But not broken

After spending the night at the dubiously named Edgewater Inn in Long Beach, Washington, we figured we’d take the town up on the unusual opportunity to drive along its lengthy strand of beach.  There’s even a posted speed limit of 25 mph.  However, no signs tell you that the really soft sand you have to get through first is no friend to minivans.  Next thing you know, it’s tow time!

Then it was play some catch at the World’s Largest Frying Pan time in downtown LB.  This is the 2nd version (still no teflon) which replaced one they actually would use to fry up piles of the clams so prevalent along these shores.  Of course, when that tsunami hits someday. even a big skillet won’t have much of a chance. 

And as the above photo shows, the other big draw here is a sideshow attraction in itself--Jake the Alligator Man. We’ve seen Mermans before, but never one with its own squished penny and merchandise galore.  Jake’s in his case at Marsh’s Free Museum, along with lots of great old coin-op games and novelties, a collection of glass fishing balls and a Love Chair!  Like Maria the owner told us, it’s the kind of free museum where you can spend a lot of money.  Which we did.  Oh, and that being towed from the beach makes you a local....

something out of nothing

Two big stops today, and different as they were, the common thread seemed to be taking scraps or minimally desirable objects and making something memorable from them.  The guy in the picture with Don is Dan Klemmert, whose sculpture park sits in the shadow of Mt Rainier, outside Elbe, WA.  He calls it Ex-Nihilo, from a Native American term for making something out of nothing.  Dan’s pretty sharp with a welder, though he’s never had a lesson in it or in art.  He just has the knack, whether it’s ironwork or sculpting with driftwood (he’s working on a 15 foot sasquatch at the moment.)  There’s humor at times, poignancy and drama at others, and a real appreciation for the way craftsmen used to take pride in their work.

After a brief visit to the World’s largest Egg in Winlock, we decided to pay our respects at the famed Richart House in Centralia.  That’s where Richard (Rich-Art) Tracy has for the last twenty two and a half years been transforming his yard into something absolutely unique.  His rules are it has to be something he can make in 5 hours, and spend less than $5 on.  Of course, he also says the tour lasts 5 minutes, even when it clearly can go much longer.  Time in the yard is pretty elusive! Styrofoam is a favorite material here especially after the rain and sun age and weather it.  Poles rise up, antennae wiggle, streamers stream, and the maze of displays winds almost endlessly around the house.  We showed Richart the Big Ball of Tape, and for a moment or two, we weren’t really certain we’d ever get it back!

Musical highlights-- “Hollywood Town Hall”--Jayhawks, “Hearts & Bones”--Paul Simon, “Live In Aught Four”--James McMurtry, “Blue Trane”--John Coltrane

By the time we got to Blackstock

Greg Blackstock plays accordion and makes what some have called list paintings.  They’re meticulously hand drawn illustrations with cleanly lettered explanations of everything from knots to bells and saws and mackerels, power boats and Vermont’s historical attractions, and well, whatever he gets the urge to make. The walls of his basement apartment are covered with prints of his work, letters about his retirement from a kitchen post at the Seattle Athletic Club, and autographed photos of his favorite celebs.  He loves Phil Silvers, and barks out a mean Jimmy Cagney impression.  He and Don even went toe to toe with a round of dealing Cagneys!!

A book of Greg’s amazing pieces (and a few recipes) will be out by Labor Day. Congrats are in order...

We hit Greg’s place near Green Lake after a morning run through Frement, the self-proclaimed Center of the Universe.  It reminded Mike how much he loves “Journey to the Center of the Earth”, but really, what doesn’t?   We saw the statue of Lenin by the Taco del Mar there and took the Big Ball under the bridge to visit the VW crushing Fremont Troll.

On the way out of Seattle we ate “the best chips of the trip”--Tim’s Cascade Chips from nearby Algona, prompting us to consider a morning visit to the company HQ in hopes of copping some freebies!  TV Weasels to the end...

But the day actually ended with a visit to Bob’s Java Jive, a still standing coffee pot shaped structure in Tacoma. Never really made money as a restaurant the owner told us--so it’s been a bar for fifty plus years.  The inside was fabulously folk artsy, and only a wee bit dank.  Karaoke tonight didn’t float our boat, but someday it’d be fun to come back and rock out with ‘em on the grounds of this classic roadside attraction.

