Friday, February 17, 2017

A George Takei moment




I have been looking for this for YEARS! You know those Pinterest atrocities - chunks and hunks of images, half the text cut off - abominations, really. I found a piece of this image several years ago and went looking for the rest of it, and couldn't find anything. Nothing whole, anyway. People carve things up into Facebook profile pictures/covers, YouTube avatars, etc.  But at last, when I least expected it, when I was looking for something else, this popped out at me.

I think it is simply glorious, and in pristine condition. It is THE post-War spirit, complete freedom from care and restriction. No more rationing of happiness or anything else! The fierce glare of the car only adds to the atmosphere, the bared teeth and aggressive, staring headlights.

And then I found this:




I think this was originally two pages in a magazine. I have seen, somewhere, a poster-ish version of the first page, but it's inaccessible to me.





I am having a George Takei moment.




OH MY.


Meanwhile, please join my Festival of Old Red Buicks. I would have made a slideshow out of this, as usual, but the proportions didn't work, so I'll glom them all together into one "thing".


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


An old guy driving a beautiful old Buick.



Thursday, February 16, 2017

Why do we live and die? Thoughts late at night





These are a few thoughts from late at night. I didn't know I was going to say them. Please forgive the cliche-y thumbnail. There was no thumbnail to this one at all, because the video was so dark. I'm slowly learning that a video needs a decent thumbnail. For years my eye has been caught by them, but I didn't know it was happening. At any rate, these are the thoughts that come to you late at night, just from wherever, from your life.


Paperback writer: come take a look








































So what is this? Anyway?? For a long time, I posted a gif at the bottom of my blog entries, along with a link to my Amazon author page. It was a kind of signature, along with a little publicity for my actual work. So why did I stop? I got soooooooo sick of doing it, and felt it was so utterly futile ( I mean, WHO goes on my Amazon author page?) that I dropped it. But I was left with this super-cute collection of signature gifs. I have a few thousand gifs in my collection, most of which I made myself. It would be nice to think that SOMEONE might go on my page, just to take a look at everything I've written - and by the way, all three of my novels are still for sale! Maybe I'll start doing it again. Doesn't seem likely, but maybe.


Safety Product Fail





Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh


Shot to shit in the shower





Donald Trump vs Justin Trudeau: The political handshake





I! Love!! This!!! I cannot tell you how elated I feel! I guess that reveals how I will grasp at any little scrap of hope in the miserable slag-heap of the Trump administration. But I have never been more proud to be a Canadian. Justin Trudeau may look like a pretty boy, but he is actually very tough, a trained boxer and athlete who has a sort of martial-arts-style grace. So when it came time to meet his adversary, Trump soon became prey. Justin had obviously sized up his opponent and realized he had to jump in with ferocious confidence. He literally grabbed the man by the arm while squeezing his hand, disabling that infamous arrogant jerk-you-around "handshake". He had him in his grip, from both sides! I keep watching and watching this video because for some absurd, insane reason, it gives me hope. 


I'm psycho, too







Wednesday, February 15, 2017

Dear neighbour, sorry!





Busy day: surrealism in advertising





We all go a little mad sometimes




A strange animation. This was put together from a half-dozen still pictures gleaned from Psycho, the famous parlour scene in which Norman eerily proclaims, "We all go a little mad sometimes." As you can see, there is a frame or two missing here and there.

This was an unusual project. I tried to get as many facial expressions out of six frames as possible. Norman's kind of a strange character anyway, so watching him twitch around and go from ranty to sweet in a nanosecond is nothing new.

But it was also an eerie feeling. These are just still pictures taken from a movie from more than 50 years ago. Yet there are moments - seconds - when something seems to be happening. Some kind of movement, an integrity between the frames that creates - something. Animation fools the eye. Film itself is an illusion, a lot of still pictures that the eye or the brain kindly blurs together and interprets as motion. It's also kind of strange that the background is so similar, though the fact that it kind of seethes in and out adds a special weirdness. The pictures aren't all framed exactly the same, though they're closer than most groups of movie stills even approach. Only one of them is way out of proportion, but the expression was so good that I had to use it. It gives the whole thing a weird lurching quality that I like.

Norman seems to be yelling "stop!" - or is it "stab"? 






"Mother isn't quite herself today"





Mummified body of woman who died four YEARS ago is found in her hoarder daughter's home

· Josephine Pallone died aged 98 in her bed in September 2010

· Her daughter, Janet Pallone Delatorre, planned to bury her with husband

· But panicked at the state of her 'hoarder' house and left her in bed

· Police investigating to see if there are any signs of wrongdoing 



By ALEX FINNIS FOR MAIL ONLINE

· PUBLISHED: 16:49 GMT, 14 August 2014 | UPDATED: 08:55 GMT, 15 August

The body of a woman whose daughter promised would be buried beside her late husband has been found four years later - mummified and decaying in her home in Gilbert, Arizona.

