May 6ths

5/6/1886 (ChatGPT Diary)

Learned about the terrible events that have been unfolding in Chicago. Haymarket Riot/Labor strikes turned violent and police firing at workers. I cannot help but reflect on the state of our country. I hope that we can find a way to resolve these conflicts peacefully, and that we can move forward as a nation with compassion and understanding.

Received a letter from my friend Sally who recently moved to California. It was lovely to hear about her new life on the West Coast. 

[The original idea for the diaries is that I would have a character in the 1880s keeping a diary. as well as a diarist in the 2040s (Tony Townes from Reset 2046). At the time I generated this 1886 entry, ChatGPT was in its early days (2022) and has gotten exponentially better. The problem at the time is that AI has no long-term memory, so it doesn't know what it did yesterday or last week.]

Here's an entry generated for May 6, 1887, better, but still full of cliche:

May 6, 1887

A year has passed since those terrible days in May 1886. It feels strange to mark the date again, remembering the chaos that gripped Chicago when the labor strikes turned violent and the police fired upon the workers. The memory of it still hangs heavy in the air for many of us here.We had hoped, after such a tragedy, that a way might be found to resolve conflicts peacefully and that the nation could move forward with compassion and understanding . But the tensions remain, and the city feels… different. The fear hasn't entirely dissipated, and the divisions seem starker than ever.

I received another letter from my friend Sally in California recently. Her descriptions of life on the West Coast sound so distant from our reality here. Sometimes I wonder if she truly grasps what we lived through and continue to live with, in the wake of last year's events. I imagine her days are filled with sunshine and new adventures, far from the echoes of screaming and the sound of gunfire that marked our May just twelve months ago
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Life goes on, of course. People walk the streets, conduct their business, and try to find a semblance of normalcy. But dates like today serve as a sharp reminder of how fragile peace can be, and how quickly hope can be tested. 

5/6/2000

Out to see film: Ghost Dog Life of the Samurai—a Jim Jarmusch film. I like the ambiguous elements and characters. What role did the girl have?

5/6/2006

I found this new internet radio station called “Pandora” put together by the same people involved in the Music Genome Project. You type in the name of an artist or song and it finds similar music based on a seed.

5/6/2024

Today’s Songday is partially written by ChatGPT in an attempt to create a character and narrative. As always, I grab the first line and rhythm and go with it, i.e. “Got a letter from Sally”. I made a note about the girl in the Jarmusch film. I’ll have to re-watch it. I’m hearing the “swamp” groove cliche (think Credence CR "Run Through the Jungle").

Got a letter from Sally
Ghost Dog Life of the Samurai
What role did the girl have
In the Jim Jarmusch film?