“You do realize that the Rubi Forest and interconnected Sylver forest form a hypercube. You’ve been all around that forest LINK. *You* have formed the hypercube. That’s what you can take forward from Second life. My Second Lyfe.”
Like the Tungaske Sphere LINK (!):
No wonder they couldn’t hold it together.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0001, Heterocera, Rubi
Baker Bloch:
These Krings beers are pretty good Karoz. Maybe you should get one of those.
Furry Karl:
Yeah, sorry about the cake, Karoz. My refrigeration unit broke along with the heater. Everything was too hot and too cold at once.
Baker Bloch:
Isn’t that life, Furry Karl. Isn’t that life.
Furry Karl (laughing):
I suppose it is Baker Bloch. So Karoz… hit you with another beer?
Karoz:
I’ll just nurse my somewhat flat wine, yeah. I’ll hold you to that beer later.
Baker Bloch:
A shame you couldn’t have that Absinthe in your inventory. Probably an old object.
Karoz:
Ah, I’d already had 4 beers while I was shooting target practice below the Kidd Tower. At that pond. Does it have a name?
Furry Karl:
Are you talking about Poppy Pond? Yeah, the one where the gazebo use to be. You see, there were once two identical gazebos the same as Carrcassonne’s one now, isn’t that right Baker Bloch?
Baker Bloch:
Yeah. Facing… you tell it Karl.
Furry Karl:
Facing opposite directions. Same latitude, same elevation, everything. Except the turning. This town is freak’n wacky! (laughs)
Karoz:
Hmm. Do you have a gun, Karl?
Furry Karl:
Of course. You don’t know how many times I’ve loaded up with liquor and shot into those woods.
Baker Bloch:
What if it’s another avatar!?
Furry Karl:
Never seen a body the next morning, animal or human.
Baker Bloch:
Have you read Karl’s book, Karoz?
(Karl clears his throat loudly)
Uh, ahem, I mean the book Karl has over there in his bookcase.
Karoz (looking around):
What bookcase?
Baker Bloch (ignoring the question):
It’s by this fellow named Blood Curdling, who tells tales of the forest.
Karoz:
Tell-tale tales? (smiles) Anyway I know Karl wrote it. Spongeberg told me. Spongeberg told me a lot of things. Everything about this mother flipp’n town except the name of that pond. (smiles again) Now I know everything. What to shoot at, what not to. Ah heck, I’m getting pretty drunk off this additional beer and wine. Maybe I better head back home and crawl in bed. Anyway, congrats again Karl on the new location of the bar. It’s a tricky walk down here but I’m sure you’ll get 5 times the business now you’re in Collagesity proper.
Baker Bloch (snickering):
Collagesity proper. You and your fancy college expressions.
(Karoz pulls out his wallet and hands Furry Karl a bill.)
Furry Karl:
Whoa, a whole linden dollar. Yeah, you come back anytime Karoz, an-y-time.
Baker Bloch:
See ya later, Karoz.
(Baker Bloch and Furry Karl watch a tipsy Karoz leave the bar to head back home.)
Furry Karl (after Karoz is seemingly out of earshot):
Cheap bastard.
Baker Bloch:
He can’t help it. He’s fallen on hard times. Listen, we have to prop him up.
Furry Karl:
Why? He’s not a flattie like me.
Baker Bloch:
No, I mean emotionally prop him up. He’s obviously a little depressed in my eyes.
Furry Karl:
Ah, he’s got his new gun. He’s okay. He’ll be okay, I mean. Give him time. More target practice time (laughs).
Baker Bloch:
He was once president of Sam Parr College in Collagesity, Furry Karl. But the Collagesity over in Noru for a spell. Same town, though. You weren’t there, I don’t suppose.
Furry Karl:
No. I was *here*. I’ve *been* here for years. Over next to those blasted woods. Now I’m blasting away back. I’m tired of it.
Baker Bloch:
Now, now Karl. Now you live *here*. With us. In Collagesity.
