Aesthetic "Phenonmenon"? Psychological "Artifact"? Beyond the discussion of semantic mysteries, is "it" pretty?

unknown artist

 

Liminal Disinformation

"Transfer Student" by artist known as Kiginobiru (Hayapi)

Leo Pellegrino plays the Contrabass Saxophone

Man Ray (American/French, 1890-1976) - The Eye That Sees Everything (1919) - Airbrush & brush & gouache on tan wood-pulp laminate board, 30.5 x 24.6 cm. - The Art Institute of Chicago (Gift of Mr. Frank B. Hubachek)

Haiku proceeds syntax?

the moon is gone wild

grammar am a lost ethos

specificity?

An interesting distinction

"Frustrated by being referred to as a mere "caricature" artist, William Hogarth produced this print in 1743 explaining the difference between characters and caricatures — which he saw as radically different — and demonstrating his style as being firmly aligned with the former." Source

The Beats... Philosophic Warriors? (pre-)Psychedelic Messengers?

I'm not sure what to make of the Beats. Easily parodied on TV and in the movies... an instrument of cultural and personal promotion...  obviously unsound (and unwholesome) lifestyle choices...  closely-related to consumer culture... interesting energy, fashions and forms... directly--obviously but also merely vaguely and superficially "counter-cultural"--indeed, how effective in this measure (as a cultural/counter-cultural "movement") and in what ways?

It's interesting how the Beats were so rapidly left behind by the culture they helped to foster. In the wake of Frank Zappa, Gentle Giant, Genesis, Jethro Tull, King Crimson, Alice Cooper, Firesign Theatre... by the mid-70s the average "hippie" kid in the Midwest was in a position to possess a more sophisticated and appropriate "philosophical tool kit" and "psychedelic understanding" than the Beats ever achieved. Henceforth, the cup of trendy hipster hipness would runneth over into infinity...  (And along these lines, look at the unfortunate "insights" Michel Foucault came away with after his "famous" psychedelic experience at Zabriskie Point... and more on him, Zabriskie Point... and Antonioni's films in a forthcoming Highbrow post.)

Moving beyond the question of their interesting place--and it is interesting and it is a "place"--in the stream-of-culture: from academic and aesthetic perspectives, when I go back and read the Beats today, their work seems... hmmm? Weak/embarrassing?  Nihilistic?  Insipid? (Do they make of poetry a thing that it is not?  Hmm...) Along these lines, as I read Tom Wolfe's book The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, in passages where Wolfe parodies "Beat writing", I am struck that his passages are more impressive than the originals. And as far as that goes, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Edgar Allan Poe and John Milton have written things that are far more "psychedelic" and "cosmic" and "transgressive" than anything the Beats ever came up with. Indeed, most of the Beats' "transgressive" and "cosmic" insights are little more than either gauche exercises in staring at their own belly-buttons, or Dutch-angle encomiums to the Goddess of Self-Destruction.  And this goes for hippies, freaks, new wave'ers, grungesters, goths, emos, witches (and whatever trendy or hipster "bag" you might crawl into, wear, evoke, or "conjure") as well...

Two pieces by Henri Lievens (1920 - 2000), Belgium

Cover for the Marabout pocket edition of La Guerre des salamandres (War with the Newts/Válka s Mloky) by Karel Čapek

Cover art for An...2391 by B.R. Bruss. 1974 
 

Writing about witches...

Mod paradigms...

(The building at the beginning of the video (starting at 0:21) is the Department of Water and Power building (Los Angeles Department of Water and Power) in Los Angeles, California.)

Bienvenido Bones Bañez, Junior announces an exhibition: The Paradise Lost Legacy - November 7-15, 2026 - Davao City, Philippines

A tribute to John Milton's 418th Anniversary! Including the world famous art book of Robert J Wickenheiser and Terrance Lindall: The John Milton Projects 2009-2015 by Terrance Lindall featured in an exhibition, with photos montages of historical events. And also Emanations Third Eye on Surrealmageddon, Emanations Zen, Emanations 11, and Emanations 12... 

"Behold the power of Golden Bat!"

A departure from Richard Powers' usual style... with the exception of the humanoid figure, bottom-center-right

1959 Ballantine Books Original (first) Edition; cover art by Richard Powers. Stories: "Danger! Child at Large" by C. L. Cottrell; "Twin's Wail" by Elizabeth Mann Borgese; "The Holy Grail" by Tom Purdom; "Angerhelm" by Cordwainer Smith; "The Dreamsman" by Gordon R. Dickson; "To Catch an Alien" by John J. McGuire; "Press Conference" by Miriam Allen deFord; and "Invasion from Inner Space" by Howard Koch. 156 pages.

Inquiry onto a self-portrait and a photograph: a case study, but studying what? Abnormal psychology? Aesthetics? Culture? Cultural production? The phenomenology of a "self" reading and viewing a clever blog post on a more-than-usually-clever blog? Books are listed on the right.

Ohne Titel (Selbstporträt) ~ Untitled (Self-portrait) by Raoul Hausmann, ca1915-1920, Oil on canvas Berlinische Galerie

Raoul Hausmann, 1919

Mi-Go brain cylinder in which the Outer Ones can convey a human brain across the interstellar void

Form and Substance Stabilizing through the Maximization of Bio-kinetic Equilibrium, Regardless of Verisimilitude and its Niceties -- a Menace to Conventional (and Civil!) Ontological Self-Concepts?

Okariyan from Ultraman Taro ep. 16e

 

The Sun card from the Summer "suit" of the Astronomia playing card deck, 1829

 

The deck featured three other seasonal suits (Autumn, Winter, Spring). The pack was released with instructions, "Explanation of the Celestial Cards", that details two games: Conjunction and Combination. Instead of suits, Astronomia uses color-coded seasons, with Zodiac constellations and other galactic bodies, like the Great Comet of 1680. 

Click HERE for more images from the deck.

Solar Surge Prominences & Active Coronal Arches — H-Alpha Time-Lapse (July 6, 2026)

"Master Terrance Lindall Leaping For Joy!" by Bienvenido Bones Bañez, Jr. (from Emanations 12)

Emanations and Penumbras - Emanations 12 reviewed on Amazon

A review by M-A Berthier:

I received a copy of this latest incarnation of Carter Kaplan's Emanations series, and this is perhaps the most interesting issue to date, and also in some ways the most adventurous. It contains stories, poems, essays, and several remarkable portfolios of art from various artists. I usually read these issues for the stories and the poems, and this one does not disappoint. One of those stories is a large excerpt of a work-in-progress by editor Kaplan, and his neo-picaresque fragment leaves me highly interested to see the rest -- it may well be his most enjoyable work to date. The opening story by Elkie Riches is a suitable keynote entry way for the entire book. The poems are a nice selection. Some of the high points were from Hodges, Falla, and Hassler, but I am still digesting this part of the book. The overall impression of this edition was its variety and its density. Applause.

Click the cover image to view the Amazon description: