grantimatter

@grantimatter.bsky.social

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Not too bad, still. @grantimatter@mstdn.social | grantb.livejournal.com

What happened inthe Haight echoed earlier scenes in North Beach and the Village…and it proved, once again, the basic futility of seizing turf you can’t control. The pattern never varies; a low-rent area suddenly blooms new and loose and human - and the LN fashionable, which attracts the press and the cops at about he same time. Cop problems attract more publicity, which attracts fad-salesmen and hustlers - which means money, and that attracts junkies and jack-rollers. Their bad action causes publicity and - for some perverse reason - an influx ignored, upward mobile types who dig th menace of “white ghetto” life and whose expense-account tastes drive local rents and street prices out of reach of the original settlers…who are forced, once again, to move on. One of the most hopeful developments of the Haight-Ashbury scene was the exodus to rural communities. Most of the communes failed- for reasons that everyone can see now, in retrospect (like that scene in EASY RIDER where all those poor freaks were trying to grow their crops in dry sand) - but the few that succeeded, like the Hog Farm in New Mexico, kept a whole generation of heads believing that the future lay somewhere outside the cities.
Holding a copy of FRANKENSTEIN MEETS WOLFMAN, standing before my shelves, just breathing in the smell of monster.
Sully holds aloft Mike Wazowski and another animated student... "who demanded sanity trials accusing the radio of hypnotism & were left with their insanity & their hands & a hung jury, who threw potato salad at CCNY lecturers on Dadaism and subsequently presented themselves on the granite steps of the madhouse with shaven heads and harlequin speech of suicide, demanding instantaneous lobotomy, and who were given instead the concrete void of insulin Metrazol electricity hydrotherapy psychotherapy occupational therapy pingpong & amnesia, who in humorless protest overturned only one symbolic pingpong table, resting briefly in catatonia, returning years later truly bald except for a wig of blood, and tears and fingers, to the visible madman doom of the wards of the madtowns of the East, Pilgrim State’s Rockland’s and Greystone’s foetid halls, bickering with the echoes of the soul, rocking and rolling in the midnight solitude-bench dolmen-realms of love, dream of life a nightmare, bodies turned to stone as heavy as the moon...."
Tom Holland and Timothee Chalamet in b/w, as…”The two men signaled Earth, telling their Continent VENUS IS GREEN. And parades assembled, the loud earth tellers spent all fifteen minutes on it, even shortened their weather forecast. But rival nations, angry and oily, fired up their best atom blast and the last Earth war was done. The place became crater on each side, sank down to its first skull, shedding forests, oceans, dried bones and neons, as it fell through time like a forgotten pitted stone. These two men walked hopefully out onto their hot empty planet with machines, rats, tanks, boxes, insects and the one odd set of three almost new snakes, to make the tests they were meant to do….”
Margaret Qualley on a rocky shore: “She longs among horses and angels, The rainbow-fish bend in her joys, Floated the lost cathedral Chimes of the rocked buoys. Where the anchor rode like a gull Miles over the moonstruck boat A squall of birds bellowed and fell, A cloud blew the rain from its throat…”
The New College Foundation is now attempting to disband the New College Alumni Association. From the middle of this meeting agenda: >> 5. Discussion: Motion to Dissolve & Reconstitute NCAA as Passed at NC Foundation Governance Committee 07/21/2026 for Referral to NCF Board (Meeting 07/29/2026) 6. Motion (if seconded): Opposing Motion to Dissolve & Reconstitute NCAA as Passed as Passed at NC Foundation Governance Committee 07/21/2026 for Referral to NCF (Meeting 07/29/2026) 7. Motion (if seconded): Authorizing Chair of NCAA to Take Such Legal Actions as May Be Prudent & Necessary to Block Dissolution & Reconstitution of NCAA as Passed at NC Foundation Governance Committee 07/21/2026; and, in the Event of Dissolution & Reconstitution of NCAA, Recover Consideration Tendered (approximately $300,000 in 2003), and Any Other Damages Resulting from NC Foundation Breach of 2003 Affiliation Agreement) <<
…Sunday mornings - but Acosta’s very presence, no matter where he goes or what he seems to be doing, is so grossly political that anybody who wants to talk to him has to figure out some way to deal on a meaningful political level. “The thing is to never talk down,” he says. “We’re not trying to win votes out here. Hell, that trip’s been done, it’s over. The idea now is to make people *think*. Force them to think. And you can’t do that by walking around slapping strangers on the back and buying them beers.” Then grinning. “Unless you happen to be babbling drunk or stoned. Which is certainly not my style; I want to make that one thing very clear.”
