iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Mike Westphal @mfwestphal.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Seeing you on Bluesky is something good that happened, and a weird coincidence! I’m doing some re-shelving and just yesterday I pulled these guys out and realized it had been a while since we’d seen a post from you.

Two books side-by-side, BLACK BOLT #5 (Saladin Ahmed, Christian Ward, Frazer Irving) and ABBOTT (Saladin Ahmed, Sami Kivelä, Jason Wordie)

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Mike Westphal @mfwestphal.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Took some looking, but the one at the Hull-Oakes Oaks lumberyard down the road from my uncle’s house near Bellfountain, Oregon looks like it’s still there

Aerial view from Apple iPhone map app showing a rusted dome set back in the trees with conveyor belts leading into it at the lower edge of the photo and a pond with logs and debris floating in it labeled “Hull-Oakes Log Pond” in the upper half of the photo

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Mike Westphal @mfwestphal.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

At SF MOMA the other day, finally saw my first original Tanguy in the wild, the amazing Arrières-pensées (Second Thoughts) (1939). In awe. Back at home I couldn’t resist pulling out some of Richard Powers’ Tanguy-est covers for comparison.

A happy-looking blond-ish older guy in a black shirt, Ray-ban glasses, and a beard (me) posing next to a framed original painting by Yves Tanguy hung on a dark green wall. The painting depicts colorful surreal blob things on a strange desert landscape composed of horizontal layers of pinks, grays and maybe umbers

Six vintage science fiction paperbacks displayed on a black and white Mondrian-esque duvet: NO BOUNDARIES by Henry Kuttner & C.L. Moore (yay!), TALES OF GOOSEFLESH AND LAUGHTER by John Wyndham, TOMORROW’S GIFT BY Edmund Cooper, NEW MAPS OF HELL by Kingsley Amis, PASSPORT TO ETERNITY by J.G. Ballard, and HELL’S PAVEMENT by Damon Knight, all incorporating very Tanguy-like surreal figures on very Tanguy-like pinkish grayish umberish desert landscapes

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Mike Westphal @mfwestphal.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

omg I actually thought of your photography when I came upon this scene in western Antelope Valley last year, I didn’t stick around to get more / better pictures, it was just a little bit too sketchy for me.

A circle of rocks in the desert under a cloudy sky, creosote bushes line a wash in the background, in the foreground, a standing stone with designs marked on it in white, and at the base, the partially skeletonized body of a male goat

Closeup of the teeth and horns of a partially skeletonized goat

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Mike Westphal @mfwestphal.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

And now my science world spills over into my science fiction world! Thrilled to see a talk on a cool California (previously) endangered species (they’re all cool). AND I just learned the significance of the foxes on the badge is that the island fox is the mascot for LAcon! Good work LAcon!

First slide of Keri Deatborn featuring a picture of a diminutive island fox with a radio collar on the left with coastal scrub and crashing ocean in the background, and on the right a text block: Friends of the Island Fox 501(c))3) nonprofit organization, island fox.org, “Working together to protect the island fix and its Channel Island home, keri@islandfix.org, admin@island.org

LAcon name badge showing spacesuited island foxes exploring a purple world under a starry sky with airborne jellyfish and crystalline outcrops

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Mike Westphal @mfwestphal.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Have been looking forward to this panel discussion

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Mike Westphal @mfwestphal.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

It’s cool when my science fiction world spills over into my science world. I just came across this great little story — in Nature, no less! by @kathryncramer.bsky.social that *nicely* presages the rise of Colossal Biosciences Inc. And, you can download the pdf here! www.academia.edu/127552940/Di...

The one-page story “Disextinction, Inc” with an illustration of a boy in wire-rimmed glasses superimposed over the face of (presumably) a Barbary lion

Cover of 11 May 2000 issue of the science journal Nature featuring the green bud of some plant on a black background, with some contents listed: “Flower-organ identity genes,” “CO2 solvents: green and greedy,” “Dark matter: Cosmic shear and Universe structure” and a small inset advertising “Nature insight: Biodiversity”

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Mike Westphal @mfwestphal.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

I have photographed the Great Saltair pavilion near Salt Lake City many times & in many ways, from varied distances & angles, usually in crisp focus, but this one that I snapped last night as we drove into a thunderstorm is the first one that triggers the sound of a demonic church organ in my mind

Fuzzy shot of the onion-shaped turrets of the Great Saltair pavilion with glowering storm clouds, bluish sky, and a pink glow of sunset above & beyond. You can kind of see mountains and trees also.

