May 16ths

5/16/1966

A long (2:30P - 130A) day ‘Taxman’ received its final ingredient (the “One, two, three, four intro) then mixed into mono, with Paul vocal overdub on ‘For No One’. On location at Chiswick House to film promo clips for ‘Paperback Writer’ and Rain’. At EMI working between 11.00 am and 12.30 pm, first set of stereo mixes and edits since sessions for Revolver began.

5/16/2005            
       
New neologisms: Anodine: to dine on comfort foods, Anodiner: a comfort food Diner.   

5/16/2010

Watched film, Tarantino's remake (sort of ) of Inglorious Bastards. Lots of long boring parts, but lots of cheap shots at Nazis—a crowd favorite.   

[5/16/2025: What a difference 15 years makes].

5/16/2011            

In my experience, AI is only marginally useful in the humanities. I can’t imagine it would be so pervasive that it would change thousands of years of human history, as well as the human universals used for art-making. In fact, if AI ran on a foundation of human universals, it would be attempting to make art based on them. They would be “nice tries”.  

[5/16/2024: I still think this way 13 years later. There was an article in the NYT yesterday about the diminishing returns of AI. Until the point where its usefulness blends into the wallpaper of everyday life, it will remain in an uncanny valley.]

[5/16/2025: What a difference a year makes. But I still think it will never be able to do things you really want to do. The danger is that we will become indifferent to those things because we settle for whatever is popular. You might be popular for what you don't like doing].

[5/16/2026: I think LLMs are hugely useful for the humanities. I use them all the time for research. They’re great for digital pack rats. Recently, someone made the comment that now that everyone can be an artist, no one is an artist. Sometimes new technologies are access points for people who have the artist archetype, and it’s AI for those people. They might move on to other things. Art is an aesthetic (or conceptual) experience, and the mediums can vary, and include all new technologies].  

5/16/2020

I use alternate tunings on bass--also with a capo--as a way to generate ideas. I wouldn't have come up with this idea had I not been in a tuning. DGDG is essentially the “open G” on the bass--the bottom 4 strings of a guitar tuned to an open G. The capo puts it in an open A. The riff is mostly open strings. Octaves are fingered as minor 7ths in standard tuning. 

6/16/2026

I want to know more about how AI music works, but it's not easy getting the hood open because you have to gain access to those cliques with the knowledge. In the meantime, you just use it in really unmusical, dumb ways. It's interesting, but it's still a situation where the advanced craftsman only has the tools of a beginner. What I like is the ability to go to the studio where a band has done a demo from your lyrics and groove on what they did. You can reject it, and there are no bruised egos, no jealousy or envy, no resentment, or other passive aggression.