Jerry Hall's folk art

I stopped by Jerry Hall's old house today on the way home from work to snap a few evening pics.  Jerry passed away back in October 2010 and the house is now up for sale.  I've never met Jerry, but by all accounts he was a very nice man and happy to make people smile with his folk art made out of chrome car bumpers, car parts, cans, and other discards.  I've driven past his house a number of times over the years and always marvel at his creativity.  

 This has got to be the ultimate mailbox.  Car springs for antennae, stove elements for eyes, a muffler for a snout.  The mail carriers must get a kick out of dropping off mail here!

a caterpillar made out of propane tanks

with a rider on back

 very nice driveway art, my picture doesn't show the reflection, but the main inlay appears to either be chrome metal or a tile pieces made to look like chrome.

 yep, the tall pieces are tall

up at rooftop level

 a number of the neighborhood's traffic turn circles feature pieces of his art as well

According to Jerry's obituary, his motto and driving force for all his art work was "I just want to make people happy and make them smile when they look at my artwork."  Rest in peace Jerry, and thanks for making us smile.  :-)

I also posted some pictures on my blog of some of his yard / artwork back in 2008.

Holistic competition

I happened upon the annual drilling competition today while crossing the University of Arizona mall and snapped this picture with my iPhone.

Students from the Department of Mining and Geological Engineering hold this competition every year to see who can drill the furthest in three minutes.   By tradition, the two winners get thrown in the Old Main Fountain.

Here's a nice UAnews video from last year interviewing students about the competition:

FLOWing the Santa Cruz River

 What to do at high noon on a sunny 100 degree day in Tucson?   Watch modern dance routines in the dry Santa Cruz river bed of course!   Gotta love Tucson!

 New ARTiculations Dance Theatre presented FLOW, an outstanding set of performances today in the Santa Cruz river park / river bed in Tucson.  The water themed dances began with "Drink" above.

 "Where There is No Water", swimmers at the Santa Cruz

 I really enjoyed this dance routine, "Flush", which paired a dancer and a toilet

 feet first...

 head first.

 "Wash"

 The first hour was held along the bank of the Santa Cruz river in Santa Cruz Park -- then to the pleasant sounds of flute music the dancers carried bowls of water to the audience for people to dip their hands in.

From the program:

"We are made of water.  We clean, cook, bathe, drink, and use water everyday.  Water formed everything you see around you.  Though the river beside you is now dry, once it supported mesquite bosques, cottonwood trees, as well as fish, bird, reptile, and mammal populations.   Over the years, cattle ranching, industry, agriculture, and population growth required more water, and all that pumping lowered the water table.   Today the Santa Cruz only flows during the monsoon season.   Take a moment to dip your hands in the water, offer gratitude for what we have, for life, for flow."

 The bowls of water were then carried to the bank of the Santa Cruz river and poured into the riverbed (see first picture of this post).  Cool ceremony.

Then the dancers descended to the (hot, sunny) riverbed to perform in the sand.

 Dancers with drummers from Odaiko Sonora

Dancers back up on the grass getting some well deserved applause for an outstanding 2 hour performance on a 100 degree day.   

FLOW was a very well done and enjoyable event, great sound system for the music, lots of variety.   Man that sand in the river bed looked hot to be dancing on.   I wish I had brought a stable tripod to shoot video of some of the routines -- there were people shooting video, so if they post it anywhere I'll come back and update this blog entry with links.

Here's my full picture set of today's FLOW event as a slideshow on flickr:

Way to FLOW, New ARTiculations!

A Poetic Inventory of Saguaro National Park

I attended a very cool reading tonight at the University of Arizona Poetry Center where 16 writers read their poems about plants and animals of Saguaro National Park (all 80 pieces are in the online Spiral Orb issue 5: A Poetic Inventory of Saguaro National Park -- see below).

To view these poems and writings, you need to visit the entry poem  which "composts a fragment from each the pieces in the Poetic inventory project into a new species of poem".  Each fragment in the entry poem is actually a link to the entire piece from which the fragment came.  A fun way to explore the poems and writings.

Here is the link to the entry poem to A Poetic Inventory of Saguaro National Park  (remember to click around in it to find the source poems and writings and note that these poems may contain highlighted fragments in turn).

Here are a few I especially liked:

Sonoron Whiptail Lizard: Personal Ad by Valerina Quintana
Raven by Shawna Thompson
Mountain Lion by Ken Lamberton
Questions for a Saguaro by Alison Hawthorne Deming
Jumping Cholla by Logan Phillips

rustic water stop

rustic water stop

a place to hold your horses?

3/16/12 Tubac, AZ

I passed by this bench outside an art store in Tubac recently, nicely done!

real tree, sculptured birds...

3/16/2012, Canon 7d, Tubac, AZ

Tucson MoctoberFest 2012 pictures

 I had a great time Saturday night down at the Tucson MoctoberFest listening to bands, watching dancers, a wide range of great performers, and shooting a few pictures while at it.   I rotated the above picture upside down for a different perspective -- hey, they're acrobats, they should be able to handle it.  :-)

In addition to being a great event on its own, the MoctoberFest was also a fundraiser for Many Mouths One Stomach, the organization behind the wonderful All Souls Procession held every year in Tucson.

The festival setting was held inside the courtyard of the Mercado  San Agustin and in the parking lot to the west of the building (below) looking up at Tumamoc Hill.  It was really nice listening to a band on the main stage while looking up at the Orion constellation in the night sky overhead!

Hoops!  Lots of hoops at this festival!

and silk artists

and costumes and smiles!   The Orbital Evolution Hula Hoop Troupe are always fun to watch.  They also provided Hula Hoops for adults and kids to enjoy in the grassy area inside the Mercado.

and happy feet!  -- I really enjoyed watching some outstanding dancers dancing to a great African rhythm beat.

in addition to two main stage areas, there were some small breakout groups as well

a family friendly event, there were a number of activities for children

Once it got dark there were many "sideshow" performances, including Professor Carl Noggle’s Tesla Coil -- a truely electrifying performance.

she's standing on the top of a giant Tesla coil, has potential...  ;-)

long exposure of a great led poi dancer

oh, and to be accurate, here is the correct perspective of the picture at the start of this blog entry,  Flight School during their very cool performance.

and here is my full set of MoctoberFest pictures (about 100) on a flickr slide show (click the bottom right icon to expand to full screen)...   Enjoy!  I did!