Here's the recording of the Trump/Musk conversation?... And was it a true conversation?

pic.twitter.com/cPUMFx9Qu5

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 13, 2024

I was hoping for real conversation, and I think Musk was too. I wanted "something innovative and possibly disruptive." And Musk said he wanted people to hear how Trump "talks when it’s a conversation, rather than an interview," and "Nobody is quite themselves in an interview, so it’s hard to understand what they’re really like."

But there wasn't enough back and forth between Trump and Musk for it to feel like conversation. It was more like Trump's rally speeches, where he goes long and riffs this way and that, but the audience doesn't get to participate other than to cheer him on. These speeches are relatively conversational, but they don't give us a feeling of what Trump is like when he's interacting with someone personally. And it's the rally speech feeling that I got from the Trump/Musk conversation.

The 2 men were not in the same room. Trump was at Mar a Lago leaning over his speaker phone:  

🧵🇺🇸 MAINSTREAM MEDIA SKEWS TRUMP-ELON X SPACE COVERAGE, IGNORES RECORD-BREAKING SUCCESS

Major news outlets show clear bias in reporting the Trump-Elon X Space.

The numbers speak for themselves:

- 1.32+ million live listeners during the Space

- 77+ million impressions in… pic.twitter.com/I5yy96srRa

— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) August 13, 2024

Musk was somewhere else. Musk deferred to Trump and let him go on at length and also to interrupt and take control of the conversation at will. Trump was so hot to deliver his message that he bypassed the opportunity to draw Musk out, to get to know Musk, or to show that he was interested in Musk — Musk, one of the most interesting human beings in the world. Musk did not seem to mind. Musk clearly wants Trump to be elected and found an opportunity near the end to give a fairly long pro-Trump pitch. But that means the long encounter was pretty much all campaigning. 

I hope Trump accepts Joe Rogan's invitation and goes on that podcast. Rogan is so good at making conversation happen. But Trump might nevertheless take over and use all the time to batter his message in his usual way. The stakes are so high, perhaps no one running for President would ever risk having a real conversation. Not a major party candidate.

Sunrise — 5:51, 6:03.

Listening to the Musk/Trump conversation....

So far, it's a matter of trying to get signed in. I think a lot of people are having trouble. But here's a place to talk about it — your trouble signing in or, with some luck, the actual conversation.

UPDATE: Here's the link to watch if you can, but...

There appears to be a massive DDOS attack on 𝕏. Working on shutting it down.

Worst case, we will proceed with a smaller number of live listeners and post the conversation later.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 13, 2024

UPDATE 2: I'm in a space where it says "joined" and plays electronic "music"-type sounds.

UPDATE 3: It's on! I'm hearing Musk introducing the conversation — to get a "feel for what Donald Trump is like in a conversation."

UPDATE 4: Trump's speech is odd, like he's got a swollen tongue, and Musk sounds more nervous than I have ever heard him.

"Live conversation on 𝕏 with @realDonaldTrump & me at 8pm ET tomorrow."

"This is unscripted with no limits on subject matter, so should be highly entertaining! If you have specific questions & comments, post them under the chat."

Tweets Elon Musk.

Is it a "conversation" or an interview? I see at Reuters, it says "Elon Musk to interview Trump on X social media network." Is Elon Musk an interviewer? You know, Trump was kind of an interviewer in his role on "The Apprentice." We'll see how much originality emerges in this format.

Anyway, this makes me think something Jonathan Swan said on today's episode of the NYT "Daily" podcast: 

"A subset of people with extremely vivid imaginations are known as maladaptive daydreamers."

"Some choose to live in their imagination, rather than in real life, [researcher Nadine] Dijkstra says. 'They sit down on the couch, they don’t leave their house, they don’t go to school, they don’t see friends, they don’t go to their work. They just imagine their whole life just the way they want it. Because for them, it feels as real as reality.'..."

