Bob Woodward and Stacy Abrams.

I don’t think Government is necessarily bad or completely corrupted. We elect people to represent us. The powers that move around our leaders can be very strange. Leadership is part of our human experience.

We at Flopside Comics have found two leaders that we want to support. One is a journalist that is not the enemy of the people, holds integrity and has vast journalistic experience. Another is an honest woman of leadership, the first African-American woman to run for Governor in the state of Georgia.

Bob Woodward and Stacy Abrams.

Bob went to Yale College but instead of becoming a lawyer he became involved in investigative journalism. “While a young reporter for The Washington Post in 1972, Woodward teamed up with Carl Bernstein; the two did much of the original news reporting on the Watergate scandal.”

Stacy Abrams served on the Georgia General Assembly, 2007–2017 before this in 1999, she earned her Juris Doctor from Yale Law School. A business woman.

Stacy 1 — Read her book, Minority Leader: How to Lead from the Outside and Make Real Change

What inspires us is their shared support of diversity and how they use their knowledge and education to help us, “We the People.” They are, right this very minute, confronting corruption. Two individuals, a journalist and a politician, that seem to care.

Our humble character watercolor renderings of Bob and Stacy, with badges on the side. (out soon!!)

New Badges !

Christine Blasey Ford

A Brave Woman.

Audience members stand up to listen during a Senate Judiciary Committee markup hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on September 28, 2018, for the nomination of Brett M. Kavanaugh to be an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. – Kavanaugh’s contentious Supreme Court nomination will be put to an initial vote Friday, the day after a dramatic Senate hearing saw the judge furiously fight back against sexual assault allegations recounted in harrowing detail by his accuser.

(Photo by Brendan Smialowski / AFP) (Photo credit should read BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images)

Beto O’Rourke Badges…

A few Flopside Comic people asked us to do some badges of our buddy Beto O’Rourke… so we did. Mr. Dang got to it… image, scan and badges in the little old computer bedroom of creative delight…

The Philosophy of Love

“The Philosophy of Love”

Diotima of Mantinea

The name Diotima means one who honors or is honored by Zeus, and her descriptor as “Mantinikê” (Mantinean) seems designed to draw attention to the word “mantis”, which suggests an association with prophecy.

“Then at last man will behold beauty with the eye of the mind and will be able to bring forth not mere images of what is good for man but realities… Would that be an ignoble life Socrates?”

~Diotima of Mantinea

Women and Rally Poem … “Disk” … June 30, 2018

via Disk

Summer pit… looking for Dulcinea ?

Griffith Observatory

It feels heavy this summer. We got our first donuts in months. One from Blinky’s and it was OK. Been going there for 27 years and the place is not holding up to its once ambitious standards.

Too expensive. They use Pine Sol now and it smells more like an old sleazy bar than a donuts galore bakery. The corner of Topanga Canyon / Dumetz is not holding up either.

Not the place of red-hot love, hippies hitchhiking or getting a cold tall glass bottle of Doctor Pepper on the way to the Whisky A Go GO to see some small-time punk bands of a small-town punk scene.

My Muses are in the South of France leaving me dry as the sun here this summer.

Anyway, while looking through some old pictures on my computer, I came across the images above. A little inspiration from the cosmos … that can do it somethings. Oh, ya and a song from the film Man of La Mancha!

The Song Alfie

Punk Rock Historian and Professional Consultant

Hudley Flipside

The Gals and Michael Caine in Alfie (1966)

Here’s a song that had me hooked since 1966 at 8 years old. Now a classic jazz standard. One of those songs that moves through my life and enhances the human experience. Making life lovable in troubling times. The original film Alfie is a sweet but challenging film with major dangerous life lessons learned. Michael Caine’s character is lovely and sad. He grows and develops his conscience right before our eyes.

Shelly Winters’s character is one that I can now relate to more thoroughly in my feminine older years. The song Alfie is a deep and reflective song. Originally sung by Cher when she was a rather unknown street singer/ musician.

“The title song, “Alfie”, written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, was sung by Cher over the film’s closing credits in the US release. It became a hit for British singer Cilla Black (Millicent Martin sang Alfie on its British release) and for Madeline Eastman and Dionne Warwick. Numerous jazz musicians have covered it, and it has become a jazz standard.

Here is an interesting example or another jazz standard interpretation that I found lovely of the song Alfie.

Alfie (by David K. Mathews featuring Amikaeyla) from DAVID MATTHEWS — Fantasy Vocal Sessions Vol.1 Standards released 2018.

