Taozerini, originally uploaded by A Lon MacLean.

99. Misc photos '08...More to come...

Miscellaneous photos from El Big Valley, 2008. Please stay tuned for more!

Welcome to the Propane Gas tank!

El Big is a city in Onion County.
It is the county seat.
The community was named for the river valley.
The latitude of El Big is 45.324N. The longitude is -118.086W. It is in the Pacific Standard time zone. Elevation is 2,772 feet. Add 10 feet for those who drive these things.

93. First Folk

A few historical photos from the El Big region's history books...
Their leader, Chief Joseph, famous for promoting peace.

Local Tribesman Rattlin' Pete

First folk NW regional cuisine side dish

A first bungalow




The man assigned to control the unruly warriors

Chief Lookinglass, the man who led the fight for the lands.
A local tribeman warrior
Meeting for the land allottment, 1889
Famous face
The beautiful cultural center/ museum/ art center/cafe 1 hr north of El Big

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I am honored to be an invited artist for a fundraiser event in November.
Stay tuned for event photos.
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92. A Happy Halloween

A good mix of El Bigians meet at the local pub for dancing and fun. For the first time in years I don't wear a costume, but just have a great time taking photos.

Halloween at El Big U comes early with threats of layoffs and department closures. Rumors fly, and morph from positive to negative, back to positive and back again. Socializing becomes more trying as the days lead up to the announcement. One sharp coworker muses, "I don't know what's more annoying---those who are overly positive or those who are completely doomsday."

Statewide issues, deep-seeded management problems, unfortunate pr, and cancellations of programs causes the school to find itself millions of dollars short. The interim leader announces the cuts to the public on Halloween. Science, Math and Language take the hits. Que calls me at home the moment he hears about his job status. I am relieved to hear that Que's department is merely reorganized and reshuffled, but doesn't lose a single tenured instructor.
The one truly shocking costume was a truck driver in red white and blue hotpants.

Later that night we meet up with the survivors at the pub for a bit of sober reflection. The pub is having a small but fairly rowdy costume party. The bartender delivers us round of drinks from a former student seated at the bar. "See you in twenty years!" he says. He raises his glass to us as we leave the party.

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91. VSOPD.2

An onion truck on our Sunday drive.

90. VSPD

"Reputations are everything"

91. Art

Art inspired by the SFSU Grad student art opening food table, 2004

90. Public Safety Report

Drawing in the dark is hard.
Please click on image

89. VSPD 2 fer Bonus Posting!!

This week is a 2 fer Bonus photo, simply because while we toodled around the block for me to take this VSPD, I spotted the below image as well.

"Honey, I'm ho-ome!"
"I kno-ow!"

Race percentages from county website
Students are not counted.

White (91.8%)
Hspnc (2.8%)
2 or more races (2.1%)
Am Indn (1.5%)
Other (1.4%)
Ntive HA and Other Pac Is (0.9%)
African Am (0.7%)

Yet county is above average for foreign born in the state.
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88. VSHD

Just about every day is a special headline day.

87. Some Favorite Things

One of the greatest things about participating in a local race in a small town is that it greatly increases your chances of winning.

Que and I tie for first place in our division. Nevermind that there were about 75 participants tops, and maybe 15 participants in what Que called "the senior division"...

Dancing lady orchid plant gift from the nice neighbor lady
Another great thing about living in a small town is knowing your neighbors by name. For the 6 years I rented a flat in the Castro neighborhood in SF, I didn't meet a single neighbor until I knew I had to move and have a garage sale.
Ok, so I'm not a hot, gay male gym rat, but it still seems strange to me that I didn't meet anyone until I had to leave.


The mayor is an accessable human being---not a celebrity in glossy magazines. (No offense R.) Last month the mayor, who is also a prof, held a potluck and cocktails at her house. That reminds me--I still need to return her spoon...


Another favorite --- Strange signage. This sign almost sounds demanding.


Organic local produce. This farmer was selling about a half dozen small baskets of seasonal vegetables. I plucked up the last of these odd baby eggplants. When I asked him about them, he said he planted them because they're beautiful.

Could I move back to the big city? Sure, I could if we had to. But as of today, I don't think I want to.

xo,
Ms. JD

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86. Entry #003 "Deli meat with Pickles"

Ugly Building Contest Entry #003
Front
If you've been following The Tank for any amount of time, you've probably noticed that EB fully embraced the mauve trend in the 1980's. Maybe it's just me, but mauve has always reminded me of the color of headcheese, or bologne, or any sort of block of nitrate deli meat you might find chillin' behind the counter of any corner convienent store in Oaktown.

Side view

Aerial view

Long Shot
The PGT agrees, "Deli Meat with Pickles" is best viewed while squinting from a distance.

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85.

84. Saturday Morning Rant

Seeing all these cute solar panels on everything from path lights to oven mits takes me back to the year Jimmy Carter was elected president. When my gradeschool teacher Mr. Johnson did a poll in our class asking whose parents voted D or R, I was the only kid in my Northern CA 5th grade class who raised my hand for D. I knew little about Carter, except that he had really big teeth and my dad and all his friends seemed really excited about his ideas and the prospect of him becoming president. In the late 70's, solar energy was something that was considered outsider and radical and something crazy hippies and arty types tinkered with.

Carter, "...We must not be selfish or timid if we hope to have a decent world for our children and grandchildren. We simply must balance our demand for energy with our rapidly shrinking resources."


In his campaign against Reagan in 1980:

"The year 2000 is just less than 20 years away, just four Presidential elections after this one. Children born this year will come of age in the 21st century. The time to shape the world of the year 2000 is now. The decisions of the next few years will set our course, perhaps an irreversible course, and the most important of all choices will be made by the American people at the polls less than 3 months from tonight..."

"The choice could not be more clear nor the consequences more crucial. In one of the futures we can choose, the future that you and I have been building together, I see security and justice and peace. I see a future of economic security-security that will come from tapping our own great resources of oil and gas, coal and sunlight... I see a future of justice--the justice of good jobs, decent health care, quality education, a full opportunity for all people regardless of color or language or religion; the simple human justice of equal rights for all men and for all women, guaranteed equal rights at last under the Constitution of the United States of America. And I see a future of peace--a peace born of wisdom and based on a fairness toward all countries of the world, a peace guaranteed both by American military strength and by American moral strength as well.

But there is another possible future. In that other future I see despair--despair of millions who would struggle for equal opportunity and a better life and struggle alone. And I see surrender--the surrender of our energy future to the merchants of oil, the surrender of our economic future to a bizarre program of massive tax cuts for the rich, service cuts for the poor, and massive inflation for everyone."




As ever, Ms. Jane D


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