Writes Yasemin Saplakoglu, in "Scientists Are One Step Closer to Demystifying ‘Aphantasia’/Inside the brains of people who can’t picture things in their mind" (The Atlantic).

Most of the article is about people at the opposite end of the spectrum, the people with aphantasia, that is, no mental imagery.  

"Flailing about for relevance since the legalization of same-sex marriage, many gay-rights groups pivoted to a related but fundamentally different cause..."

"... transgender rights. Rather than emulate the movement’s past approach—seeking allies across the political spectrum and accepting compromise as a precondition for legal and social progress—they have taken hard-line left-wing positions. LGBTQ groups repeat the mantra 'the science is settled' on the extremely complex and fraught subject of youth gender medicine and insist that anyone who questions the provision of puberty blockers to gender-dysphoric children is transphobic.... Meanwhile, LGBTQ organizations have slowly been erasing the people whose interests they were established to advance. Less and less do they even use the words gay and lesbian to describe their ostensible constituencies; more and more, they use queer, a historically pejorative term reclaimed by left-wing ideologues...."

Writes James Kirchick, in "How the Gay-Rights Movement Lost Its Way/What should activist groups such as GLAAD do after they fulfill their goals?" (The Atlantic).

ADDED: This makes me think of something Bob Dylan wrote in the liner notes to his 1964 album "Another Side":

"In his mind, Harris replacing Biden, which of course Democrats thought was overdue and necessary, is a kind of pre stealing of the election."

Said Michael Barbaro, in the new episode of the NYT "Daily" podcast, "Inside The Worst Three Week’s Of Trump’s Campaign."

Jonathan Swan, who's been covering the Trump campaign for the Times, says:

"Exactly. And it's bewildering for Trump because the race that he thought he had no longer exists. He's facing someone who's 20 years younger who doesn't have trouble completing sentences, who actually has energized Democrats, who's drawing big crowds, who's moving up in the polls. And all of these factors are making him extremely frustrated, less than a hundred days out from the election. And you can see this projection in his public statements and Truth Social comments. He's been like, look, like, a sort of this exercise in wishful thinking on Truth Social, where he's saying, I'm hearing Biden's really angry and wants to get, you know, regrets dropping out. And maybe he gets back in, you know, and it's sort of like... I know that's what you want, but that, that's not really what's happening. And so you're seeing this sort of Trump kind of publicly emoting for poor Joe Biden and how mistreated he was, but really it's just a projection. It's the race Trump wants again. Right. And he can't have it. And he's still sort of pining for that race that no longer exists."

I don't watch the Sunday morning talk shows anymore — I used to watch them all! — but it's interesting to see who sits for these interviews.

Yesterday's lineups (via AP)(boldface added):

ABC’s “This Week” — Ohio Sen. JD Vance, the Republican vice presidential nominee; Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.

NBC's “Meet the Press” — Preempted by coverage of the Olympics.

CBS’ “Face the Nation" — Vance; Gov. Laura Kelly, D-Kan.; Brian Moynihan, CEO of Bank of America; retired Gen. Frank McKenzie, former commander of U.S. Central Command.

CNN's “State of the Union” — Vance; Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.; Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

“Fox News Sunday” — Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark.; Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo.

That's a lot of Vance, and there was no one from the Democratic side of the presidential campaign. For the Democrats, there were only 2 Senators (Klobuchar & Sanders), the Governor of Kansas, the Transportation Secretary, and a member of the House of Representatives. Why can't we hear from the Democratic campaign? They're still putting their ideas together and ironing out past inconsistencies? Are they in no shape to face serious questions? Or do they simply see that they're doing awfully well running on "joy" and not-Biden-not-Trumpness so there's no reason to change.

How did Vance do? Politico purports to sum it up, in "Vance makes his Sunday show sweep as Trump’s attack dog/The vice presidential nominee appeared on three Sunday shows in pre-recorded interviews from Cincinnati."

Sunrise — 5:53, 6:02.

