Quoth the Raven: Eat my shorts! ct ct And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor Shall be lifted -- nevermore! R.I.P. James Earl Jones 1931-2024 from The Raven, The Simpsons S2E3
Relativity is possibly the scariest thing. When youre a child, the 24 hours
in a day, constituting a significant proportion of your lifespan to date, are
an irritatingly long time. To a teenager you can live a lifetime in a
weekend. But get to middle age and ... wtf, didnt we just release a
Halloween artpack? Well OK, Im going to try a daily drawing... what do you
mean its the 26th? How did that happen even? Its like previously we were
travelling in a time machine going forward at the rate of one second per
second, but somethings come uncalibrated and the passage of time is gradually
but irrevocably accelerating and theres no way to turn this thing around or
rein in its breakneck pace. Next stop: the heat death of the universe! Well,
no -- next month the Mistigris computer arts collective is celebrating ten
years since our 20th anniversary reunion that turned into a revival and a
regular thing. That means well be continuing the same cyberfolly some of us
first picked up under this banner thirty whopping years ago! Say sike right
now! In keeping with the theme of how distant dates are subjectively just
around the corner I may as well note that the next Blender IRC improvised
computer art compo is coming up Jan 18-19 2025. I should start planning next
years Halloween artpack starting now, and ... heck, its not too soon already
to start scheming for our 40th anniversary. But its not like were just
marking time: were learning, were creating, were even making good on some
of our schemes and aspirations: two of the three upcoming releases mentioned
now two years ago in MIST1022 have finally come to pass. As for the third...
well, its complicated! Hopefully early in the new year!
But what about this release? Well, the unsettling is the seasonal theme, but
theres nothing to be scared of here unless you were traumatized by Ceefax as
a child. Mama warned you about pressing that REVEAL button, but could you
leave well enough alone? For reasons known only to themselves, some creators
in our extended community Im talking about Horsenburger here really are
genuinely very fond of Halloween, while others such as, say, AtonalOsprey
just find themselves frequently drawn to grim themes. And then theres
littlebitspace, who draws skulls all year round, basically nonstop. This
collection features a whole bowling lanes worth of them, including several
award-winners -- one of which was tapped to provide this collection with its
striking FILEID.DIZ imagery -- from various competitions at the recent Flash
Party demoparty. Darkman Almighty also was moved to get into the act --
naturally, leading with creepy Star Trek imagery, but following through
fulfiling some requests to ANSIfy some other dark moments in prime time
broadcast history.
... and the rest of us put in some good efforts, as well. Youll see! A
special hello to the new ASCII artist Eel Sansho, whose works appear in an
artpack here for the first time, as well as Amy, Jackey and Momo from Pizzatoe,
an emerging ANSI art crew of old friends new to us, but pleased to meet you!
spread across vast distances. Next time around, surely well be the ones
guesting in their artpack. Finally, you cant help but notice from all the
dusty fluttering that Moth has also been drawn to our light.
Also, a big thanks to The Green Herring for logging another guest appearance!
The infofile artwork this time around was provided by Cthulu, but please dont
hold that against us.
Halloween puts tawdry plastic tombstones all over the place but Ill get
serious for a moment and wrap this infofile on another memorial, something
that Im really hoping doesnt become a regular part of these infofiles: RIP
to computer scientist Ward Christensen, inventor of the computer bulletin
board system CBBS in 1978 with the late Randy Suess, who died earlier this
month. NO CARRIER. BBSes were foundational to the underground computer
artscene from which we emerged and still occupy a great deal of mental real
estate today among nerds of a certain vintage. To members of that
demographic, there simply arent words to express the impact of his invention.
Thanks for joining us for another release, and wed be simply delighted if you
had any interest in taking part in our 30th anniversary celebrations next
month, whether youd be climbing back on that dusty old lightcycle or trying
it out for the first time. Please dont hesitate to look us up!
We should be conducting a virtual launch party for this artpack on the voice
channel of our Discord at discord.gg/9R84QUN the morning of Saturday, Nov 2nd
PST -- if youd like to hobnob or send your regards, please feel free to jump
in and join us!