From https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/clients/summary?cycle=2026&id=D000081318... A bar graph showing that lobbying expenses more than doubled in 2025, rising to over $80,000/year.
B/W news photo of Apollo astronauts on the lunar surface, a small stone cross between them. Underneath that photo is a front-cover image of a Weekly World News cover shouting "JFK IS ALIVE!" with a photo of an elderly John F. Kennedy.
Amy Kay ASMR stares out at you, half-sympathetic, half-cynical, saying "At east not until we get your brain looked at."
A grab of the NYT "Spelling Bee" game with the very real word "radiolarian" spelled out and about to be rejected by software that is unaware of the existence of individuals of the radiolaria.
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Chris Claremont, part of Mojo’s Brain Trust, from X-Men Annual, Vol 1 #12
A grab from The Hustle's Side Hustle Database, showing the entry for NPC for hire (tabletop games). Description: Join existing D&D or RPG games as memorable NPCs or fill-in players. Help game masters bring characters to life or balance party composition. Charge per session. Perfect for strong role-players who enjoy variety without campaign commitment. Category: Creative Services Initial Investment: Low Investment.
Four Winds seal (complete with central star) and pale blue lacy ruff sewn onto a mortarboard. Photo from the Sarasota Herald-Tribune: https://www.heraldtribune.com/picture-gallery/news/2026/05/24/new-college-of-florida-class-of-2026-commencement/90243920007/
A program for allay starring Gary Jurman, John Hill, Monica Gaughan (as “Lt. Sudakov, driver”),Julia Berkowitz, Jeff Kamis, Dan Gregg, Tom Imber, Jonathan White, and Amy Hale. TD Mike Wells, Lights Jamie Peacock Spot Rhoda Kennedy Sound Mike Wells AD Amy Hale Dir. Tom Imber The Scenes I. The Bridge of the enterprise Ii. Medical lab Iii. Bridge iv. Medical lab v. Bridge Vi. Recreation room Vii. Captain’s quarters Viii. Bridge Ix. Bridge X. Bridge/Cheron Special Thanks to John McDiarmid (faculty sponsor), Richard and Sarah Imber, The Cast, The Crew, John Moore, Barbara Berggren, David Minkoff, Chris Coldren, Jeff Hixson, Reg, Gene Roddenberry (creator), [handwritten] Tom Ronca, Tom Lashar, [typed] Joe Caffentzis, and all who slipped my brain. !Short intermission. Remain seated! meis fratribus
A xeroxed flier, 8.5x11:the Fauve’s a hand drawn face with what could be a superior smile (rendered by Macintosh mouse) saying “Like: art, man.” Finer type along the bottom: If you only get to see one band this year, please, let it be the fauves. Larger type: Appearing October 14 Hamilton Center Tiny type at bottom: Bring as many people as you want. Just make sure you bring some coffee. Tiny type at top: Marty is the one with the spandex.
Black Lightning, ominous, electricity arcing, flared lapels harkening back to the 1970s origin….
Screen grab of a press release: “The students selected the Atala butterfly and the coontie plant as a symbolic image for this year’s event. Once nearly extinct in the Sarasota area, the Atala butterfly returned and flourished after the restoration of its native habitat and the reintroduction of the coontie plant on which it depends. For the graduating class, that image captures the spirit of this moment: survival through care, renewal through community, and the possibility of return even after loss.”
Alec Guinness as Obi Wan with his eyes blocked out with a sign reading “My idols are dead and my enemies are in power.”
Screengrab from Novum Collegium Fidelis: So your office claims he’s an historian, while Dr. Ruzek, Ph.D. claims he was “a biology professor.” Dr. Ruzek, Ph.D. is rather fond of identifying himself as a professor. (grab from another story, a sentence reading: "The idea is to facilitate open inquiry learning, USF professor Mitch Ruzek said.") Anyone with any part of an operational brain would know that cannot be true; if Dr. Ruzek, Ph.D. was “a biology professor” at USF, he wouldn’t be running the career office at New College. He was perhaps a T.A., an instructor, or an adjunct of some sort. He certainly wasn’t a professor. Outside of the academy, this may not be an issue. But – I’m not sure you’re aware of this – you are inside the academy. So, who is Dr. Ruzek, Ph.D.? His Ph.D. is from the Education Department at USF.
