02/23/24: Friday Weekly Roundup
Summary and links to my Medium posts this week
We started the week with Trump’s election interfence case on edge, accusations of an “improper relationship” between the Fulton County district attorney and her lead prosecutor. Donald Trump seems like Tony Soprano, and a bit of Mr. Magoo, one lucky break after another. Meanwhile, legalities aside, perceptions are severely tainted. You decide:
Everyone loves celebrity stories, mine with the singer Beck and the comic Andy Dick, from before they were famous. Retelling them in a “roman à clef” style provides context with my own zany life, captured in these two complementary posts, set about two years apart. I’ve since learned, such as pay better attention and at least sell their stuff on ebay.
A fun dinner with friends last weekend culminated in the inevitable disaster at the end, when we spent twenty minutes trying to figure out how to divide the check. The momentary insanity reminded me of Douglas Adams’ best idea, and arguably greatest moment in all of science fiction. I extrapolate from there on the meaning and implications of true “genius”…
An ex- and great friend got a tattoo recently, and sent me the pic. Her experience reminded me of my tattoo, and how my ex- at the time worked her way not only onto my arm, but the rest of my life. The story still resonates on many levels, including what we do for the people whom we love, and what they end up doing for you, especially if they’re clever:
Always the contrarian, I’ve nonetheless had trouble defending anything about Trump, especially his policies. But the storm of controversy, bombast, and bad strategy I’ve seen regarding recent events in the Middle East have got me thinking deeply and re-evaluating many of my long-held views about things, including the post-WWII world order. Check it out:
Another ex- and now good friend sent me a link of superstar music producer Rick Rubin talking about creativity, productivity, and the difference between art and commerce. His observation that artistic content is analogous to a diary entry, and therefore subject to different rules than other forms of media really resonated with me, so I share thoughts here:
My current tsunami of output is reflective of other periods in life when I relentlessly cranked stuff out. The difference between those other phases and now is the chance to share them online, which I’ve been doing on Medium these past couple months. Here’s another project from “the vault” — a period piece that holds up surprisingly well:
Thanks for reading, and much more to come!
MOOKIE
