Welcome to the online studio of Francisco Mattos, built w/ printed pieces, experiments, souvenirs, personal projects.
-| January 2023 |-
PIXELS
2023 RETROGRADES
Astraea, titaness of justice, was the last greco-roman immortal to leave mother Earth, distraught by the degradation of the planet over successive ages. Joining her kin in a hypothetical heaven, the daughter to Themis, firstgen titaness of the natural order, became the last mythological link to a sizable swarth of humankind.
2023 Rx
Cradle Court
Slowing down
while in tissue-thin Cancer, Astraea “starry night” (1945) will spend December exhausted, and when loose lips can sink ships; the virgin goddess is prone to being a born-again enabler, gallivanting out-and-about showing off a nickel-smooth cape encrusted with iron, and sporting magnesium silicates.
On trajectories
to perform retrogrades for 2023, the three Fates will have managed the feat of aligning ±30 and ±60 degress apart from one another, to perform an uncommon rite which is set to culminate as autumn peaks. Klotho
“spinner” (1868) turns retrograde, September to November, from head-in-cloud Aries back to under-water Pisces, performing meritless multi-tasking.
Lachesis
“measurer” (1872) turns retrograde while in Aries, from breezy September to gusty December, prone to endless mind games.
Atropos “cutter” (1888) retrogrades in crowded Taurus, bountiful October to barren December, in an indecisiveness state.
The Fates are now asteroid goddesses, who once enjoyed existence as conjoined sisters, present at every birth, in order to take measure then determine the time of death.
Spending half
the year in retrograde, scrambled February to sunny-side-up July,
Haumea
(2004) leaves the den of Scorpio for the sun-room of Libra. If well-aspected, secrets don’t spill; if not, the hawai‘ian childbirth goddess is probably the one to walk away.
The creation
god of the tongva people of present-day California ratchets up a tension-filled year, during a retrograde in inflexible Capricorn, from showery May to sunny September. If well-aspected, uni-minds encounter glitches; if not, irresponsibles will twist and shout. Quaoar (2002) has returned as a minor planet, orbiting the Sun some seven trillion miles away, wearing shiny red rock stick-ons, shivering and undergoing radioactive decay, coughing up carbon monoxide and musty ejects of bonded nitrogen and methane.
Sila
“breath of life” and Nunam “mother” having been mates since forever, share now a life as a binary being from the Kuiper Belt, and is set to retrograde twice, both times in noble Leo.
Sila-Nunam
(1977) spends gloomy January to cloudy May stalled over a seemingly done deal. The second episode happens during December, when the inuit immortals have to put up with too-many cooks in the kitchen.
The
“personification of heaven” will retrograde twice during 2023, both times in resolute Taurus. The first time had begun back in 2022, and will end January 21. The second starts on August 29 and goes past the end of the year, as the greco-roman sky god diverts the traditional holiday season onto another path. Between these two retrogrades, Uranus “sky” (1781) is probably focused on draining the swamp.
This
polynesian fertility god will retrograde while in balanced Libra, from larva February to buggy June, setting up a safety-vs-liberty conundrum. If well-aspected, Makemake (2005) achieves eloquence in a debate, maybe nothing more; if not, the immortal responsible for molding Easter Island and populating the ocean again relies on texting it in, under a guise of passivity, inside a faintly sparkling charcoal cloak that is bigger than Pluto, patchworked with frozen nitrogen rings and veined in crimson-stained methane, where blades of iced ethane sprout.
Imagination
can run rancid when
Neptune
(1846) retrogrades in kitchen-sink Pisces, June 30 to December 5. If well-aspected, the roman god of the sea hides well behind crocodile tears; if not, ripples of cruelty everywhich way he turns. The liquid liege had chosen the date of his resurfacing back into history by sending a dream, in 1846, to a sleeping mathematician. The woke mortal returned to the New Berlin Observatory, entered a particular set of coordinates, then located the classical planet, sitting on his trident throne.
The roman
goddess of salt water will spend retrograde in finger-on-the-trigger Aries, ice cream August to hot chocolate December, an occasion when Salacia
(2004) presents as both a beauty and a beast.
Born
on the bottom of the Arctic Ocean, the premier inuit sea goddess gets to retrograde twice in 2023. First in penned-in Taurus, during January and February. The second will be in inconstant Gemini, firepit October to bonfire December, when Sedna
(2003) taints a season for a reason with unspecifiable solemnity.
The premier
hindu marine god is set for two retrogrades, both while in confident Leo. The first one, January to April, spent in a disquieting state; the second, in December, when everything grates. Varuna “dome” (2000) is a complex creation of at least five mature civilization: components, more or less, to mother India. Among other offices, he “who knows the pathway of the wind” is also the aboriginal vedic sky god, tasked forevermore to patrol the cosmos rooting out malfeasance.
From
butterfly May to bee-stung July,
Bacchus
(1977) will be in retrograde, backsliding from bottled-up Capricorn to uncorked Sagittarius. The roman wine god now has a hellenic double, Dionysus (1984), retrograding also, breakfast March to luncheon May, from cocktail Libra to quinine Virgo. Since these two events happen back to back, expect during springtime to act as host to the double-asteroid god of the grape.
The mother
to Persephone begins a retrograde on March 3, in leafy Libra, discouraged by the look of her farm. By the time Ceres (1801) exits retrograde, on May 5, while in seedling Virgo, the roman grain goddess should have come to the realization that one or more whole seasons have gone missing.
Dziewanna
(2010) finds her self at a crossroads when turning retrograde, in implaccable Scorpio, damp March to dry August. If well-aspected, the slavic deity of deep wilderness could, for sure, abstain from a rustic hunt; if not, the earth goddess gives it her all.
When
Huya
(2000) retrogrades in Sagittarius, showering April to sunshine August, the venezuelan rain god can semi-intentionally flip, and what was once thought of as over and done with returns for a second life.
Storm clouds
can persist for Iris (1847) as she retrogrades in stygian Scorpio, from scented April to pungent June, a time when the rainbow goddess is eclipsed.
The roman
thunder god will retrograde in four-square Taurus, September 4 to December 31. If well-aspected, Jupiter (1610) wards off a selfish streak; if not, the firstgen titan of rain becomes callous. Ancient astronomers paid close attention to the future god-king of Olympus, and made a note of his repeatable twelve-year re-appearance at the same position in heaven. Babylonian sky watchers then positioned the god of lightning as a marker of Time, and fanned out to pinpoint the constellations, describe the zodiac, begin the map for a hypothetical heaven.
Šiwa
“life” (1874) turns retrograde in driven Aries, September to November, a balancing act for the slovenian fertility goddess, who might have preferred a less-goaded pace, uneasily navigating a fraught period while clad in a space-weathered bodysuit the color of ox blood, woven of organic-rich silicates, stitched using tholen thread and lined with kerogen.
When
the iroquois agricultural god retrogrades in porous Pisces, limber July to old-man December, it does not bode well for promising shoots planted earlier, during spring.
Teharonhiawako (2001) has come back now as a binary being, and lives in the Kuiper Belt with his brother, and secondary, Sawiskera (2001). These alpha-and-omega gods of maize orbit each other as they go around the Sun.
This
elemental love god with a contested origin is to retrograde, leaving splishy Pisces for splashy Aquarius, sun-lotion June to sunburn September, nursing the death of an innocence.
Eros (1898) is also the first male god to emerge from the Asteroid Belt, irregularly shaped and showing off a 20-ton body, wearing aluminum speedos sewn with gold thread and fastened by platinum snaps. The god of desire’s skin is pockmarked by rocks spewed out by several volcanic eruptions, one of which is from a billion years ago.
Hera
(1868) will retrograde, from day-dreamer Aquarius to bread-winner Capricorn, social July to lazy September. If well-aspected, the greco marriage goddess tells no lies and keeps all secrets; if not, an enemy made during this period can last a long time. Hera has a roman twin one hundred asteroids away, Juno (1804).
All value-driven
decision making can turn into a money sink for Saturn (1610), during his retrograde, beginning on June 17 in murky Pisces. As he takes leave of retrograde on November 3, the firstgen titan of the harvest could have inadvertently been an ally, even worse, during the course of some jolting action, which had been deployed haphazardly. By the time Saturn exits retrograde, the “bringer of old age” would have forgotten all about this season of treason, obliged to preen on in photographs as a classical planet with many moons, and rings which continually rain down organic building blocks in packaging.
The principal
roman love goddess turns retrograde in easy-peasy Leo, July 23 to September 3,
when she seejs fifty ways to cause a separation. If well-aspected, the lover of Mars, Bacchus, Mercury, Neptune, etc., can end a quarrel; if not, the “changer of hearts” might start one.
Venus
(2000 BC) orbits the Sun naked, showing off a body made of solid rock, bulging with veins swollen by inert argon.
The classical planet is undergoing continuous exfoliation, losing her precious atoms of nitrogen, each one encased in a package of sulfuric acid, floating across a carbon dioxide atmosphere and turning into drifting gauze. “Foam born” has a hellenic half who is also an asteroid goddess: Aphrodite (1935) turns retrograde in party-hardy Sagittarius, from late April to August, when she might catch a social disease.
A pledge
to stick with home-cooking might crumble, when
Vesta
(1807) turns retrograde, from November 3 to December 31, leaving full plate Cancer for lunch bag Gemini. If well-aspected, the revered roman goddess of the hearth makes do with take-out; if not, nothing tastes right.
The aboriginal
deity of dreamtime retrogrades twice, both times in versatile Gemini; January to February, and October to December. These wintry weeks might tease out the needy and sentimental sides of Altjira (2001), periods when his eyelids can’t close.
The daughter
to Earth and Pontos is poised to retrograde in transformative Scorpio, white-capped March to dead-calm August, adrift and with no navigation. If well-aspected, Ceto (2003) resorts to the tried and true, resorts to her role as a marine matriarch; if not, the mother of select greco creatures is deemed responsible for past actions.
The chthonic
goddess of the dark retrogrades twice, first in curious Gemini, January to March, feeling a bit irked. The second time, November to December, while in shellacked Cancer, Chaos (1998) is a bit dismayed. Irked (cabin fever?) and dismayed (food insecurity?) is the “dark majesty and mystery of creation incarnate” because retrogrades can fuck with her well-oiled mental health: “a shapeless, unwrought mass of disconnected elements all heaped together in anarchic disarray”.
Circe
(1855) retrogrades from discerning Capricorn in May to a daring Sagittarius in August. If well-aspected, the “mistress of black magic” only has to go through low-grade self esteem issues; if not, flayed and exposed to the elements.
In the first
of two retrogrades, taking place during January, Eris
“abhorred” (2003) has managed to smother a combustible Aries, leaving behind an acrid smell.
The second also takes place in Aries, from summer to year’s end, when the greek chaos goddess finds herself surrounded by greenhorns and becomes frustrated. Eris orbits the Sun some 8.8 trillion miles (14.28 trillion kilometers) away, sporting a battlesuit of white-white scales made of iced-methane, which condense down to panes, all the while shedding miasmas. Under this mantle the daughter to Nyx “night” might also be a turbulent internal sea.
