Posts
Pynchon in Wisconsin
Why I like Shadow Ticket - For a Wisconsin guy who lived in Milwaukee for two years, the Wisconsin part of this book is a big treat. Been reading Thomas Pynchon since V [actually, before that, the short story Entropy] and this book is just a thrill. It starts with an explosion ["a pineapple" in the 20s dialect] near the Lake. Eventually, a submarine is discovered in the Lake - an WWI Austro-Hungarian job that is running rum]. It’s always back to the Lake, the beer, the cheese and the Mob. The Milwaukee Mob appears in the first words of this book. This mob was a Franchise Outlet for the more prestigious Chicago operation…but if they got you, that distinguishment on the pecking ladder of crime meant little difference. I like what I will call word flow, somewhat like stream of consciousness, most vividly represented by the Irish Modernist James Joyce. Thomas Pynchon is among few authors capable of such composition; in his manner, a novel can b...
US Return to Moon
NASA’s Artemis II Crew Launches to the Moon 6:30 pm EDT Apr 1 No kidding! dd [April 2, 2026] - After a yearslong parade of missteps, the United States yesterday launched astronauts toward the Moon. In the first such mission since December 1972, four voyagers dramatically bolted into the twilight sky above the Kennedy Space Center near Cape Canaveral, Fla. The on-board crew operating the Orion spacecraft comprises NASA’s Reid Wiseman, mission commander; Victor Glover and Christina Koch; as well as Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency. They are now in high Earth orbit, preparatory to a journey to the Moon. The early flight included a brief loss in communications, and a control panel malfunction indicating problems with their craft’s toilet. This dashboard snafu was quickly toggled and solved. Later today, the go/no-go decision will come on the plan to leave Earth orbit and head to its moon. This manned return to Moon fli...
Stub of Blake's Clarion on AI
Andrew Ross Sorkin's take today on Larry Fink's Letter to Blackrock customers makes the point that GenAI as it is being posed means economic disparity. That as the elevator Muzak of 'future abundance for all' dims. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/23/business/dealbook/trump-iran-energy-attacks.html It's interesting to see the Mighty Fink echo tech vet Tim O'Reilly's screed describing the AI economy that makes producers richer only by slash, burn and strap of consumers' wallets and hopes. https://www.oreilly.com/radar/ai-and-the-next-economy/ This is a stub - go to working page on AI and society.
The Good Bubble
Nobody, wise or unwise, knew or now knows when depressions are due or overdue.–JKG, The Great Crash 1929 I cozied round the fire with two books during the winter. Two books on The Great Depression. One, The Great Crash by John Kenneth Galbraith; the other, 1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History – and How It Shattered a Nation by Andrew Ross Sorkin. The backdrop for anyone reading these books would probably be the same at most any point at time – a nagging feeling that the stock market is exuberantly closing in on a correction, or worse. And that our common days will see soup at least a little thinner. The always-around-the corner feeling of nearing contagion is sharp just now, as 2025 saw a hellbent parade of investment in Generative AI, with promises but not proof of a big return. There must be some message to be learned in history, right? The radio stocks of the 1920s bear some likeness to AI, hyperscaler and data center equipment stocks of the 2020s. The era saw...
Music of Randy Weston and Melba Liston
Went to the New England Conservatory the other night to see The Conservatory Jazz Orchestra. The students - led by Ken Schaphorst - are exceptionally amazing. A great jewel of Boston. The Jazz is big band music. Must be heard! This evening was dedicated to the music - often in collaboration - of Melba Liston and Randy Westin. I made an embedded Spotify playlist based on the program that anyone on the web can sample, and Spotify users can add to their playlists. The New England Conservatory has a special resonance here. One of my first research interviews ever was here when I tracked down the great Jaki Byard . My father as a youth in the 1920s took violin lessons there. I can imagine, as if watching a silent film. The boy in knickers navigating the long set of trolly connections, violin in case, from Dorchester to Huntington Avenue. The case holding a dream of his mother's for better things for him and his family. Thinking tonight: Every violin has a story or two, doesn't ...