iOS 18: is installed, and my my. As usual some much welcomed changes and tweaks, along with a slew of aggravating “improvements” that aren’t. Raves? Rants? What do you love and hate?

It was a fine weekend!

We kill the fatted calf tonight so, stick around.

Good morning and happy Monday, from me and Blucifer.

I was supposed to arrive Vegas early, see a talk given by a dear friend, hang out and have dinner with other great friends then the kickoff party for MagicLive. Alas, the airline gods smote me, and I’ll now arrive after it’s all over.

Panama City, Panama—a busking pitch I’ve never seen before. When rush hour traffic stops at this light, a juggler runs into the street, performs a 60 second club and ball routine (pretty good too!), and then walks up the row of cars passing the hat.

Views from our compound, family vacation.

I love the Olympic Games. Summer and winter, sports I know and understand, and equally, the events I find completely opaque. The human drama of athletic competition; the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.

An extremely interesting observation: about half my social media feed across platforms is thrilled with Biden dropping out and endorsing Harris. About half is morose. BUT—those groups don’t break on party lines. A good number of each party is in each camp. Game on.

Snapshot of my daughter—who will sadly have no idea why this photo is significant.

Lyrics by chatgpt. Music by suno ai. Video by LumaAI, DreamMachine, Runway, Gen3 alpha, Kling. Images by Midjourney Stablediffusion. Editing and compositing in Photoshop, After Effects All AI generated. Nothing is real. Cost pennies. youtu.be/soFXIJj81hE?feature…

Choir

In 2001 I did the upfronts for Nick at Nite and TVLand. During our first full run through with all the top network suits watching, I referred to my client—TVLand—as MTV not once but twice. I knew full well MTV was not my client, I just misspoke. Happens.

I recall so clearly seeing this short film in 7th grade social studies, and the somewhat heated discussion that followed. No surprise then that when I first saw The Shining it took a while to get Bernice out of my head. G’night Shelley. Thanks. youtu.be/tR-vCv4cgnA?feature…

What surprises me is not how many different styles over time, but how short the time span between radical changes. He wasn’t evolving, he was exploding and reconstructing. mymodernmet.com/pablo-picass…

Flying home from a gig last week I settled into my seat and began tucking my things in the seat back pocket. Discovered that the last passenger in my seat had left their used ticket in there. OH!

What I want for my birthday: I want YOU to celebrate with loved ones. An extravagant meal, movie night with all the snacks, a drive somewhere beautiful with great music blasting—something for yourself that’s joyous. Then a random act of kindness for a total stranger. Thanks.

Wake up…and dream.

The killer bonus for me last night was sharing the green room and fabulous conversation with the band Pomplamoose—who lifted all of us with an electrifying set from the stage.