The collapse of the temporal horizon [497]
Greetings from the shed...
I’m Christian Payne, photographer and ponderer. Fresh back from the USA and in the aftermath of the recent election, I’m aware of a shared sense of disillusionment and trepidation. But I’ll carry on as normal and seek out novelty, explore the relations between things, plus where we might be going. Thanks for being here.
#TheAction
My family and I were standing at the check-in desk at Las Vegas Airport. I handed our boarding cards to a man in his 60s, wearing a blazer adorned with metal badges. Glancing across them had me feel that this was one very proud American. Let’s call him Eugene.
Eugene assessed the weight of our suitcase, raised his eyebrows, then quickly slipped it from the scales onto the conveyor. With a smile, he winked and said, “There, I’ve hidden the evidence.”
The conversation that this kind gesture sparked lasted over 20 minutes. During that time, we were entertained as well as gifted our very own metal badges—small American flags.
We learned that the cane Eugene walked with was just for show. He’d adopted it in protest when airport officials moved his parking space further away. He surreptitiously demonstrated how he walked with and without it. He certainly didn’t need it, but told us that after years of being a New York theatre critic, he’d learned how to act from the best of them.
He also shared his plan for “if the worst happens.” Checking people in was just something he did to get out of the house. But if Trump got in, he told us he could no longer stay in America and would quit his job with the airline. He had a fat pension from years of working as a network architect and planned to use it to make his escape.
He’d figured out that with little effort, he could live like royalty in Thailand, needing only to leave every three months to renew his visa. With over a million air miles accrued while working behind that desk, he said this would not be a problem.
We chatted long enough for everyone in the impressive queue behind us to be dealt with by other staff. We were the last to exit check-in.
Back in England, along with the rest of the world, we learned that Trump would once again be the president of the United States.
This morning, while finally unpacking and wondering if Eugene had set the wheels in motion for his escape, I found my boarding card. On it was his phone number—I’d asked him to jot it down.
I’ll give it a ring. I’m interested to know how the story ends for this particular proud American.
#ThePictures
On the plane I watched an unmodified version of ‘Bob Marley - One Love’.
I was hoping to learn a little more about his life. But the film felt a little sterile and measured. The music was amazing though. Always will be.
I also watched the film The Great Escaper.
A down to earth tale of aging and trauma. I was that guy on the aeroplane that had something in his eye throughout the film. Great performances and subtle humour amidst the pain from Both Glenda Jackson and Michael Caine.
#TheWords
The word Tautophrase …it is what it is.
Last week in Nevada my daughter kept asking to go to Barnes and Nobel. Not that I needed an excuse visit. I could wonder round these massive book stores for hours. She bought so many graphic novels we needed to pay for another bag on the plane. I wondered how long stores like this might survive in the states. But it appears B&N is doing just fine. If not better.
#TheSound
I have mentioned the podcast Adventures in Nutopia before and here I am again. I was gutted when I had heard the last in the series, but then suddenly elated when I realised I’d missed a few in the feed. This one…
This one…
And this one…
I hope you listen to the whole series but if you only check these out, your mind will be stretched in all kinds of wonderful ways. Of course 98% of you won’t. But i’ll not dwell on that. I’ll just focus on the joy and inspiration found by a curious few of you.
This is me testing the audio transcription tool GoodTape.io. Costs range from free to €15/month.
This is the audio I recorded…
And this is the text it produced on their site….
I'm in the shed, hopefully speaking normally, and testing this platform, goodtape.io, to see what kind of transcription I can get from audio recorded straight into the laptop,
and of course other places, but right now, let's see how this fares. You get three free transcriptions every month. every month not sure how long they can be but here goes full stop
The ‘full stop’ at the end is there because my brain was in voice-to-text mode and not audio recording mode.
Not sure how much audio you can submit in your three goes, but should you have a lot of audio, you might be able to tag a couple of files together, so two uploads become one. I had to wait 60 minutes for the transcription as I’m not paying for the service.
I still think the iOS app VRP7 is a better way to transcribe audio for free.
