Posts Tagged ‘weirdness’
trembling protest
“follow” me on Twitter at @newtownpentacle
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Just the other day, one was strolling along Jackson Avenue in Long Island City and enjoying the late afternoon haze of auto exhaust when I decided to avoid a group of rough and aggressive looking youngsters by ducking down a dead end called Dutch Kills Street. Haughty and diffident, these unscrupulous looking minors had perhaps reached the third grade, but realizing that they have spent their short lifetime playing violent video games and were therefore potential killers, your humble narrator decided to walk the familiar path of ignominy and hide from them.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Such physical cowardice has often proven to be the better part of valor for one such as myself, a shunned and awkward thing which resembles a man. Dutch Kills Street, where the native art form of Queens (illegal dumping) is practiced wholly, is overflown by structures sprouting out from the Great Machine at nearby Queens Plaza. Vehicular traffic departing and approaching the mighty Queensboro bridge hurtles along overhead, and the street grade lanes end at the fence lines of the titan Sunnyside Yards..
– photo by Mitch Waxman
At the end of the street was observed another of the curious shoes which I’ve been noticing scattered around in similarly desolate locales over the last few months. Odd bordering on obsequious, the presence of just one half of the mated pair- again and again- just makes a little bell go off in my head when I see it. It is common to see all sorts of domestic and personal goods scattered about the neighborhoods surrounding the fabled Newtown Creek, but the homogeneity of these singular shoe sightings simply suggests something sinister and suspicious.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The rough looking group of third graders had noisily passed the intersection of Jackson and Dutch Kills, heading towards Tower Town down in Hunters Point. They were assembled in a “skirmish line” formation, walking abreast of each other while in the company of a group of women who seemed to have some measure of control over their movements. Some of these women had far younger children with them, who were being transported in bizarre cart like machines- whose appearance I did not like, I should add- which I found disconcerting. Your humble narrator hid behind a pile of trash for awhile, then fled the scene with haste.
edge away
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Play time is almost over now. The Honeymooners Marathon is coming on New Years, which signals that only a few days are left before the blistering reality check of a January morning. With the holidays and Mayan Apocalypse out of the way, it’s nearly time to knuckle down and get “back in session”. For today’s post though, musing contemplations and foolish wondering rule the hour.
The shot above, incidentally, is from a place called Oia on a island called Thira which is the likely inspiration for the legend of the lost city of Atlantis.
from Azathoth By H. P. Lovecraft, courtesy hplovecraft.com
When age fell upon the world, and wonder went out of the minds of men; when grey cities reared to smoky skies tall towers grim and ugly, in whose shadow none might dream of the sun or of spring’s flowering meads; when learning stripped earth of her mantle of beauty, and poets sang no more save of twisted phantoms seen with bleared and inward-looking eyes; when these things had come to pass, and childish hopes had gone away forever, there was a man who travelled out of life on a quest into the spaces whither the world’s dreams had fled.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Too much time spent in contemplation and peaceful idyll is not a good thing, in fact it’s the proverbial “devils playground”. Wasteful thought processes play out, which are unproductive and annoying to those around me. One wonders how much longer these unfortunates will subject themselves to a creature like myself.
The shot above, by the way, is from a different island. One which hosts a 16th century castle built and lost by Venetians and later held first by Ottoman and then Greek. It once served as the headquarters of a confederacy of pirates whose fleet menaced Egyptian, British, and French shipping during the early 19th century.
