AI and Algorithms

About a year ago, I retired from the design industry to focus more on life. When I started, we still used X-acto blades and wax, and you had to have training and skills. We were called commercial artists back then. A designer had the luxury of time back then to let a concept breath a little before releasing it into the wild. Now, anyone can produce an ad or a brochure. As computers began to take over our lives, the applications for typesetting and design became easier to use. Even if you aren't one of those adventurous sorts who use Word to design your company logo, you can get a logo for your company from one of the crowd-sourcing sites like Fiverr, Creative Market, and 99designs real cheap. Emphasis on cheap. And, by doing so, you are supporting struggling designers in Eastern Europe and Asia. A win-win for all you globalists! The industry has been watered down. It is cutthroat. And, it can be tough to make a living at it. But, as challenging as it can be, it can also offer great rewards. 

As a designer, I was exposed to many life experiences that would not have been possible without my career. In my last position, I was blessed with meeting many of the top performers working in jazz today. As a stage manager for one of the largest free jazz festivals in the world, I met people like Chick Corea and Doctor John, now living on through recordings and memories. People like Dr. Arturo Sandoval, McCoy Tyner, Pete Escovedo (hi Pops!), The Bad Plus, and so many more. And some off-jazz greats like Sheila E., and The Commodores. When I owned my design agency, I had the pleasure of meeting and doing work for Alicia Keys and others. 

Moving on from music, I also did a lot of work in the sports industry. I had great fun designing logos and uniforms for a number of minor league teams like the Las Vegas 51s and Jacksonville hometown favs, The Lizard Kings. I did some work for the pros—the Sacramento Kings, Colorado Rockies, San Antonio Spurs, and Boston Bruins, to name a few. I got behind-the-scenes tours of Fenway Park and Boston Gardens and was a regular at the old Jacksonville Coliseum. And being in Jacksonville opened up the opportunity to do a lot of work for the golf industry. I handled the design chores for The First Tee and did overflow design work for the PGA TOUR and the World Golf Hall of Fame, LPGA, and many others. 

Time moves on faster than the body can age. 

This post was originally meant to be a post on artificial intelligence and algorithms and the effect both are having and will have on the quality of the creative life. Instead, I think that I meandered into one of the Ghosts of Christmas Past and spent a morning looking back on my career. 

And now that I am reinventing myself and trying on yet another hat as a writer, there is the AI Novel Generator from Reedsy. I have been pecking away at my first novel for more than thirteen years, and now, I can generate a copyrightable novel in seconds. Oh, joy!

My Heart is a Chansaw

by Stephen Graham Jones
Release date: August 31, 2021

If you are into slashers, this latest novel by Stephen Graham Jones is a "must-read." I only gave the book three-and-a-half stars because I have lost my taste for the horror found in slashers. I find slashers to be in the same category as murder mysteries. For years, as an actor, I had fun with friends creating characters that were messed up. Damaged people who had no problem, taking what they wanted to benefit themselves. Sometimes I was the killer. Other times I got murdered. I have many wonderful and terrifying memories of those times that I gave up because of a news story. The interview was with a woman struggling with the loss of a family member who had been murdered. During the interview, she mentioned her own horror at the thought of all those who derived pleasure and entertainment from the murder of others. I had never thought of what I was doing in that light. Similarly, I used to love slashers—especially in the heyday of the 1980s and 90s. And while slashers (and the murderers in the Murder Mysteries that we put on) did ultimately get the justice they deserved, most of the stories were about the inventive way people could be killed. Maybe I am being way too politically correct here, but because of this, I found myself dragging through portions of this novel while in others—captivated by the characters—almost blundering through the pages like a final girl. Plowing through the words of ignored warnings and ultimately blood and guts to get more story.

The book is very well written and loaded with symbolism, but I found myself lost at times with regard to the references to the many slashers in the novel. As with so much of his past work (at least, those books that I have read,) Dr. Jones is incredibly vivid and imaginative in his storytelling. This reader could tell just how much the slasher meant to him. I think you would be hard-pressed to find a more hardcore eighties slasher fan than Stephen Graham Jones, except for protagonist and anti-hero Jade Daniels. 

The fact that this was an homage to the slasher and a sort of love affair with it was evident. While billed as a horror, this one is also a mystery and a crime story in all its pulpy goodness. 

I want to thank NetGalley and Saga Press, an imprint of Gallery Books and Simon & Schuster, for the opportunity of reading the digital ARC.

In Darkness, Shadows Breathe

Sorry this review is late. Released in January of this year, In Darkness, Shadows Breathe by Catherine Cavendish from Flame Tree Press follows the separate hospitalizations of two women, Carol and Nessa. It is a visual tale in that this creepy, gothic story infects both your waking hours and painting your dreams with the macabre. Tortuous experiments and revenant spectres will have you feeling like you are shambling the halls of a hospital that felt more like a mental ward. The book was largely broken mainly into two parts before reconnecting them, and perhaps, that is fitting as the story alternates between two times and, in a sense, two realities.

My chief complaint about this read—and it is valid for so many horror stories—is why do the antagonists remain in situations that they find themselves in? I understand Carol, but Nessa's partner? Gah! Am I being petty here? 

Haunted grounds is a familiar trope in horror stories, but Cavendish weaves unsettling, non-linear timelines into a unique tale. I'm thrilled to have finally read her work. She has haunted my TBR pile for too long. I recommend this book and not just to horror aficionados. Go out and buy it, check it out from your library, or beg it off a friend. Just do it before you hear someone whisper the words, “you’re next.”

 Thanks to #NetGalley and the publisher, Flame Tree Press, for allowing me to share my thoughts on #InDarknessShadowsBreathe.

Creeped Out and Just a Little Bit Hollow

 

The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

After I finished this one, I wanted more. That is usually a very good sign. I enjoyed the story. It has a very strange, weird horror vibe. The Glory to God Museum of Natural Wonders, Curiosities, and Taxidermy is such an apt name for the museum where all this kinda-sorta takes place. I remember a similar kind of “museum” in Florida on the way to Panama City Beach that had a human fetus in a pickle jar. I wish now that I had paid to enter that place, but I digress. The main characters are quirky and odd in their own way, and for most of the book fit in perfectly with the oddities in this book but came off too cartoonish in some places. I have read elsewhere that Algernon Blackwood’s The Willows inspired this book. I cannot comment on any similarities as I have yet to read the latter. What I can tell you is that I will NEVER look at a willow the same way again. This other world is the stuff of nightmares. T. Kingfisher wrote a magical, twisted tale that wormed its way into my brain and took root. I know that what it left behind will stay with me and grow for a long time to come. I wish Goodreads had a sliding scale for their ratings as I wanted to, but I couldn’t quite bring myself to giving this s 4-star rating. Much of it is deserving of that and more, but some things the main characters did or didn’t do that broke the spell. And I wanted more of that Willow World.

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