"Come with Me on a Wild Ramble Thru the Cosmos!" by Richard F. Yates (Holy Fool)

Nanoo nanoo, Alien Hivesters! It's probably been too long since I directed a communication beam directly at your eye-sockets, but I've been in 13 DIFFERENT DIMENSIONS lately, and it's taken a while for all of me to get back. You know how it is...

"U.F.O. - (Under-Funded Object! Ha!)"

[Massively digitally tweaked accidental pocket photo with transparent png UFO slapped on top. (Am I giving away too many secrets here? Should I have put up a spoiler warning??? Nah... I'm all about sharing and helping and letting everyone learn from my trials and errors. Keep that creative-techno-ball rolling!!!). 2020.]

What sorts of adventures have I been experiencing lately, since I made such a big deal about being so busy? (I heard you wondering...even though it actually sounded like, "Chsssss, this gink thinks HE'S been busy? I've been busy! He doesn't know for busy... I wonder what he's been doing that makes him think he's been so damn busy...) Don't deny it. Okay, good. You didn't...)

Beach trip!!!! My wife and I and the younger daughter went to the Oregon and Washington coast for a few days. Great fun. You can read about it (should you be interested) HERE! (There's an alligator man in the story if that helps peak your interest!!!)

[My photo from Marsh's Free Museum, Long Beach, WA, USA.]

We also took a trip with our older daughter and her husband to a DRIVE-IN THEATER to watch Empire Strikes Back!!! That story, which is quite brief, was posted HERE!

And last night, my wife and I had an ART PARTY! We drank booze and ate pizza and made art, mostly of the "put it in the mail" variety. It's a faskinatin' (pretend POPEYE said it) hobby, which you can read about HERE, if you wanna...

[Photo of the stack of postcards that I took to the USPS drop box this afternoon (with digital embellishments.) Notice, if you will, the Thomas Pynchon novel on my dashboard. I find that it is essential (almost as essential as having a towel) to ALWAYS have a Pynchon novel handy. They will make people think you are intellectual, and they are also usually really BIG, so they make good weapons if you need to smack someone! One of the best BATTLE-READY novelists out there! (And easier to read than James Joyce...). 2020.]

Time for a space song interlude. Please enjoy THE LEGENDARY STARDUST COWBOY's classic tune: "I Took a Trip on a Gemini Spaceship" from 1969!

Speaking of tunes (or WRITING about tunes) did I mention that I also recorded a new episode of my Punktronic Disco Dirge pirate radio show? (Beamed directly towards Earth from a sub-atomic orbital satellite...) This episode is housed on the new Hive oriented DSound! Check out this batch of wacky crap, HERE, if you're into unpleasant, difficult to listen to, neurotic weirdo tunes. (The playlist is included in my Hive post about it, so you can give it a scan before you give up an hour of your life that you'll never get back!)

(See! I told you I've been busy!) But the thing I've been spending the MOST time with, lately, is NFT SHOWROOM!!!! You've probably heard it already, a new Hive / Hive-Engine REALM for tokenizing ART on the blockchain, so I probably don't need to go much into it, but let me just say THIS MUCH...

The site ( http://nftshowroom.com ) might still be in ALPHA testing, but it's already my favorite thing on the internet. As a collector, I've purchased SIXTEEN different works by a wide ranging group of artists, (each with VERY different styles, from humorous memes to commercial quality, better-than-most-galleries (which bore the SHIT out of me, most of the time) art...)

...damn... I'm old, and I lost my train of thought in all those parentheses and ellipses... My brain doesn't actually HAVE a TRAIN of thought, anymore---more like a LEAKY SPRINKLER of thought---shoots random bursts in different directions and kids like to play in it, but mostly it just makes a mess and ruins the electronics!

I think what I was trying to say above is that I am REALLY enjoying collecting all the fun, interesting, oddball artwork on the Showroom---I'm buying what I LIKE (if it's inexpensive enough) and NO, I have no intention of SELLING anything that I've bought. Maybe my kids can sell these things after I die and pay for...like...a pizza party or a pair of shoes or something. (I'm not good with money.)

SPEAKING of "NOT-GOOD-WITH-MONEY"---for some strange reason, some of the art bits that I've created HAVE actually been selling on the site! It's weird... In the past, I've sold a handful of things thru MakersPlace and ONE NFT on Rarible and maybe a few dozen PHYSICAL paintings, but it's still strange when something that I make sells fast! My first somewhat popular piece was the "Entry Level NFT":

I made 13 of these, and put 12 up for sale at 5 swap.hive each. They're all GONE now. A few people have put theirs up for resale, but the current asking price is now somewhere between 60 and 90 swap.hive. HA! I hope the folks who resell use their earnings to buy MORE art from people! Keep that economy spinning!!! Remember, the key to happiness is circulation!!!

