The Last Beatles Song — Now And Then

For the last couple of years, there’s been a bit of a minor panic about the possibilities of what AI can do, specifically in creative fields, like music, art and film. 

The fear is that corporations, being the completely money-hungry entities that they are, would eventually leverage AI to generate all new content “in the style” of artists, musicians or film stars who have long since passed. 

It’s certainly possible. If you search around on YouTube now, you can already find cases where people have produced cover songs sung by AI versions of artists, like the Beatles singing Beach Boys songs. I found one of Johnny Cash singing “I’m a Barbie Girl” to the tune of “Folsom Prison Blues.”

Today, though, the world is being introduced to a song that’s not meant to be a cash grab (well, maybe just a bit of a self-promoting cash grab), but an example of where AI can actually help save a song that would have otherwise never been completed. 

Now And Then, released today by the Beatles, is promoted as the “last” new Beatles song, with contributions from all four members of the band. 

Considering two of them have been gone for decades (John in 1980, George in 2001), that’s pretty remarkable.

They’ve even produced a video explaining how this happened. 

Short Film about Now And Then

Basically, in the 90s, while the surviving three members of the bad were working on their Anthology collections, Yoko provided them with 3-4 audio recordings of songs that John had never released. The band liked them enough that they decided to actually produce new Beatles songs, using John’s demos as the core.

So, with the Anthology albums, they produced two new songs: Free as a Bird, and Real Love. Now and Then was meant to be the third song, but at the time, technology wouldn’t allow them to extract John’s vocals from the original cassette recording. The band did some initial work on the song, even recording parts (including George on guitar), but they ultimately scrapped it. 

But, then, a few years ago, Peter Jackson started working on the Get Back documentary, pouring through the old Beatles video recordings of the Let It Be sessions. While working on that project, Jackson hired sound engineers to develop an AI that would help them isolate the Beatles’ vocals and music from the videos so they could remix them in high definition. 

As a result, the band now had an AI programmed to recognize all of the Beatles voices. So, Paul, who has always wanted to finish Now and Then, had them run the demo of Now and Then through their system. 

Finally, they had a clean vocal of John. Luckily, they had also kept the sessions from the 90s, so they still had George’s guitar tracks. With Paul and Ringo, they put together what is effectively the last Beatles song with all four members contributing to the song. 

And, so, we now have a new Beatles song that’s, depending on where you count, at least 28 years in the making? (If you count from John’s demo in 1978, we’re talking over 40 years)


The Beatles: Now And Then Audio

So, how is it? 

It’s good. It’s scary good. With Free as a Bird, I think they weren’t able to get a truly clean version of John’s vocal from the original. So, they tweaked it and made it a bit ethereal. The net effect, intentionally or not, adds a wispy quality to his voice on the song, almost feeling like John is providing his voice from the afterlife. Which, technically, he kind of was. 

But, in Now and Then, John’s vocals are front and center. They fade in a couple of places, but there’s no ghostly feel like on the Anthology tracks. It almost sounds like John was in the room singing with his bandmates, which is scary and trippy in its own right. 

Interestingly, Paul’s backing vocals are mixed back a bit, which makes sense considering you have the 81-year-old McCartney singing alongside the 38-year-old voice of John. It sucks, but age is catching up with the “forever young” Beatle. Still, Paul’s allowing his old friend to have the spotlight.

Ringo adds the perfect drum parts, as always, and Paul contributes a lot: re-styling John’s piano track, adding bass, and playing a slide guitar solo in George’s style. 


I think the only disappointing aspect of the song is that George’s lead guitar bits get washed out in favor of the strings. I really wish they had swapped those two, or at least kept the strings to the chorus and the middle sections of the song. 

Still, it’s unmistakably Beatles. 

As much as Paul has wanted to finish the song, there is a bit of shameless self-promotion here. The group is re-releasing a new version of the “Red” and “Blue” albums – popular collections of their greatest hits. Although Now and Then can be purchased separately, it’s also on one of the collections. 

