It came from the highlands

Can you play "Chim Chim Cheree" as a jazz song?

Can you play jazz on the bagpipes?

Can you play "Chim Chim Cheree" on the bagpipes?

Behold.

I first found out about Rufus Harley from Laurie Anderson's album Big Science, where he played on the song "Sweaters." His story is that he was a trained saxophonist, and was moved when he heard the bagpipe's being played at JFK's funeral. They immediately became his primary instrument. 

Few followed him, as anyone with even a glancing familiarity with jazz history knows. But he had a long career and his music is quite bracing.

Ticking boxes

If you're a writer or an aspiring writer you get exposed to the biases and blind spots of the publishing industry, even if―especially if?―you're out in the relative middle of nowhere. Right now there's a lot of explicit ideological gatekeeping, which also tends to be implicit class gatekeeping.

In the speculative fiction area a lot of markets say that they're looking for authors from underrepresented and marginalized backgrounds, sometimes exclusively. At least one magazine I've checked out says that they don't require proof. That's the damnedest thing. While they throw in some honors system rhetoric about not taking someone else's spot, they're in effect begging for some non-alphabet white guy to pull a fast one.

Would I? No. Is that because of my sterling ethics? Not entirely. It's more that if your submission guidelines read like a corporations DEI goals, you're telling me that you don't want to be wowed or challenged, that you don't even really care about enjoying the manuscript. You just want to not be publicly embarrassed. You're asking for dullness and mediocrity, even from people who are capable of better. And that's what you're going to get.

...and on a lighter note

They're looking out for us. Roger Waters has come under fire for dressing like a Nazi and acting out fascism onstage, something he obviously hasn't been doing in connection with The Wall for forty odd years and which Bob Geldof in no way can be seen doing in the 1982 movie adaptation. And you'd better believe incriminating video has been making the rounds online.

We can be thankful they're finally getting around to this. It's sickening to know that Johnny Cash never faced justice for shooting that guy in Reno just to watch him die.

Separating from the pack

Not too long ago, in 2019...No wait, that was forever ago. But where was I?

Oh yes, in 2019 Slate Star Codex did an entry on how New Atheism had been taken over and consumed by the Social Justice movement. 

This probably comes as a surprise, seeing as how everyone else talks about how atheists are heavily affiliated with the modern anti-social justice movement. I think that’s the wrong takeaway. Sure, a lot of people who identify as atheists now are pretty critical of social justice. That’s because the only people remaining in the atheist movement are the people who didn’t participate in the mass transformation into social justice. It is no contradiction to say both “Most of the pagans you see around these days are really opposed to Christianity” and “What ever happened to all the pagans there used to be? They all became Christian.”

What Alexander made of this is worth reading in full. But it's not incompatible with my own belief that any group can fall victim to groupthink, and that those who identify themselves as bein in the intellectual vanguard are more rather than less likely to fall prey. If you're sure that all the schmucks are on the other side how can you not become complacent. 

Doug Lain catches onto a similar dynamic in the Twitter files, and specifically the general leftist indifference to them, or in many cases the kill-the-messenger response. He sees a left that's betrayed itself and become blasé about civil liberties in general.

It should be noted that among other things, Lain is a notable science fiction writer. One of his works of fiction is Billy Moon, a magic realist novel about Christopher Robin Milne getting caught up in the May 68 uprising in Paris. The history of these movements means something to him in a way it doesn't really to me. But I can attest that he knows whereof he speaks here.

And there you are

I don't pretend to know all that much about French Symbolism as a movement. I can think of two artists associated with it: James Ensor and Felicien Rops. As it happens they were both Belgian.

Symbolism does seem to have been at the vanguard of modern art's penchant for odd and sometimes disturbing images, decades before Surrealism proper. 

The image above is Rops's Lady with a Puppet, and could be considered a subtle example of that. The woman herself is normal, notably buxom. Her puppet is a standard Pulcinella type. But if you look closely the cloth on the table where she sits seems to have a face, and most definitely has eyes. A sign, perhaps, that things are always being manipulated beyond those that you know about.

Anyway, maybe one of these days I'll do Ensor.

