on the streets of ess eff
Dolores Park
Sweating 'crete in Glacier
A marijuana trimmer in Garberville, CA
fun stuff
We spent alot of time in the Mission District, which is easily my favorite part of The City - we scoped out on Clarion Alley. Full of creativity!
This is our new friend Frog. If you're interested in expanding your joke vocabulary, Frog has some literature well worth adding to your library. Mail him three dollars and a self-addressed envelope - P.O. Box 10162, Eugene OR 97440
Here's a photo I shot on the way out of Olympia at the Free Wall. Every wall should be a "free wall".
Yesterday, Liz and I were given a most wonderful tour of Richart’s “Art Yard” in the modest town of Centralia, WA. We stopped not knowing what to expect – what we found was absolutely rad.
Signs in the front yard invited us in – we helped ourselves to the marvels of his outdoor sculpture creations. My imagination whirled, I saw space-robots, great knight’s graveyards, and was swimming a thousand miles under the ocean. Richart’s sculptures thrust me into the creative mindset I remember having when I was 9 – I was having the daydreams that only a child could have.
Around the corner came Richart, a 76 year-old former high school art teacher, more than happy to show us his creations. He and his small pudgy dog gave us a tour of his yard. We followed him as he brought us to a cathedral, into a coliseum (explaining that no town could be on a map without one), and introduced us to a sculpture of a hairy-chested woman. How did this all start, we asked, where did this come from? “I was 50 years old, I had all these degrees, but they didn’t mean anything until I told myself I would be an artist. So the next day I woke up, and I was an artist.” It’s as easy as that, he explained, you just say it and its there if you want it – “you give it a word, and that gives it meaning.”
This stop on our trip, has for me, been the most personally inspiring thing encountered so far. Who knew 2x4’s, Styrofoam, twisted rebar, and whatever else Richart gets his hands on, could provoke such wonder! Wake up tomorrow and be what you want to be.
The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), also known as the Wobblies is a radical, labor organization that fights to improve the living standards of the working class. The IWW had set up an office in Centralia, Washington to organize the labor forces, specifically focusing on the logging industry. Their office was first attacked and destroyed during a Memorial Day Parade in 1918, where IWW members and workers were beaten and told to leave Centralia. However, the Wobblies were determined to stay and continue organizing and were able to open a new office. The next year, during the Armistice Day parade, the IWW office was attacked again, but this time the Wobblies were prepared to defend their rights and property. Four men who were under the American Legion were shot and killed by the IWW members as they tried to attack the office. Wesley Everest, who was one of the armed IWW members defending his property, ran out of the building as he was chased by a mob. He shot and killed one attacker before being caught, beaten and dragged by the neck to the jail. Later that night, all power went out in Centralia and in the dark of the night, Everest was taken from jail and by vigilantes and hung by the neck from a bridge (now known as Hangman’s Bridge). Everest was castrated and his body was shot twenty times and then left hanging. The body was left here into the next morning, where young children had to walk by it to get to school. Later on, his body was thrown back into the jail for the other jailed Wobblies to observe for two days. Local officials refused to bury Everest, wanting nothing to do with him, so the task fell on four prisoners to carry his body to the graveyard where they had to bury Everest in an unmarked grave in the pauper’s section while the National Guard was watching. The other Wobblies that were jailed were accused of murder and put through an unjust trial that consisted of lies, intimidation of witnesses and suppression of evidence. There are later reports from the jury saying that their guilty-verdict was a mistake, but that there was so much pressure on them that there could not have been any other verdict besides guilty.
This story is just one side of the whole picture. For many who grew up in the region, all of the blame of the massacre is placed on the Wobblies, rather than the Legionnaires. I wanted to tell the side of the story that had been suppressed throughout history, one that you would not know until digging a little deeper. In the center of Centralia, in front of the public library, there is a square that has a “Freedom Walk” that memorializes the four Legionnaires that died that day in 1919. Nowhere is there any information about the Wobblies, their side of the story remains untold. However, in 1997, a mural entitled, “The Resurrection of Wesley Everest” was designed and painted by Mike Alewitz, a member of the IWW, with the help from members of the community. The mural is located on top of a building that looks over the “Freedom Walk.” Finally, both stories are told. We were allowed up on top of the building to take a closer look.
Some of the students of El Centro. So Cute!
A mural painted by Daniel DeSiga during the occupation of El Centro, without lights, electricity, or running water. The mural was restored on their 25th anniversary of El Centro. Originally, the mural had men's faces, but they were changed to women's faces during the restoration because DeSiga wanted to depict the strong female leadership of El Centro.
I hate pictures of other people's dogs, I guess it's different when it's yours.
