skulzwerks

So on this special occasion we'll skip right to the important stuff. Machine art of course. untitled collage done in the surreal -   next up we have 'tribecka trifecta' - TGIF and TTFN :]

  The idea doesn't really sound very good. Not to me anyway. So there's these two guys on the PBS cooking channel and the pair are all gentrified and southern and singing the praises of southern fried whatever. Catfish and flapperfish and some other dang fish that I'd never heard of. Soak the fish in buttermilk overnight, then drag it through corn flakes, season with Louisiana's best salt, and then dip the mess into hot bacon grease and then and then...it was about at that point I'm thinking there is no way I'm about to visit the south or Louisiana or somewhere that's greaseifying fish. Not just fish but soup served cold with frozen bacon grease and corn meal balls dipped in olive oil and then fried in bacon grease. Talk about heart attack ready. So the fish frying southern guys are now on to crawfish ratatouille. Oh yeah, cold vegetable soup with crawfish bodies. Evidently in Louisiana and places of southern food origins, eating bugs and water critters that...

  Today is that blessed of all days, a Wednesday. I'll not indulge in the usual 'do you know what day it is' prattle. So I can now appreciate the work Dr. Henry Louis Gates has to go through to get that 'Finding Your Roots' program to work. Genealogy is like a garden spider's web. Dang lines run everywhere and cross over then cross up and get sort of muddled if not outright muddy...and then the lines trail off into obscurity. Obscurity and the blurring of millennia. I'm giving up the genealogy stuff for a while. I can't make much sense out of most of it and there's entire sections that are simply outlandish. I found the Wales part of my heritage and after much searching and scratching of head, I found out I'm in no way related to the 'Prince of Wales'. Gosh, isn't that a pity. Or not. I am related to some prominent Mormons a way back in the day and that's not saying much as there is much polygamy and the bearing of children and da...

It was Dr. Gates that got me started on the genealogy thing. Genealogy is kind of fascinating if you're inclined to be intrigued by that sort of stuff. I watch his program, 'Finding Your Roots' on PBS. Anyway, using the 'Family Search' thingy is quite easy to explore and I had no idea how far back my familial roots may in fact turn out to have been recorded.   Tracing your ancestry all the way back to Ragnar the Bad Ass was quite fascinating. I didn't know. I do know now. Some of the old familial lines stretch to Wales. The Welsh names are just about impossible to pronounce. The Welsh names are harder to pronounce than the old Viking names. Almost seems like gobbledegook and when you try pronouncing those Welsh names you'll get a cramp in your tongue that stings like crazy. So anyway, finding Jewish relatives is not only a surprise but leaves one wondering what the hell might have happened to the segment of the family that parted ways with the Jewish side of...

  I tried one of those genetic tracker things to see what my genetic make up might be. So I spit in the tube and put the tube in it's pre-addressed and postage paid box and off it went to the gene detectives and I waited for the results. I waited and waited and waited some more and after about a long while the results came back BUT, all the genetic detectives letter would say is "check with this web site." That is not what I expected. I followed the bullshit instructions inserted ever so neatly within the genetic detective letter and after some web-related 'issues' I found out I'm Norwegian, Scottish, and Irish. That's according to the genetic thingy. Having very few familial details to work with, I was mostly on my own to figure out exactly what I might be genetically and ethnically. I always figured I was just your ordinary and regular Amerikan mutt. Turns out I am as figured, your ordinary and regular Amerikan mutt but with some interesting twists. I fo...

  note - any use of the pronoun 'we' in this or any other context splattered on the pages of this here, refers to myself and my wife. just to be clear. Ode to Road we drove to the bottom of Life Elevated then drove back north up the Staircase the drive was spectacular reds the color of an angry god blue the color of clean sky yellow is everywhere pervasive and time seems to refuse a measure metric  or by some other means of understanding that's about all there is for today. TTFN :]

  We took a road trip to get away for a bit. Having been in virtual lockdown for the better part of over a year, well, we needed a change of scenery. One can only stare out the same window for not so very long. Anyway we went south. If one decides to travel north from where we live, you'd end up in Wyoming or Idaho. I've been to both and those places are not all they're cracked up to be. Not the scenery. Most of Idaho and Wyoming are geographically splendid. It's the people that are just a mite scary. So we tripped our way south and then back north and I've got a camera full of images that I've got to process. That's gonna take me a while. I'll post images as the images get spit out of the photo art machinery. I even wrote a poem. Ewww, is that about artistic or what. Probably just what. Onward to machine art. all the young girls love - boats float - and there you have it...Saturday surrealism or some crap that might be close. :]

