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Saturday, April 06, 2024

I am not a man, I am an animal...

 


I wonder if anyone remembers The Elephant Man. It came out in 1980 with a young Anthony Hopkins. It was also directed by David Lynch. I didn't know that at the time. But it doesn't surprise me. It was an odd and dark film.  If you don't know the movie, it was based on the true story of Joseph Merrick, a severely deformed man who was paraded around as freak show in late 19th century London. He didn't really look like an elephant.

One of the classic lines from the film was when Merrick shouts "I am not an animal! I am a man." I used to randomly say that in meetings at work. Not too many people got the reference. 

It's my life story.

But I liked the idea of swapping the elephant and the man. It does kind of speak to the treatment of animals in circuses who are used for our entertainment. I'd like to see them protest. 

At first I asked Art AI to put a man's head on an elephants body. It didn't seem to warm up to that idea and kept giving me elephants standing on two legs and dressing like people. I eventually just went with that because it did look to freaky when Art AI finally gave in and gave me a couple of concepts with human heads on elephant bodies.

It wasn't pretty.

I messed around with some images of Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum I'd had Art AI create for me a few weeks ago. I pictured them as the twins from the Overlook Hotel in the Shining. It finally came together when I found an old nursery rhyme that introduced Tweedly Dee and Dum before Alice in Wonderland brought them to life. They apparently were going to fight a duel over a rattle and got frightened by a angry crow. Made no sense, but I liked the imagery.


I particularly like the beanies with propellers on top. Disturbing yet compelling. Kind of like Kramer from Seinfeld.

The Shining made me think of Redrum. 


I like the absurdity of Redrum not being about murder spelled backwards at all and more literal. 

Finally, for no apparent reason, I had Art AI crank out a NASA logo with the word NASTY on it.

Apparently since NASA is a government agency they don't have as much license to scream intellectual property violation. But I am relying on what ChatGPT told me and it also told me Jimmy Buffett couldn't copyright "It's five o'clock somewhere."  Google set me straight that Jimmy did have tons of copyrights. It reminded me that ChatGPT is a notorious liar.

It can be NASTY, too.





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