Neutral-divinity - Neutral Divinity - Tumblr Blog

Ken Gun Min (South Korean, b. 1976, Seoul, South Korea, based Los Angeles, CA, USA) - Ambiguous Yoga Club in Runyon Canyon, 2022, Mixed Media: Oil, Korean Powder on Canvas

(06/11/21)

Mausoleum of Archbold

The architecture on this one.. Byzantine and Eastern Ortho. obviously evident by the dome and arches. The immaculate filigree, the stained glass mosaic above the door, the door itself down to the mirrored birds-of-paradise... where is this inspiration among the architecture of the living?!

No real details on who was interred here, but by the impressiveness someone of means and meaning.

(06/11/21)

Mausoleum of Rockefeller

Look at this monolith! Walked about it and every member or adjacent member of his family was lined about it (they got flat slabs.. lol).

I mean everyone.. even brother/sister in laws who were tangentially connected. You wanna talk about dynastic patriarchs.. look no further for an American example.

Of note, and you can see it at the corner of the door.. was a wilted bouquet of flowers left there.. maybe it was just me, but being around it I had the sense of being watched.

(06/11/21)

This was one of my highlights.. the Ivy growing over the stone facade, the color gradient of the leaves and that little door with the hourglass. Simple yet evocative, at least to me.

(06/11/21)

Stopped in Sleepy Hollow and visited the cemetery.

Was mainly there to see Washington Irving, and the other hallmarks surrounding it. Found out Rockefeller and Carnegie were interred there, as well as the many other interesting bits of grave architecture.

So expect many more pics to be interspersed.

Dead Souls

Someone take these dreams away That point me to another day A duel of personalities That stretch all true realities

That keep calling me They keep calling me Keep on calling me They keep calling me

Where figures from the past stand tall And mocking voices ring the halls Imperialistic house of prayer Conquistadors who took their share

That keep calling me They keep calling me Keep on calling me They keep calling me

(06/04/21)

Pulled off on a long return drive from U-NY just to take this. Saw the sun peek and the mist rolling off the hills and had to stop. Wish the road was less in the shot, but I did what I could..

I swear I met the artist who makes these in a country bar almost a decade ago.. If I recall correctly she "just likes putting ghosts in paintings" If I'm right glad they're appreciated.

This is as good as folks calling arm-chair general observer types "Hoi4-Brains" kek (Also don't know what folks do most games, but I can't recall ever having a revolt in any Civ entry. Do what you can with what you got or get building/expanding)

(11/08/20)

Distant skyline of Sacramento, CA

Friend I was out with on work wanted to stop into the city proper for food. Had some ramen and a couple Sapporo's at place on the main strip near Fremont Park.

Something about this makes it feel like a non-place though. Fall leaves in Cali? Non-descript. buildings you could place anywhere? Don't get me wrong it's a nice view, but you don't get much out of it outside of me reflecting on my own personal recounting of that day.

Retrospective

(09/26/2020)

Quick photo of a lake we were doing a trail circuit of outside of Syracuse, NY.

The lavender hues reflected from above always make me stop and study this again.

Brings the memories back as well, quiet discussion beneath a canopy of leaves, the damp smell of the forest floor, and evening bird songs.

I think there's a very minute chance of it's authenticity if you bear with me.

2nd century would be Rome at it's maximal extent and I think people don't give enough credit to the amount of osmosis that existed between the Near and Far East at this time.

I know there is the notion of the Silk Road allowing Rome and China to have had chance interactions and trade by proxy or even directly during this period.

Another route that I think deserves it's credit is the (Red Sea->Gulf of Aden->Arabian Sea) the Ptolemies made investments into the peninsular port of Berenice Troglodytica in their time (both for gemstone mining and far flung trade imports) to reach out into this area.

After Egypt was subsumed by Octavian and the Roman Empire was established they continued investments and use, even later elevating Berenice to having it's own prefect signifying it's import/scale of development to them.

You also have the Arab nomads and traders (Sabaeans/Himyar/Hadramaut) and the mirrored East African kingdoms/city states (Aksum/Opone/Mosylon) all making forays into the Greco influenced former satraps of Alexander along the Iranian and Indian coasts and even to Sri Lanka.

I don't have personal study or evidence of Austronesian trade at this time, but I imagine even well before the Majapahit Empires time the Strait of Malacca and the greater Indonesian Archipelago were a hotbed of maritime trade.

Chain this together with the Polynesian expansion who (it is debated) may have reached the Galápagos Islands and Juan Fernández Islands or in a reverse linking may have had some trade links with Chumash expeditions off of the Californian coast and a very tangential avenue for linkage between the Old and New World exists.

Maybe a living Macaw or two exported or some minor depiction of one? Could have arrived in Japan/Korea/China and made it's way along the land route or through the great chain of maritime trade I elaborated? All very speculative, but recent archaeological finds are hinting at a much more inter-connected Old World.

Much more likely to be a fraud as suspicion implies, but reality is bizarre, granular, and coincidental and I get too much fun out of speculating on crazy little niches in history.

