Lately I’ve been reading my way through photography books that deal with the subjects of exposure and lighting. Touching on such topics such as light placement, camera settings, and evaluative metering, none really cover vision in the creative and perceptive sense. Isn’t that what we all have in our heads and try to convey through the images we make? Much of what we do has to do with controlling not only what comes into our lens, but how it comes in. Adding another step to the creative process can often yield magnificent results, allowing us to achieve our creative vision without having to alter it in post. This can be especially important if you’re shooting on site for a client who wants unedited RAW images straight out of the camera (SOOC).

 

Recently I read an article touching on the subject of using filters combined with very fast glass (in this case a Nikkor 85mm f/1.4) to create massive separation and isolation of image elements. I think I was browsing through the news stand at Powell’s Book Store in Portland, OR. when I read it. Regardless, it peaked my interest and kept me focused for a short while amongst the stacks. Powell’s has more photography books in one location than I have ever seen…it, was, glorious!

 

As you can see below, the separation in the image below is wonderful and required a simple conversion to an sRGB jpeg image from Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3.3. Shot at a 250th of a second with an aperture of f/1.4, I was able to maintain an extremely shallow depth of field by doing the following:

 

Shooting:

 

Camera settings: Manual, ISO 200, Shutter – 1/250th sec., Lens wide open at f/1.4, shot in RAW.

 

Equipment:

 

-Nikon D700

-85mm f/1.4 Lens

-8-Stop ND Filter

-AB-800 set to 1/32 power

-Large Softbox

-SB-900, 8″ snoot, set to 1/4 power for backlight

 

Thanks for the visit! -DvK

So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. John 8:36

 

Religious Liberty

 

Ron Boyd MacMillan is a perceptive communicator. He writes for the next two days:

 

As my plane touched down after a trip to the Middle East, I breathed a big sigh of relief. I was back where I did not have to watch my back, be careful what I said, or where I went. Whew. I was back in a country that had religious freedom. I prayed to God, “Thank you for the men and women who fought to bring me this freedom. Thank God they won.”

 

Then two incidents happened one after the other that made me think again.

 

I was at an art exhibition and looking at a painting entitled, Man startled on a horse. I sought out the artist and said, “Was that the Apostle Paul on the Damascus road you were depicting?” I thought he would be pleased I had figured it out.

 

But he looked horrified, and glancing around he hissed, “For goodness sake keep quiet. Do you want me to get labeled as a religious artist? I’d never sell another painting if that happened.”

 

Then I was talking to a priest in charge of a large church in my

city. His church had just received a large sum of money from the state for the refurbishment of a church hall. Then he said, “Well, we had to sign an agreement that the church would be available for everyone of any religion, and that we would not try to convert anyone. But we were happy to do that. We just want to be a community resource.”

 

Suddenly I became aware that I had to fight for religious liberty in my own country. I had thought that because certain toleration laws were in place, I was safe.

 

But no, it was clear from the artist that to admit one’s Christian faith in a public context was professional suicide.

 

How did my society suddenly get so prejudiced?

 

And look at the priest blithely giving up his right to evangelize, without a thought to the long-term cost. Who was asking him to refrain from evangelizing? And how could he be so unaware of the freedom he just signed away?

-Open Doors-

During the Jazz Age:

 

Daisy Buchanan continued to see David, known to the world as the popular Prince of Wales, long after she realized his intellectual flabbiness and off-putting lack of true purpose in life. Her closest friends, such as LaVern La Rue, thought him to be silly; and those who knew him seemed to agree with Winston Churchill that he seemed in love with falling constantly in love with an array of unsuitable women. Yet, David was so enamored of Daisy that he truly believed that she was the only woman with whom he could even consider spending his life.

 

Daisy was also convinced that as an American socialite with a tainted past--her secret responsibility for a car accident that killed a woman which soon caused Jay Gatsby's shooting death--she would never become wife to the future King. And now, there was the fact that she was still hoping to find her abducted daughter Pammy...

 

"I know I can never be Queen. Plus, if he weren't a Prince, I probably would have broken up with him by now," she told herself.

 

Until...

 

David did something that changed the possibility of marriage from a fuzzy notion to a sharp reality: as he pulled a ring from his pocket and put it on her finger, he said:

 

"Don't give me an answer now. Furthermore, for now, simply accept this ring as a symbol of my pledge that when I become King, we shall be married. No one--whether courtiers or government ministers--would dare to stand in my way."

 

David put on a confident--indeed arrogant--demeanor, smoking a cigarette as he looked away haughtily, though his heart beat wildly as he knew that she was more than capable of saying no. Yet...

 

As she sat down, she was mesmerized by the ring: It brought into clear view the regal life into which only he could bring her...

 

Daisy had grown perceptive enough to have reservations about David. Were those obscured, however, by the allure of his massive wealth and the luxuries it could bring?

 

He would never give her up; but could she give up her desire for the life to which he might elevate her?

 

One day, the world would know the answer...

 

To Be Continued.

 

**Daisy's hand on the bottom left is the flat-lay photo

Siddhārtha Gautama (Sanskrit: सिद्धार्थ गौतम; Pali: Siddhattha Gotama) was a spiritual teacher from ancient India who founded Buddhism. In most Buddhist traditions, he is regarded as the Supreme Buddha (P. sammāsambuddha, S. samyaksaṃbuddha) of our age, "Buddha" meaning "awakened one" or "the enlightened one." The time of his birth and death are uncertain: most early 20th-century historians dated his lifetime as c. 563 BCE to 483 BCE, but more recent opinion dates his death to between 486 and 483 BCE or, according to some, between 411 and 400 BCE.

 

Gautama, also known as Śākyamuni ("Sage of the Śākyas"), is the primary figure in Buddhism, and accounts of his life, discourses, and monastic rules are believed by Buddhists to have been summarized after his death and memorized by his followers. Various collections of teachings attributed to him were passed down by oral tradition, and first committed to writing about 400 years later.

 

He is also regarded as a god or prophet in other world religions, including Hinduism, Ahmadiyya and the Bahá'í faith.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gautama_Buddha

 

Gupta Empire

-------------------

The Gupta Empire was known for one of the largest political and military empires in the history of ancient India. It was ruled by the Gupta dynasty during the period of around 240 to 550 CE. The area covered by the rulers was comprised of most of the part of northern India, current Pakistan and Bangladesh. The period of the Gupta Empire is marked as Golden age to Indians specially in the field of art. Various subjects covering science, astronomy, religion, and philosophy had reached to the level of excellence during this period. The peace and prosperity were existing in the empire under leadership of Guptas enabled artist to deliver their best. The decimal numeral system, showing the presence of zero was invented in India during the reign of the Guptas. Certainly, to a large extent the Gupta Empire was considered a great power.

  

This Gupta period is truly marked as the Golden age of Indian culture and art. The examples showing the excellence of their cultural creativity are magnificent through the creative architecture, sculpture, and painting.

   

The Gupta era was also a golden age for Buddhist art. Uniform artistic standards were set in this period resulted in creation of sculptures at Mathura and Sarnath. Mathura and Sarnath have produced some of the finest specimen of Buddhist art during the Gupta period. Gupta style of art featuring a finished mastery in execution and a majestic serenity in expression was spread to other countries and mainly responsible for influencing Buddhist art in all over Asia.

   

The period of Gupta dynasty seems to have been a time of relative religious tolerance. This can be pointed out as though the main religion of the Guptas was Hinduism, Buddhism received royal patronage and Jainism appears to have prospered as well.

   

The sculptures & wall paintings at the Ajanta cave are marvelous example of the greatest and most powerful works of Guptas. The themes of sculptures and paintings from the Ajanta dominate the influence of Buddha. Various art pieces of this place depict about various lives of the Buddha, but apart from it, these are the best source of studying the daily life of in India at the time. Sculptors from Guptas period had carved out of the rock to create these sculptures between 460 and 480 CE. And most of the part is filled with Buddhist sculptures.

  

The colorful and vibrant art pieces at Ajanta are famous not only for observing details of nature and the urban landscape, but the architecture and furnishing, elegant attire and alluring ornaments on the images are marked with importance. These sculptures carry importance for showing perceptive delineations of a variety of human characters, expressions and moods through its appearance. The most well known work from the Ajanta caves is the "Bodhisattva Padmapani." The colorful image portrays the Buddha in Bodhisattva holding a lotus flower.

  

The creation of monumental temples during the Gupta period remains as architectural wonders. The cave temples of Elephanta and structural temples of Kanchipuram in Tamil Nadu are enduring legacy Gupta rulers.

  

An another masterpiece of Guptas art is the rock temple at Elephanta near Bombay. The temple structure contains a powerful, eighteen-foot statue of the three-headed Shiva, known as Trimurthi. Each head of statue represents one of the roles of Shiva: that of creating, that of preserving, and that of destroying. The Gupta period also saw dynamic building of Hindu temples too. All of these temples followed the tradition of having architecture that comprising of a hall and a tower.

  

All the sculptures produced throughout the Gupta Empire can be marked for having the appearance of relatively uniform "classic" style. The style was spread in other parts of India and in the countries of South and Southeast Asia. The Gupta style in sculpturing has greatly influenced the art of north Indian kingdoms in later period after the end of the Gupta dynasty. There were two main artistic centers for sculpture production: At Sarnath, the images of Buddha with clinging drapery are produced while at Mathura the image following the pattern of string folds in the drapery are created.

  

Unfortunately, very few monuments built during Gupta reign are able to survive today. Some more examples of presentation of Gupta architecture are found in the Vaishnavite Tigawa temple at Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh, which is built in 415 CE and another temple at Deogarhnear Jhansi, which is built in 510 CE. Similarly, at Bhita in Uttar Pradesh has a number of ancient Gupta temples, most of them are in ruins.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gupta_Empire

Horizon Zero Dawn is an action role-playing video game developed by Guerrilla Games and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Story is set in the 31st century, in a world where humans have regressed to primitive tribal societies as a result of some unknown calamity. Their technologically advanced predecessors are vaguely remembered as the "Old Ones." Large robotic creatures known merely as "machines" now dominate the Earth. For the most part, they peacefully coexist with humans, who occasionally hunt them for parts. However, a phenomenon known as the "Derangement" has caused machines to become more aggressive towards humans, and larger and deadlier machines have begun to appear. There are three tribes that are prominently featured: the Nora, the Carja, and the Oseram. The Nora are fierce hunter-gatherers who live in the mountains and worship nature as the "All-Mother." The Carja are desert-dwelling city builders who worship the Sun. The Oseram are tinkerers known for their metalworking, brewing, and arguing. Aloy was cast out from the Nora tribe at birth, raised by an outcast named Rost (JB Blanc). As a child, she obtained a Focus, a small augmented reality device that gives her special perceptive abilities. After coming of age, Aloy (Ashly Burch) enters a competition called the Proving to win the right to become a Nora Brave, and by extension, a member of the Nora tribe. Aloy wins the competition, but the Nora are suddenly attacked by cultists. Aloy is almost killed by their leader Helis (Crispin Freeman), but is saved by Rost, who sacrifices himself to save Aloy from a bomb. When Aloy awakes, a Matriarch explains that the cultists had gained control of corrupted machines. Aloy also learns that as an infant, she was found at the foot of a sealed door. An Oseram foreigner called Olin (Chook Sibtain) informs Aloy that the cultists are part of a group calling themselves the Eclipse. Olin indicates that the reason Aloy was targeted by the Eclipse was due to her resemblance to an Old World scientist named Dr. Elisabet Sobeck (also voiced by Burch).

LET MERCY LEAD: Rich Mullins (1955-1997) - 20th Anniversary Tribute. 2017

 

A new portrait tribute of the American contemporary Christian singer and songwriter, Rich Mullins (1955-1997) painted at the beginning of September 2017. Rich Mullins was tragically killed in an auto accident on this date, September 19 in 1997.

 

The oil painting was commissioned by a new American collector of mine, whose heartfelt and perceptive appreciation of my expressionist work has made her a dear friend too; and indeed I feel I know - have always known - this great singer and man of faith, like a friend.

 

I was touched to learn that his birthday was October 21 - also the date that the first native American Indian, Kateri Tekakwitha was made a Saint by the Catholic church in 2012 - so fitting, as in the late 1980s, the singer worked as a music teacher on a Native American Indian Reserve in Arizona.

 

The art of Rich Mullins was his music - through which he constantly expressed his unwavering faith in the Mercy of Jesus Christ - though he was far from a traditional Christian. Whilst he had a great devotion to the traditions of Christianity, through his deep innate faith - and indeed was moving towards the Catholic faith (with a great affection for Saint Francis of Assisi & Saint Elijah), at the time of his tragic passing - his early life was immersed in The Quakers testimonies of peace and social justice - that later inspired many of his lyrics.

 

He refused to hide the many personal life battles and struggles he encountered and indeed they became the foundation of many of his poetic lyrics; and the contemporary 'sermons' - often sprinkled with self- deprecating humour - that he felt lead to share at his concerts - all with the heartfelt aim and belief to share the message of the Mercy of Jesus - for all.

 

Jesus did not exclude anyone in society: His was - is - the most Unifying Heart - and this message resonates from the heart and soul of Rich Mullins - as is vividly evident from the quote from the man himself, with which I end this tribute.

 

This painting was as much about capturing the soulful essence of the man, through a selection of photographs (ranging from portraits to captures of him playing at his concerts) as about his music - so much of which I absorbed, in the build-up to the creation; and during breaks when painting over the duration of 3 days. Indeed the portrait's title was inspired by one of my favourites, 'Let Mercy Lead' (1995).

 

Rich's recording history dated from 1981 to 1997 - and his songs "I See You' Cry The Name' , 'An Awesome God' , We Are Not As Strong As We Think we Are', 'Elijah', 'Hold Me Jesus', 'Step By Step' 'Green' and 'Verge of A Miracle' are among those that echoed in my heart as I painted with prayers.

 

"Jesus said whatever you do to the least of these my brothers you’ve done it to me. And this is what I’ve come to think. That if I want to identify fully with Jesus Christ, who I claim to be my Savior and Lord, the best way that I can do that is to identify with the poor. This I know will go against the teachings of all the popular evangelical preachers. But they’re just wrong. They’re not bad, they’re just wrong. Christianity is not about building an absolutely secure little niche in the world where you can live with your perfect little wife and your perfect little children in a beautiful little house where you have no gays or minority groups anywhere near you. Christianity is about learning to love like Jesus loved and Jesus loved the poor and Jesus loved the broken-hearted..." - Rich Mullins, 1997.

 

Listen to Rich Mullins singing Let Mercy Lead:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1QqrOfO3E0

 

More about Rich Mullins:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rich_Mullins

 

Oil on canvas, 30 x 24in/76 x 61cm

Private collection, Virginia, USA

www.stephenbwhatley.com

 

Arnold Astin - You... Fetishist

Documentary Classics 513 , 1969

Cover Artist: unknown

 

"A strange journey into the frantic libidinous realm of the fetishist. ... Graphic details of exploitation, punishment, gratification; of the restricting leather, rubber, etc."

