Mar. 25 - I think it’s spectacular that American intelligence services warned Russia weeks in advance about an imminent ISIS terror attack.
It wasn’t that long ago that President Biden called for Vladimir Putin to be removed from office and as far as I can tell America is still engaged in a (proxy) shooting war with Russia, so the idea that US intelligence services are still keeping an eye out for the safety of Russians is pretty remarkable. (It’s called “duty to inform,” and pertains only to intelligence on civilians being targeted.)
The warning only covered the period from March 7th through 9th, but that’s certainly close enough for the administration to mock Russia with a lot of public told-you-so’s.
As well it should! The US intelligence community has been bumbling so badly for so long—remember when 51 of its best and brightest determined that Hunter Biden’s laptop was actually a Russian psyop intended to interfere with the American election? How could they be so wrong about something like that—so wrong they still haven’t bothered to acknowledge the error—when they had the actual laptop right there in their hands, and yet be so right about the possibility of an ISIS terror attack in Moscow on March 7th, 8th, or 9th (or, you know, sometime later in the month)? Amazing!
It was very foolish of Russia to have ignored such a valuable warning.
It’s also emerged that the United States has been instructing our Ukrainian proxies not to bomb Russian oil refineries because that could affect global oil prices, which would make Americans unhappier and hurt President Biden’s re-election prospects in November.
Ukraine ignored that advice and bombed some Russian refineries anyway.
Everyone knows that Biden has been demanding that Israel declare a ceasefire with Hamas, and that Israel not go into Rafah; Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer actually demanded that Israel hold immediate elections to replace Bibi Netanyahu.
In the most contentious global issues of the moment, America is being either ignored or repudiated, or both.
That’s because whatever American partisans may say, the world understands that Joe Biden is a weak, dithering, loud-mouthed boor, presiding over an administration of responsibility-averse, low-intelligence ideologues. Anyone rooting for that hapless clown show of a government to get four more years in office must truly hate the world.
That was just my Monday dump: an unloading of the weekend’s accumulated irritations an annoyances. Now we get to the fun stuff.
The future is accellerating. Suno.ai will now take a textual user prompt and use it to produce a 2-minute musical composition—complete with title, lyrics, vocals, arrangement, instrumental solos, and album art.
A free account gets you 40 credits, which is enough to generate eight songs. (Really four, since its default is to produce two variants from every prompt.)
It has a “Custom Mode” that allows you to provide your own lyrics, choose from a list of styles, and provide your own title, but I didn’t discover the Custom Mode button until after I’d used up all my credits.
Here’s what I got for my forty credits:
Prompt: An upbeat big-band swing number, with lyrics in a Cole Porter style, sung from the point of view of an American moving from New York to Copenhagen
From the Big Apple to Copenhagen (version 1, version 2)
Hello, Copenhagen (version 1, version 2)
Prompt: a classic, old school bluegrass song with plaintive lyrics about the singer's love of Denmark
My Love for Denmark (version 1, version 2)
Prompt: a 1970s pop rock song about a bullfrog who falls in love with the moon
Bullfrong Serenade (version 1, version 2)
Prompt: a 1960s motown style song about a bullfrog who falls in love with the moon
Leapin’ Love (version 1, version 2)
The Lennon & McCartney estates won’t be losing any sleep over Suno based on that, but look how far AI imagery has come on Midjourney in the past two years:
Here’s another example:
(Both of those images are from a Medium article I can’t access because I’m not a member: if you are, you access the article here.)
Suno is currently on version 3, so it’s not unreasonable to assume that in under two years its output will have improved as dramatically as the images from Midjourney improved from V3 to V6—from childish cartoons to vivid photo realism.
By then Midjourney will be even better. So will Runway. So will GPT and Grok and Copilot.
Touching a little on what I wrote Saturday, my generation had our socks blown off by Star Wars because we’d grown up watching schlocky science fiction on television and at the movies and were used to having to suspend a whole lot of disbelief not to giggle out loud at the lousy special effects. Suddenly science fiction looked real. Once we got used to that, the studios had no choice but to keep it up: from 1977 onward, audiences lost all tolerance for clumsy special effects. Your shit looked real, or you tanked at the box office.
