Have OCD, Will Photograph

Give a man with obsessive-compulsive disorder a camera, and this is what he shoots. 

Related posts:  Another One From Your Friendly Neighborhood OCD Man;  With Camera: OCD Man Again;  Young And Crazy;  OCD Guy With A Camera (Again);  When You've Got OCD (And Time);  

Errant Shirt

With pinstripes.

I keep coming across all kinds of "errant" items everywhere, but I guess finding a discarded winning lottery ticket is too much to hope for.

Related posts:  Errant 

A Horse Yarn

Theodora and Theodosius Smith were fraternal twins who dearly loved horses.  Together they owned five horses, and among these horses there was a beautiful female horse named Christabel.  That is, she would have been (conventionally) beautiful, except for the unfortunate fact that she was born with a genetic mutation that made her body completely bald except for her mane, which was unusually long and silky, grew thick and rich, and was indeed beautiful to see.  Perhaps because of her deformity, the Smith twins loved Christabel the most of all their horses, and took particular care to make sure her beautiful mane was always kept clean and well-groomed.  They took to affixing various pretty accessories and doodads to her mane, just as a woman might adorn her hair with colorful clips and ribbons.  These horse accessories became quite popular, and eventually Theodora and Theodosius opened a shop devoted to selling ornaments for horse manes, which became trendy must-haves for horse lovers everywhere.  The twins became known as two of the most successful and famous operators of a small business, or as those in the know came to refer to them, the Bare Mare Hair Care Ware Lair Pair.

Related post:  Tongue Twister

Another Rude Tree

 

Related post:  A Rude Interlude

Just A Couple Of Cool Shots

of these afternoon clouds against the lowering sun.  Their form recalls the scary photos of monstrous deep-sea creatures I saw as a child that left me with a lifelong case of thalassophobia.  But that's part of their fascination -- after all, my motto for this blog is "Forever Seeking Beauty and Terror in All Things Everywhere".

Plus, I'm a proud member of the Cloud Appreciation Society.

How Cute

Pastries in the shape of smiling little piggies!  With custard filling inside and bearing the letter 복 (pronounced "bok", and it means good fortune) on their backs.  Seen at an underground shopping mall in central Seoul.

[In East Asia pigs symbolize prosperity;  bok-dwe-ji ("good fortune pig") is an established idiom in the Korean language]

 

With Apologies To Two Famous Switzers

Tunnel slides

are a common sight in Seoul.  Korean toddlers enjoy them in apartment complex playgrounds just like their American counterparts do at McDonald's.

Every time I pass by one of these, though, I cannot help but recall to mind the art of H.R. Giger, the Swiss artist who revolutionized the face of science fiction cinema by designing the monster in the movie Alien back in 1979.  He is famous for the unique style of his paintings, which manage to combine the grotesque, yet somehow sleek and erotic, with quasi-mechanical imagery.  While I know absolutely nothing about his private life and proclivities, it seems to me that Giger must have been a partisan of his countryman C.G. Jung, the great Swiss psychologist who popularized, among other things, the concept of the Shadow, the repressed negative aspects of the mind that are largely locked away in the unconscious and that Jung believed needed to be recognized and integrated in order to round out a mature personality.  Clearly, Giger was familiar with the basic principles behind the Shadow.  But of course, Giger the Artist loaded a whole lot of other baggage onto that framework to work out his visual œuvre, such as Freudian sexuality, vagina dentata, the Devouring Mother, rotting babies, and just plain pervy obsession with body parts.

But anyway, what strikes me visually about the tunnel slides is that dark opening/exit that looks disturbingly like a wide-open mouth (good thing the one pictured here is blue, but I have seen RED ones).  Which tends to remind one (me, that is) of bodily orifices, sexuality and genitalia, whose literal and figurative depictions abound in Giger's art (and that's an understatement), and it was easy enough for me to find a particularly apt sample online:

And of course, I couldn't resist the impulse to manipulate my slide photo to "Giger-ify" it (naturally).  I rather like the result -- in fact, I'm proud to note that for a brief moment I actually mistook its thumbnail for one of Giger's own.  Think of it as a droll but earnest tribute to the master from one of his fans.

Related post:  The Wrinkle-Lipped Serpent

Can't Decide

whether this is a good acid trip or a bad one.

Reaching

To possess the Moon...

Related posts:  I, Too, Want;  The Waxing Moon;  One Unforgettable Occasion;  Moon King:  Finger Pointing To The Moon;  The Beautiful, Indifferent Moon;  The Moon Is Very Far Away, Little Bird... But I'm Coming With You;  As Above, So Below (AKA No Coincidence)

An Accosting Pigeon

Dreaming Overtime

My Dreaming Mind certainly was busy yesterday morning.  For once, a bunch of recurring characters made their appearance in a single dream;  the light and dark female figures were in it, and my cat Blood was there, as well as a cast of threatening, unfamiliar male figures.

