Lawrence R. Spencer's Blog, page 567
February 18, 2013
SHARED UNIVERSES (Download FREE The Complete works of H.P. Lovecraft)
USE THIS LINK TO DOWNLOAD Free Complete Works of H.P. Lovecraft for Nook and Kindle – Cthulhu Chick.
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(Excerpt from a letter from Howard Lovecraft, to Sherlock Holmes)
“My Dear Mr. Holmes,
Word of your private and discreet investigations into alchemical investigation has reached me, vicariously, through a chain of referrals, culminating with your acquaintance, Arthur Conan Doyle. I am an aspiring writer in America of which I am sure you have not heard. Nonetheless, I am compelled to contact you in the off chance that you may find the enclosed information of interest.
I have developed several correspondences during my young life with other writers with whom I share an intense interest in all manner of scientific, metaphysical and pseudoscientific speculation. Foremost among my correspondents are Clark Ashton Smith and Robert E. Howard, with whom I share a great enthusiasm and very modest income from writing fiction for pulp magazines in America, most notably “Weird Tales”." -- Excerpt from SHERLOCK HOLMES: MY LIFE by Lawrence R. Spencer
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Howard Phillips Lovecraft (August 20, 1890 – March 15, 1937) — known as H. P. Lovecraft — was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction, especially the subgenre known as weird fiction. Lovecraft's guiding aesthetic and philosophical principle was what he termed "cosmicism" or "cosmic horror", the idea that life is incomprehensible to human minds and that the universe is fundamentally inimical to the interests of humankind. As such, his stories express a profound indifference to human beliefs and affairs. Lovecraft is best known for his Cthulhu Mythos story cycle and the Necronomicon, a fictional magical textbook of rites and forbidden lore.
The Cthulhu Mythos is a shared fictional universe. A shared universe is a fictional universe to which more than one writer contributes. Works set in a shared universe share characters and other elements with varying degrees of consistency. Shared universes are contrasted with collaborative writing, in which multiple authors work on a single story. Shared universes are more common in fantasy and science fiction than in other genres. Examples include Star Trek, DC Universe, Marvel Universe, Star Wars, Forgotten Realms, Babylon 5, Foundation series, Dragonlance, Power Rangers, Man-Kzin Wars, and Cthulhu Mythos. (from Wikipedia.org)
February 16, 2013
ANOTHER ANTI-GRAVITY VIDEO: SPRING!
It's fun to disagree with reality! 
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BenJammin - Spring from Till Nowak on Vimeo.
Nach intensiven Training ist es BenJammin gelungen, die Schwerkraft zu besiegen! Die Single "SPRING" ist am 21.08.2009 erhältlich. Wir freuen uns!!
February 15, 2013
READ THESE BOOKS! (unless you’re an Illiterate Chickenshit)
il·lit·er·ate (
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Pin Itr-
Pin Itt)
adj.
1.
a. Unable to read and write.
b. Having little or no formal education.
2.
a. Marked by inferiority to an expected standard of familiarity with language and literature.
b. Violating prescribed standards of speech or writing.
3. Ignorant of the fundamentals of a given art or branch of knowledge: musically illiterate.
chick·en·shit (ch
Pin Itk
Pin ItPin Itn-sh
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n.
1. Contemptibly petty, insignificant nonsense.
2. A coward.
adj.
1. Contemptibly unimportant; petty.
2. Cowardly; afraid.
(Note: This post is a unabashed, unapologetic self-promotion of books I have written and/or edited. I have learned that writers have to spend a lot of time promoting and marketing the books they write or no one reads them. I would rather WRITE books than spend my time on marketing. If you would rather READ BOOKS instead of advertisements ABOUT books, please buy my books. Thank you! )
February 14, 2013
JAZZ TRANSCENDENCE
"Transcendence" means "going beyond", and "self-transcendence" means going beyond a prior form or state of oneself. Mystical experience is thought of as a particularly advanced state of self-transcendence, in which the sense of a separate self is abandoned. The Spirit rises beyond the physical universe and perceives the spiritual or aesthetic universe. When an artist creates, one often enters a state of transcendence in which aesthetic or spiritual creation is achieved without regard to the limitations of the physical universe. Beauty, in any form, is a manifestation of spiritual creation.
THE ARTIST
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO AN EXCERPT FROM THE AUDIOBOOK
Pin ItVermeer: Portraits of a Lifetime is written from what I imagine to be the perspective of the artist himself, with his passion, with empathy for his personal dream and tragedy, as well as his transcendent technical ability. As a writer my vision is to reveal the nature of the immortal spirit -- The Artist -- through their own thoughts, rather than through the effete, intellectual interpretations of academics or journalists.
Paintings are the communication of the artist, inviting the viewer to participate together in their mutual creation of it. It is my observation, that this can be supplemented with verbal descriptions of the painting by the artist -- not about the "meaning" of the art -- but, concerning the esoteric origins of it, the subtle technologies and careful observations brought to bear upon the creation of it. The "meaning" of the painting is a purely subjective experience for every viewer. I want to understand, more completely, the subjective experience of The Artist. I am certain that many admirers would also.