It is perhaps
fortunate that this chinese marine god gets to retrograde while in compassionate Pisces, lazy July to laid-back November, because then Gonggong
(2007) might become prone to doubt. His goal, his sole existence, is to nudge Earth’s axis off kilter, and cause destruction etc. The immortal sea snake with a human head has returned as a sphere some 764 miles (1,230 kilometers) in diameter, gliding inside the Scattered Disc, sheathed in a gleaming snake
skin stained red by ancient tholins, shooting flinty irradiated bullets of iced methane.
A brief
window of time comes during January and February, for Hekate (1868) to autopsy a spent domestic drama. The infernal goddess of witchcraft sifts through evidence, from an aloof Cancer and a cold Gemini.
This
remote viking love goddess – turned sexual-migrant – has returned as an easy-going finnish god of the netherworld, who will go retrograde while in possessive Taurus, from one-blanket September to two-blankets December. If well-aspected,
intimacy is lost but resumes as chivalry; if not, seemingly shy
Lempo
(1999) won’t postpone his revenge.
The
“original witch” goes retrograde, in methodical Virgo, from dormant February into fecund April. If well-aspected, the “first woman” wears well her veil of old cobwebs, on a quest to redeem the past; if not, Lilith
(1927) is caught red-handed, peddling snake oil.
Preparedness
and training come to naught as the roman god of war enters 2023 trailing backwards in gosh-darn Gemini.
Mars
(1534-bce) is to exit retrograde just eleven days later, then will spend the rest of the year ginning up the troops for another go.
Zhulong
(2014) is a chinese solar deity retrograding while in intense Scorpio, wet March to warm July. No doubt about it, the giant fire-breathing dragon is on a quest to ground little devils everywhere.
The
“pure god of truth” will retrograde in 2023 down five zodiac signs, from flowered April to fruited July. If well-aspected, the god of foreigners swallows his pride, asks for assistance; if not, the “destroyer” is soon enough kicked out of queen-size Libra, over to futon Virgo, to waterbed Cancer, finally to sleeping-bag Gemini. Apollo “shining” (1932) is the leader of the apollo family of asteroids: a posse of Earth-crossing missiles, each with a probability of crash landing one day.
The
“wisest and justest of all the centaurs” turns retrograde in austere Aries, from July 23 to December 26, which is when Chiron (1977) finds he’s stepped on and cracked a mirror. If well-aspected, the hybrid human-horse is given a window of opportunity to try and re-assemble the looking-glass; if not, the hellenic “teacher of medicine, herbs, music, archery, hunting, and gymnastics” stares into the cracked pieces. The oracular-centaur is the first of his kind: a collective of asteroid bodies with comet tails, each on a chaotic orbit that is influenced tidally by Neptune. One of them, Pholus (1992), is set to retrograde while in conservative Capricorn, May to September, a season when restlessness and exhausting ineptness tugs at the centaur tasked with guarding his tribe’s wine supply.
Getting
ready to retrograde, from a molten Aries in September to a solidified Taurus during December, Hephaistos (1978) at last found some time to sit down, reread the rush work order for armaments only his forge could devise. The far-flung god of firesmiths then will realize that he had read wrong. If well-aspected, the god of craftsmanship has wasted both time and money; if not, only time will be wasted.
The greco
goddess of youth begins the year in the midst of a retrograde in toothy Leo; this period will end in March, in shy Cancer. If well-aspected, Hebe (1847) attains an insight that comes with a price; if not, the asteroid wife to asteroid Heracles spends wintertime resurrecting her storms of youth.
Stalled
in a hangry Aries, from ripened August to cured November, Heracles (1991) finds ample excuses to put on weight. If well-aspected, this son of Thebes can cram, as is his wont, and still leave room for a side of diplomacy; if not, rituals of rending and gnawing two or more times a day.
Challenged to
retrograde in friendster Aquarius, from warm June to hot September, a facemask should become a no-brainer for
Hygiea
“good health” (1849); because. Meanwhile, her sister, Panacea
“curative” (1980), gets to spend retrograde, from open-window September to fireside December, as nurse to a feverish Aries, dispensing (one can so hope) bitter-tasting teaspoons of revivifying sanity.
The first
of four retrogrades in 2023 by complicated creation Mercury
(265-bc) is over with in the first seventeen days of 2023, spent in an unyielding Capricorn.
The second
retrograde happens from April 21 to May 14 in a no-room-for-error Taurus.
The third
time, August 23 to September 14 in rosy-cheeked Virgo, is when the messenger of the gods comes to the realization he is overtaxed, and therefore cannot recognize himself in the mirror.
During the last
time, December 13 to 31, from by-the-book Capricorn to prophetic Sagittarius, the “conductor of souls”
delineates a widening maw.
+
There is a hellenic heap of Mercury, come back now as an apollo asteroid, who is to retrograde down four zodiac signs, from in–door February to picnic-time July. If well-aspected, Hermes (1937) does not hit anything, anyone; if not, the god who celebrates a birthday every fourth day of the month is helpless, pingponging from zany Aqua–rius, in-the-way Cap–ri–corn, jumpy Sagittarius to don’t-tread-on-me Scorpio.
+ Link to see if Mercury is currently retrograde.
The greco-roman
goddess of wisdom has many names, oversees many other concerns besides being the smartest one in Olympus. Then the carbons started showing up, first Pallas, then Athene, and Minerva, joining up to become a complicated triple-asteroid goddess – a being capable of multiple, and simultaneous, retrogrades. The first of the lovely-haired goddess to appear was Athene (1917), a hellenic shard which then vanished and was never seen again. The second piece, a roman-sized rock named Minerva (1867), is primed for two retrogrades; the first during January in caring Cancer. The second, from October to December in a stubborn Taurus, pinned to a place of dead roads. The third component is also the largest fragment, Pallas (1802), set to retrograde in a refined Cancer, January and February, during a time of needless neglect.
The muse
of music is distraught by the current war dance. Terpsichore (1864) is to retrograde in polite Pisces, from harvest dance August to down-time September. If well-aspected, she suffers no fools; if not, the mother to the Sirens might be tasked to compose for conflict.
The dead
wife to Orpheus will retrograde, from rainbow-hued Sagittarius to hellish Scorpio, from warm May until suntan-lotion July. If well-aspected,
Eurydike (1862) only copes with a bout of unease; if not, she who once had tred on a snake, died, went to the underworld, re-enacts “princess and the pea” several times.
Roman gods
Mors “death” and Somnus “sleep” share an existence now as a binary being, orbiting in the Kuiper Belt and beholden to the gravitational guidance of Pluto. Mors-Somnus (2007) is set to turn retrograde in tension-fraught Taurus, windy October to stormy December, unable to decide on whether to hold a sword or wield a pen.
This
infernal immortal
will retrograde in exacting Virgo, from hardly wet January to dry May. If well-aspected, the “punisher of brok–en oaths” might backslide – and not fling out so many edicts left and right; if not, Orcus (2004) gets mouthy, pontificates, probably ends up having to pay the piper. The proto-roman god of hell had re-surfaced into recent history, oblique in a mantle of faint tholins, encrusted with methaned rubble dusty with drops of ammonia, and miles-long falls shooting jets of iced crystalline water into the sky.
Preferring
dark suits and all of 8 miles (13 kilometers) wide, Osiris (1960) is an ambassador from the house of Egypt to the Asteroid Belt. The portmanteau desert deity is to retrograde, frostbite February to maybe May, down cloudless Libra to a dappled Virgo. Meanwhile, the intentions of the egyptian god of resurrection during a retrograde remains unknown, locked in silence.
The greco
queen of the underworld turns retrograde in virtual Virgo, February to April, interrupting a quest for better days. If well-aspected,
Persephone
(1895) only has to retrace lost months; if not, the daughter to agricultural goddess Ceres and rain god Jupiter is adrift, because rootless. These days, the wife to Pluto is also the primary segment of a triple-space goddess. There is roman ruin Proserpina (1853), who lives just 373 asteroids away. And antique Kore (2003), orbiting Jupiter as one of his many moons.
The
roman king of the underworld retrogrades, May 1 to October 10, from the level playing field of Aquarius to the rocky ruts of Capricorn. For the rest of the year, a denatured dance has been on-going. If well-aspected, Pluto (1930) gets partnered with manufactured consent; if not, the “god with no name” takes on all partners.
The
sire to the four directional winds turns retrograde, cloudy March to clear-sky July, while in tri-formed Scorpio. If well-aspected, Typhon (2002) stays curled up inside a malevolent mouth; if not, the “serpent supreme” cannot wait to greet spring equinox with a syringe of nastiness. Typhon is paired with a moon-mate, the snake Echidna (2006); they are now a binary being in the Scattered Disc.
HELLO
Welcome to the online studio of Francisco Mattos, built with experiments in online layouts, and pin-ups from my scrapbooks.
PORTFOLIO
Holiday Card for De Vera. Die-punched rubber leaf.
MATINEE The Lighthouse (2019) 1h49m ╋ Power of the Dog (2021) 2h6m
In 1925 cattle country, single mom Kirsten Dunst and son Kodi Smit-McPhee run a roadhouse diner. Brothers Jesse Plemons and Benedict Cumberbatch own a nearby ranch. One will end up wielding the Power of the Dog? Based on Thomas Savage’s 1967 novel.
╋
Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson are “wickies” on a three-month assignment to tend to The Lighthouse on a remote rock in the sea. There they greet seagulls and Proteus, the antique shape-shifting marine being. Sourced from a 19th century murder at a Welsh lighthouse.
Speed (1936) 1h10m ╋ Ford v Ferrari (2019) 2h32m
The quest for Speed leads to a better carburetor, in a B-movie featuring rear projections of vintage footage. The ending is a recreation of Malcolm Campbell’s record-breaking 300 mph drive at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. James Stewart’s first film.
╋
Film treatment of auto builder Henry Ford II, auto designer Carroll Shelby and driver Ken Miles. Magnate Tracy Letts hires Matt Damon, and Christian Bale to take on the Italian racing team Scuderia Ferrari, aka Ford v Ferrari, at the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans race in France.
Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956) 1h53m ╋ Gentleman Jim (1942) 1h44m
Paul Newman plays real-life boxer Rocky Graziano, knowing in his heart that Somebody Up There Likes Me, because Pier Angeli plays his wife. Taken from the autobiography of the 1947 world middleweight champion, when he was age 28.
╋
Errol Flynn is boxer Gentleman Jim Corbett in 1880s San Francisco, and loves Alexis Smith. His entourage consists of the singulary Jack Carson, and William Frawley is his manager. Sourced from the autobiography of heavyweight champion Jim Corbett, and the then-new Marquis of Queensbury Rules.
American Psycho (2000) 1h42m ╋ Danton (1983) 2h16m
Crisp and cool, ferocious and bloody, Christian Bale is Wall Street worker Patrick Bateman, Bret Easton Ellis’s American Psycho, transferred undiluted to the screen by director Mary Harron.
