Snapshots of Disturbance

These were inspired by some of the amazing Tim Biskup's Jackson 500 collection. Have a look at his website for some amazing gear.

These are inspired by the paintings 206, 207, and 226.
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The witch shrieks, her cries chill the hearts of those around, despite the overbearing heat. She is tied in an embrace with a stake, the last embrace she will know, save that of oblivion. Or hell. Her skin blackens and cracks, burning; now melting, liquifying in the flames as they rise higher around her. The moon, low and gibbous, frowns on the earth, and the clouds, angry, rain blood down from the crimson skies. Justice is being served. The work is hard, thankless. But it is God's work. And it is good.

***

The angel burns, the Trumpet sounds like a voice from the heavens condemning man for his sins. The wings are charcoal, the beauty lost, flowing away. Golden garments are in tatters. Stars fall, raining down on the earth, glowing, exposing the godless shame. This is man's work.
***

The demon stretches for the first time in aeons, its wings unfurl, it casts off the bindings that bit deep into its neck over millenia, ichor flows, and the air smells of sulfur, the perfume of hell. It tears off the last of the Tetragrammaton bindings; it is free.

Copyright, Blake Jolly, 2008.

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Also really awesome is the work of Nathan Jurevicius. Check Him Out.

Have a great one. Blake.

Back to Uni, the Irony of Life, and the Joy of Moleskine

Well, here I am. I haven't blogged in a bit, so I thought I had better pop in and say hello. Back to uni today (its the wee hours, so, it technically is today...), and I am sort of looking foward to/dreading it.

In other news, the world is a very ironic place, in case you had not realised this. Unfortunately, this fact was brought home to me this afternoon in such a spectacular fashion, that I feel as though Cosmic Karma has taken a stonking great poo on my head. Thats right. Stonking. If I ever meet Karma, I will kick him/her firmly in the balls/ovaries. But seriously!

Also today I purchased a Moleskine book, which is really quite nice. If you like to write and do so in style, I have to recommend one of these books - GO HERE!

Have a great day folks. Blake.

The (tentatively) finished LUST intro poem

Last night I dreamed a dream of you,
A dream of dread desire,
And in that dream dark passions flowed
Which filled my heart with fire.

You fill my heart with longing,
My eyes with lustful sights,
I want to have and hold you,
Oh curse that fateful night!

This fateful night did stir me,
Did wake the inner beast,
I need to feel your touch now,
Let loving be our feast.

Copyright, 2008, Blake Jolly.

I am happy with the rhyming and the flow, and I like the 12 line, 3 stanza thing. I'm moving on to Pride and Greed now, and I have yet to decide if I should change the style for each poem to reflect the "sin" better... Undecided. Hope you enjoyed.

Happy Valentine's Day (oddly fitting!).

Blake.

Happy Singles Awareness Day

Hi. Just thought I would say Happy Valentines Day, or rather, as I have re-named it (along with my friend Liz) "Singles Awareness Day". This year, we will be raising money for single people everywhere, in an effort to increase awareness of their plight. Please give generously. Hahaha.

Incidentally, Valentine's Day has been atound for centuries, and is actually a celebration of the life of St. Valentine. A feast was held on the day of his death (14th Feb) following his canonisation.

Anyhow, have a great day, and make sure you show someone you care about them.

Blake.

The Dump (?)

This is a poem I wrote in about twenty minutes, and then edited over a few days until I was happy with it. I was inspired after going to the tip with my father (to dispose of a bunch of tree clippings, if you're interested), and I found myself looking out over the desolation, and wondering what it would be like if we could throw away our emotions and such in a similar manner.

I planned to change the name when I tentatively named it "The Dump", hence the question mark, but I decided I liked and, and so it stayed where it was.

Originally I planned this for a short story (which would be more of a medium-length story), and I still plan on writing it. I may use this by way of introducing the narrator.

Apologies in advance for the small font, but I wanted it to retain its structure.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy it, and I hope it makes you think.

The Dump (?)

What if I told you that there is place you can go,
That you can get to by climbing a hill, pushing through a rusted gate,
And in this place, you can dispose of all your unwanted
Emotions, Fears, Memories, Dreams, Desires;
People go there everyday, it never closes, and there, at the tip face,
As isolation blasts at them, scorching their eyes and mouths,
They pay to lose a part of themselves forever.

In this place of discarded dreams and nightmares, loves and losses,
The insubtantial waste convolutes, melds, forms into disastrous beings
Which procreate, hideous, misshapen parodies of once-human baggage.
Through the dark of night, the torturous heat of the day,
They mutate into something... other.
In this place, these demons of ours laugh mockingly, more human, perhaps, than us.

My first visit, I was nervous, but they told me
There Is Nothing To Worry About, and
We Do This All The Time;
As they expertly extracted part of me out of my head, I wished
That there was an easier way.

But who wants to remember the lost love,
The bad dreams that won't go away?
If you could get rid of it, would you?
Is comfort worth the sacrifice of self?