A song for the heart. Always good to hear.

https://www.jazzmusicarchives.com/album/david-matthews/fantasy-vocal-sessions-vol1-standards

AZOTH

Azoth is “all-inclusiveness” and the spiritual ray of Neptune which is the higher octave of Mercury.

How this all came together is a current event of our times. Alchemical symbols and studies are something I do. I have worked with images and ancient insights for years. Not always understanding the full meanings yet trying to embrace them with a current and contemporary heart and mind-set.

I believe as the ancient Egyptians taught, that to understand these ancient alchemical symbols one must “think with the heart and feel with the mind.”

A Grand Trine is a call to see the influence of cosmic realities. To observe the world around oneself and try to make sense of it.

We are all in this together even if we are unbelievable.

I’ve been working with this image for some time. I put my praying mantis spin on the study. The alchemical symbol is based on a sixth century woodcut from the series in Basil Valentine’s Azoth.

Neptune is speaking loudly… I think we all might listen!

A hierarchy of Neptune. Azoth is the measureless spirit of life. The original spiritual fiery water comes through Eden (vapor) and pours itself into the four main rivers of four elements. “Elixir-vitae.”

The spine, a gas that is like steam which may be condenses when exposed to outside atmosphere.

But it may also be super-heated by the fire of purification and regeneration and become a brilliant and luminous fire.

“Between the gods and the plant kingdom stands man, a being endowed with intelligence, creative power and free-will use it for good or ill.

Between the chaste plant and the pure spiritual gods who both turn their whole creative power upward towards the light.”

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scorn and unbelievable

Only in the shower do I sing…

Doe: a deer, a female deer, alludes to the first solfège syllable, do.

Ray: a drop of golden sun [i.e. a narrow beam of light or other radiant energy], alludes to the second solfège syllable, re.

Me: a name I call myself [i.e. the objective first-person pronoun], alludes to the third solfège syllable, mi.

Fa’ [i.e. “far”]: a long long way to run,” alludes to the fourth solfège syllable, fa.

Sew: [the verb for] a needle pulling thread,” alludes to the fifth solfège syllable, sol.

La, the sixth solfège syllable, lacking a satisfactory homophone (see below), is directly referred to in the song as a note to follow so[l].

Tea: a drink with jam and bread [i.e. the popular hot beverage made by steeping tea leaves in boiling water], alludes to the seventh solfège syllable, ti.

Austrian composer Hugo Wolf~3 March 1860 – 22 February 1903

I wish I could sing well. In the 1990s I received my AA in Humanities. This gave me an option to take some fun courses. Do some risky stuff. I took two vocal courses. One was basic, ‘learn how to sing,’ with all the fancy techniques like breathing from the diaphragm.

Singing ‘do re mi fa sol la ti do’ repeatedly with one single breath was not easy.

I endured the class and sang the song Blue Moon as my final project. I sang the original “Blue Moon” a classic popular song written by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart in 1934.

When I joined the chorus as part of a class requirement. I knew my singing was not class “A” stock. We had to perform for Los Angeles Valley College’s Christmas celebrations. I was in the first Christmas singing group. After we sang, I heard a mumble from the audience…,

“OK now we will hear the real singers in the next choir singing Christmas music!”

So, I tortured myself and took the next music class that went from learning only how to sing: to singing operettas in German, Italian and French? I really went all out when I decided to sing my final song written by Hugo Wolf.

“Heut Nacht erhob ich mich um Mitternacht?” or ”Last night I rose at midnight.”

My wings melted! My voice and confidence as well. I left the course before finals because the class was too much for me. Sometimes a good challenge is about the process of just trying. I did find Hugo Wolf!

If I could sing a song. Like a sexy noir dame. It would be the song below.

In music, solfège (/ˈsɒlfɛʒ/,[1] also US: /sɒlˈfɛʒ/, French: [sɔl.fɛʒ]) or solfeggio (/sɒlˈfɛdʒioʊ/, Italian: [solˈfeddʒo]), also called sol-fa, solfa, solfeo, among many names, is a music education method used to teach pitch and sight singing of Western music

Wild Rose

It may seem backwards but not from my mothering heart. My son now faces his first romantic suffering. What can I do but be silent & be there for him as he works and plays. I know his heart is broken. He must endure and become stronger and with empathy move on. To oldest son “he” is the Wild Rose…. and she is the “young boy.” It is OK to change things around…. both are not safe from the pains of love, first love!

Poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Lieder by Franz Schubert.

Jerusalem

“For life moves out of a red flare of dreams
Into a common light of common hours,
Until old age brings the red flare again.”

