Newsletter #0056 – A person who suffers before it is necessary, suffers more than is necessary.

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MAUI

It’s incredibly raw, it’s still too hard to truly process, but we got tired of talking and sympathizing from a keyboard, so we’re throwing a DJ gig for Lahaina and the citizens and friends of Maui. I could go into all the anecdotal pain of people’s deaths and GoFundMe’s, to businesses where most or all employees lost housing. It’s going to be an insane, problematic, complex, contentious recovery. My relationship to it is THAT IT ISN’T ABOUT ME… but I’ve a lifetime of Aloha and it’s largely why I’m in hospitality. I grew up going to Front Street, and the island has been part of my life and work (Hana) for 47 years. AGAIN IT ISN’T ABOUT ME… it’s about the Native Hawaiians and the people that moved there for it to be their adoptive home.

TOMORROW NIGHT, Thursday the 17th of August (2023), we’ll be spinning in Mill Valley to raise money for the Maui Food Bank, a legitimately solid and easy charity to give to.

I know a QR code on desktop or mobile doesn’t always make sense, but if you want to donate directly to Maui Food Bank, here’s a link and QR Code for another phone. https://mauifoodbank.org/donate/

 

But, if you like animals, Maui Humane is pretty desperate for help, from shipped items and goods, to donations. https://www.mauihumanesociety.org/

Also, Lanai (neighboring island, approx 30min trip) has a cat sanctuary that was formed to save birds, at the start, and now it’s the cutest place in the islands! If you are specifically a cat person, please donate to them on Lanai, because they’re going to lose about 90% of their revenue via day trips from Lahaina. The two ferries that goes to Manele from Lahaina burnt in the fire. They were docked due to winds, and we’ve had experience being on the bay in heavy winds. Let me tell you… not great. It’s a tragedy in so many directions, but Lanai Cat Sanctuary needs help. https://lanaicatsanctuary.org/

 

 

  • The Newsletter title was augmented to be more inclusive. =) The original is Lucius Annaeus Seneca, or Seneca the younger, a stoic philosopher of early Rome. “A man who suffers before it is necessary, suffers more than is necessary.”

Essentially, it’s a tool to remind oneself that the anxiety of worrying makes you experience the suffering twice, and more than necessary… so don’t worry, simply act when the time is right. Easier said than done, but a lovely reminder to not let anxiety and panic delve you into reactivity that doesn’t help anyone, and makes everything worse than it needs to be.

He wrote 8 – 10 plays, all tragedies, but was better known for his essays on morals and ethics. “Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger, usually known mononymously as Seneca, was a Stoic philosopher of Ancient Rome, a statesman, dramatist, and, in one work, satirist, from the post-Augustan age of Latin literature”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seneca_the_Younger

 

  • The TL;DR of the below words, prior to the “SPACE” header: go out and experience some stuff. Music, Lectures, Sailing, Comedy. Do it.

It feeds the soul, and calms the angst of your mind that sits, staring at the inside of your skull, wondering about life, death, the universe, and existence. I may have mentioned I just realized I like constant sound (to my partner’s chagrin): music, TV, incessant noise… because it dims and dulls and quiets the inner monologue of dour, cynical philosophers constantly chattering within the confines of my noggin’. There’s no need for them when you’re experiencing a witty comic do crowd work, or listening to the rarely performed Mass in B Minor by Bach and the American Bach Soloists

So a few newsletters ago, I sort of intoned that we should be quite a bit less harsh on ourselves in regards to meaning, purpose, and our role in the universe. That, perhaps, our only goal between birth and death is to, simply, exist, simply. There’s no legacy, things disappear quickly and over time. But, where I was thinking it was about moving towards some Buddhist intent of emptying my vessel, and being still… it might not be enough to simply exist.

 

I think I can free myself from expectation, which is a fine goal, and simply “be”.  But that can be lonely, and vacuous. You don’t need meaning, but you need aspiration, and you need joy, and hope, and inspiration, and excitement. You need something to fill the inbetween time.  I suspect if we all reach our deathbeds and our final, noble words are “I watch some great TV and content”, we’ll be dunces, and when the gig is up, the jokes on us, and we’ve waste a bit of the time we had. However, I am not judging our “tv brainmushed ambulatory vacuum tube” lifestyles… Lauren and I are giant fans of sitting on the island that is our couch, and being together and watching brilliant writing in films and TV, or even brilliant creations by makers and artists and thinkers on Youtube.  But I do hope there’s more than just catching up and binging on the latest glowing rectangle adventure.