We’re probably just a couple of years away from middle-schoolers being able to produce their own full-length motion pictures while lying in bed on a rainy afternoon. From there, worldwide distribution is just a mouse click away.
Movie production won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, obviously, but with all barriers to entry blown out of the water, the days of doom-scrolling through streaming services to find just a single good movie you haven’t seen yet will be gone forever. We’ll all struggle just to keep up with motion pictures produced by our friends, relatives, and our friends’s relatives’ orthodontists’ colleagues.
Script by GPT8. Casting by This-Person-Does-Not-Exist-v7. Storyboard by Midjourney v13. Voices by ElevenLabs v14. Score by Suno v10. Production by Runway v21. Directed by prompts from Andy Johnson of Hardwick Middle School.
How close are we? I asked GPT4 to write a trailer for the scenario I just described, specifying only that the movie should be about “supermodels in space who have to save the galaxy from an empire of cyborgs,” which seemed like a likely subject for a 14-your old boy:
In a universe where fashion meets futurism, and catwalks extend into the cosmos, comes an electrifying adventure that redefines the galaxy's destiny. "Vogue Voyagers: Galactic Glamour Saves the Universe" promises an unprecedented cinematic experience, blending high fashion with high stakes interstellar warfare.
When a ruthless empire of cyborgs threatens the fabric of the galaxy, a glamorous squadron of supermodels is humanity's unlikely last hope. Born on the runways of Earth and chosen for their unique abilities, these celestial couturiers are not just faces of intergalactic fashion; they're the guardians of glamour, tasked with a mission that will take them to the edge of the universe.
Scripted by the advanced intellect of GPT-8 and cast by the cutting-edge technology of This-Person-Does-Not-Exist-v7, every character in this saga transcends the ordinary. From the opulent halls of interstellar haute couture to the shadowy depths of cybernetic strongholds, our heroines embark on a quest to retrieve the lost jewels of virtue – artifacts of immense power, capable of turning the tide against the cybernetic scourge.
Storyboarded with precision and creativity by Midjourney v13, each frame of this epic unfolds like a tapestry woven from the threads of a thousand worlds, promising a visual feast that captivates and enthralls. With voices lent by the nuanced performances of ElevenLabs v14 and a score that pulses with the vibrant energy of Suno v10, the emotional landscape of this tale resonates with every beat of the heart.
Behind it all is the genius of Andy Johnson from Hardwick Middle School, whose prompts and visions guided the creation of this interstellar odyssey. His direction, bridging the gap between imagination and reality, brings to life a story of resilience, beauty, and the enduring power of grace under pressure.
Produced with the sophisticated algorithms of Runway v21, "Vogue Voyagers: Galactic Glamour Saves the Universe" isn't just a movie; it's a movement. A testament to the strength that lies in elegance and the battle cry of those who dare to dream, this film invites you to join the revolution where fashion fires the first shot in the fight for the future.
Prepare for launch this fall. The galaxy will never be the same again.
Thanks, GPT4. How about a poster for that blockbuster?
My own inner 14-year-old just bought a ticket.
There were elections in Senegal over the weekend. I don’t follow Senegalese politics, so I don’t know why there was so much coverage of their election in western media, but I did notice that you can’t vote in Senegal without a national identification card, so I find it strange that election observers are saying the elections appear to have been fair and orderly.
Anne Brontë was born on this date in 1820. She and her sisters Charlotte and Emily were avid writers. Women were not supposed to write books at the time because novels were still being written in the formal style, and it was feared that women would corrupt that classic form with their penchant for multiple climaxes. The Brontës therefore wrote under the pseudonyms Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell. Charlotte got to be Currer, which made the other girls jealous, because Currer was the handsome and swarthy sailor: Ellis was the stuttering librarian, and Acton was the simpleminded shepherd.
Today is the birthday of Sheryl Swoopes (1971), Sarah Jessica Parker (1965), Elton John (1947), Aretha Franklin (1942), Anita Bryant (1940), Gloria Steinem (1934), Flannery O'Connor (1925), Howard Cosell (1920), David Lean (1908), Bela Bartok (1881), Arturo Toscanini (1867), and Anne Brontë (1820).
It's Independence Day in Greece.
It’s the last Monday of the week and the month, so make it count!
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