 

"By the particularly perceptive insight Miss Astin portrays, YOU, the reader, not only learn about those needs, their origins, gratifications and penalties... you actually experience them!"

 

Arnold Astin is possibly a pseudonym of Paul Hugo Little.

 

=Arkham Asylum. Doctor's Office=

 

Guard- In here.

 

*The guards open the door, and there, sitting in the doctor's chair is Professor Hugo Strange*

 

Strange- Ah, Mr Walker, I've been hoping to speak to you. Leave us. Mr Walker won't be any trouble, will you?

 

Drury- I- no.

 

*The guards exit*

 

Drury- You-?

 

Strange- Yes, me.

 

Drury- No, I mean- why were you reinstated?

 

Strange- The Asylum was in need of staff. I gladly offered my services.

 

Drury- How kind.

 

Strange- These are desperate times Mr Walker, and desperate times call for desperate measures. Please, take a seat.

 

*Drury does so*

 

Strange- Good. Very good. You *are* a remarkable specimen sir. I've been looking forward to-

 

Drury- Studying me?

 

Strange- Well, yes. Yes. I've been reviewing your file... low income family... your father was a supercriminal yes? And your mother *smirking* a prostitute?

 

Drury- What about it?

 

Strange- I'm simply-

 

Drury- You're "simply" what? Using some kind of psychological trick on me?

 

Strange- My, aren't we... perceptive? Truly. "Most impressive". I think it's time we addressed the elephant in the room. The disappearance of your brother. Norbert, was he called?

 

*Minutes later, the guards hear a thump inside. They knock down the door, Drury's knocked over his seat and Strange is wiping away blood from his face. As the guards start to restrain Drury, he stops them*

 

Strange- I think... I think we made good progress today Mr Walker. I look forward to our future meetings. *he whispers to one of the guards* Tell Doctor Arkham I recommend he be introduced into the Asylum population, effective immediately.

 

Guard- Uh, you sure doc?

 

Strange- Yes, I think it will prove *most*... educational. Goodbye Mr Walker.

 

=====The Cell=====

 

*The guards escort Drury back to his cell. He's far from relieved*

 

Drury- ...Hey Hopper. Did you miss me?

 

*Hopper rides into view, a bottle in hand. If there ever was a mascot for Irish stereotypes, it'd be The Grasshopper, short, drunk and always foul tempered. Though half blind, he can just barely make out Drury's face*

 

Hopper- You? Feck!

 

Drury- *sigh* Good to see you too.

 

*An empty bottle just misses him. An all too frequent occurrence. Hopper, was one of Arkham's signature lost causes, the kind of man they couldn't hope to treat. All they could hope for was keeping him happy, and that meant brandy. Drury met him once, at his wedding. He wasn't so much of a drinker then, or more likely, he was and Drury simply didn't notice

... Drury missed not noticing*

 

Hopper- Feck off!

 

Drury- You know what? I'd love to, but I can't see that happening. I had my chance. And I blew it.

 

*Drury's attempts to get a response from Hopper prove unsuccessful*

 

Hopper- ...Feck you...

 

*Ten he was not, thought Drury. His hands shaking, Hopper tries to pour himself another drink. Drury lets out a sigh. He told himself he wouldn't get involved. Not after Blackgate. And yet looking at Hopper struggle with the bottle makes Drury almost pity him*

 

Drury- Here... let me.

 

Hopper- No! No!

 

*Hopper smashes another bottle. Over Drury's head*

 

Drury- What the hell?!

 

Hopper- Feck off!

 

*Hopper wheels himself off to the corner, glass in hand and continues drinking. Drury almost considers saying something, but the lump on his head was telling him otherwise*

... hidden in a monastic library

 

Have a perceptive weekend, dear friends ;-)

 

Thank you mG ARTSTUDIO

www.flickr.com/photos/mgartstudio/3817561276/in/set-72157...

for the texture

  

Olympic National Park, Washington State. I have been looking for an ID for several years, and having finally given in to "Blue-gray Fungus." It's no easier than identifying lichen. We were walking carefully through the Hall of Mosses in the Hoh Rain Forest when I spotted this unique mushroom. I've seen brown and gray, yellow, and red, but never blue. It's probably because I'm not that perceptive or in other locations I'm concentrating on birds and insects.

 

At first I was a little disappointed that it was cracked, but then I though it actually gave it "depth." It was the only one of its kind that we saw in half a day in the rain forest. Though I was a little disappointed at first, after we had left and I was looking at the mosses and overall environment that I want to go back and try different exposures and seen what else I had missed.

Kira my perceptive red philosopher - so much more than a dog

Exclusif!

Le Président Français, croyant tromper la vigilance des journalistes rends visite à sa belle déguisé... en poulet!

Malheureusement pour lui, c'était sans compter sur la perspicacité des paparazzis de Closer...

 

The French President, thinking he would trick the journalists, pays a visit to his mistress dressed up... as a chicken!

Unfortunately for him, that was without taking into account the perceptiveness of the paparazzis...

 

lol... parfois le MOC se fait tout seul, sans raison particulière... du portnawak quoi!

Faith, like the light of Sirius, flows through the world. It exists in the flower, the monkey and the stone, but it is strongly exemplified in the nature of the dog. It is a fiery force which, when flaunted without discrimination or when wrongly focussed, can scorch or drive to madness. But nurtured in its proper season and trained with loving care, it is the fertile key that gives birth to a higher level of insight into the heart of things unseen by the personal man. The homing instinct, so wonderfully manifested in the dog and so much a part of his love and faith in his Master, becomes in man the guide through the intangible realms leading to his spiritual home. Not by sight or smell or hearing but by intense love for a beloved master, the dog is guided home. Man has come on a very long journey, taking him a long way from his spiritual abode. On the way he, like the gods, has been accompanied by the dog. It is fitting, nay poignantly just, that the dog should follow him and sometimes guide him on the long journey home. Weaving back and forth across the boundaries of life and death, guided by a faith that overcomes any uncertainty between the two, the dog unravels the complexities of conditioned existence and pierces to the deathless source of love.The faith that is cleansed of false hopes and objects is the gateway to higher intuition. The instinct of a dog can be described as the "direct perception of what is right within its own realm", whilst intuition is the direct cognition of the truth in all things, the memory of the knowledge of one's past existing in one's real nature. The instinct of the dog is universal in Nature and endowed by the Spirit of Deity, a divine spark entering conscious development in the higher animals. This can be guided by the intelligence within or by influences from without. As the dog's instinct is modified by exposure to a sensitive human being, the animal learns to rely increasingly on the "intuitive prompting from within", thus becoming a channel for pure reflected Buddhi. It cannot be said that the dog possesses the faculty of reason, nor does it recall its past lives, but through the inherent power of its uplifting nature it can become an acting template for its master's own yet to be consciously understood intuitions. A faithful dog can know, long before the event, of danger threatening the object of his love. A human being who knows of this potential will adjust his approach to the dog so that love, justice, honour and truth will be reflected through their daily relationship. These are qualities of the soul which can spring to life through contact with the soul in man. As a perceptive Lt.-Colonel in charge of British war-dogs during the First World War put it, "AH the dog knows about God must come to him through us." One might add to this that man, not fully merged with the Master within, can learn from the dog's yearning love and faithful assimilation of his own master's qualities.As guide or witness or guardian, the dog seems to exemplify fidelity. Even as harbinger of war and death, it demonstrates a faithful execution of its master's desire. Its faithfulness includes and goes beyond death, and so it is said to be a fidelity surviving death, to be reborn again and again. It was this perception of the death-defying power of faith that caused the Greeks to recognize in the dog the companion of healers like Aesclepius, whose temples were frequented by canines of all sorts. The sick who came to these places for cures believed the dog to have a healing tongue. They thought that if the animals licked their wounds while they observed an 'incubation' period (sleeping at the temple), or if the dogs appeared to them in dreams, a cure was heralded and would soon come into effect. Thus, through the transference of the power inherent in the faithfulness of the dog, death was surmounted and life recommenced. Such beliefs demonstrate on a simple thaumaturgic level a profound metaphysical conception of faith and a deep insight into the essential inner qualities of familiar creatures. Plutarch felt that the dog symbolized the conservative and watchful principle of life and, like Plato, characterized it as a philosopher. This perhaps suggests a witness who, like the Shawnee Grandmother's dog, existed from the very beginning of things. Apuleius described the dog as "raising his rough neck, his face alternately black and golden, denoting the messenger going hence and thence between the higher and infernal powers". In the Shawnee myth the dog is the unraveller, but here the stress is upon his role as a weaver, coming and going between worlds. As companion of the dead on their crossing to the nether region, the dog is indeed weaving its way in the role of a guide to those who do not know the way. In Hindu myth Indra's dog, Sarama, mothered the Sarameyas, the four-eyed dogs of Yama who run between this world and the nether region, summoning men and women to the other side. Many an Eastern ritual calls for the participation of a dog at the time of death. The Parsees traditionally introduced one to the deathbed and it accompanied the funeral procession. The death of a woman in childbirth required two dogs in order to accommodate two souls. In old Tibet sacred dogs were kept in the monasteries to devour the remains of the dead before the influence of Buddhism encouraged the spread of cremation.Northern Buddhists identify this virtue in the lion-dog guardian who is the defender of the Law. Watching, motionless and in complete obedience, the guardian-dog has subjugated all passions through the Law. No bright rag or tasty morsel can divert its attention from the faithful performance of its appointed task.If the dog is a guide to the realm of the dead, it is also a keeper of the boundary between the two worlds. Like the great mastiff of Charon, it guards the entrance way and none can pass without its acquiescence. But on the field of battle the dog throws himself into the fray. He is at once messenger, watcher, combatant and guard. He weaves his way back and forth from the living to the dead or wounded if trained to do so, or he becomes a Hound of Hell fighting along with the boldest soldier on the field. It is said that dogs larger than wolves accompanied the Celts when they attacked Delphi in 273 B.C. Terrifying the Greeks, they raised havoc like Hecate's own hounds of war, against whom regular soldiers had little effect. Often pictured with war-gods and heroes, the dog has been placed in the role of a witness of death as well as its guide.Satisfied that she had thoroughly made her point, the old story-teller tucked the children in, herself a grandmother finishing up the day. Behind closed eyes the children's thoughts drifted along the rim of the world and explored the details of the tale They had heard. Had the ancient Grandmother existed before the dog? Did the dog exist before the world? Had there always been dogs waiting and watching? They wondered about these things and about the Creator, who took his dog with him when he created the world. The questions merged with dreams for the children, but asleep or awake, anyone might wonder if the dog may have been around forever. It seems to appear always, even in the oldest myths and in quaint scratches on the walls of caves. To the Egyptians and the Greeks the dog was esteemed as a companion of Hermes, who, as the good shepherd, is both messenger and presiding deity of the mind and goes about accompanied by his faithful dog, Sirius, the 'all-seeing vigilance'. For many people of the world, the dog itself has been a messenger: between the gods and man and between life and death. Revered as a fire-bringer and solar herald, seen by many as the Hound of Heaven, the dog inspires awe, whilst in its guise as harbinger of death it is dreaded and reviled. A companion in life, it continues to be such in death and so weaves the two together in a pattern of perpetual coming and going, a continual design of birth, death and rebirth. For this reason the dog is also associated with resurrection and fertility, leaving one to ponder whether Yudhishthira was not motivated by something in addition to compassion when he insisted that his faithful dog accompany him to heaven.Imagine, my little ones, the ancient Grandmother of the Earth. Since the beginning of time she has sat, huddled, on the rim of existence. Humming over and again to herself the most pristine harmony, she tirelessly weaves the great basket called the world. Slowly by day the woven pattern emerges while her dog patiently waits. His eyes never cease to follow her nimble hands, recording and remembering the pattern as it grows. Until she rests from her work at nightfall, he watches and waits and then begins to unravel every strand. The Old One sleeps and the dog unwinds the knotted strands of day. By morning, all has been undone and the patient weaver begins again. She never rises from her task to chase the dog away nor does she fail to feed him from her exhaustless store. Every day and night proceed like those that went before: so it has always been; so it shall always be. We of the Shawnee Tribe have never doubted this, and I have heard it said that others believe it too. Do not the Kato people say that 'when the First Mover was going around the world creating, he took his dog'?"

www.theosophytrust.mobi/704-dog#.WB-B6oZPeEc

==Jumbo Carson's Apartment==

 

One Month Ago

 

Preparing to make his move on Gotham General, Carson watched the monitors intently, footage relayed to him by his short-statured stepbrother. "The blind man's new. And last I heard Rigger and Sharpe were on the outs with Walker," he murmured.

 

"Things change. That one's Reardon. They call him the Ten-Eyed Man," Jumbo's voice replied.

 

"And that's Carpenter, is it? Don't tell me Lynns got that," Carson mumbled.

 

"Fine, I won't. You know he had a baby with Volcana, right?" Jumbo asked.

 

Carson shook his head. "Motherfucker... And what's that one, the blue and silver one with the gauntlets?"

 

"A suit."

 

Carson frowned. "Very funny, who is he is what I- It's really just an empty suit, isn't it?"

 

"Yep," Jumbo answered.

 

"Hhn," Carson paused. "You stay there; don't let any of them leave. I'm gonna gather up the troops. Maybe Krill'll save us the twenty minute walk from here to the hospital."

 

==The Gotham Royal Hotel==

 

Sionis Penthouse: Floor 48

 

Time Until Detonation: 15 Minutes

 

"Not much up close, is he?" Sionis tutted, putting his face close to Day's, a sadistic smile breaking across his skeletal features. "A varsity athlete, he is not. I'm thinking I'll truss him up with the fairy lights... Just as a starter. See, I wanna do something Christmas-y. Something ironic, you know? Hm, or maybe I'll just scalp him, I dunno. Think Zsasz was onto something, Kite-Man?"

 

"Leave him alone," Chuck warned.

 

"What?" Sionis let a low, contemptuous chuckle. "The guy holds you hostage, chokes you half to death and you still won't lemme torture him? And I thought Walker was the sap in your little gang. Hah. Boy, was I wrong there."

 

"Sir," Li walked between him and Brown, whispering words of caution into his employer's ear.

 

"Yeah, sure," Sionis begrudgingly agreed, and adjusting his tie, he followed Li back to his desk.

 

Chuck cast his eyes over to Ten, who was using a small first aid kit to tend to Blake's knife wound.

 

"Stay still," he advised as he wrapped Blake's torso in an excessive amount of gauze.

 

"My hero!" Blake answered weakly. "I like a guy with steady hands."

 

"Don't. It's a patch job at best," Ten stated. "Chuck, we should seriously consider taking him to a hospital," he informed their acting leader.

 

"No hospitals!" Blake protested. "They put you under, then they neuter you and steal your money!"