Janet Pallone Delatorre found her 98-year-old mother Josephine Pallone dead in her bed in September 2010, and told her son that she would be buried in Chicago.

But now her remains have been found still in that very same same bed, in what police have described as a rubbish-filled 'hoarder house' on Leah Lane.





The Gilbert, Arizona 'hoarder house', where Josephine Pallone's body has lay rotting for four years 


A police report says: 'Janet stated she "panicked" and believed police would think Janet killed her based on the condition of the house. Janet assumed the police would think Janet neglected her and that is why she died.'

For this reason, she bizarrely decided to leave her mother where she had found her, and she remained there until police discovered her gripping an old blanket on June 28.






They said it was obvious that she had been dead for a very long time.

Police made the gruesome discovery because Ms Pallone Delatorre's ex-husband, William Delatorre, had gained control of the house through the courts, after she had fallen behind on payments.

Acting as a court commissioner, a real estate agent went into the house to find it in awful condition. Concerned, police searched the house to find it full of rubbish, with clothes stacked in piles in many of the rooms, and Mrs Pallone's remains in one of the bedrooms.






They also found a pet bird, which was in healthy, cared-for condition.

Ms Pallone Delatorre's son Nathan told police he had moved out of the house four years ago to go to university, and not long after had been told by his mother over the phone that his grandmother had died.

He said he had not been to the house since, but had been told that his mother's plan had been to bury Mrs Pallone next to her husband in Chicago.






Sgt. Jesse Sanger told AZCentral that the Maricopa County Medical Examiner's Office still has not officially identified the body, and the case is still an active death investigation.

But it is expected the body will soon be announced as Mrs Pallone's.

He added that there are currently no signs of fraud or any other criminal activity.

Police are also looking into the rough date of death, and also to see whether the body has suffered any broken bones or other damage.





Tuesday, February 14, 2017

What could possibly go wrong?




The Myanmar hot air balloon festival (complete with detonation of a few tons of fireworks) is a new low in jaw-dropping public danger. But it's fascinating to watch. I don't have any mortality statistics on this incredible event, but just watching it - thousands and thousands of people running away screaming as nuclear-intensity bombs go off and live cinders rain down out of the sky - is compelling in an awful sort of way.

Does this distract me from the awfulness that is going on in the world? You bet it does. I don't know what else to do.




Believe it or not, this is an example of a "successful" launch. Even that looks too hair-raising to contemplate.

And the botched ones ARE a lot more fun.


When hell explodes





The more I watch this video, the more disturbing it is.

This is a video of a horrendous accident in a fireworks factory in Denmark. What set it off was one careless slip by an employee who dropped a box of small firecrackers. There was no taking it back.

What's disturbing about it is -  well, a lot of things are. It's the sense something is being destroyed before our eyes - something normally associated with joy and celebration. But that's not the half of it. All the fireworks seem to be going off crazily at once, in some sort of mad twisted version of those lovely, orderly, gorgeously-coloured displays we see at picnics in the park.

Every once in a while, there is a hideous white-hot explosion of unbelievable intensity, forming a kind of sickeningly-bright mushroom cloud. Then more chitter-chattering of insane fireworks, their direction lost. It's as if their usual symmetry and beauty has been horribly corrupted. They've gone insane.





I think one life was lost - I don't know much about it, and am almost afraid to find out. Originally I was going to post some video that fascinates me, from a celebration in Myanmar (formerly Burma). Every year they take a gigantic paper balloon, put an immense open torch under it, pack the basket with a heavy load of explosive fireworks, and send it aloft. Something awful seems to happen at this event every year, and the one I was watching earlier today was the worst. The balloon almost seemed to be making its way upward where, at some timed point, the fireworks were supposed to shoot up into the sky. Then it began to sink. Something was happening to the hot air, it was escaping, or the open flame was shooting out sideways, but for whatever reason the balloon landed on the ground and then decided to let go with an upside-down version of the (homemade) fireworks which rained down live cinders all over the spectators. This was followed by the inevitable nuclear-strength explosion, with scenes of panicked people running around in thick smoke with fire hoses gushing everywhere.

That's how they do it in Myanmar.




A little slideshow I made from some spectacular photos of this yearly human roast. How does anyone survive this event? Why is it legal?


