Thursday, September 03, 2009
Trevor’s moment of wild contemplation
Click above for full size
Click above for full size
If at work or at school
you’ve witnessed the rule
that each new day is worse than the last,
then you know of the feeling
from which I was reeling
when I realized the weekend had passed.
But while going to work,
with head hung low,
I thought of a brilliant plan.
when five came that night
I ran home to write
to Smithsonian’s janitor man.
I asked him, “Dear Pablo,
we’re both working Joes,
and we know what it’s like on the grind.
I know it is risky,
but if you assist me
I’ll pay you back someday in kind.
I don’t like my work,
my boss is a jerk—
or a pain-in-the-neck at least.
I need a reprieve!
That’s why I believe
It’s time that I cloned me a beast!
Specifically, I
have Pleistocene tastes,
That’s why I don’t ask for a dino.
But I would like a hair
from the fearsome but rare
Giant, extinct, Wooly Rhino.
Love,
Peter”
It was many weeks later
that the package arrived.
(The waiting was taking its toll.)
But all was forgot
when I saw what I got
and a note written in Espanol:
Joyful tears in my eyes,
I took up my prize
and rushed straight away to my lab.
“Ok Peter”
I thought.
Use the skills that you’ve got
to become a Rhinoceros Dad.
Despite Nature’s defiance
I cooked up some Science,
and after the time of gestation,
I raised up my head
and triumphantly said:
“Behold! My stunning creation!”
With unparalleled grace
I climbed up his face
And positioned myself as his captain.
As big as a bus,
and with two giant tusks,
my apartment had no way to trap him.
We rampaged through town
gaining respect and renown,
But I asked him to alter his pace.
“Hey, can we stop by work?
My boss is a jerk
And I want to say that to his face”
My rhino agreed
and with incredible speed
He ran to my place of employment.
I yelled to my boss
Where my job could tossed
Which gave me a lot of enjoyment.
After that, I was hopin’
Oprah’s schedule was open
So my Rhino and I could go shmooze.
As I went to send her
a text, I remembered!
A friend with a case of the blues.
And I said, “Rhino, TO THE SMITHSONIAN!”
When he saw us arrive
I said, “Pablo, why don’t you drive?”
And he climbed on aboard-it was swell!
I thought I would choke up
Because that’s when he spoke up
And put me straight back into hell. :-(
In Sinhalese Buddhism there are two types of karma. The first type moves you closer and farther from enlightenment, but does not effect your prospects for rebirth. It is altered through meditation, or other enlightenment-making activities. The other type is measured in ordinary life and is used to determine rebirth. Good actions, like donating food, are called “Ping,” which sounds like the noise made by ringing a happy little bell. Bad actions, like kicking a cat, are “Pau” (“pow”), which sounds like the noise a comic book punch makes.
These noises are handy reminders about what is happening to your future self with every act you commit. So say the Buddhists.
The drawing above is of a benign Sri Lankan demon. The symbol to the demon’s lower right is the Sinhalese for “ping”. The drawing was put onto an ancient notebook which I found in an old house in the jungle.
Yesterday was a big day so now I am slightly tired. There was a lot of thinking happening on this blog yesterday, and certainly I cannot maintain that level of rigor and accuracy.
Here is a drawing so stupid that it is not up for debate:
full size
This is a drawing I made after going to the aforementioned Sri Lanka. It depicts a stupa (holy site in Buddhism) as a series of weirdly shaped heads. Usually impressive things were put inside stupas, like Buddha’s begging bowl. Dead bodies are never put in stupas because Buddhists set dead people on fire.
Drawings based on dreams: Part 2
Once when I was sleeping I invented a story about a town that held a flower contest every year. In the story, the flower contest was very important, so everyone wanted to win. There was one man who wanted to win very badly. I am not sure why he wanted to win. Maybe it had to do with his childhood, or maybe he wanted to impress somebody he loved.
Anyway, for him it became an obsession, even though he would come in last place every year. Over time he grew very strange and lonely from working so much to improve his flowers. His heart grew very dark.
After many years no one saw this man anymore, but he was in his house creating strange and ghastly plans.
He invented a way of planting flowers where he would put the seed inside the mouth of a head and plant it so that all of that person’s ideas would go into the flower and make it beautiful. He experimented and it was working and producing beautiful, odd, and wonderful flowers.
Soon though he became very deranged with power, and started committing murders of neighborhood children in order to steal their heads to plant his flowers.
His garden grows more and more exotic and amazing because of all the ideas going into the flowers until one day, the children became zombies and came back for their heads.
The story ends with the zombies parading through town with these giant flowers on their heads that have grown because of all the ideas in their heads.
Drawings based on dreams: Part 1
This was a dream I had one night many moons ago. It started me drawing big eyes, which was my way for some time. It took me many tries to get this right because in the dream all of the parts were moving and very large.
Cyrus invented the name.
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I like to imagine a future history textbook including a description of the varieties of pirate culture circa 2009.
Here is a drawing of a lady in my neighborhood. She covers herself in a big plastic sheet which is not in the picture because it is see-through. In the mornings, when I walk to the bus, she is standing under the awning of a tailor shop.
full size
