Robert profile picture

Robert

Art is a communication of your inmost soul from a safe distance

About Me


READ THIS FIRST
I have been getting a lot of friends requests from people who aren't artists or
interested in art or anything even remotely similar. I am here to network with
artists, writers, performers, art patrons, photographers, people who love the arts or people
who are otherwise involved in the arts in SOME WAY, primarily the visual arts and writing.
Sorry to be rude, but if you don't share these interests pretty seriously, save both you and
me time and don't request. I'm not trying to have a friend's list with
11,000 random people on it, just some people who have common interests.
Thank You.
..
I am an artist, I used to be mostly a digital artist but now I am focusing on silkscreen and stencils. I was a commercial artist and web designer for awhile but I got tired of doing other people's stuff, so now I am going to do my own stuff. :) ============================================================ ==== I am currently a computer geek in my regular job. I am starting a company to make art T-shirts. The benefit of T-shirts as art is that it's art that everyone uses and you don't run out of wall space for it, just closet space. :) ============================================================ ====I am also working on serigraphs and stencil art that is not on shirts. When I say stencil, people usually think of clumsily spray-painted street addresses or something, but if you look at artists like Logan Hicks, it can be a powerful tool for art. It's just like serigraphy (screen printing) except less messy and you don't have to worry about what paints to use because you can use anything. Glossy paints, spray paints, watercolors... whatever you like. There are no screens to clog. The stencils are a bitch to cut though. :)

My Interests

Art, movies, computers, computer games, photography, performing arts, cooking, absinthiana, old cemeteries, other bizarre interests. My URL is http://lizardboys.com/

"You laugh at me because I am different, but I laugh at you because you are all the same." ~Unknown

Get Your Own! | View Slideshow

I'd like to meet:



I am an artist, I used to be mostly a digital artist but now I am focusing on silkscreen and stencils. I was a commercial artist and web designer for awhile but I got tired of doing other people's stuff, so now I am going to do my own stuff. :)
============================================================ ====

I am currently a computer geek in my regular job. I am starting a company to make art T-shirts. The benefit of T-shirts as art is that it's art that everyone uses and you don't run out of wall space for it, just closet space. :)
============================================================ ====

I am also working on serigraphs and stencil art that is not on shirts. When I say stencil, people usually think of clumsily spray-painted street addresses or something, but if you look at artists like Logan Hicks, it can be a powerful tool for art. It's just like serigraphy (screen printing) except less messy and you don't have to worry about what paints to use because you can use anything. Glossy paints, spray paints, watercolors... whatever you like. There are no screens to clog. The stencils are a bitch to cut though. :)

Who I'd Like To Meet:
Artists and people who like art, also people who like visual and performance arts generally. Also writers, I have a novel that is about half finished and I am pondering whether to finally finish it.

Personality Disorder Test Results
Paranoid |||||||||||| 50%
Schizoid |||||||||||||||||||| 86%
Schizotypal |||||||||||||||||||| 90%
Antisocial |||||||||||||| 58%
Borderline |||||||||| 34%
Histrionic |||| 18%
Narcissistic |||||||||| 38%
Avoidant |||||||||||||| 54%
Dependent |||||| 26%
Obsessive-Compulsive |||||||||||| 42% Take Free Personality Disorder Test
personality tests by similarminds.com

You Are Impressionism
You think the world is quite beautiful, especially if you look at it in new and interesting ways.
You tend to focus on color and movement in art.
For you, seeing the big picture is much more important than recording every little detail.
You can find inspiration anywhere... especially from nature. What Art Movement Are You?

What Type of Soul Do You Have ?
You are naturally born with a gift, whether it be poetry, writing or song. You love beauty and creativity, and usually are highly intelligent. Others view you as mysterious and dreamy, yet also bold since you hold firm in your beliefs.
Take this quiz !

Quizilla | Join| Make A Quiz | More Quizzes | Grab Code

Favorite Websites:

Virtual Père Lachaise, an interactive tour of Paris' famous Père Lachaise cemetery - damn I need to go to Paris.

