I don't call in sick at work very often (today was my first sick day is eleven months), but I'm feeling the CRUD. Better to try and keep it contained rather than spreading it to the world OUTSIDE! Meanwhile, the show MUST go on...
1. First some new art...
["Groove on Down the Road..." Pink ink on found cardboard with digital embellishments. 2019.] Simple...but I think it's funny.
[Untitled weird monster. Sharpie on found cardboard with digital embellishments and color. 2019.] This one---even I'm not sure what's going on here. I had a nightmare once, years ago, about a monster with a little tiny face, which was really creepy, and every once in a while I try to duplicate that---but I guess I'm just not horrible enough as an artist to do my own nightmares justice! Here's what this one looked like before being colored...
2. A choir concert...
On Wednesday evening, Mariah and I braved the nasty weather and drove to Lower Columbia College (all the way across town!) to watch a Christmas choir concert in which our good friend, Chere's, daughter, Chloe was one of the performers. Chloe is a high school freshperson this year, but the concert was at L.C.C., not her school. It was still pretty fun, though! We don't do enough stuff with our friends (mostly because I'm awful and antisocial), so Mariah convinced me that we should go---and I'm glad she did...
[Chloe is the vocalist with the short red hair near the center of the photo.]
It's important to keep friendships alive by DOING STUFF together, and it's also important to support local performers!!! They help keep life (you know: that stuff going on around you all the time that you rarely choose to take part in) fun and exciting!
3. Local carved critter...
A few days ago, I had to go pay the water bill, which necessitated a visit to Longview's City Hall building. I've been in it a hundred times, but I'd never noticed the little carving on one of the front-pieces near the doors to the building!
I think it's a beaver---but I'm not sure why it's on the City Hall... Maybe, because Longview was founded as, basically, a logging town, the beaver is SOMEHOW supposed to be the spirit animal for the area??? However, for the last ten years or so, there's been a SQUIRREL FESTIVAL here in town every summer, (REALLY!), but no Beaver Parade or anything like that, so I think the beaver might have had its spiritual throne usurped!
Moving on....
4. A favorite kids' show...
I decided this morning that it was time to introduce the grandkid to Peewee's Playhouse. It was a hit show back in the '80s and featured recurring characters played by folks who would later go on to bigger things, like Lawrence Fishburne and Phil Hartman, AND it also had some fantastic art and puppetry by brilliant people, like Wayne White (who would later direct game-changing music videos for Peter Gabriel and Smashing Pumpkins), as well as underground comics legend, Gary Panter! And, rumor has it that Rob Zombie even worked on the show as a P.A. when he was a youngster. AND and, the theme music was by Mark Mothersbaugh from DEVO!
The show was a big deal, won a few awards, and had a cult following of weirdo adults...until..... Well... (Let's not get into what happened to Peewee...)
Here are a couple of photos from my t.v.:
Notice the Church of the Subgenius's J.R. "Bob" Dobbs on the wall with all the other photos?
This one is Paul Reubens as Peewee and Lawrence Fishburne as Cowboy Curtis doing some pogo-dancing!!!
And this is John Paragon as Jambi, the wish fulfilling genie...
It's a fun show, aimed at kids, but with tons of sly references for the adults to catch, as well.
Speaking of Peewee, my younger daughter just bought tickets for us (Elise, Mariah, and me), to go see the 35th anniversary showing of Peewee's Big Adventure in Portland on Valentine's Day, hosted by PAUL REUBENS himself!!! Ellie and I are pretty dang excited, and Mariah (politely) said she would go, too, even if it's not necessarily her ideal Valentine's Day experience... (Poor Mariah... I'll try to make it up to her, somehow!)
Well, thanks for coming to visit me while I'm sick! Hopefully none of you folks catch it! If all goes well, I'll be back tomorrow with...something else... (I don't know WOT yet, so we'll just have to wait and see what tomorrow brings!!!)
Later skaters...
---Richard F. Yates (Holy Fool)