The Deepfake Decades

An executive I know told a room of junior officers:

all communication is manipulation. 

It was a mentoring session and its retelling made my hair stand up. It sounded like a thing Patrick Bateman would say to someone just before disappearing them into the walls of a 5th Avenue penthouse.

American Psycho

I thought of it when I saw Bill Hader transmorph yesterday. For a second, on an old Letterman reel, he laughed like Tom Cruise. But not like Tom Cruise. He was Tom Cruise. For a sorcerous blink, Tom Cruise bubbled up like a gollum made staccato in Hader's giggling. More than Hader's usual Merlinic voice throws, this was straight black magic.

The Women Holding the World Together

“…take our fate into our own hands.”

- Chancellor Angela Merkel

I started writing this piece two years ago. I felt it had missed its train on account of my lollygagging. Today, we're back on the station platform; this time we won't miss it.

But let's go back.
It began in Venezuela.

Doorway George

George
had laid down
in the apartment breezeway
It was fucking cold,
and I was a little
drunk.
I made
him
eggs,
he slept on the
floor, next to my
air-mattress,
and, well, I watched
him all night,
for fear he'd
kill me in my sleep,
and rob me of my
dried beans or
air-mattress pump.