Tag: kooky
by Rynski on Nov.20, 2009, under Rynski column, art, life, notable folks
Local clown dispels evil clown myths
Local guy John Coppin has an occupation that is often more feared than the dentist and more hated than car salesmen.
Coppin as Mr. Hocus/submitted photo
He’s a clown.
Before you run for cover, just hear him out. He’s here to dispel the myth that clowns are evil and to prove clowns are people, too.
“All clowns are not Ronald or Bozo,” he said. “We are your next door neighbor. Always be wary if you do not know who the clown is, but the John Wayne Gacys are the minority of the clown world. We are to be laughed at and with all in fun.”
Coppin, 53, got into performing more than 30 years ago, and not by attending some fancy Florida clown college but the old fashioned way.
“I went to the school of hard knocks,” he said, “and also had great mentors who showed me ideas.”
Picking his career – which he loves because he gets to make people feel good – wasn’t a tough decision.
“I think I always was a bit of a clown,” he said. “I just had to put on the nose and Mr. Hocus was born.”
Mr. Hocus is the stage name for Coppin’s clown, one that has never scared a youngster – or adult – and one that regularly encounters magical situations in his acts.
“Mr. Hocus is a magic clown,” he said. “The magic happens to him, quite like Emmett Kelly did with the spotlight. He is having the magic occur to him not from him.”
One of world-famous clown Emmett Kelly’s signature act was sweeping up the spotlight on the stage until it actually disappeared.
Coppin the magician/submitted photo
Coppin’s magic career dates back to age 15, when he appeared as the Magic Magician of Christmas at a Wisconsin H.C. Prange department store.
He then took to performing at his high school, local shows in his Wisconsin hometown, and eventually bigger and more populated events. He ended up in moving to Marana last year, where he lives with his wife Carol and dog Frito.
Carol is so supportive of clowns – and Coppin’s act – that she even helps out at events with his forte of balloon sculpting.
Unlike other professions, Coppin said, the clown world is not known for being petty, competitive or stabbing each other in the back – unless it’s with a balloon or something.
“Clowns have no big rivals, really,” he said. “They work well with everyone.”
Yes, even mimes. In fact, the original clowns were more like mimes than the colorful performers we see today.
“They never spoke and the makeup was the whiteface,” he said. “The circus clown became a new idea in the early days of the traveling show, being brighter for the smiles.”
Sure, he’ll admit, some kids have been known to be scared of the whiteface or other clown makeup they find strange. The fears are often fueled by things like the movie “It.”
The 1990 Stephen King flick features the demonic Pennywise, a creature dressed as a clown that terrorizes a small town in the 1960s.
“I always think that the movie ‘It’ caused a lot of problems for clowns,” Coppin said. No, it’s not accurate. No, not all clowns are evil. And no, clowns never come barreling out of toilets.
“Only small cars,” he said.
If you’re still wary, Coppin offers additional advice on how to overcome a fear of clowns.
“Get to know one,” he said, “or better yet find your inner clown and let it out. Laughter is always a great way to find your inner clown and enjoy it.”
Learn more about John Coppin and his magic at MrHocus.com.
Ryn Gargulinski is a poet, artist, performer and TucsonCitizen.com Ryngmaster whose grandmother once baptized a clown doll. Her column appears every Friday on Rynski’s Blogski. Her art, writing and more is at RynRules.com. E-mail rynski@tucsoncitizen.com.
What do you think?
Are your fears quelled now?
Does Coppin help you think of clowns as people, too?
What’s the best clown/magician act you’ve seen lately?
Did you enjoy the movie or book “It,” even though a clown blasts through the toilet?
by Rynski on Nov.18, 2009, under Rynski's Blogski, crime, danger, environment, life
Tucson, Yuma, Casas Adobes best places to raise kids in AZ, survey says
Got kids? Bring them on down to Tucson.
Two cute Tucson kids/Ryn Gargulinski
Old Pueblo is the top place in Arizona for families to thrive, according to BusinessWeek’s annual “Best Places to Raise Your Kids” rankings.
