Category: News

  • ODDS and ENDS: Masking Up Again, Tom Tom Club, The Simpsons Renaissance, and Summer

    (Raise expectations to a new intention)

    Honestly; I’m pretty glad that we didn’t throw away all of our Covid masks. The smoke in New York on Wednesday was insane. Everything was shrouded in an orange haze, blocking out the sun. It was like sitting in front of a camp fire with the smoke blowing in your face. It didn’t feel good, and hurt my eyes and the back of my throat. I am glad that we pulled the A/C’s from storage last month, as that made the apartment livable with the windows closed. Walking the dog wasn’t fun, as I was back to having a mask on, stumbling around the neighborhood. It makes me think the end of the world won’t be sudden, but more like a slow car pile-up of minor inconveniences.

    I swear, I am so late to the party on everything. I just discovered the Tom Tom Club the other day.

    And The Simpsons have started getting better. A good friend sent me an article in Vulture about just that. After reading it, I started re-watching the last two seasons, and I have to agree.

    The kid only has eleven school days left before Summer vacation officially starts. But, we’re on Summer vacation. The kid has checked out; I’ve checked out; the wife wants to check out; the dog wants to get a puppy short cut so she can check out, too. Funny, but for the last two years, I have started to look forward to the coming of Summer. Before, growing up in Texas, Summer was a never ending season of just feeling uncomfortable. Mind you, Summer’s in New York can be very humid, sticky and awful, but it’s done after three months. (In Texas, it can go on for six months!) And I am sure it has everything to do with the kid, but Summer now means road trips, and hikes, and water parks, and experiences. I’m ready for it.

  • There’s No Money in the Media

    VICE filed for bankruptcy. I’m not surprised. VICE was the only media company I knew that no one read or watched. Hold on, except for Desus and Mero. But outside of that, I never met another person who was like, “I just read this piece on VICE,” or “Did you see that story on VICE news?”

    Nope.

    Not a once.

    Oh, I did see Shane Smith everywhere, talking about how great and important VICE was. As far as I can tell, Shane made Williamsburg worse, by putting VICE’s headquarters there, and Shane also paid himself a huge, unreasonable salary while paying his writers barely above nothing with a side of free exposure.

    And don’t forget that one of the co-founders of VICE went on to found the Proud Boys. So… that says something…

    Yet, when I read that they never turned a profit, and were forced to file for bankruptcy, thus the sense was made; It was all hype, with no substance.

    I don’t mean to dance on VICE’s grave, and I do feel bad for the writer who will get laid off, but Shane Smith drove that ship onto the ground, and he’s still going to walk off a millionaire. And I though Canadians were all nice and shit.

    But the truth of this situation, which is the same truth that has been around forever, is that there is no money to be made in media, unless you own a lot of media. My first day as a journalism major, the professor told us there is no money to be made being a journalist. (Incidentally, on the first day of film and theatre school, those respective professors said the exact same thing.) I find it very strange that there is no way to make a living wage in media, but somehow the richest people in the world are in media.

    Has no one else noticed this?

    Well, outside of people in the WGA, that is…

  • ODDS and ENDS: Robot Overlords, Who Are These People, and Working on My 100

    (I just want what’s coming to me, I just want my fair share…)

    I had a thought this morning; how long until all online customer service chats with retailors are run by AI? I know to a degree the start of most chats are a prompt system – you answer some basic questions, and then you start talking to a human. But if I understand how things are going, then it’s just a matter of time before AI will take over this aspect. And if that did happen, would retailors tell us it’s AI that is assisting us, or would they try to hide it by telling us we are talking to “Kevin”? If they try to hide the AI, then I had another thought; could one do a type of Turning Test on customer service AI? Now thinking of it, is it more like Blade Runner, because the Turning Test requires two people and a machine. Either way, it sounds like a challenge. You know, make the AI question its existence, you get free shipping.

    I know of no one who is excited about the Coronation of King Charles. That might be due to the fact that I’m an American, and we don’t like kings, which is kind of our thing, you know. (I also live in a city that famously tore down a statue of a king at the start of The Revolution.) But from what I keep seeing on tv, the Coronation is a big deal that people want to see. I have to believe that the major networks must have some demographic research backing up this decision. That they know this coverage will bring in viewers and they can sell ads. It’s the only reason they do anything. So, who are these people that want to see this? Who?

    I sent out a big batch of submissions this week. I’m still working my way to 100 no’s. I’m closing in on the number, which is a very strange way is putting me in a good mood. It’s not great progress, but it is progress; Getting out there, trying stuff out, getting my stuff in front of people’s eyes. I don’t like hearing no, but I understand it’s part of the process.  

  • Banning Books Never Works

    Was there ever a time in history when the group that was banning books ended up being the good guys? It’s like calling your country an “empire” because you might as well just say that “we have come to kill you and take your land.” There is no “good” empire, just like there isn’t a “good” book banning.

    I say all of this because on Sunday, CBS’ SUNDAY MORNING show did a story on the movement to ban books in schools and public libraries. In the story, they include the group, Moms for Liberty, who are spearheading the book banning. (I would tell them that their group name is rather Orwellian, but I fear they haven’t read any books by Orwell.) The mom’s claim that they are out to protect children from pornography, and LGBTQ+ influence by giving parents more authority over schools and libraries.

    These women are idiots, and should be reminded of it often and always. Clearly they have never read any history because banning books never works. It never has and never will. In fact, when someone tries to ban a book, the sales of said banned book explode. Just check the numbers. Also, when you start trying to ban books, you join the likes of other book banners like Nazis, Brown Shirts, Segregationists, Francoists, and the Spanish Inquisition (which no one suspects…) It’s a Murderer’s Row of suppression and, ultimately, failure. And yet these groups, Moms and Moral Majorities, keep thinking that they are different from the past, when they are only repeating it.

    So, yet again, books need to be protected, as well as our public libraries. Here is PEN AMERICA’s Books Ban page, with their report book banning in the USA. Also, here is Brooklyn Public Library’s Books Unbanned initiative, as well as American Library Association’s Banned and Challenged Books program.

  • Start the Clock Until the Next Shooting

    I was thinking that someone should just write a list-article on all the nations that solved their gun problems, specifically, how they did it.

    Maybe if the piece had some cutesy click-bait name like “You Won’t Believe How These Five Nations Solved Their Mass Shooting Problem.”

    I wish I had a better point to make rather than throwing weak-ass jokes and snide comments at a serious problem.

    But the fact of the matter is that the gun debate was lost when no one did anything after Sandy Hook. No laws were passed, and not a single politician suffered for voting against doing anything. Collectively, we all admitted that this is a problem that we don’t want to solve. We prefer to have guns and dead children. We would rather see people walking around with AR-15’s that do anything about stopping all of suicides that happen though the use of guns. We prefer to have open carry than protect people from domestic violence.

    I do feel hopeless.

    I worry every day when I drop my kid off at school.

    I worry about my family members who are teachers.

    Maybe we should just give in to Republicans and allow everyone to have a gun, especially teachers. I mean, we don’t trust teachers with books, but we can trust them with a gun. Build walls around schools, and make them little forts of learning. Give people access to mental health support, which might be a form of health care, but I am sure we could come up with a good conservative label for it, like FREEDOM ROBUSTNESS!!! All of this would cost money, and I am sure that Republicans will come up with some way to expand the government without raising taxes. We should call their bluff, and say yes to everything they propose.

    I mean, let’s see what will happen. Clearly, it’s okay if a few more kids are killed as we wait.

    There’s no rush…