The sixteenth century, man

Check out Lady Katherine Grey. Her older sister, Lady Jane Grey, was the Nine Days' Queen. Which is to say she spent nine days as the apparent new monarch before being executed by Mary Tudor. Among other things that's a setback for the family. Mary's half-sister Elizabeth, however, considered Katherine a potential heir to the throne after her. Except then Katherine went and secretly married Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford when Elizabeth wanted to marry her off to the Earl of Arran (which would have been a stupid move for reasons I won't go into here.) So Katherine and Edward's marriage is annulled against both their wishes and Katherine spends the rest of her short life in the Tower of London.

And yet things still could have turned out differently. If Elizabeth had succumbed to her nasty case of smallpox Katherine, even as a jailbird, would have still been a viable choice to replace her, being a Protestant at a pivotal time for the new Church. A dramatic turnaround, but such things did happen. 

Another odd twist is that a couple of generations later something very similar happened to Lady Arbella Stuart, except that Arbella never got the chance to have any children with her husband. That husband being Katherine's grandson, William, Earl of Somerset. Another might-have-been.

And now? Now the maximum level of drama in the Royal Family is set by Harry writing a tell-all book which was read only by people who were going to goof on it. It's just not the same.

System down

Today I tried to reserve a book on the local library system's website, as I frequently do. On this particular occasion I got an error message saying that I had reached the maximum number of holds. Since I only have a hold on one item, this puzzled me.

I called my branch and told them about the problem. The librarian said that the whole system is down because they're installing new software. They don't expect it to be ready for use until Monday or more probably, Tuesday. Have to say she was very nice about it.

Updates in tech are often a matter of taking something good or at least functional and making it worse. You've probably noticed this. So I hope that at the very least this one is equivalent to the status quo.

Unsupported

Looking at this account of recent developments at Alcoholics Anonymous makes one realize that something can be alarming on one hand but at the same time banal and predictable. Because it's become clear in recent years that no institution is immune from being subverted and corrupted. Still, how far can it go?

From my experience of post-Trump academia, I knew these proclamations wouldn’t so much prevent inappropriate speech as put everyone on high alert, encouraging an atmosphere of self-censorship. Recovering alcoholics carry a lot of guilt about the harm their drinking has caused others; they are often irrationally fearful of causing any more. If they feel like they’re traversing a mine field of potential triggers that could set off listeners in the room, they may be reluctant to admit shameful details about the past, which they want and need to get off their chests. Recovering alcoholics’ lives depend on their ability to share honestly, and to feel like they will be accepted by AA no matter their histories or their personal views. Increasingly, certain opinions — although you could never be totally sure which ones — were no longer worthy of respect in a democratic society. Meetings were not unlike my university classes, where the silence during discussions would extend for what felt like an eternity, as so many students stayed quiet rather than risk transgressing.

AA has a serious purpose. Members trust each other as well as the higher power of their choice to get them through the challenges and temptations that come with recovering from an addiction. They need to be able to speak honestly and without fear of judgment or disapproval.

Except now all this is being held as a secondary priority at best. Fashionable dogmas have been elevated to higher importance. What was once a support group is now dedicated to social justice, a tenet which tends to erase the individual as a matter of course.

This is really an old process with a very old name: conquest. Conquerors have always pressed every advantage and have never been upset about the prospect of hurting people. Such is war. But war is now being conducted on the home front, in what were supposed to be sanctuaries. And the lack of self-awareness rankles.

Jazz...with tangent

 

This is a live recording from the Montreux Jazz Festival, rightly famed. Listen to enough jazz radio and you're likely to hear it. And no wonder. It cooks as jazz and as a protest song.

It's kind of weird, though, that McCann spends much of the second verse going off on dogs and the people who love them. Just out of nowhere, "You know what? Fuck dogs!" Makes me wonder if he farmed the verse out to squirrels. 

Some notice it hot

The last couple of days, and especially today, have been clear previews of summer. Very warm, obviously, and any number of people might be walking around with just t-shirts.

I've been working in a kitchen, and here's where it gets weird. The kind of food they make in this kitchen means that it's constantly refrigerated. So it's a good idea to wear 2-3 layers inside. Makes for something of a culture shock.

Old habits die hard

Very good and thorough article here on how the AIDS crisis shaped the current relationship between the activist left and the pharmaceutical industry. One thing that's interesting is the interrelation between Anthony Fauci and Larry Kramer, which wasn't exactly the same in public as it was behind the scenes. Of course if they were two halves of a larger beast, they wouldn't always remain so. Kramer of course died of AIDS at a tragically young age, while Fauci would stay in Washington for decades more. And the lessons he learned maybe weren't the ones he should have learned.

