May 31sts

5/31/1886

https://claude.ai/public/artifacts/f9a5ed81-6412-48ca-950a-b21fba83f0a2

Factory whistles mark time now—6 AM, noon, 6 PM. Our days measured not by sun but by production schedules.

Overheard two lawyers debating anarchist philosophy over lunch. One called it "foreign poison," the other "inevitable evolution." Both missed the desperate humanity at its core.

The question persists: Can we build a just society with unjust methods? Or do the methods inevitably corrupt the society?           

5/31/1944

(Naples 44)

The fragmentation of Italian politics in reaction to the long stagnant acquiescence under Fascism continues. There are now some sixty officially recognized political parties having memberships ranging from a hundred or so to nearly two million. Many of these offer bizarre recipes for national salvation,
including a small band of fanatics in the Salerno area , who claim to have discovered the solution of the problem of perpetual motion, and to be ready to exploit this in the national interest. In addition to the legally constituted parties there are clandestine Neo-Fascists, and Separatists. To the latter group I believe we have given secret support. The Separatists’ latest plan for Italy’s regeneration includes the immediate demolition of all factories, the abolition of the motor-car, and the renaming of the months of the calendar
after the Roman gods. This is the season and situation when insanity has become almost respectable.  

Book Excerpt Library: "Describe the events of May 31"

5/31/1968

Beatles at EMI for 10-hour session until 2-midnight, overdubbing of bass and two separate Lennon vocals on take 18 of ‘Revolution 1’. By the end of the session, the last six minutes was the sound of pure chaos - the sound of a ‘Revolution...

My riff extraction:

 

5/31/1997

Terrific documentary on the shooting of Apocalypse Now. At the end of the documentary he said that do-it-yourself video brings the art back into the creative process.

[5/31/2025: That film was not art? What I’ve noticed about YouTube since its inception is that the content is no longer about art and aesthetics as it was in the beginning. YouTube is largely churned by algorithms, and content producers are “co-conspirators” with them. I started my channel in 2006 and people were uploading more artsy stuff and it was interesting. It was more of a Web 1.0 experience, with digital artists making art videos as an extension of what they might have been doing with Flash. I noticed this when I joined the Fediverse version of YouTube and it seemed like I was back in 2006 with people sharing that kind of material. The re-make of Apocalypse was even more aesthetic, focusing on the artistry of the cinematographer Vittorio Storaro and editing by Walter Murch. Camille Paglia once said that film is the highest art form, and that's actually true. It will be interesting to see where filmmakers go. Will it be for Likes or for the sake of the art?]   

Interesting: The Tragedy of Modern Technology and Its Effect on Cinematography