 

"No, that's- ok, they don't neuter you. Though that would solve a couple of your problems..." Ten murmured to himself.

 

Positioned at the desk, Kuttler rubbed his chest absent-mindedly. Dismissing the ailment, he inserted a cable into the side of Sionis' laptop and pulled up detailed schematics of the hotel. "I've been able to reroute building control to this laptop; the elevators are active again, and the comms are back online. The ones still intact, that is," he glared at Chuck.

 

"I said I was sorry!" Chuck protested.

 

"They had an off button."

 

Li sat down beside Kuttler and started combing through the building's restored security footage. "It appears your team took down Polka Dot Man, and it looks like the hostages have made it outside. Sir, look at this:" he beckoned Sionis forward.

 

Sionis looked at the monitor, recognising The Physician. "Gaige..." he growled under his breath. "Elevators are online, you said?" he asked Kuttler, already making a beeline for the lifts; followed closely by Li.

 

"Where are you going?" Chuck frowned. "There's still a bomb to-"

 

"Hey. That's what I pay you people," Sionis winked, as the door closed behind him.

 

"No. You don't!" Chuck shouted after him. "God... Kuttler... Don't suppose you could stall him for a minute-?"

 

"Stall him?" Kuttler stared at him, a slight smile forming across his thin face as he caught onto Chuck's plan. "I... suppose I could lockdown the elevators. For an hour or two," he spoke.

 

"People don't give you enough credit," Blake smirked at Chuck. "You're a diabolical mastermind."

 

"I didn't think you held grudges," Ten admitted. "But it's Bookworm I pity. Being trapped in a tight space with him for two hours can't be fun."

 

"Just until the bomb's dealt with, and we've left," Chuck defended himself. "Speaking of; Kuttler, you're the one who weaponised the Cloudburst to begin with, think you can locate it?"

 

"Of course. It'll be in the vents, somewhere the gas can spread throughout the building." Kuttler examined his gauntlet, projecting a small map of the hotel. "If it's anything like the one Cobb and I worked on, it'll emit a low pulse that I can track. There; You see this dot on the 22nd floor? That's the disarmed one Day used to scare the crowds. And here... Ah; Like I said, the service duct, floor 32. Should be an easy journey through the elevator shaft. The, uh, other elevator shaft, that is. Still, you can't blame Day for utilising tried and tested methods. The Cloudburst always was a technological marvel."

 

"If you say so." Chuck disagreed. "Gave me nightmares for weeks."

 

"Yes, well, you can't fault Stagg's engineering, only his ethics... It's been modified, compacted into something more lightweight. At a guess, I'd say it was Crane's handiwork. Fearless was a project of his that the Society abandoned years ago, could never find the right bonding agent for it... However did he complete it, might I ask?

 

"Talon blood," Chuck stated.

 

"Hm. Of course, the restorative compound in the dionesium would've been ideal," Kuttler spoke, impressed by the doctor's ingenuity, as he collected his materials.

 

Ten placed a hand on Chuck's back, and murmured in his ear. "Chuck, Blake's in no shape to be moved, and someone's got to stay behind to watch Day," he advised him.

 

Chuck frowned. "So, it's just you and Kuttler? What if you run into any trouble?"

 

"Krill and Kyle were the immediate threats. And we can handle the hired muscle just fine, thank you," Kuttler stated.

 

"We've faced worse odds, Chuck," Blake pointed out.

 

"Your comms still work, Reardon. Call Rigger, Sharpe, Flannegan, Lynns... Anyone who's available, and tell them to meet us there."

 

"I... might have encouraged Sharpe and Flannegan to smash their comms too," Chuck scratched his head.

 

Kuttler's lip curled as he struggled to process Chuck's confession. "Jesus Christ. I never would have got this from Ocean Master," he stated, as Ten led him out of the room.

 

==The Lobby: Ground Floor==

 

With the hostages safe, and Krill indisposed, Needham, Mayo and Sharpe had taken refuge in the hotel lobby.

Sharpe, was wearing Krill's belt across his shoulders as a trophy, looking like a particularly misshapen Miss America contestant. Pouring himself a beer, he sat atop the counter and gulped it down. Preparing a second drink, he offered the hose to his cohorts; Mayo seemed tempted, whilst Needham politely declined.

 

"Well, while you're over there, I wouldn't mind a bevvie," Krill smacked his lips thirstily. The Polka Dot Man, was bound to a chair by Needham's webs, rather harmless without his belt and nanotech dots. "For old times sake, nah?" he probed.

 

"Dude," Sharpe straightened up. "Not only do I barely know you, but you tried to kill me, and you called me a dick."

 

"Shouldn't have called him a dick," Needham reprimanded Krill.

 

"I call everyone a dick," Krill shrugged.

 

"You try to kill them too?" Sharpe responded, still hurt from their last brawl.

 

"Most people," Krill stated. "That was a joke, god. Why can't anyone trust me?" he chuckled.

 

Needham stared at him in disbelief. "Would you like them to?" he inquired.

 

Krill shrugged. "I dunno, not particularly. But suppose if they did, it'd be much easier to weed out the idiots. What sane person would trust this mug, eh? See, I once rigged a supermarket's alarm to go off for every tenth person, just to watch the idiots squirm. 'Oh no, did I pay for that loaf of bread? Did I accidentally buy fireworks? What if they find my copy of Birdemic?' Hah!"

 

...

 

"Oh, bah humbug to the lot of you," he glared at the stone-faced trio.

 

"Me too?" Mayo asked, his upper lip stained with beer froth.

 

"Especially you," Krill decreed.

 

Needham rose from his stool and patrolled the lobby, unfastening his knife from the holster on his boot. Something was off. Krill was stalling.

 

Before he could react, a gloved hand had grabbed his arm and pulled him close, whispering in his ear:

 

"You don't need to fight me. You don't want to fight me," the high, melodious voice sang. "What you want, is to sleep. After all, you're so tired, so very very very tired. Tired of fighting. Tired of the secrets. Tired of the rage. So why don't you have a nice long sleep. And when I'm done, it will all be over."

 

To Needham, it was as though the man had come out of nowhere; in truth he must have simply slipped by them whilst Krill distracted them with unprompted what-about-isms. And try as he might to resist, the man's suggestion was sounding more appealing with each word spoken. His eyelids drooped shut, and he collapsed onto the marble floor, snoring loudly. That, got the others attention, but they fell just as quickly.

 

"Ladies first," The Psycho Pirate tittered, as Bridget Pike timidly followed him into the security room.

 

"Hello, Hayden. Your highness. You know, I was just about to come get you!" Krill lied, still bound to his chair.

 

The Psycho Pirate stared at Krill disappointedly, and skipped ahead.

 

"...I'll just sit here, shall I?" Krill called after them.

 

==Sionis Penthouse: Floor 48==

 

Blake's nose twitched, as his feline senses kicked in. "Do you smell something?" he asked Chuck.

 

Chuck rushed over to the broken windowsill where he had made his earlier entrance and gasped; a thin trail of smoke was climbing up the building as an orange glow bathed the room like the morning sun: Fire.

 

"It's Barson."

 

Blake and Chuck turned around to look at Julian, who had remained silent since his undignified defeat at their hands.

 

"I call him Barson," he added.

 

Blake broke into a fit of giggles before finally composing himself. "I don't get it," he admitted.

 

Catching sight of a blurry red-clad silhouette rising up the building, getting closer and closer, Chuck took a step back from the windowsill, and threw himself to the floor. As he hit the ground, his gun slipped out of his holster, sliding across the ground towards Day.

 

As he ascended up towards the penthouse, thick, billowing smoke sputtered and hissed from Ted Carson's jetpack. And without a word spoken, he aimed both gauntlets at the room, firing a barrage of incendiary missiles at the group.

 

Using his kite as a makeshift shield, Chuck dove behind it for cover, whilst Blake pulled himself across the floor towards Sionis' Italian maple desk.

 

A second round of missiles hit the ground and erupted into orange fireballs, setting alight the burgundy carpet.

 

Spying Chuck's discarded gun and looking for cover, Julian kicked the legs of his chair; landing on the ground with an unpleasant thud. Using Carson's inferno to his advantage, he moved his wrists towards the flames, the fire burning through the thick ropes Sionis had bound him in.

 

As Carson set foot on the penthouse floor, Chuck ran at him, landing an uppercut on Carson's covered chin; An attack that didn't phase the red-clad arsonist, but did scald Chuck's hand; the Mothkiller's metallic armour was hot to the touch, purposefully so. His knuckles bruised with pink boils, Chuck was so distracted by the pain that he couldn't react to Carson's response; pulling him by his tie, and tossing him across the room like he were an Olympic shot-put. Chuck was incapacitated, Blake was out of commission, all Carson had to contend with now, was Day himself.

 

Clang. Clang. Clang.

 

Clang. Clang. Clang.

 

Day fired Chuck's gun at Carson's armour, the bullets bouncing off the crimson battlesuit.

 

Clang. Clang. Clang.

 

The clip empty, he cast the gun aside and made his exit through the same doorway Kuttler and Ten had left through. Carson's armoured form had its own pitfalls; he was much slower on foot than he was in the air, and the smoke from his flames had coated the room in a thick steam.

 

Undeterred, he marched onwards. Day would be screaming for mercy by the time he was through with him.

 

His breathing ragged, Chuck reached into his pocket, and let out a sigh of relief that quickly turned to despair. The diaxymine, had survived the scuffle.

 

==Floor 25: Room 792==

 

Waiting to hear from their teammates, and getting increasingly agitated, Drury started to talk, then pulled Joey away from the King's prying eyes. "What're we even doing here, Joe?" he asked his younger teammate.

 

"You'd know better than me," Joey shrugged cheekily.

 

Drury smirked slightly. "No, but seriously. I had... a talk with someone earlier."

 

"You mean Tiger Shark?"

 

Drury paused, surprised by Joey's perceptiveness.

 

"That old crabby guy downstairs is Tiger Shark, right? The one in the Halloween make-up and ascot?" Joey had sat down on the mattress and was now motioning for Drury to join him.

 

"I- Well, yeah," Drury sat down. "Gaige said... Well, it's more that he ordered me to break the cycle. End the feud with Carson... Hah, whatever that means."

 

"What, like, make peace?" Joey was doubtful.

 

"You think that's Gaige's advice? To invite him over for dinner and watch the Muppet's Christmas Carol? Chuck's maybe."

 

"I dunno, Drury. Wish I did. But he's old school. It was simple in his day. They had rules, codes of conduct. Lines they didn't cross. They'd never try something like Jules or Carson. Never be so... underhanded, y'know? That thing with the car and Gar? Wasn't right."

 

"I guess," Drury spoke, dissatisfied with the answer.

 

"Y'know, I hope he works things out. They were a real cute couple."

 

"Who?" Drury asked, wondering if he was referring to Day and Carson, caught off guard by the sudden change in topic.

 

"...Garpenter," Joey explained.

 

Drury stared at him blankly.

 

"Y'know. Gar and Jenna."

 

"Garpenter?" Drury repeated the term.

 

"It's a ship name. A portmanteau. Like when you take two names and-"

 

"I have a daughter Joe, I know what shipping means. Just didn't think you were a fan."

 

Joey fidgeted. "Right. Yeah. Of course. So, I take it you aren't then-?"

 

"Look, I'm just not that enthused about my best friend getting back together with a woman who abandoned him at the first hurdle. If she got cold feet knocking boots with a pyromaniac, that's her business. But it's mine to protect him from another heartbreak."

 

"The first hurdle-? That's... not why they broke up," Joey said, puzzled. "Gar didn't tell you?"

 

"What? Tell me what."

 

"It was... It was you. She, uh, apparently said that she didn't want to see him wind up in another hospital bed because of one of 'your' enemies. Or worse. But so long as you and Gar are tight and you and Carson aren't, then he'd always be under threat. So she gave him an ultimatum. Her or you."

 

"Her too, huh?" Drury sighed, admittedly touched by Gar's choice, if not a little confused.

 

"I... wouldn't take it personally, Dru."

 

"Well, Joe, it's a little hard not to. I dunno... I always thought I was the one protecting Gar. That I knew what was best for him, for all of you... But maybe I don't," Drury tightened his shoulder holster and rose to his feet. "I'm gonna get some air," he decided.

 

"Hey, Chuck said we should watch the King-" Joey called after him.

 

"You're welcome to stay," Drury smirked. "Or, we could go find that bomb."

 

Joey shot a wary glance at The King, who winked back. "Nah, I'm good."

 

"Good," Drury nodded. "Lock the door after you, alright?"

 

As they got ready, Joey put his finger to his ear, shushing Drury as he answered the call. "Chuck! Funny story; we were actually just about to come and- Woah, woah, slow down... No, yeah, I heard- He's what? You sent Ten where? Who's there-? Wait, where are you, then?"

 

Joey put his hand by his side, his lip quivering.

 

"It's Carson."

 

===Floor 19: East Hallway==

 

Gar was glancing over at Jenna, knelt at Franco's side. Part of him figured he was faking the injury. The other part hated himself for presuming as much, and for insulting Jenna's intelligence.

Moving forward, he greeted Drury and Joey. "You hear?" he asked softly.

 

"I heard," Drury confirmed. "Where's Sharpe?"

 

"He fell out a window," Gaige said bluntly.

 

"Real tragedy," Flannegan tutted.

 

...

 

"He lived," he elaborated.

 

Drury and Joey, exchanged disapproving looks.

 

==Floor 32: West Ventilation Duct==

 

"Mr Kuttler? Noah?" Ten's voice rang in Kuttler's ear.

 

"Wha-? Who-?"

 

"It's Ten, Reardon. What's wrong?"

 

Kuttler's eyes fluttered, his breathing grew heavier, and now he could hardly hear Reardon's words of concern. He should never have wasted that insulin on that failed attempt on Krill. What was he thinking...? He had spent too much time at that damn college, too much time with the Misfits, that was it. He'd have never made a mistake so foolish before he met them. Never!

Without the medication, his throat had dried up... he needed water, fast. But here he was, trapped in a narrow steel tunnel, running out of breath.

He clutched his chest and slumped to the floor, his stomach gurgling with an unquenchable thirst.

 

Anxious, Ten cast his prosthetic hand at him and then to the end of the shaft. At the other end of the duct was a large cardboard box; covered in striped wrapping paper, topped with a large satin bow.

 

'That must be it,' he reasoned.

 

Laying Kuttler on his side (as comfortable as he could leave him), Ten marched onwards towards the ticking parcel, casting aside the handwritten 'Do Not Open Before December 24th label.'

 

Though concerned for his teammate, he knew he had to keep going. His time in the army had taught him that much; the mission comes first. Always. And yet, he still regretted leaving him behind.

 

Sure enough, the device within matched Joey's report; a large spherical drum with a computer interface: The monitor displayed the ticking clock, and Ten's heart sank.

 

Three minutes.

