Large Fierce Mammal

Inspiring Autumn perfection. (Mrs. LFM photo – click to enbiggen)

This poem came to me as Mrs. LFM and I were walking on a gravel beach deep within the presently deserted wilderness wonderland that is Kejimkujik National Park. To quote one of my earlier articles, “The Park, locally referred to simply as ‘Keji’, encompasses a vast area that has been inhabited by the Mi’kmaq People for thousands of years before the first Europeans arrived, and some areas within its boundaries are clearly marked as subject to restricted access due to their significance as sacred sites.”

Gazing across the majestic expanse of Kejimkujik Lake at the brilliantly coloured foliage of the deciduous trees dotting the coniferous forests beyond, reflecting on a life that’s truly close to Nature and accepting of Her Truths, this came to mind. Inspired by Autumn, you might also enjoy my ruminations on Spring from a while back; but first …

Winter is Always Coming

By LFM

Spring bursts forth with promises
Of Summer’s broad repast.
And thence to Autumn’s bounty
With the harvest in at last.

But take not this for granted
For the Old Gods still hold sway –
Grant favour to the worthy ones,
And send the rest away.

As beauteous as Autumn is,
On this you can depend –
Winter’s coming close behind,
And some won’t see its end.

I’ve written a lot about the strength of character it takes to be worthy of being a Leader of animals. Most particularly Dogs, because Mrs. LFM and I … well, that’s how we roll.

Regardless of species though, if you’ve ever had an animal in your life that gave you a trust you were worthy of, you either have, or will, come to the inevitable point of being strong for them on the day they must return to Nature. These days, most can turn to a veterinarian to administer a lethal injection, but it must never be forgotten that the one who dealt the death is not compartmentalized to the one who pressed the plunger on the syringe. Killing a loved one is a terrible thing to do, and anyone who’s done it when the need is recognized will know that the decision was agonized over long before the day came. That having been said, the responsibility of Leadership is not diluted by delegation. If you are worthy of the role then you will accept the soul searing truth of this, and we’ll drink and cry with you any day as you work though it.

A couple quotes for you from LFM lore –

Any Leader of Dogs worthy of the title understands and accepts the responsibilities that come with fully embracing the beautiful thing that is a relationship with a Dog, and knows going in that the relationship comes with an expiry date – one that, with all likelihood, will lead to their being dragged kicking and screaming into being the one who must decide when to end the life of somebody they only want to love and protect forever. ~ Alf vom Garreler Esch – 19 April 2000 to 17 January 2011

… and …

As I’ve gone through the grieving process myself, and watched others do the same, it has become clear to me that, in the end, the power and joy of a life well lived is not diminished by the final footnote that it came to an end. That grief is a path leading to a place where, without trivializing our loss or assuming a pretense that the one departed isn’t missed, we can once again think and speak of them fondly and often, without spontaneously melting into a weeping puddle of goo. That their lives will have meaning as long as those of us who remember still draw breath. ~ Die My Dear? Why That’s the Last Thing I’ll Do

Dark bastard that I am, I encapsulated all this in a poem where one is called upon to do the right thing without anything more than strength of character, moral fortitude, and worthiness of trust. More than a few tears were shed, I can assure you. Today I present …

My Love

By LFM

I took my Love out to the woods
In autumn’s fair display.
Our spirits soared the while we walked.
It was a perfect day.

Many years had passed between
Us two, my Love and me.
There never was a one like her,
Nor such a two as we.

We came into a quiet grove
Beside a granite stone,
And there we lingered, she and I,
Just both of us, alone.

I stroked her coat and fed her things
Her age had long denied.
Joys I knew would never harm
The health of one who’s died.

No happier a Dog than she
Existed in the land
The moment when I reached behind
And took my gun in hand.

A toy came from my pocket then,
Her eyes lit up with play.
My finger touched the trigger and
I sent my Love away.

My Love, she gave her life to me
And it was hers to give.
Now in my mind and in my heart
My Love will always live.

It’s with thanks to the ever vigilant Jim Keating that I’m bringing you this today. I always start every year of Dark Sentiments with a surplus of material, and every year he throws me curves that are too good to miss. This is one of them.