—–
Baker Bloch and Furry Karl talk into the night about town business. Afterwards, Baker walks out of the bar to find Karoz Blogger at the bottom of the pool just outside. Drunk and asleep, not dead, because Second Life avatars don’t need to breathe air, of course. Sleeping with the fishes, still.
Baker decides something *must* be done.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0001, Heterocera, Rubi
Diamond Beach:
Pooh searches for Master Bee at 4 Sticks, crossing Big Log to enter. 4 Sticks misses him. Gift of honey stuck on knob of Big Log. This is legend. 4 Sticks knows this is Crossroads and 49 x 61 = 2989. 2989 is the Master Number. 2989 is the Master’s Number.
Where does Pooh come from to visit 4 Sticks? He has planned and planned and planned for this trip.
Pooh sometimes said he was a swan and not a bear.
Is Master Bee Hucka Doobie? Did Pooh go to the wrong location (4 Sticks instead of Greenhead, where the Bees actually lived)?
2989:
“It’s that “2989” detail where Pooh’s red umbrella attempts to cover the Fal Mouth Moon Gallery but can’t. This predicts the creation of the Red Umbrella gallery and its 3 inclusive series by a number of months. Pooh’s umbrella can’t cover Fal Mouth Moon because the two are separate things. And now in Minoa’s Collagesity the two sit side by side with each other.”
“When you walk in the gallery, this same image appears on the opposite wall smack in the middle of the tetraptych running along that whole side.”
Hucka D.:
I suppose we have no choice but to bring Pooh physically into Whitehead Crossing. Collagesity I mean there, of course. My bad. I’m getting as bad as Carrcassonnee[ on the word mistakes]!
bb:
Yes, he’s already been to The Crossing and left a pot of honey outside the city gates, or the inner city sometimes referred to as 4 Sticks. He thought the Master Bee was there. He thought *you* were there. You and your bottles.
Hucka D.:
Don’t start with me again. You were just as responsible!
bb:
Back to the detail — so the Clarksdale crossing sign is directly above Pooh and his umbrella in the overall collage (“2989”). Pooh’s honey cart gets stuck on High Knob [= Knobby?]on Big Log, right in front of the the place where we know the Fal Mouth Moon structure was located in Whitehead X-ing. This would be on top of the Cliffs of Dundee, Hucka D.
Hucka D.:
Precisely there. Highlighted by several other [Whitehead Crossing related] collages.
bb:
So here’s the one with the honey stuck on Big Log…
[In the second, ]Winnie’s already left the scene, given up on 4 Sticks receiving the gift. But now 4 Sticks is there, which is the same as Zoso I suppose, or the town’s spirit deity.
Hucka D.:
Winnie is Winnfield. Are you going to meet up with Karoz Blogger tonight? Have you found the old interview? You can’t do the new one until you look what happened with that one. Karoz is important as a gap filler. He was *there* in Whitehead Crossing — just like Spongeberg is presently. I’m not sure the two knocked into each other, but you need to know that. Karoz was there to negotiate the founding of the Falmouth collage college in Castle Dundee, and the creation of a virtual town surrounding it. The students had to have a place to live. The faculty and staff as well. So a village had to be built, if it were to succeed. But this was not 4 Sticks, but across Whitehead Stream from it. The village knew it would be the central source of The Crossing. It *was* The Crossing, the energy. But white magic instead of black. That ol’ white magic. Who is Dundee and his wife? You know from your “High Octave Story” that he cherished paintings, and collected everything from the year 1812 he could. “The Cliffs of Dundee” hung on the far wall across from his office. The triangle.
“The Cliffs of Dundee”, oil painting by Waverly Knapp, c1812.
