late night with guy mondo

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic most people, until recently, have opted to stay at home and indoors bingeing on Netflix and learning to make sourdough. At Temple Sinai essential workers like me have continued to work though, doing building maintenance and a lot of cleaning and building ways to socially distance people for whenever everyone else returns to the temple for services and religious school. We've cleaned and polished everything to a blinding gloss. After awhile though we sort of ran out of work to do inside and have moved outdoors to tackle the sorely neglected landscaping. With the school being closed so there aren't any kids running about Mother Nature has taken over the grounds in some pretty interesting ways. We have been using several types of wood chips and mulch to cover large parts of the playground and other areas and, with all the rain we had early in the summer, there has been an amazing array of fungi popping up all over the place like never before. ...

Ardi dreaming baby squirrel dreams. It's been pretty hot in DC this summer with record-breaking high temps all month. Even I have been restricting my outdoor activities at work and at home (not out hiking and fishing in this soup, no sir!). Yesterday, however, I had to get in my pizza oven on wheels to go get some lunch. As I walked across the parking lot I could see there was something under the front tire. It was a baby squirrel! I thought it had to be dead as I didn't know how long it had been there but it couldn't possibly survive long on the blazing blacktop. I got a glove out of my car to pick it up and it gave a little squeak!      My boss suggested leaving on the ground near a tree but I thought it's chances of survival weren't very good as it was getting late and, besides the foxes, possums and raccoons that frequent the property, people in the neighborhood often let their dog run free in the parking lot when they think no one is around to say anyt...

My current favorite subject lately has been 19th-century crime as I had recently acquired four volumes of  Rick Geary 's "Victorian Murder" series and finished  The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America  awhile back.  Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter  fit in well with my obsession. I recall seeing the trailer for the movie adaptation and it looked like some ridiculous fun to have Honest Abe portrayed as a kung-fu version of van Helsing. Alas, the movie came and went before I got a chance to see it but I found the book at Goodwill for a buck and figured what the heck. The writing moves along at a good pace, combining historical fact with the fiction, quoting from Lincoln's actual writings as well as fictionalized "secret" diary entries. It does rely a little too much on the new-Hollywood idea of the vampire hunter in a long, black coat filled with gadgets but that's just part of the fun. There are actual...

Pictured above is a piece of art I've had for almost 10 years that I, finally, got around to framing. It's a, possibly, 18th Century erotic painting in the Mogul style. I don't remember where or how I got it. One possibility is that I found it in the trash room in the apartment building I used to live in near Washington Cathedral. I used to find a lot of cool stuff  there. The neighborhood was full of students from Georgetown, George Washington and American Universities and lots of foreign service workers from the various embassies, all fairly transient people. They move in to neighboring apartments and start acquiring stuff then they move on leaving behind the things they have no room for in the moving van, the trunk of the rental car, the suitcases, their new lives. Well, as has been said many times, one man's trash is another man's treasure. I had this framed at Artful Framing in Takoma Park because they are one of the best, locally, at what they do. This w...

The Kitty checks out the new chair, prefers the box it came in. So, I decided that, since I've been in this apartment for 16 years, I should stop buying cheap dorm room furniture of fleeting quality and get something a little more substantial. Having the day off I ventured out to IKEA in College Par k to have a look around. I like IKEA because, unlike my other fave store, Target, they have cheap dorm room stuff and some pretty good mid-price, home goods. I also like the fact that they don't seem to discontinue merchandise as quickly as other retailers so, if I decide to buy another chair, say next year, they'll still carry it.  I bought the POÄNG chair because I wanted a comfy chair, with a high back and arms, that wouldn't overwhelm what's left of the floorspace in my living room. I had this thing unpacked and put together in about 20 minutes (probably would've taken less time without Kitty's "assistance"). The cushion cover is washab...

