Investigating the Hallucinogenic Sentimentality of Deerhunter’s Halcyon

Muse recently reviewed Deerhunter’s Halcyon Digest album from 2010.

https://www.nouse.co.uk/articles/2024/04/04/exploring-the-psychedelic-nostalgia-of-deerhunters-halcyon-digest

My favourite Deerhunter record is Halcyon Digest. My last look at Deerhunter’s Bandcamp page was shortly after I learned the band disbanded. The discography for Deerhunter ended before Halcyon Digest, which is a curious way to delay the completion of their Bandcamp discography.

It’s been a long time since Bradford Cox last performed music, except for one small appearance with one other person doing a noise rock show, or something similar.

There are observations about every song on Halcyon Digest included in the Muse review.

It explains Cox’s most pressing health concern during Deerhunter’s Halcyon Digest, which I found fascinating.

This also explains the meaning behind Halcyon Digest’s closing song He Would Have Laughed, which made Deerhunter feel like one of the most important indie bands of all time.

Not that I had any idea this was going on at the time. At the time, I wasn’t a big late-night TV watcher when Deerhunter performed a song from Halcyon Digest on one of the late shows.

I guess it was a mess—as much a guilty pleasure as that song is. First viewing the video and getting my first look at Bradford Cox, I was aghast, asking the universe what was wrong with him? Would he be okay?

Like someone like Iggy Pop, he seemed cool.

A lot of the extra material that accompanied Deerhunter’s discography of indie rock albums as they made their name for themselves quickly challenged that perception, though.

That’s quite a cat, Bradford Cox.

The mysterious song on Halcyon Digest by the other songwriter in Deerhunter is interesting. Deerhunter played it a lot of times. It was a fan favourite.

The two musicians in Deerhunter always seemed to have a friendly relationship as bandmates.

YouTube AI Blog Post Explains How the Video Service Handles Uploads which are partially AI

“Odell” here with a quick post about NightCafe and YouTube. It was announced yesterday by YouTube on its blog how it would handle images made with AI when they are used in the content of YouTubers. Recently, I’ve noticed that many YouTube thumbnails seem to be created using AI tools.

Giving the YouTube blog post about when it’s necessary to disclose AI touches in your videos, it’s when the AI is too advanced to in any way be readily determined to be AI that creators need to explain what they’ve done with the image tool(s) if I took the meaning of the information in the blog correctly.

YouTube videos with speech that is created with AI tools must also make it clear that the speech is artificial. It isn’t just highly professional speaking.

In this blog post, none of the text was written by artificial intelligence, although Grammarly checked the grammar, and I rewrote some sentences to make them more clear using the WordTune web app.

Curiously, I came upon a useful AI site called NightCafe that posits that AI image creators can make friends with one another and take their creations onto Instagram and TikTok. As I progress through NightCafe‘s “badges,” I am now in possession of the “popular” badge.

You can remain an anonymous user or you can represent yourself on NightCafe with a profile. Follow other users leave comments and join challenges to try your hand at doing excellent AI.

As the songwriter said, I’m an average guy.

There was a time when this personal blog was going down, but it has now breathed again, so perhaps there is still hope for it. You’re welcome to follow, like, and subscribe.

Additional Contact:

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/findingenvirons/

X @findingenvirons

TikTok @patrickcoholan

OperaTetra https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZ1hOibCuQ2ryKSrl8QAyhQ

Fashion Rebellion

Princess Leia's Armor
Daily writing prompt
What movies or TV series have you watched more than 5 times?
View all responses

I have taken an interest in the Star Wars franchise of entertainment.

In the 1980s, when I was a child, some nights my family would celebrate Star Wars by watching the trilogy of films, 1977, 1980, and 1983, and it was splendid. Star Wars (1977) was my favourite film.

My parents were kind enough to me to buy toys which accompanied the feature films, and some of my play involved making my own Star Wars scenes, in real life, often in the backyard of our bungalow home in good weather. It was marvellous.

