Well, I finally wrote a romance story… it’s in the following anthology and to read it, you might want to throw a few bucks at their kickstarter. www.kickstarter.com/projects/par...

Japan and all its wonderful fake nature. . . fakemountain.com

New story at Nature Futures!

Posted a little montage of wildvertising at LAX. . . fakemountain.com

I have a new piece up at McSWEENEY's! www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/peo...

Spent a few weeks hanging out in Sydney. . . more at fakemountain.com.

I spent a week a few weeks in New Zealand where I learned about a pernicious invasive species: Lord of the Rings Film Locations. More at fakemountain.com

In Zed Nelson’s photographs of zoos, aquariums, resorts, and other artificial settings, the natural world has been reproduced, reshuffled, and repackaged, sold to visitors in the form of spectacle.

posted some fake-nature pics (fakemountain.com) from my a week in Bali where I got to experience DREAM EARTH ALIVE FUTURE. . . or DEAF for short. . . Probably from the sound of all those motorbikes.

So my wife and I braved the lush plastic jungle and now I’m convinced. . . Rainforest Cafe is a portal to hell. fakemountain.com

Went to Kansas this weekend and took a lousy photo of a Pony Express Rider (little smudge on the right). . . not sure how he’s gonna get around that fence.

www.noemamag.com/how-to-build... Let's go!

Mark S Bailen’s short story “Bears Discover Time Travel” is free to read online for the next two weeks! ecotonemagazine.org/fiction/bear... @marksbailen.bsky.social

Here's a snotty little kid reading my picture book, Earf. Love when I get pics like this! BTW, Ingram is now letting folks buy direct, so you don't have to go through Amazon (cheaper too): shop.lightningsource.com/b/085?params...

In the Atocha train station in Madrid, we found the platform that leads to Jumanji.

Vertical garden at CaxiaForum in Madrid. What an amazing work of art, like a living tapestry.

After leaving Berlin we spent a few days in Madrid where I took a lousy photo of Guernica. This is a famous painting by Picasso with a long political history that delves into how the horrors of war are viewed by outsiders. Fascinating to see how people react to this painting today.

Bison at the Berlin Zoo. . . with odd-looking totem poles? And Pacific NW tribal art? Um. . . okay.

No nature for you. . .

Lousy photo of favorite exhibit at the Berlin Zoo, a wonderfully messy fake mountain atop which mountain goats skirted dangerously on the edges of little cliffs. The critters were very active and I watched them for a long time. If you look close at the photo, you can see 4-5 of em.

Bear discovers mini-monolith at the Berlin zoo. . .

The inside of the Empire of Cats at the Berlin Zoo had this modern concrete brutalist bunker feel, with spurious explosions of nature.

The fake sky at Charlottenburg Palace. Back in the day, the skies were much more intense, full of trumpeting cherubs, golden crowns, and epic battles. Our present-day skies need to up their game.

Tour guide at the Brandenburg Gate talks about military states, forced occupation, and damage that can occur from bombing campaigns. Luckily we don’t have to worry about these problems today.

Here’s a lousy photo of a small section of the Tempelhof, an old airfield turned into an over-900 acre park. These dudes were playing a massive game of four-square.

I love little hidden urban green spaces, the wilder the better. And #Berlin was full of these.

Another pic from #Berlin. . . Learned what you get after passing through Checkpoint Charlie. A Big Mac.

visited Berlin recently and learned what was behind the Berlin Wall. . . KFC!