Movies are a vast wasteland
The New York Observer (observer.com) no longer has movie reviews except for movies that Rex Reed watches, which is down to one or two a month. They have categories for Art, Lifestyle, Culture, Business, Art Market, Art Reviews, Luxury Travel, Nightlife & Dining, Style, Theater, Opera, Dance, Tech, Finance, and Media. They are no longer […]
I grew up reading sci-fi
I grew up reading science fiction but it didn’t prepare me for the reality of the future, when it arrived. SciFi predicted space travel but it turns out that space travel is for robots, not humans. The people on the Space Station are not accomplishing anything. The Chinese space station was struck by orbital […]
The best copywriting gets right to the point.
Points are sharp and dangerous and committees prefer safer alternatives. I’m looking for companies that are young and want to grow, companies with a good new product that would be successful if more people knew about it. Most people have never heard of you. I’ve never heard of you. I learn about you, and then […]
Sunday, 8-2-2025
Lots of TV news coverage of the Richter 3.0 earthquake that struck New York City yesterday. In California we literally do not notice a Richter 3 earthquake even if we’re at ground zero. “Coverage.” In the old days we were all looking at the same three TV networks from coast to coast. Everybody […]
In the beginning was the word
In the beginning was the word. My father was a typographer in the ad game and he was always at his drawing board creating words from the time I was born. My theory is that I copied his enthusiasm for his task from my earliest days. I was reading everything by the […]
The AI Invasion
Everywhere I look I see AI invading. The Turing Test has long since been sent to the old folks’ home–AI can write stuff well enough to persuade you a human did it. Fool me once, fool me forever. There’s no going back. I look at VentureBeat.com several times a week–it’s been around […]
Memorial Sunday
Moscow and Kiev swapped massive drone raids again overnight. Israel continues to methodically plod through Gaza eliminating Hamas operatives. Drug cartels have been methodically assassinating mayors and mayor candidates throughout Mexico. And so the main story on ABC News continues to be the trial of rapper Diddy Combs. Oops, now ABC News has switched […]
Easter
Easter Sunday. I do not believe that a man can rise from the dead. Well, what do I believe? Easter is a relic of a pagan rite of spring in which an exalted one is sacrificed to the gods to ensure the onset of summer. We’ll freeze to death unless we do […]
Instructions to Forgive
Instructions to forgiveA poem by Cesar Verrier First, remember. It is a painful task. Be gentle with yourself. Write down your recollections. You can’t forgive what you refuse to remember. Start your excursion into memory before you were so cruelly treated. Recapture what your life was like then and what you were like, too. Reconstruct […]
The Singularity
The Singularity Last Sunday on X, Elon Musk spoke about the Singularity. The entirety of his post: “We are on the event horizon of the Singularity.” Us sci-fi geeks knew exactly what he meant: a reference to Vernor Vinge’s 1993 paper, “The Coming Technological Singularity.” The term was first used by polymath […]