 

Three minutes to disarm Day's bomb.

 

Three minutes to save the Misfits.

 

He put his hand to his earpiece and caught the Misfits up to speed. "This is Ten: I have the bomb in front of me, but Kuttler's down... I dealt with a couple of IEDs in the war, but nothing like this-"

 

"This is Chuck; I've got Blake's earpiece. Don't do anything until I get there," Chuck urged him.

 

"That's a negative, Chuck. He's already set a timer. We've got less than three minutes before this thing detonates."

 

"Ten, listen, it's Joe: You're going to be alright: I'm going to have to guide you through this, ok?"

 

"Ok, ok," he nodded nervously as he began fiddling with the centre console. "It's asking for a code!" he called out.

 

"A code?" Gar mouthed to Drury. "What's the code?"

 

"Try 12/09/65," Chuck suggested as he ran down the hall.

 

The Misfits were silent.

 

"It's... It's the original airdate for A Charlie Brown Christmas," he sighed.

 

"Fuck a doodle-doo, the man has issues..." Gaige shrugged.

 

"Uh, yeah, we noticed," Joey agreed, clearly agitated.

 

The device hummed softly as the front panel slid away to reveal a series of brightly coloured wires. Reardon spoke up again. "Ok, it's opening, now what?"

 

"Ok, Phil," Rigger advised, "All you'll need is to cut the blue wire."

 

Reardon plunged his hand into the device and felt the intricate matrix of wires, searching for his target... Greens... Yellows... Reds... "Got you." He tugged on the bright blue wire and snapped it. The vial of Fearless slid out of the device, rather like a can of soda out of a vending machine, and landed in his awaiting palm.

 

"Ten. Ten, are we good?" Joey's voice wavered.

 

"Well, I'm still standing," he breathed, letting out a relieved, short-lived chuckle.

 

Day had brought a large fire axe crashing down into the Cloudburst. A stroke that narrowly missed Ten's skull.

 

Day reeled it back in and went in for another strike, but this time, Ten caught the blade in his prosthetic hand and pushed it away. Using a free hand, he grabbed the handle and wrestled control away from Day, whacking him in the face with the blunt end of the weapon.

 

"I want that vial," Day snarled, abandoning the axe, opting for hand to hand combat instead.

 

"Tough."

 

Day's first punch broke Ten's nose, the second knocked the goggles off his face.

 

Gargling blood, Ten persisted, tightening his grip on the vial. With his free hand, he threw a left jab at Day's cheek, knocking him off balance. As Day attempted to regain his footing, a hand grabbed his ankle: Kuttler, rooting him in place for Ten to strike again. The next jab hit Day's lip, the next struck his right eye. The fourth, never landed. At that point, Day had shrugged off Kuttler and dodged Ten's fist, retrieving the axe. And before Ten could respond, the axe had landed in his shoulder.

 

"W- What's the point?" Ten panted in pain, as he collapsed to the ground, his hands splaying open. "The hostages are safe. Your bomb's gone. Without- Without the dispersal device, you'll only be affecting, what? Twenty people? Maybe less? Why does it matter to you? What does any of this matter now?"

 

"You still don't understand?" Day said glumly, as he knelt down beside Ten, and recovered the vial. "Everything. Fearless? This little experiment? They are the only thing keeping the Misfits alive."

 

"So I was right. You are too far gone," a familiar voice growled.

 

Ted Carson stepped forward, joined by Bridget Pike and Roger Hayden. "What gives? Thought we were on the same page. Thought we both wanted the Bug dead."

 

The Pirate, cocked his head to one side as he recognised Ten. "The Ten-Eyed Man," he spoke.

 

"You... You remember me?" Ten asked.

 

"Of course. You were the one man in Arkham City who was able to resist my influence. Quite rude, really. Still, I played my role. That's all any of us can do."

 

Day rolled his eyes. "Actually, if you don't mind, Barson, I was actually in the-"

 

"No, stay," Carson compelled him.

 

As he tried to move, The Psycho Pirate wrapped his arms around his torso, restraining him.

 

Carson, noticed the silver tube in Day's hand, and curiosity overcame him. "What's this then?" he asked, summoning Bridget to his side.

 

His daughter moved in on Day and plucked the vial from his hand, holding it up for her father to see.

 

"That, is mine," Day struggled. "Give it back."

 

"Why? Is it some kinda bioweapon? You gonna use it on Walker?" Carson wondered, now fascinated by the prospect.

 

Bridget turning her attention to Day's machine, her eyes widening as she recognised the device. "The Cloudburst..." she gasped.

 

"Eh? What's a Cloudburst?" Carson demanded.

 

"Never you mind," Day dismissed him. "Hand. It. Over," he urged Pike.

 

Bridget looked down, taking a step back from him. "No," she said firmly.

 

"No?"

 

"No."

 

"Hah! The vial, Bridget," Carson demanded, offering Bridget an expectant palm. But he fared no better than Day. "Now, kitten," he hissed.

 

Julian scoffed, and tilted his head towards Carson. "Do you see the kind of bad attitude your parenting fosters? Tell the child that-"

 

"Oho, no. No, I'm done listening to you. I came to you!" Carson snapped. "It was my plan! My people!"

 

Day chuckled. "Yes, you did. And no, it wasn't. You have no scope. No sense of scale. You have two of the most dangerous supervillains on the planet on your payroll, and you use them for manual labour and childish errands.

And what exactly, have you accomplished, after all these years? You killed a piece of fabric. Congratulations." he goaded Carson. "You're about as lethal as a washing machine. A defective washing machine."

 

Carson unsheathed his fire sword, a bright red flame protruding from the golden hilt. "Let him go, Hayden."

 

Dropped to the floor, Day grabbed his axe, and the two combatants began circling the room, their weapons drawn.

 

"No, Dad, please, he's not worth it," Bridget protested, stuck between the two men.

 

"On the contrary, girl, I very much am. Please, continue. I could do with something to raise my spirits," Day teased.

 

"You, stay out of this, Bridget. This is between me and the freak," Carson agreed.

 

"Oh... Freak? Really?" Day asked incredulously. "Tell me, how many times have you been resurrected in some ungodly display?"

 

"You hypocrite... you talk of God, and yet you'd cut off a man's head and stuff it in a pumpkin."

 

"That-! That, was to prove a point. And no, I didn't stuff it in a pumpkin. I placed a candle in its' mouth," Day spoke plainly.

 

"Ooh, a point? Was it a testament to how insane you are? Cause, bravo, it worked!"

 

Incensed, Day swung the axe at Carson's chest.

The Firesword intercepted the blade, cutting through the weapon like it was nothing more than butter.

The axe head, clattered onto the metal flooring while Day abandoned the shaft, and raised his hands up in defeat.

 

Carson let out a satisfied cackle. "What do you say, Hayden? Wanna put that mask to good use? I want this putz terrified when I gut him. Begging for his life, y'hear?" Carson asked.

 

The Pirate stayed rooted in place.

 

"Or... I could do it myself. Jesus Christ..." he sighed, noting the Pirate's silence. As he approached Day, weapon drawn, that all-too-familiar, melodious voice whispered in his ear.

 

"Why fight? Why bother? Wouldn't you rather sleep? Sleeeeeeeeep," The Psycho Pirate skipped over to Day's side. And though he tried to resist, Carson's eyelids were beginning to droop.

 

"Dad!" Bridget screamed.

 

"Quiet, you," Day spat. "Roger?"

 

The Pirate nodded and started to sing to Bridget now too. "You don't want to fight. You've been fighting all your life. Instead, you want to give me that vial. I'll take care of it. You know I will. Better than Daddy. Better than Day. So you'll give it to me, and I'll make sure no one else suffers because of your family."

 

An involuntary smile stretched across her face as Bridget held her hand out, and presented the vial to Hayden.

 

"See? That wasn't so hard!" he giggled delightedly. "Now, silly girl, you had better take a nap!"

 

"He... He works for you-?" Carson waved an accusatory hand at Day, as Hayden passed Day the vial back.

 

"For my partners, yes. After that hospital fiasco, my partners offered Hayden a larger pool of subjects to toy with. And, well, after weeks of being cooped up in that dingy apartment with you? He was all too eager to accept."

 

Carson let out an involuntary yawn. "You... bastard... Turned my men... Against..."

 

"Oh, Barson, you still don't get it, do you?" Day tutted. "This was never about you. You simply gave the Outcasts a face. You brought the Misfits together. And now, they're mine to play with," he smiled, fiddling absent mindedly with the vial of Fearless. "Every last one of them."

 

"Julian, stop!" a strained voice echoed.

 

Day rolled his shoulders, and tilted his head in the voice's direction.

 

"Please! Pretty please! Let me deal with him!" Hayden offered, jumping up and down at the prospect of toying with another mind.

 

"Oh, Roger, that's hardly necessary. Is it, Charles?"

 

"One last chance," Chuck limped towards him, panting. "Please. You have no idea what that stuff'll do."

 

"No?" Day asked sarcastically. "The compound that turned you into a catchphrase spewing socialist?"

 

"- I am a socialist-"

 

"The compound that turned the Condiment King into a reckless lunatic? The compound that turned Crazy Quilt into- Well, I suppose it didn't really work on Paul, did it? Yes, I think I do."

 

Chuck bowed his head despondently. "Then I am truly sorry."

 

No sooner had the words left his mouth, had Chuck charged at Day, bringing them both toppling to the floor; in the ensuing scuffle, he elbowed the medusa mask off of Roger Hayden's face, breaking the hold he had over Bridget and her father: No longer enslaved, Carson snarled, grabbing Hayden by the shoulders. "Muthafucka!" he shrieked.

 

Fumbling around, Hayden put the mask back on his face and once more sought to control Carson. "You don't want to kill me! You don't want to kill me! Not when he still lives! Your greatest enemy! Your vilest foe! 'Cause, you hate him, don't you? Hate. Hate. Hate him. You know this to be true. You know what you have to do. You know who you have to slay. Don't you?"

 

"I- yes," Carson agreed. "Yes."

 

Under his spell, he let Hayden go and sauntered away.

 

As Day clawed at Chuck's arms, Chuck forced the contents of his silver bottle down Day's throat.

Day gagged, his eyes widening as he recognised the bottle, the medication that had plagued him for much of his adult life. Diaxymine.

 

"No... Please... Don't... Charles, I can't go back," he screamed, as Chuck abandoned him on the floor, and rushed to Reardon's side.

 

"I'll be fine, Chuck, he... barely grazed me," Ten wheezed.

 

"It- It wasn't supposed to end like this- he... He told me I was special..." Day drooled onto the floor as his eyes glazed over.

 

"Fearless would have fixed them. Don't you see? They'd be perfect. Just... like... us."

Built for Bio-Cup 2018

Preliminary round (Elements)

 

Sherbonk Holmes is a famed detective and deductionist who calls upon the power of the mind (and sometimes Stone) in order to solve crimes simple Toa aren't perceptive enough to. He also likes shouting the word "Elementary!" whenever he gets an idea.

It got old really quick.

perceptiveness...

At certain brain wave frequencies, a sense of "ego boundary" vanishes. In the "theta" state, we are resting deeply and still conscious, at the threshold of drifting away from or back into conscious awareness.There is also a prana breathing tube that runs through the body. It connects the apexes of this Star Tetrahedral field. Learning how to breathe through this tube, combined with rotating the fields, produces the merkaba, a vehicle of ascension. As the brain enters deeper states, our consciousness is less concerned with the physical state, our 'third eye' is active, and separation becomes natural. You can be aware of your truth in every moment of every day by drawing on the deepest blue strand you can find. That strand won’t let you listen to third-dimensional words that are designed to deceive you. You will walk away from words that are not in the highest truth. With your truth strand out front, you won’t be deceived. You’ll know and hear truth, and if you hear an untruth, it will not work for you.Your blueprints have always been available to you, and when they’re interwoven, you can use this exercise to travel through the etheric fabric to find what you’re looking for. When you present your request properly to your higher self, you’ll be surprised by just how much you do know about where you want to go. Much of what you know is unsaid, hidden in your feelings, but accessible..Prana breathing tube that runs through the body. It connects the apexes of this Star Tetrahedral field. Learning how to breathe through this tube, combined with rotating the fields, produces the merkaba, a vehicle of ascension.he photon energy belt that the Earth will move through during the Shift is so huge that I cannot provide you with a precise description of its immensity. Second, prana is a vital life-giving breath, involving deep inhalation, which allows the photon energy to enter into the body through the crown chakra. Finally, your pineal gland is the receptacle of the photon energy in the body..These are three identical fields superimposed over each other, the only difference among them being that the physical body alone is locked, it does not rotate. The merkaba is created by counter-rotating fields of energy. The mental Star Tetrahedral field is electrical in nature, male, and rotates to the left. Since the higher energies work with your feelings, your focus must be on your emotional body. If you learn to think emotionally, you will be aware that your emotions guide everything within your realm. Your emotional body is between your mental and physical bodies, so when you feel something, the latter two bodies go along for the ride..The emotional Star Tetrahedral field is magnetic in nature, female, and rotates to the right. It is the linking together of the mind, heart, and physical body in a specific geometrical ratio and at a critical speed that produces the merkaba.The MerKaBa (sometimes spelled merkavah and, or merkabah) is a vehicle of Ascension. It was believed in ancient times, and even written about by the Hebrews, that the merkavah could be turned on by certain principles in meditation. This involves breathing changes & mind, heart, and body changes that alter the way a person perceives reality..The word “Mer” denotes counter-rotating fields of light, “Ka” Spirit, and “Ba” body, or reality. So the Mer-Ka-Ba then, is a counter-rotating Living field of light that encompasses both Spirit and body and it’s a dimensional vehicle. It’s far more than just that, in fact there isn’t anything that it isn’t. It is the image through which all things were created, and that image is around your body in a geometrical set of patterns.The field extends out a full fifty to sixty feet in diameter (18 to 20 meters), depending on your height. It looks like a flying saucer (Fig. 1). That field is an immense science that is being studied everywhere throughout the cosmos. How well someone understands the MerKaBa, is usually in direct relationship to their consciousness level..