╋
Taking place five years after the 1789 French Revolution, Georges Danton returns to a Paris undergoing the Terror, overseen by the Security Committee and led by Maxime Robespierre.
Fantastic Voyage (1966) 1h40m ╋ Powers of Ten (1977) 9m
A life-saving team is assembled inside a hi-tech ship, then the whole bombarded by a formula raygun, “for unlimited miniaturization”, in order to fit inside a syringe and be injected into a comatose patient, go on a Fantastic Voyage in the body, to reach and perform a life-saving procedure, from inside the brain.
╋
An educational film, made by Charles and Ray Eames, takes a trip to outer space, to locate and show Earth among the galaxies, relatively speaking. The second half of Powers of Ten then goes inside the human body, to reveal the cells, molecules, atoms, protons of inner space.
Ladybug, Ladybug (1963) 1h22m ╋ A Short Vision (1956) 6m9s
An air raid alarm goes off at a junior high school, while classes are in session. The faculty’s by-the-book evacuation plan is put into effect, and children either are bussed off, or else walk home in a group, led by a teacher, playing a singing game of Ladybug, Ladybug as they skip along.
╋A Short Vision is an animation about the last humans, by Jon and Peter Foldes.
The Ugly American (1963) 2h ╋ Indochine (1991) 2h40m
Marlon Brando plays a diplomat, in the 1950s, tasked to find the correct path to thread. Based on The Ugly American (1963) by Eugene Burdick and William Lederer, and taking place in Southeast Asia among members of the U.S. diplomatic corps.
╋
The founding of the Indochinese Communist Party in the 1930s is set among the privileged world of Europeans living in Indochine, during the waning light of French empire.
War of the Insects (1968) 1h24m ╋ Tetsuo: the Iron Man (1989) 1h7m
Reckless humans persuing atomic experiments trigger unbalance in Nature and a revolt, in the War of the Insects, slapping a suitably corrosive plot with topical touchstones. “I just love insects, because they never lie.”
╋
Made at the height of the globe-spanning body-modification movement. Following a car accident with a ‘metals fetishist’, science rebuilds Tetsuo: the Iron Man. Trailer, with music by Sinya Tsukamoto and Trent Reznor.
No Time For Comedy (1949) ╋ Youngblood Hawke (1964)
Curdled comedy starts out cute and ends on the stage of an empty theater. James Stewart is the playwright, and actress Rosalind Russell his wife. Robert Grieg plays the butler, and J.M. Kerrigan the mum bartender. A jaw-dropping performance by Louise Beavers as Clementine the maid belies the fact that there is No Time For Comedy.
╋
Talented, when yet a greenhorn from a mining town in Kentucky, pens a novel and soon Youngblood Hawke becomes the toast of New York City. James Franciscus is the writer, with Suzanne Pleshette, Genevieve Page, Eva Gabor, Mary Astor.
Three Strangers (1946) 1h32m ╋ Portrait in Black (1960) 1h52m
Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre and Geraldine Fitzgerald come together as Three Strangers, to enact a group ritual before an incense altar, and unlock a prophecy to acquire untold wealth. Edited just so to agitate slightly, keeping at bay the ending.
╋
Anna May Wong, in her last role, plays the live-in servant, and may be responsible for a Portrait in Black, as she answers doorbells in the chinoiserie quarters of ailing San Francisco shipping magnate Lloyd Nolan. Lana Turner is his wife, Anthony Quinn her lover, Sandra Dee her stepdaughter, and John Saxon the beau.
Sundays and Cybele (1962) 1h51m ╋ The Children Are Watching Us (1943) 1h15m
Luciano de Ambrosis is unhappy, witness to parental infidelity, discord and worse. Nicoletta Parodi is his nanny, who knows The Children Are Watching Us. Lost-world direction by Vittorio De Sica.
╋
Patricia Gozzi is the girl abandoned by her father at a boarding school. Hardy Kruger is the shell-shocked soldier who contrives a ruse, Sundays and Cybele, to both help her and heal himself.
Search for Beauty (1934) 1h18m ╋ Murder At the Vanities (1934) 1h29m
Kitty Carlisle and Carl Brisson are the top-billing stars of a big Broadway show, where a Murder At the Vanities mars opening night. Lucille Ball, Ann Sheridan and Alan Ladd are chorus members, Gertrude Michael a spiteful actress, and Charles Middleton is Ming the Merciless.
╋
Tossing out a fuck-you kiss to the incoming Hayes Code era of film censorship, Hollywood makes the raunchiest pre-code movie: a Search for Beauty at a health resort, where Buster Crabbe and Ida Lupino lead a bevy of cuties and nudies on ten-mile hikes by day and drinking parties all night.
e n v o y █
Today’s astronomers worry about micro-meterorites and cosmic rays bombarding the International Space Station, close calls among satellites and spacecrafts, and especially wardrobe malfunctions in outer space.
█
Yesterday’s astronomers had fewer worries, more wonderment. Taking notes, they devised almanacs and calendars. Some built structures to greet celestial returns, Karnak’s temple turns orange with the rising of the midwinter Sun, and the standing stones at Stonehenge ‘has some alignment on astronomical phenomena.’
█
The Babylonians divided the sky into twelve equal wedges, to facilitate the tracking of positions as well as movements. Then a map was passed around, showing longitudes and latitudes. The Vatican became intrigued, wanting to learn more of this new science, which arrived in Europe from Spain, in translations of Indian and Islamic texts, and a mechanism known as an astrolabe, that can show a map of heaven.
█Caroline Herschel (b.1850) started out as an assistant to her astronomer brother William Herschel (b.1738), polishing mirrors and mounting telescopes. When he then discovered Uranus, she too took a peek, and soon enough discoverd a satellite to the Andromeda galaxy: an elliptical dwarf galaxy.
█
Then a Harvard computer, while cataloging stars over several photographic glass plates by using a spectroscope, which charts ‘stellar brightness in proportion to luminosity-oscillation periods’ (i.e., the twinkle), devised a ‘standard candle for determining cosmic distances.’ Henrietta Leavitt (b.1868) had just invented a space tape measure to judge distances.
e y e w i t n e s s █
The ancients were intrigued by natural glass found in nature, able to let light through, to enhance eyesight by magnification. These qualities were refined, when glass-making was invented, to help address loss of eyesight in the aged, among many other benefits. Polished with a concave or sometimes convex surface, fitted into a holder, this became a magnifying glass. Then someone fitted several lenses into a tube and invented the telescope.
█
When the tube became much much larger, a glass plate treated on one side with a photosensitive agent was placed inside, and after a period of time, up to two years, yielded a photograph of stars.
█
Author Agnes Giberne (b.1845) wrote the first astronomy books for young minds, bringing them face to face with the Moon, the Sun, comets. “Among the Stars,” which came out in 1885, is 360 pages.
e x a m i n e r █
Mary Palmer (b.1839) married a doctor, and amateur astronomer, Henry Draper (b.1837), and became an astute student of the sky. His sudden death age 45 left her with money, paperwork and photographic evidence of their galaxy quest.
█Mary Draper then bequeathed an annual sum, beginning in 1886, to Harvard College Observatory, to procure sufficient staff to finish her husband’s catalog of stars.
█
The photographic evidence were captured on hundreds of glass plates, either 17x14 or 8x10 inches in size. Each plate is overlaid with numbered grids and placed, on an inclined plane, under a microscope. A light under the glass-plate illuminates the photograph.
█
The first computer, looking through the microscope, calls out each star’s name and grid position, while another computer enters the information into a ledger.
█
The glass plates are also studied using a spectroscope, and requires an aptitude for mathematics to take readings ‘based on the brightness of stars.’ Descriptions can include normal, hazy, sharp, and inter-determinants (several kinds). Because of the long exposure time, the photosensitive agent was able to register ‘long integration times’ yielding data on color, temperature, chemical composition.
█Williamina Fleming (b.1857) was one of the first Harvard computers, a team of women scientists. She had no such background and trained on the job, which was to ‘compute mathematical classifications.’ It turned out she had a flair for the work: “From day to day my duties at the Observatory are so nearly alike that there will be little to describe outside ordinary routine work of measurement, examination of photographs, and of work involved in the reduction of these observations.”
e t y m o l o g i s t █
NASA’s predecessor had hired female mathematicians, as early as in 1935, as human computers in a segregated system. Assigned to different departments, they would be tasked to take down notes, parse flight test scores, run calculations, perform analytics.
█Jeanette Scissum (b.1938) on her first day, in 1964, at NASA: “Mathematician, entry level. They didn’t have computers or a computer science program at A&M when I graduated, so I didn’t know how to do that. Once I did, everybody had me doing computer stuff for them.”
█
Mathematician Katherine Johnson (b.1918), working in NASA’s flight mechanic division, was told that a spacecraft would want to make a landing during prime-time television on a specific date. She then had to figure out when takeoff time must take place. Using analytic geometry, Johnson figured it out.
█
High-school whizkid Mary Winston (b.1921), with degrees in mathematics and physical science, worked in the computer pool, and was assigned to assist in wind tunnel tests at twice the speed of sound. Showing promise, she went back to school and got an engineer’s degree and became an aerospace engineer. Married to a sailor in the U.S. Navy, she became Mary W. Jackson. The National Aeronautics Space Administration’s D.C. headquarters is now named after her.
█
Mathematician Dorothy Vaughan (b.1910), in a 28-year career at NASA’s Langley Research Center, became a specialist in calculating flight paths. Vaughan then had access to a new office machine, read the user’s manual, taught herself the machine’s language, Fortran (Formula Translating System), and learned how to program NASA’s first electronic computer.
█
Mathematician Grace Hopper (b.1906) championed the use of English in composing tasks fed into electronic computers: “Manipulating symbols was fine for mathematicians but it was no good for data processors who were not symbol manipulators. If they are they become professional mathematicians, not data processors. It’s much easier for most people to write an English statement than it is to use symbols. So I decided data processors ought to be able to write their programs in English, and the computers would translate them into machine code. That was the beginning of COBOL (Common Business Oriented Language), a computer language for data processors.”
█
Mathematician Evelyn Boyd (b.1924) joined IBM in 1956: “At a two-week training session I was introduced to the IBM 650 and the programing language SOAP. ... Creation of a computer program is an exercise in logical thinking. Afterwards I worked as a consultant in numerical analysis in an IBM subsidiary. When NASA awarded IBM a contract to plan, write, and maintain computer programs I readily agreed ... to be a part of the team of IBM mathematicians and scientists who were responsible for the formulation of orbit computations and computer procedures, first for project Vanguard, and later for project Mercury.”
█
Mathematician Melba Roy Mouton (b.1929) worked for the Army Map Service before working as a human computer for NASA, and figuring out trajectory and orbital solutions for a metalized balloon in project Echo.
█
Writing propositions and coming up with solutions by hand was routine for mathematician Annie Easley (b.1933). Then electronic computers came along and, although Easley learned Fortran and became a more-valued asset, she still can remember the micro-aggressions: “My head is not in the sand. If I can’t work with you, I will work around you. I was not about to be [so] discouraged that I’d walk away. ... I’m out here to do a job and I knew I had the ability, and that’s where my focus was.”
