Ruminations of Spring

Some weird art, unsolicited opinions, and a Russian cosmonaut novel you simply must read.

I really liked doing these, just 6x6” hot press watercolor squares, glued on two sides so they don’t warp. Weird little… projectless, not pointless, little watercolor drawings of cool natural scapes. A chance to experiment and play around without any fear of “will my client like this“. More will come, prayers that I have time.

The Sun Cometh

And the river flows! Let me tell you, a sight for sore eyes here in snow country. No thank you. That’s the Susan River, full, fast, and happy with snowmelt.

Loving spring is a sacrifice

Dear Jesus, What Are Movies?

That’s not taking the lord’s name in vain, I just thought Jesus might have an answer for my question. I was going to write a hate-essay about Disney’s new movie Wish, then I was going to spare you all, then I decided to take the center lane and shorten it. I guess it’s not new, but it just came out on Disney Plus. My sister in law gave us her password, so I’m innocent.

Disney’s content has been declining rapidly in recent years, and I wanted to see this dumpster fire primarily because I have heard that it seemed suspiciously like it was written using AI. This has not been proven, but it feels like it was written using AI, and that’s 0.001% away from being just as bad. Calling it a corporate money laundering scheme wouldn’t be an unfair accusation, by my account.

If you want more texture on how cheap, lazy, embarrassing, and confounding I think this movie is, throw caution to every warning sign* and ask me in the comments. Or you can double check your VPN and read this AI generated article found on Open AI Sea. Weird doesn’t begin to describe what’s happening, folks.

Let’s talk about something cool now, which is

A Book You Should Read

If you want to. It’s about a Russian kid who aspires to be a cosmonaut and its voice is mind blowing. I want to call it genre bending, but it’s something else. It’s dark and horrific in many ways, and at the same time I could often not wipe the smile off of my overly expressive western capitalist face. It’s simultaneously sci fi, dark comedy, absurdist, historical fiction, and… possibly more. I think you have to read it to really get a feel for what I mean.

I’m also fascinated by the fact that it shares, from my perspective, a stoic and dryly humorous voice of “Eastern” authors who have written about the Soviet Union, Arthur Koestler (Darkness at Noon) and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (The Gulag Archipelago). I haven’t read many authors in this vein yet. But I love their outlook, and getting a view from their perspective. Highly valuable! Even though the two latter books are extremely dark and unfunny by comparison, there are still shades of humor, usually at the irony of the Soviet Union’s promises vs. its actions. I love seeing Russians (although Koestler was Hungarian born) criticizing the Soviet union, especially since comrade Putin seems dead set on bringing it back in its worst incarnation. And while Pelevin does not overtly come out and say “fuck the Soviet Union“, his story is one that shines a light on many a USSR backed misadventure, fictional or not.

Regardless, I find this translated writing enlightening and entertaining and possibly wondrous. It comes from a world that before I had only ever learned of through American media, getting a more local lens… You can’t put a price on that. Although I picked up Omon Ra for $9.99.

Bonus Russian media, check out Andrei Tarkovsky. That is all. Of course, you can subscribe, if you want to. See you next Wednesday.

Sorry for my Cyrillic

*Crammed syllables much?? You couldn’t put try on a few other phrases?