Raven Jake Dawes

MBHS Executive Board 2010-2011

 
Congratulations to the Morongo Basin Historical Society [MBHS] Executive Board for 2010-2011! From left: Rachel Crawford, treasurer; Barbara Harris, president; Lloyd Noel, 2nd vice-president, financial; Peggy Portemour, secretary; Carole Schreiber, 1st vice-president, properties. Best of luck in the coming year.

More Flying Saucers and Desert Art

Doin' some more painting - I might be on a roll!

Now the sad truth is that Jane hauled this painting outta the trash - well the canvas and frame that became the painting. It was crying out for a do-over, and that's what it got.

The photo actually looks better than the painting did. Sorry, Alice, if indeed that is your real name, I hope your second painting was better than your first. I was lookin' at it, lookin at my "What Would Banksy Do?" bracelet, and the idea just kinda hit me - desert art can always be improved with an element of surprise to break up the landscape a little bit. What's more surprisin': a flying saucer or a yucca? 

Exactly! I liked the color scheme alright, with the nice sunrise feel, but the rest just had to go. Now, our friend Barbara Harris is running for the president of the Morongo Basin Historical Society tomorrow, and we figured she could use a little encouragement. So Barb, this one's for you!



Barb is one of the world's foremost authorities on Giant Rock, the world's largest free-standing monolith and sacred site to the Chemehuevi Tribe, and it's a subject I've always wanted to paint, so it seemed like a natural. Plus - all through the '50s-'70s, George Van Tassel, inventor of the Integratron, held flying saucer conventions out at Giant Rock in Landers, CA. This painting is where they all come together. Best of luck to a great lady and a great friend. We're behind you all the way, Barb!

 
Here's Barb out at Giant Rock last Christmas while we were out off-roading with her and her husband, Rob. Gives you a sense of scale - that rock's huge! 
 

Yoko’s Wish Trees, Two Years Later

Yoko picked up on my blog about her Wish Tree installment in Pasadena. (You can read about it, along with her comment, by clicking the link) John Lennon's 70th birthday would have been on Oct 9, if his life had not been cut short by an assassin 30 years ago. Please join me in a collective wish for world peace to commemorate the anniversary of the birth of this musician, activist and visionary.  Yoko’s Wish Trees, Two Years Later.

Desert Art and Flying Saucers

Well, y'all know from previous posts that our friend Tom is building a place in Tecopa Hot Springs and as it transpires, he's been collecting some desert art to spruce the place up. One of his Ebay special finds was a little too "special" and I suggested that  maybe it could be spruced up a little too. His wife agreed with me, so it was pretty much a done deal. I took a page outta Banksy's book and modified this sucker 'til it was something you'd want to hang on your wall and shipped it off yesterday.  Now it's a scene more commonly seen in the California desert back in the '50s, kind of a retro look. But ya know, anytime you look up in the sky and see a flying saucer, it's gonna be a special day one way or another... 

Feathered Fireworks by Simon the Hen

Shout out to Wendy Thomas and her chicken Simon for coming up with a great way to earn some money towards a new playground. It's one of those "crazy enough to work" ideas - she and Simon were entertaining some kids last summer when Simon created a painting with her feet and some acrylic paint (don't worry, it was all done very safely and humanely and Simon wasn't traumatized). Wendy called the painting "Feathered Fireworks" and is offering it for sale on Ebay. The proceeds are going to Kid's Kove Rebuild, through the local Rotary Club, who built the original playground 20 years ago. Bidding starts at $9.99, and though it's unlikely that "Feathered Fireworks" will fund the whole project, it does support a good cause - namely rebuilding a dilapidated playground for the kids of  Merrimack, New Hampshire. Wendy's got a neat little blog called "Simple Thrift - Creative Living on Less," and I think that's a notion we should all get behind, even if that doesn't involve using a chicken as a paintbrush. Good luck Wendy! Here's the link to "Simple Thrift" (I haven't been able to find a link to the purported auction, so folks please pass on that info if you're search turns it up and you ain't bidding)

http://simplethrift.wordpress.com/2010/09/15/project-chickens-before-the-eggs-lesson-156-chicken-art-on-auction-for-a-kids-playground/

 Alright... got an update! Here's Simon, who looks to be a Polish mix (much like my own self) and the painting is now listed on Ebay and pickin' up some steam. The current high bid (out of 51) is  $400 and there's still a week to go. So folks, if you've got it, dig deep.

