Showing posts with label tucson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tucson. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Friday, May 08, 2009
The town of old people
Tucson surely rivals Miami for the number of centenarians, or folks who are age 99 or older.
We have at least 50 of them down here in the constant sun – and that’s not a bad thing. Actually, some of the stories they tell are pretty cool, like the guy who hung out with a murderer.
It was even in the good ole’ days of murders, waaaaay before Charles Manson (but after Jack the Ripper).
Walter Michael, age 101, was on the Arizona Board of Pardons and Paroles and got to sentence Winnie Ruth Judd. Judd shot and killed two of her roommates and stuffed them in steamer trunks. One of the bodies was a shade too large and had to be chopped up to fit. She tried to travel with the trunks to L.A. but the train’s baggage guy wouldn’t let the trunks go once he saw blood seeping and oozing from the cracks.
Michael said the biggest change he’s seen in his 102 years on earth is not necessarily for the better.
“We’re becoming more savage,” he said of the human race. “We’re not big enough to police and tame the world.”
This reportwas originally webcast on Rynski's Shattered Reality on Party934.com
Listen in every Friday at 7 p.m. EST for the newest news at Party934.com.
See more fun and funky stuff at www.ryngargulinski.com
We have at least 50 of them down here in the constant sun – and that’s not a bad thing. Actually, some of the stories they tell are pretty cool, like the guy who hung out with a murderer.
It was even in the good ole’ days of murders, waaaaay before Charles Manson (but after Jack the Ripper).
Walter Michael, age 101, was on the Arizona Board of Pardons and Paroles and got to sentence Winnie Ruth Judd. Judd shot and killed two of her roommates and stuffed them in steamer trunks. One of the bodies was a shade too large and had to be chopped up to fit. She tried to travel with the trunks to L.A. but the train’s baggage guy wouldn’t let the trunks go once he saw blood seeping and oozing from the cracks.
Michael said the biggest change he’s seen in his 102 years on earth is not necessarily for the better.
“We’re becoming more savage,” he said of the human race. “We’re not big enough to police and tame the world.”
This reportwas originally webcast on Rynski's Shattered Reality on Party934.com
Listen in every Friday at 7 p.m. EST for the newest news at Party934.com.
See more fun and funky stuff at www.ryngargulinski.com
Friday, April 24, 2009
Year of the grasshopper
Tucson had a hopping week when it was overrun with grasshoppers.
Tons of the crispy, flitting critters touched down this week at various areas around town, causing some folks to scream in horror while others, like the patrons at a midtown bar, ended up playing with them. Bar patrons reported throwing the grasshoppers at each other then squealing with glee when the grasshoppers’ defense mechanism kicked in and the little buggers left big black spots where they landed on perfectly white shirts.
A cranky bug expert said the grasshopper invasion is an annual phenomenon, while a pest company manager said he sees specific insects get their heyday each year. Last year was the milkweed bug. A few years back Tucson swarmed with those giant, grotesque “sewer roaches.”
This is the year of the grasshopper.
This item was originally webcast on Rynski's Shattered Reality on Party934.com
Listen in every Friday at 7 p.m. EST for the newest news at Party934.com.
Read the full grasshopper story on the Tucson Citizen site.
Visit www.ryngargulinski.com for more fun and funky stuff.
Tons of the crispy, flitting critters touched down this week at various areas around town, causing some folks to scream in horror while others, like the patrons at a midtown bar, ended up playing with them. Bar patrons reported throwing the grasshoppers at each other then squealing with glee when the grasshoppers’ defense mechanism kicked in and the little buggers left big black spots where they landed on perfectly white shirts.
A cranky bug expert said the grasshopper invasion is an annual phenomenon, while a pest company manager said he sees specific insects get their heyday each year. Last year was the milkweed bug. A few years back Tucson swarmed with those giant, grotesque “sewer roaches.”
This is the year of the grasshopper.
This item was originally webcast on Rynski's Shattered Reality on Party934.com
Listen in every Friday at 7 p.m. EST for the newest news at Party934.com.
Read the full grasshopper story on the Tucson Citizen site.
Visit www.ryngargulinski.com for more fun and funky stuff.
Friday, July 04, 2008
BACKYARD WONDERLAND: Yes, in my backyard
By Ryn Gargulinski
I got a yard. I got some sheet metal. I got some spray paint.
I got me a BACKYARD WONDERLAND.
The last few weekends have been spent toiling over bent metal and amassing enough debris to transform my backyard into a magical place.
Now, the debris is not just any ordinary debris, but debris carefully chosen from Gerson’s Salvage, perfectly picked out of the nearby Rillito River riverbed or even combed from other people’s Dumpsters.
A lot of thought, back bending metal bending and spray paint went into my BACKYARD WONDERLAND.
Three things have influenced me in this glorious project:
1. Tucson’s Valley of the Moon: a 1920s-era fantasy land that has weirdo faces peeking out of the bushes and a magic troll bridge.
2. Detroit’s Heidelberg Project: hunks of junk collected, arranged and stuck to houses down a downtown block. The last time we went there was a yard full of neatly arranged shoes and a home with its siding stuck with stuffed animals.
3. That tall leaning thing in the Avenue B community garden in New York’s Alphabet City.
The several story structure was adorned with doll parts, Big Wheel chunks, nuts, bolts and just about everything else before it had to be torn down just this year as it began to lean and sway precariously.
So far I’ve got the Moon’s weirdo faces, Detroit’s nod to debris and a few trellises along the back wall that lean and sway precariously.
My mom thinks I also have a yard so crammed with art that the dogs have nowhere to play. I’d never do that to my canines. Heck, they can easily run around the debris.
Hope you have as much fun viewing the photos below as I did creating the art.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
