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maxbenign

@maxbenign.bsky.social

316 followers 455 following 2.5K posts

I like disco, death metal, and wildflowers, for starters. He/they. MKE.

Posts Replies Media

maxbenign @maxbenign.bsky.social · 17h

Played Today: Crystal

Stacked CD playlist in green grass and ground-ivy, resting in front of a flowerbed blooming with white petunias, fuchsia begonia, and purple-rayed, yellow centered New England asters.

In order played, bottom to top:
Dawn Upshaw with Gilbert Kalish VOICES OF LIGHT (MUSIC OF MESSIÆN, DEBUSSY, GOLIJOV & FAURÉ)
Crystal Voices SOUNDS OF LIGHT
Pascal Rogé CRYSTAL DREAM: ERIK SATIE & TAKASHI YOSHIMATSU PIANO WORKS
Chet Baker/Philip Catherine/ Jean-Louis Rassinfosse CRYSTAL BELLS
Sun Ra CRYSTAL SPEARS
Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O. CRYSTAL RAINBOW PYRAMID UNDER THE STARS
Steven Halpern CRYSTAL SUITE
The Marty Krystall Spatial Quartet SEEING UNKNOWN COLORS

maxbenign @maxbenign.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Played Today (Monday): Are you afraid in the wee small hours?

CD playlist leaning spine up against wooden window sill.

In order played, bottom to top:

Mary Halvorson BELLADONNA
Paul Bley/Sonny Greenwich OUTSIDE IN
Andy Bey BALLADS, BLUES & BEY
Lee Konitz & Axis String Quartet PLAY FRENCH IMPRESSIONIST MUSIC FROM THE 20TH CENTURY
Frank Sinatra IN THE WEE SMALL HOURS
Garrison Fewell ARE YOU AFRAID OF THE DARK
Charles Tyler Ensemble S/T
Gianluigi Trovesi AROUND SMALL FAIRY TALES
Frank Sinatra SINGS FOR ONLY THE LONELY

maxbenign @maxbenign.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Another knife? Oh no I shouldn't...unless?

Giovanni Bellini (1430 - 1516) - Saint Peter Martyr. Detail.

Oil Painting of a bearded man with curly hair and partial tonsure in brown monk's robes. He's looking up and to the side with a placid or perhaps weary expression. A thin gold circle halos his head, which is split bloodlessly by a heavy curved knife with an ornate hilt. A stiletto pierces his heart.

maxbenign @maxbenign.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Played Today: Switched on, blues on, bees on

Stacked CD playlist on beige carpet, with many taller stacks of CDs surrounding it. This is the attic and music library, in a perpetual state of 'waiting to be refiled."

In order played, bottom to top:

Julian Marshall ( Melanie Pappenheim, Sophie Harris, School House 6 Ensemble, et al.) OUT OF THE DARKNESS
BACH ARTILLERIE
Wendy Carlos SWITCHED ON BACH
Clara Rockmore THE ART OF THE THEREMIN
Stefan Hussong PLAYS JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH
Yoshida Tatsuya x Mishiba Satoshi MOONLIGHT SONATA
The Modern Jazz Quartet BLUES ON BACH
David Sylvian DEAD BEES ON A CAKE

maxbenign @maxbenign.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

wire cage trap with spring-plate door

vintage Blue Öyster Cult trucker cap, dark blue with white front panel printed with band name in black sans serif font above a blue rocket-jet streaking straight across the panel. it looks cool as hell in the most basic and straight to the point possible way.

maxbenign @maxbenign.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Me: [sputtering] I'm not just some "type of guy." You can't just pick one thing and say it defines me. My feet:

Black sock with "Sock Guy" in yellow script across the toes.

Black sock with "unamused" emoji stitched on the ankle

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maxbenign @maxbenign.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Woims?! POIPLE Woims!?

Illustration of a purple worm from the Dungeons & Dragons 1E Monster Manual. A huge segmented worm with circular mouth filled with teeth, faceted eyes, and a wicked stinger on its tail, doing battle with two doomed fighters. The drawing is colored in purple and red markers.

maxbenign @maxbenign.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Sky Mystery.

Photo of cumulus and other clouds from below. The cloud is etched in bright white by early afternoon sun, shadowed below, and the sky is a deep, deep blue in contrast. A single power line bisects the image, from lower left to upper right.

maxbenign @maxbenign.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Jones Island Mysteries: Salt Pyramid; Orb with train and sky

Industrial landscape with front end loader, mound of white salt, pyramid of gray salt, and cement silo. Enormous blue sky and cumulus clouds overhead.

Enormous blue sky with a few scraps of cloud. Puffy cumulus in the bottom third of the photo. Along the very bottom edge of the photo a few distant trees, and closer the tops of freight train cars. At the left of the image is the cropped, cement gray curve of a large domed building, a salt barn.

maxbenign @maxbenign.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Played Today: OHM, Du, Three #cdfriday

Stacked CD playlist sitting in dirt in a garden bed. White begonias in the background, flowers with broad green leaves and white blossoms with four petals and yellow centers.

In order played, bottom to top:

The Necks THREE
James Blackshaw THE GLASS BEAD GAME
Emily Portman THE GLAMOURY
Sonic Youth 1985
Boards of Canada INFERNO
Various OHM: THE EARLY GURUS OF ELECTRONIC MUSIC 1948-1980 (Discs 1 & 2)
Lucien Durosoir (Sequenza 9.3, Quatuor Diotima, Trio Hoboken, Quintette Aquilon, et al) LE BALCON

maxbenign @maxbenign.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Played Today: Necks Flesh Flash Hands (Necks) Mouth Open Eye C

Stacked CD playlist in afternoon sun, resting on a book featuring cover image of a nude woman kneeling on one knee amongst reeds, pouring water from a golden vessel in each on her hands (La Stelle / The Star from an antique tarot deck).

In order played, bottom to top:
The Necks CHEMIST
Kip Hanrahan ALL ROADS ARE MADE OF THE FLESH
Jon Hassell/Farafina FLASH OF THE SPIRIT
Mimeo/John Tillbury THE HANDS OF CARAVAGGIO
The Necks TRAVEL
Larsen (featuring Little Annie) COOL CRUEL MOUTH
The Necks OPEN
Robyn Hitchcock EYE
Terry Riley (The Styrenes) IN C

maxbenign @maxbenign.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Bonus: Dungeon of the Eye bleed-through.

Cover of manila folder used as a work surface for drawing and shading a dungeon map with sharpies. Ink bleed through has created a dense crosshatching of overlapping black lines covering most of the surface, with distinct passages and room shapes in a jumble at the edges. A couple of spots of blue sharpie as well.

maxbenign @maxbenign.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

The Eye and The Tear.

TTRPG style dungeon map drawn freehand in black sharpie on white wrapping tissue. Detail of the dungeon's namesake, a large eye-shaped room with twin stairways leading down to a large pool forming the iris, with an adjacent but non-connecting room shaped like a teardrop. The passage to The Eye features an enormous trapdoor pit and scything blades (labeled such on the map).

maxbenign @maxbenign.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

The Tomb Without Door. A Crooked Hall and a Crooked Wall; Irukandji.

TTRPG style dungeon map drawn freehand in black sharpie on white wrapping tissue, featuring a vault completely enclosed by stone, with no connecting passages. The vault is bisected by a portcullis, with a half-ciruclar teleportal to one side, and four internment niches against the walls beyond the portcullis.

TTRPG style dungeon map drawn freehand in black sharpie on white wrapping tissue, featuring a corridor half-blocked by rubble, four very large square chambers leading to a crooked corridor and a final chamber partly divided with a crooked wall, and a round room with a spiral stair exited by four curling, tentacular corridors.

maxbenign @maxbenign.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

The Hall of Arches. Cyclopean Door.

