*Decarabia69

One of the few photos you'll ever see of me.

One of the few photos you'll ever see of me.

It's not often an artist's visage is captured for posterity by a good friend and manipulated in a way that is complimentary - Here is a link to my good friend =England9's work from a series he created of all his dA friends - the Art Commandos.

I urge you all to take a look at his work as it's absolutely top notch and VERY imaginative. He's got a great sense of humor and is at least as irreverent as I am about some subjects.

Take a look at the "real me" and a look at many of the artists featured in the Art Commandos - I'm honored to be included among such a talented group and I'd like to thank my friend Alan for his great work!

[link]

And NOW in a NEW & IMPROVED version!

[link]

Thanks, Alan! I've always wondered what I'd look like in orange and green!

Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures.

Henry Ward Beecher

One of the few photos you'll ever see of me.

It's not often an artist's visage is captured for posterity by a good friend and manipulated in a way that is complimentary - Here is a link to my good friend =England9's work from a series he created of all his dA friends - the Art Commandos.

I urge you all to take a look at his work as it's absolutely top notch and VERY imaginative. He's got a great sense of humor and is at least as irreverent as I am about some subjects.

Take a look at the "real me" and a look at many of the artists featured in the Art Commandos - I'm honored to be included among such a talented group and I'd like to thank my friend Alan for his great work!

[link]

Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures.

Henry Ward Beecher

Goodbye to a funny, funny man

There aren't many well-known people whose death I would lament, but one in particular left me very sad. The popular long-time comedian, George Carlin died yesterday of heart failure.

Comedian George Carlin Dies in Los Angeles at 71

By Martin Weil
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, June 23, 2008;

George Carlin, 71, the much-honored American stand-up comedian whose long career was distinguished by pointed social commentary that placed him on the cultural cutting edge, died last night in Santa Monica, Calif.

His death was reported by the Reuters news agency and on the Los Angeles Times Web site. He had long struggled with health problems and a heart condition dating to the 1970s.

Carlin was selected last week by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to receive this year's Mark Twain Prize, a lifetime achievement award presented to an outstanding comedian.

Over a career of half a century, Carlin placed himself in the forefront of comic commentators on the American scene. He was particularly known for an album that referred to what he described as the seven words that could not be used on television . . .

[link]
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I loved his social commentary and especially his rants against religion (he was raised Catholic). One of those rants I took to heart as his logic regarding the Ten Commandments was flawless:


Here is my problem with the ten commandments- why exactly are there 10?

You simply do not need ten. The list of ten commandments was artificially and deliberately inflated to get it up to ten. Here's what happened:

About 5,000 years ago a bunch of religious and political hustlers got together to try to figure out how to control people and keep them in line. They knew people were basically stupid and would believe anything they were told, so they announced that God had given them some commandments, up on a mountain, when no one was around.

Well let me ask you this- when they were making this shit up, why did they pick 10? Why not 9 or 11? I'll tell you why- because 10 sounds official. Ten sounds important! Ten is the basis for the decimal system, it's a decade, it's a psychologically satisfying number (the top ten, the ten most wanted, the ten best dressed). So having ten commandments was really a marketing decision! It is clearly a bullshit list. It's a political document artificially inflated to sell better. I will now show you how you can reduce the number of commandments and come up with a list that's a little more workable and logical. I am going to use the Roman Catholic version because those were the ones I was taught as a little boy.

Let's start with the first three:

I AM THE LORD THY GOD THOU SHALT NOT HAVE STRANGE GODS BEFORE ME

THOU SHALT NOT TAKE THE NAME OF THE LORD THY GOD IN VAIN

THOU SHALT KEEP HOLY THE SABBATH

Right off the bat the first three are pure bullshit. Sabbath day? Lord's name? strange gods? Spooky language! Designed to scare and control primitive people. In no way does superstitious nonsense like this apply to the lives of intelligent civilized humans in the 21st century. So now we're down to 7. Next:

HONOR THY FATHER AND MOTHER

Obedience, respect for authority. Just another name for controlling people. The truth is that obedience and respect shouldn't be automatic. They should be earned and based on the parent's performance. Some parents deserve respect, but most of them don't, period. You're down to six.

Now in the interest of logic, something religion is very uncomfortable with, we're going to jump around the list a little bit.

THOU SHALT NOT STEAL

THOU SHALT NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS

Stealing and lying. Well actually, these two both prohibit the same kind of behavior- dishonesty. So you don't really need two you combine them and call the commandment "thou shalt not be dishonest". And suddenly you're down to 5.