 

 http://cgi.ebay.com/Fireworks-painting-done-chicken-/180561479155?pt=Art_Paintings&hash=item2a0a4d85f3

Final verdict: "Feathered Fireworks" attracted 65 bids and went for $550 - not enough for the rebuild on the playground, but a step in the right direction for sure. Keep up the creativity, Wendy and Simon!

 

The Old Mother Grapevine Revisited

 

Folks, remember how I said I didn't think there was anything to the story that David Frankin Hall of the Michael White Ranch planted the Old Mother Grapevine of San Gabriel? Well now that I've read the affidavit, I think I was wrong! At least I'll say the jury ain't out, and that David Franklin Hall here makes a compelling case:

California missions and landmarks: El Camino Real

By Mrs. A. S. C. Forbes, 1915 pp 95-96

THE GRAPE VINE AT SAN GABRIEL

The immense grape vine at San Gabriel is worthy of a visit, not because of its age but because of its size. The overzealous sometimes claim that the vine was planted by the padres, but the following copy of an affidavit, the original of which is owned by Mrs. Susan Thompson Parrish, who lives near El Monte (Los Angeles County) and who was one of the three persons present at the planting, will set the matter at rest and prove that truth is stranger than fiction.

 The vine was planted in 1861, and the gigantic proportions which it has attained makes the enthusiast believe and rehearse that it is over a century old and the largest grape vine in the world, while in reality it is only one of the largest vines in the world, and it is only a half century old!

And here's the sworn statement:

State of California, County of Los Angeles

ss

Personally appeared before me one DAVID FRANKLIN HALL who deposes and says as follows: In 1854, Dr George I. Rice and I bought of Hipolito Cervantes the house and lot now known as the Grape Vine property. The house was a small affair of three rooms and a bat roof and there was no grape vine on the lot. L.J. Rose's purchase of land, which he improved and called SUNNY SLOPE, included the house of Courtney, (a son-in-law of Michael White, one of the oldest pioneers,) on which he (Courtney) had transplanted a wild grape vine he procured from a canyon near the home of B.D. Wilson (Lake Vineyard).

Its location obstructed the plans of Mr. Rose and he gladly gave it to me, and assisted me in digging it up. It had been pruned to a height of two and a half (2 l/ 2) or three (3) feet and the trunk had thickened to a diameter of three or four inches. We left one short branch on it.

I took it in my buggy to my own house, and placed it where it now flourishes in the spring of 1861. It grew luxuriantly from the start and we used its shelter as a summer kitchen until I sold the premises to Mr. Bailey in 1881 or 1882, of which date I am not positive, but I had been there continuously for twenty seven years.

DAVID FRANKLIN HALL

Subscribed and sworn to before me this 10th day of January 1908, DR WELLER, Notary Public in and for Los Angeles County California.

The vine was planted in 1861, the year that the San Gabriel River divided its course and therefore one to be well remembered. The growth of the vine attests to the wonderful fertility of the soil for it should be remembered that it was only a wild grape vine dug up out of a cañon.

 

Raven Jake has Joined the VOX Diaspora

Folks, I got some depressing news yesterday, and that was that Vox has gone belly-up and they told me to skedaddle quick. So Jane got on it with the "migration" as they like to call it, but I ain't pleased with the new design and a plague of other inconveniences. Alright, this ain't as bad as the Station Fire, but I have yet to see an upside. Bear with us for a bit til we git this figured out. We're still working on formatting and migration, and until further notice we're going to have two sites going, this one and a wordpress site: http://ravenjake.wordpress.com/