from H. P. Lovecraft Letter to Farnsworth Wrigth (July 27, 1927), in Selected Letters 1925-1929 (Sauk City, Wisconsin: Arkham House, 1968), p.150., courtesy wikipedia
Now all my tales are based on the fundamental premise that common human laws and interests and emotions have no validity or significance in the vast cosmos-at-large. To me there is nothing but puerility in a tale in which the human form—and the local human passions and conditions and standards—are depicted as native to other worlds or other universes. To achieve the essence of real externality, whether of time or space or dimension, one must forget that such things as organic life, good and evil, love and hate, and all such local attributes of a negligible and temporary race called mankind, have any existence at all.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
During these dark days of winter, a humble narrator dreams of sunshine and warmth and the sweetness of fresh bread dipped in honey consumed with the blackest of coffees. Such pleasures, however, are neither deserved nor imminent. The time is come, finally, to stare into any and all available abysses- and return to my lonely path. It is once again the hour of the wolf, here in the Newtown Pentacle. Of course, we’ve got that Honeymooners Marathon, as George the Atheist reminds. (Mr. GTA did a post documenting the moving of the Civic Virtue statue at his own blog, btw, check it out here)
Also, the shot above illustrates the shoreline of yet another island, one where European Civilization is considered to have been born roughly 5,000 years ago.
from “The Doom That Came to Sarnath” by H. P. Lovecraft, courtesy wikisource.org
There is in the land of Mnar a vast still lake that is fed by no stream, and out of which no stream flows. Ten thousand years ago there stood by its shore the mighty city of Sarnath, but Sarnath stands there no more.
It is told that in the immemorial years when the world was young, before ever the men of Sarnath came to the land of Mnar, another city stood beside the lake; the gray stone city of Ib, which was old as the lake itself, and peopled with beings not pleasing to behold. Very odd and ugly were these beings, as indeed are most beings of a world yet inchoate and rudely fashioned. It is written on the brick cylinders of Kadatheron that the beings of Ib were in hue as green as the lake and the mists that rise above it; that they had bulging eyes, pouting, flabby lips, and curious ears, and were without voice. It is also written that they descended one night from the moon in a mist; they and the vast still lake and gray stone city Ib. However this may be, it is certain that they worshipped a sea-green stone idol chiseled in the likeness of Bokrug, the great water-lizard; before which they danced horribly when the moon was gibbous.
amiable normality
“follow” me on Twitter at @newtownpentacle
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Mayan Apocalypse Countdown: We are in the home stretch on Planet Earth. and just 4 days remain until the 13th b’ak’tun ends, initiating the Mayan Apocalypse on December 21st. Tick, tock.
In the face of predestination, prophetic warnings, and probable destruction- prosecution of all possible prophylaxis is both prudent and proper. Indisputable inklings of illuminated ideations, irresistible and insidious, inspired me to inquire whether the Free and Accepted Masons could intervene or otherwise interfere with the oncoming interval of destruction.
from wikipedia
Saturnalia was supposed to have been held on December 17 (ante diem xvi Kal. Ian.) from the time of the oldest Roman religious calendar, which the Romans believed to have been established by the legendary founder Romulus and his successor Numa Pompilius. It was a dies festus, a legal holiday when no public business could be conducted. The day marked the dedication of the Temple to Saturn in the Roman Forum in 497 BC.
By the late Republic, the celebration of Saturnalia had expanded to seven days, but during the Imperial period contracted variously to three to five days. Under Augustus, there was a three-day official holiday.[48] Caligula extended it to five.
December 17 was the first day of the astrological sign Capricorn, the house of Saturn, the planet named for the god. Its proximity to the winter solstice (December 25 on the Julian calendar) was endowed with various meanings by both ancient and modern scholars: for instance, the widespread use of wax candles (cerei, singular cereus) may refer to “the returning power of the sun’s light after the solstice”.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
December the seventeenth is another of those historical dates upon which the anniversary of several momentous events occur. In 546 AD- Rome was sacked by the Ostrogoths, and in 1398 Delhi fell to the armies of Timur.
In 1903- the Wright Brothers learned that men could fly if they were clever enough.
Looming loquaciously over the locus of 23rd street and Sixth Avenue, the Grand Lodge of the Masons and the group which inhabits it have been spoken about in four lengthy postings from way back in 2009.