Wooster Collective - a celebration of street art

Website of the international street artist Blu

Website of the international street artist and performance artist Banksy

The Adventures of the Miss Rockaway Armada

Stencil Revolution

Dick Blick Art Supply, who loves me because I've sent their children through school with my art supply shopping :)

Jade Liqueurs, makers of the world's finest absinthe

The Burg, fine internet sitcom, when hipness is a boil that must be lanced with humor. :)

Naked - yes, ordinary unglamorous people nekkid

Ilford Film - if you need honest to god real silver halide black and white film

Dallas Arts Revue

Bath House Cultural Center, our nearby oasis of culture in the suburban bleakness

Post Secret, where you can secretly reveal your dirty little secrets - or revel in the fact that other people have dirty little secrets too!

GlassTire: Texas Visual Arts ..

Watch Woodpeckers in my neighborhood in Dallas! My friend and neighbor has a webcam pointed at his woodpecker... okay, actually at his woodpeckerS, but there is something strangely soothing about watching them. They are a relative of the redheaded woodpecker called the redheaded flicker.

Second Life name Robier Robbiani. If you use my name as a referral and later become a premium member, I will split my referral fee with you.
http://secondlife.com/community/referral.php

Aw frell it, why mess around, waiting for things to get worse? Cthulhu can solve America's problems....
...by eating America! And the Middle East! And Europe....and...

Random Surrealism Generator (sadly does not work on Myspace)

Music:

Classic Rock and Metal mostly, some modern rock, some Goth - Led Zeppelin, Stones, Ozzy, Blue Oyster Cult, Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath, Guns N Roses, Pearl Jam. I am not that much of a music person though - I mostly listen in the car. :)

Movies:

Movies and video - In no particular order - Rent, Ghost in the Shell, Cowboy Bebop, The Red Spectacles, Nosferatu, Planetes, Carnival of Souls, Land of the Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Omega Man, Manhattan, Apocalypse Now, D.O.A. ============================================================ ====
To prove I also have a lighter side somewhere, I like National Lampoon's Animal House, Moulin Rouge, The Blob, and Roman Holiday. :)

Television:

I don't watch television much.
I do surf Youtube on occasion. :)
U2 - Yahweh
Natural Blues - Moby
fin d'ete - end of summer
It isn't very often that you find something on the front page of Youtube that is really really good. This is. No plot really, just a mood. The story is set in a village that has been abandoned because of an oncoming hurricane, and one woman stayed behind.
Some philistine ass wrote in the comments that it was a video about someone too dumb to escape from a hurricane, and that statement made me sadder than the video did. As if everything in life could be tallied up like a ledger sheet, and you win if you live longer than other people. In which case Poe, Van Gogh, Shelley, Baudelaire and Hemingway were all losers, since they did not live to ripe old ages, and some even offed themselves. In truth, the person who cannot understand sadness and views life as a race with a quantifiable finish line is the real loser.
This is not a practical hurricane survival guide, in case anyone was thinking that it was. :( And just to please any literal-minded folks, I want to say that I loathe the idea of suicide, because every suicide takes away someone who understands sadness, and we need you. We need you far more than we need yahoos who view art as a hurricane survival guide.
Alcohol is Dynamite
Or perhaps it is Dyn-O-Mite! :) 1950's anti-teen-drinking film, very funny. Especially when they show the frontal lobes.
Give the gift of cigarettes!
Ah, the good old days when you could give the gift of emphysema and no one would bat an eye! :)
Slave to the Green Devil!
by Robier Robbiani / Robert Dodd
My newest Youtube video, a tongue in cheek look at the "Reefer Madness" type of film, in this case of course the reefer in question is Absinthe. :) Also filmed in the New Babbage sim in Second Life:
Ode to New Babbage
By Robier Robbiani / Robert Dodd
Yup, this is my (first) Youtube video!
"Filmed" in Second Life in the Steampunk sim of New Babbage, this isn't a traditional machinima but actually a frame by frame capture using the camera. I have tried making machinima using screen recorders, but I've never been happy with them. Once I captured the frames, I edited each frame individually in Photoshop to desaturate (make black & white) some areas and to leave saturated others. I then loaded the frames in Flash and made entry and exit sequences for each frame and then exported to a video file and thence to Youtube. Nothing is too good in the name of Science and steam power! :)
Youtubes that others have done in New Babbage
Lucid Absinthe
Absinthe is now... legal in the United States. Or rather it was determined that properly distilled absinthe does not violate US law.
Ted Breaux of Jade Absinthe has introduced Lucid Absinthe to a select but I am sure growing number of liquor stores in the US. Coming soon to a store near you?
Alice in Chains: God Am
One of the most brutally real songs ever, a suffering man's complaint against God. The singer, Layne Staley, was a heroin addict and died on April 5 2002, eight years to the day after fellow Seattle grunge rocker Kurt Cobain died.
Lyrics:
sure gods all powerful, but does he have lips? whoa...
Dear god, how have you been then?
Im not fine, fuck pretending
All of this death your sending
Best throw some free heart mending
Invite you in my heart, then
When done, my sins forgiven?
This God of mine relaxes
World dies I still pay taxes
Can I be as my God am
Can you be as God am
Can I be as my God am
God of all my God am
So lord, I see you grinnin
Must be grand always winning
How proud are you being able
To gather faith from fable
Can I be as my God am
Can you be as God am
Can I be as my God am
God of all my God am
God am
My God am
God am
God
All the respect Im giving
Shared strength acquired by living
All blooming life youre feeding
Cant hide sick ones youre weeding
Can I be as my God am
Can you be as God am
Can I be as my God am
God of all my God am
God am
God am
God am
God am
Alice in Chains: Would?
And some classic Alice in Chains, one of probably my top 5 most favorite songs from them. Layne Staley is the guy in dark glasses, his voice is just unreal. Huge sound out of a pretty scrawny guy. This song was dedicated to Andrew Wood who had just died... of a heroin overdose, like too many great artists of the Seattle grunge scene.
The New Self: "self realization" becomes the ultimate capitalist tool.
It is sort of lengthy to post this here, but I think it is absolutely critical to understanding what we all just went thru in the past 40 years and what that means for what is happening now in Western societies. After you watch these (well worth it, trust me), I will post my take on what is going on currently below them. Again, a lengthy watch, but completely critical if you want to understand where society has been and where it is going.
There is a Policeman Inside All Our Heads (part 1 of 6)
There is a Policeman Inside All Our Heads (part 2 of 6)
There is a Policeman Inside All Our Heads (part 3 of 6)
There is a Policeman Inside All Our Heads (part 4 of 6)
There is a Policeman Inside All Our Heads (part 5 of 6)
There is a Policeman Inside All Our Heads (part 6 of 6)
Personal Commentary
I think the Achilles heel of the "ME Generation" as it was called, was precisely what their hippie antecedents were trying to counteract to begin with. Paradoxically, their exploration of self for enlightenment (the enlightened self multiplied equaling political change for the better, theoretically) evolved into self-absorption and the making of perfect little consumerist tools, all "different".
