Grimes' Artificial Angels

Oh, wow, I adore how this was made. It is such an explosion of what it is like being on the internet, or in front of a computer screen, way too much. And not just lately, but since long ago.

I was trying to keep up with everything that was coming up, trying to figure out how things connected, trying to notice any references, and trying to grasp what it all meant. There’s likely plenty I missed. It is happening FAST. Just like being bombarded with a ton of information, which is exactly how cultural and technological advancements (or regressions) are to me these days.

And I seriously enjoy how artsy it is. Although I can appreciate those too, it gave me a much-needed break from the more widely accepted and adopted styles and techniques I’ve been exposing myself to lately. Bringing me back to the more independent and underground taste and preferences. It is art when you can have more fun with it and are not weighed down by logistics. Originality is served.

That’s not to say there wasn’t thought or feeling put into it. They are clearly there if you pay attention. Along with much talent and skill. But, making art like this, is equivalent to when you can finally take off a piece of uncomfortable clothing after wearing it all day. You can breathe and move around more - while still being artful as you choose to.

Then there’s the whole of it, everything that it is telling and showing.
What is simultaneously behind and ahead of time? This madness.

Everything You Need in Your Space

It’s great if you can operate even under the most dire and atrocious circumstances; that makes you unstoppable. However, deterring yourself like that when you have the option not to is only sabotage. So put some thought and strategy into your surroundings. What is the formula to pushing and maintaining your optimal productivity?

Everybody is different, so what works for some may not work for you. This is why you must see what does and doesn’t suit you, then tailor your space accordingly. And funnily enough, what may be paradise to you could be hell to somebody else. At least if they prolong their stay beyond what they can tolerate.

This brings into focus an important fact: Everybody needs their own space. Even if by nature or by nurture you are the type of person who meddles and intertwines with others as if your life depended on it, clinging desperately to anyone and anything that’d keep you from being by yourself, you require your own space. You may not know it yet, and you may even deny it, but it’s something you must look into and have (even if you don’t need as much time there as others do in theirs).

Your space must consist of what is essential, beneficial, and convenient to you. Too often, people stop and stick with only the essentials. And while that, in certain situations, can be applauded, it is ultimately depriving you of what would lead to reaching your potential.

So, if you can afford to, and depending on what your job is, make sure you have an environment that:

• Gets you in the state that allows you to optimally function. Whether that’s one with high or low stimulation, cluttered or not.

• Has all the tools and materials that you frequently use, nearby, placed where you know they’ll be (or at least where you can figure you’ll find them), and accompanied by what would charge or otherwise enable them.

• Is comfortable for you. If you’re standing, sitting, lying down, or moving around. It’s a disservice to give yourself terrible posture or horrid circulation.

• Is secure for you. And this also means just the sense of it. If you have to worry and stay vigilant for threats or disasters, something’s lacking. And maybe you can’t make it 100% safe and impenetrable, but you could put more into it.

• Reminds you of who you are and what your role is. This can be done implicitly through decoration and adornments (including colors, patterns, and textures), but also explicitly through posters and post-its. Try having mood and vision boards.

• Contains illumination that is just right. Straining to see or overexposing to an unnerving degree is no good. Lights should be in the tone, intensity, angle, and coverage that allows you to do you. If they can be inspiring and indulging too, that is a plus. E.g., neons, outer space, underwater, fairy lights, etc.

• Takes other senses into account, like smell. No scents or scents that are pleasant to you. The latter is catered to in a wide range of aromas via soap and wax items. But you can bring in natural objects like rocks, plants, and fruits. Or just spray something artificial every now and then.

• Allows you to have control over the sounds. So you can leave unwanted noises out and choose what fills up the silence inside.

You may now notice that your space isn’t yet all that it can be, but go at your pace. You can tend to it by bits, improving it little by little. Until it becomes your ideal haven.

You might be particularly fulfilled by devoting to this if you previously endured significantly harmful settings that kept you down. It's as if you finally get to live your life on your own terms and make your world yours.

Thanksgiving Month

November is here!
It’s Thanksgiving time.
You can expect an emphasis on gatherings-related content.

My Chemical Romance: Long Live The Black Parade Tour

Posted by My Chemical Romance on Instagram ➜ 

It hasn’t ended yet! When the tour actually started, unfortunately, although I had been anticipating it, I was not in a state to be able to appreciate it. And if I’m being honest, I’m still not fully there yet. But regardless, it is GRAND. So I already very much can! 

Frank Iero wasn’t exaggerating when he responded to a mean comment online with something along the lines of “My Chemical Romance doesn’t disappoint” and practically a “STFU”. (Sometimes bits like that end up on my feed, okay?!)

So, even with my heart currently shattered, undeniable great art is undeniable. And it IS my favorite band. Melodically, lyrically, thematically, with Gerard Way’s creepiness and Frank Iero’s badassery. Along with all the energy they transmit. It is just my jam. Imagine the unbearable pain if that love were to be taken from me…

The first teaser. The utter shock when this dropped. I could not process it. Back from death. I was freaking out. While simultaneously in awe of the exquisiteness and exuberance of it. A dictator? In what looks like another era? Or perhaps an alternate universe? Is he evil or strict and villainizable because of it? But most importantly… LONG LIVE THE BLACK PARADE!