Miguel Ortega

Born in Bogota, Columbia, raised in Miami Beach, Florida, and now living and working in Los Angeles, California, Miguel Ortega describes himself as, “… a Creature Visual Effects Artist  ….” You’ll find his impressive website here. When you go there, don’t miss his FX demo reel, containing sample movie shots and scenes that feature his creatures. If you are a fan of the horror genre, you’ll no doubt recognize some of them. This man does incredible work, a seasonally appropriate example of which we’re presenting for your enjoyment today.

Stage 5 is, ” … an entertainment network dedicated to emerging trends in gaming and geek culture. Our mission is to engage viewers with smart, sophisticated, and well-crafted comedic and dramatic programing, ongoing documentaries, and live event coverage celebrating the interests, culture, and stories of gamers and geeks everywhere.” The film you are about to see – Green Ruby Pumpkin – was published on 16 October 2012 on the Stage 5 TV YouTube channel as, ” … the pilot episode for Stage 5’s new anthology series, ‘The Continuum’,” where it is described as, ” … a lighthearted short about Halloween. This was a personal passion projected created in the spare time of two visual effects artists, Miguel Ortega and Tran Ma. The entire project was shot in their living room.”

Stage 5 is all about education, and promises –

In this episode you’ll learn:
HOW TO get a witch to give you candy
HOW TO pick the best possible Halloween costume
HOW TO transform into a troll as revenge

What more can you ask? When you’re done marinating in today’s feature, don’t miss the film that follows it – Creating a World in a Living Room. The Making of the Green Ruby Pumpkin.

The Making of The Green Ruby Pumpkin from miguel ortega on Vimeo.

Dead Eye Dick

By LFM

A necrophiliac desires
Coitus with the dead.
None that breathes will float their boat,
At least, that’s what I’ve read.

Some enjoy more “gamey” fare
While some prefer it “fresh”,
And some use oily marinades
To … lubricate … the flesh.

As open minded as I am,
This doesn’t work for me.
No more than fecal matter does,
Nor messing ’round with pee.

More animated partners are
What I require in bed.
I prefer the kind of chase
That doesn’t come from dead.

Yet saying that, I will admit,
That once I had a wife
Whose boudoir skills were hard to tell
From one who’s passed from life.

In the end I sent her hence,
Sworn never to return.
I warned her death’s the end of life,
It’s not a thing we learn.

So dead for real, or dead inside,
I do not think it fun
To sport with necrophiliacs,
Nor be caught dead with one.

“Pray” by Kate Clark

Last year’s Dark Sentiments profiled the work of Juan Cabana, and described him then as, “… a taxidermist of a different sort, who plies his trade mounting the remains of sea creatures that never were.” The world is too full of artists working in the dark and bizarre realm of creativity for me not to expose you to them here, and so today we’ve got more interesting taxidermy from the studio of our fourth feature artist for DS 2012 – Kate Clark.

According to her bio as it appears on her website:

Kate Clark is a sculptor who lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. Her work studies the tension between personal and mythical realms by creating sculpture that synthesizes the human face and the body of wild animals.

As one of the artists whose work is included in the  in the 14 October to 20 November 2011 Cute & Creepy exhibition at the Florida State University Museum of Fine Arts, her Artist’s Statement gives this additional insight:

My current work studies the tension between personal and mythical realms. I create “unnatural” sculpture that synthesizes the human face and the body of wild animals. Initially, these forms can be shocking and repelling as viewers both recognize and reject their presence. The disruptive alignment of the human and the untamed asks us to accommodate what cannot be known. The juxtaposition of the intimate face and animal body asserts that human experience is mostly contained, a mask which is incomprehensible and psychologically complex.

We bring assumptions to any contemplation of the “wild.” The wild animals – coyotes, gazelles, wildebeests, fawns – evoke memory of what we cannot recall, memory of our primitive, dangerous selves. The tamed face, our face, is a mirror reflecting safety and cultivation. Emotion is caught in the eyes, the mouth, the tilt of the head. A single life, with its private and unique history, gazes back at us. I ask you to empathize, to seek out yourselves in the vulnerability of expression and to embrace a relationship between a specific experience and a great universal mystery. Here, the dichotomy between intimate and expansive terrain is celebrated, eliciting a primal response.

