Saturday, August 2, 2025

Ozzy Osbourne 1948 - 2025

AI of Ozzy Osbourne with Notsky and ThinkPawsome

 As we get on in years, we lose more people in our lives, both personally and in the public eye. 2025 so far is another one of those years where we go through stars like water, but it's as inevitable as my taxes. Ozzy Osbourne passed on 22 July with his wife and manager Sharon by his side. He had suffered from Parkinsons disease, and had a history of addiction. His funeral procession through his native Birmingham brought out crowds sizeable to state funerals. Just a couple weeks before, he had what would be his final performance, including the last reunion of Black Sabbath and an all-star lineup. Osbournes influence is widespread, and we're still reeling from the loss. I can take solace that I got to see him in 2018 in my area. Couldn't stay the whole time, but at least I had the chance, as there are so many others in my lifetime that I never would see. I first heard of him when I was young, but got into him a bit late, like I have most others. I have seen The Osbournes, but not the other reality shows since I don't really care for those anymore. Now it's just too soon. We'll always have the music and the memories to keep his spirit alive like everyone else that has left us before. I know Halloween and his birthday later in the year won't be the same anymore. Shops may mark up and/or run out of his albums. New copies and streams put him back in the charts, which is usual when this happens. I just know his legacy will always be there. Long live Ozzy Osbourne.

FloofAid

 

AI group drawing. Website is just as fake, so don't go to it yet.
    I have launched FloofAid, a unique charity to help those in the furry community afford fursuits and furry conventions. This may not be quite what I usually put here, but I haven't had anything in a period and I have the worst luck with these. This is described more on our sister blog, along with sister project Furacuse, which would be a con based right here in Syracuse, so people in the region wouldn't have to go as far for it, being between Albanys Eufuria, Buffalos Fluffalo, as well as far between Ottawas Canfur, Philadelphias Furrydelphia, and the Tri-States Furpocalypse. It would seem counterintuitive to have one thing that gets you to cons around North America (we'll throw in the boys' turf too, despite recent events) tied to one in my area. FloofAid would also help furs connect to each other. It was going to be called FurAid, but the name was already used by a rescue centre, which cons usually raise money for. Furacuse would be split between the local SPCA and FloofAid. If you don't care for GoFundMe, you can send me money directly through PayPal, CashApp, Venmo, or even Zelle (by request). This is not a scam. Just say that it's for FloofAid so I can put it aside. I would put that money specifically aside for either the three or four state regions event if I can't do both, since I'll be lucky to get to one ever, or even get another suit since the ones I have now may not be appropriate or accepted by the diehards, despite basing a lie around my main one, and the other was a cheapie I can't even bring to the charity shop. Once more money comes in, I can pay it forward, reach out to others, and file the paperwork.

    Having a benefit show would not be feasible. This is too much of a niche market to even get small time artists on board. Maybe my prom deal would work, since people would go for the event more than for the cause in some of these cases. Even established non-profits are struggling right now. The one mainstream current artist that came even close to knowing floof is Lil Nas X with a knockoff Rivolo suit (mine is of Kevon, even though I add to him to make him my own). The Beatles with Magical Mystery Tour in the "I Am the Walrus" segment of the film and the album sleeve may be considered a precedent, yet the fandoms roots may go back as far as Victorian and Edwardian times if not further.

Thursday, May 29, 2025

Second Chance Homecoming

Notsky is dressed for the homecoming dance!

 You've seen how frustrated I've been about finding an adult prom or the like in CNY lately, and I'll be lucky to get one by autumn, when schools have homecoming. I never did that either, nor have millions of other people. One may call it Prom Lite, or even a precursor to prom if you like. Second Chance Homecoming is also held, but is even more elusive than its better known counterpart. Granted that someone does have Prom locally this fall, I would try to hold Homecoming before that not to compete, but rather to compliment, if it happens. I don't think anyone here has ever done a Second Chance Homecoming before. Maybe the S-word could do it, but if they won't do the P-word, what would make them have this instead? I would go through the same list of places on our sister blog. I've even considered having it for my birthday if I don't out to dinner for reasons I won't put here, even though it can't be on the day because it's in the middle of the week (although the latest adult prom in the region in New Hartford is on a Tuesday, which is unorthodox for this sort, yet I won't go now after plans around the Pride one in Rome fell through), and it has to be towards the weekend when people are generally up to a night out. I wasn't going to combine them in the middle of summer or make it a public event, yet I don't know too many people, and I haven't had a party in decades (she won't say how she'll be, mind). Salt City Collectives prom in October has been the one closest to homecoming season, which I put in last years post, yet when it was first held, it was when the pandemic was easing up and I gave up finding anything that year, never mind in spring. That one is still up in the air this year, as waiting is in two parts; waiting for a decision and date, and for the event itself (you know how it is, as John Lennon would say). I would look around for a registered charity, NGO, or someone in need looking for a fundraiser idea and suggest this, hoping they'll take this up, whether they use the homecoming or prom label, as this is all hands on deck, requiring a committee to organise everything as one person can't do it all. I'm not the Bob Geldof, Bill Graham or Harvey Goldsmith of homecoming or prom. Gala sounds more posh, and Met Gala downstate pulls out all the stops every year, but that's different. Bishop Ludden (+ Grimes) use that term instead of prom or ball. I want the event to use the homecoming or prom label because anyone can have a black tie event for charity or whatever. I want it to resemble what it was like in school to a degree (no pun intended) if not in films or on TV (even though I don't watch much of either anymore). We can bring in the drinks, and I'm teetotal. I've been putting floofs in tuxedos on AI as you can see with our mascot. It's been ages since I was in school. I didn't graduate in this area, and the one I did is another animal and has no such ceremony if they ever had in the old days (they did have prom before I went, and the current version does now). However, that place is too far for me, and the only reunion is mostly alums who went before I was even born, but that's for another day. I may be too old to attend either schools homecoming, but like prom, at least we can have something of our own for everyone who missed out, got it wrong then, or just wants to have another go at it to a lesser extent than its older sister, if you like. No AI whatsoever was used to write this post (she did it all on her own).

