12/1999@25

 

12/1/1999

Warm for December, 55 degrees

The most interesting “books” to read in this last month of the century will be newspapers and magazines as they will report, as well as fuel the hysteria and apocalyptic thinking. 

WTO Convention in Seattle awash in the protest over environmental and labor issues. (The American Tienanmen Square.)

12/10/1999
     
On the new wave of “collaborative filtering”: If we always find what we’ve always liked, doesn’t that put constraints on discovery?

[The dawn of algorithmic control].

12/12/1999

Prediction: In a few years after the Millennium (if all goes well), artists will be doing things again for the sake of beauty.

[What I'm doing now, but it took me almost 15 years to tire of postmodernism--in music. I'm still a postmodern visual artist].

12/15/1999

Videotapes of the Trench Coat Mafia released to the media. Criminals get too much spotlight. 

Scene idea: victim celebrities featured on TV programs.

Prediction:  In 10 years we'll be creating music on systems with thousands of tracks, each pixel on a screen will be a separate zone that can be recorded into and edited. But the problem will be finding the patience to sort through it all and make a compelling work of art. Like making giant sculptures out of toothpicks.

[What we're essentially doing now with AI music].

Applying visual metaphors in the creation of music is an interesting idea and allows non-musicians a chance to design sound, but to be a true musician you have to know how to use the tools, and not be afraid to get your hands dirty by applying pitch, sense of rhythm, scales, and so on.

12/17/1999

Y2K hysteria, like Christmas shopping, will happen at the last minute.

Went to bookstore and there must be at least 50 books on the history of the past 100 years. This is one of the useful things about big events like Y2K: It gives you an opportunity to sum up big blocks of time.

12/19/1999

Mobile telecommunications give us more opportunity to chat, but are we really saying anything?

Y2K hysteria picking up steam but no one will admit it.

12/21/1999

Celestial triple-play occurred today. the Winter Solstice (when the earth is closest to the sun), the full moon, and the moon at perigee. It hasn't happened in 166 years.

12/22/1999

Cable installed. Now this is the way to surf the internet!

12/23/1999

Observation: Traditions seem to be breaking down—a side effect of rapid progress. We need to rethink the function of tradition, or at least put it in proper perspective. It has to be a conscious effort rather than a mindless machination.

[The metamodernism movement was just emerging around 2000]

12/26/1999
            
What about all the people that will die immediately before 2000?

The year 2000 will make synchronistic events even more interesting.

Curtis Mayfield died at 57.

Out to see film, The Talented Mr. Ripley. Thought it was well done, but not quite on par with Wings of a Dove in terms of the impact of the “deceptive instigator” type character, played by Helena Bonham Carter.

12/28/1999

Flu outbreak—people dropping like flies. This reminds me of that Nightline episode about the anthrax outbreak. Initially it was thought to be an early flu, but wound up killing 50,000.

12/29/1999

A friend asked me what I thought the world would be like in the year 3000. This question was probably asked a thousand years ago. By 3000 there will be new terms that will redefine nature. By 3000, many will be still waiting for the end of the world.
            
Story idea set in 3000, with facts derived from life in 1000.

Panel of experts talking on TV about the potential Y2K problems with US and Russian nuclear arsenals. Some looked extremely worried. (A call to release 7500 nuclear bombs would be made in just 3 minutes after a false reading).

I feel excited about this new age, but trepidatious feelings now winning.

12/31/1999

Gorgeous day, 45 degrees.

New Year’s Celebrations begin at 9 a.m. from around the world. No Y2K glitches yet. New Zealand breezes through. Tokyo well-behaved.

Today is the defining moment as to whether our lives are truly pervaded by the computer age, and if something runs amok in Russia the world will be toast tomorrow.

President Yeltsin abruptly resigns. Putin, a former KGB agent, takes over. Disturbing.

Sunrise performance in New Zealand truly touching, albeit tempered with a bitter irony for the potential for catastrophe.

The “brand new day”. Honeymoon will last for a while, but will it withstand the vagaries of real life?