The interior of the Bradbury Building in Los Angeles, CA taken with a Canon TX in 1988. This is the real-life building used in the movie Blade Runner as well as some other, mostly forgotten, movies and television shows. I found the building totally by accident. There was a mural across the street that I wanted to get a better shot of so I wandered into this unassuming looking building and was stunned by the beautiful, bright interior with a glass roof. It took me a few minutes of wandering around before it dawned on me that I'd seen this place before. It wasn't until months later, as I was looking thruogh my photos that I made the connection to the movie. I also realized that it was the same building used for one of my favorite episodes of The Outer Limits (original series) titled " Demon With a Glass Hand ".

Well, it looks like the cyber-criminals had a busy holiday weekend as I, along with who knows how many others, contracted a new rogue program termed " ransomware ". Disguised as a warning page from the US Dept. of Justice it states that the computer user has been effectively locked out of their computer by the DOJ for violating the laws of the United States and carries a list of possible infractions (like copyright infringement, promoting terrorism, and possessing child pornography, to name a few) but does not specify what the victim is allegedly guilty of. It does, however, offer you the opportunity to get your computer back if you will simply send $300 via something called MoneyPak . The catch is that this must be done within 48 hours or your PC will be permanently locked and you will be subject to Federal prosecution. Fortunately, I was smart enough to see through this attempt at separating me from my booze and sushi funds. As relentless as the media copyright holding...

So, my single cup coffee maker that I got in for free in 1995 finally stopped working this week. It was a promo for video stores as an incentive to buy lots of copies of   " How to Make an American Quilt "  when it was released on video. I have used it almost daily since I rescued it from the junk-no-employees-wanted pile. Today, since I had a day off from El Templo Maldito, I decided to go to Target  to see if I could find a replacement. I've discovered that, if you check out the ends of the aisles at the back walls, you find some interesting clearance stuff. Knowing this I always walk the back aisles first. Today I struck gold! Not only did I find a coffee maker but there were other matching appliances as well (in four colors): a toaster (got 11, don't need another one), a 1.5 quart crock pot, and a double Belgian waffle maker! The deal? Each one was priced at $5.60 ! I couldn't pass up a deal like that and, so I got the crock pot, too. If the coffee maker...

My contributions to a dying, if not dead, internet meme popularized by I Can Has Cheezburger?

This was left on the folding table in the laundry room of my building. I don't (think) I know who the woman who left it there is but the things she seems to think other people might want are very odd. Back in August she left these: Well, I don't know what happened to any of this stuff but I gotta wonder if anybody has taken her up on any of her "deals". Listening to: Professor Soap

untitled collage with pastel and acrylic paint ©2003 - 2012 guy mondo / StudioMONDO okay. so it's been awhile since i last posted. it's been even longer since i did any new art artwork. The piece above isn't really new. I started it in 2003, wasn't happy with it, put it away. I just added some more stuff to the left side to balance it out. I'm still not sure i like it though. I think i went a little crazy with the paint and the gel texture. i think i'll leave it alone now.      It a fairly large piece for me, about 9.5X10.5 inches, and, because i worked on it over a long period of time, my focus on the subject matter changed a couple of times. I recall thinking about how christianity was used as a tool to control African slaves by replacing the old deities with a new ideal that, essentially, looked like the masters. Slaves were taught that their miserable lot in life would be rewarded in the afterlife. If you were a good and obedient slave you would get ...

ME: "Hey Kitty..." THE KITTY WITH NO NAME: "Whuddat food?" ME: "It's peanut brittle, you want some?" TKWNN: "Is good food?" ME: "I like it. Do you want some or not?" TKWNN: "Food me!" ME: "Here you evil thing." TKWNN: "This not food! What you eat!" ME: "That is what I'm eating." TKWNN: "Do not want! Pingnud brzzle not food! Want cookie foods!" ME: "You ate all the cookies. Go away!" TKWNN: "Cookies now!" ME: "No cookies." TKWNN: "No good! I put socks in toilet again, okay?"