Tuesday, April 1, 2025

Jolly Jokers Ohrenbalsam: HARD RAIN, HARD RAIN, CD, 1997

Courtesy Semaphore GmbH/Magnum Music Productions

Jolly Jokers Ohrenbalsam: HARD RAIN, HARD RAIN, CD, 1997: Als die Band MAGNUM nach ihrem gefloppten "Rock Art" (1994) Album, Ende 1995 ihr letztes Tourkonzert in Wolverhampton gegeben hatt...
When the band Magnum played their last tour concert in Wolverhampton at the end of 1995 after their flopped Rock Art (1994) album...

Monday, March 31, 2025

Going Ghibli

Jadis jump in on Ghibli-mania. Courtesy xAi/Grok.

 I don't know too much about anime, let alone Studio Ghibli, but I do know a good trend when I see one, and I became intrigued by the latest AI flavour of the month of turning any given photo into the Japanese animation powerhouses distinct style. Several bands I know don't have freely licenced images I can use on Wikipedia as I have pointed out before, and now there's this legal loophole that is questionable, but allowed for now. ChatGPTs Open AI initially just had it for paid subscribers, but I can't afford that, so I went to xAi/Grok after they bought X, if that makes sense and they did a poor mans version for me of Jadis. I wonder if Martin Orford (far right in drawing above, late of IQ) would slate AI the way he did illegal downloading since there may be some parallels. Would make interesting discussion. Then ChatGPT got it to work for everybody and the floodgates opened. I had a go with Pallas and It Bites original lineup (later one with John Mitchell of Arena, Asia, and so much more), and now I will do Savoy and even Magnum spinoff Hard Rain. I did the cover of Magnum propers 1983 album The Eleventh Hour!, which a bootleg label stole for a 1985 Marillion concert released as Childhood Mysteries from their Misplaced Childhood tour, which I covered last year, so I Ghibli-ed it to make it a new scene not from Rodney Matthews himself. I could even do this with the kid from the other cover. I can go on all day. Studio Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki however is no fan of AI.
    I've been using AI this past year. Initially, it was for the sister blog, so go over there for more. As for here, I'm not as good at drawing people. Doing a whole person isn't a strong point with me as I can with other species. Some of the Status Quo can't even draw "Pictures of Matchstick Men", but AI can let you create "Whatever You Want" (even Francis Rossi et al are getting the Gene Shallit treatment here). We'll see how long this one sticks around before the next craze comes along just like everything else.

Pallas in colour since this was done from black and white.

It Bites. Courtesy ChatGPT Open AI.

With apologies to Rodney Matthews and Magnum.

Doggy also joins in on the fun!
Magnum take back their sleeve once again.

Savoys Ghibli-savvy is now tunnel vision!

xAi Groks version of Savoy didn't work out as well.

    Turns out I can't use these on Wikipedia if they're derived from copyrighted works, so that's it for this new sensation. I would have to go see these bands in person and sneak in photos to get my own free images or wait for them to break up or have press photos old enough to qualify, even from within my lifetime, whichever comes first. I did draw Savoy and the 2010-24 lineup of Pallas, but that just won't work on Wikipedia as they're too incomplete, crude and amateurish to be on there, and much of my work has disappeared over the years anyway. There are ways I could get permission to licence photos, but it's too much red tape. I just want something I can use straight away. If I could have AI make an original photo of any of these people, that would be great, but it's just they're not as well known as when I could even get last minute ones of Trevor Horn or Elton John for Facebook memories or Bluesky. I wind up with people who don't even exist, even when I submit a source photo. This is why AI gets slated on a daily basis, even though it's only going to get bigger like sci-fi had predicted.

Wednesday, March 5, 2025