Those of you who saw my last painting exhibition may remember a painting called The Cuckoo and another called She Warbles as She Flies…
The Cuckoo
She Warbles as she Flies
The titles of those paintings come from a song often played in the clawhammer banjo style. We think of it as an Appalachian tune because of the seminal recording by Clarence Ashley, but I understand it’s actually an English folk tune.
Here’s Clarence Ashley…
…and here’s another performance of it I really like by Johannes Bonefaas, a fellow known for his banjo-making.
I believe my painting, The Cuckoo is still available. Contact Yumart Gallery.
These gangsters were hanging out on the sailboat docks over in Sam Smith Park yesterday. We saw them when were were out for a stroll with the partners.
Great game. Lee Sedol played some awesome moves and glory be, AlphaGo actually made mistakes. Go great Gu Li described Lee Sedol’s move 78 as “the hand of God”.
AlphaGo is up 3-1 and has won the series, but Sedol has a chance for one more victory tomorrow night. As a go enthusiast (even though I’m still not a strong player), I’ve been really enjoying following these games!
I tried to stay up late last night to watch game 3 of the Google DeepMind million dollar challenge – Go great Lee Sedol vs the bot, AlphaGo. The match started at 11 PM our time. I lasted until 1:30 AM after which I needed to go to bed.
Sedol played the high Chinese Opening, an unusual approach in pro-games. A slightly different variation known as the low Chinese Opening is played much more regularly among professional players. AlphaGo approached in the top left corner and a fight ensued, which began to spread away from the corner. It was quite a battle. At one point I thought all was lost for Lee Sedol (keep in mind though, I’m a mediocre amateur, so what do I know). Then AlphaGo made a move to shore up its position, which the commentator pointed out was perhaps slow, and Sedol exploited that and strengthened his own position. By that point I was just too tired to follow what was going on.
When I awoke this morning, I Googled the match right away, only to discover AlphaGo had prevailed. I haven’t had a chance to review the game yet, so I don’t know what happened, but if the first half of the game is any indication, I’m betting it was an intense battle throughout.
Friday. Less than a month left in the work-a-day world. That’s a really strange feeling. I won’t miss the work, but I know I’ll miss some of the people I’ve worked with over the years. I’ve worked with some wonderful, creative, crazy-assed, dedicated, brilliant, hilarious people (you know who you are…..and some of the other kind too – you have no idea who you are). That’s been the case every time I’ve reinvented myself at work, changing roles like some kind of postal chameleon every few years, stumbling with no plan from one gig to another.
Something happened this afternoon which caused me to think of the old days back when I was a part time postal clerk. One of the first people I met when I started back in 1986 now works a couple offices over from me. How serendipitous is that? We were both part time clerks in Mississauga and I remember she trained me on some job or other. I’m sure neither of us ever imagined we’d be doing the gigs we’re doing today or that we’d end up as office neighbours so many years later. This old friend is going on vacation after today and wasn’t sure if she’d see me, so she brought me a card and some daisies this afternoon. While I’ve been actively avoiding like the plague any kind of ceremony around my impending departure, I confess I was touched by my old friend’s thoughtful gesture.
Go champ Lee Sedol has been defeated for a second game in a row by the bot, AlphaGo. I stayed up last night for part of the game – it started at 11 PM, but I had to get to bed as I have to work this morning. When I packed it in, the game looked close. I haven’t seen game 2 yet – all I know is that Sedol used most of his time and finally resigned. Is the computer going to sweep the series? Most commentators thought we were years away from a computer that could defeat a top professional go player.
27th Street 