Apparently some mushrooms be dried and blend into a powder can be used in place of ground coffee. We’re talking reishi, cordyceps, lion’s mane, shitake, Chaga etc… I’m not sure I’d drink such a beverage, yet in a coconut yogurt….why not.
I have to say the mushrooms I chose to model for the drawing are none of the above, but are the still *naughty* and illegal liberty caps. Love the name, don’t understand why they are deemed dangerous by the F*D*A. Could it be maybe because there’s the war on consciousness is still going on since Mr Nixon came to power?
Steampunk and the Mushroom. Copyright Florence Vitel. Sept 2023
Mushrooms: I enjoy hunting them in the woods, cooking them, sharing a delicious meal with mushrooms with friends and family. My favorites are chanterelles, morels and lion’s mane (tastes like crab cake, when made with the right seasoning).
Unlike some of my former university friends, I’ve never tried shrooms, yet have listened with great curiosity the plea of Paul Stamets to decrim’ the usage and growing of psylocibe fungi, as healing devices for various ailments and as a way to access deeper ( higher😉?) levels of consciousness.
Coloring books are all the rage. They are supposed to calm the stressed urbanites, soothe anxiety and create peace of mind.
I love to draw and create images with Indian ink.
I have indeed observed that when I draw in the evening, I have access to a better quality of sleep. Insomnia seems to be put in a checkmate position.
So I decided to create a coloring book. For other insomnia sufferers or just art-loving kindred spirits that appreciate a touch of magic or fantasy, unafraid to use their imagination to see beyond the mundane of everyday objects. Somethings a bit like that ( see below)
A new King is about to ascend to the British throne.
It will be a jolly good reason to throw a party. Like for the Jubilee, many here will join the festivities and celebrations. It may not be Coronation Chicken and trifle or Pimm’s but more probably Prosecco, bubbly, scones, and BBQ.
I’ll probably join one or throw a party myself for the Pimm’s aficionados among my friends. Who knows, life’s full of surprises!
I’ve made this bunting with the official emblem of KCIII, what do you think?
I’ve created matching cake toppers, fun quotes, and invitations.
When seemingly senseless or outrageous events occur, one question is always on my mind: Cui bono? (Latin for: Who benefits from this? I’ve studied Latin for 7 years at school, might as well be put to use once in a while)
This next November will mark the 60th anniversary of sad events.
On Monday 25th November 1963, three men were buried, after they’d been assassinated, all part of the same curious case. How strange.
Two were supposedly killed by the third, who would be shot 2 days later by a shady character, a strip club owner, with ties to the mob and probably government agencies.
One of them was the 35th President of the USA, JFK.
The second was a policeman of Dallas PD, JD Tippit, a striking JFK lookalike.
The third was a covert CIA operative (but never acknowledged as such later by the agency), Lee Harvey Oswald. He was also the pasty, the fall guy, without a motive to kill a president.
Bizarre. It inspired me to create this ink drawing. (below).
Lee Harvey “Patsy” Oswald- Ink drawing copyright FV Jan 2023
I like logic, I like when facts make sense or can be explained with solid coherence and congruity. I’m rational and have a no-nonsense approach to things.
Blurred zones of mist and foggy explanations irritate me. I don’t suffer fools gladly, especially when some of those fools think they are smartasses that think we (the public) are too stupid to put straight facts together, point out loopholes, and draw our own conclusions.
In that respect, I never subscribed to the narrative of one lone nut killer in Lincoln’s, MLK’s, JFK’s or RFK’s cases…
Because so many people had to gain from those deaths on political, economical, social, military, and civil rights levels that it’s just too good to be true or coincidental that those reformers and progressists suddenly, at the most opportunistic time, become the target of an alleged nut job, and that things don’t change.
Edgar J Hoover, the FBI director, could produce within the next hour after the shots were fired on Dealey Plaza and JFK was rushed to Parkland hospital and died, a complete profile of the ex-marine and secretly (but that was denied by the agencies at the time) covert CIA operative and “lone shooter” Oswald.
How convenient.
A fabricated profile would be a better rendition of the reality that prevailed at the time.
JFK- JD Tippit composite split image
Now, the only question that begins to provide an answer is:
Cui bono? Who benefits from the crime(s)?
Who benefits from JFK being out of the way and no longer here to promote peace, integration, and equal civil rights, as well as his brother, Attorney General RFK on a mission to dismantle the mafia?
Who gained from an ex-marine, supposedly a defector of the USA for Russia, a covert CIA agent, being labeled the killer of a president, so that any deeper investigation would immediately stop?