Movie poster for the 1977 film DEMON SEED, looking down at the top of the head of a long-haired woman in dramatic colored lights, apparently lying on her back against a blank white background. Large letters spell out “Julie Christie carries the ‘Demon Seed’” …with tiny words on the black field of her spilling hair: “Fear for her.”
From Independent Voter Project Voter Registration by Party How many registered Democrats, Republicans, and Independents are in Florida? Democratic 31.27% Republican 38.48% Independent/Other 30.25% PARTY REGISTERED VOTERS % OF TOTAL Democratic 4,673,459 31.27% Republican 5,750,286 38.48% Independent/Other 4,520,571 30.25%
So what I’d like to say, if you’ll pardon the brevity, by which I mean the courage not the briefness, so I really should say “bravery” (or “the chutzpah” or “initiative”) it takes to form a sentence of these scattered thoughts and memories, because you need to know, at least it’s my opinion that knowing this would please you, not to say you’d die without it, or never have been born, ‘cause that would be a tragedy – at least it would to me, to have to live without you and your patient point of view every time I start to ramble about the state of things … by which I mean “conditions” not “the areas of land,” though I could tell you on the way to someplace simply special and specific, not this indeterminable phase of something you should know… if… if … if only I could get there and learn to spit it out (not literally spit, because that might offend you, and I’d rather make you laugh – yeah, rather make you laugh – by which I mean it always makes me happy when you smile) and that’s what I’ve been saying all this while; it makes me happy when you smile, and that’s what I’ve been saying all this while.
Gas pump price readout, $4.85 for permium, with an “I did that!” sticker… this time, Donald Trump is pointing to it.
Jesus Christ Superstar screengrab - Peter shouting, "I don't know him!" while "the beloved disciple" (presumably John) and Mary Magdalene look on with very, "Dude, do you know what you're saying?" expressions on their faces.
When Watt returned to San Pedro, he got a call that would provide an unlikely path forward from Ed Crawford, a 22-year-old Ohio State student and ardent Minutemen fan. “That Minutemen lyric, ‘Our band could be your life,’ I took that quite seriously,” Crawford said in an interview. He’d heard rumors that Watt and Hurley were auditioning guitarists.
Under a photo of a black-and-white money, maybe a capuchins… Headline: Florida ‘Monkey Whisperer’ gets prison for 2nd illicit primate sale Subhead: Jimmy Hammonds admitted to violating wildlife laws by selling two “pocket monkeys” while on federal probation
Picamas salsa brava, two bottles, one red, one green.
Screengrab of news article: Words: 'While graduating students like Jacobson say their fight for their school is over, new ones are still arriving, not yet embittered and full of conviction. Luci Pimienta, who had only been on campus for a few weeks, was doggedly recruiting at the event to start a progressive club. Organizers on the panel told her they would happily help her find a space for it if the campus wouldn’t allow it. “It’s building power,” Parker said. “I always say, each one of you has a friend. They have a friend. We all have to lock arms and do this together.”' Photo of FAMU grad/Lux tour organizer Noella Williams in front of a New College building (Caples Hall, built in I think the 1920s, wrought-iron window grates and neo-Mediterranean arched doorway).
Photo of a computer screen showing a pdf page of a magazine. A white statue of Neptune holds a gold trident. He is wearing Ray-Bans and an orange Hawaiian shirt. Pullquote at top: “Neptune lines are all about spending time near water, which makes them great for cruises,” Woods says. Caption at bottom: “Neptune… (on vacation)”
Screengrab, Seatrade Cruise News newsletter: Academy Award-winning actor Robert Downey Jr. will be the godparent for Disney Adventure. Downey’s portrayal of Tony Stark/Iron Man was the cornerstone of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the highest-grossing film franchise of all time. His decade-plus cinematic journey as the character culminated in "Avengers: Endgame," which amassed more than $2.79b at the global box office. Downey was named an official Disney Legend in 2019 and will now star as Doctor Doom in Marvel Studios’ "Avengers: Doomsday," in theaters Dec. 18.