I lived and breathed Star Wars (1977), after getting the 1987 ten-year anniversary television edition of it on VHS using our family VCR, watching the homemade tape many, many times. In 1997, when I was a college student, Star Wars (1977), now titled Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, made its return to cinema for an additional run now known as the Special Edition, including much more material that Star Wars (1977) director George Lucas wanted to include to make the movie something closer to his initial concept for the film.

I saw the movie at a cinema in Kingston, Ontario, with other college students who were fans. It was an excellent evening.

I have also seen The Empire Strikes Back (1980) more than 5 times, as I have Return of the Jedi (1983). My passion for these two, while steeped in admiration, is not like the enthusiasm I had to watch Star Wars (1977) in childhood. The “trench run,” when Star Wars character Luke Skywalker, the aspiring “Jedi warrior,” brings his X-Wing space fighter to the villainous Death Star space station and tries to single-handedly destroy it.

It is a treat to mentally revisit the Star Wars movies. I hope you like the post, and of course you may follow my blog or leave a comment.

What is the last thing you learned?

Daily writing prompt
What is the last thing you learned?
View all responses

Somebody like me, who grew up with friends and family without all that much contact with computers, had a reasonable handle on reality. I learned of manual research in newspapers and magazines before I was even a freshman in high school. In school, I learned office keyboarding before I figured out handling — there were relatively few machines.

It’s hard for me to remember any of that now.

The OpenAI blog posted a series of emails a couple of days ago describing Musk’s thoughts about Altman at OpenAI taking it to the level of dominance that Google enjoyed in the tech industry and how Musk seemed to clearly insist that it would not scale as big as the search firm, but if it had a billion dollar investment, it may have the smallest chance.

There aren’t really any other people who can relate to it besides them.

As a celebrity, Musk has the advantage, literally unique to mankind on the planet over, of never having needed much without and being a singular intellect and uncompromising individual. I wouldn’t have been interested in him if he hadn’t bought Twitter. It is being someone this age that being on Twitter seemed a normal thing to be.

Twitter for years offered people my age a voice, but I’m not the type of humanitarian that would have wanted that “town square” that Musk mentioned Twitter could be. That idea went out the window within a few months from that day in 2022 when Musk got the operation. Long-form social media remains a reasonable interest for me, even if it’s for a personal strategy.

Using the WordPress word prompt, I wrote this, rewrote a few difficult sentences with AI, and made an image with AI. “I wonder,” a songwriter put it, “which one of us was the fool?”

Altman Remarking on AI AGI at Davos and Zuckerberg on AI AGI with Meta

According to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman at the WEF Conference in Davos, AI won’t advance until cleaner energy resources are available, mainly nuclear fission… so perhaps fears about AGI threatening AGI are unfounded for the time being.

               About five days ago, Reuters carried Sam’s remarks.

Reinforcing the Value of Web Designers in the Age of AI
Personal Service and Better Communication

               In the last nine weeks, I have done a lot of cinematic generative AI.

               I have carved out a hundred days of doing frequent, often daily, short cinematic generative AI videos, typically about three-quarters of a minute long, accompanied by popular music.

               My idea came from a businessman, Steven Musielski, who posted daily videos on X devoted to forming a supportive community of thankful people. Steven spoke on thankfulness for one hundred days.

               The Twitter handle @StevenMusielski belongs to Steven.

              Among the polls he has included are those asking how much contact is needed to gain the trust of a new contact. I felt as low as five given Steven’s answers. Trust must be earned over five contacts.

               I was concerned to some extent that AGI could be dangerous.

https://www.axios.com/2024/01/22/meta-artificial-general-intelligence-quest-agi

https://venturebeat.com/ai/inside-metas-ai-strategy-zuckerberg-stresses-compute-open-source-and-training-data/

Likewise, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg raised concerns when he decided Meta could potentially dominate AI development by applying its substantial resources. AGI has been regarded by many as dangerous, but Zuckerberg told The Verge that Meta could reach it in less than a decade, which could be the amount of time it takes to reach it otherwise. In addition, Zuckerberg said that Meta could be open source, so developers could potentially take it in dangerous directions as a result of its availability.

