Today is the 110th birthday of “The Chairman of the Board!” Happy Heavenly Birthday to Frank Sinatra. He lives on through the music he left behind.
I got to interview a lot of famous people when I worked on the radio, but I wish I could have had the chance to interview him. He was a legend and set the bar extremely high for everyone who followed him.
When I figured out how to goof around with AI, I said “Imagine me having a spaghetti dinner with Frank Sinatra.” I thought this came out pretty good!
That’s not the photo flashback, though. That takes me back to my birthday in 2019. My wife is the queen of gift giving. She hears little things I say in passing and always comes up with a great gift.
I’m not sure what would have made me talk about music on vinyl to her, but obviously I did. For my birthday, she bought me a record player and the perfect album to spin on it.
I still pull it out and listen to it on vinyl. The sound is simply amazing, especially when you listen in headphones. There is something special about hearing music on a record. Sure digital music sounds pristine, but the analog record is “fuller.” I wish I had kept all my old albums.
This post just reminds me that I need to head out to some of the used record stores to do some shopping….
The above photo is one of many AI photos created to show “what Elvis would look like if he were still alive.” While it is interesting to see what AI comes up with, things are beginning to get out of control.
Scroll Instagram or Tik Tok today and you will eventually find videos that feature AI renditions of celebrities that have passed away. The ones that have come up the most feature familiar faces and the voices are very close to their real voice.
A forgetful Ronald Reagan lost in the halls of the White House
Martin Luther King Jr. and his dream that the ice cream machine would be working (among other things)
JFK riding in the Dallas motorcade saying, “This is so boring. Just shoot me.”
Rod Serling talking about the time traveling DeLorean
Elvis as Captain Kirk in Star Trek, Indiana Jones, and Han Solo in Star Wars
Mr. Rogers in a movie trailer that has him physically fighting painter Bob Ross
George Carlin standing in his grave doing jokes about the state of the country
One more that seems to be everywhere is Robin Williams. I’ve seen him hosting a podcast in heaven where he interviews Freddie Mercury, Jimi Hendrix, and John Lennon; I’ve seen him walking a dog out on the streets of New York joking around with people; and seen him ordering a coffee at Starbucks while tossing out puns about coffee. The voice on these is so good, you’d think it really was him.
These AI creations are something that has caused Robin’s daughter to speak out. Zelda Williams posted on her Instagram page this week asking people to “just stop sending me AI videos of Dad.” She went on to say, “Stop believing I wanna see it or that I’ll understand, I don’t and I won’t,” she wrote. “If you’re just trying to troll me, I’ve seen way worse, I’ll restrict and move on. But please, if you’ve got any decency, just stop doing this to him and to me, to everyone even, full stop. It’s dumb, it’s a waste of time and energy, and believe me, it’s NOT what he’d want.”
She finally said, “To watch the legacies of real people be condensed down to ‘this vaguely looks and sounds like them so that’s enough’, just so other people can churn out horrible TikTok slop puppeteering them is maddening. You’re not making art, you’re making disgusting, over-processed hotdogs out of the lives of human beings, out of the history of art and music, and then shoving them down someone else’s throat hoping they’ll give you a little thumbs up and like it. Gross.”
I think Zelda is right. Many of the celebrities have been gone for some time like Marilyn Monroe and Albert Einstein. There are still living relatives of many of the famous people in these videos. I wondered how they might feel about them. Zelda Williams cannot be the only one who feels this way about their deceased loved ones.
I admit, the first one I saw was an Elvis video. It was done to be humorous in that he says in one, “I can’t wait for AI to come along so I can stop acting in these dumb movies.” He says this while in a scene from his movie Spinout. I chuckled a bit when I saw it, because I had read somewhere that Elvis didn’t necessarily enjoy making all of his movies.
The more I thought about this, the more I wondered about the future. If these videos are close today, imagine how good they might be as the technology advances. We would be left questioning everything. How would we know that what we are watching is real? We can’t trust what we see on TV now, let alone if/when AI stuff starts being broadcast. This just scares me.