TTRPG style dungeon map drawn freehand in black sharpie on white wrapping tissue, featuring a passage with many archways, the last of which opens to a room filled with red fog.

TTRPG style dungeon map drawn freehand in black sharpie on white wrapping tissue, featuring various curling and odd-angled passageways and rooms, and a secret door leading to a hallway with a single, gigantic door (labeled 'cyclopean door, leads.... ?' on the map).

maxbenign @maxbenign.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

The Wading Way; The Spanner. Spanner, Pit, and Escherways detail.

TTRPG style dungeon map drawn freehand in black sharpie on white wrapping tissue. Features include corridor with stairs leading down to and up out of a pool of water, a very large room shaped like the head of a wrench with a door to a single corridor exiting the center, a suite of rooms with cells, guardrooms, adjoining a large pillared hall leading to a long pit surrounded by tiered benches, with two huge trapdoor pits in front of the exit doors.

Closer view of the spanner and pit rooms described in previous image, as well as a pair of curving stairways leading to the same level they start from.

maxbenign @maxbenign.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

The Pit; Escherways; The Broken Ladder; Tail of the Imp.

TTRPG style dungeon map drawn freehand in black sharpie on white wrapping tissue. Features include part of a passage with antigravity river (labeled 'perpetual river' on the map), a suite of rooms with cells, guardrooms, adjoining a large pillared hall leading to a long pit surrounded by tiered benches, a pair of curving stairways leading the the same level they start on, cul de sac of corridors that looks like rungs of a ladder, zig-zagging passage ending in a pointed triangular room.

maxbenign @maxbenign.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Antigravity River; Incunabulorium; The Hall of Arches.

TTRPG style dungeon map drawn freehand in black sharpie on white wrapping tissue. Features include a passage with antigravity river (labeled 'perpetual river' on the map), warren of open, interconnecting square and rectangular rooms enclosed by a curving passage that widens in thorn-like shapes, hall of many archways.

maxbenign @maxbenign.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Entrance; Ziggurats; Demiplanar Cubicles; The Scorpion's Guts.

TTRPG style dungeon map drawn freehand in black sharpie on white wrapping tissue. Features include corridor with a dozen false doors, red marble ziggurat, jade and topaz ziggurat, block of small square room at an odd angle to the adjoining chamber, passage with antigravity river, tangled corridors with rooms shaped like a scorpion's mandibles and sting.

maxbenign @maxbenign.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Finished! Dungeon of the Eye

TTRPG style dungeon map in progress. Drawn freehand, black sharpie on white wrapping tissue. Features include corridor with a dozen false doors, passage with antigravity river, room shaped like a scorpion's sting winding caves, gauntlet of secret doors and traps, impossible stairways, and the dungeon's namesake, a large eye-shaped room with a large pool for an iris, with an adjacent but non-connecting room shaped like a teardrop.

maxbenign @maxbenign.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Water cannot wet them Sun will not burn them

Screen-clipped text from Wikipedia page about Halobates, the genus of marine water skaters (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halobates):

[Header] Open research questions

Apart from understanding how exactly Halobates sp. came to be the only genus of insects to live on the open ocean – in spite of insects making up the majority of all animals – those animals offer unique research questions that could have applications in materials sciences.

Incapable of diving or taking shade, Halobates must protect themselves from their incessant exposure to solar radiation. Although it is known that the cuticle of Halobates sericeus reflects more than 99.9998 percent of the UV radiation at the 280 nm wavelength, the physical properties that confer this protection are still unknown.

Snip also includes photo of a water skater with caption "A live specimen of the pelagic species Halobates sericeus"

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maxbenign @maxbenign.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Cool bug alert: Water Striders

Somewhat abstract looking photograph of a water in a creek, silver with dark blotches and squiggles. Three water striders stand on the surface of the water in a ring of ripples, the trace of one's darting motion.

maxbenign @maxbenign.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Finally came back and finished this one! Just have to fill in the backgrounds.

