12/31/1997
Celeb at Navy Pier. Extremely cold!! Saw Titanic. Great movie in the sense that they produced a blockbuster that everyone wants to see, but do we need a play-by-play of people perishing? I found it "pornographic' in that it stays in the mind. It was a unique disaster because it was such a slow death for thousands of people. And it was a telling commentary on the human condition, i.e. how selfish people really are when push comes to shove. 12/31/1998 The irony about Y2K is that fixing the bug may make the problem worse than it could ever be. 12/31/1999, Friday Gorgeous day, 45 degrees. New Year's Celebrations begin at 9 a.m. from around the world. No Y2K glitches yet. Today is the defining moment as to whether our lives are truly pervaded by the computer age, and if something goes awry in Russia the world the be toast tomorrow. President Yeltsin abruptly resigns. Putin, a former KGB agent, takes over. Disturbing. The "brand new day". Honeymoon will last for a while, but will it withstand the vagaries of real life? 12/31/2001 Celebration this year at CSO with SZ and Erin Wall from Lyric Opera. She was called to be a ringer when the scheduled diva called in sick with stomach flu. (She only had four hours to prepare for the show!) People thought I was her agent. 12/31/2007 Clinton and Obama in dead heat in Iowa. (Caucus 1/3) Hard to predict whether this is the first woman or black president. (Is the country ready?) 12/31/2009 A blue moon (second full moon in a month). Video: The Known Universe. I realized that as we celebrate the arrival of a new year, we are still very much a solar society, organizing our lives around the movement of one solitary planet around one solitary star—and that our society is not that much different than it was thousands of years ago. It is also comforting to think that time is not going fast at all, as technology leads us to believe. Perused 2000 diary—finding some interesting things. Dad died 10 years ago (1/20/2000) and my "life collage" idea—that you could make an interesting life by doing a variety of things. 12/31/2010, Friday Unseasonably warm, 50 degrees/ thunderstorms In studio: Painted 'Johns' target on Anachronistic Time Inversion. Will finish on date certain 2-6-2011. What will be the news on that day? Title: Telephone to God 12/31/2012 The country is at the fiscal cliff, a (flexible) boundary. Never have boundaries become such a fixture of American life in the 21st century. As of now, the soundbyte is that some kind of "deal" is being made by Congress on behalf of "The American People" as Republicans like to say, but I'm not a person in their America. Went to Lake Theater to see Django Unchained. A typical Tarantino treatment of American history pushed through a comic book. As usual, the violent imagery is delivered in a perfunctory way. Most people get Tarantino, but the few that don't take everything they see as being literal depictions of reality and aren't ready to lighten up. I call it "gag violence", ketchup blood. Went to Dragon Lounge for Sam Hight jazz band, a sextet of 20-somethings playing 50s jazz and trading solos, just like their grandparents. It's nice to see young people playing jazz straight ahead, but without the power of modernity and a young artist, that kind of jazz rings hollow. I'd prefer to see young people play their own music and not like it, rather than see them play old genres anachronistically.