"And I was concerned if I stayed in the race, that would be the topic — you’d be interviewing me about why did Nancy Pelosi say [something] … and I thought it’d be a real distraction..."

Garbled Joe Biden, quoted in "Biden admits he was pushed out of presidential race, name-drops Pelosi in first interview since exit" (NY Post).

I can't understand what he was trying to say about Pelosi. The Post sums it up this way: "President Biden admitted he was pushed out of the presidential race by Democratic Party elites and specifically name-dropped former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as one of the perpetrators in his first TV interview since the tectonic news last month."

Specifically... I'd say it's pretty unspecific, but hers is the one name he said. See if you can get more out of it than I did:

"A small but significant slice of Black men have historically been hesitant to support Black women seeking the highest positions of power...."

"Dr. Moya Bailey, a Northwestern University professor who coined the term 'misogynoir' to describe racist misogyny, said in an interview that while patriarchy is not unique to the Black population, 'the consequences are much higher.' Scholars note that a demographic group that is conservative on many social issues has historically equated leadership with masculinity, borne out in the dearth of Black female leaders in the church, business and elected office.... Ms. Harris will... face a significant challenge in motivating Black men to go to the polls, said W. Mondale Robinson, the mayor of Enfield, N.C., and the founder of the nonprofit Black Male Voter Project. Ms. Harris is 'not a trusted messenger for Black men,' he said.... 'Everything she says will be looked at with a side eye from Black men because there’s a lack of trust in politicians coming for you in election years, saying they’re going to do something and then they didn’t deliver on it,' Mr. Robinson said...."

From "Black Men Rally for Kamala Harris, and Confront an Elephant in the Room/'I’m standing behind a Black woman to be president of the United States, and it doesn’t make me any less of a Black man,' said the Illinois attorney general. 'I’m asking all of you all to do the same'" (NYT).

The NYT finds joy in MAGAville.

I'm reading, "Kid Rock Threw the Party. MAGA Faithful Brought the Joy, Rage and Smirnoff Ice. A music festival headlined by the pro-Trump musician offered a snapshot of a maturing American subculture, with a mash-up of hedonism, rebellion and beer-guzzling pursuit of happiness" (NYT).

Sample text: "The shows felt like Trump rallies without the former president, unburdened by policy talk, speeches from lesser-known G.O.P. players, and the buzz-kill tendencies of Mr. Trump himself, who tends to noodle at the lectern like a jam-band soloist. What remained was a snapshot of a maturing American subculture, with unwritten conventions rivaling those of Deadheads or Swifties, and a dizzying mash-up of hedonism and piety, angry rebellion and beer-guzzling pursuit of happiness."

Credit to the writer of this prose. It's Richard Fausset.

Have Trump people been compared to Deadheads before? On November 2, 2020, Variety had "'Wave That Flag': Meet the Deadheads Who Stump for Trump" ("I’m not a big fan of the president, but at the end of the day, Trump is about individual freedom and so was the Dead").

Meanwhile, 9 days ago, Rolling Stone came out with "You’ve Heard of White Dudes for Kamala. Now Come the Deadheads/Fans of one of the most enduring of classic-rock bands — along with Mandy Patinkin — will rally on Zoom in support of the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate."

"The one year that Mr. Walz spent teaching English in southern China was the start of what would become a decades-long relationship with the country."

"As high school teachers in Nebraska and Minnesota, Mr. Walz and his wife, Gwen, regularly led trips to China in the 1990s and early 2000s to introduce students to China’s history and culture. Mr. Walz has said that he has traveled to China some 30 times, including for his honeymoon.... But the campaign has so far made little mention of Mr. Walz’s experience there, even as it has leaned into depictions of the Minnesota governor as an avuncular Midwestern dad, coach and teacher. And it has yet to lay out how Vice President Kamala Harris or Mr. Walz would handle China, which both the Biden and Trump administrations have treated with toughness...."

