Another Mirror In An Absurd Place

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Just happened to notice this guy hiding in the shadows, looking scared of his downstairs neighbor.

A Rather Ominous-Seeming Staircase

 

Another Example of Spontaneous Order

Things just have a way of aligning themselves to "go with the flow".  From February 2018.

 

A Winter Day's Iridescence

Is it just my overactive imagination, or does that little cloudlet kind of look like frost on glass?

 

Well Fortified

against a forecast of "heavy snow" today.  Actually it was not as cold today as it was yesterday despite the forecast of minus eight degrees Celsius, because there was thankfully very little wind.  Yesterday it was so cold and blustery that I was literally shivering as I walked on.  Korean winters can be brutal.  So thankful for the new, big thick overcoat and the absolutely humongous new scarf.

A Half-Sun

which serves as a neat visual encapsulation of my motto for this blog, which is -- "Forever seeking the beauty and the terror in all things everywhere".

A Surprising Omission

This is a detail from a painting I did back when I was still a student at USC.  Something had reminded me of it and I wanted to look it up on this blog.  It is one of my favorite images, and naturally I had assumed I must have long ago posted it here.  Rather to my surprise, I found that I never had, so here it is (the Latin phrase for "here be dragons" is a later addition).

When I painted it I was thinking of Dr. Lao, the enigmatic Chinese circus master in the book by Charles G. Finney (previously referred to in the July 26 post).

Just A Couple of Nice Shots

But in extravagant evening colors this time.  First, another one of those "right there" shots;  then, one that makes one suspect the Korean military has finally perfected that fabled laser weapon.

Captive Moon

Some workmen were erecting a Christmas tree in the plaza.  It looked like the same old one from before, but this time I had a new idea on what to do with it in connection with the Moon.

Using its star topper, I would trap the Moon and hold her captive.

Unreachable Selene;  fickle, inconstant Moon that Romeo couldn't swear by;  her proud, indifferent beauty -- now mine to keep.

At least her image, if not the Moon herself.

A Twofer

I don't know how I could have missed it at the time!

Originally, this photo was slated for the "stairs" folder, but when I expanded the image I realized that it also contains that partial shot of a mirror at the top, hung in a truly absurd position and still somehow managing to escape my notice!  It's a real two-for-the-price-of-one deal -- great, except now I don't know whether to put it under "stairs" or "mirrors out of place".  For now it's staying in "downloads".

A Follow-Up

And maybe this elder could serve as Hell's gate keeper?  He certainly looks old enough, forbidding enough, and ornery enough to serve as Charon's stand-in.

Apocalyptic Skies

I seem to be on a bit of a "hellfire" jag lately.  It's probably not healthy...

Could It Be...?

While going through unused photos in old folders, I came across this image of a "ghost in the clouds" from April, 2021.

It looked decidedly odd, so I closed in and heightened contrast, and whaddayaknow, it was a giant cell in the sky!  Trying to blend in with the surrounding clouds, but it stood out with its unusually well-defined boundary (cell membrane?!) and what look for all the world like a nucleus and organelles within the "cytoplasm".

[With a wink and a nod to Trevor James Constable, author of They Live in the Sky!]

Compare to this diagram of a typical animal cell found online.

Looks like I'd come across an actual sky-amoeba.  And come to think, it reminded me of this, and this, as well as this.  The skies are indeed full of w̶e̶i̶r̶d̶ s̶c̶a̶r̶y̶ m̶o̶n̶s̶t̶e̶r̶s̶  life!

"You Can't Keep A Good Cat Down"

The pawprints of a cat who climbed up these stairs, imprinted when the cement was fresh, cat-lifetimes ago, but preserved for all time.

Brimstone Angel II

 

I'm finding this one actually frightens me, just a little.

[But at the same time, I sure like me some hellfire, it looks like]

New Wallpapers

While watching the classic silent film Metropolis online I got the bright idea to take some screenshots and make wallpapers for the computer.

