Back to brown…

“I don’t need no fun, little girl, but I sure could use some pills”*

January 28th we arrived in Benicia for the first time in the decade only, in my case, to leave seven days later accompanied by National Propaganda Radio’s obsessively repetitive parsing

of the previous evening’s heady package of exaggerations and made-for-TV mini-dramas until they breathlessly broke for live coverage of the Senate’s live Ceremony of Democratic Humiliations at which point, crossing Sierra Valley, I checked out to listen to Tuareg music

until the California washboard became too rough for CDs, leaving the Majority to vote en bloc to exonerate their adored fuckwit in the willed absence of evidence…any evidence.  Neither trial

nor due process necessary.  While they had their fun I pulled over at Sand Pass

for a belated minimal lunch and then pushed on up the desert to low skies at Wall Spring

but Thursday was clear and bright.  22 degrees and warming, all fine although

during watercolors the news revealed yet another new low bar for the Sore Winners Party when their Leader devoted a meandering hour of “celebration” to lash out, insult and discredit [as best he can and is best at] any and everyone who’d doubted his “perfect phone call” which until convinced otherwise I don’t doubt was a perfectly laid trap to force the House into their doomed Impeachment inquiry…but even then the chickenshit Reppupetlicans still lacked the balls to allow their own rigged game to play out.  Well, whatever works…

“The rules have changed and we don’t have to abide by the new ones either.”**

Caravaggio’s rules of chiaroscuro still hold, however,

and the ’82 still fired up, getting right to work after some minor fussing with the battery leads

as did, not needing her leads fussed with, the 11 1/2 year old dog…and that Martin Senour “Ultra-Cadmium”? Thirty four years on the desert and still…yellow.  Probably be illegal now.

Our weekend trended warmer

but way windier

WAY windier…for awhile anyway.

Then it got cold, but with low dust

on the desert and clouds lit by full moon over mountains a good wintry kind of cold.

 

* Terry Allen, “Helena Montana”,1980

**MSM, “With Liberty and Justice for Oil”, 2001

9 thoughts on “Back to brown…

  1. Maria

    ‘There’ll be better times, but I’ll get by with these.’ Attributes to Tom Waits… thanks as always for the soothing and uplifting pictures. And yeah… that paint must be illegal. Or discontinued because of excessive durability.

    Reply
    1. mikesmoore Post author

      Absolutely right…I looked up Marin Senour and they only do automotive finishes now; no more Ulta-Violet, Ulra-Shamrock [oh, that was a great one!]…no more Ultra Tones. I painted a lot of San Francisco trim with that stuff, back in the day…

      Reply
  2. kirk moore

    As our Demockery descends to authoritarian lawlessness under Hell Trump and his spineless minions, it’s reassuring to know chiaroscuro rules still hold true; especially in your excellent photos. One can only hope the discombobulated Dems can get their shit together in a last stand come November. Iowa caucuses did not portend well; the Repuppeticans are no doubt ecstatic. Sigh.
    Enjoy the desert! It looks much better than almost everywhere else.

    Reply
  3. gregg renfrow

    Yes!!

    “Long live Caravaggio” — who showed us the fine distinction between the Dark and the Light…and that even a candle can dissipate a whole lot of Darkness (doesn’t even have to be a “perfect” candle).

    + +

    “Well, I throw myself up against a wall.
    Cause I’d rather feel bad than nothing at all.”
    – Warren Zevon

    Reply
  4. Janet Whitchurch

    I love these winter pictures out at Wall….always have. The ones between “….rules have changed” and “…. the ‘82 charged..” were particularly beautiful, especially the vertical diptych at the end.

    Reply
  5. Ann B Miller

    These pictures are so crisp and chill. Brown windy hill painting, the bocce ball court (:D), the Caravaggio effect, and that rascally blend of trees in the two photos. Love them all.

    Reply

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