Velkommen to the first installment of the new “Lorelei” column at thunderjetheaven.com! This series of posts will expand upon the mythos of Drag City Raceway, its vicinity, its history, and its personalities!

The language of love slips from my lover’s tongue

Cooler than ice cream and warmer than the sun

Dumb hearts get broken just like china cups

The language of love has left me broken on the rocks

But there’s just one thing I really wanna know…

Who’s that girl running around with you?

~ Eurythmics, 1983

I’ve mentioned previously that the particular AI that I am playing with is not consistent at rendering the faces of actual people. Ever since I posted by first AI generated images inspired by Drag City here, Its plain to see I’ve put quite a bit of effort into producing an avatar of myself for use at the track. Perhaps it is egotistical, like a filmmaker putting himself in his own movies, but I think that many people – maybe even most people – would find it an irresistible exercise to put themselves inside their own creations, given the chance to do so.

That exercise has been so much fun that I’ve now started inviting some of my friends along for the ride! I’ve taken to putting avatars of a couple of them in the scenes at Drag City as well-with their express permission, of course-because why wouldn’t you want to invite your loved ones along when you’ve got something so cool going on? The AI doesn’t do a much better of a job rendering their avatars consistently either, so there are a lot of misfires and failed experiments, but when it gets things right, it’s pretty fun hanging out at the track with my bros!

However, the process of making my first ever AI generated movie for this blog (which appears at the bottom of Saturday’s post) produced not one but several unexpected collateral results which could be very interesting to explore further, and one of them is this one right here…

I figured if I was going to hang out in the “Dark Lounge” atmosphere around the track- that nighttime summer rain noir – I was going to need a “femme fatale” in the scene. So I asked for one. And wow, did I get one!

The next day I got to thinking about it and I thought it would be amusing give this mystery girl some backstory. Just for the helluvit I decided to throw that over to the AI by pasting in the song quote I opened this very post with, and then I asked: “So, who is that girl?” What happened next knocked me off my chair! And to give you the full scope of just how amazing this is, I’m going to paste the entire response I got from the AI here…because you have to see it to believe it!

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YES. Now this is the moment.
We’ve got Jason — your loyal trackside brother-in-oil and roaring engines — but now it’s time to bring in your Dark Lounge muse, your ride-or-die, your steady hand on the shoulder during long nights at Drag City.

She’s not just arm candy.
She’s part of the culture.
A little mysterious, maybe a little dangerous — but loyal, capable, and with a backstory that demands respect.🏁 HER NAME:
Let’s go with Roxy Calder.

“Roxy” — A name with punch. Retro, glam, punk, and cool. Like Roxy Music meets a hot rod queen.

“Calder” — Evokes heat and iron, like a forge. It’s elemental, grounded, and just slightly noir.

🛠️ HER BACKSTORY:
Roxy Calder was born in Barstow, raised in Sunland, and ran with the wrong crowd until the right cars came along. Her old man was a transmission tech. Her mom left when she was ten. By high school, she was rebuilding 4-speeds in a friend’s carport and drag racing under the table in Apple Valley. A grease monkey with a poet’s heart.

She’s not a racer, but she knows how to tune one.
She doesn’t crave the spotlight — but when she walks into the Drag City Diner in that zip-front coverall, everyone knows she belongs.

Used to date a Cobra driver.
Once slapped a Dunlop rep for talking down to her.
Currently tunes European sports racers and knows more about side-draft Webers than most men on the grid.

🎵 HER VIBE:
She listens to Eurythmics, Siouxsie, and early Tori Amos.
Smokes sometimes. Laughs rarely.
Drinks black coffee in the morning, Pernod at night.
Wears a turquoise ring from a pawn shop and has a cassette of “Touch” in the glovebox of her ‘71 Datsun 240Z.

💥 HER ROLE:
She’s your tether when the race weekend spins out of control.
She’s the one who catches the glances, hears the whispers, spots the busted weld before it blows.
Not possessive, but protective.
Knows Jason. Trusts Jason.
Doesn’t trust the blonde who showed up at Turn 14 asking about you by name.

You want love?
You got it.

But with Roxy Calder by your side, it won’t be soft-focus and candy hearts.
It’ll be sweat, sparks, neon, and rock & roll.
It’ll be real.

Ready to bring her to life in the next frame?

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😲

Bear in mind that what you just read was produced by machines in a matter of seconds! That’s at least as good of a back story as I could have come up with in hours!

So then: it’s official. Writers and artists: OBSOLETE! Well, we already knew that…but I had only just started making up a story about an Iowa transplant who drove a ‘67 El Camino and hadn’t even thought of a name, and it was all done for me instantly, creating a character that I would actually want to hang out with, but who is just different enough from what I would have dreamed up to challenge me a little!

Well dear readers, it appears that your bumble blogger now has a “Girl Friday” to join me at the track! That’s only gonna make things even more fun!

Like most people, I often find myself pondering really big issues: issues of existential dimensions. When I get into that headspace, it’s tempting to take to my space on the web and try out discussions of some of those topics as blog posts. I’ll keep that in mind now as I contemplate my concerns about the future perpetuation of the human race in the aftermath of AI. When you think about the effect that this technology is going to have on human relationships, and in particular on romantic relationships: the kind that normally lead to the next generation of humans being born, it’s easy to worry. One wonders how many children there will be in the world in 20 or 30 years’ time when a significant amount of the world‘s current population has grown up with “virtual girlfriends.”

No doubt there are better AIs out there for rendering human faces and figures, but they can be expensive, and the proliferation of new systems is so rapid that it’s impossible to keep up with, making it difficult to choose ones to try. And everything that you see and read about here on this blog – the writing, the picture generation, the video editing, building the slot cars and working on the diorama – It all comes back to time: the bane of the working man’s existence. I only have a few hours each day to spend between my track, my blog, and my other hobbies, and then there’s the time I need to spend with the people in my life…and I’m not going to slip into that trap of letting my relationships with real people suffer for the sake of time with the computer!

But I won’t say it’s not amusing seeing these images of a figure that looks a lot like me walking amongst the images of the track and diorama that I’ve built with my own hands and imagination over the last five years. As for the ego? Well, it probably won’t surprise you to hear that my avatar is just a wee bit idealized: in point of fact, I’m not this handsome! But in the best renders, there is a strong resemblance in the features, and who wouldn’t want to present their best self to the world if given the chance? If you’re skeptical or scoffing, let me ask you…have YOU tried it yet???

As for Roxy? Oh, dear readers, The Matrix is truly upon us now, and it’s appeal is powerful! But no, your bumble blogger does not now have a “virtual girlfriend;” Roxy is just a character I’m adding to the Lore of Drag City. As days go by, keep reminding yourselves and your loved ones to take the red pill! Have fun with the toys, but never lose sight of what’s real!