TTRPG style dungeon map drawn freehand in black sharpie on white wrapping tissue. Features include corridor with a dozen false doors, warren of small square rooms set at an odd angle to a larger room, secret doors, etc. I've begun to fill in the background with black sharpie to set off the map.

maxbenign @maxbenign.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Day of the Magus

A great blue heron, a large long-necked, long-legged, sharp-beaked wading bird, stands in white water at the base of a spillway dam.

maxbenign @maxbenign.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Played Today: Fishtown-Piedmont Transatlantic Express

Stacked CD playlist on black and white plaid blanket, mantel with indiscernable artwork and objects in the background.

In order played, bottom to top:

Rick Deitrick RIVER SUN RIVER MOON
Jack Rose KENSINGTON BLUES
Various THE ROUGH GUIDE TO EAST COAST BLUES
Various EAST COAST BLUES 1926-1935
Glenn Jones BARBECUE BOB IN FISHTOWN
ANNE BRIGGS
Bert Jansch ROSEMARY LANE
Pierre Bensusan INTUITE
Various WAYFARING STRANGERS: GUITAR SOLI
Boubacar Traore MACIRÉ

000

maxbenign @maxbenign.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

W. S. Merwin, "Noah's Raven"

Clipped text reads:

Why should I have returned?
My knowledge would not fit into theirs.
I found untouched the desert of the unknown,
Big enough for my feet. It is my home.
It is always beyond them. The future
Splits the present with the echo of my voice.
Hoarse with fulfillment, I never made promises.

000

maxbenign @maxbenign.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Played Today: Another Dancing Day #cdfriday

Stacked CD playlist next to weathered black planter. A straggly petunia stalk with a single fuchsia flower stretches over. Backlit by afternoon sun through trees.

In order played, bottom to top:
Various WHEN THE DAY IS DONE: THE ORCHESTRATIONS OF ROBERT KIRBY
Vashti Bunyan JUST ANOTHER DIAMOND DAY
Shirley Collins THE SWEET PRIMEROSES
June Tabor AT THE WOOD'S HEART
Richard Dawkins THE RUBY CORD
John McGuire DOUBLE STRING TRIOS
Philip Glass DANCEPIECES
Various SUPER DISCO: ORIGINAL DISCO & SOUL FROM HARLEM'S P&P RECORDS

maxbenign @maxbenign.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Played Today: Subliminal String Fish Disco Aura

Stacked CD playlist resting against the screen of a window open to a perfect late summer day. Branches and greenery of Eastern white outside the window.

In order played, bottom to top:

Various SUBLIMINAL SKULL PALACE, VOL. 4 (Utech Records)
The Church PRIEST=AURA
Various WHEN THE DAY IS DONE: THE ORCHESTRATIONS OF ROBERT KIRBY
Charles Ives (The Lydian String Quartet) THE STRING QUARTETS
Various SUPER DISCO: ORIGINAL DISCO & SOUL FROM HARLEM'S P&P RECORDS
Steve Hillage FISH RISING

maxbenign @maxbenign.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

The Recipe of Saint John of Parma Revealed

Saint John the Evangelist on Patmos by Hieronymus Bosch

A man with long, wavy reddish-blonde hair in pale pink robes pauses, pen in hand, while writing in a book on his lap. He looks skyward at a vision of Mary. At his foot stands an eagle, on a hill beyond him is a glowing blue angel, and behind him lurks a hooded, bespectacled demon with dove's wings and lizard feet.

(Full description and commentary here (English and German): https://search.smb.museum/object/obj-869697

maxbenign @maxbenign.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Cone-shaped halo

It's me, a guy in a black cycling jersey and sunglasses, standing in front of some tall grass and trees, wearing a bright orange and white safety cone fitted over my bike helmet. One hand is raised with first and middle finger together, ring and little finger held by my thumb in a semblance of the gesture meaning "Speaker" from saints' iconography. I don't know about that, but the ring of orange around my helmet does look a li'l' like a halo.

maxbenign @maxbenign.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Stick check:

Slightly Dutch angle shot from dog walker's POV of a black and white Boston terrier in a red collar with a stick in his mouth. We're walking down a sidewalk casting looong morning shadows, framed by green lawns.

maxbenign @maxbenign.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Played Today: Yazoo Juice

Stacked CD playlist in living room lit by dusty afternoon sunlight, resting on a stack of books.