Who benefited from the lookalike of JFK being shot too around the same time? Could it be so that he would serve as his double for the president’s autopsy photoshoot?
Before blasting : “Conspiracy theory!”, ponder for a moment.
Why are there so many inconsistencies, discrepancies, contradictory pieces of evidence, falsifications, magical appearance or problematic disappearing of evidence, conversations in reports, testimonies, notes, records, tapes, footage, etc?
Why, why, why? Who gained from all this?
Newly declassified documents and archives are now accessible and provide documents that shed light upon many zones that have remained murky or deliberately been muddied until recently.
If the theory of the lone shooter who allegedly fires 5 shots which among them 3 are fatal, through the foliage in less than7 seconds, on a moving target, (with one bullet making twists and turns up in the air to harm 2 men in 4 different spots) and doesn’t miss his target, makes you question the official narrative, I leave it to you to do a little digging…
Even the JFK Presidential and Library Museum website leaves room for thoughts on this, stating that: “Bullets struck the president’s neck and head and he slumped over toward Mrs. Kennedy. The governor was shot in his back.”
If you’re ok with the Warren Commission findings, I hope this post has not stirred your beliefs.
But yes, really, the key to the mystery resides in the many answers (that declassified documents can now provide) to this simple question: Cui bono?
Because the women are naked or half naked while the men are fully clothed (with dark and quite heavy clothing, no less). And the foreground man seems to be pontificating. He’s wearing the hat of some students of the time.
As a woman, I felt it to be offensive. And I didn’t like, and still don’t, the display of patronizing way to, once more, assert a supposed superiority of male over female humans. So, pen being mightier than sword, here’s my countermeasure to this ongoing sexism.
It seems to me that the stark contrast shows how shocking it is, because it’s a seldom seen reverse of the “roles”. And it reveals how groomed we have been into thinking it’s ok to see a naked woman sitting between those two clothed men, with her female friend, half naked (or half dressed), knee deep in the pond behind them. Curious.(Original painting below).
This type of fantasist painting also reinforced in the collective consciousness the idea that it’s acceptable for women to be gallivanting in rivers in their undies or have luncheon naked.
Don’t get me wrong, I know it shocked people at the time, just as I was unimpressed when I first saw it. It brought fame to the painter as well as controversy, as Manet knew perfectly well how to use it ( look no further than his “Olympia”).
Art historians deemed this painting his most famous, because Manet brought nature into his painting to a perfect rendition. Ok, maybe. Probably here, fame (because of scandal) morphs into remarkable execution. Yet, I’m not convinced. I’d rather they were ALL naked…
And the fact that the woman breaks the “4th wall”, while unclothed could be read as an invitation for later… intimate games.
It also indicates a rule being broken by Manet.
It’s not a portrait, it’s a group painting. Looking at us, this young lady is showing she’s unashamed of her naked body (a good thing in my book), but in 1863, it could be read differently. And it sure sparked notoriety and controversy. The former because of the latter.
But still….
What kind of idea is that, if not another desire to portray women in a less than respectful way?
This is part of the so called “celebration of femininity” and beauty of the female body.
It’s just another lie to objectify women, evacuating their soul and personnality (and their consent maybe too?) of the equation and letting them know that they have nothing to say about it.
It’s also a trickster way to brainwash visitors into thinking that it’s the way things are and must be perpetuated.
This painting maybe a feat in terms of….. impressionist craft…. but it’s rubbish as to what message it aims at delivering and it’s time society stops celebrating art that devaluates this half of humankind.
Curiously, painting naked female body it ok. But painting or drawing naked male body and you’re bound to receive a warning, even be flagged as offensive and rated R. (hence the little club I had to put on the private parts of this gent for viewer sensitivity and to avoid to shock wordpress) .
As long as its not showing signs of … action… why should it be?
Why naked female body is ok and not male naked body? Why AGAIN a difference of treatment?
Just my thoughts here, a bit more grave pondering than usual. Bc as Mr Chew said, it’s out showing that the truth is worth fighting for.
Truth hath prevailed. Copyright Florence Vitel
The verdict has been given, and Johnny Depp wins. And with this, it’s all the silenced victims of arrogant abusers that, in a way, win. The gain here is the awareness being brought to unseen abuse, that happens between two ordinary sentences, actions, smiles, even. Behind closed doors, when there’s no witness. The other beneficial thing is that maybe now abused men will be taken seriously and get the strength to speak up. Behaviors like his abuser inflicted on him are seldom understood by those who have the luck not to have been exposed to it for years. Too often, the abusers are deemed “difficult” to cope with, by not intimate or close family members that do not experience it first hand. They are not difficult, they’re cruel, they choose to behave that way, they never take responsibility for what they do and they complain about everything regarding their victims.
