This morning, I have no bad news concerning the departure of a beloved pop culture icon from this world to wherever next is or might be or might not be. Now, there’s a powerful Ghanaian novel by Ayi Kwei Armah called The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born. It was published in 1968, near the end of a long and very violent process of decolonization. But I disagree with Armah on one point: The beautiful have been and are being born, but they’re clearly more fragile than the spiritually ugly. It seems even a sneeze will undo the beautiful. But the deadliest of cancers are nowhere to be found when it comes to persons with passions that are totally negative, wicked, and bankrupt.
Hold your horses. There is a significant death to report. The Japanese artist known for her immersive Infinity Mirror Rooms, Yayoi Kusama, gave up the ghost after going through all that is knowable with some certainty in this world for 97 years. One of Kusama’s infinities, All the Eternal Love I Have for the Pumpkins, made a stop at the Seattle Art Museum in 2017, and, as a consequence, visitors flooded local social media accounts with selfies of selfies of selfies of selfies of selfies, from here to infinity.
Speaking of mirrors. This passage is from Jorge Luis Borges’ specular short story, “Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius”: “We discovered (such a discovery is inevitable in the late hours of the night) that mirrors have something monstrous about them. Then Bioy Casares recalled that one of the heresiarchs of Uqbar had declared that mirrors and copulation are abominable, because they increase the number of men.”
Hold your horses again. I just learned that one of the famous uglies of the modern world, the Butcher of Bosnia (Ratko Mladić), has entered the most monstrous of shades at age 84. In 2017, he was convicted by the International Criminal Tribune for the killing of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in 1995 during the Bosnian war. Back then, we called this crime a genocide. There was no two ways about it. Mladić died in prison.
First it must be said that the catastrophic flash floods in an area where China and Nepal meet, the stunning Langtang valley, were not an act of God. Keep Him out of this one. Humans have their hands all over it. Global warming caused a massive chunk of a glacier to collapse, fall an estimated 17,000 feet, and slam into the ground with a suddenness that triggered a 5.2 “seismic event” and left over a thousand humans with no room to escape its God-like force. So far, the number of dead (353) and missing (1,300) is rising and rising. Many of the missing were from the US (65). Many were in the area to visit spiritual sites. Many were just tourists. As we go further and further into the capitalist ecology expect catastrophes of this scale and power to accelerate.
AI is not saving or making money in a conventional manner. Reuters investigation of Meta’s new crackpipe (AI replacing good jobs) found nothing but small productivity gains in exchange for increases in errors and on time spent solving AI fuckups. There is, of course, nothing wrong with AI (it can be a very useful mental tool), but there is something wrong with how it’s being sold. Expect a bunch of laidoff tech workers to be recalled in the near future.
I took the 8 bus on Monday. The bus lane: brand spanking new. The time: 4:35 pm. The bus: 9 minutes late! And traffic was mild. A tech worker in a bar, A Pizza Mart, near the bus stop (Westlake Ave and Denny Way) explained to me that Monday’s traffic is never that bad because the tech workers are in the office usually between Tuesday and Thursday. That’s not all. The shit will only hit the fan on Denny when kids return to school. At that time, tech parents return to South Lake Union. “Right now, I have access to the conference rooms,” they said to me. “But in two weeks, early September, that will all change. I won’t be able to book anything. That’s when we can really test the effectiveness of the mayor’s new lane for the 8.”
But will the kids return to school on time? That question is certainly in the air after Seattle teachers authorized a strike. What’s this all about? Do you really have to ask that? Are you so dwaas? We underpay teachers, we underpay nurses, we underpay daycare workers. We underpay everyone except millionaires and billionaires. Need I say more? If the district fails to solve this dire matter with the teachers, the strike will begin on the first day of school, September 2.
Back to the 8 bus. On the day I sampled the new lane, there was hardly any traffic. However, the bus was still late. Still the 8. Still no love for the waiting people. As I said before, the traffic really happens between Queen Anne and Capitol Hill, which, according to my reckoning, is roughly 35 percent of the 8 line. As for the rest—Capitol Hill to the much unloved Mount Baker Transit Center—the bus is practically empty. Possible fix? The bus lane plus a bus dedicated to stops between Capitol Hill and Queen Anne, particularly during rush hours.
There is another problem with the 8. It begins at the always ugly, unloved, and despised Mount Baker Transit Center (can I ask Mamdani to do something about that stop?) and ends at 23rd Avenue and Yesler Way. The 48, which goes to the University District, and the 8 depart at nearly the same time. Meaning, if you miss the one, you likely missed the other. Why can’t they be separated by even 5 minutes? Can Mamdani fix this?
Can Mamdani also fix this? The digital sign for the 7 bus on South Genesee and Rainier Ave died long ago, bro. It’s now nothing more than a tombstone to the promised land of public transportation. If Metro has given up, maybe it would be kind enough to place a gothic and weathered statue of a sleeping pubescent angel below it.
I can feel it coming in the air this morning, oh Lord. And it was also there in the past five or so mornings. The day begins with fall: clouds, cool air, some wind, the promise of rain. But the sun gets the upper hand by noon, and we are back in the “cruel summer.” But fall is gaining strength by the day, if not the hour, and winter is just around the corner. Can I get a witness? Expect some beautiful people to be born today. And expect a high of 72.
Let’s end AM with Erik Blood, who is scheduled to do the ones and twos at this year’s Genius Awards, performing “Chase the Clouds” on KEXP:
