It was easy to illustrate Woody Guthrie's "Talkin' Washington Blues" in Kelso. It was so easy, it's downright creepy. The song talks about dust bowl migrants coming to Washington State and moving around looking for work. I found this shot just around the corner--and I'm ashamed to say I would have missed it if I hadn't been out looking for material. There's an eviction notice on the door, and the tenant's belongings put out on the street.  

Movin' on. Another shot of the same building--Art Associates on the left, an empty space where the Strand Hotel stood, and the Strand's other neighbor in the background. 

The Art Associates Building, Kelso. There's actually an antique store still in business in this building, behind the boarded up windows. They were closed for a year while the city forced the demolition of the old Strand Hotel, one building over. It was crumbling onto the sidewalks and building around it, and had to be taken down a few bricks at a time. Seeing it go was a real cause for celebration. But the tenants in the neigboring buildings weren't happy about being shut out for the whole time.  

The brick wall by the war memorial, around the corner from the Kelso Theater Pub. 

The Kelso Theater Pub. Movies, pizza, beer, no smoking, cushy reclining seats with a long wooden table replacing every other row of seats. Their web site is full of corny flash effects, but here it is: http://www.ktpub.com/ 

Kelso's war memorial. 

Fringe, a new S. Pacific Ave. store -- trendy vintage resale.  

Photoblogging

I wanted to use some local photos for a class project, so I had to go out and take some. I discovered, when I tried to fill in the gaps in my project, that there aren't very many images of this area on the web, and they are mostly the glossy tourist images. So I'll be posting my own photos of Kelso and its neighbor Longview, good, bad, ugly. I don't have the equipment or the expertise to be a good photographer, but some of my results I like. Some are so-so but at least make the point. The first several will be in the "gritty" category because that's what I was after for my project, which attempted to illustrate Woody Guthrie's "Talkin' Washington Blues" with local and contemporary images.

All of the Kelso photos, so far, are just a short distance from my home. The group below are all of a mural on the side of the Kelso Eagles building.

Detail of mural -- smelt feed notice. According to Longview Daily News, the Kelso Eagles record for eating smelt is 160 smelt in 2 hours (they didn't name the record holder.) 

Detail of mural - black cat 

Detail of the mural - boy with a bucket. 

Detail of the mural.  

A Kelso mural: Kelso is the "Smelt Capital of the World." Smelt are little anchovy-like fish that come in from the ocean every year. I don't think they are fished commercially any more, but people still go out and fish for them with long-handled nets. 

Tired

I can't believe it's possible to be so tired and keep turnng pages. In fact, I've come to the conclusion that it's not possible. G'night.