               Zuckerberg encountered quite a bit of opposition.

               Zuckerberg has somewhat of a reputation for being inscrutable, so it is unknown if he will back down on his strategy of pursuing AGI and, if reaching it, making it open source. I suspect he will pursue it despite the criticism of his comments to The Verge regarding his intentions toward developing AI at Meta. Meta is continuing to develop the Metaverse, which so far has been a failure, without much discouragement to report. His enthusiasm may be unabated.

The Ethical Implications of ChatGPT’s Advancements: Ensuring Responsible Use

What OpenAI’s board drama tells us about the future of artificial intelligence

I keep this personal blog for doing long-form social.

I wrote a post about Elon Musk’s purchase of X’s first anniversary. I’m thinking about OpenAI’s introduction of ChatGPT to the world one year ago at the end of November.

A year ago, I was already fascinated by artificial intelligence. I was finding out who the players were. 

I got on Midjourney but I also looked elsewhere. I utilized Blue Willow, Leonardo and others, including Stable Diffusion https://www.xda-developers.com/best-ai-applications and I utilized Runway and now Moonvalley.AI, for the video.

I didn’t think going with the top of the heap was necessarily in my interests. Sure, Midjourney was powerful, but, for that matter, so was Blue Willow, for example. I was glad to learn that I had many options.

ChatGPT was surely powerful but until I saw that my Quora account provided me with answers on ChatGPT, I had stayed away from it. Instead of ChatGPT, I used several rival AI tools, like Rytr. Of course, Grammarly provides AI.

Until OpenAI fired Sam Altman as CEO of their company, I wasn’t particularly interested in OpenAI. I knew of course that OpenAI is a power player in the industry and that ChatGPT would likely be the first contender to become AGI, which is frightening, but a reality that people have to deal with.

https://cupe.ca/cupe-calls-rewrite-flawed-artificial-intelligence-bill

It is stunning to think how different a world it is becoming. The workforce as we understand it may inevitably shrink to a minority of people being employed and the rest on Universal Basic Income (if they lack a work skill set and they are fortunate to qualify for that), or pursuing an entrepreneurial mission for themselves. It is all because the heavy hitters at OpenAI are insisting on bringing ChatGPT, an extremely powerful tool, to people who may not be ready for its impact.

Now it’s been a year that ChatGPT has been on the market. It’s potentially alarming how much each iteration of ChatGPT is increasingly powerful.

2001: A Space Odyssey, directed by the late Stanley Kubrick, reminds me of this: HAL, the robot that controls the space vessel that is on its mission to Jupiter, lets its human astronaut decide to go out of the shuttle and into the vastness of outer space, but with no qualms about leaving him out there to die once he requests HAL let him back in.

The conclusion of the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, is ambiguous, but I think it questions whether the advancement of artificial intelligence to a superhuman level is worth the penalty people may have to pay for creating the technology—it no longer belongs to its maker.

In the last couple of weeks, I have taken on a hundred-video challenge. I am doing cinematic generative AI and it is interesting to me to see how that goes. The text prompts I use for Moonvalley.AI aren’t unusual; all the same, the possibilities are endless for what can be achieved.

I am editing them with Microsoft Clipchamp. One platform I am putting them on is X. My handle for X is @findingenvirons and you’re welcome to look me up there.

The next twelve months will likely again demonstrate a world of advancements in AI technology. As much as we will potentially see the quality of life improve, I don’t think it’s wise to completely dismiss naysayers and be aware of how AI can dramatically change anyone’s situation in life. There will surely be job displacement and it may not be easy to recover from that.

You’re welcome to like this post, to follow my blog and to comment.

