"Trickster Island" by Richard F. Yates (Holy Fool)

Some view the Trickster as evil, but that seems inherently silly to me. That's like saying that the judges at a sporting event are evil, if they give you a bad score on your high dive. No... No, no, no... A trickster TESTS you, gets to the MEAT of your being, and sees how you act (or react) from within the deepest core of your YOU. If you are JUST, a trickster is a teacher... (But we've seen how TEACHERS are being treated these days... Soon, sharing the TRUTH [or the critical thinking skills that can help EXPOSE the truth] will probably be illegal. Don't let that happen!!!) When you meet the Trickster, do it with honesty and compassion as your guides, and you'll do fine. (You'll PROBABLY survive, at the very least...)

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2 Mar. 2023

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"Blue Coyote (26 Feb. 23)" by Richard F. Yates (Holy Fool)

[Felt pen and paint pen on paper with digital embellishments and color.] Coyote is a barrel of laughs! ---Richard F. Yates (Holy Fool)

https://objkt.com/asset/KT1F94smAkoLSgNT7PLaxYj7Ba1SKqXfGjsY/171

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[Posted to my TWEETERZ page yesterday]:

"I'm not sure how many people remember ELLO (or knew about it at all...) BUT I just hit ONE MILLION VIEWS. It took about 6 years and more than 1.4 thousand posts....but I made it! #art #weirdo

https://ello.co/richardfyates"

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[Posted to Typed.art today (that's 2 Mar. '23, if you forgot. I did. Had to look it up...)]:

"DAY 75

Is it Easter yet? What I REALLY want is a milkshake, but the doctor said I have to give up the sugar or be eaten by swarming insects. I'm not a fan of flying bugs, so that don't sound like fun to me! I've cut down from a milkshake every day to only one per week... Imagine that!!? The HOLY FOOL without a milkshake (or a Kraken and Coke) in his hand... Jeebus...

At the door - every night - an orange cat meows at the door... For hours... And it's MADDENING! (If we weren't already crazy, we'd be visiting soon!) Unfortunately, the cats here (did I mention that we have EIGHT!!! Not even a prime number!) - the cats here do NOT have a "chill mode." They are crazy bat-shit wackadoos at all times. If one hides under the bed when we crash for the night, at about 1:A.M., the little bastard will climb onto the bed and jump all over our faces. I don't know why... They hate me...

Hope is an open flame. Beware if your hair has hairspray in it! (Woosh!)

I guess I'm tired. That would explain it, right??? Sure...

Later!

---Richard F. Yates (Holy Fool)"

https://typed.art/9413

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3 Mar. 2023

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[Posted to Typed.art]:

"DAY 76

Typing on my phone in the car. My wife and I iz picking up our younger daughter and her guy at a bar. They wuz respinsible and got a ride instead of driving drunk! Smart!!!

Meanwhile, I spent almost the entire day swimming in music. It was very pleasant, but now it's midnight, and old folks aren't supposed to be up this late. I'm crashing!

Later!

---Richard F. Yates (Holy Fool)"

https://typed.art/9418

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4 Mar. 2023

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"Everyone Loves Unicorns" by Richard F. Yates (Holy Fool)

[Felt pen on reclaimed cardboard with digital embellishments, color, and drawing.] So.... Is creating a #1of1 piece, like, revolutionary now? WTF? I've been doing tons of 1 of 1 pieces since I joined HEN about two years ago, AND I've got a slug of 1 of 1 works on ETHEREUM thru MakersPlace going all the way back to 2018. Since when is it a big deal to create unique pieces??? (Everything old is new again, I guess...)

Anyway, here's a unicorn!

---Richard F. Yates (Holy Fool)

https://objkt.com/asset/KT1F94smAkoLSgNT7PLaxYj7Ba1SKqXfGjsY/172

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"Experimental Gallery" by Richard F. Yates (Holy Fool) & Felicity Echo Hanson (Toddler Terror)

[Color changing markers on construction paper making use of a makeshift stencil, with digital embellishments and color.] Felicity and I had some fun with this piece, creating a mini-gallery of monsters and strange inter-dimensional phenomena. (Obviously...) ---Richard F. Yates (Holy Fool) & Felicity Echo Hanson (Toddler Terror)

https://objkt.com/asset/KT1F94smAkoLSgNT7PLaxYj7Ba1SKqXfGjsY/173

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"Hope Springs Eternal..." by Richard F. Yates (Holy Fool)

[Digital drawing created with a no-longer-supported, free app on my phone.] I love a good juxtaposition. The old saying (which implies some form of optimism) coming out of the head of a cat (which is obviously quite worried about something) is funny (to me.) MEOW. ---Richard F. Yates (Holy Fool)

https://objkt.com/asset/KT1F94smAkoLSgNT7PLaxYj7Ba1SKqXfGjsY/174

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"Psychedelic Astral Bug" by Richard F. Yates (Holy Fool)

[Digital photograph of a computer screen run through the MOSH-machine and tweaked to high heaven!] You might not see the same thing that I do, but I KNOW that this piece is a representation of a psychic bug traveling between dimensions... (Hope you brought your Dramamine!) ---Richard F. Yates (Holy Fool)

https://objkt.com/asset/KT1F94smAkoLSgNT7PLaxYj7Ba1SKqXfGjsY/175

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[Posted to Typed.art]:

"DAY 77

If you've never heard the song "77" by Alice Bag (and you like punk rock), do yourself a favor and seek this tune out!