What is lost in this is any kind of common cause or empathy, care for things or people other than yourself. We are seeing the results of the "selfish self" in global warming and the environment, but it is more than even that which is the problem. In pursuit of "me" (and trust me I was right there with them), we wound up creating a more alienated, less wholesome, less socially concerned world. We are not even really happier as a result of our self obsession, I don't believe. The mindless conformity of the 50's and early to mid sixties needed to be criticized and destroyed, but what we replaced it with is nothing. The most chilling part of this film is where the man says that the "self-actualizers" are less concerned with injustice than people were before. Guantanamo Bay, anyone? China too for that matter, they swallowed our "consumer individuality" in one go, it appears. Makes the oppression go down so much easier if you don't care about anyone but yourself.
The EST seminar people left one thing out when they found the soul empty and nonexistent: care. I care that people are tortured, even if they aren't tortured on my front lawn. I care about the ecosystem collapsing, even if it doesn't collapse in my lifetime. I care about forests being bulldozed, even if I never in my life see them.
Care, nurturance as a spiritual value rather than a lifestyle choice, might be the only thing that is capable of defragmenting society and getting us all on the track of not destroying the planet for new iPhones or whatever. CARE is what is conspicuously absent from this picture.
The hippies had it half right, but it is not "All you need is LOVE", it is "All you need is LOVE and the will to do something about it."
David Icke - Was He Right?
I am not excessively fond of the whole transdimensional lizards thing - I assume that is mostly a metaphor(?). Used to think he was a bit of a nutter in fact. But otherwise, ya, I have to admit, he is dead on right. The Orwellian state is not coming, it is already here. It just hasn't locked down on everything quite yet. The resemblance between one of Prince Charles' sons and a younger Bush Jr. is frightening. Next King of England?
..
Theatrical trailer from the movie Naked Lunch
(watch it before they pull it from Youtube again.)
From the Oliver Stone movie, The Doors
Drinky Crow Show, pt. 1
This is horrible, in terribly bad taste and generally offensive. It also promotes alcoholism, depression, suicide, nihilism and mutilation. Awesome. :) Me loves me some Drinky Crow. :) Dook dook dook...
Drinky Crow Show, pt. 2
Missing Pages
Thinking of using a time machine to raise your son from the dead? Think again. Awesome movie, feels much weightier than its 20 minutes would suggest, and you can download it free at http://speaking-pictures.com/missingPages.html
Van Gogh, Meet Second Life
This doesn't seem so exciting at first, but wait to see what he is making. :) This is all done in Second Life, no special post-"film" effects.
Dolltopia
Lets be honest for a moment. Second Life may be the darling of the corporate set at moment, but it was founded by people who mainstream society deems complete freakazoids. Artists and hippies, roleplayers and furries, gay/lesbian/transgendered, about as non-mainstream as you can think about and some are probably MORE non-mainstream than you can think about.
Linden Lab, the makers of Second Life, have been making some dire yet vague pronouncements on what will and won't be allowed in the future, including seemingly things that were tolerated in the past. "Ageplay" among adults, for instance, where one adult pretends to be a child, having potentially mature encounters with other adults. Now, both participants are adults, no real children are involved, but Linden Labs is cracking down on some aspects of that most definitely. For one reason, various nations are cracking down on THEM.
I have never had any reason to have anything but faith in the good intentions of Linden Labs. Almost nobody wants Second Life to be the same wild open place it has always been MORE than Linden Labs, I believe. For one, it is their bread and butter. The defection of the wild weird kinky core would mean the collapse of Second Life. I have never thought once that they want this.
However I know that vigilance never hurts. In that spirit, I want to show this film. NOT suitable for anyone easily offended, though I've seen far worse on Youtube. ;) Zoe and Sysperia are the owners of the Two Spirits art gallery in Second Life, I've actually met them at a party, so in the interests of Keeping SL Weird, I offer this space on my profile for their film. I wouldn't touch what they are doing with a 99.999 meter pole and would have no interest at all in doing so. I have never had the slightest impulse to dress as a doll. ;) But I know that if the "weird" roleplaying furry Neko ect. core leaves SL, it will for all practical purposes die, and a spirit of censorship can do that.
You don't have to like them or agree with them, you just have to agree that SL is all make believe, and there is no wrong in dreams and imaginings, however bizarre. The next morning, you wake up, and nothing has changed, no dragons slayed, no princesses rescued, it's all dreams. :)