  We took a road trip and it's been quite some time since we've been able to do that. The trip was wonderful and by all appearances, Amerika seems to be doing fine. By all outward appearances, it would seem that Amerika has survived the Covid pretty close to alright. However appearances can be deceiving. The Covid variants might just reek more death than the original. The CDC seems to be saying exactly that. Ain't not about a damn thing we can do about but to keep wearing those dang masks and get vaccinated. Get your vaccination and the shot doesn't really hurt at all. Okay and there'll be more about the road trip later on with road trip machine art. I have to process all the images I took. A damn camera full of imagery. Anyway it is good to be home safe and sound. Friday machine art coming up right about now... surreal good time - Friday fleur - TTFN ;}

  We're gonna drive to the bottom of 'life elevated' for a much needed time out. Having been in virtual lockdown for the better part of an entire year, well, it's time to go out and about. With masks and our CDC passport card thingy. So be back later on and TTFN. Some machine art to follow. touch the face of god - window framed - a photo excursion to be quite certain. :]

  Yes it's Sunday that ever so blessed 'day of rest' for some. Not everyone mind you, just some. Some folk don't get a day of rest and it really doesn't matter what religion says about it. Religion is more fantasy than it is anything other than that. Fantastic stories, fantastic rules, fantastic beliefs, and more simply fantastic expectations. Yes today is Sunday and so what. Jews and I believe Muslims find Saturday to be the day of rest. I'm not a theologian so I could be wrong here by about a day. I really don't care. Buddhists are open to Uposatha as a day of rest but not all Buddhists. Sikhs don't hold any particular day as sacred, all days are sacred. I missed any numbers of religions but hopefully you can catch my drift. The point being that in white anglo-saxon Amerika, Sunday is the day. Of course there is that glaring exception that applies to mass shooters. Any day is a restful day to load up them dang firearms and go out a shootin' to kill...

  Thar's hippos in them there waters. Oh yes there are. Hippopotami are alive and thriving in Columbia. South America Columbia. I did not know that but I know that now. I read the article on CNN. I'm gonna post a link to the article right about here - https://us.cnn.com/2021/04/16/americas/colombia-hippo-gothere-intl/index.html Back during the inglorious drug days of Columbia, yeah like that's all over now, Pablo Escobar gained fame and a vast fortune in the drug trade. Cocaine made Escobar almost a national hero in Columbia but eventually the drug trade got Escobar killed. So while all the drug trading was happening and the money was blowing in Escobar's direction, old Pablo imported himself a zoo replete with all the various types of animals that make up a post-narcotic zoo. Evidently Escobar liked foreign animals of the jungle kind. Of course Columbia has 'jungle type' environments but Escobar wasn't too happy with that. Anyway the guy created a zoo on hi...

More mass murder. It seems that just about every damn day there's another 'mass shooting' here in Amerika and on this Friday we've got us a verified two-for. A mass shooting in Indianapolis and another in San Antonio. Of course there were any number of murders/shootings that went under the media radar. These days only the best of the best mass murders receive any media attention. For a shooting/murder to qualify for media coverage there needs to be a significant body count, loads of chaos, plenty of late arriving cops and or swat teams, hysteria, ambulances galore, AND sobbing people for the media vampires to pester with endless and pointless questions. What did you see? Were you hurt? Did your friends get hurt? Did you know anyone that was gunned down? Is that a blood stain on your shirt? How many inane questions will you put up with before your punch this media star in the face? Oh I see, you're carrying a Glock so, did you think about shooting the shooter? Do you...

 The month of April is half over. Dang it if'n time doesn't just fly by when we're having fun. We are having fun...aren't we? Well life might be fun if there weren't all those senseless mass shooting events. Every day and all across the Amerika the gun nuts strap on those side arms and head for the grocery store. Or the mall or the movie theater or damn near anywhere loads of people are gathered. Of course after strapping on those side arm, the lunatics pick up their AR-15 assault rifles with extra ultra-loaded clips and commence to gunning down anyone within sight. Some of the gun bozos prefer those laser targeting red dot gizmos and then they can really shoot shit up. Yesterday in Arizona, two idiots strapped on their pistoles and had themselves a duel in the street. "Draw pardner...!" Those Arizona idiots shot each other. Where in hell is Matt Dillon when you need him? Or Wild Bill or Wyatt Earp or anyone with the sense to mandate some freaking gun cont...

  On this day in history, that J. W. Booth guy shot Abraham Lincoln. On this day in history American flyboys got into their first aerial dogfight over France in the first World War. On this day in history America bombed Libya and that was Ronnie RayGun that managed that fiasco. On this day in history the Soviet Union agreed to pull out of Afghanistan as the Soviet Union was getting their commie asses kicked by the Mujahadin. We know the Mujahadin today as the Taliban. Today or someday pretty darn close to today, Joe Biden will announce that he's planning to have all American troops pulled out of Afghanistan by September 11. That hasn't been any nation on the Planet that could subjugate the Afghan people for very long. On this day and every dang day through out recorded history, Wednesday is determined to be 'hump day'. What more needs be said? Hump Day is what it is...Hump Day! On to machine art. gorilla - Pablo platters - somebody cue the camel and lets get busy... ...

  The title sounds almost impressive but what it really means is I'm just making shit up as I keyboard along. In Utah local headlines, the crackers down in Washington County, Utah are pissed off to no end at Mittens Romney. Washington County, Utah domiciles St. George, Hurricane (pronounced her-cane), Ivins (pronounced evins), and Uncle Joe's Bottom and that's lovingly pronounced as Uncle Joe's Bottom. Washington County Utah is not exactly known for intellectually progressive thinking on any subject. So given that most of Washington County denizens are more than likely to be dragging their knuckles in the dirt as they prattle along, well, they're being pissed off at good ole Mittens is no surprise. In other news, wind is blowing along the Wasatch Front, Salt Lake Mayor Erin Mendenhall will step out of her office today so as to get her hair done, former Congressman Benny 'boy' McAdams is on a countywide search for relevance, and Utah mormons are having to do ...

  Yes my friends between the fatalities from the Covid-19 pandemic and the fatalities from mass shootings in this here 'land of the free to die', we're racking up some impressive numbers of dead from either/or. That is certainly nothing to brag about and I'm fairly convinced that being cynical about our daily existential struggles is one way to cope. Not necessarily the best way to cope but hell, works for me. Anyway and yes there were more Covid-19 deaths over the weekend and the mass shootings keep on piling up the bodies. Gad-ah-mighty, ain't living in Amerika pretty dang spiffy or what. Moving on to the machine before the next killer headlines hit the old Google news page. At least there's something to look forward to. an existential hillside somewhere - an existential mandala done in the surrealist fashion - TTFN and here's hoping we all make it to tomorrow. :/

  Djinn and the missing 'princess'. See the link - https://us.cnn.com/2021/04/10/middleeast/un-concern-princess-latifa-intl/index.html)   An Arab princess is come up missing and THE United Nations would like to know what's up with that. Seems Princess Latifa of the U.A.E. has vanished like an Arab Djinn. Whisked away unto an Arab mystery. Princess Latifa is one of the daughters of one Sheikh Mohammed Al Maktoum and Maktoum is king of the Emirates. That would be officially known as the United Arab Emirates. Seems good old Maktoum is having worlds of trouble with his kids. Darn kids can be a real pain for just about anyone living on or near Planet Earth. Anyway, Princess Latifa has been missing for a while and the United Nations wants to why and where she might be OR if the girl is even alive. The Maktoum people haven't exactly been forthcoming with any specific details about the girl being alive or you know, the opposite of that. Being alive. Arab monarchies deal with...

  With this day just getting underway and there's still plenty of time for another mass shooting with that prerequisite death and mayhem. Gun lovers new motto will be 'have guns then kill people!' Dang it, isn't Amerika just great? Amerika can't feed the hungry but Amerika can certainly supply all the assault weaponry and ammunition any fool gun-nut can cream their jeans over. Did you know that "Jesus" loves assault rifles and Glocks? Well he most certainly does and you can ask any klanvangelical and they'll tell you all about it. Guns, not "Jesus." You just might find out when it's too late that you should be packing an AR-15 to get into 'heaven'. Okay and now for some machine art without any assault rifles or Glocks.  trail head - lonesome tree - sad state of congressional affairs. :/

  We've made it to Friday. That's probably a good thing and there aren't too many days left in this week to go out and commit mass murder. Every freaking day it's a mass shooting here then a mass shooting over there but America can't have any form of gun control. So if you've a mind to avoid all the mass shooting and accompanying death, well, stay close to your home and keep a wary eye out for anyone packing an AR-15 assault rifle. That could be anywhere in America. I'll not be going to any great lengths to condemn the violence. There exists in America mountains of words, prattle, empty promises, and crocodile tears on the subject of guns and gun violence. No one cares and no one in any position of authority gives a flying fuck and is NOT listening to reason. Oh well... machine art. butterflies are free - Babylon and the end of objectivity - be safe everyone. :/

  Well there you go. Another mass shooting spree and more innocent Americans get to die. For no reason that is apparent at the moment. Investigating sheriff's office will release details on the shooting when details become available. Wow. Senseless violence IS the Amerikan way. Senseless violence with a gun or assault rifle. The worshippers of Amerika's Second Sacrosanct Amendment are cheering loudly for the shooter's constitutional right to "keep and bear arms" while murdering people that were unsuspecting of their impending doom. You'd think that at some point, rational minds would take the high ground in any debate on 'gun control' and make the point for less guns in Amerika. But that is not to be. Probably not now nor in any foreseeable future. A damn bloody future but...oh well. This round of pointless murder goes to a "former" NFL player that shot and killed his doctor, the doctor's wife, and the doctor's grandchildren. All form...

Yup, it's the very first Wednesday in the month of April 2021. That's why it's called 'first Wednesday'. So on this fine and springtime sunny first Wednesday of April go out and do something first. You know, like before anyone else does it. Whatever that "else" might be. Some ideas to consider for 'first Wednesday', do like those Amazon delivery people do and pee in a bottle then, if you happen to live in Florida, throw that bottle of pee on one of trump's Florida golf courses. Just use pee and don't use gasoline on account of the use of gasoline could and quite possibly be construed as "domestic terrorism" and we all know that the "domestic terrorism" tag is reserved almost exclusively for Capitol insurrectionists. You know, from back when on January 6, 2021 and the screwy fuckers went ape-shit on the U.S. Capitol. Go out and buy a gun. That would help all those horribly deprived and barely making it gun shop owners. Re...

  NCAA basketball is over for 2021. Mens and Womens Finals are done is done and the winners are...Stanford Cardinals on the womens side and Baylor Bears on the mens side. The women's final was actual basketball the way basketball is supposed to be played. Close all the way to the final buzzer. Stanford won their title the old fashioned way by exactly one point. Baylor on the other hand kicked Gonzaga's collegiate ass up one side of the court and back down the other side of the basketball court. Not even close. The 'Zags' shouldn't have been listening to all the pre-game hype. You see Gonzaga was "supposed" to win before the game had been played and golly, was that a mistake. Baylor evidently wasn't listening to all the 'Gonzaga' bullshit and so Baylor Bears are the national champs and the Gonzaga Bulldogs are the national chumps. Wasn't even close. Oh well, maybe next year eh? On a totally unrelated note, the cop trial of the century over t...

  Well here it is, the very first Monday in April 2021. Major League Baseball is underway, NCAA basketball is just about finished with 'pandemic era b-ball' go Zags', and spring is well underway. The springy birdies are back within the confines of the 'Land of Zion' although not in the numbers that the springy birdies used to gather in. That's more than likely due to climate change. Thanks to all those criminally nefarious corporate environmental polluters and their equally nefarious cronies that work for the criminally nefarious corporate environmental polluters. Did you happen to read about Florida and that "leaking toxic shit retention pond and hold on to your butts cause the dam's about to break and won't Florida have themselves a godawful mess then." Did you? Well you might want to get up to speed on that freaking disaster and guess who's to blame for the toxic "spill"...you guessed it, Florida rethuglican politicians that al...

  The very first Sunday of April 2021 is here and now. Oh yeah. Springtime is happening and the flowers, birdies, and squirrels are all outside doing their springtime thing. Yes and today is Easter. Here is a bright and cheery Easter Sunday message - "Man invented language to satisfy his deep-seated need to complain."...Rigmore Ingabitchen So for this here Easter Sunday 2021, NASCAR is holding a special '50 Lap Demolition Derby' at the CrackerAss Race Track in CrackerAss, Georgia. NASCAR will celebrate Georgia's recently passed law that disallows voting for anyone in Georgia that isn't "of the White race." That ought to be just loads of laughs. The NCAA will hold the Women's basketball final, pro golf will hold an Easter Sunday championship round of play somewhere that is sunny and pleasantly warm, MLB will be playing ball all around the country just not in Georgia, AND trump along with the Melanoma trump will make their annual appearance close t...

  Nothing says Easter weekend like college basketball. Yup. It's to be all basketball all the time. College basketball and not the parent NBA team basketball. The women's championship game will be University of Arizona against Stanford University. An all PAC-12 final and that has got to be a first ever matchup. NCAA Men's Final Four begins today and the women's championship game is tomorrow and that would be of course, Easter Sunday. Tell all the world, "She Is Risen" to new heights! That's a burn on those wacky christians going all 'Peeps' crazy at Easter. Basketball, back in the day, was quite enjoyable to watch. That's not the case these days. Basketball has been incentivized and profits are all that matter to the universities and the pros. Way back in the day we played full contact street basketball. That was almost nothing like the basketball you can watch these days. We didn't have referees or none of that. We simply went all out to g...