Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
thanx for the indepth ibiza response. how self-sufficient is ibiza?
  

    
Like Bruce, I find myself gazing at the last course of life's meal,
and wondering how to pay the bill when the check comes. And whether
I should leave a tip.

Getting old, I see clearly how so many things change, how few things
persist - and nothing lasts forever. Austin, Texas, where I live, is
a model of growth and change. Counterculture types who've lived
here, like me, for 50-60 years have trouble finding recognizable
bits of the practices and traditions and actual places once
prominent. The vital music scene that helped put Austin on the map
is fading - so many musicians have died or grown older. In 2025 we
lost bass player Speedy Sparks and guitarist/songwriter Joe Ely,
both of whom I would've thought immortal, a few years ago. Local
public radio, once known for its blends of roots Americana, cosmic
cowboy twang, modern jazz, and John Aielli's anything-goes morning
show Eklektikos, spun off a separate channel for even more diverse
musical blends, a lot of it urban contemporary, pop rock, mostly
twang-free from what I hear. Mention the Armadillo World
Headquarters in mixed company and you're liable to get blank stares
from anyone under 60. 
  

    
Austin's more urban, a skyline now overgrown with 'scrapers, a city
that appreciates and supports fine food and fine art... and a city
that has kept one aspect over the decades, its comfort with
weirdness. But we might be losing that, as well... 
  

    
As I was saying, the local Austin music scene has expanded and
fragmented, but that's not just a local phenomenon, and it's not
just music. Cultural expansion and fragmentation has increased, or
at least it's become more obvious through the Babelian aspects of
social media. Weird pulses of chaotic, then coherent, then more
chaotic...

It's winter. The oak tree in our garden has no leaves.
  

    
What would they say if you pulled out your Oat Willie Power Hitter?
  

    
"That's the weirdest looking vape...!"
  

    
I first came to the Bay Area in 1984, when California's population
was 25.84 million.  I've been here since minus 6 years, 1989-1995,
in Tokyo although my wife and I (and our son when he was that age)
travel relatively frequently to SE Asia where she's originally from.
Today California's population is 39.1 million - 51.4% increase. 
Sure feels it to me although I think it's also age that when I'm,
for example, out on the road, my first rule at 68 is stay out of the
way.  Note that the rightmost lane is the secondary, but possibly
faster, passing lane on the highway.

So what are the comparable number fors Texas?  16.01 mln -> 31.29
mln.  A 95.5% increase.  Ouch.

I've never lived in Texas but did travel across it once in the
winter of 1982.  East Texas looked familiar - West Texas did not. 
First discovered the Permian Basin in West Texas which, if anything,
has become even more relevant to the world at large.

I've been thinking that if the US economic system was bookended, in
the 19th and 20th Cs, by New York to the east and Illinois (Chicago)
to thew west the view forward and maybe now is that it's bookended
by Texas and California.  They are, to some extent, different
economic and political experiments and I'm not sure that's a bad
thing.

I was thinking I'd like to do a John McPhee on Ibiza (or the
Balearics more generally) but then thought, no that would be largely
geology (although with some very good prose).  But then it occurred
to me: what I'd really like is Fernand Braudel on the Balearics. 
I've read pretty much everything he ever wrote.  If the Balaerics
were there (long time ago) it was in passing.  But oh yes, maybe
they can be seen, historically, as an extension of Catalan culture. 
  

    
number fors [Texas]?  Looks like I added that s in the wrong place. 
Another thing that's gotten worse with age is my proofreading.

Hmm, what would be the regex that would move the s from for to
number?  That too feels tiresome.  But wait a min - there's ChatGPT.
b(number)s+for(s)b

I'm a retired software engineer.  The occupational hazard of pretty
much every occupation is that you, to some extent, become that
occupation.  So take care.
  

    
It's hard to shake these reflexes.  Show your work (moreover [even
more importantly] check what the LLM gave you).

https://imgur.com/a/RIs87Gx
  

    
Permian Basin: once in the early 70s I camped alone at Monahans
Sandhills State Park near Odessa.  There was nobody else in the
campground. I slept in a sleeping bag on a cot outside.  The night
was uneventful though when I woke up in the morning my cot was
surrounded with a variety of pretty large animal tracks.
  

    
I confess that I used ChatGPT again.  Not only that but this is an X
post.  (I've sinned twice).  The point though is to compare a
characterization of wind in northern Europe, on X, with Texas -
which is basically the US's answer to a large-scale wind experiment.

https://x.com/cremieuxrecueil/status/2008670504400666869?s=20
  

    
The underlying ChatGPT conversation is here:

https://chatgpt.com/share/695ec280-517c-8009-95a0-2b919db49f34

Do data centers in Texas actually accept curtailment?  I'm not sure
that makes sense to me unless those are non-AI, and non-critical,
data centers.
  

    
2026 is the year we'll drown in AI-driven crap, even in 80s-era text
conversation.
  

    
Yes.  I'm aware that that's at, or close to, the prevailing opinion
on The Well.  There's some truth to this but it's not the complete
truth.

I found ChatGPT's comparison of wind in northern Europe vs Texas
useful.
  

    
THE DRIFT OS GETTING KIND OF DEEP IN HERE
  

    
Yes, I've been wondering about those last few posts. On the other
hand, "State of the World" is a very broad topic...

As I sit hear tonight I'm feeling a sense of emergency related to
events in the USA and the Western Hemisphere. I should probably
sleep on my current thoughts before I post anything... if I can
sleep.
  

    
Sorry.  Brief escape from the state of the world. Guilty as charged.
  

