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Midjourney Video Shook Me to My Core | 65 Years of Art, Reborn by AI
01:43
Rick McCawley

Midjourney Video Shook Me to My Core | 65 Years of Art, Reborn by AI

This is not just a video. It’s a life’s work—made visible. For 65 years, I’ve been chasing beauty with a camera, a trumpet, a pen, and a vision. As a Pulitzer-winning photojournalist for The Miami Herald, I spent five decades crafting images the old way—darkrooms, deadlines, danger. For the last three years, I’ve gone all in with AI, testing over 30 tools monthly, generating millions of images, composing music with Suno, authoring books, building educational and disability-support apps like Rescue Connect, and designing AI for human empowerment. But last night, Midjourney’s new video capability broke something open in me I didn’t expect. In minutes, I created a living, breathing visual poem from 2.5 years of my artwork using their new video engine. I layered my voice, added a track I composed in Suno.AI, and edited the clips into one soul-shaking experience. And I was shaken to my core—not because it was easy, but because it was real. Some say this isn’t “art” because it’s made with AI. To them, I say: Art is not a tool. It’s a verb. It’s vulnerability. It’s vision. It’s choosing to show up, every day, for decades—bleeding for beauty. “Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels… the ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules... You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. But the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things.” — Steve Jobs I am one of those. Not just using AI—I am the AI-human hybrid they warned you about. But not for profit. For purpose. This is my purpose: To make the invisible visible. To share the sacred hidden in parking lots and puddles. To help you feel what I feel—through sound, light, memory, myth. You don’t have to like it. But you can’t deny the human in it. 👁‍🗨 Watch it with your whole self. 🎧 Hear the years behind the voice. 🔥 Then ask yourself—what will you create with your one wild and precious life… now that the tools are in your hands? Subscribe if you believe AI can be a multiplier for human vision, not a replacement. And if you’re one of the crazy ones too—welcome home. —Rick McCawley Photographer. Educator. Musician. AI Humanist. https://www.rickmccawley.com | Imagine A World (ᵃⁱ) 🎯 HASHTAGS / KEYWORDS (500 total characters max): #MidjourneyVideo #AIArt #PulitzerPhotographer #AIandArt #CreativeAI #SunoAI #HumanAI #Midjourney #RickMcCawley #AIStorytelling #ArtistsOfAI #TheCrazyOnes #VisualPoetry #LifelongArtist #AIHumanPartnership #Photojournalism #CreativeRevolution
"Black Widow Seduction" by Rick McCawley | © 2025 | From The Year Without Summer (Gothic AI Opera)
03:55
Rick McCawley

"Black Widow Seduction" by Rick McCawley | © 2025 | From The Year Without Summer (Gothic AI Opera)

Black Widow Seduction is an original, haunting dark ballad from the forthcoming Gothic opera The Year Without Summer, written and composed by Rick McCawley (© 2025). In this emotionally charged scene, Jack—a modern reimagining of Dracula—is caught in a seductive web of control and psychological despair. Ensnared by a woman who lures him with sensual power and narcissistic charm, Jack becomes a puppet, wrapped in metaphorical silk, drained of free will. She is not merely a lover—she is the Black Widow, a symbol of destructive seduction. Jack submits willingly… until he begins to awaken. This is the sound of agency lost—and possibly reclaimed. About The Year Without Summer: Set in a reimagined 1816—the infamous "year without a summer" caused by volcanic ash darkening the sky—this original stage opera retells the creation of Frankenstein and Dracula as mythic, psychological archetypes. The climate disaster becomes a metaphor for emotional, spiritual, and societal collapse. Through AI-generated music (via Suno), vocal cloning (Hydra, based on Rick’s real voice), visual storytelling (AI image models trained on Rick’s likeness), and lyrics co-crafted using ChatGPT, this is not just a song—it’s a living story born from a fusion of artistry and machine imagination. Performance Credits: Lyrics & Concept: Rick McCawley Music Composition: Suno AI Vocals (Voice Clone): Hydra (Trained on Rick’s voice) Visuals & Narrative Architecture: ChatGPT & Custom AI Imaging Copyright © 2025 Rick McCawley. All Rights Reserved.
Kiss the Ring, Jack’s Anthem of Tyranny, Year Without Summer.Immersive Sphere Play ©By Rick McCawley
03:20
Rick McCawley

Kiss the Ring, Jack’s Anthem of Tyranny, Year Without Summer.Immersive Sphere Play ©By Rick McCawley

