Beautiful Bokeh

Living in Stereo

~brf

View-Master blew my mind as a kid.  I thought it was so cool that by viewing two tiny, nearly-identical images- one for each eye- I could experience a hyper-realism that somehow looked more authentic and vivid than the same image appeared using only my own eyeballs.  I finally got the opportunity to pick up a 3D camera of my own and have spent the last few months and countless rolls of film experimenting.

I bought a TDC Colorist- a fairly standard, relatively inexpensive stereo camera produced in the late 1950’s.  No rangefinder, but for this kind of stereo photography the depth-of-field is more important than precise focusing.  It’s an extraordinarily simple technique:  Two exposures are made simultaneously and from a distance apart that more or less matches the distance between the average person’s eyes.  When seen simultaneously through a viewer- a single image per eye- the ‘stereo’ effect is created. Groovy.

Stereo photography is nearly as old as photography itself:  By the mid to late 1800s it was already a hugely popular form of entertainment as a means for people to experience foreign lands, cultures, and events.  Oh yeah- and porn.  Lots and lots of porn.  Being relatively cheap and inexpensively mailed, it was an easily accessible amusement for most anyone interested in most any subject.  Advantageous, too, that the stereograms could be handily concealed within the pages of a book or gentleman’s wallet.

Stereo photography seemed a natural companion to my affinity for roadside attractions so I have been taking the Colorist along on any adventure where we might encounter a souvenir stand or anything weird, wonderful, and made of concrete.  The choice of subject matter plus use of ultra-vivid, super-saturated color slide film has been delivering delightful results.

I asked CW to pair these sets for me and describe the best way to view: 

"If you have some talent viewing random dot stereograms (those posters of 3D sailboats and unicorns and stuff you used to find at the mall) you can see the 3D effect of these images right here on the screen without any goggles or viewers. Hold your head about 18" or so from your display, make sure your eyes are level (don't tilt your head), and defocus your eyes until you see a 3rd image between the two: that middle image will be in 3 dimensions. If you can do it, it's awesome. If you can't, sorry... it's hard for some people." 

This relaxed eye-crossing method of viewing stereograms doesn’t work for me- I find it tedious and a little uncomfortable, but evidently most people have no problem.  I use an awesome illuminated viewer that really makes the slides look great, and an old-timey stereoscope for printed cards.

More Roadside Attractions

~brf

1880 Town:  Surprise hit!  We had never even heard of this one; when we encountered it in the middle of nowhere it looked unimpressive and we would not have stopped had we not been hungry and looking for a way to photograph the ‘man walking dinosaur’ sculpture on the side of the freeway without actually pulling over on I-90.  (There isn’t a way.)   1880 Town is a fantastic collection of authentic late 1800s buildings and relics.  Most structures are remarkably well-preserved, some having been trucked in from all over the state. Visitors are encouraged to enter the buildings to check out the period-appropriate surroundings (and in some cases, the actual original contents from that exact home or barbershop or saloon).   We bought sarsaparilla from a guy with a handlebar mustache and drank it in the cool comfort of the saloon while a pretty girl sang cowboy songs on stage.  There is also a sizable museum of ‘Dances With Wolves’ set props and memorabilia, as the movie people rented quite a lot of artifacts from the proprietor to make their sets authentic.  That wasn’t so interesting to us so we skipped that bit, but there is a ton of awesome cowboy and rodeo memorabilia crammed into every inch of the main building that was worth poking around in.

Incongruously, there is a ‘50s Santa Fe Train Diner on the premises.  Burgers were passable, but we were starving.
http://www.1880town.com/

“Have you ever experienced a place where the laws of nature seem to have gone completely berserk?  Cosmos Mystery Area. See it. Feel it.  SURVIVE IT.”  Oh, hell yes were were stopping here.  Weirdly, our first attempt at locating Cosmos was a bust:  Charlotte, our GPS, had the attraction in her list of POI, but guided me repeatedly to the same little row of Stepford houses no matter how many times I verified the address.  Could Cosmos’ power extend to scrambling GPS signals?  We finally found a Cosmos brochure in a Rapid City pub, and we followed its ambiguous squiggly line map until we found actual road signs pointing us in the right direction.  Some enterprising college boys constructed a cleverly-built cabin on a wooded hillside and started charging people for demonstrations of the area’s "awesome power".  Water flows uphill, strong men are reduced to weaklings while tiny women seem to have boundless strength, people change height, and things just look weird.  I love these places.  Pressed penny machine was broken, sadly.  http://www.cosmosmysteryarea.com/

Reptile Gardens:  It was for this one attraction that I absolutely put my foot down and insisted we visit.  I remember it being a glorious showcase of creepy and interesting things, and thirty years later it does not disappoint.  The same family has owned and operated it for its entire 70+ years.  They’ve made some really great improvements since my last visit (updated facilities for the animals, no longer permitting children to ride the giant tortoises) but none of the roadside attraction charm has been lost.  There is still a huge pit of dozens of alligators, crocodiles and caymans that mostly lay motionless, piled in what looks like the most boring reptile orgy ever.  Sometimes one will endeavor to heave his bulk over all his friends to get to the pool, which occasionally elicits a hiss from some gator who has been trod upon too heavily.  The dome houses hundreds of varieties of exotic plants, snakes, lizards and frogs, plus a seriously big-ass crocodile named ‘Maniac’, who, at about 16 feet long and 1200 pounds, is among the top three largest in the world.  The story and photos describing Maniac’s transport from Sydney to Rapid City are amazing. 
http://www.reptilegardens.com

Roadside Attractions: South Dakota

~brf

I love roadside attractions.  All kinds.  Back in June when we began planning our road trip to the badlands, CW was the very model of patience and understanding as I sent link after link of ridiculous Americana panoply  that we simply HAD to see on our trip.  Luckily, Interstate 90 in South Dakota hosts a vast majority of this type of thing so it was pretty easy to screech to a halt whenever we chose. Some of these places I had visited 30 years ago, in an RV while on a Griswold-style family Adventure Across America.  I was surprised and thrilled to discover that some attractions were virtually unchanged since my last visit; particularly the Reptile Gardens (totally freaking awesome) and the Petrified Gardens (creepier than I remember).