 

“The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.” – Jack London (full quote at end of blog, and attribution from the San Francisco Examiner)

 

I noted that I was just “existing” in a similar space, constantly, without seeing or doing much of anything. It was time to break my lockdown mind and free myself of my bad pandemic habits and behaviors.

So, I’ve put it upon myself to experience existence, and what’s finer than to do so through the arts? I’m 47, which makes me the youngest non-musician fan of Classical music, namely Baroque. But in the last 3 weeks, we’ve done quite well in experiencing life.  After getting back from New York, the comedy bug has bitten me endlessly.

 

So we saw Neil Young at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley, 2 weeks ago. It was magical to see him play one of three or four pianos, an organ, multiple electric and acoustic guitars, and JUST HIM, on stage, pleasing 10,000 people with deep cuts and a few hits. He even stopped his performance for a few minutes to play with a model train under a chimenea that was on stage.

 

 

The following weekend we went to the storied House of Prime Rib for my birthday dinner… a first for both of us, and probably the last time. It was a hilariously perfect institution, but their turn and burn madness made it hectic and a bit less than relaxing, but part of that was on us because we had to shuffle off to see some comedy at the Punchline. Phil Hanly is a delightful and neurotic comic. I’ll paste his special down below. Well, Lauren was out of town, and so I went back the following Thursday and saw Ian Bagg, one of the wittiest and best crowd work comics in the world, like… ever. He’s also a journeyman that is finally absolutely EVERYWHERE. He’s got a 24 year old on tour with him who happens to do Bagg’s social stuff, and it’s killing. I’d be shocked if you hadn’t seen him somewhere.

 

This past weekend (29th and 30th), it was the 1st annual San Francisco Baroque Festival, and saw the American Bach Soloists perform Vivaldi’s Four Seasons on Saturday night, and the UNREAL AND AMAZING experience of seeing Mass in B-Minor by Bach in a San Francisco church (and no lightning struck me down!). Truly unparalleled. The level of hospitality was marked with stunning dad jokes: “WE PUT THE BAR BACK IN BAROQUE”. All the old people in the Green Room at the War Memorial had been drinking ALL DAY, and it was sorta funny. It’s fine, they’re living their existence. As they say, “If it’s not Baroque, don’t fix it!”. *DAAAaaaaaD!!*.

Some shots, namely because Vivaldi was performed IN OUR FACES. It was unreal.

 

The Room for Four Seasons was unreal. Hidden Gem in the War Memorial Opera House here in SF:

 

Bach Mass in B-Minor was UNREAL.

 

Space

  • ALL IS WELL WITH VOYAGER 2!! =)

NASA Mission Update: Voyager 2 Communications Pause https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-mission-update-voyager-2-communications-pause

 

 

  • Or “Stars are basically everlasting gobstoppers:

A New Simulation Reveals the Churning Interiors of Giant Stars https://www.universetoday.com/162597/new-simulation-reveals-the-churning-interiors-of-giant-stars/

Science and Technology

 

  • AI, Superconductors at room temperature, Nuclear Fusion…. but where’s the love?

Humanity is on the brink of major scientific breakthroughs, but nobody seems to care https://www.businessinsider.com/superconductors-nuclear-fusion-need-chatgpt-moment-2023-8

 

 

  • Remember when Bloomberg posted a 60-second video that decimated the $120 Million evaluation of Juicero in April of 2017?

 

 

  • The people passing by (like that little robot trundling along the sidewalk, ignoring the police chasing a suspect around a house) are just like “Oh, it’s the future, now, whatever… I can’t be bothered”. LOL

 

 

 

 

 

The Geographical Oddity of Null Island https://blogs.loc.gov/maps/2016/04/the-geographical-oddity-of-null-island/

When your camera gets GPS wrong, or can’t resolve it’s location, it will often resolve automatically to 0°00’00.0″N 0°00’00.0″E

It’s an Atlas Buoy called “Soul”, Station 13010  https://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php?station=13010

Null Island Is One of the Most Visited Places on Earth. Too Bad It Doesn’t Exist: The ocean spot is the center of the world’s geocoded map mistakes. https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/null-island-is-one-of-the-most-visited-places-on-earth-too-bad-it-doesnt-exist

One thing that is CRAZY is that the thing is moored with over 3 miles of cable and a 4500lb anchor.

 

 

 

  • “Chat GPT, examine this code and write an exploit”
@ahintoftruth2.0 Replying to @Time VS Journey Artificial Intelligence will be able to exploit us in ways you won’t believe | Part 2 #ai #artificialintelligence #tech #technology #computercoding #chatgpt #dreams #decoded #scary #creepy #future #futuretech #truth #hiddentruth #wakeup ? Creepy horror ambient(1022762) – howlingindicator

 

 

 

  • This is technology, because that is what early tools were. Also, if you click through, it’s a cool thread of pretty objects.

 

 

  • VERY cool story about the deepest hole ever drilled by man. During the Cold War, we had a race… nuclear, space, and deep holes.

During the Cold War, the US and Soviets both created ambitious projects to drill deeper than ever before.

The deepest hole we have ever dug https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190503-the-deepest-hole-we-have-ever-dug

 

 

 

Extraordinary Vacation Home In Australia Clings To Cliff For Dear Life https://www.boredpanda.com/modern-architecture-hanging-cliff-house-modscape-concept/

 

 

 

 

  • In the “I knew punks and mods in the 1980s that sort of dressed like this” file:

Alaska’s Indigenous People Invented Snow Goggles for Enhanced Vision and Eye Protection https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/inuit-snow-goggles/

 

 

  • Studying “Molten Salt” instead of water to cool nuclear reactors, and how it would work in the real world.

Inside MIT’s nuclear reactor laboratory How an old reactor could spark new technologies. https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/08/10/1077681/inside-mit-nuclear-reactor-laboratory/

 

Comedy

 

  • RIP to a legend. Mr. Paul Reubens, of course Pee-Wee Herman. Here is with his writing partner, Mr Hartman. This shot is while they were writing Big Adventure:
Image

 

  • MARTIN SCORSESE HAD PEE WEE TAPES IMPORTED!
Image

 

 

  • We’re going with some Norm: This is HILARIOUS:
@normmacdonaldfanpage #normmacdonald #comedy ? original sound – NormForever

 

Talking about the Moth joke:

@normmacdonaldfanpage #normmacdonald ? original sound – NormForever

 

The Moth joke:

 

 

  • THIS IS QUITE BLUE, but I miss him and he was truly a king of stand up, an all time great:

 

 

  • It’s amazing we made up all this stuff, and everything still sucks.
@comedycellarusa Pat Burtscher solved the economic crisis in one joke #comedy #fyp #foryou #exonomics ? original sound – ComedyCellarUSA

 

  • Conan O’Brien’s cameo in Roger Corman directed “Sharktopus vs Pteracuda” is for the ages. Fake blood, fake gore, all perfection.

 

 

  • Charming thoughts, but it’s the sax solo:
@tommcgovern27 What the f is happening here??? #fyp #musicalcomedy #sax ? original sound – Tom McGovern

 

 

  • July 22nd 2023, we saw Phil Hanley at the Punchline SF. This special is pretty freaking hilariously solid. Hope you enjoy:

 

  • Then, July 27th I saw Ian Bagg at the Punchline, and he killed. His entire sets are essentially crowd work. He roasts the crowd so skillfully, delightfully… it’s something to watch:


 

Movies & TV

  • This puts the writer’s strike into such scintillating perfect focus. It’s not just a brilliantly funny clip of fan fave Dani Pudi from Community, but I also love the EFF OFF “give me a luxury”, but the punchline is superb.

 

 

 

 

 

  • Tom Cruise is in a dangerous cult that hurts people. But the dude is an ENIGMA, and I know this was during a point of his career where he was persona non grata and sort of nearly washed up, but he made the character of Les Grossman for Tropic Thunder, and insisted in fat hands and dancing. It’s unreal that he created what is one of the most iconic characters in comedy history. It’s just baffling, but we’re better for it. Now, Tom… stop with the cult.

If you don’t know the character, here it is:

 

Speaking of, you know this guy is in a cult? Whatever the case, he stunts for the audience, and 130mph on a motorcycle without a helmet *just so you can confirm it’s Tom doing the stunt* is crazy, and how do you insure that, or this guy? That Matt Damon clip that goes around, “So the stunt safety guy says it’s impossible. So I get a new safety guy”. LOL But the dagger by the eye? WTH? This guy, my friends, is quite the performer. Not sane, necessarily, but you know he’s in a weird cult tho?

The 5 Most Dangerous Stunts Tom Cruise Has Performed in a Mission: Impossible Movie https://thenerdstash.com/the-5-most-dangerous-stunts-tom-cruise-has-performed-in-a-mission-impossible-movie/

 

 

  • Speaking of…. I *LOVE* this character actor, Sean Harris. Even between Mission Impossible 5 (below) and MI6 he looks so different, but YUP… same guy on top as Fifield in Prometheus. Incredible range, stellar actor… you’ve seen him in a lot but probably didn’t realize… and that’s why character actors are my favorite!