"Priests of Art" attempt to place themselves between Mankind and The Artist, as surely as the priests of religion prevent the souls of Mankind from communicating directly with the gods. In order to understand an aesthetic or a spirit, one must "be" The Artist, as themselves, while as a viewer, participating in The Creation, as though it is their own. Creation is a collaboration of spirits, painting and viewing together in admiration of All Beings Who Create.
Download VERMEER: PORTRAITS OF A LIFETIME (AudioBook) http://www.audible.com/pd/ref=sr_1_2?asin=B009NVX2PM&qid=1355950962&sr=1-2
SERENE HAIKU
haiku, unrhymed Japanese poetic form consisting of 17 syllables arranged in three lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables respectively. The term haiku is derived from the first element of the word haikai (a humorous form of renga, or linked-verse poem) and the second element of the word hokku (the initial stanza of a renga). The hokku, which set the tone of a renga, had to mention in its three lines such subjects as the season, time of day, and the dominant features of the landscape, making it almost an independent poem. The hokku (often interchangeably called haikai) became known as the haiku late in the 19th century, when it was entirely divested of its original function of opening a sequence of verse; today even the earlier hokku are usually called haiku.
Originally, the haiku form was restricted in subject matter to an objective description of nature suggestive of one of the seasons, evoking a definite, though unstated, emotional response. The form gained distinction in the 17th century, during the Tokugawa period, when the great master Bashō elevated the hokku, as it was then known, to a highly refined and conscious art. Haiku has since remained the most popular form in Japanese poetry.
February 12, 2013
OTHER REALMS OF MICHAEL PARKES
Michael Parkes is my favorite living artist. He renders images that I remember, dimly, from distantly past eons of my own existence as an Immortal Spiritual Being, and revivifies them in the present moment. These moments, for me, as nothing less than magical! The following video is an interview with Michael Parkes in his studio in Southern Spain wherein he discusses some of his painting processes and techniques. And, the "stillness" and harmony that permeate both his paintings and his personal life.
"As human beings, we limit our sense of perception to what is generally comfortable and present in everyday life. In limiting our perceptions to suit our individuality, we miss the vastness of other perceptions and the doors they represent. Though we have been conditioned to perceive nothing except our own world, this does not mean we cannot enter other realms." - Michael Parkes
Michael Parkes -- A Personal History of A Living Master
Parkes could draw even before he could read and write. He was an only child, raised in Canalou , Missouri , a typical American Midwest town in the fifties. He attended art school where he met the woman, artist and musician to whom he remains married more than three decades later, Maria Sedoff. Parkes taught college level Art History as the young couple made their way in the Vietnam era. Parkes has been a serious and lifelong student of spirituality and esoterica. Together in the 1970's, Michael and Maria set off on a spiritual journey where they found excellent teachers and a lifelong passion for India . Returning to Spain soon after their only daughter was born, Michael and Maria worked together to form a financially stable venture in art, beginning with humbly making and selling leather belts to tourists to achieving the internationally prestigious recognition as a master that Parkes enjoys today. Parkes remains humble and as much like your favorite neighbor as the sage weaver of myth and dreams whom we know through his art. Ultimately forming a publishing company to independently represent his art work, Michael and Maria now live and work in Spain.
DOWNLOAD A PDF BROCHURE OF MICHAEL PARKES PAINTINGS: MICHAEL PARKES BROCHURE PDF
VISIT TO OFFICIAL WEBSITE OF MICHAEL PARKES TO VIEW MANY MORE IMAGES FROM OTHER REALMS
LIFE RUSHES FROM WITHIN
(painting by Michael Parkes)
"She used to drag her mattress beside her low window and lie awake for a long while, vibrating with excitement, as a machine vibrates from speed. Life rushed in upon her through that window - or so it seemed. In reality, of course, life rushes from within, not from without."
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- Willa Cather (1873-1947), American author and teacher, considered to be one of the best chroniclers of pioneering life in the 20th century wrote My Ántonia (1918).
"No romantic novel ever written in America, by man or woman, is one half so beautiful as My Antonia." In this symphonically powerful and magnificently observed novel, Willa Cather created one of the most winning heroines in American fiction, a woman whose robust high spirits and calm, undemonstrative strength make her emblematic of the virtues Cather most admired in her country. We first meet Antonia Shimerda as the young daughter of a Bohemian immigrant who in time will be driven to suicide by the oceanic loneliness of life on the Nebraska prairie. Through the eyes of Jim Burden, her tutor and disappointed admirer, we follow Antonia from farm to town and through hardships both natural and human, surviving everything from poverty to a failed romance-- and not only surviving, but triumphing.
READ THE BOOK "My Antonia" on-line: http://www.online-literature.com/willa-cather/my-antonia/
VISIT THE WILLA CATHER Foundation Website: www.willacather.org/
February 11, 2013
BEAUTY IS BEAUTIFUL
This painting and the video below display some of the works of one of my favorite painters, the late Zdzisław Beksiński (24 February 1929 – 21 February 2005):
SEE MORE WORKS OF ART BY Zdzisław Beksiński