Now this is a better representation of the cliffs as [Mr. & Mrs.] Dundee saw them. Your collage “Promised Land Revisited” uses many of the same elements, but the perspective is reversed, with the cliffs on the right side of the stream instead of the left. Put that up as well…
… and this is from the Falmouth collage series, 6 years after “Promised Land”, the actual collage behind the supposed painting “Cliffs of Dundee”. But it *was* a painting… to the Dundees. How did they accomplish this? This is what you must find out next. How did they go into the landscape of The Crossing. They used the power of 2989 to enter. The vortex[ again]. The stone on top of the Cliffs of Dundee in the second collage above has a cross on it. 49×61. 2989. It’s an imported rock, however, actually coming from neighboring Norris Creek. It’s only there in the collage and not in reality. This is an important collage — *these* are important collages. Because both are. But one is also a painting. How is that?
bb:
I don’t know, Hucka D.
Hucka D.:
Find out. Talk to Karoz tonight but dig up that old interview in the meantime. We’ll speak later. Have a super nice day!
bb:
Thanks! You too.
Hucka D. later indicated that “Bubbles’ Unequal Marriage” also hung in Castle Dundee.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0001, Frank Park, Heterocera, Rubi, Whitehead Crossing
“You see, Hucka D., when you enter Lego/ into the GNIRPS oracle machine these twinned Winfields come up, and we know that Winfield is the same as /Winesap/ through Kansas.”
Hucka D.:
Yup. But you’re losing your few readers, once more.
bb:
This can’t be coincidence[ however].
Hucka D.:
Of course not.
bb:
It goes back to or enters “Map Synching Feeling” again and all that labyrinthian stuff.
Hucka D.:
A way in, a way out. That’s all you can do[ at this point].
—–
“Let’s go this way, then. The Contraption begins to show up again in the Sam Parr series following Falmouth, where it initially appears.”
At this point, I realized I had to go meet Karoz over in his one room apartment above the Bodega market through Baker Bloch. I rang him up and asked him if he was cool about visiting the galleries for a bit, and that I wanted to take some pictures for the blog. He said okay.
Soon we were in the Red Umbrella gallery Fal Mouth Moon, looking at pieces where The Contraption first shows up.
“These are the two aspects of me,” he said when seeing these two matching green images in collage 57. They are… the 2 Roger Pine Ridges? Explain that Baker.”
So I, through Baker Bloch, explained the story of the 2 Roger Pine Ridges to Karoz, and how both visited our house last summer. My nephew had just mentioned Roger “Syd” Barrett on a facebook post today, because it was his birthday. I started to defend the music of Barrett more to my nephew, but decided against it. Best to come to the blog and do a solid night’s work. Best to talk about Barrett here, if anywhere.
“I understand Furry Karl thinks Syd is still in the woods,” says Karoz. “Do you think this is the same as Roger Pine Ridge?”
“I guess so, Karoz.” Realizing the tour wasn’t going to work since one of them falls asleep while standing up when the other is active, he suggests they go back to Karoz’s apartment and begin the interview.
“Haven’t we done this before?” Baker Bloch asks while walking with Karoz to the market. “I mean, didn’t we start an interview before and got sidetracked?”
“My memory is not what it use to be, Baker. Do you wish to consult the blog before proceeding?”
“Maybe we should Karoz. I tell you what, I’ll catch up with you tomorrow night if you don’t mind. About the same time?”
“That will be fine, Baker. Goodnight.”
—–
When arriving back at his house on the western edge of town, Furry Karl was waiting for him on the porch.
“Hey Baker Bloch, um, do you mind if I crash for a couple of nights in your front room? The heat broke over at my bar.”
“Um Karl, you’re missing the lower half of your body.”
Karl looked down. “Oh my God. Oh-my-God! What just happened here?!”
Half an hour later, after Karl’s full body had returned and he had calmed down some, he admitted he was lying about the bar’s heat being broken. It was the woods again. Baker himself had heard some kind of noises in that direction last night.
“You shouldn’t have released that book “Blood Curdling Tells of The Forest”, Karl,” voiced Baker. “And what about that typo — “Tells” instead of “Tales”? You didn’t like the original title?”
“Well, it was the initial reviews, which weren’t so hot, Baker Bloch. So I just let the admittedly rather massive typo stand; deemed it fate. This fellow *Blood Curdling* who tells stories about the forest is the one who doesn’t write so good, not me. And now I’ve invented his profile on facebook, so I guess he’s legit and all.”