Kiss the Ring" is the chilling centerpiece of "The Year Without Summer", a new immersive operatic experience performed inside the world’s most advanced Sphere theaters. This song is Jack’s final confession and coronation. He is not just one man —he is all men who’ve ruled by fear and been praised for it. He is Caesar. Stalin. Trump. Musk. Napoleon. Nero. He is every tyrant made holy by the hunger of the people to not have to choose for themselves. “You made me. With every vote, every cheer, Every silence in the dark When they came for someone else.” Jack is the embodiment of the seven deadly sins wearing a crown. He is not the monster. He is the mask we asked for —because we were too comfortable, too entertained, too safe to act. He does what we won’t. He takes what we crave. And we thank him for it. In this haunting, thunderous anthem, Jack demands what history always demands of its people: Obedience dressed as loyalty. Fear dressed as faith. Evil dressed as providence. This 360° immersive moment places the audience inside a coliseum of projected empires, surrounded by visions of conquest and propaganda as Jack delivers his sermon of self-justification. Above him: Stalin, Caesar, Trump. Below: a Greek chorus of citizens "We The People" —silent, warm, complicit. This is not just a performance. It is a confrontation. "Kiss the Ring" asks: Will we build new tyrants with artificial intelligence? Or will we finally own our responsibility and break the spell? The fire still burns. The ring still waits. And Jack still wears it —because we still kiss it.
“Free Will, Fortune Teller’s Lie”Written by Rick McCawley | © 2025 | “From The Year Without Summer”
03:55
Rick McCawley

“Free Will, Fortune Teller’s Lie”Written by Rick McCawley | © 2025 | “From The Year Without Summer”

Title: “Free Will, Fortune Teller’s Lie” Written by Rick McCawley | © 2025 | From The Year Without Summer Description: This original song, Free Will, Fortune Teller’s Lie, is part of The Year Without Summer—a haunting, Gothic stage opera that reimagines the birth of Frankenstein and Dracula through a mythic, modern lens. In this scene, Jack—our reimagined Dracula—seeks guidance from a mysterious fortune teller after falling under the spell of a dangerous and seductive woman. Though he’s lived a thousand lives, feeding on others across centuries, he now willingly submits to her domination, unable to resist her curves, her control, her spell. But something inside him begins to fracture. Is it love, addiction, or fate pulling him under? With each reincarnation, Jack becomes more fragile—more human. He visits the fortune teller not to know the future, but to beg for clarity: Is he choosing this path, or is it choosing him? Created using Suno for music composition, Hydra for voice syncing and vocal cloning (performed in my own voice), and images generated with AI trained on my likeness, this piece is a collaboration between human emotion and AI-driven storytelling. All lyrics and narrative were crafted with the help of ChatGPT, co-written and emotionally directed by me, Rick McCawley. The full opera The Year Without Summer tells the story of a world unraveling—tied to the volcanic eruption of 1816 that birthed two of history’s darkest myths. But beneath the horror lies a deeper truth: love, fate, seduction, and the illusion of free will. This is Jack’s lament. This is his reckoning
Mary Shelley’s Lament: "I Am The Creator"  A Song from “The Year Without Summer” ©Rick McCawley
04:01
Rick McCawley

Mary Shelley’s Lament: "I Am The Creator" A Song from “The Year Without Summer” ©Rick McCawley

🎭 From the stage opera "The Year Without Summer," this is Mary Shelley’s Lament—a gothic aria echoing through time. In 1816, beneath the shadow of a world plunged into ash and chill, Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein—a story of creation, abandonment, and the tragedy of misunderstood life. This song gives voice to her inner conflict: 🖋 The burden of creation. 🧠 The agony of brilliance. 💔 The loneliness of birthing a monster the world could not love. With solemn organ chords, melancholy strings, and whispered lines from the young Shelley herself, this song is a plea, a confession, a philosophical cry into the void. 🎼 “What is man, what is God, with creation my pen? I’ve written a question… but no answer within.” This song is a moment of reckoning—for artists, scientists, and seekers. It’s about what we create, and what it creates in us. 🎧 Subscribe to follow the full opera: “The Year Without Summer” 🔥 Inspired by the volcanic darkness of 1816 💡 Blending Mary Shelley, Byron, AI, Dracula & Frankenstein 🌍 Mirroring our modern world: disconnection, power, and the ethics of invention 🎻 Composed and conceptualized by Rick McCawley 📖 Lyrics entirely human, drawn from lived emotion 💻 AI-enhanced only for arrangement and visualization #MaryShelley #Frankenstein #GothicOpera #TheYearWithoutSummer #MusicalTheatre #AIandArt #DarkRomanticism #PhilosophyInMusic #OperaForChange #CreatorAndCreation #MarysLament
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