Wednesday, 9/2

Nope. I will never, ever use it. Not even if you put a gun to my head.

The world has been turned upside down the past few years by the advent of AI, artificial intelligence. It's crept into every facet of life these days, whether you want it to or not, and it's been used for many different purposes, up to and including replacing writers, musicians, and other creative individuals in doing things like writing daily blogs.

But I'll make this guarantee to you right now--

You'll never have to worry about one of these being written by a machine.

After once again talking about how busy I was this week, someone sent me a note and suggested that if I'm ever in a time crunch, I should try & see if AI could write one of these. She says she's used it, and no one was the wiser. In theory, I suppose I could outsource these to a machine. I've written almost 3,000 of them, and I could feed those 3,000 into AI, have it analyze my writing style, pick out a topic, and then have it write 500 words. And you know what? I'm guessing that it could come up with a reasonable facsimile of what I do.

And that's just one of the scary parts.

I mean, no "artist" (not that I consider myself an artist) wants to be replaced by a machine, but these days it is possible.. And seeing as how we're only in the early days of artificial intelligence, I'm guessing that in a couple of years the machines may supplant human creativity. But that's not the point. Up until a few years ago creativity was just that--a human endevour. If we allow AI to do it for us, does that make us a little less human? The machines more human?

The mind boggles.

Aside from the ethical consideration, there's also the environmental ones. Every time someone uses AI it sucks up a huge amount of electricity to power the computer chips behind it, and a huge amount of water to cool those chips so they can keep working. With the way we've been wrecking the planet lately do we really want to spew more power plant pollution into the air and suck more precious water out of the ground?

It blows my mind that some people are okay with that. But apparently, they are.

I realize that I sound like a technological Luddite in writing this, but as we all know I'm really not. It just seems like we're at a tipping point in our growth as a species. Do we really want to outsource the most human of our activities--the arts--to a machine that gobbles up finite natural resources? In my opinion, at least, it's not a thing I want to be party to. I mean, I realize that I'm probably in the minority on this, but change just for the sake of change isn't always the best thing in the world.

So, if you don't mind, I'll just keep writing these with my human brain, powered by chocolate and green tea. You won't catch me using AI to assist in anything to do with these. And I hope that's okay.

I do wonder, though, if that means I'm somewhat akin to a dinosaur standing on a North American plain 66 million years ago, watching a fireball streak across the sky, and not knowing that things are about to change forever, and not for the good.

(jim@wmqt.com)

Tuesday, 9/1

And here, after I did two TV bits last night, I thought things would slow down.

You may recall that I had a bit of a busy week last week. Even though I'm getting ready to head downstate to see Loraine's dad in a few days, I was hoping it would be a little slower this week. But you know what?

I was wrong.

I mean, I'm on course to make sure everything's ready for radio while I'm gone. As I said, I taped next week's TV piece (to air on Labor Day) last night. But now, I all of a sudden find I have meetings today and tomorrow, plus an interview someone scheduled for me without (ahem) asking if I have the time to do it.

So, you know, now I have those to look forward to.

I keep thinking back to a coffee cup I once saw that said “being an adult means hoping your schedule clears up next week”. Well, it's now next week, and (checking his calendar) my schedule hasn't cleared up yet.

I think the coffee cup may have been on to something.

So with that in mind, I'm going to leave you with one of the TV things I did last night. It's horrifying, it's chilling, and it's apocalyptic.

Or maybe that's just me.

8-)

(jim@wmqt.com)

Monday, 8/31

I'm not ready for summer to be over.

The rain & cooler temperatures of this past weekend, and the fact that I just typed “8/31” when starting this blog have added to the feeling I've been carrying around the past couple of weeks that my favorite time of the year is coming to a close. Not only that, but it's been a weird summer—really hot some days, quite cool on others, rain when there was supposed to be sun, smoke descending from the heaven. I keep hoping that we'll get a couple of “normal” days so we can at least go out on a high note.

But I don't think that's gonna happen.

If you're a weather professional, the season actually ends today, when “Meteorological Summer”, the months of June, July, & August, wrap up. And that's how I usually think of summer, even though the three weeks of September before the actual equinox occurs can often be nicer than the beginning of June. However, there's just something about the high sun angle and the promise of warm days to come in June that you can't get in September, no matter how hard you try.

But...what are you gonna do, right?

I know there are plenty of people who are looking forward to the cooler days, the changing leaves, and the pumpkin spiced everything that mark the next few months. I don't begrudge them that at all. But for me, summer—even an insanely busy one like this one—is an escape from reality. It's a time when I can head to the beach or jump on my bike and just mentally run away from everything.

Call it a character flaw on my part, but I, at least, can't do that when it's cold or snowy or pumpkin spiced. I just can't.