 

 

  • Sisu from Finland is a REMARKABLE achievement, and a seriously enjoyable film. Especially with the Nazi antagonist who had a great role in The Martian. What’s unbelievable about their box office success is the very conscious, and not necessary, decision to make the film more successful and palatable by using English. It’s shocking for an art house, foreign, independent concept which usually leans into their country culture and language.  If they had spoken Finnish or German it would have been an art house horror Western, but the fact they chose English means it is a Tarantino blockbuster revenge movie. Supremely satisfying and well made.

 

 

  • It should have won over English Patient. I hate the uneducated Academy, too insecure to vote for “funny accents”.

 

 

  • John McTiernan is on pre-production of a film he wrote, and he’s on to direct. Unless you are a crazy film buff, you may not understand, but this is the John McTiernan who served time in prison for a wire-tapping case. He’s also one of the greatest 1980s era directors ever, with a magical run 1987-1990, with Predator, Die Hard, and Hunt for Red October all done in a row. One of the greatest 3 movie runs of any director in history. This is the new film: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9202810/reference/

 

  • Speaking of David Lynch, he’s been trending since Nolan’s film came out, because his Twin Peaks representation of Trinity is being spoken of as far more cinematic, brilliant, visionary, and horrifying. I’d agree, but have to see Oppenheimer first! =)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

@james_m_rader Replying to @Red5 StandingBy Here is a bunch of additional clips from Gene Wilder’s interview about Willy Wonka #genewilder #willywonka #wonka #wonkatiktok #wonka2023 #willywonkaandthechocolatefactory ? original sound – James Rader

 

 

 

 

  • More Scorsese, this time on John Carpenter! Amazing!

 

 

  • This is art, but if you aren’t into disturbing or bizarre experimental type content, “keep that link blue”.

The Bosnian Salvatore Ganacci is a gem of a treat of a out there joy.

 

Music

 

  • MARIBOU STATE IS BACK AND GOODNESS… new album, new single:

 

 

  • I mentioned this in the Classical Minimalism post last week, but man… enjoy. This company, Cercle, is doing some AMAZING work. This is a meditative and beautiful 4K Icelandic journey with a wallscape of minimalist sound.  I covered this gent in the last newsletter, but this just came out!

 

 

 

  • Just for the few seconds of Vangelis like synth, Hania Rani is fantastic in this Cercle production at Les Invalides in Paris:

Hania Rani “Piano Day” full performance is fantastic, too:

 

 

  • This is undoubtedly the worst thing Tom Hanks has ever done. He admitted that on Conan. As for Akroyd? Not so sure.  Back when videos were marketing, and movies would have throwaway hilarious videos to show on Friday nights on whatever respective channel to engage the kids into the movie, in this case for “Dragnet”. Freddy Kruger had one, Max Headroom had one… why not the terrible film “Dragnet” with one?

 

 

  • What do DJs even do?
@glasspetals nm really @madz just hangin out ????? #dj ? original sound – Glass Petals

 

 

  • Here’s a palette cleanser with a movie supporting video that has clips, not dance moves. Michael McDonald with Sweet Freedom, from the Running Scared soundtrack.

 

 

  • AND, speaking of Yacht Rock, some of that stuff was pretty freaking complex. I’m not even sure this was intentional vs just CHAOS:
@wakemoody Replying to @ryscottcam Please keep all B7 vs. Cb7 discourse civil #doobiebrothers #michaelmcdonald #whatafoolbelieves #musictheory #musictheorytiktok #songchords ? What a Fool Believes – The Doobie Brothers

 

 

  • This feels oddly timeless, of the moment yet nostalgic for Art of Noise, Talking Heads, and other guitar minimalist pop rock acts.

 

 

  • Speaking of timeless, how about a throwback to Trio and Da Da Da?

 

 

  • And then this wildly bizarre ode to Rasputin by a Disco Act:

 

 

LET’S GO WEIRDER

The Bosnian Salvatore Ganacci is a gem of a treat of a out there joy.

 

People, Places, Culture, Society, & Sports Adjacent

 

  • Donald Sterling, disgraced owner of the Clippers, under oath and answering a question. You couldn’t script this and have people believe it fit into a movie, let alone reality:

 

 

  • Girl Skateboards and Chocolate Films teamed up to make the greatest Skateboarding video of all time in 1997. It was lost for a bit, and I still have my post VHS DVD of it… and now it’s online. The music changed my life, but the director? Spike Jonze! This is the most nostalgia I’ve felt in a long, long time. Young skaters should know the old timers who paved the way.

