AI create fest [Mbari ígwé úchè]
![AI create fest [Mbari ígwé úchè]](/content/images/size/w960/2023/06/20230610_111444-1.jpg)
If you don't see a media object to play the companion mixtape, click here.
I want to devise a virus
To bring dire straits to your environment
Crush your corporations with a mild touch
Trash your whole computer system and revert you to papyrus
I want to make a super virus
Strong enough to cause blackouts in every single metropolis
'Cause they don't want to unify us
So fuck it total anarchy
Can't nobody stop us
—Deltron 3030 - Virus
Since ye distemper and defile
Sweet Herè by the measured mile,
Nor aught on jocund highways heed
Except the evidence of speed;
And bear about your dreadful task
Faces beshrouded ’neath a mask;
Great goblin eyes and gluey hands
And souls enslaved to gears and bands;
Here shall no graver curse be said
Than, though y’are quick, that ye are dead!
—Rudyard Kipling - To Motorists
As usual, Kipling leaves me impressed in bits, while rolling my eyes out of my earholes in others. If the poor guy had ever lived to see the Autobahns I think he would have impaled himself on his own stiff upper lip.
Cheat pie, stuck in my thumb; pulled it out, came up with a fake-ass plum
I usually just scour my memory for rap lyrics relevant to the theme of a particular Loomiverse post, but I've started using Google Bard a bit (up to maybe one request every day or two, rather than my former once a week or so). Why Google Bard rather than ChatGPT, given that the latter is better, certainly in its 4.0 form? Well for one thing, I'm still a web-head, and bard uses the web without jumping through additional hoops, or having to pay. So I lazed out for this posts's rap suggestion.
I was like, yo! A Del song I haven't heard yet? Bet! Turns out the poor thing was hallucinating—there's no such song, but it did remind me of Del's song "Virus", and maybe this is what Bard had in mind? Maybe someone already got Bard with a virus, trashed its whole computer system to revert it to papyrus. I'm pretty sure Bard also hallucinated the Lupe Fiasco, Logic and JID songs, but the interesting thing is that, certainly Del, Lupe and Logic are exactly the sorts of rappers you would imagine would write the sort of songs Bard is hallucinating. Though this be madness, yet there is hip-hop method in't.
The discussion: AI and creativity
The podcast episode I mentioned last time is live now. "Emerging Form Episode 89: Uche Ogbuji on AI and Creativity". We discuss AI & should creative humans fear ChatGPT & such? How does creativity in code compare to that in poetry? Many other things.
Christie Aschwanden
Words fall out of spin air, plash by plash,
Become river in flow, then ocean.
You may ink with the sweat on your temple,
Or fill your kettle in collective, wet mess.
Christie Aschwanden
If you listen to the podcast, you'll hear what brilliant and engaging hosts Christie and Rosemerry are, and they're well worth a Patreon sub. If you do so, you'll also get a bonus episode in which I speak more from my poet side, about my creative process, and in which I'm even challenged to an impromptu poetry/hip-hop freestyle.
Christie Aschwanden
I also discuss my practice memorizing poems (by others) I love, the importance of being rubbed the wrong way, and how community fuels creativity.
The episode has already sparked some lively discussion on the blog of Craig Childs, noted adventurer and natural history writer.
Craig Childs
Craig is working on a multi-media performance at the Paradise Theater in Paonia, Colorado in December, part of the annual "Dark Night" series. I'll be a featured performer, and I'm sure I'll be bringing something cheeky from the left field of AI. More details to come; watch this space.
Oh, but no AI angle to this bit, just good old fashioned poetry and song in public. I'll be performing for the City of Loveland, Colorado's 3rd Annual Juneteenth Celebration, next Saturday, June 17th, starting at 2pm, at the Backyard Tap. Lift Every Voice and Sing!