If, when speaking to your higher self, you say, “I want to get from here to there and I want you to guide me,” your higher self will do whatever it wants, and it might be years before you see any results, because your higher self has no concept of time. If you want the unseen energies to guide you, you must learn to communicate with them effectively, and that means you must work with your feelings. The unseen energies do not understand language or words as you know them. They can feel you, and if they can feel you, they will know what you want. When these energies respond to your feelings, you will feel the responding communication from them. So, when you ask your higher self to guide you from here to there in the shortest manner possible, it means nothing, unless you focus on getting the feeling of where you want to go, and how and when you want to get there. If you give those feelings to your higher self, after you’ve woven them through the two brains, you will accomplish your goal. The key here is weaving the local and omni brains together. Practice this by contacting the Elven world, where the language is closest to yours here on the Earth plane. Photon, or love, energy is at the root of the current Shift in Consciousness. Pineal gland is the true master gland. It is situated between the eyes. It is the organ of clairvoyance, Third eye, the eye of Ra or Heru (God). Biblical Jacob saw God face to face on the island of Pe-ni-el. Its secretes melatonin which is anti ageing in effect and anti oxidant in nature. This also secretes melanin which colours our skin. The pineal gland, the most enigmatic of endocrine organs, has long been of interest to anatomists. Several millennia ago it was thought to be a valve that controlled the flow of memories into consciousness. René Descartes, the 17th-century French philosopher-mathematician, concluded that the pineal was the seat of the soul. A corollary notion was that calcification of the pineal caused psychiatric disease, a concept that provided support for those who considered psychotic behavior to be rampant; modern examination techniques have revealed that all pineal glands become more or less calcified..The pineal organ is small, weighing little more than 0.1 gram. It lies deep within the brain between the two cerebral hemispheres and above the third ventricle of the spinal column. It has a rich supply of adrenergic nerve fibers that greatly influence its secretions. Microscopically, the gland is composed of pinealocytes (rather typical endocrine cells except for extensions that mingle with those of adjacent cells). Supporting cells that are similar to astrocytes of the brain are interspersed.. The pineal gland contains a number of peptides, including GnRH, TRH, and vasotocin, along with a number of important neurotransmitters such as somatostatin, norepinephrine, serotonin, and histamine. The major pineal hormone, however, is melatonin, a derivative of the amino acid tryptophan. Melatonin was first discovered because it lightens amphibian skin, an effect opposite to that of melanocyte-stimulating hormone of the anterior pituitary. Secretion of melatonin is enhanced whenever the sympathetic nervous system is stimulated. Of greater interest, however, is the fact that secretion increases soon after an animal is placed in the dark; the opposite effect takes place immediately upon exposure to light. Its major action, well documented in animals, is to block the secretion of GnRH by the hypothalamus and of gonadotropins by the pituitary. While it was long thought that a decrease in melatonin secretion heralded the onset of puberty, this hypothesis cannot be supported by studies in humans. It is possible that the pineal contains an as yet unidentified hormone that serves that function. Melotonin is the only hormone secreted by the pineal gland. (The pineal gland is a tiny endocrine gland situated at the centre of the brain.) Melatonin was discovered in 1958 by Aaron B. Lerner and other researchers working at Yale University. Melatonin is produced in humans, other mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians. It is present in very small amounts in the human body. Melatonin was previously known to cause the skins of amphibians to blanch, but its functions in mammals remained uncertain until research discoveries in the 1970s and '80s suggested that it regulates both sleeping cycles and the hormonal changes that usher in sexual maturity during adolescence. The pineal gland's production of melatonin varies both with the time of day and with age; production of melatonin is dramatically increased during the nighttime hours and falls off during the day, and melatonin levels are much higher in children under age seven than in adolescents and are lower still in adults. Melatonin apparently acts to keep a child's body from undergoing sexual maturation, since sex hormones such as luteotropin, which play a role in the development of sexual organs, emerge only after melatonin levels have declined. This hypothesis is supported by the fact that children with tumors of the pineal gland often reach sexual maturity unusually early in life, presumably because the pineal's production of melatonin has been hampered. Melatonin also seems to play an important role in regulating sleeping cycles; test subjects injected with the hormone become sleepy, suggesting that the increased production of melatonin coincident with nightfall acts as a fundamental mechanism for making people sleepy. With dawn the pineal gland stops producing melatonin, and wakefulness and alertness ensue. The high level of melatonin production in young children may explain their tendency to sleep longer than adults. In mammals other than humans melatonin possibly acts as a breeding and mating cue, since it is produced in greater amounts in response to the longer nights of winter and less so during summer. Animals who time their mating or breeding to coincide with favorable seasons (such as spring) may depend on melatonin production as a kind of biological clock that regulates their reproductive cycles on the basis of the length of the solar day.When activated, the pineal gland becomes the line of communication, with the higher planes. The crown chakra, reaches down, until its vortex touches the pineal gland. Prana, or pure energy, is received through this energy center in the head. With Practice, the vibration level of the astral body is raised, allowing it, to separate from the physical. To activate the 'third eye' and perceive higher dimensions, the pineal gland and the pituitary body, must vibrate in unison, which is achieved through meditation and / or relaxation. When a correct relationship is established, between personality, operating through the pituitary body, and the soul, operating through the pineal gland, a magnetic field is created. The negative and positive forces, interact and become strong enough, to create the 'light in the head. ' With this 'light in the head' activated, astral projectors can withdraw themselves, from the body, carrying the light with them. Astral Travel, and other occult abilities, are closely associated with the development of the 'light in the head'. After physical relaxation, concentration upon the pineal gland, is achieved, by staring at a point in the middle of the forehead. Without straining the muscles of the eye, this will activate the pineal gland and the 'third eye'. Beginning with the withdrawal of the senses and the physical consciousness, the consciousness is centered in the region of the pineal gland. The perceptive faculty and the point of realization, are centralized in the area between the middle of the forehead and the pineal gland. The trick is to visualize, very intently, the subtle body... escaping through the trap door of the brain. A "popping sound" may occur at the time separation of the astral body, in the area of the pineal gland. Visualization exercises, are the first step, in directing the energies in our inner systems, to activate the 'third eye'. The magnetic field is created around the pineal gland, by focusing the mind on the midway point, between the pineal gland and the pituitary body. The creative imagination visualizes something, and the thought energy of the mind gives life and direction to this form. 'Third eye' development, imagination, and visualization are important ingredients, in many methods to separate from the physical form. Intuition is also achieved, through 'third eye' development. Knowledge and memory of the astral plane, are not registered in full waking consciousness, until the intuition becomes strong enough. Flashes of intuition come, with increasing consistency, as the 'third eye' is activated to a greater degree, through practice. Universal Knowledge... can also be acquired...The pineal gland, corresponds with divine thought, after being touched by the vibrating light of Kundalini. Kundalini starts its ascent, towards the head center, after responding to the vibrations from the 'light in the head.' The light is located at the top of the sutratma, or 'soul thread', which passes down from the highest plane of our being... into the physical vehicle. The 'third eye,' or 'Eye of Siva,' the organ of spiritual vision, is intimately related to karma, as we become more spiritual in the natural course of evolution. As human beings continue to evolve, further out of matter, on the journey from spirit to matter... back to spirit, the pineal gland will continue to rise from its state of age - long dormancy, bringing back to humanity... astral capacities and spiritual abilities...Your body produces its own photon energy, but you can bring more of this golden energy into your body by prana breathing it in through your crown and down through your pineal. That simple activity will awaken your God cell, also known as your Signature Cell, which is in your pineal gland. Prana breathing will flow the golden particles from the pineal through the whole of your physical body, affecting the emotional, mental and spiritual bodies in the process.Next, your thought process must be pure. If you want to get from Manhattan to a specific place in Queens and you’ve never been to Queens, you must have pure thoughts about the journey, concentrating only on the specific place you want to reach, feeling every aspect of it. Then you must go into the etheric pattern until you find and get through that little “gray space” that lets you know you’ve left the third-dimensional reality. You will find yourself in Queens, looking at the specific place you wanted to reach. You will then have to back away from it until the neighborhood where it actually is comes into focus. You will recognize the surrounding neighborhood. You may not have seen how you got there, but you will have enough information, such as an address, to Google it or to ask someone how to get there. You can go from where you are to any place in the world that way during these pre-Shift times. As a four-bodied energy, you have spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical bodies, and you have four strands of DNA that correspond to each of those bodies. The first strand of DNA is the physical, the second, the emotional, the third, the mental, and the fourth, the spiritual...The four strands of DNA are powerful, but one strand is more powerful than the rest and that is the golden strand. Each set of four strands of DNA has one golden strand, which is found in the spiritual, or etheric, body. The golden strand is pure photon energy. The photon energy you bring into your body through prana breathing gets woven with everything else via the pineal gland. During the Shift, you will let go of your third-dimensional reality with the help of that magical golden fourth strand of DNA, which is equipped to transfer you into the fourth dimension.The foundation of our spiritual practice has to be very clear to us, otherwise it is very easy to enter into mistaken techniques and practices. In the Gnostic tradition, we always seek to re-evaluate our spiritual approach; our teacher Samael Aun Weor was very rigorous in his analysis of himself, his spiritual practice, and his technique. He constantly re-evaluated his method, and corrected himself in order to ensure he was on the right path. This is because he relied on practical experience, and was constantly examining the nature of suffering in himself, and was not satisfied with concept or theory. Samael Aun Weor suffered a lot, and that suffering is what gave him the impulse, the motivation, to constantly revise his spiritual practice in order to conquer suffering, and also to help others to do the same. Really, this viewpoint about suffering is the foundation of every genuine path, so understanding suffering is the foundational aspect of all teachings. In essence, spiritual practice is about harnessing energy. In the first levels, in the foundational and Mahayana levels, the two classifications of teaching, we are really learning how to discipline our mind stream and attune it with the mind stream of Christ. This is why Bodhichitta can also be translated as Christ mind (bodhi = wisdom = Chokmah; chitta = mind).

Bodhichitta is a kind of energy that vibrates with the ray of creation, with the Ain Soph Aur, a type of light that emerges out of the Absolute, a light that comes from Adhi-Buddha, the primordial Buddha. This light, which is the supreme clear light, is the type of light that is absolutely perfect, and is the first and primordial expression of the divine. It is a light of unbelievable, indescribable radiance, whose chief characteristic is a brilliant, shining love. If you meditate on that, simply that, you will comprehend why most of the teachings of Tantra you find in the world are black. They are completely contradictory to that light. That light is not interested in pleasure. That light is not interested in the satisfaction of desire. Those are the interests of demons.

When that light emerges out of the Absolute abstract space, it emerges as a form of an archetype, related to the world of Atziluth in Kabbalah. An archetype is a blue print, a primordial form that has not yet become. For that becoming to happen, there has to be a long process of development, and that is the path of initiation, the path through which the soul is born, the soul is created. We are only the embryo of soul, a seed. We are not a soul yet. This is why Jesus said, “With patience you will possess your soul.”

The development and creation of the soul depends upon it being nourished by the light of Christ, this Christic force, which is also called Avalokiteshvara, Quetzalcoatl, Vishnu, and Osiris. They are all the same force. Christ is not a person, but an energy, an intelligence, a light.

That energy creates what we see here as the Tree of Life. That energy descends and condenses and unravels and reveals everything that exists. It is also called the great breath, and is symbolized in Kabbalah and other religions as the breath of God that emerges out of the nothingness. That great breath, that exhalation, is how everything comes to exist, macrocosmically and microcosmically. That Great Breath in Sanskrit is called Prana. The relationship between the Pineal Gland and the Sun shows how much influence the Sun has on us. It is our body clock. The Pineal Gland also reads the Sun and informs animals when it is time to hibernate..Many primitive cultures related to the Sun as the closest physical structure to God due to it’s influence on daily life. Without the Sun life would be over, but the Sun shows up everyday and on-time. The Sun not only influences human bodies internally, but provides the energy for the food humans need to survive to grow. Thus the Sun is the source of life on this planet.

Those with discerning eyesight and perceptive social awareness will note a distinct aggregate of additional weight surplus on the majority of people emerging from these past 2 months house arrest.

Not a photobook I would necessarily seek out but found in a charity shop for £1 it's a yes.

Pleasantly surprised, a real nostalgia trip to now fondly remembered years and more perceptive and interesting photography than I expected. Yes a bold choice to have the dust jacket cover distinctly out of focus, an exception to the contents but then "sharpness is a bourgeois concept" after all, perhaps?

  

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Σκέψη εγκλήματος.

Understanding conclusions si tamen inde iudicare mess,

proposizioni analoghe sillogismi unlogic evil cases,

unáreht scéawian obiciunt sensibus back'd,

einrichtung darstellungen concepts léasspell major,

hugsanir dyggðir sameinuð conceiving диктанты вся,

doktrine etikk uklok stor illustrated motives lies,

צער המוכר begets vulnerable saints jul,

эгоистические лидеры violating freedoms keys,

kommunikationssprache restraining þing hearings,

temporal εφαρμογές που περιέχουν perceptive dimensjoner tortures,

litany oppression's presented disclaimers assertive prisons cold,

monstrosity þjáningu skömm gives dement'd cwide ,

filthy fraud quält taunting massen gnawing justice thrown,

muffled times translatum ad te litterarum death,

slashing hearts ciel de malheur courts bankrupt carcernþéostru angsumnes,

praga de pensamentos tækifæri fyrir the disease law to obstacle la vérité,

repraesentationes sine intermissione minds arrested,

захватить концепция умы as powers domain,

wollen eine blutsperre angelegt thy peoples liberty vein.

Steve.D.Hammond.

 

When I was growing up, there was no shortage of Christmas presents for the kids. Big toys were set up unwrapped and near the Christmas tree. This was true for the HO train set I got when I was 6 and the stereo my sister and I asked for (and peacefully shared) when I was 14 and she was 10. Most medium sized toys and clothes were wrapped in holiday wrapping paper that would quickly litter the living room floor on Christmas morning. Very small toys were placed in special Christmas stockings for us to reach inside and pull out.

 

One year when I was in early grade school I reached into the stocking and pulled out some oranges, among other things. My maternal grandfather was rather pleased with himself. Now we were never lacking for food, especially fresh fruit and vegetables, so I was puzzled about the appearance of oranges in my Christmas stocking. However, I was perceptive enough to see that my grandfather thought it was a big deal, so I politely thanked him. He explained that when he was a child, getting oranges in their Christmas stockings was a special treat for him and his brothers and sisters. It really was a big deal, but that took years to find out.

 

My maternal grandfather along with his father and all four of his brothers worked for the Santa Fe Railway at some point in their lives as did some of their sons. In the case of my grandfather and two of his brothers, they were lifelong railroaders. It turned out that the Santa Fe Railway was responsible more than any other company for the citrus industry in the United States. The Spanish missionaries planted orange and lemon trees on the grounds of their missions in California. Many of the Spanish people in California planted orange trees in their yard, and there were small citrus farms to supply fruit for city dwellers that didn’t have their own fruit trees. This situation continued from Spanish colony to Mexican state to US territory and statehood. Visitors and newly arrived American settlers enjoyed oranges, but the ripe fruit does not keep well after a few days at room temperature.

 

In 1869 the local railways of California were connected to the rest of the rapidly growing American rail system by the first Transcontinental Railway; however, fresh farm produce grown in California didn’t fare very well on a slow 3000 mile rail journey across frozen, snowy mountain ranges and hot deserts to the populous East Coast. In those days a passenger might make the trip in as little as a week to ten days, but freight could take a month or more. Improvements in freight cars, locomotives, track, and signals gradually reduced the travel time, but the real breakthrough for shipping fresh farm produce was the insulated, ice-cooled refrigerator car, also known to railroaders as a reefer. Reefers had roof hatches at each corner so blocks of ice could be added, and air blown by fans kept the fruit cool. The Santa Fe Railway started shipping oranges out of California in ice reefers as early as the 1880’s and did so into the 1970’s.