Remember that line from the X-Files? “The truth is out there.” The problem is going to be trying to figure out what is true and what isn’t!
Last week social media was flooded with AI generated pictures of people’s “action figures.” You basically upload a picture of yourself and ask AI to generate it with whatever accessories you want. And while there were memes making fun of everyone doing this, I had to try it for myself.
This made me laugh out loud. It also got me wondering what else it could do. I asked it to make me and Larry from the Three Stooges doctors.
They got Larry’s hair right, but not so much the face.
Then I asked it to make me and Moe from the Three Stooges mechanics.
This was a bit closer. The face is a bit off, and I have no idea why they have my name as Chris here. I figured they’d get better as I kept going.
So I asked it to make me and Dean Martin singing a duet.
This is actually pretty good. Dean’s eyes are a bit off, but I was impressed. The best one of them all though was when I asked it to make me having a nice pasta dinner with Frank Sinatra.
All that’s missing are the pinky rings! I was totally blown away by this one. I have a few more ideas I want to try with a few other celebrities. If they are worth posting, I’ll share them.
I woke up yesterday morning to exactly what I expected in regard to social media. One side gloating and the other angry. Honestly, if the outcome had been different, it would have been the same way, just the other way around. It was the same here on WordPress, and because of that, I promise that this will be the last mention of politics on my blog for a very long time! Besides, I have other things to write about.
Bagging It Up
This past weekend, the weather was nice. So I decided that it was the perfect day to rearrange the garage. Every Spring and Fall I do this. I make sure that whatever seasonal machine I need is close to the door (snow blower or lawn mower). In the fall, I also put the lawn furniture and barbeque in the garage, so I need to make room for them, too.
I pulled everything out of the garage and began to go through some of the boxes that were in there. I condensed things from one box to another and rearranged them on the shelf. Then I moved some of the other things closer to the wall to make room for everything else. There were some bags of clothes that I was supposed to take to Goodwill and forgot about, and the mice got to them, so I wound up throwing them away.
As someone who likes to keep things, mostly for sentimental reasons, I admit it was nice to throw a bunch of the stuff away. There was so much cardboard in there, I couldn’t wait to get rid of it. I found a place for my toolboxes that will be much easier to access, and hung a bunch of tools up on the walls.
Once this was done (three hours later), I decided to start bagging leaves. I had gone out and bought bags and was finally able to start getting them up. I must have looked like a fool, as I was using my snow shovel as a “dustpan” for the leaves! It fits perfectly in the top of the leaf bags and makes it a little less messier.
15 bags later, my back was screaming at me to stop. I had really hoped that I could get it all done, but I was done. As I counted the bags, I thought, “Well, I have got to have most of it all bagged up!”
Uh, no. The above piles are just two of the 7 that are still around the front and back yards. Maybe this weekend I can finish?
I Was a Lions Fan Before It Was Cool
As a fan of the Detroit Lions, I have to admit that it is nice to have a team worth talking about! We’ve waited so long for this. Dan Campbell has really got our team doing well. When it came time to play the Packers last weekend, there was plenty of talk about how the Lions would lose on the road.
They came out and played some great football. The games are a lot of fun to watch because I never know what they are going to pull out of their helmets! When St. Brown scored a TD last weekend, I saw the “headstand” he did in the end zone and chuckled. Then I saw the photos online and I thought, “THAT is a fantastic picture!”
During the broadcast, they cut to a Lions fan who was wearing a cheese grater hat. For those who don’t know, the Packer fans are often called Cheese Heads and wear Cheese hats. I love this guy for wearing this and going viral on the internet! He had no idea until after the game, obviously, because he posted this:
Kudos Mr. Bodine! Kudos!
The Lions are 7-1 and I am enjoying the season! I am enjoying it so much, I asked AI to make me a Detroit Lion:
HOLY MACKERAL! I look fantastic!! I’m skinny, muscular, and handsome as ever! Put me in, coach! (Whoops, wrong sport.)