(https://pcma.uw.edu.pl/en/2019/04/17/berenike-2/) - Berenike Project excavating the site where they've found oils, spices, and other materials from India including a statue of a Buddha

(https://web.archive.org/web/20170204143633/http://legacy.fordham.edu/Halsall/ancient/periplus.asp) - The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, translation of a travelogue by a trader in these areas in the 1st century

(https://heritageofjapan.wordpress.com/2016/10/01/how-did-3rd-4th-c-roman-coins-end-up-in-the-12th15th-c-katsuren-castle-on-okinawa/) - Of course the Roman coins found back in 2016 that made waves of speculation. Although as has been acknowledged they could have been floating around in coffers from anywhere, or most likely the Ottomans who made great use of the same area for trade and then some.

uhmmm losing my mind a bit, why is there a macaw (new world parrot!) depicted on a supposed roman (2nd century) mosaic sold through christie's in 2003? Am I blind? Are there in fact old world parrots that look more like macaws than I am aware of? No, right? Did I spot a decades old antiques fraud through just...looking for depictions of birds in the ancient world? I don't think the Romans had macaws and that very much looks like a macaw...

"A ROMAN MARBLE MOSAIC PANEL Circa 2nd Century A.D. Composed of minute tesserae in multiple shades of red, green, black, gray and tan on a cream ground, the rectangular panel centered by an elegant water-filled krater with a trumpet-shaped foot, wide flaring mouth and vertical voluted handles, a parrot and a greenfinch perched on either side of the rim, the greenfinch dipping to take a drink, its tail uplifted, a chaffinch on the upper left pecking at a floral, a large partridge below, its wing unfolded, facing right and pecking at foliage, and a pileated woodpecker bottom right, facing left, with additional foliage in the field."

Amazing photos.

Being on flights again a few years ago had me with the same child-like wonderment (outside of reading or napping) I was staring out the window.

"Familiarity breeds contempt" type of situation I guess? Fifth flight in a month and thirtieth of the year causes the novelty to wear off? Seen the scenery enough times, now you complain about the jaded stewardess and warm Sprite she gave you..

Don't travel like that anymore, but it didn't get old for me to recognize how bizarre it was to be careening through the sky in comfort with a bird's eye view of this lovely rock.

while everyone else on the flight has their windows closed and eyes glazed over staring at hollywood goyslop i'm sitting next to an old swiss man who looks like vyacheslav molotov, staring out our window at the beauty of greenland and northern canada passing us below.

almadullilah the arctic circle is most beautiful of all

@segemarldoodles Although.. I acknowledge your not trying to own Burger suburbs, you just have an absurd fascination with people being packed into sardine can built environments.

People simping over Chinese mega-blocks to ‘own’ suburban Americans.

Fucking weird but all right. Cream yourself over your poorly built firehazards. 

(10-05-2020)

Out on the very end of Charlotte Pier in Rochester, NY. Standing on Lake Ontario effectively. Gave you Canucks the finger (I kid, love ya leafs) and caught a sunset.

(10-23-20)

Pics from a trip to Boston with friends, top one of the skyline is a personal favorite.

Amazing, it's always the passing snippets. Save room themes, little credit roll tracks, or in this case end game screens. You want more, but it'd probably overstay it's welcome.

(11-07-20)

Sunset at Lake Tahoe

From back during my travels, got a bit of a taste of the Golden State. Sunsets definitely earn it the name.

Friend I made out there that shepherded me through some adventures said "Everyone'll think you edited this" photographer himself and he couldn't believe our luck in catching it.

(11-21-20)

Flight over Philly, love cityscapes at night.

Always reminds me of my favorite NEO-Scavenger track:

(https://soundcloud.com/invisible-acropolis/over-the-city?in=invisible-acropolis/sets/neo-scavenger-soundtrack)

(First visit to the DMC was a vibe in that paired with this track)

Will have to come up with something to submit myself, but join in too if you see this and have inspiration.

Zine 01 - Pop Rock with NIIC the Singing Dog

Hey everyone, I finished setting up the website and submission backend for the Zine project, so if you want to submit some art for the zine, request a few copies in the mail, or just check it out once the PDF is up, come on over and check it out!

As said in the tite, this issue we're teaming up a local Philly muisician NIIC the Singing Dog, and the theme is nebulously Pop Rock, so any art, writing, or even music you wanna submit should somewhat be in theme, but feel free to interperate however you you'd like!

Art for a competition (https://twitter.com/AnimalRoyale/status/1668666968335953920) from my friend @segemarldoodles. Comparing the two a damn good reinterpretation, hope it gets top place!

A good camera, a proper photoshop crop, and no telegram compression, and I'm super proud if this.

Super Dance Hall Scene - Acrylic on canvas - Kyle Powers, 2023

"Again.."

Ash escapes yellow steeples

refreshed aspect

to when the eagle clipped it's wings

Icarus tumbles

flailing against fate

would he rather have faced the flames?

At first there was pain

hindsight removed

So absurd it seemed

that laughter took it's place

"Again..."

Here hollow now, it reaches it's ever determined end

Bled like promise preceded

wishing ever that

wings would sprout

and bear us from this fate

The Millennial conundrum in a nutshell, and the Zoomer inheritance. Stretched between two nodes of being.

The former unplugged or at least existing in a foundling state with a "lag time" in account. The latter present state of hyper-reality, instantaneous global granular clarity. Always in reach by a multitude of opt-in or status quo mandated routes of inter-connection

Said it many times before in personal conversations. The long read of history gives us a human experience of the former being local and at the highest level regional in consideration. ~40,000+ years of "firmware and software" pre-programmed for such a mode of being meeting a decadal global consciousness being established and integrated. Think that's going to cause some dysfunction and growing pains, wouldn't you?

I'll say it and say it again. "All too much, too fast, too soon.."