This trial matters because the abuse that occurs behind closed doors is doubly damaging because people unaware of such behaviours can simply not fathom what it’s like to b on eth receiving end.
This trial matters, because narcissism has been too long discarded as a particular “irritability” of the perpetrators, and such actions, the verbal abuse have gone unchallenged, unpunished, and uncalled, for too long. The Meetoo wave has brought awareness to unwritten rules rampant within the movie industry, the beneficial result being that narcissism was brought to daylight, The personality of 45th president, being the narc he is, with many of his outrageous remarks, has been analyzed by experts and psychologists, and as his gross disrespect and despise for disabled, veterans, women, scouts, religions, etc… has been named for what they are : traits of a narc PD. Thus bringing into the common language and to ordinary people tools and words to understand what they might have been exposed to for so long, but for which they had no way to comprehend aside from a one-fits-all category: difficult.
BPDs and narc personality disorder are better understood, as they are detailed, and documented like never before. Body language experts help us understand the subtleties and signs, psychologists put names on all the manipulation and conniving techniques and tools they use to ensnare their victims. By explaining and giving access to a vocabulary and linking them with patterns of behaviors, they give the abused a path to having their pain and suffering, the very fabric of their painful reality, a possibility first to be precisely mapped out, understood, and recognized. And a path to healing. A key to self-restoration and closure. It gives them space and provides strategies to protect themselves, t finally being able to respond without being invalidated by the abuser. It allows victims to shake off the guilt because society demands we act a certain way. If the abuser is an aging parent, the abused child must nonetheless “honor” and sometimes provide for the said abuser. Well, it begs to consider if an abuser, because he/she is aging, must therefore be forgiven and get away with the cruelty and abuse he/she chose to inflict because it’s easier for a society to close its eyes a little longer to things that prove all is not rosy in modern western civilization.
This trial also draws attention to the fact that men can also and are abused. And shall not be mocked. Johnny Depp had et courage to set his life under the microscope, to get to the truth and have it recognized for what it is. He’s given a voice to silenced abused men, and he’s helped silenced victims of quiet and devastating abuse share their pain and have it recognized and validated. In a good way.
On a personal level, this trial has brought me so much closure, bc my mother is the same type of abuser. This verdict, the awareness it allows, feels like a breath of fresh air.
Johnny Depp is not only an great actor and musician but also a fab painter.
He has decided to sell his NFT (Never Fear Truth, brilliant tongue in cheek play on NFTs) collection, & parts of the proceedings will go to Children Hospital Charities.
And regarding what’s happening in Fairfax, it seemed appropriate to recycle this advice, Never Fear the Truth and incorporate it in this ink piece.
So this drawing is a lil’ homage to this good soul.
November, 18th 1922. It’s a cold gray morning in Paris, temperatures plummeted, and the following week would be colder.
This was the day when Marcel Proust, unforgettable author A la Recherche du temps Perdu, or In Remembrance of Things Past (nowadays retitled In Search of Lost Time, less poetic, if more accurate), would die.
He’d been finishing correcting and editing his last Opus, the last tome of the Recherche, with his devoted Celeste, his governess, until 3.30 am.
Too soon gone, a genius writer, forever connected with a delightful cake, the madeleine. And forever linked to Normandy too, Cabourg, more precisely, which was the model for the fictional town of Balbec.
Because how would one spend their time while awaiting the hair rolls to do their magic?A lil’ browsing, a lil’ scrolling, a lil’ nicotine inhaling.Just a little, innocuous. Can stop whenever…But surreptitiously, inconspicuously it creeps in…And so groweth the addiction.
The attraction to all things new, flashy, shiny is deeply embedded in the human psyche, that’s why new toys are difficult to resist.
That’s also why attraction to said new toys doesn’t last long and needs constant renewal.
Smartphone, tech and highly addictive apps related to “social media ” are designed to trigger in the psyche the same reaction as new shiny toys and induce the pursuit of the gratification they procure.
Damages caused by these tech and apps are being studied and documented, yet their propagation and access to younger minds is not thwarted. It’s difficult enough as a teen or a grown up to resist the temptation of round the clock entertainment…. so for youngers, imagine….
Café culture addict 