In order played, bottom to top:
Bill Evans Trio EVERYBODY DIGS BILL EVANS
Art Tatum THE COMPLETE PABLO GROUP MASTERPIECES (Disc One)
Various MAMA DON'T ALLOW NO EASY RIDERS HERE
Various STRING BANDS (1926-1929)
Various THE ROOTS OF RAP
Various MEMPHIS JAMBOREE 1927-1936
Various RUCKUS JUICE & CHITLINS VOL. 1
Various RUCKUS JUICE & CHITLINS VOL. 2
The Dave Brubeck Quartet TIME FURTHER OUT

maxbenign @maxbenign.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Played Today (8.31.26): Like a real reptile

Stacked CD playlist on cutting board with a dark red apple, beading with condensation, resting on top.

In order played, bottom to top:

King Sunny Ade THE RETURN OF THE JUJU KING
Miles Davis ON THE CORNER
Mindflayer EXPEDITION TO THE HAIRIER PEAKS
Scorn ELLIPSIS
The Church STARFISH
Various THE PSYCHEDELIC JOURNEY (Disc One, "Trippin' Across the U.S.A.")
Zappa/Beefheart/Mothers BONGO FURY
Protomartyr ULTIMATE SUCCESS TODAY
Yo La Tengo SUMMER SUN

maxbenign @maxbenign.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

works for all genres

B&W concert photo of woman death metal singer with dark hair, a long-sleeve metal T, shorts, and hose. She's holding the mic with both hands and rocking back on one foot. Another woman playing bass I think next to her. The singer is Clarissa. The band is called Castrator. (Photo: Dennis Coleman)

maxbenign @maxbenign.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Deeply unsettling photo of office space. Three off-white, featureless walls, one brick accent wall. Fluorescent lights in a drop ceiling. Gleaming wood floors. Odd geometry, distorted by the camera angle....? The room is utterly, cosmically empty except for a bare wooden desk and a black leather chair. At the extreme right edge of the photo, a closed door.

"Wait here."

maxbenign @maxbenign.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Played Today (Yesterday): Earth * Sun * Moon Every day is #cdfriday

Stacked CD playlist sitting on the rusty ring of an unused fire pit. In the background is a round cement paver resting on its end, a pale grey moon rising in front of a wall of green cedar.

In order played, bottom to top:

The Necks AETHER
Earth EARTH 2: SPECIAL LOW FREQUENCY VERSION
Paul Winter SUN SINGER
Ghost Bath MOONLOVER
Love And Rockets EARTH * SUN * MOON
Moon Wiring Club STRIPED PAINT FOR THE LAST POST
SUNN O)))
Michael Garrison AN EARTH-STAR TRILOGY
Neptunian Maximalism LA SACRE DU SOLEIL INVAINCU (disc 1: AT DUSK; disc 3: AT DAWN)

maxbenign @maxbenign.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Played Today (Monday): Ria devruc ni wob nia ra It's never too late for #cdfriday

Stacked CD playlist on grey-green ottoman, in front of a white-painted folding table covered in houseplants. Green and purple leaves. Photo is saturated and high contrast.

In order played, bottom to top:

Harold Budd/Brian Eno THE PEARL
Enya WATERMARK
Chinmaya Dunster BUDDHA MOON
Tim Hecker HAUNT ME
Laurie Spiegel THE EXPANDING UNIVERSE
R. Carlos Nakai ISLAND OF BOWS
Dr Jeffrey Thompson ALPHA-THETA
Terry Riley A RAINBOW IN CURVED AIR
Growing THE SKY'S RUN INTO THE SEA

maxbenign @maxbenign.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

Making the nature scene: Chungus puffballs. (Root River Parkway)

Several giant puffball mushrooms growing in the shady edge of a thicket. Large, lumpy white spheres, with smooth but cratered surfaces.

