PHOENIX RTWORKS

In the town of Independence, on Highway 395, is PHOENIX RTWORKS. It is an art gallery, just the kind you would hope to find in B-West towns, funky and funny, far out and far in, and above all, enthusiastic. It is Exhibit A of the architectural dictum, "Outside equals inside." (Compare blog photos with graphics on www.phoenixrtworks.com.) Jack Pound, the artist, is a veritable "phoenix of creativity," choosing styles to suit his meaning and his mood. "Moonlight" is realistic. "Deliverance," "Magic," and "Divine" are abstract. "Phoenix" and "Awakening" are stylistic hybrids. Fine fun!

Twin Elevators, Big Pine

Big Pine is where, a turn east goes to the Bristlecone Pine Forest in the White Mountains. And where a west turn leads to the Palisade Glaciers. Either way is glorious, of course, but neither way is any better than staying right in town and, behind an old motel, hiking out to the Twin Grain Elevators, covered with graffiti and positioned just right to squeeze the sun before it sets behind the 14,000-foot peaks of the Sierra Nevada.

BofA becomes Calvary Chapel

On the main street of Bishop, just past the main part of downtown, on the west side of the street, is Calvary Chapel. It's used to be Bank of America. The letters B-A-N-K -o-f-A-M-E-R-I-C-A are just visible on the fading red stucco. The Chapel hosts the Presidential Prayer Team.

Bishop Christian Center

They say all religions intend to go where people are. The Bishop Christian Center is certainly doing its small part in the total scheme of things. No doubt, Americans these days are at the shopping mall. So that's where Bishop Christians put their Center, right at the corner of a giant rectangle formed by stores and parking lot, not far from Rite-Aid and just down from Domino's.

Paradise

Paradise sits on the downslope as Lower Rock Creek Road makes in curvy way south from Tom's Place to the outskirts of Bishop. Mt. Tom provides an impressive backdrop, and Mr. Wright's sculpture garden, where Lower Rock Creek intersects Westridge, provides a good sense of humor. (Mr. Wright died recently, but neighbors say the family doesn't mind visitors walking the garden.) New homes push Artemisia tridentata further out of town, while no influx of outside energy from tourists has allowed Entropy to take over running Paradise the restaurant.

Allegorical Landscape

Near Crowley Lake, in fact, not far from the Hilton Creek Post Office, is an allegory. In the far background is the blue sky. That is the Unknown. Below the sky is the Sierra Nevada, representing Geological Order. In the foreground are a few horses, standing for Domestic Order, or, how humans go about ordering. These three layers are familiar. In the middle ground is a debris flow. It is Cosmic Disorder, aka Entropy, introducing itself into the landscape. The entire Universe will with age look more and more like this pile of rocks and dirt and bush. News of the shapelessness of things to come is broadcast to heavens and earth over the electromagnetic wires, also visible in the picture.

Volcom Brothers Skate Park

Cross Deadman Summit on Highway 395 going south and coast your way down at 65 mph, Mt. Morrison staring you in the face, and your confidence in the Earth's geologic imagination will soar. Take the Mammoth Lakes turnoff at the bottom of the pass, turn left on Meridian Road, stop at Volcom Brothers Skate Park immediately on your right, and watch the skaters coast down the inclines and around the curves. Your confidence in the imagination of American capitalism will rise. Maybe not soar, but definitely go up.

Nicely's Restaurant

The stars are bright on Highway 395. If you look up, you will look back into the past. If you stop at Nicely's Restaurant in Lee Vining, you will eat your way into the past. Want good old fashioned 1950s food nicely served--fried chicken, French fries, and baked apple pie a la mode? Nicely's is your kind of place. And here's a bit of nostalgia for you: participants in the Ansel Adams Yosemite Workshops used to spent one night on the east side around Mono Lake. The whole group would gather for a convivial Nicely's evening meal. Maybe the next morning for breakfast too, after shooting the sunrise.

