From the Observatory

Jul 16

“It strikes me as gruesome and comical that in our culture we have an expectation that man can always solve his problems. This is so untrue that it makes me want to cry — or laugh.
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The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong in the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry.”

The first by Kurt Vonnegut, the second by Ernest Hemingway.

Chase and I were discussing how one is the next generation of the other, that Hemingway showed the sad emptiness of machismo and Vonnegut the same for intellectualisim. Neither does anybody any good.

And finally done with the book. Um. The Terror and Unpredictability of Nature overwhelms Industry, okay. Whatever, Verne.

My book shit list also names ‘Little House on the Prairie’, which I couldn’t even finish at the age of nine. Good company for it, I think.

"Tattoos Are No Longer Taboo, Unless You're A Jewish Nana"

Anyone who’s had Leviticus 19:28 (“You shall not make gashes in your flesh for the dead nor incise any marks on yourself: I am the Lord.”) thrown at them is probably so freaking relieved to have a portion of argument to throw back at their folks, though I think if you’re Orthodox, it still don’t fly.

Despite us being so very not Jewish at all, my mom pulled this on me with regularity. I couldn’t even draw on my hands, what with my body being a temple and shit. Earrings though—that’s okay, ‘cause I’ve got this uterus that I need to prove.

Jul 15

via FourFour.

I pretty much covet most of Rich’s t-shit collection, which I keep up to date on via Pot Psycology.

It’s worth checking out another NJ vacay post of his on an abundance of confederate flag kitch.

“Inventory: enough tins and wine to last me until I’m ready to kill myself. For when I’m ready to kill myself: a working revolver.”

The increasingly engaging Damejetsam Twitter (who unfortunately suffered from a hiccup that rearranged the order of some updates).

In the entry previous to this one you’ll see a Twitter of mine, revealing my increasing confusion over the events of Jules Verne’s Mysterious Island. I keep holding one up next to another, for some reason.

Jul 14

My God, they’re doing everything backwards. The Mysterious Island castaways finally tan some leather, but not the rabbits. No. Koalas.

One of the few, perhaps only, images of Chelsea Linehan’s work that I can find online. And I’m not sure it’s even hers

Linehan’s end-of-the-year work at PNCA was by and far some of the best I’ve seen. And it was nothing like the above. The woman had created amazing, tiny little worlds perched atop spindly pedestals, inhabited by creatures made by the logical mind of whimsy.

Paper Lanterns, because the 'craft revolution' will not expand its borders.

Yes, I understand that link-and-share sites like Craft: exist to create a database of know-how. But paper lanterns? Paper lanterns unchanged from the 1960’s and 1970’s craft books they sprung from in badly printed single colour.

This sort of thing is important enough to share with the world.

Beetles are fabulously flash and bling.

The amazing beetle scientist Ainsley S. gives us the opal beetle. Holyshit.