The infamous winter SAND HILL CRANE FLY IN of Wilcox, Arizona

In several places, the sand hill cranes gather either to winter...or stop during the spring migration north. If your lucky...you'll find them.


This flock was hanging around Wilcox, Arizona...right smack down south in the desert. Unusual upland wetlands bird...to be doing winters in the desert southwest?. But, oddly enough...this part of Arizona has a lot of standing water?

If you've never seen a muttering flock of Sand Hill Cranes wing over head with outstretched wings measuring seven feet.......you just don't know what America is all about.

This crane is...a majestic bird.

"Madness" and "Art": two kissing cousins?

In Blythe, California....not far from the western border with Arizona...near Quartzite....is a very interesting piece of spray can graffiti art.








I think this artist....could go a long way...towards being well known

"Salvation Mountain" by SAINT LEONARD KNIGHT...(from somewhere in the California desert)

Note: click blogpost title above to get linked to a Youtube video tour of this FOLK ART CREATION by Saint Leonard Knight.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvation_Mountain


From wikipedia "Salvation Mountain":



Salvation Mountain is a colorful art installation covering much of a small hill north of Calipatria, California, near Slab City and just several miles from the Salton Sea.


It is made from adobe, straw, and thousands of gallons of paint.


It was created by Leonard Knight to convey the message "God Is Love."



Another of Leonard's expressions "Keep It Simple" refers back to his message of universal love.


Knight refused substantial donations of money and labor from supporters who wished to modify his message of universal love to favor or disfavor particular groups.[citation needed]








Steps cut into the side of the hill (Leonard calls them the "Yellow Brick Road") lead to the summit, which is topped by a cross.



Salvation Mountain also features many large straw bale and adobe walls supported by a matrix of logs enclosing several cave-like spaces.




Knight lives full-time at the site in a small cabin mounted on the rear of a 1930s-vintage Chevrolet two-ton truck.


Like Salvation Mountain, Knight's "Salvation Truck" and a collection of other vehicles and machinery are entirely covered with paint and Biblical quotes.




He estimates that more than 100,000 gallons of paint have gone into the creation of the mountain and that every California-based paint manufacturer has donated paint to the project. Visitors are gifted post cards depicting the mountain and copies of a documentary about Leonard and his mountain.




Over 25 years of labour has truly created a "Mountain out of a mole hill" and left many a visitor inspired by his selfless dedication and passion.




Friendly and accessible, Leonard welcomes visitors to Slab City and Salvation Mountain and gladly accepts donations of both labor and acrylic paint.



"This thing is really catching on!" he often exclaims to visitors.



Once labeled an environmental hazard, the hill was threatened with removal by Imperial County. In recent years, the furor seems to have died down and the project has been likened to an epic work of folk art comparable to the Watts Towers.



Although the project is an unauthorized one on state land, Salvation Mountain was placed under protection in 2002 when Senator Barbara Boxer entered it into the Congressional Record as a national treasure.



Salvation Mountain was featured in the 2007 film Into the Wild, as well as several documentaries including Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea, Desertopia, and Mountain.


It can also be seen on the back cover photographs of the Kyuss albums ...And The Circus Leaves Town and Muchas Gracias: The Best of Kyuss, and on the Switchfoot Album Hello Hurricane.

SHOOTING THE MONKEYS IN LAUGHLIN, NV

Hey Partner....welcome to Laughlin, Nevada.

Have you "shot the monkeys?"

Good luck finding them....nobody seems to notice unless they carry a camera????








Carrying a camera...somehow...changes your reality.

Now you appreciate the objects, sights, and sites around you.















If you find this sign...you are close to "finding the monkeys"...so...you can say...."I shot the monkeys" once in Nevada.

SHOOTING THE MONKEYS IN LAUGHLIN, NV: part two

Found a new angle of attack when "shooting the monkeys" in Laughlin, NV.


While driving up the ramp to park at The Golden Nugget (my favorite hotel casino in Laughlin)...I noticed that....with some elevation (7th Floor)...one could get another look at the infamous giant monkey statutes in Laughlin.