A rocker and a ranter

Mother’s Day was a beaut in Seattle, mid 70s and plenty of sun. But inside the workings of this crazy blog thing, it was more like a meltdown.  I did write eloquently, I swear, about our two Seattle stops, but they got “corrupted” or something.

So now I’ll just do a quick thumbnail sketch of our day.

1) The Walker Rock Garden--a Boeing worker named Milton Walker transformed his sloping backyard with rocks and concrete that have held up incredibly well. Milton Walker’s daughter Sandy turned the fountain on for us, and even let us use her dad’s old wheelbarrow to shuttle the Big Ball back up to the van. 

2) Tim Fowler--here’s a guy who likes to rant.  He’s very good at it, and not just verbally.  Some of the art that adorns his yard in an old neighborhood that’s starting to gentrify has a noticeable bite to it.  He carves wood, works with tile and likes to race motorcycles.  He is, as he puts it, a pre-existing nuisance.

A Starbucks on every corner

No, we didn’t actually replace Don with a four-year old.  That’s camera guy-in-training Truman, son of Karen Light, owner of Seattle’s Garde Rail Gallery.  Karen’s a southern girl who’s been bringing outsider art to the Northwest.  She called Don a crazybutt at one point, so you gotta like that!

She’s been instrumental;in helping us track down some good local artists to see and shoot around here. And today, we started with Ree Brown at the gallery. He’s a soft-spoken retired accountant, whose small scale paintings are, much to his surprise, finding an eager audience.  His subjects are often African-American, though he’s not.  Ree turned 80 the other day, and is more than willing to share his feelings about the current administration, though not in his work, 

I almost forgot to mention that we stopped in Roslyn on our way in.  It’s the little town 85 miles east of here, where Northern Exposure was filmed back in the day.  Many have visited, but perhaps none have played catch in front of The Brick.  Viva Maggie & Joel, Hollings, Shelly and Ed...

Dinner tonight was Polynesian, pu-pus and all, with a great crusted asi dish for moi and a tasty garlic green bean tofu that made Don quite happy.  As of this writing, no ice cream yet for Mikey. He’s probably getting some now, or at least reading the flavors somewhere near Pike Market. Best of all, our quest for good coffee has taken a most positive turn.

art with dick and jane

But that’s getting ahead of ourselves.  We started the day passing a milk bottle shaped building in north Spokane, then strolling up to the giant Radio Flyer in Riverfront Park.  The Big Ball rolled along with us in a standard size TV Flyer that’s been definitely saving my spine some trauma this trip.

After a wee bit of technical difficulties that resulted in lots of head scratching and a call back to the station (thank God for Richard Carr) we got back on the road west to Grand Coulee.  The dam’s quite the deal, but we were most interested in Emil Gehrke’s homemade windmills, which covered his yard until he died in 1980. Then they were moved to a park in nearby Electric City.  Problem is they’re now protected by a Guantanamo type fence that makes taking good pictures difficult. Nobody on site had a key, the bolt cutters they brought weren’t strong enough, and finally Don and Mike both just climbed in to do what had to be done. It appears a muscle or two may have been strained...

After a quick stop in Soap Lake to see where the World’s Largest Lava Lamp will someday be installed, and for some coffee at the tres chic Caffeine Couch, we motored on to Ellensburg.  We saw Dick & Jane there.  We saw Dick & Jane’s Art Spot.  It was very cool. Literally.

The wind was blowing mercilessly most of the time this couple of 36 years showed us around their always changing corner lot across from the police station.  Dick’s best known for his reflector art and totems, Jane’s a painter, and they just like to make people smile.  So they’ve taken their art outside.  After a wild and wooly tour through the sun-dappled, wind-blown, surprisingly chilly grounds, Don reported that it was the hardest hour of video he’s ever shot.  That seemed to please Dick immensely. We talked awhile longer inside their much more serene studio, packed up our gear, bestowed 

commemorative T-shirts and all went out to eat Thai.

Musical highlights--The new Mark Knopfler/Emmylou Harris, Johnny Cash’s Greatest Hits, Crosby & Nash Live