Valentine's Day: Cupid's revenge




I have a feeling the following ream of Valentine poetry was written by thirteen-year-old girls. Having spewed a few reams of it myself, I feel I must be charitable. Emily Dickinson it ain't, but at least this poetry is sincere. One of them sings the praises of Labrador and Newfoundland, which I heartily agree with. Many of the poems praise their love object's lips, fingertips, and physical features generally. And not all of them are written by girls.

I was a little disappointed at the fairly-regular rhyme and meter schemes in these. The truth is, they're really a little too good. But they have a certain charm, a sweetness that made them worthy of a Valentine post of their own. And how can these lines be surpassed for sheer emotional honesty?:

If you don't be my Valentine
I'm sure I'll have to cry
If you won't be my Valentine
I'll look at you and sue

I have one beef, however - a big one. One of the poetesses here shamelessly signs her name to a classic poem by Dorothy Parker (One Perfect Rose). Whether this was meant as quote, tribute, or outright theft will never be known. Oh well. We DO say "she stole my heart", don't we? From that, it's a short step to "she stole my poem". And now that I look more carefully, someone else is "quoting" from the  old song, "More (than the greatest love the world has known)". But it's Valentine's Day. Let's pin a big red heart on all our transgressions.




Love Poems

Valentine Postman

If I could be a postman
For just one single time,
I'd choose to carry valentines
so lovely and so fine.
I would not mind the heavy load,
Or mind my tired feet.
If I could scatter happiness
up and down the street.

Unknown

A Valentine for You

Valentines, valentines,
Pink, red and blue,
I've made a pretty one
Just for you!

Unknown

A Valentine

Today as Valentines go out,
To people near and far,
This one I'm sending right to you,
To say how nice you are.

Unknown





Bee My Valentine

Won't you bee my valentine
And fly away with me?
We'll bumble along together
'Cause you're my Honey Bee!

Unknown

~Valentine's Day~

The Arrow strikes the Heart
Never to be torn apart
It is when feelings blossom and more
The heart which heals by the Bandage of love and cure
Roses, chocolates, cakes and some of the gifts in line
just some of the things to make a Perfect Valentine.
The hidden feelings of a heart that reveals
The boat of love which smoothly sails
How fortunate are those who enjoy this day
That is the time when one is lost 
In the world of fantasy without any cost
The day when Cupid plays an Immense role
To provoke feelings in a Lifeless Soul.

Pamela Daranjo

Secrets

I have secrets that I hide
I want to tell you, but they come from so deep inside
I want to tell you that I love you and care
I want to tell you that I love your hair
your smile, your face and your kindness too
but most of all, I want to say I love you

Kendra





Valentine

Love is precious
Love is sweet
Love is something
you cannot cheat

Love is kind
Love is not lust
Love is special
its all about trust

Love is for me
Love is for you
Love is a couple
turns one to two

Love is yours
Love is mine
Love is ours
BE MY VALENTINE

Lilly Mae

when I saw you...

when I first saw you
I missed the comfort of being sad
seeing you from far away
without telling you about my heart
I couldn't bare holding my thoughts
about how much I would like
to hold you and fill you with joy
when I first saw you,
I knew my love for you was never going to die.

vanessa rodriguez





Will you be my valentine?

Will you be my Valentine?
I love you with all my heart.
Will you be my Valentine?
So we'll never be torn apart
If you don't be my Valentine
I'm sure I'll have to cry
If you won't be my Valentine
I'll look at you and sue
But if you be my Valentine
I'll throw you a big parade
And then just maybe I'll have to shout
HIP HIP HOORAY!!!!!!!!!!

Stephanie Morrow

Venus and Cupids

Oh Venus and Cupids picture of love
shining upon the stars above
for thee who had melted the hurts
and made them love for better or for worst

Oh Venus and Cupids I all summon you
to help me make my dreams come true
and to make this girl love me too
so I wouldn't forever be blue...

Sherwin





Daydreaming

Your eyes are alive and oh so blue.
I see you but I'm unknown to you.
Maybe one day you'll see my face.
You’ll know it's me, I'm in a daze.
If ever you saw me standing there...
No never mind why should you care
I see your smile inside my head
so clear to me and I forget
why I'm always feeling blue
every time I think of you.
These things have all been said before
so I'll stop here and say no more.