█
Working in the computer pool, Christine Darden (b.1947) was given the task to come up with a computer program for sonic boom. Darden, who grew up taking apart and putting back together bicycles and other manufactured contraptions, is today an aerospace engineer: “I was able to stand on the shoulders of those women who came before me, and women who came after me were able to stand on mine.”
a n a l y s t █
On April 15, 1726, while taking tea in the garden with his friend, Issac Newton (b.1642) pondered on an apple which had just fallen to the ground. William Stuckeley records how Newton mused:
█“Why should that apple always descend perpendicularly to the ground? Why should it not go sideways, or upwards? but constantly to the earth”s centre? Assuredly, the reason is, that the earth draws it. There must be a drawing power in, and the sum of the drawing power in the matter of the earth must be in the earth’s centre, not in any side of the earth. Therefore does this apple fall perpendicularly, or toward the center. If matter thus draws, it must be in proportion of its quantity. Therefore the apple draws the earth, as well as the earth draws the apple.” a n g e l█
The ancients, unconcerned of this “drawing power” that Newton was to articulate, mocked the gravity throne and continued sending prayers to heaven. Entreaties written in temple script on paper were then folded into a pouch. A lit candle attached to the pouch sends smoke inside, causing its ascent.
█
Humankind then followed the lanterns, yet the earliest ones didn’t know to carry oxygen, and returned spouting the wildest tales of beings living in the upper air. The four winds, curious, would approach with whistles and roars and yells, asking questions, including that confounded new contrivance, a wind tunnel.
█
Sensing fear in their visitors’ eyes, the thunderous voices abated. Zephros drew closer and whispered: “We are wind gods of the four cardinal points, heralds of seasons, sons to Typhöeus, fifth and final monster born to mother Earth. We too seek a reason for existence, and whether or not it becomes us to be suited up in turbines, pumps, and such fetters.”
█
Notos spread icicles while parting his lips: “Can these regulation systems really help with my restlessness? and what’s up with welded insulation?” Euros brought up the sorest point: “Can gravity weigh me down and curb my mood.” Boreas’ grumble rumbled: “Magnetosphere constrains our empire but why? And who are these rocketmen and their reckless aerial turns in guidance and control?”
█
Sensing fear in the visitors’ eyes, their thunderous voices abated. Then Zephros drew even closer and whispered: “We are wind gods of the four cardinal points, heralds of seasons, sons to Typhöeus, fifth and final monster born to mother Earth. We too seek a reason for existence, and whether or not it becomes us to be suited up in turbines, pumps, and such fetters.”
█
Notos spread icicles while parting his lips: “Can these regulation systems really help w/ my restlessness? and what’s up w/ welded insulation?” Euros brought up the sorest point: “Can gravity weigh me down and curb my mood.” Boreas’ grumble rumbled: “Magnetosphere constrains our empire but why? And who are these rocketmen and their aerial adventures in guidance and control?”
a i r m a n█
The four winds invariably took their gasping guests on the grand tour. Earth’s atmosphere is spherical and contains a precise mixture of gases such that oxygen becomes its miraculous chemical product. It has the same shape as mother Earth due to her gravitational grit, which she bestows also to water and all living things. The sea and mountains are deemed to be sentient by the ancients, and so too is Aether considered a being, having undergone “biochemical modifications by living organisms” ever since its aboriginal form coalesced into a paleo-atmosphere. Material enough for Earth to lassoo the grandson to Chaos with a girdle tight enough to separate the deity into distinct layers, and is the main cause of clouds.
█
This primeval sky god can only be discerned when he digs into his bag of optical tricks and throws mirages, or scatters light. Aether is patron to Earth, whose existence depends on a narrow band of the bottom layer, beginning at sea level.
a v a t a r█
Innovative proto-aviators watched how birds populate the air and go where they will. Wings got built and tied to men. Jumps happened. Leonardo da Vinci (b.1452) had his own solution; yet his own design, wings that can flap, never left the sketchbook.
█
⁝
Bird wings are folding fans, able to expand and collapse. Each wing is a web of arm bones, having joints which, by evolutionary decree, have quills on the knuckles; each quill grasps one feather.
a e r i a l i s t█
Divinities of the air were entranced to receive paper prayers heaven-bound using paper, glue and heated air. They also found out that hydrogen, when it is unadulterated, possesses levitational abilities also. But being a gas, it would simply dissipate when in contact with one or more gasses.
█
Rare and difficult to distill, hydrogen requires a chamber, white-hot iron, running water; and had to wait until a non-porous material to contain the new gas, was was discovered around 1780, had not yet been developed.
█
A ginormous pillow, with a small opening, tied to a large basket and fed a healthy gulp of heated air, took to rising into the atmosphere. Then, as the trapped air cools, this “hot-air balloon” will descend. The first companions chosen to carry out this maiden flight were a french sheep, duck and rooster.
a c r o b a t█
Smoke from large fires first showed the way during wartime: to send a signal, or initiate a maneuver. Kites were another way to harness wind behavior to send sturdier signals. It can also be used as a measurement of distance, or just to “test the wind.” Kites can also fight each other.
█
Dog-earred generals carried mint editions of “The Myth of Icarus” into battle and tasked military engineers to accessorize kites so as to become fit for carrying a passenger. Eventually squadrons of passengers paid visits to the sky, and giving notice that the empire of the four winds was coming to an end.
█
Kites were invented for children when they first became aware how they might have, as playpals: the four winds.
█
Not for war’s sake, Benjamin Franklin (b.1706) is probably the first to use wind power to send a laboratory into space: kite + key + lightning storm.
a l c h e m i s t█
Through trial and error someone came up with gunpowder. That a right mixture of carbon, sulfur and saltpeter (an efflorescence mineral found on the surface of stones) will produce a flash accompanied by fire that burns off – an explosion. A wrong mixture produces instead just “smoke and flames.”
█
Soldiers saw the promise and quickly adopted the recipe. Dreamers invented fireworks. Paper tubes filled with confetti and a spoonful of gunpowder then sealed with a fuse sticking out. The tube is tied to a long stick that will act as a tail, then aimed towards the sky. Flame is introduced to the fuse and the detonation produces a propulsive force inside the tube, which ascends before spilling out its contents.
█
Although it was John Bate (b.1600s) figured out how to make compound-rockets, which boosted the appeal of his brand of “fyer workes,” it took until Hermann Oberth (b.1894) to sheath it in metal, for the first time, to insure a sturdier flight.
█
Fireworks are propelled missiles guided during a brief initial phase of powered flight. Then a subsequent trajectory that obeys the laws of gravity, and codified as
classical mechanics.
a r c h e t y p e█
When World War 2 was over, pilots and other aeronauticals returned to civilian roles.
█
Back to working for a paycheck, these airmen flexed their know-how and birthed an aerospace industry that nowadays has gone global. By 1960 the skies were already beginning to get mighty
crowded.
█
Governments were wont to fund space explorations, get bragging rights, so
they practised by dividing up North Pole, a melting continent.
█
Longitudes and latitudes led to precision mapping of the world, and in the co-mingling of new disciplines rocket science took off to
map a hypothetical heaven.
THREAD & THRUM
Small space objects entering Earth’s gravitation are, first and foremost, a potentially dangerous “near-Earth object”.
Whenever such a visitor buzzes Earth, it becomes a (passing) meteoroid – it can free itself and continue its course. It’s a meteor if it cannot. And a meteorite, when it has crash landed.
+
It took a while to pin down what an asteroid is. The space rocks that make up the Asteroid Belt is a collection that contains more than asteroids. After much discussions, an asteroid these days is understood to be a space rock that can come in a various shapes, a width of from about half-a-mile (one kilometer) to about 600 miles (1000 kilometers); something irregular and smaller than the Moon. An asteroid lacks an electro-magnetic core and carries no atmospher.
+
A space object with a tail (made of gas and dust) is a comet. There are different kinds; some can even come from other solar systems.
•❚-❚-❚•
In the aftermath of the Trojan War, Olympians carried on the fight with each other – god versus god. This theo=machia so angered Ge (pronunced Gaea), that the premier earth goddess revolted. Egypt disappeared into a “screaming wind”. Another Aesir-Vanir conflict had been brewing when ripples from the war in the south triggered the eighteenth Ragnarok, sending nine worlds and twelve hells toppling into a watery wormhole.
•❚-❚-❚•
Ge began cramping and vomited out contents in her vaults. The largest ejectiles had been imprisoned there by her grandson Jupiter. These (4th class) monsters, gaining back their agency, promptly attacked Olympus by stacking mountains and climbing up, triggering giganto=machia 2.0. What else that didn’t climb out was shaken off in undulating spasms, clearing out caverns and emptying all of the hells that Ge knew about. The last to depart Tartarus, with the keys, were underworld deities Pluto and his titan-aunt Hekate, making sure every gate was open and all left unguarded.
•❚-❚-❚•
The goddess with no parents then picked Atlas up and threw the second-gen titan at her male counterpart, which is what gave Uranus his famous red-eye. Their son, first-gen titan Hyperion, witnessed all this and had a hydrogen-heart attack; in 1948, the solar god would step down from the Sun. Taking his place on the gravity=throne was that “container of multitudes”, complex god Apollon, whose outer manifestation now is Helius, “the eldest flame”.
Eight planets (+ a few minor planets + the Asteroid Belt), i.e., the classical solar system, go around the Sun along the “invariable plane”, in harmonious alignment. Beyond Neptune, though, this predictable “music of the spheres” is no longer the case.
+
There is a vastness beyond the inner solar system, enlarging by extraordinary magnitudes the sway of the Sun. Just beyond Neptune is a laboratory, in the guise of a cemetery likened to the Asteroid Belt, where objects in resonance to the Sun roam. Just beyond Neptune lies a formidable ring of iced rocks in relatively stable orbits, called the Kuiper Belt (1992), named for Dutch astronomer Gerard Kuiper (b.1905). Posited, ever since the 1930s, as debris and therefore a part of the solar system, the first evidence surfaced when Albion (1992), mythological Britain, stepped into view: the first Kuiper Belt object ‐ half a mile (167 kilometers) wide, and taking 289 years to go around the Sun.
+
The Sun has a third ring, an odd sector where trans-Neptune objects orbit in resonance with Neptune’s gravitational heft, the Scattered Disc (1966).
+
In 1907, astronomy began imagining a region in the hinterlands of the outer solar system, a “reservoir of comets”, and where iced remnants from the formation of the early solar system continue living a half-life. In 1932, it began probable. By mid-century, a map of what it may look like was begun. Named after Estonian astrophysicist Ernst Öpik (b.1893) and Dutch astronomer Jan Oort (b.1900), the Öpik-Oort Cloud (1950).
•❚-❚-❚•
Marooned on a chunk floating south as Pangea broke apart, indigenes clung on and ended up on another shore, under another view of the Sun. Looking at summer skies through wintry eyes, they saw the physical, spiritual and mortal planes clearer and earlier than most. They were the first to notice, when the first atomic bomb test too place on July 17 1945 in New Mexico, how Ge had curled up and succumbed to catatonia. Nowadays, the first peoples of Australia are best friends with the faded goddess of the Earth, and help to repair her bandaging to suit every season.
•❚-❚-❚•
Nereus actually didn’t fell anything while Ge went through her geo=machia. His aboriginal root matter being H-two-oh, “Mediterranean” soon enough began to splash some of it over the exposed parts of Earth, initiating a tidal rite to soothe his beloved, his grandmother, his only home.
•❚-❚-❚•
In 1950, Pluto and Hekate presented themselves at the gravity☷throne, and told everyone present what they had seen: a trans-Neptune region of space where there were more rings, where space rocks and objects have zany orbits, and where everything was suspended inside a stupendous gossamer cloud. The king and crone of the underworld had come to the house of the Sun to announce the passing of the old order.
•❚-❚-❚•
This had already begun during the formation of the inner solar system, when Jupiter had jostled with neighbor Saturn over throne placements. This mini=machia, between father and son, was won by the son. Yet by widening and adjusting their orbits to avoid collision, it also caused nearby Uranus to flip onto his back, all the while making Neptune, near enough, to sway and heave, back and forth.
•❚-❚-❚•
The premier sea god had immediately countered to save his trident☵throne, but in the ensuing tempest damage happened, and flinging what flaked off into remote regions. Neptune had also smacked into something substantial, shattering the object and hurling debris large and small far, far, far away. Casualties from this oly=machia are now everywhere you look, yet are subject one and all to the gravity☷throne. Thus ended Hekate’s account of the gathering together of a hypothetical heaven.
•❚-❚-❚•
Pluto, the first minor planet, was recognized as the first trans-Neptune entity, a fitting placement for the king of the dead overseeing a moving cemetery in outer space. The nearest casualties made up a vast legion called the Kuiper Belt, the second ring around the Sun. There is yet a third ring, faintly sketched out, the odd-behaving objects that make up the Scattered Disc. Further out yet is a bubble of cemetery dust, the Öpik-Oort Cloud, composed of multi-billion bits of iced pebbles. All these trans-Neptune objects together make up the “frozen forgots”, some larger some smaller, some spherical with moons, marinating for the most part in blue-grey bruises under dessicated dressings.
•❚-❚-❚•
Pluto had, beginning 2004, come to understand this new neighborhood. In a golden chariot drawn by four black horses, the infernal god had crossed over the second ring of the Sun and got stuck momentarily in bow shock, the first visitor from the inner solar system to do so. Breaching which hurled Pluto inexonorably through unknown territory before ending up in potentially hazardous interstellar space (1904). The king of shadows had to find a rippling band, caused by the Sun’s rotation, that resembles a “ballerina’s skirt” in motion. Sensing his moment, Pluto drew his sword and acted, cleaving the hydrogen wall and stepping over, arriving at the final barrier of the heliosphere, a gelatinous membrane that causes termination shock – a shield filtering out harmful rays from crossing over.
+
A trans-Neptune object covers all manner of space rocks outside the inner solar system, i.e., beyond Neptune. By this reckoning, Pluto became the first tNo. The region where these objects congregate corresponds roughly the size of the heliosphere (1904). It can be home to minor planets, proto-planets planetesimals; minor moons, moonlets, moonmoons; varieties of comets, etc.
+
The third minor planet from the Kuiper Belt, carrying two moons as well as a ring a ring, is a “collisional family”, and one day the trinary system will destroy each other. Haumea (2004) is an elongated sphere devoid of methane and bright as snow. A day for the Hawai‘ian childbirth goddess is over with in 3.9 hours, yet she spends 285.5 years going around the Sun. Daughter Hi‘iaka 120 miles wide and makes an orbit every 50 days. Nāmaka, the smaller moon-daughter, is swaddled in iced water.
+
The twin sister to Mars is a tNo with an oblong 558-year-long orbit around the Sun, appearing out of the Scattered Disc and using Pluto, or Neptune, to swing around and go home, Eris (2005) is a large minor planet, 1,500 miles (2414 kilometers) wide, and capacious enough to stuff the entire Asteroid Belt in her ice-reflecting frozen-methane planet-sized mantle.
+
Telescopes scanning beyond the Kuiper Belt came across a very distant object orbiting the Sun, and the first confirmation of a vast backyard beyond the outer solar system. Named for a migratory Pacific Ocean bird, Leleākūhonua (2015) is a tNo with an orbit so extreme as to also spend some a bit of time in the Kuiper Belt, and the rest of it travelling back to the Öpik-Oort Cloud.
•❚-❚-❚•
Regular ministrations by humankind on Ge was working, and she began to detox, then itched and bloated and accidentally shot great-grandson Mars into outer space. Angered by this rejection, the military god turned around and demolished the nearest planet; the year was 1534. Long before this event took place, daughter to the sea Venus had long departed the wretched Earth to seek safety closer to the Sun. Mars eventually buried all the remains in his back yard, a cemetery now called the Asteroid Belt (1801), and is the first ring around the Sun.
•❚-❚-❚•
Six years later, corpses began to float into view. The first happened to be spherical, and happened to be smaller than the Moon, when it was later measured. So erroneously it was titled first a planet, then an asteroid, before becoming, in 2006, the first minor planet in the solar system. The largest object in the Asteroid Belt is agricultural goddess
Ceres (1801).
•❚-❚-❚•
Now revived, the sister to Jupiter, Neptune, Pluto – the second female in Pantheon 1.0 – crosses over to the Garden of Apollon 2.0, prepares beds for growing barley, composes hymns to sunlight. Made of ambient matter, having no definite boundary, the Sun is a star with the capacity to shed root matter as energy, in a form rapid enough as to seem solid; the
Sun
can assume diverse forms. Each sun also undergoes ongoing combustion, has gravitational sway over some surrounding space, its heliosphere: a shapeless bubble, because solar wind plus interstellar wind plus motion in space.
•❚-❚-❚•
A sizeable space rock with an electro-magnetic field is a planet, and can host one or more satellites. There are also planets engulfed in visible gasses; some have rings. The celestial court now lists the eight closest planets to the house of the Sun as the sole first-gen pantheon. And the oldest seat is the chthon☶throne on Earth.
2023 RETROGRADES
Astraea, titaness of justice, was the last greco-roman immortal to leave mother Earth, distraught by the degradation of the planet over successive ages. Joining her kin in a hypothetical heaven, the daughter to Themis, firstgen titaness of the natural order, became the last mythological link to a sizable swarth of humankind.
2023 Rx
Cradle Court
Slowing down
while in tissue-thin Cancer, Astraea “starry night” (1945) will spend December exhausted, and when loose lips can sink ships; the virgin goddess is prone to being a born-again enabler, gallivanting out-and-about showing off a nickel-smooth cape encrusted with iron, and sporting magnesium silicates.
On trajectories
to perform retrogrades for 2023, the three Fates will have managed the feat of aligning ±30 and ±60 degress apart from one another, to perform an uncommon rite which is set to culminate as autumn peaks. Klotho
“spinner” (1868) turns retrograde, September to November, from head-in-cloud Aries back to under-water Pisces, performing meritless multi-tasking.
Lachesis
“measurer” (1872) turns retrograde while in Aries, from breezy September to gusty December, prone to endless mind games.
Atropos “cutter” (1888) retrogrades in crowded Taurus, bountiful October to barren December, in an indecisiveness state.
The Fates are now asteroid goddesses, who once enjoyed existence as conjoined sisters, present at every birth, in order to take measure then determine the time of death.
Spending half
the year in retrograde, scrambled February to sunny-side-up July,
Haumea
(2004) leaves the den of Scorpio for the sun-room of Libra. If well-aspected, secrets don’t spill; if not, the hawai‘ian childbirth goddess is probably the one to walk away.
The creation
god of the tongva people of present-day California ratchets up a tension-filled year, during a retrograde in inflexible Capricorn, from showery May to sunny September. If well-aspected, uni-minds encounter glitches; if not, irresponsibles will twist and shout. Quaoar (2002) has returned as a minor planet, orbiting the Sun some seven trillion miles away, wearing shiny red rock stick-ons, shivering and undergoing radioactive decay, coughing up carbon monoxide and musty ejects of bonded nitrogen and methane.
Sila
“breath of life” and Nunam “mother” having been mates since forever, share now a life as a binary being from the Kuiper Belt, and is set to retrograde twice, both times in noble Leo.
Sila-Nunam
(1977) spends gloomy January to cloudy May stalled over a seemingly done deal. The second episode happens during December, when the inuit immortals have to put up with too-many cooks in the kitchen.
The
“personification of heaven” will retrograde twice during 2023, both times in resolute Taurus. The first time had begun back in 2022, and will end January 21. The second starts on August 29 and goes past the end of the year, as the greco-roman sky god diverts the traditional holiday season onto another path. Between these two retrogrades, Uranus “sky” (1781) is probably focused on draining the swamp.
This
polynesian fertility god will retrograde while in balanced Libra, from larva February to buggy June, setting up a safety-vs-liberty conundrum. If well-aspected, Makemake (2005) achieves eloquence in a debate, maybe nothing more; if not, the immortal responsible for molding Easter Island and populating the ocean again relies on texting it in, under a guise of passivity, inside a faintly sparkling charcoal cloak that is bigger than Pluto, patchworked with frozen nitrogen rings and veined in crimson-stained methane, where blades of iced ethane sprout.
Imagination
can run rancid when
Neptune
(1846) retrogrades in kitchen-sink Pisces, June 30 to December 5. If well-aspected, the roman god of the sea hides well behind crocodile tears; if not, ripples of cruelty everywhich way he turns. The liquid liege had chosen the date of his resurfacing back into history by sending a dream, in 1846, to a sleeping mathematician. The woke mortal returned to the New Berlin Observatory, entered a particular set of coordinates, then located the classical planet, sitting on his trident throne.
The roman
goddess of salt water will spend retrograde in finger-on-the-trigger Aries, ice cream August to hot chocolate December, an occasion when Salacia
(2004) presents as both a beauty and a beast.
Born
on the bottom of the Arctic Ocean, the premier inuit sea goddess gets to retrograde twice in 2023. First in penned-in Taurus, during January and February. The second will be in inconstant Gemini, firepit October to bonfire December, when Sedna
(2003) taints a season for a reason with unspecifiable solemnity.
The premier
hindu marine god is set for two retrogrades, both while in confident Leo. The first one, January to April, spent in a disquieting state; the second, in December, when everything grates. Varuna “dome” (2000) is a complex creation of at least five mature civilization: components, more or less, to mother India. Among other offices, he “who knows the pathway of the wind” is also the aboriginal vedic sky god, tasked forevermore to patrol the cosmos rooting out malfeasance.
