The grownup in the room

In my mind the two events go together — last night’s presidential debate and the fact that this is the twenty third anniversary of the attack on the World Trade Center.

The world is an unsafe place. Until September 11, 2001, everyone on the planet seemed to know that except the citizens of the United States of America.

Of course, that all changed overnight. The sort of existential threat that Europe and other parts of the world have needed to deal with every day was suddenly on our radar as well.

Now, with multiple wars ranging around the world, with the threat of nuclear escalation hovering over our collective heads, this is not the time to fool around. Electing a reality TV star to lead our country is never a good idea, but at some moments in history it can be an especially bad idea.

Last night reminded us what sane, intelligent, cool headed leadership looks like. We do have a choice to elect the grownup in the room.

And when we do, everybody in the world will be that much safer.

Herbie Flowers

I remember the very first time I heard the David Essex song Rock On on the radio. I was completely transfixed by the beautifully desolate sound of that track — it was like listening to the spectral ghost of rock and roll.

I couldn’t get enough of it. Every time through, it just kept getting better. Especially that bass line.

It was only later that I learned that I was mainly responding to an innovative double-tracked bass guitar arrangement. The deep silences around it left that doubled bass guitar nearly all by itself — with plenty of room to create a haunted and elegiac space.

And just today, in honor of the great Herbie Flowers, who passed a just few days ago at the age of 86, I have been playing Lou Reed’s Walk on the Wild Side on repeat.

Every time through, it just keeps getting better. Especially that bass line.

Solar highway

So here’s a thought experiment:

There are about 16,000 square miles of highway in the United States. I know that because I looked it up.

To fully power the United States with solar energy, it would take about 22,000 square miles of solar collectors. I know that because I looked it up.

If we cover all of those highways with solar collectors, they could provide more than two thirds of our nation’s electrical power needs.

Like I said, just a thought.

In The Fog

To compute in “The Cloud” sounds to me rather eerie
And there is something about it that makes me feel leery
Instead you might call it The Fog, not The Cloud
Now see how that sounds when you say it aloud
You may find that it gives you a more faithful take
By making it clear that the whole thing’s opaque

Denier, denier, pants on fire

This week Tucker Carlson brought a guest onto his podcast, whom he introduced as “perhaps the greatest historian of our day.” The guest then proceded to tell everyone that Hitler was really an ok guy, Jews were never exterminated by the Nazis, and in fact WWII was the fault of Winston Churchill, who was a raging maniac.

Does that make Tucker Carlson a Holocaust denier?

Elon Musk tweeted about the interview, and said that the guest speaker made some good points. A while later Musk deleted the tweet, implicitly denying that he’d ever supported it. Does that make Musk a Holocaust denier denier?

While the White House forcefully condemn the podcast, the Republican candidate for President said nothing. But Vance, his running mate, mostly just said that he doesn’t believe in cancelling people because of who they choose to hang out with.

So I guess in his book it was perfectly ok for Elon Musk to tweet and then untweet support for Nazi revisionism.

Does that make Vance a Holocaust denier denier denier?

The irony of youth culture

Youth culture represents the perfect human contradiction. When you are young, your particular generation influences the large culture enormously, but only for a short time.

Whether bobbysoxer, beatnik, hippie, emocore, Swiftie or whatever, there is a brief moment in history when your group of young people holds center stage in the culture. And then history moves on.

The cultural dominance you have in your youth is the most ephemeral of superpowers, gone before it has hardly begun. And yet youth culture itself is immortal.

Even in ancient times young people were making an impression. Just check out what Socrates said about the youth of his day, according to Plato.

Since then, the power of youth to make their presence felt has not diminished. I suspect it never will.

Yellow Submarine and AI

When I was a kid I saw Yellow Submarine and loved it. Spending time with my beloved Beatles as animated characters with magical powers was super fun.

But then at some point I found out that the voices of John, Paul, George and Ringo were not actually performed by John, Paul, George and Ringo, but rather by hired actors. The Fab Four had nothing at all to do with the movie other than having supplied the songs it was based on and then appearing briefly over the closing credits.

Learning this felt like a betrayal. Somebody was impersonating my favorite music group, without really having made it clear that it was all a mere impersonation.

I now realize that this was a harbinger of the future. As generative AI becomes mature, we are going to see a lot more of this kind of thing — except this time in live action.

Beloved popular figures will license their voice and appearance to surrogates. We will gradually find ourselves seeing and hearing less of the real thing, and more of the imitation.

Eventually, the only objections will come from senior citizens who remember the old days, when people actually played themselves. Young folks who grow up with this won’t understand what those old codgers are going on about.