Trashball 123007: A 20% Raise Is a 20% Raise!

Nice going, Miss Marion, of the year 1920, at Bonbright & Co.!

Trashball 123007: Woosey—Doopey—Tired

It's March 27, 1981, and Stan sends a postcard to his pal Ted from the Bethesda Memorial Hospital in Boynton Beach, Florida:

Had slight heart attack have been here for a week. After release from intensive care today, one week under observation & one week under Florida sun will be home on 4/10. Am woosey—doopey—tired but am now 187 lbs. B.P. 120/73. Have to go on strict diet. No sausage, ham, franks, salt, fats. Will go on period of exercise on release. ~Stan

Well, his blood pressure beats mine. Hope you're still around and ordering soup, Stan!

Album of the Day: The Music Lovers

The Music Lovers: The Words We Say Before We Sleep

Trashball 122907: Favorite Microcosm of the Year

Ahh, religion. Like shooting fish in a barrel. From yesterday's Albuquerque Journal. Click on picture to read.

The Catastrophic Advice Column—My New Venture

Provide me with the inaugural advice-seeking question at my new site, Catastrophic Advice.

The Good Life

Think it's time I cleaned my room.

Royal Manor Motel Carlsbad Then and Now

As a long-time collector of vintage postcards of motels, I was very happy to get several circa 1960 cards from the once-glorious Royal Manor Motel in Carlsbad, NM, when I checked in last night. When I awoke this morning, I tried to line up the same shot of the motel as that on the postcard in order to demonstrate the sad decline of this place. So here are, respectively, the original 1960 postcard (with pool inset), and how it all looks as of 12-28-07. P.S., the bathroom light cover fell to the floor twice last night as I slept, waking me in a panic. You'll note that the greatest loss in the intervening decades is that of the original signage.

The Deep Thoughts of Jenna Bush

Over at McSweeney's, Steve Arnold has done a marvelous piece of writing. We are treated to Jenna's book-tour diary.

Trashball 121907: The Long Evangelistic Team

So, I was at the Goodwill and was thinking about buying some cheap old LPs to make them into bowls when I came across this one by the Long Evangelistic Team, titled "We've Gotta Keep On Movin'". It was the cover, of course, that appealed to me. I googled them and looked them up on eBay, and all I can find is an identical copy being sold for $500.00 on eBay. Which I think might be ridiculous. That said, if anybody wants this record, I'll sell it for less than $500.00.

Soma Tallboy Rusty Can Art

Stick a flower in it. Buy it for $25.00 postpaid by clicking here.

Head with Tie Can Art

Click here to buy for $25.00 postpaid. Looks real nice on a shelf.

Trashball + Art Holiday Fun Package Special!

Spice up your and your loved ones' holiday mercantile orgy with a genuine Trashball + Art Holiday Fun Package Special! For $20 postpaid (in the U.S.; intl buyers, we'll work it out), you'll get a unique package that includes 15 genuine Trashballs plus an original small work of art by yours truly. The art might be a painting, drawing, collage, signed print, etc., and will be my choice. Click here to buy via Paypal or contact me at chris[at]goodwinart.com if you'd prefer mailing payment. I'll do my best to get everything delivered by Xmas, but can't guarantee. Besides, it's fun getting presents just when you think it's all over.

The Ol' Marfa, Texas Loop

I recently returned from a delightful drive that included a Van Horn-Marfa-Van Horn loop. I saw many things, including the Prada Marfa store, Davis Mountains State Park, a very dead deer skull complete with flesh-eating insects, javelinas, a gorgeous sunset, and an unwitting visit to a set from Tommy Lee Jones' superlative film "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada". A selection of my photos from the trip are here at Flickr.

"Dodie"

New artwork, "Dodie", ink, paper, and rusty can.

Trashball 121107: I'm Not This Trashball!

Pictured above is a fellow named Christopher Goodwin. I noticed recently that many people are coming to my site using the search "Christopher Goodwin pedophile". I'm happy to tell you that I am not him. Very happy. I've used the word 'pedophile' on this site referring to dear old insufferable Chris Hansen of MSNBC. Anyhow, for those of you in or near Toronto, here's the scoop.

Oh. My. God.

Rarely have I ever felt the power of those three words as when I found this clip from, of all places, Alan Thicke's show "Miracle Pets".
It is the videotaped tale of a stray kitten that is cared for, over many months, by a crow. A crow! They are completely adorable, as is the elderly couple who discovered them. Thanks to CuteOverload for posting it.