From
butterfly May to bee-stung July,
Bacchus
(1977) will be in retrograde, backsliding from bottled-up Capricorn to uncorked Sagittarius. The roman wine god now has a hellenic double, Dionysus (1984), retrograding also, breakfast March to luncheon May, from cocktail Libra to quinine Virgo. Since these two events happen back to back, expect during springtime to act as host to the double-asteroid god of the grape.
The mother
to Persephone begins a retrograde on March 3, in leafy Libra, discouraged by the look of her farm. By the time Ceres (1801) exits retrograde, on May 5, while in seedling Virgo, the roman grain goddess should have come to the realization that one or more whole seasons have gone missing.
Dziewanna
(2010) finds her self at a crossroads when turning retrograde, in implaccable Scorpio, damp March to dry August. If well-aspected, the slavic deity of deep wilderness could, for sure, abstain from a rustic hunt; if not, the earth goddess gives it her all.
When
Huya
(2000) retrogrades in Sagittarius, showering April to sunshine August, the venezuelan rain god can semi-intentionally flip, and what was once thought of as over and done with returns for a second life.
Storm clouds
can persist for Iris (1847) as she retrogrades in stygian Scorpio, from scented April to pungent June, a time when the rainbow goddess is eclipsed.
The roman
thunder god will retrograde in four-square Taurus, September 4 to December 31. If well-aspected, Jupiter (1610) wards off a selfish streak; if not, the firstgen titan of rain becomes callous. Ancient astronomers paid close attention to the future god-king of Olympus, and made a note of his repeatable twelve-year re-appearance at the same position in heaven. Babylonian sky watchers then positioned the god of lightning as a marker of Time, and fanned out to pinpoint the constellations, describe the zodiac, begin the map for a hypothetical heaven.
Šiwa
“life” (1874) turns retrograde in driven Aries, September to November, a balancing act for the slovenian fertility goddess, who might have preferred a less-goaded pace, uneasily navigating a fraught period while clad in a space-weathered bodysuit the color of ox blood, woven of organic-rich silicates, stitched using tholen thread and lined with kerogen.
When
the iroquois agricultural god retrogrades in porous Pisces, limber July to old-man December, it does not bode well for promising shoots planted earlier, during spring.
Teharonhiawako (2001) has come back now as a binary being, and lives in the Kuiper Belt with his brother, and secondary, Sawiskera (2001). These alpha-and-omega gods of maize orbit each other as they go around the Sun.
This
elemental love god with a contested origin is to retrograde, leaving splishy Pisces for splashy Aquarius, sun-lotion June to sunburn September, nursing the death of an innocence.
Eros (1898) is also the first male god to emerge from the Asteroid Belt, irregularly shaped and showing off a 20-ton body, wearing aluminum speedos sewn with gold thread and fastened by platinum snaps. The god of desire’s skin is pockmarked by rocks spewed out by several volcanic eruptions, one of which is from a billion years ago.
Hera
(1868) will retrograde, from day-dreamer Aquarius to bread-winner Capricorn, social July to lazy September. If well-aspected, the greco marriage goddess tells no lies and keeps all secrets; if not, an enemy made during this period can last a long time. Hera has a roman twin one hundred asteroids away, Juno (1804).
All value-driven
decision making can turn into a money sink for Saturn (1610), during his retrograde, beginning on June 17 in murky Pisces. As he takes leave of retrograde on November 3, the firstgen titan of the harvest could have inadvertently been an ally, even worse, during the course of some jolting action, which had been deployed haphazardly. By the time Saturn exits retrograde, the “bringer of old age” would have forgotten all about this season of treason, obliged to preen on in photographs as a classical planet with many moons, and rings which continually rain down organic building blocks in packaging.
The principal
roman love goddess turns retrograde in easy-peasy Leo, July 23 to September 3,
when she seejs fifty ways to cause a separation. If well-aspected, the lover of Mars, Bacchus, Mercury, Neptune, etc., can end a quarrel; if not, the “changer of hearts” might start one.
Venus
(2000 BC) orbits the Sun naked, showing off a body made of solid rock, bulging with veins swollen by inert argon.
The classical planet is undergoing continuous exfoliation, losing her precious atoms of nitrogen, each one encased in a package of sulfuric acid, floating across a carbon dioxide atmosphere and turning into drifting gauze. “Foam born” has a hellenic half who is also an asteroid goddess: Aphrodite (1935) turns retrograde in party-hardy Sagittarius, from late April to August, when she might catch a social disease.
A pledge
to stick with home-cooking might crumble, when
Vesta
(1807) turns retrograde, from November 3 to December 31, leaving full plate Cancer for lunch bag Gemini. If well-aspected, the revered roman goddess of the hearth makes do with take-out; if not, nothing tastes right.
The aboriginal
deity of dreamtime retrogrades twice, both times in versatile Gemini; January to February, and October to December. These wintry weeks might tease out the needy and sentimental sides of Altjira (2001), periods when his eyelids can’t close.
The daughter
to Earth and Pontos is poised to retrograde in transformative Scorpio, white-capped March to dead-calm August, adrift and with no navigation. If well-aspected, Ceto (2003) resorts to the tried and true, resorts to her role as a marine matriarch; if not, the mother of select greco creatures is deemed responsible for past actions.
The chthonic
goddess of the dark retrogrades twice, first in curious Gemini, January to March, feeling a bit irked. The second time, November to December, while in shellacked Cancer, Chaos (1998) is a bit dismayed. Irked (cabin fever?) and dismayed (food insecurity?) is the “dark majesty and mystery of creation incarnate” because retrogrades can fuck with her well-oiled mental health: “a shapeless, unwrought mass of disconnected elements all heaped together in anarchic disarray”.
Circe
(1855) retrogrades from discerning Capricorn in May to a daring Sagittarius in August. If well-aspected, the “mistress of black magic” only has to go through low-grade self esteem issues; if not, flayed and exposed to the elements.
In the first
of two retrogrades, taking place during January, Eris
“abhorred” (2003) has managed to smother a combustible Aries, leaving behind an acrid smell.
The second also takes place in Aries, from summer to year’s end, when the greek chaos goddess finds herself surrounded by greenhorns and becomes frustrated. Eris orbits the Sun some 8.8 trillion miles (14.28 trillion kilometers) away, sporting a battlesuit of white-white scales made of iced-methane, which condense down to panes, all the while shedding miasmas. Under this mantle the daughter to Nyx “night” might also be a turbulent internal sea.
It is perhaps
fortunate that this chinese marine god gets to retrograde while in compassionate Pisces, lazy July to laid-back November, because then Gonggong
(2007) might become prone to doubt. His goal, his sole existence, is to nudge Earth’s axis off kilter, and cause destruction etc. The immortal sea snake with a human head has returned as a sphere some 764 miles (1,230 kilometers) in diameter, gliding inside the Scattered Disc, sheathed in a gleaming snake
skin stained red by ancient tholins, shooting flinty irradiated bullets of iced methane.
A brief
window of time comes during January and February, for Hekate (1868) to autopsy a spent domestic drama. The infernal goddess of witchcraft sifts through evidence, from an aloof Cancer and a cold Gemini.
This
remote viking love goddess – turned sexual-migrant – has returned as an easy-going finnish god of the netherworld, who will go retrograde while in possessive Taurus, from one-blanket September to two-blankets December. If well-aspected,
intimacy is lost but resumes as chivalry; if not, seemingly shy
Lempo
(1999) won’t postpone his revenge.
The
“original witch” goes retrograde, in methodical Virgo, from dormant February into fecund April. If well-aspected, the “first woman” wears well her veil of old cobwebs, on a quest to redeem the past; if not, Lilith
(1927) is caught red-handed, peddling snake oil.
Preparedness
and training come to naught as the roman god of war enters 2023 trailing backwards in gosh-darn Gemini.
Mars
(1534-bce) is to exit retrograde just eleven days later, then will spend the rest of the year ginning up the troops for another go.
Zhulong
(2014) is a chinese solar deity retrograding while in intense Scorpio, wet March to warm July. No doubt about it, the giant fire-breathing dragon is on a quest to ground little devils everywhere.
The
“pure god of truth” will retrograde in 2023 down five zodiac signs, from flowered April to fruited July. If well-aspected, the god of foreigners swallows his pride, asks for assistance; if not, the “destroyer” is soon enough kicked out of queen-size Libra, over to futon Virgo, to waterbed Cancer, finally to sleeping-bag Gemini. Apollo “shining” (1932) is the leader of the apollo family of asteroids: a posse of Earth-crossing missiles, each with a probability of crash landing one day.
The
“wisest and justest of all the centaurs” turns retrograde in austere Aries, from July 23 to December 26, which is when Chiron (1977) finds he’s stepped on and cracked a mirror. If well-aspected, the hybrid human-horse is given a window of opportunity to try and re-assemble the looking-glass; if not, the hellenic “teacher of medicine, herbs, music, archery, hunting, and gymnastics” stares into the cracked pieces. The oracular-centaur is the first of his kind: a collective of asteroid bodies with comet tails, each on a chaotic orbit that is influenced tidally by Neptune. One of them, Pholus (1992), is set to retrograde while in conservative Capricorn, May to September, a season when restlessness and exhausting ineptness tugs at the centaur tasked with guarding his tribe’s wine supply.
Getting
ready to retrograde, from a molten Aries in September to a solidified Taurus during December, Hephaistos (1978) at last found some time to sit down, reread the rush work order for armaments only his forge could devise. The far-flung god of firesmiths then will realize that he had read wrong. If well-aspected, the god of craftsmanship has wasted both time and money; if not, only time will be wasted.
The greco
goddess of youth begins the year in the midst of a retrograde in toothy Leo; this period will end in March, in shy Cancer. If well-aspected, Hebe (1847) attains an insight that comes with a price; if not, the asteroid wife to asteroid Heracles spends wintertime resurrecting her storms of youth.
Stalled
in a hangry Aries, from ripened August to cured November, Heracles (1991) finds ample excuses to put on weight. If well-aspected, this son of Thebes can cram, as is his wont, and still leave room for a side of diplomacy; if not, rituals of rending and gnawing two or more times a day.
Challenged to
retrograde in friendster Aquarius, from warm June to hot September, a facemask should become a no-brainer for
Hygiea
“good health” (1849); because. Meanwhile, her sister, Panacea
“curative” (1980), gets to spend retrograde, from open-window September to fireside December, as nurse to a feverish Aries, dispensing (one can so hope) bitter-tasting teaspoons of revivifying sanity.
The first
of four retrogrades in 2023 by complicated creation Mercury
(265-bc) is over with in the first seventeen days of 2023, spent in an unyielding Capricorn.
The second
retrograde happens from April 21 to May 14 in a no-room-for-error Taurus.
The third
time, August 23 to September 14 in rosy-cheeked Virgo, is when the messenger of the gods comes to the realization he is overtaxed, and therefore cannot recognize himself in the mirror.
During the last
time, December 13 to 31, from by-the-book Capricorn to prophetic Sagittarius, the “conductor of souls”
delineates a widening maw.
