Automoose

A metal moose in front of the Tribune Tower in Downtown Chicago.

And yes, it's anatomically correct.

Technorati tags: travel, chicago, illinois, art, sculpture, animal

Big Trees

This is one powerful video.

Some background. The creator of this work is Bobby Standridge, and the track is called "Malignant Narcissism" from the new album "Snakes and Arrows" by the Canadian power trio Rush. Even without the visuals, it's one bitchin' instrumental.

What really hits hard in this video are all the branches, and how proponents in each branch say that theirs is the "one true path". How many true paths are there?

Of course the YouTube rendition hardly does justice. For a link to a hi-res version, click here.

Technorati tags: rush, youtube, religion, belief

This Is What It's Come To

I came across this scene a few weeks back, and the gravity of it hit me like a ton of bricks. So this is what it's come to. It's all there. An airport in the United States. And the prime symbol of the newest industry in this country - the industry of fear. How has it come to this? Blunders. Blunders of this government over the last century. Administrations of all political parties going back to at least the T. Roosevelt era, if not earlier. And the current administration, with more blunders than any previous administration combined, has guaranteed a thriving industry of fear for the next generation (or more).

An industry of fear that says I have to sacrifice my Fourth Amendment rights for the mere desire to want to get on an airplane. Is this the freedom of movement as guaranteed in our Constitution? Is this the same democracy created by that document? All in the name of fear? When one party claims that I am not safe if the other party is in power? When special interests want to deprive our future leaders of the education to competently guide this country through the end of the crisis created by their progenitors?

We live in dark times. Will there be a day when this space is filled with tables and shops and people milling about waiting for their flight free of fear? Somehow I remain optimistic. On the other hand, Australia is looking better every day.

Technorati tags: travel, denver, airport, fear, democracy, freedom

Duck!

A Learjet 35A, once owned by cable-television magnate Bill Daniels, is suspended from the ceiling of Denver International Airport’s Concourse C atrium. The jet, named “Cablevision Tool”, was the first private aircraft to land at DIA. In 1996, a flight team piloted this Learjet around the world in 49 hours and 21 minutes, setting a world speed record for business jets.

Technorati tags: travel, denver, airport, lear, jet

Texas, The New Kansas?

Jokes aside, this development can have far reaching effects, even right into your own home. Because Texas is a very powerful player in what appears in your child's textbooks, education in this country stands to take a giant leap backward. So we appeal to our friends in Texas: Stop this idiocy now!

Bad Astronomy Blog » Texas: Doomed

Technorati Tags: antiscience, bablog, plait, education

Every Man Wants This Weber

A restaurant that actually cooks its food on Weber kettles? That's right. Downtown Chicago.

Technorati tags: travel, illinois, chicago, weber, sign

What You Missed While I Was Away

Or, "You Won't Believe What Seven Days Offlline Will Do To Your Sanity".

Okay, I confess. I kept up with stock quotes via cell phone. I never realized how clunky internet access over an everyday cell phone can be.

Oh yeah, this is Little Manitou Falls on the Black River in Pattison State Park, near Superior, Wisconsin. We had a blast this week, most of it spent doing nothing at all. Our time was split between Pattison State Park and Perrot State Park on the Mississippi River near Trempealeau, Wisconsin. More pictures to come, of course.

Technorati tags: waterfalls, wisconsin, camping, pattison state park

Vacation

"This Blog Title For Sale" is going on a brief hiatus as its author is departing the local area for the next six days on a family camping trip to the far reaches of the Great State of Cheeseland.

While a laptop computer will accompany the author on this journey, it is not expected that it will be connecting to the intertubes.

In the meantime, you are cordially invited to visit the many blogs and podcasts listed in the column to your left. Finally, the author wishes to thank all of his loyal readers (and you are legion) for two years of readership and he hopes you will stay with him for many more editions of "This Blog Title For Sale" (by the way, still the only blog with that name).

Tent of Tomorrow

From the 1965 Official Guide Book to the New York World's Fair, describing the New York State Pavilion:

"Above a huge "Tent of Tomorrow," housing state exhibits and shows, rise three towers, one of them an observation tower 226 feet high.

Various displays are sheltered under the world's largest suspension roof, made of translucent colored plastic and hung from sixteen 100-foot concrete columns. On the main floor the Texaco Oil Company has inlaid a mammoth map of the state in terrazzo, and here visitors assemble to watch school and community groups perform. Near-by is a movie theater-in-the-round."

The structure was kept after the fair closed, but no uses were ever found for it. Now it lies in repose, too expensive to rehabilitate, too expensive to tear down.

More information here.

Technorati tags: travel, new york, world fair, decay

Eagle Bluff Lighthouse

Peninsula State Park, Fish Creek, Wisconsin. Northern Door County is one of the prettiest places I've ever been to. And there isn't a McDonalds north of Sturgeon Bay. A great place to get away.

Technorati tags: lighthouse, wisconsin, camping, peninsula state park

Chicago Underground

Chicago Transit Authority Grand Station, Chicago.

Self Promotion Switch On

Sometimes it's nice to get noticed. I am pleased to share with you all that some of the works you've seen on these humble pages have been used in other places in this series of tubes known as the internet.

This photo, "Generation Pyramid", by Gedion Nyanhongo of Zimbabwe, is part of a collection of contemporary African art on display at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. It was selected by the editors of the Schmap Guides for inclusion in it's Schmap Atlanta Guide, third edition. This is the second photo selected by the Schmap people; a photo I took in Santa Fe, New Mexico was used in their guide as well.

This may not be Engadget, nor Huffington Post, but it's still a nice feeling knowing that other people like what I'm taking pictures of.

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport
www.schmap.com/atlanta/sights_attractions/p=22685/i=22685...

Technorati tags: travel, atlanta, atl, art, sculpture, schmap

Yes Bernice, It's a Flying Pig

"The Spirit of Pigcinnati", by Patricia A. Renick.

See? Airports really do have a sense of humor.

Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, Kentucky.

Technorati tags: travel, kentucky, airport, cincinnati, art

Last Picture of Ocean City

I dug out the old Canon EOS 620 camera to take on our camping trip this past weekend, and I was surprised to find that it had film in it. I wasn't sure anything would turn out once I had it developed, but not only did the pictures turn out fine, the very first shot brought back some cherished memories. This is the last picture I took from the house my in-laws owned in Ocean City, New Jersey, four years ago. I speak in past tense because they sold the property after our last visit there.

Technorati tags: memories, new jersey, ocean city, beach, ocean

Unisphere Repurposed

Skaters use the empty fountain at the Unisphere in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park for some trick practice. New York, New York.

Technorati tags: travel, new york, flushing meadows, unisphere, pastime