Serve Out

Once again, it's time to time to empty out the photo files

These little guys are juice boxes. Clever

Take a long look at this picture and tell me if this is remarkable serendipity, or Photo Shop.

IH-35 in downtown Austin

A doomed relationship.

 

Pesky Chickadee!

Oh, this is a good idea.

 

This is not my owl.

Cat or Penguin?

Is this dog named Spot?

Choices, choices.

And the winner of the "Hey, look at this!" award

(Awarded posthumously, I might add)

Stories for my grandchildren - Basil Clemons

This photo of  downtown Breckenridge in 1920, which I first showed you in Stories for my grandchildren - Thurber Brick was taken by a man named Basil Clemons. Mr. Clemons was the resident commercial photographer in Breckenridge from about the beginning of the oil boom in 1920 until 1949. I was only eight years old when blindness ended his career, so I never knew about him from his photography business. What really stood out about Basil Clemons was that he lived in a wagon - think iron-wheeled Gypsy Caravan-type wagon - that was parked in a field on North Breckenridge Avenue.

There are various descriptions of the wagon - some say it was a gypsy wagon - others that it was originally a canvas-covered cook wagon from cattle drive days. I don't clearly remember and there does not appear to be a picture of it available. I do remember that there was a stove pipe on one side of the wagon and that there were wooden steps placed at one end. This was home, darkroom and office for Clemons, and he lived there until his death in 1964.

Clemons learned his art in Hollywood at the beginning of the movie era. Later, he trooped with the Tom Mix Wild West Show. In 1909 he departed for Alaska, recording in pictures gold discoveries in the Yukon River area. He introduced motion pictures to Alaskan residents by making and developing the first movies shown there. The Handbook of Texas writes about Clemons:

"In 1919, while traveling with a circus ... he headed west to Breckenridge. He chronicled on film every aspect of life in the small town as it boomed from oil production in 1920. When the oilfields declined, he remained and continued to photograph everyday happenings. His photographs included not only oil-derrick scenes, weddings, downtown display windows, rodeos, parades, and portraits of prominent citizens, but also funeral processions, Ku Klux Klan rallies, lakeside picnics, and the entire public school student body.

To develop photographs, he never measured the chemicals poured from jars. By tasting the finger he used to stir the mixture, he determined the correct proportions. He developed black-and-white and sepia-toned photographs. He also produced pictures on fabric and did hand-colored tinted prints. His skill was so perfected that he formulated a process for color developing before the Eastman Kodak Company. When he received a letter from Kodak in 1936, offering a fabulous amount, plus royalties, for his technique, Clemons had his teen-aged helper, Frank Pellizzari, Jr., type a refusal to the offer with the remark that the Kodak chemists should "figure it out for themselves." The trademark of his work was marking negatives with a fine pen and India ink so that the developed prints bore the subject label, date, and his signature in white lettering."

"Our Fire Chief - Heaven Bless Him for Doing the Best He Can With What He Has To Do With. In Front Of Another Notorious Breckenridge, Texas Fire 4-22-21."

The Pelizzari family were Italian immigrants who lived across the street from Clemons. They owned the shoe shop in town and I remember seeing Clemons sitting at that shop while Frank Junior and his father plied their trade.  After his death, the thousands of photos and negatives that were piled in Clemons' wagon were acquired and cataloged by the University of Texas at Arlington.

Monday Meanderings - 12.6.10

Last week I mentioned that I was emotionally surprised by the movie UP. Turns out I'm not alone. Ran across a blog this week that listed the 10 most depressing Disney movie moments.

10. Toy Story - Buzz Lightyear learns he's a toy
  9. Robin Hood - Skippy's coin gets tax collected
  8. The Fox and the Hound - Fox is abandoned
  7. Oliver and Company - kittens for sale
  6. Beauty and the Beast - Beast dies
  5. Dumbo - Dumbo visits his mother in the cage
  4. Bambi - the mother's death (traumatized since childhood)
  3. Wall-E - Wall-E's loneliness
  2. Lion King - Mufasa's death
And the number 1 most depressing movie - UP - "For the introduction to this “high-rise” comedy, the folks at Disney decided to build up the viewer’s expectations by showing a lifelong friendship and romance between Carl Fredrickson and his eventual wife. And once we’ve all become emotionally invested in the couple, the writers rip the rug out from under us."

