ejbarnes

[ejbarnes]

I am privileged to be included in this Independence Day weekend's Berkshires Arts Festival, a 3-day craft fair (indoors and outdoors) at Ski Butternut in Great Barrington, MA, Friday through Sunday, 4--6 July. This is the 25th year of the show -- which I've been to before as a visitor, so I can vouch that it is immense.

I'll have an outdoor location in my own tent -- Location #38 (see map), near the end of the left-hand row as you come up the hill from the lower lodge. Show hours are 10 AM--6 PM Friday and Saturday, 10 AM--5 PM Sunday.

I'm one of 175 artists and craftspeople juried into this prestigious event, which will be held rain or shine (and it looks like for the most part it will be shine, knock wood). There will be artist demos (including me) as well as workshops, live music, food, and other entertainment.

Ski Butternut is at 380 State Road (Route 23) in Great Barrington, MA. Tickets can be purchased online. Cash only at the door.

[ejbarnes]

I'm shocked that I never learned -- either in school or in the many history of science/exploring heroes books I read as a kid -- that Amundsen disappeared. Much was made of how he succeeded in reaching the South Pole before the doomed Scott expedition, and how Scott himself died on his trip back from the Pole after finding that Amundsen had gotten there first. But Scott was that favorite English hero, the doomed one, instead of a failure. (Whereas my true hero, Shackleton, was treated as a failure, despite bringing every man home alive.) Of course, I learned that it was Robert Peary that was the first explorer to reach the North Pole (and later still, his Black longtime second-in-command, Matthew Hanson, was honored with the same achievement.) Little did I know at the time that there were doubts even in Peary's lifetime, and today, it's Amundsen who was the first to have proof of having visited the North Pole as well.

OnThisDay in 1928, Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen disappeared with 5 crew while flying on a rescue mission in the Arctic. Their bodies were never found. 17 yrs earlier he became the 1st to reach the S. Pole. See photos from that expedition here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/amundsen-s-south-pole-expedition #OTD

[ejbarnes]

And your veterans...they get some land after they finish their service, right? What?

Time traveling Roman: No I understand the moving pictures on your personal device, I was just wondering why you don't have a grain dole to feed your urban masses like we did even though you produce 1000 times as much food.

Me: Um... well... you see...

[ejbarnes]

This Saturday, 21 June, I'm returning to the Cambridge River Festival! This event is FREE to the public 11 AM to 6 PM between the banks of the Charles and Memorial Drive from JFK Street to Western Avenue. I'll be in the Arts & Crafts Market section, closer to the JFK Street end. There will be six stages of music, theater, dance, and poetry, international foods, and the Mermaid Promenade beginning at 11:30 AM! Check the River Festival webpage for the full schedule of events.

Yes, Memorial Drive will be cut off from car traffic along that stretch. If you must drive, park at one of the garages in Harvard Square, or better yet, at an MBTA (or Commuter Rail) station near you and take the T. The closest MBTA stop is the Harvard SquareRed Line station. Buses #66 and #86 stop close to the Festival site at the corner of JFK Street and Eliot Street, while many more buses -- #1, #69, #71, #73, #74, #75, #77, #78, #96, and #109 -- terminate at Harvard Square proper. Bus route #68 does not run on Saturdays.

[ejbarnes]

This Friday through Sunday, 13--15 June, I'll have my tent out on the Town Common for the South Shore Arts Festival in Cohasset! This three-day event is presented by South Shore Art Center and is celebrating its 70th year. Friday hours are 1--7 PM, Saturday 10 AM--7 PM, and Sunday Noon--5 PM. The Cohasset Town Common is between Highland Avenue and North Main Street in Cohasset, MA. I'll be at Location #61, toward the northwestern end of the common near the food trucks lining North Main Street. There is a trolley stop nearby.

[ejbarnes]

Anomalous Item #4742: A set of 173 VHS tapes with blank labels.

When a tape label is filled out (there are provided fields for title, director, and year) and then placed into any functioning VCR, the film listed will play, regardless of if it existed before the tape was played.

This was first believed to be an effect limited to the tapes, ie, the tapes were somehow generating the movie themselves through some method similar to AI art generation, but after initial tests were performed the paratime division discovered the effect is actually antichronological: when played, the tapes don't simply create the movie named, they alter the past so that the movie mentioned was created.

