h. Play

Cold grapefruit/tuna salad with Banyuls vinegar dressing. It is insane.

Banyul wine is a sweet French wine that nobody in their right mind would drink on the regular. It’s pretty good as vinegar though.

But here with the combination of the acid and sweet on the sour side of grapefruit, the light tartness of tuna, the crunchiness of iceberg salad and the heat from onions, pepper and Goya’s seasoning, it is wild.

I start eating until it’s empty. Like, every single time. It’s filling and refreshing. Extremely satisfying.

I tried other vinegars. Oh child, no. That’s the one. This is the one.

‘was on a quick vacation and watched Mall Cop. I had liked it when it came out so long ago now. Well, this movie has everything from before the phone/social media era. It is a time capsule:

• Bad immigration jokes
• Perfect 90mn length
• Vibrant mall activity though that was already mostly a lie (but recently they look so morbid)
• Futuristic vehicles (Segway), computers (VAIO portable) and toys (robots and Guitar Hero) that didn’t even make it to the end of that year in terms of relevance (the movie came out January 2009)
• Classic 2000s romantic silliness (I can’t explain, there’s one)
• Representation and good spirit
• Texting jokes and dumb phones (if only they could see the streets of [your city] today)
• Skateboarder villains (Mike V)
• Aquariums
• One liners (“feel the nub”, “nobody wins with a headbutt”)

Bonus: my favorite minivan. That I didn’t know in 2009 but that I drove a lot when working for TV in Hollywood.

Anyway. We didn’t know the acceleration society was about to go through then.

We never talk about it.

Air conditioning is so fucking stupid.

Why is it hot inside? Well, the sun rises and slowly, its energy rays penetrate our walls. At some point, they go through and we feel them inside; the heat.

We know that wall thickness and material composition are the most efficient way to delay heat transfer from outside to inside. 0.3”/1.5 cm glass with outside temperature of 35°C/95°F? Almost instant. 6”/15 cm standard (wood frame, some insulation, plaster) exterior wall? A few hours. 2 feet/60 cm of insulated concrete or bricks? 12+ hours, if ever.

So, instead of building properly in hot regions, here in America we go with this “standard” 6” wall and use a machine that uses enormous amounts of energy, running hot outside while it blasts cold air inside, to cool down those thin ass, warm stupid stucco walls and ceilings.

This is the stupidest design ever.

Instead of using energy once, building a thick wall that will passively make things cool inside for decades, we choose to use energy every day to actively cool down a hot wall that will be replaced in 15 years.

We’re idiots.

I’m trying that thick wall thing because that sounds logical and low maintenance.

Forced cooled air is way too dumb and wasteful! It bothers me.

• My Latinos are ALL paying cash at the grocery store.
• One of the first building to gentrify West Adams is already 2/3 empty. Restaurant died and tenant left.
• People delivering food are either in their 20s or 60s. More and more in their 60s.
• They’re planting cactus where homeless folks plant their tents. They do it anyway, they don’t have that much choice.
• Food prices are absolutely insane and unpredictable.
• My Euro food stores had stock and survived. Until now. It’s fucking dire and I’m afraid that one will close soon. Can’t import things with additional 40% tax and make a living.
• People’s addiction to watching the world go down through their lil’ phone makes me want to slap everyone starting with Mark Zuckerberg harrrd.
• Basically ALL my Latino young skaters who would always hit the park every weekend, have been gone since the start of the year. I thought I would see some this summer. I saw one. Once.
• New cars, outside of those, are disgusting. Bloated, toad like. It’s unreal how designers can get away with cars that don’t fit roads anymore at all.
• I see small shops in small buildings and like six months later they subdivide and now you have 2 small shops in one small building.
• My brothers are down bad. Sisters losing it. It’s a slow descent.

I’m doing OK, progressing on a bunch of stuff. I think I haven’t watched a full sunset in years. Sunrize, all year long.

Prince would have made it happen.

I can see him touring for free for Kamala. Rallying crowds with a triple album about the lessons of multiculturalism. Maybe someone would have tried to shoot him down, but he would have overcome.

He would have doubled down, as the symbol of cross, inter worlds icon who got together for multiple decades straight just about everyone to dance to his music. To respect him. To listen to him.

The Dems would have won and we would have been like, “of course they did. A second term was never going to happen!”.

We would have been so fucking wrong.

I miss that dude.

Politics are so insane, surreal and awful that it’s not possible to say anything interesting about it these days.

It’s incomprehensible.

This is a magical place to me.

32 hours of travel, 10 hours on freeways over 5 days. Family, friends, rain and mosquitoes.