Hopefully, everything that I was able to get out of summer this year will help me get through to summer next year. Given the way this year has gone so far, I'm not 100% sure, but I'm hopeful. Otherwise, come January or February get ready for me posting a lot of pictures of sun & leaves & blue skies and maybe, just maybe, a lot of whining about I'm soooooo ready for summer to begin.

Don't say you weren't forewarned.

8-)

(jim@wmqt.com)

Friday, 8/28

The note may have made it all worth it.

If you've been reading these recently you know I've been in the middle of a rather busy week (including a show tonight at the Lake Superior Theater). And it's still going on; Loraine and I are going downstate a week from today to visit daily blog reader Floyd of Reese, so I have to work ahead for that (like making sure radio runs while I'm gone and writing two TV bits) before we hit the road.

I know. The fun never ends, right?

8-)

Anyway, I received a hand-written note from someone who had been involved in one of the things that made the past week so busy. I wasn't at all expecting the note, so when I saw the words “Thank you for all the joy you bring”, I had to stop and think about it for a second. I mean; I've never quite thought of it that way. I hope this doesn't make me sound strange, but I've never really considered the effect that my work has on people. I put a tour or program together, I do it, I mentally go over what went right and what didn't go the way I thought, and then I move on to the next project.

This may be short-sighted of me, but I guess I never stopped to consider how the people attending the projects felt during and after.

I mean, I know they (hopefully) laughed and some will tell me how much they enjoyed it, but I guess I never thought of it that way. I never thought of it as bringing people joy. But if they did laugh a little and enjoyed what I did, then I guess I AM bringing people a little joy. And these days, is there anything more precious to share with a group of people?

I don't think so.

So I'd like to thank the person who gave me the note, for both giving it to me and for opening my eyes to this new perspective on my work. I've always known how it's impacted me; now I know how it affects others, as well.

Have a great weekend!

(jim@wmqt.com)

Thursday, 8/27

Today's my "normal" day.

First of all, if you're wondering how "Happy Hour II" went last night, here's how "Happy Hour II" went last night--

I had no idea how it would turn out, especially with the rain showers and the threat of storms we had throughout the day, but 170 or so people joined us. I just knew that after the success we had with it last year, and the fact that many people asked if we'd be doing it again, that we HAD to do it again.

And I'm guessing that was a good decision.

As I had mentioned on Monday, this is an insane week--TV the first two days, the tour last night, and a Lake Superior Theater show tomorrow night. That means that day is the "normal" day of my week. Now, as we all know, there's literally nothing normal about my life, but if you had to submit a photo as to what a "normal" day night be like, it would be today--working in radio for eight hours, going home to write a bunch of crap, and making sure that everything is ready for both the boathouse show tomorrow night and for the jaunt Loraine and I are taking to see her dad next weekend.

And who know--I may even get five minutes just to stare out the window and try to relax.

If that, indeed, is even possible any more.

As we know, while I may comment about weeks like these, I am not in any way complaining about weeks like these. This is the life I lead, and as I've mentioned before, I wouldn't trace it for anything in the world. I enjoy what I do, even if I (on occasion) wish it were spread out a little more. But you know what? You can't have everything. And even if you did, to quote Stephen Wright, where would you keep it?

8-)

So that's where things stand, at least as of this morning. I'm now off to have a "normal" day. As if, of course, anything in my life could actually ever BE normal.

(jim@wmqt.com)

Wednesday, 8/26

To quote a great Scottish philosopher, tonight's the night. Assuming, of course, the rains holds off.

Thar's right. Tonight's the night we hit the streets for the follow-up to the most successful tour I've ever given, "Happy Hours: The Legendary Bars of Marquette". As you may recall, last year almost 300 people followed me through a downtown Marquette filled with smoke haze as we discussed the debauchery, bad decisions, and what can happen when the legal drinking age was lowered to 18.

It was a blast.

Well, assuming it's not a downpour (and as I'm writing this it's just cloudy, with even a little blue sky here and there) we're doing it again tonight, taking a slightly different route and talking about some bars we didn't get to last time. Although, if this will be your first time on a bar tour, never fear--we'll be playing the greatest hits of Snuffy's, Andy's, Flagman's, and, of course, the Alibi In fact, I wrote a newspaper article about the Alibi, which I'm re-purposing (you remember that word, right?) below. So if you have the chance, and it's (fingers crossed) not raining, join us tonight. You'll hear amazing stories both old & new, get the chance to partake in Marquette's Social District should you choose, and maybe (just maybe) get the answer to a question that bugged us all last year--

Was a certain downtown bar actually Marquette's last-ever brothel?

The answer tonight!

(jim@wmqt.com)

******

Today, the building houses a personal training center. But for approximately 15 years, it was the home of one of the most popular college bars in Marquette history…

The Alibi.

