Sunday... (2 Apr. 2023)... The day after setting up for the big PANDEMIC POSTCARDS show. I'm achy and my thumb and pointer finger on my still numb from nearly six hours of hanging postcards with pushpins! (OUCH!) Over 700 individual cards!!!) I posted a couple photos of the show on my Tweeterz page, should you care to have a peak:
https://twitter.com/richardfyates/status/1642305292716351488
- richardfyates
Anyway, let's get this show on the road by heading back into the distant past to that far-away time of...
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29 Mar. 2023
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"Like a Beam! Like a Ray!!!" by Richard F. Yates (Holy Fool)
[Felt pen, brush pen, and metallic marker on reclaimed cardboard with digital embellishments and color!] Coming at ya! Like a BEAM! Like a RAY!!! (My Howard Moon bug-bot is coming together pretty well!!!) ---Richard F. Yates (Holy Fool)
P.S. - This beast deserves to be cloned! Let's make about 101 of it, and let 'em go for a miniscule 0.013 #tezos each! (So stupid!) This will be a limited time offer!
https://objkt.com/asset/KT1F94smAkoLSgNT7PLaxYj7Ba1SKqXfGjsY/237
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[Posted to Typed.art]:
"DAY 102
I spent most of the day stuffing postcards into protective sleeves. The "COVID POSTCARD ART SHOW" starts on Saturday, and I'm still not quite ready, but I'm making progress!
What I think we all need, now, is a new playlist of tunes to listen to while we're finishing up the odds and ends for this weekend! Here are my suggestions:
[Just under two hours worth of music!]
---Peter Gabriel - "Big Time"
---Candy Flip - "Strawberry Fields Forever (Raspberry Ripple Remix)"
---Kite - "Ways to Dance"
---Bully - "Where to Start"
---Pixey - "Sunshine State"
---Pink Floyd - "See Emily Play"
---Blondie - "Living in the Real World"
---Ultra Vivid Scene - "Mercy Seat"
---Buzzcocks - "Everybody's Happy Nowadays"
---The B-52's - "Planet Claire"
---Adam and The Ants - "Don't Be Square (Be There)"
---The Lurkers - "Ain't Got a Clue"
---Bauhaus - "Swing the Heartache"
---Guru Josh - "Infinity (Original Mix)"
---The Sugarcubes - "Motorcrash"
---Duran Duran - "Nice (Johnson Somerset Atomic Ice Remix)"
---Microchip League - "Microchip League (Humatic Mix)"
---Veronica Falls - "Found Love in a Graveyard"
---Front 242 - "U-Men"
---Yello - "Vicious Games"
---Special AKA - "Gangsters"
---Wolf Colonel - "Know What the Story Is"
---Zero Zero - "Zeroxed"
---Fields of the Nephilim - "Preacher Man"
---Kepi and Friends - "Cuts You Up"
---The Jetsons - "Genetically Stupid"
---The Mothers of Invention - "Any Way the Wind Blows"
---Beth Orton - "Central Reservation (Spiritual Life / Ibadan Remix)"
---The Monkees - "Listen to the Band (Single Version)"
I could provide links to all these songs on YoooTooobs, but if you aren't actively involved in ACCESSING these songs yourself, you'll never truly appreciate them! (I am not full of shit... Quit laughing!)
That's it. Move along.....
---Richard F. Yates (Holy Fool and Demented Music Selector!)"
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30 Mar. 2023
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"Anxiety Self Portrait" by Richard F. Yates (Holy Fool)
[Felt pen on reclaimed cardboard with digital embellishments, color, and moshing.] If one could see inside, would they like what they find? Whence came the trouble? When the World met the Mind or when the Mind met the World? ---Richard F. Yates (Holy Fool)
https://objkt.com/asset/KT1F94smAkoLSgNT7PLaxYj7Ba1SKqXfGjsY/238
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"Writing on the Edge" by Richard F. Yates (Holy Fool)
[Colored pencil and gel pen on notebook page with significant digital processing and color manipulation.] The walls of the attic were covered in a strange, child-like scrawl. A mixture of symbols and phrases and crude sketches. The oddest fact was the complete lack of any children who have lived in the home. Not one since the structure was built. So where did the scrawls come from? And when did they arrive? ---Richard F. Yates (Holy Fool)
https://objkt.com/asset/KT1F94smAkoLSgNT7PLaxYj7Ba1SKqXfGjsY/239
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"Social Media" by Richard F. Yates (Holy Fool)
[Liner pen on notebook page with digital embellishments and color.] The robots are creating our future mental spaces. They are sculpting our final resting place, if we allow it. Personally, I prefer to paint my own! ---Richard F. Yates (Holy Fool)
https://objkt.com/asset/KT1F94smAkoLSgNT7PLaxYj7Ba1SKqXfGjsY/240
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[Posted to Typed.art]:
"DAY 103
I find myself in a rare situation: ALONE IN THE HOUSE. Frankie and her husband, Alec, have taken the granddaughter to tee-ball practice, and Mariah went with our younger daughter, Ellie, to play bingo. (Yes, some people still play bingo.) Meanwhile, I'm on my laptop listening to that playlist of tunes that I posted for DAY 102. Tomorrow, Mariah is going out of town for an optical seminar (she has to keep her optician's license up-to-date with "continuing education" credits each year, and so she goes to these conferences and conventions to take classes.) This means I will be sleeping alone tomorrow night and can therefore listen to techno, goth, and punk tunes all night long, if I choose to. (Mariah prefers a less boisterous sonic landscape for sleeping, but what's more calming than Alien Sex Fiend, Young American Primitive, and the Buzzcocks? Huh? Tell me!!!)
