An Anachronistic Generalist feels all the Winter Solstice vibes and “There’s a robot coming, it’ll be my ART that it takes…”
All-in-All, I had a pretty good year in 2022. I started fresh. I left a company I worked for for over 8 years on (my own) positive terms. Had a good spring season with my lawn & garden partnership. Started a small marketing and branded merch company (Cortain). Got the skeleton of my personal website up and began posting essay-editorials after years of talking about it (if you’re here, then you know that!). My band - Natchez Tracers - played gigs and released a new EP. I saw Widespread Panic too much (like old times. ) and myriad other great shows. I got to go explore Moab and spend more time in Colorado. Hiked to LeConte Lodge again after over 20 years with close friends. Attended a UAP/UFO conference that featured some of the world’s most compelling characters in that community. Had a comforting Thanksgiving in Kiawah with my family. Myself and my family have been fairly healthy this year minus a little mild Covid, etc. here and there. My children are navigating life and doing well even through their struggles. For all this and more, I’m very grateful.
But about a month ago, I started feeling those premonitory vibes I often get before things take a turn toward the slightly less comforting. and I have to admit, it’s a struggle.
The astounding leaps AI has taken in the past few weeks has been nothing short of shocking as it relates to the art and literary worlds. I’ll save the long thoughts about that for another time, but these advancements are both bewildering and terrifying. Creative people all around are on edge. I think musicians are feeling that it’s only a matter of time before AI comes to our doorstep too. Exit/In closed its doors at Thanksgiving. And no, it’s gone for real this time, regardless of what PR spin the Capitalist Raiders put on it (https://www.billboard.com/pro/exit-in-talent-buyer-aj-capital-partners-nashville-venue/). The half-century old “soul” of Exit/In has finally departed. And now, tonight I hear that 3rd & Lindsley and Robert’s have both lost their leases. I learned yesterday that I will be thousands of dollars poorer next Spring having to make up for an academic/scholarship situation that likely could have been averted. I went to a big revue benefit concert on Sunday for a friend’s charity. I loved the musicians participating and I had lots of friends in the audience, but for the first 1.5 hours or so I was there, I walked around Brooklyn Bowl solo and with a general feeling of unease and disconnection. I feel it in others as well. Not all, but others too. I learned tonight that a sweet-hearted, single-mother acquaintance of mine was found dead by a tree by her father today after being missing since Friday. She leaves behind two young children, twin girls if I remember. I can’t imagine.
These may seem like externalities and somewhat trivial, but they feel palpable and in times in the past when I’ve experienced these intuitions more impactful hardships were just around the corner.
I’ve learned and developed better tools over the years to help balance in times like this. 2022 was pretty rewarding, and again I couldn’t be more thankful. But I am expecting 2023 to be bumpier for me. I suspect it means more hustle, more working and likely more setbacks to the course I’m striving to create. The power of positive thinking is legit, but it can leave you blindsided if you don’t heed the signals of your intuition as unpleasant as it sometimes can be.
I will press on as I always do. Hopefully with optimism, gumption and gratitude. My life was never meant to be a study of the charmed. But rather a study of an anachronistic generalist who just can’t seem to get the timing right. A misunderstood dreamer who is loved by some, despised by others, threatening to a few and annoying to more than I’d like to admit. But hey, who knows, maybe this will pass quicker than I’m sensing it will. Dang it, so close, but yet still so far. I still just want to make movies when I grow up. Clock’s ticking. Nary a film in sight. Sigh.
P.S. - Happy Winter Solstice everyone! A time for reflection indeed. Longer, brighter days are to come, naturally. Cycles
* NOTE: The photo on this post is not AI generated. Rather, it was a photo taken by me in my old neighborhood back in 2009 & then doctored by me in Photoshop.
Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Intelligence, Actual Intelligence. What's really the difference? We’re finding out in this brave new world.