Anyway, it's more than worth looking at. Nothing ever ends.

Boom!

I saw an ad earlier tonight―more precisely, a trailer―for the upcoming film Oppenheimer. Exactly how it will turn out I don't know, but a historical biopic about the start of the atomic era is such an unlikely idea for a summer tentpole movie that I have to kind of root for it.

More to the point, it got me thinking about this little song. It was part of the soundtrack of the documentary The Atomic Cafe, and I'm sure many react to it as another disturbing bit of kitsch from the era. It stands up as music on its own, though.

Dangerous toys

I sometimes wonder if we're experiencing some kind of delayed millenarian mania. That is, to many it doesn't seem right that the year 2000 came and went, disappearing in the rearview mirror, and yet the world failed to end. So they look for a reason why the world will end now. The inflation of a souped-up cold virus into Pestilence on his horse was but one example.

AI could be another. While I don't agree with everything Jaron Lanier says here―if Russia is using AI to sow division in this country it's a matter of carrying coals to Newcastle―he's right to emphasize that it's a human creation, rather than some alien new intelligence. Thus anything done by artificial intelligence, be it creative or destructive, is ultimately done by humans.

It's true that there's also a threat that we will downgrade human intelligence in order to make the machines look smarter. To an extent it's already happening. And the same principle could apply to creativity. If AI is now the best at creating stories, making art, making music, why should anyone put in the effort to be the next Debussy or Picasso? Especially if we assume they were all just abusive white males.

Ribbiting

Greer's latest is an expansive essay on werewolf history and Donald Trump. All well and good, and I'd recommend it. But what I want to focus on now are the spot illustrations. Specifically the second one relating to frogs. Yup, that's Pepe.

One of the more moronic moral panics of the '10s and '20s―and one that I'm embarrassed to admit to having given some credence to―is the notion that Pepe the Frog has become an icon for racists and fascists. The character does pop up in many places, and it's not hard to see why. Cartoonist Matt Furie has hit on something. While not of the most sophisticated draftsmanship, Pepe has a very expressive face, suggesting a sweet and open personality. 

So yes, he appears in many memes and messages, of varying levels of weirdness and irony. Hardly any involve any kind of dark political iconography, and those that do can most likely be explained by the fact that innocence also includes an urge to sully innocence.

Part of the problem is the term "alt right", which turns out to be exceedingly vague, perhaps by design. It's been applied to genuine neo-Nazis, fairly mainstream conservatives, apolitical juveniles, and increasingly to dissident leftists. But again, we're talking about a happy-go-lucky cartoon amphibian here.

The information is laughing at us

How predictable are you? On an algorithmic level, that is. Actions and tics and choices flattened into two digital dimensions. How easy are you to read?

I can't answer for myself, not with any certainty. And sad to say the question is more relevant than it should be.

A clear aim of the patent is to assure its audience that Google scientists will not be deterred by users' exercise of decision rights over their personal information, despite the fact that such rights were an inherent feature of the original social contract between the company and its users. Even when users do provide UPI, the inventors caution, "it may be intentionally or unintentionally inaccurate, it may become stale...UPI for a user...can be determined (or updated or extended) even when no explicit information is given to the system...An initial UPI may include some expressly entered UPI information, though it doesn't need to."

The scientists thus make clear that they are willing―and that their inventions are able―to overcome the tension entailed in users' decision rights. Google's proprietary methods enable it to surveil, capture, expand, construct, and claim behavioral surplus, including data that users intentionally choose not to share. Recalcitrant users will not be obstacles to data expropriation. No moral, legal, or social constraints will stand in the way of finding, claiming, and analyzing others' behavior for commercial purposes.

That's a passage from Shoshana Zuboff's The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power. It's a long and dense book, and I'm only partway through it. But I can already say that there's a lot on Google, the company that pioneered this kind of information extraction for the Web 2.0 era. That wasn't necessarily the original idea of what they were going to do, but they embraced it around the turn of the millennium. And eventually dropped "Don't be evil" as a slogan, perhaps in a rare blush of honesty.