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Mike Westphal @mfwestphal.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

While navigating central Nevada yesterday I saw on my app strange concentric circles on Nellis AFB & that very night, from the top floor of a Salt Lake City Hilton, saw a Top Golf range for the first time in my life. GoogleAI says the Nellis rings are a bombing range but we all KNOW it’s alien golf

An aerial view of giant concentric rings in a desert lakebed in Nevada with a spray of ruined structures in the center and roads crisscrossing it

View from an upper story window of a golf driving range surrounded by giant white poles which suspend a net, an astroturf field dotted with giant embedded concentric rings covered with nets, and to the left a multi-tier curving building from whence in theory the golf balls fly. Beyond all of this we get a tiny glimpse of the salt flats and the grim desert mountains west of Salt Lake City.

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Mike Westphal @mfwestphal.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

@jwomack.bsky.social your reporter in the field transmitting what they’re selling for books these days at the UFO roadside attraction in beautiful Baker, California (hoped I might see a copy of FLYING SAUCERS *ARE* REAL! but alas). PS it was 116°F according to the World’s‘s Tallest Thermometer.

A diner resembling a flying saucer and statues of aliens holding up strange discs in the desert town of Baker, California

A mannikin of an alien with green skin and large eyes flashing a peace sign as it sits on a red bench in front of what appears to be the window of a spaceship in space, on its left are bookshelves with books for sale, primarily books about UFOs

Close-up for books for sale of alien and UFO themes in a strange futuristic bookcase

A second case of books for sale on alien, space & UFO themes plus coloring books and crayons in a futuristic bookcase

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Mike Westphal @mfwestphal.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

If you’re laid over at the San Francisco airport on your way to LA Con & you have the time, head to Terminal B & check out the SFO Museum’s WOMEN OF AFROFUTURISM exhibit! It’s awesome!!! (Full disclosure, books from the collection of yours truly are in the display) www.sfomuseum.org/exhibitions/...

Window case displaying portraits of Octavia Butler, Katherine Johnson, Nichelle Nichols as Lt. Uhura, and Mae Jamison as well as a vintage manual typewriter, a cool vintage red space helmet appliance, and a number of Afrofuturist books on purple circular platforms.

List of captions in display case including caption for portrait of Octavia Butler and captions for Aztec 600 typewriter, Wild Seed, and Parable of the Sower (the latter two from collection of MF Westphal).

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Mike Westphal @mfwestphal.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Always seeking the eldritch on my morning walks

We see a plant in a large blue ceramic pot in a suburban driveway, possibly some kind of cactus, presenting as writhing green tentacles complete with the illusion of a central eye

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Mike Westphal @mfwestphal.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

Chef’s kiss! Both of these covers live deep in my head, I have at least a couple copies of each, just to make sure they don’t go extinct. Here’s two other deep Powers I love a lot.

Cover of EXPEDITION TO EARTH by Arthur C. Clarke, Ballantine paperback, showing classic surrealist-derived in Richard Powers illustration of red blobby bio - mountain on abstract tan landscape (& other strange figures)

Back cover of EXPEDITION TO EARTH showing another blobby Mountain and more strange curvy abstract figures.

Cover of classic Ballantine edition of REACH FOR TOMORROW by Arthur C. Clarke, the famous “horizontal Powers” where the illustration, showing a strange blobby futuristic compound on a desert landscape inspired by Tanguy, is parallel to the long axis of the book.

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Mike Westphal @mfwestphal.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

At the Calder exhibit at SF MOMA & I’m awestruck

A Calder mobile of spindly black leaflike elements in an empty white space, and its shadow

A slender black curving stationary Calder mobile mounted on a simple white table in a white space that enhances its shadows

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Mike Westphal @mfwestphal.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

Good catch, thanks! Shared with my sibs, it’s a hit. We’ve all watched this scene ~ 1 billion times. Somehow, I always see something new. This time it’s that moment when Dorothy & the Witch make eye contact. Amazing editing. They obviously know each other but don’t know it, & look at D’s face, wtf.

In a scene from the Wizard of Oz, the green-skinned Wicked of the West, clothed all in black, sees Dorothy for the full-time. She’s posed in a half-crouch, holding her broom raied behind her like a weapon, her left-hand extended forward,staring at omething slightly off camera, a deep frown on her face. She is beautiful and terrifying.