Should I be concerned that the American Express bill arrived in a large flat envelope that cost $1.22 to mail and contained 12 pages front and back? And this BEFORE Christmas!

It seems that the target demographic for advertising on Monday Night Football is high-end luxury automobiles and bail-bondsmen. Is there a relationship there that I'm missing? And speaking of football, by ending the Boise State Broncos' BCS bowl hopes, the Nevada Wolf Pack cost themselves and every WAC team a million dollars each in BCS revenue. Not one to encourage immoral and illegal actions, but they probably should have just tanked.

On a sports role - any time you can hold a World Cup in a hot Middle East country that's smaller than Connecticut and has zero soccer tradition, you just have to do it. No truth to the rumor though that Cam Newton's dad brokered the deal with FIFA.

And this is a must-have toy for Christmas - the Avenging Unicorn Play Set:

"The set has everything you need to use the power of the unicorn to rid your life of irritations. Put the posable, 3-3/4'' tall, hard vinyl unicorn on a flat surface and then impale one of three 3-1/8'' tall, soft vinyl figures included. Also includes four interchangeable horns (classic spiral, chrome, glow and pearlescent)."

Brought to you by the company that also makes and sells "The Avenging Narwhal Play Set" featuring penguins and baby seals, and the  "Fairy Swatter" for when you are tired of those pesky magic fairies (includes 5 cling stickers of splattered fairy remains).

You can't make this stuff up, folks

Brother Bob's Traveling Salvation Show

The beginning of  Bob the Dog's adventures can be found here.

And the emphasis is on traveling. When I went back the next day to the field off North Lamar where Bob and his group had pitched their tent, literally, all I found was an empty lot. There were a lot of tire tracks and gouged-up real estate, but no trace of Bob, or anyone else, for that matter.

I tried the only phone number I had but it was out of service, so I e-mailed Bob and immediately got his "Out of Office" message:

Still on the road Re: Caught your show; need to talk

Bob Dog bobdog1215@gmail.com to me

G’day Mate;

No time to chat. Bob and the Back Yard Howlers are currently on tour and it's load in, do the show, load out, and back on the bus.

Back at you later.

I guess he needs to update his message.

However, a couple of days later, I got this email:

Crikey! You saw the service?

Bob Dog bobdog1215@gmail.com to me

G’day Mate;

Glad you stopped in. I wanted to come by the old howlin' grounds, but as it turned out, we had to nick off  in a bit of a hurry. In fact we came a cooee of getting a ride in the divvy van. I really thought the Austin coppers would cut us some slack, seeing as as how much good we were doing the locals, but some blokes get aggro at a little free enterprise, I guess.

I guess you saw in the journos that the tour was bollixed. Bugle Boy and I simply couldn't agree artistically, and I swear, the young Sheila that the Sheriff was inquiring about told me she was old enough! I guess it's all for the better, though. I've finally found my true calling!

We've fetched up in Lubbock; the blokes here seem to appreciate a little old-time religion.

Hallelujah!

Bob the Dog

So all you Lubbock readers keep a lookout for a big white tent in an empty field somewhere. And lock up your daughters.

...More about Bob? Who knows? It may depend on the police.

Keeping Austin Weird

There seems to be no end to unique characters in this town. We've talked about many of them, but a new guy popped up on the radar last week - the protest guy.

Currently, Eric Anderson (he may be a cousin or some other kin) has been standing on the side of various streets in Austin for the past few weeks, protesting lawyers while dressed in a pink pig costume that he bought online for $50. According to news stories, he's an old hand at the protesting business. About 20 years ago, he was a fixture at City Council meetings, dressed as a chicken. He was there so often that he doesn't even remember what he was protesting. He has also worn a Revolutionary War outfit, a vampire suit, a pirate suit and a "wicked judge" costume.

Anderson didn't say why he was protesting lawyers, but you probably don't need a specific reason. General principles is probably good enough.

I just hope he doesn't break some rule and need a lawyer to get him out of a jam.