#2160, Or Back Again and Here, Or Summer Landscape with Pensive Baby

ABOVE: If Hans can write, anyone can.

Dear Imaginary Reader:
"Hallucina" first manifested itself upon this realm seven years ago, in June 2005. Like most babies, it was essentially dumb for a couple of years, but, as nature commands, it began to crawl, then walk, then downright SMASH ITS HEAD against the bars of its metaphorical crib while screaming for Bob Dylan and the Beatles; Bowie and the Stones; Stephen King and Philip Roth; Woody Allen and Ingmar Bergman; Rent and Les Miserables and the Phantom of the Opera; Alan Moore and Grant Morrison and Warren Ellis; Daniel Clowes and Chris Ware; the Simpsons and Seinfeld; Buffy the Vampire Slayer and True Blood; Firefly and Battlestar Galactica; The Sopranos and The Wire; 30 Rock and Parks and Recreation; Harry Potter and Game of Thrones.

And the generous teat of pop culture gave freely of its anesthetizing milk.

HALLUCINA had a guileless childhood (Archie Comics a-plenty! http://hallucina.blogspot.com/2009/07/i-have-always-been-veronica-man.html ), which was followed a sophomoric adolescence, (marked by an unwarranted number of Jessica Alba pictures http://hallucina.blogspot.com/2008/04/awake.html). Eventually it tried to mature and grow a couple of grey hairs (Opera! http://hallucina.blogspot.com/2010/11/claudio-monteverdis-lorfeo.html ).

(That didn't fully take.)

ABOVE: "Gratuitous" means "Free." Who doesn't like freedom?

They sneered at HALLUCINA and said that a blog without a gimmick, a blog about nothing- and everything- would never last. They were wrong! HALLUCINA LASTED, because it trusted in the boundless curiosity of its Dear Imaginary Readers. Not only did it go on and on, refusing to shut up, it became a wild success, touching the lives of at LEAST 65 humans and literally THOUSANDS of spambots.

Then it took a little nap.

ABOVE: Don't awwww. It's dreaming about Jessica Alba.

But now HALLUCINA is back, bushy-tailed, rocking onwards, youthfully committed to its manifesto: To follow Hans as he explores worlds of imagination, in whatever form they may be encountered... And to share that journey with YOU, DEAR IMAGINARY READER.

Let us grow together. Read on.