Friday, May 12, 2006

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

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