Some monkeys have the original light fixture flame...others...seem to be holding a long bugle...to trumpet the banality of our existence on this dying orb?





If you shoot photos around this area....you'll be looking for some different subjects.

And....the giant monkeys....are too funky to ignore.

I think in the morning....the sun out of the east...gives you another chance to do a line up type shot with soft light.

But...I'll save that for another day.





I kind of wonder if "shooting the monkeys" is another new phrase to throw around...while trying to pretend to be hip?


Like "jumping the shark" was used to death after being birthed by some Hollywood hipster referring to that old Happy Days TV show episode...when....FONZI actually did an Evil Knievel jump over a shark tank on his motorcycle.




ABC ran the previews of that...and scored a big ratings win during the crucial time frame for Neilsen ratings.

So...."jumping the shark" means...your "promoting something that fizzles" after people see it.

Remember Geraldo Rivera's "Opening of Al Capone's vault" long ago.

Unbelievable hype over nothing.

Anti climax....was defined by that vain dip shit so long ago...in my youth.

And I think...Geraldo should always be remembered as a gilded edge disappointment to the latino advance on America.

Geraldo's father in law, Kurt Vonnegut, couldn't stand that son of a bitch.

Ya know?

I'll take Ceasar Chavez any day.

A guy who toiled in the fields, then stood up for his people against aerial spraying of herbicide on farm workers who were not allowed to leave the field before the spraying?




Chavez also championed the rights of female workers to NOT BE SEXUALLY HARASSED which is still a problem addressed in The Imperial Valley fields today (California).

I remember seeing Chavez speak at The Univ of Texas in 1990...to a packed exuberant audience...and that was my first experience with Latinos championing their rights, and I was emotionally taken away with the excitement and shouts in support of this very honest, beautiful soul who organized the infamous Grape Boycott so long ago.


So....uh...well...."shooting the monkeys" means...you serendipitously found something that others ignored.....and....you found exalted value in something taken for granted.

"Eureka!...it's gold nuggets as far as the eye can see!".




I think you got to have a little "Aries" personality or pathfinding extincts to look and find your own monkeys.




I think you got to be a bit of a free thinker to see the monkeys that are all around us....and, uh...hey...remember I said that "carrying a camera" changes your vision?

Carrying a camera...can change what you notice while seeing?




You are what you think, and what you think is effected by what you see....and, if you are unfortunate enough (or perhaps lucky) to be isolated you can blaze trails like Georgia O'Keefe finding the magnification of flowers...as a way of worshipping the life force......while totally cut off from New York Art Circles while hermitting at Ghost Ranch in New Mexico.....right?




Her isolation created the freedom to notice and then see....what she wanted to exalt...towards a startling artistic vision.

Maybe, you really are a Remote Viewer, but...got jammed up by all the annoyances of everyday life, and "didn't listen to yourself long enough?".



Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm......maybe you need to be out in the wilderness by yourself (with a camera and laptop and maybe a cat named "Sinatra") for long periods of "self affirming, self seeking, self absorbed, self imposed" ISOLATION to confront Eric Fromm's "fear of aloneness"...so you can...uh...BREAK ON THROUGH TO THE OTHER SIDE?




Isolated from any meaningful dissent can be good or bad......sometimes "alienation serves as a caccoon" protecting untested ethics, morals, views of reality ("threat assessments" and "friend assessments").


Isolation of groups....can be disastrous since groups have more power together.




GROUP THINK by definition only crops up when groups are cut off from opposing views or personalities (remember "Hawks vs. Doves" during Viet Nam?).




So be careful choosing and finding your monkeys.

You can easily play the fool to the sound of one hand clapping.

There are hobbyists who restore and drive Ford Edsels from the fifties?




Perhaps...you have to be like Kerouac who admitted, "...the only thing I had to offer was my own confusion...".




PS: "...don't forget the giant eternal flames..." keeping those monkeys warm.