Seaside Town, Evening, Blurr

 The blur was unintentional.

Success of Temptation

“Why is temptation so successful? Like why do we keep falling for these things which are clearly so toxic to our well-being - even to the point of our ruination?”

“Well temptation, in whatever direction, is very patient and modest in its aspirations. So, let’s say an alcoholic, struggling to break free, isn’t being tempted to take ten or twenty drinks all at once. No, he or she is just being tempted to take one drink.”

Vietnam, Laurel Canyon, Hippie Dream

I’ve just read a very interesting book, Weird Scenes Inside the Canyon: Laurel Canyon, Covert Ops and the Dark Heart of the Hippie Dream, by Dave McGowan, about the music scene that came out of Laurel Canyon in the mid to late 1960s. This tends to be a very romanticised era and scene, but McGowan’s book sheds a very different light on much of what went on - and why it may have gone on in the first place. One  random little detail regarding this idyllic scene and community: Neil Young, according to himself, gave Charles Manson the gift of a motorbike - presumably because he really liked Manson’s vibe. 

Anyway, to go to one little detail of the book. The Gulf of Tonkin Incident is where a US battleship was alleged to be attacked by the North Vietnamese communists, and thus as an enforced matter of self-defence, slightly off the US coastline way over in Vietnam, the US entered or began the Vietnam War. The truth is though that the US was clearly seeking to provoke an incident as a pretext for kickstarting full military engagement, and now it is accepted that while there may have been some genuine confusion initially due to climactic conditions as to whether any aggressive incident occurred in the Gulf of Tonkin, it is now accepted that there was no incident, and the pretext was an opportunistic fabrication. The Vietnam War was going to happen, and if not this ‘incident’, some other pretext would have been found or created.

The head of the American fleet in the Gulf of Tonkin waters was US Navy Admiral George Stephen Morrison, whose particular command there, besides the fleet as a whole, was the USS Bon Homme. And here he is below on that very ship in January 1964 with his son, James Douglas Morrison, better known as Jim Morrison of The Doors. 

Pretty long odds on that kind of connection! 

group

 

girl 2

 

That last picture again, very slightly different and now with the ink dry.

Cartoon Consciousness

 [Reluctantly inspired by having my poor defenceless soul pummelled with national radio and its ‘news’ pumping out at considerable volume in some store the other day]

The newest upcoming series from the beloved Corporate Whore franchise has just been announced: Corporate Whores Attain Cartoon Consciousness.

A spokesperson for the franchise, in explaining the newest emanation, told us that: “The goal and aspiration of any loyal citizen is the attainment of cartoon consciousness - the seamless fusing of self with the Global Self - and if we can help celebrities to both achieve this state of self-realisation and also inspire others to do likewise, well, what more can someone working within the entertainment industrial complex hope to do?”

girl

 

fIgures

 

Whether this has been something worth trying to get somewhere I don’t really know, but, not that it’s finished, here it is for now.

creature

 

Bienheureux l’homme, air de Valaam

 

The unadorned purity of this is incredible.

No Limits

 “You know why I hate God so much . . . I mean the idea of God?”

“Why?”

“Because it’s the idea of a dictator imposing limits on us. There are no limits!”

“There’s no sin?”

“Of course not! Don’t you see how sick the idea of sin is?!”

“What about Auschwitz?”

“What about it?”

“Was that sinful?”

“Well no, cos there’s no sin.”

“So the Nazis were right?”

“What do you mean, right?”

“Well, if there’s no sin, then anyone can do what they want. So Hitler and the gang were right in just doing what they wanted. And in a sense the psychopath is demonstrating this idea of there being no sin far more than ‘ordinary’ people, as their actions are statements of there being no limits.”

“Well you’re going to extremes here.”

“I hate to tell you, but the very nature of sin and evil does go to extremes. How could anyone possibly not know that? And anyway, a minute ago you were ecstatic about there being no limits. You should also be grateful I went straight to the bogeyman of the Nazis. I could have gone in all kinds of alternative and graphic routes in, let’s say, illustrating your position.”

tWo

 

Two things I’m trying to get somewhere.

U Make Me Feel So Good

 By The Drum Club from 1992.

at sea

 

green

 

Up in the air

 

Whether I can get this to where I’d be happy with is a bit up in the air.

Big News

“Big” Al Gore has vowed to save the world from climate change by going on a diet. It is believed that the resulting reduced pressure on the earth’s resources in no longer having to feed and maintain Gore at his current level could restore health and balance to the global environment.

Nero con punti rossi

 

By Alberto Burri, 1957.

laNdscape

 

I don’t know if this will become something finished or not, but I suppose there’s no harm in showing it as is - or at least as was when I photographed it.

Fruits

 The line from the Gospels, “By their fruits ye shall know them.” Ordinarily one would think of this in reference to people, of good or bad inclination, and especially those who “come in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.”

On a more direct individual level though, it reflects on the inner state which arises from where we put our attention. This can be external things or perhaps the thoughts in our heads, which may lead us in certain psychological directions, such as despair. So here again, whatever it is, what are its fruits?

trees, evening

 

Torch

“The batteries seem to be after running out on your torch.”

“Looks like you’re right. I might as well throw it out now, I suppose.”

“Throw it out?!”

“Well no, I’ll hold onto it. I can always use it I suppose to hit people over the head with it.”

“But why not just buy new batteries for it?”

“Oh I didn’t think of that. That’s what I’ll do.”

Blanket

[This below is a bit frustrating to my mind as it feels like it has some depth to it, but if so, what that is for now escapes me.]

“If you came across some ugly, horrible sight on the side of the road, what would you do about it?”

“I don’t know. Maybe I’d put a blanket over it.”

“But that wouldn’t remove it. What would be the point? It would still be there.”

“Yes, but at least no one would have to look at it.”

Seraph

 

The full, though still unfinished, picture was image of something I showed a few days ago, and with a colour filter applied.

Sumi-e coloUrs

 

2 gulls

 

Without

“You know what to a certain person, or let’s say someone in a certain state of being, heaven might be?”

“What?”

“A world without distractions.”

“And do you know to another person, or person in a very different state of being, what hell might be like?”

“What?”

“A world without distractions.”

fiGure

 

water

 

noW

 

Something I’m doing now.

A Man Who Saw Demons

 I found this well worth watching.

across the night sky 2

 

A bit more cleaning up of the picture later.

Okom blagoutrobnym, Gospodi

 

across the night sky

 I should have photographed this a couple of days ago before I decided to try to see if something could be made of it, cos in truth it probably looked not much more than a mess fit for the bin. After plenty scraping away at the ink and paper with a sharp blade though, this is what I’ve managed to help emerge, not that it’s finished yet.

Across the water