Check out parts one, two, three, and four.
from wikipedia
The Aztec calendar stone, Mexica sun stone, Stone of the Sun (Spanish: Piedra del Sol), or Stone of the Five Eras, is a large monolithic sculpture that was excavated in the Zócalo, Mexico City’s main square, on December 17, 1790. It was discovered whilst Mexico City Cathedral was being repaired. The stone is around 12 feet (3.7 m) across and weighs about 24 tons.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Filled with a series of questions which only those who know the truth of history might answer, your humble narrator journeyed to Manhattan and joined one of the free tours regularly offered by the group. The tour follows a twisting path, entering rooms with a right turn and exiting with a left, moving in weird diagonals throughout their building.
The guide recognized my need for guidance, and soon I was brought before the God of America. Brazen, the gaze of the eidolon bore into ones soul, an accusatory and knowing permanence of vision radiating from beneath carven brows. The greatest of the Masons would have been resolute and unflinching in the eye of any storm, let alone some silly Mayan Apocalypse.
from wikipedia
The prophet is commemorated in the Coptic Church on the 23rd day of the Coptic month of Baramhat.
On the Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar, the feast days celebrating St. Daniel the Prophet together with the Three Young Men, falls on December 17 (during the Nativity Fast), on the Sunday of the Holy Forefathers (the Sunday which falls between 11 and 17 December), and on the Sunday before Nativity. Daniel’s prophesy regarding the stone which smashed the idol (Daniel 2:34-35) is often used in Orthodox hymns as a metaphor for the Incarnation: the “stone cut out” being symbolic of the Logos (Christ), and the fact that it was cut “without hands” being symbolic of the virgin birth. Thus the hymns will refer to the Theotokos (Virgin Mary) as the “uncut mountain”
Daniel is commemorated as a prophet in the Calendar of Saints of the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod together with the Three Young Men (Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego), on December 17.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Tribulations such as the forthcoming apocalypse and the embrace of such dubious reasoning would have embarrassed him. Rational men, Washington and his fellow conspirators against the Hanoverian throne knew the illuminable truth of things, that the world will continue on and on. His graven image assures and assuages.
from wikipedia
Today, Washington’s face and image are often used as national symbols of the United States. He appears on contemporary currency, including the one-dollar bill and the quarter coin, and on U.S. postage stamps. Along with appearing on the first postage stamps issued by the U.S. Post Office in 1847, Washington, together with Theodore Roosevelt, Thomas Jefferson, and Lincoln, is depicted in stone at the Mount Rushmore Memorial. The Washington Monument, one of the best known American landmarks, was built in his honor. The George Washington Masonic National Memorial in Alexandria, Virginia, was constructed between 1922 and 1932 with voluntary contributions from all 52 local governing bodies of the Freemasons in the United States.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Still, trepidation and timorous doubt haunt. The cogs and wheels of the universe are immutably in motion, spinning in uncertain ways. Quantum theory teaches that all things are possible at all times, and that the condition of observed reality depends upon the quality and perceptions of the observer.
The Mayan calendar has been right before in its predictions of cultural doom, for was it not prophecied that at a certain time on a certain day in a certain year that a bearded man would arrive at Veracruz and signal the destruction of their own civilization? And did Cortez not arrive at the appointed moment? It occurs to your humble narrator that we should not fear the arrival of Nibiru, but rather the imminence of Quetzalcoatl.
from nasa.gov
Q: Is there a planet or brown dwarf called Nibiru or Planet X or Eris that is approaching the Earth and threatening our planet with widespread destruction?
A: Nibiru and other stories about wayward planets are an Internet hoax. There is no factual basis for these claims. If Nibiru or Planet X were real and headed for an encounter with the Earth in 2012, astronomers would have been tracking it for at least the past decade, and it would be visible by now to the naked eye. Obviously, it does not exist. Eris is real, but it is a dwarf planet similar to Pluto that will remain in the outer solar system; the closest it can come to Earth is about 4 billion miles.
swaying shutter
“follow” me on Twitter at @newtownpentacle
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Mayan Apocalypse Countdown: just 7 days left until the 13th b’ak’tun ends, initiating the Mayan Apocalypse on December 21st. Tick, tock.
