A mirror hung outside a guard shack. That in itself is a little unusual, but that column! It has to have been added after the mirror was placed there -- surely no one expects to wedge herself in and stand barely a foot in front of a full-length mirror to preen and primp! But why, if a column was needed to bear the load of the roof, was it not included in the original plans? And why was the now-useless mirror not taken away? Surely it can be put to good use at some other location!
If it happened today. If it was shot as a movie. A sci-fi movie about a power struggle among some advanced parahuman species who are mistaken for angels by ordinary mortals. Starring Chris Hemsworth as the archangel Michael
with James McAvoy
or maybe Michael Fassbender
or even Keanu Reeves playing Lucifer.
And the War as seen from the ground might just look like this^.
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In some cultures moths traditionally have been associated with death. Perhaps because of their often ominously dark coloring and nocturnal ways, so different from their delightful diurnal counterparts the butterflies, or perhaps because of their fatal attraction to flames. In any case, I know I found them repellent in an almost instinctive way when I was a child. So, not so surprisingly, I found this moth resting by a clock to be a worthy focus of rumination on mortality.
Related post: Vanitas
And I'd had no idea! It's been over five years now since I moved back to Korea, but since I quit smoking many years ago (except for the very very occasional puff on my favorite pipes, for memory's sake) I never paid much attention to the packets of cigarettes behind the counter at every convenience store. Sure, I sometimes see discarded packs with gross photos of a ruined lung or some such prominently displayed, but never thought much of it. After all, smoking is already pretty severely frowned upon as an evil habit here in Korea -- I just never realized how severely! Today, for the very first time I happened to actually pay attention to the scary warnings on cigarette packs, and I just couldn't help but laugh.
I made the long trip to Siheung to view the lotus gardens there. I think I must have lost a couple liters of water as sweat. But it seems I was a bit early in the season. There were nothing but buds, and even they were few and far between.
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If mankind ever establishes a large-scale permanent colony on the Moon (as a vacation resort only, I'm certain, with frequently-rotated personnel -- since the radically weaker gravity would play havoc with the bodies of long-term residents in all kinds of unpleasant ways), I believe indoor flying will become a popular form of recreation. I picture the arena to be a gigantic hangar-type building, without any internal supports that can obstruct flight, and vastly loftier and wider than any that could be built on Earth. The floor would be perforated with innumerable small apertures through which air under pressure would be pumped out, creating a permanent updraft; the ceiling would be designed to receive the wind and recycle it. The players would be taken up to a high platform, where they would be fitted with a "flight suit"; that is, a light skeletal frame shaped somewhat like a glider, in which they would lie prone, with movable wings whose shape and angle they could control with their arms and hands. Thus prepared, they would then step off the ledge, and taking advantage of the Moon's weaker gravity and aided by the updraft -- fly! Although it would be impossible to flap the wings like the small birds that stay close to the ground -- human anatomy just doesn't allow it -- but comparison with large, soaring birds like eagles and vultures would be apt; it would still be genuinely self-powered and controlled flight, just like those birds of prey riding a thermal column, not the hapless "controlled falling" of wingsuits.
Not in a haystack (thankfully).
[I've purposely avoided pointing out the needle in the first photo, but if you expand the image and squint, you'll see it^]
There seems to be an interesting connection here with my post from two days ago. It was a random shot I found in an old folder, of a helium balloon somebody accidentally (presumably) let go. Then, today I come across a needle, as if I were being (pun warning) needled to puncture it. Coincidence?
To paraphrase a line by Damon Knight in his book Charles Fort: Prophet of the Unexplained, if there is a Universal Mind, and it is indeed all-knowing, that still need not mean it must be sane or even particularly intelligent. Months of drought, then a sudden downpour that produces floods -- is it in answer to prayers for relief? If there is a Universal mind, it need not be anything but the mind of a five-year old. Or in this case, perhaps a prop comedian.
Related posts: errant
It's the Fourth of July! I was going out when I spotted this stinkbug next to the elevator. I looked at it close, and realized it was missing most of its right antenna.
Which reminded me of this stag beetle from EXACTLY two years ago, July 4, 2023. This guy was missing his right antenna.
And while looking up the post, I realized that EXACTLY one year later, on July 4, 2024, while touring JinGwanSa temple I came upon this beetle clinging to a lotus blossom. And it was missing its right antenna, too! Is the cosmos trying to send me some kind of message? Spooky.
