Joules Graves was a performer in the Pacific Northwest for over a decade.  She put out six albums.  She developed multiple sclerosis in 1997 and was able to perform up until 2003.  She is a songwriter, singer, played the drums and guitar and was a high energy performer and dancer onstage.  She was born in Missouri and eventually ended up in Washington State where she began performing for peace.

She performed her huge library of original music largely solo, but has been known to work with other artists.  She worked closely with Freedom, who she is great friends with.  One of their shows is still available on YouTube https://youtu.be/ABRT5M_-3Ps?si=3z66yyUM_ZpLCEJt and includes such gems as "Love," "Waterfall Child," and a personal favorite "People of the Earth Tribe."  There was a café on High Street where a variety of musicians and hippies and other creative sorts congregated and there was a lot of music performed on an impromptu basis there.  She performed there at least a few times as well.  The café (Miracles) has long since shut down, but it attracted a huge crowd from the university which was only a block away. She has been compared to Ani DiFranco in the media on occasion.  She seems to be active in speaking up for children and women and LGBTQIA+ people with her music.  It was quite a loss for the music world when such a positive high energy performer was laid low with MS and has been, more or less confined to bed rest since then in a convalescent home.  Considerably more so, considering Joules’ great love for the outdoors and dislike of confinement.

Joules is still incredibly powerful and I hope she still believes in her dreams, especially for peace.   Even more so, now that she is battling such a nasty enemy as MS.  She has a GoFundMe set up for her “Journey Home” https://www.paypal.com/donate/?cmd=_donations&business=BWTWJS5WXR6MW&item_name=Joules%27+Journey+Home&currency_code=USD (Friends & Family option is requested)  More information about Joules can be found on her Facebook fan page: https://www.facebook.com/joulesgravesjourney

 

 

 

 

“The Creator” came out in late September 2023 and was directed by Gareth Edwards.  It starred John David Washington as Joshua Taylor, a special agent assigned to track down the Creator and it’s fancy AI weapon, played by Madeline Yuna Voyles.  The story is set in a relatively near future where the AI (in New Asia) and the humans (in the West) are at war with each other and the fate of humanity hangs in the balance.

Throughout the movie, there is a subplot where Taylor searches for his wife, Maya Fey who is played by Gemma Chan.  He is sent into a complex undercover and finds a girl, who they discover is an android, more or less.  She has the ability to remotely control much technology.  He decides to call her Alphie. Throughout the movie, he becomes rather fond of Alphie and initially uses her to try to locate his potentially imprisoned wife.  The movie had a high budget for special effects and they are impeccable.  The filmmakers tried to rely on natural illumination and limited ambient sounds to create as realistic a set as possible.  I believe they successfully captured a mood or two by doing this.  The acting was expertly done.  I believe also they did some groundbreaking work into the idea of what if AI had a soul and/or feelings?  What if it did have the capacity to care?  In most modern work about AI, AI is simply a mechanical psychopath, but in other imaginary realms like Star Trek, some of the AI seems to have a soul and even a sense of humor.  In Star Trek, we have examples of friendly and sentient AI beings.

I am very fond of this movie because it explores the idea of the AI having a conscience and a desire for peace between AI and humanity.  Of course the idea of AI having a conscience begs the question, where would the AI have acquired it?  Its not like we can program that into the computers and mainframes, yet….  Discussions today about AI and its potentials seem to shut down rather quickly and I think this was an important and very timely film.

 

 

“Stars and Stripes” https://youtu.be/hHuQHpECiEo?si=6ZACcywQNtJIZuBc by new musical artist Julie Lavery is a blunt, straight-to-the-point, gut-punch of a song.  This song immediately impressed me the very first time I heard it.  I don’t usually get as impressed with music that doesn’t have drum beats to it as I did with this song.  I would really love to see this musician make it in the music world with her warrior heart and beautiful voice.

This song is just her singing with her acoustic guitar.  Her voice is clear and true like the Liberty Bell in this song.  The performance is tight.  The vocals are incredible and her range is wide.  She’s not afraid to throw in a few cuss words and tell things like they are.  I’m sure she pissed off quite a few of the MAGA crowd.  “We send our babies off to school, the children are the future, then teach them how to hide beneath their desk for active shooters, Oh we could make a difference, if we weren’t so f*cking tired….”  She is a red head which is probably not a surprise.  She covers all the bases in this song protesting violence and apathy on the part of society.  She melodically sheds a light on the systemic problems in society today.

I’m sure Ms Lavery has acquired all sorts of labels by now.  The Youtube video has 38K views and people just love to throw around all kinds of political insults at anyone that wants to stop school violence and economic inequity.  I hope to see Ms Lavery more in the future in the media, and hope she puts out more original material.  She has other music she has covered on YouTube as well: songs like “Dreams,” “Vincent” and “Angel”