Wicker Portrait, 1921

 

 

 

 

Left to right:  My great-great grandfather (from Scotland), great-aunt, second cousin, and great-grandmother (from Scotland).  Milwaukie, Oregon, 1921.

Photomontage

 

 

Blarney

 

 

 

C.Q.D.

 

 

 

 

 

C.Q.D. (link)



Vienna

 

 

 

Cathedral Island, Wrocław

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Which is no longer an island: Ostrów Tumski.  The time when I was there, a flautist played Bach as I walked the Tumski Bridge.  The notes faded into the bricks and stonework of the ancient fanes and houses.

 

The postcard looks to date from communist- era Poland, maybe 1950s or 60s.  The language, not surprisingly, is Polish, and the sender appeared to have forgotten to bring the recipient's address. 

Wyspa Tumska is an alternate form of Ostrów Tumski -- Dominsel in German, or Cathedral Island in English.

 



World Time Map

 

 

From a shortwave radio guide, 1954.  Many of the place names in this pamphlet, such as "Ciudad Trujillo" in the Dominican Republic, have since undergone changes.

Radio Log Book (1920s)

Bad breath, muddy complexion, dull eyes, nervous headache, nervous indigestion -- who wants that?

Concerning Dr. Miles and Dr. Miles Nervine (sic) :  http://arnoldzwicky.org/2010/12/18/dr-miles-nervine/

White Alice

My father (on the left) playing chess, 1958, Alaska, at the time of the White Alice Network project.

New Blog

I opened a second blog, Aardcoyote Jonathan, one for occasionally posting some of my writing:

http://liegnitzyugen.tumblr.com/

Your truly John

 

 

Toe to Toe with the Rooskies II

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another relic from the Alaskan project my father worked on in the late 1950s (see entry of  3 August 2012).  I am pretty sure the White Alice network, or anything concerning it, no longer falls under the label of "classified" : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Alice_Communications_System -- in fact, the government decommissioned the antenna array decades ago.  White Alice -- wasn't that a Jefferson Airplane Song?

 

In Hodges' biography of Alan Turing, he indicates that American usage made "classified" a synonym for "top secret," rather than referring to levels of classification.  Classification level:  Top stupid.   Then, the American habit of saying "hello" repeatedly through the day irritated Turing during one of his stints here.

 

The guy on the phone looks as if he's about to issue some kind of doomsday order.  Serious business, no doubt.

Stay off the Moon!

 

 

Amazing

 

December 1962

 

Cover art by Alex Schomburg

Breslau 1937

 

 

"Wroclaw not Breslau" doesn't have quite the same ring as "Istanbul not Constantinople."

Shade of Branches

 

 

 

 

 

This picture depicts solid, sturdy people who looked as if they could stand up to troubles and challenges. 

And the Hippos were boiled in their Tanks

 

 

 

Months and years after I first gained awareness of William S. Burroughs' (http://realitystudio.org/ -- thanks to Ray of Rigadoon23 for making me aware of this website) and Jack Kerouac's (http://www.dharmabeat.com/kerouac.html) early collaborative novel, And the Hippos were boiled in their Tanks, I finally rolled over my eyes it.
I also am working over Junkie, or the edited version of it, re-reading this one.   Guys, couldn't you have tried a little harder with the Hippos cover?  Based on the covers of the two above, which book would you be drawn to?

And the Hippos were boiled in their Tanks reeled me in with its great frame of Kerouac's and Burroughs' fictionalized self-portraits, Mike Ryko and Will Dennison.  Any novel with the title, And the Hippos were boiled in their Tanks, and which uses the same phrase in its text, is already commendable.  (James Grauerholz's sterling afterword explores the possible sources of the Hippos title, along with discussing the Carr/Kammerer case which inspired the central events of the novel.) Rimbaud and "Phillip Tourian's" New Vision pepper the novel's trajectory to its ambiguous climax.  Some pages I lost track of which author wrote which chapter, a sign that Gysin's third mind here germinated.  Burroughs' writing, while not fully confident and crystallized, has a characteristically darkly dry and funny quality.  "Monday morning I got a letter from a detective agency to report to work.  I'd applied for the job about a month ago and almost forgotten about it.  Evidently they hadn't checked on my fingerprints and the fake references I'd given them."  Kerouac's melancholy descriptions of New York and picaresque accounts of merchant marine matters hold great appeal as well.  World War II, always over the horizon, influences the work in a lunar, tidal fashion.

Reading Junkie again, I was startled by its magnificence -- one great observation and character description following another.

Lisbon

 

 

 

Someone sent me this card from Lisbon in 2004.  It takes some work to be that tired.

Oddities V (ca. 1983) back cover

 

 

 

 

 

Cosmic planaria god art by Roman Scott.