 

 

  • I lived in LA in 2001 when this artist did this. It was epic guerilla “sane grafitti”, and Caltrans didn’t even notice for a long while!  This is when creative crime and public hijinks is best: illegal? Yes. Creative? Undoubtedly? Art with form following function? MORE PLEASE!

How an Artist Helped Millions of Drivers With a Counterfeit Highway Sign When Caltrans couldn’t make a useful sign to direct motorists through a confusing interchange, a brave artist snuck his own onto an existing one. https://www.thedrive.com/news/how-an-artist-helped-millions-of-drivers-with-a-counterfeit-highway-sign

Artist: https://ankrom.org/

 

 

Perez, however, is far from an average sailor. She began her career in 2016 on an O’pen Skiff (then called an O’pen Bic) and got so good so quickly that by March 2017 she finished fourth at the North American championships. The next year, she became the first female competitor to win the title outright. She followed that by finishing as the top female competitor and placing sixth in the under-17 group at the 2019 O’pen Bic world championships in Auckland, New Zealand. Perez then moved on to a 29er, another high-performance craft aimed at younger sailors, before starting to hone her foiling skills in 2020 on a WASZP, another one-person boat. The coronavirus pandemic erased any traveling she might have done that year to competitions, but it also gave Perez the relatively little time she needed to attain such mastery of the craft that when she showed up in early October at the 2021 WASZP national championships in Toms River, N.J., she defeated an all-ages field.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • A person spends their own money on a harmless hobby of a little goofy mischief, and undoubtedly there are people caterwauling and lamenting about this like the sky is falling, and those same people will be impacted by this guy, uh…. not at all. Gotta manufacture that outrage, right? Personally, it seems sort of fun and performative to me, and who am I to suggest what other people do with time or money?

Japanese man who spent $16K to become a ‘dog’ shares video of 1st public walk https://news.yahoo.com/japanese-man-spent-16k-become-211110478.html

 

Vehicles

 

  • Garage find of epic, storied quality, as related by Jay Leno! =)
@jaylenogarage The Most Famous Duesenberg of All Time #video #trending #fyp #viral ? Aesthetic – Tollan Kim

 

 

  • I can NOT believe this is real and really happening. WAY WAY back in Newsletter #18 and #22, I spoke about this in dev.

More here: The Quesst mission has two goals: 1) design and build NASA’s X-59 research aircraft with technology that reduces the loudness of a sonic boom to a gentle thump to people on the ground; and 2) fly the X-59 over several U.S. communities to gather data on human responses to the sound generated during supersonic flight and deliver that data set to U.S. and international regulators. https://www.nasa.gov/X59

 

 

 

  • LOL This Boeing Test Pilot thought he’d “sell more planes” doing the completely “harmless” death defying trick of ROLLING AN ENTIRE 707. Doing a barrel roll in something that size must truly be astonishing. One way I got over my fear of flying, coupled with understanding the physics of flight, was watching these test videos about the stresses that planes can really take, like wing flex, etc.  But this is madness:

 

 

 

*POETRY

JACK LONDON… the full quotation is so rarely seen!! This is fantastic, and reminds me of Neil Young and Kurt Cobain.

NUMBER: 1118

AUTHOR: Jack London (1876–1916)

QUOTATION:

I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.

ATTRIBUTION: JACK LONDON, Jack London’s Tales of Adventure, ed. Irving Shepard, Introduction, p. vii (1956).

This is generally known as London’s Credo. He is known to have said these words, just two months before his death, to a group of friends with whom he was discussing life and living.

—The Bulletin, San Francisco, California, December 2, 1916, part 2, p. 1.

 

 

More Jack London, first appearing in a The San Francisco Bulletin:

 

  • Lasty… I love language and idioms, but some of these I had no idea! So much of our language comes from our nautical and naval history.

This link is for people who REALLY LOVE NAUTICAL TERMS THAT BECAME EVERYDAY PHRASES. I am freaking out:

200 Nautical Terms and Sailing Phrases That Have Enriched The English Language Part 1 https://talltelltales.com/2020/09/12/200-nautical-terms-and-sailing-phrases-that-have-enriched-the-english-language/

To know the below answers, you’ll have to click this simple link of just 10!

Common Phrases with a Nautical Origin Many phrases that we use today originate from maritime culture. The 10 phrases described below are just a few. https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/navigation/nautical-terms.html

1. Long Shot

2. Flotsam and Jetsam

3. Tide Over

4. Feeling Blue

5. Taken Aback

6. The Cut of His/Her Jib

7. Pipe Down

8. Toe the Line

9. Take the Con

10. In the Doldrums

About Uncle Fishbits

I'm.. just this guy, you know?