Mostly void, partially stars

normal purse contents (wallet, keys, chapstick, massive wad of trash and receipts, etc)

first aid kit

large quantities of candied ginger

clothespin

fingerless gloves

emergency dice set

mysterious flash drive

carnival ticket (when did I even go to a carnival?)

small metal frog

mystery key (rusted)

tiny goat

eight spools of thread

fortune cookie fortune ("your goals will have you reach new heights")

cursed locket

measuring tape with built in flashlight and screwdriver

$5.13 in loose change

incredibly small snail shell

piece of purple broken glass

three hagstones

compass ring

four old train fare tokens

various acorns

forty-five cool rocks I found

It's a very normal bag sized bag, I swear!

Weirdly enough, the purpose of this purse cleanout was to move stuff from my old bag (the strap was breaking for some mysterious reason that's probably completely unrelated to anything in this post) to a new bag that looks like it should be bigger, but actually holds less stuff. Had to remove some of these items, which is an absolute injustice.

(The rocks are staying, because what if I need a cool rock for something in an emergency? Also because they're getting a nice little polish from jostling around all the time in the inevitable beach sand that ends up in every bag I own.)

Tumblr users over here trying to foil my plans to disappear into the ocean with a bag full of shiny rocks to bribe the merfolk into letting me live with them.

Okay admittedly I have no solid proof that this particular locket is cursed. Honestly it's mostly just wishful thinking. But maybe someday...

I really wanted to get a picture of my other actual, really definitely cursed locket for this post, but I'm currently unable to find it.

Edited to add because Tumblr was really determined to post this before I was done:

Okay it took me forever to remember to actually take pictures, but!

Tiny Goat!

Hagstones, plus bonus purple glass and train fare tokens, just because I think they're neat.

Also, the umbrella thing a few weeks ago proves nothing. The fact that there was an audible scattering of trinkets onto the sidewalk when I opened my umbrella (a small, purse-sized umbrella! a reasonable umbrella to carry around in one's bag!) does not in any way imply that there were too many trinkets in my bag. I have no idea how those coins, rocks, and random bits of broken jewelry got in there. It's an utter mystery.

The Fence has published an exposé on Stuart Semple (of Anish Kapoor 'feud' notoriety) which they have been working on for six months.

investigation reveals Semple / his studio / his partner Emily Mann (who's described as acting as his 'enforcer' in his business) :

mishandled £400k grant of public money intended for a public gallery, allowing the money to flow freely between the public project, his own personal studio and personal projects such as Culture Hustle (his online business selling paint etc)

underpaid or failed to pay many of his assistants to the tune of several thousand pounds each.

former assistants have taken him to court and he simply hasn't bothered to show up and he's threatened to sue former assistants who asked for their back pay

repeatedly funds ambitious projects that never see release eg Abode, an 'Adobe-rivalling' suite of creative software (he claims he still intends to release this)

encouraged a cult-like atmosphere at his studio in Bournemouth

was frequently in debt and having to negotiate with bailiffs etc for his debts while at the same time crowdfunding various projects

ran fake social media accounts boosting Semple and his work

The portrait that emerges is one of decades-long scam artistry tbh and someone who's juvenile, manipulative, narcissistic.

The Fence btw is a decent fairly small-circulation quarterly magazine from the UK which specialises in satire, investigative journalism, culture, and fiction. You can read the piece in its entirety if you register (which is free).

a few links:

The Fence's newsletter from April discusses this article & how Semple has tried to muddy the SEO waters

Semple threatened to sue The Fence for publishing this story - many of you are American so here's the relevant UK law on defamation.

The first thig that put up a solid red flag was the shipping material. It's cool that he has custom boxes for his studio, it looked really neat. Then I opened it and sae things like "Not for bean boy" printed all over the inside of the box.

Between Mirror, hyper pigments, and black 2.0, none of them were as extremely out there as the videos on his site made them seem. The colors are vibrant, the black is dark, and the mirror is shiny. But the level the videos showed them at are not levels I can recreate.

So like, he exaggerated as an advertising scheme. Alright, shame on him.

In the Early Summer Forest - Paula von Goeschen-Rösler

German , 1875-1941

Upupa epops [ヤツガシラ,Eurasian Hoopoe]

Tarot Card Commissions - 4 slots

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Fill out the form to reserve a spot in my queue :-)