“I’ll find him and friend him tonight. I’ll rez you a sleeping bag, Karl. I know your own inventory is rather light.” Baker decides to be a nice guy this evening to poor Karl. He’s just released a pretty bad book about hauntings. He’s *just* recovered from losing half his body all of a sudden.
He tucks Karl in, and then unwisely begins to read “Blood Curdling Tells of the Forest” before turning in himself.
—–
The next day a compromise was reached. Baker and Karl jointly decide that it would be best to move the Hole in the Wall bar to Collagesity, and above the Confluence Pool directly behind the town diner. It was a tight fit, but seemed to work after a little terraforming.
Baker set some pretty strict personal boundary rules right off the bat, since Karl was practically next door to him. Karl had to *call* him before coming over — couldn’t just drop in on a whim. And Baker rationalizes that it’s going to be quite wicked to have a bar just around the corner to wet his whistle. “Hey, you call me too before you come over,” requests Karl, and then laughs it off. But one thing Baker Bloch knew is that Karl didn’t need to live over there in the middle of the Rubi sim by himself any longer. Next to the heart of those woods. No he didn’t.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0001, Frank Park, Heterocera, Kansas, MAPS, Maryland, Rubi, Whitehead Crossing
http://www.peeron.com/inv/sets/2989-1
“There it is still, Hucka D. The 2989 Winnie the Pooh lego set. 10 images down in a search for that particular number in google images. Wonderful. Let’s take a closer look.”
“2989 is 61×49. I’m still around, baker b., [as well]. I’m still your neighbor. Carrcassonnee has taken over many of my old responsibilities. But that’s just because she’s suppose to at this point. I hear Karoz is back.”
bb:
That’s another thing, Hucka D. I believe Karoz appears in the collage most directly related to this 2989 lego set image. Here’s the collage (for the reader)…
Falmouth series: collage 46
… and here’s the detail.
The Green Man with removable head, after some experimenting with that “gap”, as I call it, ultimately acts as the replacement for The Contraption seen in that spot in the original picture. It’s just a flower pot or something — doesn’t matter.
Hucka D.:
Doesn’t it?
bb:
But the Green Man was selected because he is green, like The Emerald [green grass patch in Whitehead Crossing]. I removed The Contraption initially because I wanted to keep exposing the beautiful green color of this grass in a certain part of the collage. But then the replaced Contraption begins to take a life of its own, starting perhaps in collage 53, another important work in the series.
Hucka D.:
Why don’t you show a picture of The Contraption itself. Like you did with the Green Man just now.
bb:
Good idea. Let me dig that up. (pause) Well, I can’t find it. Let me make a new one quickly.
Hucka D.:
Ah yes. The Contraption. I remember it being a very versatile instrument.
bb:
It could duplicate itself but not infinitely. It could update its own facebook profile picture. It weighs less than an uranium paperclip and could eat its own weight in aluminum. And so forth.
Hucka D.:
I think you’ve figured out more recently that the Green Man faces the same way as the 61 sign [from the same collage], and the Grey Man below him, 1/2 the size, represents the 49 part of the Clarksdale sign. 61×49 — 2989. That’s the crossroads or crossing. That’s where Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil so that he could play blues guitar unlike anyone else.
Green Man is 61; Grey Man: 49. Greater and Lesser. Filling the gap, because Grey Man fills it too. Grey Man’s head becomes Green Man’s foot. Let’s call him Grean Man with an “a” for fun. This is the head and foot[ stone] of a particular grave again, don’t you think? I mean… (pause)
bb:
But [the Grean Man is] Karoz? Don’t you think? I mean… (pause)
Hucka D.:
You go. See, we’re interfering with each other. Almost cancelling each other out. You should talk directly to Karoz. Tell him all of this, or fill in the *gap* of what he doesn’t know. Then you can go from there. Contact me when you’re done. I have a heavy investment in the Falmouth series. I need to get you through all this. Preparation. Talk soon!
