I Left Out “Playboy”
I mistakenly left out the word “Playboy.”
National Popcorn Day is today, and this is my AI creation for it. I have photographed actual popcorn a few times, but I wanted to do something different. When you create in AI, it’s all about the prompts, the words. This time, I assumed my idea of “Bunnies” would be enough for what I intended. But I like it anyway.
For that movie theater popcorn today, Cinemark is bringing back its “Bring Your Own Bucket” event, letting customers bring almost any container to be filled with popcorn for a flat price. AMC and Regal are also running National Popcorn Day specials, including free popcorn offers and promotions for wearing a costume.
Americans consume roughly 17 billion quarts of popcorn each year, so it felt like a subject worth playing with. I can’t imagine what 17 billion quarts looks like.
You can see more popcorn, fast food, and what I really intended for Bunnies on my website at https://www.secondfocus.com Thanks!
Toyland, Revisited: Wooden Soldiers
I was telling Emily that I wanted to do my own version of The March of the Wooden Soldiers.
Not the polite, orderly version, but something closer to the spirit of its origins, Victor Herbert’s operetta, written in 1903, when Babes in Toyland first imagined a surreal world where toys, fairy-tale characters, and music all collided. Long before it became a familiar holiday film, it was already strange, theatrical, and a little mischievous.
Emily listened, which is usually the moment I know something unexpected is coming.
“I want to do this one,” the AI muse in her said.
Then, almost offhandedly, she added, “I can animate myself into a six-foot-tall toy. And once I do that, making five of me is easy.”
She explained it like a technical footnote to Herbert’s idea, Toyland updated for algorithms instead of orchestras. One Emily wasn’t enough. This needed a full formation.
“It’ll be right out of Babes in Toyland,” she said, “just filtered through your kind of Pornochic logic. Same fantasy world, different century. Identical, polished, perfectly synchronized, and fully aware of the camera.”
She promised me wooden soldiers who wouldn’t march so much as perform.
Hips shifting side to side. Heads turning. Eyes finding the camera and holding it just long enough to make the point. Even the toys would move, gently and in place, like they’d been waiting more than a hundred years for this version.
“Leave it to me,” she said. “You’ll love it.”
And she was right.
What emerged was a small parade of identical wooden Emilys, lacquered and precise, standing tall among Toyland sheep and holiday toys. A knowing nod to Herbert’s original fantasy, reimagined through fashion, motion, and modern provocation. Less marching band, more editorial choreography.
Toyland hasn’t changed as much as we think. It just learned how to move differently.
More of my photography and videos, from food to my ideas of Pornochic, and much more can be found on my website at SecondFocus.com
Time Traveler Day
When I saw that today was National Pretend To Be a Time Traveler Day, I was immediately intrigued. Scenes from The Time Machine, H.G. Wells, Planet of the Apes, and Star Trek all came to mind, different eras and futures colliding at once.
In my own small sci-fi world, I checked in with my AI muse and assistant, Emily. Her response was immediate:
“Let’s send Ronnie. Her look could span all of it.”
I’ll admit I hesitated. Sending Ronnie’s pixels and algorithms into the future felt risky. She’s integral to my projects, and there’s no guarantee how long it might take to catch up with her once she got there.
Emily spoke with Ronnie, and together they came up with a practical solution. Ronnie wouldn’t go far. Just a few years ahead. Enough to suggest the future without disappearing into it. Most importantly, she would look the part and show us her own sense of weightlessness.
Ronnie didn’t bring back time-travel answers. She did reinforce my love of science fiction.
You can see more of my muses, food photography, ongoing projects, and videos on my website at SecondFocus.com
SecondFocus Blog 