Filed by Bil at 7:25 pm under Fightin' Words, Love, Politics, Pop Culture, Religion, The Science
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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.
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Filed by Lance at 4:40 pm under General, Pop Culture, The Arts
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Through my work with the Bite Size Arts Ensemble, I came up with this idea to get kids actively involved in creating theater.

I came up with a simple “script,” really just a bullet point list of the flow of a scene. I usually based this off of some ideas they had, or fleshed out a story they told me. I then came up with a list of assignments, i.e., Director, Art Director, Cinematographer, Actors, and gave them specific assignments, then turned them loose, guiding them and making suggestions as the “Producer.”

Here’s the results, I’m really proud of these kids:

Filed by Lance at 2:01 pm under General, Hatemail, Pop Culture, Shameless Plugs, The Arts
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Start time: 1:00 PM
Media Personnel in attendance: 1
Pounds of Flesh consumed: 15
Kegs we polished off: 1, plus how many bottles??
Hatemail pieces we recorded: about 5
Pounds of vegetables we grilled: 6
True stories about Kelsey Grammer I heard: 1
New friends I made: 3 or 4
Friendships I deepened: several
Cups of coffee we served: 20
Cups of coffee I drank: 3
Twitter updates we sent: 7
End time: I left Trevor’s at about 1:30 AM

Congrats to you, Bil, and to you, Trevor, our gracious host, for another amazing Hatemail Recording Session! The next one takes place just before my birthday, Sunday, August 29th. Be there! Add to the numbers!

Filed by Bil at 8:04 pm under Depression, Pop Culture
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I write like
Vladimir Nabokov

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Some mathematical algorithm thinks I write like Vladimir Nabokov – modern day Nabokov? Sure, I could see that, because modern-day Nabokov is dead, whereas I apparently am too alive to get any writing done.
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Filed by Bil at 12:03 pm under Pop Culture, Religion, Shameless Plugs, The Arts
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It’s the Monday before the show opens, so you know what that means: FULL ON SHOW PROMOTION MODE!

“Orestes” opens this Thursday down at the Dream Theatre in Pilsen, the Heart of Chicago. “Orestes” completes the Agon Trilogy, which has won Best New Play of 2010 by the Chicago Reader.

Here’s why you should come see it:

1) It takes place in Hell.

In this play, Hell is cold and dark. Forget what you believe about burning fire and torturous machines. Electra finds her way to the black pit in the second act of this show, and there she finds the long suffering of people in their own private sequestered rooms, tortured by themselves and able only to torture Electra once she finds them. This show shows us not the physical pain of Hell, but the mental anguish of loneliness and lost hope.

2) All your questions about Chorus will be answered.

I’m not giving anything else away. You have to be shown by the cast, not told by a blog.

3) The audience matters here.

In this play, moreso than in any other play I’ve experienced (either as an actor or an audience member), the audience are characters. There is a purpose to the actors’ talking to the audience, not for the simple sake of “breaking the 4th wall” or for any kind of shock value. The audience not only has a presence to the characters onstage, but a history. It’s thrilling and it draws you in as completely as possible, and there’s no hokey “audience participation” necessary. (Read: do not shout out occupations for the cast. They will cut you if you do this. Really.) Don’t be fooled by Tryphosia in the lobby before the show, you will actually be scared by the importance you bring as the audience member.

4) Seeing live theatre is awesome.

You can’t get an experience like this staying at home, and you can’t get it at the movies. It’s not expensive, and it’ll make you think things you never thought you’d think. Don’t be shy. Live a little.

Tickets are here:

Filed by Bil at 12:52 pm under Pop Culture, The Media
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I think it’s time for Hollywood to consider the minivan as a viable source of suave, robotic awesomeness. Too often the hardcore spies get a sexy little European roadster while their team of technicians sits in a clunky full-size work van. For the sake of saving money on budget, though, I propose that filmmakers could maximize their efficiency by putting the whole team into one fully-functional - and stylish - minivan.
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Filed by Lance at 10:31 pm under General, Love, Pop Culture, Social Issues, The Arts, The Media
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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

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Filed by Bil at 7:58 pm under Pop Culture, Shameless Plugs, Social Issues, The Arts
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Good people of Cyberspace, prithee, look to the right side of thy screen and hark! You’ll notice we are holding an open recording session for actors to read some hatemail for us. Inquire within for more info if you’re interested. It’s from 2 to 5 PM at Trevor’s live-in recording studio (AKA his apartment). There will be coffee.

For those of you who haven’t heard me talk about it a gajillion times already, the premise is this: we get people to send us hatemail intended for someone else (anyone in the world can participate). Then, we get local actors to give them dramatic readings (any actor in town can participate). Once we have recordings, we get local musicians to underscore them (any musician in town can participate). Finally, we get local visual artists to make something pretty/grotesque/interesting for them (any visual artist in town can participate). It’s pretty simple, really.

Now then.

You know those people who claim to have read “1984″ and say that the future Orwell presents is the scariest thing they can think of? I’m gonna go ahead and call bullshit on that one.
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Filed by Lance at 2:45 pm under General, Pop Culture, The Arts, The Media
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Here’s a clip of the most recent episode of The Cleveland Show. The point here is not the relative merits of Family Guy or American Dad! versus this MacFarlane project, but this clip is a classic rule of three with a nice button at the end.
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Filed by Bil at 8:01 pm under Love, Pop Culture, Religion, Shameless Plugs, The Media
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I’m gonna say it up front: I have no idea who this blog’s audience is. It is entirely possible that we have NO audience, and that the hit counter is just making shit up so that we don’t fire it.

That being said, I still take it as bad news that teenagers and pre-teens are reading fewer and fewer blogs these days:

Teens Spurn Blogs, Twitter

In light of the fact that it’s going to get harder instead of easier to pull an audience, I think it’s time to ask myself: what do I want from this blog?
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