Not a lot of pictures or physical documentation exists of the Alibi, probably because the people who went there had had things OTHER than documenting history on their mind. But the stories that came from the nightclub will live on for years to come.

The Alibi opened in December of 1974 when several investors purchased The Brat House, which in the two years it had been opened had developed a reputation as one of the rowdier establishments on Marquette’s bar scene. The Alibi Rock Theater, as it was first known, was designed to be nothing like the Brat House. Its major selling point was a state of the art sound system that could shake the floor and projectors that could allow the new owners to show movies and televised sporting events on the bar’s walls.

However, like all Marquette college bars of the 1970s, the Alibi quickly developed a reputation of its own.

It’s been said by those who were there that the Alibi’s busiest days were snow days at NMU, when students would quickly head across the street from the dorms to celebrate classes being canceled. If students weren’t quite sure where to go, ads placed in the North Wind thoughtfully showed just how easy it was to get from Magers or Meyland Hall to the club.

The Alibi just wasn’t a place for college students to get cheap drinks like the legendary “Supa Beers”.. With its sound system, the Alibi also had a long history with music. Like almost every college bar in the country in the 1970s, it’s claimed that “The Alligator” was first danced there. And as disco swept the country, the Alibi was one of the first places in the UP that went all in with a lit dance floor, strobe lights, and a group of DJs still remembered fondly to this day.

Like many bars of the era that catered to college students, the Alibi’s first big test came in December of 1978 when the state of Michigan raised its drinking age from 18 to 21. That meant the vast majority of NMU students couldn't legally purchase a drink. That didn't stop the vast majority of them from trying to get served, leading the bar to place ads in local papers asking minors to please PLEASE stop trying.

Needless to say, the ads didn't have the desired effect.

To try to make up for the last revenue the bar tried many different stunts & promotions; everything from attempting to cash in on the “Urban Cowboy” craze to contests that would rate patrons parading around in tight jeans and wet T-shirts, events that would raise an eyebrow or two these days. One of the Alibi’s biggest promotions throughout the 1980s was a quasi sporting event. According to someone who worked at the bar in the 1980s, their one lasting memory of the Alibi was coming into work at noon every day and smelling nothing but Jell-O thanks to the Jello-O wrestling that had been held the night before.

The one thing the Alibi did have going for it was its sound system. Live music was a mainstay at the bar, and many local performers recall the nights they spent playing there, some developing a fan base that lasted for years. As the years wore on, the projectors that were installed in 1974 were used less and less, leading the bar's customers during its latter years to not even know they existed

Like many college bars in the 1980s liquor license violations were common; in fact, some people say the Alibi would serve you as long as you were tall enough to empty your piggy bank on the bar. Even new owners couldn’t stop the stem of under-aged college students trying their best to get served. After another license suspension in late 1990, the bar's owners called it quits, shutting down a club that literally thousands of NMU students considered their second home.

The legend, however, lives on, as even three and a half decades after it closed, people will still share fond stories of what they were able to get away with at the Marquette bar “where the funzat”...

The Alibi.

********

Stories (and establishments) such as those of the Alibi will be the focus of "Happy Hour II—More Bars & Even More Wild Stories” a walking tour for the Marquette Regional History Center. It gets underway at 630 on Wednesday, August 26th, at the History Center, and will take place within the city's Social District. There's a $5 suggested donation. To find out more, call the History Center at (906) 226-3571, or visit www.marquettehistory.org.

Tuesday, 8/25

I can't believe I've now done it 200 times.

Last night's "Life in the 906" was, as I mentioned yesterday, a milestone. It was the 200th time that I stood in the studio and babbled on and on about a topic When I started doing these, I had no idea how long I'd be doing it, or if I'd even want to keep doing them.

But I guess we now have our answer to both of those questions.

I've been thinking the past couple of months about whether or not I wanted to do a "special" one for number 200, but nothing really came to me. Then before doing last week's bit I had mentioned to Kevin that the next one would be number 200, and he asked if I was planning something to commemorate it. As I started to walk home afterwards, a thought popped into my head.

By the time I got home, the piece I did last night was almost fully written in my head.

Maybe that's one of the cool things about this particular endeavor. I've had to come up with 200 ideas, one week at a time. Some weeks it's like pulling teeth figuring out a topic that might interest people; others (like the one last night) just come to me in a bolt of inspiration and all I have to do is type the thoughts spilling out my my brain.

It's been weird. But it's also been fun, and it's it's been an eye-opening blast.

And after last night I can't wait to see what pops out of my brain for the next 200 segments of "Life in the 906".

So just how DID I mark number 200? Check it out for yourself--

(jim@wmqt.com)