Still, as the last Beatles song, it’s a nice way to finish. 

At least, until, years from now, our AI overlords start generating completely “new” music  from the band. 

Place Your Bets! Who’s Gonna Die in The Mandalorian?

If you’ve been watching Season Three of the Mandalorian, you’ve probably noticed that things are a bit — off about the show this season. In fact, even though episode 7 felt like the best episode, it was also a massive exposition dump. It was if the show’s creators filmed six episodes, got to seven and realized, oh shit, we should probably come up with a story for the season. Then, they dumped everything into one episode so they can quickly resolve everything in the finale.

There’s so much that’s wrong about this show and the Star Wars universe in general right now that it can’t be covered in a single post. More to come on that point later.

Instead, the internet has been abuzz the last couple of days because supposedly Dave Filoni, one of the Mandalorian’s co-creators, dropped a hint that the season finale will be “heart-wrenching.”

And, you know what that means? Someone’s gonna kick the bucket! And, it’s likely going to be someone the audience cares about, i.e. a major character.

So, let’s join in a death watch (not that Death Watch), and place some bets on who might die in the season three finale of the Mandalorian.

NOTE: I’m not going to be shy about spoilers, so if you’re not up to date with the Mandalorian, you should probably stop reading now. This is your one and only warning!!!

Grogu: 0%

Let’s start with the obvious one. Disney is not about to let their little money making machine die when there’s still plenty of money to squeeze out of the green cash cow. After this last episode, we now have Grogu in a new IG-12 suit?, body?, armor? Whatever, it means all new toys for the House of Mouse. Basically, everyone else on the show could die before Grogu would. Even if the show ended, Disney would probably make him a “Disney Princess” or something to keep the money rolling in.

Bo-Katan: 40%

If you have been paying attention, ol’ Din (aka the Mandalorian or Mando) has been taking a back seat on his own show to a newer character. If you haven’t watched the Star Wars animated shows, Bo-Katan was a princess of Mandalore before the Empire took over the planet. She even ruled it for a short time, uniting some of the clans with the Darksaber, before (as we learned) the Empire laid waste to the planet in the “Night of a Thousand Tears.” She has longed to regain the Darksaber and try to unite the various Mandalorian factions again in order to try re-take her homeworld.

As we’ve seen this season, she’s basically gotten everything she’s ever wanted. Din Djarin’s mission for this season inexplicably became let’s re-take Mandalore, even though he’d never been there and wasn’t raised there. But, Bo-Katan was, and so, over the course of this season, we’ve quickly seen Din and Bo-Katan rally the group of Mandalorians that Din came from, then unite with the remnants of Bo-Katan’s group. Bo-Katan also, via a very lazy means, got the Darksaber back. And, now, in episode 7, we’ve seen all of these Mandalorians return to their homeworld in search of the Great Forge (for reasons). Bo-Katan has effectively become the main character, sidelining Din and Grogu in the process.

So, why kill her? Because, things have been going her way all season. She’s getting everything she’s ever wanted. She now has a chance to seek revenge against Moff Gideon, who has escaped the New Republic and we learn has set up a base on Mandalore, and re-take her planet. However, the Mandalorians may also attempt to rescue Din Djarin, who was captured by Gideon, so it makes sense that maybe Bo-Katan has to sacrifice herself to save him. Plus, narratively, it leads to an interesting set up for season 4. Who will lead the Mandalorians if they’ve lost their newly re-established leader, and the one who was most likely most qualified to do exactly that? Would they follow Din Djarin? Would the Mandalorians simply fracture again and scatter?

On the other hand, if you’ve also been paying attention to Disney Star Wars, you’re also well aware of Kathleen Kennedy and her “the Force is female” agenda. She has long been set on setting up strong female characters as the primary characters of the Star Wars universe (But, you ask, there are already strong female characters in Star Wars — I know, right?) — but Kennedy also is dead set on destroying the legacy of the male characters that fans have loved for decades. It’s a whole thing, worthy of a discussion of it’s own.

