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"Our Sun" at Griffith Observatory, Los Feliz, California. Dedicated to Gordon Meyer. See larger size here.
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Lens flare over Big Thunder Mt., Disneyland, California. See larger size here.
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Flared yer lens then, wot? Flared me own lens once. Pity.
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A new booklet by Prof. Oddfellow promises a mystic vision in one minute. (Staring at the sun isn't required; the effect will work with a light bulb.)
The woodcuts of Renaissance visionaries aren't necessarily beyond one's comprehension -- one simply must meet the visionary halfway.
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Will Rogers State Park, Pacific Palisades, California. See larger size here.
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Silesius of Rhodes writes:
i hear michael hutchence singing. i'm melting in the sun. this is pretty. sundogs are pretty.
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  Vampire by Edvard MunchVampiric Colors"Color?" said the vampire. "Is that all? Color iss eazy-peazy. How soon do you vant it?"
—Terry Pratchett, The Truth, 2001 Black silk, white incisors, blood-red lips, pallid complexions, deep purple velvet. Truly, "the horror of vampirism is expressed in color" (Diane Negra, The Irish in Us, 2006). The timeless lore of vampires has left a colorful and enduring mark on world culture. If you think most vampires sport Transylvanian accents and Carpathian fashions, think again. Chinese vampires (Geung-Si), for example, have a rich history of their own. Their limbs stiffened by rigor mortis, Chinese vampires move by hopping, their arms outstretched like zombies to seize their prey. They have long fangs and even longer fingernails, which they use to stab their victims and suck out the life energy. They wear traditional Manchu robes of black silk and round black hats from the Qing dynasty. What turns a corpse into a Chinese vampire? A lingering lust for revenge, an improper burial, a violent death, or a mischievous spirit. Chinese vampires can be stopped only by Taoist priests armed with magic talismans. The priest paints red calligraphy onto a yellow strip of parchment and slaps the talisman onto the vampire's ghastly white forehead, rendering him immobile. Makeup artist Kevyn Aucoin has a tip for making very dark vampire colors less extreme and severe. He recommends surrounding the vampire color with taupe or brownish-gray (Jessica Pallingston, Lipstick, 1999). Because vampires are allergic to sunlight, vampiric colors often evoke the shades of midnight:  
 
 
 
by LOKAOTICO
As vampires are sustained by blood, it comes as no surprise that there are a great many sanguinary colors:  
 
 
 
 
by Wellstone
It takes a pointed tooth to draw blood:  
 
Immortality carries with it the dust of the ages:  
 
by Jim Frazier
No bedroom of the living dead would be complete without a coffin:  
 
 
 
Some vampires sport unnatural complexions:  
 
 
 
The classic vampire mane is black:  
Vampiric wardrobes reflect the height of gothic fashion:  
 
 
Has there ever been a vampire with garlic breath?  
by msmall
The easiest way to break a vampire's heart is with a wooden stake:  
A talisman can also do the trick:  
 
[Read the entire article in my guest blog at ColourLovers.com.]
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From the nonist: This image is "a color composite I created combining 6 hand drawn black and white images, each by a different astronomer, of a total solar eclipse which occurred on July 18th 1860. Although photography already existed at the time of this eclipse it was nowhere near precise enough to make truly useful astronomical observations. The astronomers who recorded it continued on with the method of hand drawing observations, which they’d employed long before the invention of the telescope, let alone the upstart photography. This particular eclipse was special in that the drawings are now thought to be the first known representations of a coronal mass ejection." See the fascinating full story and collected images here. |
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Photographer Eli Shams recalls the story of this portrait of a sun-starer: Pacing small lanes of old Banaras, I followed this sadhu coming back from the river with his traditionnal pot. I liked his steps, and when he stopped to sprinkle Ganga holy water on some children, I asked him for a picture. [He raised his eyes to stare into the sun.] I waited for him to look at the camera, and waited, but he was frozen… So I shot, than he relaxed. I asked why ??? He said : "I am nothing great, so I wanted you to have the sun in my eyes."
Here are some other sun-starers, including this great painting by Edward Hopper. |
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DEAR DR. BARNEEZLES:
My daughter is engaged to an astronomer. I don't really understand what an astronomer does, but I've never* had the nerve to ask. Can you shed any light?
*ever
A: If I shed light, the astronomer won't be able to see what he's looking at. This notwithstanding, I will try to answer your question. Pardon me a moment while I consult my notes. [A, C, E, G-sharp . . . yep, they're all here on the keyboard where they belong.]
The job of the astronomer is to show us that various inconceivably distant and consequently, from our vantage point, inconceivably tiny objects would be inconceivably large if, by travelling for an inconceivably long time (which of course we can't), we arrived where they are -- or rather where they would be if they were still there, which they wouldn't be. These scientists continue to bend every effort to address the pressing question of whether a universe which is infinitely large is more or less infinitely large than it was when it came into existence. If you're interested (and even if you're not), you can find much more information on this complex subject by pestering the clerk in the gift shop of your local planetarium.
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Page 18 of 19
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Original Content Copyright © 2026 by Craig Conley. All rights reserved.
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