Illustrator of the Week: John Schoenherr

Dune

John was raised in Queens where he used drawings to communicate with speakers of other languages within his polyglot neighborhood.  Later he went to Pratt University.

Schoenherr may be known best as the original illustrator of the dust jacket art of Dune,[6] a 1965 science fiction novel by Frank Herbert that inaugurated a book series and media franchise.[7] He had previously illustrated the serializations of the novel in Analog, an endeavor which secured him a 1965 Hugo Award for Best Professional Artist.[6][8] He later did the art for the Analog serialization of Herbert’s Children of Dune.[6] In 1978 Berkley Books published The Illustrated Dune, an edition of Dune with 33 black-and-white sketch drawings and 8 full-color paintings by Schoenherr.[6][7] Herbert wrote in 1980 that though he had not spoken to Schoenherr prior to the artist creating the paintings, the author was surprised to find that the artwork appeared exactly as he had imagined its fictional subjects, including sandwormsBaron Harkonnen and the Sardaukar.

Also he gained fame for  Dragonriders of Pern stories by Anne McCaffrey, the 1967/1968 novellas “Weyr Search” and “Dragonrider” (each featured on one Analog cover as well) that were subsequently developed as the novel Dragonflight.[14] Schoenherr’s July 1975 cover for Analog has been cited as influential in the designs for the Star Wars character Chewbacca.

Analog was a magazine in which Dune and the Dragon Riders of Pern first appeared in. Among other stories in the magazine he illustrated was Randall Garrett’s  The Eye’s Have It which is rereleased in Arkham: Tales from the Flipside Winter Edition.

Gallery:

ISS Docking Simulator is SO COOL!!!!

Can you dock the Dragon?

 

Welcome back to my blog about balloons, rocket ships, airplanes, space travel, Star Wars, sci-fi, and everything about flying! Later this month they will be sending regular people to the International Space Station on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon. Well, rich regular people…  Before then you can learn to fly the Crew Dragon! On the SpaceX website they have this cool flight simulator in which you have controls on your left to manipulate the Crew Dragon’s translation: its movements forward, backward, up, down, and side to side. Then the controls on the right manipulate the vehicle’s pitching, yawing, and rolling.

You need patience, because the ship moves reallllll slowwww.

I wonder if you do well in the game, if they will make you a pilot in real life as in The Last Starfighter? I am hoping they hire me!

Try it yourself!

~Max

To find out more about me visit Salem House Press and buy my book on Amazon.com! Now available in paperback at your favorite booksellers. Ask for it by name!

 

Latest Installment in Battle at Cedar Bridge Tavern

This week Henry and Benjamin Franklin dress up as Mummers on St. Stephen’s Day to sneak into Cedar Bridge Tavern to steal back the Ark of the Covenant.

Come back every Tuesday to read the latest in The Sinclair Narratives featuring everyone’s favorite immortal, Henry Sinclair, and his third-generation Viking ragtag crew.

Click here to read the latest issue!

Henry Sinclair in the mud under a bridge Chris Dowgin posing

 

This Week’s Horoscope deals with Sex and Darth Vader

The Salem Love Psychic’s Horoscope

The Salem Love Psychic

So what is going on this week: three planets turning retrograde!  Jupiter, Saturn, and most important – Venus. First, we will have a Scorpio Full Moon followed by a committed partnership Grand Trine!

Thursday, May 7th!

The last Super Moon of this year is  a Scorpio Full Moon which brings about a good time to release tensions in the certain nether areas of our personality through:

  • sharing resources
  • occult practices
  • wealth
  • power
  • charisma
  • sacred sex
  • investigation
  • research
  • transformation
  • death and rebirth
  • shadow work

Taurean Mercury opposes the Moon, brings about a time to have a dialogue about long-ignored issues on very practical matters. It is a good time to lay a new foundation or shore up old ones to build upon to strengthen old friendships and relationships. Miscommunication sometimes slips into our relationships and wedge their way in until they threaten to split us up. Now is a good time to clarify what might have been said in the past so those people you care about know your true intentions. You might find out they were building your future relationship on false pretenses that you need to address before harm falls in.

