December 7ths (Humdrum)

12/7/1997

Poetry “cracks the code” of language. It expands the boundaries of understanding in the mind. Poetry is also “vertical time” as opposed to the “horizontal time” of prose.

12/7/2000

Gwendolyn Brooks died. I wonder if current times will produce a great poet, as no one would care about that sort of thing–although I'm sure rap and hip hop will be a venerated art form in 25 years.

12/7/2004

Film: Naked States, where a photographer shot public nudes in all 48 states. Interesting: people want to be included in art and performances—show ME! Use ME! Show the world I can also be a celebrity! 

Sometimes bad publicity is good, as people want to see how bad it is, and in the process, find what’s good

[12/7/2024: It’s not really any one technology that enables the seeking of attention. We like to single out TV, the internet, and social media, but people will do anything to get it, such as public nudity. What’s really at play is the idea of being “enabled”, in this case a filmmaker making it comfortable and fun, like being an extra in a film. It’s the brush with celebrity as an escape from the humdrum].

 

 

 

The AI version:

12/7/2021

Pearl Harbor @80. Browsing the book The Best Presidential Writing, I stumbled on Roosevelt’s Address of Pearl Harbor. So much of our history arises from what was carefully written, and we hang on to the prosody of a speech and the personality of the speaker more than anything. They all have that “Mission Accomplished” cadence to them. It’s a “soundtrack” of a supposed victory. 

[12/7/2024: Mellifluous public speeches can be very close to singing because more air is being pushed, and makes the voice more melodic. The reason people think they can't sing is because they use the speaking voice].

 

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