Charlie Kirk, Ulysses, and twin flames

This morning I was out in a rural area I had never been to before and stopped at a local cafe for breakfast. The background music there was unfamiliar and caught my attention. At first I kind of liked the style, but as I paid more attention it quickly became clear that it was all "AI"-generated. I tracked down the "band" online and confirmed this. The music-producing entity is called 93LUCID-MODE, is based in Taiwan, and has released 10 albums with accentless English vocals in the past year and a half. All the music videos are computer-generated footage of cars driving at night from the driver's perspective, with no human faces. Although the individual tracks do have names, these are not included in the video titles or descriptions, which are all identical and all in Chinese. So yes, definitely computer-generated, though at least it's a step up from last year's "latte in my lungs" tunes.

On the road after my breakfast, I was thinking about "AI"-generated music, and my thoughts turned to that much-mocked "AI"-generated "We Are Charlie Kirk, We Carry the Flame" song that became a meme shortly after Kirk's assassination. Just as I was thinking about this, I passed on the road an old, faded election campaign ad. In the politician's picture, there was a little black spot near the base of her neck, which to me at least suggested the purported video of Kirk's shooting, though the "wound" is slightly too low and on the wrong side of the neck.

Remembering that the music bot from the cafe had had the number 93 in its name, I wondered if perhaps Charlie Kirk was born in '93. I later confirmed that he was. I also noticed that the word LUCID, corresponds to the Roman numeral DCLVI, or 656. All that's missing is an X to make it the number of the beast. I'm sure there must be some band or brand or product out there called Lucid-X. It's one of those inevitable names.

Later I received an email (to which I will reply later, after I've given it sufficient thought) bringing up the idea of "twin flames" -- a New Age term which I had thought just meant "soulmates" or something but apparently refers to the idea that a soul can split into two and  incarnate in two bodies simultaneously. This made me think of the scene in Canto XXVI of the Inferno where Ulysses and Diomedes appear within "twin flames" in hell. As perhaps goes without saying, I quote the Mandelbaum translation:

My guide, who noted how intent I was,

told me: "Within those fires there are souls;

each one is swathed in that which scorches him."

"My master," I replied, "on hearing you,

I am more sure; but I’d already thought

that it was so, and I had meant to ask:

Who is within the flame that comes so twinned

above that it would seem to rise out of

the pyre Eteocles shared with his brother?"

He answered me: "Within that flame, Ulysses

and Diomedes suffer; they, who went

as one to rage, now share one punishment.

Not until I first read Dante in 2008 was I aware of this idea of Ulysses as a "twin." Nevertheless, back in 2001 I had decided that the They Might Be Giants song "My Evil Twin" (1992) was about Ulysses.

It contains these rather opaque lines:

Who cut the arm off the voodoo doll

That resembles a Republican president from long ago?

When "Cyclops Rock" was released (on September 11, 2001, very much a "Twin"-related date), it seemed to revisit this theme:

I'm sick

Like Chucky was sick

My defeated heart keeps beating on

I won't die

Like Chucky won't die

But I'm not here to socialize

Gotta find a new place to hang out

'Cause I'm tired of living in Hell

I'm a mess

Since you cut me out

But Chucky's arm keeps me company

Chucky, from the movie Child's Play (1988) is a "voodoo doll" -- a serial killer literally uses a voodoo ritual to transfer his soul to a doll -- so "Chucky's arm" must be the same as the arm cut off the voodoo doll. As discussed in "Spirit hands, song-propelled saucers, and A-P" (May 15), an "arm" can represent a spirit, so the amputation of Chucky's arm could represent the splitting of his soul.

In pre-album performances, they sang "Like Nixon was sick" instead of "Like Chucky was sick," though the other Chucky references remained, so is Richard Nixon the "Republican president from long ago"? But Nixon was still alive when "My Evil Twin" was recorded and thus hardly qualifies as someone "from long ago." I ultimately decided that the long-ago person who resembles a Republican president is Ulysses, whose name was later borne by the Republican president Ulysses S. Grant. The Cyclops theme of the second song certainly fits with that interpretation, as does the line "I can hear some sirens somewhere" in the first song.

It appears from the lyrics that one of the twins -- presumably the "evil" one -- is in the underworld, while the other is on earth. This fits with the Charlie Kirk song. "We carry the flame" suggest the "twin flames" concept, and while Kirk himself is dead, the song asserts that "We are Charlie Kirk / Forever alive." And of course Charlie and Chucky are forms of the same name, while Kirk suggests Kirke, the witch from the Odyssey.

In the afternoon, I took a brief nap, during which I dreamt about using a trebuchet to spread seeds. Just as I was waking up, I heard a voice sing the line, "Yeah, you're a natural." I looked it up and found that it's from a 2018 song by Imagine Dragons. I don't think I'd ever listened to the whole thing before, but I'd heard bits of it used in Kill_mR_DJ mashups.

It appears to be a song on the common theme of sacrificing someone you love in exchange for worldly success -- reportedly the standard way of "selling one's soul to the devil" in the entertainment world. The repeated line "Living your life cutthroat" is accompanied in the video by appropriate gestures, suggesting Charlie Kirk.

I know it's just a song, but lead singer Dan Reynolds (a former Mormon, by the way) definitely has the physiognomy for the role.

The line "You're a natural" has appeared here before, in "Death to the natural man" (August 2025).