Sunday

 Woke up at 8:50 am. Coffee, a Danish cake, some journaling and planning. B left for her shift at the Met by 10:30am. I cooked a big omelet with black beans, tofu, and broccoli before she left.

Then explored the AI tools mentioned by Bakunov/Bobuk on youtube:

• Suno.ai - music generating AI. Looks quite interesting; melodic shit. It generates sexy women's vocals everywhere – so cheap; who made it, some Russians? Seems like MIT grads. I didn't figure out how to replace sexy women's vocals on the free tier credits.

I wanted to have an Ableton file in the output. I should try to explore more of all these new AI tools. A reddit user posted a video making drum-n-bass in Suno.ai, then converting to MIDI, replacing instruments in Ableton, and then making a video from generated pics + some kind of motion AI. It's all cool, just needs more control and more direction.

I looked at my Ableton installation. I still only have Ableton 10. I looked at the prices – it's not too bad; the upgrade is only about $150. Thinking if I should get it. Otherwise, I can't realistically use it on my Mac: 10 works only on the slow x86 simulator on M1.

Then what, – taking a shower, and tea, this and that, and another cup of tea, and I didn't have time to shave, and I had to run to the Met. It was a sunny day, but chilly, in the low 50s; not too grumpy crowd on the train. Sunday. 

On the train, I read an article about the trials of war criminals in post-revolutionary Cuba. In 1953, the group of the July 26 movement landed in Cuba, to fight against the bloody dictator Batista, with Fidel and Che in its ranks – only 82 men total, most died fighting, only 22 survived, and escaped to the mountains. So they stayed there in the mountains hiding until 1958 when the dictatorship somehow collapsed and the dictator ran away to the Dominican Republic. The revolutionaries came from the mountains and started a public trial on all servants of the regime: held in public squares, broadcasting executions on television. An estimated 2 to 7 thousand were executed; it was clear not all police or informers could be executed, so the revolutionaries tried to hold back, but the large protests across the country demanded more strict punishments – by then almost every family had a relative murdered or tortured by Batista's police. The U.S. media observed all that with commentary about typical blood baths in banana republics, angering and distancing Cubans. Fidel was not that socialist back then, and Che didn't try to run the same revolution in Bolivia yet.

I got to the Met by 2:20pm. Many people sat on the stairs, enjoying the sunshine. Many dates. A Spanish guy confidently talks to two girls asking for their number. Black clothes and black lipstick. I found B on the stairs and joined this cultured sunbathing.

In the museum, we walked to the collection of newspaper posters. What was that newspaper that first started changing the cover for every issue? In July 1894. By August of the same year, Harper's made a custom cover as well – that looks like a tough competition; innovation in July, and competitors already catching up in August. They didn't even have A/C's back then!

The Harlem Renaissance collection was way too crowded. For another day. 

We walked across Central Park. It was pretty, but B was tired of walking. Then, after dinner, and some more reading, edited a Chinese post; and that was Sunday. 

Bed by 1:30am.