Author: admin

Usually when I go out of town I spend pretty much all of my time in a professional context. Either I’m participating in a workshop, or helping with demos at a conference, or giving a talk at a corporation that I’m hoping will fund our lab’s research.

This last trip, just ended, to Dublin, was also professionally related — I was serving as External Examiner for the Masters in Interactive Digital Media program at Trinity College. But I also took some time around the edges.

I traveled down the eastern coast of Ireland and walked the coastal trail from Greystones to Bray. I visited the lighthouse up in Howth and wandered through the ruins of thirteenth century castles in Dalkey.

Now that I am back in NY, life no longer seems to be all about the next meeting, the next deadline, the next item on my to-do list. Yes, all of those things are still there, but there’s something else.

I’m looking around NYC differently, viewing my surroundings with different eyes. Things here appear fresher and a bit more exciting, as though I am seeing them for the first time.

It seems that when you open yourself up to seeing new places, it creates a shift in your perception. Every place you go starts to attain a shimmer of newness and possibility. Even home.

In my room at Trinity College in Dublin this week, I made this (click on image):

You don’t really know what peacefulness is until it has been denied over a length of time. At the moment, I am reveling in this temporary feeling of peacefulness, this respite from absurdity.

For I am in Ireland, and that means I am not repeating the same damned conversation day after day. I have temporarily removed myself from the maelstrom of astonished outrage.

Yes, I realize that I will need to go back. I will need to continue to fight the good fight, to stand up for the values of respect for human dignity that America has usually embodied, values that it is now in danger of losing.

But right now, it really feels good to be in Ireland.

It seems that even in Dublin they agree…

I was wandering today through various towns south of Dublin, including Greystones, Bray and Dalkey. In Greystones I saw a sadly familiar sight. A once pristine beach had become a construction site, the future home of hotels that were soon to proliferate along the lovely coastline.

I guess it is a truism that when something delicate and beautiful becomes too well known, the act of discovery can turn into an existential threat. It’s a bit like Yogi Berra’s old joke about the restaurant: “Nobody ever goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.”

I remember many years ago walking along Ipanema beach with my Brazilian friend Luis Martins. As it happens, he had been good friends with the great Tom Jobim, the composer of The Girl from Ipanema.

We all know how that turned out. The iconic song by Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes created a tidal wave of international attention, which sent foreign visitors streaming into Rio de Janeiro. A once lovely and sleepy beach was transformed into a focus for international tourism.

Luis told me about a time when he and Tom Jobim were walking together along Ipanema beach. Jobim gestured at the endless row of huge and ugly hotels that towered over the oceanfront.

“Do you see all this?” he asked my friend, with a look of sadness. “This is all my fault.”

Dublin is completely lovely, as always. Much as I adore both New York and Paris, this town is suffused with a casual and cozy charm that is pretty much lacking in both of those cities.

Today the rain here played hide and seek with the clouds, starting and stopping throughout the afternoon in short bursts of periodic enthusiasm, but always gentle and never a real bother for pedestrians.

I had one fascinating weather experience today that I have never had in New York City, one that I expect is familiar to Dubliners. I was able to stand in the gentle rain, even as the warm sunlight shone brightly down upon my face.

I love how the weather in Dublin is able to seamlessly intermingle the dark moodiness of a rainy day with the optimistic warmth of a sunny afternoon. Come to think of it, that’s a pretty good way of describing what I like about the people here.

JFK, non-stop,
Going to the other side
NY to Dublin

This evening in Manhattan I stopped into a cafe with a friend from out of town, for a drink and some conversation. I had chosen this particular cafe because of fond memories of my past visits there.

At some point in the evening I found myself thinking back to my past visits to this same establishment. One by one memories started to tumble into my consciousness of other times, other friends, stretching back many years. People came to mind whom I had not thought of for a very long time.

If you’ve been living in a city for a while, it becomes a kind of memory map. There is the living city of today, of course. But there is also another, a kind of ghost city, superimposed on every location.

One location may hold the memory of where you had that terrible romantic breakup. Another might conjure the whispered essence of that long lost friend you wish you’d stayed in touch with.

Somewhere deep in the recesses of your mind is your complete memory of places. These memories can come out and haunt you at the oddest moments. You wouldn’t want it any other way.

“Self-driving cars” is a phrase that sort of misses the point. The future we are actually discussing is one of a single cooperative system of mobile units that will always remain in tightly coupled communication with each other.

Topologically, this system will resemble a packet-switching computer network more than a collection of individual vehicles. The result will be a sort of highly granular public transportation service, rather unlike what we now think of when we think of “cars”.

When you get into one of these mobile units you won’t need to drive, which means you will be free to do other things, much the way you are now free to do other things when you ride the train. The difference will be that you will have privacy, and that is a big difference.

The entire idea of a commute will become transformed. While on the road you will be able to spend time with friends and family, or simply enjoy some alone time, without the distraction of “eyes on the road”.

Much of what we currently think of as quality time will be spent in these future mobile units. The very concepts of work, play, dining, education, entertainment and more will merge with the concept of getting from one place to another. Entire new industries will arise to cater to the emerging mobile class.

I can’t predict with any real clarity what those new industries will be. But I’m fascinated to find out.

If I understand correctly, the principle followed by Sheriff Arpaio went something like this: Illegal aliens are a problem. Many illegal aliens look Hispanic. Therefore, if you see somebody who looks Hispanic, it is legitimate to throw them in prison as a suspected illegal immigrant and torment them there.

But from there it gets even more interesting. After the Trump Justice department rules that your policy is actually criminal and convicts you of discrimination against Hispanic Americans, Trump himself pardons you and calls you a patriot.

I’m trying to wrap my head around this, and look for a general principle. As I understand it, you can apply the Arpaio principle in various ways. For example: The Mafia is a problem. Many Mafiosi look Italian. Therefore, if you see somebody who looks Italian, it is legitimate to throw them in prison as a suspected Mafioso and torment them there. Then, after you are convicted of discrimination against Italian Americans, Trump will pardon you and call you a patriot.

Once you understand the principle, you realize it can apply to many situations. For example: Nazi genocide was a problem. Donald Trump is of German ancestry. Therefore, it is legitimate to throw Donald Trump in prison as a suspected murderous Nazi and torment him there. Then, after you are convicted of discrimination against German Americans, Trump will pardon you and call you a patriot.

But this is the part that confuses me. If you’ve already safely locked Donald Trump away in prison, because (according the the Arpaio principle) he might as well be a convicted Nazi murderer, then how can he pardon you?

Is this what Donald Trump meant when he explained that he could pardon anyone, even himself?