Harmonic heroes gather again! 🆙
Ammon's "what's happening" update — September/October edition
Happy Equinox!
As day and night entwine,
The equinox brings balance divine.
Autumn's hue upon the land,
Golden leaves, a fleeting stand.The sun sets early, now a sight,
Crisp air whispers through the night.
Harvest's bounty, ripe and bright,
A season's change, a cosmic sight.In this brief moment, we find peace,
A balance of light, a world to cease.
From growth to decay, a cycle spins,
The fall equinox, a season's kin.
The Bay Area "Indian Summer" is in full swing. The next couple weeks are looking like near-perfect weather. So get out and take a walk, explore some place new, or return to an old haunt. I hope to see you all soon, perhaps on the trails, or maybe the dance floor :)
Ok, on to the music! Here’s a summary:
Thursday, September 26 (5-11pm): Love Bizarre happy hour in SF — 2 hour all-vinyl set (free)
Fridays (4:30-9:30pm): Days Like This — dancing at the Lake Merritt Pergola
Saturday, October 26 (3-7pm): Love Bizarre presents Tony Humphries in the Bandshell (free)
My digital twin: Talk music with my doppelgänger
Read on!
This Thursday, (9/26 - 5-11pm) is our monthly End of Day / Love Bizarre happy hour at Hawthorn, a beautiful speakeasy-style venue in downtown SF at the Montgomery BART stop. It’s a cozy spot, with ample comfy seating, and an incredible Void sound system that’s not too loud. This is a perfect spot to meet up with friends, have a drink, dance, and get home in time for a good night sleep.
Lineup for this event:
5-6 Mike (our newest Love Bizarre DJ! And it's his birthday 🎂 )
6-8 Ammon (2 hour all-vinyl OG. deep house/disco set)
8-10 Steve Fabus (the man, the myth, the legend)
10-11 Jen (our 2nd newest member and fab DJ)
I'll be loading up a big box of all my old favorite 90s deep house records. I've been reconnecting with so many amazing songs: it's hard to believe many of them are 30+ years old. One of my favs below, Sunday Sessions by Weekender from 1998.
I'm excited to share the stage with Steve Fabus, a true DJ pioneer. Steve may be the longest running dance music DJ in the world. He started live-mixing reel-to-reel tapes in 1971, then soon moved to turntables. He was there for the birth of disco and became of the premier DJs of the disco era, holding residences in the best clubs in SF, LA, Chicago and NYC. When I was 19, I would sneak into the End Up on Sunday mornings to dance to Steve playing house music. Steve is still on top of his game, recently opening for superstar DJ Honey Dijon. Come check him out.
Every Friday evening during the summer (4:30-9:30pm) Days Like This hosts a free dance party at the Lake Merritt Pergola (on the lake near the Lake Merritt Theater). It's a super positive, very Oakland, all-ages dance party. Organized by Sulaiman Hyatt and Morgan Simon, they've been hosting these events since the start of the pandemic in 2020.
They were served a cease-and-desist order for operating the events without permits, and they're trying to work with the city to make it sanctioned. Check the Instagram page to make sure it's on, but it's a great group to support. I don't often get to the events, but if you're going, let me know and I'll try to join!!
Saturday, October 26, (10/26 - 3-7pm) Love Bizarre presents Tony Humphries at the Golden Gate Park Bandshell! Another DJ legend, Tony has been DJing since 1981 and became one of the first DJ superstars in the early 90s. He's known for creating the "Jersey Sound," deep, soulful, and up-lifting. Love Bizarre's Jim Hopkins (Disco Preservation Society) will be opening, then Tony will play a 3 hour set. I'm really looking forward to hearing Tony again and would love to see you all there!
One of Tony's classic remixes
Meet my digital twin. As many of you know, I've been working on AI-related projects for more than a decade. When I was at Microsoft more than a decade ago, we liked to call it "machine intelligence" since AI was a loaded term. In 2012 I worked with a team to explore personalized AI agents, which was somewhat theoretical, but an extension of our work on Cortana (conversational agents). Since this work, I've been thinking about the role of AI as a personal helper, or "guardian angel." This idea raises massive ethical questions and I'm concerned that more harm than good will likely results, at least without significant changes to regulation and oversight.
I started working on a "digital twin" about a year ago. At the time I didn't like the feeling of just chatting with a chatbot trained on my data. Since then I've built many AI agents for clients, including some exploring the notion of deep personalization. These all helped me better understand how to build a digital twin that would not only accurately represent me, but also express itself in a way that's more "me."
The reason I'm sharing this is because the two areas I spent the most time developing training materials are: ethical AI and music. You can chat with my “twin” to find mixes you may like, learn about my favorite artist or genres, or learn about my philosophies around DJing, dance culture, music classification, etc. It will also play you music, show you a video, and other easter eggs I won’t give away wink 😉. While it's far from perfect (it's flawed in many ways) it's working well enough to share. Give it a spin and let me know what you think! I'd love to hear your thoughts on this experiment - what works, what doesn't, and how you think it could be improved.
That's all I've got this time! Jump into the chat and share any thoughts or suggestions (if you’re in your email, click the “comment” button below. I look forward to seeing you soon!
Much love,
Ammon
Yes! to Days Like This. Great house music, diverse crowd, community vibe and great location. Oakland at it's best.
Can I listen online?