Via Flickr:
Drawn last night (May 19th). Bagpuss may be unfamilar to those outside the UK, it was a cute childrens' TV programme about a sleepy cat...
Free association styled prose from Julian Cloran, visual artist, writer, poet and agent provocateur. Random musings, which are sometimes cynical, but always intended for amusement, stimulation and entertainment. Comments are welcomed so don't be shy. Simply click on 'comments' to post yours.
Sunday, 20 May 2012
THE PROTECTIVENESS OF THE SPIRIT OF BAGPUSS
Saturday, 19 May 2012
THE BABY'S COMFORTERS
Via Flickr:
My most recent drawing, loosely inspired by an elaborate metal door knocker I saw in Florence, Italy.
Friday, 18 May 2012
THE RELIGIOUS PEST
The other day, I had the misfortune of opening my door to a Jehovah's Witness. He was a polite and smartly dressed, middle-aged man. His opening banter was predictable, much as I expected from a fixated zealot who, as is so typical, is attracted to extremism in one form or another. But then, just as I was preparing to repel him from the doorstep, he caught me off-guard with something he said.
'I used to be an atheist,' he said. 'I found the idea of God, in fact the notion of any divine Creator, risible and absurd. It contradicted common sense and the shallow creeds propagated by organised religion seemed contemptible to me. Peddlers of faith in holy buildings were, I considered, at best naive, often ignorant hypocrites.'
Despite myself, I found myself paying attention to his words. In fact, I agreed with everything he'd just said. Although I knew I would regret showing any interest in the patter of a representative of such a notoriously thick-skinned, blinkered religious faction.
'I was raised in a rational, intellectual environment,' he continued, 'where science and scientific enquiry was valued most highly. My parents were broad-minded , yet slightly cynical people. They were fair-minded enough not to be completely dismissive of religions or, specifically, Christianity, while they did nothing to hide from me their opinion that most 'faiths' were merely mythic-based placebos for the weak and vulnerable...'
I thought: they sound like my kind of people. Then came his hook. I'd been expecting it but he still caught me by surprise as he said, 'Right up until last year, I was a confirmed atheist as I said. But I had an amazing, supernatural experience in my new home that radically altered my viewpoint. I had just moved in to a two-bedroom, two-storey house with my wife. We were unpacking boxes and arranging furniture all over the place. My wife was replacing all the curtains with new ones we'd bought and she asked me to store a box with the old ones upstairs in the attic, which I did. When I climbed back down the stepladder and stood on the landing below the hatch in the ceiling, I was completely transformed and felt inspired with an overwhelming passion for Jesus Christ, Our Lord. Since that day, I've never looked back or lost my faith. If anything it has become stronger with every passing day. It's such an intense feeling, really it's the reason I am here talking to you today.'
'I see,' I said. 'So you went up into your attic an atheist and came down a fervent Christian?'
He nodded enthusiastically. His eyes suggested to me, for the first time, his underlying insanity as he asked, 'What do you think about that?'
'It's hard to say...' I paused, then added, 'But that's what I call a loft conversion!'
He stood looking dumbfounded as I closed the door on him. Back inside the house, I was thinking to myself about his oddly compelling story. I wondered what might happen if he ever went into a changing-room.
*
POSTSCRIPT: Any atheists interested in forming a group and joining me in making unsolicited visits to Jehovah's Witnesses in their own homes are welcome to contact me via Narolc's World.
'I used to be an atheist,' he said. 'I found the idea of God, in fact the notion of any divine Creator, risible and absurd. It contradicted common sense and the shallow creeds propagated by organised religion seemed contemptible to me. Peddlers of faith in holy buildings were, I considered, at best naive, often ignorant hypocrites.'
Despite myself, I found myself paying attention to his words. In fact, I agreed with everything he'd just said. Although I knew I would regret showing any interest in the patter of a representative of such a notoriously thick-skinned, blinkered religious faction.