Thus, after a tape is labeled and played, it can be found on streaming services and in DVD rental stores. The directors, if still alive, will recall making the film, and actors who were active at the time the film was "made" will have anecdotes about events that happened in the film.

This can have ripple effects as well; during the 9th test, the film Big Trouble in Little China, 1986, directed by John Carpenter, was created. Besides the immediate effects of creating a new film that hadn't existed, an indirect effect was that the film Alien 2, 1985, John Carpenter, ceased to exist. Instead, the sequel to the 1979 film Alien (directed by Ridley Scott) was titled Aliens and directed by James Cameron. It's believed that by adding a new movie to the timeline of John Carpenter's direction, he no longer had time to direct one of the works he had directed in the original timeline, as he would have been busy directing the newly-added film, and directing roles therefore passed to another director.

Use of the tapes can also implicitly affect the lifespan of directors. In test #17, Researcher J. Calhoun attempted to generate a film that couldn't possibly exist: a prequel to a film made by a director who had died decades beforehand.

According to paratime research, the writing of "Star Wars: Episode 1, 1999, George Lucas" on the tape and the subsequent viewing undid the 1981 death of Mr. Lucas, causing Star Wars: Episode 6: Revenge of the Jedi to come out in 1983 instead of 1985, be titled "Return of the Jedi" instead, and it would be directed by George Lucas instead of Steven Spielberg.

This obviously had additional effects as it didn't merely extend the lifespan of George Lucas by an additional 18 years: at time of writing in 2022, he is still alive at the age of 78. It's therefore believed that the object doesn't unnaturally extend the lifespan of the director, it instead reshapes the flow of time so that any events that would stop them from filming the listed movie do not happen.

After discovery of their history altering nature, the remaining anomalous objects have been locked in secure storage at site #22. No further testing is authorized, and emergency use requires level #6 authorization, which will only be granted in the face of imminent disaster requiring paratime remedies.

Article update[2022-11-20]: an incident occurred where it was discovered that former researcher K. Synnol had acquired one of the tapes (see investigation document 2483 for details) and was attempting to use it for history modification, without approval. The paratime division detected the impending history alteration and an assault team was dispatched. Synnol was apprehended before they could complete the use of the tape, however the label WAS filled out but the tape remained unwatched. What effects, if any, the partial use of the anomalous artifact would have on the timeline is unknown, but in previous testing the film only came into being when the labeled tape was placed into a VCR and watched.

See photo attachment #2, below, for artifact 1B, recovered after the Synnol event.

[ejbarnes]

Blast it all, what do I do with my copy of Good Omens now? Terry Pratchett doesn't deserve that treatment. Do I really have to shelve it next to my Lovecraft?

if anyone’s wondering, threads is still the most insufferable social platform in existence

[ejbarnes]

Wicked Comic Con is this Saturday, 19 April! And this year, it's FREE!Drowned Town Press will be at Table BW538, along the wall on the right when you enter the Grand Ballroom from the Grand Foyer. Show hours are 10 AM--5 PM.

The show is back at the Westin Boston Seaport District at 425 Summer Street, Boston, MA, near the World Trade Center stop on the MBTA Silver Line (lines SL1, SL2, SL3, and SLW). The recent elevator closure at South Station seems to have been resolved.MBTA Bus#7 also stops near the Westin (the #4 does not run on Saturdays).

[ejbarnes]

One small but extremely annoying effect of Tech Modernization or w/e is how UI contrast is garbage anymore, especially just, like, application windows in general.

"Ooh our scrollbar expands when you mouse over it! Or does it? Only you can know by sitting there like an idiot for 3 seconds waiting for it to expand, only to move your cursor away just as it does so!" or Discord's even more excellent "scrollbar is 2 shades off of the background color and is one (1) pixel wide" fuck OFF

I tried to move a system window around yesterday and had to click 3 times before I got the half of the upper bar that let me drag it. Why are there two separate bars with absolutely nothing to visually differentiate them on that.

"Well if you look closely-" I should not!! have to squint!!! at the screen for a minute straight to detect basic UI elements!! Not mention how ableist this shit is, and for what? ~✨Aesthetic✨~?

and then every website and app imitates this but in different ways so everything is consistently dogshit to try to use but not always in ways you can immediately grok it's!!!! terrible!!!! just put lines on things again I'm begging you!!!!

