from the desk of H. Bowie...

Herb's Blog:

The Latest Announcements, Pronouncements & Prognostications

Take these for what you will: these are items of at least some little importance to me, but not necessarily of great interest to others. An Atom web feed is available, for those who may be interested.

Released Notenik Version 18.0.0

Further improvements mostly focused on web book publishing.

link: notenik.app/kb/version-18.0.0.html

Released Notenik Version 17.9.0

Some additional Tahoe refinements, plus some improvements for web book publishing.

link: notenik.app/kb/version-17.9.0.html

Published “The Problem with AI Art”

Published a new piece on the problems I see with AI-generated “art”. The web is full of opinions on the subject, so I thought I would add my thoughts to the mix — with some original insights and observations, hopefully.

link: hbowie.net/writings/the-problem-with-ai-art.html

Released Notenik Version 17.8.0

Fixed a few problems, and added an export scripting module, so that a web book can be exported via a Notenik script.

link: notenik.app/kb/version-17.8.0.html

Published “Pay It No Mind”

“Pay It No Mind” is a lovely little song from Sarah Jarosz, and seems like a perfect accompaniment for the times we find ourselves in, so I wrote up a little appreciation for it.

link: hbowie.net/writings/pay-it-no-mind.html

Finished watching Unforgotten Season 6 by Chris Lang

Finished watching the PBS Masterpiece Mystery series season 6 of Unforgotten, and it was really good. I’ve watched lots of Masterpiece Mystery shows and similar fare, and after a while they seem to lean more into the appeal of their folksy detectives, and away from their plots and characters. This series went completely in the opposite direction. So many rich characters, and so much great acting, and so many interesting stories within the story! And very contemporary and topical, in interesting and unexpected ways. Good stuff!

rating: ★★★★

link: www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/shows/unforgotten/

Released Notenik Version 17.7.0

Fixed a few problems, some caused by Tahoe, some just bugs accidentally introduced by me.

link: notenik.app/kb/version-17.7.0.html

Finished watching American Utopia by David Byrne

I enjoyed this. Spike Lee’s direction seems to do a good job of translating the stage production to film, without any obtrusive directorial flourishes. It’s a good mix of music, and it’s remarkable to see the barefoot musicans also performing as dancers, aided by technology that allows them to flow around the stage and around each other without any wires. It’s a moving display of the ability of humans to remain connected to one another, in terms of music and dance and mood and intention, despite their distinctively individual roles and abilities and appearances. The overall theme of connection reminded me a bit of this quote from Ross MacDonald:

I had to admit to myself that I lived for nights like these, moving across the city’s great broken body, making connections among its millions of cells. I had a crazy wish or fantasy that some day before I died, if I made all the right neural connections, the city would come all the way alive. Like the Bride of Frankenstein.

rating: ★★★★

link: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Utopia_(film)

Released Notenik Version 17.6.0

Just made my first post-Tahoe release for Notenik, with the following changes: Updated app icon for Tahoe; tweaked some UI details for Tahoe; added optional linkage between Class and Level fields; added a new Long Title field type, for use when a longer title should replace the traditional one at the note display level.

link: notenik.app/kb/version-17.6.0.html

Finished watching Highest 2 Lowest by Spike Lee

I really enjoyed this film. There are just so many interesting facets to it. Denzel Washington is so entertaining, and completely inhabits his role. Dean Winter — the actor who plays the chaos agent in the Allstate “mayhem” commercials — plays a white detective, and gets to reprise that role when he is plowing his police car through a crowd while in pursuit of a suspect. (References to “mayhem” are also amusingly dropped into the script from time to time.) The film is part crime film, part action film, but ultimately is a meditation on what matters most in our lives, and how we have to let go of some things, and risk losing others, in order to keep the things that are most important.

rating: ★★★★

link: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highest_2_Lowest

Finished reading Marble Hall Murders by Anthony Horowitz

This is the third book in the Magpie Murders series, and was an enjoyable read. But the author is a screenwriter as well as a book writer, and the first two books were made into very successful TV shows, and this third book feels a little more like a warmup for the TV script than a book that needed to be written for its own sake. The novelty to the series is that there are parallel mysteries unfolding — one in a partially finished novel by a character within the story, and one happening with the story’s author and her editor and their associates. What proved a bit disappointing to me in this book was that the detective in the outside story was so completely isolated. Would have helped me if she had had some kind of faithful sidekick or companion.

rating: ★★★

link: anthonyhorowitz.com/books/title/marble-hall-murders

Finished reading Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton

Well written, with interesting characters, but did not ultimately thrill me.

rating: ★★★

link: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birnam_Wood_(novel)

Notenik Reviewed at Mac Sources

Notenik had a nice review from the Mac Sources site. In addition to being very positive, I thought it was very thorough and well-written.

link: macsources.com/notenik-review/

Published “Trump 2.0: Some Insights and Observations”

A lot is being said about Trump 2.0 on an hourly basis, but most of the viewpoints expressed seem to be the same ones over and over. But I think there are some interesting (and perhaps useful) patterns that are not being talked about much.

link: hbowie.net/writings/trump-2.0-some-insights-and-observati...

Published “The Era of Destructive Tech is Upon Us”

Wrote most of this a while ago, but just got around to publishing it.

link: hbowie.net/writings/the-era-of-destructive-tech-is-upon-u...

Released Notenik Version 17.5.0

This new version includes various small enhancements useful for web page formatting. Details available in the Knowledge Base at Notenik.app. Download for free from the Mac App Store.

link: notenik.app/kb/version-17.5.0.html

Finished reading Gabriel’s Moon by William Boyd

First book I’ve read by this author. A sort of origin story for a British spy starting to work in the early sixties. Seems to be the start of a planned series. Well written, thoroughly engaging. Lots of interesting historical references. If this book brings something new to the genre, then I suppose it would be the provision of a convincing back story for why and how a young man would become involved in such an activity, and what sort of young man that might be.

rating: ★★★

link: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriel%27s_Moon

Finished reading What a Carve Up! by Jonathan Coe

An interesting read. Would have been even more interesting if I were British and reading it when it first came out. A bit of a mystery and a bit of a horror story, and also a political satire.

rating: ★★★

link: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_a_Carve_Up!_(novel)

Junior World Cycling Championship in The Netherlands

We’re in Apeldoorn to see and support our grand-niece who is representing New Zealand in the world junior cycling championship races being held here this week (and being advertised on the posters in the background). She does endurance track racing, and is a very talented and determined young woman!

Visit to the Magritte Museum

Visited the Magritte museum today in Brussels, and was happy to come across his painting “L’Empire des Lumières”, which was the inspiration for the album cover for Jackson Browne’s Late for the Sky, about which I have written extensively at ReasonToRock.com.

link: lexiconofsong.org/late-for-the-sky.html