Rynling R&D

The sudden decrease in daylight hours has been fucking with me. This is the part of the year where I have to be super organized if I want anything to get done.

So I have everything ready to go when I get back from work, I put my ongoing projects on my desktop, and the thought occurred to me that I have become a caricature of myself.

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I pitched my In Praise of Moss: An Argument for Sustainable Disability Positivity zine to Microcosm Press.

The rejection feedback I got back from the press is that they don't understand the guiding metaphor. "There would be a lot of moss fans who would be disappointed to learn that this is also a zine about disability," they wrote.

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Ah well. I knew it was a long shot. I pitched to Microcosm Press because multiple people asked me to do so, and now I guess I have something to say in reply.

Black Earth Rising
https://artbma.org/exhibition/black-earth-rising

See nature’s beauty and power through the eyes of today’s leading artists. Organized by guest curator and renowned author Ekow Eshun, this exhibition explores today’s climate crisis from a new perspective and celebrates our shared connections to the natural world.

Not a lot of people know this, but the Baltimore Museum of Art is cool as hell. I will always show up for diaspora art and environmental justice. And plants!! Here's one of the installations:

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While driving through the woods, I've been working with some of my favorite people to create artwork for two upcoming short fiction zines: a reprint of Terrible People (which has a horror-flavored murder mystery theme), and a new zine called Green Dreams: Dark Tales of Botanical Fantasy. In advance of flying back to the States, I also ordered reprints of some previous titles. My zines have yet to receive any attention from more traditional literary circles, but they sell well, get good reviews, and have tons of repeat buyers.

I also think my zines (and the various bookmarks and stickers and miniprints that I include with them) look amazing. I'm slowly learning more about typography, layout, and editing, and my art is gradually getting better too. Each new publication is an improvement on the last. I like to think that I'm doing good work. I spend a lot of time in indie litfic spaces, and I also think that I'm doing something that no one else is even coming remotely close to.

I'm considering starting an actual small press, which I'd like to call "Digital Terrarium." I think it might also be nice to create a magazine to go along with it. I'm extremely aware of how much work that entails, and I also understand why I am 100% the wrong person to do it. Still, what I have that I think a lot of "I'm going to start my own press" people don't are reasonable expectations. For a project like this, I also think my moss mentality is useful: slow but steady, unobtrusive and kind.

A Beginner's Guide to Street Art
https://lu.ma/53ks8h33

Come learn the basics of how to do two street art methods: stickering and wheatpasting. We'll cover practical how-tos for creating and install stickers and wheatpastes and considerations for messaging within your work.

This hour-long class is free to watch on Zoom tonight (March 3) at 8pm Eastern. At 8pm I'm either outside writing (if it's warm) or sitting in the bath playing video games (if it's not), but I'll do my best to tune in. I'm too much of a coward to actually do street art,* but I'm curious about how it's done. The presenter, a professional science educator, is more of a writer than an artist, but I'm interested in her thoughts about how to combine words and images into an effective message.

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ETA: Yeah, I didn't make it. Idk man, I wake up early to write before I go to work, and by 8pm I'm in no mood for a Zoom call. During the daylight-savings months I can party until dawn, but I should probably stop kidding myself about how mentally and emotionally available I am after dark during the no-sunlight months.

The How and Why Wonder Book of Mushrooms Ferns and Mosses
https://archive.org/details/HowAndWhySeries/How-and-Why-Wonder-Book-of-Ferns-and-Mosses/

I used to love this book as a kid. Even when I was tiny, I appreciated how retro it felt. I think we might have lost something important when we started replacing botanical illustrations with photographs. Also, I want to give a shoutout to the book about extinct animals. As you might expect of something published in the 1960s, the science is super outdated, but the illustrations are golden.

If you want to check this out, by the way, it's much easier to read on mobile than on desktop. Also maybe avoid the books about history and government.

One of my current art projects is to draw a sticker sheet of cute animals infested with moss and fungi.

I'm starting to collect reference materials, but first I have to decide on what animals I want to include. I'm not the sort of person who has a favorite animal, so I'm just poking around various archives and seeing what might be fun to draw as I collect photos.

So anyway, I have a question. Why do all crocodiles have this look on their face. What do they know that I don't.

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A Hiker’s Guide to Tamolitch Blue Pool
https://thatoregonlife.com/2017/08/oregon-blue-pool-dangers/

The turquoise-blue waters of the pool are a testament to the natural filtration process that occurs as water seeps through the porous lava flow. This mesmerizing sight has attracted countless visitors, making the Tamolitch Blue Pool one of Oregon’s most iconic destinations.

Take a moment to appreciate the delicate balance of nature at this stunning location. However, be mindful of the extremely cold water and steep embankment, which can pose dangers to those who attempt cliff diving or swimming. The pool’s allure has led some visitors to take risks, but it’s essential to remember the importance of personal safety when exploring natural wonders.

I was doing some personal research on the topic of "beautiful nature that can kill you," and it turns out that there's a gorgeously blue creek basin in Oregon whose spring-fed water is so cold that, if you touch it, you instantly go into shock and die. That's horrifying, but also, you can see why someone might be tempted:

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Old Growth
https://tulip-hexahedron-wyar.squarespace.com/old-growth-intro

This series celebrates the majesty and resilience of primeval wilderness unaltered by humans. It explores ancient forests in remote regions of the U.S., where ninety-five percent of old growth forests have been destroyed. Through images of individual trees and interdependent biosystems — such as, bristlecone pines, bald cypresses, eastern white pines, cedars, sequoias, and Pando — Old Growth evinces the promise of the future and foreshadows what we stand to lose through climate catastrophe.

Damn I really needed to look at photos of trees today. Thank you Mitch Epstein!

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I played the opera scene in the FFVI pixel remaster last night. It was painful. I don’t know what they were trying to achieve by having an untrained singer do a voiceover in English, but I thought I was going to die of secondhand shame. On top of the horrible lyrics and poor performance, the vocals were autotuned and tinny. It’s the aural equivalent of a crusty low-res jpeg generated by AI. Poor Celes.

What makes this even more painful is that I have very fond memories of an amazing orchestral arrangement called Grand Finale: https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Final_Fantasy_VI:_Grand_Finale

Anyway, I started playing Animal Well. I’m not sure it’s for everyone, and I’m not entirely sure it’s for me, but it’s quite interesting. It reminds me of Hyper Light Drifter in how stylish yet opaque it is. I also get the sense that it’s like Hollow Knight in that it’s going to be frustrating until it clicks. So far, the primary selling point is that the entire game is a sewer level, which I appreciate. There’s so much moss.