+
There is a hellenic heap of Mercury, come back now as an apollo asteroid, who is to retrograde down four zodiac signs, from in–door February to picnic-time July. If well-aspected, Hermes (1937) does not hit anything, anyone; if not, the god who celebrates a birthday every fourth day of the month is helpless, pingponging from zany Aqua–rius, in-the-way Cap–ri–corn, jumpy Sagittarius to don’t-tread-on-me Scorpio.
+ Link to see if Mercury is currently retrograde.
The greco-roman
goddess of wisdom has many names, oversees many other concerns besides being the smartest one in Olympus. Then the carbons started showing up, first Pallas, then Athene, and Minerva, joining up to become a complicated triple-asteroid goddess – a being capable of multiple, and simultaneous, retrogrades. The first of the lovely-haired goddess to appear was Athene (1917), a hellenic shard which then vanished and was never seen again. The second piece, a roman-sized rock named Minerva (1867), is primed for two retrogrades; the first during January in caring Cancer. The second, from October to December in a stubborn Taurus, pinned to a place of dead roads. The third component is also the largest fragment, Pallas (1802), set to retrograde in a refined Cancer, January and February, during a time of needless neglect.
The muse
of music is distraught by the current war dance. Terpsichore (1864) is to retrograde in polite Pisces, from harvest dance August to down-time September. If well-aspected, she suffers no fools; if not, the mother to the Sirens might be tasked to compose for conflict.
The dead
wife to Orpheus will retrograde, from rainbow-hued Sagittarius to hellish Scorpio, from warm May until suntan-lotion July. If well-aspected,
Eurydike (1862) only copes with a bout of unease; if not, she who once had tred on a snake, died, went to the underworld, re-enacts “princess and the pea” several times.
Roman gods
Mors “death” and Somnus “sleep” share an existence now as a binary being, orbiting in the Kuiper Belt and beholden to the gravitational guidance of Pluto. Mors-Somnus (2007) is set to turn retrograde in tension-fraught Taurus, windy October to stormy December, unable to decide on whether to hold a sword or wield a pen.
This
infernal immortal
will retrograde in exacting Virgo, from hardly wet January to dry May. If well-aspected, the “punisher of brok–en oaths” might backslide – and not fling out so many edicts left and right; if not, Orcus (2004) gets mouthy, pontificates, probably ends up having to pay the piper. The proto-roman god of hell had re-surfaced into recent history, oblique in a mantle of faint tholins, encrusted with methaned rubble dusty with drops of ammonia, and miles-long falls shooting jets of iced crystalline water into the sky.
Preferring
dark suits and all of 8 miles (13 kilometers) wide, Osiris (1960) is an ambassador from the house of Egypt to the Asteroid Belt. The portmanteau desert deity is to retrograde, frostbite February to maybe May, down cloudless Libra to a dappled Virgo. Meanwhile, the intentions of the egyptian god of resurrection during a retrograde remains unknown, locked in silence.
The greco
queen of the underworld turns retrograde in virtual Virgo, February to April, interrupting a quest for better days. If well-aspected,
Persephone
(1895) only has to retrace lost months; if not, the daughter to agricultural goddess Ceres and rain god Jupiter is adrift, because rootless. These days, the wife to Pluto is also the primary segment of a triple-space goddess. There is roman ruin Proserpina (1853), who lives just 373 asteroids away. And antique Kore (2003), orbiting Jupiter as one of his many moons.
The
roman king of the underworld retrogrades, May 1 to October 10, from the level playing field of Aquarius to the rocky ruts of Capricorn. For the rest of the year, a denatured dance has been on-going. If well-aspected, Pluto (1930) gets partnered with manufactured consent; if not, the “god with no name” takes on all partners.
The
sire to the four directional winds turns retrograde, cloudy March to clear-sky July, while in tri-formed Scorpio. If well-aspected, Typhon (2002) stays curled up inside a malevolent mouth; if not, the “serpent supreme” cannot wait to greet spring equinox with a syringe of nastiness. Typhon is paired with a moon-mate, the snake Echidna (2006); they are now a binary being in the Scattered Disc.
“Our last arrow! We’ll fire it to stop the getaway car – then end our careers as Green Arrow and Speedy!” “Yes, with our secret identities exposed, we’re uselss against criminals!”
Immortal Dane Whitman brought his time-tested skills as the Black Knight to the early days of filmmaking, creating a phantasmagorical chariot race for Fritz Lang’s 1929 silent scifi Woman in the Moon. These days, he still does stunts for Hollywood.
Although he owns a Legion flight ring from the 30th century, when not in a hurry to get somewhere Michael Jon Carter prefers to drive. He comes from the future, sheathed in a super-suit boasting futuristic tech, but the feel of rubber on road gives Booster Gold a jolt unlike any other.
Little is known about this shapeshifting foe of Batman Beyond. Her fluid body allows Inque to seep into and out of her liquid limo.
Jimon Kwan’s car is parked behind the world’s first eco-fire station. She’s there to give a demonstration – in her capacity as Silver of China Force – on her mutant ability to drain heat and then convert it into light.
Before he went to war as the Fighting American, Nelson Flagg’s father gave him a 1915 Ford Speedster – it later crashed and burned. The original is also shown, fresh off the assembly line.
It takes two of Jamie Madrox, the Multiple Man, to control this wide jeep because it’s sure-as-hell gonna be a bumpy ride.
The grandfather and great-grandfather of James Jesse were from the world of vaudeville, which is why their spawn continued their forays into self-powered locomotion and built a portable air-cooled engine, hooked up to an accelerator switch, an engine cut-off switch, and single-horsepowered roller skates, and later tormenting the Flash w/ weaponized toys as the Trickster.
An inside-out refrigerated truck driven by Leonard Snart, commiting crime as Captain Cold using an experimental gun based on stolen science and shooting absolute-zero blasts that solidify as ice.
H.G. Wells jumped at the chance to take a spin in an experimental contraption that his American friend and fellow futurist, the head of Stark Industries, brought over to London. The author of The Invisible Man is photographed sitting in the back seat as the self-driving car crosses Tower Bridge.
This tasty USSR-era Trabant was on display in a Belgrade art gallery when Harlequin, the “merry menace”, happened by, took one look, and promptly brought it home.
This rarely seen Bugatti Type 57 Atlantic belongs to Arthur Curry (Aquaman) and is nicknamed the Drop because he almost never has need for it.
Even super-heroes driving sports cars have to stop and pay toll, as the Thing heckles Johnny Storm’s tossing chops. “Let’s get going, Torchy! Hey! Ya missed the coin bucket!” “But I threw it okay! It wasn’t my fault! The bucket moved!”
After punching Hitler in his debut, the city of Manhattan awarded Steve Rogers w/ a spanking red 1937 Ford, and he promptly took off to drive cross-country. Then he made up for lost years w/ a Corvette. These days, his ride is a 1960 Chevrolet, always parked on the street; repeatedly stolen then returned because it was a badge of honor to leave the keys in the ignition.
Before his life was imbued w/ Bahdnisian powers and he took control of the human thunderbolt, Johnny Thunder was in Europe, having won a music scholarship while in high school. With some of his prize money he bought a second-hand Minor Morris convertible.
Bentley Wittman, narrowly escaping the Human Torch, is chauffeured back to his mansion on Long Island and his life as the Wizard. “Fire is a powerful weapon! But I possess the greatest weapon of all – the world’s greatest brain!”
No way is the mysterious Dolphin a landlubber, so whenever adventures take her ashore she always rides in her 1962 Shark roadster, w/ its aquarium pod and other aquatic must-haves allowing her safe passage.
Retiring as the Sorcerer Supreme, Steven Strange’s mentor, the Ancient One, master of mystic arts, drove home to Kamar-Taj in Tibet, crossing rivers w/ the aid of local villagers, ever grateful for deliverance from the evil Kaluu.
Suddenly, the hovering air-car is jolted by a fantastic wave of force … and that is when Nick Fury sees an awesome figure who stands waiting to confront the dynamic director of SHIELD …
A surreal episode of the Knights of the Galaxy is just starting. “For King Arthur and Britain.” (Mystery In Space #8 (June-July 1952))
To have a bit of fun while Superman is recovering from their latest encounter, Mr Mxyzptlk, the imp from elsewhere, uses fifth-dimensional science to rearrange this car and proceeds to demonstrate how to operate it.
Vic Sage blends into his camouflage car, ephemeral behind a pseudoderm mask, during the time he joined Blue Beetle, Captain Atom and Nightshade as the Question in the original Sentinels of Justice.
When insect-female hybrid Queen Zazzala of planet Korll returned for a rematch w/ the Justic League, she went first to the Citroen museum in Aulnay-sous-Bois near Paris, and took possession of an experimental 1940s light-weight hovercar which she used as a beehive-nest. Badly damaged and abandoned, it still oscillates when touched, awaiting new instructions from the Queen Bee.
The nomadic Roy Harper, leaving behind his Speedy persona, took to the road in an oft-vandalized therefore oft-disguised van. When he landed in England, the former battling bowman persuaded Banksy to let him take the famous SWAT van for an extended spin as Arsenal.
Random page from the mid-century portfolio of billionaire industrialist Tony Stark: 1958 Nucleon, Norman Bel Geddes prototype, 1949 Tabot Iago, 1959 Firebird.
Sue Richards fetched Agatha Harkness, her boy Franklin’s new governess, in a custom-built Hispano-Suiza, previously owned by an heir to the Dubonnet fortune. It was a regal ride befitting the lead-witch of New Salem, who has brought along a mystical rocking seahorse as a baby present.
An early electric car prototype from the morbid mind of Oswald Hubert Loomis, aka the Prankster.
When her mom asked if her new car was safe, Jennifer Walters sent this blurry pix of her unusual find while in college. It proved ideal for camping, and that was when she got into an accident, needed a blood transfusion from her cousin Bruce, and began a new existence as the ravishing rough She-Hulk.
In 1923, Tony Stark’s dad visited the Fiat Factory in Turin and openly admired their roof treatment. When what later became the Avengers Mansion was built, he put a race-car track on the roof.
Besides lending his occult skills to combat evil, Giovanni Zatara performs as a stage magician, and is the reason he drives a 1959 Lincoln, which has a sturdy trunk to fit all his stage props.
Tony Stark awarded his executive assistant Pepper Potts w/ this pink 1954 Ford in recognition for her aid in their first caper together, battling “The Mad Pharaoh”.
Kent Allard’s elusive 1957 Lincoln Premiere, which he drove as the Shadow, caught on a U.S. postage stamp.
Blackhawk’s 1949 Hudson, later owned by Jack Kerouac when he was doing a lot of driving. Restored and no longer driven.
Carter Hall was so smitten when Hal Jordan drove up in a Phantom Corsair that the test-pilot promptly gifted this one-off automobile to the extraterrestrial detective, known to Earth as the Hawkman, for a planet-warming present.
Although a haunted horse accompanies his cursed existence, the ghost of highwayman James Craddock also owns a train, breaking the law as the Gentleman Ghost, and traveling the world w/ out a home.
