Moon And Sun Panorama

Moon Tower

Paper Crane Project Update

Panel #8 added (finally).

Wow, I thought 43 cranes would be enough for a new panel, but I guess it's been so long since the last update that I'd totally lost the feel of it.  It looks like the previous update had twice as many birds.

I did make this giant crane this time though -- I think it should count as more than one... no?  Or maybe not.

There is one slightly unsettling thing about the giant crane.  I made it out of recycled wrapping paper printed with frogs, which made for an attractively colorful appearance.  Only some time later did I remember that cranes eat frogs, and having frogs appear on the body of a crane is comparable to the unforgettably unpleasant last scene in Roger Corman's original black-and-white Little Shop of Horrors (1960).  At the end of the movie the man-eating plant, having consumed a number of people and grown huge, blooms with giant flowers, and in the flowers appear the faces of its victims.  I watched it on TV when I was a kid, and I was left horrified by that scene.  Even now, many years and many gross-out movies later, the memory of it still echoes with a certain revulsion.  Rather a pity -- it's such a pretty crane^.

Related Post:  Spooky!

The Secret Language Of Birds And Clouds

Made me think of  "3.5 divided by 2".

Thursday's Dragonfly Photo #2

My favorite insect :)

Related posts:   My Tattoo;  Thursday's Dragonfly Photo;  Another Random Set

Evil Clowns

I've never found clown makeup -- the big exaggerated eyes, the rotund red nose, the thick-painted lips -- to be particularly amusing or entertaining.  On the contrary, I find it to be somewhat unsettling generally, and sometimes downright disturbing.

The Hollywood Sign and Griffith Observatory, From St. Vincent Medical Center

Someone very dear to me had to be hospitalized this past March.  From the window of her 5th floor room two of L.A.'s best-known landmarks were visible;  but the blinds had to be kept drawn to keep the sun out of her eyes, and they kept her from seeing the view the whole time.

'Untitled'

BECAUSE I WOULD HAVE COME TO REGRET NAMING IT 'TWIN PEAKS'

Even More Iridescence

A Bad Trio

PANIC, DREAD, AND APATHY

Turns out, you can experience all three simultaneously.

Nesting

Looking at this image makes me sad.

AN ANIMIST SUN, TURNING IN FOR THE EVENING

Blue Sun 2

Related post:  Blue Sun

A Very Colorful Bug

Ran across this pretty creature while out walking the other day.  Maybe the bright colors are a warning to stay away?  Which may well mean that this little fellow is dangerous.  But it's interesting how the colors are asymmetrical -- maybe it was the result of an injury; that would explain why it was crawling along so slowly on the sidewalk.

Another New Expression Coined...

There is the wise saying:  "One who fights and runs away, may live to fight another day".

Today I came up with something that's closely related, but perhaps with a little more Victorian-style dash(?^), and it goes:  "Vengeance is a luxury the dead cannot afford".

Imagine that line spoken by the head of a small clan that's just seen its territory overrun by a dastardly enemy, and whose people are torn between two cruel choices:  mass suicide, or being taken into brutal slavery.  I think it would be a nice fit in a novel by Dumas or Sabatini^.

IN THE REAL WORLD, COWARDICE IS SURVIVAL-ENHANCING

I suppose a more pithy, snappy version is possible for the internet age -- imagine Schwarzenegger's T-800 Terminator wisecracking "Dead humans can't shoot back" (pity that it's been reprogrammed not to kill humans).

Of course, that version carries a somewhat different meaning.  It's gone from defiance to a kind of satisfied gloating --  the difference is even more obvious in this Mafia movie version:    "A dead man can't get even".  How about that^.

Another Synchronistic Event (#20)... With Some Kind Of Metadata

Originally, I was just going to post this photo with the title 'Clouds Playing Leapfrog':

Then I remembered seeing a composite photograph taken by Eadweard Muybridge for his 1887 classic, Animal Locomotion, of a man leapfrogging over another man.  Aside from being quite a remarkable and innovative achievement for the photographic technology of the time, it is interesting in and of itself, so I wanted to include a shot of that photo for comparison.  I went and took the book down from the bookcase, opened it at random, and voila! there were the very pages:

OUT OF A TOTAL 629 NUMBERED PAGES!

Just in case the book binding was cut at those pages, I closed and opened the book at random several times, and no, it didn't happen again.

Me Interviewing My Shadow

"SO TELL ME, WHY THIS FASCINATION WITH SHADOWS..?"

Kind Of Feeling Like This, But Also Kind Of Not...

SADANGRYANXIOUSSCAREDYEARNINGNUMB

I DON'T KNOW HOW I FEEL

Bird And Bird Shadow

The Secret Language Of Clouds (Pt. 2)

Related Post:  The Secret Language Of Clouds

New And Improved

BETTER LIVING THROUGH ORIGAMI

Simpler, neater, and so much nicer in looks than the earlier chopstick rest.

Related post:  A Little Design Project

Airplane Flies Into...

a tree

a light pole

Rancho Los Amigos

Another Rude Interlude

YES, I HAD TO DO IT

Here's a photo of Michelangelo's David from the Web.

It's one of the most widely recognized works of sculpture in the world, and long a personal favorite of mine.

Which is why, when I saw this leaf in the parking lot at work, I was immediately inspired to use it to create this tribute to David.

More Old Art

Poster for a one-woman show based on Chinese writer Lu Xun's 1918 classic short story, Diary of a Madman / 狂人日記.

It's about a man who thinks his neighbors are conspiring to eat him.