With regard to Wall Drug:  Monumental let-down.  It’s not much more than a series of micro-stores selling all manner of horrid souvenirs and some arguably useful but undoubtedly overpriced items such as sun-showers and wine keys (the latter being something I was grateful to have found amongst the snow globes and crappy tshirts).  What they DO have is a good collection of pressed penny machines, a huge tyrannosaurus rex that activates every 15 minutes or so complete with flashing eyes and  Mesozoic mist, a really creepy animatronic cowboy band, and a giant concrete rabbit. http://www.walldrug.com/

 

The Petrified Garden was a place I was very much looking forward to.  My dad was a major rock hound and I have many fond childhood memories of sifting through trays of pyrite, jasper, opals, quartz and other shiny bits.  I remembered the Gardens as a vast playground of amazing fossils, minerals, petrified logs, geodes etc.  I didn’t remember the really cranky proprietor who clearly thought we were up to no good, nor did I recall the curiously religious tone the place had. Weird mashup of  “look at these beautiful million year old ammonite fossils’ and, um... a lesson on what has transpired in the 10,000 years between Creation and Today.  Can someone explain the deal with ‘clean’ vs. ‘unclean’ animals on the ark?  http://www.badlandspetrifiedgardens.com/

Corn Palace:  Not much more than a small stadium/entertainment venue with corn cobs in intricate designs hammered to the outside.  It used to be much more impressive judging from the photo gallery inside; there were pictures taken almost every year beginning in the early 1900s. Used to be a completely wooden structure, the exterior of which was fully redecorated each year using a variety of colors and sizes of corn cobs.  Turns out the city finally figured a wooden building encased in dried corn cobs *might* be a fire hazard, so some time in the ‘20s they rebuilt it for safety leaving a few open spaces for the cob murals. Best things about the Corn Palace was the mind-blowing frozen lemonade, the poster advertising Rick Springfield’s upcoming show, and the bizarre carved characters seated on benches with whom you could have your photo taken but aren't supposed to touch. They were both missing their thumbs. http://www.cornpalace.org/

New Favourite Photo

~brf

Perhaps the best CW photo in circulation.

Roadside Wisconsin & Sore Legs

~Chris

We're just back from a weekend getaway at a place in Wisconsin called Fountain City which is absolutely not a city and we didn't see any fountains either. The hills in Buffalo County are perfect for a cycling getaway: Car-less roads, beautiful scenery, and TONS of leg-breaking climbs and terrifying descents up & down the bluffs and ridges. Seriously it's some of the best riding I've seen in the country. I can't believe it's not crawling with racing teams and riders

Brenda found us a great cottage to rent that was about half-way up the bluff behind the town which made for a perfect HQ for my daily rides. It was huge, had a jacuzzi bath for two, a full kitchen, and an incredible view of the Mississippi (when the leaves aren't on the trees). It felt like we were living in a treehouse.

I managed to rack up close to 8k feet of climbing in just 3 days which isn't bad considering we also spent a lot of the time exploring the area and the surreal roadside attractions they have over there. There's a place called Prarie Moon where there are lots of Herman Rusch's.....uh, sculptures? I guess most of them have been removed or sold off but there are still a few odd ones you can see there. He was one of those Dementia Concretia type guys evidently.

We also couldn't resist checking out the famous "Rock in the House." Here's the deal, via roadsideamerica.com:

"On April 24, 1995, a 55-ton boulder suddenly rolled 400 feet down a cliff along the Mississippi river and plowed into the 2-bedroom house of Maxine and Dwight Anderson. When the dust settled the Anderson's found a huge, coin-shaped rock where their master bedroom used to be. The rock is still there today. John Burt, a local real estate investor, bought the house -- with the rock still firmly wedged inside it -- and turned it into a tourist attraction: The Rock In The House."

I love that the "55 ton" bit was obviously an afterthought. Maybe they were concerned would-be rock gawkers were passing them by because they didn't understand just how heavy the rock really is.

"Honey! Let's stop and see the rock in the house!"

"Pffffff. That thing couldn't be much more than 20 or 30 tons...not stopping."

So anyway we gawked at the 55 ton rock and it's definitely in a house...we got our $2 worth I guess. Nobody is there, by the way, there's just a lock box with a handwritten sign to pay a buck. I think it may be a while before Mr. Burt turns a profit on this "attraction."

If you're ever in the area, we highly recommend the Hawks View cottages, the Monarch Tavern, and if you come after July you should sample from the local vinyard: Seven Hawks. We got a sneak peak by way of a complimentary bottle in the cottage and it was surprisingly great. You can't get it yet but we discovered that they're opening a shop downtown soon.