Make Yourself at Home
Sunday night, I got the kids to bed early. The school break was over and it was back into our routine Monday morning. Everyone decided to crash in our bed that night. I guess I woke up about midnight and as I changed positions in bed, I had to laugh. Andrew was next to me, Ella was in Sam’s spot and smack dab in the middle of them was our kitten, Bitsy!
She looks like she is very comfortable! No wonder I was falling out of bed!
I’ve been having fun on the blog in the last week or so. However, we’ve experienced our share of rough stuff at home. Hopefully, we’re working our way towards the end of it.
Germs!
It started with Ella about three weeks ago. She went to urgent care with a fever. They said it was an ear infection and sinus infection and to follow up with her primary doc. They confirmed what urgent care said and we did a round of antibiotics. She missed a week of school and went back. She hung on to a deep cough, but she had no fever. The cough continued and we took her back to the doctor who told us it was due to drainage. When she spiked another high fever, we were back at the doc who gave us another antibiotic.
Saturday, she wasn’t really herself. My brother was in town and she was kind of clingy. On Sunday, my brother was supposed to come back over, however, plans changed. Ella woke up with a fever of 105.1. So it was off to the ER.
She was miserable. They swabbed her to check for Covid, Strep, and any other virus. They gave her Motrin and the fever started to break. They took her for x-rays to check for pneumonia, too. We were there from 8:30am until about 2pm. No pneumonia, urinalysis was fine, chest was clear, but she does have a form of Coronavirus that is not Covid. She came home and immediately fell asleep on the couch.
She slept for almost five hours. Sam stayed up with Andrew while I was at the ER. When we got home she laid down to nap, too. My brother didn’t know how long we’d be and figured it was best to let Ella rest. He ended up going home early. So it was just me and Andrew.
We went outside and raked leaves. He was pretty proud of the big pile we made, and he wanted a picture.
Andrew, Sam and me have all had a cough. Sam seems to have gotten what Ella has. Andrew and I are just coughing. I hope this goes away!
Kit Kat Club?
Sam ordered a cat tree for the kitten. She is extremely playful and loves to claw at things. The hope is that she will sharpen her claws on it, and use it to rest. I don’t think that is going to be an issue….
Keith – AI
I was scrolling Facebook this week and something popped up. It was some AI thing that Facebook has. It said to have it “imagine” something and it would create it. You can say, “Imagine pigs flying” and bingo – there is a picture. So I said, “Imagine me as a radio DJ.” Real creative, right?
The first thing it did was took a picture of me from the front, and both sides. It had me upload a picture or two of me to aid it in the creation. Next thing I know….
Not bad, I suppose. Something is obviously wrong with my right hand as it only has three fingers! I’m not sure about the headphone cords … something isn’t right there. On another note, if I was really this thin, I’d be extremely happy!!!
Naturally, I had to try another. That one was too easy. So I said, “Imagine me as Columbo.” I meant, of course, Peter Falk’s iconic character. I never clarified that at all and wanted to see what it came up with. I’m not going to lie, it is kind of impressive.
They got the raincoat and messy hair, although most of it is covered by a hat. I may have to make this my profile picture on Facebook. It’s too good!
Ewe Never Know What You Might Ram Into …
Our town has a Facebook page. It is used to talk about events, traffic issues, and so on. The past week has been a real hoot. It seems that someone’s ram got loose and ran away.
The page began to fill with ram sightings all over town.
This thing was everywhere and they couldn’t seem to catch it.
It became quite humorous as people were creating memes and other photoshopped pictures with it. Those were funny, but I though the real photos were funnier.
I mean, here is this ram just out enjoying the sights and sounds of our town!
I won’t lie, I was actually a bit disappointed when they posted that he was finally caught and returned home.
He was so popular, I may write him in as my candidate for President!
Various Ramblings of a Nostalgic Italian 