—–
contraption play
noun con·trap·tion \kən-ˈtrap-shən\
Simple Definition of contraption
Popularity: Bottom 40% of words: a piece of equipment or machinery that is unusual or strange
Quinten Metsys-Triptique de la confrerie Saint-Anne a Louvain mg 2989.jpg
Overshadowed Baby 2989 explains The Contraption to a group of office workers.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0001, Frank Park, Whitehead Crossing
Writing abstract stuff about Whitehead Crossing always seemed to make Baker Bloch hungry. So he decided to take a break and walk up to the Bodega market to get a snack.
He was attempting to pay for his Yum-Oh Chocolate Bar when he recognized the figure behind the counter. “Karoz Blogger, as I’m living and breathing! I didn’t know they brought you back as well. How long you been working here?” Baker Bloch realizes he hasn’t visited the market in maybe 2 weeks. Trying to lay off the sugar, you see.
“Day after Christmas. I think it’s a good gig,” Karoz responded.
“Well cool. How have you been doing my friend? How’s tricks?” Baker thinks how low Karoz has sunk from being a college president, but, of course, doesn’t say this out loud.
“Pretty good. I’ve got a gun now.”
“Everyone’s got a gun,” says Baker. “So you own this place outright or just manage it… or just work here?” Baker realizes he’s getting into awkward territory. Don’t mention the lowering of status! he reminds himself.
“Tom Wilmot owns the place. He bought it from Hucka Doobie. You know Tom, don’t you? The town busker? He’s not been playing outside for a while. I think he went to medical school for a couple of weeks in Mexico.”
“Good one Karoz. Firesign Theatre references are springing up everywhere. I just used one in my last Whitehead Crossing post. Do you remember US Grant having General Lincolns in his back pocket?”
“Kind of…”
“Oh, and “The Giant Rat of Sumatra” just came up in a facebook reply to a friend. You know Cammie by chance?”
“I don’t think I do,” says Karoz. “Is that your sister?”
“No, she’s the wife’s best friend. And my best friend as well. She’s *like* a sister to us, so maybe that’s where you got the idea.”
“I thought *I* was your best friend.” Karoz tries to smile here but only manages to laugh maniacally. He apologizes afterwards, saying he needs to expand his gestures and that he’s a little behind the times.
“So am I my friend,” gives Baker back. “So am I.”
“We need to catch up my old friend,” Karoz says. “When can we do it? I work the night shift, obviously, but have the days free. Not much to explore in Second Life any more, as I’m looking around. I suppose we need to talk about… the end.”
“That’s exactly what we need to start talking about, all of us. I want to get your story so it can carry on. I think you have a lot to say.”
“I do,” responds Karoz. “So how about tomorrow? And you can keep your linden dollar. Put it in a museum with the rest of everything.” He laughs maniacally again.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0001, Heterocera, Mexico, Rubi
The Others have prepared a place for me in New Monkey City/New Sharon. They would prefer that I *not* use this space, but it’s there, and a much better place to do what I do than in WH X-ing proper. That’s my new thoughts. New Monkey City/New Sharon thoughts. That’s where the Rock and the Stone unite. Whitehead X-ing already has a Rock and Stone together — this would, of course, be the Grey Seal formation (Grey Rock + Seal Stone). The unification is permanent there, however. The merger in NMC/NS will always be impermanent or temporary. A temporary fix. Toys are united with something else, and this goes back to the dump(s). These two come from a common source. I do and do not know what Carrcassonnee is, or who she is. She was grown from a piece of gooey glop gloppy goo. She is the alien discovered by Sharon explorers on far away Mythos a long time back now. She gave them the chromacube knowledge. She demanded the ensoulment of Mythos people through toys, a vice. Wazob banned ensoulment of the wee people or the yellow downs as they called them. They demanded “Greenup!”. Renegades stole the last of Carrcassonnee and brought her on a spaceship to NMC/NS (these were the two names debated for the new town). They were propelled away from Whitehead Crossing proper, which already had a Rock and a Stone united, as stated. They were thrown offcourse a bit. A vice was created to the president. Wheeler, Wilson. And it could move forwards and backwards in time. NORRIS.