Giant puffball mushroom described in previous image, with hand for scale. The puffball is larger across than my spread fingered hand.

maxbenign @maxbenign.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

Making the nature scene: Big! Oak! Leaf! (UW Arboretum, Grady Tract)

Very large green leaf with 5 pointed lobes, with a few holes and uneven edges from insect feeding, growing on a sapling at the side of a dirt doubletrack trail. Black oak, or possibly northern red oak.

Very large green leaf described in previous image, with hand for scale.

maxbenign @maxbenign.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Played Today (Yesterday): Green Red Blue #cdfriday

CD playlist leaning spine up against the red-brown blocks of a firepit on a concrete patio. To the right, grass grows up through a seam in the concrete. Photo tinted slightly greenish.

In order played, bottom to top:

Brian Eno ANOTHER GREEN WORLD
Magazine REAL LIFE
Brian Eno/John Cale WRONG WAY UP
Arcadia SO RED THE ROSE
Blue Öyster Cult TYRANNY & MUTATION
Joni Mitchell BLUE
King Crimson RED
Brian Eno BEFORE AND AFTER SCIENCE
Circle (Ex-Falcon) LEVIATAN
Steve Hillage GREEN

maxbenign @maxbenign.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Hey Milwaukee folks, anyone know what happened to the unauthorized trail that used to run west through the rail/WE Energies corridor from the big curve on Canal St just past 32nd?

Google Maps screen clip of the location described in post.

Google streetview of location described in post: a singletrack trail winds through a scrub thicket an a slope between rail corridor with freight train and power company service road with pylons and poles. Seen from above, on the 35th Street Viaduct.

maxbenign @maxbenign.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

Played Today: Eno/Circle #cdfriday

Stacked CD playlist resting titled on dried sticks, surrounded by stretching variegated euonymous vine with green and white leaves.

In order played, bottom to top:

Brian Eno HERE COME THE WARM JETS
Circle MANNER
Circle SUNRISE
Brian Eno TAKING TIGER MOUNTAIN (BY STRATEGY)
Bauhaus THE SKY'S GONE OUT
Purson THE CIRCLE AND THE BLUE DOOR
Circle SOUNDCHECK

The CD covers in a row on a pebbled cement patio. Left to right:

Brian Eno TAKING TIGER MOUNTAIN (BY STRATEGY)
Hand-colored (?) photo of Eno pulling back long yellow hair, framed by two rows of smaller hand-colored photos of Eno, each photo unique. Brownish background with some red in the central photo.

Circle SOUNDCHECK
B&W photo of a crystal skull

Bauhaus THE SKY'S GONE OUT
B&W painting of an eclipse

maxbenign @maxbenign.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

Played Today (Monday): Metacosmo

CD playlist on a green lawn leaning spine up against sprawling cosmo stems. Several fuchsia, 8-petaled flowers with brilliant yellow centers and some old flower heads gone to seed surround the CDs.

In order played, bottom to top:

Anouar Brahem THIMAR
Sokratis Sinopoulos Quartet METAMODAL
Maleem Mahmoud Ghania with Pharoah Sanders THE TRANCE OF SEVEN COLORS
Ivo Perelman SOCCER LAND
SHAKTI, WITH JOHN MCLAUGHLIN
Mulatu Astatqé ETHIOPIQUES 4
Pierre Dørge & New Jungle Orchestra BRIKAMA
Randy Weston AFRICAN COOKBOOK

maxbenign @maxbenign.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

Played Today (Thursday): Duck Stab Acid Bath, and other Juxtapositions Saturday morning #cdfriday

Stacked CD playlist on wooden table in front of wall painted sea green and white.