More cinematic excellence. But what do these random scenes with random characters even mean? I don’t know, but I would bet they’re not so random. It is quite possible that there’s an underlying order to all of it, one to be revealed, or at least hinted at, throughout the tour. These guys are being ARTISTIC.

And what’s with these letters? They really came up with their own alphabet. Making us go the extra mile to figure out what is being written. Such fine gatekeeping. But also hiding in plain sight. It is a solvable puzzle, but a puzzle nonetheless.

Posted by My Chemical Romance on Instagram ➜

What is even happening on stage? Voting? Stabbing? Decaying? The drama and the theatrics are unhinged and deranged, to say the least. Some of it is grotesque. And if you know the band, you’d know that this is nothing new. In fact, they’re still holding back. But I applaud how they are pushing boundaries. Knowing what they’re doing. While the rest of us are still catching up, trying to make sense of what is what, why, and how. And they continue to change and switch things around.

Some have complained that it got too political. And oh boy. Tell me you don’t know My Chemical Romance without telling me you don’t know My Chemical Romance.

Anyhow! All that said, it is sooooo good to hear that they’re still alive!
(This is a reference to a previous concert in Mexico.)

I’ll keep paying attention to the tour and see more of what it’s leading up to!

Writing Like Nobody's Reading

A friend and I used to do a lot of creative writing together. We’d go all in, draw our OCs, and more. I miss those days. We wrote for ourselves. Not even an afterthought of whether or not it’d be well-received by anyone else. Just exploring and examining our psyches through the characters, the dynamics, the plots, and overall, the storytelling. I miss those days. However, I could only allow myself that kind of ‘leisure’ because it was a much-needed healing activity and not merely a want. An Art teacher I respected recommended it to me - and I took his advice. So we both tended to our wounds, voids, and messes through art.

And now here I am, with ever-expanding universes within me. The passage of time is currently annoying me more than ever. I wish I could walk through every meaningful portal there is to walk through. But the reality is that time is running out. Therefore, I ought to be wise and pick the most important ones before I no longer can.

Also, I got the purple-aura person in my life to thank for literally saving my life and letting me have the space, without rushing, to restore myself after, on more levels than ever, having died. I didn’t get my dream of going to the Chavón Art School and then Parsons School of Design fulfilled like I was aspiring to, in order to eventually achieve renowned success. Instead, I ended up on a weirder path and, frankly, I wouldn’t trade it. (Still pissed off at the people and situations that detoured and/or delayed me for no good reason, though, but making the best of what I can/should regardless.)

So, yep, life has a lot of twists and turns. Just happy for what’s coming together at last…

Lady Gaga & Tim Burton's The Dead Dance

Of course, I was pulled in immediately upon seeing that creepy doll with a sun headdress. But also… WHAT!?! It’s Lady Gaga and Tim Burton! They’re like, PEAK all things monstrous. And with Halloween coming up, it is such a Trick & Treat to pull!

If you know me, you know that I love spooky art that can be enjoyed around this time of the year and can’t ever seem to get enough. I might be (for a while) too stressed, overwhelmed, and/or exhausted to enjoy it as much as I otherwise would, but I would love it nonetheless. And this one not only checked the spooky box!

The fact that they captured *gestures* all of this, in particular, does mean more than I can explain. But let’s just say: Going forward, it is beyond nice to forever have art you love, from artists you love, on a topic that is familiar to you, in a setting that is also familiar to you, and to have it do this sort of restorative and conclusive magic, too. That… is a piece that shouldn’t be missing.

I didn’t think much of it at first, but then the realizations started coming. Y’all, Halloween isn’t only typical European lore and North American store-bought decorations anymore. It is also This Island they filmed on. Why? Because freakin’ LADY GAGA AND TIM BURTON said so! Practically. And as someone who always adored Halloween but happened to live on an island that didn’t quite celebrate it or fit the aesthetic, yet still had its own spooky stuff going on, I literally cannot put into words how much this means. You’ll have to ponder it.

That’s not to say I don’t also appreciate other cultures and historical captures, you can bet I do and look forward to them, but this take is definitely an important and required addition to the ever-growing catalog of what gets associated with Halloween and all things spooky.

Besides hitting this milestone, I noticed a few details here and there that were peculiar. However, I can’t quite tell if they were subtly intentional, consciously or not, or merely attributable. Whatever the case, got The Dead Dance in there! 

The Witch Hunt

Of course you’d be afraid of someone with abilities beyond your capabilities. More so when they don’t even try to make themselves look harmless or get a kick out of showing glimpses of how harmful they can ultimately be. You would believe it is merely self-defense to utterly destroy them. Completely merited. 