Tucson hit Arizona’s top spot, with the runners up being Yuma and Casas Adobes.
We have a feeling the ranking committee has never been to Yuma.
We also have a feeling they may not have come to Tucson, either – or at least tried to get anywhere on a bus if they did.
“It’s (also) a relatively affordable place to live,” the report said of Tucson, “with more than 100 parks, a good public transportation system, and many public and private golf courses.”
Tucson school yards are counted as parks, by the way.
But the golf courses are important. We know how much kids love to golf away their Saturday mornings.
The ranking focused on towns that have a population of at least 45,000 and a median income of $40,000 to $125,000. BusinessWeek picked one top spot from each state, and two runners up, if applicable. Alaska’s Anchorage had no runners up.
Natural sandbox option/Ryn Gargulinski
Towns were then judged on their air quality; family income; job growth; theaters; diversity; household expenditures; crime rate; number of schools and their performance; museums and those school yard parks.
Based on those categories, it’s obvious why Tucson made the cut. Our air quality definitely beats out places like Los Angeles. We only get air quality warnings when there is a blinding, dusty wind or massive brush fires in the distance spewing ashes into our atmosphere.
Families usually make enough to live on – as long as they still have their jobs. But we are not sure why the job growth category didn’t kick us out of the mix altogether, as it seems Tucson jobs are shrinking.
The report mentioned University of Arizona as being one of the biggest employers, but it failed to mention the school’s hiring freezes.
For theaters, we got the Fox, The Loft and that cheapie place with $2 tickets at Grant and Swan roads.
Household expenditures often lack snow pants, furry boots and ski masks.
Pima Air and Space Museum probably got us hovering near the top in the museum category, and bless those school yards, as they helped us kick butt in the parks category. Tucson also has six dog parks, eight if you count the two in the county.
Not bad.
The rankings also left out some other reasons why Tucson is a great place to raise kids:
Bilingual studies. Children will automatically be immersed in the study of the Spanish language, hopefully learning key phrases, like “Your mother wears combat boots,” from their classmates.
Natural sandbox. Never mind those chintzy plastic backyard boxes, Tucson has a glorious sandbox created by God. Kids can find hours of pleasure in the dry riverbeds and washes, like the diapered child I once saw frolicking in the sands of the Rillito. All the rocks, glass shards, coyote feces and horse manure makes for some very interesting mud pies.
Less environmental dangers. Sure, we have prickly, eye-poking cactus and those pesky killer rattlesnakes, but there is absolutely no chance a kid will drown in the ocean or be swept out to sea. Few Tucson children are injured from slipping on ice or getting lost and buried in the snow.
Even though I am poking fun, I think Tucson can rock for anyone.
What do you think?
Is Tucson an awesome place to raise kids? Why or why not?
What about Yuma or Casas
What criteria would you use for ranking a place good for kids?
Where were you raised? Was it good for kids?
by Rynski on Nov.09, 2009, under Rynski's Blogski, art, death, life
All Souls Procession wows once again – slide show and poem
Taking photos of Tucson’s annual All Souls Procession is like owning dogs or eating salted peanuts – you certainly can’t stop at just one.
Don’t fret, as I shan’t post all 195 photos I snapped of the event, but I will give you my top 40 as the phrase has a ring to it.
Yes, I’m a photo junkie. But it’s much healthier than heroin.
Enjoy. My beau and I certainly did. Now I have Monday off to recover from the festivities and staying up late to post these photos.
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The procession kicked off at Epic Cafe, at Fourth Avenue and University Place, and culminated at the Franklin Street docks.
I ended up with only one photo of the Tucson Citizen newspaper gang, as I was too busy waving to all those Citizen folks I dearly miss – and getting a big hug from a dapperly yet deathly dressed Renee Schafer-Horton. She makes a cute corpse. Good job on the tribute, guys. I miss your laughter.
