to address real issues. On the face of it the Republican candidates for the nomination might look like they have a tough row to hoe, but they don’t. Most were hoping for this and plan on playing the waiting game, hoping the decaying orange turd will eventually self-destruct. It’s a strategy. It’s not a good one. Neither is anything else.
Merrick Garland is overjoyed. The heat is off. For the moment.
The donors are ecstatic. They can keep their money parked and working for them for awhile longer before having to commit.
The rest of the world just keeps laughing.
So, it’s happiness all the way round. And round and round we go. Endlessly.
Charisma might be the theme of some of this week’s edition of Sunday Morning Reading. Or maybe it’s our fasicnation with folks who seem to marshall it for mischief. The theme runs through a range of topics from Artificial Intelligence to the media with a few other subjects tossed on the reading pile. Speaking of charisma and mischief marshaling, these articles all came my way as we were absorbing the news of the Trump indictment this week. I wrote a little something about that here.
Om Malik stands as much in dismay as I do at how much time the media spotlights charlatans in Media and Monsters.
“I knew: This man is doing me violence — but I was no longer strong enough. I kissed the hand he offered and with choking voice uttered: ‘Master, what shall I do?’”
We’ve witnessed quite a few falls from grace this week. None more glaring than CNN’s Chris Licht. Mark Jacob in the Courier breaks down the difference between platforming and journalism. The latter Licht’s lickspittling helped slide further down the reputation damage scale.
Morality is declining. That seems to be something most believe at the moment. Data says otherwise according to Mariana Lenharo.
Jeff Jarvis followed a court case in which a couple of lawyers had to own up for submitting nonexistant citations and cases created by ChatGPT.
John Warner lays out an excellent long read on why Speed and Efficiency are Not Human Values. Yes, it’s AI related but you’ll also find a little Korsakov, Tolstoy and Prince in the mix.
James Grissom claims he received a phone call from playwright Tennessee Williams, who asked Grissom to “be my witness.” After a meetiing with Williams, Grissom takes the names Williams gives him and proceeds to follow the playwright’s wish: “I would like you to ask these people if I ever mattered.” Grissom turned it into a calling card, a book and a career. Lots of folks doubt the whole thing. Helen Shaw tackles the story in Did This Writer Actually Know Tennesee Williams?
David Todd McCarthy takes on our fascination with the unprecdented in America Grows Up.
And to end this week’s edition of Sunday Morning Reading here’s a piece by Melissa Cunningham about Jenny Graves. “Why are we still singing about Adam and Eve when there’s so much gorgeous science out thre is the world that explains our origins.” That’s the question Jenny Graves, an evolutionary geneticist, asked herself on her way to creating a libretto based on Joseph Hayden’s The Creation. Melissa Cunningham tells the story
If you’re interseted in just what the heck Sunday Morning Reading is all about you can read more about the origins of Sunday Morning Reading here.
It’s not everyday you wake in a different world. Today is one of those days. With the news breaking last night that Trump has again been indicted everything and anything about the body politic of the United States has changed. It will never be the same again. It’s different. But not new. Everything actually changed when Trump was elected and stuck the blade in. Hasn’t been the same since. That was the wounding. This is the triage. Bandages are being taken off to prepare for surgery. The wound gapes. The scar that will be forever present has been revealed. Time to consider the ugly option of amputation.
The only way to cure an egotist from bragging is by surgery–amputation at the neck.
-Evan Esar.
This is the first federal indictment of a former president. This is the first time that enough people in what passes as a political party might nominate an indicted conman to assume that office again. Make no mistake. This surgery isn’t going to take place in a safe, sterile environment. This wound has been festering long enough that containing the infection is not assured. Anything and everything could happen. All at once. Or it could take longer than most of us have patience for. There are also other possible wounds to reveal. Roll the body politic over and who knows what other damage we’ll discover because it’s possible the most serious charges against this poor excuse of a conman haven’t even been leveled yet.
In the wake of all of this, what used to be the GOP is already disarrayed beyond cliché. Several lusting for the big chair will now have to choose between advising amputation or giving blood to placate the conman’s bereaved and brainwashed base.
Politics is a funny thing. So is ambition. Slap them together between two slices of bread and you can’t hold your tongue while eating with your mouth full. The laws of political gravity no longer apply. If they did, those opposing Trump for the GOP nomination would be knocking each other down to deliver premature death notices. Granted they’d have to push past Chris Christie, but still. (Update after I wrote that I see Asa Hutchinson is recomending a quick amputation.)
Folks are going to also replay that old tune about this being a sad day for our country. Sure. We wish we didn’t have to go through this. We’ve been sadly sitting in the waiting room for awhile now, know the lyrics all too well, and wish someone would shuffle the playlist. We didn’t have to go through the last seven or so years. We’ve lost so many traditions, possibilities, respect-both self and from others, that it is almost impossible to measure the damage even though we know the diagnosis.
And that’s the thing. We all know what we’re faced with. We’ve limped around with this wound long enough. A reckoning is required. I don’t think we’ll ever be whole again. That’s the unkindest cut of all.
