Phone photo 2817

Oddly, the least weather-damaged panel in this James Abbott mural in McCleary is the one that includes the DEMON CHILD surrounded by adults who look resigned to an eternity of terror with the little guy.

The Ulysses S. Grant Song

My great great grandfather

Rode with Custer

In the Civil War

He was a Wolverine.

Cold Harbor, Wilderness

He was there at Appamattox

When the Rebs called out "No more!"

His name was Frank

Calvary private was his rank

And he never minced his words

Just to suit yer

He lived to 1916

And told everyone he could

That he considered Grant

"A Drunken Butcher."

 

 

Phone photo 2816

More environmental damage to an aging James Abbott mural. Unfortunately, this particular image faces west, the direction from where the Pacific Ocean weather hits us hardest here in McCleary.

I am sure the cost of restoring an Abbott mural would be prohibitive. Since the murals of James Abbott are all over eastern Grays Harbor County, many business owners around here are going to be forced into making a hard choice about these pieces. A few of them already have, pro and con.

Superb landscape work on this mural panel. Typically, Abbott's backgrounds display more artistry than his foregrounds. But the more I document the existing work of Mr. Abbott the more I am impressed by his prolific and creative drive.

A Morty Comix Twisted Conundrum

OK, so you and I are having lunch in sort of a weird new restaurant that includes a guy in a clown suit who entertains the customers by playing seriously romantic tunes on a violin as he roams the dining room floor. He doesn't smile even though his makeup indicates that he is supposed to be happy happy. Somehow the strange combination is meant to be ironic, but it just doesn't work.

We go to eat there for the first time mainly to watch this failed attempt at being hip, which we heard about from friends. We order and as we wait for our meals the clown plays "Let's Face the Music and Dance."

But then you notice that my eyes and the clowns eyes lock. You hear me utter, "Oh crap!" I turn pale, shove the table back as I pull out and run. You never knew my aging, portly out-of-shape self could move so fast. I'm out the door.

The clown yells, "Willis! Stop!" And from out his absurdly puffy costume he produces a sophisticated looking firearm. He bolts out the door in pursuit, pistol held high over his head. His comic oversize shoes prevent him from running too fast.

For about 15 seconds not a sound is heard in this eating establishment, but then the slow murmurs start and build to a sound like that of an air hose in action with nothing to fill, and you realize all eyes are on you.

About five minutes later the clown returns, empty handed. His fake nose, fake ears, hat, and wig have all fallen off. Streaks of sweat are traced on his facial greasepaint. He looks like our worst hideous nightmares of what clowns can be. He is panting, and pissed off.

The clown resets the chair I tipped over, plops down in it, crosses his arms with his elbows on the table, leans close and stares at you. In the distance you hear sirens. He presents you with some sort of official looking credentials and badge, representing some kind of national security agency you've never heard of with an acronym like the NSGV or something like that.

Then he reaches in his clown pocket, pulls out about a half dozen Morty Comix, and carefully arranges them on the table so you can see each one. "We intercepted these in odd places, like in gas stations, cafe menus, dead phone booths, you know, the usual place lowlife scum spies pass coded messages. Which is, in fact, what these are."

Meanwhile, the local police arrive and they appear normal except they are all wearing styrofoam Abraham Lincoln stovepipe hats. They see the clown and become very agitated and hesitant. None of them come close to him, but instead the one who seems to be in charge whispers into a radio communication device. Before you know it a man who looks exactly like Richard Nixon, dressed in an old-fashioned gangster pinstripe suit, complete with fedora, walks in the room and says to the clown in a commanding voice, "I'll have those Morty Comix now, Mister."

The clown starts to reach for his gun, but before he even touches it he is surrounded by officers who quickly draw their weapons and in an unified precision aim right at his heart. So he slowly rises and calmly announces, "You win. Let Hercules himself do what he may. The cat will mew and dog will have his day." 

There is always a bigger fish.

The styrofoam hat law enforcement officers allow the clown the leave quietly, but seconds later another set of sirens are heard in the distance, coming closer. The uniformed guys look at each other and the Nixon guy says, "Jeez, it's the REAL cops!" and they all run away, forgetting the original purpose of their mission.

So you are left sitting at a table with six Morty Comix and the sirens are getting closer. You have about 2 or 3 minutes to either cut and run or stay and deal with the authorities. What would you do, and what happens to the comix? 