That’s the logic when people are targeted and treated as “witches” that mobs should hunt and burn down. Rampant abuse of power is undeniable, and it is reasonable to be skeptical of somebody with a great amount of power. But if you go at it indiscriminately, you might be stripping and killing somebody who would have used that power for good, even for your own particular benefit.

Those few who, by fate or through arduous effort, make it to a point where they are at an advantage, sure elicit various sorts of intense feelings from others. Resentment, envy, worry, fear, hatred, and hostility could erupt and consume them until there is no longer a lucid thought to keep them from doing something horrible and potentially irreversible. Their views and opinions? Distorted and twisted to turn them into the monsters they claim to be fighting.

If you attack the powerful solely for being powerful, you will be losing the most formidable allies you could have. You will be left with those who are as weak as you are or who pretend to be, acting as sheep in wolf’s clothing. And ironically, that might be your automatic karma for it.

There is a false sense of security that people get from relying on what is established. What, through propaganda and other means of manipulation, have won them over. The authorities that they look up to to keep them safe are instead keeping them blind and distracted from what is truly going on and how much danger they are in - and from what exactly. 

These are people who, rather than reaching conclusions through evidence gathering and weighing, reach them through reassurance and reinforcement. Basically, the more you repeat something to them, the more they believe it. No matter how false. These are also people who, the more the crowd believes something, the more they believe it. They might be intelligent, but their intelligence is not wisely used. However, even the best fall down sometimes. You must catch yourself if you find yourself caving into the pressure.

If, alternatively, you find yourself in the role of a witch in the middle of a witch hunt, do not despair. The same power you are being persecuted for could be the power that sets you free. And you are not alone, either. You might just be yet to find your coven. Then you can be indestructible. And hopefully, that will be for the best.

...1.8%?

Give it time, y'all. The vision is not yet materialized. There are fixes, changes, adjustments, enhancements, and extensions coming. Along with much more that's in my hands, in God's, and in the Universe's. Stick around if you'd rather not miss it! But also remember that you're free to come and go as you please. It's only a few of us, artsy nerds, who make this ordeal our entire lives. 

If you're a hardcore artist (that is, you take artistry seriously), you're welcome to get your fit here, but also elsewhere. (Just, please, always be selective about your sources and discerning with your information so you don't get brain rot!)

Scorpio's Season

♏ SCORPIO

As we enter the season of Scorpio, it is believed that the universe will be affecting us with energies that will cause us to dive deep and embrace transformation. We will be more in tune with our inner power, and abilities to mend and uncover truths will be enhanced. If you are receptive to them, you might be imbued with intensity and resilience. If you are resistant to them, you might be conflicted with secrecy and obsession. If you are completely blocked out, you might not notice them at all. And if you don't pay enough attention, you might miss opportunities for profound personal growth.

Motivational Quote: "Your depth is your power; embrace it fully."

For context and more of relevance, please read about The Zodiac.

The Scapegoat

If it happens once, it is likely to happen again. Ever been blamed for something that you didn’t do or that was not your fault? Or have fingers pointed at you, with accusations, so they wouldn't be pointed at them, with the-fact-of-the-matter? And you just took it because you couldn’t be sure or somehow felt responsible, regardless? Well, trying to be the bigger person or turning the other cheek are, actually, terrible advice to stick with.

That works in some instances, when there are more important issues at hand than dealing with somebody else’s immaturity and you shouldn’t even be bothered with it. But making it a habit isn’t as noble as it’s made to sound. You basically become an enabler of others’ lack of accountability and more.

People will search for who will take it and dump it on them. Usually, this is someone who doesn’t quite fit in. So that they can assume to have the back up of the rest (a majority) when making you the 'problem', but also because the sense of belonging is already frail and causing issues surrounding dignity (from which the sense of worthiness to exist as you are arises). More of an ideal target if they’ve already shown to not stand their ground and speak up, fighting back.

It can catch you off-guard, and the person doing the blaming might be doing so from a position of abuse of power (they are "above" you in some way or have something they believe that they can use against you), which makes it even more difficult for you to defend yourself and state your case. However, more often than not, the anxiety provoked is just that - a state that they provoked (that benefits them). And if you can push through it, you can shatter the illusion and call them out for what they are: somebody aiming to dodge the repercussions of their actions (or inactions) by sending them your way so that they can escape unscathed and with minimal effort.

When they shift the blame and you shift it back to where it belongs, the focus is now on them - and they might scramble to "prove" how NOT guilty they are. Then fail to do so. More attempts to shift the blame will likely occur, but they’ll be less and less effective. Soon, they’ll be exposed not only as irresponsible, but also as liars.

It is only in rare cases where everybody in proximity will be obstinate and continue to insist that who has been made the scapegoat is indeed to blame. Much of the time, it is merely a spontaneous reaction from an individual prone to peer pressure and/or ruled by ignorance and confusion rather than a calculated scheme from a malicious or even vile collective. If the latter, though, may God and The Divine Forces above be with you, along with all the Righteous Fury that you can muster from within.