Tune into the vibe, ignore the opinion polls

7 November 2024

Tyler Cowen, writing at Marginal Revolution, last July:

Democrats and leftists are in fact less happy as people than conservatives are, on average. Americans noticed this, if only subconsciously.

Cowen made a whole heap of observations — I’ve quoted but one — about the then upcoming US Presidential election. But it’s tuning into the vibe that interests me. Opinion polls may say one thing, but it’s the mood on the street, if you can tap into it, understand it, that matters.

I can’t say the result was what I hoped for, but let’s keep an eye on the vibe, and see what it tells us going forward.

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America, current affairs, politics

The music has stopped for musicians and their support workers

6 November 2024

Just as it is becoming near high impossible to make a full-time living as an author, unless a writer’s work is regularly topping best-seller lists, the same increasingly goes for musicians. And their support teams. Gone are the days road crews, stage hands, recording studio workers, and the like, can make a full-time living in the music industry.

And Hua Hsu, writing for The New Yorker, notes that the word gig, which once chiefly referred to a music show or concert, has found greater relevance in the on-demand work sector, or gig-economy. Doubtless many music industry workers, and I dare say, one or two authors, supplement their income through on-demand work, in response to fewer opportunities to make a living in their preferred occupation.

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music, trends

New York Times publishes stinging rebuke of Donald Trump

5 November 2024

On the eve of the US Presidential election, The New York Times has published a strongly worded dis-endorsement of Republican candidate Donald Trump. It’s short, succinct, and well worth reading.

Unlike counterpart publications, including The Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times, The New York Times issued an endorsement of Democrat candidate Kamala Harris, at the end of September.

The result of the Presidential election is usually clear by early afternoon Wednesday, east coast of Australia time. In terms of the Electoral College numbers that is. I suspect there’ll be quite a number of eyes on the outcome here tomorrow afternoon.

Harry Hartog Book Of The Year 2024 shortlist

5 November 2024

Australian indie bookseller Harry Hartog has entered the literary prize fray with their inaugural Book Of The Year award. A shortlist featuring three titles, in three categories respectively, fiction, non-fiction, and children’s and young adults, was published a few days ago.

No surprise to see Intermezzo by Sally Rooney nominated in fiction. Nor All I Ever Wanted Was to Be Hot, by Australian writer and comedian Lucinda Froomes Price, in non-fiction. No word yet on when the winners will be announced (how so indie) but I’m gunning for Intermezzo in the fiction category.

NaNoWriMo, NaBloPoMo, and WeblogPoMo AMA, November hots up

4 November 2024

National Novel Writing Month AKA NaNoWriMo, is on this month, for better or worse.

But if you’re a writer seeking distractions from various November happenings — I’m referring more to northern hemisphere inhabitants facing the onset of winter — and don’t want to write a novel, there are other options.

National Blog Posting Month AKA NaBloPoMo, is a write-a-blog-post-each-day challenge, similar to Weblog Posting Month AKA WeblogPoMo, which ran back in May. NaBloPoMo was established in 2006, and for reasons I cannot fathom, have only found out about it now. A list of this year’s NaBloPoMo participants can be seen here.

Back to WeblogPoMo. While not holding another blog-post-a-day challenge this month, something called WeblogPoMo AMA is on instead. Here’s how organiser Anne Sturdivant, sees it working:

For this challenge I want to foster writer interaction: write a blog post starting with a question — the AMA — and then answer the question yourself in the blog post. Others will likewise write AMA/question posts, but also answer the AMA/questions from other bloggers, linking to their initial post.

I write here most days, but don’t know if I could do so every last day of the month. I think NaBloPoMo and WeblogPoMo are cool with people missing a day here or there, but it’s still a pretty big ask. WeblogPoMo AMA, on the other hand, seems like the sort of thing you can jump in and out of, as and when you’re able to.

If you’re taking part in any of these events though, all the best.

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blogs, events, writing

American bloggers, personal website publishers, may be among ‘enemies within’

1 November 2024

American newspapers The Los Angeles Times, and The Washington Post, have come under fire for declining to endorse US Presidential candidate Kamala Harris. Their refusal to endorse Harris does not, however, from stem from a desire to back Donald Trump. Rather, both publications had prepared endorsements for Harris, but were blocked from publishing them by their owners.

The suggestion is the proprietors of both outlets fear they may face retribution for endorsing Harris, should Trump be elected. For some time Trump has threatened reprisals against Americans he sees as being the “enemies from within”, should he assume the presidency. Those showing support for Harris — in what is an election in a democracy, no less — would appear to among these “enemies”.

But major news outlets are not the only publishers concerned by the prospect of a Trump presidency. Bloggers, and personal website publishers, are likewise worried that their writing may see them labelled as an enemy within. People, like you and me, who are exercising their right to the freedom of speech, the cornerstone of any democracy, are also fearful of the outcome of the election, as US blogger Tracey Durnell writes:

In the lead-up to the election, I’ve been thinking about this blog: how much it adds to my life to be able to write and think freely… but also, how a written record of my views could become a liability if Trump wins the election or commits insurrection 2.0. I chose years ago to blog under my real name — and my political views are pretty clear. To a Christian extremist, a vocal “porn-writing” leftist woman like me — a woman without children, no less — is “the enemy within.”

