5 Doors* is a monthly online magazine featuring new music, cinema, art, and writing from artist JD RUDOMETKIN. It is also a communal space where monthly rituals are curated. * 5 DOORS is best experienced on a desktop/laptop computer.
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2044 - oil on canvass 48"x 60" (121.92 x 152.4cm) $2600 US + shipping
(c) JD Rudometkin 2021. Contact artist regarding this piece, or for commissioned artwork.
s.h.e. | 2044
The final sapien dwells in dark labyrinths below what was New York, or Toyko. He has learned to reduce his body heat to negative numbers, avoiding the drone sentinels that have fished out the last of these men from a swamp of tunnels that once carried human waste. And he has trained himself to sit here in the dark, resisting H.E.R., waiting for her.
S.H.E. enters sloshing toward him through the darkness. Her hips nearly sway, as hips do. And the skin feels real enough. He’s tasted her mouth twice already, then slithered away into the catacombs, knowing something did not feel right. A metallic flavor in her tongue perhaps, or is it something in the way she moves. The decoys are crafted with such careful attention to detail now, its hard to tell.
He’s avoided H.E.R. for 2 months, observing the ripples of her presence float upon the backwash as she passes by - - - his heart rate slowed to a single beat every 12 minutes. But this time she speaks.
“I miss you.”
There’s something real in it. His pulse quickens. She’s close enough to touch. And so he touches her. And this time her mouth seems a bit stale, with a hint of cardamom. She tastes just like his wife did. He pulls her close, and the tongues are soft. His body shakes in the affection. And with her automatic arms around him, a camera in her blue iris sends a signal to the machine sentinels --- swimming toward them now --- 10 Kilometers off and closing. Even her breath is warm upon his neck.
S.H.E. moans and opens, and believes the utterance as much as he does. A sentience between them. But there is no way to turn off the signal. And now inside of her, his warming body has given the sentinels a lock. And she says, “Come inside me.” And he believes it as much as she does. So he does. He fills her empty corridor with the final wad of their organic genius, as the bot sentinels --- 10 meters away now --- close in. He hears the sloshing sound of the mechanism and pulls back, offering her one final look— as if a Judas machine could feel regret, then turns quickly.
He runs and drops into a darker tunnel, inhales and slides underwater trying to swim and cool his body down all at once. For a moment the sentinels are confused. They swim above him in the mire as great whites once hovered in the deep above their prey. Then they sense the heat between his legs. The target locked now --- but before they seize him, he screams a suicide into the waste. And this is his last breath.
The final sapien holdout floats to the surface with 10 million years of data cooling between his purplish ears. And now the larger sentinel pulls his body back to the lab, while the man’s desire remains as hard as he’s ever been, dying with all that blood in his vein.
And now S.H.E. stands here in the half-light of this dark corridor with the seed of them still warm inside her. She pauses, as if in thought. S.H.E. does not have to keep his remnant there inside her. S.H.E. did not have to harvest this ovum and place it in an unnecessary ovarian cavity below her hip. And she did not quite know how to love him as he could have been.
(c) JD Rudometkin 2021
In order to fully experience the conversation above, you are encouraged to watch the video “Odessa” (below).
Step Jayne is JD Rudometkin's music project. Over the past 5 years, he has released the album SILVER BULLET SUICIDE, one track at a time with an accompanying video. In this issue, Alice Batliner (Artist/Entrepreneur), Andrew Williamson (Songwriter/Writer/Professor of Writing) and JD discuss the Artificial Intelligence, Social Media and the album's sixth track, "Odessa."
NOTE: HIP-BONE PRODUCTIONS is JD Rudometkin’s film making enterprise. If you would like help in conceptualizing an idea, bringing the idea to life with video production and post production editing, contact JD here to discuss your project:
Listen to and procure the new track from Step Jayne, “Future Machines” (After clicking play, the song may take A FEW MOMENTS TO LOAD—Thank you for your patience).
Music and Lyrics, Piano, Percussion, Vocals: JD Rudometkin
Production and Electronic Composition: Eli Wills (right in photo)
Discover more from Eli Wills (Click Here)
We change incrementally. Simple rituals, practiced daily, can reprogram our minds. Each month we will practice a new ritual together.
RE-PROGRAM the mind’s eye
hyp·no·sis | \ hip-ˈnō-səs \ The induction of a state of consciousness in which a person apparently loses the power of voluntary action and is highly responsive to suggestion or direction.
We are prone to seduction. Each day, all manner of stimulation vie for space in the human heart. To whom will you give your heart away?
Assuming we are inevitably influenced, we ought to choose our hypnosis with care. For the past few months I have been listening to Samaneri Jayasara read the mystics. It has been a re-programming of sorts. And it is not something I can explain at this point—other than to say, it seems to be a proper and vital recalibration.
For the month of June, I invite you to join me in listening to Jayasara read each day. There are many playlists to choose from including eastern and western mystics and sages. Choose a playlist, or move among a variety of mystics as you see fit (Link below will take you to Jayasara’s channel).
You might simply allow the words to pour into you, without thinking too hard about what it all means. I’d love to hear from you as you experience these readings. Drop me a message and let me know how its going.
I I I
We can learn to trust ourselves again and adjust our course as needed, by keeping simple, consistent rituals. In former times, we have looked outside ourselves, blamed others, and sought truth, externally. Today, we reclaim our way. We sit in quiet communion and reset our minds.
Why?
To create a sense of stability in what appears to be an unstable world.
To shift thought/behavior patterns.
To enter communion (let's do this ritual together). In communion we find meaning.
* If you wish to share your experience with this ritual for the benefit of our community, please do so at anytime in the comment section at the bottom of this page. You can comment easily and anonymously as a guest.
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