A Scorpio Moon already feels things intensely. This lunation’s Moon-Neptune trine is a bit tricky. While you are trying to clarify what you had said in the past, be careful that you are talking to another person’s ego or true self. At times some people’s ego is weak when confronted with things it feels ashamed of or frightened by. These are times that part of a person’s psychology hides and lets the Shadow out. The Shadow’s first job is to go on the offensive to protect the ego. Once it has secured the ego, then it scolds the ego and tries to teach it some important lessons.

Ever got in an argument with someone and they start screaming, or raising their voice, accusing you of things and behaviors that you know damn well to be their own? Well they are! The Shadow uses you to interpret and pass its message on slowly through time, piecemeal, to the ego. So the Scorpio Full mixed with the Moon-Neptune trine will bring up a lot of emotions in which some ego’s might not handle causing their Shadows to fight the fight that is not theirs.  It is a very emotional time as seen by the symbols of the moon and Neptune which represent the emotions combined with the sting of the Scorpion.

For some people should have died years ago! The parts of their personality that have been causing them harm for decades now. The harmful person should of died years ago, to give birth to the person they were born to be.

Sometimes when we do not tell someone the harm they are causing, it is our fault. We allowed parts of ourselves to die, that should never have died, to keep alive parts of others that should of died years ago. The moon is the symbol of the ego-death. It is not time to order the casket and flowers, but a celebration of the death of the smoker, the spouse, the employee, victim, or the slayer for your true self to rise from the ashes. Like the snake shedding its skin which does not fit them any longer for a fine new suit that does.

As a collective, as a society, this time calls for us to put to death the workaholic, the distant parent, the negligent friend. Many of us have found ourselves trapped by the long commute and longe work hours that we have forgotten our children, parents, friends, spouses, and most importantly, ourselves! The American work culture coupled with the high costs of housing has created the fear that has been wedging into our lives for over 10 years now. We need to kill this way of living and have a long talk with ourselves!

The Moon’s final aspect is a tight Vesta quincunx which will help you have these conversations. It will grant you the fortitude not to take the Shadow’s words personal. It will give you the strength to understand the people in your life are not meaning harm, but lashing out. When one is suffering a loss of a loved one, they lash out unintentionally and for the short term, we forgive all that they say when they are grieving. For many will be grieving the loss of the parts of their personalities they were using for crutches for too long.

Collectively it is a good time to stop hoarding and sharing our wealth to those charities for people who find themselves short on cash and food. So stop stocking up on toilet paper…

It is a good time to release tensions. Spring has sprung and a little rutting will do us all good. It is time to enjoy the fullness of life. So get naked and don’t judge yourself or others for what we all need, for if we didn’t, there would have never been any life on this planet! 

This act is also sharing of ourselves. Most important is how we open up ourselves before and after sex with our conversations. Conversations about what brings each of us bliss.

Sabian Symbol

Find yourself within a state of Bliss, and hold it. When you are there you will find others where you are or bring others there who are ready. Do not try to bring people up who insist on falling. They are on another journey. Insist people come to your level and do not stoop to theirs.

Be the person standing outside of the hole and throw a rope down to help someone out, but never pull them up without them do any climbing themselves.

When you are the best person you can be, you have so much more to offer others.

This Sabian Symbol calls for you to understand the Buddhist meaning of the Joyful Participation of Sorrow. It is a time to be like Grandfather in Little Big Man who walked into the slaughter of his tribe with a joyful smile or like Chauncey in Being There just walking through life. The removal of fear and desire is helpful. Do not put judgments on these times. Like a Zen koan, understand when a knife is harmful and when it is not. A knife in surgery will save your life and a knife in an alley will end it. Do not put value judgments on either of these also. For the doctor could of been a hack and a near-death accident could make you reaccess your life for the better.

The Joyful Participation of Life! To desire life, you fear it will be taken from you. Just be. Just be within all the aspects of what comes to you. In the movie About Time,  the main character learns he can relive the day. At first, he changes all his mistakes and erases the aggravating things that happen. Then he learns to just embrace them a second time smiling.

Losing the fear of the other person’s Shadow will work out a stronger ego in those we care the most about once w do not react to them, but only smile and hug them. For all that a child having a tantrum needs, is a hug.

For us adults, a little of the slap and tickle…

Sunday, May 10th!