In order played, bottom to top:

Chris Smither ALL ABOUT THE BONES
June Tabor and the Oyster Band FREEDOM AND RAIN
Striborg GHOSTWOODLANDS
Mei Yamane TA SO GA RE
The Resdients DUCK STAB
Acid Bath WHEN THE KITE STRING POPS
Frederic Rzewski (Ralph van Raat, piano) THE PEOPLE UNITED WILL NEVER BE DEFEATED
Bolt Thrower WARMASTER
Bolt Thrower THE IVTH CRUSADE
Chris Smither UP ON THE LOWDOWN

maxbenign @maxbenign.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

Played Today (Monday): Neon Jets Jones Jaco Jesu Sill Hillage Saturday morning #cdfriday

Stacked CD playlist on wooden table in front of sea blue wall and window with shade drawn.

In order played, bottom to top:

Don Slepian REFLECTIONS
Pulse Emitter OPPRESSIVE NATURE
System 7 777 (*actually the US version of their self-titled album)
Brian Eno HERE COME THE WARM JETS
The Notwist NEON GOLDEN
Jesu CONQUEROR
Jaco Pastorius WORD OF MOUTH
Grace Jones ISLAND LIFE
Judee Sill HEART FOOD

maxbenign @maxbenign.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Sometimes the timeline is in conversation with itself

Screen cap of two skeets

🎃 Seasonal Creep 👻
@windingdot.bsky.social

Therapist: Mr. Ohio can’t hurt you, he’s not real

Mr. Ohio:

[Photo of a museum or fair exhibit (?) featuring an illustrated map of Ohio and an anthropomorphized black and white drawing of a smarmy and slightly leering state of Ohio with long skinny arms and a cane, drawn as if leaning louchely against the red wall.]

Tate Collection
@tate.bsky.social

Gary Hume, Funny Girl, 1998

[image of painting of a woman's face made up of only a few patches of color on an off-white background: gold eyes, pink lips, and a pale peach-beige that could be hair, or a hand holding a cheek, which creates the shape of the woman's face. (detailed description here: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/hume-funny-girl-p78685)]

The uncanny faces of the leering Ohio and the painting seem to rhyme with each other, both in general oddness and in the shape of their lips.

maxbenign @maxbenign.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

At the Sculpture Garden, everything is sculpture Future Ruin

A "wave" style bike rack with peeling black paint, nearly overgrown by wildflowers.

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maxbenign @maxbenign.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

At the Sculpture Garden, everything is sculpture Treefalls

Deadfall blocks a mowed grass path under an April blue sky and clouds. A few tall spruce and bare trees in the background. The fallen tree's trunk, branches, and shadows form a shape like a shattered star.

Fallen live spruce tree, with the trunk in the foreground, and an arc of branches forming a spidery half wheel beyond.

maxbenign @maxbenign.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

At the Sculpture Garden, everything is sculpture Beech (after Dali)

Photograph of American Beech tree. The trunk has a face formed by a bark "eye" and a small hollow from a fallen limb that looks like an open mouth. Two large limbs grow to the left as if horns. A large, spreading limb growing to the right has been propped by two wooden posts with cradles on their tops, evoking Salvador Dali's SLEEP.

maxbenign @maxbenign.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

Played Today (Yesterday): BOC BÖC BOC BÖC BIPPP TALK TALK TALK BOC #cdfriday

Stacked CD playlist resting at an angle against the screen of an open window. Blue spruce, steep shingled roof, and orange-gray summer twilight out the window.

In order played, bottom to top:

Pauline Anna-Strom TRANS-MILLENIA MUSIC
Boards of Canada THE CAMPFIRE HEADPHASE
Blue Öyster Cult THE REVÖLUTION BY NIGHT
Boards of Canada GEOGADDI
Blue Öyster Cult FIRE OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN
Various BIPPP (FRENCH SYNTH WAVE 1979-1985)
Talking Heads REMAIN IN LIGHT
Talk Talk IT'S MY LIFE
Boards of Canada TOMORROW'S HARVEST