 

It was the advent of the ice reefer that made it practical and profitable for growers in California to supply massive quantities of citrus fruit to cities in the Midwest and on the East Coast. Without the railways, farmers would have continued growing only enough to supply their local market, and oranges would have remained almost unknown outside their local growing areas. By the time my grandfather was born in 1907, the Santa Fe Railway shipped about half the citrus fruit grown in the US, and that market was rapidly expanding. So it was ORANGES that stimulated the need for higher capacity freight cars, more powerful steam locomotives, stronger track to support the heavier trains, and automatic block signal systems to keep the traffic moving. Besides eastbound produce, the Santa Fe also moved manufactured goods west, cattle from the Southwest to the Midwest slaughterhouses, grain from the Midwest, and passengers and mail in both directions. What coal and steel were to the eastern railroads, ORANGES were to the Santa Fe, Southern Pacific, and Union Pacific. The really explosive growth in produce traffic from California happened during my grandfather’s railroading career from the mid 1920’s to the late ‘60’s. Midway through his career, he saw the steam to diesel locomotive transition. Of course, his job was to keep the track well-maintained for high speeds and heavy tonnage.

 

In this photo you see a Santa Fe steel refrigerator car from Atlas painted orange and a Santa Fe wooden reefer from Micro Trains painted yellow. I custom mixed the orange car based on a paint formula that is more accurate for the 1960’s than earlier years. The yellow car was factory painted and more accurate for earlier paint mixes. There are so-called “standard” Reefer Orange and Reefer Yellow paints available and many mixes that were used by individual railroads and may be similar or quite a bit different from “standard” model railroad colors. Railroads also changed their color mixes over the years, and their freight car suppliers sometimes deviated from their customers’ specifications. Color photos now available clearly show color variations that I didn’t know about when I first started serious modeling. To further complicate things, my favorite paint supplier, Floquil and Polly S were bought out by Testors who decided to discontinue those excellent brands. The Polly S paints shown above are store remnants. Which supplier will I use when these run out or will my painting days be over?

 

María de los Buenos Aires, operita de Piazzolla-Ferrer

producción fotográfica realizada en Buenos Aires para la puesta de la obra en el Norfolk and Norwich Festival de Gran Bretaña (2004).

María, socialmente excluida como los desaparecidos. Junta a las víctimas - lanzados desde helicópteros o eliminadas a garrote vil, después de dar a luz - es el alma de luto en el país, el asesoramiento de las abuelas que buscan los hijos robados y a sus descendientes ". La pieza es tanto sobre el pasado, o la redención eterna, pero gráfico Abulafia, lanzado hacia el decenio de 1970 la interpretación, horriblemente evocado tanto en el escenario y las retroproyecciones, de una excelente percepción, a menudo reflejadas en el texto. (sigue el texto en la próxima foto).

ver album en www.flickr.com/photos/susanet/sets/72157623512704106/

 

Maria, as socially debarred as these junta victims - hurled from helicopters or garrotted after giving birth - is the country's grieving soul, counselling the grandmothers seeking vainly for their offsprings' stolen offspring. The piece is as much about the past, or about timeless redemption, but Abulafia's graphic, forward-thrown 1970s interpretation, horrifyingly evoked both on stage and by rear projections, is excellently perceptive, often mirrored in the text.

 

Photographic production made in Buenos Aires for the Norfolk and Norwich Festival of the United Kingdom (2004) for the staging "María de Buenos Aires" by Piazzolla-Ferrer.

see set in www.flickr.com/photos/susanet/sets/72157623512704106/

 

esta foto se puede ver también en:

flickrhivemind.net/flickr_hvmnd.cgi?method=GET&page=7...

flickrhivemind.net/Tags/bailandotango/Interesting

 

Copyright © Susana Mulé- All rights reserved.

Do not use this photographs without my consent. If you are interested in this picture, please contact me.

susanamul@yahoo.com.ar

Thanks.

Mizoram is a picturesque destination for the perceptive visitor with its wide display of dances & festivals, handlooms and handicrafts, flora and fauna, breathtaking natural beauty and temperate climate. The general belief is that the Mizos migrated from China about three hundred years ago, in search of new territory and settled in these remote hills which were earlier known as Lushai Hills.

The term ‘Mizo’ is deriving from two words- ‘Mi’ means man and ‘Zo’ means hills. Today Mizoram consist of a population of over five Lakh who identify themselves as ‘Mizo’.

The Mizos are friendly and hospitable.

The people are simple, happy, carefree, contented, generous and freedom-loving.

Music plays a key role in uniting and strengthening the bond between the Mizo people. The joyful enthusiasm and companionable spirits of the common people have truly made them the real songbirds of this exotic hill station.

  

মিজোরাম : প্রাচ্যের নাচের গানের পাখিদের আবাস :) মিজোরাম নাচ এবং উত্সব, তাঁত এবং হস্তশিল্প, উদ্ভিদ ও প্রাণীজগত, শ্বাসরুদ্ধকর প্রাকৃতিক সৌন্দর্য এবং নাতিশীতোষ্ণ জলবায়ুর বিস্তৃত প্রদর্শন সহ উপলব্ধিশীল দর্শনার্থীদের জন্য একটি মনোরম গন্তব্য। সাধারণ বিশ্বাস হল মিজোরা প্রায় তিনশত বছর আগে নতুন ভূখণ্ডের সন্ধানে চীন থেকে চলে আসে এবং এই দুর্গম পাহাড়ে বসতি স্থাপন করে যা আগে লুসাই পাহাড় নামে পরিচিত ছিল।'মিজো' শব্দটি দুটি শব্দ থেকে এসেছে- 'মি' মানে মানুষ এবং 'জো' মানে পাহাড়। আজ মিজোরামের জনসংখ্যা পাঁচ লাখের বেশি যারা নিজেদেরকে 'মিজো' বলে পরিচয় দেয়।

মিজোরা বন্ধুত্বপূর্ণ এবং অতিথিপরায়ণ। জনগণ সরল, সুখী, উদাসীন, সন্তুষ্ট, উদার ও স্বাধীনতাকামী। মিজো জনগণের মধ্যে বন্ধনকে একত্রিত ও শক্তিশালী করতে সঙ্গীত একটি মুখ্য ভূমিকা পালন করে। সাধারণ মানুষের আনন্দময় উদ্দীপনা এবং সহানুভূতিশীল আত্মা তাদের সত্যিকার অর্থেই এই বিচিত্র হিল স্টেশনের প্রকৃত গানের পাখিতে পরিণত করেছে।

 

Sally, thank you for marrying my son! You will both make each other so happy! Oh, and you are beautiful !!

Austria, Bregenz, lake stage festival theatre, summer festival 2011, “André Chénier”, opera by Umberto Giordano during the French revolution.

Lake Constance as bath tub, director Keith Warner & set designer David Fielding have chosen “The Death of Marat”, an iconic painting by the revolutionary artist Jacques-Louis David, as the symbol & inspiration for their staging of “André Chénier”. It is the first time that a historical painting has served as the basis for a Bregenz stage set, which towers 24 metres high above Lake Constance.

Set against the background of the French Revolution, the opera “André Chénier”, which premiered at “La Scala Milan” in 1896, is a historical drama of sharp perceptivity & a human tragedy of devastating intensity; appealing both as a passionate love story & as a historical thriller.

 

...Danke, Xièxie 谢谢, Thanks, Gracias, Merci, Grazie, Obrigado, Arigatô, Dhanyavad, Chokrane to you for over

5,7 million visits in my photostream with countless motivating comments

  

To be honest, considering all the self-doubts and insecurities that consumed me when I first started out on this wonderful journey into femininity. I am still sometimes amazed that I am at all presentable as a woman. I don't want to use the word "passable;" that comes and goes, often simply with the observer. What I mean is that I don't look like a "guy in a dress," the very image of which I abhor. I am able to get out and about without any trouble. Whether people take me for a genuine female or are perceptive enough to see me for what I am, I do not encounter any difficulties.

 

Is this a boast? Perhaps, but I am just stating how pleased I am with where I am.

  

 

___________________________________

Outlining a Theory of General Creativity . .

. . on a 'Pataphysical projectory

 

Entropy ≥ Memory ● Creativity ²

___________________________________

 

Study of the day:

 

Par habitus de la Monade, j’entends ce qui résulte de la trans-in-formation de son milieu extérieur, que cette trans-in-formation soit déterminée par l’exercice de sa propre puissance exo-hylétique, ou par l’exercice de la puissance des autres Monades impliquées dans cette trans-in-formation.

 

L’habitus de la Monade est en substance un sous-ensemble de son milieu extérieur. Pour elle, et elle seule, il constitue l’essence de son milieu extérieur.

 

Par corpus de la monade, j’entends ce qui résulte de la trans-in-formation homéostasique de son milieu intérieur, que cette trans-in-formation soit déterminée par l’exercice de sa propre puissance (endo-hylétique, perceptive, affective et cognitive), ou par l’exercice de la puissance (exo-hylétique) des monades de son milieu extérieur, avec lesquelles elle s’individue ou non.

 

L’habitus et le corpus de la Monade se distinguent en ce que son habitus est co-production exo-hylétique d’un multiple instable là où son corpus est production endo-hylétique d’une unité consistante (ie perdurAnce de la monade).

 

( jef safi - Monadologie, corpus Δ habitus )

  

By habitus of the monad, I mean what results from the trans-in-formation of its exterior milieu, whether this trans-in-formation is determined by the exercise of its own hyletic power, or by the exercise of the hyletic power of the other monads involved in this trans-in-formation.

 

By corpus of the monad, I mean what results from the trans-in-formation of its homeostasic interior milieu, as well as this trans-in-formation is determined by the exercise of its own power (hyletic, perceptive, affective and/or cognitive), or by the exercise of the hyletic power of the other monads of its exterior milieu ; monads with which it individuates itself or not.

 

The hyletic power of the monad is not reducible to a dichotomy between an endo-hyletic power and an exo-hyletic power. Any exercise of the hyletic power of the monad is always both endo-hyletic and exo-hyletic, but only in varying proportions depending on the overall trans-in-formation of the habitus (which includes all involved corpus). The habitus is more than the prosthetic extension of the corpus, it constitutes the tiertiary retention of the long-term memory (hyletic, perceptive, affective and/or cognitive) of all the involved monads ; it constitutes at large the hypomnemata of all the involved monads.

 

The habitus and the corpus of the monad only differ by their respective entropic flows, their respective perdurAnces. The habitus flows as a permanent entropic co-production of an unstable multiple, whe(re)n the corpus flows as a precarius (neg)entropic auto-production of a consistent unit.

 

Thus I form here the dialemma corpus Δ habitus (Δ ≡ and/or) to enunciate the reliAnce of the lemmas corpus and habitus, whe(re)n used separately, they wrongly ratify their disjunction opposing each one as external to each other.

 

( Jef safi - Monadology, corpus Δ habitus )

 

___________________________________

rectO-persO | E ≥ m.C² | co~errAnce | TiLt

Yellow -- Optimistic, expressive, people-oriented

 

Pink -- Affectionate, compassionate, romantic

 

Purple -- Intuitive, spiritual, insightful

 

Light blue -- creative, perceptive, imaginative

It is possible to be both perceptive and appreciative at the same time. These two words form an alliance of compassion and without question, all that comes from this realization become treated to nature's greatest offerings. Seeing is believing.

ALKHEMON - Zephyr Nest by Daniel Arrhakis (2025)

 

Zephyr is a friendly biomechanical bird of small size but it likes to have its nest full of eggs that are always very regular in size, color and shape.

Their lively and perceptive red and blue eyes do not miss any imperfections, which are soon thrown out of the nest!

 

Trayan Thelmer, a well-known metallurgical alchemist in the Century XXII, created fractal metal alloys with very special characteristics that had the ability to regenerate themselves.

 

Using bionics and quantum artificial intelligence, he created a whole world of amazing creatures and biomechanical environments in a fantastic futuristic Universe he called ALKHEMON.

  

_____________________________________________________

 

Work made for the challenge :

 

NESTS / AIA Challenge - March / April 2025 -LINK HERE www.flickr.com/groups/recreatingmasters/discuss/721577219...

  

Work made with AI and other Digital Arts techniques, artcollage, digital painting, textured layered techniques.

  

The Back Parlor in the Fall River Historical Society

December 5th, 2014

 

Here, the Victorian method of applying cotton batting to the branches of a tree is used, although amplified to great dramatic effect, creating an avalanche that cascades toward the ground. Nearly 6,000 lights glow through the 'snow,' and are reflected in the silver and the 'ice' below.

 

More information:

 

Each year, beginning the week before Thanksgiving, the Historical Society's mansion is lavishly decorated in the Victorian manner. Holiday spirit abounds from room to room, with the focal point being a magnificent 14-foot Christmas tree in the Music Room. Aglow with thousands of lights, it is a tree guaranteed to instill holiday spirit in both young and old.

 

Traditional decorations are creatively used, working with a variety of holiday themes, to create a display unlike anything to be seen in the Fall River area. Last year's theme, "Victorian Christmas Traditions," was very well received by the public and was photographed by VICTORIAN HOMES magazine for its Christmas 2003 issue. The Music Room's tree was illuminated by the glow of 4100 white lights, was laden with silver tinsel and decorated with hundreds of mouth-blown glass ornaments typical of the Victorian period. The concept of Christmas as we know it originated in Germany and was introduced to England by Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg Gotha, consort of Queen Victoria. Americans, who strove to emulate the British traditions, quickly adopted the holiday and made it their own. Bavarian glassblowers created untold thousands of ornaments, many of which carry holiday lore. Replicas of many of these ornaments can be found on the Society's tree. Among the most popular are: the glass pickle, which was traditionally hidden on the tree, to be discovered on Christmas morning by the most perceptive child, who was rewarded with a special gift; "Crampus," a small devil-like figure with black horns made of coal, who followed Father Christmas rewarding naughty children with coal; the carrot, an ornament traditionally given to new brides to bring luck in the kitchen.

 

The parlor was banked with paper poinsettias. This plant was named as a tribute to Mr. Joel R. Poinsett, the American Ambassador to Mexico and amateur botanist, who so admired the Mexican wildflower that he brought it to North America and cultivated it in his own greenhouses. In this manner did it become a major part of our Christmas tradition today. The delicate hothouse plant was a great rarity in cold New England winters and so was often copied by nineteenth-century paper flower makers.