Needless to say, Kennedy would absolutely lose her shit if Bo-Katan died, especially if it meant some man might take over that leadership role. So, she’s probably safe on that alone.

Din Djarin: 66.6666%

Let’s face it, the showrunners have had no clue what to do with their main character this season. Din had a pretty strong arc for both of the previous seasons. But, the season two finale really resolved his story. Din finally found a Jedi (none other than Luke friggin Skywalker) that could train Grogu in the ways of the Force as well as protect him. Din was basically free to go back to being a bounty hunter or whatever he wanted.

Of course, if you’ve seen all of the Disney Star Wars shows, you’re aware that Disney undid this, and Grogu chose to leave his training and return to Din. If you didn’t, then you probably had questions at the beginning of season three.

Initially, it looked like Din was going on an arc to bathe in the waters of Mandalore to redeem himself in the eyes of his faction for the sin of removing his helmet. He also wanted to restore IG-11, but I forget why (I think it was related to Mandalore). Anyway, that was quickly resolved, so Din was left without a mission. So, the show had him hop on the Bo-Katan bus and help her return the Mandalorians to their home.

As I’ve mentioned, over the episodes, Bo-Katan has slowly been taking over screen time on the show and has really become the main character. In episode 6, she even had Grogu sitting in her lap while she piloted the ship. With a whole bunch of Mandalorians to follow, except for his connection to Grogu, Din has become pretty redundant.

There have also been some outside factors at work. Lucasfilm leadership has been dropping hints recently that “The Mandalorian” title isn’t just about a single character, but about all Mandalorians. There have long been rumors of actor Pedro Pascal being unhappy with the show, and frustrated that he’s simply doing voiceover work for much of the show. Supposedly, outside of a couple of episodes, he’s not even in the suit. (There are now rumors that the original rumors were sort of true, but have since been resolved).

Narratively, though, Din’s arc has been complete. You could argue that he should be the one to train Grogu in “the way” of the Mandalorian. Only, as I’ve said, there’s a whole bunch of them now, and arguably, Bo-Katan’s crew – true Mandalorians – are really better suited to teach him about their culture.

So, much like Bo-Katan’s story, they could go on a mission to save Din, but Din ultimately chooses to sacrifice himself to protect Bo-Katan or even Grogu from Moff Gideon. We would have a gut-wrenching moment where Din removes his helmet one final time so he can look upon the face of his son (hmm, where have we seen that before?)

So, yes, if anyone’s going to kick the bucket, Din is the most likely to go.

Nobody: 30%

Yeah, there’s also the big old fake-out option, too. Disney hasn’t pulled this card yet, but they could easily do it. The “heart-wrenching” comment could be a ploy to simply lure fans into watching the finale.

OR — They could pull a “Walking Not-Dead-Yet” fake-out. One of the above characters could not have a death scene, but instead, merely “appear” to be dead or left for dead. Then, they’d miraculously recover in the first episode of season four, and then there could be an episode or two of them trying to make their way back to the others, who believe that they’re dead. This would be great for the writers, because it means they have something to do in season four and they can keep fan interest around at least for a couple of episodes.

As lazy as the writing has been for season three, I can totally see this happening.

OR — In order to avoid angering their fans (Sorry — had to pause to stop laughing at that thought — Disney Star Wars caring about their fans), everybody has a couple of “close calls” but, in the end, everyone makes it out more or less okay. If fans get mad at Filoni, he’d simply say the “heart-wrenching” moments were the close calls — person X “almost” died, after all.

Let’s not forget that Filoni has a Star Wars movie to make with all of these characters, so he may simply wait and not kill anyone off until the BIG BIG finale of the film. Besides, the odds of any of this year’s Star Wars movie announcements actually making it into a theater are probably worth a separate post.

And… that’s it. Sure, someone else could die, but there’s really nobody else that I’d argue is a main character of the show at this point. Maybe the Armorer? dies, or Greef Karga dies. Maybe there are a couple of huge Moff Gideon fans who would be upset if he goes?