Additionally, for the sake of “georgetheatheist”, it is now just 17 days to the Honeymooners Marathon.
It is said by adherents to the Christian faith, when discussing their own conception of the end times, that men will witness abominations in the days leading up to the apocalypse. Specific eschatology discusses weirding mixtures of men and beasts, who shall roam amongst us. Muslims too believe that when the last days come, the iron walls of Dhul-Qarnayn will shatter and allow an army of bestial chaos egress to the world of men.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Just the other day in Manhattan, center of the great human hive, this unholy thing was witnessed moving amongst the crowds. It is realized that we live in a multi cultural society which champions diversity, however, your humble narrator refuses to acknowledge the rights of some escapee from the island of Dr. Moreau. Have the lessons of Orwell’s “Animal Farm” not been absorbed and embraced? Bipedal locomotion is exclusively ours (and the Kangaroos as well, don’t forget them).
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It is a sad state of affairs, that Baphomet the sabbath goat might walk unhindered about the megalopolis, unchallenged and haughty. In the days of Harry Truman or Rudy Giuliani such a thing would never have been allowed. Your humble narrator is preparing the bunker for active duty.
gibbous glow
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Since Hurricane Sandy and the accompanying storm surge were made a few degrees worse by the full moon and it’s accompanying tidal forces, it occurred to me that in addition to having somehow pissed off Poseidon- New York might have angered a lunar deity as well. There are lords of the sea, and lords of the sky, after all.
from wikipedia
The pregnancy of Coatlicue, the maternal Earth deity, made her other children embarrassed, including her oldest daughter Coyolxauhqui. As she swept the temple, a few hummingbird feathers fell into her chest. Coatlicue’s child, Huitzilopochtli, sprang from her womb in full war armor and killed Coyolxauhqui, along with their 400 brothers and sisters. He cut off her limbs, then tossed her head into the sky where it became the moon, so that his mother would be comforted in seeing her daughter in the sky every night.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
More often than not, the moon is represented by a goddess in the west, which ties the waxing and waning of the Earth’s anomalous astronomic companion to the female cycle of menses. In the near and far east, the moon was interpreted somewhat differently.
from wikipedia
In Cook Islands mythology, specifically of the Hervey Islands, Avatea also known as Vatea (meaning ‘bright’) was a lunar deity and the father of gods and men in Mangaian myth of origin.
According to one myth, Vari-Ma-Te-Takere (The primordial mother) created six children from her body. Three were plucked from her right side and three from her left. The first of which was Avatea, the first man, who was perceived as a moon god. As he grew he divided vertically into a hybrid being; the right half was a man and the left half a fish.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The pagan, as in historical pre Christian religious beliefs, would see the moon as a threatening and sinister celestial sign. This is a hold over from the old days of wicker kings and female priesthoods, of course, if you subscribe to the theories of Robert Graves. One would suggest that in the future, New York City take the lunar cycle a bit more seriously, lighting beeswax candles and offering appropriate ablutions.
from wikipedia
In ancient Roman religion and myth, Luna is the divine embodiment of the Moon (Latin luna; cf. English “lunar”). She is often presented as the female complement of the Sun (Sol) conceived of as a god. Luna is also sometimes represented as an aspect of the Roman triple goddess (diva triformis), along with Proserpina and Hecate. Luna is not always a distinct goddess, but sometimes rather an epithet that specializes a goddess, since both Diana and Juno are identified as moon goddesses.
In Roman art, Luna’s attributes are the crescent moon and the two-yoke chariot (biga). In the Carmen Saeculare, performed in 17 BC, Horace invokes her as the “two-horned queen of the stars” (siderum regina bicornis), bidding her to listen to the girls singing as Apollo listens to the boys.
The Newtown Pentacle 