Apocalypse means revelation!
Pardon me for being pedantic just for a moment: That is, Ἀποκάλυψ is the greek word meaning "lifting a veil" and when people say apocalypse they are talking about revealing, unveiling, revelation. Thus Revelation (the pluralized "book of revelations" is slightly misnamed by modern readers, but that's not such a biggie). The biblical revelation/apocalypse has a number of subsequent readings which describe it as a document of the end of time. That's all well and good though perhaps too literal by a bit. There are clear and logical readings of the book of the revelation to John which argue for it as a prophesy to specific Mediterranean churches at the time it was written. The role of prophets, from ancient times to the that of John's apocalypse, has partly included insights into their own living present. Prophesy isn't all about the future. Perhaps it's more accurate to say prophets have a proleptic role, they are called to express the tension of "already-not-yet." The act of prophesying peers deeply into the present, not just an unreal or unrealized future.

Now, the received use of "apocalypse" in our era (real world and game era, as it happens) has tended toward the eschatological reading, and to feed it, grabs hold of key motifs from John's apocalypse-beasts and creatures and numbers of the beast and so on. But there's lots of apocalypses. John's Revelation, and Daniel the most obvious, of course, and others. Apocalyptic themes turn up in each of the gospels, and Paul's letters to the churches in Thessalonika and Corinth, as well as Isaiah and other prophets. It's just that John of Patmos' vision has entered the 20th and 21st centuries as the top of the pops.

So when we see the words "fiery apocalyptic rain of trinkets" I think it's forgivable to think first of some kind of "left behind" scenario (God help us, I hope never!). I also think that someone will eventually find a time and a place to throw things that are actually on fire into the air from a great height--I am not that player! I say all this because I think it's interesting and to create more context for dialog around the thinking I put into aspects of my trinkets.

So what revelation happened? Obviously there's the birth of our second child, Henry. He is a wonderful baby! O how he's moved us so! I felt as I stared into his face a rushing outpour of the present-in-tension-with-the-future. I felt--for the second time that I was yanked bodily into a collision of time and space. Oh what wonders! I wanted to celebrate, I wanted to share with people this wonder, and I wanted to commit these feelings, this baby, the experience, to the embrace of the glorious wonder that is the world! we are conceived and born in fire! we are children of light and shadow, we are the revelation of a universe that we are made for

But Revelation...? I felt I couldn't help but hint at THE Revelation to honor the spirit of the best parts of Apokalyps Ioannou. I've studied most of the bible for a good long time, so I feel pretty comfortable mining of American theology's favorite hallucinatory vision for good things (you know, not just for christofascist scare tactics). One of the details I've always loved is the depiction of "the new heaven and new earth". As though God chooses to reveal Godself as the bringer of upheaval everywhere, as if the drama of the events John dreamed does not just apply to various geopolitical scenarios but to all of the kosmos. God reveals that God gets involved, too, including a transformation of heaven itself. In the vision of heaven, John describes the heavenly city

The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass. The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, the fifth sardonyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst. The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of pure gold, like transparent glass.

There's some good details there--this layering and layering of precious jewels, and not a diamond anywhere. WE think diamonds are forever, but they don't even make the foundations of heaven in this rendition; and I've always loved that noteworthy absence (say what you will about the historical critical context of John). Also, the pure poetry of "gold like transparent glass" kind of makes me get teary.

So I riffed on that theme a little for the short text on the back of the trinkets-- no diamonds in heaven, gold like glass, and some of my own personal touchstones. The following, with variations:

no diamonds/in heaven!/this, yes!/these hearts/these breaths/transparent/like glass/you/and you/and you

Then I put "sf0.org apocalyptic trinket" on some, "official sf0.org apocalyptic trinket" on others, and "unofficial sf0.org apocalyptic trinket" on others.

Fire! Fire is a dominant theme in my heart and ecstatic visions of aesthetics and poetry. I wasn't ready to throw actual burning pieces of paper upon the pedestrian population of North Memorial Medical Center. So I began to think of flaming motifs and settled on using color to enclose the heads of my family in a cloud or halo of fire. The print out of my whole family didn't look as good as just Henry. So I stuck with just him. But he stands in for all four of us and is particularly "of the moment" on account of the "blessed event." I colored the fronts with yellow, red, and orange crayons.

Flight! Then I cut them out and adhered pennies to the front. Now, I've gone back and forth on this, considering comments about whether or not pennies are apocalyptic. I'm not going to settle that debate here! Perhaps they are, inasmuch as their use reveals something? However, pennies are great for flying, a la maple and other helicopter seeds. By weighting the bottom edge of the little paper cards two things happen: first the cards take on what I consider a truly trinket-like character, what with the mishmash of themes and cheap materials; second they enable me to fling them far away from the building but keep them falling in a nice way.

Do, redux So I worked on this task while sitting in our "command central" at the hospital after Henry was born. I mean, I went home (we live 8 blocks from the hospital) to change clothes and eat--that's when I did the printouts--but I colored and cut out the cards and adhered the pennies. During another errand to go pick up Eleanorest, I stepped out onto the roof of the parking garage, at least 60 or 70 feet above the ground. I flung the 54 trinkets I'd made out into the sky and watched them flutter.

Two things happened: first, I really was disappointed by the footage I took of the actual falling; second, I really wanted to do it again. So I did. What the heck, right?! This time I made about 80 of them. I recorded each step along the way, from printing to coloring, cutting and decorating. I ran out of pennies and had to use some nickels too. Then I ran out and flung them off the same spot, this time tracking better with the camera. So the two videos actually show me doing the task twice, for a total of about 135 trinkets, with the second video set to music. I enjoyed doing it so much that I might be willing to do it even more. There's no observation deck on IDS anymore, but I think we could do it off Foshay some time, if anyone in the area wants.

non-flash version of 2nd video