In any case, I’ve decided to streamline the artistic aspect of this site by, in the long standing tradition of disposable online tools (remember my twitter stream, anyone?), setting up a flickr account for my photography.  I’ve just uploaded a bunch of photosets there, so head on over and check ‘em out!

Pics from the Monastery

To Anonymously Report, Where is Paradise?

Hiking to the Waterfalls

A Seattle Miscellany

(for any interested parties, more pictures of the right honorable Harley Malone are available here)

Also, just for the record, this is officially both the first submission we’ve had here at Reclusland, and our first “exclusive” as well!  : )

- Delirium, from Sandman Volume VII (Chapter 3)

This is what cabin fever does to me, folks, enjoy.  More texty stuff to come soon.

Some of the more abstract pieces inspired by Daido Loori Roshi.

Of course, as it always goes, the place itself hadn’t actually changed much at all.  But I had changed, immensely so, and it seems I’m still in the midst of those changes.  In fact, I’m beginning to wonder if they’re ever going to end, or even slow down a little…  My horoscope says I am in the beginning of a “Uranus transits opposite Sun” which is apparently something that happens once every 84 years and will last until March 2011.  And, lucky me, I get this right in the middle of my first Saturn Return as well!

He talked about how hard it was for everyone right now, how a friend of his, who’d had a house and 3 kids in Catholic school, had had to sell the house when the mortgage went up, just to keep the kids in school.  Good choice, in my opinion; those kids’ll take care of him when he’s older if they get a good education.  Then again, maybe buy a cheaper house is you’re going to have three kids to put through Catholic school?  The cabby, Noel, kept hitting me with how bad it was for everyone, how everyone’s struggling just to get by, how a depression is coming.  How he prays everyday for God to help people.  Can’t say I disagreed with him at the time, can’t say I do now, either.

I mentioned maybe he could get a brace for his knee, maybe another for his back.  He just kind of shook his head, said he tries to exercise when he can.  I said yeah, that’s good for the body, gets everything kind of settled back into place.  I tell him family and friends are important, having people who can care about you when you need it.  He says I’m a good guy.  At the hotel he picks up another fare, waiting right at the hotel door as I step out the back door, so here’s hoping the guy gets a chance to rest tonight.  I haven’t pulled hours like that since college…

After I found out I couldn’t check in, I decided to hole up in the bar (free wifi? hey hey!) and get some dinner/ a few beers.  A few tables over a couple of women from the UK (judging by the accents) are having a conversation.  They’re upset that it’s raining, unsure what they’ll do on their vacation.  The waitress (who was kind enough to comp my beer when my diner took a little longer than usual, not at my request) is giving them some advice: “Put on a hat, go shopping, it really doesn’t get that bad around here.”  At the bar are a group who are clearly all business men, collored shirts and ties.  In the bathroom, washing my hands after diner, I hear them talking about their plans for the next day, all meetings and strategies.  Meanwhile the waitstaff at the bar are talking about The Hangover (apparently it’s very funny). I’m sitting here blogging in jeans, a T-shirt and a hoodie, waiting for the VP of Sales to show up so we can grab a beer.  Then tomorrow, off to meetings with the clients and back to NYC tomorrow afternoon.

This trip looks to be putting me into a really weird head space, and to push that even further, I’m posting some pictures I took a few months back at the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens.  Time, space, and society have little inherent meaning to me at this point.  And yet here I am, same as I ever was…  Anyway, without any further ado, pictures (sans photoshop, at speedbird’s recommendation):

For these, I decided to take the opposite approach to those DC Museum shots and didn’t touch these up at all.  If you have any preferences as far as “a lot of PS” or “no PS”, let me know.

No cut-and-paste or brush effects were used; I just played with the levels, curves, saturation, and various color mixtures already inherent each photo.  Organic photoshopping…

Here’s a best-of collection.  They were all taken in really low light, so some might be a bit blurry.

At first glance, it was just a lucky time of day to be there.  The skies were clear and the sunset was beautiful.  But once we got closer to the monument, I noticed something really strange.

In the sky next to the monument was a line of shadow that seemed to be floating in midair. I’d never seen anything like this before, and I still have no idea what it was. Sure, it could be the shadow of the jet contrail you can see above it, but why do shadows ever hang in the air like that?

Here you can see a sort of west to east panorama, showing that the shadow seemed to be pointing to one of the buildings on the Mall (which was probably the Smithsonian Museum).  I was thinking, hey, maybe the monuments’ shadow points to some secret Templar treasure or Grand Masonic crypt that’s hidden there! But later, as I got further away, I noticed that the shadow was not connected to the monument at all:

Maybe this is an example of how “The pyramid changes the structure of space.”?  Who knows…

But from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, it could definitely be seen as a symbol of the divine masculine, reflected in the pool of the divine feminine below it.  An eternal cosmic porno, all put on display for the viewing pleasure of good ol’ Abe…

That last one would make an awesome t-shirt, yeah?

Now though, I think it was that something was looking out for me, or I just wasn’t ready before, because when I finally made it in to the exhibits a little while back, I happy to find that I could truly appreciate the art, and was able to almost interact with it, on a psychologicla, spiritual level.  It was here that I first had an understanding of the term Yab-Yum, and how the masculine and feminine principles relate to compassion and wisdom, respectively.  This later lead to an experience of the manifest/unmanifest energies within me, that give rise to this essay.

I was also happy to find out that they allow photography in their main exhibition halls.  Here are the best of my photos from the visit.

Wish I had written down the names of the artists and the galleries I took these at…
I think that cat image is by ElboeToe, and the second-to-last one might be a Swoon piece.
Funny that it’s the street art that I remember, more than the gallery pieces.

Yeah, I know that’s technically not correct, but fuck it. I like the word.

Here’s a few I’ve put together over the years, from HK,
the Chelsea Art District, Roosevelt Island, and my bedroom window.

These are all from the Cherry Blossom Festival at the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens.

(I have noticed that some of my pictures, especially these, seem to appear much nicer on my home monitor than on my work monitor.  They really need to be back lit with a bright enough light to look good, otherwise the shadows get all muddy… )

yeah, that last one’s a bit out of place, a little shout-out to sheeperly.