Filed under 0001, Frank Park, Whitehead Crossing
There are many things yet to be fathomed about WH X-ing. What is Pocket Rock and why was I compelled to bring it back home in that empty Starbucks coffee cup? What does the white resin mean?
Newly placed Pocket Rock in WH X-ing, May 2014.
Dec 2015: Pocket Rock with resin now.
I can theorize that it stands for Rocket (Pocket + Rock), even though it got that name because I carried it into Whitehead Crossing in my back pocket. And I carried it out in another “pocket” (Starbucks cup).
http://www.firesigntheatre.com/chat/logs/fstchat_20040930.html
If president grant had had another one of those general lincolns in his back pocket.
Pocket Rock now sits on a filing cabinet next to a table downstairs in my study, beside another empty Starbucks coffee cup, coincidentally. The 2 different species seem to like hanging out with each other now.
Is Pocket Rock the same as the toy avatar Rock? It would be about the same height as the character.
Rock Meadows, toy avatar movie star
Rock, after all came in a *rocket ship* to Whitehead Crossing in the projected movie “Fade to Moss”, written, directed and produced by Mossman Gene Fade. He is truly a Rocket Man, then. His crashed ship still exists on the southern edge of the area.
Rock’s crashed spaceship in Matland.
Can the Rock toy be fit into a Starbucks coffee cup as well? That may be an ultimate test.
—–
Carr.:
Your collection has been rearranged, you think.
bb:
Seems to have been, Carr. Could *rock* have done it? Is there psychic transference going on?
Carr.:
Careful what you write here. Remember when I said “do do” [that time]? I get jokes about it all [over the place] now. Do you want to bring Rock[ Meadows] here to Collagesity? That could be an answer. Spongeberg could bring him the next time he comes.
bb:
Spongeberg really does live in Whitehead Crossing, then.
Carr.:
Yes. In the teepee I provided him. Stupid humans. But they give me my hands, my feet I need. In a slightly different dimension the teepee is insulated from the weather. And now we have entered a slightly different dimension in Collagesity where actual weather appears. Coincidence?
bb:
I don’t know.
Carr.:
So you think the rock you brought home… well, I can’t say it here.
bb:
The rock is Rock Meadows, star toy avatar. I’m pretty sure about that.
Carr.:
You now know that the *true* artists of Whitehead Crossing do not need that Rock. Either one of ’em.
bb:
Yes.
Carr.:
I am an alien being. What you are dealing with now is alien art, in essence. Terrestrial aliens, but aliens still. I know a little about that. What am I to you, baker b.?
bb:
An alien from both Pluto and its moon Charon at once.
Carr.:
You have been getting a lot of hits for that post about Charon, Georgia in your Sunklands blog.
bb:
Yes. I’ll link the post to your comment.
Carr.:
You have been given the Bigfoot art happening as compensation. The whole landscape was developed by the artists of Whitehead Crossing. You should thank them sometime.
bb:
I will (!)
Carr.:
They understand you and your happenings better now. But they don’t want it in The Crossing still. My Crossing.
bb:
Everything can’t be yours, Carrcassonnee.
Carr.:
Can’t it?
—–
bb:
I came back, Carrcassonnee, to ask if New Monkey City near but not technically part of Whitehead Crossing could instead be the site of a toy happening?
Carr.:
Can it?
Filed under 0001, Frank Park, Whitehead Crossing
I didn’t want to go too long without supplying the text for this particular post concerning Whitehead Crossing, which gives pictures from probably my most successful and satisfying day of hiking in the area. Most of my pictures didn’t turn out that well however. It’s tough to take good ones in such confined areas. Below is the example of some stuff I had to crawl beside to get from one place to another — rhododendrons abounded. I had to be more mindful of hiking choices, else I could get not really lost, per se, but end up having to backtrack a longer way. I was attempting to let the woods tell me the directions I should go. And, lucky for me, it pretty well worked!
