PICTURE THIS

By Sturgeone, a Trail Mix Contributor

My friend Don, from Rapid City, liked to draw.   He would doodle cartoons all the time when I met him in 70 when he joined our acid-rock band, and did for many years after in many different bands all over the country.  During one of his goings-to-ground in Winston-Salem, he actually got to go to the local community college there and take some art courses, and began painting pictures.  After our last hoo-rah, the tour up into Canada in 82, he went back home to Rapid and opened an illustration  business.  We stayed in touch and after the Internet came he began to send me some pics of some of his paintings over the years.  I got this pic around 2010—a self-portrait titled “Bring it On”.  He never mentioned anything overtly but shortly after, I got word he’d died.

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blueINdallas
6 years ago

That is a powerful pic.   There’s a lot going on.   Such a talent.  Such a loss.

patd
6 years ago

sturge, your friend don was quite an artist.  very expressive portrait.

at first glance, I thought you had posted a thread about john Bolton…. the clown nose must have made me think that.

patd
6 years ago

Miami herald:
Staring down the prospect of a public relations crisis — boycott threats and “die-in” protests included — over its donations to Republican gubernatorial hopeful Adam Putnam, Publix said Friday it has halted all corporate political contributions.
 
The supermarket giant made the announcement moments before a “die-in” protest planned by David Hogg, a vocal Parkland school shooting survivor and gun control activist. Despite the news, Hogg and dozens of protesters sprawled on the floor of a Coral Springs Publix for 12 minutes clutching sunflowers and signs that read “No NRA Money.”
 
Hogg and other students began their influential movement for gun control in the wake of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting that left 17 dead and 17 wounded. They’ve taken aim particularly at the National Rifle Association, and were angered at the news of the grocer’s unprecedented support for Putnam, who once boasted he was a “proud NRA sellout.”
 
At $670,000 over the last three years, it’s the largest contribution the company has made in more than two decades and possibly the biggest in company history.
[….]
Publix, Florida’s largest private employer, is also one of the state’s biggest political donors.

patd
6 years ago

if interested read more from the Miami herald and carl Hiaasen about that grocery chain and “Adam Putnam, the Publix candidate for Florida governor”

stuff like:
As agriculture commissioner, Putnam’s office is in charge of regulating grocery outlets, and you probably won’t be stunned to learn of his big-hearted leniency toward Publix.

and like:
No candidate in Florida has ever received such a gusher of funds from the ubiquitous supermarket chain. Friday, in the face of a growing boycott threat because of Putnam’s full-throated support of the NRA and his Trump-ish immigration philosophy, Publix announced that it has ended all corporate political contributions.

patd
6 years ago

BTW,  I loved shopping at publix stores and miss them terribly.  Kroger here in ky isn’t so bad, but they just can’t make a decent cheesecake topped with cherries and whipped crème like their colleague from the nether regions.

patd
6 years ago

NBCnewyork:
Trump Administration Has Cut Deal With China’s ZTE: Source
“If the administration goes through with this reported deal, President Trump would be helping make China great again,” said Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer
 

patd
6 years ago

ever notice that hat is red?

some kind of subliminal message there?

anyone remember when “In the west, the term “Red” and “Red scare” were synonymous with the fear of Communism”?   

here’s an old 2011 article from IBTtimes discussing Why Is The Color Red Associated With Communism?

Flatus
6 years ago

Sturg,
Your friend Don was a marvelous artist. I see one of the key features of his last portrait being the halo. To me it signifies a life of fulfillment; thanks for sharing

Blonde Wino
6 years ago

Welcome back, Jamie…some vacation.   All the drugs humans take end-up in the puget sound!
Back in Feb., it was the salmon.
(SJ. the blues are waxy, moist spuds…about a month ago, we harvested the new potatoes (both red and blue) and oven baked them after marinating in organic olive oil.  Hubby and I have quit potato chips, but still love our spuds and grease.)

Blonde Wino
6 years ago

Border Patrol union chief…troops on the border a colossal waste of resources! 

For those of us who live here?   Tired of trump’s trashing the border as he loots the US of AA.   How much is this pretend potus costing us?  I have tried to find a group or online resource of how we are to keep a running total on this guy.  All the unclean and corrupt staff fired or removed from the WH are working for the rnc or trump 2020 campaign.  The entire presidency is a sacking of our resources to please and reward trump and his cronies.  Theft in pure sight, yet no one is tracking.    The border is a campaign rallying cry, but for the real world? Humans live and work here and actually enjoy the area without fear.  It is one of the safest areas of the US of AA that I have lived-in in my entire life.

Blonde Wino
6 years ago

I corrected it, sturge and when you use the edit function, the photo disappears.  I have reloaded the photo with corrections…twice.  I may have to do a third time.