The Grand Trine begins today, peaks on Wednesday, and ends on Sunday. It includes Mercury, Juno, Pallas Athena, and Saturn. Once we have worked through the temperamental ego and let their Shadow rest once more, we build on the conversations and trust which strengthen friendships and tightens the bonds and joys of our relationship. The Grand Trine helps us find bliss within each other after the new foundations were laid out on Thursday and past communications clarified. 

It is a time for our True Self to talk to the True Self in others around us!

Mercury is still breaking ground in this new relationship between ego and Shadow for it is in the house of Gemini, the twins. Recall times when Lucifer and Yahweh, after the fall, sit and talk to one another in the bIble. The twin brothers, the two sides of Venus: the morning star and the evening star.  Realize double-speak, but don’t fall prey to it. The ego is testing its trust of you so he can in time balance his Ego and Shadow to become the Self.

Pallas Athena, closely conjunct practical Saturn, can help you negotiate a person’s behavior as they are balancing out their Ego and Shadow sides. Give the other person leniency, but snap at them when they overstep and make sure you follow it up with a hug and a smile.

Juno focuses this Grand Trine to support the ongoing relationships in your life that will bring you to your shared bliss. Those relationships that have found new life, by now you should of let those that needed to die to pass.

Grand Trines are like going downhill on a bike. If we do not pedal hard going downhill we might find going up the other side harder. Grand Trines gives us great presents, but they will pass if we do not provide a foundation for them. If we do not learn to make those presents for ourselves, they might become a once in a lifetime event.  Wouldn’t you want those amazing times to happen every day and get even better! So work with the Grand Trines and learn from them to make the most of this time and the rest of your life as you enact upon the lessons learned.

Monday, May 11th!

This is the beginning of four planets turning retrograde. Followed by Venus on Wednesday and Jupiter on Thursday. I will talk about Saturn today, and the rest next week.

Saturn turns retrograde at 1°57′ Aquarius. The planet turns direct again in  4-1/2 months, on 9/29, at 25°20′ Capricorn. The Ego acts like the king. During this retrograde, the Ego learns to humble itself within its communications with others as it moves their True Self through adolescence. Aquarius and Capricorn are great teachers of the subtle and fun art of conversation!

In alchemy, the king acts like Darth Vader. It threatens its son with death. The son brings new ideas and confronts the father with his faults and mistaken beliefs. The father swallows and, for what it seems, kills his son. Then the King sweats on what his son stands for and fights out those beliefs in his mind. The dross of his son is left behind and his truth arises. Then the reborn son and the king become one. 

Think of how the Beatles where so hated with their mopish hair and loud music, now they are hallmarks of society! 

Society fights all new ideas, but those that speak truth fight it out with the old guard and in the end are always embraced. It is the battle of the dreamer and the technician.  Einstein was a dreamer who fought the battle with the technician of this world to bring us the physics we know today.

So at the end of the virus, those stalwarts of our society have to realize how they have been hurting their flocks and become part of the cure and not the disease. They need to embrace the importance of themselves and not the corporation they brace up. They need to see the importance of those other Selves around them,  for if they can not see their Self they will never be able to see yours.

This virus will bring death to the personas of society and ill-placed social duties. Darth Vader dies to give life to Anakin. 

The king is dead,  Long live the King!

So come back next week and we will discuss the other three retrogrades!

Rev. Barbara is the Salem Love Psychic and the owner of the oldest continuous Psychic Parlor in Salem MA.

Read her biography chronicling her life within the metaphysical field. A book of confirmation and hope for us all.

Burnt Toast and Oranges: The Miss Adventures of the Salem Love Psychic

Buy your copy today!