Obviously, this is a time-sensitive post and isn’t going to age well (since we have — what — maybe 72 hours — before the finale is released on Disney+?), but those are my thoughts on someone dying in the Mandalorian’s season finale.

Too Fat to Fly (Southwest)

In one of the crazier things that have happened this week, Kevin Smith was kicked off a Southwest flight last weekend because he was determined to be a “person of size.” He stated that he complied with their guidelines, and was still asked to leave the plane.

Here’s his take Smodcast Final Words, and it’s definitely worth watching. You may also want to listen to SMODCast 107, where Mr. Smith talks to Natali, a young woman who was on his return flight that had an incident with Southwest over this policy.

If you look on Southwest’s website, buried under the customer service section is a single link that describes their person of size policy.

According to their Customer of Size FAQ, it’s not “just about weight.” Of course, I’m not sure if this document has been recently updated after everything that went on with Mr. Smith this week, but it seems like it’s a recent update since it goes to great lengths to cover their policy.

The problem, though, is that the policy says that the definitive guide is whether or not the person can fit between the armrests of the seat. Mr. Smith states that he had no trouble putting down the armrests, and that in spite of that, he was asked to deplane.

Neither the policy NOR the FAQ state anything that outside of the “definitive guide” that any Southwest employee can make a judgement call on who is a “customer of size.”

Continue reading “Too Fat to Fly (Southwest)”

Lego Arms Dealer

Here’s something interesting that I stumbled across this weekend…
This guy creates custom weapons and lego mini-figurines:
BrickArms
Gizmodo has an interview with the guy that goes into more detail about how he creates the products, which I thought was pretty cool.
Gizmodo story

Love/Hate the Macbook Air

Let’s face it, we mac users are spoiled.
For years, Apple has created laptops that have been a marvel in both design and engineering. Both the Macbook and Macbook Pro overall have changed little over the years because they are just that well designed.
Even the competition has finally realized that design makes a difference and are putting a little more thought into the look of their machines.
Late last year, the rumors started floating around that Apple may release a subnotebook. Everyone started dreaming up what that could be. A lot of folks wanted Apple to bring back the 12″ Powerbook: a machine with all the power of the MBP in a smaller package.
And, if Apple were any other computer manufacturer, like Dell, HP, or Lenovo, that’s exactly what they would have done.
Continue reading “Love/Hate the Macbook Air”

Something to Ponder: Randy Pausch ‘Last Lecture’

This has been making its way around the intertubes. Carnegie-Mellon has been doing a series of lectures called the “Last Lecture,” where speakers would talk about whatever subject they thought important if this was the last presentation they would ever give.
One of their CS professors, though, is dying, and this is his last lecture.
Randy Pausch Lecture
The video is nearly two hours long, but you’ll want to set aside enough time to sit through the entire thing.
Yeah, I know, there are probably a lot of other things you could do with that time, but you won’t regret it.

Don’t tase me, bro!

Yes, that’s right.
You know your fifteen minutes of fame have started ticking away when:

  1. You interrupt a Q&A session of a politician who is basically irrelevant and demand that your ridiculous questions be answered.
  2. The handlers have you escorted away by police, which only get you all riled up and create a bigger fuss while your buddies capture all of it on camera.
  3. You continue to resist and make an even bigger scene, and then, beg the officers not to use a Taser on your sorry ass. They do anyway, just to shut you up.
  4. Video of the event makes it all over YouTube, and is picked up by all of the major news networks. Yes, even FOX News.
  5. And finally, the epitome of your fame hits: A phrase you utter during all of this is captured…. on a tee shirt.

Yes, that’s right! Act now, and you too can get the “Don’t Tase Me, Bro!” shirts online.
Don’t Tase Me, Bro!
Now, imagine what would have happened to this guy if he had waited until this week and pulled this on Iranian president Amendi, Amaner, Amonalisa… whatever.
But, alas, maybe he can hook up with the “Leave Britney Alone” shemale and they put on a show together.
Still, the tee-shirt is classic!
Even better, the “dick in a box” shirt
Box Shirt