Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Mysterious Johnson

@mysteriousjohnson.bsky.social

1.1K followers 1.6K following 1.4K posts

artist, poet, storyteller, itinerant philosopher, triflin bish my name is Tim, but you can call me Mysterious a midwest member of the #EastCoastKin arts collective

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Mysterious Johnson @mysteriousjohnson.bsky.social · May 24

this place is the back door to my studio. where all the weirdos and the poets and the artists and the retired librarians come and hang out and smoke grass.

this place is cool. this place is without judgement. this place is for you.. and me.

the storefront is elsewhere

this is the alley out back

6 1 56

Reposted by Mysterious Johnson

Raven @ravenbranhard.bsky.social · 3h

I step from silence
to inhale the shape of sky
etched beneath her skin
and seek no answers
only the stillness of being

#Photography Tim Flood
@timflood1966.bsky.social

3 8 51

Mysterious Johnson @mysteriousjohnson.bsky.social · 12h

right?!

Mysterious Johnson @mysteriousjohnson.bsky.social · 21h

it was a phrase often heard on radio shows when people called in... 90s reference

you know, i'm an old man...

but it is a term of endearment

1 1

Reposted by Mysterious Johnson

Photography by Alfie Goodrich @alfie.photography · 1d

Good morning. Got a decent night's sleep in the end. Good for my body. But filled with intense and busy dreams. So, I awoke this morning with a rather tired brain.

Anyway, onwards through the day.

Wishing you all a good one, whatever you're up to.

Much luv & peace to you all.

🙏❤️

The five storey pagoda at Tōji in Kyoto, Japan, back in 2016. This is a vertical photo, in colour, made over the course of four and half minutes. We see the pagoda, in dark shadow. In front is a single tree, illuminated by the lights of many passing vehicles. And its there lights we see across the whole of the frame, rendered as lines of coloured blur from the long exposure. Photo made with a Hasselblad H4D-40 and their HC35-90mm lens.

6 10 92

Mysterious Johnson @mysteriousjohnson.bsky.social · 1d

and not everyday (cause that hum drum takes a lot of maintenance) and not all the time (cause i had to go on without you)

but that silver spark

that light you brought

seeing it makes me remember i forgot about you

makes me remember you here

outlines the shadow of your absence

-mysterious

Mysterious Johnson @mysteriousjohnson.bsky.social · 1d

that light you brought to my world, i caught a glimpse

and that prickle flickered behind my eyes, the acid built up

and that fiery cotton in the top of my nose

and water fell

just a little, just a drop

1 3

Mysterious Johnson @mysteriousjohnson.bsky.social · 1d

#poetry #naiveteismyforte

o, i almost forgot about you

i didn't cry how i thought i would when you left

in fact i was just silent, just soft stone

mud

i went on everyday, put my clothes on, ate dinner
i went on about my hum drum hum drum hum hum

but that silver spark hit me just now

1 5

Mysterious Johnson @mysteriousjohnson.bsky.social · 1d

love you, love your show!

Reposted by Mysterious Johnson

Breezie @breeze420.bsky.social · 3d

"A good snapshot keeps a moment from running away."

-Eudora Welty

31 140 890

Mysterious Johnson @mysteriousjohnson.bsky.social · 1d

me2! and thanks for reading it!

Mysterious Johnson @mysteriousjohnson.bsky.social · 1d

o man! I never really thought about how close I came to dying... guess I've had a few of those moments really. I do think I am lucky- and grateful 🙏

1 2

Mysterious Johnson @mysteriousjohnson.bsky.social · 1d

bwahaha! 😁

Mysterious Johnson @mysteriousjohnson.bsky.social · 1d

it was crazy! and the car stayed on the road through an abundance of luck, not skill, I assure you!

1 1

Reposted by Mysterious Johnson

Adrianna Amari @4aamari.bsky.social · 2d

everybody’s moon

October’s moon rises soft and low in the sky’s pastel marsh where we stand amidst the green gold grass

12 45 330

Mysterious Johnson @mysteriousjohnson.bsky.social · 1d

paranoia, right? I had never even considered something like that could happen... and i still approach the world with that kind of positive naivete

I mean what could go wrong, right?

1 2

Mysterious Johnson @mysteriousjohnson.bsky.social · 1d

lol! I am certainly very cautious around dumptrucks now, I'll tell you that!

Reposted by Mysterious Johnson

Jimmy Innes @jimmyinnes.bsky.social · 1d

#TheCampfire #BlueBrewBooks #BookSky #EastCoastKin

I’ve always loved novels, although I don’t read as much as I want to any more. Too much life stuff going on.

But I’m a happier person when I’ve got a good book on the go. Novels enrich my soul and make me a more complete human being.

1/

The paper back book cover of To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. This is the edition I first read as a teenager.

It is a black cover with white lettering for the name of the book (at the top) and author (at the bottom). A re outline drawing of a mockingbird stands in the centre lower half of the book cover

5 3 24

Mysterious Johnson @mysteriousjohnson.bsky.social · 1d

I know! Not sure why I did it like that... maybe the 45 min drive

Mysterious Johnson @mysteriousjohnson.bsky.social · 1d

I am just realizing that I missed #TheCampfire last month! I must have been in a birthday/vacation bubble and totally forgot!

So if i'm liking and reposting your month old stories - well, deal with it! lol.

this is my favorite part of the whole bluesky experience.
hands down

1 1 10

Reposted by Mysterious Johnson

Susan Cushing @sdcushing.bsky.social · Sep 2

I wanted to be a dancer.

But if you’ve been reading #TheCampfire, you know this all too well.

My mother, though she never encouraged me, never took a picture of me, had danced.

My older sister had danced. She made this rug hooking for me.

go to ALT/text for the rest of the story…

There I was, a sophomore in college, still in Minneapolis, and for the six years since I’d danced my dream in NYC, the closest I’d gotten to dancing again was being in the kick-line at football games.

I was nineteen, and it was time to face the fact that I was too old to become a dancer.

But I’m here to tell you, at this campfire, that everything finally turned around for me. Here’s how it happened.

I decided to declare dance as one of my majors at college, walked through that door to dance class, and though I made a fool out of myself, I danced. I went back to my old dance school, and danced there at night. I fell in love, got married, kept dancing.

In a twist of fate, my husband and I picked up a roommate to defray rent. This guy worked at the very hip Walker Art Center in our town. One night, he came through the door and asked me if I wanted a very short-term job coordinating a dance festival. Wow. Did I.

I’ll make this as brief as I can. The festival, New Dance USA, ended up being a heated seven days of performances by 25 dance companies from across the nation.

At one point, I had my mother and my husband assembling welcome kits for dancers on the floor of one of the theaters. It was intense and slightly hilarious.

The festival was an astonishing success. By the time it was over, I could pretty much write my ticket to a job in dance anywhere in the country. It wasn’t easy, but it was my dream. I lived in New York City, in San Francisco, in Washington, DC.

My campfire story ends here. I transitioned from being a dancer to being in dance company management, but kept taking dance classes well into my forties. I ran dance companies, other festivals, and performance spaces.

Last month was the 47th reunion of the first dance company I helped start.

I still have the posters.

Sometimes, a story just has to have a happy ending.

This was mine.

43 26 160

Reposted by Mysterious Johnson

ApeLife @apelife.bsky.social · Sep 3

#TheCampfire
With fall coming, I’m remembering memories with my cousins. We would go to Grandmas with our Halloween costumes and get ready together. After the sunsets, the fun begins. Trick or Treating in the dark was always the best. Going to from front door to front door.

5 5 56

Reposted by Mysterious Johnson

Al @bigcityal2000.bsky.social · 4d

We all have that feeling. I'll do the rest in alt text. #abandoned #thecampfire

Today's house that isn't there was this farmhouse. Years before this when it was still standing(this photo itself is pretty old) I went to check it out in the winter which is always a better time for bugs,animals, weak boards are froze and less people. The snow isn't better though( except photos). They must have had an addition removed or something and my foot slipped and I hadn't seen that I almost fell into a cistern which would have been very hard to get out of, especially in the snow. This was before cell phones of course too. Cisterns are usually inside and easier to see. On a side note: I have mentioned this asbestos siding and how it kills abandoned house. It traps the moisture in and the rot from the inside out.

4 4 28

Reposted by Mysterious Johnson

Radareyda @radareyda.bsky.social · 1d

The Shotgun and Hershey Bars.
Mischief night was here, my father waited until dark to gather us girls to go out and do some sneaky mischief to the neighbors yards.
I was four or five, my two sisters a bit older; it was my first time out and I was ready!
Toilet tissue rolls in hand : ALT
#campfire

We three followed him through the grassy lot connecting to the neighbors yards, shushing all the way.
Mr. And Mrs.S lived in a very old house filled with Early American antiques, so it was really like stepping back in time when you entered the house; kinda spooky.
We slinked in under the big old plum tree, made our way to the back door where dad gave us the signal to start with the paper.
We did and then Mr.S came barging out of the door with a double barrel shotgun, pointed right at us, yelling.
I was the shortest one so it was pointed right at my face.
I had never seen a gun, only on cartoons, but I knew they could shoot you!
My sisters started screaming and I followed, our little feet lifted off the ground and we ran screaming banshee style, in the pitch dark, back home.
A minute or so later my dad came through the door laughing to tears and telling us to come back out, it was a joke on us.
I certainly had to be coaxed, but we all slunk back over where Mr.S explained that the gun only shot Hershey bars.
I was small and not stupid; I knew we were told never to point a toy gun in peoples faces and here was an adult doing it with the blessings of my dad- two jerks.
Halloween was great the next day, got lots of loot trick or treating. I never ate the Hershey candy bar that was shot out of the gun.
Hershey bars have never been my favorite candy bar.

5 3 22

Mysterious Johnson @mysteriousjohnson.bsky.social · 1d

thanks Susan!

Mysterious Johnson @mysteriousjohnson.bsky.social · 1d

Susan! o man, that is traumatic- I feel for you sister! I can't imagine the feeling of violation.

1 1