9 Unexpected Uses for The Future of Musk’s X

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/donald-trump-elon-musk-feud-history.html

November 3, 2023 – Elon Musk told UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at an event at Lancaster House that he believed AI would likely make all jobs obsolete at some point in the future. Musk said: “There will come a point where no job is needed … “You can have a job if you want for personal satisfaction. But AI will be able to do everything.” https://seekingalpha.com/news/4044158-elon-musks-artificial-intelligence-startup-xai-a-timeline-of-notable-events

The microblogging site X, which was Twitter for years, has been owned by Elon Musk for a year and a half. Musk appeared on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast when Rogan mentioned Musk’s acquisition of Twitter was a wonderful service to humanity. I can only speculate if Rogan was being sincere.

Musk’s popularity with X has dropped off since he bought it because “bad press” has given Musk a lot of negative attention and, of course, elsewhere on social media, where there is a call for Musk’s head as if he were responsible for the death of John Kennedy.

I wouldn’t call that a stretch of the imagination, actually.

The future of Musk’s X has at least nine unexpected uses, I should think. I am not trying to be scientific about this, however.

  1. In Twitter Blue, or whatever it is called, the opportunity to appear as an official account on X with a blue checkmark is affordable enough. Musk overhauled the existing blue checkmark schematic to make it possible for you to microblog in such a way that your social media posts appear to be alongside inappropriately targeted ads. If Musk hadn’t done that, you would have never been able to achieve this.
  2. If Musk’s decision to rebrand Twitter as X hadn’t been put into effect when it was, you would never have concurrently been required to lose the functionality for yourself that many a third-party vendor with designs on Twitter’s API had it necessary to continue to operate as they were, meaning that you too, simply by being an account holder on X, were required to make some serious changes if you wished to continue to enjoy the functionality of X anything like how it was before for you.
  1. Observing Musk’s posts on X would give you whatever insight you could gain from studying Musk’s thoughts if you’d never been exposed to Elon Musk’s mindset. Observing Warren Buffet’s analysis will give you an insight into trading markets, and following Musk’s account on X will help you become knowledgeable on X.
  2. In a sense, Musk’s politics were revealed to you in front of your eyes. Speaking candidly, I can admit that I generally took Musk’s comments in the media about Twitter being a “town square” to be sincere, especially after what Musk said on the Joe Rogan Experience, where he mentioned that Twitter was a horror show, they have completely convinced me I was naive about Musk, and probably too naive to actually be an X user, which I am. It doesn’t discourage me from using X, though, as I don’t blame myself for being naive. Musk’s meming clearly shows this is naivety at the same level as stupidity, but I don’t blame myself for that either. Since I behave like an X user, there is no reason why I wouldn’t have luck as one. The goal of being on social media is to be in touch with friends and family. It’s still an opportunity to look for friends on an app like X, even if I know there are no honest people on it. Due to Musk’s immense wealth and fame (and being the owner), it’s logical to conclude that Musk is as honest as he can possibly be.
  3. You had a front-row seat to Twittergate. In 2016, Twitter’s involvement in Hillary was akin to Facebook’s. Although my confidence in Twitter has been shaken by Twittergate, my actual behaviour around using X is similar to my actions when Twitter was simply Twitter.
  4. You are in the front row for the first tidings of Web 3.0. Several big regions of the world are transforming X into a paid subscription model, which is alarming users like myself who hold onto Web 2.0 strategies. This isn’t really surprising, although discouraging. It’s having the effect of reducing the popularity of the social media service in question. However, my intuition tells me that Musk knows numbers and what that means for someone like me is that there will be room at the table somehow for somebody who’s a long-time user but not hot. I am certain there are many others like me.
  1. If you’re more of a power user, you’re likely to be interested in Jack Dorsey’s activity at BlueSky along with Elon Musk’s at X, as well as social media activity on sites like Mastodon, Nostr, or, my gambit in the event I get my toes hot, Tribel. If you are sympathetic to the values held by Internet pioneers, you’ve heard of decentralization and that is the tradition BlueSky is part of (and Nostr is, too, but something tells me Nostr users don’t get invited to the same parties). Almost everybody discussing BlueSky on the Internet is saying BlueSky is the best alternative to X. It is such an entrenched point of view that it feels normative to see another writer on the Internet saying that about BlueSky. Not many things in life are like that.
  1. For number eight I have a mean cliché in mind, and that is if you are privy to the Internet trope, and I don’t know how best to describe it yet, although I’d like to hear the trope that usually is summed up with a phrase like Elon Stan. At X you can go out dancing with young crypto enthusiasts who want to make their fortune and feel X is part of it. There are a few reasons not to say too much about it yet as you must know what misinformation is (and that’s the kind of thing I’m putting into words here, so look sharp, please). If you have been dedicated to the power of the concept of blockchain, you may have accidentally embarrassed yourself on more than one occasion. TweetDelete is the name of a tool to reduce evidence of your history on Twitter, and I can see that a tool to reduce evidence of your history on Twitter could be helpful in some circumstances.
  2. Oh, man, I’m going to double down here on mean Internet tropes. I feel this area of sort of “specific Internet realities” is somewhat done with these days, but you have had a front-row seat to the effectiveness of what you might term “productivity cult.” I don’t want to stir up something that’s no longer super, super loud, but if you ever were aware of the eBook gold rush on Twitter, you can definitely feel a little more relaxed that, ideally, the days of what detractors sometimes term productivity cult are as done as the Ebook rush. I may be wrong, but I’m not sure. I haven’t strolled through a shopping mall bookstore outlet in quite a long time.