• There’s always apprehension before a long ass flight across half the planet.
• And yet it really feels like the bus to me. As I said before, same folks, same gates, same planes.
• I end up having 3 seats to myself while being on the window side. Bliss.
• Always a treat to look outside and see the US ground.
• Then it’s Canada at night and then it’s Europe in the morning, with its rugs of clouds. You can’t see the ground, most of the time.
• I land in the rain. Not sure why I’m disappointed and annoyed, this is on-brand.
• Still, it’s July and I wanted to land in the sun, goddamn. It was 35°C/95°F for the past 3 weeks.
• Jetlag, chocolate croissant and coffee, hello y’all!
• Not cooking and having constant great food in my mouth is the vacation.
• It’s raining in the afternoon. Not all the time, but not a little bit either. It is pouring. Orages.
• I catch up with my friend A. who I haven’t seen in 10+ years. Dining at my favorite brasserie.
• I take public transportation and giggle at how I’m not missing that shit at all. So much waiting.
• People either smell good (perfume) or bad (sweat) in Paris. In LA it’s more like neutral (clean).
• We take off the next day for family reunion, taking turns on the freeway.
• Our AirBnB is cool af, we’ve been there before. So good to see my sister.
• We eat. We drink. We laugh. They go to bed. I stay up.
• Rum shots with my cousins. I walk back to the AirBnB with the stars and an immense dark sky.
• Amber lights in the background from the little village out there. We need to get back to those in America. The high security prison “public” lights have to go.
• Next day we’re partying, tongues are unknotting, and some mild passive aggressiveness shows up.
• Nothing beats 60 years of marriage though. We’re all happy to be there and hugs and smiles are flying left and right.
• It’s the next day already and I have to leave to rejoin my foster family, my second family, the first one timeline-wise.
• Freeway, fast, Playboi Carti, on repeat.
• I see my foster mom who’s been in bad shape this year. Well, she’s not too bad! 88. Her smile, her voice and her laughter are still as contagious and strong as before. She has pictures of all her kids, grandkids, and I on top of her furniture in the dining room.
• I can’t stay long as I have a few more hours to drive to my parents’ new home they’re building.
• I arrive in the super dark, stormy weather that makes you frown unconsciously.
• My sister gives me my birthday present from a couple years ago: a custom skateboard! She made the art. It is absolutely gorgeous. I’m not sure I want to tailslide it.
• We leave the next morning to get back to our Parisian suburbs. The pastries are hitting hard.
• Tiger mosquitoes as well. Fuck those! In 20mn I get 3 bites, kill one on my dad’s ankle and a couple trying to land on me. They’re relentless, active during the day. Wtf.
• Andouillette for lunch (smells like armpits, doesn’t taste like armpits). So happy.
• I drive to the store to get all the goodies: French salt, French cookies. I forget mustard.
• Time to go back home. Dad’s doing great at 75. I cherish our eyes making contact while we smile confidently when he drops me off. See you soon, tall fella.
• I transition back to being an American at the airport. After 5 days, it feels good not to have to translate nothin’ in my head.
• My driver back to the crib is using a Tesla car. Those cars are terrible inside. My ’99 Suzuki has seats more comfortable than this pretentious BS.
• I chop it up real quick with my brother and the dream vibe starts.
• I’m in the gorgeous, L.A. backyard setting with diverse plants and hummingbirds. I’m on the swing, recharging my batteries with the sun on my naked back and some sirens in the distant background.
• I’m sad. I’m happy. I’m thankful. I’m frustrated. I’m impatient. Did I dream all of this? I know there are photos.
• It’s been a couple days and my suitcase is still 50% full, laying on the floor.

Back to work.

Thinking a lot about that aspect of life. We like to act like we’re not alone in this world, but we kind of are. No matter what.

We are born alone and we will die alone.

No status prevents your from being alone.

Will Smith, despite his superstar status, is alone. My foster mom, despite her numerous children and grandchildren and I, is alone facing difficulties to move around her house. My cousin, despite her husband and family support, is alone facing cancer and biopsies. A skateboarder, despite his homies and words of encouragements, is alone in his own head when trying to land a trick.

It’s a paradox. We are together and can’t live alone. But we’re also not together and are facing things by ourselves, all the time.

AI doesn’t need to make money because AI is like dams: they cost enormous amounts of money, barely make any money back, and they just exist.

Once you’re navigating Billions daily (billions of GPUs, billions of customers, billions of cubic water, billions of dollars), the old revenue/costs == profit doesn’t really apply.

Once you’re in billions, you’re big enough to do whatever you want. Amazon, Netflix and Meta show it daily. They lose enormous amounts of money, make some back, invest into some stuff that sometimes makes 20X the money they spent (Meta bought Insta for $1B; Insta makes $20B annually off of selling your info now), it doesn’t really matter. Netflix can have a $50M show that generates 300 views, they do not care. Here’s more money for you to make another one.

AI is an economic moat which can work, learn and improve literally 24/7. It is the absolute perfect slave. There’s no need for a business model.

We, AI and our current world are passed that. People keep trying to reason within the capitalist framework on how AI can fit, this is futile. It doesn’t need this.

Which is why I keep slamming that we need UBI and earth-friendly homes. That’s the truest understanding here.

It synthesizes knowledge. It approximates. It emulates. It models.

Synthesizers are not new! We’ve been using them in music for 50 years. When they appeared, they seemed very odd: you’re telling me that this machine simulates notes and tones? They’re not actually created by air and real world physical friction? Gross! Also what’s the point??

50 years later most people have cried over music made on synthesizers. Most hits of the past 30 years have been made with synthesizers. Many of them entirely made with synthesizers. Some wonderful music has been made with synthesizers.

AI is also an automation tool. Do you know what we automated right quick? Piano playing.

Back in the days, not long after the end of slavery, thousands of musicians were making a living playing the piano in bars. The first self-playing piano was a reality by 1896. 129 years ago.

Since then we invented the jukebox and DJs. Do you know how many musicians playing instruments with their hands and souls have had their musician career automated by technology? A huge number over a hundred years. Imagine the city, society, if we had had musicians everywhere. A lot of things might have been smoother and flowing better, and there would be way less pretending (you can’t fake playing an instrument well), I think.

My point is: music and audio showed the future decades ago. And we will survive this AI thing too.

We need UBI though. Lock the fuck in on that, folks. We are in post-work society.