Filed by Bil at 7:25 pm under Fightin' Words, Love, Politics, Pop Culture, Religion, The Science
No Comments

I read a New York Times Opinion article recently about our human tendency to anthropomorphize machines and assign the badge “Artificial Intelligence” to robots that simply aren’t intelligent. (I suspect he’s referring to articles like this one.) The opinion article is a great read, but it’s kinda long and it seems to conclude in a different place than it starts out, so if I were a high school English teacher, I’d give the essay a B.

At its core, this piece is a warning to us humans not to infuse our technological advancements with religious or philosophical ideologies. And I must say, I completely agree with that statement. My favorite point the author makes is this:

In fact, the nuts and bolts of A.I. research can often be more usefully interpreted without the concept of A.I. at all. For example, I.B.M. scientists recently unveiled a “question answering” machine that is designed to play the TV quiz show “Jeopardy.” Suppose I.B.M. had dispensed with the theatrics, declared it had done Google one better and come up with a new phrase-based search engine. This framing of exactly the same technology would have gained I.B.M.’s team as much (deserved) recognition as the claim of an artificial intelligence, but would also have educated the public about how such a technology might actually be used most effectively.

It punctuates exactly what he’s trying to state before going on to make grander observations about religious wars and the concept of personhood.

However, it did get me thinking – not so much about personhood or religion, but about the meaning of intelligence.
(Keep reading…)

Filed by Lance at 10:31 pm under General, Love, Pop Culture, Social Issues, The Arts, The Media
No Comments

In honor of our British opponents in today’s World Cup match, let’s start with some 90’s BritPop:

She’s in a family full of eccentrics
She’s done things I never expected
And I need more time

(Keep reading…)

Filed by Lance at 9:04 pm under Fightin' Words, General, Love, The Arts
1 Comment

What’s the value of a critic?

What’s the value of criticism?

They’re two completely separate things.
(Keep reading…)

Filed by Lance at 6:00 pm under General, Hatemail, Love, Stuff to Read, The Arts, The Media
1 Comment

I ran across THXTHXTHX [via], and thought it’s really interesting. Thank-you-note-blog. An Anti-Hatemail!

Filed by Bil at 8:03 pm under Love, Shameless Plugs, The Arts
No Comments

We’ve been given a night off from rehearsal, so I can finally blog about it again.

I can only assume last night’s Electra rehearsal was our best rehearsal ever, because it was our most physically strenuous rehearsal ever. It was longer, for one thing, as any good tech rehearsal ought to be. Also, by this point we all know our lines as well as we’ve ever known them for this show, which allows us to flow more rapidly from moment to moment, which allows us to increase our intensity. And given that our two-story set is full of steps and our scenes are full of Anna throwing other actors onto the ground, there was quite a lot of up-and-down last night. So – long hours of intensely falling down and intensely getting back up over and over again so we could get it right…yeah, we were a tired bunch by quitting time last night.

But it was definitely our best rehearsal so far. We really are getting into it, especially now that we’ve got our spooky lighting and creepy sound cues. This show is going to be so good.
(Keep reading…)

Filed by Bil at 8:53 pm under Love
No Comments

Hello. I just thought I’d offer a free service here. There is a bunch of free music to listen to on the internet these days, and we’ve been using some of it here on the website, and I thought it might be nice to both you, the reader/viewer/listener, and them, the musicians who are constantly trying to build a fan base. So here you have it, all in one convenient blog post: my current favorites. Some of these you’ll find in earlier blog posts here on Tip Your Waiter; some I haven’t yet had the opportunity to use, and I’m dying to get them out there.

I’m in a totally musical mood lately, and I want to share!
In this list: Laura Veirs, Grizzly Bear, OK Go, Drive-By Truckers, The Smashing Pumpkins, Broken Bells, and Ben Folds.
(Keep reading…)

Filed by Trevor at 11:52 pm under Fightin' Words, Gay Agenda, Gender Identity, Homophobia, Love
2 Comments

“You’re such a sissy! What are you so afraid of? Then love the front of me, honey!” — Hedwig

I’m a total hypocrite. Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, I can say whatever comes to mind and you will know that we both have permission to take me with a grain of salt.

I dislike being gay. I realize that if I were a celebrity and had said this on national television, GLAAD would denounce me and Exodus International would use this as apparent proof of the feelings of self-loathing inherent in my deviant lifestyle, but as it usually is, the truth is much more complicated. I am not ashamed of the fact that I am romantically and sexually attracted to men, and I am not ashamed to be truthful about this. So I amend my statement: I dislike that being gay prevents me from having close, non-romantic, totally platonic friendships with straight men without the lingering suspicion that I am harboring much deeper feelings. I would even go so far as to say I hate this fact. In short: I want to be just one of the guys.
(Keep reading…)

Filed by Bil at 2:59 pm under Fightin' Words, Love, Politics, Shameless Plugs, The Arts
No Comments

It appears that Lance was blogging about education at the same time I was last night, only his was finished a little while before mine, so if anyone was too distracted by Pink Floyd, please take a moment and also read up on what Lance has to say.

Now that you’ve read that post and have returned here, I wanted to give a quick shout-out to Elephant & Worm, an educational theatre company that “brings kids together with professional actors, artists, and writers to take original stories written by children and turn them into plays, movies, and songs!” Fellow Dream Theatre Company member Judith Lesser is heavily involved in this company, and you know if someone from Dream Theatre is involved, it must be great!

Kudos to all involved in education at all ages, because education should never stop. Never ever.

Filed by Lance at 11:43 pm under General, Love, Shameless Plugs, The Arts
1 Comment

I’ve been fortunate enough to have some amazing mentors in my life, and I’m happy to say Lisa Canning is one of them (I don’t know if she likes or knows she’s wearing the name badge of “Lance’s Mentor,” but I’m sticking it on her, anyway). She’s taken my thinking in directions I didn’t know were there, and if I can get my feet out of the mud, the things she teaches have the potential to simply take my life somewhere I’ve always imagined it could go.

(Keep reading…)

Filed by Lance at 5:23 pm under General, Love, Social Issues
1 Comment

So after the success of our last Hatemail recording on 2/28, I felt inspired to Vlog about it.

Problem was, I felt a little like a zombie, and looked and sounded like one, too.

What to do?
(Keep reading…)