Tunnels of Salem on Robert Irvine’s Kitchen Expedition

Chris Dowgin and Robert Irvine Kitchen Expition in front of Custom House in Salem talking about tunnels in town

Back in 2017, we filmed an episode for a new TV show called Kitchen Expedition for the Travel Channel. It was to air on April 1st 20018 and the joke was it was not to air till April 30th, 2020…

Salem state University TunnelThe Discovery Channel had bought back the Travel Channel and brought the TV show, which they had the go-ahead from the Scrips executive to film the whole season, into the nether realms of forgotten never aired projects. So they traveled the world to film the locations spices were cultivated and then where the spice made empires through its sale, to have the show never be seen. I even tried to get a copy of the pieces I was filmed in from my cousin Brian Patrick Flynn who works for Scrips for the Home and Garden Channel through his father, no go. Scurrying about trying to get tunnel locations opened, at the last minute, during the Christmas/ New Year season when nobody had returned to work yet, was all to go to waste. Until last week…

The show was picked up by The Food Network and aired on Thursday, April 30th at 10:00 pm. The first episode was on chocolate and truffles. Then the second episode was on Salt and Cinnamon where they traveled to the Mayan Empire where salt built armies and Senegal where the Ghana Empire dominated the trade. There in Senegal, they went to a salt flat where salt was still harvested traditionally.  The second half of the show went to Sir Lanka where the Portuguese, Dutch, and British conquered the island to secure the profits of Cinnamon. Then they traveled to Salem MA where I met Robert and walked him through the tunnels in town where the spice was smuggled duty-free.  While in the tunnel under Rockafellas I gave them the history of the tunnels that cinnamon and other commodities were smuggled through that created the wealth that shaped our country and its politics. Through the election of John Quincy Adams and William Harrison to the foundations of our three national banks before the Federal Reserve and more. The episode finished with us getting a drink at Opus Underground which was an underground train station that linked the 8 tunnel systems together through town built by George Peabody (founder of JP Morgan & Co.) for his Eastern Railroad tunnel. The first train tunnel built in America.

Oldest train tunnel in America

The show is cool in the fact that it films the crew in each episode, besides mine… It was good to see Pee Paw who worked the sound for the crew in the episode for chocolate and truffles along with the rest of the motley crew.

They did get to keep scenes at Derby Wharf, the Custom House, and the Witch House in the episode as well, but Dave’s part from Salem Spice was left out. Maybe they will use him for a later spice episode. Also additional scenes of walking through the tunnels next to Opus Underground which led to the secret train station that George Peabody (founder of JP Morgan & Co. Bank) built for his Eastern Railroad (Boston & Maine) to smuggle goods to Boston was left out. Still, they kept a good 5 minutes of what took them 3 days to film in Salem and two years to air.

To find out more about me, Chris Dowgin, and the tunnels of Salem and how they shaped the foundation of our country through its millionaires that smuggled through these tunnels, the inventions created here, the failed secession plot during the 1812 War, the people who controlled our National banks, and how they rose presidents up and brought them down read Salem Secret Underground: The History of the Tunnels and Sub Rosa.

The Woohoo in the Pines Clay Gallery

Well just off the road and across the tracks here in the Pines we have an urban art gallery few know about. In this little spot that was once a hamlet, if it ever made it to that size where people outnumbered the deer, we have an art gallery that people travel for hours to find within the heart of the Pasadena section of Whiting NJ.  A gallery built on the site of the Pasadena Terracotta Factory or as others know it as Brooks Brae.

Who would figure there would be an art gallery here…

Railroad in the Pine Barren near Chatsworth factory

Well on the other side of the tracks in the old brick factory there is one, but unlike other factories repurposed for galleries within their hollow structures,  The Woohoo in the Pines Clay Gallery has no overhead and a free admission.

Many well known Piney artists have had group shows here over the years. Sometimes we are graced by the well of inspiration in which those two great cities can offer, Philadelphia and New York, that affords us the trip to our little gallery under the sun. For we have the best lighting that the universe can offer. Below is a collection of past works that hung on Brooks Brae’s walls.

Brooksbrae oven entrance

On many of our openings, most likely spurred on by the moonshine and wine offered, many couples have disappeared into the ovens where things get really hot. The only way to discover the ovens’ secrets is to bring a fluorescent light, for we are not talking. Artists are a truly a saucy bunch…

This underground room sits below the kilns that once fired the sewer pipes that were manufactured here. It is amazing what filth has occurred in this space to set young lovers’ hearts ablaze, for at least a half-hour or so before they were discovered missing from our many galas. Limelight, Studio 54, and Manray have nothing on our stains on the walls of the ovens.