'I was raised in a rational, intellectual environment,' he continued, 'where science and scientific enquiry was valued most highly. My parents were broad-minded , yet slightly cynical people. They were fair-minded enough not to be completely dismissive of religions or, specifically, Christianity, while they did nothing to hide from me their opinion that most 'faiths' were merely mythic-based placebos for the weak and vulnerable...'
I thought: they sound like my kind of people. Then came his hook. I'd been expecting it but he still caught me by surprise as he said, 'Right up until last year, I was a confirmed atheist as I said. But I had an amazing, supernatural experience in my new home that radically altered my viewpoint. I had just moved in to a two-bedroom, two-storey house with my wife. We were unpacking boxes and arranging furniture all over the place. My wife was replacing all the curtains with new ones we'd bought and she asked me to store a box with the old ones upstairs in the attic, which I did. When I climbed back down the stepladder and stood on the landing below the hatch in the ceiling, I was completely transformed and felt inspired with an overwhelming passion for Jesus Christ, Our Lord. Since that day, I've never looked back or lost my faith. If anything it has become stronger with every passing day. It's such an intense feeling, really it's the reason I am here talking to you today.'
'I see,' I said. 'So you went up into your attic an atheist and came down a fervent Christian?'
He nodded enthusiastically. His eyes suggested to me, for the first time, his underlying insanity as he asked, 'What do you think about that?'
'It's hard to say...' I paused, then added, 'But that's what I call a loft conversion!'
He stood looking dumbfounded as I closed the door on him. Back inside the house, I was thinking to myself about his oddly compelling story. I wondered what might happen if he ever went into a changing-room.
*
POSTSCRIPT: Any atheists interested in forming a group and joining me in making unsolicited visits to Jehovah's Witnesses in their own homes are welcome to contact me via Narolc's World.
Thursday, 17 May 2012
KNOB HEAD
Via Flickr:
I spotted this in Florence, Tuscany while visiting last week. I think it's beautiful.
Wednesday, 18 April 2012
IF THEY WERE ALIVE TODAY...
If Dracula were alive today, whether or not he was gay,
England is a free country inhabited by slaves,
He’d probably be HIV positive.
Jesus would have to perform miracles,in order to avoid being force-fed anti-psychotic medication.
I don’t think we’d hear a single peep from a latter-day Samuel Pepys.And who’d have a need for Shakespeare,
now we’ve got Steven Spielberg and the Harry Potter franchise?The old bard would give us the creeps.
The geniuses of old would be out in the cold,
unless they could play football.
It’s like we’ve had our fill of supreme talent and tremendous skill.
Mediocrities pedalling commodities can attain wealth and fame,
with no sense of shame, after cultural programming removes the blame.
An ethos of mundane materialism,
encouraging addictive consumerism,
has created a cultural nadir.
No idea can appear to stimulate interest
or penetrate the general indifference,
to everything unconnected with commercial rewards.
enslaved by debts and regrets.
Entrapped by greed confused with need,
most people in the UK are stuck in futile jobs they hate,
achieving things other species don’t rate.
If Jesus came back late, nobody would wait.
If he does return, watch and learn:
He’ll rightfully/instantly own more property than anyone in the world.
Food for thought?
Now, my thoughts turn to food so,
not wishing to be rude,
I must go home and use my mobile phone,
to tell someone: ‘I’m on the bus.’
Thursday, 15 March 2012
Wednesday, 14 March 2012
Wednesday, 7 March 2012
Blood Series
Blood Series a video by Narolc on Flickr.
Via Flickr:
A series of images by Jennifer Beinhacker (www.flickr.com/photos/30462932@N07/) are coupled with a short poem by Julian Cloran (myself), in a collaboration between two artists on Flickr.
Saturday, 11 February 2012
ELK vs ELM
Via Flickr:
From page 12, notepad #65 (current), I'm uploading a drawing I'm happy with. I intend exploring motifs from this image in future work. These notepads are explained in the description of my last upload:
www.flickr.com/photos/narolc/6789040467/in/photostream
ELK vs. ELM (Poetic comparative analysis to dispel confusion.)