If voting in the US election, Australians would elect Kamala Harris

31 October 2024

A recent poll of voters in Australia and New Zealand has found most would prefer Democrat candidate Kamala Harris to win the upcoming American Presidential election, over her Republican rival Donald Trump:

“Fifty per cent of Australians say they’d vote for Harris compared to 26 per cent who say they’d vote for Trump,” says David Talbot, director Talbot Mills Research. Support for Harris among Kiwis is identical at 50 per cent while support for Trump is a little lower than in Australia at 22 per cent.

The same polling however revealed men aged under thirty would be more likely to back Trump than Harris. Support, meanwhile, for Trump among women in the same age group, is “minuscule”.

Interest in the US election is running high in Australia, as is often the case. This gives some weight to the notion that the election is not only national, but also global, a point Guardian writer Cas Mudde made four years ago:

US presidential elections are not just national elections; they are global elections, too. Although the US presidency is not as all-powerful as many people think, it is certainly, both inside and outside of the US, the most powerful elected position in the world.

Mr Big police stings: true crime that reads like crime fiction

30 October 2024

A police method of prosecuting people suspected of being responsible for committing a serious crime, almost reads like something from a crime novel:

Police manufacture a chance meeting with the suspect, then offer them paid work of a non-criminal nature before introducing jobs that appear to break the law. Through a series of interactions over several months, the sting makes the suspect believe they are being adopted into an organised crime gang with powerful connections to corrupt police, government officials and even judges.

Long story short, police — undercover officers — go about extracting a confession, or admission of guilt, from a suspect they believe committed a crime, but do not have sufficient evidence to place charges. The so-called “Mr Big” technique, which originated in Canada, has resulted in numerous convictions. Legal experts however are concerned some people may be wrongly convicted, as a certain pressure is put on would-be suspects to confess.

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Australia, Canada, law, trends

When you miss the moment, watching it pass…

30 October 2024

The time 30 October once fell on a Saturday. The stop here had been unintentional. Unplanned. But that’s how it is for a lot of these stories. I hadn’t been to this place before, yet here I was. At ten minutes to midnight. It would be Sunday in eleven minutes. Not twenty minutes earlier, the taxi I was riding home in was almost outside of where I lived, when I asked the driver to take me over to Bondi Junction. The vehicle had sped efficiently through the late night streets of Sydney’s eastern suburbs, and delivered me here.

Now I sat at the bar. Counted myself lucky to find a seat, in this overcrowded room. Irish and British backpackers, who called this place their home away from home, went about their revels oblivious to my presence. I tried to figure why I was here. I split my attention between two television screens, one to my left, the other to my right. To my left, the Shawshank Redemption was screening. It was my first time watching the jailbreak classic. It looked good, but I couldn’t hear a word of it.

To my right, a game of International Rules football was screening. Peil na rialacha idirnáisiunta, to refer to the game by its Irish language name. Based on Australian Rules football, the Irish variant made an equal amount of sense to me. But then something else caught my eye. Someone whom I thought was alone, but couldn’t possibly be. A girl sitting at the far end of the bar, by herself. What’s wrong with this picture, I asked myself. This woman cannot possibly be alone. Her boyfriend must be nearby. Playing pool perhaps. Or something.

Two hours later, the girl, who as it turned out, worked at the bar and had been on a short break when I first saw her, walked up to me. What, she asked, is happening at the far end of the bar? You’re not paying the least attention to anything else in here. I pointed at the television screens. Nice try, she said, with an air of confidence that was disarming. How do you know so much, I asked, how could you have even noticed me in this room, where people were almost hanging from the rafters?

Oh, that’s easy, she said, you’ve been at it since ten minutes to midnight, there’s no missing it. We may be the best part of one-hundred kilometres from that room on this day, but we go back every now and again. It’s where the story began, and I’m always waiting for what happens next, because sometimes I have trouble paying attention to anything else.

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a day in the life

From thousands to millions: the film budgets of Stanley Kubrick

29 October 2024

Late American filmmaker Stanley Kubrick made his first feature, Fear and Desire, on a budget of a little over fifty-thousand dollars (US), in 1952. Almost thirty-years later, Kubrick had a budget of nineteen million dollars to make The Shining.

I expect many successful filmmakers move along a similar budget trajectory. But it sounds like Kubrick was boot-strapping to the max, during the production of Fear and Desire:

I then found out how much feature films were being made for, you know, millions, and I calculated that I could make a feature film for about $10,000…by projecting the amount of film I’d shoot, figuring that I could get actors to work for practically nothing. I mean at this point I was the whole crew, cameraman, assistant cameraman, you know, director, everything.

As a comparison, 2001: A Space Odyssey, made in 1968, and easily my favourite Kubrick movie, came with a ten million dollar price tag. Over budget, and almost a year and half behind schedule, but worth every cent. Watch this trailer for 2001, made in 2018, and tell me I’m wrong.

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