Big Box

Just north of Topaz Lake, still in the state of Nevada, is an abandoned trailer. Actually it is the universe turned on its side, complete with black hole. The dark side is the past, the light side, with its graffiti predictions, is the future. Or is it just the opposite? In any case, once inside you are in the present. You will note that there are few windows that open in either direction.

Chocolate Nugget

Outside Chocolate Nugget in Washoe Valley on Highway 395 is something very peculiar. A gunslinger looks up the hill at a miner. The gunslinger is clearly male. You can tell. The miner looks male too. He is stocky. He wears a beard. He has on women's pants, however! An artistic fence runs close by.

School on a Hill

On the road down the hill from the abandoned school in Fort Bidwell is a Surprise Valley cowboy. "We sell lots of alfalfa, organic, some organic, people here don't like organic, all those tree-huggers and Greenpeace." He is a big man, silk scarf, cotton shirt, buttoned right up to the top button, chaps over jeans, and fancy reins. Flies cluster by the dozens on the eyes of his handsome horse. "My sons and I, we are ranchers. We winter here now. We used to winter the cattle in Chico and Willows, but fuel and freight ate us up. Bidwell is a great place to raise kids."

Wind Drift Farm

Imagine a northern California Disneyland gone to ruin. No, better, imagine that everybody just walked away from Knott's Berry Farm in 1955, never to return, except for the occasional curiosity seeker. Now, stop imagining and go to Wind Drift Farm just north (actually east) of Standish, which in turn is north (actually east) of Susanville, on Highway 395. Several signs say, "Don't Hurt the Nature," but they should read, "Don't Hurt the Culture," for nature here is doing fine. Wind Drift Farm is where nature planted the human imagination and let it go to seed. Seeds, as everyone knows, are quite nourishing.

Full Gospel Lighthouse

They say that a photograph is worth a thousand words. If that is true, and if you want to see what rural religion is like in America,then drive north of Doyle on Highway 395 and look for the Pentecostal Church of God's Full Gospel Lighthouse on the right. White sign, white clapboard, dark windows, darkened door, strange sky.

Glory Temple Church

South of Carson City, south of where Highway 395 is no longer a freeway, is the Glory Temple Church. It is an old house, whitewashed, with a white picket fence. Coming from the north, just before the church, a sign reads, "Glory T. C. Slow Down." They want you to slow down because of traffic coming to church. And because they don't want you to miss their church. And because they want your presence at church.

Religious Conversion

The building that used to be a church in Constantia is now in Doyle, on Highway 395 south of Honey Lake. It is owned by a local historical society. In 2006 it was under rehabilitation. Surely, now, in 2008, it is as good as new. "It's 150 to 200 years old," the painter who was painting it said. This claim has not been verified. The town of Doyle plans to use it for civic events. This is a good example of how Americans handle the separation of church and state on the local level. [This article provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject. Please improve it.]

The Little Church by the 395 Way

A little green church sits on edge of California's Long Valley Caldera, where long ago a big explosion took take that scattered ash all across the American West. It's where Benton Crossing Road runs into Highway 395. This is just north of Lake Crowley. It's an almost picturesque little church. On a nice, white picket fence are two signs. One denotes ownership. The other forbids trespassing. Clearly, the Regency discourages entry. The question is, what kind of research goes on here?

Tom's Place

Tom's Place is trinitarian: a store, a bar, and a cafe. Tom's Place is on Highway 395 south of Mammoth Lakes and north of Bishop. Beer ads in neon light up the store. Bosoms and butts hang on the walls in the bar. Photos and TV fill the cafe. A history of the place is on the menu. Downstairs are the restrooms, "reserved" for those "with gas." Outside on the concrete deck people read on three wooden benches, one in front of each member of the trinity. A gazebo is attached, decorated with license plates and full of people communing. Beyond it Rock Creek flows by on its way to grace LA.