A deer will fear what it can hear, but its hearing is very good.
An elk is a type of deer, but elm is a type of wood.
An elk’s antlers can resemble the branches of a tree, but the differences between the two are
plain to see.
The branches of a tree can sway in a breeze, while antlers rely on their hosts for movement,
for example when an elk flees!
Branches are often covered with leaves, sometimes they bear fruit.
Antlers are not adorned by foliage, although they still look cute.
Two things they do have in common: both are deaf and mute.
Of course both can make sounds, but there are no grounds for crediting either with the power
of speech.
It would be as daft to ascribe a conscience to a lowly, parasitic leech.
Elks and elms are as different as whelks and helms; just because two words are similar
doesn’t mean they are.
No, to confuse the two is a stupid thing to do and it’s an avoidable mistake if you do as I here
urge you.
Conceivably, elks and elms might co-exist in the same park, but if you think this makes them
the same it’s a shame—you’re in the dark!
It’s like assuming a football and a bicycle that are in the same place are interchangeable,
which they’re not!
People propagating this misnomer are talking rot, which is something trees have sometimes
got along with the odd knot.
Elks and other deer do not decay in this way until they die, of course, and then they
decompose, which is post-mortem normalcy as everyone knows.
Why not liken dogs to trees, which frees deer from the erroneous comparison?
After all—a fool might say—both have barks and, like the elks and elms earlier, are seen
together in parks!
Obviously the sap who believes this is barking up the wrong tree, as, if you examine the
example below, you shall see.
You can ‘fell’ a tree and a deer can ‘fall’, but this doesn’t make them the same thing at all!
If a tree fell on a deer it would make it disappear, but this could never happen in reverse.
Deer getting the Disney treatment resulted in the film Bambi.
Could a feature-length cartoon about elm trees be as namby-pamby?
And, would anyone go to the cinema to see a tree in the earth slowly grow?
Perhaps we’ll never know.
An elk is a type of deer, but elm is a type of wood.
An elk’s antlers can resemble the branches of a tree, but the differences between the two are
plain to see.
The branches of a tree can sway in a breeze, while antlers rely on their hosts for movement,
for example when an elk flees!
Branches are often covered with leaves, sometimes they bear fruit.
Antlers are not adorned by foliage, although they still look cute.
Two things they do have in common: both are deaf and mute.
Of course both can make sounds, but there are no grounds for crediting either with the power
of speech.
It would be as daft to ascribe a conscience to a lowly, parasitic leech.
Elks and elms are as different as whelks and helms; just because two words are similar
doesn’t mean they are.
No, to confuse the two is a stupid thing to do and it’s an avoidable mistake if you do as I here
urge you.
Conceivably, elks and elms might co-exist in the same park, but if you think this makes them
the same it’s a shame—you’re in the dark!
It’s like assuming a football and a bicycle that are in the same place are interchangeable,
which they’re not!
People propagating this misnomer are talking rot, which is something trees have sometimes
got along with the odd knot.
Elks and other deer do not decay in this way until they die, of course, and then they
decompose, which is post-mortem normalcy as everyone knows.
Why not liken dogs to trees, which frees deer from the erroneous comparison?
After all—a fool might say—both have barks and, like the elks and elms earlier, are seen
together in parks!
Obviously the sap who believes this is barking up the wrong tree, as, if you examine the
example below, you shall see.
You can ‘fell’ a tree and a deer can ‘fall’, but this doesn’t make them the same thing at all!
If a tree fell on a deer it would make it disappear, but this could never happen in reverse.
Deer getting the Disney treatment resulted in the film Bambi.
Could a feature-length cartoon about elm trees be as namby-pamby?
And, would anyone go to the cinema to see a tree in the earth slowly grow?
Perhaps we’ll never know.
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