Dave Barry's bumper sticker from Tropic magazine: A big yellow smiley face on the left, and on the right, riddled with bullet holes, the block letters: THANK YOU FOR NOT SHOOTING
A National Enquirer page showing Richard Branson picking up Ivana Trump like a 6-year-old, headline IVANA GETS A ROUGH RIDE FROM AIRLINE HONCHO (copy about her presenting him an award and writing a letter decrying his behavior, hoping the photos never get published, mentioning he’s 41 at the time). Downpage, a photo of Donald and Marla Trump, her mouth wide, him behind her and looking off to the side, headline …AS DONALD & MARLA TALK MARRIAGE AGAIN. Copy about her crowning the homecoming queen in Dalton Georgia and him accompanying, a week after he rented a plane to fly that message “Marla, I love you” over a golf course where they were playing on Long Island, October 11. Perhaps ironically, the page closes with a small inset box of a quote: “Science may have found a cure for most evils, but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all — the apathy of human beings.” — Helen Keller
A jumble of old news clippings in a bin, overlapping headlines from Palm Beach Post and Daily News, including HANDYMAN: I DIDNT GIVE SOCIALITE DRUGS and SEXUAL ALLEGATIONS DENIED BY HEIRESS IN PULITZER TRIAL and photos of Roxanne Pulitzer (serious) and Jacqueline Kimberly (on her attorney’s arm). The ACCUSED OF TOPLESS ROMPS WITH DAUGHTER headline is just off camera, and the I SLEPT WITH A TRUMPET lawsuit coverage is a layer or two deeper.
*While a father’s concubine is not quite the same as one’s stepmother, it’s arguably at least adjacent. What I’m saying is, if we’re looking at the frankly astounding prevalence of stepmothers as figures of erotic fixation in pornography, we might look back to the life of Reuben as evidence that quasi-maternal figures have been the subject of desire since the Bronze Age or so. Bilhah was Rachel’s slave/”handmaid,” given to Jacob as a gift by the barren and beautiful sister, so that, explicitly, Rachel could take credit for any children Bilhah added to her sister Leah’s damnably fertile output.
"Ain't nobody can fly a car like Hooper!" Poster with a framed photo of a car jumping over a river. Underneath, in carnivalesque type, BURT REYNOLDS - HOOPER - THE GREATEST STUNTMAN ALIVE with a cameo painting of Burt wearing a cowboy hat, scowling off to the side, and blowing a big bubble-gum bubble despite his mustache.
Three angry Roman soldiers in a row. Caption reads: Great crimes were rare in ancient times. First soldier is stabbing the second soldier in the back. Second soldier is stabbing the first soldier in the gut behind him and the third soldier in the back. Third soldier is stabbing the second soldier in the gut behind him and, in his other hand, brandishing another sword, looking for someone else to stab.
Illustration/poster - white background, silhouetted ICE agents with white eyes showing through their masks like Deadpool or Ralph Bakshi orcs. Most have some sort of ICE logo in white, one with bare arms has HSI in red. Above, black words in Impact: "WE WEAR MASKS" . Below, similar typeface: "SO YOU SEE / WHO WE ARE". Feel free to duplicate, rip off, modify, whatever.
Wall Street Journal headline: Trump Has Complained About Pam Bondi Repeatedly to Aides
Another Star Wars poster from the 1977 Burger Chef series, this one highlighting Luke Skywalker in light blue with a gold cameo of Obi Wan to the right and a painted collage of Leia, a Stormtrooper, C-3PO, an X-wing, and the Death Star to the left. It shows signs of having been folded and rippling with age and bygone humid summers.
Photo of New College. White text: >> "We're looking forward to building a culture that emphasizes academic and athletic excellence." NCF's actual application to join an athletics association: << (Screengrab of application, printed question, handwritten reply): >> What value will this school bring to the NAIA if it becomes a member? Please explain why. (Geography, competitiveness, academic excellence, etc.) Attach another sheet if needed.<< >> new college of Florida is the "Honor's College" in Florida. The inclusions of athletes allows us to build awareness in new ways. <<
Two photos of a large-eared, small-shouted fennec fox, stolen unrepentantly from the Gatorama web site.
A foaming congerie of garnet-hued spheres bubbles madly as a steel spoon stirs and stirs again like the iron scepter of some wine-crazed god.
The cover to New College legend John D MacDonald’s CINNAMON SKIN at my local library.
