Ballard Street by Jerry Van Amerongen for December 10, 2020

Oh shoot, no 5G tonight.

I didn’t realize that Ballard Street had been inhabited that long.

I was intrigued by this drawing. Heavy on the diagonal lines.

Is it raining? Who is he talking to? Did he have anything to do with the downed power grid?

And so began the dark ages.

This is so strange, even for Ballard. But I think I’ve figured it out. Its a bi-monthly meeting of The Ballard Caveman and Fire Society. They stand around with torches, (Heaven knows why) and sing Welch drinking songs. Looks like Mason there has drunk too many Welch beers. Wouldn’t be the first time.

A localized blackout.

Ballard Street is the best!

Hmmm… I almost always stick with the prevailing story line…

but no one seems to have a definitive grip on this one…

so let me offer my guess.

 

I don’t take the diagonals for rain….

the winds would have to be gale force to slant rainfall that much, but the smoke is barely drifting.

I think it’s just a quick sketching technique for filling in the night sky and the hills…. something unusual to see here.

Every now and then JVA just likes to play with an unusual subject or technique.

 

Looks to me like the “power grid” is made up of cavemen carrying lit torches.

They could be the “Ballard Caveman Fire Society”…. and I’ll not deny that they’re singing Welsh(?) drinking songs…

But I think they do this EVERY night….

Roaming the hills from cave to cave, bringing fire for lighting more torches, and for fire and cooking pits.

 

In the foreground, one member of the grid is on the ground….

I don’t know whether he fell or has been struck

but the cave-holder seems to be informing his wife or any other cave inhabitants that they may not be getting power…. ie, fire… for a while.

Susan & Rose, as always, are right.

It is a little known secret society known as the B-CLEFS (Ballard Caveman-Lit Enchanting Fire Society) due to their lower octave guttural grunting. With a man down, the power of their harmonies is lost – not necessarily a bad thing…

Ballard Street: the Prehistory?

…a little Deering in there, maybe?

Dark.

It was a dark and stormy plight

Good thing they’re not in series…

“One goes out, they all go out!” Allan Sherman – The 12 Gifts of Christmas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQMub1YAzvE

Power grids are vulnerable!

Can you really have a street next to a cave, seems that at best it would have been Ballard trail, or path. But seriously it seems that the Ballard (area?) has had a long history of alcohol abuse.

Ironically, just before darkness enveloped him, he uttered his own name… “Urk!” ☺

How long before one of them sues PG&E ?

I think we tumbled into Birdbrains again. The Ballard Street prehistorians fancy they are enlightened, but they are merely lit. And one passed out. Hence the outage. Thork is calling out to the keeper of the flame over on Elm Street. But that is another story.

must be so. cal. edison.