Here is the audio file…
And this is the text it produced a few seconds later. No waiting…
This is a test voice transcribing into my phone no spoil no Mike just talking into the app VRP seven on the iPhone 13 to see whether or not voice transcription on here is fast and accurate there's a little button in amongst the many amazing options that just says transcribed so all transcription, what it says actually Transcription I think tap on that and it will transcribe your voice from a multitude of languages and give you the text below which you could then append to the notes of that particular recording which is pretty handy I think
You’ll obviously need to edit a little and add punctuation but I think it’s still an often overlooked a feature of an already great app. Also works on an Apple computers.
#TheConsumed
My Brother in law had a bottle of this on the shelf. Tequila Mandala Extra Añejo.
He got it as a gift and at $200 a bottle it was a very nice gift indeed. I’ve not had many sipping tequilas before. Just the cheap stuff you slam in a bar at the end of the night when you really don’t need any more. But my Brother in law poured me a shot and wow. This is a whole different drink. By far the best tasting tequila I have ever had the pleasure of tasting. Thankfully it’s hard to get hold of round here.
#TheFound
Here are a few of the birds that I spotted and logged while in America.
The Northern Mockingbird, Costa’s Hummingbird, Anna’s Hummingbird, a Verdin, the Yellow-rumped Warbler, a House Finch, a Wood Duck, a Cinnamon Teal and the Great-tailed Grackle. If you’d like to know more about these just click on their names. There were Grackles all over the place but the Wood Duck was my favourite. They have claws to help them climb and perch in trees.
#TheThings
You may remember in my last email I recently bought the SuperNote Nomad. It’s getting a lot of daily use and I’m throughly loving it. It’s just been voted best digital notebook.
I had never seen other types of dominoes till this trip in the US.
We found a set of these double 9 dominoes in our cabin but without instructions we just used them in a standard game of dominoes.
Now we have our own set, we’ll have a go at Chickenfoot rules…
#TheThanks
Sincere thanks you to all the paying subscribers that support my time here and keep this dispatch free for everyone. Please consider upgrading to become a paid supporter. Or if you prefer PayAsYouGo you can do that via Ko-Fi, PayPal and Monzo.
Either way… Thank you for reading, sharing and liking.
#TheWeb
A call to action from Judy Estrin who draws a parallel between digital information and water that is increasingly polluted.
The man behind the voice for AOL’s “You’ve got mail” died this week.
Just checked the Documentally community map and wondering if there’s anyone else reading this near Derby apart from (Richard Mackney and Kieth Perch).
I’ll let you imagine the kind of person that buys one-use-only vapes equipped with rechargeable batteries that usually end up in landfill. I’d rather picture the person who retrieves them and uses them to power a bike and make a point.
Need to set up a secure whistleblowing platform? Check out Globaleaks.org
Some of my other places include Letterboxd, Discogs, Flickr, Strava, Untappd, Swarm, LinkedIn, YouTube, Mastodon, a ham radio newsletter or search ‘Documentally’ on Wire, Birdsite, Bluesky or Foto.
Somebody spent a lot of time and energy designing this. They could have done countless other things with their time but this is what excites some people right now. 🙄
Erin Kissane is working to build better and safer networks for collective survival.
#TheEnd
Thanks for reading, watching, listening.
This time next week I’ll be at the Derby Beer Festival. Best i’ve ever been to. Probably because of the company. Might I see you there? If not check your inbox and I might see you there.
“There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal. I know the world is bruised and bleeding, and though it is important not to ignore its pain, it is also critical to refuse to succumb to its malevolence. Like failure, chaos contains information that can lead to knowledge—even wisdom.” - Toni Morrison
Aspire.
See you out there.
Over…
Oh and loved yer missive this week.
I hope you make that call to Eugene. I’d love to hear what’s happened to him. Many people make commitments to an action before an event but afterwards slip back into the old life and never follow through. I’m sure many who have eventually been persecuted wish they had acted before it was too late. Most however don’t have the option.