 

Phone photo 2815

James Abbott mural in rough shape

McCleary, Washington

Postcard - Moscow, Idaho

"The sign sets the theme for downtown Moscow, now that the through traffic has been diverted one block east and west. New curbs, traffic controls, and some parallel parking have all added to the shopping ease. Incorporated in 1877, Moscow soon became County Seat of Latah County and home of the University of Idaho in 1889."

Early 1980s.

Phone photo 2814

The Demon Child has always been around. Here's a shot of him found in an episode of Boston Blackie from the early 1950s.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Voyager 1 Has left the Building!

Voyager 1 has recently made history as it has apparently left the solar system and is now hurtling through interstellar space.

Go, man, go! This is a landmark event.

It blows my mind to consider that in such a short time, within the lifetimes of many of us, space technology went from no human-made satellites at all (until Sputnik in 1957) to this.



 

Phone photo 2813

Satsop, Washington

Morty Comix # 2647

Morty Comix # 2647 was placed inside an issue of Portland Outsider and returned to the basket of reading material provided by a restaurant where I had lunch, Portland, Oregon

Phone photo 2812

Another character trapped in the decaying mural beseeches the viewer for freedom from the Demon Child nearby. His eyes plead, "Help me! Help me!" But of course we can only sadly observe. We are powerless to prevent his doom.

Favorite Movie Quotes: To Be Or Not To Be (1983)

"First you invade Poland, then you invade Warsaw, then you invade my dressing room! You people are compulsive invaders!"

Phone photo 2811

A very close detail of the Demon Child's mouth. Note the light red smudges, a residue left from when he FEASTED ON HUMAN FLESH!!!!

Morty Comix # 2646

Morty Comix # 2646 was given as an offering to one of the greatest human-made objects in western Washington State, the giant Yardbirds crow in Chehalis! She has a little one under a wing and a splattered egg painted on the pavement beneath her.

When I visited her last year she was still being restored. But look at her now. What a beautiful job!

Anyway, under her front support beams I found a little triangular hole in which to leave my Morty Comix. The designers probably put the opening there as a breathing vent for when the Greeks pile inside and then offer the crow as a gift to the city of Troy.

Phone photo 2810

The Demon Child of McCleary makes a prediction

The Beatles Sing Bacharach

Baby It's You

Phone photo 2809

Olympia, Washington

Postcard - Moscow, Idaho

"The Nobby Inn - 'Home of Moscow's finest foods and beverages' - has been located on Main at Fifth since 1936. It is not far from the beautiful University of Idaho Campus, and has taken great pleasure in serving carefully selected foods prepared to please our many friends. Wayne Mayburry, Owner and Manager."

1960s. The Nobby Inn was still in Moscow in the mid-1980s, when I worked just across the border in Pullman. I ate there a few times. It was such a highly loved institution in the Palouse region I was surprised to read they closed up about a decade ago or so.

Phone photo 2808

This little scene mysteriously materialized in my office at work

Morty Comix # 2645

Morty Comix # 2645 was slid into a ripped area under a chair in a fitting room at the Goodwill in Olympia, Washington. Yes, this is where I buy most of my clothes.

This Morty Comix concludes the "yellow series" of Mortys I drew during my recent visit to Pennsylvania.

Phone photo 2807

Man, do they have it rough at this house or what?

Postcard - McCall, Idaho

"Main Street, McCall, Idaho. Located on the shore of Beautiful Payette Lake, offering the best in Swimming, Boating, and Picknicking. With Excellent ski Resort nearby."

ca. 1970. Interesting use of capitalization.

Phone photo 2806

Dreamer and Charlie

Morty Comix # 2644

Morty Comix # 2644 was left in a dead phone booth at a long dead grocery/gas mart in Satsop, Washington, a town in danger of becoming extinct, along with several other villages and municipalities in eastern Grays Harbor County, including my town, McCleary.

A local asked me what I was doing and I said I was recording places soon to be gone. Out here everyone wants to know your family connection, and I told him I was no connection to the well known dairy family around here with the same surname. My Willis family relatives migrated to Grays Harbor and Pacific counties early in the 20th century and many of them engaged in a variety of nefarious activities. I am the sole surnamed Willis left from my branch still living in either county. So I guess I should photograph myself to fit in with the rest of the subjects I capture.