[ejbarnes]

Or sooner, if the economy tanks as they seem top be deliberately setting up.

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[ejbarnes]

This Sunday, I'm returning to the Anti-Robot Club's Cambridge event, The Marketplace! It will once again be at The Foundry, at 101 Rogers Street in Cambridge, MA. This event is FREE to the public Noon--5 PM. I'll be exhibiting as Drowned Town Press. There will likely be several rooms of vendors, so if you don't find me right away, I might be in one of the side rooms. The Cambridge Foundry is at 101 Rogers Street in East Cambridge, near the corner of Rogers and Third Streets. It's about equidistant between Kendall Station on the MBTA Red Line and Lechmere Station on the Green Line. MBTA Bus #64 is the only bus that runs to Kendall on Sundays, while #69, #80, #87, and #88 all stop at Lechmere on Sundays.

[ejbarnes]

Remember how the Korean parliament responded to the president's coup? We could use something like that.

“I’ve been to several rallies in DC where I’m among hundreds of people ready to tear apart Elon’s smug soldiers. But they end with Dems telling us not to lose the faith and, of course, to give them money. And then we go home. What’s needed is not compliant shows of strength but active disruption. If Representative Maxwell Frost is being stopped by security from entering the Department of Education—an absolute outrage—he shouldn’t just tweet about it (and raise money off of it) He should show up with hundreds of people. We are here: masses of us who would not be so easily moved. And if Frost wants to lead us inside, then more power to him. But if that’s not his plan, he needs to get out of the way. Democratic Party leaders are not built for this moment. New DNC chief Ken Martin is no Marek Edelman. But for the Democrats that get the stakes and the ones who want to fight, they need to realize that their audience is vast and the time for niceties, like abiding genocide-enthusiast John Fetterman’s efforts to become the new Manchin instead of openly planning to primary him, is over. The salty old man in my life is ready to throw himself on the gears of this system. And he’s not alone.”

— Why Democrats Won’t Throw a Real Punch | The Nation

[ejbarnes]

I'm at Boskone this weekend! For the first time ever, I'm on the program at Boskone Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention! Plus my art (originals and prints) is in Boskone's Art Show.

The con is this weekend -- Friday through Sunday, 14--16 February -- at the Westin Boston Seaport District. And I'll be there all three days! The program events I'll be on are:

Friday, 5:30--6:30 PM: Creating Art To Order (Burroughs, upper level)

Saturday, 11:30 AM--12:30 PM: Creating All Jaffee-style "Fold-Ins" (à la MAD Magazine, a workshop) (Carlton, upper level)

Sunday, 10--11 AM: The Art of Creating Fantastical Creatures (Carlton, upper level)

The Art Show is in the Galleria on the lower level as you turn left from the main entrance to the convention hotel. Original art sales are by silent auction. Prints are sold in a separate section from original art. Convention admission is required to view the Art Show. Art Show viewing hours are 6 PM-- Midnight Friday (with a reception 8--10 PM), 10 AM--9 PM Saturday, and 10 AM--Noon and 1--3 PM Sunday. Art pickup is 1--3 PM Sunday, so don't wait till then to see the show! Either someone who's bought the art will have picked it up, or I might be taking down my unsold work by then. The Westin Boston Seaport District is at 425 Summer Street, Boston, MA. The convention hotel is next to the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, and is just under a mile from South Station Amtrak, Commuter Rail, and Red Line Stations. The World Trade Center stop on the MBTA Silver Line branches SL1, SL2, SL3, and SLW is about 5 minutes to the north. MBTA Bus #4 stops on Summer Street eastbound and Seaport Boulevard westbound (Monday through Friday only), while Bus #7 runs on Summer Street in both directions Monday through Saturday only.

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Worse yet if you have friends and/or family you're worriex about.

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what a beautiful day to remember that trans people of color exist and deserve better

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I suspect the cost of self-publishing is going to go up, considering where most of the paper comes from. #self-publishing #tariffs #Canada #paper

My Boss: They’re gonna start raising the price on comics cuz of tariffs from Canada.

Me: Yeah well you voted for the asshole so good job.