For the more sensitive personalities or those people who need a little romance before entering the ovens, or for those guys needing a space in which to promise to call the girls after leaving the ovens, we have a fine garden surrounding the museum. Grounds cultivated by Frederick Law Olmstead’s neighbor’s mailman’s great-great-grandson. A future destination for Banksy, if he could do art for art’s sake…

The museum at Brooksbrae also has plenty of seating for those who need to converse while our plentiful hors d’oeuvres are being passed. The gallery can be rented for private business functions and weddings on the weekends May through November. Plus our door is open 24-7!

Right now we have whitewashed our walls and we are placing a call for new art for our Spring Show based on the artistic mind and isolation. Stop in and submit your slides for review or post your .jpgs in the comment area below.

Brooksbrae Graffiti

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Sinclair Narratives: Henry as British General Howe Throws the War for the Americans and Benjamin Franklin is Afraid of the Jersey Devil

Latest Installment of Battle at Cedar Bridge Tavern

Jersey Devil below bridge in the Pines

Everyone’s favorite immortal, Henry Sinclair, has been posing as the dead General William Howe that was in command of the British forces in America. In this installment, we will learn how a few years ago how Howe threw the war for the Americans and was forced to hide in the Pine Barrens of NJ. Also, we learn more about his friendship with Benjamin Franklin and Franklin’s love of the Ark of the Covenant and his personal hatred of the Jersey Devil. Most important of all, we learn how the Ark was stolen from Howe and why…

Come back every Tuesday for another installment of Battle at Cedar Bridge Tavern:

Click here to read the latest in this series!

Cincinnati Subway System?

 

It is your favorite child travel adviser, Tyler the Boy on the Move,  once again bringing you the best in last-minute vacations. Your road trip planner for the weekend getaway to the coolest and strangest places in America. How do I know about them all? My parents are contract workers in the software industry and keep moving the family every 6 months….

Yes there is a Cincinnati Subway! Well, you can’t call it exactly a system though… They converted the section of the Erie Canal that ran through the city into a tunnel and a boulevard above. Then never used it. Now they have to maintain the subway to keep the boulevard from falling in and it is used for the water main to go through for the city.  Only the urban explorers and the homeless use them now. Well I figured I am an Urban Explorer and homeless, so I better head under the ground and check it out. Well, I have been in 6 homes within the last 2 years, so that counts as homeless… It was cool! My friend Chris Dowgin would of loved climbing through it! I like to rub that fact in his face that I got to go in and he didn’t… He travels and finds smuggling tunnels all over the country.

Luckily there was no active third rail.

The project kept getting interrupted by World Wars, escalating prices, and a Great Depression. They just gave up! They took out a six million dollar bond to build it in 1916 and only paid it off in 1966. With interest and all, it cost $13,019,982.45. I wish they could throw me that much money to do nothing…

~Tyler

To find out more about Tyler visit Salem House Press and buy Tyler’s latest book “Tyler Moves to Gibsonton Florida” on Amazon.com. It is now available in paperback at most bookstores. Ask for it by name. Keep checking back for great cheap vacation ideas that might end up being the best vacation you ever had!

Behind the Scenes with Danny and the Tree of Life

Chris Dowgin in bowler hatThe latest Illustrated Children’s Classic from Norge Forge Press. A Wonderful tale of Danny who climbs the Tree of life and all the amazing things that he finds in its branches and flying past. A great tale for anyone who is young at heart! A truly endearing tale.

Follow Chris Dowgin every week to see how his illustrations are made. Sometimes he will post a few versions of an illustration where he will ask you to answer in the comments below which version you like. Also if you have tales of myths about the Tree of Life, please share below. If you have any ideas about what Danny should find on his travels up, let us know!

Seadragons 

 

Which of the three final illustrations do you like?

 

Nap Time

 

Furry Friends

Chris Dowgin at Desk

 

Now, which one of the final illustrations above did you like? Should Chris keep the blocks? Tell us below.

 

Wizards and the Grail

 

Come back next week and see what Chris comes up with! Tell us what you think below.

You can also sign up for our newsletter by emailing us at newsletter@salemhousepress.com to keep up with Chris and the rest of the great content from Salem House Press!

Chris Dowgin in teens drawing at desk

Chris in his teens at the desk.