Mrs. Clark’s website contains a sizeable portfolio of her work which is created using actual animal hides, real antlers where necessary, foam, clay, pins, thread, and rubber eyes. Prepare to be gobsmacked by the assemblage of highlights I’ve compiled below. (more…)

Lately abbreviated to a trendy initialism – TEOTWAWKI – “The end of the world as we know it” is generally understood to be an extremely undesirable situation bringing about a catastrophically negative change in living conditions with no hope of ever getting back to the way things were. Events that would precipitate this, as well as outcomes that would actually fit the definition, are not as generally accepted as you might think. For the most part, when people use TEOTWAWKI, they are referring to non-Biblical Armageddon. This is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as: “… a dramatic and catastrophic conflict, especially one seen as likely to destroy the world or the human race,” although most will be open to expanding “conflict” to include any inconceivably massive cataclysm such as the natural one that is given credit for wiping out the dinosaurs. Dark sentiments indeed, to haunt sleepless nights and prey upon the mind. Think of the children!

But as a matter of fact, anything that enforces a decidedly negative set of long term consequences on any person or group of people can be said to have ended their world as they knew it. The breakup of a long term relationship, sexual assault, an addiction, business failure or bankruptcy, major illness or injury, death of a loved one, job loss, being defrauded out of your life savings, and indelible reputation damage are all examples of events that can have effects fitting the description of being the end of the world as you knew it. On a larger scale, war and natural disaster can precipitate any of the aforesaid consequences, singly or in any combination, for the populations of large territories.

In truth, the impact of a disaster must be measured in terms of its overall impact on those it affects, and all over the world, people experience their own personal Armageddon under the influence of single serving size disasters every day. Contrariwise, not all TEOTWAWKI experiences are negative, or even permanent. Some seek them willingly and pay for the experience – every winter, resorts in traditional vacation spots like Cuba and the Dominican Republic receive an influx of tourists who are there for the exclusive purpose of putting an end to their world as they know it, however briefly, served during their stay by people who go home every night to a life they call normal, but that would be considered TEOTWAWKI by their guests were they were to wake in the morning to find themselves abruptly and indelibly thrust into it.

There is a term I like to use that I learned long ago from a Lieutenant Colonel in the Canadian Army – mind geography. The things we rely on without thinking, that are so reliably there for us we treat them as constants; we build our mind geography from those. Intelligent people though I know all reading these words today to be, who of you hasn’t walked into a room during a power failure and turned on the lights out of reflex?  It’s not a reflex at all. The reliable presence of electrical power is a component of your mind geography. People and animals in our lives become part of it too, and their sudden removal changes things forever – but it doesn’t end them.

We humans are here today because our ancestors were better at adapting to change than change was at outpacing their adaptability. Some of them survived the last ice age wearing animal skins while hunting the Wooly Mammoth with weapons made of wood and stone. Upheavals happen – those that die die, and those that survive either adapt or die. Terrible to contemplate, but stupid to forget, and wasteful to drain valuable energy worrying about. Just be ready and adaptable so you don’t embarrass your ancestors.

Remember –

“As long as you are alive you will be subject to the vagaries of the universe, and no matter how well heeled, beautiful, or lucky you think you are, your life will always be as vulnerable to unforeseen influences, for good or for ill, as the ship of any ancient mariner. Ancestors with far simpler tools, but far more knowledge based fortitude. than most who think themselves entitled to whatever quality of life they have achieved as of today understood this – one does not aspire merely to survive; one aspires to LIVE to the best of one’s ability given the circumstances!” ~ Dark Sentiments 2011 – Day 21: The Intention to Live

Are ya FEELIN’ me???

Growing up, I was always ahead of my contemporaries in my skills with the written and spoken word. To my great fortune, that gift was recognized and cultivated by a succession of exceptional Teachers. While I can’t pin down the date beyond the certainty that I was still in elementary school, I remember a day of epiphany. One of many I’ve had so far, this one respecting the power of words, and the awesome responsibility they place upon those who wield them.

On that day, and in a flash of insight that made itself felt both mentally and physically, I came to the realization that, at my whim, I could influence the way another person felt or thought, in the short or long term, with the mere placement of a punctuation mark. The choice of one word over another, or their simple juxtaposition. When speaking, to one person or a group of any size, I could conjure even greater effect by combining words with the supporting expressions of intonation, body posture, gestures, and eye contact. As my understanding grew, so did my power, and with that the Spirit of the Thing Itself revealed new secrets to me in the form of timing, rhythm, the use of humour, and the all powerful pause.