Yep.... Yep, yep, yep...
I'm doing the thing you AREN'T supposed to do when writing: Stopping to think about what I'm going to say next. That's not how FREEWRITING is meant to work, and I like to think of this as an execise in freewriting. (I'm always tempted to write "exercize," cuz I think the "zzz" sound should come from a "z," not an "s." Is that weird???)
I rewatched the 1973 film, THE LEGEND OF HELLHOUSE today. (I've got it on Blu-ray. It doesn't appear to be available on any of the streaming services that my family pays for.) It's a fun, schlocky haunted house film that TRIES to rely on the popular "scientific paranormal investigation" concepts of the day, primarily those involving ESP and "energy" research, as might have been discussed at the Society for Psychical Research or at Duke University's Psi investigation facilities. However, I particularly love the movie for the RIDICULOUS, over-the-top acting, specifically with the characters played by Roddy McDowall, Pamela Franklin, and Gayle Hunnicutt. When people get "possessed" in this movie, the actors fucking GO FOR IT! Very enjoyable (for someone like me...) I seen the film several times, and I still enjoy it! (Maybe this weekend I'll crack out my COUNT YORGA discs for a vampire double feature!)
Anyway, back to something I started to talk about two paragraphs back: These Typed.art posts are not meant to be POLISHED works of literature or whatever. These are more like a public performance of my head and how it splinters, goofs, and explores various tangents. Quite theraputic, and in a past life I discussed with a Philosopher friend of mine how I often use writing as a form of meditation. Some folks might not get that, but if you've ever been able to LET GO and just allow the words to pour forth (CREATING SOMETHING OUT OF NOTHING, I might add), I can be surprising how odd and intriguing the end product of such a session can be. Characters sometimes do things I wouldn't expect them to do. Ideas end up on the page that I didn't even know I was entertaining. Things HAPPEN. It's all very exciting. Something that is going on inside of BRAINS is very strange - MYSTERIOUS - and although I don't know exactly what is happening, I've had several decades of experience MESSING AROUND IN THERE to see what freakish treasures I can find...
And this platform is my newest mess. Not every entry will be interesting, but the PROCESS is far more important to me than the END PRODUCT. And it's my dime. If you are uninterested, feel free to walk away - no hard feelings - but if you entertain voyeuristic tendencies, it might be profitable to stop by and PEEP in here every once in a while, just to see what's up! K.O.??? Sure. Why not... 7 6 5 4 3 2 1...... Bye!
----Richard F. Yates (Holy Fool)"
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"Utterly Chicken" by Richard F. Yates (Holy Fool)
[Felt pen on reclaimed cardboard with digital embellishments and color removal.] A critter to be reckoned with! Look at that sinister, steely gaze in its eye! Horrifying! ---Richard F. Yates (Holy Fool)
https://objkt.com/asset/KT1F94smAkoLSgNT7PLaxYj7Ba1SKqXfGjsY/241
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"Conspicuous Repair" by Richard F. Yates (Holy Fool)
[Colored thread and fabric on ancient pants with digital drawing.] For the last several years, I've done most of my clothes mending with brightly colored thread. (My usual wardrobe is noir, of course.) These particular pants (which are more than 15 years old) were repaired by my older daughter, Frankie (who has a sewing machine - FANCY), but she used a lovely purple thread to attach this patch to my pants. I'm pleased with the outcome, and I'm hoping that my example shows how FUN it can be to fix your clothes instead of throwing them away and buying an expensive new piece of junk! Are you with me? ---Richard F. Yates (Holy Fool)
https://objkt.com/asset/KT1F94smAkoLSgNT7PLaxYj7Ba1SKqXfGjsY/242
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31 Mar. 2023
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[Posted to Typed.art]:
"DAY 104
I went back to what I'm pretty sure was my first blog entry (I'd only heard of blogging because of a class I was taking, INTERACTIVE FICTION, that explored the intersection of culture and technology.) See if you can spot a phrase that I still use in this more high-high-tech, current social media landscape:
'friday, october 29, 2004
001: Fear of Death--Something to Laugh About...
Here’s what I want everyone to know. I’m a writing junkie. I spent a good chunk of this summer working on what I called 'The Forced Writing Project.” The idea behind this project was that writing about anything that was on my mind, even boring, stupid, seemingly unimportant stuff was better than no writing at all. Part way through the project, I came to the conclusion that what I was REALLY doing was creating a little time capsule so that my wife and kids would be able to look back and see who I was, or what I felt like writing about anyway, once I was a pile of ashes... (I’m not in the mood to be buried. I don’t want to be one of those assholes that comes back from the dead and has a hankering for brains. Burn my ass! It’s better for everyone that way...)'
