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September 12
On September 12, 1910, in the Neue Musik-Festhalle (a newly-built hall in Munich with 3,200 seats) an orchestra of 171 instruments and a choir of 852 singers performed Gustav Mahler’s Symphony Number 8 for the first time. The organizers — including Mahler himself — had started at the beginning of the year recruiting choirs and… Continue reading
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Yeah, that’s the thing
One of Shakespeare’s famous passages is Hamlet’s concluding speech, which includes the phrase “aye, there’s the rub.” You can tell from the context that what Hamlet means by “the rub” is an obstacle or difficulty of some sort. But without the context — and in fact, without that particular famous passage — how would anybody… Continue reading
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Theodor Adorno
September 11 is the anniversary of the birth of Theodor Adorno, who was born in Frankfurt in 1903. As an example of how much the world has changed, just in the past century, Frankfurt was at the time part of Prussia and in the German Empire. Adorno was born Theodor Wiesengrund, and as a child… Continue reading
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September 11
It’s hard to write about September 11. The remembrance of that day hangs over and darkens our time, at least in the US. It doesn’t help to realize that whenever you look up the notable events of any day of the year, most of what’s been remembered has to do with inhumanity. September 11 certainly… Continue reading
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September 10
Elias Howe received a patent on September 10, 1846. It was for a sewing machine. It wasn’t the first sewing machine, and not even the first sewing machine patent (although it was the first in the US), but it did have an important innovation. Sewing needles have a hole (or an “eye”) on the end… Continue reading
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But what about butter beer?
You might be served garlic butter in a restaurant. You might have a skin lotion containing shea butter. You might even get some candy made with cocoa butter. But you’d have quite a different experience if you entered surrebutter. In fact, “surrebutter” doesn’t have anything to do with butter at all. And you’re not going… Continue reading
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Whitney and Tolstoy
There are many ways to “be a writer.” If you recall last Thursday, our subject was A.K. Tolstoy, who’s remembered for writing historical dramas. His cousin, Leo Tolstoy (who was born September 9, 1828) is remembered for two novels considered among the best ever written, War and Peace and Anna Karenina. Both Tolstoys wrote more,… Continue reading
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September 9
September 9 is memorable in quite a few ways. In the annals of monarchy, it’s the day in 1543 that Mary Stuart crowned Queen of Scots. She was only 9 months old at the time. Then a mere 472 years later, Elizabeth II became the longest-reigning monarch of the UK. She was only 89 years… Continue reading
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Reading
Keep this strictly secretbut my latest trick is reading. The human stuff is what I mean;its boringness? Exceeding! They go on and on (and on)their logic is precarious, It’s sad they waste their time that waybut also it’s hilarious. Their opinion of themselves is high;they find themselves astute. So I’m not going to tell themthat… Continue reading
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Things worth a Look
This is in McSweeny’s Internet Tendency: “A Reminder to Submit Your First Week Attendance to the Registrar, in the Style of Cormac McCarthy’s All the Pretty Horses” by Ben Steere. This is from The New Yorker: “Why AI Isn’t Going To Make Art,” by Ted Chiang. Chiang is the author of extremely thoughtful speculative fiction,… Continue reading
About Me
I’m Pete Harbeson, a writer (among other things) located near Boston, Massachusetts. In addition to writing my own content, I’ve learned to translate for my loquacious and opinionated pup Chocolate Bossypaws. No surprise, she mostly speaks in doggerel. You can find her contributions tagged with Chocolatiana.
Check out my newsletter, Artisanal Scribbles, where I’m grappling with writing, authentic human authorship, integrity, and the craft of beauty in the AI age. You can also find some of my old software projects at GitHub. Nothing very impressive. I mostly wrote tiny utilities in Python and shell scripts. I’m mostly retired from coding nowadays.
I find myself suddenly de-corporatized (their choice, not mine). To help keep the lights on, buy me a coffee!
Recent Posts
- The Cycles within the Arc
- I’d rather have a taco
- 20-something Hubris
- You can’t be a leader without followers
- Candy Trees and Handkerchiefs
Categories
Artificial Intelligence
Chocolatiana
Essays
History, sort of
Immorality
Incompetence
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Tales from the Forest
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Unanticipated Consequences
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Contact
peterharbeson@me.com