BONUS: ALL SOULS PROCESSION POEM
EMBRACEABLE CORPSE
a cute corpse hugged
me on Sunday night as I
drank in the All Souls
Procession she left white
makeup on my chin and –
it was quite an honor to
connect with the souls of the
dead – who thrive on the
other side – where we’re
stripped down of flesh
blood and limb and –
left with what
really
matters.
-Ryn Gargulinski.11.2009
So, were you among the thousands who enjoyed the Sunday evening procession?
What was your favorite costume/outfit/puppet/sight?
Did you see the three legged dog?
What death would you or did you honor in the procession?
by Rynski on Nov.02, 2009, under Rynski's Blogski, art, life
Pumpkin uses, abuses and contest entries – VOTE for your fave
Pumpkins are great for a number of things that go far beyond Halloween. In fact, you can even kill a kid with one. Here are six ways of looking at these funky orange gourds:
Art and photo Ryn Gargulinski
As artistic expression –
Check out the artistry of some fabulously talented TC.com readers who sent entries into our Pumpkin Decorating Contest. The slide show below showcases their creativity and the poll is open for votes through Saturday Nov. 7. Winner will receive a yet-to-be-created piece of creepy Rynart.
As protection –
Jack-o-lanterns came about not because people wanted to enter pumpkin decorating contests, but rather as a form of protection.
Legend has it this guy named Stingy Jack played a few trick on the devil and, when Jack died, would not be admitted into either heaven or hell, according to History.com.
The devil gave the guy a piece of burning coal and told him to go wander the earth for eternity. Jack carried around the coal piece in a hollowed-out turnip. Europeans for years used turnips, potatoes and beets for jack-o-lanterns until they immigrated to America and found the pumpkin to be the perfect choice.
This guy looks dead 100 years/Art by Loews pastry kitchen, photo Ryn Gargulinski
As a killer –
A little German kid died after his 10-year-old sister hurled a pumpkin at him as a joke and it hit him in the stomach, according to an 1884 archived news report posted at NYTimes.com. “He became very sick and died in a few hours,” the report said.
An unattended jack-o-lantern is also being blamed for staring a Northwest fire that killed three dogs and two cats, according to a report in the Arizona Daily Star. Two dudes who lived in the house at 1200 block of West Giaconda Way reportedly lit candles in the decorative gourds – then left the house to go to work.
As a weapon –
Since we already know pumpkins can kill, perhaps the sight of one would be an ample deterrent for muggers, degenerates and unleashed dogs encountered on narrow Tucson pathways.
Please be advised it may take some ingenuity – and muscles – to walk around town with a pumpkin and may be much simpler to invest in pepper spray or a retractable baton.
As a healthy snack –
Pumpkin pie laden with whipped cream, sugar and other strange additives is not necessarily on the healthy menu, but plain ole pumpkin is. Pumpkin is rife with fiber, minerals, vitamins and antioxidants.
Canned pumpkin, with no additives, is also a great way to get rid of a pet’s diarrhea, as my dog Sawyer found out when he got 1 tablespoon per day until his ailment passed, pun not intended.
As a seduction method –
KoreyK. shared the story of the political pumpkin entries, which were used to seduce:
“One of my brother’s friends gave the pumpkins away, without my permission, to two sorority girls to take to their party, thinking it would get him laid. It didn’t. In fact, they wouldn’t even tell him the location.”
TC.com pumpkin decorating contest entries in alphabetical order (top four culled from hundreds of thousands submissions):
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Vote now through Nov. 7 for your favorite entry in the TC.com pumpkin decorating contest.
What do you think?
Did you carve or smash any pumpkins this Halloween?
Is pumpkin a part of your daily diet?
What other uses to pumpkins have?
by Rynski on Oct.22, 2009, under Rynski's Blogski, art, life, odd pueblo, snappy or crappy
Odd Pueblo: Snappy or Crappy?
This fun Odd Pueblo feature asks the audience to rate a trend, topic or sighting of something around town: is it snappy or crappy?
The last snappy or crappy, a gun-toting mailbox, got mixed reviews. Folks liked that it was an effort at cleverness, but not that it was unkempt.
