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And now for something completely different...
Ralph, I'm think more in terms of this
OldBob1957 wrote
@ Gener7,
I never did get around to saying; that photo you posted earlier, the one from the National Geographic Competition, was utterly awesome! I could have lost a lot of money betting that it was either Photoshopped, or a full-on in-computer creation. Wow!
I had to look up the artist and photo online to find the location, and a better picture of that building in the background. Even a regular photo of that building is pretty unbelievable. But the juxtaposition with that street scene was brilliant!
Hi OB, I meant to answer sooner, but I wanted to dig up this image from fantasy artist Simon Stalenhag. His combination of the ordinary and odd imposing industrial objects fascinate me and is the reason I like that National Geo photo.
Here's one of a ordinary motel with some imposing towers behind the building.
Simon Stålenhag on Twitter: "I only stay at Pacifica Golden… "
Wow Gene. Those images are very disturbing.
These last two had the most impact on me. This one because of all the heavy power cables going to the small houses...
..and this one because I can't see how they are anything but gun turrets.
The artist has a website and a Facebook page
Simon Stålenhag Art Gallery (There a LOT of images here)
https://www.facebook.com/simonstalenhagofficial/
This is intriguing. He has written some books that appear to be a dark kind of SiFi. If they are in English, I'd like to get my hands on them. I wonder if Dag knows of him?
http://frialigan.se/en/authors/simon-stalenhag-2/
Yes, they appear to be in English and available. Has anyone actually read one of them?
Glad you got to look around at his art. I didn't know he has a Facebook page.
I didn't go through them long enough to figure out if the paintings are part of a story, but I traveled in an old car out in the American West, and there were some odd things out there. Dinosaur statues, a giant thermometer, and one place has half-buried cars.
So his paintings show a car going down the road among these hulking wrecks as if they were nothing special, just like that neighborhood in Hong-Kong accepts the curved towers looming next to them. That's what I like about this.
The towers with the immense amount of lines looks like they were modeled after an old Swedish Telco Tower. He makes them fit in. I guess my idea of Sci-Fi is bug-eyed monsters on other planets where we invade their world. This comes closer to industrial art.
This one had the hulking towers running ads. Safeway is a local supermarket chain.
This starting to look more and more like a Blade Runner cityscape. Just add some flying cars and a giant hologram or two, and you are there, although Simon's art would still be darker. It would be smart to sign him as a set designer for for a film noir project. Those muted blues are way more effective than — as a for instance — the stark black, white and red of Sin City.
I've always liked the idea of doing a matte painting for video, and Simon's art would be perfect for that.
We have a few oversized structures here in NZ. I know of a few that are not in this list, and of the ones I have seen, like the big fish at Gore, it felt a lot bigger standing next to it than it looks in the photo.
I hope this one is appropriate. An old UK buddy of mine who now lives in Canada, and has a collection of historic firearms, sent it to me. You shouldn't need to explain a gag, and my knowledge of firearms extends only to the little bit of research I do when one is named in a book I am reading, so I am guessing that Glocks are made of plastic, and 1911s aren't. I also seem to remember reading that Glocks do not have a conventional safety mechanism, so fingers crossed that the dog did not manage to pull the trigger. 
gener7 wrote
This one had the hulking towers running ads. Safeway is a local supermarket chain.
Gene, I almost mentioned that Safeway was taken over by Morrisons in the UK in 2013, but didn't. Now tonight I am listening to Selling England By The Pound by Genesis, and thinking that the lyrics just wouldn't have worked with the new owners name. 
I don't belong here, said old tessa out loud.
Easy, love, there's the safe way home.
Thankful for her fine fair discount, tess co-operates
Still alone in o-hell-o
See the deadly nightshade grow
English ribs of beef cut down to 47p lb
Peek Frean's family assorted from 17 1/2 to 12
Fairy liquid…
These come from a Bored Panda thread entitled 'Idiot Dogs That Will Crack You Up'. The first one had me crying with laughter, so I had to share.
He was having so much fun playing with the lawn sprinkler, that he bought it in through the dog door so mum could play.
This water is not very thirst quenching
If only this fence was not there
Can they see me? No, I'm sure they can't see me.
This window is pretty boring, but mum is due home with the dog chow, and I don't want to miss her.
I don't know how many are here, but this one is for the Hunter S. Thompson fans among us.
--OB
I never read the Hunter Thompson novel or even saw "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas", but this one cat meme is a classic.
The "bats" are an imaginary result of the catnip. I'm reading a book about the Mojave desert which is between Las Vegas and Barstow and the area is high weirdness by itself.
This one actually got me to laugh out loud.
 1.jpg)
--OB
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