~ The Land Of Heart’s Desire, William Butler Yeats

Retrospective action is part of a process which helps us find solutions to human problems. So much is going on in the world and in my personal world. Where does one seek or find balance? Meditation maybe? Exercising and eating properly, that might be part of the answer. There is more to hypertension than the human body. It seems a common reality in these dark political times shared by many!

While putting together some positive moves towards balance, I came upon a few old friends. One is a meditation site called freeMedation and an old poem by William Blake entitled Jerusalem. Yes, going back to healthy practices and inspired ideals.

Shocked by the inclusion of this particular rendition of Blake’s poem on this site, it is still very endearing to me. It is a poem set in a place and time that one can transcend using retrospective meditation.

The poem speaks to us. For is not Jerusalem the palace [place] of our heart’s desire?

Below is an image, a facsimile, from my Blake collection. It has vast symbolic layers.

“When the morning Stars sang together. & all the Sons of God shouted for joy”

Side stepping biblical perspective, this image holds reference to three important elements: The stars known as the Pleiades, humanity, and the cosmos. Our foresight needs to put roots into the ground as a solid anchor. This need is achieved by reaching with retrospective action. Thus, bringing together the past, present and future. A balance for our crazy times.

The image shows me understanding revealed in meditation. Therefore, I love Blake’s work.

Jerusalem by William Blake

Retrospective
https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/afterthought/

Chumash

Chumash Cosmology

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/_people

Bitchin’ drive over Box Canyon this morning in my car.

Today my youngest son decided to take a state AP Calculus test. It was in Simi Valley. So, I took the old Santa Susana Pass home. Then the wild and mysterious Box Canyon as well.

The magic is still there too. One thing I can still count on in this fucking strange life. As I reached the high point of Box Canyon, I saw the pig with red eyes and then the 1979 Gary Numan song Cars came on the car radio.

A moment of wow. My little green Fiat then turned into a magical ride down a roller coaster.

Turns and downs like never before with the words of Gary Numan singing to us. My little Fiat was a jewel as we rode through the nimbus foggy clouds always hanging round this place.

What a bitchin’ roller coaster ride it was this morning.

The song is all about those times when wild music seemed to fill the airwaves and my jerky head. 1979 was an incredibly good year for this fresh new music. Also, years later, the song was on my oldest son’s first play-station game. One of the first PS games he mastered is Test Drive. What a great song. Takes me on a car ride of good memories and today I have a new one. Perfection! We can be.

As a friend of friends

Urania is talking to Uranus
Ambassador to the planets and stars
She calls to Earth
As a friend of friends,
Catalyst of goodness and humor,
to Uranus ascending electric magma
Eccentric insect antenna muses
Human Beings 
To be the best 
we can be.

Bubbles. Christ ‘Salvator Mundi’

While sitting in my computer room I heard a lady screaming. In a fire windy weaving voice yelling,

“Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you!!”

The car raced by my home. Oldest son heard it too. It was not directed at us, but we did catch it in passing.

Last night while watching reruns of Ancient Aliens I came upon one old image I’ve studied and another that I did not know about. The flower of Life and Leonardo da Vinci’s long-lost portrait of Christ ‘Salvator Mundi’

The flower of Life means many things but the one meaning I love best is that it represents the universe.

The Christ portrait is fascinating. I am amazed by a sphere he is holding. An interfaith symbol that other religious masters hold as well.

Two mystical round bubbles or circles of insight came together in my mind. Because Leonardo da Vinci shows the Flower of Life in his works, I found this an interesting point of reflection and study.

So, I did my own improvisation and put the flower of Life in the bubble sphere. It was fun to do.

I hope the lady who was screaming will have a better day then she seemed to be having.

Salvator Mundi is a painting that depicts Christ blessing the viewer with his right hand raised while holding an orb in his left. The Latin title translates to “Saviour of the World”. The painting is attributed to the Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci and is dated to around 1499–1510.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/bubble/

Leonardo da Vinci’s long lost portrait of Christ ‘Salvator Mundi’

Flower Of Life

https://www.tokenrock.com/explain-flower-of-life-46.html

THE MOODY BLUES TO BE INDUCTED INTO THE ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME IN 2018

http://www.moodybluestoday.com/moody-blues-inducted-rock-roll-hall-fame-2018/

Maybe it all ready happened…congratulations…

In Return

Receptive, illumination and synchronicity,

I’m a wise old blooming flower, waiting to be pollinated,

I’m receptive to what I shall become, Let life approach me,

I do not have to go seeking,

I have all I need to succeed, I’m a beautiful rose,
wise, good and ready.
I can be trusted,

I follow things through, I speak my mind,

Let the spirit of god / goddess, move over my deep dark waters.
Receptive as an open flower.