I don't know what I lost.
I suppose that is the point.
But it's gone, and I wish it wasn't.

See, we are the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly,
It's what defines us, makes us what we are.

Without our agony, how do we find our peace?

Copyright, Blake Jolly, 2008.

PS- if you liked this (or hated it and want to rant at me) please comment.

PPS- edited on the 20/2/2007 to change the word unwanted in the first line of the second stanza thing to "discarded". Funnily, despite reading it over again looking for similarities in the lines, I missed this one every time. I found it when I was going over it in my head last night in bed. So now I've fixed it.

Regards, Blake.

An idea, and a (fragment of) a poem

I have been playing around for a while now with the idea of a series of linked short stories that deal with human characterisations of the seven deadly sins. Essentially the main thing stopping me is the linking of the stories. However, the other day at work , I was struck with another cool idea, and the beginning lines of a poem for the LUST story worked its way into my head. Basically, i figured that it would be kinda cool to have short poems (of a sort) to begin each story with, and perhaps use that as the linking device. Yeah. How cool's that?

But I digress; this is the opening stanza of the LUST poem, which I think will actually be story number 3, as I want to do the GREED and PRIDE stories first. But I'll go with what I have for the meantime. Here goes:

"Last night I dreamed a dream of you,
A dream of dread desire,
And in that dream dark passions flowed,
Which filled my heart with fire."

So there you are. I think it works. If you like it, or it doesn't work for you, then please, leave a comment, everyone is able to.

Cheers, and good night, Blake.

Great News!!!

I read in the tv guide today (something I do weekly, because although I don't really watch much on tv itself - i get shows on DVD - they have great info on tv shows and so on) that the cast and creators of Buffy the Vampire Slayer are getting together for a big meeting, the purpose of which (it has been reported) is to discuss the movie.

Thats right, a movie.

Of Buffy.

I love the world.

Well Good God Damn, and other such phrases!

I stole that line from a very catchy song called "The Beat That My Heart Skipped", by Dan Le Sac Versus Scroobius Pip. I like it, and it's fitting. See, for the last few days, I have been out of internet - my router died in a storm, and then I was in Sydney with no net... hence the lack of posting...

So... What can I tell you? Uh, oh!

I purchased a few things in Sydney that I have been after for some time now. One was a book of art by the gentleman who drew Hatter M and 30 Days of Night Ben Templesmith. It is a collection of his artworks (second volume) called "Conluvio", which happens to be very good.

I also picked up a copy of Ascend, a graphic novel illustrated in the inimitable style of Christopher Shy. It is marvellous. His work always inspires me, and I find him to be one of the greatest artists currently working in the graphic novel field (among many others).

Finally I got my hot little hands on Neil Gaiman's most recent short story collection, Fragile Things, which is amazing, as is all his work. I very much enjoyed the story "A Study In Emerald", which is a must for anyone who likes a good read, and is available for free here: http://www.neilgaiman.com/p/Cool%20Stuff/Short%20Stories as a .pdf file to download (its illustrated, and is about 5 mb, well worth it). Its a brilliant Sherlock Holmes/Lovecraftian-esque story, and melds in a lot of popular mythology throughout. Have a look.

Also, have a good night. Blake.

Holidays have come at last!

I finally, for the first time in about a year and a half, have a full week off both work and uni. It is amazing. And I can't wait. I'm going to bum around for a bit, then go to Sydney for a few days to visit Captain Dave.

Incidentally, in some ironic twist of galactic arseholery, today at work was rather long and drawn out, as time often is when you are waiting for something, and I found myself wishing that the waterboard fellows would come to unblock all the drainage systems, as I was left waiting for the loo for about 4 hours.

I purchased Coraline the other day, written by none other than Neil Gaiman, and found myself rather scared. For a 'children's' book, it is rather freaky, although perhaps it is more that way inclined towards adults, who can grasp what is fully going on.

In other news, I also acquired a copy of the indommitable Shaun Tan's all-picture book The Arrival, which documents in breathtaking art the story of a man and his family going through the difficult experience of emigration. I would thoroughly recommend it, even with the $40 Aus price tag, as the book is drawn, as well as bound in hardback with a high level of quality.

I'm currently constructing a list of the Top Ten Films of 2007, as well as Top Ten Lists of The Best Graphic Novels, The Best Novels, and so on. Standby...

ps. Have a good weekend. Blake.

An Uneventful Day

Today was pretty much uneventful, apart from a blackout which made the heat unbearable (central air is pretty useless when there is no power, it seems), and my friend Shaun's birthday, which involved eating pizza and watching the ridiculous film Die Hard 4.0 (I rate it about 4/10, for those interested, and the stupidity is the main reason thereof...).

So pretty boring. Those looking for something interesting to look at should have a look at the art of Ben Templesmith, and Takashi Murakami. Both are very good.

Also, the artwork of Christopher Shy is amazingly beautiful, and a little creepy to boot in some cases. Here is his site: IT'S REALLY REALLY GOOD. Go there.