We had an emergency dinner (Mexican) this evening, and now I'm all tired out. Too tired, in fact, to drag my laptop out, so I'm typing this on my phone again... Actually, it's kinda neat that I can broadcast my thoughts to a blockchain from my phone.... And in written for, no less! Wouldn't have been possible (for me at least) just a few years ago...

In my opinion, people get used to novelty far too easily. When something bordering on the miraculous comes into the world, people should appreciate it. Personally, after carrying record crates and CDs to DJ with for decades, I'm still amazed by my iPod! 5,000 songs in a space the size of a credit card!!! Holy shit!!! That's goddam AMAZING! And I can just connect it (without wires!) to a little speaker the size of a shampoo bottle that BLASTS the music (on random, cuz I like random) all night long!!! This has got to be appreciated for the MAGIC that it is!

So...yeah.... Shit's pretty neat!

---Richard F. Yates (Holy Fool)"

https://typed.art/9425

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5 Mar. 2023 (DAMN... Time is slamming past like a hurricane force blast of hot wind...)

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[Posted to my TWEETERZ page this morning]:

"Several weeks ago I did a Zoom interview with a PhD candidate working on a thesis dealing with social media, digital art, and creatives in which I rambled about my artistic philosophies. She was very polite, despite my craziness, and yesterday she sent me a gift card! NEAT! #ART"

"Now the REAL question is: Do I use it to buy more art supplies OR to get the new KEPI GHOULIE CD!!!!???"

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[Also posted to my Tweeterz]:

"Such a procrastinator... I've had since December to write my artist statement for the upcoming "Covid Postcards" show (which opens April 1st), and I haven't done it yet!!!

[@stellabelle A couple of the postcards you sent me will be in the show!]"

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"Underwater Lava Flow" by RFY (HF)

[Oil pastel and water color on cardstock with minor digital color tweaking.] IT'S THE ALIENS! THEY'RE IRRADIATING THE UNDERWATER VOLCANOS and making the ocean water all freaky! SAVE US, Mighty Mouse!!! Please!!! ---Richard F. Yates (Holy Fool)

https://nftshowroom.com/gallery/richardfyates_back-to-primitivity_underwater-lava-flow-by-rfy-hf

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"Have You Finished Your Homework?" by Richard F. Yates (Holy Fool)

[Ballpoint pen on reclaimed paper over flannel duvet cover with digital embellishments and color.] A note to myself to include these artists in my next iPood playlist: EMF, Cat Power, Everclear, Local H, The Cure, David Bowie, Blondie, The Damned, Adam Ant, Depeche Mode, OMD, The Faint, They Might Be Giants, the D.I.Y. Punk series (by Rhino Records), Gary Numan, Nirvana, the KERPLUNK album by Green Day, Bully, Pixey, Pixies, Hammerbox, Ned's Atomic Dustbin, Prince, Corey Hart, Jesus Jones, Oingo Boingo, the Kaos series of techno CDs, the I SHOULD COCO album by Supergrass, The Shins, Beloved, Candy Flip, Siouxsie & The Banshees, Bright Eyes, Don Diablo, Joy Division, Sparklehorse, Psychedelic Porn Crumpets, My Bloody Valentine, Danielle Dax, Generation X, Blur, Stone Roses, Xymox, and Beta Band! That isn't everything that ended up on the playlist, but I didn't want to forget these performers. ---Richard F. Yates (Holy Fool)

https://objkt.com/asset/KT1F94smAkoLSgNT7PLaxYj7Ba1SKqXfGjsY/176

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"WTF?" by Richard F. Yates (Holy Fool)

[Digital something created in MS Paint on my crappy, old laptop!] If I haven't made somebody say "WTF" in a couple of days, I feel like I've just gotten lazy. Wake up the sleepwalkers!!!! WAKE... ---Richard F. Yates (Holy Fool)

https://objkt.com/asset/KT1F94smAkoLSgNT7PLaxYj7Ba1SKqXfGjsY/177

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"a (28 Feb. 2023)" by Richard F. Yates (Holy Fool)