[Old fake money from a different universe, in the distant past...2019.]

But it's true that a few pieces that I've made have sold, and a couple haven't. I'm not sure if some pieces are bad (I would have thought the "Entry Level NFT" was REALLY bad---maybe so bad it was good???) or if it's just difficult to find a given artist's "For Sale" gallery??? I don't know. It's fine though. I've made enough to tokenize more shit, so WOOOOO!!! BUT!!! Here's a link to MY "For Sale" gallery, (if you want to take a look at my compulsively created prankster artwork...) MORE COMING VERY SOON!

https://nftshowroom.com/richardfyates/gallery

The most expensive things on the page are ONLY 23 swap.hive each! I'm not into making a bazillion dollars. I just want enough credits to print my NEW works and collect the occasional cool piece by some other folks! Beyond that, I just want folks to laugh!

I love collecting: postcards, records, comic books, ViewMaster Slides, Pez dispensers, and (especially) ART... If you're wondering what kind of GUNK does this guy have fur sail, (but you don't have the courage to click on that link up there) here are a couple of the THINGIES that you can claim for your own for a PRICE!!! (...the equivalent of less than SIX BUCKS, USD!):

["Dog in a Bomber Jacket (Transporter Malfunction)" - Digital sketch with digital embellishments. This image is just a thumbnail, so it doesn't move, but the ACTUAL NFT is all swirly! Edition of 5.]

["Dude with Hat" - Ink on paper with digital embellishments and color. Still image (no swirlies), but it is a unique edition of ONE. (Only ONE in the entire universe! And the parallel universe versions have slightly different colors...)]

One more advert and I'm done with this filthy, filthy commercial pushing!

["Holy Fool Astral Projecting" - Digital drawing all done with a free app ("Sketch") on my phone. Again, this piece is unique---I only made ONE. When it's gone at my ridiculously low price, you'll have to pay 5x or 10x from the secondary market! (I'm hoping the next iteration of NFT Showroom implements "artist royalties," that way I can keep my anti-get-rich stance, but still make a couple extra ducats when more business minded folks do some serious selling on the after-market! That's my plan!!!

Now for some non-commercial, recreational art!

Lately, I've been playing with the "layers" feature on my free app thing on my phone, and creating transparent images (like the "Holy Fool" cartoon self-portrait of myself up above.) Here's one creature that I've been playing with lately...

And here, I've dropped the little creature into a more interesting setting:

I thought this photo (that's my wife and younger daughter) was pretty funny so I sent a copy to a friend of mine, Mr. O. He wrote a note back:

Omg, you should never be that close to a Zlab. They can be friendly, but if you gain their trust, they will begin to trust all humans, who will use them for stepping stools and knick-knack holders. It's best to just leave them alone - they have much work to do, ending life as we know it on Planet Earth.

I really enjoy these types of collaborations. Mr. O is one of the folks I've collaborated with the most in this incarnation of my existence. I LOVE his weird little stories. He can take some simple, sketchy piece that I've thrown together, and instantly come up with an elaborate, bizarre tale---unlike ANYTHING I had in mind when I created the image in the first place... It's a ball!

Speaking of going in weird directions, I posted a link to this image on Faceboot, and ANOTHER friend of mine did a remix of the creature!

My image:

Remix by Mark Counts (included here with his permission);

It's not fair... The REMIX is a hundred times more entertaining than my version! (Ha!) (Maybe I'm more of a MUSE than a MAKER?) Still, I can't help but LOVE when Mark does these fantastic, freaky extrapolations of my raw materials.

Collaborations... Those are where the GOLD EXPERIENCES truly await us!

Well... I have about a hundred more drawings and little weird concrete poems and my ideas for an NFT MANIFESTO that I've been toying with (which I'm going to make AS an NFT... Wait... I've said too much. Forget that...)

Now, I'm transporting to the galaxy of Hughes in the Candle Nebula so I can wallow in '80's music nostalgia and terrible teen-sex jokes... Later!!!

---Richard F. Yates
(Primitive Thoughtician and Holy Fool)

[P.S. - If you're wondering if I had Mr. O's permission to reprint his text, YES. He sold me his s.... We have an arrangement in which I have open permission to use ANYTHING he writes for the next three lifetimes. I try not to abuse my power...too much... ---RFY]

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