Now, waiting for life to impregnate me.

“The Rose makes honey.”

Promethean fennel

The wild fennel is growing in my garden,

From the Santa Monica Mountains,

Only a few seeds thrown around my land,

From the staff-sheath that I have,

Near my hearth.

My wild Promethean fennel,

Smells of licorice and earth,

Feels like numinous beats,

Waves from the coastal region,

Myths revealing through my soul.

Prometheus freed by Chiron,

Fire consumes my heart,

Compassionate green healing,

Of my mind and dreams,

Love will grow tall and strong

My wild Promethean fennel.

Thus Spoke Zarathustra (Strauss)

“I am a forest, and a night of dark trees: but he who is not afraid of my darkness, will find banks full of roses under my cypresses.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra

Einleitung, oder Sonnenaufgang (Introduction, or Sunrise)
Von den Hinterweltlern (Of Those in Backwaters)
Von der großen Sehnsucht (Of the Great Longing)
Von den Freuden und Leidenschaften (Of Joys and Passions)
Das Grablied (The Song of the Grave)
Von der Wissenschaft (Of Science and Learning)
Der Genesende (The Convalescent)
Das Tanzlied (The Dance Song)
Nachtwandlerlied (Song of the Night Wanderer)

One must have chaos within oneself, to give birth to a dancing star.
Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1885). Prologue 5

Rest in skate heaven

Turning 65 is all about going to visit the chiropractor. It was the pogoing or the slam pit that done me in.

Sitting in the coffee joint and listening to the retired men talk about how they read the obituary section every day made my dancing john and I laugh. It isn’t funny when it is a comrade from days long gone by.

Like Julie of Sin 34.

I remember asking her once a question when we first met. She was the talk of the town. She was bright, a girl skater and was a singer of a punk rock band.

“So, you skateboard?” I asked her.

“Ha Ha Ha… do I skateboard, yes on a board, but I think you mean do I skate!”

Two generations merging in a scene where terms changed fast. It was never easy confronting and talking to punks.

Julie laughed loud and held her own in a scene that had some tough competition.

Boys everywhere.

I captured her voice in a little article called Feminine Influences we published in Los Angeles Flipside issue 39.

Our six-year anniversary issue.

Rest in skate heaven. Julie!!

Feminine Influences Los Angeles Flipside Fanzine # 39 Aug/83

edited 4/6/23

Face towards the sunshine

Two off-beat women executed. They both managed to live a coarse life remarkable parallel.

“Keep your face always toward the sunshine – and shadows will fall behind you.”

― Walt Whitman

Barbara Graham

Aileen Wuornos

Shunned by society, prostitution to survive and hanging with the wrong types of men! Men who took advantage of their beauty, poverty and hot desperation.

The kind of real life Noir that gets your blood boiling. They did not need to be killed. They were falsely executed.

They were victims of a dark world. Trapped in it. A justice system intrinsically evil which profoundly betrayed them both.

Money and profits from films … was it really to tell their story? I hope so.

I want to live: Actress Susan Hayward

Barbara Graham (June 26, 1923 – June 3, 1955) was an American criminal convicted of murder. She was executed in the gas chamber on the same day as two convicted accomplices, Jack Santo and Emmett Perkins, all of whom were involved in the robbery that led to murder of an elderly widow. Nicknamed “Bloody Babs” by the press, Graham was the third woman in California to be executed by gas.^[1]

Her story of adult criminal activity is told in the 1958 film I Want to Live!, in which she was portrayed by Susan Hayward, who won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance as Graham.

MONSTER : Actress Charlize Theron

Aileen Wuornos was born on February 29, 1956 in Rochester, Michigan, USA as Aileen Carol Pittman. She was married to Lewis Gratz Fell. She died on October 9, 2002 in Florida State Prison, Starke, Florida, USA

Wuornos was brought into the death chamber on October 9, 2002. She had Kentucky Fried Chicken and French fries as her last meal and was given a $20 budget. Her last words before the execution were,

“Yes, I would just like to say I’m sailing with the rock, and I’ll be back, like Independence Day with Jesus. June 6, like the movie. Big mother ship and all, I’ll be back, I’ll be back.”

[1] At 9:47 a.m. EDT, Aileen Wuornos died.

She was the tenth woman in the United States to be executed since the Supreme Court lift its ban on capital punishment in 1976, and the second woman ever executed in Florida.

Barbara Graham loved her Jazz