From "Tim Walz’s Long Relationship With China Defies Easy Stereotypes/Mr. Walz, the Democrats’ vice-presidential nominee, taught in China and has visited the country around 30 times. But he has also been critical of the Chinese government’s human rights record" (NYT).

Walz's China experience can be interwoven with the "avuncular Midwestern dad" idea (though I don't like "avuncular" with "dad" (because what is an uncle-like dad?). From the article, there's this:

"Joshua Kaplan, 45, the American playwright... [a] longtime 'Harry Potter' fan... said that the idea for ['TERF' came when he saw] that Daniel Radcliffe... had written a blog post..."

"... criticizing Rowling’s social media posts. It felt like witnessing a bitter family feud 'playing out in the public eye,' Kaplan said in an interview — perfect material for a play. Onstage, Rowling (Laura Kay Bailey) attends an upmarket dinner with three actors from her films: Daniel Radcliffe (Piers MacKenzie), Emma Watson (Trelawny Kean) and Rupert Grint (Tom Longmire). When the stars confront Rowling about her social media comments, the cordial dinner descends into farce and detours into imagined scenes from Rowling’s life that have nothing to do with transgender people."

From "A Play About J.K. Rowling Stirred Outrage. Until It Opened. The muted reaction to the Edinburgh Fringe show 'TERF' suggests that when activists engage with potentially inflammatory art, offense can quickly vanish" (NYT).

"Barry Church-Woods, a producer of 'TERF,' said that a handful of would-be protesters had attended the play’s premiere. They sat with signs in their laps, apparently ready to demonstrate, he said, but they never raised them. The play, which presents views from both camps, was too balanced to cause serious upset, he added."

Which way were the protesters planning to protest?

I like that the playwright conceptualized the socio-political issue as a family squabble. Family squabbles make the best theater, no? That reminds me, my tickets for APT's "King Lear" arrived in the mail yesterday.

"The concern of gay men with how our bodies look often gets labeled a fixation, an obsession or, most glibly, an expression of narcissism."

"What’s less frequently acknowledged are the forces of insecurity and anxiety driving that obsession. For gay men of all ages, types, statuses and lifestyles, body image remains such a fraught, weird, private, painful subject that, even among friends who talk about everything, it’s often off limits for discussion. Officially, we’re all supposed to look fantastic while not caring. Get caught peering in the mirror too closely and you’ll be called vain; fail to look closely enough and you risk an even harsher judgment.... For decades, the body image that gay men craved, although it morphed as tastes evolved, was predicated on monitoring straight male culture, identifying whatever the heterosexual world had decided was masculine or sexy at that moment and then tailoring, editing and selectively italicizing it.... Turning your appearance into a calculatedly self-aware physical performance of straight masculinity, with a flourish or two of ironic detailing, gave gay men some autonomy and subverted straight culture by reinventing it as something gay, a look one could wear as a costume that might be visible only to the like-minded...."

Writes Mark Harris, in "Gay Men Have Long Been Obsessed With Their Muscles. Now Everyone Is. In Hollywood, on Instagram and beyond, the male-on-male gaze still decides what’s hot and what’s not" (NYT)(full access link, because this is a long and surprisingly substantial article (with a nice "a collection of gay-coded photographs of male physiques over the years")).

"Kieran Culkin, Bob Odenkirk and Bill Burr to Star in... revival of 'Glengarry Glen Ross,' David Mamet’s classic play...."

The NYT reports.

Just yesterday, we were talking about Keanu Reaves in "Waiting for Godot" on Broadway.

From the "Glengarry" piece:

“Glengarry” is one of the plays that solidified Mamet’s reputation as a great American dramatist.... Mamet has become a polarizing figure in recent decades — his later plays have not been well-received, and his rightward political turn has alienated some onetime fans. But his early plays remain admired....

Theater people wring their hands and humbly request permission to stage Mamet plays. What if they stick to his early plays, written in the days before his rightward political turn?