Related posts: Stag Beetle; Ambiguous Beetle; Blood Comes Back For A Visit; The Very Next Dream Log Entry
One in a random nondescriptive alley, and one in a subway station right next to a giant monitor screen of all places. I just don't get it. Is this a Korean thing? Because I've never noticed this in L.A. Are there these random mirrors in unexpected public spots in other countries? In malls and photo booths, sure, but why in decrepit alleys where hardly anyone goes, and then ironically enough, right next to advertisements in heavily-trafficked subway stations? The American in me just doesn't get it.
I was just walking down the sidewalk in an unfamiliar neighborhood, to see what I could see, when I passed by this church.
I'm not sure those responsible for commissioning that sculpture by the stairs considered its visual impact from all angles. The words inscribed onto its side declare "I'm pressing on the upward way" (the first line from the hymn "Higher Ground") -- beautiful, inspiring words -- but I don't know if the sentiment they express is necessarily what the shape of the monolith itself inspires. I can see the sculptor's intention in attempting to literally show the idea of "on high", but still...
Looks almost as if a cloud died and its ghost has come back.
But seriously, if, as I continue to believe, some clouds are actually living creatures that are indigenous to the air and that evolved to look like clouds when seen from the ground, then they are subject to birth and death, like any other living thing.
In which case the caption should read:
"Looks like a 'cloud' died -- there's its ghost."
If you've ever thought that so much of what passes for modern art is trash -- well, you're more right than you knew.
I passed by this field of flowers as the late afternoon was lapsing into early evening. I was on my way to the market, but I could not help but stop to admire the scenery. The whole field was bathed in the beautiful warm glow of the lowering sun, and together with the dancing butterflies it made for a lovely scene.
Today I went to visit "Chinatown" in Daerim, Seoul (the name is in quotes because even though there are a few places in Seoul that are informally referred to as Chinatown by Seoulites due to the heavy influx of Chinese immigrants, the only place that is officially designated Chinatown is in a neighboring city, the port of Incheon*). True to its name, the neighborhood, including the open-air market, exhibited a distinctly Chinese flavor, with a majority of the shops displaying signs mostly in Chinese characters and offering food, products and services that were a mixture of Korean and Chinese wares.
Anyway, I learned a few things from today's trip:
#1. Here restaurants openly advertise dog meat dishes, even though dog meat is illegal in South Korea; wonder why the law doesn't crack down on them -- do Chinese-owned businesses get some kind of waiver?
#2. As I've read somewhere before, some Chinese people really do go about outside in their pajamas.
#3. The Sinified nature of the neighborhood still can't keep out the "Seoul Church Proliferation Syndrome".** These three churches
plus this one
make for 4 churches on 2 blocks.
And one more item... that could get me in a bit of trouble with some overly sensitive folks, but I just had to include it. I freely admit it's probably the American side of me stereotyping Asians, despite myself being one, but when I saw this in an alley
I just had to laugh, because
And lastly, an interesting coincidence that enclosed today's trip like a symbolic parenthesis. At the beginning of my trip, when I arrived at the transfer point to wait for the train that would take me the last leg of the journey to Daerim I was greeted by this sight:
As the whole platform was underground it was highly unusual to see the pigeon trapped so deep inside the station. Then, at the end of my tour when I came back to Daerim station I noticed this "bird" trapped on the ceiling:
All in all, an interesting day.
*Incheon is well-known in military history as the site of the brilliant surprise attack behind enemy lines (the "Incheon Landing") during the Korean War, conceived by General Douglas MacArthur in September, 1950; it reversed the course of the war and enabled the UN allies to recapture most of the Korean peninsula, most of which had been lost to the North Koreans; unfortunately, the Chinese then swept over the border in a human-wave attack in support of North Korea and pushed the allies back; nevertheless, the allies rallied and re-re-took most of the lost territory, only to be pushed back again, etc.; over the course of the war Seoul, the capital of South Korea, changed hands four times, only for the fighting to come to an inconclusive end three years later with a truce that has lasted until today; today the border between North Korea and South Korea is almost exactly back where it had been before the war -- nearly three million lives tragically lost and the whole country flattened for nothing; left without much in the way of infrastructure or resources, for the next decade and a half or so South Korea remained one of the poorest countries in the world, poorer than North Korea and poorer than many of the most underdeveloped countries in Africa; various bigwigs abroad opined it would take South Korea a century to recover(JFK at one point even asked author Pearl Buck, considered an authority on East Asia, if he shouldn't "give Korea back to Japan"!), but now look -- no wonder they call it "The Miracle on the Han River"