Trashball 120807: Look What the Cat Dragged In

In this case, the cat was my Mercury Cougar, but still... You never know what you might find set upon the road. It actually took several FWD and RVS gear changes to bring this the 3 blocks home, to get it just right under the bumper. Good old Russian thistle, tumblin' tumbleweed.

Trashball 120707: Tampax Iconography

From a 1984 Tampax insert that also included warnings about Toxic Shock Syndrome. Love the starburst anus.

Trashball 120707: Dear Madge

Such a terrific name so rarely heard these days. I imagine that Madge from the Palmolive commercials (R.I.P.) had an even larger portfolio. This letter excerpt was found on P St., NW, in Washington, DC.

Trashball 120707: Clinomint—The Smoker's Toothpaste

From a 1984 issue of Reader's Digest comes this little advertorial. I remember when I was 18 and, having smoked for 3 years, thought it wise to buy some Topol, a competing smokers' toothpaste brand. Of course, it never did the job. Now I just soak the ol' dentures.... Incidentally, it seems that Clinomint is only available outside the US now.

Trashball 120707: 1837 McDuffee Ledger

Geez, in 1837 you could buy 24.5 pounds of wool for only $1.23. Can't remember where I found this satisfyingly patinaed and faded old entry, but it was in my Large Chest of Trashball Source Material, so it meets my criteria. Love the handwriting.

TRASH 120607: Romney Can Suck My Secular Cock

Hey Romney. I know you gave what was billed as the most important political speech on religion in the political arena since Kennedy's in 1960. Guess what? You failed to mention us secular people. Naturally we bristle when you tell us that "Americans acknowledge that liberty is a gift of God," (I'm American, and I acknowledge no such thing) or when you say that "freedom requires religion". One thing I know: freedom does not require a President Romney.

Trashball 120607: The Sacramento Airport Haul

Some stuff I found last month while waiting for my brother's delayed flight at the Sacramento airport. James Belushi baggage claim tickets and an old stamp. John Belushi would've been more intriguing.

"Exit Fresno"

New painting, "Exit Fresno", 20 x 16 inches, acrylic on canvas. $269.00. Click here to buy via PayPal or contact me at chris[at]goodwinart.com.

Cassette Tape of the Day: Bauhaus

My car has no CD player, just a tape deck. So I recently started scanning the cassettes at thrift stores. Usually it's a lot of Bolton and Dion and Garth Brooks and Christmas schmaltz, but every so often something good turns up, like this 25-year-old copy of The Sky's Gone Out by Bauhaus (for which I paid 75 cents). The cassette appears to have been played hundreds of times and is stained and yellowed like my teeth (but I'm working on that). Still, it plays beautifully.

"Don't Think About It"

New painting, "Don't Think About It". 20 x 16 inches, $169.00 Click here to buy via PayPal or contact me at chris[at]goodwinart.com.

Sometimes a Studio Is Just a Studio

And sometimes it reveals an unexpected loveliness. especially when you don't aim the camera.

Trashball 120207: Dinner Menu, 11/18/07

Yum! Chapagetti, black bean sauce w/rice, mushrooms, and silkworm pupa. Found in Mesa, AZ.

Morally Bankrupt

I just went through the questionable exercise of watching the Republican presidential debate on CNN. It was mostly a lot of nonsense, reactionary bullshit, but one questioner (it was in the YouTube format) was, I thought, very poignant.
A very dignified elderly man—a retired Brigadier General in the U.S. Army—asked why the candidates believed the military was not professional enough to have openly gay and lesbian servicemembers among their ranks. The general revealed himself to be gay and, it turned out, was in the audience.
Three candidates were asked to respond. First, the cipher Duncan Hunter had the disgusting wherewithal to look the questioner in the eye and answer the 40-year veteran that his type destroyed unit cohesion. Then Mitt Romney—a political robot if ever there was one—gave a similar answer. Finally, John McCain, for whom for some reason I cling to as a reasonable Republican, gave an even more awful answer because it was cloaked in respect for the general's service; he told this lovely man that the ridiculous don't ask-don't tell policy was a good policy.
I'm completely disgusted by the inhumanity. The horrible responses to this man—notwithstanding the various noxious policy positions help by the GOP—convince me that the Republican Party is morally bankrupt. I'm saddened but not surprised. A pox on them.

Don't Sigh/Eat Pie

The title refers to a heroic couplet penned (I think) by Calvin Trillin's father at the bottom of his diner's menu. At any rate, I recently drove 2,642 miles, from Las Cruces to Chico, CA, and back, and during my drive I was often afflicted by an early-afternoon drowsiness. One day, as I approached Turlock, CA, and feeling needful of a lift, I pulled off Hwy. 99 with a strong craving for a nice slice of pie and cup of coffee. Little did I know that I would soon step into, as a waitress put it, the "Kingdom of Pie".