[Update: http://www.thebookseller.com wrote on their blog that X remains the best place to sell ebooks https://www.thebookseller.com/news/x-remains-primary-social-media-platform-for-publishers ]

Okay, that’s nine unexpected uses for social media on X. I’m a reasonably ethical person and my intentions are good. You’re welcome to like, comment or subscribe to my blog.

Think you’ll remain all in on X? It will be interesting to see whether Musk and X succeed, or if X will end badly, and in bankruptcy.

I want to feel like X is a worthwhile social media platform.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors #31DayHorrorChallenge

A Nightmare on Film Street is the name of a website devoted to horror films. For October 2023, A Nightmare on Film Street prepared a thirty-one-day horror challenge providing prompts for visitors to help them select horror films to watch. A new prompt, presented every day with different degrees of insight, encouraged participants to watch horror films and discuss them on social media. I needed to get a grip on my life, but, reasons. Things You Missed in A Nightmare on Elm Street 3 – YouTube

There were prizes, as well, to make the challenge more immersive. The prizes included Blu-ray editions of films such as Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street. I participated in that contest, but didn’t win.

Freddy Krueger was my theme. For Halloween, the TV channel AMC was running “Fear Fest,” a horror film marathon.

The Fear Fest marathon surprised me that morning when I stumbled upon AMC’s broadcast presentation of the 1987 movie A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, directed by Chuck Russell. Despite the fact that Fantasy was evaluated M15+ in different territories of Australia, it was prohibited in Queensland by the then Bjelke-Petersen government, because of its medication content. To my delight, I got comfortable and settled in for having my morning coffee with the company of the film for thrills and other delights.

I am not a fan of A Nightmare on Elm Street. I have just jumped into the Nightmare on Film Street blog challenge for the first time.

Recently, I listened to Quentin Tarantino talk about A Nightmare on Elm Street 3. The first film in the series (A Nightmare on Elm Street) was better than this movie, according to Tarantino. He did point out that the casting of the actors is a little better now (in 1987 compared to 1984).

The film is bad because it isn’t as inventive as the original.            

Hereditary #31DayHorrorChallenge

There are a lot of film buffs. My brother and his wife are film buffs. I think their kids enjoy that kind of thing, too.

The four of them went to the blockbuster The Flash for my brother’s forty-third birthday. It sounds like a nice family evening to me.

In order not to be completely outdone, I’m watching this month’s Nightmare on Film Street marathon. Well, truthfully, I am thinking here and there of the ghoulish spirits celebrating with Nightmare on Film Street on the Internet. In the spirit of Halloween just two weeks away, I finally watched an entire horror film this morning.

