For some reason, in 2017, artist Hayato Kageyama decided to draw this caricature of me. I have never met Hayato, and when I thanked him for the drawing he posted of me on his Twitter account, he never replied. This is one of the odd, and curious – but cherished! – gifts of my life!

Hayato Kageyama caricature of David Boles

The beast only buzzes once, but stings twice. Once when you’re looking. The second when you’re staring away.

#AI #AIart #Midjourney #Wasp

A black and gold wasp.

“I’m funny how, I mean funny like I’m a clown? I amuse you? I make you laugh? I’m here to f*cking amuse you?”

#AI #AIart #Midjourney #Clown #Goodfellas

Crying Clown.

And the Pale Rider was upon us in snakes of dust and bloodlets of lust, leading us unto death, daring us with pride from Hell, and trailing us with the cold bones of the grave, reminding us of not just what we’d left behind, but what we’d become.

#AI #AIart #Midjourney

A red Pale Rider on a white horse.

The exploration of imagination saves us from the ordinary life, the average life; the life of an unforgiven stasis. When we gamble on the unknown, and its promise of a more dangerous tomorrow, we are becoming the promise of the pioneer, floating, but touching solid ground.

#AI

Astronaut on a field of blossoms.

We live in the Panopticon, not the Public Square. We are not here to be heard. We are here to be watched, observed, corrected, and punished for snaking outside the norm of expectation. Of course, we’re told it’s an honor to be watched, creeped upon, at shot at from the street.

#AI

Multicolor Cat wearing goggles.

We travel along, itinerant passengers on a Ghost Ship. Our destination is circular, and filled with the pageantry of distress, and overcoming. If we leap, we finish; stay, we crumble. The choice is always between the unknowable life of the living and the known end.

#AI #Midjourney

Ghost Ship lost on the high seas.

“In our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.”

~~ From the Aeschylus play, “Agamemnon” written in 458 BCE

#AI #AIART #Midjourney #Theatre #Tragedy

Pain dripping on a human shape in space.

We are haunted by our deficits, of what could have been, of what might have worked. We are reminded of those losses by a familiar scent that strings us back to that moment of indecision and hidden righteousness – and it is in that moment of revisitation that we are set free.

#AI

Skull playing card dressed in green.

That moment when you realize the tool that created you might just have a few other uses.

#AI #Midjourney #Claymation #Cats

Three Clay Cats looking at a sharp tool.

The mystery of the dead is rarely visited upon the living. The undead, however, have a lot to stay to both sides of the grave! As Saint John the Divine said, “The dead never come back, but sometimes they never leave.”

#AI #Dead #Undead #Midjourney #SaintJohn

Sun breaking the moon in neon space.

The dying King decays in the misfortune of his own disgrace. Wrong headed. Poorly discipled. Wretched of both heart and mind; and made invulnerable to consequence only by favor of birth. And so we suffer until the last breath is exhaled; and we inhale freedom. #AI #Midjourney

In the USA your job defines you. The first question most people ask is, “Where do you work?” We live in the 9-5. We die at the water cooler. We dream of greater things only at night when the dusk settles around us and reality shows us what might have been.

#AI #Work #Dreaming

Spacewalker.

It’s currently 57 degrees in NYC with an expected high today of 63 degrees. We’ve had the windows open all day and all night for the past three days. It’s February 17. Now is the unwinter of our discontent!

#Weather #Sun #Heat #ClimateChange

Spikey Neon Sun

“I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself and falls on the other.” Back in 1606, Shakepeare’s Macbeth was the template for the shameless, modern, online Troll. Ambition outweighs performance. #AI #Macbeth #Shakespeare

Macbeth, the Troll.

Our stake is not just the misery of memory, but rather the promise of lonesome hauntings to come. We prick, we steal, we love, we overcome; but the lonely, and the forgotten, become but veils among us.

Mysterious person in a black, green, purple and black void.

Internet Trolls are everywhere and, as I discovered, they also do lively work in the Fediverse. One Troll just reported me – to myself, on my own instance – for “promoting false Art” and, it appears, for advancing the downfall of society by creating AI Art. #AI #Midjourney

Censored mouth in the Fediverse.

In our modern society, we have lost the idea of shame to correct bad behavior. The shameless now pointlessly leads us into the depths of their despair. What have we lost in this transition of acceptable morality? I’ll discuss this in depth on tomorrow’s Boles.tv live stream!

Willa Cather taught us the throat is a vessel, a beautiful vase for releasing, and holding, the emotion of the human condition. We open our throats to fullest expression, she said, by turning our face to the light and lifting our chins to the sun in song.

In the old days of the 40’s and 50’s, in big American cities, there were watchers. Police patrolled neighborhood on foot. Grandmothers would keep eyes on the street from their windows. If you did anything bad, you were seen, caught, and publicly shamed. Watching worked.

This “Goths 4 Bernie” sign is one of my favorite presidential campaign slogans ever! There was a delicate innocence in the gathering together. That was a day in April 2016 when Bernie spoke to 27,000 people, and rocked Greenwich Square Park.

The bridge to nowhere begins with a mind of your own. No mind is an island.

My wife bought bread and was 13 cents short. She only had cash, her card was in her office. The cashier said it was fine. Later, my wife returned to the store with her card, bought more items, and explained to a new cashier to add 13 cents. The cashier said, “Why do you care?”

Discovery of what surrounds us can be lost and forgotten in the moment. A human life requires new insights and open senses. To understand for the first time is to know forever.

Our Comcast cable box has been out for a week. Glad we have Apple TV and the Xfinity streaming App. Turns out the box was fine, but the AC adapter was faulty, and recalled a year ago! At least we were able to get upgraded to the impossible-to-get XB8 modem, so all was not lost.