Sara

The Way I Feel

It has been awhile since we last met,
but your smile my heart can never forget.
Now I try to find just the right words to say,
to tell you how I feel each and everyday.
However, my heart cannot seem to explain just how I feel,
but I hope you believe me when I say my love is real.
I pray that you feel that way I do
and hope you will tell me you feel the same way too.
When I looked into your eyes it took my breath away,
and I hope to God that I will be looking into them
until I am old and gray

Lucy

The first and last

From the first time I laid eyes on you to the last kiss on my lips,
the first time I felt your soft finger tips,
the way you held me tight, made love to me at night,
always seemed to me that in my heart
that you would see a person as loving as me
someone whose heart is true
someone just like you...
Now I sit here all alone nothing but me
and my thoughts of you all through my mind.
As if I could turn back the hands of time
to the moment when your soft lips touched mine
I’m sorry I didn’t mean to make you cry... 
Baby, I do try
I love you and I do know why...

Gerald Lemire (Binky)





Valentines Day

Valentines is very near
Balloons, bears, and candy grahams.
Red, Black, Pink, and White
Are the colors that girls really like.
Roses can be red and violets can be blue.
What else can they prove to you
how much they love you
On this Valentines Day!!

Ashley

More

More than the Greatest love the world have ever known
This is the love I give to you alone
more than the simple words I try to say
I only love you more each day
Longer than always is a long time
but far beyond forever you'll be mine
I know I’ve never lived before
and my heart is very sure no one else
can love you more!

Jeanine

Valentine

oh, you are so fine
so want you be mine
oh, my sweet valentine
your eyes are the color of honey
and your braids long like ropes
oh, would you be
my sweet valentine!

Victoria




be mine

the smile that cleanses my soul
the eyes that stop time with a single glance
the touch of love from his hands
I’ve been waiting for this day
this special time
all I can do is pray
for you to be my Valentine

Christina Occhipinti

Night is falling

Night is falling my heart is calling
I feel so lonely I need you only
but I’ve got a teddy that I take to bed
if you'll be my Valentine
I’ll take you instead

Jenni-lea

if I’d wish to be anything

If I could wish to be anything
I’d wish to be your tear
to be conceived by your heart,
born in your eye
live on your cheek
and die on your lips


stephanie mcfarlane





Kisses

Kisses Kisses Kisses,
Oh, what should I do?
All I want is just one Kiss,
From a special person like you.

Brenna Copley

break up on valentines

On Valentines we broke up
Your friends said it was wrong
But you didn't believe them
Until you heard our song
Maybe you will love me
like I loved you
But I won't give you another chance
Because I won't know if it's really true

Lana

Hearts and flowers

Hearts and flowers on Valentine’s day.
heart shaped candy, help me say:
I Love you in a special way,
because love is the reason for Valentine’s day.
Valentine’s day is a special time
for songs to sing
and poems that rhyme,
a happy time for everyone.
I’m so glad you're a friend of mine

newfoundland and labrador rule


Kelly Russell





such a short time

When I first saw your face I knew you were mine
We have both grown to love each other in such a short time
you know I’ve been looking for you all my life
for the day when I become your wife
you have given me security and love
which I’ve only ever dreamed of
I know there is a heaven and dreams do come true
someone up there loves me
because they sent me
YOU

amanda perkins

My Valentine

I crave your honesty on this day of love,
L ove you whole-heartedly my sweet dove.
O ut of the blue you shot from the sky,
V ividly, beautifully stunning my eye.
E ver adoring you is what I do best,
Y our smile, your face and all the rest.
O n days like these I truly believe,
U and I are meant to be!

Dedicated To Daniel Vigil!

Crystal L. Callaway

love

Love is more time to share.
It’s really when you care.
It’s two people joined.
I was in love with you
before you could drop a coin.
It’s a sense of trust,
but not enough lust
It’s a commitment to be there,
but would you always be there
to share and care?

monique






One Perfect Rose

A single flower he sent me ,since we met
all tenderly his messenger he chose;
deep-hearted, pure with scented dew
still wet
one perfect rose.
I knew the language of the flower
"my fragile leaves ,it said
his heart enclose"
love long has taken for his locket
one perfect rose.
Why is it no one ever sent me yet
one perfect limousine,
do you suppose?
Ah, no it’s always just my luck to get
one perfect rose

monia jackson

baby brow eyes

Baby brown eyes your eyes so brown,
hair so light,
you make the sun shine bright,
your eyes bring many warm things.
I love you baby girl
for always when you were born
and came in our lives,
you are the baby brown eyes
that we love day or night,
we love you always.

judy shaw

One good try

For so long, I’ve had my eye on this girl
She's the most beautiful woman in the world

If that’s what you’re thinking, give it an attempt
Don’t be so scared that she would resent

why not give it one good try?
just to let her know you’re alive

Schick

sea

If all the women lived over sea
what good swimmers, you Emen, would be
if all the women lived over sea
that would leave you for me

Bethany






Monday, February 13, 2017

I hear things


Rumbling noise in the sky (Victoria)

