Repeating Images: Bear Skulls and Triceratops Skulls

On my trip to recent trip to Bozeman, I had a few simple goals beyond the one for which I had ventured to the town: see taxidermy, find a comic book store, play some pinball. Of course The comic scene was kind of sad and there was no pinball to be found for miles. Go fig. But I did manage to find some interesting taxidermy mounts. And I saw dinosaurs.

But it was only when I was reviewing my pictures of my venture did I find this odd piece for my occasionally updated theme of "Repeating Images."

The first picture is of various bear skulls from the local hunters of the region. They are neatly displayed mounted in a polite row along a wall in an outdoors store in downtown Bozeman. While it is hard to see, each skull has a number and date on the top written into the skull with dark ink. As far as I can tell, it represents the date of the kill and the statistics of the animal.

The second image is from the Museum of the Rockies and it shows the morphology of triceratops' skulls from adolescence to adulthood. While writing on these fossils is would be forbidden, the paster casts used to preserve these specimen while they are in transport from field to museum or university for study are often scribbled upon with various stats and labels to identify the bones. 

The way things were...

I have no idea at what age I created my first autobiography. But let me tell you, it was a hell of a lot less interesting before I was introduced to booze, rocking and rolling, and the excesses of the Portland lifestyle. But I definitely had the ego of a famous person by writing titling my first work, All About Me.

One side note about the book cover. I am afraid of butterflies. I do not know why there is one on my first publication even though I wrote the work and did the artwork. It was there probably because could only draw dinosaurs and editorial mandate (i.e., a teacher) stated that I had to draw something other than a dinosaur for this project. Writers are never satisfied with their work. Never.

This first chapter is about my favorite colors. My color palate has changed over the years. I have found that now my favorite colors are paisley and cordouroy. Well, not really. I am fond of colors much more drab. Silver has become gray. I still like shades of green, but find myself more of an olive person.

However, my routine has changed very little from what happens down bellow. Things like reading, is replaced by hitting wondering how to hide from my boss. Language and spelling have devolved to hour long critiques of my emails from my slightly off-kilter boss as he micro-manages my time and avoids his own work. Ooops...personal editorializing there. Religion is replaced by something like reading the BBC news. But recess and getting out remains practically the same.

Some things in life never change.

And then there is the ever present dinosaur.

Even with the terrible grammar, the attrocious spelling, and poor artwork, I think this is a pretty decent piece of creative nonfiction. I find this to be especially the case when I walk through the biography section of local bookstores and find the detritus lining the shelves. While most of the "autobiographies" are ghost-written.

Celebrity-Wrestler-Boy-Band-Singer-Environmental-Cruisader-Survivor-of-Abuse-Politician's-Heir-Eating-Disorder-Fame-Career-Failure-Redemption writes for YOU!

TO YOU!

YOU!

Sounds like the perfect thing to read at the beach or at the dentist's office right before having a rotten tooth extracted.

Or not.

The Prehistoic Gardens

The roadside attraction is one of those dying parts of Americana that I truly wish would not fade. Fortunately, Oregon still has a number of still functioning tourist traps featuring everything from dinosaurs, rock gardens, taxidermy displays of exotic hunts, concrete creations, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

The Prehistoric Gardens in Port Orford, Oregon, along Highway 101 is one of those small pull outs that is a no thrills walk through trap featuring glorious scientifically inaccurate dinosaurs. But, it doesn't really matter. Before they released Jurassic Park 3, no one really knew what dinosaurs really looked like anyway, so these concrete and re-bar creations are probably the most lifelike creations that I have ever encountered.

Wait a minute! Bang a Gong! Who is that standing ankle-high to the T-Rex? Why that is the author circa age eight.

The thing that is great about these places is that they aren't commercial. In fact they probably don't make any money, which is a shame. At some point in time an eccentric had an idea. That oddball built a beautiful thing to distract people on what might have been an extremely painful drive without air conditioning or decent talk radio (let alone NPR). After the eccentric died it became the responsibility, the burden of someone else to keep these places alive whether they wanted to or not.

Personally, I would love to own a Pacific rain forest filled with dinosaurs. Hell, they could be made of cream cheese, even though I doubt they would have nearly the longevity that these one-ton sculptures have. Actually scratch that idea, rain + life-size dinosaur sculptures made of cream cheese= really icky mess.

Oh, and if dinosaurs don't interest you. There is even a moonshiners "cave" on the grounds that features a brief history of prohibition era hooch making in the state of Oregon. Given that this place is in the middle of nowhere, I don't really think there would have been much of a problem with concealing the making of liquor. I can't imagine a great number of g-men coming out to the Oregon coast looking for moonshiners, but I have known to be incorrect in the past. But if you do need to protect such an operation, might as well have dinosaurs protecting it right?

Science Made Easy...Dinosaurs

Sometimes I truly believe that I missed my calling in life. I really should have been a naturalist, or taken up a career in in biological illustrations, or studied dinosaurs...

I must have made this when I was in fifth grade or there about.

Somewhere, I have a sequence of drawings I did of creatures I made up for different environments. All of the drawings were inspired by the illustrations of Dougal Dixon and Golden Guide Books . When I find these, they will be posted.