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Now that is one fancy postal vehicle.

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A mudpuddle so large someone should contact the Board of Geographic Names

Hoquaim, Washington

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A view of Grays Harbor from the Hoquiam truck route

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A view of Grays Harbor from the Hoquiam truck route

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Fanciness

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Ocean Shores, Washington

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Dilapidated boardwalk
Ocean Shores, Washington

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Crypt
Fern Hill Cemetery
Aberdeen, Washington

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Hey! Some local troublemaker saw this tiny vest draped over a fire hydrant here in McCleary, Washington and decided to complete the image! Most curious.

Washington State Cartoonist Laureate

This announcement was sent yesterday to my email. One of Washington State's last ditch efforts to keep culture alive as we all slide into the New Dark Ages:

POET LAUREATE APPLICATIONS SOUGHT

Applications are now being accepted for the 2012 – 2014 Washington State Poet Laureate position. The Poet Laureate serves to build awareness and appreciation of poetry – including the state’s legacy of poetry – through public readings, workshops, lectures, and presentations in communities, schools, colleges and universities, and other public settings across the state. The selected Poet Laureate will develop a two-year plan of activities, in consultation with the Washington State Arts Commission and Humanities Washington.

Qualified applicants must meet the following eligibility requirements:

· Be a current resident of the state of Washington;

· Have had at least one full-length book of poetry published by an established press;

· Be engaged in the poetry community;

· Be willing and able to promote poetry and the legacy of poetry throughout Washington State for a two-year period.

Applications must be submitted electronically no later than 5:00 p.m. PST on November 30, 2011. For more information about the Washington State Poet Laureate program, including application criteria and guidelines, or to submit an application, visit www.washingtonpoetlaureate.org or contact Julie Ziegler, Executive Director, Humanities Washington, at julie@humanities.org, 206.682.1770 x 110; or Kris Tucker, Executive Director, Washington State Arts Commission, at kris.tucker@arts.wa.gov, 360.753.3860.

OK, so I am providing this news release both as announcement for the few poets who read this blog and an opportunity to promote the idea of a Washington State Cartoonist Laureate.

In modifying the above guidelines to fit the world of cartooning, my nomination for Washington State Cartoonist Laureate would be the legendary Bob Cram, cartooning weatherman.

In the early 1960s, when he replaced cartooning weatherman Bob Hale on KING-TV in Seattle, Bob instantly became one of my cartoon heroes. In that early, primitive era of live local TV, Bob was second only to J.P. Patches in influencing us budding Boomer cartoonists in Puget Sound.

I loved the way he made cartooning seem so easy and improvisational as he enhanced the weather report with his comic illustrations. He actually flew as he drew. I'm sure I am not the only local comix artist Bob influenced. And he's a long time Washingtonian and part of our cultural history.

I nominate Bob Cram for Washington State Cartoonist Laureate!

[Update: Just had a nice phone conversation with Bob Cram. It is fitting that I had already put out the flag on my front porch honoring vets and was able to thank him for his WWII service. Bob is still cartooning to this day! Go Bob, very inspirational!]

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Occupy Olympia tent city at dusk in the shadow of the Legislative Building
Olympia, Washington

This is the same area where Olympia's "Little Hollywood" once floated, before the Fetid Lake of Doom was created.

This scene brings to mind the era of the early 1930s and how Olympia became a rallying point back then. The story of Fred E. Walker is particularly engaging.

Bil Keane 1922-2011

The guy was a class act and true Zen Master

We'll miss you, Bil.

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Charlie and Dreamer wonder what happened to summer

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A Short Walk Through Evergroove-- a Comix-eye View

The main "Red Square" and Library Building for The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. It was somewhere on these bricks Lynda Barry dropped a human skeleton and looked in horror as it shattered into tiny pieces.

Behind these doors in the CAB Building (Campus Activities Building), before the place went through a major facelift, sat the office of the student newspaper, The Cooper Point Journal when Matt Groening was editor. Today the area houses student activities offices.


I was amazed and pleased to see the Stairwell Dragons are still with us! Our fellow cartoonist David George was fascinated by this spiral mural. Cruz Esquivel and I shared an adventure with local law enforcement.











The area where the Library Ghost was originally spotted in 1988. According to the eyewitness who returned to area and demonstrated where the ghost had been seen, the being would've been walking away from the camera in the center of the photo.

The huge stairs are now absent, but this is the spot where Evergroove's amazing dedication ceremony took place in 1972.

This squat little cube is actually an air vent and one of many entrances to the fabled steam tunnels. If you are inside this thing you can see people through the grate.

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Elma, Washington
A James Abbott mural showing old time loggers with a donkey engine

The "Reserved Parking" sign for the disabled shows how far ahead of their time the loggers were, anticipating the ADA decades before the rest of the country.