Blonde Wino
6 years ago

Watercolor & ink from my late BIL.   I call this one ‘American Pickers’ as it reminds me of the show on the history channel which is also found on the free Spanish station.  In espanol, of course.   Watching Mike pick while the voice over speaks in Spanish.   Fun to watch.

(third attempt)

Blonde Wino
6 years ago

Art imitates nature…a ‘drawing’ from Mother Nature’s art book…a fossil in the rock wall…sort of looks like a seed or fig-like fruit found in rock that predated the ‘big die-off’ of life on the planet.

Blonde Wino
6 years ago

I love it when you refresh, Sturge, however, it is easier for me to start over.

RebelliousRenee
6 years ago

Jamie…   so relieved to see you back here!  When Lisa said something about coagulating blood, I thought it might be your heart.  Not that sciatica is anything to sneeze at.

Love the charcoal prints!

Blonde Wino
6 years ago

From 2016, tea party now controls the drones.

pompeo and his nuclear drive.   Giving prosperity to n.korea while dumping the iran deal which gave the iranians their money back..pompeo gifts kim an enticement of prosperity, a working electrical grid, a trump hotel —  a full deck of trumpian infrastructure paid for by US taxpayers.  I paid nothing for the iran deal as we should have made some money from the interest of their ‘frozen assets’ we held since last century.

Blonde Wino
6 years ago

Sturge…time travel is a bit tricky as we age.  Some seniors have a hard time remembering what day of the week it is!

Blonde Wino
6 years ago

Sturge, I spent a lot of vacation time in the Black Hills of S. Dakota.   I have to resurrect some old photos of Wounded Knee, Strawberry Hill, buffalo herds, Mt. Rushmore, Deadwood, Boot Hill cemetery…

craigcrawford
6 years ago

Sturge, love Stanley’s work. Thanks for sharing. And yes, for reasons I don’t understand, images disappear after editing the comment.

Blonde Wino
6 years ago

Pay to play timeline of the deputy finance chairs of the rnc.

Crooks R’US
After Trump won the election, both men were named deputy finance chairmen of the Republican National Committee, and quietly began making deals. Cohen signed up corporations including Novartis and AT&T, plus the government of Ukraine and an investment fund linked to a sanctioned Russian billionaire, to provide access and “insight” about the Trump administration. Meanwhile, Broidy won huge deals for his security firm Circinus, largely by working with Lebanese-American businessman and convicted pedophile George Nader to advance the interests of Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates in Washington.
Cohen and Broidy didn’t begin with much in common. Cohen was a graduate of an unheralded law school, personal injury attorney, and investor in New York City taxi medallions who made himself essential to the Trump business empire as a fixer. Broidy was a polished money manager used to wielding political connections, and not always legally: He was convicted on a felony bribery charge in 2009 that was later downgraded to a misdemeanor.

blueINdallas
6 years ago
blueINdallas
6 years ago

Louie Gomert, bah. What a goober!

blueINdallas
6 years ago

I can’t get it copy, but #CarryTheLoad to share your story of fallen heroes or check out the Carry The Load site.

Katherine Graham Cracker
6 years ago

Sturg

What a wonderful life you have – so many talented friends and amazing experiences thanks for sharing a bit of it.

I posted a picture of Fin admiring himself while staying at friends during a flood evacuation

Katherine Graham Cracker
6 years ago

Sturg

A friend of grade school recently friended me on Facebook and it meant interacting with a bunch of other people from grade school and hs.    I was shocked when they all turned out to be 72…and I thought wow we are old.   A lot of people from our hs class are dead

Jamie44
6 years ago

Sturgeone

For all those traveling music makers out there:   All The Road Running

 

Jamie44
6 years ago

RR

The heart was what they couldn’t mess with.  Mine is “structurally sound” (how’s that for a description?) but it is lazy and plays in ragtime so I take Warfarin.   They couldn’t get my INR down low enough to do the spinal injection (can’t be done when you are on a blood thinner), so they were juggling between pain and process to get me on my feet and back to my regular MDs.  All is organized now.  Never really in danger just took up screaming as a part time activity which other than walking from point A to point B now stays at intermittent swearing.

 

blueINdallas
6 years ago

sj – It looks like, Cuomo is getting a show on CNN.  ???

patd
6 years ago

alas…..all the friends are dying off or stroking out…..
 
bummer, but whaddya gonna do, eh?
sturge, for starters you could cram all these pictures and great stories you tell us into a book.   too bad imus isn’t still available to make it a best seller on amazon, but I bet the trail here would buy a few even if we have heard them before.