 

The dining room was ornamented with della robbia of sparkling crystal-beaded fruit, with the table set with a magnificent nineteenth-century Davenport china dessert service. The centerpiece of the table was a three-tiered cake traditionally decorated with candies, nuts and sugared fruit, surmounted by a pink peppermint pig. As the pig was a symbol of good luck in the Victorian era, candy-makers in Saratoga Springs, New York, began to manufacture small peppermint pigs. In observance of the tradition, those who purchased the pigs would, following the holiday meal, shatter the pig so that each family member could taste of the candy as a wish for good luck in the coming year.

 

In the bedroom stood a tree decorated entirely in nineteenth-century photographs and greeting cards, very typical of trees in Fall River homes during the nineteenth-century, documented by photographs in the Society's collection.

 

The first floor hallway was simply decorated using evergreens and holly, incorporating roses in tribute to the legend of the Christmas rose. As the story goes, a little girl happened upon the stable in Bethlehem where the Christ child lay. Upset because she had no gift to bring, she began to cry and, incredibly, her tears turned into beautiful roses.

 

While touring the museum, guests might also want to browse in the museum shop, which is filled with a vast number of unique gifts. Here you can find the right present for that someone special on your list. This year, many new mouth-blown glass ornaments will also be featured. Among our museum shop bestsellers are delectable sugar plums, the traditional Victorian candy meant to bring sweet dreams to any child that slept with one beneath its pillow.

 

The Fall River Historical Society hopes you will take advantage of this opportunity to visit. The museum will be "decked out" for the occasion in the grand manner of an elegant Victorian mansion and will be a sight to behold!

 

These are some of the highlights of the holiday exhibit last year at the Historical Society.

 

Museum hours are: Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. The museum will close at 12:00 noon on Christmas Eve and will be closed Christmas Day. For further information, please call (508) 679-1071.

 

For more info: www.lizzieborden.org/VictorianChristmas.html

 

Interestingly, both of the Boston area Banksy pieces are on Essex St:

 

• F̶O̶L̶L̶O̶W̶ ̶Y̶O̶U̶R̶ ̶D̶R̶E̶A̶M̶S̶ CANCELLED (aka chimney sweep) in Chinatown, Boston

• NO LOITRIN in Central Square, Cambridge.

 

Does that mean anything? It looks like he favors Essex named streets & roads when he can. In 2008, he did another notable Essex work in London, for example, and posters on the Banksy Forums picked up & discussed on the Essex link as well.

 

Is there an Essex Street in any of the other nearby towns? It looks like there are several: Brookline, Charlestown, Chelsea, Gloucester, Haverhill, Lawrence, Lynn, Medford, Melrose, Quincy, Revere, Salem, Saugus, Somerville, Swampscott, and Waltham. Most of these seem improbable to me, other than maybe Brookline, or maybe Somerville or Charlestown. But they start getting pretty suburban after that.

 

But, again, why "Essex"? In a comment on this photo, Birbeck helps clarify:

 

I can only surmise that he's having a 'dig' at Essex UK, especially with the misspelling of 'Loitering'. Here, the general view of the urban districts in Essex: working class but with right wing views; that they're not the most intellectual bunch; rather obsessed with fashion (well, their idea of it); their place of worship is the shopping mall; enjoy rowdy nights out; girls are thought of as being dumb, fake blonde hair/tans and promiscuous; and guys are good at the 'chit chat', and swagger around showing off their dosh (money).

 

It was also the region that once had Europe's largest Ford motor factory. In its heyday, 1 in 3 British cars were made in Dagenham, Essex. Pay was good for such unskilled labour, generations worked mind-numbing routines on assembly lines for 80 years. In 2002 the recession ended the dream.

 

• • • • •

 

This photo appeared on Grafitti - A arte das ruas on Yahoo Meme. Yes, Yahoo has a Tumblr/Posterous-esque "Meme" service now -- I was as surprised as you are.

 

• • • • •

 

Banksy

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Banksy

• Birth name

Unknown

 

• Born

1974 or 1975 (1974 or 1975), Bristol, UK[1]

 

• Nationality

British

 

• Field

Graffiti

Street Art

Bristol underground scene

Sculpture

 

• Movement

Anti-Totalitarianism

Anti-capitalism

Pacifism

Anti-War

Anarchism

Atheism

Anti-Fascism

 

• Works

Naked Man Image

One Nation Under CCTV

Anarchist Rat

Ozone's Angel

Pulp Fiction

 

Banksy is a pseudonymous[2][3][4] British graffiti artist. He is believed to be a native of Yate, South Gloucestershire, near Bristol[2] and to have been born in 1974,[5] but his identity is unknown.[6] According to Tristan Manco[who?], Banksy "was born in 1974 and raised in Bristol, England. The son of a photocopier technician, he trained as a butcher but became involved in graffiti during the great Bristol aerosol boom of the late 1980s."[7] His artworks are often satirical pieces of art on topics such as politics, culture, and ethics. His street art, which combines graffiti writing with a distinctive stencilling technique, is similar to Blek le Rat, who began to work with stencils in 1981 in Paris and members of the anarcho-punk band Crass who maintained a graffiti stencil campaign on the London Tube System in the late 1970s and early 1980s. His art has appeared in cities around the world.[8] Banksy's work was born out of the Bristol underground scene which involved collaborations between artists and musicians.

 

Banksy does not sell photos of street graffiti.[9] Art auctioneers have been known to attempt to sell his street art on location and leave the problem of its removal in the hands of the winning bidder.[10]

 

Banksy's first film, Exit Through The Gift Shop, billed as "the world's first street art disaster movie", made its debut at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.[11] The film was released in the UK on March 5.[12]

 

Contents

 

• 1 Career

•• 1.1 2000

•• 1.2 2002

•• 1.3 2003

•• 1.4 2004

•• 1.5 2005

•• 1.6 2006

•• 1.7 2007

•• 1.8 2008

•• 1.9 2009

•• 1.10 2010

• 2 Notable art pieces

• 3 Technique

• 4 Identity

• 5 Controversy

• 6 Bibliography

• 7 References

• 8 External links

 

Career

 

Banksy started as a freehand graffiti artist 1992–1994[14] as one of Bristol's DryBreadZ Crew (DBZ), with Kato and Tes.[15] He was inspired by local artists and his work was part of the larger Bristol underground scene. From the start he used stencils as elements of his freehand pieces, too.[14] By 2000 he had turned to the art of stencilling after realising how much less time it took to complete a piece. He claims he changed to stencilling whilst he was hiding from the police under a train carriage, when he noticed the stencilled serial number[16] and by employing this technique, he soon became more widely noticed for his art around Bristol and London.[16]

 

Stencil on the waterline of The Thekla, an entertainment boat in central Bristol - (wider view). The image of Death is based on a 19th century etching illustrating the pestilence of The Great Stink.[17]

 

Banksy's stencils feature striking and humorous images occasionally combined with slogans. The message is usually anti-war, anti-capitalist or anti-establishment. Subjects often include rats, monkeys, policemen, soldiers, children, and the elderly.

 

In late 2001, on a trip to Sydney and Melbourne, Australia, he met up with the Gen-X pastellist, visual activist, and recluse James DeWeaver in Byron Bay[clarification needed], where he stencilled a parachuting rat with a clothes peg on its nose above a toilet at the Arts Factory Lodge. This stencil can no longer be located. He also makes stickers (the Neighbourhood Watch subvert) and sculpture (the murdered phone-box), and was responsible for the cover art of Blur's 2003 album Think Tank.

 

2000

 

The album cover for Monk & Canatella's Do Community Service was conceived and illustrated by Banksy, based on his contribution to the "Walls on fire" event in Bristol 1998.[18][citation needed]

 

2002

 

On 19 July 2002, Banksy's first Los Angeles exhibition debuted at 33 1/3 Gallery, a small Silverlake venue owned by Frank Sosa. The exhibition, entitled Existencilism, was curated by 33 1/3 Gallery, Malathion, Funk Lazy Promotions, and B+.[19]

 

2003

 

In 2003 in an exhibition called Turf War, held in a warehouse, Banksy painted on animals. Although the RSPCA declared the conditions suitable, an animal rights activist chained herself to the railings in protest.[20] He later moved on to producing subverted paintings; one example is Monet's Water Lily Pond, adapted to include urban detritus such as litter and a shopping trolley floating in its reflective waters; another is Edward Hopper's Nighthawks, redrawn to show that the characters are looking at a British football hooligan, dressed only in his Union Flag underpants, who has just thrown an object through the glass window of the cafe. These oil paintings were shown at a twelve-day exhibition in Westbourne Grove, London in 2005.[21]

 

2004

 

In August 2004, Banksy produced a quantity of spoof British £10 notes substituting the picture of the Queen's head with Princess Diana's head and changing the text "Bank of England" to "Banksy of England." Someone threw a large wad of these into a crowd at Notting Hill Carnival that year, which some recipients then tried to spend in local shops. These notes were also given with invitations to a Santa's Ghetto exhibition by Pictures on Walls. The individual notes have since been selling on eBay for about £200 each. A wad of the notes were also thrown over a fence and into the crowd near the NME signing tent at The Reading Festival. A limited run of 50 signed posters containing ten uncut notes were also produced and sold by Pictures on Walls for £100 each to commemorate the death of Princess Diana. One of these sold in October 2007 at Bonhams auction house in London for £24,000.

 

2005

 

In August 2005, Banksy, on a trip to the Palestinian territories, created nine images on Israel's highly controversial West Bank barrier. He reportedly said "The Israeli government is building a wall surrounding the occupied Palestinian territories. It stands three times the height of the Berlin Wall and will eventually run for over 700km—the distance from London to Zurich. "[22]

 

2006

 

• Banksy held an exhibition called Barely Legal, billed as a "three day vandalised warehouse extravaganza" in Los Angeles, on the weekend of 16 September. The exhibition featured a live "elephant in a room", painted in a pink and gold floral wallpaper pattern.[23]

• After Christina Aguilera bought an original of Queen Victoria as a lesbian and two prints for £25,000,[24] on 19 October 2006 a set of Kate Moss paintings sold in Sotheby's London for £50,400, setting an auction record for Banksy's work. The six silk-screen prints, featuring the model painted in the style of Andy Warhol's Marilyn Monroe pictures, sold for five times their estimated value. His stencil of a green Mona Lisa with real paint dripping from her eyes sold for £57,600 at the same auction.[25]

• In December, journalist Max Foster coined the phrase, "the Banksy Effect", to illustrate how interest in other street artists was growing on the back of Banksy's success.[26]

 

2007

 

• On 21 February 2007, Sotheby's auction house in London auctioned three works, reaching the highest ever price for a Banksy work at auction: over £102,000 for his Bombing Middle England. Two of his other graffiti works, Balloon Girl and Bomb Hugger, sold for £37,200 and £31,200 respectively, which were well above their estimated prices.[27] The following day's auction saw a further three Banksy works reach soaring prices: Ballerina With Action Man Parts reached £96,000; Glory sold for £72,000; Untitled (2004) sold for £33,600; all significantly above estimated values.[28] To coincide with the second day of auctions, Banksy updated his website with a new image of an auction house scene showing people bidding on a picture that said, "I Can't Believe You Morons Actually Buy This Shit."[6]

• In February 2007, the owners of a house with a Banksy mural on the side in Bristol decided to sell the house through Red Propeller art gallery after offers fell through because the prospective buyers wanted to remove the mural. It is listed as a mural which comes with a house attached.[29]

• In April 2007, Transport for London painted over Banksy's iconic image of a scene from Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, with Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta clutching bananas instead of guns. Although the image was very popular, Transport for London claimed that the "graffiti" created "a general atmosphere of neglect and social decay which in turn encourages crime" and their staff are "professional cleaners not professional art critics".[30] Banksy tagged the same site again (pictured at right). This time the actors were portrayed as holding real guns instead of bananas, but they were adorned with banana costumes. Banksy made a tribute art piece over this second Pulp Fiction piece. The tribute was for 19-year-old British graffiti artist Ozone, who was hit by an underground train in Barking, East London, along with fellow artist Wants, on 12 January 2007.[31] The piece was of an angel wearing a bullet-proof vest, holding a skull. He also wrote a note on his website, saying:

 

The last time I hit this spot I painted a crap picture of two men in banana costumes waving hand guns. A few weeks later a writer called Ozone completely dogged it and then wrote 'If it's better next time I'll leave it' in the bottom corner. When we lost Ozone we lost a fearless graffiti writer and as it turns out a pretty perceptive art critic. Ozone - rest in peace.[citation needed]

 

Ozone's Angel

 

• On 27 April 2007, a new record high for the sale of Banksy's work was set with the auction of the work Space Girl & Bird fetching £288,000 (US$576,000), around 20 times the estimate at Bonhams of London.[32]

• On 21 May 2007 Banksy gained the award for Art's Greatest living Briton. Banksy, as expected, did not turn up to collect his award, and continued with his notoriously anonymous status.

• On 4 June 2007, it was reported that Banksy's The Drinker had been stolen.[33][34]

• In October 2007, most of his works offered for sale at Bonhams auction house in London sold for more than twice their reserve price.[35]

 

• Banksy has published a "manifesto" on his website.[36] The text of the manifesto is credited as the diary entry of one Lieutenant Colonel Mervin Willett Gonin, DSO, which is exhibited in the Imperial War Museum. It describes how a shipment of lipstick to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp immediately after its liberation at the end of World War II helped the internees regain their humanity. However, as of 18 January 2008, Banksy's Manifesto has been substituted with Graffiti Heroes #03 that describes Peter Chappell's graffiti quest of the 1970s that worked to free George Davis of his imprisonment.[37] By 12 August 2009 he was relying on Emo Phillips' "When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then I realised God doesn’t work that way, so I stole one and prayed for forgiveness."

• A small number of Banksy's works can be seen in the movie Children of Men, including a stenciled image of two policemen kissing and another stencil of a child looking down a shop.

• In the 2007 film Shoot 'Em Up starring Clive Owen, Banksy's tag can be seen on a dumpster in the film's credits.

