This Adam Neely video about his alma mater, the Berklee College of Music, which is simultaneously fascinating and immensely discouraging, provides an excellent illustration of the ways that all the institutions scrambling to get on board the AI train, in the belief that that will make them seem up-to-date and relevant, just end up giving a “How do you do, fellow kids” vibe.
To each his own, but I’d rather go to the First Church of Lucifer Antichrist than to James Talarico’s church. Say what you will about the tenets of Satanism, dude, at least it’s an ethos.
Silicon Valley has forgotten what normal people want | The Verge: I don’t think this is the right framing. The Valley techbros have never known what normal people want, do not care what normal people want, and do not believe that they need to know or care. They’re planning to do what they want to do in complete indifference to the preferences of anyone else.
Over at Cosmos Malick, a long post on Knight of Cups.
Currently listening: Mingus Ah Um 🎵
If I were the Emperor of American Christianity, I would forbid any complaints about how persecuted American Christians are unless they include the following three points:
- The early church had it, and Christians in many parts of the world right now have it, infinitely worse than we do;
- Jesus promised us that if we are faithful to him we will be persecuted;
- And Jesus also commanded us to rejoice when we are thus persecuted.
The usual morning crew (and one newbie)
In 1947, a man named Kenneth Arnold was flying his two-seater near Mount Rainier when he saw nine flying objects cruising at high speeds, a sighting that launched the modern UFO era. [Gray] Barker was then working as a film distributor, and by the early 1950s was finding success with science fiction fare like The Day the Earth Stood Still. His own entrance into UFO research came in September 1952, when the Associated Press reported that seven people in nearby Flatwoods, West Virginia, had seen a glowing fireball descend into a nearby hilltop. Barker drove out to interview the eyewitnesses, writing up a report — embellished with numerous fabrications — and sending it to Fate magazine. Encouraged by the reception, he launched his own publication, The Saucerian, whose motto was: “Keep your head in the stars — and your feet on the ground.”
Gray Barker, writer, editor, poet, ufologist. An American original. Poetic excerpt:
This may have nothing to do with flying saucers.
It is a tale of abominable stenches and eldritch bangings in the night.
It is a true story.