3D Printer
Yes, put in some "toner", upload your 3D file, and it will print you out a 3-dimensional object. Wishing your sculpture skills were better? As long as your CAD skills are good, no worries - it can make your sculpture for you.
You may think I'm crazy, but I think that 40 years from now, assuming we don't all self destruct, you'll go buy your cell phone online, transfer the data to your matter printer, go have a coffee while it prints, and in a bit go to your "printer" in your house and pull out your new cell phone. When it breaks, just put it back in the same machine, tell the machine to decompose it, and it's molecules join the matter stream being piped to your neighbor's house. Or it gets piped back somewhere to be automatically recycled for future use.Is this possible? It is absolutely possible, we just don't have the technology quite yet. But irresistable trends are moving in exactly that direction. Demand for computing power keeps rising, but silicon is approaching limits. The next step is probably going to be molecular computing. Molecular mechanics already works great for our bodies, no reason it wouldn't for computers too.
Will we destroy ourselves with that kind of power? We shall see, but I think it's an exciting time.
Heaven and Hell careening
Yawning open before my eyes
Little Earth sits there between them
Will we learn before it dies?
Power-Matter like a hundred Niles
Making things no one has seen
Worlds unfold then decompile
We hack even our being
Bringing explosions of both death and hate?
Or will we beat the odds?
Which of these will be our fate,
when men become as God?
Second Life Exploration Video
Here is a short clip showing some places, including the artificial ecosystem of Svarga, in Second Life.
It is impossible to convey the sheer size and ever-changing nature of the world of Second Life. Trying to see everything in Second Life is comparable to seeing everything in New York City including the suburbs: it's just not possible. It's being continually modified by something like 40,000 people at any given moment.
It is quite easy to dismiss it for various reasons: the graphics are not as good as many online role playing games (though other online role playing games aren't being modified on the fly by 40,000 people); lots of people are there for the kinky fetish specialties so prevalent there; it was pioneered by the nerdiest of the nerds (I still wince when watching their over-earnest tutorial videos); there is no point to it or any sort of overarching objective; even the name suggests that maybe those who take part in it need a First Life. ;)
Why is it groundbreakingly important anyway? This is the first metaverse, the first true virtual reality. Maybe it will become THE metaverse or a successor will become the ultimate expression, but it is going to be a part of life from now on. It is not a game, it is a playground true but not a game. Once you can play in an arena the size of a major world metropolis, one continually being created and recreated by it's own residents, mere games will seem... limited.
The Inner Life of the Cell
I have to say that for the most part, I have no FREAKING idea what they're talking about. They could be making up words for all I know BUT it looks way way too cool, so I thought I'd share.
The basic jist of it I think is, how white blood cells (leukocytes) get to the location of infection inside your body. Leukocytes are sort of your internal crime fighters, locating damage and disease and dealing with it. All of this jazz is just explaining how a leukocyte manages to move around and get to where the action is. ;)
Whatever, it looks cool, just watch it. ;)
Renault M9R Clean Diesel auto engine:
Diesel automotive engines are probably the way of the future for a number of reasons. For one, a modern turbodiesel is something like a third more efficient in turning fuel into power compared with a gasoline engine. This is because of the extreme engine compression they are capable of. Pressure alone, not spark, ignites the fuel. Also, diesel fuel is capable of being made from many sources. There is a Tyson poultry processing plant which is working with a biofuels company to make 3 million gallons of biodiesel a year just from surplus chicken fat unneeded at the plant. And the biodiesel is superior in quality to the petrodiesel made from petroleum, with lower sulfur content hence less sulfur dioxide pollution.
But... these diesel automotive engines are exceedingly complicated machines, and you can get an idea how complicated from this movie. The rough sequence of events in the animation are:
1. the turbocharger (powered by the engine exhaust) sucks intake air from the outside. You can think of the turbocharger as a sort of souped-up vacuum cleaner, pulling in large amounts of air. The process of pressurizing this air makes it hot, which is bad for engine performance, so it has to be cooled down again through the radiatorlike intercooler. The objective of turbocharging the air is not pressure per se, but to pack the oxygen molecules as closely as possible, to cram as many oxygen molecules into the cylinder as possible. The air comes out of the turbocharger at high pressure but high temperature, which spaces the oxygen molecules back out again. Cooling the air reduces the pressure but increases the number of oxygen molecules per cc of space. The fuel thus burns in a hyperoxygenated atmosphere, insuring a complete and total burn of every possible molecule of fuel. This unfortunately increases nitrogen oxide formation however.