• Banksy, who deals mostly with Lazarides Gallery in London, claims that the exhibition at Vanina Holasek Gallery in New York (his first major exhibition in that city) is unauthorised. The exhibition featured 62 of his paintings and prints.[38]

 

2008

 

• In March, a stencilled graffiti work appeared on Thames Water tower in the middle of the Holland Park roundabout, and it was widely attributed to Banksy. It was of a child painting the tag "Take this Society" in bright orange. London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham spokesman, Councillor Greg Smith branded the art as vandalism, and ordered its immediate removal, which was carried out by H&F council workmen within three days.[39]

• Over the weekend 3–5 May in London, Banksy hosted an exhibition called The Cans Festival. It was situated on Leake Street, a road tunnel formerly used by Eurostar underneath London Waterloo station. Graffiti artists with stencils were invited to join in and paint their own artwork, as long as it didn't cover anyone else's.[40] Artists included Blek le Rat, Broken Crow, C215, Cartrain, Dolk, Dotmasters, J.Glover, Eine, Eelus, Hero, Pure evil, Jef Aérosol, Mr Brainwash, Tom Civil and Roadsworth.[citation needed]

• In late August 2008, marking the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and the associated levee failure disaster, Banksy produced a series of works in New Orleans, Louisiana, mostly on buildings derelict since the disaster.[41]

• A stencil painting attributed to Banksy appeared at a vacant petrol station in the Ensley neighbourhood of Birmingham, Alabama on 29 August as Hurricane Gustav approached the New Orleans area. The painting depicting a hooded member of the Ku Klux Klan hanging from a noose was quickly covered with black spray paint and later removed altogether.[42]

• His first official exhibition in New York, the "Village Pet Store And Charcoal Grill," opened 5 October 2008. The animatronic pets in the store window include a mother hen watching over her baby Chicken McNuggets as they peck at a barbecue sauce packet, and a rabbit putting makeup on in a mirror.[43]

• The Westminster City Council stated in October 2008 that the work "One Nation Under CCTV", painted in April 2008 will be painted over as it is graffiti. The council says it will remove any graffiti, regardless of the reputation of its creator, and specifically stated that Banksy "has no more right to paint graffiti than a child". Robert Davis, the chairman of the council planning committee told The Times newspaper: "If we condone this then we might as well say that any kid with a spray can is producing art". [44] The work was painted over in April 2009.

• In December 2008, The Little Diver, a Banksy image of a diver in a duffle coat in Melbourne Australia was vandalised. The image was protected by a sheet of clear perspex, however silver paint was poured behind the protective sheet and later tagged with the words "Banksy woz ere". The image was almost completely destroyed.[45].

 

2009

 

• May 2009, parts company with agent Steve Lazarides. Announces Pest Control [46] the handling service who act on his behalf will be the only point of sale for new works.

• On 13 June 2009, the Banksy UK Summer show opened at Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery, featuring more than 100 works of art, including animatronics and installations; it is his largest exhibition yet, featuring 78 new works.[47][48] Reaction to the show was positive, with over 8,500 visitors to the show on the first weekend.[49] Over the course of the twelve weeks, the exhibition has been visited over 300,000 times.[50]

• In September 2009, a Banksy work parodying the Royal Family was partially destroyed by Hackney Council after they served an enforcement notice for graffiti removal to the former address of the property owner. The mural had been commissioned for the 2003 Blur single "Crazy Beat" and the property owner, who had allowed the piece to be painted, was reported to have been in tears when she saw it was being painted over.[51]

• In December 2009, Banksy marked the end of the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference by painting four murals on global warming. One included "I don't believe in global warming" which was submerged in water.[52]

 

2010

 

• The world premiere of the film Exit Through the Gift Shop occurred at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, on 24 January. He created 10 street pieces around Park City and Salt Lake City to tie in with the screening.[53]

• In February, The Whitehouse public house in Liverpool, England, is sold for £114,000 at auction.[54] The side of the building has an image of a giant rat by Banksy.[55]

• In April 2010, Melbourne City Council in Australia reported that they had inadvertently ordered private contractors to paint over the last remaining Banksy art in the city. The image was of a rat descending in a parachute adorning the wall of an old council building behind the Forum Theatre. In 2008 Vandals had poured paint over a stencil of an old-fashioned diver wearing a trenchcoat. A council spokeswoman has said they would now rush through retrospective permits to protect other “famous or significant artworks” in the city.[56]

• In April 2010 to coincide with the premier of Exit through the Gift Shop in San Francisco, 5 of his pieces appeared in various parts of the city.[57] Banksy reportedly paid a Chinatown building owner $50 for the use of their wall for one of his stencils.[58]

• In May 2010 to coincide with the release of "Exit Through the Gift Shop" in Chicago, one piece appeared in the city.

 

Notable art pieces

 

In addition to his artwork, Banksy has claimed responsibility for a number of high profile art pieces, including the following:

 

• At London Zoo, he climbed into the penguin enclosure and painted "We're bored of fish" in seven foot high letters.[59]

• At Bristol Zoo, he left the message 'I want out. This place is too cold. Keeper smells. Boring, boring, boring.' in the elephant enclosure.[60]

• In March 2005, he placed subverted artworks in the Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, and the American Museum of Natural History in New York.[61]

• He put up a subverted painting in London's Tate Britain gallery.

• In May 2005 Banksy's version of a primitive cave painting depicting a human figure hunting wildlife whilst pushing a shopping trolley was hung in gallery 49 of the British Museum, London. Upon discovery, they added it to their permanent collection.[62]

 

Near Bethlehem - 2005

 

• Banksy has sprayed "This is not a photo opportunity" on certain photograph spots.

• In August 2005, Banksy painted nine images on the Israeli West Bank barrier, including an image of a ladder going up and over the wall and an image of children digging a hole through the wall.[22][63][64][65]

 

See also: Other Banksy works on the Israeli West Bank barrier

 

• In April 2006, Banksy created a sculpture based on a crumpled red phone box with a pickaxe in its side, apparently bleeding, and placed it in a street in Soho, London. It was later removed by Westminster Council. BT released a press release, which said: "This is a stunning visual comment on BT's transformation from an old-fashioned telecommunications company into a modern communications services provider."[66]

• In June 2006, Banksy created an image of a naked man hanging out of a bedroom window on a wall visible from Park Street in central Bristol. The image sparked some controversy, with the Bristol City Council leaving it up to the public to decide whether it should stay or go.[67] After an internet discussion in which 97% (all but 6 people) supported the stencil, the city council decided it would be left on the building.[67] The mural was later defaced with paint.[67]

• In August/September 2006, Banksy replaced up to 500 copies of Paris Hilton's debut CD, Paris, in 48 different UK record stores with his own cover art and remixes by Danger Mouse. Music tracks were given titles such as "Why am I Famous?", "What Have I Done?" and "What Am I For?". Several copies of the CD were purchased by the public before stores were able to remove them, some going on to be sold for as much as £750 on online auction websites such as eBay. The cover art depicted Paris Hilton digitally altered to appear topless. Other pictures feature her with a dog's head replacing her own, and one of her stepping out of a luxury car, edited to include a group of homeless people, which included the caption "90% of success is just showing up".[68][69][70]

• In September 2006, Banksy dressed an inflatable doll in the manner of a Guantanamo Bay detainment camp prisoner (orange jumpsuit, black hood, and handcuffs) and then placed the figure within the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad ride at the Disneyland theme park in Anaheim, California.[71][72]

 

Technique

 

Asked about his technique, Banksy said:

 

“I use whatever it takes. Sometimes that just means drawing a moustache on a girl's face on some billboard, sometimes that means sweating for days over an intricate drawing. Efficiency is the key.[73]”

 

Stencils are traditionally hand drawn or printed onto sheets of acetate or card, before being cut out by hand. Because of the secretive nature of Banksy's work and identity, it is uncertain what techniques he uses to generate the images in his stencils, though it is assumed he uses computers for some images due to the photocopy nature of much of his work.

 

He mentions in his book, Wall and Piece, that as he was starting to do graffiti, he was always too slow and was either caught or could never finish the art in the one sitting. So he devised a series of intricate stencils to minimise time and overlapping of the colour.

 

Identity

 

Banksy's real name has been widely reported to be Robert or Robin Banks.[74][75][76] His year of birth has been given as 1974.[62]

 

Simon Hattenstone from Guardian Unlimited is one of the very few people to have interviewed him face-to-face. Hattenstone describes him as "a cross of Jimmy Nail and British rapper Mike Skinner" and "a 28 year old male who showed up wearing jeans and a t-shirt with a silver tooth, silver chain, and one silver earring".[77] In the same interview, Banksy revealed that his parents think their son is a painter and decorator.[77]

 

In May 2007, an extensive article written by Lauren Collins of the New Yorker re-opened the Banksy-identity controversy citing a 2004 photograph of the artist that was taken in Jamaica during the Two-Culture Clash project and later published in the Evening Standard in 2004.[6]

 

In October 2007, a story on the BBC website featured a photo allegedly taken by a passer-by in Bethnal Green, London, purporting to show Banksy at work with an assistant, scaffolding and a truck. The story confirms that Tower Hamlets Council in London has decided to treat all Banksy works as vandalism and remove them.[78]

 

In July 2008, it was claimed by The Mail on Sunday that Banksy's real name is Robin Gunningham.[3][79] His agent has refused to confirm or deny these reports.

 

In May 2009, the Mail on Sunday once again speculated about Gunningham being Banksy after a "self-portrait" of a rat holding a sign with the word "Gunningham" shot on it was photographed in East London.[80] This "new Banksy rat" story was also picked up by The Times[81] and the Evening Standard.

 

Banksy, himself, states on his website:

 

“I am unable to comment on who may or may not be Banksy, but anyone described as being 'good at drawing' doesn't sound like Banksy to me.[82]”

 

Controversy

 

In 2004, Banksy walked into the Louvre in Paris and hung on a wall a picture he had painted resembling the Mona Lisa but with a yellow smiley face. Though the painting was hurriedly removed by the museum staff, it and its counterpart, temporarily on unknown display at the Tate Britain, were described by Banksy as "shortcuts". He is quoted as saying:

 

“To actually [have to] go through the process of having a painting selected must be quite boring. It's a lot more fun to go and put your own one up.[83]”

 

Peter Gibson, a spokesperson for Keep Britain Tidy, asserts that Banksy's work is simple vandalism,[84] and Diane Shakespeare, an official for the same organization, was quoted as saying: "We are concerned that Banksy's street art glorifies what is essentially vandalism".[6]

 

In June 2007 Banksy created a circle of plastic portable toilets, said to resemble Stonehenge at the Glastonbury Festival. As this was in the same field as the "sacred circle" it was felt by many to be inappropriate and his installation was itself vandalized before the festival even opened. However, the intention had always been for people to climb on and interact with it.[citation needed] The installation was nicknamed "Portaloo Sunset" and "Bog Henge" by Festival goers. Michael Eavis admitted he wasn't fond of it, and the portaloos were removed before the 2008 festival.

 

In 2010, an artistic feud developed between Banksy and his rival King Robbo after Banksy painted over a 24-year old Robbo piece on the banks of London's Regent Canal. In retaliation several Banksy pieces in London have been painted over by 'Team Robbo'.[85][86]

 

Also in 2010, government workers accidentally painted over a Banksy art piece, a famed "parachuting-rat" stencil, in Australia's Melbourne CBD. [87]

 

Bibliography

 

Banksy has self-published several books that contain photographs of his work in various countries as well as some of his canvas work and exhibitions, accompanied by his own writings:

 

• Banksy, Banging Your Head Against A Brick Wall (2001) ISBN 978-0-95417040-0

• Banksy, Existencilism (2002) ISBN 978-0-95417041-7

• Banksy, Cut it Out (2004) ISBN 978-0-95449600-5

• Banksy, Wall and Piece (2005) ISBN 978-1-84413786-2

• Banksy, Pictures of Walls (2005) ISBN 978-0-95519460-3

 

Random House published Wall and Piece in 2005. It contains a combination of images from his three previous books, as well as some new material.[16]

 

Two books authored by others on his work were published in 2006 & 2007:

 

• Martin Bull, Banksy Locations and Tours: A Collection of Graffiti Locations and Photographs in London (2006 - with new editions in 2007 and 2008) ISBN 978-0-95547120-9.

• Steve Wright, Banksy's Bristol: Home Sweet Home (2007) ISBN 978-1906477004

 

External links

 

• Official website

• Banksy street work photos

According to the Chinese Zodiac (Sheng Xiao, 生肖) the year 2014 is the year of the horse.

 

Each year is associated to an animal and its reputed attributes, according to a 12-year cycle.These animal signs are rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and pig. Those who are born in the year of the horse are clever, kind to others, and like to join in a venture career, they are cheerful, perceptive, talented, earthy but stubborn.

 

Technically speaking the year of the horse does not begin until January 31, 2014 because it is calculated accoding to the lunar calendar. Nevertheless I would like to make my New Year Wishes today ;-)

 

You all have a happy, healthy and successful 2014. May the good light always be with you ;-)

  

Credit for their wonderful textures goes to:

vintage findings/painted works and Tim in Ohio.

 

Raven update:

Raven is doing a little better today.

For those of you that don't know the whole story, Raven injured both her back legs when she was younger. She has what would be the equivalent of tennis elbow for us. When she was a year old she jumped up to snatch a ball out of the air, came down back legs first and injured her left leg.

After treating it for months with anti-inflammatory meds, seeming to get almost better and then coming up limping again, we knew the only way to help her was surgery.

So she had her 1st operation at a year old, and of course, the other leg was feeling left out and decided to go out the following year, so she had her 2nd operation.

Through the years I've tried to limit her exercise.....mostly walking, which is a shame.....she LIVES to chase the ball and bring it back.

The problem wasn't with the running, it was the sudden, full force, putting on the breaks stops she would make when she caught up with the ball.

Arthritis has become a huge factor as she's gotten older.

Her "knees" are really bad.

Whatever she did to herself this time really aggravated her back right knee area.

I was relieved to know that she had not broken or fractured anything.

She got her 1st acupuncture treatment yesterday and is also on pain meds at the moment.

I see a remarked improvement in her demenor today, and her body posture indicates that she is feeling much better.

When I took her out this a.m., I was almost alarmed at how fast she wanted to get about!

We have to keep her fairly sedate for awhile, she can't afford to injure her other back leg, which by the looks of the xrays shows that it's not in that much better shape than the injured one!

I'm also completely modifying her diet. No dairy (not that she got that much of that anyway), it's bad for inflammation, but I should start substituting a cooked egg for some of her regular canned food.

They want me to start adding green beans and sweet potato in with her food too......and special liver treats.

Raven says she doesn't much like being laid up, but she is all on board with her new menu.

This is a wait and see situation. We are hoping that the acupuncture will alleviate a lot of her mobility problems.

If she responds to it well then no further surgery will be needed.

Keeping my fingers crossed BIG TIME!

Oh......btw.....I smiled at a few of the comments on her last picture. Several of you noticed the look in Raven's eyes......so perceptive and sweet of you!

That look wasn't pain or discomfort. That picture was taken before her injury! (GOOD LORD! I wouldn't be trying to pose her in front of the flowers if she was feeling under the weather!)

It was merely the worried/exasperated look she has when I try to get her to sit in a certain spot for a picture!

In this shot I'm talking to her. and her ears are up

Okay,lol, I cheated and used the word "treat"!....and she's a bit high from the medication I'm sure!

 

More info: www.edenwalkers.com

 

There is a roof corridor at the left side, which is extending from the Kaizando building. It has a little gathering place 'tsukimidai' for the purpose of a moon-viewing 'otsukimi'. Otsukimi is conducted by viewing moon at the sky in general but by a reflection upon water here! There is a water garden under the long roof corridor. What's a perceptive presentation of the Japanese garden designer, Kobori Enshu! It reminds me that people in the medieval period adored nature in such a poetic manner. :D

Just a different point of view...

 

Explored May 18, 2007 #159