Iowa Blackie Caught the Westbound

RICHARD "IOWA BLACKIE" GAGE
CAUGHT THE WESTBOUND
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 24TH, 2011
AT THE AGE OF 62.




I had just received a letter from him a few months ago, and a few before that I was chatting with him over dinner here in Iowa City. It's so strange that someone can be gone so quickly, but that's how he lived his life.

Live Free.
RIP.

Early Morning Gold Mine

I've been back in Iowa City for 6 days now. India was great, but it's good to be home. Today was the first day I got to hit the yard with a camera. There were some really cool flatbeds hanging around, and it just seemed like a very busy day in general. Actually, maybe all the activity is normal for the time I went. I've been getting up earlier, 8AM, ever since getting back from India, and I've never really been around the yard much this early. It's a habit I'm hoping to keep. Anyway, here's the pics:



Texican Gothic peeking out from between two IAIS scrap metal gondolas.


Michael Jr. on a flatbed car. I love the hints of rust forming around the remnants of the letters. May, 1987.


The Brad B. CARMASTER LivinLarge Tour. Looks like he played some awesome venues. Wish I coulda made it to that after show. June, 2008.


Job? August 23rd, 1984.


That owl and Lick Ems from 1993, 2001, and 2002. There's also an older Lick Em, brown and faded, in the middle, from some Canyon somewhere.


CDD through the ages.


Zero from 1994.


Retribalize. Preserving what culture?


Stonewall Jim in Canada, January 3rd, 2009.


Eye imposter with the weather report.


I don't know what this image/symbol is, all I know is that I've seen it before.


These next two pictures I wasn't going to post since, well, I couldn't really get good pictures or the image to pop without it looking too washed out or whatever, but I figured whatever, I'll put them up anyway.


Jesus Saves in the belly of a IAIS grainer. I've been trying to get a good picture of this for a long time now, but this will have to do until the light is right.


An old Bo Bird that almost escaped me. Very faded and poking out from behind some aerosol graffiti along the side of the car.


I guess those two don't look that bad.
I have a few photo sessions left over from right before I went to India that I might pic through soon. Might not. We'll see.

Bye.

Indian Boxcar Art

I've been in India a bit now, and while riding a passenger train from Mysore en route to Margao in Goa, the train stopped at Mangalore Junction where I got to see the first Indian freight cars I've seen. I borrowed my friends (not so hot) digital camera and walked around to see what I could see:


Some writing in Kannada, or maybe it's Konkan.


Some muddy Hindi symbol.


Parmanano.


Bala signature.


A quick drawing of a face.


A line of Indian gondolas.


The caboose is still in use here.


A line of Indian boxcars. They're more rounded and each side has two doors.




So, yeah, as you can see, not much going on on the moniker front here in India. It's bleak. Riding through Gokarna later, I saw drawings of flowers and dudes with mustaches, but that's about it. Graffiti in general is barely prevalent here. Anyway, just thought I'd let you get a peak into the world of Indian freight! When I get back to the states next month, I'll start working on Decrepit Americana 2!

Until then...

Freezing But Sunny

Okay, an actual update with actual pictures of actual monikers. I don't want to say I've been lazy for the past few months, I've just been busy with other projects (art shows, punk shows, and the zine as you can see below). I went out yesterday with a camera and hit up all the usual spots. I loved the weather: freezing but sunny. A good day to hit the tracks:


A Wendigo, taken from the CRANDIC yard. There was a slew of nice looking, repainted grainers, hoppers, and tankers down there, and it seems like this Wendigo might have been rebuilt recently because...


...this Solemnly Sailing was barely visible. Usually, from what I've seen, these monikers are in cahoots with one-another, yet it seems Wendigo was the only one that was rebuilt. This was the best angle to see the Solemnly Sailing from.


Headed east to the IAIS yard, this CN car was the first in the yard and the first of a string of CN cars. This weird take on Bozo Texino was on it, probably done by...


...Space Mouth. This guy is from around here, I'm guessing a yard worker. Not many people get to see this moniker because he does it in chalk.