Tonight, Nightmare on Film Street recommends Toni Collette. I learned who Toni Collette is from the movie they recommend if you’re new (and I am new–until today I was unaware that Toni Collette is some kind of horror actress). They recommend Hereditary, starring Toni Collette and Gabriel Byrne, and it is the first time in a long time I have watched a horror film that is both tidy and clever.

It reminded me of Donnie Darko from the 2000s, another good one. It was fun—that is why I am trying to sneak in on the marathon, as the relative creativity that goes into thirty-one days of horror pictures is bound to turn up at least one that is excellent. If you are looking for a creepy movie to watch today, the eighteenth of October in the year 2023, and you want to start the last two weeks of October, the page with the list of movie suggestions by Nightmare on Film Street is here:

https://nofspodcast.com/halloween-horror-movie-marathon-with-the-31dayhorrorchallenge-2023

It’s Toni Collette today if you’re starting today.

Does anybody who reads this relate to how Toni Collette is a favorite horror actress, or is this legitimately obscure?

Among Changes, What The United Church of Canada Did For Its Community Where My Father is Involved

When Louth United Church disbanded in 2006, the care of the adjoining cemetery went to the municipality. In his golden years, my father Peter, who helped manage Victoria Lawn Cemetery in St. Catharines for many years, turned the cemetery into something he could manage as, I suppose, a Zen strategy. Both my dad and I are on paper as the cemetery’s two operators.

Yesterday, on the United Church of Canada’s website, a new page was published that said a lot about spiritual fundamentals for members of the United Church of Canada. It is not my place to speak about religious principles, but I found the webpage most interesting.

Years ago, when surfing Yahoo! Answers, I was recommended an author whose work I briefly explored, Wayne Dyer. In addition to his other ideas, he promoted radical humility, a concept echoed in Vicki Nelson’s post on the United Church of Canada blog. Ms. Nelson has the role of Community of Faith Stewardship Support.

Throughout my life, I channeled my religious interests in a few directions, including becoming confident that my mortal life may bring me to the Kingdom of Heaven. As I grow into the relationship I am very lucky to be in these days, I am trying to maintain a positive attitude. I appreciate her witty sense of humor and her success stories.

Here is a link to Vicki Nelson’s post: https://united-church.ca/blogs/round-table/we-are-all-trustees

In a recent conversation with my dad, he told me trustees are not directly involved in living people’s lives. It is when a person is incapacitated that a trustee is necessary. I was pleased to read Vicki’s blog post.

You’re welcome to “like” my post, follow my blog, and leave me a comment.

What’s the trait you value most about yourself?

Daily writing prompt
What’s the trait you value most about yourself?
View all responses

My social media includes a personal blog on WordPress because I like writing in long-form and I am comfortable with WordPress. A healthy portion of the Internet is constructed with WordPress.org and WordPress.com is for actually putting your blog right on their site.

These days you can choose to answer a writing prompt which is convenient for writing something right away that has a theme that other users on WordPress may likewise be deciding to write about. A writing prompt is an idea that generates a blog post or other piece of writing (or art).

The trait I value most about myself is my intellectual ability for application in my day-to-day life. I am happy to regard myself as a person with only average intelligence, but considering that I am an honest-to-goodness human being given how many troubles I might have had in my lifetime that I didn’t encounter, I hold fast to an ideal that even with only the average intelligence of a human being I am still fortunate that I have that much intellectual ability on which to draw, as for example, when I am doing social media content.

I have spent the last year exploring AI imagery. When filmmaker Harmony Korine presented his latest film Aggro Dr1ft to festivals such as the 61st New York Film Festival, the Venice Film Festival this year, and the Toronto International Film Festival this year, it wasn’t receiving normal blockbuster-size distribution yet (and I’m not sure that it even will get that kind of distribution—I wonder if it will get an expensive DVD or Blu-ray release). Korine shot his film entirely with NASA Infrared cameras to give the film pools of colors where heat signatures are being recorded.

