Art
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Satur Daze
Nows [5 January update] For some reason, this set of posts I wrote last Saturday appeared on 20 November of last year. Dunno why. Anyway, right now I am in San Marino, California, where it is finally sunny and paradisal, after monsoons soaked the holidays. Tomorrow I’ll be back in Bloomington, Indiana, which (seriously) moved Continue reading
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On em dashes and ellipses
I don’t know who was the first to write The em dash is dead and AI killed it. Maybe it was Jacob Schilleci in the Reno Gazette Journal, but since most of it is behind a paywall and that paper is one of many run by Gannett, I’m not sure—though that’s where the first link in Continue reading
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This is a Test. Or a Taste. Or both.
What see ye? I shot the photo above last night on approach to SFO. My window seat was on the left side of the plane. Tell me where this is, what the two most standout features are, and what was happening in the brigher one at the time. Just for fun. No rewards. I’ll say Continue reading
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Monday
Just some facts. No interpretations. This blog post got nine reads by the end of the day. This photo got about the same. The photo above has had 22,122 views, 421 faves, and 21 comments. And lots more views every day. It may also be the best photo I’ve ever taken from the window of Continue reading
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Puppet Tree
I guarantee insights and learnings. Great podcast interview with the world's leading authority on the puppets in Star Wars, and author of the book A Galaxy of Things. But… Japan? A leaked FSB email says Russia had a "maniacal desire for war" and that Ukraine was (or may not have been… unclear) its first choice. Continue reading
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Maybe I need re-writer’s block
I’ve never had writer’s block. Give me a writing assignment and I’ll blab something out. It might even be good, or at least good enough. But I don’t write in final draft. Or talk that way. I know people who can do either or both. But I don’t know how they do it, much as Continue reading
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AI Achieves Sentience, Commits Suicide
I think up Onion headlines all the time: American Dream Ends When Nation Wakes Up. CAPTCHASTAN Capitol Lacks Bicycles, Motorcycles, Buses, Crosswalks. Local Pothole Has No Bottom Earthquake Denies Acting For God New Trump Fragrance Line Based On Fake Blood, Sweat. Then this morning, on one of SiriusXM’s ESPN channels, I heard Trump pitching his Continue reading
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A Fun AI Fail
Here is me, trying to get ChatGPT (version 4o, which I pay for) to give me an illustration to use in my previous post here, titled The People’s AI. But don’t go there yet (if you haven’t already). What I ended up using is a punchline at the end of the dialog that starts here— Continue reading
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Burning to Write. And Vice Versa.
Among all artists, writers alone suffer the illusion that the world needs to hear what they have to say. I thought that line, or something like it, came from Rollo May, probably in The Courage to Create. But a search within that book says no. ChatGPT and Gemini both tell me May didn’t say it Continue reading
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Feed Time
Two things worth blogging about that happened this morning. One was getting down and dirty trying to make DALL-E 3 work. That turned into giving up trying to find DALL-E (in any version) on the open Web and biting the $20/month bullet for a Pro account with ChatGPT, which for some reason maintains its DALL-E Continue reading
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Looking for DALL-E 3 Help
I just returned to DALL-E 3 after using its Microsoft version (currently called Copilot | Designer) for a while. But I can’t get in. See how it says “Try in ChatGPT↗︎?” When I do that, it goes to https://chat.openai.com/. After I log in there, it offers no clue about where DALL-E 3 is. So I Continue reading
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The End of What’s On
But not of who, how, and why. Start by looking here: That’s a page of TV Guide, a required resource in every home with a TV, through most of the last half of the 20th century. Every program was on only at its scheduled times. Sources were called stations, which broadcast over the air on Continue reading
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The News Business
Seventh in the News Commons series. How does the news business see itself? Easy: ask an AI. Or a lot of them.* That’s what I’ve been doing. Unless otherwise noted, all the following respond to the same three-word prompt: the news business. Here goes… Microsoft Bing (Full name: Microsoft Bing Image Creator from Designer), which Continue reading
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Feeling is Human
“Honesty is the best policy,” George Burns said. “If you can fake that you’ve got it made.” The same applies to feeling in composition and musical expression. Long ago I went with a friend who was a pianist and composer, to a concert by a somewhat famous pianist. While I was enjoying the concert, she Continue reading
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An exercise in perspective
I wrote this today for a list that’s mostly populated by folks in overlapping music, broadcasting, legal, tech, and other businesses who share a common interest in what’s happening to the arts and artists they care about in a world now turning almost completely digital.—Doc Here is a question I hope can get us out Continue reading
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A workflow challenge
I shoot a lot of pictures. Most are from altitude (such as the above). But lots are of people and places; for example, here are a few I shot at DWebCamp last summer with my new Sony A7 IV camera (to which I migrated last year after many years shooting Canon): Importing and curating photos Continue reading
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Places
Let’s say you want to improve the Wikipedia page for Clayton Indiana with an aerial photograph. Feel free to use the one above. That’s why I shot it, posted it, and licensed it permissively. It’s also why I put a helpful caption under it, and some call-outs in mouse-overs. It’s also why I did the Continue reading
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From Hollywood Park Racetrack to SoFi Stadium
Hollywood Park Racetrack is gone. In its place is SoFi Stadium, the 77,000-seat home of Los Angeles’ two pro football teams and much else, including the 6,000-seat YouTube Theater. There’s also more to come in the surrounding vastness of Hollywood Park, named after the racetrack. Wikipedia says the park— consists of over 8.5 million square feet (790,000 m2) Continue reading
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Wayne Thiebaud, influencer
Just learned Wayne Thiebaud died, at 101. I didn’t know he was still alive. But I did know he had a lot of influence, most famously on pop art. Least famously, on me. Many of Thiebaud’s landscapes were from aerial perspectives. For example, this— —and this: In me, those influenced this— —and this— —and this— Continue reading