I’ve seen the very interesting white rock pictured below once before on a hike several years back. It exists beside Green Stream, but well below Whitehead Crossing and even Con Creek — more toward the mouth of the stream where it enters Spoon Fork at the lower end of the Korean Channel. Difficult to explain without a map; I’ll put that on my tado list for the new year. Just for the record, I reached this place on Green Stream from an area I’ve called Fi in the past. I talk a little about it at the end of this April 2013 post.
Green Stream tumbles through some low cascades in this more confined area, quite similar to Red Head but perhaps not quite as dramatic. But the comparison can certainly be made. So it’s a kind of “lower Red Head”. Today I found an easier way into this area than before through Fi, a new discovery.
Interesting flat rock of the area. Probably not another grave marker, however. I don’t think.
The we switch over to the next day (1/3/16) for the last snapshots of this post. And here comes yet another odd Whitehead Crossing find. What we have pictured below is the remains of a *blue* crayfish on a long log running parallel to the Little Whitehead stream. Although I’ve seen regularly colored crayfish in the area, which appear mainly mud or brown or grey colored, I’ve never in my life spotted a blue one. Yet here it is in the midst of all else weird in The Crossing. And it’s simply been *pulverised”. When I showed this picture to my wife, she said it’s probably an *owl*, and when we googled blue + crayfish online (yes they actually exist in my area of the mountains) we found the main natural predator named was this very bird. Yes, owls have barged their way back into the picture in a pretty big way.
Little Whitehead’s source from the days before was drying up.
Curious “x” of sticks that the log with the pulverized blue crayfish points to. X marks the spot?
Orange fungus. Don’t know if this is typical for winter or caused by the warm weather.
More fungus, a cluster of round brown ones this time, and on the same log pictured above.
This rock cluster is beside Little Whitehead just across from the pulverized crayfish. It contains a quartz marking I presently call the White Shark or White Submarine.
Interesing darker rocks in Whitehead Brook now. All these larger rocks probably deserve names as well.
Whitehead Brook as it flows past Remorse Rock (right).
This day I also revisited the tiny Dogpatch Cemetery and its two graves, one marked and the other unmarked. Someone has cut the rhododendron back from the marked grave. Perhaps the involved family knows about these graves after all. Or is someone else tending to it?
Filed under 0001, Blue and Purple Land, Fi, Frank Park, Whitehead Crossing
The long Xmas break is coming to a close. I *love* being off from work, but I guess most people at this point in time could say that. According to Forbes at least 2 out of 3 Americans dislike their jobs. Still there are worse options, like unemployment, like living in a town I really don’t like (I do still like Blue Mountain quite a lot, just not as much as in earlier years). And I can see the finish line of my job now — 5 more years or so, perhaps 6. And that’s it.
As I’ve probably already written about here, I am very pleased with the progress on Sunklands, which is now a blog wrapped up in a legitimate web site (still bakerbloch.com for now). I see the blog as sort of a volcano of ideas, spewing forth strings of energy. I might have just finished up a round of Collagesity style fiction, for example. Before that I was heavy into the interpretation of the Boos collage series. Before that, the focus was on physically making the collages of that series. And so on back down the line. But sitting behind the blog are also several other projects I don’t talk about as much. The Sunklands site now seems to center around the collage art of me, baker b. But running in the background all the time in low hum mode is the maps research. It predates the digital collages, it predates audiovisual synching: for over 30 years now I’ve been working on this one project, trying to figure out how to put it in some sort of published form. And despite at least one valiant attempt, I’m still not there. Probably in about 10 years time I’ll release a version of the research but with the understanding that new editions will be forthcoming. I look forward to retirement for time to focus on that very important life project as well. The hybrid “Map Synching Feeling” from last year is a nod in this direction.
So let’s just break it down into categories:
Collages:
Very pleased, once more, with progress on collage work. 2 10 work series came in the first half of the year, and then the 30 piece Boos series happened in November and December. If I can keep doing 2 or 3 series a year like that for the rest of my life I’ll be pretty happy. It’s very very important to allow time for 2d digital collage making. It’s become my bread and butter, along with overall blog development.