2. Meanwhile, diesel fuel at 1600 times normal atmospheric pressure is pressurized into the "common rail", a sort of waiting room for the diesel fuel that is to be injected into the engine.
3. Air is sucked/blown into the engine, spun around into a sort of violent rotational pattern. This is to optimize the dispersal of fuel upon injection.
4. The air is then compressed by the piston to such a high degree of compression that the pressure and heat of the air alone is capable of almost instantly combusting the diesel fuel. Diesel fuel from the high-pressure "common rail" is sprayed at extreme velocity (capable of puncturing human flesh) into the compressed air, which almost instantly ignites it. The objective of the diesel engine is to consume every possible speck of fuel injected.
5. The resulting combustion drives the piston down, delivering force to the crankshaft.
6. Some part of the spent gasses are recycled back into the cylinders on the intake stroke. In some engines, up to 50 percent of the intake air consists of the engine's own exhaust. This is to combat the nemesis of diesel engines, nitrogen oxide formation, which causes most diesel cars not to be able to pass clean air laws in some Northeastern States and California. The remainder of exhaust gasses are then exhausted, powering the turbocharger, after which they are processed through a catalytic converter (again to reduce nitrogen oxides) and a self-cleaning particulate filter before being vented to the outside world.
Diesel automotive engines are already very common in Europe, around 60% of cars sold in Europe are diesels. They are not yet very popular here, but are probably going to be more common here too as air pollution, gas prices and global warming become more of an issue. While diesels are less polluting in many ways than gasoline engines, they produce more nitrogen oxides and particulates, issues that diesel makers are tackling. Biodiesel is a carbon-neutral fuel - carbon is taken out of the environment by way of plants in order to make it. This makes a biodiesel-running diesel engine the only commonly available automobile that does not contribute to global warming. But you can see that they are very complicated and sophisticated engines and generally more expensive than their gasoline counterparts.
If you ever want to read an interesting life story, read about Rudolf Diesel, the inventor of the diesel engine . He was a socialist of sorts, his vision was to have the engine run on vegetable oil, thus ensuring a good market for farmers and better economic opportunity for them. His first diesel engines ran on peanut oil.
He wound up in terrible debt trying to promote his engine and committed suicide, some say murdered but he had severe mood disorders of some sort so suicide is the more likely explanation. Strangely enough, over a hundred years later, the world is starting to catch up to his vision of using organic fats to power his fuel-efficient diesel engines, using biodiesel.
After The Oil Runs Out....
Ladies and gentlemen, join us now for another evening of... Cat Head Theatre...
This is your Van Gogh claymation. This is your Van Gogh claymation on absinthe... Any questions?
Absinthe on Modern Marvels: Ted Breaux, proprietor
of Jade Absinthe at the Combier distilleries France,
discusses the history and distilling of absinthe.
An excerpt from Ballet Mécanique by the Dadaist Fernand Léger.
Confuse-A-Cat, Ltd.
Katatonia is a Swedish goth/metal band, here is a video for my favorite song of theirs, "Deliberation":
KATATONIA - DELIBERATION
Syd Barrett was the co-founder of and songwriter for the band Pink Floyd, and his work changed the music of that era and still influences artists today. According to most accounts, mental illness cut short his career, a mental illness that was possibly accelerated somewhat by his prodigious intake of hallucinogenic drugs during that period. The Pink Floyd album "Wish You Were Here" was directly a tribute to him.
Syd recently died at the age of 60.
"Remember when you were young, you shone like the sun.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Now there's a look in your eyes, like black holes in the sky.
Shine on you crazy diamond."
~Pink Floyd, Shine On You Crazy Diamond, from the album Wish You Were Here.
Deitsch Art Parade, SoHo, New York:
Lovely scary giant girl puppet:
Think Different
..
Rob Zombie: Dragula
Motoko Kusanagi of Ghost in the Shell is my favorite anime character. :) A military cyborg built like an Abrams tank, yet somehow soft and vulnerable inside too. Just don't piss her off. :)
Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex
2nd Gig
..
The words in the intro are:
I'm a soldier and that means
I am both defendent and judge
I stand at both ends of the fire
Leaning into the curves
overtaking life and death
Im running to fight the shadow of lies
no matter how tangled the web of deception is woven
truth will always illuminate the outline of the light
save your tears for the day
when the pain is far behind
on your feet come with me
we are soldiers stand or die
save your fears take your place
save them for the judgement day
fast and free follow me
time to make the sacrifice
we rise or fall