[Liner pen on notebook page with digital embellishments and color.] The RAW eye of a minor deity peeking through the paper-thin veil between worlds. (Obviously a pervert god... They rarely come THRU the veil, preferring to watch us humanoids from the shadows...) ---Richard F. Yates (Holy Fool)

https://objkt.com/asset/KT1F94smAkoLSgNT7PLaxYj7Ba1SKqXfGjsY/178

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"Ancient Ruler" by Richard F. Yates (Holy Fool)

[Crayon and felt pen on reclaimed cardboard with digital embellishments and color.] Small sandstone statue of an ancient ruler found in the ruins of an abandoned shopping mall. This item is cursed (of course) causing anyone who looks at it (even a photo of it) to have horrible nightmares and, eventually, to go completely mad. (Sorry!) ---Richard F. Yates (Holy Fool)

P.S. - WINTER DEPRESSION BE DAMNED! Let us conjure 23 editions of this cursed idol and let them slide into unsuspecting victims' collections for a mere 0.13 #tezos each! (Gasp!) Yup... Limited time only, folks!!!

https://objkt.com/asset/KT1F94smAkoLSgNT7PLaxYj7Ba1SKqXfGjsY/179

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[Posted to Typed.art]:

"DAY 78

Who is going to read these posts? Anybody? (Maybe a few people will read a few of the posts, but who WOULD bother to start at DAY 1 and keep going all the way thru to DAY 78???) What if I get to 101 days in a row and then compile every post (spelling errors / typos / boring parts and all) into a PDF file and publish THAT as a work of cryptoart. Cryptowordart... Again, nobody would be likely to READ it, but so what? That's half the fun of making stuff: wondering if it will find an audience.

When you get to be as old as I am (I'm 50, by the way), you stop giving much of a shit about impressing people or needing constant confirmation that you're doing great stuff. (Especially if you go out of your way to make "BAD" stuff.) I'm mostly just amusing myself AND seeing how long I can keep something going. (For my old blog on WordPriest, THE PRIMITIVE ENTERTAINMENT WORKSHOP, I had a run of 366 days in a row without missing. That's a pretty good stretch, and there wasn't anybody telling me I HAD TO, nor was the activity part of any "JOB" or school project. I just made a HABIT out of posting whatever I was working on that day...) (That's sort of what this has turned into!)

Here's something completely different: I'm having some weird "grandpa" issues in which my older daughter (who is a bit of a Wiccan-woo-woo type) and her husband aren't really "church" people, but her husband's parents ARE church peeps, so whenever they have the grandkid over for the weekend, they take her to church on Sunday morning. (I'm assuming it's one of the Christian denominations, but I couldn't tell you which one.) While my wife and I were raising OUR kids (Mariah and I are both atheists), we didn't have our girls go to church, but when they had friends at school that asked if they wanted to attend a service, we didn't make a big deal out of it and let them go. The DIFFERENCE is the AGE. A toddler is very receptive to the stories that they are told, particularly if those stories come from adults that they care about. By the time our kids when to their first Vacation Bible School events or a synagogue, they could listen to the stories being told there and decide if they felt they were believable...

I was raised by a Christian mother, and I attended various churches until I was 16 years old, and I remember the GUILT and PRESSURE that can be applied to kids (not adults, but juveniles!) who might not be completely in the loop with the religious ideology. It can turn nasty rather quickly... So, my consternation over my granddaughter being subjected to the supremely judgemental and anti-progressive ideas while she's still just forming her understanding of the way the world works seems justified. HOWEVER, I don't know if it's my place to introduce what might be considered as competing ideologies (or even EVIL DOCTRINE) by the in-laws. They might turn UNPLEASANT. Consider this example:

It is not uncommon for religious folk to go door-to-door, knocking and handing out books or pamphlets or soliciting for their chosen ideologies - and we are all supposed to be okay with that, but if I were to write up some literature about the arguments for atheism or (BOB forbid) paganism, Chaos Magick, Satanism, Discordianism, the Church of the Subgenius, or some other "alternative" belief system and then go door to door trying to convince people of the legitimacy of my cause, I probably wouldn't get more than three or four doors before I was verbally abuse or even physically threatened or assaulted. REASON is a powerful tool, and most folks don't want anything to do with that shit.

So I'm wondering what to do... Should I continue to stay neutral and let my granddaughter's parents take charge of her mental development, are should I begin ANTI-brainwashing measures and attempt to equip her with critical thinking and logic skills that she can use to help her judge the stories she is told for herself??? (She is THREE by the way... Almost too late to begin the training, if she is ever going to become a FULL Holy Fool herself... (I started when I was three down this path, as has been well documented in my somewhat scattered and chaotic body of written work...) Something to ponder on a Sunday evening, I guess!

Later!

---Richard F. Yates (Holy Fool)"

https://typed.art/9426

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That's enough for now, folkies! See you next time around!

---RFY (HF)