Several folks also voted crappy on a bugged-out VW bug posted many moons ago – but now we got the Volkswagen’s big sister: an awesome Volkswagen bus.
Judging from my calling it awesome, you can bet I think this thing is groovy. Check out the slide show, featuring six ways of looking at a VW bus.
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The couple that owned this beautiful bus was also fun – and definitely full of the hippie vibe. When I told them I’d send them a link to their VW when I posted it, they said they had no computer.
One of my friends, too, has a VW bus decked in peace signs. He may not have the hippie vibe, however, as his bus is parked between his Harley Davidson motorcycle and an old Ford pickup outfitted with a gun rack and NRA stickers.
What do you think?
Please vote and leave comments below.
by Rynski on Oct.21, 2009, under Rynski's Blogski, art, life
Happiness is a decorated pumpkin – tips, tricks and contest
Pumpkins are one of the keenest things to decorate, a perfect canvas for ghoulish faces, scary scenes or a pair of skeletal dogs modeled after Sawyer and Phoebe.
Phoebe and Sawyer/Art and photo Ryn Gargulinski
Follow some easy tips to get your pumpkin ready for our photo contest.
Picking
Avoid pumpkins that are mushy, stinky or have big slashes that ooze out innards. Opt for one that sounds like a wooden skull when you knock on it.
You can pick your pumpkins from an over-priced roadside stand or a run-of-the-mill supermarket where they cost about $5 each.
Supermarket pumpkins should be taken through the self=checkout, where the correct price code will invariably not be keyed into the system. This allows you to hold up the line while people behind you with a single half-gallon of milk shuffle their feet and sigh loudly.
Sawyer says Phoebe's pumpkin was good enough to eat/Art and photo Ryn Gargulinski
Painting
Even though paint can stick to your thigh for weeks on end, it’s still less messy than the carving. Painters tape is helpful to keep the paint where you want it. Either make a border around the eyes, nose, mouth and hair or do a “reverse negative” effect like I did with the Sawyer and Phoebe pumpkins.
Spray paint is a good choice, or you can use paint markers or those large graffiti markers that make your head spin when you sniff them.
Spray with sealer to deter dogs.
Carving
Before you even think of carving a pumpkin, you need to properly prepare. Thoroughly mop, scour and disinfect the floor and general area where you’ll be working, then cover it with an inadequate amount of newspaper. This way you can fret and swear when the pumpkin guts spew all over and ruin everything you just cleaned.
AZMouse's infamous Sarah Palin pumpkin and two others/submitted photo
Get yourself one of those chintzy Pumpkin Carving Kits with little blades and cheap plastic handles so you can swear some more when they break.
Draw your design with pencil on the pumpkin so you can erase any remaining lines. Then carve away.
Begin by cutting a circle around the stem so you can scoop out the innards. Painstakingly clean all the stringy guts off the seeds then bake the seeds on a cookie sheet for some fine snacks. Swear some more when no one wants to eat them because you burnt them to high heaven and forgot to add salt.
Finish off your carving by carefully cutting along those pencil lines you drew. Throw everything into a compost heap – except your finished pumpkin – then display proudly on the porch until someone runs off with it to smash it in the middle of the street.
Happy Halloween.
Phoebe refrained from eating the pumpkins. Good girl./Art and photo Ryn Gargulinski
Pumpkin decorating contest
Send us your pumpkin pictures for our decorating contest. All types of pumpkin art welcome. Entries will be showcased on Rynski’s Blogski. Please e-mail to rynski@tucsoncitizen.com
Photos must be received by Saturday, Oct. 31 – Halloweeeeeen!
Winner gets a lifetime supply of burnt, unsalted pumpkin seeds or Rynart, whichever Sawyer says.
What’s the worse pumpkin decorating experience you ever had? The best?
