207 going to an actual event, with an audience!

We were invited to celebrate a birthday by attending the "Sensorio Field of Lights," in Paso Robles, California.

Supposedly attendance has been scaled back, and the normal live music has been cancelled, but it's an honest-to-dog event-ish. There was a line (for standby tickets). After we waited in that for a minute by mistake, we were scanned for metal (remember what happened at the last gilroy garlic festival?), then greeted by the same 7 questions I got at UCSF last week.

Then we had our temperatures scanned, while we were apparently recorded saying our name. I guess the idea is being able to contact trace?

Inside, there was a food court. People sitting down to eat were encouraged to wear masks between sips, but no one did. (You know, sitting down makes you immune...)

And then the main event, which was walking along a moderately crowded path in the dark. People were encouraged to maintain distancing, and sorta kinda did. Kinda. And although we were supposed to wear masks, there were plenty of shnozzes.

The actual art piece was great. I'm simply in awe of anyone who manages to turn an artistic experience into a booming business.  Bruce Munro has done it.

Yes, it's like BurningMan met a carnival midway while out looking at holiday lights, but it's still art, and it had young people dressing up to look fabulous in the middle of a field in the relative middle of nowhere, and that's a pretty bad-ass act of pulling a rabbit out of a hat. 

Something from nothing, that is art at its best.

We watched "The Social Dilemma" the other night.

It's filled with great points. We're the product. We're being fed a clangbird's diet of self-satisfying propaganda. AI is already running the show. Our thoughts are being taken over by our devices. We're addicted, on purpose.

What I found fell a bit short was the fact that the subjects of the documentary were all basically giving Lady Macbeth's "out damn spot" speech. 

There was a lot of guilt, and remorse, or at least "uh oh, what did I do?" These people, like most people talking, were making sense of their world. And in a way, were dumping their troubles on our laps. (Look what I did, what are you going to do about it?)

Plus, there was zero consideration given to the idea that maybe humans unleashed aren't the best thing for the planet, and that this new hybrid-evolving, man-machine, might actually do some good for us all. Instead, it was all about the loss of what we used to be, combined with this scary notion that we've lost our free will, and become bots for sinister advertisers. (We heard again and again from talking heads on TV. Hmmm...)

Yes, the early leaders in device-mind-control have turned us into a red vs. blue hive hate mind, but we are in the very early days of this. Hopefully the next bunch of technologists is coming around with something better. More useful, less memes about dear leader.

We'll see.

We have reached that point in the election cycle where people start dumping on San Francisco. For the record, without bragging, due to Deb, I live in the nicest neighborhood of anyone I know, knock on wood. It's beautiful, walkable, in the middle of a city but with plenty of nature. Houses sell for multiple millions.

Yes, there are lots of great places and neighborhoods all across the country and world, and once upon a time when my buddy in Australia had a view of Sydney Harbor and a charming ferry stop near his house, I might have given him the prize. But, mainly, yeah, we live in a really fucking nice neighborhood. 

And it's right in the middle of what people who watch too much TV think is some sort of terror show.

Speaking of terror shows...

Who is whose bitch?

How's your mask collection coming along?

NOFX played a backyard show. I suppose I'm including this to show how live performance and events are coming back.

But mainly it's for the RKL t-shirt. It's fun knowing a piece of music history, Whooper.

The Pickled Pistol is among those freedom loving Americans who want to suppress voting by requiring we present ID at the polls. I'm one of those afraid-of-fascism people who think being asked to "show your papers" isn't freedom.

And while being asked to show your papers while operating a vehicle might be one thing (there are deadly consequences) and flying another (there are lower odds of deadly consequences, and a lot of paranoia), now that we've given away those rights, don't think it will stop at voter ID.

It won't even stop at a barcode on your forehead.

Be safe, and love!