Board of Trustees, New College of Florida Spalding, Matthew (Arlington) 01/06/2028 Anderson, Ryan (Leesburg) 01/06/2028 (BOG appointment) Rufo, Christopher F. (Olympia) 01/06/2026 Bauerlein, Mark (Alexandria) 01/06/2026 Jenks, Debra A. (Palm Beach Gardens) 01/06/2026 Kesler, Charles R. (Pasadena) 01/06/2025 (REAPPOINTED) Speir, Jason "Eddie" (Bradenton) 01/06/2025 (filled by Joe Jacquot - REAPPOINTED) (per: https://www.flsenate.gov/Committees/Show/EE/MeetingNotice/5861 )
“I can only assume that New College will next announce its high-speed rail project. And The New York Times will write with wan eloquence about the proposed Charlie Kirk Station and Beruff Field Terminal. This isn’t really a response to the details in the most recent The New York Times piece, the flagrant ignorance of which arguably doesn’t deserve a response. Also, maybe get HBO. Something’s brewing.”
Wikipedia change log: 21 November 2025 Deletion log 06:39 Explicit talk contribs deleted page Barbelith (Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Barbelith (XFDcloser)) Deletion log 06:39 Explicit talk contribs deleted page Talk:Barbelith (G8: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Barbelith closed as delete (XFDcloser))
A diagram from the early 1600s of a hand inside a circle, the perimeter of which is labeled with months and zodiac symbols. The fingers are similarly labeled with zodiac symbols between each joint and planetary symbols beside them. Lines from between the months radiate in toward the planetary symbols. This is from an age when astronomy and astrology were still the same science, and when anatomy and palmistry might have had more in common than not. It may also be a diagram for using the hand to measure the progress of time and the movement of heavenly bodies in an age when telescopes were new and rare.
A tourism flier for Waxahachie, TX, advertising it as “ A Place in Your Heart, Texas.”
Red Nissan pickup with a busted left taillight, New Mexico plate reads 2MORDOR
A bulletin board in the genederless bathroom in Cid’s grocery in Taos, NM, with colorful 5x7 ads for sound healing,spiritual advice, self-discovery through writing, the Uptown Thrift, and a handyman who “does things. What do you need me to do?” and the like. Many have photographs of healthy, smiling people or interesting trees.
Over a toilet above brown tile going halfway up the wall, a screen-printed canvas reads “CELEBRATE WHAT YOU WANT TO SEE MORE OF” in the men’s room of Rocco’s Riverside Deli sandwich shop in Pueblo,CO.
To the right, a very colorful mosaic wall. To the left, behind a window, a block-lettered sign reads: “PLEASE NO CLIMBING, BICYCLES, SKATEBOARDS, OR ROLLER BLADES ON THE ROLL OF TOILET PAPER. THANK YOU.”
Overlapping patterns of black and white tiles on the wall and floor of the bathroom in Druff’s, a diner in a corner of the Woodruff Building, erected in 1911 by one of the two men who created the Route 66 highway plan.
A bathroom wall, covered in kinda nice earth-toned tile, in Central BBQ Downtown Memphis, adorned with black Sharpie-written letters “HA HA HA HA HA HA” in a sort of downward trajectory, toward the level of the toilet seat.
A gas station toilet in central Alabama with a sign over it inside a clear plastic cover. Top words: “PLEASE Flush After Use” Bottom words: “TIRE DE LA CADENA DESPUES DE USAR EL INODORO MULTIPLES VECES”
A screengrab of a news email - photo of a reddish hazy sky, dark subtropical trees silhouetted to the side. Headline: We saw the northern lights in Tampa Bay last night. It could be similar tonight.” Lede graf: “The rare phenomenon was hardly visible to a Times reporter’s naked eye, but a camera captured reddish hues low on the horizon. Read more.”
Frank Scarso, founder of Avanza Capital Holdings, says New York’s new mayor-elect could trigger lasting economic fallout. “This is my city. It is where I grew up, built my career, and still believe in its resilience,” says Scarso. “But when ideology replaces ambition, it stops being New York.” Scarso warns that Mamdani’s anti-wealth stance risks eroding business confidence and driving companies south: “Texas already started an exchange. What does that tell you?” Frank is available for commentary on any of your coverage regarding financial policy, economic impact, and NYC leadership. Let me know if you need a comment!!
Clint Eastwood and Shirley MacLaine's 1970 comedy Western, TWO MULES FOR SISTER SARA, is apparently running a successful campaign for mayor of New York CIty. At least, that's what this poster implies.