Ghost in the Shell2: Innocence Intro
..
Gilles Trehin suffers from autism. He has, since the age of 12, been designing the fictional city of Urville. He's been creating pages of detailed graphical drawings of it and also creating it's history, economy, geography, politics.... "
Belgian train station, street art by BONOM
Some jackassed corporate suit made Youtube take down the trailer for the movie Naked Lunch. As a result, the best I could do is this fanvid.
I recommend both the movie and the book. The book is quite possibly the most genuinely alien work of fiction ever created on this planet. The movie is inspired more by the process of Burrough's making Naked Lunch than the book itself, which is essentially unfilmable.
In this video, the chap in the white suit initially appears to be a homosexual Swiss dandy but "actually" is a centipede creature from an alien insectoid race. Music is by Depeche Mode.
This is kind of interesting in that it features Brion Gysin's Dreammachine, a machine designed to induce visions. The Dreammachine is the flickery thing. Gysin was a friend of William Burroughs and Allan Ginsburg. This was done in 1963, and contains some material that may be considered offensive (even today).
Another choice bit of Burroughs, William Burroughs reading "Ah Pook", video accompaniment by Karma.

Books:

Mostly non-fiction though I quite like William Burroughs. Probably or rather almost certainly the person I take after when I write.

Heroes:

Thomas Jefferson is my number one hero. We wouldn't have the remnants of a free society today without him. Washington is number two, because he could have been a king and did not accept it. Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt are in there somewhere too, Teddy for being a visionary on conservation. FDR was a great leader when we needed him: maybe it wouldn't be good for every President to be an FDR, but in the Depression and war, he was our anchor.
A different sort of hero, instead of the "big man of history" archetype: Mother Teresa who made herself the servant of the lowest of the low, the most abandoned and rejected of humankind, the most unloved.
============================================================ ====
Van Gogh. Van Gogh is my hero because of commitment. He went through hell for art alone: not for the esteem of others, not for money or women or reputation or fame. He was despised of the world. He never saw a dime of the dozens of millions his paintings go for today, and probably wouldn't know what to do with that much money anyway. Some people are gifted; he was divine, he was immortal, like Mozart or Shakespeare or Beethoven or Baudelaire.
We miss you brother. Your work can never die.
I am much inspired by street ART - not the usual moron writing his name in bubble script but true street artists - they are putting their stuff out there for free, plus it's illegal to boot. I get a lot of inspiration by looking at their stuff on stencilrevolution.com and woostercollective.com
More of my stuff that didn't fit anywhere else:
"Neptune Hug" from my short-lived science fiction web series Exodus:
The Inner Sammy
The Woman's Building (photograph)
Self-Portrait in Vermillion
Petit Jean {Jeandream}
Samia Glick, from Exodus
Pink Sea
Images from my short-lived horror web comic "Kindly Undead".
..
adopt your own virtual pet!

My Blog

MORE new computer art

I am havin me a little computer art revival here, which is a bit of a change from my long dry period. All of this was done for art for my other blog. Construction or Instruction?PrayOn this next one I...
Posted by Robert on Fri, 18 Apr 2008 06:13:00 PST

New computer art

I made this image for a new blog post for my other blog. The topic was about sort of grumpy hellfire Christians, so the image is of this gloomy looking sort muttering and cursing. :-)...
Posted by Robert on Tue, 15 Apr 2008 08:16:00 PST

Waking up in ICU

Continuing the near-death saga, the very first thing I remember in the intensive care unit after my near-death was a nasty slimy tube down my breathing cavities. I was intubated, they had a tube in my...
Posted by Robert on Mon, 24 Mar 2008 07:09:00 PST

Happy Easter!

In this day and age, is it easier to be tired? Is it easier to be jaded? Is it easier to be a cynic? These things have always been with us. The tired, the jaded, the cynical, the despairing, the fatal...
Posted by Robert on Sun, 23 Mar 2008 06:49:00 PST

More detail about the incident

THE FIRST DAYOkay, turns out that I mentally skipped one day somewhere, I actually entered Emergency on Tuesday the 26th of February. It actually started all a bit before that tho. I was having pains ...
Posted by Robert on Tue, 11 Mar 2008 07:32:00 PST

Ghost Rider In The Sky: ICU Code Blue X2

  Last Monday, February 25, I had massive respiratory and coronary arrest, managed to get to the emergency room, and then died. Twice. 8 days later, I am still picking up the pieces obviously. W...
Posted by Robert on Wed, 05 Mar 2008 05:39:00 PST

New Poem - The Poem About Flowers

I was talking to someone on a board I go to, I had posted a recent and pretty dark poem and she, trying to cheer me up or herself up, suggested that I write a poem about flowers. Sadly, this is probab...
Posted by Robert on Sun, 24 Feb 2008 10:24:00 PST

New Poem - Pre-Postal

Lets just say I have a bad attitude towards the workplace. Lets just say I have a really bad attitude towards the workplace. :)This is not exactly high art tonight, but as I was filling out a job appl...
Posted by Robert on Fri, 22 Feb 2008 10:05:00 PST

Lucid absinthe review

Okay, so absinthe is now legal in this country. Or rather the law was redefined as not applying to absinthe. Or something. In any case you can find real absinthe in your liquor stores now, made by the...
Posted by Robert on Thu, 21 Feb 2008 07:53:00 PST

New Poem - The Curse of the Living

THE CURSE OF THE LIVING I am trapped in the nightmares of Reasonin the gears of the logic of the damnedI find myself living amongst the deadall buried alive in tombs too deep for escapeand they clutch...
Posted by Robert on Thu, 21 Feb 2008 06:33:00 PST