In addition, Korine has included AI imagery to add to the experimentalism of the scenes that comprise the movie. How great would it be to see this one? The reviews I read explained that it is such an unconventional movie that it affects your sensory perceptions in a manner that cannot be ignored.

Immediately upon learning what Korine did, I saw that I could try cinematic generative AI with the Runway AI app. I had already learned about what Runway does, which I think I heard of on Twitter several months ago, and decided that Runway’s amazing video generation would round out the ideas I already had for utilizing stock video and AI on TikTok. With the explosion of AI and the controversy about whether TikTok should be banned in the United States, TikTok’s terms of conditions specify that TikToks that utilize AI imagery need to convey that is what is going on (to be transparent).

In practical terms, the TikTok algorithm seems reluctant to pick up TikToks made with AI. One of my TikToks done in AI did a little bit on the algorithm and the next few didn’t go anywhere. Today I am trying out including a link to a new cinematic generative AI sequence.

I don’t know if referring to Harmony Korine is as apt as I feel it could be. He has a reputation as a great filmmaker, and I am only trying an idea that is similar to the work he has done (I wouldn’t really know right away what to shoot if I did have an Infrared camera from NASA). I know enough about waxing poetic in cinema circles, at least I think I do, that “remixing” an idea somebody like Korine has and trying something similar to that isn’t too bad a jumping-off point for similar AI imagery.

A link to a new cinematic generative AI is here: https://1drv.ms/v/s!AoZ7i5SXd_eE4TgiBSRal2xi_Dpn

 I put this together a few minutes ago with an answer to this writing prompt. I will try to remember to see if WordPress will carry this post anywhere. You’re welcome to give this post a ‘like,” to follow my blog, and/or to leave me a comment. Thank you.

The Anchorage Daily News printed a story yesterday, about contemporary motel living in Florida, at the following link: https://www.adn.com/nation-world/2023/09/28/what-one-motel-tells-us-about-survival-in-post-disaster-america/

Silent Symphony: Imagining a World Without Music and the Chaos That Ensues

Daily writing prompt
What would your life be like without music?
View all responses

“Music is the art which is most nigh to tears and memory.” — Oscar Wilde

I suppose I was a goofy kid. My favorite movie for a very long time was Star Wars. The notable score, composed by John Williams, contributed to my enthusiasm for music.

The moment Josh put music in my hands, I realized I didn’t know everything, especially about popular music.

In Toronto, MuchMusic, a commercial alternative to MTV, showed video outpourings from various musicians every weeknight. I took some interest in the television format as I got older. Those music videos showed the flavor of the times.

That was lucky. During college, I read a couple of books about rock music, one a history of the Velvet Underground and one about many, many bands from subcultures, learning who had influence long before social media was even an idea. Without those books, I could have done more appropriate reading in school, but they provided me with ideas about music that I was able to digest alongside seminars about art history, films, and Canadian traditional music.

I must have been a fool, I should admit, given the importance of being on track in school (personal reading was probably not a good use of my time). Should that have stopped me? Not really.

I can remember the first songs I downloaded from the Internet and the first streaming music I listened to in the 2000s. At some point, as an older man, I discovered Bandcamp and found I enjoyed music more with YouTube videos’ normally millennial-oriented format.

https://www.google.com/url?rct=j&sa=t&url=https://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2024/02/why-music-distribution-on-soundcloud-and-bandcamp-is-not-enough.html&ct=ga&cd=CAEYACoTNjk1MzY2ODc1NTYwODIxOTQ5MjIZZmFjOTkwZWYyZWE0MzA0YjpjYTplbjpDQQ&usg=AOvVaw2tNWBLN1xTIIjK4Bj3qfit

There’s something dystopian about our lives without popular music, just like the first scene of The Terminator, where we live in a post-apocalyptic world.

You’re welcome to like this post, to comment, and to follow the blog.