Boulder Gold
I just finished the year coaching a team of Boulder U14 girls, a wonderful ride. Half the players were having their first season other than recreational soccer, and on full, 11v11 pitches for the first time. Many of the opponents had a couple of years' head start on us in that department, and it was quite a test of football and teaching aptitude to get them up to speed tactically, technically, and physically—they heard me say "you have a shoulder—put that girl on the ground!" fairly often. I mean, three of my favorite soccer players, of any gender, are Jen Beattie, Katie McCabe and Daniëlle van de Donk, all of who can properly handle themselves. Former two current Arsenal players, so yes to my Gooner bias, and even DVD is a former Gunner. Here's Beattie popping a naughty Popp. McCabe is #15, and you can see her near the end of the clip rushing over to deal with Popp, until it's clear Beattie has already done the job.
For me, teaching young girls to stand up for, and to protect themselves is extremely important, especially in a collective context, and football is an excellent vehicle for that. We did take some real beatings, especially in the early stages, but they kept unfailingly high spirits and brilliant attitudes, improved individually, and really gelled as a unit. Their final match was a hard-fought chess match where they played a team the next tier up, and matched them 1-1. I love these girls to pieces, and hope to catch them putting some other kids on the ground next season; I'm moving to coach U12s, so that a new coach with high school experience can prepare this group for the next step.
I always tell people that I am always a lot more exhausted after coaching the girls than I am after playing a match, myself. I've been coaching soccer at rec level since 2003, and this step up to competitive level has truly upped the demands on my energy, but also the rewards, and I guess I'm just crazy enough to be excited about the new, U12 team I've been pulling together for next season. But I'm also quite grateful for the summer break. Shout out to my son, Osi, whom I mentioned in my last post, for being a superb assistant. I definitely would have collapsed into nothing weeks into the season, if not for his contributed energy.
Choose this music, you know you can use it
Olalade mi Asake! (Man, remember when that viral clip was dominating Arsenal fandom globally? Olalade mi Nketiah, heynnnnh!)
Anyway Asake and Olamide make a proper Olalade pairing for Amapiano. You already know the Naija to South Africa connection is full on pop mainstream. Colorado gets a shout, as we've become a sort of worldwide code for reefer. Hey! If the cap fits…
I first came across Soul Supreme vis his glorious cover of the Cortex classic Huit Octobre 1971, and he has a lot of amazing interpolations. A recent legal battle with a record company inspired him to create Poetic Justice, an an atmospheric suite of moods worth repeated start-to-finish listens.
On the Hip-Hop tip I'll mention Inner Peace from the new Justo x Uncle Fester x DK project Where There's Smoke, featuring Canadian rapper Ghettosocks who always brings the smooth, introspective lyrics.
I think Hip-Hop can always bring us more booed-up do-up duos. In Table Manners, off the Invincibl Rap Mislz project, Napoleon Da Legend & Nejma Nefertiti flow with glow on the love jones. Production by D-Styles.
For my music recommendations I usually try to avoid the very mainstream, and these days NPR's Tiny Desk has become very mainstream, but just on the off chance that you didn't see that Babyface—BABYFACE!—has a TD session up today…. The maestro shows up with a murderer's row of musicians to pour that long-lived magic over us. Chanté Moore channeling Karyn White is a different flavor of heaven, and I need a full version of Avery Wilson's Caribbean-complected "Can we Talk" re-take.
I did my date maths wrong in the last post. The only way to have known whether Denver were NBA champs by now was if they pulled off the sweep—maybe it was my wishful thinking—but they are at least 3-1, and one win away, and yes, Joker is absolutely running shit. Olalade mi Jokić! As we used to say, also in Yoruba, while taking shots on the court in Nigeria: meji! meji! meji! meta!!!!!
Please do consider sharing this newsletter with others, and subscribing, if you haven't (button in the lower right). Ever new sounds for the listening, new plays on the field of words, fresh takes for tech's sake, with the side sauce of odd juxtapositions. Dá àlụ́-nu!
❧ Égwú 🪘 Ókwú ✍🏿 Ígwè 📡 Ńdụ̀ ❣️