Posted in the Victoria Forum

cessna turbo prop

Port Coquitlam, Canada
#73 Aug 18, 2011







Theres been a plane flying over port coquitlam and coquitlam area for several months now. When it gets dark out the plane does not turn on its navagation red and green lights or its strobe light. Its pitch black out and its 12: 17 am now and its still going in circles.It usually flys in circles for six or seven hours every day or second day. The people at the airports say its government surveilance and they cant talk about it.I phoned two different airports.I think it might be time to move out of populated areas if this is going on in so many cities.It cant be just for grow ops.The plane is a cessna 182 turbo prop.You would think its kind of unsafe flying with no warning lights on. Its an accident waiting to happen.



I hear things.

I hear hums. I hear buzzes. I hear pulsating things.

Whatever they are.

I can almost block it out. If I'm concentrating on something else, it almost goes away. But not quite.

Right now, this minute, at 2:58 p.m. on February 13, 2017, I hear something.

It's a low, monotone, hummy, buzzy - but no, not hummy OR buzzy, though it is on one note all the time, like the tone that would not stop resounding in Robert Schumann's head and eventually drove him insane.

I hear this same  monotone very late at night, only louder. And it has a different variation. It's definitely the grindy low noise of an aircraft, which at first I assumed was a helicopter because it got louder and softer, and,  just when you thought it was gone, louder again. I honestly did not think a plane could do that. They fly over, don't they? So it must be something else.

But it doesn't have the budda-budda-budda sound of a helicopter. It's a low, grinding engine-buzz. Really, it's like a plane out of the 1940s, or something from the TV series Sky King. Earrrrrrooooooo! But that doesn't describe it either.

When I finally dared to poke around the internet about this subject, I mainly got those end-of-the-world trumpet-blast videos. This isn't that. At all. This has a low, grindy, even doom-y mechanized sound.






My cat hates this. The other night, when he was all moon-eyed and lit up with cat-somnia, he jumped up on the windowsill and looked at me. There was panic in his eyes. "Do something," he seemed to be saying.

Oops, right now, this minute, I hear a plane, and I tell you it is NOTHING LIKE what I hear at night. This plane swoops in tone - in music, it would be a glissando - from high to low. What I hear is always monotone.

It sounds like hell.

It sounds like death.

"It's probably the police looking for drug dealers," my husband said. "Or criminals in general."

"But how would you SEE a drug dealer or a criminal from the air, and in the middle of the night? Why do they circle around and around for seemingly hours?"

"I don't know, but they do." He is a scientist and has an answer for everything, usually the opposite of my terrified, panic-stricken, paranoia-drenched explanation.

Someone. Is. Flying. Over. My. House. Late at night, like 12:30 a.m. And it goes on and on and makes the house vibrate. Ummmmmm. Eeeeeeeeeeemmm. Buzzzzzz. But none of these come close to describing the actual sound.

It sounds like death. It sounds like doom, it really does. It's a much louder version of the CONSTANT noise I hear during the day. The endless, almost fuzzy-edged, monotone boomy thrum in the background.

Woaaahhhhwwww. Woaaahhhwwww. Woaaahhhhwwww.

I can hear it right now, but I cannot begin to describe it. It's sort of a soft-edged, solid sound. It has a shape. It throbs, but only slightly. If I go outside, it's harder to hear because of all the ambient noise.





At night in our neighborhood, noise comes alive. We hear coyotes out there trilling and barking, and barred owls who scream so loud they sound like apes. Raccoons crash around, tipping things over to rummage for goodies. But these are the wild sounds.

This other. These are human sounds, or rather man-made, machine sounds. Someone is IN that plane, UP there, FLYING it! I keep seeing some Russian spy or someone like that.

I can't think of it as being anything friendly. I just can't. 

I have lived with this for, - how long? I tune it out. I really try to.

Someone is watching, and it is not comfortable. And it makes a hellish noise.

OK. Now I've got it! It's like THIS sound!:




It seems to go on most of the night. I might even be hearing it now.


Valentine's Day: bet you never thought of this




This is one of those why-didn't-I-think-of-that-anyway (cuz-I-don't-have-the-innovative-skills-in-the-kitchen-and-moreover-I-don't-know-who-comes-up-with-these-way-cool-videos-anyway-but-there-must-be-teams-of-workers-slaving-in-kitchens-all-over-the-world-to-supply-such-crazy-cool-ideas-for-making-heart-shaped-food) videos. I may even try one of them to spring on my man. I'm giving you one day's notice. 



Bootleg fireworks fail





There's a lesson in this.


Staying Conscious Fail