Oddities V (ca. 1983), Inside Back Cover

 

 

 

Drawing by Jonathan Falk

Oddities V (ca. 1983) page 8

 

 

 

 

"Hypostasis" by Steve Sneyd.  "Art World Oddities" by John Engebretson.

Oddities 5 (ca. 1983) page 7

 

 

 

Background by Roman, poem about the soul-lacking social Darwinist by Steve Sneyd:  http://steve-sneyd.com/.  The "ransom note"-style poem and the unsigned "tarantula love" poem are mysterious -- I don't recall who created them, if I ever knew.

Oddities (ca. 1983) page 6

 

 

 

Drawings/ Collages by Paul S. Colvin, Jonathan Falk, and Marc Myers

 

Oddities V (ca. 1983) page 5

 

 

 

Poetry/ collage by Roman Scott

Oddities V (ca. 1983) page 4

 

 

 

Poetry by Bruce Boston.  More info about Bruce Boston:  http://bruceboston.com/

Oddities V (ca. 1983) page 3

 

 

 

 

 

Work by Impasto Artaud

Oddities V (ca. 1983) page 2

 

 

 

 

Story by Jonathan Falk

 

Oddities V (ca. 1983) page 1

 

 

 

Work by Impasto Artaud, Larry Keim, and Paul McIntyre

Oddities V (ca. 1983) Inside front cover

 

 

The Cover of Oddities V (ca. 1982)

 

 

 

Cover by Roman Scott

Why has Bodhidharma left for the East?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Artwork procured in Jirisan National Park, South Korea

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jirisan

Thangka

 

 

The Second Season

Or the first, third, or fourth, depending on when one starts counting...

I am not an advocate for the season of summer, which is threaded with adumbrations of fall in the mornings at this time.  I know of two great grumpy essays:  Anton Szandor Lavey's (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_Lavey) Summertime, from The Devil's Notebook (1992) and Arthur Schopenhauer's (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schopenhauer) On Noise, from the selection of the philosopher's work titled Studies in Pessimism.   On Noise is contained in this link:  http://books.google.com/books?id=zJhJAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA28&lpg=PA28&dq=schopenhauer+on+noise&source=bl&ots=4ScVIWlLgK&sig=UevbHzbfd64l-Mqsz43LRzVjRF4&hl=en&sa=X&ei=4vMDUuCPHrH2igLFtY.

It took me a certain amount of time to realize that summer is unpleasant not so much because of the weather, but because of the way humans can act during the hot days. Noise irritates. Schopenhauer complained about the abusive overapplication of whip cracking in his day, as destructive to thinking.  In our times, noise levels expand greatly from June 21 to September 21, give or take, with windows open, boom cars and outdoor activities. Schopenhauer's ears would not have been able to process the ambience.  And LaVey has some piercing remarks on summer in his essay.  Take such jewels as: "Taking the warmth nature has provided, he (man) has fashioned for himself an environment where his mindlessness flourishes most.  It is the only season which validates slobs."  Or:   "I would enjoy spring more were it not for the impending plague of summer with its human locusts thriving in an atmosphere far deadlier (if radiation levels are considered) than the worst blizzards." 

The New Zealanders and Argentineans have their own context for this.

 

Arthur Schopenhauer 1788-1860

Rainbow Falls, Hawaii

 

 

 

 

 

Card sent in the 1940s, with some Hawaiian words included in the text on the back.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_Falls_(Hawaii)

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauna_Kea

Sharpsburg, Pennsylvania

 

 

 

 

Wrong side since memory know

Wrong side since memory know

Wrong side since memory know, non-eruption, just look at those places, lava talus marmoreal.  I generally from the western slope see,

The base of Mt. Hood ringed spectacles springboard notch, can you photograph at night from 45 miles away, Celsius or Canadian kilometers forgotten from 1970s mandates, drive with headlamps on, can’t convert, flash cubes breathing like neutron bombs, the moon leaves everyone alive save the buildings.  The root of the mountain is what’s major, scrape marks sidereal, the roads around Sam Hill’s manse are stationary, cars up and down none for miles, rattlesnake’s buzzer whistling, compass sclera overtone production, nearest star Ginnungagap fanning peacock wind generators.  Bayonet strike, purling intestine jacket, petroglyph motor.  Misplaced der Alte’s grave, the hills past the lintels, Stonehenge of dry times, take what shade you can get, oasis house umbrage scent too close to the road, shivered roses by memorial of war.

 

JF

 

August 2, 2013

 

 

 

 

Photograph:  Mt. Hood and Columbia River, outside Maryhill Museum of Art, Washington State,

June 8, 2013

 

Window Rock, Arizona

 

 

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Window_Rock,_Arizona

 

http://www.lapahie.com/window_rock_capitol.cfm