In the dream, Blood was being kept in a closet or locker, and I went to feed him, only to realize that I was out of cat food (this actually is the case almost every time Blood appears in my dreams;  most often, he simply shows up at some point and I suddenly realize that I had not fed him in a very long time;  this most likely indicates that an aspect of myself is being neglected/unheeded;  I have a fair candidate as to what this aspect is, but I cannot be certain).  He broke out of the closet/locker and disappeared, and I went through the neighborhood searching for him, as well as for a store that sold cat food.

While I was crossing what may have been a school playground, a woman ran up and collided into me.  It turned out to be Lana, a former colleague from the days when I was working for the County of Los Angeles;  we fell, she laughed brightly and said something flattering/encouraging to me (this actually is a good fit with the real-life Lana's personality;  she often reads my Facebook posts and leaves positive comments;  I wish I could remember specifically what it was she said -- oh, well).

I continued on with the search, now accompanied by Andrea, another colleague and my girlfriend before I moved to Korea;  I don't know what L.A. County's policy is on intra-departmental dating, but in any case I don't think anyone knew we were dating anyway.  In waking life Andrea always had been a shy, introverted girl to begin with, but in the dream this trait was exaggerated to the point where she was quite dark (not literally, this time -- I'm talking about her demeanor) and uncommunicative.  Then we were stopped by a bunch of thuggish-seeming dudes challenging us.  Andrea said something defiant to them and so did I, even as I felt inwardly that this was not the best way to handle it, and the leader of the gang said angrily that they had already had to do it twice (what it was they had been obliged to do, I don't remember -- but it may have been something to do with the search for Blood).  Trying somewhat belatedly to defuse the situation, I said soothingly to Andrea that they had done it twice already, and that was plenty.  That's where either the dream faded, or I began to wake up.  I never did manage to find Blood or cat food.

The light and dark female figures have been discussed already in previous dream posts.  As for the threatening, angry men, they may have been a representation of some unsatisfied desires or unexpressed tendencies given an undifferentiated form, hence the anonymous grouping.  The fact that within the dream I inwardly felt that I was not handling it wisely even as I spoke rashly to them is significant.  Perhaps it's related to the reason Blood was both hungry and missing.

Related post:  More Dreams

A Spring Day Walk By The Lake

I Surprised A Squirrel

Didn't meant to...  Sorry, bud.

Iridescent Moon

More Iridescence Today

Rainbow-colored smile.

 

I Haven't Smoked In Ages

Not just for health reasons (that wouldn't stop me), but also because here in Korea smoking is kind of frowned upon, and in an apartment complex you aren't allowed to smoke indoors even in your own home because the smell can carry over to neighboring units.  Which is fine, I don't really smoke any more -- but just now I really, really craved a smoke, for whatever reason, so I broke out the old churchwarden for the first time in I don't know how long, lit it up and went out on the balcony for a good long satisfying session.  It's past midnight so I don't think anyone would notice and complain.  Hopefully^.

Self-Portrait In Spring

 

Really?

That munchkin-sized door actually has a warning over it that says "Watch Your Head", complete with a figure hitting its head and "seeing stars"😆

Synchronized Goosing

 

 

Mommy Cloud's Hug

Aww...

That Terrifying But Familiar Glow

The moment I glimpsed that sinister red glow at the bottom of the stairwell, I realized I must have stumbled upon yet another magician's laboratory.  It may be that the same kind of occult practices were being carried out in this place;  it very much resembled the last one I found in another derelict building -- even the trail of burnt matter leading into the chamber was the same.

This is just too many times I have come across these places in recent years, to consider them to be coincidences.  Now I have to wonder if I haven't somehow become "contaminated" with the aurae of these occult labs and developed some sort of affinity for them.

 

Related post:  Yet Another Wizard's Laboratory

Surprising Find

I had just finished washing my hands in the men's room, and as I turned to the hand dryer, I found someone had placed these delightful-looking little pouches on it.  I was sorely tempted to unwrap one and find out what was inside, but held myself in check.  I wasn't worried about terrorist boobytraps or any such thing -- even among the developed countries South Korea is one of the very safest -- but even so, it's best not to handle random mysteries, especially ones deliberately left behind.  

But now, several days later, I'm still curious.

Not Quite Nova Yet

"We're doomed, doomed!  The Sun's on fire... oh, wait."

Old Memories Revisited

An image that brings back a wistful flurry of emotions.  It takes me back to a time, many many years ago, when I was just an innocent little... brat.

 

The Right Corner

 

Wonder if there was a warm updraft rising out of the grate.