Are you into smashing pumpkins? Shame on you.
by Rynski on Oct.13, 2009, under Rynski's Blogski, art, life
Artist sketchbook: How to make a scarecrow – slide show
Tis that time of year to outfit your home, yard and ceiling fan with creepy things that come crawling from the depths and into your life for the spooky fall season.
Voodoo Medusa/Art and photo by Ryn Gargulinski
Add to this charm with a scarecrow.
Please meet my Voodoo Medusa a.k.a. Voodoo Chile, whom I hooked up for the Tucson Botanical Gardens scarecrow contest – Scarecrows in the Garden, which runs from Saturday, Oct. 17 through Nov. 30.
Featuring scarecrows created by local folks and businesses, the exhibit promises to scare the bejeebers out of you – so go. And please vote for Voodoo Medusa while you’re there so I can add “Scarecrow Contest winner” to my resume.
Then hook up a scarecrow for you own personal satisfaction with a few easy tips.
1. Get the base. The Gardens provided a T-shaped PVC base about 5 feet tall. Perfect. You can also wire together old curtain rods, broom sticks or anything else tall and solid enough to serve as the backbone of your masterpiece.
2. Hook up the head. Basketballs, soccer balls, stuffed pillow cases and watering cans make good heads. So does a metal piece that will be cut into a snake-crowned Medusa.
3. Find the clothes. Raid your own or your friend’s closet or dig out that box in the garage marked “Clothes Donation.” Go for something eye catching and funky, like a loud muumuu you found at the free clothing swap at Dinnerware Artspace earlier this year.
4. Create the fine details. You need hands and dangling things. Medusa’s hands were made out of metal, but you can opt for sticks, stuffed gloves, mannequin hands or a lucky rabbit’s foot. Dangling things can be anything from Christmas ornaments to old jewelry – anything you can tie to the finished product so they flap in the wind. I made little faces, again out of metal.
5. Stuff it. Voodoo Medusa had to be gaunt, so I simply wrapped the base with and old shower curtain I found in the garage next to the “Clothes Donation” box. Make your scarecrow fatter by stuffing garbage bags with newspaper and securing to the base with cord or wire. You want the stuffing to be waterproof in case it does that strange thing and rains. You may need to dress the base before stuffing to make it easier.
6. Put it all together. Attach the head, arms and clothing by bending metal attachments, cutting holes in the things and sticking them on the base, using wire, cord or strips of a cut up skirt that was in the donation box. Just make sure everything is secure enough to withstand any howling winds.
7. Find the right location. Living rooms are a good choice for scarecrow displays, as are backyards or anywhere behind a wrought iron fence. You may want to get a wrought iron fence installed to insure the overall spooky vibe. Front yards are even better showcases, as long as you know your neighbors won’t steal it. The peace sign charm I once hung on a cut tree branch disappeared from my front yard within 24 hours.
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Voodoo Medusa/Art and photo by Ryn Gargulinski
Will you be creating a scarecrow this season? Have you ever made a scarecrow?
Have you ever destroyed a neighbor’s scarecrow?
Will you be going to the Tucson Botanical Garden Scarecrow Contest?
Do you make any Halloween decorations or do you buy that cheap plastic crap at the dollar store?
by Rynski on Oct.01, 2009, under Rynski's Blogski, art, life, odd pueblo, snappy or crappy
Odd Pueblo: Snappy or Crappy?
This fun Odd Pueblo feature asks the audience to rate a trend, topic or sighting of something around town: is it snappy or crappy?
The last snappy or crappy, the hind end of some animal decked out to look like a face, was voted crappy, snappy and mixed. One commenter said it crossed the crappy line to become snappy again.
The latest snappy or crappy may also give us pause.
Snappy or crappy? The gun-totin' mailbox/Ryn Gargulinski
My first reaction to this gun-totin’ mailbox in the El Cortez Heights Neighborhood was a chuckle. So that makes it snappy.
But the more I thought about it, I realized how rude it was to outfit a mailbox with a gun pointing at the letter carrier (since we’re not allowed to call them “mailmen” anymore).
Wonder if these folks’ mail ever gets lost?
What do you think?
