Day 74: Drought in the Tree Section

Our house is surrounded by trees. Some are protected by law, but I think most builders get around that somehow. The house across the street for example, had one original owner since the 50s, an ornamental horticulture teacher at the local high school, Fred Eckert. His house was, not surprisingly, surrounded by trees and other foliage. I wrote about and showed the empty lot in a previous post. Now the frame of a McMansion has gone up and the only green or living thing is one skinny tall tree at the very edge of the lot.

We have three pine trees along the 19th Street side of the house, all different types. The one in the middle, which helped to keep the living room cool in former years, has become a victim of the drought. When I first saw these growths upon it, I thought they were sap sacs, and that it had been attacked by pine beetles, but they are actually mushrooms. I find them creepy yet kind of beautiful.

The other pine trees and the bouganvillea are doing fine.

 


My mom won or was given this cheese plant at a luncheon thing. It has been repotted a few times and somehow survived my father's neglect. Yes, it's looking a bit sad here, but I'm doing my best to revive it, even though we are only allowed to water plants on Wednesday nights. It's already looking a bit better than this photo taken a couple of months ago.

This guy always reminded me of the plants in the primeval world train ride at Disneyland; before it was cut back, and had some really enormous leaves, I half expected to see a giant dragonfly on it. (If you've been on that ride, you'll know what I mean.)

 Here Gigi wonders why I am outside taking photographs and not taking her to check her pee mail.

Day 73: Photos Taken Around the House - Living Room Edition Part Two

My father apparently spooked by a visit from some John Street neighbors on Halloween.

My mom with a chubby toddler Drake, sometime in 2008

My dad with some friends; from the balloon I gather this must have been his retirement party in 1990.

Another shot from that same party; toward the kitchen:

 And here, in the living room. I miss that lamp!
 

 

Still life: the mantelpiece, probably in the 80s.

My parents in the 80s:

My mom in the 80s: coffee cup, cigarette in ashtray, calculator, TV Guide, shoes off... There would have been a mystery novel on the footstool. I believe that was the first Mac there on the desk, or else the second one. Remember when you had to print on continuous paper? Note the Eames chair too.

Kristin and our cousin Keith on the couch:

They seem to be transfixed by something on TV.

Here I have joined them. From the music books on the organ and the tablecloth I can deduce this was around Christmas. It would have been some year in the late 90s.

Different clothes but same visit I believe:

Also in the 90s I think, but a few years earlier (as I have pointed out before, that couch and blanket have been in the same position since 1984 and that TV lasted at least a decade; the stereo arrived in the late 80s and has remained ever since, even though the turntable and tape deck stopped working years ago), my brother multitasks.

This David Hockney print is still hanging up in the living room. I think it was acquired in the 90s.

The big TV arrived in the mid 00s. This might have been my mom's birthday, maybe 2007?

Going back to the mid 80s, my sister and Berndt, her ex.

A friend of my sister's, some Christmas in the 80s at which I was not present.

Here Drake is very small, so this would have been late summer, 2007.

And we end with a couple of shots from the mid 70s. One Easter my sister created Easter eggs for each member of Mott the Hoople. It was difficult to shoot small objects back then... And hey, I am suddenly wondering, what happened to that mid century modern chair shown on the left?!

Here you can see the faces a tiny bit better, though not as clearly as the record sleeves or portable hibachi...

More to come; we aren't done with the living room yet!

Day 72: My Forgotten Life in Art Part Two

As I said at the end of part one, I liked to draw hair.

This is just some dude with my ideal hairdo. Maybe a bit heavy-handed on the eyebrows, but at least he has two of them!

 

I thought this was another fictional dude, but then I remembered he was the drummer of Argent. I guess I dug his hair.

For these guys I copied the album cover; no need to sit in an art gallery....

 

Mark Farner had super long hair, but this length had more body. It's from the time that Todd produced Grand Funk.

Here's a second attempt; he looks slightly less gruff:

I cannot remember if this was an actual person or not!

 Early Troubadour style Elton had nicer hair to draw.

 Johnny Winter with and without hair. They were both copied from photographs, but the second one ended up looking a lot like Mr. Clean. (Does Mr. Clean still exist?)

I gave some unknown guy Marc Bolan ringlets and Alice Cooper eye makeup.

 Well, this one is Marc Bolan... And some other dude with heavy makeup...

And I'll close this part with another fictional character - a cross between Marc Bolan, Pete Docherty and that dude from Hayzi Fantayzee, it appears, although the latter two were not around in 1975 of course! Note that I was using the artist name Desdemona at the time...

 -

Day 71: Photos Taken Around the House: Family Room Edition Part One

This next selection of photos were all taken in the family room.

Yeah, I'm wearing one of my homemade shirts as a dress again. I made this from a Misterrogers LP cover that Greg Salva gave me. It's 1979 as I only have one tail; Rick Wilder tried to cut it off with thinning scissors when I was staying at Mau-Mau Manor one weekend.

Not completely sure who the puppeteers are here, but I just found and washed those glove puppets last week. Those would be my Christmas cards on the cork board. And my dad's 3D map below.

My sister and her friends trying on some headgear. And yes, that's a Grand Funk 3D poster behind them I believe.

 Not sure where I was going but that's my mom's wedding dress. This would have been 1984 I think.

 Peter Schaaf and ??? Looks like he's just gone for a swim.

Christmas Day 1983; Mikey had spent the night on the sofabed. I am playing my new Falling Spiders "video" game.

 Kristin's self portrait with reflection of the bumper pool table.

They usually preferred my parents' bed upstairs, but here Tabitha and Daisy are snuggled on the downstairs couch. Note some of my artwork in the foreground; jar of peanut butter and fireplace popcorn maker in the background.