In a scene from the Wizard of Oz, we see a closeup of Dorothy, with red lipstick and rich brown hair and pig tails tued with blue ribbons, reacting to her first sight of the Wicked Witch of the West. Her brows are arched, and her mouth is open in a silent scream, and she looks like she is terrified out of her wits.

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Mike Westphal @mfwestphal.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Cool, I’m on the Hill fairly often these days, here’s a picture of the owls I got last night!

A pair of Great Horned Owls are perched on the twisted branches of a eucalyptus tree with greenery and an out-of-focus bit of the San Francisco cityscape behind & below them.

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Mike Westphal @mfwestphal.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Cool!! Fun fact about WALK TO THE END OF THE WORLD: that’s the artist, Gene Szafran, glaring at you. Szafran mostly centered women on his book covers, but when he centered a (recognizable) man, it was more often than not a self-portrait.

An image of four paperback books on a gridded bedsheet. THE DU MAURIERS, by Daphne du Maurier, Avon edition, showing a man who looks like the artist Gene Szafran, holding a palette and painting a nude woman; WASP, by Eric Frank Russell, Bantam, showing a man who looks like Gene Szafran in some kind of space suit and what looks like a fighting stance in front of a circular, abstract design and a field of blue flowers characteristic of Szafran; THE DAY OF THE DRONES, by A.M. Lightner, Bantam, depicting an African woman in traditional garb, a bunch of bees, some flowers, the Big Ben clock tower, and a guy with an unbuttoned shirt who looks a lot like Gene Szafran; and THE MIND MASTERS # 3: THE DOOR by John F. Rossman, Signet, showing the head of a sultry man resembling Gene Szafran, a medical oscilloscope readout, a computer, Stonehenge, and a naked women being attacked by someone wielding a knife, all on a pink background.

A sepia photograph of the book illustrator Gene Szafran wearing a paisley shirt. He is a young white man with a full head of blonde or red hair and sideburns. His posing in front of a relief.

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Mike Westphal @mfwestphal.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

Speaking of Szafran, I thought of this while scrolling through your covers, do you have it?

The cover of the Bantam edition of BARON ORGAZ by Frank Lauria, “The sensational new occult novel that explores a savage trinity of evil - Satanism, sex and the sado-masochistic underground” and a painting depicting a skull, a mostly nude woman with long black hair, an apparent swastika in the background and four red candles.

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Mike Westphal @mfwestphal.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Taking the Women of Afrofuturism tour at the San Francisco Airport & words can’t describe how charmed I am to be walking around a major airport following a woman brandishing a picture of Octavia Butler

A smiling museum tour guide holds up a picture of Octavia Butler

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Mike Westphal @mfwestphal.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

Read @hntdove.bsky.social ‘s new novella OR EVEN EAGLE FLEW right out of the mailer, enjoyed every bit of it. Timely reminder of the price that so many paid to take down the Nazis.

The cover of OR EVEN EAGLE FLEW by Harry Turtledove featuring a striking black-and-white artist’s conception of Amelia Earhart piloting a World War II era Spitfire plane with two other planes flying in formation beyond her against the backdrop of a sky full of dramatic clouds.

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Mike Westphal @mfwestphal.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

Diesel is $6.66 at my local Chevron station. Probably doesn’t mean anything…

A photo of the front of a gas station pump sewing the price of diesel at $6.65 9/10

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Mike Westphal @mfwestphal.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

This hung on the wall above the big antique rolltop in the den all during my childhood. I keep it in a closet now. The imagery is burned deeply indeed into my psyche.

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Mike Westphal @mfwestphal.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

Men’s bathroom at SF MOMA is a killer installation

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Mike Westphal @mfwestphal.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

This gem just arrived. The discerning eye will see something familiar about the illustration, because it is, indeed, by Richard Powers, famed SF illustrator. A true relic of the 50’s that (I hope) held a place of honor on a shelf behind someone’s home bar, the Calder mobile spinning slowly above it.

A small Dell 1950’s paperback titled ”What, when, where and how to drink: the first complete book”listing these topics: Party Giving; Buyer’s Guide; Secrets of Mixing; Cooking with Wines. Over 250 recipes; 16 pages of photos. By Richard L. Williams and David Myers with Sherman Billingsly, Owen Brennan, James Hart, Bob Cobb, Toots Shor, Robert K. Christenberry. The illustration is a still life of a fanciful wine bottle and cocktail glass with what looks like an orange slice. The wine bottle looks like an idealized spaceship. 🚀 In the upper left corner: a forked blue banner with “First Edition 55.” in the upper right, a blue downpointing triangle, framing the price, 25 cents.

