Sunday Scribblings - Passion

image - 'choosing sides' by Don Solo

Over at Sunday Scribblings the prompt this week is Passion.

My, not so, secret passion is that of playing with synchronicities... and I also love making art even though this blog hasn't seen much of it recently. So imagine what happened when Imelda, the GreenishLady, introduced me to the idea of album covers randomly generated via visits to three separate sites. Here was instant, if slightly mechanical, synchronistic art! All that's left for the budding album designer to do is select their fonts...

My only problem with it was that I always feel the need to respect people's copyright wishes and so I was very pleased when my first attempt came up with an image that was almost usable, I contacted its owned and got permission to use it here.

I played with the idea some more but was frustrated by the sheer number of unusable images that were coming up using the original search. Then I found this search. It produces a single random image from flickr's most interesting images over the last week and, joy of joys, it only picks ones which allow reuse with alterations. And so I've been indulging my passion. And here are the results!

The image at the top of this post, of the rather mechanical looking guys with an American football, are accompanied by the band name of "Gerald Salton Award". This is an award which the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) offers. Once, long ago, I worked in computing. I never belonged to the ACM though I went to some of their conferences. A couple of days before I made this cover, out of the blue, I got an invite to join the ACM - and I've not had any contact with anyone in it for 12 years at least! Couple this with the title that came up "More apt for passion" and the Sunday Scribblings prompt of passion and you'll see why I thought I'd better emerge and show you the rest of my collection.

You would like to see my imaginary record collection wouldn't you?

Oh go on. Its not like you have to traipse up to my garret and sit in an unheated room whilst I play you weird music is it?

And its not like offering to show you my etchings is it? Well maybe it is... but only a little...

Antithyra brings you See what was there. Image, Sunset, supplied by Mor (bcnbits)

It does seem to me to be worth seeing what is there... and I love that image to go with it. What do you think a leaky boat that is still afloat might mean? I've no idea but I wonder...

So everything was going swimmingly (;-) as I played this game when up came:

Still no future brings you "life isn't for everyone". With a beautiful image Three of a Kind, by mat.teo

Not very cheerful.

That night and last night I caught the beginning of Radio 4's Moral Maze where this week they were discussing suicide!

Add to that a rather morbid thought I had as I was bringing the washing downstairs. I was suddenly thinking about two of my friends who have died before they were 50 (Lee and Stefek). The phrase, "those the gods love, die young" came to me. I then put the washing basket down and caught my hand, painfully, on a a pair of wastepaper bins that had been left there to be emptied. These two bins are ones that we had recently been using as buckets to catch drips from something that was leaking... (though it wasn't a boat). I don't normally lash out at inanimate objects but this time I did. My foot contacted them and to my surprise I broke both of them. Later I realised I'd kicked the bucket - twice!

Luckily this was my next cover:

Richmond's first album is "There is time enough". The background image is
我和都屬裝的下午茶時間 by Lin-Chien-Wen

Whew! There is time enough! Thank goodness for that! But what about this:

Punjabi Cuisine sings "Our Adversaries Are INSANE". Image, Kinderdijk. by Pσrcelαΐηgΐrl°

This reminds me of Don Quixote. And it wasn't the first reminder I'd had of it recently either. I don't know the story well but it does seem to be about illusion and disillusion. Sanity and insanity? Though how can one tell if one is sane... (and don't say anyone sane would stop at one album...)

The original soundtrack?, Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival, "build the furnace, besides."
Image, Ice swirls by Chubby Bat

So does it make sense to build a furnace near ice? Maybe. And besides yesterday I went to a glass blowing factory and actually saw (and felt the heat of) furnaces whilst they made glass things... glass is a lot like ice isn't it?

The full quote which that title came from was:

A viler evil than to murder a man, is to sell him suicide as an act of virtue. A viler evil than to throw a man into a sacrificial furnace, is to demand that he leap in, of his own will, and that he build the furnace, besides.

Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged. Part2, III
US (Russian-born) novelist (1905 - 1982)

So we are back with suicide again... thanks...

Glodok give you "earth in every country". Image is "Sunrise at the top of the world" by Gail Johnson

This one is back to the ice theme again. It was the rich which are the scum of the earth in every country according to Chesterton... Once upon a time, unless one lived amongst snow, skiing was a rich persons occupation. These days though almost everyone seems to go... except of course the starving... and the truly poor.... so maybe it is still a definition of richness?

Surely its time for a fun album?

Castelfiorentino bring you "Serious when people laugh". Image is Energia by .Playadura

Although this might seem to be a little lighter than the others that quote in full is:

Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.

George Bernard Shaw
Irish dramatist & socialist (1856 - 1950)

Okay I can take a hint, as long as its repeated often enough, so lets get serious about this...

Anthrax (the disease not the band), presents "The stars and sun". Image is "OSA Sunset #2" by peter bowers

Be glad of life because it gives you the chance to love, and to work, and to play, and to look up at the stars and sun.

Henry Van Dyke

Truly life and death are different sides of the same coin. Without one we do not have the other. One's death is guaranteed from the moment life starts. We maintain our life only by bringing death to other life forms, its all part of the cycle of life. And if we take it a step further maybe there is case for saying one's death is imminent from the the moment you were first thought of:

The rather cumbersomely named band: University of Kentucky College of Design have just released "You First Thought Of". Image, The Phoenix Palm Rises From Ashes by JPhilipson

Are we into reincarnation now? Or maybe Intelligent Design... I'm certainly amazed at what comes up at random... have I strayed into the twilight zone?

Boisney present To the Twilight Zone. Image, Golhaa menge Haalatu mieeba, by Millzero Photography ( 99% low fat photography)

The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs and explosions and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices -- to be found in the minds of men. For the record, prejudices can kill and suspicion can destroy, and a thoughtless, frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all its own -- for the children and the children yet unborn. And the pity of it is that these things cannot be confined to the Twilight Zone.

Rod Serling
US actor, producer, & screenwriter (1924 - 1975)

By now, if you have come this far, and I bet very few of you have stayed the course, you will be hoping for something to cure me of this passion:

Rick Goddard's latest album is Refill contained the antidote. Image, Goldfinches; Carduelis carduelis by phenolog

At my lemonade stand I used to give the first glass away free and charge five dollars for the second glass. The refill contained the antidote.

Emo Phillips
US comedian

To make your own album covers:

1. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first article title on the page is the name of your band.

2. www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four words of the very last quote is the title of your album.

3. Find a random interesting photo on flickr that allows manipulation using this link: mikelietz.org/code/flickr-ccgettr.php

If you put it up on flickr then do tag it: "cd cover meme" and add it to the CD cover meme group.

More Sunday Scribblings inspired by Passion.