Please take the poll and leave comments below.
by Rynski on Sep.24, 2009, under Rynski's Blogski, art, environment, life
Don’t fear the scarecrow – unless you’re a crow – UPDATE: Scarecrow contest still accepting entries
Just because scarecrows come alive and kill people in really bad horror flicks doesn’t mean we should fear them.
Bertha's head/Head design and photo Ryn Gargulinski
These fascinating beings have been an integral part of many cultures, or at least those cultures that like to eat instead of having birds and other wildlife ravage their fields.
They are also pretty darn interesting.
The Tucson Botanical Gardens will be celebrating scarecrows from Oct. 17 to Nov. 30 with Scarecrows in the Garden, a bountiful display by local artists and businesses.
Folks will vote on their favorite scarecrow and the contest is still open. Get your entry form by clicking HERE. There’s not cost to enter. Be assured you’ll see Rynski scarecrow in the mix.
Folks can use anything they want to create the scarecrows, but we can probably they won’t go for some of the more disgusting components of years past.
Rags, rotting meat, poison-soaked cloths and even dog skins have been fashioned into scarecrows, according to a History of Scarecrows webpage.
But that’s only when scarecrows were not made from live people. No, folks were not gutted, stuffed and staked to a pole, but sent to patrol fields with bags of rocks and noisemakers.
Medieval Britain was big on this tactic, employing young boys. This worked for some time until the Great Plague killed off half the population in 1348, making live scarecrows – or live anyone – scarce.
Tucson Botanical Gardens photo
The Industrial Revolution later beckoned any remaining live scarecrows with better paying jobs hunched over in noisy and filthy windowless factories.
I’d rather be a scarecrow.
Old men in some cultures are still used as scarecrows. They sit around in lawn chairs and then stand up and yell when birds come around. Sounds like an ideal retirement gig, perhaps even more fun than being a Wal-Mart greeter.
Animal skulls were another interesting scarecrow component. Skull head scarecrows were used in Italy in the Middle Ages and in my New Mexico yard. I plopped a deer skull atop my customized voodoo scarecrow’s neck and named her Bertha.
The New Mexico garden thrived, I’m convinced because of Bertha, until I moved. The new residents then promptly yanked out all the vegetables and giant sunflowers and hurled them into the middle of the street to make room for the trailer they put in the yard.
Even Bertha was more attractive than that trailer.
See the Tucson scarecrows:
When: Oct. 17 to Nov. 20
Where: Tucson Botanical Gardens, 2150 N. Alvernon Way
How: Pay for general admission and go during business hours of 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., closed holidays.
More info: Call 326-9686, Ext. 10 or visit www.tucsonbotanical.org
Bertha in all her glory/Scarecrow by Ryn Gargulinski
What do scarecrows mean to you?
Do you fear scarecrows?
Have you ever made a scarecrow? Would you want to be a scarecrow?
Have you ever seen a movie featuring a scarecrow that was actually watch-able?
by Rynski on Sep.23, 2009, under Rynski's Blogski, art, life, odd pueblo
Tattoos in Tucson – slide show and poll
Spiders and snakes weren’t the only thing on display at this past weekend’s Tucson Reptile Show – we also got an eyeful of some terrific tattoos.
We are not sure why many folks who dig reptiles are also into body art, but the two go together as well as a skink with a bowl full of meal worms.
And we’re not talking about a microscopic butterfly tattoo hidden down by an ankle bone. We’re talking big, bold, beautiful artwork that covered arms, legs, stomachs and probably other places the camera didn’t get to see.
Check out what we did get a peek at.
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Names and artists are included in some, while others wished to remain anonymous. Or at least as anonymous as you can be with a bold tattoo. All photos by Ryn Gargulinski.
This dude was not snapped at the reptile show, but we had to include his tattoo/Ryn Gargulinski
Take the tattoo poll
Please leave additional comments below.
Which pictured tattoo is your favorite?
What tattoos do you have?
Any theories on why many reptile folks also dig tattoos?
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