To be precise, this is actually a dream from 4/2/2023:
I witnessed a plane crash into a body of water in a cold northern region, as it looked like a fjord of some kind. The bearded pilot survived and swam to the shore. His doppelganger, who looked exactly like him, swam to save him. In another fragment a phone rang and I answered it and the person said, "New North". The Short The Song: 12/29/1966
(From The Complete Beatles): "Interviewed in November 1965 Paul McCartney mentioned that he'd been toying with the idea of writing a song called "Penny Lane" because he like the poetry of the name. Penny Lane was, and still is, the name of the road in this suburb immediately to the south of Liverpool city centre, close to where the Beatles grew up. It took another year for Paul to actually write the song but with its description of the shops and the people and the "blue suburban skies" his Penny Lane was a fine counterpoint to John's "Strawberry Fields Forever". 12/29/1999 A friend asked me what I thought the world would be like in the year 3000. This question was probably asked a thousand years ago. By 3000 there will be new terms that will redefine nature. By 3000, many will be still waiting for the end of the world. Story idea set in 3000, with facts derived from life in 1000. Panel of experts talking on TV about the potential Y2K problems with US and Russian nuclear arsenals. Some looked extremely worried. (A call to release 7500 nuclear bombs would be made in just 3 minutes after a false reading). I feel excited about this new age, but trepidatious feelings now winning. 12/29/2001 Photographer on radio talking about when he saw certain photos, it influenced his career decision and changed his life for the better. When you take photos of people you have to get their trust—what they are thinking will show on their face. (Show films or stills that cause emotional responses). 12/29/2004 Tsunami disaster dominates news. The pathos is incredible and pervades your day. 80,000 now estimated dead. They project it will double if disease breaks out. Interesting: Only 3,000 people died on 9/11 with the consequence of a misbegotten war against Iraq where 1,200 Americans were killed. Pales in comparison. 12/29/2006, Friday Saddam Hussein executed by hanging. In the Islamic world, this is the first step to martyrdom—he'll be even more powerful in death. 12/26/1997, Friday Film: Mother with Albert Brooks. Very accurate depiction of boomers' relationships with their parents, especially the preoccupation with food. Also, an interesting scene where the son finds old manuscripts that his mother wrote, discovering that she had a talent that she ignored because she was under pressure from the father to be a housewife. Began archiving my music. Went to Kinko's and saw people doing the same thing. *** 12/26/1999 What about all the people that will die immediately before 2000? The year 2000 will make synchronistic events even more interesting. Curtis Mayfield died at 57. *** 12/26/2004, Sunday Massive tsunami hits Indonesia and other countries bordering the Indian Ocean, after largest earthquake in 40 years, Richter 9.5. Thousands dead and counting following 30 foot surge of water traveling at 500 miles per hour. *** 12/26/2006 Gerald Ford dies at 93. ( The only President not elected by the people). He was also the first president to be lampooned on Saturday Night Live, specifically the clutzy pratfalls and assassination attempts. But the biggest part of the legacy is the Nixon pardon and the fact that it turned impeachment proceedings into mere censure. *** 12/26/2021 What draws me to music most strongly is the tactile: I simply like the feel of vibrating strings across a slab of wood, and is so much more satisfying than a computer keyboard or a piece of glass. I have my instruments all out of their cases and make a point to play them and incorporate them as much as possible into my songs. (That's why I think country music sometimes gets folded in to my music because a lap steel will definitely suggest it). Also, we don't really need that many instruments: Musical instrument collections might have their own Dunbar number. An instrument only used once becomes more of a passing acquaintance. Podcast: On the tactile in music *** 12/26/2015 It's always interesting to think about embedded objects in photography or film as a chronicle of technology. Here Cindy's lonely character waits for the phone to ring to resolve her emotional dilemma. It's a prop, but the only one that existed in 1980. Loneliness now inhabits the world of the smartphone, and I must admit would be less interesting in this tableau. Imagine that in another 20 or 30 years, there would be no visible device to cling to for that same emotional connection: She'd be staring into space.
A very early demo from December 2021--one of the first ideas for Nostalgia Galaxy. (Guitars Added)
(Anthony Townes Diary)
Took a stroll around hospital floor overlooking Gates Park. Large crowd at the Memorial for the solstice celebration. Nice—just as it arrived sunlight beamed from the glass curtain of Central Tower, bathing the Memorial in silver light. 2046-12-21 Gates Park, Masdar: "Sun Landing" 12/20/2012
The eve of the end of the world by the Mayan calendar. It is a reminder that singular events are a fixture of life. Things begin and end on their own, but are tethered to our understanding of time. Was the calendar ubiquitous and followed or even known by all the Maya? Interesting: all the various cycles within the Mayan calendar don't just abruptly end—they come back in sync. That is something to celebrate, not fear. It's a New Downbeat, the "One". 12/20/2019 Warhol show at Art Institute. It's interesting to watch the crowds react. You can tell the people that perhaps it is their first time seeing Warhols on a wall. I'm always amazed at the work ethic and the sheer size of some of the pieces. Loved seeing the Tunafish Disaster live—all of the silks in fact. |
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