Tuesday 116: Vibe check
It’s a Friday, and the vibe is weird. Some thoughts as I sit and wait for a mattress to be delivered:
Luka Dončić and Kyrie Irving are asymmetrical basketball players: Irving adding flourishes of an arabesque to his every movement, adding a dramatic flair to even a barely contested mid-range jumper, while Dončić completes impossible plays like he’s building Ikea furniture. And although constructing a personal understanding of a public figure from a distance is always a fools errand, Dončić is seemingly affable, funny, gracious, and self aware, while Irving strikes me as the most disingenuous person in the NBA. They are both exceptional players.
I weep daily for the Palestinian people even as I hope and fight in what little ways I can for their safety and freedom. Yesterday was the 80th anniversary of the Normandy invasion, and I have come to understand that the best of what we do, as Americans and in the spirit of that sacrifice, we do in spite of our country and our flag, not for of it.
AI, especially generative AI, is essentially speed-running the tech hype cycle. It goes against knowledgeable reason, but when I look at a guy like Sam Altman, a little voice reminds me to never underestimate the human capacity to be utterly and shamelessly full of shit.
The 11th-hour cancellation of a congestion pricing tax plan in New York City is a niche subject, but it’s illustrative of the chasm that exists between the political class and the lives of everyday people. Pretty much everyone with experience in the field of urban design and climatology agrees the plan would improve conditions for New Yorkers on a variety of fronts, but it’s also a political risk: Republicans are sure to whip up the dissatisfaction of people who like to drive their cars into midtown from Staten Island every day. So rather than risk congressional seats (which they tend to lose anyway) NY Democrats opted to scuttle the program, further crippling the crumbling MTA, which millions of people ride every day.
I hope the surprising victory of the US cricket team over Pakistan will generate some real interest in the sport. It’s as compelling as baseball, but the more you watch it, the more you realize how different it is. Hitting a ball with a cricket bat is incredibly satisfying.
I’d be interested to read about the arc of True Crime as a pop-culture phenomenon. Considering that pop culture runs downstream of prevailing social ideology and mass movement, it’s pretty easy to draw parallels between contemporary social and economic realities and the lurid dime novellas of the 19th c., depression-era outlaw romances and pulpy gangster bloodbaths, and midcentury spycraft and conspiracy tales, but it’s probably very nuanced, and I wonder what to make of today’s broad ecosystem: everything from journo-justice heroics and hardcore documentary to Lifetime murder porn and comprehensive real-time trial coverage. All of it may have changed in the wake of Epstein.
Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal who it’s easy to see escaping justice. That’s what happens when the butchers win. It’s a reality Joshua Oppenheimer explored in chilling detail in The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence.
I watched The Manchurian Candidate the other day, the original one, and couldn’t get into it. Angela Lansbury is great, and the dreamlike scenes with the international communist tribunal are cool, but the whole thing’s politics seemed jumbled (which might have been the point, admittedly), and a lot of it felt ham-fisted. I’m probably just not experiencing it in the right context. Perhaps it’s a great document of America on the cusp: sensing the darkness and betrayal on the horizon, but unsure of its source and how to confront it.
If you’re looking for a real reason to worry about technology, consider that the relationship between congress and federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies has never been rosier. Not only can we expect technology like AI to fall into lock-step with capital’s relentless, amoral pursuit of profit and value, we can also be sure that the CIA and the FBI will ask for billions in funding to support clandestine explorations of the most evil applications imaginable, and congress will happily hand over the checkbook.
I think the Boston Celtics will win the NBA championship, but I think the series will go seven games.
I don’t think I’ll be in the best shape for the BAA 10K on June 23, but I still think I’ll go for a PR. I don’t know the course at all, I haven’t stuck to my training schedule, and most of my speed work has been of the short interval variety. One of the nicest things about racing though, is the moment at the line when you remember what a gift it is. There’s something very affirming about looking up at some tree, maybe hearing some birds, feeling a breeze (or, dreadfully, not), standing shoulder to shoulder with a bunch of strangers who are all about to push themselves, chasing something just like you. So, undertrained, what the hell, go for it. Running is about being free.