Words are sounds uttered for the purpose of conveying meaning. When a word is written down it appears as a physical representation – a symbol – that carries the same meaning as when it is spoken. Embedded in the form of the symbol are instructions as to what sound is to be made when speaking it. Words are the Tools by which ideas are passed, one wielder to another. Their meaning and the rules of their application, spoken and written, are called Language – a subset of the greater, all encompassing methodology of Communication, which is itself a subset of the Way of the Wild.

Every creature in Nature must communicate, most importantly with those of its own kind, but only of slightly lesser importance is the requirement to do so with others, and the difference between the two is merely a matter of depth. Communication between like kind must encompass the full range of living. It will vary in complexity with the complexity of the organism’s needs, but at its basis will be the need to find a mate and procreate, as well as to define and express intention to defend domain. Communication with others of unlike kind may, in some cases, be as simple as a defensive display. This is in play when a Dog bares its teeth at you, a Bird swoops repeatedly at your head as you approach its nest, or a tiny jumping Spider raises its body with audaciously extended forelegs aimed at the tip of a pointing human finger.

Communication is at its most powerful when all extraneous noise is stripped away. Think on this.

Time Magazine’s “Man of the Year” in 1938.

Back on Day 8, I wrote, “Children like to dabble in seances and Quija boards. They shouldn’t, but they do.” A similar comment could be made about the widespread practice, even in these days when the world has been repeatedly proven to be awash in bullshit, of people still clinging to mainstream news media as their predominant source of gaining insight into what’s going on around them. We’ve come a long way; and then, not really very far at all, since Walter Cronkite could deliver his immortal line, “And that’s the way it was,” in the assurance that most of those listening would unquestioningly take him at his word. Still today there are media personalities and publications (which have a personality all their own) that carry a cachet of credibility from days gone by, still prompting people who would rather not think too much to suck up everything they have to say.

Looking strictly at the print media side of the equation, the scale runs from bald faced fabrication on the one end to the “gospel truth” on the other, and everything in print fits somewhere in between, leaning to a greater or lesser degree toward the part of it where creative writing lives. As an aside, an ironic term that – gospel truth. We all know what it’s supposed to mean, but is something really “true” when you have to take it on faith? Anyway, I digress. (more…)

Andy Fairhurst self-portrait as it adorns his DeviantART profile page.

Our third featured artist is Andy Fairhurst, a brilliant digital graphic artist who, at last report, resides in North Wales. He lists his extra-curricular interests as, “Wildlife, Bruce Lee, spooky stuff, weird stuff, ancient stuff, writing and beer,” and reports his favourite style of art as, “Anything original. Dark nightmarish with sexy women also.” Obviously, even without his incredible talent, those disclosures alone would have propelled him more than half way down the road to getting exposure here.

Fairhurst tends to do collections of related work, and today I’d like to focus on three such series – Wotsit And Thingy Dragon, the Witchfinder General, and When I Grow Up.

What grabs me about Fairhurst’s work is how it captures imagery that could have come straight out of the head of any kid who either grew up, or is still in the process of growing up, with that Tool most vital to all that’s fulfilling and joyful in Life – Imagination. Personally, I fall into the “still growing up” category.

What follows is a representative gallery of Dark Sentiments from the imagination of Andy Fairhurst. Clicking on the pictures will enlarge them. Viewing them on DeviantART may offer even better views, and links for doing that are sprinkled throughout this article this article. (more…)

Rudy Eugene bit most of a man’s face off. He is NOT a Pit Bull.

The man he bit to the reported tune of 75% of his face – Ronald Poppo is on the long road to recovery.

In Dark Sentiments – 2010 we looked at the Wendigo phenomenon, and the strange case of Vincent Weiguang Li and Tim McLean in particular. In Dark Sentiments – 2011, the Wendigo was back, but we were also wallowing in what I might call more mainstream cannibalism – consensual and otherwise, with the added seasoning of a couple forays into the now popular concept of the Zombie Apocalypse on Days 19 and 21.

