I’ve been working on a zine.

At first I had parts in there about design but I’m not feeling it anymore.

The stuff I’m taking out I’m just going to post here, mostly since popjellyfish wanted to read it, and maybe a few of you might actually need to. Its unfinished, and pretty unstructured, but its never going to get out unless I get it out now.

Its essentially design gripes from my own little point of view, somewhat in the context of speaking to my community of occultniks as a whole. I’m not sure I can even stand behind it, philosophically, but nevertheless, here it is. Enjoy.

Pretty Damned For Kids : Style Sheet Witchcraft

As a designer with a good network of creative and intelligent friends who represent their work online, it has been hard to navigate while biting my tongue. I have a backlog of criticism and unasked for advice when it comes to logos, site design, and identity creation that will never find its way out of my system unless I let it out, so in the following I attempt to relieve myself.

Specifically, my network is comprised of people who are all familiar with concepts such as memetics, magic, and marketing. I personally detest the practice of marketing the use of marketing as magic, because its tacky, but I also don’t have a problem with good natured hypocrisy. I am a ‘chaos magician’ after all, and thats just how we roll, right? Anyways, the following is addressed to those who understand this paragraph. This is especially for those who are creators of niche media and arts.

It seems to me that my community for the most part got into the occult via Chaos Magic or Crowley, but altogether ignored Anton Lavey, because somehow he was harder to take seriously than those two sources of reputable flimflam. Memes they may have missed out are on some of the most important ones a serious business wizard can have. LaVey’s magic is centered on practicality before spirituality, focused on the results in the here-and-now. In particular, Lesser Magic:

Non-ritual or manipulative magic, sometimes called “LESSER MAGIC,” consists of the wile and guile obtained through various devices and contrived situations, which when utilized, can create “change, in accordance with one’s will.” In olden times this would be called “fascination,” “glamour,” or the “evil eye.” […] To manipulate a person, you must first be able to attract and hold his attention.

- Lavey

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This is the logo for The Parlour, the venue a couple friends and I are working on.

Moustache design by popjellyfish.

I may want to tweak it in the future, but for now this will serve nicely. Its not really something imbued with my personal style, and its more popjellyfish than me, but thats just how the cookie crumbles when the order is for Olde Timey goodness. I’m much more of a New Wave person myself.

Speaking of New Wave, we found a CD of these guys in The Parlour : Pink Noise.

awwwwww. dreamy.

@popjellyfish First Night @ The Parlour

I’m at The Parlour right now. There is a show happening, we only knew it was going to happen today at around noon.

Threads tangled by chance into a magic carpet.

My friends and I are rebooting a venue next to The Chaos Cafe, and in time it could lead to something more than just a mess of kids putting on shows.

Everyone is shining their brightest, and I’m excited about what lays ahead for us.

The music isn’t quite me, but its optimistic feeling, and maybe that’s saying something. Things are changing, and this represents the next era for our strange little community, as we reach out to the greater one around us.

Things are looking are up.

In the future, more art, more music, and more memories.

Don’t miss out.

Stupidly large image below the cut…

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[UPDATE: MOVIE NIGHT CANCELLED DUE TO SUPERIOR PARTY SITUATION.]

I’m back!

Computer back online, back to myself again in other respects, and not entirely depressed in the face of looming disaster and inability to fund life fulfilling projects.

So what else is new? You probably know already! :D

More pointless blogging coming soon, definitely possibly!

and lots of fun!

So my art show was pretty awesome.

The whole point was to basically show off the stuff I wasn’t really too invested in, and to get rid of stuff that I was planning to throw out if it couldn’t find a home.

It made me feel good to see how cleaned out everything was by the end.

There were good reactions I didn’t expect from pieces I had done much earlier in my painting career, and peoples impressions overall about what feelings were evoked in other particular pieces was good for me to hear as well. Also it was fun to tell the stories about them, since I had things as old as nine years up in the mix, when my life was pretty damned different. Plus people were sort of fighting over a piece or two, so that was a happy moment.

The apartment looked really good as a gallery, and I think the space is going to retain some of that quality to it. Also I think I will end up having much more art shows in there, but I’m not sure at what frequency.

At the moment something gets put on a wall, its no longer just something sitting in my stacks of crap, it is more of an object somehow. Learned lots of lessons.

For once I feel really attuned to what I want to do with my life.

Thanks to all my friends who made it, and those who didn’t but have supported me through the years.

So getting to my place can be kind of confusing for some people, so I put together this handy little sequence of images to hopefully clear it up.

I’m going to have to put this after a cut, so click through and check it out.

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So within the last week I feel like I really found myself artistically.

What I really want to do is just make tons of fast sketchy pen and gouache pictures, and make bigger painted pieces that are longer conversations.

The plan is to set myself up on Etsy and eBay, or whatever else, and play around with selling my work, more as craft and ornament rather than ‘serious art’. Although my larger paintings feel interpersonal and psychological, if only to me. Maybe at some point I will even try to get more active on the local level of the art world.

Romantically I feel the pull of the Muse, exactly what I really wanted to find. (For the record I am still a Magus.) The faces, gestures, lines, and tunes of the women in my life are directly put into my art. I’m not sure if you could call it romance in the normal sense of the word, or perhaps it is an even more traditional understanding I am after.

I have been having lots more conversations with friends about art in general, and all the different implications of being an artist. Quite refreshing, I’m feeling pretty nourished by the minds I have gathered around me.

For the first time in my life, I can look at myself as an artist and not pair that up with self deprecation. It is all about enjoying the process, and I’ve found my groove.

I have taken way too much time off of work, and I really need to catch up on design projects tonight and tomorrow. Working is such a drag, hope art sales becomes something I can really focus on as my main food source. I’m literally a starving artist, don’t let the beer gut fool you.

I’m happy. I’m getting out. I’m face to face with beauties. I’m doing what I do.

Been signing my work with my legal last name. Just bought Rafatpanah.com and made it redirect here. Not sure if its possible to stop being Danny Fucking Chaoflux, and I don’t think I’m going to start trying.

Anyways, love you guys. Cya soon. Art show this weekend.

self portrait - taken just a second ago

The second song in Puce Moment by Kenneth Anger has been in my head.

I’ve been taking some extra time to make art, but I’ve mostly been writing.

I had a dream I talked to a red fish who was floating in the air. It told me it was from the end of time, and it was experiencing evolution in a backwards manner. Its eyes were like a fractal hallway of lenses. It was pretty jolly overall.

For a meaningless life, I certainly do have myself wrapped up in the cosmic mythological narrative.