This particular edition of the movie has been remastered and colorized, hence the somewhat unnatural and exaggerated color, but I liked it that way -- it actually fits the concept of German expressionist cinema of the era.  Silent movie acting itself was generally exaggerated anyway -- just look at those faces!

[Mild spoiler ahead] In the above scene an audience of men from the privileged upper class of Metropolis, a great dystopian city of the future -- as envisioned by director Fritz Lang in 1927 --

are getting their first look at Maria, the female protagonist, and are going mad with lust as she dances for them.

Except, it is not the real Maria, who is a champion of the exploited underclass who labor literally underground to keep the city runnning,

but a robot

that's been transformed to look like Maria by Rotwang, the mad scientist/wizard with an artificial hand (could be this visual detail inspired the character of Dr. Strangelove, whose black-gloved hand kept giving the Nazi salute against his will),

for the purpose of leading the workers astray.

I won't spoil the rest of the movie for those who haven't seen it.  It's a masterpiece, though -- I mean, how can a movie be bad that includes amazing visuals like these?

(and of course, This)

Exit/Transfer

Related posts:  A Drizzly Day In Hongdae

                         A Bit Eerie

Evening Hush

Somewhat Surprising

It was early afternoon on a clear Wednesday. I was strolling down a neighborhood sidewalk in the sunshine, relaxed and with not a care in the world, when suddenly something caught my eye -- a bright flash of light at the edge of vision, that quickly streaked across a road sign and disappeared.  I looked about, looking for the source, but didn't see any likely candidate.  So I was about to resume my walk when I saw it again, very clearly this time because I was looking right at the sign; and not only that, it seemed timed to match my movement.  Intrigued, I cautiously moved forward again -- and yes, there it was.  This time it stayed on the road sign long enough that I could tell it was mimicking my movement.

That's when I realized it was sunlight reflecting off the "steampunk" goggles on my hat!  I turned my head slowly back and forth, and sure enough, it followed my movements.  I was a little amazed that the spot of reflected light was so concentrated and clear-edged, with no dispersal to speak of, just like when I used to play with a hand mirror and sunlight as a child.  To look at the (cheap)goggles casually, you wouldn't think the lenses would be this effective as reflectors.

As for why there was only one reflection instead of two, the only possible explanation I can come up with is that perhaps it was due to the slight divergence of angle between the two lenses, magnified by the distance.  You know, like how a Venus probe going just a few degrees off orbit early on could necessitate a course correction of tens of thousands of miles later on.

More About Gloves

So yesterday I came across yet another "errant glove" on the sidewalk. 

Over the years I have lost several gloves myself, but always the left glove only.  Never the right glove -- why would that be?

Somewhere there could be other bloggers posting photos of lost left gloves... mine.

This morning I found an old pair that I had forgotten about (in fact I couldn't remember them at all even after finding them);  they did not have conductive fingertips for touchscreen functions, so after some hesitation I decided to cut the tip off the right index finger.

I tried it on my phone and it was comfortable, and so I was about to cut the tip off the thumb as well, but then I realized I could expand and shrink photos with the thumb intact😐  Too late, I checked the print on the back of the glove, and realized these were "smart gloves", made of conductive material that made the use of special fingertips unnecessary.  Oh well.

I'll just pretend it was still worth it to open up the index finger;  that, for example, the naked finger is more precise for selecting words on the small phone screen to look up online and such😁

"Space To Let"

Or in more common American idiom, "For Lease".

First A Triangle,

and today, a rectangle (or parallelogram).  Maybe a pentagon is next?

 Related post:  Luckiest Day Of The Week

Climbing Santa

The first one that I spotted this season, yesterday.

 

Goo-Goo Eyes

on a subway station air purifier.  A conspiracy theorist could well suspect that this is part of the government's first steps in getting the public accustomed to seeing robotic interfaces everywhere -- the ultimate aim being digital ID and facial recognition in every aspect of life.  Think that's extremist thinking?  Today I read about how China has actually started using facial recognition tech for dispensing toiler paper(!) in some public restrooms to prevent random people stealing toilet paper -- apparently that's been a significant problem in some places.