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Mike Westphal @mfwestphal.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

Driving with my son from Salt Lake City to his new home in Charlotte NC, stopped, by sheer dumb luck, in New Albany MS, birthplace of Wm Faulkner

A guy (me) poses in front of a colorful mural depicting a 1000x life size portrait of William Faulkner, alongside flowers on an open book, a deer, and a woolly mammoth. The mammoth is likely life sized

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Mike Westphal @mfwestphal.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

It’s not hard to find the modern Mansard roof in older neighborhoods in Salt Lake City, mostly on drab 70’s apartment and office buildings, but whoever built this thing really committed, chef’s kiss

Small brick house painted blue with carved wooden porch columns, maybe as old as Victorian era, with a tall flared Mansard roof complete with dormers

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Mike Westphal @mfwestphal.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

Best thing about that bridge are the four golden bears, two at either end. They look at you as you drive onto the bridge, and show their butts to you as you drive off

A statue of a golden bear stands behind a sign announcing that the viewer is crossing the Klamath River. Green conifers in background.

The rear end of a golden statue of a bear standing on a bridge abutment against a backdrop of misty green Pacific forest

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Mike Westphal @mfwestphal.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

Very stoked to come home & find FOUR EDGELAND WALKS by @christopherbrown.bsky.social in my mailbox!

A pamphlet titled A NATURAL HISTORY: FOUR EDGELAND WALKS, April 16-19 2026 features a stylized image of a pair of red heavy-rimmed glasses hooked through a black chainlink fence. What this photo does not convey is that the fence is embossed into the paper, a nice touch (literally).

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Mike Westphal @mfwestphal.bsky.social · 11/05/2026

That amazing cover is a variant of “L’oeil du silence” by Max Ernst and has been on at least one other notable book — Ballard’s THE CRYSTAL WORLD

Cover of first edition of THE CRYSTAL WORLD by JG Ballard showing a surreal landscape of greenish bluffs or outcrops with a figure in the foreground

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Mike Westphal @mfwestphal.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

Now I want to know more about this lapel pin he always wore.

A picture of Thomas Kinkade wearing a lapel pin

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Mike Westphal @mfwestphal.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

Pretty sure there’s a Dalek hiding in there

A tall barrel-shaped shrub festooned with orange flowers sits on the lawn of a suburban home

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Mike Westphal @mfwestphal.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

Just realized that THE MATRIX (1999) has been around longer as of today than THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939) had been when I first saw it

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Mike Westphal @mfwestphal.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

THIS ISLAND EARTH (1955) I recently had an epiphany where I realized that the Metalunans presented as highly evolved Mad Men and since then what this movie meant to me as a kid makes more sense to me now.

Exeter, a humanoid alien from the planet Metaluna, is pictured on the triangular screen of the interocitor. He sports a shock of white hair, an unnaturally high forehead, a snappy grey 50’s business suit, and an expression of superintelligent smugness.

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Mike Westphal @mfwestphal.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

It’s the season! This guy was hanging out by my front door last night!

An arboreal salamander peers into the camera at close range.

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Mike Westphal @mfwestphal.bsky.social · 01/02/2026

Scrutinizing this bullshit that the pedophile in chief posted yesterday. Recalling him watching with glee as our Capitol had its windows smashed, or ordering the East Wing to be razed without going through proper procedure. How can anybody believe this guy gives a rat’s ass about Federal buildings?

Text from a January 31st 2026 Truth Social post from the so-called president claiming “We will not allow our Courthouses, Federal Buildings, or anything else under our protection, to be damaged in any way, shape, or form.”

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Mike Westphal @mfwestphal.bsky.social · 05/01/2026

A holiday miracle! I’ve had the great good fortune to finally obtain the elusive Doubleday Anchor A205(alternate), THE GRAND MADEMOISELLE by Francis Steegmuller. Which, as it happens, is the only known collaboration between Andy Warhol and Edward Gorey.

Cover of THE GRAND MADEMOISELLE where a period portrait of a French noblewoman is surrounded by flowery lettering and decoration in black and white, overlain with splashes of hot pink.

Publication data page of THE GRAND MADRMOISELLE showing “Cover design by Andy Warhol” and “Typography by Edward Gorey.”

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Mike Westphal @mfwestphal.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

Margaret Hamilton was a great person and a great actor. I find myself frequently revisiting her performance in Oz when she’s asking for the ruby slippers back. She could be hamming it up as a cackling baddie, but with her eyes alone, she gives us this split second of vulnerability and need.