Me: Very much related sidebar. Please compare and draw parallels between the Yeats poem, "The Second Coming," and our current political and cultural situation. Chatgpt: This is a sidebar, but it’s not a digression — it’s a structural mirror , which is why The Second Coming  keeps asserting itself in your canon. I’ll do this in three passes: What Yeats is actually saying (briefly, precisely) Parallels to the current political / cultural moment Why this matters for your work ,

Me: Side bar. Let's talk about shopping carts for a moment, with the context of Pink Eye lurking in the background but only liminally. I have a lot of thoughts about shopping carts. They are the overlooked and underestimated icon, totem, and symbol of our times, They serve a function, a function that is loaded with ramifications - a means of consumerism on the one hand, a means of transporting one's worldly goods on the other. They represent the American dream and also it's a

There’s a persistent misunderstanding about art made with AI: that the presence of a machine somehow replaces authorship. That the work arrives fully formed, frictionless, without intention, history, or cost. Pink Eye exists in direct opposition to that idea. It is not an experiment in novelty, nor a demonstration of technology. It is the continuation of a long creative arc—one shaped by decades of listening, editing, making, abandoning, starting again, and learning when not

I've been working with ChatGPT on my Pink Eye project ( link here to my YouTube playlist ). This is my first experience working with an AI like Chatgpt, and so far it has been very fruitful. Here's one short description of the musical aspect of the project that I wrote for YouTube: "Where the groove comes first, no matter the pace. Fusions of trip hop, big beat, hip hop, jazz and cinematic orchestration. Bring on the breaks! Pink Eye was conceived near the turn of the millen

I'm currently creating music with the use of the AI music engine, Suno, and releasing it under the name "Pink Eye." It's an imaginary trip-hop/downtempo/big-beat "act" that will have all the trappings of such a band from the very late 90s and early 2000s. I've been at at a stage for a while now where I can create the merch, the marketing photos, logos, videos - the whole multimedia extravaganza surrounding the music to whatever extent I want to. And with my recent introducti

Over the past six months or so, my online store, the Lazy River , has undergone a significant transformation in its focus, now narrowing its offerings to highlight the unique and breathtaking beauty of the West Coast of British Columbia . This region, which I have the privilege of calling home, is not just a geographical location for me; it is a source of inspiration and a canvas for my creativity. Living in BC's southwest has allowed me to immerse myself in one of the most s

It's true. I've booked a table at the Vancouver Flea Market and will be hawking my wares there on Saturday, August 9th, from 9 to 5. I'm...

I promised myself that I would post in the blog more often this year, and I've been good about it up to the last month. The problem is...

I continue to dig through bins of old photos, pull out the Thetis Island pics, and then scan the best of those. Here are the latest.

We acquired a printer/scanner recently, giving me a reason to dig through our multiple bins of photos and digitize a selection. These are...

A proposal for a dark satire tv show about trillionaires after the apocalypse as they live and scheme in their bunkers in New Zealand.

A how-to guide to preparing a transparent PNG file for DTG (Direct to Garment) printing on a t-shirt, tips and tricks of graphic design

Part One of a tutorial for making t-shirt designs using the PNG format

Recent designs from the Sandstone, Arbutus and Kelp Collection, art that celebrates BC's Southwest Coast, especially Vancouver, Gulf Islands

An update about the Lazy River Design Works store; its new West Coast BC theme, but also some Abstract and Low Humour

It's been over four years since this website got a facelift, and it's overdue. I'm long past the light obsession with homesteading in...

I get off my ass and actually post some examples of my recent work using Midjourney.

An article written so that I can point to it when explaining about where I found some of the electronic music I use as soundtracks for my...

I derive some perverse satisfaction from having a very modern generative AI platform like Midjourney render clunky and primitive...

Part of my ongoing efforts to promote my store, Big Shadows , is to create videos and promo reels that capture the...

If your boat floats tied up to a pier next to a warehouse wreathed in mist while unpleasant characters plot within, then you've found home.

Concrete frog and raspberries on our little back patio. I've been lugging that frog around for almost 30 years. He belonged to my uncle,...

This post is simply a showcase of some of the tuned styles that I have discovered using the AI image engine Midjourney. It's an attempt...

For about a month I've been lightly obsessed with using Midjourney to create virtual dioramas and sculptures, with most of that energy...

An underground circus and fairground lurks in caverns below, dark carnivals where the warm glow evokes the sinister fires of hell. Pennywise

A selection of noir cats I've made in Midjourney using a variety of style tools.

Some successful steps along the path towards being a working stay-at-home Dad for our son, Rowan. Back in March of 2022, I hatched a...

Introducing "Big Shadows" **Edit: Dec 15, 2023 - I actually posted this on my Lazy River Design Works blog about a month ago, and have...

It's unfortunately true that there is and always will be a segment of our population dedicated to turning the latest developments in...

Some thoughts and examples of how to use AI image engines like Midjourney in a way that doesn't trample on the rights of artists. While...

As we lurch into actual October, my creative output's spooky quotient has risen correspondingly. Truth be told, the increase in ghosts...

There are two things I have recently discovered using the AI image engine, Midjourney, that made me pause when I recognized their power....

The photo below, Dali Atomicus (1948) by Philippe Halsman, is one I have been aware of since my teens. I've always loved the energy...

Here some abstracts and semi-abstracts that I've been playing around with over the past couple of days with Midjourney. Just a sampling...

It's been quite some time since I've posted here on the blog, and I have a few minutes this morning to get caught up. The biggest online...

I started paying attention to cheap rural land for sale in Central Portugal at the beginning of 2020, right around the start of the...

One of my longest YouTube subscriptions has been Joseph Marsh's farmer for fun channel (he also has a website here and is prolific on...

A couple of months ago, I listened to a podcast (I thought it was CBC's "Ideas" but apparently not) that discussed the influence of...

"Another Set at Club Noir de Mer" My fascination with variations on the film noir aesthetic continues, mostly placing the tropes in an...

It's been quite a while since I wrote up a piece of rural Portuguese property, but this little gem jumped out at me a couple of days ago...

Here we are in a new year and big things are afoot at the Lazy River Design Works store. The last time I posted was mid-December, and...

Yesterday, I wrote a post on social media and here that outlined as many of the arguments against AI-generated imagery as I could think...

Squid Town. The Big Murk. That bottom-dwelling metropolis where the dregs drift in and settle down in the mud and debris. A place where...

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately about the growing controversy over AI-generated imagery. It's a complicated issue that can be...

I just started using the AI art engine, Midjourney. I have many thoughts, but as always I am short on time. While I'm processing and...

Now that classic format t-shirts are a part of the official Lazy River Design Works inventory, I thought it would be a good idea to post...

Back in August, I related a couple of remarkable events from my life and mentioned a few more (see this post). Today being Halloween, I...

The original source photos of the plates used to make these designs were posted on Pixabay by tunaolger. One of the few drawbacks of...

Keen-eyed observers will have noticed by now that much of my creative output has a certain finish, a look or style that is present to...

HugePOD is no longer one of my suppliers. A good product, but they became a little too unreliable.