And I have to add here that collage *interpretation* worked out well this year too. My interpretation of the Boos series might be my best writing yet in that vein. I also worked quite hard on the Stonethrow series interpretation in May, but that was only 10 collages as opposed to the 30 in Boos.
Audiovisual Synching:
Another type of collage in my mind, and one that keeps chugging along, although not at the hot pace of 2004-2007, or even 2013, another big synching year for me. But they still come. Carrcass-12 was formed this year in September. I still need to tape it, but I seemingly have all the elements in place now to do so. In a way, *this* is the center, and 2d collages just emerged from it instead of visa versa. But, really, the two go hand in hand in a bigger picture.
One thing I don’t worry about, at least presently, is making any money off of these collage creations. Setting that on the backburner has allowed me more freedom to experiment. For example, I’m always examining the idea of a work of art as self contained vs. being part of a series of at least 10 works. Obviously to the general (buying) public the former would be more understandable and probably more desirable to exhibit on their own. But without the flow of ideas behind the work, collages seem hollow and more insubstantial and, eventually perhaps, even dispensable. It’s a large topic. And this goes along with the needed interpretation of said series, adding depth. It’s almost two sides of one thing: like the moon, collages have a light side (surfacely viewable; contained) and a dark side (hidden meaning; boundless). To explore both, for me, is to better see the whole.
Virtual Reality:
This year, probably for the first time in my Second Life involvement, I’ve kept together a virtual town for *a whole year*. That’s quite an accomplishment in and of itself. But, viewed in another way, maybe it’s a non-accomplishment, because I’m always going back and forth whether to sell the land at the first of the month, or even abandon it. Witness the “move” to Nautilus continent and the Mysten sim this past summer. Witness the more recent Nautilus City rentals. Just last week Spongeberg Resident decided not to destroy the town in January and shift everything over to that island city. And I’m well aware that Second Life will not last forever, and that if I retain a virtual presence it will soon have to come through some kind of other platform. But I haven’t found that platform yet, and so my involvement with Second Life and virtual town making there persists. I’m thinking that the name Collagesity might be carried over into a post Second Life existence. I just like the name.
Art (Toy/Junk) Happenings:
One for this year: Bigfoot. Another big success story. Taking place on the western edge of the Blue Mountain Urban Landscape, October’s Bigfoot art happening forms a great synthesis of junk, toys, and marble races, my best effort yet in that direction and a template of sort for all happenings to follow. Where is it headed? I’m not sure, but the happenings have become an indispensable part of my art now. They are also entwined with woodsy exploration. So let’s go to that next…
Hiking/Exploring:
The weather has been super nice in November and December this year, allowing me considerably more hikes that usual for the time period. I have a backlog of photos to upload to the blog, actually, involving several more extensions of the Blue Mountain Landscape beyond Bigfoot (and Rediscovery). But Bigfoot is the big find of the year since it is attached to the successful happening. And the Blue Mountain Urban Landscape itself, taking a focus away from nearby Frank and Herman Parks. Too much stress, I feel, has been laid upon the latter to carry forth my art happenings, with Whitehead Crossing at the center of that quandry. More on that in a post to come. But Whitehead X-ing keeps being developed in its own way, and, as it seems to be turning out, in a *different* direction than the art happenings. Very important point there.
Sunklands Blog:
It keeps keeping on! I’m one of those that took to blogging like a duck to water. I can’t see that coming to a halt anytime soon. It also acts as or subs for a personal/ work journal. I sometimes talk through life problems via the blog’s various characters. I find refuge in a virtual village when the outside world becomes either physically or emotionally harsh. I weather the storm there and blog about it. I always seem to emerge a stronger person, and better because of the challenge. Thank you Sunklands!
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0001, BIGFOOT, Blue Mountain, carrcasses, collages 2d, Frank Park, Herman Park, Heterocera, Lower Austra, MAPS, Nautilus, Nautilus City, Rubi, Whitehead Crossing