I hoped to find one of those places subtitled "Family Restaurant". I soon found the spot. Latif's is an increasingly rare example of pure 1960s coffee shop architecture. The waitresses were busy boxing up Thanksgiving pies, but I managed to detain one long enough to order a slice of coconut cream pie and a cup of coffee. It was truly the best pie I've ever had. And yes, that's the pie I ate in the picture.

Radiohead Cover the Smiths

Excellent cover of "Headmaster Ritual"

Trashball 111007: Must Let Tom On

This deli order slip I found on Main St. here in Las Cruces has its own buzzy sort of poetry. I can't figure out what "THUM" is meant to be though, except for an unfortunate accident at the meat slicer.

Artist of the Past Nine Decades and Possibly More

Balthus. Look the dear man up.

Trashball 110607: Alas, Poor Yorick the Mouse

Teensy little skull and bones I found in that abandoned homestead near Boise City, OK. Skull is about the size of a nickel and still has big yellow front teeth.

Trashball 110407: United We Litter

Red ribbon found near a Las Cruces high school, tossed to the ground, no doubt, by a hopped-up reprobate.

Trashball 110407: Bleeding Hearts Give Bloom

I found this on 3rd St. in Las Cruces, NM. Based on something else I found along with it against the curb, I think it's a tattoo design draft. Thoughtless that the guy didn't do it in color.

Trashball 110107: Different Out Loud

How true. Note found on Parker Ave., in Las Cruces, NM.

PS: Happy Birthday, Nicola!

Trashball 102907: Dusty Debris

The preceding evidence bag turned out, after it had lain on the floor of my car for a couple of weeks, to be a useful vessel for holding evidence of another sort, namely the bits and bobs of archaeological scraps I found at an abandoned homestead 10 miles south of Boise City, Oklahoma (pictured above, along with the house and an archival photo of a dust-storm).

I recently read Timothy Egan's book The Worst Hard Time and, having found it to be an extraordinarily good book—and being otherwise unoccupied—decided to hop into the car and motor up into the terrain where the Dust Bowl did its worst. See, Egan's book told the true stories of those (and they were a majority) who stayed behind during the Dust Bowl years. Steinbeck's Joads, in the Grapes of Wrath, represented a minority.

The drive was lovely and austere, with its unremitting flatness and distant horizons. Yet I knew it was different from the view afforded in the 1930s, when it was largely dust dunes. Much of the grassland had been restored, thanks largely to Hugh H. Bennett, who strove mightily during the decade-long drought to right the wrongs that American hubris had inflicted on the Great Plains.

Trashball 102907: Evidence

First good sidewalk find in a while, and not 2 blocks from my squalid little apartment! Official evidence bag blowing around in the breeze on Davis Avenue in Las Cruces, NM. Found torn open and emptied.

Insufferable: Starring Chris Hansen

It takes quite a fellow to make pedophiles sympathetic, but Dateline NBC's Chris Hansen (informative link, BTW), with his hair, smug voice, and disingenuous outrage, has fit the bill. Unctuous perfectly defines him.

Counterbruise

New painting, "Counterbruise". 20" x 16", acrylic on canvas. $375. To purchase via PayPal, click here. Or contact me at chris[at]goodwinart.com.

Trashball 102507: More Simcas

After finding an old Simca up in Ellicott, CO, a while back, I was very surprised to stumble upon two more junked Simcas, this time in Nara Visa, NM. How many Simcas will my next road trip unearth?

Giurate

New painting "Giurate". 24" x 18", acrylic on canvas. $475. Click here to purchase or contact me at chris[at]goodwinart.com.

Trashball 101907: Utopia

Utopia: It can't be beat! Let me know when you get there.

Album of the Day: Stereolab Switched On

After all these years and after all these pretenders, still the coolest band in the world. Perfect for when you're half-drunk yet full of energy and want to get some shit done. Buy it here.

Cornerball 101907: One of Few Corners

I really love my new lamp; I got it at the Salvation Army "Family Store" here in Las Cruces (which translates from the Spanish as "crashingly dull"). The painting is by the awesome Lori Earley.

Trashball 101807: Bowl Happy

Painted on back door of Dayton, Ohio, bowling alley. Photographed in January 2000.

Trashball 101807: A Piece of Her Mind

It's probably a fair guess that the photographer was given a good tongue-lashing immediately following this snapshot from May 1981. Recovered in Laurel, Maryland.