And as long as we're combining I have two others that belong together:

THOU SHALT NOT COMMIT ADULTRY

THOU SHALT NOT COVET THY NEIGHBOR'S WIFE

Once again, these two prohibit the same type of behavior. In this case it is marital infidelity. The difference is- coveting takes place in the mind. But I don't think you should outlaw fantasizing about someone else's wife because what is a guy gonna think about when he's waxing his carrot? But, marital infidelity is a good idea so we're gonna keep this one and call it "thou shalt not be unfaithful". And suddenly we're down to four.

But when you think about it, honesty and infidelity are really part of the same overall value so, in truth, you could combine the two honesty commandments with the two fidelity commandments and give them simpler language, positive language instead of negative language and call the whole thing "thou shalt always be honest and faithful" and we're down to 3.

THOU SHALT NOT COVET THY NEIGHBOR"S GOODS

This one is just plain fuckin' stupid. Coveting your neighbor's goods is what keeps the economy going! Your neighbor gets a vibrator that plays "o come o ye faithful", and you want one too! Coveting creates jobs, so leave it alone. You throw out coveting and you're down to 2 now- the big honesty and fidelity commandment and the one we haven't talked about yet:

THOU SHALT NOT KILL

Murder. But when you think about it, religion has never really had a big problem with murder. More people have been killed in the name of god than for any other reason. All you have to do is look at Northern Ireland, Cashmire, the Inquisition, the Crusades, and the World Trade Center to see how seriously the religious folks take thou shalt not kill. The more devout they are, the more they see murder as being negotiable. It depends on who's doin the killin' and who's gettin' killed. So, with all of this in mind, I give you my revised list of the two commandments:

Thou shalt always be honest and faithful to the provider of thy nookie.

&

Thou shalt try real hard not to kill anyone, unless of course they pray to a different invisible man than you.

Two is all you need; Moses could have carried them down the hill in his fuckin' pocket. I wouldn't mind those folks in Alabama posting them on the courthouse wall, as long as they provided one additional commandment:

Thou shalt keep thy religion to thyself.

Frisbeetarianism is the belief that when you die, your soul goes up on the roof and gets stuck.


George Carlin

My childhood day-dreams

It's no secret that our childhood is responsible for forming us into the adults that we are. Those of you who know me and my work pretty much have an idea what my childhood was like, and when those things are compounded by adult life experiences they are the summation of the person you all think you know.

I suppose there is some comfort in knowing my childhood was similar to others, but not much. For a glimpse into the thoughts that occupied much of my childhood daydreams look here: [link]

Fear is an emotion indispensable for survival.

Hannah Arendt

Unfair business practices by our host!

It has come to my attention recently that our host, dA has joined the U.S. in arbitrarily labeling people or their countries as undesirable, or as they put it, "high risk."

One of my dA friends, erin ([link]) tried recently to renew her subscription, which normally isn't a problem, but after sending her credit card info, NO SUBSCRIPTION! She contacted her credit card company and found that the transaction had indeed gone through and her payment HAD BEEN ACCEPTED by Deviant ART. Still, no subscription! After contacting the dA webmasters she received the explanation you'll see on her two recent journal entries.

Apparently, dA refused her service (even AFTER ACCEPTING HER PAYMENT) because she comes from a "high risk country" (Malaysia). I suppose it's within dA's right to refuse service from a shady source, but this isn't the first time Erin has subscribed to dA, and she has never done anything to label her a "high risk." Of course, the expedient excuse used by the dA management is that "the new software labeled her as coming from a high risk country," but then, as we all know, software is only as smart as the user.

I feel that this is an unnecessary blight on the dA website as what makes communicating here so enjoyable is the fact that so many artists from other countries participate. I have many friends here from all over the world (Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, England, Finland, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania and other countries) and I would certainly hate to see them leave dA because of the unfair business practices attributed to software.

If this matter stays unresolved, or is resolved in a manner that is not satisfactory to all of my foreign friends, I may never renew my own subscription. I'd also advise those of you who use dA to sell your art to beware! Your country may also be on the "high risk" list and dA will have an expedient excuse to withhold your funds. It is a simple matter to notify people coming from "high risk" countries (defining them and the reasons they are considered high risk would be a good first step) BEFORE accepting their payment is a good idea. Perhaps a waiting period for an investigation of the payment would be an option.

There are two rules to follow in good business as in life; 1. don't be an asshole and 2. treat others with the same respect you would expect.

Labeling people offensively or automatically suggesting they are thieves or dishonest simply because of where they live is both ethnocentric and xenophobic! Believing that an online customer is "honorable" simply because he lives in a western country is just plain stupid!

I'd like to urge all my friends to post Erin's dilemma in their journals, or at least comment in hers so that this unfair news will spread like wildfire throughout the dA membership. I think it should especially concern all of my friends outside the U.S. - after all, you may be part of the "axis of evil" and not even know it!

Corporation: An ingenious device for obtaining profit without individual responsibility.
Ambrose Bierce