 

patd
6 years ago

bw,  you noted the twit has promised north Koreans “a working electrical grid” courtesy of us taxpayers–

think he might give our fellow American taxpayers in Puerto Rico one too while he’s at it?

patd
6 years ago

in today’s courier journal, a letter to editor by one very clever Rev. Isaac McDaniel titled “The firearm’s prayer”

 

Our Firearm,

which art a weapon,

hollow be thy blame.

Thy carnage come.

Thy harm be done

on Earth in the name of Heaven.

Give us this day our daily dead,

and forgive us our doubts

as we ignore those who shout against you.

And lead us not into compassion,

but deliver us to anger.

For Thine is the chaos

and the bloodshed

and the gun smoke

forever and ever.

Amen.

 

patd
6 years ago

craig & tony & purple, listen up. this from click Orlando:
How Subtropical Storm Alberto could affect Central Florida, by county
 
A county-by-county breakdown of how the storm could affect you
 

Flatus
6 years ago

Damn it Sturg, I thought it was Gene Autry that yodeled.

craigcrawford
6 years ago

Thanks for the storm link PatD. Luckily Southern Command is on high ground (for Florida), we’ve not flooded in all 50 years living here. looks like now is a good time to lay down some lawn fertilizer.

xrepublican
6 years ago

Mr Sturgeone,

I want a happy ending.  Y’know, like Carol wanted to have a kid so badly that she was fit to be tied down, and then suddenly, as if by miracle she was pregnant. That there was only enough gas to go a couple miles, but the vehicle kept cruising (admittedly with a stiff tailwind) for sixty miles, until you were safely out of the desert. That the dirty drizzle finally stopped and the biggest and most brilliant rainbow since Noah’s day stretched from horizon to horizon. That there, at the rainbows end, Carol picked a lottery ticket off of the pavement outside the pink-fronted ice cream parlor. And on Tuesday that ticket turned out to be the big jackpot winner. That sort o’thing, y’know ?

Pogeaux
6 years ago

Tried out a new local barbecue place today. Brisket, ribs, pulled pork and chicken. Mrs P & I had the brisket and LP had a brisket and pulled pork sandwich. Sides were potato salad, cole slaw and smoked baked beans. Hope it survives. It was delicious. In the immortal words of Ahhhhnold, I’ll be back.

patd
6 years ago

pogo, tomato based bbq sauce or Carolina style vinegar?  and how was the slaw?  I always judge bbq places by their slaw.

a lot of the better bbqs (the down home ones that is, not the franchises) here have mutton in addition to beef brisket and pork. plenty more sheep and goats nowadays.

patd
6 years ago

ping pong & mr doodlesdog, you guys too beware the coming storm.  awful early this year.  bodes bad.

Blue Bronc
6 years ago

Sturg – very good post and comments!

Traildust Steak House – used to buy cheap ties to get a drink.  Had to take visitors to those, same as making sure flatlanders experienced The Fort and Casa Bonita.  We handed them ties too.  Loved to do down the slide.  The last in Denver closed in 2009.

BW = Senioritis. Lost my keys, before I locked myself out of the house this morning.  Three hours later I get a locksmith who was not going to charge two hundred or more to pick the lock and spend another thirty minutes searching for the keys.  I had dropped them in a place I rarely ever go. I invited my neighbor over to watch how little time it takes to get in a house.  This locksmith used air bags and a plastic shiv, it took him about ninety seconds.  Others who pick the lock are in within thirty seconds.  I was not able to pick the lock using a bent hairpin and bent ring cotter pin. The last pin would not go up, something about security feature.

 

 

Pogeaux
6 years ago

Patd, the meat was smoked with a spicy-sweet sauce (tomato based)- they had 5 sauces for serving.  I had the spicy bourbon on mine. Mrs P had the Carolina spicy sauce. Both were very good. LP went for the spicy-sweet. All were delicious. The slaw was good – leaning more toward vinegar and less toward mayo (I’m a mayo guy). And the corn muffins were very good.

blueINdallas
6 years ago

Next weekend is National Gun Violence Awareness (how could anyone not be aware?)

wearorange.org

Jamie44
6 years ago

Desperately in need of caption and/or comment

 

Jamie44
6 years ago

Sturgeone

We all miss Patsi large sizes.  She was the trail’s mom and our constant moral and music source.

Jamie44
6 years ago

 33m33 minutes ago

Over 8 months later and there are still American citizens in Puerto Rico without power with Hurricane season beginning in just 6 days. US Virgin Islands are still in crisis. Flint still doesn’t have clean water. 1,475 migrant children are missing. But a wall, a parade and golf.

xrepublican
6 years ago

Thanks for all the stories and music, Mr Sturgeone. You’re better than any “reality tv” show.

Btw, what brand of beer did Kenny Rogers get for Mr Schlitz ?

 

Jamie44
6 years ago

Sturgeone

Great playlist you have going there.