The state of society is one in which the members have suffered amputation from the trunk, and strut about so many walking monsters,—a good finger, a neck, a stomach, an elbow, but never a man.
As expected Apple unmasked its new mixed reality headset, now named Apple Vision Pro, at its annual World Wide Devleopers Conference this week. No surprise that the reactions have also been as expected with some giving new meaning to the old cliché about Apple’s reality distortion field and others being quite vocal with their negative reactions, especially as regards to that $3500 price point.
I’ve been following along with some of the bloggers and journalists who got to try the headset on, experience the 30-minute demo and I have complied a series of links to some of the reactions. Keep in mind the responses from those who got strapped in are somewhat akin to folks reacting to a trailer for a new film. Folks are responding to a canned demo, acknowledging that, and the fact that Apple has a lot of work to do before this thing debuts to the public supposedly early in 2024.
I’ll have more to say about it at some point in the future based on my thoughts to these reactions.
David Pogue on Medium brings up a recurring theme I’m seeing among those writing about these first experiences that say the device felt heavy after using it a bit in the 30 minute demo.
And you might want to watch this video review of the experience from MKBHD.
There’s plenty more out there if you’re interested. There will be more digital ink spilled on this between now and the products eventual release than you can imagine. Bottom line themes I see emerging:
1. Amazing technology
2. Expensive
3. Weight is still an issue
4. Apple has lots of work to do before this releases and even more in the years ahead. They’ve staked out a vision and have the bankroll to advance it. It will be interesting to follow.
Some complex, challenging, and excellent writing to share with you today covering everything from big picture politics to the small, media meanderings and meltdowns, and some interesting tech analysis heading into Apple’s big mixed reality headset announcement at its WorldWide Developer Conference tomorrow. Hope you find the suggestions fascinating. I do.
The subhead for this piece, “The view from nowhere came from somewhere” should have been the title instead of The Invention of Objectivity. Regardless Darrell Hartman lays out a good read about how “objectivity” came to the New York Times. Subjectively speaking pretending that journalism can be unbiased is not a bias I subscribe to.
David Todd McCarthy walks along The Edge of Defeat in today’s political battles between progressives and establishment loyalists. Note: McCarthy is also setting up a new publication focusing on his political writings and musings called Rome Magazine. Also worth your time while the world burns.
Peter Turchin in The Atlantic adapts some of his book End Times (a good read) into an article called America is Headed Toward Collapse. He argues that history can show us how to muck our way through our present day “discord” as we have done twice before. I’m not sure history is going to be so kind this time around.
Anyone paying attention to the goings on at CNN leading up to and following the recent “town hall” featuring the conman known as the former president will find this behind the scenes feature by Tim Alberta in the Atlantic a fascinating read. The title certainly points to where it’s going: Inside the Meltdown at CNN.
Big pictures are complex. Neil Theise’s book Notes on Complexity: A Scientific Theory of Connection, Concsicousness, and Being tackles some of that complexity. In this article he lays out five key insights from his book.
Smart People are Falling for Stupid Lies by Kathryn Joyce in Vanity Fair is another article that racks the big picture political focus down to the view inside local battles in a specific county. These type of articles are enormously helpful in shedding light on the fact that the problems we face aren’t just top down but also bottom up, and how both feed the frenzy. Here’s another one from February in Politico about Ottawa Country, Michigan.
Beginning June 5 Apple kicks off its annual World Wide Developers Conference, (WWDC). Apple will introduce new versions of its operating systems for current devices, but all of the excitement is focused on Apple’s AR/VR headset and the operating system that will run the thing. Mixed reality, augmented reality, virtual reality… who knows. I’m sure whatever it will be will somewhat unreal. I’ll certainly be interested to see how Apple tries to make it real, but it’s from a very backseat perspective. I just don’t see myself as being in the market for this kind of device/experience.
Let’s face it, the next period of time is going to be focused very much on the headset and what it offers. Even though whatever Apple announces is probably going to be a years long effort towards what the product will eventually become. How that interacts with the existing ecosystem will be much more interesting for me.
To be honest, I’m not expecting much from iOS or macOS or any of their siblings. And I’m not sure anyone should. For better or worse these operating systems are quite mature. Sure there will be some new things, but for my money I’d prefer to see Apple keep tidying things up. Refining and striving for consistency are higher priorities for me than whiz bang new features.
I don’t have many big “wishes” for what I’d like to see. But I do have a few minor ones that would make my time in the orchard a bit easier.
Notifications are still problematic. Especially on the Mac. For goodness sake give us a button that allows us to bulk dismiss notifications like we can on iOS.
Last year saw some syncing up of features in Apple Mail between iOS and Mac. Keep it up. Also, make Rules work better and more consistently.
It’s time for a Clipboard Manager in the operating systems.
The App Stores make much money for Apple and developers. It’s supposed to be a showplace. Clean it up. It should also run more efficiently than it does.
I’m hoping there will be some clarity and cleaning up of Stage Manager given that it feels very much like a building block for the AR/VR vision.
That’s it. That’s my wish list. Whatever reality we end up in after Monday I hope some of the above gets addressed.
Life on the Wicked Stage: Act 3 