If you are a masochist and want to read more of my old writing, here is a link to that old blog... (I've had many, MANY blogs since then...):
https://electricsedative.blogspot.com/
WAIT!!!! As I was looking for that web address right above this paragraph, I came across an EVEN OLDER entry on an EVEN OLDER blog that I was forced to start writing for the class that I mentioned above! (Ha!) Here's a link to my very, VERY, REALLY first blog entry:
https://giantspacerobotsintherapy.blogspot.com/2004/08/
Not that any of this means anything. It's just interesting to me that blog posts I wrote nearly 20 years ago are still (relatively) easily accessible. Absolutely bizarre. It's also interesting that SOME of the blogs and online materials that I've published HAVE "gone away." I used to have a music page on MP3.com, and that's gone now. I had several "PROJECT" blogs on MySpace, but all of those disappeared, aside from my personal "Richard F. Yates" page, when MySpace crashed and burned... So SOME stuff is still there - some is gone - and LOTS and LOTS of my creations are in boxes stacked in my garage and in closets and in towering piles around the house, inlcuding JOURNALS that I've written going all the way back to when I was 7 years old and my Mom brought me a "locking" diary home from a trip she took to Reno, Nevada. (She knew I liked to write even back then!)
Keeping the dream alive, I guess!
---Richard F. Yates (Holy Fool)"
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1 Apr. 2023
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"Self Portrait (Green Face)" by Richard F. Yates (Holy Fool)
[Felt pen on reclaimed cardboard with digital embellishments and color.] Some days, I just feel a little green. We call it being "TATERED!" Tonight, after a long day of pin pushing, I'm definitely feeling a bit inhuman... ---Richard F. Yates (Holy Fool)
https://objkt.com/asset/KT1F94smAkoLSgNT7PLaxYj7Ba1SKqXfGjsY/243
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"Low & Behold" by Richard F. Yates (Holy Fool)
[Felt pen on reclaimed cardboard with digital embellishments and color.] I think it's a legitimate question... ---Richard F. Yates (Holy Fool)
https://objkt.com/asset/KT1F94smAkoLSgNT7PLaxYj7Ba1SKqXfGjsY/244
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"Over and Over (2 mar. 23)" by Richard F. Yates (Holy Fool)
[Ballpoint pen on notebook page with digital embellishments and color.] One of my favorite forms of entertainment is creating "automatic poetry." Rik Mayall's character in the ancient British punk t.v. show, The Young Ones, called it FREESTYLING. These written experiments rarely make sense, but that's half the fun... Maybe ALL of the fun. (I'll have to check with my accountant...) ---Richard F. Yates (Holy Fool)
https://objkt.com/asset/KT1F94smAkoLSgNT7PLaxYj7Ba1SKqXfGjsY/245
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[Posted to Typed.art]:
"DAY 105
Took about six hours to set up the postcard show today. Between the four people there working to put the show up, we used push-pins to attach between 700 and 1,000 individual works of art at the Koth Gallery on the first floor of the Longview Public Library in Longview, Washington, USA. My back is really unhappy with me, and the thumb and pointer finger on my right hand are STILL kind of numb (in a sore, burning sort of way.) The show looks great, though, so it was probably worth the effort (and pain!)
Meanwhile, here's the essay that I wrote explaining what "mail art" is and why it's cool:
'WHAT IS MAIL ART?
Mail art, also called “postal art,” is a movement in which artists prefer to bypass the traditional art world of museums and galleries, which tend to put a major focus on the monetary value of art. Instead, mail artists send their works, for FREE, directly to one another.
It’s not about “getting rich.” It’s about connecting and sharing.
The artworks created by mail artists can be anything from handmade postcards to collages or modified objects, zines, or anything that can be sent through the postal system. Pieces received by artists will often be remixed, remade, and sent out to other artists, in a system known as “add-and-pass,” based on participation and inclusion.
The reason that this form of art distribution is preferred is that it makes WHO can create and collect art more democratic and egalitarian. Anyone can make art. Anyone can send art. Anyone can collect art. Elitism, professionalism, and “perfection” are rejected in favor of a supportive, uplifting, “DO-IT-YOURSELF,” and FUN atmosphere. Mail artists want EVERYONE to make and share art, not to sell for millions of dollars, but because creating and sharing artwork makes people feel good!
HELPS PEOPLE FEEL ALIVE.
Simply put, MAIL ART IS FREEDOM. Do your thing.
—Richard F. Yates (Holy Fool)
[Zine maker since 1989. Mail artist since 2005.]
For more info, I’d recommend checking out:
THE INTERNATIONAL UNION OF MAIL-ARTISTS
https://iuoma-network.ning.com'
I could write more, but I'm wrecked and ready for bed!
---LATER!!!"
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That's probably enough for this post, too... CHA!
---rfy (HF)