    
On the sentimental subject of Austinites, I can't help but plug the
fact that Richard Linklater is in Ibizan cultural news this week.  
Linklater's a quite genuine keep-Austin-weird Austinite character,
and yet he can make a European art film as soon as look at one.  
I'm touched that tolerant Spanish intellectuals would think that
Linklater is cute, that they would cordially pat his back and nod in
approval when he backpacks into Paris and somehow pretends to be
Jean-Luc Godard.

Also Linklater made his film in French and premiered it at Cannes
and got an eleven-minute standing ovation.  Liklater's not even
PRETENDING to be an internationally significant cinema auteur, he
actually IS one.  Of course Austin's changed a lot in fifty years,
but Austinites didn't used to do that, and for whatever it's worth,
now they can.

https://flic.kr/p/2rQGjaS 
  

    
Coincidentally I watched "Nouvelle Vague" just last night, and found
it a cheerful manifestation of a time and place and mindset that
aligned with my youth. I was eleven years old when "Breathless" was
released, and didn't have an opportunity to see it until years
later. Linklater's film captures the disruptive aesthetic and
experimental charm of Godard and the French New Wave (Nouvelle
Vague) set as they disregarded the conventions and practices of
established cinema... Godard as a character in the film insists in
following his creative instincts and disregarding convention.

Rick's first film, "Slacker," made for almost nothing in the Austin
area 35 years ago, was sorta like an American/Texan version of the
same approach. 
  

    
Apologies to those of you who are seeing odd characters at the end
of every line in this conversation. We have a technical issue -
we're looking into it.
  

    
Some say that Donald Trump has fascist tendencies and that the USA
is leaning toward fascism since his election to a second term. What
evidence is there to support this contention? The following couple
of posts include a list of fascist tendencies, and how they align
with Trump's actions. I wrote this list over a week ago - since then
the Trump administration has operated a military strike in
Venezuela, capturing its leader, Maduro. And yesterday ICE
operatives in Minnesota killed a 37-year-old poet and mother, then
lied about the killing, claiming self-defense when video clearly
showed otherwise. So the USA seems to be slipping past fascist
tendency to fascist reality. 
  

    
Indications of protofascism or fascism...

Undermining democratic elections and peaceful transfer of power. He
claimed the 2020 election was "rigged" without credible
evidence. He pressured state officials (e.g., asking Georgia's
Secretary of State to "find 11,780 votes") He encouraged
attempts to overturn certified results. He supported fake electors
and legal strategies to block certification. He refused to concede
and endorsed efforts to stop Congress from formalizing results on
Jan. 6. (Fascist movements historically reject electoral legitimacy
when they lose and treat opponents as enemies rather than rivals in
a shared system.)

Loyalty-based governance instead of institutional norms - for
example, he publicly demanded personal loyalty from Justice
Department and intelligence officials. He fired or sidelined
inspectors general and civil servants who investigated wrongdoing.
He has rewarded allies and punished critics inside government.
(Fascist systems centralize authority around the leader rather than
independent institutions bound by law.)

Politicization of law enforcement and justice. He has pressured the
DOJ to shield allies and prosecute opponents. He has called for
imprisoning political rivals ("lock her up," "lock them up"
rhetoric). He has intervened in individual criminal cases involving
supporters. (Using state power as a weapon against perceived enemies
is a classic illiberal/fascist pattern.)

Delegitimizing the press and independent information. He has
frequently labeled journalists "the enemy of the people." He
encouraged supporters to distrust independent media entirely. He
elevated state-aligned media personalities as preferred information
sources. (Fascist regimes treat the press as a hostile force and try
to replace it with loyal messaging channels.)
  

    
Indications of protofascism or fascism /2 ...

Extreme nationalist & exclusionary rhetoric. He portrayed immigrants
and minorities as threats or criminals. He has promoted "America
First" identity politics centered on nativism. He has proposed or
enacted harsh immigration controls and family-separation policy.
(Fascist ideologies typically define the nation in ethnic or
cultural terms and frame outsiders as corrupting forces.)

Encouraging political violence or tolerating it rhetorically. He has
frequently used language romanticizing toughness or violence
("knock the crap out of them," praise for rough police
treatment). He has minimized or deflected responsibility when
supporters engaged in intimidation or violence. He re-embraced
extremist or militant groups (e.g. Proud Boys) when politically
expedient. (Fascist movements rely on paramilitary or mob-adjacent
energy rather than only formal politics.)

Personality-cult leadership style. He has framed himself as the
singular savior of the nation ("I alone can fix it"). He
encourages rallies and symbolic loyalty displays. He treats
disagreement inside the party as disloyalty rather than debate.
(Fascist systems center politics on devotion to a "strongman" figure
over policy or institutions.)
  

    
One might argue that the current US government is not full-on
fascist at this point, probably protofascist. Trump has normalized
authoritarian tactics and rhetoric that resemble early-stage fascist
movements, but operated inside our still-standing (so far) system
that has resisted full consolidation of power.
  

    
I'll change topics.  Fond reminiscences, moaning about our bruises
and forebodings, they're okay and even morally necessary,  but they
get on my nerves.  I'll talk about  futurism from China.

In China there's a city called Tengchong, which is in a picturesque
hot-springs region on the border with Myanmar aka Burma, and maybe
because they're safely distant from the Comintern in Beijing and
famous for nothing much, they decided to put themselves on the
Chinese and world map as a brainy intellectual center.  So they are
the hosts of the recently-established "Tengchong Scientists Forum." 


I happened to get my mitts on the summary of their recent
speculative proceedings, and as futurist forecasts go, this
document's  out-there.