Long after the owner of Gotham Broadcasting Co. Alan Welling Scott, was visited by the Green Flame of Life (“Three times shall I flame green! First to bring death! Second to bring life! Third to bring power!”) and fought evildoers as the Green Lantern, he would continue to tool around in his trusted 1939 Chevrolet clunker.
Prof. X’s band of super-human teenagers are driven to the airport in a specially-built Rolls Royce w/ dark-tinted windows. “Boy! It musta taken a heap of green stamps to buy a chariot like this!” “No joking, please! Concentrate on your mission! Review your powers! Our foe is certain to be highly dangerous!”
Brainiac 5 retooled an antique and created the “frisbee”, armed w/ repel-rays, as a combat suit for Chuck Taine, the Bouncing Boy.
Hooking up to his Plymouth Barracuda’s batteries to recharge his pyro-costume, Garfield Lynns unleashes a color crimewave based on rainbow rays as the Human Firefly.
Ted Grant’s ride when he’s fighting crime as Wildcat, immortalized on a U.S. postage stamp.
Brainiac 5 constructed this bi-cycle for Luornu Durgo Taine (Duo Damsel) to augment her super-power.
With wealth to spare, socialite Wesley Dodds had a taste for danger and cars. Which is why he could imperil his 1935 Bugatti Aerolithe by taking it out to strike terror among wrongdoers as the Sandman, declaring “There is no land beyond the law, where tyrants rule w/ unshakable power! It’s but a dream from which the evil wake to face their fate … their terrifying hour!”
A gift from Brainiac 5, this experimental bike allowed Lana Lang to apply 30th-century technology to her 20th-century life. While fiddling around w/ the teleportation button during a ride in the countryside, she managed to trade bodies w/ all the insects in a nearby field, becoming for a spell the Insect Queen.
Socialite Kathy Kane, in her first appearance as a masked crimefighter, leading the Batmobile into the fray on her Bat Bike. “Hurry, Batman – the Batwoman is beating us on this mission!” (Detective Comics #233 July 1956)
The keys to this experimental car from Stark Industries were handed to Matt Murdock, giving added comfort to his forays as Daredevil into existential evil.
Samuel Joseph Scudder drove this solar laboratory on wheels in his first appearance in Flash #105, “The Master of Mirrors”.
This innocuous van offers storage for Rory Regan’s collection of mystical rags, allowing Ragman, the tatterdemalion of justice, to find respite after a jolt of electricity ran into his body and which by all accounts hasn’t exited yet.
The second Shield, Lancelot Strong, drove a 1970 AMC Rebel for a short period until its color scheme gave him away to every bad actor on every city block.
Model kit from Aurora for Britt Reid’s special-built 1965 Chrysler, featuring a 413 engine. Bruce Lee as Kato drove the Black Beauty to fight crime w/ the Green Hornet, ever ready to deploy a pair of hood-mounted machine guns, a flame thrower, and stinger missles.
Sowing feline felony in Gotham City w/ her Cat Mobile, Selina Kyle leads a lawless life as the Catwoman.
Winslow Schott, the terrible Toyman, had his fully functional dwarf Cadillac surrounded by indignant townfolk hoping to save Doll Man and Doll Girl from a threat they were not yet aware of.
The seldom driven Joker Mobile is deployed to track down a double-crossing mobster. “The whole job – the safe-cracking, the getaway - all bear the stamp of Dink Devers! The cops think he died – but he’s right here in town, at the Blake Hotel! Ha-HA-HA!” “Gosh, Joker – I bet you’re right!”
A proficiency in auto mechanics as well as miniaturization landed Ray Palmer a plum position as a team member rehabilitating a Ferrari 375 Plus. Palmer kept tinkering some more on the racing car, giving it a capability of being shrunk, and constitutes the first step in his quest, as the Atom, to jump into, then out of, the quantum realm at will.
While parked on a cloud, the Ghost Patrol are actively bored ... “Ho Hum! Another quiet day. Nothing doing on our sector of earth lately.” “Strange! This is usually the most troublesome of the planets!” “What’s that ahead? Why – it’s a horse!”
King T’challa of Wakanda’s elusive jeep parked in San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood, where he was on a secret mission as the Black Panther.
This “fire” truck, designed by Stark Industries, later patented by General Motors as the Futurliner, was used to house JIm Hammond, an android spawned in the mind of Prof. Phineas T. Horton. This lab-on wheels is remotely controlled, insulated inside to withstand the intense fire generated by the golden age Human Torch.
Immortal Dane Whitman brought his time-tested skills as the 
Although he owns a Legion flight ring from the 30th century, when not in a hurry to get somewhere Michael Jon Carter prefers to drive. He comes from the future, sheathed in a super-suit boasting futuristic tech, but the feel of rubber on road gives 
Little is known about this shapeshifting foe of Batman Beyond. Her fluid body allows 
Jimon Kwan’s car is parked behind the world’s first eco-fire station. She’s there to give a demonstration – in her capacity as 
Before he went to war as the 
It takes two of Jamie Madrox, the 
The grandfather and great-grandfather of James Jesse were from the world of vaudeville, which is why their spawn continued their forays into self-powered locomotion and built a portable air-cooled engine, hooked up to an accelerator switch, an engine cut-off switch, and single-horsepowered roller skates, and later tormenting the Flash w/ weaponized toys as the 
An inside-out refrigerated truck driven by Leonard Snart, commiting crime as 
H.G. Wells jumped at the chance to take a spin in an experimental contraption that his American friend and fellow futurist, the head of 
This tasty USSR-era Trabant was on display in a Belgrade art gallery when 
This rarely seen Bugatti Type 57 Atlantic belongs to Arthur Curry (Aquaman) and is nicknamed the Drop because he almost never has need for it.
Even super-heroes driving sports cars have to stop and pay toll, as the Thing heckles 
After punching Hitler in his debut, the city of Manhattan awarded Steve Rogers w/ a spanking red 1937 Ford, and he promptly took off to drive cross-country. Then 
Before his life was imbued w/ Bahdnisian powers and he took control of the human thunderbolt, 
Bentley Wittman, narrowly escaping the Human Torch, is chauffeured back to his mansion on Long Island and his life as the 
No way is the mysterious 
Suddenly, the hovering air-car is jolted by a fantastic wave of force … and that is when 
A surreal episode of the 
To have a bit of fun while Superman is recovering from their latest encounter, Mr Mxyzptlk, the imp from elsewhere, uses 
Vic Sage blends into his camouflage car, ephemeral behind a pseudoderm mask, during the time he joined Blue Beetle, Captain Atom and Nightshade as the 
When insect-female hybrid Queen Zazzala of planet Korll returned for a rematch w/ the Justic League, she went first to the Citroen museum in Aulnay-sous-Bois near Paris, and took possession of an experimental 1940s light-weight hovercar which she used as a beehive-nest. Badly damaged and abandoned, it still oscillates when touched, awaiting new instructions from the 
The nomadic Roy Harper, leaving behind his Speedy persona, took to the road in an oft-vandalized therefore oft-disguised van. When he landed in England, the former battling bowman persuaded Banksy to let him take the famous SWAT van for an extended spin as 
Random page from the mid-century portfolio of billionaire industrialist 
Sue Richards fetched Agatha Harkness, her boy Franklin’s new governess, in a custom-built Hispano-Suiza, previously owned by an heir to the Dubonnet fortune. It was a regal ride befitting the 
An early electric car prototype from the morbid mind of Oswald Hubert Loomis, aka the 
When her mom asked if her new car was safe, Jennifer Walters sent this blurry pix of her unusual find while in college. It proved ideal for camping, and that was when she got into an accident, needed a blood transfusion from her cousin Bruce, and began a new existence as the ravishing rough 
In 1923, Tony Stark’s dad visited the Fiat Factory in Turin and openly admired their roof treatment. When what later became the 
Besides lending his occult skills to combat evil, 
Tony Stark awarded his executive assistant 
Kent Allard’s elusive 1957 Lincoln Premiere, which he drove as the 
Carter Hall was so smitten when Hal Jordan drove up in a Phantom Corsair that the test-pilot promptly gifted this one-off automobile to the extraterrestrial detective, known to Earth as the 
An experimental floating fortress from the malevolent minds at 
Although a haunted horse accompanies his cursed existence, the ghost of highwayman James Craddock also owns a train, breaking the law as the 
Long after the owner of Gotham Broadcasting Co. Alan Welling Scott, was visited by the Green Flame of Life (“Three times shall I flame green! First to bring death! Second to bring life! Third to bring power!”) and fought evildoers as the 
Brainiac 5 retooled an antique and created the “frisbee”, armed w/ repel-rays, as a combat suit for Chuck Taine, the 
Hooking up to his Plymouth Barracuda’s batteries to recharge his pyro-costume, Garfield Lynns unleashes a color crimewave based on rainbow rays as the 
Ted Grant’s ride when he’s fighting crime as 
Brainiac 5 constructed this bi-cycle for Luornu Durgo Taine (
With wealth to spare, socialite Wesley Dodds had a taste for danger and cars. Which is why he could imperil his 1935 Bugatti Aerolithe by taking it out to strike terror among wrongdoers as the 
A gift from Brainiac 5, this experimental bike allowed Lana Lang to apply 30th-century technology to her 20th-century life. While fiddling around w/ the teleportation button during a ride in the countryside, she managed to trade bodies w/ all the insects in a nearby field, becoming for a spell the 
Socialite Kathy Kane, in her first appearance as a masked crimefighter, leading the Batmobile into the fray on her Bat Bike. “Hurry, Batman – the 
The keys to this experimental car from Stark Industries were handed to Matt Murdock, giving added comfort to his forays as 
Samuel Joseph Scudder drove this solar laboratory on wheels in his first appearance in Flash #105, “
This innocuous van offers storage for Rory Regan’s collection of mystical rags, allowing 
Model kit from Aurora for Britt Reid’s special-built 1965 Chrysler, featuring a 413 engine. Bruce Lee as Kato drove the Black Beauty to fight crime w/ the 
Sowing feline felony in Gotham City w/ her Cat Mobile, Selina Kyle leads a lawless life as the 
Winslow Schott, the terrible 
The seldom driven Joker Mobile is deployed to track down a double-crossing mobster. “The whole job – the safe-cracking, the getaway - all bear the stamp of Dink Devers! The cops think he died – but he’s right here in town, at the Blake Hotel! Ha-HA-HA!” “Gosh, 
A proficiency in auto mechanics as well as miniaturization landed Ray Palmer a plum position as a team member rehabilitating a Ferrari 375 Plus. Palmer kept tinkering some more on the racing car, giving it a capability of being shrunk, and constitutes the first step in his quest, as the 
While parked on a cloud, the 
King T’challa of Wakanda’s elusive jeep parked in San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood, where he was on a secret mission as the 
This “fire” truck, designed by Stark Industries, later patented by General Motors as the Futurliner, was used to house JIm Hammond, an android spawned in the mind of Prof. Phineas T. Horton. This lab-on wheels is remotely controlled, insulated inside to withstand the intense fire generated by the golden age