Reverie — no. 03

Through a matatu window at night: weary men lit in teal and amber, noir graphic-novel style; a garbled sign reads SHAKUMAS. — Mon 6 July, Nairobi.

Life comes hard, like a slap, to the face. After that morning of "self-care", I just wanna be naked, be home.

behind the scenes

prompt — the still & the motionBlack plus size somali kenyan seen through the window of a nairobi mutato at night. noir graphic novel style frank miller. tired, defeated, but continuing on. frank miller style, like sin city

the drift — kept, not fixedThe prompt asked for a woman; the machine returned weary men through the glass, teal-and-amber colour-noir instead of Sin City black-and-white, the signage garbled to "SHAKUMAS". The accident was kept rather than re-rolled — the drift is part of the piece.

made with

image Midjourney — a 5.2s video (3:2, raw, motion high). One frame is the still; the whole clip, fading to black at both ends, is the opt-in Motion loop.
room ElevenLabs SFX — a café's warm hum and low murmur of conversation, an order placed now and then, the odd soft clink.
music ElevenLabs Music (composed) — a Kenyan DJ mix, gengetone / afrobeats, band-passed and crushed to a faint, distorted transistor-radio murmur far under the room hum; looped seamless (~26s).
seed the poem, given whole.

prompt — the roomThe warm interior of a Nairobi café — a soft warm ambient hum, a low steady murmur of relaxed conversation in Swahili, Sheng and English, someone placing an order now and then, the occasional gentle clink far off. No engine, no mechanical drone, no traffic.

prompt — the music on the speakersBackground Kenyan DJ mix, gengetone and afrobeats flavoured — a laid-back bouncy groove, warm synths, deep rolling bass, subtle bright percussion, continuous and mixed, playing low.

notePress nothing and it is a complete, silent piece. Motion lets the window move; Sound lets the café murmur in. Both are off until you ask.

Reverie — no. 03, Mon 6 July, Nairobi.