  Collage by Viktor Valentine, 2011 I'm not a "holiday person" because it's always awkward for me to have to explain, again, that, as an atheist, I refuse to accept folktales and legend as fact. However, some of my friends "get it" and are as irreverent as I am and, so, every year I look forward to a holiday card from my friend Viktor who may not consider himself an artist as much as he would say he is an artistic person. what I like about his card is how he links religion, war and money. I also like the symbolism of Betty Boop as, in my opinion, the church's view that sex should not be fun. I may have to write another blog about that though...

I used to love those " Beach Party " movies when I was a kid in the 60's and was, also, a big fan of TV shows like Hullabaloo , Where the Action Is , American Bandstand , and Shindig . What I liked most was the music, of course, especially the "girl groups" and girl singers that always sang songs about getting The Boy, losing The Boy or going through life unnoticed by The Boy. Oddly enough though, out of the thousands of records I own, I have very little in the genre.      Now my interest has been piqued lately by a site I came across while researching cover art for my ongoing contributions to the Rate Your Music database called The Hamster and the Guppies which led me to a new band from Singapore called Obedient Wives Club who have really captured the spirit of Lesley Gore, The Shangi-Las, The Chantels and the whole Phil Spector girl singer discography. It would be great to see what they could do with a proper studio recording as the samples at their Bandca...

Lots of records... Lots and lots of records.... Lots of CDs (on the shelves and in those boxes and crates... And more CDs. I have been cataloging my collection at the Rate Your Music website. It's an ongoing project as I am still acquiring music, in some form, all the time. I've discovered that I can download free music from Amazon , mostly label samplers, that exposes me to artists and types of music less familiar to me.

  ©2004 Guy WR Waynes / StudioMONDO Taken at The National Aquarium in Washington, DC, in the summer of 2004.

Survival Sampler: Fear and Loafing , collage ca. 1985 by StudioMONDO I don't recall how I came into possession of this cassette but it's still one of my favorite albums to listen to. Not one dud on the whole compilation of mid-80s New Wave, Pop and Rock acts from the Second British Invasion. It was the catalyst for my later purchases of music by groups like The Smiths, China Crisis, Scritti Politti and Depeche Mode , groups I, back then, knew little or nothing about.  There's also a great song from The Assembly a one time project of Vince Clarke (of Depeche Mode, Yazoo, Erasure ) that leaves you wanting more like it. I just recently found out what the original packaging looked like (I did the artwork above because I just had the tape) but it was really cool and I wish I had it. A quick scan on eBay yielded yet another surprise: it was also issued as a vinyl LP! I guess should burn it to a CD even though, unlike most of my cassettes, it still plays flawlessly. Surviv...

Today i decided to do a little housecleaning. While rummaging through my collection of VHS tapes i found a bunch of promo music videos. Among them was Rock DJ by Robbie Williams . It's a mediocre song made more interesting by this video in which begins with Robbie center-stage in a roller rink full of yawn-inducing, generic fashion models. He becomes increasingly distressed at not being the center of attention and begins a striptease to catch the eye of any of the women and, particular ly, those of the DJ Lauren Gold .      There's a pretty good idea at work here and it's well executed with better than average make-up effects and CGI so it's, actually, a lot of fun to watch with the sound off (or on depending on your tolerance for Robbie Williams ). It's one of those things you want to view every once in a blue moon. Unfortunately, after watching it today, it is stuck in my VCR so now i can't watch my VHS copy of Volumen . Music: 2/5 - i'm bewilde...

  I recently bought a new, redesigned copy of the Album Cover Album by Storm Thorgersen and Roger Dean because my original 1977 edition was coming apart from it's glued-in spine and I found a new, hardcover copy on Amazon for $0.99. First, The Cons: For all it's touted redesign this book suffers slightly from it. The axiom "If it ain't broke don't fix it." applies aptly here as the original has larger images on pages with more than one cover displayed. The new editions images may seem sharper and the colors look to have been corrected (though a little too much contrast in some) but I'm at a loss as to why they were reduced in size by about 10%. The type redesign is "prettier" but less legible as the font is too light to stand out on the neutral gray background. It also baffles me that, as a book on design by designers, all the individual design credits are set so small and in an even lighter font as to render them insignificant. A...