Delicious Ambiguity

In the texts of ancient Egypt, bees were born from the tears of Râ, the Sun God. When the tears fell onto the soil, they were transformed into bees that built honeycombs and produced honey. The bee featured frequently in Egyptian hieroglyphs and, being favored by the pharaohs, often symbolized royalty.

Reverence for this tiny creature is shared from prehistoric to contemporary times because of the symbolic act of producing honey from flower nectar. Nearly identical rituals displaying reverence for the insect and its produce exists from the Incas to many tribes in sub-Saharan Africa. 

In literature, the bee is usually thought of through a feminist motif, as the hive is ruled over by a queen bee. Anthropomorphism is the act of attributing human characteristics to non-human plants, animals, or natural phenomena. By the transitive property, I think that part of this metaphorical relationship extends both ways. Is there a word that means the reverse of anthropomorphism?

Bees in the columns at St. Peter's basilica

In the Catholic tradition, the shape of the pope hat was meant to resemble a bee hive. This was meant to symbolize the workings of the Church in general, with an interesting gender inversion as the pope comes to symbolize the queen bee. More generally, the sweet honey coupled with the painful stings was also meant to represent the duality of Christ's mercy and justice.

Opposites are a near constant theme in many religions. This article explains how Christ actually dissolves the boundaries between male and female, because he embodies the essentially feminine characteristics of compassion and universal love in a masculine form.

If you ever have the chance, sit and watch the bees at work. Don't engage in their process; instead passively watch it and you will come to realize the inherent order and neatness in the chaos. 

Within the grander scheme of bees exiting and entering the hive, there are smaller routines.

Eccentricism

Salvador Dali said that delusions offset by paranoia are things people should actively pursue. He even claimed that fears dissociated from his reality were the source of his creativity. The eccentric artist was famous for not knowing how to count money, and showing up to important functions dressed in unconventional style. For example, he showed up at the opening of the London surrealist dressed in a diving suit.

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This is a tattoo design of my favorite Dali painting, the elephants. The painting is based off a sculpture by Gian Lorenzo Bernini which sits in front of the Basilica of Saint Mary above Minerva, and depicts an elephant carrying an obelisk. The elephants is a fairly comprehensive piece because these same religious undertones define a lot of his work.

"Well, take what you want from me, you deserve it all"

I disagree with Dali's style, but the absurd nature of his madness has  touched on far too much for it to be called culturally irrelevant. This is the conundrum of Dali. By the very nature of his work, his method is opaque to the perceptions of the mind; however this mysteriousness is the secret to his success. By creating this intangible separation between subject and piece, Dali sought to pose his own eyes for that of the viewers.

silverlinefriendfaceunbrokenskullnumbthought

I am still obsessed with this song. For some reason it reminds me of the Cantina Theme from Star Wars. On a side-note, someone totally needs to remix that shit.

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Faces fascinate us.

"Simple physical aspects of the face are used to work out age, gender or basic facial expressions. Most analysis at this stage is on feature-by-feature basis. That initial information is used to create a structural model of the face, which allows it to be compared to other faces in memory, and across views."

This is why we can still recognize a familiar face from different angles. Even our own faces, which we rarely see except from the front, we can still recognize if seen from the side. Weird.





         
I'd like to commission a painting of this gentleman. No specifications as to materials used, except I want it big. Also he's far too terrifying to be the only subject. He has to be doing something that befits a man of his mustache-caliber.

If you could grow facial hair of this variety, what job would you do with it? Where would you go? What would you wear?

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Picture credit to KN

 
to you

as if this were me
curled up
on your bare sheets

waiting for you to come back.

come back

Raindrops

Normative vs. counter culture... First, either 'side' has enough of an appeal that going from one side to the other is really just playing their game.

Secondly, is that black and white view of the world really the way life is? No! The world is too diverse, too intrinsically fascinating, and too bizarre to categorize.

What I mean to say is that by being non-conformist... aren't you really just conforming to or with something else? I don't think you can win by being like this.

In essence, everyone's point is valid because truths are subjective to the person and to the context, not universally applicable. I recognize this is a contradiction, in and of itself, because for this statement to be true, it also needs to be false. 


H - I don't know where this picture is from, but I find it ridiculously... well ridiculous. Child-devouring monstrosities prowling the streets. I'd revel in the insanity.

I'll make sure to write you one of these days. I know its been awhile.

Dreams the other night

Naked shower party with all of us got too weird, so you and I left. We were driving around, beers in hand, with a car full of corpses. The police arrived and stole our blood. Then a boar leaps out of the trunk of our car, knocks over the police officer and we make our getaway into the night!

Later someone we both know made me a sandwich.

... and all I got was this lousy t-shirt!