The Denver Camera. I still haven't figured out the numbers.


Erebus. This one is cute.


The Watchman on how he likes his eggs. July, 2009.


A current CDD from May, 2010, and check out that Hare up there. November of some year I can't make out.


I don't think so.


I have no clue what this is. A biohazard symbol and then some other stuff?


The usual suspects, Plate K and Whistle Blower, and Spike, who I don't think I've ever spotted. December, 2004; July, 2007; sometime in 2005, respectively.


The space between Plate K and Whistle Blower above had a really old and faded signature. This is what I could pull out: "Dazzler". I thought it said "Doggler" at first.


A drawing of an Oldsmobile.


Imposter and he-who-gets-impostered-upon. I wonder who the imposter could've been...




Well, that's that for an update.
I also wanted to say that I have been getting a lot of positive response from my Decrepit Americana zine. Lots of people have been sending me letters, and it's been an awesome way to get in touch with people that are down with this stuff as much as I am. I do plan on doing further issues, but I won't be able to until March of 2011. In January I fly to India for 5 weeks, and, when I get back into the states, I am headed to Florida until the end of February. I have plenty of pictures stockpiled, some really great ones that I'm going to use for further issues, but if you'd like to get involved at all in anyway, let me know! I want artists to draw up images for the center spread of the zine, so if you're a moniker artist and would like to get down on the center spread for further issues, I'd love that. Get at me!

Live free or don't.

Decrepit Americana #1

I haven't updated in a bit, but I haven't been unproductive. Last night my friend Brendan had an art showing at the open house for the intermedia department at the University of Iowa. His showing was an art distro of zines and buttons and patches and the like, and was the first time that my new zine "Decrepit American" was avaiable.



48 pages of some of my favorite pictures from the blog, some I don't have on here, as well as some other random rail relics I have picked up along the way. Black and white full page photos fill almost every page. There's a few other (really cool) surprises in there as well.



If you'd like to order a copy, please get in contact. Leave a note here or send an email to me: eatapes@gmail.com

I'll get back in the habit of updating this blog soon!

The Honey Wind is Starting to Blow

It's been a month, and to keep myself from melting away into oblivion, I decided to be try to be productive today. Unfortunately for me, there was just an IAIS line down in the yard when I decided to get down there, but I managed to scavenge a few good-enough pictures off the sides of the steel giants:


The sun was going down in the yard. I'm sure I've posted this before, but it was a cool picture, so I'll post it again. Definitely one of my favorite captions as well. Old & Die Phase, Colossus of Roads.


I don't know what is going through my mind by letting such a perverse and deviant picture be posted up on this high societal blog. TITMAN 1997.


Solo? The image is familiar to me, but I just can't put my finger on it...


No Bids. Forever I never really "got" that this was someone's moniker, but, as it goes, I kept seeing it more and more and more. 1991.



See those boxcars down there? That's the CRANDIC yard for Iowa City and those boxcars just rolled in a few days ago, which is strange because from what I remember about the rest of the Summer, this yard saw almost absolutely no action. Tomorrow hopefully I'll be able to head down there and get pictures of those puppies.

Well, yup.

Back on Track

Okay, finally, back to some aesthetically pleasing photos. Hopefully no more grainy cell-phone shots, as I'm not trying to make a habit out of that. On to the pictures:


The Solo Artist in 1999.
"In memory of
Irving "Fishbones" Stevens
One of New England's best known
oldtime hoboes who died today
at the age of 88."


Bunky.... and I can't see the year... and I've never seen another.


You're speaking to the choir.


LaZ from September of 1995. I can't tell you the number of times this exact grain car has rolled by me when I didn't have the camera on me, but I finally got it.


RailDog from November of 1999. But do you see who is right next to RailDog?


It's Palm Tree Herby! I'm very excited about any Herby I see, but this is the first true Herby I've posted up here. The date looks to be April 6th, 1980. RIP brother.


Well, big changes coming soon, and I'm already hard at work on that. Well, not really hard at work because that's not my style, but you'll see soon what's going on in the future.