Well folks, this year cannibalism is back along with a cool new friend to blame – bath salts. Not the kind you soak your ass in either, much to the chagrin of the people who make those.

Alas, not unlike the way people who purport to be sources of “news” routinely filter dog bite stories to exclude all that don’t involve, or can’t be slanted to appear to have involved, a demonized breed, this year’s media frenzy focus has its dedicated bottom feeders combing the world for anything that fits the new template of fear. To quote Nick Carbone in his Time NewsFeed article, The Real Victims of the Zombie Bath Salt Apocalypse –

It’s become a nearly unquestioned assumption in the annals of bizarre, violent crime: the weirder and more inhuman the assault, the more likely the perpetrator is to have been abusing the synthetic drug known as “bath salts”. Chew a guy’s face off? Bath salts! Throw your intestines at police? Bath salts! Bite a random stranger? Bath Salts!

But as it turns out, this hastily slapped-together hypothesis has more than a few holes. For one thing, the case that kicked off the whole zombie cannibal bath salt hysteria — in which 31-year-old Rudy Eugene chowed down on the face of homeless Miami man Ronald Poppo — turned out to be completely unrelated to the drug. Eugene was listed as having only marijuana in his system when he was killed by police after refusing to stop chewing on Poppo’s face.

Let’s take a look at some illustrative headlines from the lovely spring, long hot summer, and toasty early autumn of 2012 when the press went al dente, some stories seasoned with bath salts, some not –

• 31 May 2012 – “I’m going to be late. I love you and I’ll be back”: The last words of Miami cannibal to his girlfriend just hours before horrific attack – the attack that started it all.
• 31 May 2012 – Hackensack Man Stabs Self, Throws Bits of Flesh: Police
• 1 June 2012 – Jarrod Wyatt Murder Details: MMA Fighter Allegedly Ripped Out Victim’s Heart – This one was allegedly ‘schroom related.
• 8 June 2012 – The drug blamed for cannibal plague: Panic spreads over mind-bending bath salts linked to zombie-style attacks – containing allegations that, “The drug, known as Cloud Nine or Ivory Wave, was blamed for several deaths in Britain during 2010 before being banned,” as well as an assortment of post arrest photos of alleged bite perpetrators capped off with the inexplicable inclusion of Sir Anthony Hopkins in the role of Hannibal Lecter.
• 10 June 2012 – Maryland cannibal suspect ‘carved up victim and ate his heart and brains’ after university evaluation found he WASN’T a risk to students
• 6 July 2012 – Carla Murphy Has Baby, Allegedly Smokes Bath Salts, Punches Nurse, Tries To Bite Cop
• 26 September 2012 – “Bath salts” drug ingredient banned in Canada – Apparently, it was also banned in other places that aren’t Canada. This article stresses the “highly addictive” properties of a chemical compound nobody thought worthy of mention before the time honoured in extremis tactic of desperate souls everywhere – biting – hit the big time like it was a new discovery.

I’ll wrap up with the interesting wording of a headline disclosing that Rudy Eugene’s attack on Ronald Poppo, initially blamed on bath salts, came to be blamed on “cannabis-induced psychosis” when his tox screen came up negative for anything other than THC. Now, there is a phenomenon called Substance-Induced Psychotic Disorder which may or may not match the circumstances, but in truth, we’ll never know because soon somebody will eat at least part of somebody else, and the news hounds will leave the mysterious case of Rudy Eugene in the dust, along with the rest of us. The hard Truth is that when somebody tries to eat me, I stop caring about what their damage might be. As I once wrote, “I often remind people who insist on acting like idiots, even though they may not be idiots by definition of textbook parameters, that how you behave, regardless of other circumstances, is going to dictate the way you are regarded by the rest of society. In short, if you act like an idiot, then to the rest of us you are an idiot, and we will treat you accordingly.” If you act like something with rabies, you will be regarded as such, with predictable consequences.

“Cannabis-induced psychosis” reminded me of another blame game that, to my mind, was forever entombed like a Spider in amber by a film released in 1938 as Reefer Madness, but initially titled Tell Your Children. Here’s an educational chunk of your life you’ll never get back, and all because of that devil called “marihuana”, a thing so scary they couldn’t even spell it right.